General Election 2024 latest: Sunak says Boris backing ‘will make difference’ as ex-PM drafted in to fight Reform

Rishi Sunak said Boris Johnson’s support for the Conservatives “will make a difference” and his interventions had been “co-ordinated by the campaign”.

The PM told broadcasters: “It’s great that Boris is supporting the Conservative Party, I very much welcome that. He is endorsing many candidates in videos and letters which have been co-ordinated by the campaign.

“I know that will make a difference and, of course, every week he is making the case in his column and making sure that everyone understands what the Labour government would do to this country and why it’s important that everyone votes Conservative and I’m glad he’s doing that.”

Boris Johnson has been pulled in to help the crisis-hit Conservative election campaign – but he still might snub Rishi Sunak.

In recent days he has filmed a series of cameo-style videos for individual Tory candidates who have loyally stood by him over the years – including one who tried to oust Mr Sunak.

Now he has been parachuted into the disastrous Conservative election campaign, as it tries to fight off the threat from Nigel Farage. Letters exhorting voters to back the Tories, signed by the ex-party leader, are due to land on tens of thousands of doorsteps later this week.

But a spokesman for Mr Johnson would not be drawn on whether the letters would mention Mr Sunak, although he did describe them as “supportive”.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has the exclusive report:

Scottish Labour is against the two child benefit cap, Anas Sarwar has said, despite there being no plans to scrap the measure if Labour wins the keys to Downing Street.

Asked at his party’s manifesto launch if he was against the cap – which only allows families to claim benefits for two children – Mr Sarwar said: “The short answer is yes.

“We were right to oppose the two child limit, we were right to vote against the two child limit.”

But he added: “The honest reality is after 14 years of Tory economic carnage, we will not be able to do everything we want to do as fast as we want to do.”

Anas Sarwar has laid out his party’s targets if it wins the 2026 Holyrood election, as he warned that change for Scotland was a “two stage process” which will culminate at the election in two years’ time.

Speaking as his party launched their manifesto in Edinburgh, Mr Sarwar said Scottish Labour would improve policing, reform the planning system, ban second jobs for MSPs and bring in a recall mechanism and reduce the poverty-related attainment gap in education.

He would also ensure the NHS was secure for “generations to come”, he said.

The Independent’s political data correspondent Alicja Hagopian has the latest general election polling here:

“As the first postal ballots are cast, there seems little doubt that, if the polls are correct and remain roughly where they are until polling day, the Labour Party will command a majority in the new House of Commons.

“Such is the prospective scale of the swing from the Conservatives to Labour since the 2019 general election that it seems a foregone conclusion, a factor that may affect turnout and, thus, the size of that majority.

“Yet such is the anti-Conservative mood that there are also strong indications that more of the electorate are prepared to vote tactically at this general election than at any since the New Labour triumphs in 1997 and 2001. It could have a significant impact once again…”

Kwasi Kwarteng has said the Conservatives will pay a price at the election for ousting Boris Johnson, who he called “the most effective Tory campaigner in his generation”.

The former chancellor, who was sacked by Liz Truss as the pair’s mini-budget wrought havoc on financial markets, said Tory candidates in marginal seats may lose because Mr Johnson is no longer leading the Conservatives.

He told GB News: “I was always a Boris loyalist, people know that about me. I never thought it was a good idea to get rid of him. And a lot of people in marginal seats maybe secretly – and they won’t go public – might wish that Boris Johnson was still leading them. Because frankly, in my view, they’d have a better chance of winning those seats.

“But the party made its decisions, it got rid of Boris and I think we’re going to pay the price for that.”

Sir Keir Starmer has mocked claims that the Tories will again turn to Boris Johnson for help with their ailing general election campaign.

Speaking to LBC after the Telegraph reported that thousands of voters would receive signed letters from the ex-prime minister in a new campaign drive, Sir Keir joked that the move was a “third or fourth relaunch” of the Conservative election strategy.

“If you can’t even have a strategy that holds for six weeks you really don’t deserve to win,” the Labour leader said.

Sir Keir Starmer defines ‘working people’: They earn a living, rely on public services and can’t cut a cheque when things go wrong, Archie Mitchell reports.

Sir Keir Starmer has fleshed out what he means when he promises taxes will not go up for “working people”.

Asked what he means by the term, the Labour leader said: “When I say working people I mean people who earn a living, rely on our public services and don’t really have the ability to write a cheque when they get into trouble… so the sort of people I am meeting pretty well every day now.”

He added: “It’s quite a big group because these days there are many people who are not so well off or even better off these days… it is important in politics who you have in your minds eye and I have all those people.”