BBC election debate live: Penny Mordaunt set to face challenges of Sunak’s D-day snub in seven-party debate | Politics
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Penny Mordaunt set to face challenges of Sunak’s D-day snub in seven-party debate starting at 7.30pm
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, will soon have the task of trying to defend Rishi Sunak over his D-day commemoration snub.
She is the spokesperson for the Tories in the first seven-party debate of the campaign, hosted by the BBC.
Mordaunt is a former defence secretary and former Royal Navy reservist. In a post on X yesterday she stressed her own reverence for D-day veterans, and it will be interesting to see to what extent she is willing to excuse Sunak, and to what extent she tries to distance herself from him. If she manages to hold her seat, she is expected to run for the Tory leadership in a post-election contest.
Five years ago I was privileged to spend several days with veterans of D-Day. I will be thinking of them all today and their many brothers who did not make it home. I have heard their testimony many times. We know why they did their duty. Yet their courage and sacrifice is… pic.twitter.com/mSykEjuuFm
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) June 6, 2024
Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, is representing Labour, and Nigel Farage is speaking for Reform UK, which he leads. Farage was the first politician to criticise Sunak for missing the international event yesterday. Rayner has a brother who served in the army, but the Tories regularly attack her defence credentials because she voted against Trident renewal.
The other participants are: Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader; Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster; Carla Denyer, the Green party co-leader; and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader.
Key events
This morning Sir Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s communications chief when he was PM, gave an initial assessment on the Today programme of how damaging the D-day snub is for Rishi Sunak. (See 8.36am.) He has just posted a revised assessment on X, and it is even more damning.
A few more thoughts on @RishiSunak’s returning early from D-Day and apologising:
– This is a gift tied up with a bow for @Nigel_Farage and @UKLabour.
– It may be hard to sustain as a story in the media, but targeted messaging to the Red Wall will now be relentless. Many of us…— Craig Oliver (@CraigOliver100) June 7, 2024
A few more thoughts on @RishiSunak’s returning early from D-Day and apologising:
-This is a gift tied up with a bow for @Nigel_Farage and @UKLabour
. – It may be hard to sustain as a story in the media, but targeted messaging to the Red Wall will now be relentless. Many of us will not see that messaging.
– The brutal message will be: On top of everything else, the party has now lost its way on commemorating those who died for us.
– Any pretence that the @Conservatives campaign is now any more than damage limitation has gone. It’s about keeping seats in triple figures (100+).
– The campaign made the unforced error trying desperately to narrow a vast Labour lead that’s remained largely solid since Partygate and the Mini-budget. You can’t do both of those things and expect to win.
The Green party says it had candidates in 574 seats in England and Wales by the time nominations closed at 4pm. That is a record for the party, and it means they have a candidate in all bar one of the English and Welsh constituencies.
Savanta has also released polling on what voters think about Rishi Sunak’s decision to miss part of the D-day commemorations. It suggests 68% of people view this as unacceptable, and 21% see it as acceptable.
These are very similar to the YouGov results (65% unacceptable, 21% acceptable). See 5.29pm.
🚨SNAP POLL for @Telegraph
Two thirds of UK adults, including three in five Conservative voters, say it is unacceptable that Rishi Sunak left D-Day commemorations to do a TV interview.
All
Unacceptable 68%
Acceptable 21%
DK 11%Con 2019
Unacceptable 61%
Acceptable 31%
DK 9% pic.twitter.com/29xW9f8KcJ— Savanta UK (@Savanta_UK) June 7, 2024
All the participants in the seven-party debate have arrived at Broadcasting House in London. We posted pictures of Daisy Cooper and Carla Denyer earlier. (See 5.59pm.) Here are pictures of Angela Rayner, Nigel Farage, Rhun ap Iorwerth and Stephen Flynn.
Penny Mordaunt set to face challenges of Sunak’s D-day snub in seven-party debate starting at 7.30pm
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, will soon have the task of trying to defend Rishi Sunak over his D-day commemoration snub.
She is the spokesperson for the Tories in the first seven-party debate of the campaign, hosted by the BBC.
Mordaunt is a former defence secretary and former Royal Navy reservist. In a post on X yesterday she stressed her own reverence for D-day veterans, and it will be interesting to see to what extent she is willing to excuse Sunak, and to what extent she tries to distance herself from him. If she manages to hold her seat, she is expected to run for the Tory leadership in a post-election contest.
Five years ago I was privileged to spend several days with veterans of D-Day. I will be thinking of them all today and their many brothers who did not make it home. I have heard their testimony many times. We know why they did their duty. Yet their courage and sacrifice is… pic.twitter.com/mSykEjuuFm
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) June 6, 2024
Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, is representing Labour, and Nigel Farage is speaking for Reform UK, which he leads. Farage was the first politician to criticise Sunak for missing the international event yesterday. Rayner has a brother who served in the army, but the Tories regularly attack her defence credentials because she voted against Trident renewal.
The other participants are: Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader; Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster; Carla Denyer, the Green party co-leader; and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader.
Nadeem Badshah
A Conservative election candidate quit after it emerged he ran a business that in the past held club nights for teenagers as young as 13, and posted pictures of the girls online.
Adam Gregg resigned today after it emerged that he ran a business that held club nights for teenagers.
Gregg, who was standing in the new Spen Valley seat in West Yorkshire, had posted photographs on social media to promote the events appearing to show girls with the words “horny” and “bitch” on their chests.
