2024 General Election Update: Rishi Sunak faces threat to suspend Conservative candidate Laura Sanders over gambling investigation

The Scottish Green Party will publish its general election manifesto from Edinburgh.

The party’s co-leader, Lorna Slater, has pledged to promote a “Green New Deal” and a “green economy” to get Scotland to net zero.

The party argues the plan would be funded by increasing taxes on the wealthy.

Jeremy Hunt said he had “enormous respect” for Rachel Reeves despite their differing views on taxation.

Speaking at The Times CEO summit, the finance minister said of his shadow: “I have great respect for Rachel Reeves, I like her personality and I think what would be the big difference between her approach if she became finance minister and my approach. At the end of the day, it’s about tax.”

Mr Hunt added: “Labour’s view is that tax is a broadly strong force for good and for social justice and we are happy with current tax rates. In fact, our manifesto plans to increase taxes by around £8 billion a year.”

“If we are to reduce taxes — and I say this as a finance minister who has raised taxes significantly — it’s a huge undertaking. It takes a lot of discipline. But I think it’s crucial for the future of our economy.”

The candidate from Nigel Farage’s Reform Britain party criticised the monarchy during the Jubilee celebrations, calling members of the royal family “welfare scroungers”.

Joe Hart posted comments on Facebook in 2022 including “Fuck the royal family” and “Put Lizzie last”.

Hart is campaigning in north Aberdeenshire and east Moray, where Labour candidate Andy Brown was suspended after he was reported to have made pro-Russia posts.

In the rant, which Hart claims is a shared post, he said: “But when Jubilee comes around, our ‘Glorious Sovereign’, who has never experienced the hardship of having to choose between heat and food, will not have to worry about keeping the lights on. In fact, the millions of dollars spent on Jubilee celebrations have not come from her pocket but from the public purse.”

She added: “All the while we hear people screaming about welfare recipients gobbling up welfare. The biggest welfare gobblers are the Royal Family. Time to abolish them! FUCK the Royal Family! #makelizzythelast”

The Conservative Party’s campaign chief has been “placed on administrative leave” following a scandal in which key figures used inside information to gamble on the election date, political editor David Maddox reports.

Independent Tony Lee has reportedly taken a leave of absence after it emerged that his wife, Laura Sanders, is under investigation for allegedly betting on the general election.

It means that with Labour leading by a massive 20 points, an already struggling Conservative campaign is now without its campaign manager.

The Independent has contacted the Conservative Party for comment.

Nigel Farage has claimed that immigration is “the real cause of the housing crisis” and that the Conservative and Labour parties are “not telling voters the truth” about it.

The right-wing leader blamed rising rents and a housing shortage on people coming to the UK.

“Today is housing day for Labour and the Conservatives. They’ll be talking about housing, they’ll be talking about access to housing, and Labour will be talking about rents,” he said in a campaign video.

“I doubt whether either will mention the fact that the UK population has increased by 10 million people since Tony Blair came to power, six million of which have increased since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, and 85 per cent of this is directly attributable to immigration.”

“So people can’t buy a house and rents have gone up by 20 to 30 per cent in the last four years alone. But I bet they’ve got no inkling of that. So our party is the only one telling the British people the truth in this election.”

Laura Sanders, the Conservative candidate for Bristol North West, has become the latest party member to be investigated by the Gambling Commission over bets on the date of the general election.

However, it is unclear when the bet was made or how much was wagered.

Sanders has worked for the Conservative party for almost a decade and is married to the party’s campaign chief, Tony Lee, and also serves as the party’s head of international affairs.

Labour has said it will not stick to the Conservative pledge to keep the stamp duty threshold for first-home buyers at £425,000.

Shadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The Conservatives have put forward a very specific policy, it’s a desperate policy and it’s not funded.”

“We don’t have the same policy in place. What we offer for first-time home buyers is the Freedom to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme, which helps people who can afford a mortgage but are struggling to get a down payment on a home.”