General Election LIVE: Planes, trains and a bicycle on the campaign as Sunak deploys his wife Akshata Murty (2024)

Former Conservative MP Mark Logan has said he is backing Labour at the next general election, saying the party could "bring back optimism into British life".

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Rishi Sunak was asked how he could be trusted by a worker whose mother died during the pandemic.

The man told Mr Sunak that his mother died in 2020 - a month after he attended a gathering for which he got a police fine.

"How can anyone trust you or the party after things like this?" the worker asked during a Q&A.

Mr Sunak replied: "Well, I'm really sorry that you lost your mum, and particularly in those circ*mstances, because it wasn't easy for so many people during the pandemic, the impact it had on everyone's life.

"I can't imagine what it must have been for you not to be able to be with her at that time. It's really tough.

"I'm sorry for what was going on in Downing Street. For my part, I apologise that I showed up to a meeting earlier.

"As you know, I was working on things to help you and your business, and many other families like that. In fact, it was probably in that same period of time that you got to know me as chancellor.

"Most of you didn't know who I was before then and I popped up on your TV screens, announced the furlough scheme... hopefully some of you here benefited from some of the support that we put in place."

Richard Tice insists that many barber shops are just 'a front for laundering drug money.'

Angela Rayner has insisted that Diane Abbott should be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in a direct challenge to Sir Keir Starmer.

Reform UK leader Richard Tice has aired his thoughts on the British higher education sector.

Taking questions from the media, he said: "When I was 18, friends of mine started in the nursing profession and they went straight into the wards under (the) matron, and it worked. They didn't need to do a long degree and come out with £40,000 debt."

He later pitched a "cap" on student numbers and added there are "plenty of 'Mickey Mouse' degrees out there".

Mr Tice said: "Too many students are being frankly ripped off and conned, with dodgy degrees that take far too long and they come out with £40,000 of debt."

Mr Tice added: "The truth is that actually many, many people coming from overseas are abusing our student visa system, and it is a cheap way to get a graduate working visa, which is a cheap way to get a skilled working visa, and then you're here for life, and again, you haven't paid the price, the cost to the British taxpayer.

First Minister Vaughan Gething accused the Tories of playing political games as he helped launch Labour's campaign in Wales.

Mr Gething is facing a Conservative-tabled motion of no confidence in the Senedd next week.

At the Labour event in Monmouthshire he made no direct reference to his own troubles but said the Conservatives had a record of "treating politics as a game" rather than "a route to opportunity hope and security".

He said: "We can though, today, allow ourselves to imagine a new Wales, no longer held back by 14 years of Tory economic vandalism."

The former MP and high profile Conservative has tweeted a letter to thank the people of Stratford-on-Avon, the area where he was an MP.

The BMA's decision to strike so close to the General Election will 'only damage the NHS', the Tories' Jeremy Hunt tells Nick Ferrari, minutes after BMA Co-Chairman Dr Rob Laurenson disputed the accusations.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is on the morning media round, he's been speaking to Nick Ferrari about taxes.

My colleague Natasha Clark has more.