General election live news: Tory MP defects to Labour as Starmer pledges clean power amid Abbott row

Th SNP said Labour’s green energy plans are not welcome in Scotland and that they’ll cost thousands of jobs.

Rejecting the claims, Anas Sarwar and said a publicly owned energy company would create 50,000 more jobs in Scotland.

He told Sky News: “It’s utter nonsense. And again, I think demonstrates the grievance driven politics of the SNP.

“What we are talking about here is GB Energy, a publicly owned energy generation company headquartered in Scotland, backed up by the UK Treasury, winning billions of pounds of investment here in Scotland, investment in onshore wind, offshore wind, carbon capture storage, our ports our supply chains, tidal, hydrogen and so much more.

“And that means over 50,000 more jobs here in Scotland.”

Prominent Black figures like comedian Lenny Henry, actor David Harewood and writer Afua Hirsch have signed an open letter demanding Sir Keir Starmer to condemning plans to bar Ms Abbott.

Black actors, authors, professors, and broadcasters have branded her treatment as “disproportionate, undemocratic and vindictive”.

The letter read: “Given Labour’s recent embrace of others who have championed causes far more objectionable to its core values and its commitment to stamp out antisemitism in its ranks, the treatment of Abbott also smacks of a disgraceful double standard.

“The Labour party seems to have made a strategic decision that the black and brown vote doesn’t matter.”

Sir Patrick Vallance has backed Sir Keir Starmer’s green energy proposals and warned the race for net zero is as urgent as the search for a Covid vaccine.

Sir Patrick told The Times: “I am often asked which of Britain’s many pressing public policy challenges need a vaccine-style approach.

“I believe that one such priority is the urgent need to end the era of excessive carbon emissions, high energy bills and energy insecurity by accelerating the net zero transition to clean, homegrown energy.”

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The GB Energy plan has been under fire with the SNP claiming it will cause job losses, and the Tories branding it as just a logo.

The prime minister had enjoyed a period of respite this week following an uptick in the polls for his party after infighting engulfed the Labour Party over the future of Diane Abbott MP and the academic Faiza Shaheen, who has not been selected to stand as an election candidate over social media activity in 2014.

Rishi Sunak has said the combined strikes with the US in Yemen were carried in response to Houthi attacks.

In a statement this morning, the Prime Minister said: “Last night the RAF successfully conducted a fifth set of strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen alongside the US.

“These strikes were conducted to further degrade the military capabilities of the Houthis and to prevent further attacks on international shipping.

“The strikes were taken in self-defence in the face of an ongoing threat that the Houthis pose.”

The US and UK carried out a series of bombings targeting Houthis for the first time in more than three months.

Houthi rebels have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration.

Deputy first minister of Scotland Kate Forbes has said Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to create a publicly owned energy company is disastrous.

She said the company, which would be headquartered in Scotland, would cause job losses.

Ms Forbes told Sky News:  “GB Energy seems to be […] unsubstantiated right now in terms of the detail, and it’s set against the 100,000 jobs that might be lost if Labour are victorious and continue with these policies.

“I don’t think anybody’s actually established what GB Energy means, for starters.

“With about £20bn worth of revenue set to flow from the northeast over to the Treasury in the coming six years, I don’t think Scotland should be somehow grateful that GB Energy should be based in Scotland.”

Shadow science secretary Peter Kyle said although Diane Abbott was a trailblazer in the past, this election is now about the future.

Asked whether Ms Abbott should be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate at the election, Mr Kyle said: “This election though is about the future. And the NEC will be making sure that our party is fit for the future.”

He said Sir Keir Starmer has “raised standards” since taking over as leader.

Mr Kyle added: “If we are holding ourselves to extremely high standards, that means that the public can look at us and say we are a party that is fit to govern the country,” he said.

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“The NEC will be making decisions about who is best to represent the Labour party today, in the 2020s looking forward. That takes away nothing from Dianne Abbott’s achievements in the past.”

The Prime Minister has dubbed Labour’s energy plan “just a logo” just hours before Starmer is set to unveil his green energy plan in Scotland.

Mr Sunak said: “As far as I can tell all this new policy is a logo, you don’t deliver energy security with a logo and there is a clear choice on this issue in our election.

“My view is that we have to priori this country’s energy security that’s why we continue to support Britain’s North Sea energy

“This new policy is a logo and experts have described their ideas as incoherent, incredible and completely unachievable.”