Starmer says Sunak ‘revealed character’ by lying about Labour’s tax plans – UK politics live | General election 2024

In the senedd Vaughan Gething is speaking now.

He says he regrets the fact the Tories have brought this motion forward.

That is not because he is infallible, he says. He is human, and he has made mistakes and will continue to do so, he says.

Instead, he says, he regrets the motion because it criticises his integrity. He goes on:

I have never, ever made a decision, in more than a decade as a minister, for personal or financial gain.

Steven Morris

In the debate in the senedd Hefin David, a loyal Vaughan Gething ally, suggested race was a factor behind the drive to oust the first minister. David said:

I have the right to ask if his ethnicity has an influence on the motives of some of those outside this chamber who seek to break him on the wheel. We cannot ignore that question and we cannot dismiss the lived experience of those BME people who feel it to be the place.

He said it was possible a no confidence vote in Gething could lead to a senedd election needing to be called.

Faiza Shaheen, who was blocked by Labour for standing as its candidate against Iain Duncan Smith in Chingford and Woodford Green, has announced that she is running as an independent. She says she wants to show that there is a “progressive alternative” to both main parties.

Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies says Gething’s ‘judgment, transparency and honesty’ open to question

Steven Morris

Opening the no confidence debate in the Senedd into Vaughan Gething (see 4.03pm), Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the Tories in Wales, said it was about “judgement, transparency and honesty.”

At the heart of the debate is a donation Gething took from a company whose owner has been convicted of environmental offences.

Davies said:

Most reasonable people would question what was being secured by that £200,000 donation to the leadership campaign.

It’s about judgment, transparency and honesty, it’s not general electioneering, it’s not a vote of confidence in the government or Labour party, it’s about what the first minister has undertaken and the calls he has made.

The leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said it was a very grave and solemn day. He said in 25 years of devolution the senedd had faced few financial scandals.

But he said Gething had shown a lack of judgement and contrition and a “bunker mentality”. He said: “We must be different from Westminster, not only in words, but deeds too.”

Vikki Howells, the chair of the Labour group in the Senedd, said the motion today was a “cynical gimmick” by the Tories to take attention off the general election and subvert democracy.

Labour member Joyce Watson expressed anger that the debate had taken place on the anniversary of the D-Day landings, preventing Gething representing Wales in Portsmouth. She told Gething’s opponents: “You could have picked any other day. You chose this day. I will never forgive you. You want to hang your head in shame.”

Gething appeared to be in tears as Howells spoke in his support. He was comforted by the chief whip, Jane Hutt.

Starmer says Sunak ‘revealed his character’ when he lied about Labour’s tax plan, also breaching ministerial code

Peter Walker

Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of deliberately lying when he claimed Labour spending plans would increase taxes by £2,000, saying the prime minister’s tactics in Tuesday night’s TV debate showed he was dishonest when put under pressure.

Amid an increasingly bitter and personal war of words over the standout dispute in the debate between the prime minister and Labour leader, Starmer said be believed Sunak should be investigated for breaching the ministerial code for dishonesty.

“What you saw last night was a prime minister with his back against the wall, trying desperately to defend an awful record in office resorting to lies,” Starmer said in a round of media interviews during a D-Day-related visit to Portsmouth’s historic dockyard. He went on:

He knew very well what he was doing.

He lied about our plans. And that is a true test of character. As we go to the polls it is important for voters to know about the character of the two individuals who want to be prime minister.

The prime minister revealed his character last night – someone who resorts to lies when he’s under pressure.

Asked if he believed Sunak had breached the ministerial code, and if he would back an investigation, Starmer replied: “Yes, he breached the ministerial code because he lied.”

The election, he added, was “a choice between chaos and division, and now lies on top of it”.

In Cardiff members of the senedd (MSs) are now debating the motion of no confidence in Vaughan Gething, the relatively new Labour first minister.

Here is the text of the motion, tabled by the Conservatives.

