Farage said Andrew Tate was ‘important voice’ for men in podcast interview
Speaking of Nigel Farage: the Reform UK leader has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the emasculated and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year.
The Guardian’s Rowena Mason and Ben Quinn report:
Farage spoke in favour of Tate for defending “male culture” in a Strike It Big podcast that aired in February, while acknowledging that the influencer had gone “over the top” and elsewhere that he had said some “pretty horrible” things.
Since December 2022, Tate has been facing charges in Romania of human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, which he denies.
Many politicians and teachers have spoken out against Tate’s influence on young boys in the UK, after the self-proclaimed misogynist said women belonged in the home and were a man’s property. “There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist,” Tate said in one video.
The best pictures from the campaign trail on Thursday
Thursday night’s Question Time was the biggest thing on the agenda for the Conservative, Labour, Lib-Dem and Scottish National Party leaders. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who complained about being excluded from the four-way leaders’ panel, had a pint – and, erm, sang Eminem – after delivering a speech at a hotel in Blackpool. He will feature in a separate Question Time next week, and on Panorama tonight.
Gogglebox, Rishi Sunak’s advisors edition:
Sunak’s staff watch Question Time. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Reuters
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking during tonight’s four party leadership Question Time Election special on 20 June 2024 in York, England. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
Campaign outfit / uniform / animal accessory of the day goes to Starmer, definitely-not-boring fluoro yellow:
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during a visit to Persimmon Homes development at Germany Beck in York, while on the General Election campaign trail. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks during a BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special in York, England, Thursday 20 June 2024. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was grilled by members of the public over abandoning the party’s pledge to scrap tuition fees in the coalition government. In response a question about tuition fees drom a student, he said: “I understand why your generation lost faith in us. It was a difficult government to be in.”
Davey was also asked whether he was “proud” of his conduct as postal affairs minister under the coalition government between 2010 and 2012.
Davey said the loss of trust in his party after that period was “very scarring” and admitted he was “not proud” of some of the votes he had to take part in.
Britain’s Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey takes part in a four-party leadership BBC Question Time Election Special in York, northern England, on June 20, 2024. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey arriving at the BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special in York. Picture date: Thursday 20 June 2024. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
When asked which Westminster leader would be the better choice for Scotland, Scottish First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney said: “I think the Conservative Government has been a total disaster and a calamity. So it cannot be out of office quick enough in my view.”
Scottish First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney speaking during tonight’s four party leadership Question Time Election special on 20 June 2024 in York, England. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage wears a 1996 England football shirt and drinks beer as he joins England football fans watching a live broadcast of the UEFA Euro 2024 Group C match between Denmark and England at The Armfield Club in Blackpool, northwestern England, on 20 June 2024. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
And the winner of the Please Make it Stop award for Thursday: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage channelled rapper Eminem on stage in front of 600 supporters at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool.
He entered the conference room to Eminem song Without Me, which features the lyrics “Guess who’s back, back again?”, and sang along as the audience stood and applauded.
He appealed to the audience to stream the song, PA reports.
Leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, delivers a speech at a hotel in Blackpool, northwestern England, on 20 June 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on 4 July. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
Four in five locum GPs in England unable to find work, BMA study finds
Tobi Thomas
More than four in five locum GPs in England are unable to find work with a third forced to leave the NHS because they cannot make ends meet, a survey has found.
A survey of 1,852 locums, conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA), found that 84% cannot find work despite patients across the country waiting weeks for GP appointments.
The study also found that more than half are considering a career change owing to a lack of work, while a third (33%) have made definite plans to work in a different career away from the NHS.
Just under a third (31%) of respondents said that the lack of suitable shifts was leading them to leave the NHS entirely, while 71% said the government funding model was to blame for the levels of unemployment.
More than half of GP appointments are now conducted by non-GP practice staff as they are cheaper, which is leading to locums being unable to find work. The BMA say this is because of the government’s model of funding GP practices meaning that many are unable to hire family doctors through these funds:
What Keir Starmer said when asked about his 2019 comment about Corbyn - full transcript
Andrew Sparrow
To explain the Daily Telegraph’s front page this morning, here is the transcript of the exchange between Fiona Bruce and Keir Starmer about Jeremy Corbyn on Question Time:
FB: You also said in February 2019 that Jeremy Corbyn would make a great prime minister. You said already, you thought you weren’t going to win that election. Putting that to one side, you said he would make a great prime minister. Did you mean it or did you have your fingers crossed behind your back?
