UK election updates from June 21: Conservatives lag other parties in large donations

Labour would work with the Scottish government to deliver infrastructure projects more quickly, Sir Keir Starmer said on Friday.

The Labour leader said he would deal with infrastructure delays to open up job opportunities in the energy infrastructure projects. 

“Planning is at the heart of this. It takes far too long for infrastructure projects to get done,” he said.

As planning and consent devolved are Scotland, Starmer said he would work with any local political leaders to accelerate infrastructure development: “We are not doing a deal with the SNP, but I will always work with anyone to help deliver for Scotland.”

Labour would not entertain any Scottish government request to overturn the UK veto on Scotland’s gender recognition reform bill, which was imposed by the Conservatives last year.

Speaking to reporters in Scotland, Sir Keir Starmer said: “There will be no change of position on that — there is a lot to learn on gender ID from the way it’s been dealt with here in Scotland.” 

The Scottish bill, passed in 2022, would have streamlined the process of changing a person’s legal gender, including removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

Scotland’s highest court last year ruled the Conservative government’s block had been lawful. The court had found that the law did not comply with the equality act, the primacy of which is “very important,” said Anas Sarwar, leader of Scottish Labour. 

Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer in effect closed the door on an independence referendum during a trip to Scotland on Friday. 

John Swinney, the Scottish National party leader, said earlier this week he would embark on talks for a second referendum if his party held a majority of seats north of the border at the general election. 

Starmer accused the SNP of “focusing on the wrong priorities” and said Labour’s priority was “to ensure we have a strong economy with the jobs of the future”.

Anas Sarwar, leader of Scottish Labour, said Scots would find it “perfectly reasonable” for an incoming Labour government to focus on the economy rather than the “divisive” constitutional question.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has acknowledged the past few years have been tough, adding that he understands why people may not want to vote Conservative.

“I know you are frustrated with our party, frustrated with me, but do not let Labour waltz into office without scrutinising them,” he said at the launch of the Welsh Conservative manifesto in Clwyd North.

“I understand of course why people have their doubts about offering us their support again, the last few years have been really tough . . . We have not got everything right, we have made mistakes.”

Labour is on track to gain Clwyd North, according to the FT’s poll tracker, which is a new constituency.

The FT’s latest poll tracker has Reform UK narrowing the gap with the Conservatives to less than 6 percentage points. But Labour has maintained a more than 20-point lead over the Conservatives.

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The FT’s analysis suggests this will translate into a huge 262-seat majority for Labour, with the party securing 456 seats compared with 90 for the Conservatives, 60 for the Liberal Democrats and none for Reform UK.

As John Burn-Murdoch notes in his column today, thanks to the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system, this election is likely to be the most distorted — in terms of the difference between a party’s share of the vote and its share of parliamentary seats — in British and indeed in world history.

Labour has said it will tackle landlords asking for multiple months of rent upfront as a deposit as part of its policy to fix the housing crisis. 

“We’ve got to crack down on some of these unscrupulous landlords who are abusing people,” Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. 

She criticised the supply problem in the housing market, saying renters were forced to “bid” for properties.

Although Labour has said in the past that rent controls are not party policy, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that she could see a case for controlling rents in local areas, even though she did not favour a “blanket approach”.

Thursday was dominated by the scandal over alleged betting on the date of the election by Conservative candidates and others.

• The Tory party’s head of campaigning was being investigated over suspicious betting patterns seen in the days before Rishi Sunak announced the date of the election, it emerged on Thursday, along with his Tory candidate wife.

• Also embroiled were an aide to Sunak, who is also a candidate, and a member of Sunak’s police protection unit, who was arrested on Monday.

• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the candidates under investigation by the Gambling Commission to be suspended. ‘If it was one of my candidates they would be gone and their feet would not have touched the floor,’ he said.

• Analysis by the Financial Times revealed an unusual burst of bets on the election date immediately before Sunak announced it.

• Former Conservative minister Chris Skidmore endorsed Labour in a Guardian opinion piece and accused Sunak of siding with climate deniers.

• Starmer said he wanted to “protect people in rented accommodation”, but argued that rent caps were not necessary to do so.

• Former prime minister Boris Johnson will publish his memoir, Unleashed, in the autumn. HarperCollins bought the rights to the memoir last year. Johnson has been largely absent from the campaign trail over the past month.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has in effect confirmed she will not introduce VAT on private school fees until 2025 at the earliest if Labour wins the election.

Reeves told a Times conference that the move would not happen until after her first Budget, which will not take place before the start of the new school year in September. 

“Those changes would be in our first Budget but they would come in after that,” she said. Labour officials said VAT would be introduced “as soon as possible” but that a firm timetable would not be announced until after the election.

Reeves has said the Office for Budget Responsibility will be given 10 weeks to prepare forecasts for the Budget, which would mean that mid-September is the earliest date for her first fiscal statement.