Starmer says he would not let SNP hold new independence referendum or lift veto on gender recognition bill – as it happened

• Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are refusing to say how many Tories are under investigation for betting on the date of the election, as the row continues to dog their campaign.

• Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives struggled to raise money in the second week of the election campaign, bringing in just £290,000 from private donors, while Labour received a windfall of £4.4m.

• The Labour party has been drawing up options for how it could raise money through extra wealth taxes to help rebuild Britain’s public services if it wins the general election, according to sources who have spoken to the Guardian.

• Labour’s NHS and social care plans will save money, “never mind coming in cost-neutral”, Angela Rayner has said.

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My colleague Martin Belam will be blogging Nigel Farage’s evening interview with Nick Robinson and the Welsh TV election debate here:

Stuart Rose, the Tory peer and Asda chairman, has told Times Radio that he would “leave the country” if Nigel Farage become Tory leader.

Rishi Sunak’s favourability ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson’s or Jeremy Corbyn’s ever were at their worst, polling from YouGov suggests.

The Conservatives raised less than £300,000 in the second week of the election as the party’s campaign continued to falter, PA Media reports. PA says:

Figures from the Electoral Commission released today show the party raised just £292,500 between 6 and 12 June and, taking its total donations for the campaign to £889,000.

That figure is significantly below the £8.7m the Tories raised in the first two weeks of the 2019 campaign.

The top donations were two contributions of £50,000 from Bestway Wholesale, ultimately owned by Tory peer Lord Zameer Choudrey through the Guernsey-based Bestway Group, and an organisation called “The Spring Lunch”.

The Spring Lunch is an unincorporated association, so does not have to provide records of who controls it, but does list an address in Pulham St Mary, Norfolk, in its details with the Electoral Commission.

The reluctance of donors to contribute to the Tory campaign adds to Rishi Sunak’s woes at the end of a week in which a series of polls predicted he was on course for a record defeat and his campaign was overshadowed by allegations about gambling.

In contrast, Labour raised £4.4m in the second week of the election thanks in part to a £2.5m donation from former supermarket boss Lord David Sainsbury.

Other significant Labour donors include Autoglass chief Gary Lubner, who gave £900,000, and hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, who gave £700,000.

Trade union Aslef provided £100,000 to the party, as did former Cable and Wireless executive Nick Razey.

Labour’s total donations for the first two weeks of the campaign amounted to £5.3m.

Reform UK raised £742,000 in the second week of the campaign, largely thanks to a £500,000 donation from Britain Means Business Ltd, a company controlled by party chairman Richard Tice.

The party also received £50,000 from former pop star and Neighbours actor Holly Valance, who hosted a fundraising event for former US president Donald Trump in London two weeks after his conviction for falsifying business records.

It had been reported that Reform had received £1.5m since Nigel Farage declared he would stand as a candidate in Clacton.

But the figures released on Friday show the party had raised £882,000 in major donations during the first two weeks of the campaign – only just below the figure received by the Conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats received £335,000 in the second week of the campaign, taking their total for the election to £789,999 in donations.

These figures mean that Labour raised almost six times as much in donations (£5.3m) as the Tories (£889,000) in the first two weeks of the campaign.

Here is Archie Bland’s Election Edition briefing.

Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, and his Labour opponent in Plymouth Moor View, Fred Thomas, are engaged in a bitter row over whether Thomas has misrepresented his military service. Both men are former soldiers.

Last night, after the two men appeared together at an election hustings, Mercer said that Thomas had lied when he said that he had served in combat. He said that when Thomas was asked to give details of his combat experience, he was not able to do so.

In response, Labour challenged Mercer to apologise. Thomas said that he had served his country for seven years, including on overseas operations, but that he was unable to discuss much of what he did.

And Labour presented journalists with a copy of his certificate of valediction, signed by the commanding officer of the Special Forces Support Group, confirming that Thomas had gained “considerable operational experience”, including overseas, serving with Commando Force unit and other specalist partner organisations.

In a video posted today, Thomas said that he had lived and served in a war zone, and that he had witnessed first-hand the horrors of war. He also said that he was engaged in sensitive operations that he could not talk about.

Shocked and disappointed by the hustings yesterday.

Service should be above political point scoring.

My time as Royal Marines Commando is a privilege of a lifetime. It would be an honour to serve Plymouth in Parliament, as I served our nation before

In response, Mercer posted his own video on social media restating his claim that Thomas was lying. Mercer said there was a difference between serving in a hostile environment, and taking part in combat missions where you might see your friends die.

I respect everyone’s service at all times - to sign up and serve in your Country commands respect. Just don’t lie about your service.

I will always be on the side of those who don’t lie about their service, and are - like me - offended by those who do.

To defend Thomas, Labour released a statement from Al Carns, a former Royal Marines Colonel and Labour’s PPC in Birmingham Selly Oak. He said:

Fred Thomas has served in high-threat war zones where the risk to life was a daily occurrence.

As a former Colonel, I believe service should be above politics , and we should honour and respect all those who have not only served but also been willing to put their lives at risk for the safety and security of the nation.

Mercer had a majority of just 12,897 in the seat at the last election, and all the MRP polls carried out during the campaign suggest he will lose to Labour.

