2024 General Election Live: New Survation poll finds Conservative Party likely to win just 72 seats in next Parliament

Kemi Badenoch has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Labour candidate Rosie Duffield, accusing the party of “intimidation and abuse” towards its members.

It comes after Labour peer Lord Cashman called Duffield, a champion of women’s rights, “a coward or a lazy person” for pulling out of a local election campaign over safety concerns.

Ms Badenoch, the women and equalities minister, tweeted: “I can’t imagine how Rosie must feel in a party where she is constantly attacked by her colleagues for standing up for women.”

“This is not just an issue of women’s rights, but how a political party manages internal disagreements. Not healthy debate, but intimidation and abuse.”

“If they can do this to their own country, imagine what they can do to ours.”

Wes Streeting has slammed Labour peers who called Rosie Duffield a “coward or lazy” for pulling out of a local election campaign over safety concerns.

Lord Cashman, a former EastEnders actor and Labour MEP, apologised after commenting on a social media post about Mr Duffield’s behaviour, calling him a “coward. Or lazy”.

It came after Labour general election candidate Duffield, a champion of women’s rights and women-only spaces, said it was “impossible” to take part in local election campaigns because of “constant trolling”.

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Douglas Ross’s decision to stand for parliament has left a “bad reputation” in the north-east Scotland constituency where he is running, First Minister John Swinney has said.

The Scottish Conservative leader ran himself as the candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency after the party executive told him David Duguid was unable to stand for health reasons.

Mr Ross said he would step down as party leader with immediate effect after colleagues expressed unhappiness with the move.

The boundary changes mean that North Aberdeenshire and East Moray will be contested for the first time, but the majority of the constituency is in Banff and Buchan, previously represented by Mr Duguid.

The Labour-run Scotland Office will work with the Scottish Government as it uses new spending powers, shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray said.

Labour has said that if it wins power it will spend equalisation funding through the Scottish Department to tackle poverty and promote growth.

Mr Murray said he was prepared to work with the SNP on the matter, but added: “It takes two to tango”.

He was campaigning on Sunday alongside Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency candidate Chris Murray.

The shadow Scottish Minister said Labour has made more than 120,000 door-to-door visits in Scotland since the election campaign began.

“I can assure you that the Scotland Office that I run will be committed to working for the people of Scotland, and that means we must work closely together,” he told reporters.

With England facing Serbia in Euro 24, British voters have announced their choice for Sir Keir Starmer as leader of the party that will manage the national team.

The Labour leader, an avid Arsenal season ticket holder, topped a TechneUK poll of 1,636 British voters with 31 percent support, given his image as a tough manager on the Labour team after kicking Jeremy Corbyn out of the team.

The Labour leader has already released a team message for England.

Read the full article by Political Editor David Maddox here.

Party leaders are battling it out in televised debates, memes are flying, and now the party manifestos are all out. Make no mistake, we’re in the midst of election fever, with just three weeks to go.

Elections get me super excited and nerdy, I don’t know if I’ll have an alarm going off every day telling me the latest election results. News Agent Podcast episodes drop. (Indeed, I get a special thrill from hearing Emily Maitlis make biting comments about Conservative gaffes.) But the overarching feeling that emerges when voters are interviewed by journalists and broadcasters is one of exhaustion.

See the complete reading list here:

A former deputy postmaster who lost his livelihood in the Horizon scandal has slammed Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey’s stunt-packed election campaign as “buffoonery”.

Lee Castleton compared Sir Ed’s behaviour to that of former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson, adding that “paddleboarding in Cumbria” “never builds trust”.

Sir Edward has been accused of not doing enough to help wrongly convicted sub-postmasters during his time as post secretary in the coalition government between 2010 and 2012.

He has previously apologised for failing to see through the Post Office’s “lies” and insisted he was taking voters’ concerns seriously during his campaign, which included visits to theme parks and the Ultimate Slip ‘n’ Slide near Frome, Somerset.

Mr Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was bankrupt in 2004 after losing a legal battle with the Post Office after discovering that his branch was £25,000 short.

He told BBC’s Sunday Morning with Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t particularly like the clowning, it’s very Boris-like and I don’t think there’s any need for it.”

“It’s really, really, really important that you trust him, and trust is never built by just hanging from a rope or going paddleboarding in Cumbria.

“Trust is about engaging with people who need that engagement.”

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said it would be a “personal failure” if the party was not returned to Westminster after the general election.

But he insisted he would not step down as leader even if the UUP failed to win any seats.

Mr Beattie said his party was “aiming to win” in five constituencies in Northern Ireland.

In the interview, Mr Beattie also slammed the “incredible” personal assault he had received from other union members.

She pointed to a hostile political environment as the reason her party has been unable to convince more women to run in elections.

The Army veteran has been the party’s chairman for three years.

Actor Brian Cox says he is “worried” that the Scottish National Party (SNP) will not make holding an independence referendum a clear goal in the general election.

The 78-year-old “Succession” star has been vocal in his support for Scotland separating from the United Kingdom and his criticism of Brexit.

He was referring to the referendum in which the majority of England voted to leave while Scotland voted to remain in Europe.

“The main issue is the devil we haven’t talked about yet – Brexit,” Cox said, before citing economic figures.

He added: “It seems we’re still suffering from it and we’re not doing anything about it.”

“So when we talk about other things, we can’t talk in terms of where we are because we’re suffering from Brexit.”