Starmer says Labour needs to implement some of its first steps 'very quickly' after election
And here is the full quote fromKeir Starmerwhen he told Times Radio that he would want to start “very quickly” on delivering on hissix first stepsif he wins the election on Thursday. (See12.14pm.) Starmer said:
We know that we have to do two things…
First is we have to show that we can do some of the first steps very quickly in terms of the waiting lists, the police etc.
But also fix the fundamentals. And that’s why I’ve said we can’t magic problems away. There’s been a failure to build prisons, for example. We can’t build a prison on Friday if we’re elected into government. That will take time. But we will make a start. The change we bring about will be a change worth having. It will be hard yards, that’s for sure. It will be tough.
But look, I picked up the Labour party after the 2019 election defeat. That was the worst defeat since 1935. People thought it would take at least 10 years or more to turn the Labour party around. We got up. We did it.
And what we’re asking for is the opportunity… to do the same for the country.
Starmer says being in No 10 won't stop him playing football and going to Arsenal, and family might get dog
Q: If you become PM, will you still play five-a-side football every Sunday?
Starmersays he intends to carry on playing football if he becomes PM. He says he is not sure if he will be able to play on Sundays, and he might not play as regularly as he does now, but he will keep playing. And he will still go to Arsenal matches. He says he has been playing football regularly since he was 10.
Q: And I hear you might be getting a dog?
Starmersays his children want the family to get a dog. They have been ramping up the pressure during the election. A German shepherd is currently the favourite option.
If Starmer does get a dog, he won’t be the first politician in Downing Street acquiring a pet under pressure from his children. When Rishi Sunak was chancellor, his daughters persuaded him to geta labrador puppy.
Chorleyasks if he and Rachel Reeves will go into the Treasury, say the books are worse than they thought, and argue then for surprise, extra tax rises.
Starmersays there is nothing in Labour’s plans requiring taxes above those already announced.
He says he wants people to feel better off after Labour has been in power, and for public services to be working.
Q: Are you ready to be the most unpopular person in Britain as you try to tackle the country’s problems?
Starmersays it is the Tories who have left the country like this. He says Labour needs to show it can do some of the first steps “very quickly”. He refers to tackling waiting lists, and hiring more police officers.
But other problems cannot be tackled quickly, he says. He says you cannot build a new prison overnight.
Green party on course to win in Bristol Central, poll suggests
Jamie Grierson
TheGreen partyhas released a poll showing it has a eight-point lead in the newly formed constituency of Bristol Central where co-leader Carla Denyer is challenging Thangam Debbonaire, a potential cabinet member for Labour.
An independent survey for the partyby the pollsters WeThinksuggest the Greens are on course to take 40% of the vote, compared to 32% for Labour.
However, the poll also shows 18% of respondents “don’t know” which way they will vote.
Recent MRP polls have predicted a Green breakthrough in Bristol. However, this is the first time that voters in Bristol Central have been sampled directly.
The poll was conducted by WeThink between 25 June and 1 July and the sample was relatively small – 400 with an equal gender split.
A loss for Debbonaire would be a bitter blow. She served as MP in the constituency’s predecessor, Bristol West, since 2015, and has been shadow culture secretary since 2023, a role she is widely expected to take in government ifLabourwere to secure a majority on 4 July.
Tory candidate Miriam Cates trustee at church that promoted conversion practices, report says
Robyn Vinter
Conservative candidateMiriam Cateshas been linked to a conversion practices scandal as a trustee of a Sheffield church that taught that “evil spirits” were the cause of homosexuality.
The Penistone and Stocksbridge incumbent is also accused of attending what was described as an “exorcism training weekend” by a whistleblower, who claims to have been left traumatised by gay conversion practices at St Thomas Philadelphia church in 2014.
Cates, who was a member of the church between 2003 and 2018, and a trustee from 2016 to 2018, denies knowing about conversion practices at the church.
In the last parliament Cates was an influential Tory backbencher as co-chair of the NewConservatives,a group of rightwing, socially conservative MPs calling for lower taxes and stricter controls on immigration.
A reportcommissioned by the Diocese of Sheffield and published on Mondayafter the BBC got hold ofa leaked copy,said “the culture of the church [in 2014] was one in which the presence of evil spirits and ‘ungodly soul ties’ were believed to be the cause of homosexual thoughts, feelings and behaviour, and prayers of ‘deliverance’ for homosexuals were not uncommon.”
The investigation, carried out by Barnardo’s and completed in February, found that gay exorcisms being carried out “were often spoken about by church members” and that on one occasion “there were celebrations in the congregation because a parent stood up and spoke of an adult in their family, who had been ‘delivered from the sin of homosexuality’.”
However, the BBC acquired unverified audio from the conference which suggests it involved practising a prayer of repentance “for giving place to any demons… including demons of… homosexuality… lesbianism”.
Matthew Drapper,who complained about the trauma he suffered from alleged conversion practices at the church, was told prayer would rid him of the “demons of homosexuality”.
