General Election 2024 latest: Farage to sue Reform vetting firm as Starmer refuses to rule out council tax rises

Rishi Sunak is being pulled into fighting the “wrong campaign” and should be focusing on defending the so-called “blue wall” seats where Labour “are now running riot”, Tory former chancellor George Osborne has warned.

“Sunak is being pulled into fighting, in my view, the wrong campaign which is trying to stop Reform coming second whereas he should still be trying to focus on limiting the damage of Labour coming first or limiting the loss for the Conservatives,” Mr Osborne said on his Political Currency podcast.

“That means he should be trying to defend his blue wall seats which is where Labour are now running riot rather than focusing on the red wall seats that Boris Johnson won five years ago when, by the way, the Labour candidate was Jeremy Corbyn so it was a completely different election from having Sir Keir Starmer.”

Nigel Farage has said he is “pleased” the BBC “acknowledge” the rising support for Reform UK but reiterated his demand to be included in the broadcaster’s head-to-head debate next week between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.

It comes after the BBC announced an extra Question Time leaders’ special featuring Reform UK and the Green Party.

The Reform UK leader tweeted: “I am pleased that the BBC acknowledge that support for Reform UK has been growing in this election. We must now be included in the head-to-head debate with Sunak and Starmer on June 26th.”

Rishi Sunak’s courting of farmers is “too little too late”, the Liberal Democrats have said.

The party’s rural affairs spokesperson Tim Farron said: “This Devon dash is too little too late for Rishi Sunak. Farmers and rural voters are deserting him in massive numbers.

“Farmers have been utterly taken for granted by the Conservative Party, left to cope with sky-high bills, bungled policies and botched overseas trade deals.

“Liberal Democrats will stand up for people in rural areas and give them the fair deal they badly need through a £1bn rural rescue package. It’s clear that people are moving away from the Conservatives and backing the Liberal Democrats in many seats to kick them out of office.”

Rishi Sunak has said badger culls “have to be part of the solution” for preventing the spread bovine tuberculosis to cattle.

Speaking in a Q&A with farmers during a campaign visit to north Devon, the Prime Minister said: “The success of the badger culls where we’ve done them have brought the incidence rates down by just over 50%, so that shows that that plan is working.

“I believe in the science. And yes, of course a vaccine is good and we’re investing in research and development but that is going to take some time. So culls have to be part of the solution.

“And particularly when it comes to badgers, when you look around the world, there’s no country that I think I know of where they’ve eliminated TB in cattle without eliminating it in, whether it’s possums or badgers or the equivalent wildlife, which is why I think culls are important.”

Rishi Sunak said it has been “a real privilege” to understand the contribution farmers make to society.

The Prime Minister said at a Q and A with farmers in North Devon: “Now, I grew up in Southampton, and I didn’t come from a farming background. So it’s been a real privilege to understand the contribution that you make to our society.”

He was introduced by Lord David Cameron, who warned the Liberal Democrats would bring more “wokery” to politics.

Rishi Sunak and Lord David Cameron struggled to feed sheep on a campaign visit to a farm in north Devon.

“Come on,” the prime minister said as the flock ran to the other side of the pen.

“They don’t want to play ball,” a farmer accompanying Mr Sunak said.

The vetting company hired by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK to run background checks on its candidates has denied trying to “stitch up” the right-wing party.

Vetting.com, which is now being sued by Reform on Mr Farage’s orders, said it did not have time to scrutinise all 609 of Reform’s candidates before the snap summer poll.

A spokesman for the organisation said it had been working on the assumption the general election would be this autumn, giving it the summer to complete its work.

It came after Mr Farage lashed out at the company, claiming to have paid it £144,000 only to have been “stitched up”. The Reform leader blamed Vetting chairman Colin Bloom, who was faith engagement adviser for the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full report:

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.”