Election latest: Farage on defensive after supporters caught on camera making racist, murderous and hom*ophobic remarks (2024)

Thank you for joining us in the Politics Hub for live coverage of today's events in the general election campaign.

Polls open in 5 days and 8 hours - and the politicians will be spending every last moment fighting for your vote.

Scroll down for all of today's developments - and join us from 6am for live coverage of the last weekend of the campaign.

By Faye Brown, political reporter

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has joked about needing a new job next week as she faces being one of the Tories' most high-profile election casualties.

The cabinet minister is projected to lose her Chichester seat in West Sussex to the Lib Dems, who are aiming to smash the so-called "blue wall" in southern England.

During a visit to a school in her constituency, Ms Keegan was asked by pupils what job she would do if she was not an MP.

"I might have to answer that question next Friday", she said.

Ms Keegan later told the PA news agency that the polls were "all over the place" and "I have never taken anything in my whole life for granted".

But her initial answer reflects the defeatist mood of some Tories as multiple polls suggest Britain's political landscape is about to be fundamentally re-drawn, with Labouron course for a historic majority.

Ms Keegan is one of more than a dozen senior figures at risk of having a so-called "Portillo moment" - a reference to Michael Portillo, the Conservative minister who was famously unseated as Tony Blair swept to power in 1997.

Read more here:

We've got six days to go until the election - and today has been slightly quieter than some of the other days on the campaign trail.

Here's everything you need to know this evening:

• Rishi Sunak has said the reported use of the slur "P***" by a Reform UK campaigner to describe him "hurts" and makes him "angry";
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the comments as "racist" - but did not apply that label to Nigel Farage;
• Although the Reform UK leader described the comments as "very prejudiced, very wrong", he claimed that the undercover reporting by Channel 4 was a "stitch up" - something the broadcaster completely rejects;
• The campaigner who made the comment, Andrew Parker,called himself a "total fool" and said he has learned his lesson;
• However, Essex Police said they are "urgently assessing" whether any offences were committed by Mr Parker and another canvasser who made hom*ophobic comments.

• A new MRP pollpredicted the Tories will crash to just 85 seats - with Labour winning a whopping 470 seats and becoming the largest party in Scotland for the first time in over a decade;
• Data from the Electoral Commissionshowed that the unions finally opened their chequebooks to Labour, giving nearly £2m in week three of the campaign (£3.3m in total) - while the Tories raised just £275,000;
• Junior doctors in Waleshave accepted a pay offer from the Welsh administration there;
• Rylan Clark revealed the changes he would make to the political system;
• Education Secretary Gillian Keegan admitted no poll was showing a good outcome for the Conservatives;
• And Conservative candidate and former defence secretary Sir Liam Foxrefused to rule out putting himself forward as caretaker Tory leader after the election if the Tories lose and Rishi Sunak resigns.

Follow along for the very latest from the campaign trail with less than a week until polling day.

Parliament "always has the opportunity" to re-examine the rules on betting for politicians, Rishi Sunak has said, following calls for a ban similar to that for footballers.

The prime minister said gambling on elections was "not something I would do" as he argued the immediate priority was to establish any wrongdoing.

He also repeated his threat to "boot" people out of the Conservative Party found to have broken the rules.

Mr Sunak made his comments in response to the ongoing gambling scandal that has engulfed the Tory campaign and added to his election woes.

Five Conservatives have so far been caught up in the inquiryby the Gambling Commission, although reports suggest the figure could be 15 parliamentary candidates and officials, although the watchdog has not confirmed the numbers involved.

At least seven Metropolitan Police officers are also being investigated.

Read more here:

By Faye Brown, political reporter

A Reform UK canvasser who used a racial slur against Rishi Sunak has called himself a "total fool" and said he has learned his lesson.

Footage from an undercover Channel 4 reporter showed Reform campaigner Andrew Parker using a discriminatory term about the prime minister, as well as saying the army should "just shoot" migrants crossing the Channel.

Police are now assessing the comments to establish if an offence has been committed, while Mr Sunak said the insult directed at him "hurts and it makes me angry".

Mr Parker, who was canvassing in Clacton, where Reform leader Nigel Farage is standing, told Sky News the sting operation had "proper taught me a lesson".

He said: "There's lots of old people like me who are sick to death of this woke agenda… but on that particular day, I was set up and set up good and proper.

"It's proper taught me a lesson - I was a total fool."

Read more here:

Nigel Farage was challenged on BBC Question Time on why he has not suspended candidates who are widely reported to have made racist or other offensive comments.

The Reform UK leader blamed a vetting company, but host Fiona Bruce stopped him and said the comments are in the public domain, in newspapers and on the internet.

He replied that he "inherited a start-up party" and that "most" candidates reported to have made offensive comments "have been disowned".

Asked why some of those accused ended up as candidates in the first place, he replied that he has "no idea" - to laughter from the audience.

