Politics

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer will go head-to-head in their first televised debate of the general election on 4 June. The two leaders will appear on ITV at 9pm for an hour, the channel has announced. “Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate” will be moderated by journalist Julie Etchingham and will take place live

The Conservatives will promise to replace “rip-off degrees” with 100,000 apprenticeships each year by the end of the next parliament if they win the general election. The Tories will outline their plans on Wednesday to replace the “worst performing” courses with high-skilled apprenticeships, which they say will provide “more opportunities and greater financial security”. Politics

Police will take no further action against Labour’s Angela Rayner after accusations surrounding her living arrangements in 2010. Officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) launched an investigation into the party’s deputy leader earlier this year, after reports suggested she may have lived primarily at her then-husband’s address in Stockport, despite registering to vote under her

The Conservatives have promised to cut taxes for pensioners by creating a new “age-related” tax-free allowance – dubbed “triple lock plus”. Currently, people can receive £12,570 a year of their pensions before they start paying income tax on them – the same figure as the personal allowance for those who work. But if the party

An MP who is not contesting her seat at the election has quit the Conservative Party after she was suspended for supporting the Reform candidate in her constituency. Lucy Allan, the outgoing MP for Telford, said on X she was supporting Alan Adams, who is standing for the rival Reform Party, to be the next

Suddenly, at election time, political predictions become so much harder and riskier. Everything changes in a campaign, not least the news cycle. That’s my excuse, at any rate, for failing to foresee the announcement of a general election in last week’s Politics at Jack and Sam’s. There were a few clues – and one magisterial

Nobody would go to jail for refusing to comply with National Service under a Conservative government, the home secretary has said. In the Conservatives’ first policy announcement of the general election campaign, Rishi Sunak said on Saturday he would introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds if his party wins the vote

Rishi Sunak has said he will introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for young people if the Conservatives win the general election. In the first new policy announcement of the campaign, the prime minister has unveiled a plan that would see 18-year-olds given the choice of a full-time military placement for 12 months

Sir Keir Starmer has defended Labour’s decision to rebrand its package of workers’ rights after a union said the plans had “more holes than Swiss cheese”. Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, accused the party of watering down its policies after it rebranded “Labour’s new deal for working people” as “Labour’s plan to

Rishi Sunak is set to battle it out with Sir Keir Starmer over the economy after a bruising day for the Conservative leader which saw two senior party figures quit as MPs. Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom both announced on Friday they would not stand in the 4 July general election, bringing the total number

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of “sounding a bit desperate” after he accused him of chickening out of TV debates. The Labour leader told Sky News that “of course there are going to be TV debates” and they are “part and parcel of the election cycle now”. “I obviously want to spend as

Rishi Sunak and senior Tories have sparked the first major row of the election campaign by accusing “spineless” Sir Keir Starmer of “chickening out” of weekly TV debates. The prime minister has challenged the Labour leader to take part in six TV clashes during the campaign debating issues like tax, the cost of living and

Rishi Sunak has admitted Rwanda flights will not take off before the general election – as he denied calling a summer vote because inflation is expected to rise. The prime minister has said for the past few months the first flights removing asylum seekers to the African nation will happen in July. But after calling

In 1997, Labour told us “Things Can Only Get Better”, before Tony Blair won a landslide general election victory. This year, Rishi Sunak appears to have concluded that things are not going to get any better for the Tories if he delays an election until the autumn. His dash to the polls on 4 July

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, took his opportunity at PMQs to ask the question which seems to be on everyone’s lips in Westminster – is an election about to be called? Mr Flynn used the first of his two questions to Rishi Sunak to say: “Mr Speaker, speculation is rife, so I think the

People infected with deadly viruses due to the tainted blood scandal could receive more than £2m in compensation, according to government documents. “Illustrative figures” have been published on the Infected Blood Compensation Authority section of the government website, which show “the compensation award that an infected person living with a single infection or co-infection may