Election latest: New poll shows what public think of Rishi Sunak leaving D-Day commemorations early (2024)

Sky News understands that Unite the Union, the country's biggest union and the Labour party's biggest donor, did not endorse Labour's manifesto due to concerns about fire and rehire and the banning of new oil and gas licences.

A party spokesperson said earlier that the manifesto had been finalised.

Senior figures and union officials met today to work out the final details, said to include promises on workers rights and recognising Palestinian statehood.

Sky News understands the pledges will included recognition of a Palestinian state before the end of a peace process.

Penny Mordaunt, Royal Navy reservist and briefly Britain's first female defence secretary, goes into battle for Rishi Sunak this evening in the row over his D-Day snub.

The Commons leader, a national treasure after her sword-wielding heroics at the King's coronation, is the Tories' standard bearer in the first election TV debate between seven political parties.

Ms Mordaunt, an MP in the naval city of Portsmouth for 14 years, has suddenly been thrust into the controversy over the prime minister leaving the D-Day commemorations in France early to record an election TV interview.

She is expected to come under sustained bombardment over Mr Sunak's D-Day snub from opponents including Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper.

But the most brutal D-Day onslaught on Ms Mordaunt is expected to come from Nigel Farage, newly installed as leader of Reform UK this week, who attended the commemorations and has denounced the PM as unpatriotic.

Speaking ahead of the debate, being staged by the BBC, Mr Farage declared: "He is completely disconnected from the centre of this country and he has proved to me that he basically is not a patriotic leader of the Conservative Party. I was there because I care."

Mr Farage also claimed Mr Sunak's blunder in bailing out of the international segment of the D-Day events was his "Gillian Duffy moment", a reference to Gordon Brown's damaging description of a voter in Rochdale in 2010 as a "bigoted woman".

Although there are seven politicians taking part in the debate, all eyes will be on Ms Mordaunt, who is making her first major public intervention in the general election campaign.

Last week it was reported that her allies claimed Downing Street was keeping her "in a box" during the campaign because the prime minister's inner circle see her as a threat, a claim denied by Tory officials.

Just hours before the debate the Daily Telegraph claimed Ms Mordaunt must choose to fight for herself or her party, in a debate which could resemble a firing squad for the Commons leader.

She is an accomplished performer, as her regular Thursday Commons questions sessions confirm, and besides digging Mr Sunak out of a D-Say hole, according to her allies she will want to use the debate as an audition for a post-election leadership challenge.

Another feature of the debate could be fiery clashes between Ms Mordaunt and Labour's combative deputy leader Ms Rayner, who is also an impressive Commons performer, particularly when standing in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions.

The prime minister has faced criticism for leaving the 80th anniversary D-Day commemorationsearly to record a TV interview that's due to go out next week.

Rishi Sunak has since apologised - saying that "on reflection" leaving early "was a mistake",but also that itshouldn'tbepoliticised.

Niall Paterson looks athow damaging thismisstepis for Mr Sunak with Clare Pearsall, former Conservative special adviser at the Home Office,and Joe Twyman, the co-founder of the polling company Deltapoll.

Plus, our chief political correspondent Jon Craig tells us just how big of a political blunder it was.

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The Liberal Democrats are continuing to make political hay of Rishi Sunak's D-Day "mistake".

The party has called on the prime minister to donate the £5m the party has received from Frank Hester to a veteran's charity, tying together two points of attack on the Conservatives.

In March, it was reported that in 2019 Mr Hester said of Diane Abbott - the first black woman elected to Parliament - that she made him want to "hate all black women" and "should be shot".

Electoral Commission data released yesterday showed the Conservative Party accepted another £5m in January - before those reports were published.

"Rishi Sunak must personally ensure this money is donated instead to a veterans' charity as an apology for his absence yesterday," said veteran and Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Richard Foord.

"The prime minister has badly let down veterans and our country. He disrespected his office and the United Kingdom."

Separately,Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds advised Tory candidates to "tell CCHQ you don't want tainted money" from Mr Hester and "provide the moral backbone for your party".

Labour's election manifesto has been finalised, a spokesperson says.

Senior figures and union officials met today to work out the final details, said to include promises on workers rights and recognising Palestinian statehood.

Sky News understands the pledges will included recognition of a Palestinian state before the end of a peace process.

"Today's meeting has endorsed Labour's manifesto," said the spokesperson.