KS: I didn’t think we would win that election.
FB: You said that. Irrespective of that, you said he’d make a great prime minister. Did you mean it?
KS: It wasn’t a question that really arose because I didn’t think we were going to win the election.
FB: We all heard you. We all heard you saying he would be a great prime minister. That was your way of telling the people here to vote for him. Did you not mean that?
KS: I was campaigning for the Labour Party. And I’m glad I did.
FB: But you also campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister.
KS: I was campaigning for the Labour party. I was a Labour politician. I wanted to be elected, or reelected, and I wanted good colleagues to be reelected. Some of the people around the shadow cabinet table were people whose seats were saved because we campaigned hard for the Labour party.
FB: Just answer this, yes or no. When you said Jeremy Corbyn would make a good prime minister, did you mean it?
KS: Look, he would be better prime minister … [pause] … look what we got, Boris Johnson, a man who made massive promises, didn’t keep them and then had to leave parliament in disgrace.
FB: Did you think he’d make a great, not even just a good, a great prime minister?
KS: I didn’t think we were in a position to win that election. And the more I looked at the preparation we’ve now down, the more convinced I am about that.
Former Tory minister vows to vote Labour over party’s climate failures
Pippa Crerar
The Conservatives’ former net zero tsar has revealed that he intends to vote Labour for the first time because Rishi Sunak has been “siding with climate deniers” to politicise the energy transition.
Writing exclusively in the Guardian, Chris Skidmore, a former energy minister, said he could not back the Tories, who had argued that net zero was “a burden and not a benefit”, a decision that he said would cost it votes.
In a deeply personal attack, he accused the prime minister of breaking the consensus of the past on climate action to “seek division and polarisation”, suggesting it was the “greatest tragedy” of his premiership.
“Worse still has been the rhetoric and extreme tone that has sought to politicise net zero as being forced upon people, a false narrative that is either the product of ignorance, or deliberate misinformation,” he said.
The former Tory MP, who attended cabinet in his previous role, becomes the most senior figure yet to switch his support to Labour, after a small handful of Tory backbench defections, in a further blow to Sunak’s campaign.
The Guardian’s top story this morning is former Tory PM Chris Skidmore saying that he will be voting Labour next week Thursday. His reason: because Rishi Sunak has been “siding with climate deniers” to politicise the energy transition. Skidmore has written about his decision for the Guardian here.
Rishi Sunak floats sanctions on young people for refusing national service
Peter Walker
In more news from Question Time: Rishi Sunak has indicated that young people might face restrictions on access to finance or driving licences if they refuse to do national service.
Asked during a BBC Question Time special what sanctions people could face for declining to take part in the Conservative policy of compulsory national service for all 18-year-olds, the prime minister pointed to “driving licences, or the access to finance, all sorts of other things”.
Questioned on whether this could mean denying young people bank cards, he replied: “There’s lot of different models around Europe.”
In his half-hour slot on the show, following Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney, the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National party leaders, Sunak was also repeatedly challenged on why the public should trust the Tories after 14 sometimes chaotic years in office.
He received shouts of “shame” after refusing to say he would keep Britain in the European convention on human rights.
The odds were 5-1, hardly enough to be worth risking a reputation over. But even though Williams stood to gain only £500, he thought it worth placing a bet on Sunday 19 May with a rural Welsh bookmaker.
Three days later, a rain-soaked Sunak made his surprise announcement, asking the British public on 22 May: “Who do you trust?” Before that Wednesday morning, few had expected an election to be called before the summer.
The Gambling Commission has widened its investigation, looking at last-minute bets on a July election where anybody stood to gain more than the relatively modest sum of £199. Other data already suggested that several gamblers were making last-minute online bets on a surprise July election.
A Guardian analysis shows that a sudden flood of bets on a July election was placed on Tuesday 21 May on the Betfair Exchange, before Sunak had even told his own cabinet of senior politicians that the early election was going ahead.
