Election predictions live: Postal vote system ‘creaking’ as Starmer urges PM to meet Royal Mail bosses

Another one of Nigel Farage’s general election candidates has defected to the Conservatives after a series of Reform supporters were exposed as having racist and sexist views, Archie Mitchell reports.

Georgie David has suspended her support for Mr Farage’s Reform and stood down as the party’s candidate in West Ham and Beckton.

In another blow for the Reform leader, after a car-crash BBC interview by party chairman Richard Tice, Ms David attacked her fellow candidates as “racist, misogynistic, and bigoted”.

She said: “I do not wish to be directly associated with people who hold such views that are so vastly opposed to my own and what I stand for.

“I also have been significantly frustrated and dismayed by the failure of the Reform Party’s leadership to tackle this issue in any meaningful way, and their attempts to instead try to brush it under the carpet or cry foul play.”

She endorsed the Conservative Party and urged “all of my fellow patriots” to do the same.

Rishi Sunak is on the verge of leading the Tory party to the worst defeat in its 346-year history, according to a major poll for The Independent.

While the Conservatives have gained two points from late last week, and Labour dropped one with Reform UK also losing a point to 16 per cent, the narrowing of the polls appears to be too little too late for Mr Sunak after a disastrous campaign.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party is on course to win 484 seats, a new poll has found.

“The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are in a close race to form the official opposition,” Survation said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

A probabilistic seat count, based on 34,558 interviews conducted online and on the telephone, puts Labour on course to win 484 seats, the Conservatives on 64 and the Liberal Democrats on 61.

It expects the SNP to win around 10 seats, Reform UK seven, leaving Plaid Cymru and the Green Party with three each.

The Conservative Party is “not the sort of club” Nigel Farage would like to join, the Reform UK leader has told Channel 5.

Mr Farage told the broadcaster: “The problem with the Westminster journalistic pack is they think being elected only matters inside that chamber in Westminster.

“As I rather proved I think back in 1999 – when three of us got elected to the European Parliament and built a mass movement across the country on an issue that was unfashionable – however many of us get elected to that Parliament, yes, we’ll be there, but more importantly, we’ll build a mass movement across the country.”

Quizzed about a hypothetical invitation to join the Conservative Party in the future, Mr Farage replied: “Not the sort of club I want to join.”

Mr Farage has previously been pictured with Ms Le Pen, the French far right leader, and suggested he could work with her on issues like immigration. However, he also suggested that she could be a “a disaster” for France.

Our Political Editor David Maddox has the full story:

A row has erupted after the Tories criticised Sir Keir Starmer for his commitment to spending time with his children after 6pm on Fridays.

But the Labour Party leader countered that safeguarding time for his 16-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter makes him more relaxed and a better decision-maker, adding: “There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.”

Now we want to know what you think. Would Sir Keir be right to stop work for his family at 6pm on Fridays if elected prime minister? Or should someone in this position always be on call as the Conservatives suggest?

The UK’s postal vote system is “creaking”, the chief of the election watchdog has said, as a “record” amount of postal votes are expected this year.

Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive of the Electoral Commission, said: “We think about 6.7 million postal votes have already been sent and people have voted and have been returned back to electoral administrators.

“That’s better than previous elections … we could have a record amount of postal votes this time, so there is a bit of the system creaking.”