Earlier this week Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, claimed a vetting company was to blame for the fact that some of his party’s candidates have turned out to be racist or extremist. Because the company is run by a former Tory adviser, Farage hinted that this was part of a plot to discredit his party. There is no evidence to back this up, and the company involved said the problem was caused by lack of time, due to the election happening in the summer, not the autumn.

Now Farage has identified another conspiracy operating against his party. And he says it is being run by Ofcom, the broadcasting the regulator.

In a video posted on social media, Farage claims Ofcom are “almost rigging this in election in favour of the existing parties”.

Farage claims that in most parts of the country Reform UK is in second place, but he says the party is not getting the amount of broadcast coverage he thinks it should be receiving because of Ofcom’s rules about how much time should be allocated to particular parties.

In a post on X this morning, he even claimed the rules had been changed recently “to try to squeeze us out”.

I listened to BBC Radio 4 this morning.

You would not think that Reform UK were in this election at all, let alone polling second.

Ofcom have recently changed the broadcasting rules to try to squeeze us out. This is serious election interference.

In reponse, Ofcom said this was not true.

This is incorrect. Ofcom’s rules have not changed.
Broadcasters must give due weight to the coverage of political parties during an election period.
Appropriate levels of coverage must take into account evidence of past and/or current electoral support

The Ofcom rules say: “In determining the appropriate level of coverage to be given to parties and independent candidates broadcasters must take into account evidence of past electoral support and/or current support.”

In a news release, Reform UK says it is not getting more than 8% of broadcast news coverage, but that it should be getting more than double that because of “multiple polls showing Reform UK neck-and-neck with the Tories on around 19%”.

But while some polls have shown Reform UK neck-and-neck with the Tories, plenty of them haven’t. The Guardian’s poll tracker, which tracks average figures from all published opinion polls, shows the Tories six points ahead of Farage’s party, the FT’s tracker also shows them six points ahead, and Politico’s tracker has the Tories four points ahead.

If Ofcom is conspiring to keep Farage off the TV news, it does not seem to be having much success. Smaller parties like the Green regularly complain that he attracts far more news coverage than they do.

The Farage claim can be seen as evidence of how enthusiastically he is embracing populism, a political approach founded on assertions that the interests of “the people” are being thwarted by some sinister “elite”. Populism often overlaps with a willingness to promote conspiracy theories.

21 Jun 202409.38 EDT

Ben Quinn

On the campaign trail in Wales, Rishi Sunak struggled to contain his frustration as the controversy over gambling on the election date continued to overshadow his efforts.

The prime minister continued to fall back on a line that he was “angry” about the affair. He used ongoing investigations by the police and gambling commission as a way of avoiding engagement with questions about what action he had tken himself and why he had not suspended Tory candidates caught up in the allegations.

Asked what he was angry at, he replied:

I was incredibly angry to learn about them when I did learn about them. They are very serious in nature, potentially criminal. The police are involved and that’s why it’s right that they are allowed to do their job with out anything compromising the integrity of those investigations.

After he gave a speech at an event in Kinmel Bay to launch the Welsh Tory manifesto, members of the press who used subsequent questions to press him on the gambling issue were heckled by some Conservative members who had been invited.

Sunak briefly stopped off for a photo opportunity afterwards at a farm shop owned by Gail and Clive Swan, who told reporters afterwards that they had voted for the Conservatives in 2019 but were now “on the fence” and wanted to know more about what parties were offering farmers.

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Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said that Rishi Sunak should be taking “tougher action” in relation to the Tory candidates being investigated over electon date betting allegations. Davey said: “Too often in this parliament we have seen members of the Conservative party looking like they’re in it for themselves, not for public service and what’s in the best interests of the country.”

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21 Jun 202409.06 EDT

Starmer says he would not let SNP government hold 2nd independence referendum, or lift veto on its gender ID bill

Libby Brooks

Keir Starmer is in Scotland today and he had some interesting comments on independence, in response to the SNP’s manifesto which was published earlier this week and which doubled down on their push for a second referendum.

Starmer said categorically he would refuse to participate in negotiations for another independence referendum even if the SNP won a majority of seats.

The SNP leader John Swinney said at the manifesto launch that a win in Scotland for his party would be a mandate to push for a second vote. But, asked if he would speak to the Scottish government if that threshold was met, Starmer replied:

No. What the SNP are saying is that they want to go to Westminster to send a message, that’s the height of their ambition. I want Scotland to return Labour MPs who will sit at the heart of government.

He also effectively ruled out a second referendum within five years of the next government, which Swinney has suggested is a realistic possibility. He told reporters: “It’s never been a priority and I think the SNP have got the wrong priorities.”

He said he could “completely understand why people across Scotland want change, but that’s why this election is so important”.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar added:

People would find it perfectly reasonable that any incoming Labour government focused on actually changing the lives of people in Scotland and would want us to have the opportunity to do that rather than rushing to another divisive referendum.

Starmer also confirmed that he will not reverse the section 35 order blocking Holyrood’s gender recognition bill, which was imposed by the Tories. He said:

There will be no change of position on that and I think there’s a lot to learn on gender self-ID from the way it’s been dealt with in Scotland, which is why we’ve got a different proposition in our manifesto.

Referring to the Scottish government’s judicial review of that order, which failed, Sarwar said: “The court has made it very clear that the law as it currently stands doesn’t comply with the Equality Act and the primacy of the Equality Act is very important.”

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