Election latest: Love Actually star backs Green candidate in key contest - as minister hints at bid to replace Sunak (2024)

Sir Keir Starmer tellsSophy RidgeLabour are "ready" for government as he reveals what puts a spring in his step.

Sophy asks him what keeps him going during the election campaign after Rishi Sunak said he gets through an "enormous" amount of sugar.

"Coffee. Coffee. And then some more coffee," Sir Keir says.

He adds that he's "not a big one for snacks", but is partial to "cheese sandwiches and tuna sandwiches" in the back of the Labour bus.

"It's the high life, isn't it," he jokes.

'We're campaigning with a smile'

Asked whether he was still enjoying the campaign, he says: "Yeah. Four and a half years we've been working for this.

"I woke up with a smile on my face on 1 January because I knew we'd have an election this year.

"We're really pleased to be able to take this argument to the country. We're ready for this. We've got a positive offer to put for the country.

"So we're campaigning with a smile and a spring in our step."

Plans to create tens of thousands of extra appointments to get NHS waiting lists down would be Labour's first priority in government, Sir Keir Starmer tells Sky'sSophy Ridgein the latest of her general election leaders interviews.

He also lists the recruitment of teachers and setting up Great British Energy among the top items on Labour's to-do list should they win the election on 4 July.

He says Labour has "ambitious" plans to "hit the ground running", with many people feeling the country "has been left broken".

"Our job will be to come in to fix that," he adds.

"The first steps are going to be putting in place the plans for 40,000 extra appointments in the NHS to get the waiting list down each week. That's two million a year."

'Are you going to waste the opportunity?'

He describes these first steps as the"down payment on the bigger change we need across the country".

Sophy puts to him polls are suggesting Sir Keir is about to be gifted a historic majority - the kind which in 1945 saw Labour prime minister Clement Attlee create the NHS.

She says his first steps seem quite small, asking "are you going to waste the opportunity?"

Sir Keir says his plans are "a first stepto an NHS which is fit for the next 75/76 years".

"I want to make sure that in the 50, 60, 70 years, people are celebrating the fact an incoming Labour government in 2024 made sure the NHS was not something you look proudly back on, but actually fit for the future."

One week today, Britain will be voting for the party they want to form the next government - and the person they want to be prime minister.​

It's almost certain to be Sir Keir Starmer.

Currently the leader of the Labour Party, by the end of next week he will very probably be our prime minister.

Today I sat down with him at a pottery factory in Stoke - where he stamped clay pots with his Change logo - and talked to me about everything from the NHS to climate change, private schools to the England Euros team.

We'll bring it to you here in the Politics Hub.

Our weeknight politics showPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgeis live now on Sky News.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Tonight, Sophy is joined by Labour'sSir Keir Starmerfor the latest of her general election leaders interviews.

On Sophy's panel tonight are:

• Adam Boulton, Sky election commentator;
• Salma Shah, former Home Office adviser;
• Patrick Diamond, former head of policy planning under Tony Blair.

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

WatchPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgefrom Monday to Thursday on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on theSky News websiteandappor onYouTube.

By Paul Kelso, business correspondent

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has compared Labour plans to require companies to introduce mandatory monitoring of the ethnicity pay gap to apartheid South Africa and the Myanmar regime.

Labour has pledged to extend full equal pay rights to ethnic minority and disabled workers if it wins power, matching the rights already extended to female workers.

Addressing a British Chambers of Commerce conference, Ms Badenoch said the changes would lead to inspectors ticking which ethnic box people fell into.

Challenged about the comparison with the apartheid regime, which used ethnic categorisation to underpin a racist system of white minority rule to restrict basic rights and freedoms, Ms Badenoch said ethnicity could not be tracked with the same clarity as the gender pay gap.

"It will not work the same way in Northumberland as it does in Bradford," she said.

Ms Badenoch added while progress had been made on the gender pay gap, she did not believe it would ever be closed because of personal choices made by women choosing to have families.

'We are too left-wing'

Some businesses have expressed concerns about the cost of implementing Labour's plans for increased worker rights.

Echoing the language used by Rishi Sunak in the final TV debate, she told business leaders not to "surrender" to Keir Starmer's party.

The business secretary also doubled down on her criticism of comments made about her by actor David Tennant (see 16.43 post).

