Key events
Shadow local government secretary Kevin Hollinrake added that he “can understand” why Keir Starmer is “trying to basically aim his fire all around him”.
Hollinrake told Sky News:
The other danger the prime minister’s got is from his own backbenchers – there’s hundreds of his own backbenchers who’re very dissatisfied in that he’s doing right now.
So I can understand, he’s trying to basically aim his fire all around him. It’ll end up in a circular firing squad, I think, and it looks very bad for the prime minister right now.
Asked about his own party’s standing, Hollinrake described Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch as an “inspirational figure – strong and courageous and a proper Conservative”, and added:
She didn’t want to rush policies out that were undeliverable. She wanted to take her time, develop policies that people could trust, that we would deliver and that were deliverable, and that takes time.
He said his party’s proposed deportation bill was an “indication of the kind of policies that will come forward”, and added it would put a “cap on numbers, but crucially will disapply the European convention on human rights – human rights law – to immigration cases, so we can deport those people that our courts prevent us from deporting right now on spurious grounds”.
Voters have ‘lost interest in Labour’, says the Tory shadow local government secretary
Voters have “lost interest in Labour”, the Conservative shadow local government secretary has said, reports the PA news agency.
Asked about prime minister Keir Starmer’s speech due later on Thursday, in which he is expected to criticise “fantasy” economics proposed by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Kevin Hollinrake told Sky News:
The prime minister’s got problems wherever he looks.
He continued:
And he’ll see increasing problems from our party as we bring forward our policies which will be much more coherent and much more workable in terms of taking our economy forward.
The public’s lost interest in Labour. I mean, I don’t think they were ever popular at the despatch box – we were just unpopular and we’ve got a big job to do on that particular score, but I believe we can do it.
But also Reform, the ‘red wall’ as we call it, the working-class voters, have completely lost faith in Keir Starmer and [Chancellor] Rachel Reeves and others, not least because of the disgraceful stripping away of the winter fuel allowance which, as soon as it was announced in parliament last year, you know, I was one of many who said: ‘That’s a U-turn coming.’
And that’s what’s happened, and once you’ve brought forward a policy like that, no U-turn will make any difference. It will make a short-term difference in terms of people getting the winter fuel allowance again, as they should, and they need to get it for this year – that’s critical for this winter.
But in terms of the broken promise around that, in terms of what it says about the Labour party, the Labour party will never recover from it.
Government minister Emma Hardy has urged doctors to “vote no” in an upcoming strike ballot.
The water minister told Sky News:
We hugely value everybody who works in the NHS and we hugely value our doctors: that’s why they’ve had a 28% increase in their salary compared to three years ago, and why we’re offering above-inflation pay [rises].
The MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice continued:
But what patients are telling me, patients where I’m from in Hull and up and down the country, is they’re really pleased with the government for reducing waiting lists by 200,000 but they want to see that progress continue with the NHS, and they really don’t want to see strikes.
So my message to the doctors is: we value you, that’s why we’ve offered the above-inflation pay rise.
Please vote no in the ballot, continue talking to government because we need to continue to deliver the improvements in our NHS that patients desperately need.
Starmer to attack Farage’s spending plans as ‘mad experiment’
Keir Starmer will launch an attack on Nigel Farage by accusing the Reform UK leader of promoting “fantasy” tax-and-spending plans that would unleash a Liz Truss-style economic crisis.
In a fightback against attempts by Farage to win over blue-collar voters with bold promises on taxes and benefits, the prime minister is to say Reform risks spooking the financial markets and driving up mortgage costs for millions of households.
In a speech at a manufacturing business in the north-west of England on Thursday, Starmer will say:
Farage is making the exact same bet Liz Truss did: that you can spend tens of billions on tax cuts without a proper way of paying for it. And, just like Truss, he is using your family finances, your mortgage, your bills as a gambling chip on his mad experiment. The result will be the same.
The Reform leader laid out several promises during a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits.
Starmer’s address is scheduled to take place at 11.30 am and will be followed by a Q&A with reporters.
Elsewhere, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is expected to be campaigning in Scotland today and water minister Emma Hardy is on the morning media round, as is shadow local government minister Kevin Hollinrake. More updates from this in just a moment, but first here are some other key developments:
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The British arm of a US contractor that profits from testing whether some people in the UK should receive disability benefits has paid out £10m in dividends to its investors. Maximus, a Virginia-based business, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax profit for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its financial year to the end of September, accounts lodged at Companies House show. Its revenue rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
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The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months. Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said: “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations.”
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The House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation into a Conservative hereditary peer who admitted he “erroneously” made claims last year for travel expenses he did not incur. He is the fifth peer to face an inquiry after Guardian reporting into the upper house.
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Jobcentres will no longer force people into “any job” available, the employment minister has said, promising there will be long-term, personalised career support for those losing out due to welfare cuts. Alison McGovern said she was ending the Conservative policy under which jobseekers were obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be focused on helping people to build rewarding careers.
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Scotland’s first minister has warned that the Hamilton byelection is now a “straight contest” between the SNP and Reform UK as he urged voters to back his party. John Swinney claimed the Labour campaign is in collapse and urged their supporters to act and “unite behind our shared principles” to defeat Farage’s party.
