Election latest: Starmer's 6pm finishes on Fridays to spend time with his kids attacked by minister who says she works '20-hour days' (2024)

More on one of the day's top stories now - namely reports that some postal votes have not yet arrived at the homes of voters.

Royal Mail officials have said they "remain confident" that those postal votes that were received on time will be delivered before polling day, adding there is "no backlog".

The Post Office minister said earlier she is urgently investigating delays to people receiving their postal votes.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day."

It suggested that "stakeholders" involved in "printing and administering" the postal votes could be to blame.

"Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network.

"We would welcome a review into the timetable for future elections with all stakeholders to ensure that the system for printing and administering postal votes before they are handed to Royal Mail works as smoothly as possible."

Sir Keir Starmer has said Tory attacks on his desire to spend Friday evenings with his family were a sign of "increasing desperation bordering on hysterical".

The father-of-two said he would continue to have "protected time for the kids" at the end of the week if he were to take over the top job on 5 July.

The Conservatives have tried to make hay with the comments, with an attack on social media saying: "Keir Starmer has said he'd clock off work at 6pm if he became prime minister.

"You deserve better than a part-time prime minister. The only way to prevent this is to vote Conservative on Thursday."

Asked about the Tory criticism, Sir Keir said: "This is just increasingly desperate stuff.

"I actually can hardly believe that 48 hours before an election, the Conservative Party has got nothing possible, positive to say as they go into this.

"I've been arguing throughout this campaign. You'll have heard me many times saying they haven't changed.

"They're just the same. Nothing's going to change.

"And they're proving it because they are not saying, look, if you vote Tory, vote Conservative on Thursday, these things will happen.

"They're just in this negative, desperate loop and it is really desperate.

"My family is really important to me, as they will be to every single person watching this. And I just think it's increasing desperation bordering on hysterical."

The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is now asked about reports that some postal votes have not yet arrived at the homes of voters.

"I am concerned about the postal ballots because it is really important in this election that every single person has the ability to vote - and I hope vote for change," he says in response.

"I think it's on all of us on a sort of non-party political basis to say we must do everything we collectively can to ensure that those ballot papers get to people and they can fill them in and have the vote to which they are entitled so that the country can move forward with the change that I hope will be delivered at this election."

Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions from the media, including from our political correspondent Serena Barker-Singh.

She asks about the cost of living crisis, which has eased because Europe is still reliant on Russian gas imports - with UK companies still facilitating the trade through insurance and ownership.

Would Sir Keir toughen sanctions to clamp down on this?

The Labour leader says the UK needs to have a "clear framework in place when it comes to trade".

He adds: "But what I would say you started with energy.

"One of the reasons that we've paid such high prices in energy is because we're over reliant on the international market.

"That is precisely why we want to start the work on day one, setting up Great British Energy, a home-grown renewable energy company, because that will give us lower bills for good, because we control it.

"It will give us independence and security, because whatever happens in Ukraine and Russia will not impact in the way that it has done."

You can read more on how British firms help to keep Russian gas flowing into Europe from our economics and data editor Ed Conway here:

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is also busy on the campaign trail today, addressing those gathered at a rally in Nottingham.

Less than 48 hours before polls open, Sir Keir hails his party for running a "positive campaign... all about change".

"What a contrast to the increasingly desperate, negative campaign that the Tories are running," he says.

"They have literally got nothing to say to the electorate."

In contrast, the Labour leader says: "We have got plenty to say.

"This campaign is about change, it is about turning the page and rebuilding our country."

Sir Keir says if you don't vote Labour on Thursday, we could end up "on Friday morning with five more years" of the Conservatives.

"Have you seen anything in their campaign that suggests they have changed?"

He adds that "every single vote counts", stressing that some constituencies will go down to "a few hundred votes" either side on election night.

"People want change, but change will only happen if you vote for it."

Still in Oxfordshire, the prime minister is now taking questions from the audience.

One woman says she's waited three years for an autism and ADHD diagnosis for her son and eventually ended up going private anyway.

