Nigel Farage takes part in Question Time election special – as it happened

Sunak tells of hurt and anger he felt about his daughters having to hear Reform UK’s racist slur about him

Rishi Sunak has spoken about the hurt and anger he felt when he heard a Reform UK activist using a racial slur about him.

In a broadcast interview, he said he was particularly upset about his daughters having to hear what was said. And he made a point of repeating the slur himself (the P-word) because he said it was important to call it out for what it was.

Asked about the comment, one of several racist and homophobic comments made by Reform UK activists in Clacton and filmed by an undercover Channel 4 News reporter, Sunak said:

When my two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing [P-word], it hurts and it makes me angry, and I think he has some questions to answer.

And I don’t repeat those words lightly. I do so deliberately, because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is.

Asked if it was frustrating for Sunak to know that some former Tory supporters were backing a party whose activists behave like this, Sunak said:

When you see Reform candidates and campaigners seemingly using racist and misogynistic language and opinions, seemingly without challenge, I think it tells you something about the culture within the Reform party.

Andrew Tate isn’t an important voice for men. He is a vile misogynist, and our politics and country is better than that.

And as prime minister, but more importantly as a father of two young girls, it’s my duty to call out this corrosive and divisive behaviour.

This post was amended on 28 June 2024 to make clear it was Rishi Sunak speaking about Reform candidates using racist and misogynistic language.

Rishi Sunak says Reform activist's racial slur 'too important not to call out' – video — Rishi Sunak says Reform activist’s racial slur ‘too important not to call out’ – video

Key events

Evening summary

Labour Leader Keir Starmer has said that Nigel Farage’s failure to deal with racists in Reform UK shows his weakness as leader. An activist for the party was filmed making racist comments about prime minister Rishi Sunak by a Channel 4 News undercover reporter.
Nigel Farage has claimed that an activist in question, Andrew Parker, is an actor and that the clip was a fabrication. The Reform UK leader told ITV’s Loose Women and BBC Question Time that the incident was orchestrated to discredit his party.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak said he felt hurt and anger, particularly on behalf of his two daughters, when he heard a Reform UK activist using a racial slur about him. Sunak deliberately repeated the slur in a broadcast interview, ‘because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is’.
Essex police has said it is assessing the comments made in the Channel 4 News exposé to establish if any of the activists who were recorded were committing an offence.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has warned his party not to be complacent about the impact Nigel Farage’s party can have on the electorate. He told the Guardian that targeting Reform UK ‘must start now’.
YouGov polling earlier this month found that 53% of ethnic minority voters intend to vote Labour. However, Conservative support is significantly higher among Indian voters while support for the Greens is significantly higher among Britons of Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent.
The Green Party want the wealthiest to contribute ‘modestly more’ to rebuild Britain’s public services. Co-leader Adrian Ramsay told BBC Question Time that ‘we need to achieve big changes in our society’.
Nigel Farage has claimed that he has ‘done more to drive the far-right out of British politics than anybody else alive’. He told BBC Question Time that he has never allowed a member of an extremist organisation to join a party he had led.

The tax burden for working people is at its highest level since 1948, Nigel Farage has said.

Responding to a question on BBC Question Time about whether he is wealthier as a result of not having to pay certain taxes since Brexit, Farage said: “You’re all poorer because the tax burden, for working people, is now the highest since 1948. And this is the trickery; I mentioned earlier about staff nurses.

“Forty pence tax was the top rate of tax in this country, right through the mid-eighties right through to the end of Tony Blair’s time. And one-and-a-half million people paid that top rate of tax. Because of slight of hand, and freezing allowances, by the end of 2027 it’ll be eight million people paying that level of tax.”

Both Labour and the Conservatives want to keep the tax bands frozen, Farage claims.

Britain’s immigration policy ‘worked’ up until the millennium, Nigel Farage tells BBC Question Time

Britain had the “most successful immigration policy” of any European country up until the millennium, but has since gone badly wrong.

The leader of Reform told BBC Question Time that Britain’s migration of “net 30-40,000 a year” from after World War II until the millennium was effective but is now “totally out of control”.

Think about this: two-and-a half-million people have come in the last two years. You wonder why you can’t get a house, you wonder why your rents have gone up 25% in the last four years, you wonder why our infrastructure is struggling.

Migration is now “running at numbers that are literally unimaginable”, Farage claims.

Establishment doesn’t want Reform ‘to do well’, Nigel Farage tells Fiona Bruce

Nigel Farage has distanced himself from Reform candidates who have made racist comments, claiming that he doesn’t know “any of them”.

Fiona Bruce read out various racist comments by Reform candidates, including one which said that “importing sub-Saharan Africans would dilute the IQ of the country”.

I don’t know any of them obviously, but as you just went through with the Greens, every party has problems in a snap election. We paid, I organised a professional vetting company, we paid them £144,000 upfront to vet our candidates – they didn’t do it.

I think this was the first of a series of the establishment not wanting us to do well.

Nigel Farage claims he has “done more to drive the far-right out of British politics than anybody else alive”.

Speaking on BBC’s Question Time, he said he took on the BNP just over a decade ago.

I said to their voters: ‘if this is a protest vote, but you don’t support their racist agenda, don’t vote for them, vote for me’ – and we destroyed them.

Farage said he had never allowed anyone who was “a member of an extremist organisation” to join a party he had led.

The leader of Reform reiterated his previous claim that the man featured in the Channel 4 News exposé of racism, Andrew Parker, was actually an actor. (See 1.38pm.)

Channel 4 have strenuously denied claims of a fabrication, with Farage continuing to insist that they used a production company to ensure “deniability”.

Britain needs to have a “calm discussion” about how to approach the issue of migration, the co-leader of the Green Party has said.

