Election latest: Farage on defensive after supporters caught on camera making racist, murderous and hom*ophobic remarks (2024)

The first guest on tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Ali FortescueisSir Liam Fox, Conservative candidate and former defence secretary.

We ask first for his reaction to the racist and hom*ophobic comments made by Reform UK activists, captured on camera, and he describes them as "horrible" and "disgraceful".

He also notes that party leader Nigel Farage claimed earlier in the campaign that Rishi Sunak "doesn't understand our culture".

"When you have that sort of dog whistle politics, you shouldn't be surprised if occasionally the dog bites you."

Asked if he thinks there is a wider problem within the Reform Party, he says he is "not really qualified" to make that judgement, but "that sort of way of speaking about other people has no place in our politics".

"I think that we've now seen Reform exposed," he adds, and points to Mr Farage's previous comments saying the west "provoked" Putin into invading Ukraine.

He says Reform is "an unsuitable party to be represented in the House of Commons".

Pushed on if the problem goes deeper in the party, Sir Liam says: "Well, it does seem to be a broader problem because we've seen it from a number of candidates, some of the things that we put out on social media."

"It does strike me that this is a group that is actually appealing to some of the most unpleasant and base instincts of parts of the country. And I hope that voters totally reject them.

"I think that their view of Britain is a distorted one, just as their view of the world is a distorted one."

Asked if he would say Reform UK is institutionally racist, he says it's "a deeply unpleasant party" with "deeply unpleasant individuals" and a "really quite dangerous" would view.

With just days until the general election, I think today was the most raw and angry we have seen the prime minister.

He talked about his daughters and about protecting his family as he responded to a recording of an activist from Reform, calling him, as Sunak himself put it, a "P***".

Nigel Farage said the comments caught on an undercover camera were very wrong but went on to claim it was part of a "set up".

But the Reform leader, so often on the attack, is on the defence.

The question being asked now: does the Reform party have a deeper problem?

Our daily politics showPolitics Hubis live now on Sky News with ourpolitical correspondentAli Fortescuehosting this evening.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Joining Ali tonight:

• Sir Liam Fox, Conservative candidate and former defence secretary;
• Sarah Jones, Labour shadow minister for industry;
• Claire Ainsley, former adviser to Sir Keir Starmer.

And on her panel are:

• Mercy Muroki, former adviser to Kemi Badenoch;
  
• Ben Bradshaw, former Labour MP for Exeter and cabinet minister.
  

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

WatchPolitics Hubfrom 7pm every night during the election campaign on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on theSky News websiteandappor onYouTube.

With less than a week to go until election day, Rishi Sunak has a mountain to climb, with a new MRP poll putting his party on course to win just 85 seats.

Labour are forecast to win a whopping 470 seats and become the largest party in Scotland for the first time in over a decade, the new poll by Survation says.

Here are the full results from the survey:

• Labour: 470 seats
• Conservatives: 85 seats
• Liberal Democrats: 56 seats
• SNP: 12 seats
• Reform UK: 4 seats
• Plaid Cymru: 3 seats
• Green Party: 2 seats

Theanalysis is based on 23,364 interviews conducted between 15 and 27 June 2024.

In Scotland, Labour is predicted to win 37 seats, while the SNP will crash down to 12.

By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter

A minister in the Welsh government is set to be censured after he posted that Conservatives were "happy" to see "children killed".

He made the comments on the social media platformX, in response to the party's opposition to the 20mph rollout.

The Welsh governmentchanged the default speed limitin built-up areas in September last year.

It recently announced it was carrying out a review and thatsome roads might be changed backlater in the year.

Mick Antoniw has been the government's counsel general, its top legal job, since 2021.

The Senedd's standards commissioner received a complaint about a post by Mr Antoniw.

"Tories so happy to see people and particularly children killed and injured on our roads. Wholly irresponsible but not surprising," the post stated.

The commissioner considered the comment to be offensive and Mr Antoniw accepted the assessment when contacted by him.

Mr Antoniw publicly apologised and deleted the post.

Read the full story here:

Our daily politics showPolitics Hubwill be live on Sky News from 7pm with ourpolitical correspondentAli Fortescuehosting this evening.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Joining Ali tonight are:

• Sir Liam Fox, Conservative candidate and former defence secretary;
• Sarah Jones, Labour shadow minister for industry;
• Claire Ainsley, former adviser to Sir Keir Starmer.

And on her panel are:

• Mercy Muroki, former adviser to Kemi Badenoch;
  
• Ben Bradshaw, former Labour MP for Exeter and cabinet minister.

