General election live news: Angela Rayner backs Diane Abbott as Faiza Shaheen calls in lawyers over Labour row

Riding high after her victory in her council flat row, Labour’s deputy leader has now come to the defence of Diane Abbott – and, by doing so, has served notice that she intends to fight her corner in government, says John Rentoul:

Given the all-clear by the police, the forthright deputy Labour leader today grabbed her metaphorical mojo and swung it menacingly in the direction of Keir Starmer.

The Labour deputy leader says she is backing Ms Abbott as a candidate for Hackney North at the election.

She said: “I don’t see any reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand as a Labour MP going forward… I am saying that as the deputy leader of the Labour Party”.

Ms Rayner added that Abbott has been a trailblazer and she is “not happy” about negative briefings to the papers about her. “I don’t think that is how we should conduct ourselves.”

She previously said she wanted to see the veteran MP back to the Labour Party after she was suspended fro 11 months.

Ms Rayner said she was frustrated over the length of the party investigation over her letter on The Observer.

The MP for Hackney North has announced a new book detailing her journey from North London to Westminster.

Deselected Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen has accused Sir Keir Starmer of “undermining my credentials”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The left-winger, who was to take on former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith added: “I came from a family with a violent father and spent part of my childhood on benefits. I’m now a visiting professor and teach at the London School of Economics. Public services really helped me, and I had to work so hard to get to this point in my life.”

It came after the Labour leader said the decision to block her was taken not because she is left wing, but because he wanted “the highest quality candidates”.

Ms Shaheen shared a 2019 Twitter post in which Sir Keir described her as a “fantastic candidate”, adding: “Please don’t undermine my credentials.

“Haven’t you hurt me enough already?”

The Reform UK president claimed there is a “growing number” of young Muslims that are being attracted to extremist ideologies.

Speaking at a campaign rally, the right-wing politician said: “I raise that not because I want to see division, that division is being felt I think with the Jewish community in our country already.

“I raise that because I think we ought to have a debate about it. But, you know, of course I get called all the names under the sun for daring to raise the issue. That’s why when pollsters or anybody else ask people whether they support Reform, they’re shy about it. They’re shy of getting abuse.”

It came as Mr Farage was called out for islamophobia after he accused Muslims of “not sharing British values”.

Since the Liz Truss premiership in 2022 sent rates spiralling, charities say pleas for financial assistance have tripled.

Sir Keir Starmer has suggested Labour will keep tax thresholds frozen, despite shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves accusing the Tories of “pickpocketing” working people with the measure, Archie Mitchell reports.

Asked whether he could guarantee that a Labour government would not raise VAT, and whether he would raise income tax thresholds, the Labour leader said: “As you would expect with this changed Labour Party, every proposal that we put on the table is fully costed and fully funded.

“We’ve been really clear about not raising income tax and NI, and we’ve said repeatedly that nothing in our plans requires us to raise tax.

“And that’s why we’ve been able to set out our position on VAT as well.

He added: “On the thresholds, I do think that the burden on working people is too high. But I’m not going to do what the Government is doing and make commitments that we cannot afford. And therefore I’m very clear about the tax that will remain and will be locked and where we cannot make those commitments.”

“This is the dumbest thing The UK has done since electing Boris Johnson… what the actual f****…,” the comedian wrote on X when he was notified of the controversy.

The clip in question, dating from July 2014, sees Stewart introducing a segment about an Israeli ground offensive – during the 2014 Gaza War – at which point he is immediately swarmed and rebuked by four of the Comedy Central show’s correspondents, barracking him as a “self-hating Jew” for daring to question the country’s actions.

Nigel Farage was asked whether he would still be open to a deal with the Tories.

Denying the claims, he said: “This was a deeply sarcastic answer given to Harry Cole, the political editor of the Sun, on his new programme Never Mind the Ballots.

“I’ve been asked this for 25 years. For 25 years I’ve been asked what are you going to do for the Conservatives? Why don’t you stand aside, so-and-so’s a frightfully good chap, he was at Eton, really, he was…  I think in 2019, we did the Conservatives the biggest favour anyone’s ever done them.

“With the complete catastrophe of the May premiership we formed the Brexit Party and within six weeks we reduced the Conservatives to their most humiliating election result in nearly 200 years. And that led directly to Theresa May going, that was the first bit of very significant help we gave the Conservatives in 2019.”

The veteran MP for Hackney North has revealed unions have offered her support and backing to stand as a Labour candidate.

In a X post, she said: “I am very grateful to all the trade unionists who have offered me support.

“I have met with a number of leading trade unionists, including general secretaries who have offered me their backing to be a Labour candidate at next week’s NEC.