Farage’s failure to deal with Reform racism shows weak leadership, says Starmer

Starmer says Farage’s failure to deal with racists in Reform UK shows his weakness as leader

In his interview on BBC Breakfast Keir Starmer also condemned the racist and homophobic comments made by Reform UK campaigners that were filmed by a Channel 4 News undercover reporter.

Starmer said he was “shocked” by what he heard, and that the comments were “clearly racist”. And he said the fact that the party keeps having problems like this showed that Nigel Farage was failing to assert leadership. He said:

This is a test of leadership …

You have to ask the question, why so many people who are supporting Reform seem to be exposed in this particular way? It’s for a leader to change his or her party to make sure the culture is right, and the standards are understood by everybody within the party.

He also said Farage did not have an answer to the big political problems facing the country.

Of course he is having an impact, we can see in the polls … but what he doesn’t have is the answers to the huge challenges we are facing as a country, both in the UK itself and of course globally where there’s probably more tension and conflict than there’s been in very recent years.

He doesn’t have answers to the big questions. He’s got rhetoric, for sure, but he doesn’t have answers to the question.

Swinney says it’s ‘deeply unacceptable’ some Scots won’t be able to vote because postal votes arriving after holidays start

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister has voiced concern about delays in some people receiving postal votes for next week’s election, warning the situation could leave some Scots “disenfranchised” for the crucial ballot, PA Media reports. PA says:

Swinney was speaking after the Electoral Management Board for Scotland said there have been “many difficulties experienced with the delivery of postal votes” across the country.

Highlighting there could be a “lot of seats that are very close contests” in Scotland, the SNP leader raised fears this could potentially impact results come polling day on July 4.

Swinney said: “In an election where there will be a number of marginal contests in Scotland, because there is a really intense contest going on here in Scotland, I am worried people will be disenfranchised.”

He had already accused Rishi Sunak of being “disrespectful” with his decision to hold the election at a time when most schools in Scotland have finished for the summer and many families will be on holiday.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Swinney said: “About 25% of the electorate now vote by post, I don’t know what proportion of postal voters have or have not received their ballot papers.

“But when the convener of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, Malcolm Burr, makes the comments he made of the concern about the conduct of the postal ballot – that is the advice of the senior returning officer in Scotland, the chair of the Electoral Management Board, expressing deep concern about it – I think it is something we should be troubled about.

Swinney said that in this election in Scotland, “my intelligence tells me there will be a lot of seats that are very close contests”.

He said the 2017 Westminster election saw the SNP’s Pete Wishart win by just 21 votes in the former Perth and North Perthshire constituency, while in North East Fife Stephen Gethins won the seat by two votes.

Swinney said this shows “individual votes count very, very significantly”, adding he is “troubled by what is happening in the postal ballot”.

He recalled: “The day the prime minister called the election I expressed my concern this election was going to take place during the Scottish school summer holidays, and various people criticised me for making that comment.

“But here we are, just as I feared we would be, that people leaving Scotland on their holidays have applied for postal votes, haven’t got them through, and it is not in any way shape or form a surprise to me that that is the case.

“I just think it is a deeply unacceptable situation that people will be disenfranchised because the calling of the election has been done at a time which is quite inconvenient for a lot of people, lots of schools in Scotland are already on their holidays, and we’re a week away from polling day.”