General Election – live: SNP vows to rejoin EU at manifesto launch

Rachel Reeves has ruled out rejoining the EU single market or customs union if Labour fails to achieve the highest growth in the G7 by the end of a five-year term.

Speaking to reporters in Wiltshire, the shadow chancellor said: “No, we’ve been really clear.

“We’re not going to re-enter the EU, the single market, the customs union or bring back free movement of labour. But we do think there are practical improvements we can make to the deal the Tories got.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said former Tory donor John Caudwell has switched his allegiance to Labour because the party now represents “growth and wealth creation”.

Speaking to journalists on the campaign trail, the Labour leader said: “Look at John Caudwell coming out last night, this is a serious entrepreneur who’s putting his backing behind Labour because he thinks we’re the party of growth and wealth creation that understands how you get investment in.

“That is, in the end, the only way we’re going to make sure that people are better-off.

“When Jim Ratcliffe and John Caudwell say ‘we’re switching sides because Labour is the party of economic growth’, that’s serious.”

Sir Keir Starmer has blamed the latest small boat ccrossing numbers on the Tories and said he would implement a border security command “straight away” to tackle immigration.

The Labour leader said the governmnet “has lost control of our borders” and the country needs a “serious response”.

Keir Starmer added: “That is a new command, with new resources and new powers, including counter-terrorism powers, with the single objective of taking down the gangs that are running this vile trade in the first place.”

He added: “We would be able to set up this command straight away, as one of the first steps in government. I want people to have that image of an incoming Labour government, sleeves rolled-up, getting on with the job from day one.

“The Rwanda scheme is a gimmick, we will cancel that, stop wasting money on that.”

Reacting to the latest migration figures, the Labour leader has described the numbers “shocking”.

The Home Office reported 882 people made the journey in 15 boats on Tuesday, taking the total number of arrivals this year to 12,313, also a new record.

Speaking from Wiltshire, Sir Keir Starmer said: “The number of people crossing the Channel now is shocking.

“It’s record numbers, as you rightly say, and this was Rishi Sunak’s pledge to the country 18 months ago, he would stop the boats – numbers have gone up.

“The way to bring this down – it has to be dealt with, this is a very serious issue – is what we would do, which is to set up a border security command to smash the gangs that are running this vile trade.”

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out raising inheritance tax in the first term of a future Labour government.

Asked whether he could rule it out, the party leader repeated what he previously said about tax plans: “We’ve been really clear that we’re not raising income tax, national insurance or VAT.

“All of our plans are fully funded, don’t require tax rises over and above what we’ve already set out. And that is because we’re focusing on growing our economy.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said voters are “fed up” with the government saying “everything is fine” with the economy after inflation fell to 2%.

Speaking to broadcasters in Wiltshire, he said: “Inflation is now down to where it was three years ago. That doesn’t mean that for many people life’s suddenly got easier.

“So, yes, it’s back where it was three years ago, but that doesn’t mean that prices are coming down, it doesn’t mean that mortgages are coming down.

“If there’s one thing that’s been picked up on this campaign trail over and over again, it’s people being fed up with the Government sort of saying, ‘oh, you need to thank us now, we are turning a page, everything is fine’.

“Everybody here at Morrisons that we’ve been talking to, people across the country, don’t think it’s fine because they know that they are still paying the cost of the Government losing control of the economy.”

People are “crying out for principled leadership”, SNP leader John Swinney has said.

Launching his party’s manifesto ahead of the July 4 General Election, the First Minister said: “We are living in a period of rapid change where new technology, the climate emergency and the implications of an ageing population will all have a profound impact on the way we live our lives in the future.

“Given this atmosphere of turmoil, more than ever I believe political leaders and political parties need a set of values as a foundation from which to respond to those challenges.

“I believe people are crying out for principled leadership which is prepared to argue for what it believes in.”

John Swinney has promised to “support the abolition of the undemocratic House of Lords” under a potential future Scottish governmnet.

The first minister of Scotland also vowed to scrap the Rwanda scheme and end the “demonisation of migrants”.

In a bid to stop “waistful spending” and investment, the party promised to scrap Trident and use the money to fund “conventional defence and public services”.

A vote for the SNP, First Minister John Swinney said, is a vote for “Scotland’s values”.

The party would fight against the two-child benefit cap, he said, as well as nuclear weapons and the push for the abolition of the House of Lords.

“Elected government, not ermine-clad cronies, lift the two-child cap, not the cap on bankers’ bonuses, bairns, not bombs, and investment, not cuts,” he said.

“I believe these choices represent the values most of us share.

“They are Scotland’s values – and a vote for the SNP – a vote for this manifesto – is a vote for those values.”

Asked whether he will raise taxes, John Swinney says: “We’ve taken some hard decisions in the Scottish government – we’ve increased tax on higher earners so we could invest more in our public services.”

He then fails to confirm whether he would rise tax rises in a future SNP government.