Starmer: ‘no decision’ taken to bar ‘trailblazer’ Diane Abbott
Labour leader Keir Starmer has again told broadcasters that no decision has been taken over the selection of Diane Abbott as a candidate, and denied that left-wing candidates were being blocked by the party.
Denying claims that a purge was taking place, Starmer said “No. I’ve said repeatedly over the last two years as we’ve selected our candidates that I want the highest-quality candidates. That’s been the position for a very long time.”
Speaking to broadcasters in Monmouthshire, PA Media report he said:
The situation in relation to Diane Abbott is that no decision has been taken to bar her and you have to remember that she was a trailblazer as an MP, she overcame incredible challenges to achieve what she achieved in her political career.
She carved out a path for others to come into politics and she did all that while also being one of the most abused MPs across all political parties.
But I’ve always had the aspiration that we will have the best quality candidates as we go into this election.
Key events
Keir Starmer has said it was “absolutely clear” that Vaughan Gething had broken no rules in accepting a £200,000 donation from a company owned by a convicted criminal.
PA Media report he told GB News:
I think it’s absolutely clear that no rules were broken and Vaughan Gething has answered all the questions that are put to him. The argument that I’m putting forward this morning is what a gamechanger it would be if we were able to elect in a Westminster Labour government that would work with the Welsh Labour government delivering for people across Wales, because up until now there’s been conflict.
So I’ve been working with Vaughan as leader of the opposition, I want to be able to work with him as prime minister because that will absolutely turbo-boost the work that we can do delivering for Wales.
Gething faces a vote of confidence in the Senedd next week tabled by the Welsh Conservative party.
By the way, I’ve seen a few people asking when manifestos come out. I went and looked at how far ahead of the 12 December polling day parties published their manifestos last time out in 2019. Here are the dates of the launches:
The Reform party, who currently sit third in our poll tracking aggregator, are holding an event in London at noon to unveil their immigration policy. I will keep an eye on that and bring you any key lines. Richard Tice is speaking.
Starmer: ‘no decision’ taken to bar ‘trailblazer’ Diane Abbott
Labour leader Keir Starmer has again told broadcasters that no decision has been taken over the selection of Diane Abbott as a candidate, and denied that left-wing candidates were being blocked by the party.
Denying claims that a purge was taking place, Starmer said “No. I’ve said repeatedly over the last two years as we’ve selected our candidates that I want the highest-quality candidates. That’s been the position for a very long time.”
Speaking to broadcasters in Monmouthshire, PA Media report he said:
The situation in relation to Diane Abbott is that no decision has been taken to bar her and you have to remember that she was a trailblazer as an MP, she overcame incredible challenges to achieve what she achieved in her political career.
She carved out a path for others to come into politics and she did all that while also being one of the most abused MPs across all political parties.
But I’ve always had the aspiration that we will have the best quality candidates as we go into this election.
Keir Starmer’s speech in Wales today, coupled with what he has said over the last couple of days, appear to have set out a stall that Labour isn’t going to do much in the way of announcing new policies beyond their already published six first steps in government.
Yesterday Rishi Sunak appeared to be attempting to open up a new attack line against Labour, saying that they had not announced any new ideas since the election was called, and contrasting that with what the prime minister described as the Conservative “bold ideas” on national service, the triple lock plus, and 100,000 new apprenticeships.
It seemed obvious in his speech today that Starmer has decided he isn’t going to be goaded into an arms race of new policy announcements, describing the Tory campaign as “rummaging around in the toy box of bad ideas, and putting one on the table every day, unfunded and uncosted”
As a reminder, Labour’s six steps are:
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Deliver economic stability with tough spending rules
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Cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more evening and weekend appointments each week
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Launch a new border security command
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Set up Great British energy
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Crack down on antisocial behaviour, with more neighbourhood police
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Recruit 6,500 new teachers in key subjects
Sky News have been trying to make a bit of a gotcha moment out of chancellor Jeremy Hunt appearing not to know how much dog food costs. “There are lots of different tins of dog food,” he said in reply to the question earlier this. While it doesn’t seem that important in the whole scheme of things, it does provide an excuse to publish a picture of his dog Poppy.
Green co-leader Denyer: ‘We’ve made no secret about it. We are looking to win at least four MPs’
The co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Carla Denyer, has said the party has made no secret of the fact that it intends to win at least four MPs in the July election.
She said:
The polls are showing that we will soon be shot of this awful Conservative government. But the incremental change Labour has put on the table just isn’t going to cut it to get this country back on track. We need more Green MPs to drive that real change for us.