She asks how the prime minister can tackle the waiting lists and support those with diagnoses.

Rishi Sunak says he's introduced a scheme that allows people to access the private sector via the NHS if the wait times are too long.

"What I tell the NHS is: 'Look, if there's a private provider that can do whatever it might be, whether it's an assessment or a hip replacement, and they can do it at the same tariff rate, then people should be able to choose where to get their treatment and get it done there'," he says.

He says this "because I don't have any ideological disagreement with the private sector", in an apparent stab at Sir Keir Starmer, adding that is one of the differences between the Conservatives and Labour.

He then references the "pharmacy first" policy which should also help cut GP waits, before adding that six million NHS referrals were not carried out during the pandemic, slowing wait times further.

"We're now starting to see waiting lists come down," he says.

As for why he can be trusted, the prime minister repeats that he was right when warning of the dangers Liz Truss posed, and "that's why you can trustme now when I'm warning you about the dangers of what Labour would do if they were in power".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in Oxfordshire today, where he is taking questions from staff at a warehouse.

Ahead of the Q&A, he addresses those gathered.

As he has throughout his campaigning, Mr Sunak admits that the Tories haven't got everything right in the past, but this election is about the future.

He repeats his attacks on Labour and says the Conservatives will continue to cut taxes if re-elected.

"There is an important choice, and a vote for the Conservatives... is a vote to lower your taxes and continue the progress [we've made]," he says.

"Don't sleepwalk into something you haven't thought properly about... every vote matters, you can make the difference."

We're just two days away from the election now.

Georgie David, who was the Reform candidate for West Ham and Beckton, has confirmed her decision to suspend her campaign - and back the Conservatives.

She said she is "in no doubt that the party and its senior leadership are not racist", but said the "vast majority of candidates are indeed racist, misogynistic and bigoted".

Ms David added: "I do not wish to be directly associated with people who hold such views that are so vastly opposing to my own and what I stand for.

"I also have been significantly frustrated and dismayed by the failure of the Reform Party’s leadership to tackle this issue in any meaningful way, and their attempts to instead try to brush it under the carpet or cry foul play.

"As such, I have now suspended my campaign with Reform, and I an endorsing the Conservative Party – I would encourage all of my fellow patriots to do the same."

It comes two days after Reform's candidate in Erewash alsodefected to the Conservatives over racism concerns.

The other candidates in West Ham and Beckton are:

• James Edward Asser - Labour
  
• Lois Austin - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
• Emily Bigland - Liberal Democrats
  
• Rob Callender - Green Party
  
• Sophia Naqvi - Newham Independents Party
  
• Holly Alice Ramsey -Conservative and Unionist Party
  
• Kayode Shedowo -Christian Peoples Alliance

Moving to renewables will help Europe stop the Russian war machine, the Liberal Democrat leader has said.

Speaking to reporters, he said "we need to work across Europe to embrace renewables".

He said this would not only help stop funding for Putin's regime, but also bring energy bills down in the UK for families facing high costs.

This comes after our economics and data editor Ed Conway showed that British firms were helping to keep Russian gas flowing into Europe - despite a wave of sanctions intended to stop exactly that.

You can read Conway's report here.

Voters have responded very well to Liberal Democrat stunts, Sir Ed Davey has said.

Speaking to the media after knocking down blue dominos with a yellow "Lib Dem domino" (see 09.35 post), the party leader was asked if people had started to get bored of his antics.

He's bungee jumped, taken part in Zumba classes and rode a roller coaster in recent days.

He said people seemed to enjoy them, adding he feels the party have conveyed a series of "serious" policies while having "a bit of fun".

He said he hoped people will vote Lib Dem in constituencies which are contested between them and the Tories.

"Don't vote Green, Labour or Reform [in those constituencies], because we'll let the Tories in the back door," he said.

"I'm really concerned," he said of the reports that some postal votes have not yet arrived at the homes of voters.

"It is a genuine worry."