Oliver Dowden reportedly reveals preferred choice for next Tory leader – UK general election as it happened

2 Jul 202417.37 BST

Richard Adams

Forty-nine people have accrued a combined £10m in UK government-backed student debt, according to figures obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests by the BBC.

The FOI showed that by the end of April this year, 49 people owed the Student Loans Company (SLC) over £200,000 each, with the highest recorded total of £252,000. Some 61,000 people each owed more than £100,000.

Nearly 1.8 million current or former students owed at least £50,000 in tuition and maintenance loans and interest, the FOI revealed. The government’s most recent figures show that the average outstanding balance for graduates in England was £48,000 in 2023-24.

The SLC said people with high balances “may be in receipt of several student loan products”, such as loans for further education courses, combined with funding for undergraduate, postgraduate master’s and PhD-level courses. Some students receive additional funding due to “compelling personal reasons,” the SLC said.

In some cases the high outstanding loan balances will be the result of high or penal interest rates compounded over several years. A starting balance of £60,000 with an annual average interest rate of 6% would rise above £100,000 in nine years, assuming no repayments.

Keir Starmer has confirmed that Labour is likely to continue the early release scheme for prisoners if it wins the election. Speaking to reporters, he said “in all likelihood” the early release scheme would continue. He went on:

It simply wouldn’t be realistic for me to say, ‘the prisons are overcrowded on Thursday at 10 o’clock but somehow I’ve magicked up a new prison on Friday morning’ – that isn’t going to happen.

I have to say it’s shocking to have to inherit a problem like that, that our criminal justice system has gotten to a point where we’re releasing prisoners who should be in prison early and giving instructions to the police not to arrest in certain cases. That is how broken the system [is] – got to pick that up and start the fix, but also not just fix but renew and take forward.

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Keir Starmer has said the government should be speaking to the Royal Mail to ensure that postal votes all get delivered.

Asked about concerns postal votes were not arriving on time, Starmer told reporters:

If you’re in government, and they are in government, at least for the time being, they need to sort it out and get on with sorting it out. Because what we can’t have these people who are entitled to a vote not being able to exercise it.

So get on with the job, I’d say, and if the Post Office minister hasn’t met them, do it now.

Yesterday the Financial Times reported that Keir Starmer has “accepted £76,000 worth of entertainment, clothes and similar freebies from UK donors since the 2019 general election, more than almost any other MP”. It said the gifts and hospitality, recorded in the register of MPs’ interests, included concerts, sports events, hotel stays, clothing and football matches.

Asked about the story today, Starmer said all hospitality of this kind had to be properly registered, and that was what had happened,

He also argued that, for security reasons, often it was easier for him to accept corporate hospitality. He said:

Quite a lot of that was Arsenal hospitality, and particularly away games where you can appreciate my desire to go in the stands is not always met with approval by the security teams around me, which means that I’m in corporate hospitality if I want to see the game.

But Keir Starmer has implied that, when he appoints cabinet ministers, he will keep them in post for a reasonable period of time.

Speaking to reporters earlier, Starmer said;

We’ve had five prime ministers, I don’t know how many chancellors. Go to housing, I think you’ve had 10 or 11 [ministers], justice 10 or 11 [ministers].

It makes for great political cartoons, but it is really bad for running the country because it leads to lack of strategic thinking.

I’m not going to be lured through your question into naming cabinet if we get that far, but I’m absolutely clear that we will return to stability and ensure that we have the right people in the right place and they’re getting on with the job and not being chopped and changed every few months, because that has been so bad in terms of delivery for this country and it has put investors off putting their money into this country.

That has been very, very bad for our economy.

Britain has a poor record when it comes to cabinet ministers saying in post for long periods, and since 2016 turnover has been particularly high. A report by Make Votes Matter published earlier this year showed that on average, over the past 50 years, cabinet ministers have stayed in post for just over two years – which is less time than in most other European countries.

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Keir Starmer has refused to confirm that David Lammy would be foreign secretary in a Labour government.

In the past he has said that Rachel Reeves would be chancellor, and that Angela Rayner would be deputy PM.

But, in an interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason, asked if Lammy was also guaranteed the job he has been shadowing, Starmer just said: “I’m not naming a cabinet two days before the election, which isn’t won.”

He also refused to discuss other cabinet appointments.

Keir Starmer has declined to join Joe Biden in criticising the supreme court ruling giving the US president some immunity from criminal prosecution for what they do in an official capacity.

Biden said it set a dangerous precedent because it undermined the principle that no one in the US was above the law.

But, asked if he agreed, Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, declined to express an opinion. He said:

That’s the constitutional arrangements in the US. The court’s made its ruling. And it’s clear where they’ve drawn the line.

I think it’s probably now sort of to be defined exactly how that is applied in each of the individual cases.

But that is how their system works. That’s the ruling of the court. And, you know, I respect the legal system in America.

Keir Starmer has confirmed that part of the reason why he normally avoids work on a Friday night, to spend time with his family, is because of his wife’s Jewish heritage. Speaking to reporters at a campaign event in Derbyshire:

I do carve out Friday nights, as best I can, for Vic and the kids and her dad as protected time.

Her dad’s side of the family is Jewish, as people will appreciate, and we use that for family prayers – not every Friday, but not infrequently.

That doesn’t mean I’ve never had to work on a Friday, of course it doesn’t, plenty of times I haven’t been able to do it [have time off].

But I’ve tried to protect that time. I’d like to try and protect it in the future but I know very well, it’s going to be really difficult to do it.

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The Electoral Commission has long complained that the laws in place designed to stop political parties accepting donations from abroad are not strict enough. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has published a report today showing why these concerns are justified. In their story Eleanor Rose, Simon Lock and Lucy Nash say:

TBIJ arranged a series of multiple small payments to each of the six major parties. The payments were individually less than £500 – the lower limit of the legal definition of a political donation – but passed that threshold once added together.

Labour was the only party to correctly identify and block the money. The Conservatives, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Scottish National Party (SNP) all failed to bar or return the payments.

When approached with TBIJ’s findings, parties disagreed about whether they were required to spot the donations or report them to the Electoral Commission, highlighting the confusion around the rules.

Experts said the findings show “deeply concerning” flaws in party donations processes as well as the “Swiss cheese” nature of rules intended to ensure fair elections and prevent foreign influence.

Ed Davey’s attempt to get wet in every corner of England during the election continued today when he went surfing during a visit to Big Blue Surf School in Bude in Cornwall. The Lib Dem leader may the only member of the Westminster political class who is not looking forward to the campaign finally coming to an end.

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