General election latest: Reform drops three candidates in racism row and reports Channel 4 to election watchdog
Nigel Farage refuses to apologise over Reform campaigner’s racist slur about Sunak as PM ‘hurt and angry’
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Reform UK has withdrawn support from three of its parliamentary candidates as the party is caught up in a deepening racism row.
The party, spearheaded by Nigel Farage, is no longer endorsing Edward Oakenfull, who is standing in Derbyshire Dales, Robert Lomas, a candidate in Barnsley North, and Leslie Lilley, standing in Southend East and Rochford after alleged comments made by the three candidates emerged in the media.
It comes as Reform has said it has reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, after the broadcaster released footage of an activist campaigning for Mr Farage using a racial slur to describe Rishi Sunak.
Andrew Parker was exposed referring to Rishi Sunak as a “f****** p***” in a Channel 4 investigation.
In a letter to the Electoral Commission, the party’s secretary Adam Richardson claimed that it was “entirely evident that Mr Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 news piece”.
He added: “The Channel 4 broadcast has clearly been made to harm Reform UK during an election period and this cannot be described as anything short of election interference.”
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Now is the time for change – that’s why The Independent is backing Labour in the 2024 election
How would you feel if you woke up on 5 July and you had to have another five years of Tory rule? It is a highly potent question. We conclude it would not be good for Britain.
It is not quite an iron rule, but political parties that have been in power for a prolonged period eventually run out of ideas, talent and energy – and can collapse into a spiral of corruption. The latest election betting scandal is embarrassing and damaging to the Conservative campaign because, although novel, it is entirely consistent behaviour from a government that brought us Partygate, among many other severe lapses in the standards we expect in public life.
It is this sense of betrayal that is driving the national mood for change.
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This is why The Independent is backing Labour in the 2024 election
Editorial: This newspaper is prepared to give our support to Sir Keir Starmer’s party and back Labour on 4 July – but with this warning: Labour must turn its promises into policies that benefit the hardworking and hopeful people of this country
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Sir Elton John among celebrities to throw support behind Labour
Sir Elton John gave his support to Sir Keir Starmer in a video message that was played to hundreds of cheering Labour suppporters on Saturday.
The singer appeared sitting next to his husband David Furnish in the video message that was almost drowned out by applause during a supporters meeting in Westminster.
In the message, Sir Elton said: “It’s heartbreaking to see the hopes of Britain’s next generation of creative talent downtrodden and destroyed by bureaucracy and red tape.
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Sir Elton John among celebrities to throw support behind Labour
Other famous figures included comedian Bill Bailey and actor Kit Harrington
Failed Tory project fear drove voters to Labour and Reform, poll reveals
The Conservatives’ “project fear” tactic deployed to scare voters with the threat of a Labour “supermajority” has spectacularly backfired, new polling has revealed.
According to findings from Techne UK for The Independent, twice as many people are “more likely” to vote Labour (26 per cent) than more likely to vote Conservative (13 per cent) as a result of the warning used by Rishi Sunak and senior Conservatives about handing Sir Keir Starmer too much power.
The tactic was also used to try to prevent Tory voters defecting to Reform, but almost one in 10 (9 per cent) said the warning had in fact made them “more likely” to vote for Nigel Farage’s party.
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Failed Tory project fear drove voters to Labour and Reform, poll reveals
New poll reveals Tory project fear failed but postal votes may give Sunak hope
Service record row and Sunak’s D-Day blunder – but Johnny Mercer fights on for one last campaign
“On the doorsteps I’ve noticed a real shift,” Johnny Mercer tells his assembled troops on the grass verge at a post-war council housing estate on the northwestern fringe of Plymouth.
Poring over a road map, the 42-year-old former Commando, wearing a polo shirt, combat trousers and rough-terrain shoes, says people are not liking Sir Keir Starmer, but that many are “pi**ed off” and don’t want to vote.
“I get that,” he says, before pushing the message to the small group that a local vote for Reform UK means Labour dominance across the city, with a second constituency likely already in their hands and a party-run city council.
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Service record row and Sunak’s D-Day gaffe – but Mercer fights one last campaign
Despite a near-13,000 majority, Johnny Mercer and his team of canvassers are putting in the miles in Plymouth ahead of the 4 July election, reports Alex Ross from the campaign trail
‘Gamble-gate’ will go down as Rishi Sunak’s Covid
‘Gamble-gate’ will go down as Rishi Sunak’s Covid
The betting virus is killing the Tories’ hopes of avoiding a Labour supermajority, and the prime minister’s response has only served to speed up the rate of infection, writes Andrew Grice
Among the gift shops and Goth daytrippers – meet the ‘Whitby woman’ who could sway the election
Pensioners whizz around on mobility scooters, pirate-themed boats sail by, couples clutch each other’s hands. Welcome to Whitby: the seaside town in North Yorkshire that has lent its name to a target voter in the general election race.
The so-called “Whitby woman”, a term coined by polling think-tank More in Common, is a Tory voter who remains undecided about who will get her vote on 4 July.
With an average age of around 61, she is a homeowner who lives in a suburb or a small town like Whitby, who voted in favour of Brexit and is less likely to have gone to university.
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Among the gift shops and Goth daytrippers meet the election’s ‘Whitby woman’
Women’s Correspondent Maya Oppenheim talks to undecided, and unimpressed, women voters in the North Yorkshire town about their thoughts on the general election hopefuls
‘Panicking’ Rishi Sunak in final weekend of campaigning to save his own seat
Rishi Sunak’s Labour opponent in his Richmond and Northallerton seat in Yorkshire has accused him of “panicking” as the prime minister campaigned to save his own seat in the last weekend before polling day.
Tom Wilson, the 29-year-old NHS worker and musician who spoke to The Independent last weekend, has questioned why the prime minister’s team apparently tried to arrange a hustings in the seat with farmers was cancelled.
Mr Sunak, who was campaigning in the North East yesterday to be close to his seat for the weekend, is potentially facing the prospect of being the first prime minister to lose his constituency in an election in British history.
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‘Panicking’ Rishi Sunak in final weekend of campaigning to save his own seat
Rishi Sunak‘s team asked for a hustings to be arranged in his own constituency which was later cancelled as he tries to make sure he saves his own seat
It cannot be denied any longer – Reform is riddled with racism
It cannot be denied any longer – Reform is riddled with racism
After election campaigners for Nigel Farage were filmed voicing violent racist and homophobic slurs, the leader suggested such people end up in his party because ‘they haven’t got the BNP to go to anymore’. But when it comes to hate speech, Reform has got form, says Femi Oluwole
Starmer urges voters not to forget Conservatives’ record in office
At the major rally in London, featuring a video message of support from Sir Elton John and a speech by comedian Bill Bailey, Sir Keir went on the attack over the Conservatives’ record in office since 2010.
“Don’t forget what they have done, don’t forget Partygate, don’t forget the Covid contracts, don’t forget the lies, don’t forget the kickbacks, don’t forget the cronyism, don’t forget the division, the scapegoating of minorities, the failure to invest, the trips to the bookies, the decimation of your public services.
“Telling working people ‘we’re all in it together’, the people who hurt your family finances, swanning around the House of Lords, after giving tax cuts to the richest 1% that crashed our economy, don’t forget any of it.”
But Sir Keir said “we can heal the wounds, bring our country together, return politics to service, and start to build a new Britain”.
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