Farage: a vote for the Conservatives in the 'red wall' is a wasted vote
Nigel Farage has said that a vote for the Conservatives in the “red wall” is a wasted vote that will lead to the election of Labour MPs.
He told the media at a Reform UK press conference that his party was now “well ahead” of the Conservatives in “the northeast, in the northwest, in Yorkshire and the Humber, in the east Midlands, in the West Midlands, and in parts of [the] eastern region.”
He said that last night in the ITV debate Penny Mordaunt did not have a good night, and was “pumping out the same line, that if you vote for Reform you will get Labour.”
But, he continued, the “inflection point” of Reform passing the Tories in polling meant that “actually, if you vote Conservative in the ‘red wall’, you will almost certainly get Labour. A Conservative vote in the ‘red wall’ is now a wasted vote. We are the challenges to Labour. We are now the real opposition.”
Farage demands place in head-to-head leaders debate and one-to-one debate with Starmer
Nigel Farage has demanded a place in the BBC leaders’ television debate and a one-to-one debate with Labour leader Keir Starmer, who he said would be the next prime minister.
Self-styling himself the “leader of the opposition”, Farage claimed that Ofcom rules show that “everything about our politics is designed to stop new boys and girls coming in and to keep everything the same.”
The proportion of coverage is based on performance in the previous two elections, he says, in which Reform did not stand. He said:
The BBC will be having a leaders debate a four-way leaders debate with the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, Labour and the SNP and that takes place next week. But I think we can demand right now that the BBC put us into that debate.
He then said he wanted a one-to-one debate with Keir Starmer, so that he could ask the Labour leader why immigration wasn’t in his first six steps for government.
Having said that Reform did not stand in the previous couple of elections, Farage predicts the party will get six million votes, based on the level of votes Ukip got in 2015. He repeated that “the election is over” and that Labour will win.
Nigel Farage also aired a grievance about the way polling is conducted, claiming “some of the polling industry were acting entirely dishonestly” and has said that “I’m pleased to say, as a result of my letter to the chair of the British Polling Council, they have been told now they really ought to be prompting for Reform.”
Richard Tice claims that Reform UK has “leap-frogged” the Conservatives in polling.
He claims “we’re upsetting all the right people” and that “it’s just indicative of the enthusiasm for something else apart from the boring status quo of the main two parties.”
He said: “They both stand for higher taxes. They’re sort of competing in these debates who is going to raise taxes more than the other?”
I did not have it on my list of things earlier, apologies, but Nigel Farage and Richard Tice are giving a Reform UK press conference in London shortly. They appear to have seized upon the one YouGov poll from last night which put them ahead of the Conservatives by a point, within the margin for error. The press conference is on the theme “Reform UK is now the real opposition”, and you can watch it here …
A few minutes ago we also published this lengthy read from Simon Evans, Mikaela Loach, James Murray and Rebecca Newsom looking at the environmental policies in the party manifestos published so far …
Libby Brooks, our Scotland correspondent, has been speaking to that stalwart of the election landscape, Prof Sir John Curtice:
Ask Prof Sir John Curtice, Britain’s most trusted elections guru, about his plans for polling day on 4 July, and the answer is visceral. “From about 11 o’clock in the morning, we’re poring over an exit poll and from about 12 hours later, we’re shitting bricks as to whether it’s right or not,” he said.
Since 2005, the model of exit poll Curtice created with “a very clever statistician called David Firth” has proved impressively accurate, and in the past five general elections the margin of error has ranged between 1.5 and 7.5 seats.
It sees voters in about 130 polling stations given a mock ballot paper. But the fieldwork on this election day will bring Curtice into “uncharted psephological waters”, he says with evident delight.
“The scale of the Conservative losses are unprecedented if the polls are at all right, so we will spend a lot of the day really worrying about how big is the number we should be putting up [for Labour], or in the case of the Tories, how small,” he adds.
But when asked if all these landslide predictions have any impact on voter behaviour, he says: “Other things being equal, it helps to reduce the turnout.
Rishi Sunak is also on mainland Europe today, in Italy at the G7 summit, where he has held a bilateral meeting with newly re-elected prime minister of India, Narendra Modi.
Rishi Sunak and Narendra Modi. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/AP
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “They discussed their mutual commitment to the security and prosperity of both countries, and saluted the strength of their relationship.”
PA Media reports Sunak said to Modi “Always a pleasure to see you. Lots for us to discuss. Congratulations on the election and it was good to talk to you the next day.”
Sunak and Modi seemed to enjoy a warmer embrace than the awkward exchange the UK’s prime minister had with Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni yesterday.
Sunak and Modi greet each other in Italy. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/AP
India is not a member of the G7, but for the second day of the summit Italy has expanded the invite list to include Modi and the pope among others.
Council staff across Scotland have rejected a new pay offer, with a vote now set to open on potential strike action, Unison Scotland has said.
PA Media reports Colette Hunter, chair of the local government committee at the union, said: “This result must be a wake-up call for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities [Cosla] that council workers need to be rewarded fairly for the essential services they provide.
“Staff have experienced years of cuts to their pay levels and a reversal has to begin. The last thing anyone wants to do is go on strike, but local government workers deserve a fair increase to stop their pay lagging further behind inflation, and the wage increases being given in other sectors of the economy.
“Workers have seen the value of their pay fall over the past 10 years, often while being asked to do even more.
Streeting dismisses poll talk of large majority, saying 'nothing inevitable' about Labour winning
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has said there is “nothing inevitable” about Labour winning the 4 July general election and forming the next government.
Asked about the prospect of a large Labour majority in Westminster, with polling showing the party holding a commanding lead over the Tories, Streeting said “I don’t believe the opinion polls for a moment.”
He said “I’ve been knocking on doors right across the country in seats that Labour needs to win in order to win the next general election, and there are millions of undecided voters out there.”
“There is nothing inevitable about a Labour government after the next general election. We have to earn people’s trust. We know that. We’re not remotely complacent. We are fighting hard for every vote in every seat that we need to win in order to form the next government.”
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