Election latest: Labour holding major campaign rally as celebrity endorsem*nts expected; Farage told to 'get a grip' on party (2024)

With days to go until polls open in the general election, the Labour Party is holding a major campaign rally in London.

Sir Keir Starmer is due to address gathered activists as they prepare to make their closing arguments to voters across the country.

The party is also expected to unveil celebrity endorsem*nts during the event.

Watch live in the stream at the top of this page, at the link below - and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

TV presenter Rylan Clark has said he would "love" to become a politician - and replace the party system with a "Power Rangers of government" model.

The TV personality, 35, joined political editor Beth Rigby and former Scottish Conservative leader Baroness Ruth Davidson for this week's Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast.

Asked if he would ever consider the career change, he said: "If I wasn't in the job that I was in, I would love nothing more."

Rylan, who won Celebrity Big Brother and also appeared on the X Factor, appeared on the podcast in place of Labour candidate Jess Phillips after tweeting his praise for Rigby on the day Rishi Sunak announced the general election.

Sharing a clip of her and Sky presenter Sophy Ridge outside a rainy Downing Street waiting for Mr Sunak to appear at the lectern, he said: "Obsessed with the Rigby."

Speaking to her and Davidson, he said his "obsession" with politics began with Brexit - "as we've seen so many promises which weren't fulfilled" since then.

He added: "I lie there at night sometimes, and I think about [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. He hosted one of the same shows I've hosted in Ukraine."

The TV presenter also shared his idea of abandoning political parties altogether.

Read the full story here:

By Matthew Thompson, political correspondent

837 miles. That is, officially at least, the distance the Lib Dem bus will travel on its final campaign push from John O'Groats in the North East of Scotland, to Land's End on the tip of Cornwall.

Add in several daily campaign stops (and, insists our producer Katy, the fact that she and a hardcore crew rode the bus all the way up from London), and the total distance will be considerably more.

Nor is it simply another Lib Dem gimmick. Both John O'Groats and Land's End are in constituencies the party are very much targeting at this election.

What's instructive, though, are the stops they have planned in-between.

It's been a busy start to the trip, with four stops in Scotland alone. A mixture of seats the party is defending, and those it hopes to take from the SNP.

But once we leave Edinburgh tonight, we drive for several hours without stopping, until we reach the South West of England.

And not by accident. Even the most generous polls only have the Lib Dems gaining 6 seats across the whole of the North of England and the Midlands.

This is a highly targeted campaign. The strategy is to focus on areas where the party has historical strength, and where it has recently come second, primarily to the Conservatives.

And of approximately 85 such seats, 69 are in the South West, South East and London.

It is there that the Lib Dem campaign will succeed or fail. And it is there that we will spend the last precious few days left to campaign.

No doubt with the occasional stunt thrown in for good measure.

Pledges and promises are coming thick and fast from every party as the general election approaches.

Struggling to keep up with who is saying what?

Here is a summary of where the main parties stand on major issues.

For a more in-depth look at what each party has pledged, scour ourmanifesto checker...

By Jason Farrell, home editor

The Welsh electorate has travelled in one direction for the last 100 years.

Labour always win more votes and seats than their rivals inWalesbut, floating our parliamentary bench on a barge across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, we discover not everything is as tranquil as it seems in this stunning beauty spot.

The20mph speed limit, wind farms and waiting times on the NHS are all matters raised by people who are not happy with Labour's record in theSenedd.

The first person we meet is Reuben Jones, who works at the local barge hire company adjacent to the aqueduct.

"I'm a transgender person," says Reuben. "I'm very unhappy with the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts at the moment. There are a lot of issues with the education system, a lot of problems with the health care system."

Our live poll tracker collates the results of opinion surveys carried out by all the main polling organisations - and allows you to see how the political parties are performing in the run-up to the general election.

With under a week to go, the Tories and Labour have taken a drop, while support for Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats is on the rise.

Read more about the trackerhere.

First Minister of Scotland John Swinney has joined criticism of "racist and hom*ophobic comments" allegedly made by Reform UK campaigners.

Despite this, he said they are "not a surprise to me".

Mr Swinney, also the leader of the SNP, said: "I think this is where the politics of Reform ends up and I deplore it. I deprecate it. I want nothing to do with it.

"We will always rail against racist and hom*ophobic comments, and I can't believe that there's a single thing Nigel Farage can do to control a problem that he himself has started."

The SNP leader goes on to claim that this is not a case of bad apples, but "an ingrained problem of Reform".

He says: "Nigel Farage has set this all up. He has stoked it all.

"With every word over all these years, he has incited all that intolerance and prejudice in our society.

"I want to have nothing to do with it.

"And I don't think there's anything Nigel Farage can do to stop it, because he created it."

Reform UK has reported Channel 4 to the elections watchdog for alleged "scandalous... interference" over what the party claims was a fake rant planted by the broadcaster.

Footage from an undercover Channel 4 reporter showed Reform campaigner Andrew Parker using a discriminatory term about the prime minister, as well as saying the army should "just shoot" migrants crossing the Channel.

Police are now assessing the comments to establish if an offence has been committed, while Mr Sunaksaid the insult directed at him "hurts and it makes me angry".

Mr Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has since suggested that Channel 4 may have paid an actor to make racist comments about the prime minister, posing as a canvasser for Reform.

In a letter to the Electoral Commission, party secretary and leading barrister Adam Richardson claimed that "Mr Parker is not a property developer as he has alleged but a jobbing actor".

He added it was "entirely evident that Mr Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 news piece".

The letter said: "It is wholly unbelievable that by complete coincidence Channel 4 were performing an undercover investigation and by chance were paired up to go canvassing with a man who was pretending to be someone else, using a false voice and saying almost exclusively racist and bigoted remarks."

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has said he is refusing to appear on Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday morning politics show until the BBC apologise for a "dishonest" audience.

He claimed this audience existed during his appearance on Question Time.

Mr Farage says: "I have just been invited to appear on Laura Kuenssberg.

"I'm refusing until the BBC apologises for their dishonest QT audience.

"Our state broadcaster has behaved like a political actor throughout this election.

"Reform will be campaigning vigorously to abolish the license fee."

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has insisted that his party shares "no values with Nigel Farage" in the wake of a new racism row.

It comes after Mr Farage, the leader of Reform UK, suggested that Channel 4 may have paid an actor to make racist comments about the prime minister, posing as a canvasser for Reform.

Sir Ed says: "Liberal Democrats share no values with Mr. Farage. He can sort himself out. My job as a Liberal Democrat leader is to tell you what we're about.

"I want to fight a positive campaign about how we rescue our NHS and make sure we get the investment in health and care. Make sure we sort out the cost of living problems that people are really suffering under, and deal with things like the environmental issues, like sewage.

"You know, and I think people get fed up in this campaign when there's all these diversions and nastiness. They want to know what you're going to do for them.

"And that's what the Liberal Democrats are going to say."