Starmer says Abbott not barred from standing for Labour in general election – UK politics live | Politics

Wes Streeting has again used his line about “handing the matches back to the arsonist” in his opening talk. It is a very lighthearted introduction from Streeting, with jokes aimed at enthusing campaigners in the room, and saying Rishi Sunak’s big plan was “a teenage Dad’s Army while seven-and-a-half million people are waiting on NHS waiting lists.”

Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are about to give another campaign speech on Labour’s NHS plans. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.

Rajeev Syal and Diane Taylor report for the Guardian:

The Home Office has made “unacceptable and avoidable mistakes” in its haste to use disused barracks and a giant barge to house asylum seekers, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded.

The public accounts committee said the department “does not have a credible plan” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and has little to show for hundreds of millions of pounds spent so far on the policy or its accommodation plans.

In a report released on Wednesday, MPs said the Home Office claimed that its need to deal with a “national emergency” meant it had to take quick decisions, and so “it pressed ahead with setting up expensive large asylum accommodation sites without an adequate understanding of what would be required”.

Read more here: Home Office made mistakes in rush to set up asylum housing, MPs say

Kiran Stacey, Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot here with a news wrap of this morning’s developments with the Labour party’s handling of Diane Abbott:

Keir Starmer has denied that Diane Abbott has been banned from standing as a Labour MP at the next election, as the saga over the potential end to her 40-year career in the party risked descending into chaos.

The Labour leader’s comments directly contradicted newspaper briefings that the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, who was suspended from the party in April 2023 for comments she made about racism, was being barred from standing again.

Abbott, the first black woman to be elected to the British parliament, then issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying she had been handed back the Labour whip after a months-long investigation into her conduct, but would not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate.

The decision by Labour, and in particular the way it was leaked, seemingly to prevent Abbott from having the choice of stepping down on her own terms, prompted a significant backlash, with the Runnymede Trust charity, which campaigns for racial justice, calling her treatment “abhorrent”.

However, when Starmer was asked about Abbott during a visit to a medical training college on Wednesday, he said it was “not true” she had been barred.

“No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott,” he said. “The process that we were going through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day, so she’s a member of the parliamentary Labour party and no decision has been taken barring her.”

Asked who the candidate in Hackney South and Stoke Newington would be, Starmer said that had not yet been decided. “Diane is a member of the parliamentary Labour party. No decision has been taken barring her.

“It’s ultimately a decision for the national executive committee on all candidates. There will be a decision in due course, but they haven’t taken that decision, though. Stories this morning were wrong, factually inaccurate. She has not been banned or barred from standing.”

Read more here: Starmer denies Diane Abbott barred from standing for Labour at election

SNP leader John Swinney has said his party is making “strenuous representations” to try to secure a spot in televised general election debates.

PA reports the first minister said it is “ridiculous” the SNP has been excluded from the first televised clash between party leaders.

ITV has announced that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will have a head-to-head TV debate on Tuesday 4 June at 9pm.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has also expressed frustration about being included. He told PA “I think voters want a better choice and I don’t think they’re impressed by the choice of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. They want to hear other voices. I would urge the large media companies to extend that invitation.”

Incidentally the timing of the debate clashes with when ITV1 was due to be showing England’s women football team in what could be a vital European Championship qualifying match against France, which presumably will now be bumped off to a different ITV channel.

Ed Davey is heading from Wales down to the south-west of England later today, and speaking to Sky News earlier, the Liberal Democrat leader was asked about the party’s prospects there. He told viewers:

I think everyone knows that we’re back in our traditional homeland of the West Country. People can remember Liberal Democrat MPs in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and further afield, and we’re finding on the doorstep that they’re coming back to us. They really want to get rid of the Conservatives. They’re fed up. They feel betrayed, let down, or taken for granted by the Conservatives.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has also made that his base for today’s campaigning, and it was pointed out to him that he was visiting seats the Conservatives hold. “Are you worried you might lose them at the election?” he was asked. Sunak said:

I don’t take a single vote for granted. That’s why I’m travelling to every part of our country. I’ve been in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, today in Cornwall and Devon. I’m talking to people about the choice at this election.

We live in uncertain times, and it is only the Conservatives that have a plan to take bold action, like introducing a modern form of national service, like introducing the new triple lock plus to provide a tax cut for pensioners, like today’s announcement of closing under-performing university degrees and using that money to fund high quality apprenticeships. Those are all bold actions that are going to deliver a secure future for everyone in our country.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey appears to have adopted a policy that providing entertaining photo opportunities is the best way to drive up the level of coverage that his party gets during the election campaign. After yesterday’s paddleboard antics, today it is a bike in Wales.

When he wasn’t on two wheels, Davey told supporters that “Families across Wales are working hard, they are looking after their families, loved ones, they’re playing by the rules. But they’re finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet.”

The Liberal Democrats were announcing a package of policies aimed at farmers, promising £1bn in extra funding for the agriculture budget, and pledging to re-negotiate overseas trade deals and address worker shortages blighting the sector if it wins the general election.

Without appearing to mention Brexit by name, Davey told PA “The Conservative government have failed farmers and failed the whole country to be honest, with their shockingly bad trade deals. They have actually made it more difficult to export, more difficult to import, the Tories are now the champions of red tape.”

Keir Starmer has backed first minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, who faces a confidence motion in the Senedd next week. Starmer told reporters “He is doing a good job, he was elected in and I’m looking forward to being with him in this campaign where we will campaign together for, what I hope will be, the next Labour government.”

Keir Starmer says the government has effectively kicked resolving the junior doctors pay dispute to the other side of the general election, and said Rishi Sunak “should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement”.

Speaking to broadcasters about the new strikes announced by the British Medical Association, Starmer said:

Firstly I’m shocked that we’re in this position because this has been going on a very long time.

I think the government should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement. And what they’ve effectively done is kicked it to the other side of the general election. That’s unforgivable.

Obviously, I don’t want the strike to go ahead. I don’t think health staff want to go on strike and it really impacts on patients. So I don’t want it to go ahead.

But if we are privileged enough to come in to serve, then it will fall to us to settle this and to come to an agreement so the NHS gets back to working in the way that it desperately needs to for so many people on the waiting lists.

Earlier today shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to meet the pay demand on “day one”, telling junior doctors “getting to fair pay is a journey not an event”. [See 11.26 BST]

Welsh Conservatives table motion of no confidence in first minister Vaughan Gething

Steven Morris

Starmer: Labour has not taken any decision to bar Diane Abbott from standing