To propose that the senedd:

1. Recognises the genuine public concern over the first minister accepting a £200,000 donation for his Labour leadership campaign from a company owned by an individual who has two environmental criminal convictions, and regrets the poor judgement shown by the first minister in accepting this donation, and his failure to repay it.

2. Regrets the publication of Welsh government ministerial messages where the first minister states his intention to delete messages that could have later been helpful to the Covid inquiry in its deliberations around decision making at the time of the Covid pandemic, despite the first minister telling the UK Covid inquiry that he didn’t delete any messages.

3. Notes the dismissal by the first minister of the minister for social partnership from his government, regrets that the first minister is unwilling to publish his supporting evidence for the dismissal, and notes the former minister for social partnership’s strong denial of the accusations levelled against her.

4. For the above reasons, has no confidence in the first minister.

There is a live feed here.

According to Ruth Mosalski, who is running a good live blog of the proceedings at WalesOnline, at one point Gething (who has not spoken yet) was in tears.

The leader of Basildon council’s Conservative group has said he will not campaign for national Tory chairman Richard Holden, who is set to become the area’s parliamentary candidate, PA Media reports. PA says:

Andrew Baggott, who leads the Conservative group on the council, confirmed Holden, until recently the MP for North West Durham, was the sole candidate on a list for the Basildon constituency presented to the local Conservative association by the party’s head office.

Baggott said: “They have given no choice of candidate to the association, no choice of candidate to the membership. They have shown complete disrespect and arrogance to all the party volunteers, all the party members, hardworking Conservatives in this borough. They are shameful.”

He added: “They are lacking in integrity, honour, and these are the things that the public looks for in the people they want to run this country.”

The Conservative councillor said association members were “exploring” options to fight the decision, adding: “Of course we are running out of time, because the nominations have to be in by 4pm on Friday. We have to organise people. It is deliberately being left to the last minute to prevent any action being able to be taken.”

Asked by PA if he would campaign for Holden, he said: “Absolutely not. Sorry, I will be campaigning for Stephen Metcalfe in the neighbouring authority. I will be campaigning for Mark Francois. I will not be campaigning for somebody that is being imposed upon us.”

Holden’s old seat was abolished in the boundary review.

Corbyn denies betraying Labour as he submits nomination papers to stand against party as independent in Islington

Ben Quinn

Jeremy Corbyn has submitted his nomination papers to stand as as an independent in Islington North, in a battle that will put him against the party he once led.

Addressing Keir Starmer’s repeated insistence to voters that the Labour party had changed since he took over from Corbyn, he said:

I don’t think there is any need for him to diss the past or diss his involvement in it. When we came up to the 2019 election, the manifesto and policies and strategies were agreed unanimously by both the shadow cabinet and the NEC.

Change which the UK needed required a challenge to the “economic orthodoxy which he now appears to be embracing”, said Corbyn. He suggested that Keir Starmer – who served in his shadow cabinet – appeared to think that forgetting this past involvement “somehow makes you strong”.

The former MP rejected a suggestion that he was betraying Labour, telling reporters:

Quite the opposite. I was elected as a Labour candidate in 1983. I joined the party when I was 16. I have been in the party my whole life, so the way Islington north has been treated and the way I have been treated is not a good example.

Crowds of supporters had earlier burst into chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” – a familiar one from the peak of his popularity as the Labour leader. Corbyn’s opponents include a Labour candidate in the form of Praful Nargund, a local councillor.

Corbyn said he had not been tempted to join with George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain – which is seeking to mount a challenge to Labour on the left and on the issue of Gaza – saying there were differences of social policy. “He probably thinks I’m too woke,” he added.

Asked if it was time for voters looking for a left alternative to the government to look beyond Labour, he said:

It’s a bit of both. It’s always been a bit of both. I’ve always been in the Labour party, I’ve now been removed from the Labour party. But I’ve got thousands of friends in the Labour party and many are strongly supporting my campaign.