Election news – live: Tories face wipeout in poll as minister condemns D-Day blunder

When the political parties unveil their manifestos this week, they have an opportunity to engage voters who have not yet tuned into the election and might not do so. Worryingly, a survey by Techne UK for The Independent found that 20 per cent of people have already decided not to vote, and some experts think we might see the lowest turnout in modern history.

That would not be a surprise given that many voters have written off Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives but have not yet been won over by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. Labour’s 20-point opinion poll lead has encouraged Sir Keir to run a safety-first campaign. So far, the Tories appear to be appealing to their core vote to limit the scale of the defeat they expect on 4 July, rather than talking to the whole country.

The deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives has dismissed claims Douglas Ross’s leadership has been “significantly undermined” by the deselection of David Duguid as a General Election candidate.

Meghan Gallacher praised her Scottish Tory boss for his leadership as she campaigned alongside Luke Graham on Sunday.

Mr Ross came under fire after he announced his candidacy in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency last week after Mr Duguid was blocked over health concerns.

Mr Duguid had hoped to contest the seat, which replaced his previous Banff and Buchan constituency and part of Mr Ross’s former Moray seat under new boundary rules.

But he is currently unwell in hospital and said the party’s membership board had de-selected him as a candidate.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has been among the critics of Mr Ross, accusing the Scottish Tory leader, who is also an MSP in Holyrood, of “naked self-interest”.

Mr Ross had previously pledged to step aside from Westminster to focus on his Holyrood and leadership responsibilities.

Speaking to the PA news agency on the campaign trail in Perth, Ms Gallacher said it was a “difficult situation” to deselect Mr Duguid, adding the management board who took the decision had a “duty of care” to the former MP.

And she defended her boss, stating: “Douglas Ross always leads from the front you can see that by his leadership in the Scottish Parliament. It was only last month – due to Douglas Ross – that Humza Yousaf had to resign.”

“We’re now all focused on taking forward the general election.”

She said the party was focused on particularly taking seats from the SNP.

Political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Exclusive polling for the Independent can reveal that last week’s Diane Abbott-Labour row made “no difference” for 82 per cent of voters — in fact, it might have boosted Labour’s chances.

Tensions erupted in the Labour Party when the Times reported that Ms Abbott would be banned from standing for the party, following an investigation into comments she made on racism and anti-semitism.

Data correspondent Alicja Hagopian reports:

Workers are “desperate” for a change of government after 14 years of “chaos and failure” under the Conservatives, a senior union leader said.

Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB, told the union’s annual conference in Bournemouth that the building blocks of decency at work had been “hacked away” by the Tories.

Workers had suffered low pay, long hours and insecurity and had had enough of the way the country has been run, he said.

But Mr Smith also warned Labour that change cannot be just a “snappy election slogan”.

He told delegates: “The Tories have imposed austerity, hollowed out our public services and left our economy in tatters.

“They are agents of chaos and their time is up.

“My challenge to Labour is to recognise that ‘change’ can’t be just a snappy election slogan. It must be brought to life in the reality of government.”

Mr Smith said Labour’s New Deal for workers was a promising sign of the party’s plans in government, adding: “Our job is to hold the next Labour government to account and bring the New Deal to life.”

“There is the prospect of a better future for workers,” he added, praising Labour for pledging to scrap the controversial legislation aimed at ensuring a minimum level of service during strikes.

At a campaign event in Essex, Sir Keir Starmer said he was “critical” of the early release scheme for prisoners but added that “tough decisions” would have to be taken.

The Labour leader said: “I am critical of the Tories’ early release scheme because what’s happened is that they’re releasing early prisoners who should still be in prison and that’s a shocking state of affairs. Like the many problems that they have left for the country, if we do come into power we’re going to have to fix it.

“Now that will involve building prisons, that will involve taking tough decisions because the money has been allocated for prison building but there are tough decisions about planning and getting those prisons up.”

Sir Keir Starmer has criticised the Tories’ “scattergun approach of desperate policy” in response to their latest pledge to halt the rising costs of welfare by reforming the benefits system.

The plan from the Tories would save some £12 billion a year by the end of the next parliament, the party has claimed, by ensuring more working age people currently claiming benefits have a job.

The Labour leader said: “I have never seen such an ill-thought-through proposal that’s been desperately put on the table today, and you will all be picking at it.

“You will have seen the reaction of the various bodies that look at the numbers, and what we’re seeing now on a daily basis is a sort of scattergun approach of desperate policy put on the table that isn’t thought through. We’ve seen this almost every day.

“I do accept that we do need to improve here; I do accept that we need to get the bill down.”

Douglas Ross has “serious” questions to answer on whether he used Westminster expenses to travel for his job as a football linesman, Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has said.

According to the Sunday Mail, the Scottish Conservative leader’s advisers flagged concerns over 28 parliamentary travel claims which may have been combined with his work as a linesman.

Under UK parliamentary rules, MPs can only claim travel from their home airport – which was either Inverness or Aberdeen in Mr Ross’s case when he was MP for Moray. They can also claim for “diverted” journeys, but must supply detailed notes on the diversion.

Mr Ross’s aides reportedly raised alarm in November 2021 over expense claims which included a £58 parking fee at Inverness Airport in July 2018 while Parliament was in recess. It also stated £43 rail travel from Heathrow to central London was claimed the day after Mr Ross was a linesman in a match in Iceland.

Mr Ross told the paper it was “not possible” to go from London to a football game as he would not have had his referee kit with him, saying: “I have only ever claimed expenses related to my role as a member of Parliament and the costs of getting me to and from Westminster.

“These have all been agreed by IPSA, the independent body that oversees MPs’ expenses, but I would have no issue with them being scrutinised again.”

Cabinet minister Mel Stride has said Nigel Farage’s attack on Rishi Sunak for not understanding “our culture” is “deeply regrettable”, reports Oliver Browning.

He told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that comments from the Reform UK leader were “ill-advised”. Mr Farage told the same programme that the prime minister was “disconnected by class [and] by privilege” from ordinary people.

“I feel very uncomfortable with that … I’ve sat around a Cabinet table that’s the most diverse in history,” Mr Stride said. “I’m very proud of the fact that we have a British Asian who is right at the top of our government.”