Election latest: Ex-Reform leader has made 'painful' discovery about Farage, says minister - as PM shifts focus to immigration (2024)

Our political correspondent Mhari Aurorais hearing Rishi Sunak could soon suffer yet more defections.

Rather than to Labour, where three Tories have moved to recently - Mark Logan, Natalie Elphicke, and Dan Poulter - Mhari's hearing some may be heading for Reform UK.

It comes after a double dose of bad news for the Tories on an "absolutely fascinating" night for the election campaign, which saw Nigel Farage announce he was taking over as Reform leader and standing for parliament himself for an eighth time.

He'll be going for the seat of Clacton.

Less than an hour later, a "bombshell poll" projected a huge majority for Labour, even bigger than Tony Blair's 1997 landslide.

Mhari says Farage's return and the poll "has really shaken some Tories", adding: "I've been speaking to some Tories this morning who have been telling me they're expecting some potential defections to Reform after that.

"It will be interesting how this starts to play out - how much the Tory party can keep things together, or if things start to fall apart."

By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter

The Welsh government has put plans to cut the summer holidays on hold.

Under the proposals, the summer holiday would be reduced by one week, with an extra week added for October half term.

But Wales's education secretary Lynne Neagle has announced no decision will be made before the next Senedd election in 2026.

That means that any future changes to the school year are unlikely to be introduced before 2028.

It is the second time in a month that Welsh government policy has been shelved, after plans for a new farm subsidy scheme were put on hold following protests among farmers.

You can read more from Sky News below:

Until voters go to the polls on 4 July, the Politics Hub will be looking back at some memorable moments from previous general election campaigns.

Ahead of tonight's debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, a reminder of the potential pitfalls for politicians on TV.

Labour had been tipped to return to power at the 2015 election, but some bruising TV appearances for then leader Ed Miliband likely didn't help the party's chances by the end of the campaign.

One such memorable telly stint saw him grilled on Sky News by famed political interrogator Jeremy Paxman about whether he was "tough enough" for the job of prime minister.

Leaning forward, Mr Miliband shared an anecdote about the UK government's desire to intervene in Syria that year, in line with the US under then president Barack Obama.

He told Paxman how he was "called into a room" to speak to the prime minister, David Cameron, and his deputy, Nick Clegg, fresh off the phone with Mr Obama, and ultimately decided to vote against taking action.

"Standing up to the leader of the free world shows a certain toughness," said Mr Miliband.

Defending his record on foreign policy, he concluded his point with the immortal words: "Am I tough enuss... tough enough?

"Hell yes, I'm tough enough."

Previous entry: Flakes between friends

Sir Keir Starmer could be heading to Downing Street with a majority of 194 seats, bigger than what Tony Blair achieved in 1997, according to the first polling projection by YouGov of the campaign.

The projection shows a historic Labour landslide, with the party getting the highest number of seats of any party at an election in history.

At the same time, the Tories are trying to boost ratings by talking about culture wars while Labour is talking about real wars in terms of what they would do for defence. And Nigel Farage has announced he's standing for Reform UK.

On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson talks to Sky's chief political correspondent Jon Craig about the poll and today's developments, and to Scarlett Maguire, director of the polling organisation JL Partners.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has insisted he will "not be distracted" by thoughts of an election deal after a YouGov poll forecast they could win 48 seats.

He was asked whether his party is leaning towards striking a deal with Labour or the Conservatives.

Sir Ed says: "I'm not going to be distracted by that. What I'm focusing on is defeating Conservative MPs and SNP MPs in Scotland.

"Actually, we can beat a Labour MP in Sheffield Hallam.

"And if we get lots of Liberal Democrat MPs elected, not only will that transform the political debate in parliament, I think it will show that there is a fair deal on offer for people."

Pat McFadden, Labour's national campaign co-ordinator, is asked if he is confident Diane Abbott will be selected as a Labour candidate today.

It comes after a back-and-forth over whether she would be barred from doing so, despite having the Labour whip restored.

From 12pm, the party's candidates will be confirmed across the country.

"Yes, I am," Mr McFadden says.

"I support every Labour candidate."

Pressed, he says: "I don't have favourites, I support them all."

Pat McFadden, Labour's national campaign co-ordinator, has insisted that a YouGov poll which forecasts a landslide win for his party "makes no difference to us".

The projection gave Labour a majority of 194 seats in the 4 July poll.

But Mr McFadden says he "ignores" these projections, and he tells Labour staff - and candidates - to do the same.

"No votes have been cast, we are the challengers in this election, we are not the incumbents," he adds.

"The incumbents are the Conservatives, and the last thing I would want is for anybody to believe that the result has somehow been decided.

"The result hasn't been decided - we still have a month to go in this election campaign."

Asked about potential deals, Mr McFadden says: "We want a majority."

We've got three key dates for your diary from the Electoral Commission should you need to register to vote in the general election.

18 June: This is the deadline to register, which you can do online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

19 June: This is the deadline to apply for a postal vote, should you not be around when polling stations open on 4 July.

26 June: This is the deadline to apply for a proxy vote, which allows someone to vote on your behalf, and also to apply for a Voter ID certificate should you not have another valid form of identification.

This is the first general election where ID is needed to vote - find out more about registration here:

With the general election campaign officially under way, what better time to keep a close eye on the latest polling?

The Sky News live poll tracker - collated and updated by our data and forensics team - aggregates various surveys to indicate how voters feel about the different political parties.

See the latest update below - and you can read more about the methodology behind the trackerhere.

Back to our conversation with Home Secretary James Cleverly, who was asked about Nigel Farage's U-turn over running to become an MP in Essex.

Mr Farage is now the leader of Reform UK, and a candidate for the party.

But Mr Cleverly tells Sky News that Reform is simply a "vehicle" for Mr Farage's "self-promotion".

"I think Richard Tice is now discovering that rather painfully."

Mr Tice was, until yesterday, the leader of the party.

"Keir Starmer would love people to vote Reform because he knows that a vote for Reform basically opens the door to a Labour government," Mr Cleverly says.

Turning to immigration, the home secretary claims that shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper's "big reveal" over migration "already exists".

Labour has pledged to launch a new Border Security Command, but Mr Cleverly says this is the same as the "Small Boats Operational Command".

He adds this is "really embarrassing for the shadow home secretary".