He told the BBC he was left “cramping up and struggling to breathe” during a session in which he was told to repeatedly shout a prayer. He said:
They told me to speak to the gay part of myself as if speaking to a wild dog coming up to me - and for me to say to ‘leave my body’.
The people I was with told me they could see demons leave me and go out of the window.
The investigation upheld all aspects of his complaint.
How Sunak is focusing on seats with large Tory majorities in final 48 hours before polling day
Rowena Mason
Rishi Sunakhas been on a whistle-stop tour across the Midlands, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire seats over the last two days – getting just 3-4 hours sleep last night before an early hours of the morning visit to a supermarket warehouse.
What’s remarkable is the size of the majorities in the places he is visiting – showing there is no area of safety for Tory MPs.
He started in Stoke South (maj 11,000), followed by a gin distillery in Stratford Upon Avon (20,000), Nuneaton (13,000), Hinckley and Bosworth (26,000), Witney (16,000) and Banbury (almost 17,000).
The exception was an Ocado distribution centre in Mid Bedfordshire which previously had a 26,000 majority in 2019 but was lost by the Tories in a byelection toLabour.
Sunak’s visits have also been conducted in spaces where he has little contact with the public outside of their workplaces. Workers have been visited in full view of their Boss es – at least two of which were Tory donors.
A visit to a Morrisons supermarket in the Witney constituency was conducted when it was almost empty at opening time. The Tories are under pressure from the Lib Dems in the seat but one early customer in the aisles said he had been a lifelong Tory voter and was now backing Reform. Asked if he wanted to see Rishi Sunak, he said: “I’ll go the other way, thanks.”
Rishi Sunak in a near-empty Morrisons supermarket in Carterton this morning.Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
Starmer says Labour government should 'take on populism and nationalism' by showing progressive politics work
The final question toKeir Starmercame fromGary Gibbonfrom Channel 4 News.
Q: Looking at what is happening in Europe and America, maybe Brexit was Britain’s populist right moment, and we are now through that. Would aLabourwin be proof of that? Or is there still a populist right threat here?
Starmersaid he thought there were many challenges, in the UK and across the world, that were “more volatile now than they have been for a number of years”. That went alongside with a “loss of confidence in politics itself”, he said. He went on:
I believe that progressive parties, our party and other parties and governments across the world, are the answer to the challenges that the world faces.
But we do have to understand why people have lost faith in politics. And I think if you look at the last 14 years in this country, you can see why because Partygate, breaking the rules that were imposed on the rest of the country, was a real moment of trust with the electorate, as were the PPE contracts handed out at great expense to the taxpayer, as was the first instinct of so many of the Conservatives when there was to be an election which was not how do I take my message to the country, but how quickly can I get to the bookies.
This goes really deep into the psyche. And that’s why the change that we hope to bring about in this election, to return politics to service, is so important for the future of our country, but also so important for the point you put to me, which is how do we take on the populism and nationalism that is taking hold in some places.
So there’s a really serious, political challenge here that we have to rise to.
And that’s why the first answer I gave (see10.48am), in relation to the first change, will be to return politics to service and ensuring that we have progressive answers to the challenges we face.
Keir Starmer speaking during a visit to Hucknall Town Football Club in Nottingham this morning.Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Q: Would you clamp down on British companies faciliting trade with Russia?
This was prompted by a story byEd Conway,Sky’s economics editor.
NEW How British companies are helping Russia to export its gas, earning Vladimir Putin billions of euros for his war effort in the process. An investigation into the awkward energy story Europe is reluctant to confronthttps://t.co/TXZpdrQ707
Starmer said the government should have clear rules in place for trade. But he then launched into a general point about energy, claiming Labour’s plan to set up the Great British Energy firm would lead to lower energy bills.
Starmer dismisses Tory false claims about his work ethic as 'increasingly desperate stuff' and 'bordering on hysterical'
Q: Are you worried about people not getting postal ballots?
Starmersays he is worried about these reports. He says everything should be done to make sure people get their ballot papers.
Q: What do you make of Tories claims that you won’t work in the evenings? (See9.29am.)
Starmersays this is “increasingly desperate stuff”.
He says he can hardly believe that, 48 hours before an election, the Tories have not got anything to say.
He says he has been saying that the Tories have nothing positive to say. And now the Tories are proving that. They are in a “negative, desperate loop”. It is a sign of “increasing desperation, bordering on hysterical now”.
UPDATE:Starmersaid:
This is just increasingly desperate stuff.
I actually can hardly believe that, 48 hours before the election, the Conservative party has got nothing positive to say as they go into this.
I’ve been arguing throughout this campaign, you’ll have heard me many times saying they haven’t changed, they’re just the same, nothing’s going to change, and they’re proving it. They are not saying look, if you vote Tory and vote Conservative on Thursday, these things will happen. They’re just in this negative, desperate loop.
And it is really desperate. My family is really important to me, as they will be to every single person watching this.
And I just think it’s increasing desperation, bordering on hysterical now.
