General election 2024 - live: Starmer’s Labour hails chance to ‘turn the page’ as another Tory MP to step down

The Tories have hit their lowest vote share yet in a weekly tracker poll after voters apparently turned away from the party after Rishi Sunak called a snap election.

According to Techne UK, the Tories are now stuck on 19 per cent, the first time the company’s weekly tracker has had them below 20 points. It puts them 26 points behind Labour.

Techne’s chief executive has warned of “a bleak result” for the Conservatives unless they can change the narrative in the next six weeks:

Tory MP Eleanor Laing has officially handed her resignation ahead of the general election.

She joins hundreds of MPs that won’t defend their constituencies on July 4.

Matt Hancock and Bob Stewart have had the Tory whip returned today as a goodwill gesture by the party, Senior Political Correspondent Daily Express Andrew Calgie has reported.

Matt Hancock had been suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party after signing up to enter the jungle for I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

The former health secretary has agreed to join the programme as early as this weekend, after he was snubbed by Rishi Sunak when the new prime minister put together his new government.

Victims of the infected blood scandal will receive compensation despite the general election, the government has confirmed.

The Victims and Prisoners Bill, which includes measures to establish a compensation body, is set to become law before Parliament is prorogued, as it has cleared the Lords and is ready for Royal Assent.

Elsewhere, the government committed to ensuring victims of malicious complaints can have them scratched from the record.

There has been pressure for a change in the law after Labour MP Stella Creasy was left with a social services file due to a vexatious report from a man who disagreed with her political views.

Fewer people applied for asylum in the UK in the year ending March 2024, in part due to a decrease in claims from Albanian small boat arrivals, Holly Bancroft reports.

According to Home Office figures, some 86,719 people applied for asylum in the year up to March.

New data from the Home Office shows a boom in asylum decisions being made, with more than four times the number of decisions than in the previous year.

Figures show 62 per cent of people applying for asylum were successful, and there are currently 118,329 people waiting on a decision.

Rishi Sunak was accused of taking politics to a “new low” after betting £1,000 on being able to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda before the next election.

The “crude” and “depraved” bet came as the PM used an interview with Piers Morgan to double down on his support for the asylum policy, insisting he will get flights off the ground this year.

During the chat, he accepted bet offered by the TalkTV broadcaster, that asylum seekers will be sent on one-way flights to Kigali before voters hit the polls.

Preparations for Rwanda deportation flights continue, Downing Street said, after Rishi Sunak admitted they will not take off before the election.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Civil Service serves the Government of the day and continues to deliver existing Government policies. And so that work will continue.”

He said the timetable “hasn’t changed” and that “we’ve always said those early weeks of July”.

The spokesman denied the timeline has been affected by a recent court ruling in Belfast that provisions of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act should be disapplied in Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets members of staff at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, in Barry, south Wales, while on the General Election campaign trail.

It came after Mr Sunak scored an own goal with a footballing gaffe as he met brewery staff in South Wales later in the day.

The Prime Minister asked the workers whether they were looking forward to the football later this summer, despite Wales not qualifying for the Euro 2024 tournament.

After being told the country is “not in it”, he insisted that nonetheless “it’ll be a good summer of sport”.