The manifesto is otherwise understood to be cautious on new commitments, and to emphasise economic stability and national security.

It is based around the six key pledges Sir Keir has set out during the campaign.

These include economic growth, recruiting 6,500 more teachers and tackling NHS waiting lists and anti-social behaviour.

The manifesto is set to be unveiled next Thursday.

"On 4 July, the British people will have the chance to vote for change - to stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country," said the Labour spokesperson.

Some 65% of Britons believeRishi Sunak's decision to leave D-Day commemorations before they ended was unacceptable, a new poll finds.

This includes68% of those who voted Conservative and 71% of those who voted Labour in 2019.

Just 8% of the 5,778 adults surveyed viewed his actions as completely acceptable, while 43% thought they were completely unacceptable.

Participants were asked whether they thought it was acceptable or unacceptable that Rishi Sunak left the commemorations in France before the international events had concluded in order to take part in an election interview.

While region and gender made little difference to the public's reaction, older people were the most critical.

Approximately 75% of people aged over the aged of 65 thought it was somewhat or completely unacceptable, compared to 49% of 18 to 24-year-olds.

The children's minister has admitted not knowing how much child benefit is worth.

David Johnston conceded he "should have found out before I came on here" in an interview with LBC.

He was promoting Tory plans to make high earners eligible for more of the allowance.

Asked how much current child benefit is worth, Mr Johnston said: "That I'm afraid I don't know.

"It's actually not a Department for Education policy, it's a DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] one."

Broadcaster Nick Ferrari replied: "Sorry, is your title minister for children? And you don't know what the child allowance is?"

Mr Johnston said: "Well we don't mind the benefits I'm afraid, but you're right, I should have found out before I came on here.

"I'm sorry that I don't know the amount."

Child benefit is £25.60 a week for the eldest or only child in a family and £16.95 a week for younger children.

Under existing rules, parents or parents' partners start to lose the allowance if they earn more than £60,000, and it is taken away entirely when one's income tops £80,000.

The Conservatives unveiled plans today to allow people to keep some allowance on incomes up to £160,000 - a policy that would cost the Treasury £1.3bn.

This would save 700,000 families £1,500, said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

While Rishi Sunak has insisted his decision to leave D-Day commemorations early shouldn't be "politicised", Labour's Jonathan Ashworth says the prime minister's move was politically motivated.

"This disrespect is shocking, but I think it reveals something unbecoming about both his judgement and his character," said the shadow paymaster general.

"What type of person thinks it is more important to rush away from an event like this to go and do an interview to try and score political points and save his own skin than truly honour the fallen."

He continued: "It was him who put political party ahead of country."

Mr Ashworth accused the PM of "scrambling out an apology" today.

"The right thing to do was to stay at that event."

As the Tory battle bus pulled into a school in the Gloucestershire town of Stonehouse, the reporters and camera crews onboard immediately scuttled off up the road in the opposite direction of the campaign stop.

Their interest had been piqued not by the presence of a politician, but by a road sign.

After a tense interview in the playground of a Swindon nursery in which Rishi Sunak had been forced to apologise for leaving D-Day commemoration events early - something criticised as offensive by politicians and military folk alike - his next campaign stop was on a street called "Veterans Way".

Election campaigns often progress in peaks and troughs with errors and lapses of judgement giving rise to other awkward situations which - without the background controversy - would have at one point been totally irrelevant and innocuous.

They can also throw up strange sights - like that of three national broadcast camera crews filming a sign in the middle of the Gloucestershire countryside while an exasperated Tory official glumly looks on.

You know what they say, prime minister - it never rains.

By Jennifer Scott, political reporter

Labour is promising to get more young people on the housing ladder as it announces its "freedom to buy" scheme.

The party is pledging to make the existing mortgage guarantee scheme- which sees the government act as a guarantor for people unable to save big deposits - into a permanent fixture if it wins the election on 4 July.

Sir Keir Starmer is also committing to an overhaul of the planning system, including reintroducing housing targets, claiming his measures will see 1.5 million more homes built over the next five years.

"After 14 years of Conservative government, the dream of home ownership is out of reach for too many hard-working people," he said.

"Despite doing everything right, they can't move on and up. A generation faces becoming renters for life.

"My parents' home gave them security and was a foundation for our family. As prime minister, I will turn the dream of owning a home into a reality."

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