Co-leader Adrian Ramsay also said the country needs more than just “a few tweaks” from the next government. He said that the election being called had lifted the mood, telling activists at a launch event in Bristol:
Until a couple of weeks ago, when I spoke to people on the doorstep, things felt bleak. Housing. Climates. Health care. Public services. All in a mess, all in crisis, no solutions in sight.
After so much damage by the outgoing Conservative government, we need more than a few tweaks from a new Labour government. Green MPs will push the next government for bold action to achieve the real changes that are needed to confront the big challenges that our country faces. And people know that.
Denyer has said that if she is elected, she will “keep the pressure on Labour over fair treatment for renters, and for warm, secure, affordable homes for everybody.”
She said:
We will push for the right homes to be built, at the right price, in the right place, in consultation with the communities that need them. Somewhere for families to grow up with all the infrastructure they need to thrive.
She listed the party’s priorities as “Our NHS. Housing. Climate and nature. Public services and the quality of our water.”
The four constituencies that the Greens have as their targets are:
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Brighton Pavilion – Siân Berry
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Bristol Central – Carla Denyer
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North Herefordshire – Ellie Chowns
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Waveney Valley – Adrian Ramsay
Caroline Lucas has said that “Conservatives are being shown the door by the voters and we think that’s good news. Even better news will be the when a Labour government is formed and that government was pushed to be bolder and braver on everything from housing to the NHS to the accelerating climate crisis. And that was happening by having more Green MPs in parliament.”
Co-leader Carla Denyer has started by saying “It’s on, and we’re ready.”
Keir Starmer has finished speaking in Wales. The Green party of England and Wales are about to launch their campaign in Bristol with launch in Bristol with co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay. Caroline Lucas is getting it under way. I will bring you any key lines that emerge …
Keir Starmer is now going through his promises of a first six steps if Labour get into government. He also addressed again in this speech the way he says he has changed the party, in a passage that also referenced his previous work before entering politics. He told an audience in Wales:
When I was heading up the Crown Prosecution Service, we had to change it. It was difficult. Many people said don’t do it, slow down. But we changed.
When I worked in Northern Ireland, it was difficult work. We were trying to change the police service so it served all communities. It was difficult, painstaking work. But we did it.
And here in the Labour party we’ve had to change our party and put it back in the service of working people. It wasn’t easy. Lots of people said don’t do it that way. Don’t go so fast. We did it. We’ll never shy away from that. Because driving through all this for me has always been country first, party second.
Labour’s treatment of Abbott is a disgrace, says Corbyn
Sammy Gecsoyler
Jeremy Corbyn has called Diane Abbott’s treatment by the Labour party a “disgrace” and said the way this saga has been handled shows “blatant double-standards, hypocrisy and contempt for local democracy”.
In a statement, the former Labour leader who is standing as an independent in Islington North, said
The way that Diane Abbott has been treated is an utter disgrace – and I am disgusted by the blatant double-standards, hypocrisy and contempt for local democracy, in plain sight for all to see. Take a look at her social media and you will see the horrific levels of racist abuse she is forced to endure, and she has been hung out to dry.
I remember the day she was elected as the first Black female MP, and I have been proud to campaign alongside her for social justice and human rights ever since. And you know what? If parliament had listened to Diane Abbott, we wouldn’t have invaded Iraq, Black Britons wouldn’t have been deported in the Windrush Scandal, and our country wouldn’t have been decimated by austerity and privatisation.
In blocking Diane from standing, they are trying to silence a female Black voice who has the courage to stand up for a better world. Whatever Diane chooses to do, I’ll support her.
Keir Starmer has said that Rishi Sunak managed to catch himself in his own ambush by calling a general election that he thought would be a trap for Labour but is, he says, a huge opportunity for the country.
“You don’t have to put up with it any more,” he told an audience of activists in Wales.
“We are humbly asking permission for the opportunity to change our country, and put it back in the service of working people,” he said.
He said:
Now is the time of change, change and hope for a better future with that sense of national renewal. Taking our communities, our countries forward for the future. And so I say to you, if you’re a family that’s been struggling with the cost of living for a long time now, and I mean struggling. If you’re a business that’s been absolutely up against it these past few years. If you’ve been serving your country, or serving your communities, then this election is for you.
I don’t know about you, but I think we’ve all had enough 14 years of chaos and division, chaos of division, feeding chaos and division. And it feels like we’re spinning round and round in circles and getting absolutely nowhere and there’s a cost to that.
He described the Conservative campaign so far as “rummaging around in the toy box of bad ideas, and putting one on the table every day, unfunded and uncosted.”