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

WatchPolitics Hubfrom 7pm every night during the election campaign on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on theSky News websiteandappor onYouTube.

The general secretaries of big trade unions got their chequebooks out and handed over nearly £2m to the Labour Party as election day approaches.

Once again, cash is pouring into Sir Keir Starmer's party, with donations totalling £3.3m last week, compared to just £375,000 for the Conservative Party.

The latest weekly league table of political donations, published by the Electoral Commission, confirms that cash is rolling in to Labour and Tory donors are on strike.

Nearly half of Labour's £3.3m donations last week came in a £1.49m cheque from the public sector union Unison, the country's biggest union with 1.3m members.

The shopworkers' union Usdaw handed over a donation of £300,000 and another of £14,500. Community donated £25,000, the GMB £14,320, the Fire Brigades Union £11,725.

The most eye-catching Tory donation listed by the Electoral Commission was £18,000 from Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister with leadership ambitions.

Sources have told Sky News, however, that in fact the donation to national party funds came not from Mr Jenrick personally, but from his Tory association in Newark, where he is the candidate.

With their donors on strike, nearly half the Tories' £375,000 in donations last week came from the party's own fundraising, with £170,000 coming from proceeds from a spring lunch and a party lottery.

Donations to the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK, higher than those to the Tories the previous week, were down. The Lib Dems received £193,945 and Reform UK just £99,000, including £20,000 from Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins.

The latest figures confirm that the Conservatives' election war chest under Rishi Sunak’s leadership is almost bare, and their finances are as dire as their opinion poll ratings.

In the previous week the Tories received £292,500 in donations, while Labour received a breathtaking £4,383,400, largely due to a £2.5m cheque from Lord Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty.

A week ago, therefore, Sir Keir's party appeared to be relying more on millionaires than union barons for its election fighting fund. That has now changed, and normal service has been resumed.

Here is the full list of candidates standing in the Newark constituency:

• Michael Ackroyd, Green Party
• Saj Ahmad, Labour Party
• Adrian Charles Amer, Independent Network
• Matthew Darrington, English Democrats
• Lyn Gailbraith, Indepedent
• Robert Jenrick, Conservative Party
• Robert Palmer, Reform UK
• Collan Siddique, Workers Party of Great Britain
• David Watts, Liberal Democrats

By Gurpreet Narwan, political correspondent

Britain could soon have its most diverse parliament ever but how will voters from ethnically diverse communities behave at the ballot box?

The voting trends of such groups are incredibly complex and varied. There is no single narrative but several themes stick out from YouGov's exclusive polling for Sky News.

Most notably, the handling of the conflict in the Middle East has damaged the two major parties in the eyes of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. This is something the Labour Party, in particular, is very sensitive too.

Labour have historically fared well with these voters and 53% of ethnic minority voters we polled said they would vote for the party - that's a greater lead than polls we've done with the general population.

However, the Tories fare worse among ethnic minority voters on the whole - in this poll they are neck and neck with the Green Party at 14%.

But, if we drill into the detail, 32% of British Indians said they would vote Conservative - 12% higher than the general population. This is a good reminder that there is a huge variation in voting trends among communities.

Reform UK polled much worse with ethnically diverse communities than the population at large - they're on 7% - but they're still one point above the Lib Dems.

Read Gurpreet's full piece here:

TV presenter Rylan Clark has said he would "love" to become a politician - and replace the party system with a "Power Rangers of government" model.

The TV personality, 35, joined political editor Beth Rigby and former Scottish Conservative leader Baroness Ruth Davidson for this week's Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast.

Asked if he would ever consider the career change, he said: "If I wasn't in the job that I was in, I would love nothing more."

Rylan, who won Celebrity Big Brother and also appeared on the X Factor, appeared on the podcast in place of Labour candidate Jess Phillips after tweeting his praise for Rigby on the day Rishi Sunak announced the general election.

Sharing a clip of her and Sky presenter Sophy Ridge outside a rainy Downing Street waiting for Mr Sunak to appear at the lectern, he said: "Obsessed with the Rigby."

Speaking to her and Davidson, he said his "obsession" with politics began with Brexit - "as we've seen so many promises which weren't fulfilled" since then.

He added: "I lie there at night sometimes, and I think about [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. He hosted one of the same shows I've hosted in Ukraine."

The TV presenter also shared his idea of abandoning political parties altogether.

Read the full story here:

Our live poll tracker collates the results of opinion surveys carried out by all the main polling organisations - and allows you to see how the political parties are performing in the run-up to the general election.

With under a week to go, the Tories and Labour have taken a drop, while support for Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats is on the rise.

Read more about the trackerhere.