General election latest: Abbott tells rally she won't be 'intimidated' - as minister defends Truss over far-right podcast (2024)

We're still very much in the early days of the election campaign - but policy announcements are coming in thick and fast from the main two parties.

Here's a breakdown of what we've heard so far...

The Conservative Party

National service - The Conservatives have vowed to bring back a "modern" form of national service for 18-year-olds in the UK, which could involve military service of volunteer work.

'Triple lock plus' -The party has promised to cut taxes for pensioners by creating a new "age-related" tax-free allowance - dubbed "triple lock plus". In short, a pensioner's allowance would rise in line with either average earnings, inflation or by 2.5% - whichever is higher - from next April.

Education - The Tories have promised to create a new qualification framework called the Advanced British Standard for those aged 16 to 18. The party also proposed making "some form" of maths and English compulsory up to the end of school.

Environment - Rishi Sunak has said he remains committed to plans to reach net zero by 2050, a goal adopted under Theresa May in 2019.

Apprenticeships - The prime minister wants to replace "rip-off" university degrees with 100,000 new apprentices a year, which he thinks will leave young people better off and with greater opportunities.

The Labour Party

Taxation - Labour has pledged not reverse the two recent cuts to national insurance - and not to increase income tax.

Economy - Two flagship economic pledges from Labour are the abolition of the non-dom tax status held by some wealthy foreign nationals, and the introduction of VAT to private school fees.

Waiting lists - The party has said it will get the NHS "back on its feet" by delivering 40,000 more evening and weekend appointments per week, helped by "crack teams" to help staff clinics at those times.

Environment - A major policy pushed by Labour is the formation of Great British Energy, which would be publicly owned. The party claims this would reduce household energy bills and create jobs.

Education - Also a headline policy from Labour is a plan to recruit around 6,500 new teachers in key subjects - and create a "national excellence programme" to support professional development.

Earlier today, Darren Jones, Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, accused the Tories of launching a "severe" threat to family finances with their campaign pledges so far.

He claimed that the policy proposals - such as national service and a "triple-lock plus" for pensioners - could cost as much as £350 a month to mortgage holders.

Responding to this, a Conservative Party spokesman claimed "their own promises would come to a staggering £196.4bn of unfunded annual borrowing" under the same analysis.

The Tories claim this is "whacking Brits with a 6.9% interest-rate rise".

The spokesman said: "Really this is pathetic, desperate stuff from the Labour Party as they scramble to distract from the fact it has been proven Keir Starmer lied on multiple occasions about the Diane Abbott investigation.

"Now the Labour leader is embroiled in a ‘he said, she said’ with the veteran Labour MP, sending their limp campaign into even more of a tailspin.

"Instead of sticking out shoddy documents with made-up figures, Keir Starmer needs to explain why he repeatedly lied about the status of the Diane Abbott investigation, and when he plans to apologise to the British people."

This week, Beth gets Ruth and Jess'stake on what'shappening now that Diane Abbott has had the Labour whip restored. The WhatsAppsfrom Beth’s sources keep coming as they'rerecording.

They discuss the strategies behind the Sunak and Starmer campaigns– with one going for headline-grabbing pledges and the other spending the first week focusing on the personal rather than policy.

There's news from Jess on her plans for the campaign – and she met a dog named after Ted Heath when she was out door-knocking, so that takes us in only one direction.

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Email Beth, Jess, and Ruth at electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.

The Democratic Unionist Party has just launched its general election campaign, and with it ratified Gavin Robinson as the new leader.

This comes afters meeting of the party's ruling executive on Wednesday.

Mr Robinson has been serving as interim leader since early April, when Jeffrey Donaldson resigned from the DUP and was suspended from the party after being charged with historical sexual offences.

"It is with honour, humility and commitment that I look forward to leading our party into the future," the new leader said.

On 12 June, Sky News will be hosting an election leaders event in Grimsby - a key marginal seat and one of our Target Towns this election year.

