General election 2024 - live: Starmer confirms he’ll go on head-to-head TV debate with ‘desperate’ Sunak

Speaking in Belfast, Mr Sunak said he would welcome the former prime minister to join the Tory campaign.

He told broadcasters: “And when it comes to Boris he was of course the person who got Brexit done, ensured we had the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe and was the first to make sure that we provided support to Ukraine.

“And I think all Conservatives will want to join the campaign because all Conservatives are united in wanting to see a Conservative government at the next election, because it’s the Conservatives that have got a clear plan that we’re working towards.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and cabinet veteran Michael Gove appear at the head of a Lib Dem hit list of top Tory targets they believe they can unseat in the general election, David Maddox reports.

The list is part of a wider strategy by the Lib Dems to “break the Tory blue wall” of traditionally safe seats across the south of England with previously unwinnable constituencies in counties like Surrey now in their targets.

Since winning the Chesham and Amersham by-election in 2021, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has made no secret of his hopes to repaint the blue wall yellow on the electoral map.

You can read The Independent full story here

Nigel Farage, the founder and owner of Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Party, has announced he will not be standing for parliament in this election.

After five unsuccessful general election attempts and two by-elections, he said: “I will do my bit to help in the campaign, but it is not the right time for me to go any further than that.”

However, Richard Tice, the leader, bravely claimed that the party’s founder ‘will be everywhere’ during the campaign, writes John Rentoul.

Read the full article here.

Diane Abbott has claimed that Starmer was wrong to claim that the decision about whether to readmit the MP back has nothing to do with him.

The Labour leader said this morning that Ms Abbott will find out if she can stand as a Labour candidate in a few years.

He told Sky News: “The final decisions on candidates is coming up in a few days’ time, I think June 4, it may be a little earlier, a little later, I can’t quite remember.

“But within a relatively short period of time the final list of candidates will be decided, and that will be a matter for the Labour party’s national executive committee.”

The Labour leader is at a campaign event in Glasgow alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

He tells Scottish voters: “There is no change without Scotland, Scotland is central to the mission of the next Labour government.”

The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) said the party became an unsafe space for Jews under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Archie Mitchell reports.

“He refused to acknowledge the scale of antisemitism in Labour, even when the EHRC found the party guilty of breaking the law,” a spokesman said.

The spokesman added: “The Labour Party we see today is unrecognisable from what it had become under Corbyn, thanks to the leadership of Keir Starmer. Voters in Islington North deserve a Labour MP and Government - we’ll be campaigning to make sure they get one.”

Sir Keir Starmer has rejected a challenge by Rishi Sunak to take part in head to head TV debates every week between now and polling day, David Maddox reports.

The Labour leader defended his decision saying he would rather talk to voters directly and claimed the prime minister had nothing new to say.

But energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Sir Keir Starmer is too scared to debate the Prime Minister because he doesn’t have a plan and hasn’t got the courage to stand up and say what he believes in or to stand up for Britain.”

The chairman of the Conservative Party said the Labour leader has an “inane waffle” during his morning round of TV interviews.

Richard Holden added that his interviews made the “strongest case possible” for holding TV debates.