Speaking on BBC’s Question Time, Adrian Ramsay defended the party’s position on migration which includes allowing those who gain a work permit to bring their dependents to the UK.

We have always benefitted from people coming to the UK; we benefit economically, we benefit socially. I’m sure we all know people who come to the UK to support us.

Reflecting on the “horrific comments” made by Reform UK activists recorded secretly by Channel 4 News, Ramsay said the UK could be heading for a “stark future” if the electorate backs Nigel Farage’s party in this election.

Green Party want wealthiest to contribute ‘modestly more’

The “very richest in society” should contribute “modestly more” to help Britain rebuild its public services, the co-leader of the Green Party has said.

Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time, Adrian Ramsay said: “We need to achieve big changes in our society. We have an NHS which is severely overstretched, a social care system where people can’t get access to the personal care they need, our schools are crumbling, and we have a climate crisis and a nature crisis where we’ve got sewage in our rivers.”

The Green Party manifesto proposes to raise up to £151bn a year in new taxes by 2029, including a new tax on the wealthy which they say would raise about £15bn.

Immigration ‘needs to come down’ but Lib Dems favour capped system, Ed Davey tells Nick Robinson

The Lib Dems do not favour an approach where anyone under 35 can come from any country in the EU.

Ed Davey told Nick Robinson that “that’s not my message”, but rather the Lib Dems advocate for the Youth Mobility Scheme which is already operational in non-European countries such as Korea, Japan and Australia.

Let me defend and explain what the system is, because it’s a capped system, it’s not free movement of labour. The way the Youth Mobility Scheme works at the moment for Japan or Australia, or wherever, is that a certain number of visas can be given to young people and that’s what we envisage with the European dimension.

We’d obviously have to negotiate it, but that’s what we mean by that; and I think that’s really, really sensible. It means that you can control things but it also means our people, our young people have that wonderful freedom and it means that when there are specialist people, they can come.

Ed Davey has admitted that he isn’t “proud of every decision” he made during his time in coalition government.

The Lib Dem leader has responded to claims that his party spent their period in coalition with the Conservatives aiming “to deliver austerity” as a joint enterprise.

In response to Nick Robinson’s assertion that his party was part of a Cabinet that cut the welfare budget by £27bn and introduced the bedroom tax, Davey insisted efforts were made to keep the Conservatives in check.

I, as many other colleagues did, we rolled up our sleeves and tried to fight for the things we fought for. And we stopped the Conservatives doing some things, the clearest example is on welfare, the budget after we left office and the Conservatives running by themselves, George Osborne cut the welfare bill by £12 billion, and we clearly stopped that.

‘Winning the argument’ with significant MP numbers will help Lib Dems achieve NHS plans, Ed Davey tells Nick Robinson

The Lib Dems can press forward with their plans for the NHS through using their electoral weight for good, leader Ed Davey has said.

The BBC’s Nick Robinson challenged Davey on how his party can fulfil a “big promise” on the NHS without being one of the top two parties.

By winning the argument, and by making sure we have lots of Liberal Democrat MPs. I think if people vote for their local Liberal Democrat candidate they know they’re going to get a local champion who’s going to be championing their local NHS and their local care.

But they’ll know that I think in this election there’ll be a lot of Liberal Democrats in the next Parliament who are going to make this our number one priority.

The Lib Dems’ manifesto promises to give everyone the right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to. An additional 8,000 GPs will be recruited to deliver this.

The party have also pledged to improve early access to mental health services by establishing bespoke hubs for young people in every community and introducing regular mental health check-ups at key points in people’s lives.

A further pledge focuses on boosting cancer survival rates and introducing a guarantee that will see 100% of patients start treatment for cancer within 62 days from urgent referral.

Voter concern puts health and care “right at the centre” of the Lib Dem manifesto.

Leader Ed Davey told the BBC’s Nick Robinson that “the voters are saying that’s one of their biggest concerns, if not the biggest”.

“They worry about the health service, getting a GP, finding an NHS dentist. They’re worried also about care for their loved ones.”

Ed Davey’s personal experience as a carer for his son John, who has an “undiagnosed brain condition’ has captured hearts across the country. The leader says this background has shaped his political career.

“I’ve been a carer much of my life, and that has informed me. And because I know there are millions of people who have stories, caring stories, like mine, I think it’s been really important to talk about that too.”

A snapshot of the manifesto pledges on social care.

The Lib Dems have pledged to introduce free personal care based on the model introduced by Scottish colleagues in 2002 alongside a higher Carer’s Minimum Wage.

Labour have vowed to establish a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care which will set fair pay, terms and conditions.

The Conservatives have promised to give local authorities a multi-year funding settlement to support social care at the next Spending Review.

Ed Davey has added archery to his extensive list of adventurous election trail activities, according to these images captured by PA Media.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey tries his hand at archery in Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire. Photograph: Will Durrant/PA Photograph: Will Durrant/PA

The billions needed for the UK to reach net zero by 2050 are part of a target put into law by the Conservative government five years ago, it has been confirmed.

During last night’s final TV debate, Rishi Sunak claimed he had a recording which confirmed that Labour’s net zero climate plans would cost “hundreds of billions of pounds”.

However, while the government’s advisory Climate Change Committee (CCC) has estimated net investment needs of £321bn for the UK to reach net zero by 2050, it was a Conservative government that put this target into law in 2019. The Conservative election manifesto continues to back the 2050 target.

Former Labour leader warns party not to sleep on threat of Reform

Neil Kinnock is clear that the nationalist threat posed by Reform UK must be taken seriously.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Kinnock said his party cannot afford to be complacent about the impact Nigel Farage’s party can have on the electorate.

There is no next time. It [targeting Reform] must start now. We have to combat this populist nationalism with words, in explaining to people what these people are, not just who they are.

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