The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the Conservative leader Rishi Sunak have been invited to attend, and we are looking for a live audience to join us on the night.

If you would like to be part of this studio audience, and be given the opportunity to ask a question to one of the party leaders, please complete the short questionnaire inthis link.

Sir Keir has agreed to take part, with talks ongoing with Mr Sunak's team.

A spokesperson for the Conservatives said: "Rishi Sunak would be delighted to travel Grimsby to take part in Sky News leaders' event and answer questions from voters, on the condition that he and Keir Starmer take those questions on stage together.

"This will give viewers the best opportunity to see the clear choice the country faces at this election."

Peter Craig, a journalist who has worked in Grimsby for 40 years, said this year's general election is "undiscovered territory" for the constituency.

The constituency of Grimsby and Cleethorpes is historically Labour, but switched to Conservative at the 2019 general election.

He says: "This is undiscovered territory, it's like shifting sands every day.

"We've got two of the main candidates announced, but we've also got a Conservative defection - a young Conservative councillor who has gone to be a Reform UK candidate for Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

"So you can't keep your eye off it for a minute."

That's it for tonight'sPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridge- the show will be back at the same time tomorrow.

Sophy Ridgeis presenting her show tonight from Grimsby, a key target town for Labour and the Tories.

She spent some of the day meeting voters to get their take on the election campaign so far - and asked them what they'd ask Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer if given the chance...

Sophy Ridge's conversation with shadow social care ministerAndrew Gwynne now turns to the NHS - and plans to bolster appointments and cut waiting lists.

"We know that we are going to inherit an NHS that is struggling with a huge backlog of over seven million people on the waiting list," he says.

"If this backlog can't be curtailed, the kind of growth that we are seeing under the Conservatives… the list will just continue to grow and grow.

"This is a real concern."

Turning to Labour's policy to curtail this, Mr Gwynne says the party will send in "crack teams" to "work at cutting NHS waiting lists from day one of a Labour government".

This includes introducing 40,000 extra appointments a week.

He says this will be funded by "clamping down on tax dodgers".

Sophy questions this, saying such a pledge is becoming "meaningless" given it only seems to come up during election campaigns.

But Mr Gwynne insists this NHS plan has been costed for "some time".

Up next on the show is shadow social care ministerAndrew Gwynneof Labour.

He's asked by Sophy what the latest on Diane Abbott is, given the degree of confusion surrounding the current state of play.

"She is a Labour member of parliament for as long as this parliament has left, which is a few hours, before it's dissolved [tomorrow]," he says.

He then says there is still a process that needs to take place before she is allowed to stand for re-election in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

"Firstly, you have to confirm to the party that you intend to be a candidate at the next election, and then you have to be approved by the National Executive Committee - and we all have to go through that process."

He says that decision is not up to him, but adds he "believes she has a future" in the party.

'No decision has been taken'

"She has been that trailblazer for black and minority communities," he says.

"She's apologised for the hurt she caused by some careless comments that she made, [but] she is now a member of the parliamentary Labour Party again, but does have to go through the same process that every other Labour MP seeking re-election has to go through."

"Keir Starmer has made it very clear today no decision has been taken in respect of Diane Abbott," he concludes.

Sir Mark Spencer, the food, farming and fisheries minister, now discusses his thoughts on apprenticeships.

This comes after we reported that the Conservatives will promise to replace "rip-off degrees" with 100,000 apprenticeships each year by the end of the next parliament if they win the general election.

Rishi Sunak said the Conservatives will replace "under-performing" university courses with "high quality apprenticeships", which he said would leave them financially better off and provide better opportunities.

"This is about actually giving young people opportunity, both in their education, to make sure they go on to great careers," Sir Mark says.

"I think the apprenticeship route actually is the best route for many of those young people.

He explains that some will of course want to go to university - giving examples of wannabe lawyers and doctors - but other career paths may be better served by apprenticeship schemes.