General election latest: Labour says Diane Abbott issue ‘resolved’ as Keir Starmer pledges to slash ‘sky high’ migration

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has suggested Labour is having a “bit of an identity crisis”.

Ms Atkins said she would not comment on individual Tories who have defected to Labour, saying they will have had their “own reasons for going”.

She then told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “It’s a great surprise, I think, to everyone, including possibly to Natalie Elphicke herself, that such a hard-right Conservative politician should choose to join Labour.

“But then we see this week from Labour that Sir Keir Starmer can’t work out whether Diane Abbott, one of his longest-standing and trailblazing Members of Parliament, should in fact be a Member of Parliament. He can’t work it out. So, it shows that there is a bit of an identity crisis within Labour.”

She added: “We see today that Sir Keir is suggesting giving out peerages to solve the problem and, interestingly, inserting some of his own, his boys’ club, into those very seats from which he’s ejecting women. I have noticed that.”

Yvette Cooper has denied that Keir Starmer has offered Labour MPs a seat in the Lords.

The shadow home secretary told Sky: “That’s not the way the system works”.

It follows reports that a string of former Labour MPs, including Diane Abbott, have been offered as seat in the House of Lords to stand down and make way for allies of Sir Keir Starmer.

A number of people close to the Labour leader have been parachuted into some of Labour’s safest seats.

Ms Cooper also said she assumed Ms Abbott would stand for Labour at the election.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties kicked off their “battle bus” tours on Saturday. The coaches will spend the next five weeks driving thousands of miles across the country in an attempt to win over voters.

Sir Keir Starmer, his deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves were in Boris Johnson’s old constituency, Uxbridge, to launch Labour’s red coach. Emblazoned on the bus, dozens of times over, was the word “change”.

In Redcar, northeast England, prime minister Rishi Sunak kicked off the Tories’ tour in their blue Mercedes coach. He travelled the first stop on the bus to nearby Blythe.

In the East Midlands, meanwhile, Reform’s Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage addressed crowds in Ashfield, Mr Anderson’s constituency. On the agenda: immigration, immigration and, yes, immigration.

Below we have compiled a quick guide to the main developments that will happen today for the General Election campaign trail.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be “campaigning in London” without media, according to his party, a day after the Conservative Party leader launched the Tory battle bus in Redcar, northeast England.

His health secretary Victoria Atkins, meanwhile, will promote the Tory plan on the Sunday morning broadcast round.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper will talk up plans to slash migration levels in broadcast studios.

Her and shadow education minister Bridget Phillipson will also promote a new growth and skills levy, allowing firms to use up to 50 per cent of their levy contributions to fund training through routes other than apprenticeships.

While leader Sir Ed Davey is taking the weekend off from attention-grabbing stunts to care for his son, his party is going on the attack over health.

The Lib Dems promised to reverse £1 billion in Conservative cuts to the Public Health Grant, which provides local authorities with funding for public health projects.

North of the border, First Minister John Swinney will urge people to “vote SNP to put Scotland’s interests first” as he formally launches the party’s General Election campaign in Glasgow.

He will tell activists that Westminster decision-making has meant “austerity, Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis being imposed on Scotland”.

More GP surgeries and diagnostic centres would be built under a future Conservative government funded by slashing the number of NHS managers, the Tories have said.

In their first major health offer of the general election, the Tories have said they will bring more care services into the community.

Businesses are “crying out for help to tackle skills shortages”, the shadow education secretary has warned.

Migrant fruit and vegetable pickers coming to the UK to work on farms are being bullied and sexually harassed, a report on the seasonal worker visa scheme has found.

Testimonies from workers detail rape threats and harassment in a “pervasive” environment of bullying and humiliation on UK farms, with workers reporting passing out due to work conditions and having wages withheld.