General election latest: Starmer calls for closer ties with EU as Abbott ‘banned’

Nigel Farage has said voting for the Conservative Party is a “wasted vote” as he set out Reform UK’s election campaign agenda in Dover.

The Reform honorary president, who has declined to stand as an MP, launched the party’s campaign at a yacht club on the Kent seafront, which he described as the “frontline of the great national debate on immigration”.

Speaking to press and supporters, Mr Farage said the Tories have “wrecked it for themselves” and rejected the Conservative argument that a vote for Reform is a vote for Labour.

Anahita Hossein-Pour reports:

The intervention on sick pay will help an estimated 1.5 million who are not covered by the rules and either have to work through illness or stay at home without financial support.

Political editor David Maddox and political correspondent Archie Mitchell report:

Labour is now leading over the Tories by only 12 points, a new poll has revealed.

The gap between the two main parties surprisingly narrowed after a bumpy opening week to the general election campaign for the prime minister.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party has 40 per cent support, while Rishi Sunak’s party has 28 per cent.

Labour’s lead has slipped from 15 points in early May and 18 points the previous month, according to the poll by JL Partners, which was conducted on Friday and Saturday.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to tell hospitals from day one of a Labour government to set up evening and weekend clinics to cut NHS waiting lists.

The Labour leader told the Mirror that “crack teams” who are already running out-of-hours programmes across the country will help set up the clinics in the rest of the health service.

If it wins the General Election, Labour will initially focus on reducing treatment backlogs, which currently stand at 7.54 million.

Our relationship with the continent is the biggest challenge of our time, writes former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine.

Yet our political leaders are so afraid of the far right’s grip on this country that they refuse to do anything about it.

What are the issues this country should be discussing?

None of these issues can be honestly addressed in isolation from our relationship with Europe.”

Political advertising is banned on TikTok, though both parties will be hoping content reaches the right audiences through the app’s complex user algorithms.

Labour launched its account on the app three days before the Conservatives – posting an 11-second video on Thursday evening of leader Sir Keir Starmer declaring: “Change. That is what this election is about.”

“I thought it might be a good thing [to do],” recalls Emmy Vilander.

When Vilander turned 18, like everyone her age in Sweden, she was sent an official email by the government.

It asked her whether she’d consider conscription into the country’s military under Sweden’s “total defence” service and asked her how fit she was, if she had any health issues and what her motivation would be.

Not long after that, she found herself in Sweden’s far north learning how to strip down a rifle, shoot a gun and build a shelter.

“You learn a lot about yourself – that you can do more than you think you can do,” she tells Denyer. “I thought it was going to be so hard – and it was – but it was also fun.”

Diane Abbott has been given back the Labour whip, it is understood.

The Press Association news agency understands the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was given back the Labour whip earlier on Tuesday – but sources told The Times such a move would be made to allow her to leave politics “with dignity” rather than stand again for the party.