General election latest: Andrea Leadsom joins Michael Gove as latest Tory MP to announce departure at general election (2024)

By Alexandra Rogers, political reporter

Conservative MP Caroline Nokes "jokingly" confronted Labour's Wes Streeting over allegations he is behind rumours she has considered defecting to Sir Keir Starmer's party.

A friend of Ms Nokes, who has been the Tory MP for Romsey and Southampton North since 2010, said she "took him to task" over the claims that have recently appeared in the media.

The source told Sky News: "Caroline took him to task for spreading these rumours.

"Caroline has only ever been in one party and is Tory to her core," they said.

Referring to Mr Streeting's past role as the president of the National Union of Students before he entered Westminster, the source added: "Wes needs to realise he's not running the student union anymore!"

Read more here:

After avoiding public scrutiny for nearly a decade, Paula Vennells, the former Post Office boss, finally faced questions about her role in the most widespread miscarriage of justice that Britain has ever seen.

She has been giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon Inquiry for the last three days – and today she was accused by lawyers of talking "rubbish" and being in "la la land".

Sky's Jonathan Samuels spoke to Sky's business correspondent Paul Kelso who's been at the Post Office Inquiry for us.

Plus, a record number of Conservative MPs have now said they are not standing in July's general election. Political correspondent Rob Powell talks to Jonathan about that and all the other latest news from the election campaigns.

👉Listen above then tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts👈

Jeremy Hunt has given his first interview since the election was called - and taxes are a key focus.

The chancellor hit out at the inheritance tax - long-hated by Conservatives and rumoured to be on the PM's list of things to scrap - but would not say if it was a priority.

"I hope it's something that over time a Conservative government would be able to look at," he told The Telegraph.

"I think it is profoundly anti-Conservative because it stops and disincentivises people from saving for their future," he said.

But his "first priority" will be reducing the taxes that "have the biggest impact on growth".

He promised that he would continue with his tax cutting if re-elected to government, saying: "We made a start, and we will go further."

He signalled that the Tories would want to end the effective 60% rate that applies on incomes between £100,000 and £125,140 because of a tapering of the tax-free personal allowance.

He told the paper: "Our priority will be taxes that boost growth. So that can be business taxes that boost investment.

"But it's also taxes on work, which is why our National Insurance cuts will fill about one in five vacancies across the economy.

"And it's [addressing] taxes that disincentivise saving, because if we want to have more investment in the economy, we need to be saving more."

He claimed that Labour "don't understand that the marginal rate of tax that you pay stops people working and so we've got lots of distortions in the tax system".

He also vowed not to introduce a wealth tax, saying the party does not "believe" in them.

Rachel Reeves has penned an op-ed in tomorrow's Daily Mail, pledging to "never play fast and loose with your money".

The shadow chancellor says people "value economic stability, secure borders and strong public services", which is what the Labour Party offers.

She argues that although that is not the expected message from Labour, both her party and the Conservatives have changed.

"Take the economy. Back in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher proclaimed that the Conservatives were the party of sound money.

"But three decades on from when she left office, it was the Conservatives who crashed the economy, put pensions in peril and sent the average monthly mortgage repayments up by £240 a month."

She argues that Rishi Sunak is not "being honest with you about his record in power", saying the current struggles are not "normal".

Ms Reeves also says that it is not the chancellor Jeremy Hunt who is responsible for the fall in inflation - but the Bank of England, and added: "No one is going to give a box of matches back to the arsonists whose burnt the house down."

She then says Labour has to earn the trust of voters, knowing how they will be different, and touts her CV, having previously been an economist at the Bank of England and in financial services.

"I know what it takes to run a successful economy," she declares. "I believe in sound money and public spending that is kept under control.

"I know how important it is that whoever is running the public finances has an iron grip on them because when they don't – as we witnessed under Liz Truss – it is families that are forced to pick up the bill."

However on taxes - she does not pledge to cut them, but says she does want to reduce them, but argues the only way to do that is to grow the economy to increase the overall tax take.

"I will lead the most pro-growth, pro-business Treasury in our history – with a laser focus on making working people better off," Ms Reeves promises.

Her closing pitch is: "At this election, stability is change. Stability that means your family's finances are protected.

"Stability that means we can get the investment we need to create jobs and build the infrastructure to rebuild our communities.

"And reform so we can make Britain a place businesses want to invest in again."

Sir Keir Starmer's tour of key battlegrounds kicked off in Scotland on Friday. His message was singular: change. And his target was singular, too: take out the SNP.

In four elections on the bounce, Labour has been nearly wiped out in Scotland by the SNP. In 2019, the party returned one MP to Westminster from Scotland. It now has two. The task in this election campaign is to turn that into dozens.