He repeated that he inherited the party, meaning he was not the leader when many of these candidates were selected.

He was then asked by an audience member if he will take responsibility, "stop making excuses", and apologise.

"I'm not going to apologise," Mr Farage replied, to a smattering of applause, and repeated that the racist comments reported to have been made by an activist in his office was a "set up".

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, is facing questions on a BBC Question Time leaders' special this evening, and he was asked firstly: "What is it about you and your party that attracts racists and extremists, whether you say you want them or not?"

The question got a loud round of applause and cheers from the audience.

Mr Farage replied that he has "done more to drive the far-right out of the British politics than anyone else alive" - to a few scoffs in the audience.

He said he "took on the BNP" and has never allowed extremists to join his parties.

Addressing the Channel 4 report that showed Reform activists in his own office making racist remarks about PM and hom*ophobic remarks, Mr Farage said: "What happened over that last weekend was truly astonishing.

"A tirade of invective abuse directed at the prime minister - I mean, the whole thing was unbelievable."

But Mr Farage went on to say that it "didn't ring true", and claimed that the activist filmed in his office calling Rishi Sunak a "P***" was a plant of some kind.

"Let me tell you, from the minute he turned up in that office in Clacton and I saw him, he was acting from the very start."

Mr Farage continued to double-down when pushed, claiming that this was a "political set up of astonishing proportions".

"I want nothing to do with people like him and he has nothing to do with us. He's somebody who turned up. We didn't know who he was."

A spokesperson for Channel 4 News said: "We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself.

"We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.

"We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation."

One of the Green Party co-leaders is facing questions on a BBC Question Time leaders' special this evening, and he was asked about his party's migration policy.

Specifically, an audience member asked Adrian Ramsay how his party will have such an expansive and open migration policy, with immigrants being able to bring dependents, while ensuring that public services work properly.

Mr Ramsay said that it is "absolutely right and humane" that people coming to work in the UK be able to bring their spouse.

"I think we need to have a calm discussion in this country about how we approach the issue of migration, because we have always benefitted from people coming to the UK," he added, getting applause from the audience.

"We only have to listen to the horrific comments that were exposed on Channel 4 last night of people immediately around Nigel Farage to remind ourselves of what a stark future we could be heading in if people back him and Reform in this election," he said of the racist and hom*ophobic comments made by party activists.

The Green Party website talks about "a world without borders", and Mr Ramsay is asked exactly what that would mean and look like.

But he dodged the question, saying it is a "long-term vision" and is there to talk about the manifesto for this election.

"It's not something we think is realistic in this next five years," he said, and would not get a timeframe when asked.

By Gurpreet Narwan, political correspondent

Britain could soon have its most diverse parliament ever but how will voters from ethnically diverse communities behave at the ballot box?

The voting trends of such groups are incredibly complex and varied. There is no single narrative but several themes stick out from YouGov's exclusive polling for Sky News.

Most notably, the handling of the conflict in the Middle East has damaged the two major parties in the eyes of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. This is something the Labour Party, in particular, is very sensitive too.

Labour have historically fared well with these voters and 53% of ethnic minority voters we polled said they would vote for the party - that's a greater lead than polls we've done with the general population.

However, the Tories fare worse among ethnic minority voters on the whole - in this poll they are neck and neck with the Green Party at 14%.

But, if we drill into the detail, 32% of British Indians said they would vote Conservative - 12% higher than the general population. This is a good reminder that there is a huge variation in voting trends among communities.

Reform UK polled much worse with ethnically diverse communities than the population at large - they're on 7% - but they're still one point above the Lib Dems.

Read Gurpreet's full piece here:

That concludes tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue - scroll down to read through tonight's interviews and analysis.

Our next guest on Politics Hub With Ali FortescueisClaire Ainsley, Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute, and former adviser to Sir Keir Starmer.

We discuss what the US-UK relationship could look like under a potential Labour government and a possible Trump presidency.

She replies that the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has been "at pains" to build relationships across the Atlantic, and "all of the shadow foreign affairs team have really been out and present, not just in obviously a North America, but around the world".

He says: "I think there's definitely a readiness, on the part of other governments, to be able to have somewhat of a reset [with] the UK.

"So I think in the end, the US-UK relationship is going to be extremely important. And actually it's about common interests and the primarily that will be in the first instance about backing for NATO and obviously for Ukraine."

We bring in our panel, and former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw says: "I don't think it's any secret that probably most Labour people - actually most members of the current government - would rather work with a Democrat president than with a Trump [presidency].

"But you deal with whoever the American people deliver as president."

Should Sir Keir Starmer win the election, he will have a steep learning curve, with multiple international summits scheduled for immediately after polling day.

But Ms Ainsley says he is "ready".

"You can just see in Keir Starmer that he is ready to be prime minister if that's what the voters decide next week.