Keir Starmer has come on stage after a former lifelong Conservative voter called Michael who explained why they would be voting Labour this time around – citing partygate among other things, and saying of the government “It was so clear. They don’t support people like me, like us, and we’re still suffering. So it’s time to change.”
Starmer opened by saying:
It’s a big thing to come up here and say what you just said. It is a big decision to change the party that vote for. As a lifelong Tory voter, that is a really big thing. For me it vindicates all the hard work of the last four-and-a-half years. I was determined to change this Labour party and put it back in the service of working people. And your words are so important to all of our candidates, to all of our staff, to the whole Labour movement.
It is unclear how deliberate the timing is, and how much planning Starmer had in the event being held by the Welsh Labour party and the order of speakers, but the optics of him opening a speech by praising attracting former Conservative voters on the day the party is being accused of purging left-wing candidates is unlikely to go unnoticed.
Keir Starmer is about to speak in Wales, as a reminder you can watch that here:
Rather frustratingly if, like me, you are trying to cover both events, Labour’s Wales campaign launch appears to be over-running, and is now overlapping with the Plaid Cymru launch. There is also a Green party event expected at 11am. There will be a live stream from Plaid here …
Gwyliwch lawnsiad ymgyrch Plaid Cymru i Etholiad Cyffredinol 2024 yn fyw.
Dros degwch, dros uchelgais, dros Gymru. 🏴https://t.co/kWGoze0TGG
— Plaid Cymru 🏴 (@Plaid_Cymru) May 30, 2024
Faiza Shaheen, who has been told by Labour that she will not be standing for election in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency that she has been campaigning in for some considerable time, has thanked Diane Abbott for her support on social media, describing Abbott as “my hero”.
In a message quoting Abbott’s comment “Whose clever idea has it been to have a cull of left wingers?”, Shaheen said “Thank you so much for your support, you’re my hero”.
In 2019, Shaheen reduced Iain Duncan-Smith’s Conservative majority in the constituency to 1,262.
Lammy: government’s Rwanda plan is nothing but a ‘shameless gimmick’
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has described the government’s “failed illegal migration bill” as “nothing more than a shameless gimmick”.
Speaking in Wales as first minister Vaughan Gething and Labour leader Keir Starmer launched Labour’s general election campaign there, Lammy said:
Today, the world’s challenges are Britain’s challenges and Britain’s challenges are indeed the world’s. Organised crime gangs exploit the vulnerable not just in Wales, but right across Britain, and of course across the continent, creating modern slaves running drug gangs and tricking people onto dangerous small boats that arrive on Britain’s shores.
The numbers of people crossing the Channel in small boats has surged under the Tories, while tens of thousands remain in asylum hotels permanently in limbo, with no prospect of removal due to the government’s failed illegal migration bill.
And this not only causes disorder across our country, but as shadow foreign secretary, I’ve seen it from the other side. It takes more than £3bn off of our overseas aid budget, which would stop them coming in the first place.
The Rwanda scheme the government has put forward is nothing more than a shameless gimmick.
Labour will stop the chaos … we will reform our system and clear the asylum backlog, allowing more overseas development aid to be spent overseas.
First minister of Wales Vaughan Gething has begun launching the Labour general election campaign in Wales. He has said:
This is the moment that we have been waiting for. A moment when the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme. 4 July represents a moment at last where we can unleash Wales’s full potential. The UK can once again be led by prime minister and a party that believes in public service. A leader who believes in the potential of our communities who respects and understands devolution and as a plan to breathe fresh life into our politics.
He says Wales will no longer be held back by “14 years of Tory economic vandalism chaos that has pushed Welsh families to the edge.”
He has been highly critical of the Conservative government in Westminster, saying Rishi Sunak wouldn’t even pick up the phone to his predecessor Mark Drakeford “to help save thousands of steelworkers jobs in Port Talbot.
Gething said:
At every turn over these last 14 years the Tories have tried to block Welsh Labour from delivering transformational change for our country. They slashed our budget, blocked our legislation, and day after day after day they put politics above people. Treating politics as a game. Not a route to opportunity, hope and security.
He boasted of Labour’s record in government in Wales, saying:
Despite 14 years of swimming against the Tory tide, let me give you just six changes that we have made to make Wales a stronger, fairer and greener country. We have protected free prescriptions, repealed anti-trade union legislation, rolled out universal free school meals in our primary schools, introduced a young person’s guarantee with jobs, education, training, or apprenticeships. We’re leading the world on recycling and the climate agenda. And we have led the UK by passing domestic violence legislation.
He says “It is time for two Labour governments, working together for your future. delivering on our nation’s promise. It is time for young people to feel hopeful for a brighter future, right here at home.”