"This is an election about change, and Scotland's voice is vital. It needs to be a leading voice," he said in a slick campaign event with hundreds of people holding up "change" placards and cheering Sir Keir and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on.

"Send a message, send a message: that is the height of the SNP's ambition, to send a message of protest to Westminster. I don't want Scotland to send a message. I want Scotland to send a government. A Labour government."

Ask Labour strategists, and they say Scotland is vital to get Labour over the line to a majority because of how far behind Labour were in England back in 2019. They are operating a twin attack on two failing governments - the SNP one in Holyrood and the Conservative government in Westminster - to implore voters to switch back from the SNP to kick the Tories out.

Starmer told me in Glasgow that winning in Scotland was important numerically but also to him personally, because he wants to be a prime minister, should Labour win, that governs for the whole of the UK.

Read Beth's full analysis here...

On the final sitting day of this parliament before the general election, the Commons and the Lords worked to pass final pieces of legislation that were pending.

Here are some of the key measures:

Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill

This long-promised piece of legislation makes changes to the system that means that millions of homeowners in England have rights to their property only for a fixed period, and are required to pay fees and ground rents to a freeholder.

It bans most new leasehold houses,making it easier for leaseholders to buy out or extend their lease, and it also increases transparency around service charges.

But it was passed without the promised cap on ground rents.

Pet Abduction Bill

This bill means people who abduct dogs and cats will face up to five years in prison.

Victims and Prisoners Bill

This law has multiple elements - but crucially, it sets up the independent Infected Blood Compensation Authority to finally provide redress to victims of the scandal.

Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Bill

This legislation closes a loophole in the law to ensure working fathers who lose their partner in childbirth will be given the right to "day one" paternity leave.

British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Bill

This bill will create a new, easier route for Irish nationals who have lived in the UK for five years to register for British citizenship.

Order toLicensing Act 2003 (UEFA European Football Championship Licensing Hours)

This will extendlicensing hours to 1pm if England or Scotland reach the semi-final or the final of the Euros, to enable "people to get properly on the lash", according to one Tory peer.

Finance Bill

This bill implements measures already announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the spring budget.

Sanctions Bill

This piece of legislation prevents sanctioned individuals from being directors of UK companies.

It also blocks companies from exporting "items critical to Russian weapons systems and its military development" from the UK to Belarus, and from importing Belarusian aluminium.

Not all made it through, however - including Rishi Sunak's flagship smoking ban (see the full list 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.

A total of 121 MPs have confirmed they are standing down at the July election, including 78 Conservative members.

Among them are former prime minister Theresa May, who today made her final speech in the Commons - urging Tories to "go out and fight".

You can watch her remarks below...

Rishi Sunak has been on a tour of all four UK nations in the last two days, and this morning, he flew to Northern Ireland.

But many have picked up on the fact that the PM visited the Titanic Quarter, where the world's largest attraction themed around the famous ship is located.

The optics of visiting a location named after a ship that sank on its maiden voyage have not gone unnoticed, however, with one reporter asking the PM if he is "captaining a sinking ship going into this election".

But Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has told Sky News the Titanic Quarter is "reborn" and "going places - as is our prime minister".

Asked about comparisons that had been drawn between the Titanic and the Tory party's fortunes, Mr Heaton-Harris said: "I think that’s a bit condescending to the people of Belfast and indeed the new Titanic Quarter that employs thousands of people in top jobs."

Among those drawing the parallel was a Belfast Live reporter, who asked Rishi Sunak earlier if he was captaining a sinking ship.

"Yeah, we're in the Titanic Quarter, but it's been reborn and it's going places, as is our prime minister - back into Number 10," Mr Heaton-Harris said.

The Daventry MP said his move to stand down was "a very personal decision after 24 years of being in elected politics" rather than one linked to the Tories trailing in opinion polls.

We've had some reaction from our deputy political editor Sam Coatesto the news that Dame Andrea Leadsom is joining Michael Gove in quitting parliament at this election.

He described her as "significant in Conservative politics", having served many years as both a junior and cabinet minister in a range of departments.

"A high-profile Brexiteer - she was one of the big figures on Vote Leave, and after that, she actually went to the Tory leadership, having to pull out because of disobliging comments that she made about Theresa May and motherhood that generated a lot of criticism," Sam said.

He described the resignation letter as "paying tribute to herself".

"But what's really interesting about this letter is, even though it's to Rishi Sunak, it doesn't actually say anything nice about Rishi Sunak, nor particularly wish him well."

He noted reporting from Sky News that after the general election was called, Dame Andrea enquired as to whether she could submit a letter of no confidence in the PM "to try and stop this election".

"It feels like a big possibility there's some bad blood that's led to her decision today," he said.

"Another one bites the dust," he added, noting that the number of Tories quitting parliament now exceeds the number that left in 1997 ahead of Tony Blair's landslide win.