General election latest: Starmer allowing 'confusing' Abbott row to 'rumble on' - as he denies she's been barred (2024)

Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething is set to face a motion of no confidence next week.

Mr Gething has only been in post since March but his government has since been through what he described as a "difficult" time.

The motion of no confidence has been tabled by the Welsh Conservatives, the largest opposition party in the Senedd, and is set to take place on Wednesday 5 June.

Mr Gething has faced questions over a controversial £200k donation to his leadership campaign from a man convicted of environmental offences.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said Senedd members would have their say on Mr Gething's "judgement, his transparency, and his truthfulness".

Read the full story here...

Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, have just been speaking to a room packed full of party activists in the West Midlands.

Here is what they said, as they said it (this post was updated live):

Mr Streeting opens the rally, saying the "road to a Labour government runs right here through Worcester".

He highlights "billions of pounds of unfunded tax cuts" that he says the Tories are proposing, and also hits out at the national service policy, saying "this clown show is not funny".

He appeals to the public to vote Labour - touting Sir Keir's "six first steps" for government.

The shadow health secretary then touts their plan to deliver 40,000 new NHS appointments each week, saying the state of the health service should "shame" Rishi Sunak.

He declares that "change is on the ballot paper" and introduces an NHS worker, who says she is "very impressed" by Mr Streeting and the Labour leader.

An RAF veteran also offers his endorsem*nt of Labour, criticising the waiting lists under the Conservatives, and saying he and others will only get proper treatment with the changes Labour is proposing.

He introduces Sir Keir Starmer, who criticises "14 years of failure" under the Tories, and says Rishi Sunak "doesn't understand" the impact of that.

The Labour leader says his party has been "campaigning positively" up and down the country since the election was called.

He appeals to families, businesses, veterans, and all Britons to reject "chaos and division" and vote to "rebuild our country with Labour".

Sir Keir recounts a visit to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, and says that he was "really angry" after finding out that more children are being admitted "to have their rotten teeth taken out than any other operation" - something he blames on the Tories.

He hits out at the PM for saying the country has "turned a corner", arguing that normal people do not feel that at all.

Sir Keir argues that his "first steps" are the way to build a foundation to "rebuild our country".

In closing, he says: "Move forward with Labour - say no more chaos, no more division. Turn the page, change, and build our country and take it forward with Labour."

The NHS, rightly, is a key election battleground.

So it's no surprise Labour has targeted the health service early on in the campaign - and they have one big advantage over the Conservatives.

It was under a Labour government that NHS waiting lists came down to a record low and satisfaction with the health service grew to a record high.

Under a Conservative government, the opposite is true.

But how achievable is Labour's target of cutting the 18-week waiting list within five years?

Public health leaders have described the aim as "bold" and say it took Labour 10 years to do it the last time they were in power.

Labour says it will do this by making thousands of appointments available at weekends and in the evenings.

Making use of empty operating theatres is smart, some trusts are already doing this right now, but it all depends on the availability of a trained, willing and able workforce.

Labour says no staff member will be forced to work extra shifts and can refuse without any comeback - but this is a workforce that is burnt out and stressed.

Even if they wanted to help with this huge push, physically and mentally many might not be in a position to help.

Labour also says it will spend millions raised through scrapping non-dom tax schemes on extra scanners and diagnostic equipment.

That's great - but again, the crucial question is where will we find the staff to make these machines work.

We've just heard from Sir Keir Starmer outside a Labour Q&A event with medical students in Worcester.

As well as being asked about Diane Abbott (see 12.14 post), the Labour leader was asked about the newly-announced junior doctor strikes which will take place in the lead-up to the election.

Sir Keir said he was "shocked" that the government had allowed the situation to reach this point and added that a settlement should have been negotiated.

"What they've effectively done is kicked it the other side of the general election. That's unforgivable," he said.

Sir Keir said he did not want the strike to go ahead due to the impact on patients, and said it would fall to Labour to settle the issue if they were to be elected into government.

The head of the UK's biggest nursing union is stepping down to try to become an MP in the general election.

Professor Pat Cullen, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has announced her bid to be elected as an MP for Sinn Fein in Fermanagh South Tyrone.

She became the public face of the biggest nursing strike in history last year, as she led her union through several months of walkouts over pay and conditions,often joining RCN members on picket lines.

'The honour of my life'

Prof Cullen said in a statement: "This was the hardest decision to make, and we have achieved so much in three very different and difficult years."

She said it had been the "honour of my life" to have served in the RCN and "to provide leadership every day to hundreds of thousands of hard-working nurses and healthcare staff who always prioritise the delivery of high-quality care to patients".

Paul Vaughan, who chairs the RCN Council, said Prof Cullen had been a "tremendous leader".

By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter

Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething is set to face a motion of no confidence next week.

Mr Gethinghas only been in post since March but his government has since been through what he described as a "difficult" time.

The motion of no confidence has been tabled by the Welsh Conservatives, the largest opposition party in the Senedd, and is set to take place on 5 June.

Mr Gething has faced questions over a controversial £200k donation to his leadership campaign from a man convicted of environmental offences.

He has refused calls for the money to be returned, and remaining funds have instead gone to "wider progressive causes".

He has said the donation was within the rules but has commissioned a review of future political donations.

Mr Gething was also accused of having misled the COVID Inquiryafter a text message emerged in which he said he would delete messages in a ministerial group chat.

The first minister insisted the messages related to internal Labour Party matters.

He then sacked Hannah Blythyn, a minister in his government, for allegedly leaking them to the media - allegations she denies.

Victoria Atkins has called for Labour to condemn a decision by junior doctors to strike during the election campaign.

In a post to X, the health secretary said the announcement of fresh strikes from 27 June to 2 July "on Labour's health day shows this was only ever political and not about patients or staff".

She said the decision was a "highly cynical tactic", adding: "This Conservative government has taken the tough decisions to keep public spending down to bear down on inflation, which is now back to normal.

"Labour would be in the hands of their union paymasters - meaning more spending and higher taxes."

Junior doctors are striking as part of their long-running dispute over pay, the British Medical Association said (see more in 11.14 post).

Our political correspondent Tamara Cohen just spoke to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer about the row surrounding Diane Abbott.

He says she has not been barred from standing for the party at the election, despite reports suggesting otherwise yesterday and the veteran MP claiming they were true (see pinned post).

But by saying no decision had yet been made, and likely wouldn't come until next week, Tamara says Sir Keir's "allowing this to rumble on for several more days".

Ms Abbott's supports "in this confusing situation, feel she has been poorly treated", says Tamara.

"Even though who disagree with Diane Abbott's politics feel she has a legacy in the party as the first black woman MP and there's a desire for her to be rehabilitated."

A reminder that Ms Abbott was suspended over a year ago for a letter she wrote for The Observer newspaper, in which she suggested Jewish people don't experience racism but rather prejudice like redheads.

She swiftly apologised and retracted the comments, but only had the whip restored yesterday despite a party investigation reportedly concluding several months ago.

Sir Keir Starmer has said that veteran MP Diane Abbott has not been blocked from standing for Labour, and no decision has been taken.

The Labour leader was asked by broadcasters about Ms Abbott's claim that she would not be able to stand as the party's candidate in her constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington (see post at 7.18).

But he replied: "No, that's not true. No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott.

"The process that we were going through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day."