London politics LIVE: Rishi Sunak on morning TV studio tour as parties begin July 4 election campaigns.Incidents during tour Are not Left out.
Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are kicking off their election campaigns on Thursday – six weeks before the country goes to the polls.The Prime Minister is touring broadcast studios before embarking on a two-day whistlestop trip taking in all four nations of the UK.Sir Keir Starmer will head to south-east England in a sign he wants to make inroads in Tory areas.In London, Reform UK’s leader Richard Tice will stage a press conference setting out his party’s plans ahead of the July 4 election.Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is expected to visit a target seat as he launches a campaign expected to focus on targeting Conservative-held seats following a series of eye-catching by-election successes.Mr Sunak fired the starting gun for the election at a soaking wet Downing Street on Wednesday, surprising many in Westminster who had expected an autumn polling day.Even his own Cabinet was kept in the dark until the last minute, with Home Secretary James Cleverly telling ITV’s Peston “we don’t get particular advance notice” and it was largely a matter for Mr Sunak and his inner circle.The news caused disquiet among Tory MPs fearful of losing their jobs, and those who have already said they will not stand and are having to say goodbye to Parliament sooner than expected.Despite speculation at Westminster about a Tory rebel effort to oust Mr Sunak and call off the election, one prominent critic of the Prime Minister said it was “too late” to get rid of him.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns, who has called for Mr Sunak to go, said she understood “other letters have been going in” to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady but “colleagues, it’s too late, I told you six months ago we should have done this”.Just two more days of Commons business have been scheduled, during which important legislation will have to be rushed through.In his Downing Street statement, the Prime Minister said the election would be a question of trust, warning that Sir Keir was not the man to lead the country through “uncertain” times.At a Tory rally on Wednesday night, he said “the only certainty with Labour is that they will run out of money” and Sir Keir’s pledge to scrap the Rwanda plan would “enact a de facto amnesty for asylum seekers, making us a magnet for every illegal immigrant in Europe”.Sir Keir said the election would be a chance to turn the page on 14 years of Conservative rule and “stop the chaos” at Westminster.
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