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

Rishi Sunak has turned to a favourite of Conservative PMs looking to appeal to the party’s base … if in doubt, wheel Thatcher out.

The prime minister has posted a graphic of Lady Thatcher on Facebook alongside a 1989 quote from the Iron Lady railing against socialists.

Hours after the Tories took to warning of a decade of socialism if Sir Keir Starmer is elected on 4 July, Mr Sunak was highlighting Lady Thatcher’s opposition to socialist tendencies.

In the quote, she said: “Socialists don’t like ordinary people choosing, because they might not choose socialism.”

Sir Keir Starmer has not ruled out maintaining a freeze on beer duties, after shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves signalled in an interview with the Sun newspaper that Labour was open to such a move.

Asked about this, party leader Sir Keir told broadcasters in the South East: “I think it is important that we support hospitality and the beer duty is part of the package there. I am glad and obviously support what Rachel has already said.

“But it is part of the challenge for small businesses, whether it is hospitality, whether it is retail as we have just been talking about.

“That is why I am really pleased today to be unveiling our plan for supporting small businesses, for supporting high streets, to make sure that more people are out using those small businesses on their high streets.

“It is all part of our manifesto, which is a manifesto for wealth creation, for growth, and making sure that people genuinely feel better off with Labour.”

Rishi Sunak said it was important to register to vote in the general election because Britain’s future was at stake.

Asked why it was important to register on the last day of the window to do so, the PM told broadcasters: “This election there is a very clear choice.

“The future of our country is at stake, we are living in uncertain times, people need to decide who’s got the clearest plan and the boldest ideas to deliver a more secure future.”

He added that the choice was “crystal clear” with the Conservatives offering “tax cuts at every stage of your life”.

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…”