General election latest: Farage holding 'emergency' news briefing - where he could announce he's standing at election (2024)

Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, is giving a speech in South East London.

Nigel Farage, the party's honorary leader, is expected to follow Mr Tice on stage.

The Reform leader says the election "must be the immigration election".

He says Reform is "going up" in the polls.

Nigel Farage is holding what he's billed as an "emergency" news briefing from 4pm.

Sources have suggested to Sky colleagues that he could announce he's standing for Reform UK in the general election.

It comes just two weeks after he said he wouldn't be.

We'll bring you live updates on what he says - and you can watch the event live in the stream above.

Campaign Q&As can often throw up some unexpected enquiries, especially when those doing the asking are younger in years.

And so it was during a Tory visit to Wantage Town Football Club, where curveballs weren't only limited to the pitch.

To start off with, Rishi Sunak was asked what his favourite Nando's meal was.

The answer – a half chicken with medium spice along with chips and broccoli, which the PM said he had eaten twice last week.

The broccoli caused much amazement among the footballers, with one saying he thought the visiting guest would have been more of a pea man.

"It's good broccoli," said Rishi Sunak - in what is surely the first time a prime minister has ever spoken those words at a media event – before adding he would also recommend the boneless thighs.

There was also the revelation that the prime minister had recently started getting into country music, with Tim McGraw a particular highlight.

But predictably for a Southampton FC, when asked what his favourite song was, he plumped for "when the Saints go marching in".

We're still waiting for YouGov's massive poll at 5pm.

But before that, we've had another big survey come in.

Redfield and Wilton Strategies asked 10,000 people between 31 May and 2 June how they plan to vote in the general election.

Here are the results, with the change from the previous survey in brackets:

• Labour 46% (–)
• Conservative 20% (-3)
• Reform 14% (+1)
• Lib Dem 10% (+1)
• Green 5% (–)
• SNP 2% (-1)
• Other 2% (-1)

In total, Labour has a lead of 26 points.

The Conservatives have dropped three points, while Reform UK gained one point and the Lib Dems gained one point.

The SNP lost a point, as did the "other" group.

Redfield and Wilton says it is the joint lowest score for the Tories with Rishi Sunak as prime minister.

Spotting and sorting awkward backdrops is an essential skill for any party campaign official.

That can be difficult though when the backdrop is water-based and moving.

Rishi Sunak found this out today when a group of Liberal Democrats photobombed his visit to the banks of the Thames by sailing a placard-laden boat into shot in full view of a pack of TV cameras.

The party has been driving home one of their key campaign messages in the area, on the filthy state of the UK's waterways.

Speaking to some rowers at the Henley club, you do wonder if water quality would have been a more tailored campaign message than the Tories' announcement around gender today.

As Rishi Sunak cleaned a boat, one woman said he didn't really need to do that as it hadn't been in the water recently - pointedly adding that if it had been in the water, it would be covered in "poo" because the Thames is so bad in the area.

Some of the rowers who met the prime minister also seemed in the dark about the gender policy announcement, saying they'd just been told it was a visit connected to women's sports.

Indeed, Rishi Sunak didn't chat to the female athletes about the planned changes to equality law – instead keeping the conversation on rowing.

But when asked, most of the athletes seemed broadly sympathetic to the changes – with some expressing concern about the potential advantage transgender women may have in physical sports like their own.

Rishi Sunak has been facing questions on his party's plan to overhaul the Equality Act and ensure "biological sex" is a protected characteristic.

Speaking from the Leander Club in Berkshire, he was asked whether his goal is to ensure no transgender woman can access female-only spaces.

The PM said there was a "lack of clarity in the law" that is "risking the safety of women and girls".

He said sex should mean biological sex, and that providers of single-sex spaces will be "able to protect women and girls and ensure their safety and security".

Mr Sunak hit out at the SNP's plan to make gender recognition on a self-ID basis, saying it "wasn't right".

But he denied the Tories were "stoking culture wars" on the issue.

"It builds on our track record of treating these issues sensitively and with compassion, as of course we should," he insisted.

But he said protecting women and girls was "paramount in all of our minds".

Reform UK's honorary president Nigel Farage has announced that he will be giving an "emergency" news conference at 4pm.

Sources have suggested to Sky colleagues that he could announce plans to stand as a candidate in this general election.

If he did make such an announcement, it would be a significant U-turn, having said less than two weeks ago that having "thought long and hard" about it, it was "not the right time".

