6:37 am, July 3, 2024
Boris Johnson returns to the trail as General Election campaigns come to an end
Boris Johnson has lent his support to Rishi Sunak on the campaign trail as pollsters forecast their party could ‘win a lower share of the vote than at any past general election’.
At a rally on Tuesday, Sunak hailed the ‘Conservative family united’ after an appearance by his predecessor Johnson and claimed just 130,000 voters could help stem his party’s predicted losses.
He made his speech after Survation pollsters found Labour is on course to win more seats than it did in 1997.
Labour on course to win more seats than 1997 landslide – pollster
Labour is on course to win around 484 seats in Thursday’s General Election – more than it did when Tony Blair took office in 1997, according to a poll unveiled 36 hours before voting begins.
Survation pollsters quizzed 34,558 respondents online and by phone between June 15 and July 2, and have said a Labour landslide is ‘99% certain’.
Prominent Conservative figures look set to lose their seats, including chancellor Jeremy Hunt, defence secretary Grant Shapps and education secretary Gillian Keegan.
Sir Ed Davey ‘so moved’ by reaction to care campaign
Sir Ed Davey has been ‘so moved’ by the reaction to the Liberal Democrats’ General Election campaign on care and carers, he said in a statement.
Ahead of polling day on Thursday, the party leader said he is ‘proud’ of a campaign trail which he said had ‘brought care out of the shadows’.
Among a series of manifesto pledges on, the Liberal Democrats have called for free personal care in England, a £2 an hour minimum wage boost for carers, and a cross-party commission to ‘forge a long-term agreement on sustainable funding for social care’.
Child killer nurse Lucy Letby convicted of trying to murder baby girl
Killer nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of the attempted murder of a baby girl.
Letby, 34, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court last August by another jury of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit between June 2015 and June 2016. A verdict on the allegation concerning a baby girl, known as Child K, could not be reached and a retrial at the same court was ordered on that single count.
On Tuesday, Letby was convicted by the fresh jury of trying to murder the ‘very premature’ infant by dislodging her breathing tube in the early hours of February 17, 2016.
Judge delays Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until September
Former US president Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed to September after the judge agreed on Tuesday to weigh the possible impact of a new Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Trump had been scheduled to face sentencing July 11 on his New York conviction on felony charges of falsifying business records. He denies any wrongdoing.
‘The impact of the Immunity Ruling is a loud and clear signal for Justice in the United States,’ Trump said on his Truth Social media site after the sentencing was delayed.
Average asking rent outside London ‘hits new high of £1,316 per month’
The average monthly rent being asked outside London has hit a record high of £1,316, according to a property website.
The new record across Britain, excluding London, means that average advertised rents outside London are around 7% higher than a year earlier, according to Rightmove’s analysis covering the month of May.
In London, the average advertised rent is £2,652 per month, which is 4% higher than a year earlier, the website said.
Drivers told to buy fuel ‘sooner rather than later’ as 10-week price drop ends
Drivers are being urged to buy fuel “sooner rather then later” as a 10-week run of falling prices has ended, dashing hopes of a return to pre-pandemic levels.
The AA said the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts fell from 150.1p on April 24 to 144.5p at the end of last week, but has stabilised since then. The average price of a litre of diesel dropped from 158.3p on April 24 to 149.6p but the decline stopped on Thursday last week.
Motoring groups previously hoped petrol prices would fall below the pre-pandemic record high of 142.5p per litre on April 12 2012 for just the second time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Weather
A cloudy start with outbreaks of showery rain in most areas, reports BBC Weather. This should clear during the day leaving a sunny but breezy day. Highs of just 19 degrees.
A dry night for most with clear spells. North-western areas will have blustery showers.
