Tories facing ‘punishment election’ and vote betting allegations making it worse, says former minister

Paul Scully, the former Tory minister who is standing down at the election, has delivered a good assessment of why the election date betting allegations are so damaging for his party. As the Telegraph reports, Scully told GB News that this was “a punishment election” – and that the allegations just give voters a further reason to punish his party. He said:

It feels like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot and we’re not millipedes. We’ve only got two feet.

There’s only so much capacity. When you have got effectively what is a punishment election, when you’ve got people that are wanting to punish the Conservatives and so they’re going to be looking under the microscope at absolutely everything that we do, and then we’re making it easy for them to punish us even further on that basis.

Scully also said since the election was called things seemed to to have gone from “bad to worse” for the party.

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In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, was asked why she said she was “absolutely gutted” when she heard that Jeremy Corbyn had been suspended from the Labour party.

She replied:

Since then we’ve seen that Jeremy Corbyn hasn’t really acted in a way that would have been in keeping with the Labour party. He’s now standing against the Labour party so therefore he’s not a member of the Labour party any more.

She also said Labour had to take “some responsibility” for the Tory chaos that followed the 2019 election because the party did not offer an alternative that was attractive to voters.

Labour has announced it will aim to deliver major transport projects 25% faster and 20% cheaper than current levels if it wins the election, PA Media reports. PA says:

The targets are based on the expected findings of a review into rail and urban transport infrastructure commissioned by the party and led by former Siemens UK boss Juergen Maier.

Labour said it will “apply industry-leading best practice to major transport projects from the start”, and publish a “long-term strategy for transport”.

The party accused the Conservatives of having a “broken approach to infrastructure”, claiming delays to large schemes have reached “unsustainable levels” which are “costing the taxpayer dearly”.

It cited examples such as planning costs for the Lower Thames Crossing – a proposed new road tunnel between Essex and Kent – reaching “an eyewatering £800m”, and the decision to scrap HS2 north of Birmingham.

Shadow transport secretary Lousie Haigh and Maier will visit Manchester Airport on Friday to discuss options for improving rail connectivity across the North of England.

Haigh said: “Levelling up has been an absolute sham under the Conservatives – and nowhere is this more apparent than the woeful state of our transport infrastructure.

“Labour is committed to tackling this from day one. We will turn the page on years of Tory waste, chaos and broken promises. Improving rail connectivity and capacity across the North is an absolute priority for Labour – and we will deliver value for the taxpayer while turbocharging delivery of transport projects.”

Maier said: “The North of England has borne the brunt of a series of broken promises on transport infrastructure and our economy is suffering as a result.

“It has been 10 years since a new rail line across the Pennines was promised and we’re still waiting for construction to get underway. The uncertainty created by chronically over-promising and underdelivering is lethal for investor and passenger confidence.”

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