Sunak: Only two people can be PM

Rishi Sunak was asked earlier about the possibility of Mr Farage standing, and he told broadcasters: "At the end of the day, on 5 July, one of two people will be prime minister: either Keir Starmer or me.

"A vote for anyone who's not a Conservative candidate is just a vote to put Keir Starmer in Number 10."

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer has just responded to Sir Keir Starmer's speech pitching Labour as the "party of defence".

He pointed to the party's previously leader and now independent candidate, Jeremy Corbyn, "who said we should turn the army into a peace corps".

"Keir Starmer supported him not once, but twice. So the idea that a leopard can change its spots in this way is obviously taking the British public for fools."

He also hit out at the Labour leader for not matching the Conservatives' commitment to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, and instead saying they'll do it when economic conditions allow.

And on the nuclear deterrent, Mr Mercer noted that the shadow foreign secretary and deputy Labour leader voted against renewing Trident eight years ago.

"If you're serious about nuclear deterrent, if you're serious about defence, you're serious about veterans, I think voting for Labour is extremely dangerous."

The Scottish first minister has criticised Sir Keir Starmer's defence speech this morning, where Labour reaffirmed its commitment to the nuclear triple lock.

Speaking from a dairy farm in Stirling, John Swinney said the SNP believes there is not a place for a nuclear deterrent in our society.

The party has always opposed nuclear weapons, he said.

Nuclear deterrent 'never going to be used'

Mr Swinney said it was "not acceptable" to spend money on the Trident nuclear missile system while conventional defence forces were being "starved" of funding.

We are now living in a "dangerous world", he said, and conventional forces are there to defend us.

He argued Trident is a system "that's never going to be used".

Labour should "get their priorities right", he said, adding it should be investing in conventional weaponry, getting out of the Trident system and ending years of Conservative austerity.

It's lunchtime - here's what you need to know as the second full week of campaigning gets under way.

Sir Keir Starmer has been pitching his party as strong on national security, while Rishi Sunak is focusing on gender issues.

Let us get you up to speed on everything you may have missed today…

• Labourhas been pitching itself as the "party of defence" as it hammers home the message that it has "changed" since the Jeremy Corbyn era;
• Sir Keir Starmerdelivered a speech saying that "a new age of insecurity has begun", and that under Labour, "national security will always come first";
• He said he would be "prepared to use nuclear weapons" if needed to defend the UK;
• But he was put on the defensive when it was noted that a number of members of his shadow cabinet - including his shadow foreign secretary and deputy party leader - previously voted against renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent submarine programme;
• Ourpolitical correspondent Serena Barker-Singhsaid Labour "clearly have it in their mind that they don't want to go into this election - like they did in 2019 - with a wavering view on the nuclear deterrent";
• Sir Keir was also questioned on the war in Gaza, and he said, if elected, he would request fresh legal advice on Israel's compliance with international law to see if arms sales should be halted.

• The Conservative Partyhas announced plans to change the Equality Act to ensure "biological sex" is a protected characteristic;
• The aim is to make it "simpler for service providers for women and girls, such as those running sessions for domestic abuse victims, to prevent biological males from taking part";
• Speaking to Sky News, cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch was put on the spot about why the government had not already done that, and she said the "biggest reason" was the SNP's controversial gender recognition legislation that "took up quite a lot of bandwidth"
• Our political correspondent Rob Powellsaidthe party is "targeting the traditional Tory core vote", as well as trying to "stop leakage to Reform".

• The Liberal Democrats have been out and about promoting their pledge to expand marine protected areas and bring in a new Blue Flag status for rivers, which would set legally binding targets to prevent sewage dumping in those sites;
  
• SNPleader John Swinney has been out on the campaign trail meeting voters and getting his party's message out;
• Reform UKhave also been campaigning - and Nigel Farage has announced an "emergency" news conference for 4pm. Follow Sky News for the latest.

And set your alarms for 5pm when Sky News will be publishing the first YouGov poll-based projection of the campaign.

It will be a seat-by-seat poll, so we'll bring you YouGov's projected election winner and the size of the majority - plus the names of any big beasts set to lose their seats.

Here are a couple of other stories that may interest you:

Our essential political podcast,Politics At Jack And Sam's, is going out every week day through the election campaign to bring a short burst of everything you need to know about the day ahead as this election unfolds - here is today's edition.

Tap here to follow Politics At Jack At Sam's wherever you get your podcasts.

Stick with us for all the latest throughout the afternoon.