Between January and May, an average of £27 a day was gambled on Sunak calling a general election in July, and most people bet just a few pounds on what was seen as an unlikely outcome.
Then, the day before Sunak’s announcement, a total £3,285 was gambled on Betfair in dozens of bets. Some punters stuck on hundreds of pounds, suggesting serious confidence and driving the odds down.
Although the data came from only one specialist online bookmaker, it immediately suggested the scale of bets across the whole industry may have been more substantial – as the Gambling Commission’s own inquiries appear to be bearing out.
Sunak 'incredibly angry' about betting allegations
Rishi Sunak was asked during a leaders’ debate on BBC Question Time on Thursday evening whether the betting allegations were “the absolute epitome of the lack of ethics”.
Sunak said he was “incredibly angry” to learn of the allegations, adding that if anyone is found guilty they should “face the full force of the law” and he would “make sure they are booted out of the Conservative party”.
“I was incredibly angry – incredibly angry – to learn of these allegations,” said Sunak.
“It’s a really serious matter. It’s right that they’re being investigated properly by the relevant law enforcement authorities, including … a criminal investigation by the police.
“I want to be crystal clear that if anyone has broken the rules, they should face the full force of the law.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking during Thursday night’s four party leadership Question Time Election special on 20 June 2024 in York, England. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
The Guardian’s Pippa Crerarand Matthew Weaverreport that the UK’s gambling watchdog is examining bets allegedly placed by Laura Saunders, the Tory candidate in Bristol North West, and her husband, Tony Lee, who is now on leave of absence from his job at party headquarters.
It is not known when the alleged bets were placed or for how much money.
A Tory spokesperson said the party had been contacted by the watchdog about “a small number of individuals” who had allegedly placed bets on a July election. A party insider said they were not aware of any more cases beyond those already in the public domain.
Saunders, who has worked for the Tories since 2015, is standing as the party’s candidate in Bristol North West, which Labour held on the old boundaries with a 5,700 majority. She has not yet commented on the allegations.
Williams, 39, is the Tory candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr in mid-Wales. He had a majority of 12,000 before the boundary change.
After the Guardian’s revelation, he apologised for placing the bet three days before Sunak announced the date, saying he had made a “huge error of judgment”. The prime minister said he was “disappointed”.
The Guardian understands the Tory party opened a formal HR process when they were notified of the watchdog’s inquiries, but has now put that on hold. Lee is on a leave of absence from party headquarters.
If Tories broke gambling rules they ‘should face full force of the law’, says Sunak
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the run-up to the UK general election with me, Helen Sullivan.
With less than two weeks to go until Britons vote on 4 July, Rishi Sunak is facing a growing scandal, with a second Conservative candidate being looked into by the Gambling Commission. Appearing on Thursday night’s BBC Question Time, Sunak said if Tory figures were found to have broken gambling rules they “should face the full force of the law”.
Sunak said he was “incredibly angry to learn” of the allegations that multiple people with links to the Conservative Party or No 10 bet on the timing of the 4 July vote before he announced it.
Concerns over political insiders allegedly profiting from the election date could overshadow his campaigning on Friday, when he is at the Welsh Conservative manifesto launch in Kinmel Bay.
More on Sunak and Keir Starmer’s performances on the Question Time special shortly.
Here is what is coming up this morning:
7am: Scottish Conservatives campaigning in the Scottish Borders. Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross to visit Peterhead Fish Market.
8am: Aberdeen business hustings. Business leaders from across the region the put their questions to candidates representing the SNP, Lib Dems, Conservative and Labour parties.
10am: Scottish Greens general election media call with co-leader Lorna Slater in East Linton. She will join the party’s Lothian East candidate, Shona McIntosh.
10.30am: Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar visit Scottish business. They will campaign on Labour’s plans to boost jobs and growth across Scotland.
Rishi Sunak is expected in Wales.
11.50am: Deputy first minister Kate Forbes will join the SNP candidate for Glasgow South West Chris Stephens on the campaign trail.
And tonight, Nick Robinson will interview Nigel Farage for a BBC Panorama special.
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