Chaos continues
As the fallout from Sunak’s D-Day
disaster continues, the Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride was
forced to deny that Rishi Sunak could step down before the 4 July, in
an extraordinary mid-campaign moment.
Results roll in
The European People’s Party (EPP)
is set to emerge as the largest force in the EU Parliament, as support
for centrist parties held even as far-right groups made major gains
across the bloc. Exit polls suggest the centre right party will end up
with 184 out of 720 lawmakers, meaning it will continue to be best
placed to set EU policy.
Focus on France
In a huge political gamble, Macron
has called a surprise snap election for the French parliament after
being rattled by disastrous EU election results in which Marine Le
Pen’s hard right National Rally is projected to have won 32% of the
vote, compared to Macron’s Renaissance Party at 15%. Macron is
betting French voters are more likely to back more centrist parties in
a domestic election and he can snuff out this right wing resurgence
before it can gain further momentum.
Plenty policy
Back in the UK, the weekend saw
plenty of policy announcements from all parties ahead of manifesto
launches this week. The top lines are as follows:
- The
Tories are promising to reform the welfare system to get people who
are mentally unwell back into work - alongside a tightening up of
the system to cut the numbers claiming disability
benefit.
- Labour
focused on crime, promising that they will establish 80 new courts for
rape cases across England and Wales, build more prisons by letting
ministers bypass planning laws and clamp down on shoplifting and
violence against shop workers.
- And Ed
Davey was out promoting the Lib Dems policy of creating 1,000 new
hospital beds, as the party continues to put health and social care
front and centre. Their Manifesto launches today.
-
Elsewhere, Green co-leader Carla
Denyer spoke powerfully about the importance and positive impact of
immigration during the BBC’s 7-way General Election debate on Friday,
and also the SNP Stephen Flynn broke the silence of this election on the damaging impact of
Brexit.
Yay for Youth Mobility Scheme
This weekend it was also confirmed
that the Lib Dems will pledge a Youth Mobility Scheme with the EU, as
recommended by the UK Trade and Business Commision. Our
polling shows around 7 in 10 people are in favour of the scheme, and
as our CEO Naomi Smith argues, “voters want it, businesses need it and we want all parties to
get on with it.” Make sure to check out our Director of Campaigns Cal Roscow go
into more detail on LBC.
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