Ms Badenoch, tipped as a candidate to succeed Mr Sunak as Conservative leader, said the party's problem with the challenge from Reform is "we are too left-wing".

She said the Conservatives should not cooperate with Reform, who she described as "one man and some odds and sods".

Leader of the Lib Dems Sir Ed Davey has become known for partaking in a series of adventures during this election campaign.

Today, it's hanging out with a field of alpacas.

Hetook an alpaca named Pele for a walk during a visit to Clivewood Farm in North Shropshire today to support the Liberal Democrat candidate Helen Morgan.

Pele and Sir Ed were joined by six other alpaca friends on the stroll to a nearby field.

Speaking from inside the pen, Sir Ed said: "I know they say be careful working with animals, but these are fantastic aren't they. It's a lot easier than falling off a paddleboard in Lake Windermere."

Other fun-filled activities on his campaign trail have included tackling an assault course and joining Sky's political correspondent Matthew Thompson on a waterslide in Frome.

You can read more on Sir Ed's adventures here:

Friday brings a new episode of Sky's Electoral Dysfunction podcast and this time we've got someone very much outside the Westminster bubble.

Joining our political editor Beth Rigby and Ruth Davidson this week is none other than Rylan Clark.

👉Tap here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts👈

Having expressed his admiration for Beth's epic stint reporting from outside Downing Street on the day Rishi Sunak called the election, how could he have possibly resisted the invitation.

It'll be published in all the usual places tomorrow morning - including here in the Politics Hub and on the Sky News website and app.

With one week to go until the general election, there aren't too many teatime bulletins left to bring you!

Here's everything you need to know - and some of what's still to come:

• Sir Keir Starmer tells Sky News there is "no evidence" private schools will be forced to close due to Labour's plans to impose VAT on them;
• Speaking to Sky's Sophy Ridge,the Labour leader defended his party's education policy to use the money to support state schools;
• You can watch the full interview with the man who could be Britain's next prime minister onPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgefrom 7pm.

• Rishi Sunak has refused to say if he told one of his closest parliamentary aides the date of the election before he placed a bet on it;
• Craig Williams, who has now been suspended as the Conservative candidate in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr,admittedhe "committed a serious error of judgment" but "not an offence";
• Meanwhile, theMetropolitan Policehave issued an update on their investigation into bets being placed on the date of the election - there are nowseven officers under investigation.

• Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker will launch a bid to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader after the election, it is understood;
• The Brexiteer is expected to attempt to replace Mr Sunak if the party is defeated next Thursday.

• Reform UKhas won the backing of Sir John Hall, a former Tory donor and Newcastle United owner;
• And the Greens have been endorsed by actor Hugh Grant, who is backing co-leader Carla Denyer to beat Labour in Bristol Central.

Stick with us through the evening for the latest news and analysis from the campaign trail.

And don't forget, Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live from 7pm.

Sir Keir Starmer has said there is "no evidence" private schools will be forced to close due to Labour's plans to impose VAT on them.

Speaking to Sky's Sophy Ridge in Stoke-on-Trent on Thursday, the Labour leader defended his party's education policy to use the money to support state schools.

"I think they will adapt," he said. "They've had lots of increases in costs over the last 14 years, and they've accommodated it.

"There's no evidence to show these schools will close. They don't have to pass the cost on to parents."

Addressing parents' concerns, he added: "It's a difficult choice. But they're businesses in the end, and they're very successful in the round.

"I want them to thrive. But we need to make this choice.

"If I want the teachers we need in our state secondary schools, I have to answer the question you'd put to me: how are you going to pay for that?"

Read more below:

You can watch the full interview on Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge from 7pm, and we'll also have more from Sir Keir here in the Politics Hub.

Not content with taking on Labour, this week has also seen the Conservatives take up arms against David Tennant.

Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch hit out at the Doctor Who star after he told the former to "shut up" over her views on sex and gender.

He made the comment while accepting an award for his support of the LGBT community.

Ms Badenoch described Tennant as a "rich, lefty, white male celebrity" who was "blinded by ideology" - and during a speech today doubled down against the actor.

Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference, she said she was "never going to shut up" about the "divisive agenda of diversity politics" - "no matter how many Doctor Whos tell me so".

Ms Badenoch is the business secretary and the equalities minister and has been touted as a potential future Tory leader.