He told the Mirror, which broke the story:
If anyone has felt the events they attended, the promotion or photographs from the events were inappropriate, I sincerely apologise.
These events were of their time and I can understand how they could be viewed differently in today’s world.
I have withdrawn my candidacy from the general election to ensure this matter doesn’t in any way detract from the party’s efforts to win the Spen Valley seat, and would like to wholeheartedly thank everyone who has helped me during the campaign.
Joe Pike has written a good account for the BBC of how No 10 got the D-day decision so wrong. He says “one Conservative source has told the BBC it just did not occur to anyone at the top of the campaign that it would be a problem [for Rishi Sunak to miss the international commemorative event], especially with the G7 summit in Italy next week where the prime minister will see all the same leaders.”
Here’s an extract.
Among allies of Mr Sunak there is bafflement about how another campaign blunder came about.
“From one decision to the next I’m absolutely staggered,” one cabinet minister told me. “Who is in charge?”
Another source who knows the Downing Street team well said of Mr Sunak: “He surrounds himself with yes men and women who don’t challenge him.
“They are all young. None of them have run a campaign before aside from Isaac [Levido]”, the party’s campaign manager.
Zoe Williams has written the Guardian’s regular afternoon campaign catchup today. You can read it here.
Michael Crick, the journalist who has been monitoring candidate selections on his Tomorrow’sMPs X account, says the Conservative party has managed to field candidates in all but one British seat. They normally field candidates in all seats in Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland), but this time it was a struggle, with dozens of vacancies having to be filled at very short notice.
🔵 Conservative HQ tell me they have managed to nominate candidates in all but one seat, and that seat is “unwinnable”.
— @Tomorrow’sMPs (@tomorrowsmps) June 7, 2024
Conservative HQ tell me they have managed to nominate candidates in all but one seat, and that seat is “unwinnable”.
So the Conservatives are standing in 630 of the 632 seats in Great Britain – the exceptions are the Speaker’s seat, Chorley, and Rotherham where they had a late withdrawal. The Tories are also fighting five of the 18 seats in Northern Ireland.
Two hours ago nominations closed for people wanting to stand as an election candidate. A total of 132 people who were MPs in the 2019-2024 parliament have chosen not to stand, PA Media reports. PA says:
It is the second highest number of former MPs to stand down ahead of an election in modern political history.
The record is 149, which was set in 2010.
There are only four instances since the second world war of at least 100 MPs standing down ahead of a UK general election: 1945 (129), 1997 (117), 2010 (149) – and now 2024.
Of the 132 not seeking re-election this year, 75 are former Conservative MPs.
This beats the previous post-war record of 72 Tories who stood down ahead of the 1997 election.
Politicians taking part in tonight’s seven-party BBC debate have started arriving at Broadcasting House in London for the event. It starts at 7.30pm.
Unite could not endorse Labour’s manifesto, sources say
Sammy Gecsoyler
Unite, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, has reportedly failed to endorse Labour’s manifesto at a meeting to finalise the party’s policy offerings.
Sources from Unite told PA that the union refused to back the document because they believed Labour had moved on a number of commitments relating to workers and industry, and were dissatisfied with the party’s stance on fire-and-rehire and oil and gas.
So far, union leaders have remained silent after the conclusion of the meeting. Reacting to the signed-off manifesto, the leftwing group Momentum said it was “deeply disappointed” that Labour has not committed to free school meals or scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Outside the central London location where the meeting was held, senior Labour figures and union leaders hurried in and out of the venue to and from their cars, making scant remarks to the press. Heading into the meeting, Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, told reporters she was “hopeful”.
The meeting lasted about six and a half hours. Attendees entering the building were interrupted by two protests. In the morning, David Lammy was heckled by a protester from the campaign group Green New Deal Rising demanding that Labour commit to a green new deal. When the meeting finished, pro-Palestine protestors greeted those leaving the venue.
Disgraced Keith Vaz expelled from Labour as he stands for One Leicester party
The disgraced former MP Keith Vaz has been belatedly kicked out of Labour after announcing he is standing in his old seat, Leicester East, for a new local party. Rajeev Syal and Jessica Murray have the story.
Labour agrees its manifesto at ‘clause V’ meeting
Labour’s election manifesto has been agreed at the party’s ‘clause V’ meeting, paving the way for its official launch next week, PA Media reports.
A party spokesperson said:
Today’s meeting has endorsed Labour’s manifesto.
On July 4, the British people will have the chance to vote for change – to stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country.
As PA reports, Rachel Reeves, Jonathan Reynolds and Ed Miliband were seen leaving the venue in central London.Most of those who had attended refused to comment on what had been agreed. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Labour-affiliated trade union Unite, was due to speak to reporters following the meeting but cancelled her appearance.
Abdi Duale, a moderate member of Labour’s NEC ruling committee, told PA that the meeting was “very positive” and was “quicker than I thought”.
The manifesto is due to be published next week.
Here is Dan Sabbagh’s analysis of the significance of Rishi Sunak’s D-day snub.
And here is Dan’s conclusion.
Labour could not quite believe the political gift that had been presented. Starmer’s party, often accused by the Conservatives of being soft on national security, was able to contrast Sunak’s rhetoric with reality. John Healey, Labour’s defence spokesperson, said: “Given that the prime minister has been campaigning on the idea young people should complete a year’s national service, what does it say that he appears to have been unable to complete a single afternoon of it?”
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