The United Kingdom general election campaign has entered its final stretch, with both Labour and the Conservative parties arguing that the result is far from a foregone conclusion. The two parties continued to clash over their tax and spending plans, with Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, warning against “breathtaking complacency” over opinion polls predicting a Labour victory. Streeting cautioned that a vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK would hand Labour a “blank cheque” and a majority in parliament.
The Conservative party seized on Labour’s potential funding increases for the National Health Service (NHS) being lower than committed to in the party’s manifesto. A Tory spokesperson accused Labour of planning to spend and tax more than they are telling the public. Labour’s manifesto is said to promise significant increases in healthcare funding, but a report by the Nuffield Trust think tank suggests that both Labour and Conservative pledges would lead to lower annual funding increases for the NHS than during the austerity era.
Meanwhile, Labour peer Lord Cashman was criticized for calling Rosie Duffield, a Labour MP, “frit or lazy” after she cancelled local hustings due to safety concerns. Duffield has faced constant trolling over her views on women’s rights and female-only spaces. Women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch waded into the dispute, accusing Labour of intimidation and abuse towards its own members.
Labour leader Keir Starmer (Via Keir Starmer/Twitter)
The row over the abuse of politicians took on a renewed significance amid a renewed focus on the abuse of politicians on the eight-year anniversary of the murder of Jo Cox, a Labour MP who was stabbed and shot by a far-right extremist in 2016. Cox’s sister, Kim Leadbeater, described the milkshake attack on Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party, as “totally and utterly unacceptable”.
Labour leader Keir Starmer urged England to “make it a summer to remember” ahead of their Euro 2024 opener against Serbia. Thousands of England fans have descended on Gelsenkirchen in western Germany to witness Gareth Southgate’s men make a winning start in Group C. Starmer will watch the game in a pub with friends.
The election campaign has also been marked by controversy over Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey’s stunt-laden campaign. A former subpostmaster who lost his livelihood in the Horizon scandal accused Davey of “buffoonery” for not doing more to help wrongly-convicted branch managers when he served as postal affairs minister.
Meanwhile, actor Brian Cox has expressed concerns that the Scottish National Party (SNP) could be backing away from the notion of independence ahead of its manifesto launch. SNP leader John Swinney has vowed that independence will “proudly sit on page one, line one” of the document.
