In Pictures: Babies and brewery mark first day on campaign trail
PA
·2-min read
A day after the General Election was announced, party leaders of all stripes were out on the campaign trail for what is expected to be a tense and busy six weeks until polling day on July 4.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had arranged to visit all four UK countries while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was in Kent with his deputy Angela Rayner, and Sir Ed Davey was pushing the Liberal Democrats’ plans in Gloucestershire.
Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe was a familiar face at the Reform UK launch while in Scotland new SNP leader John Swinney was making the case for continued support.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets members of staff at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, in Barry, south Wales (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Sir Ed Davey also had young supporters at his side as the Liberal Democrat leader visited Cheltenham (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Welsh Secretary David TC Davies takes a photo of Rishi Sunak at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, in Barry, where the teetotal Prime Minister made a gaffe by asking if the football this summer would boost sales, despite Wales not qualifying for the Euro 2024 tournament (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
From left, Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, Ann Widdecombe and leader of Reform UK Richard Tice launch the party’s General Election campaign where Mr Tice hit out at high levels of net migration, establishment ‘experts’ and the ‘weak, feeble politicians who have broken Britain’ (Lucy North/PA)
Scottish National Party leader John Swinney gives a speech at the launch of the the SNP’s campaign in Edinburgh. Mr Swinney is an MSP so will not be standing for a Westminster seat (Michael Boyd/PA)
A pocket guide to Sir Keir’s offering for future government was on show during his visit to Kent on Thursday morning (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Mr Sunak was grabbed for a selfie during an earlier visit to answer questions from workers during a visit to West William Distribution in Ilkeston, Derbyshire (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
DUP interim leader Gavin Robinson speaks to the media during a press conference at a Sure Start centre in east Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)
When Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States in 2021, much was made of his wife Dr Jill Biden becoming the first First Lady ever to hold a salaried outside job.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Saturday that China's largest coastguard vessel has anchored in Manila's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, and is meant to intimidate its smaller Asian neighbour. The China coastguard's 165-meter 'monster ship' entered Manila's 200-nautical mile EEZ on July 2, spokesperson for the PCG Jay Tarriela told a news forum. The PCG warned the Chinese vessel it was in the Philippine's EEZ and asked about their intentions, he said.
The canapes and white wine will be packed away. The wooing of the business lobbyists will come to an end. The cosy dinners with Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Tony Blair for select donors will be consigned to the past, and there will be no more polite requests to sign public letters of support for its policies.
LONDON—The Conservatives, the world’s winningest political party, were booted out of power in dramatic style on Thursday after 14 years of chaotic and divisive rule.The Labour Party had secured a landslide victory, ending an era of Conservative rule over Britain that stretches back to 2010; the year that the iPad and Instagram were launched and Lady Gaga wore that meat dress to the MTV music awards.In that time, the Conservatives have cycled through five leaders, each of them dragging the party
As Ukraine bleeds territory to Russia, support from one of Kyiv’s strongest backers looks set to falter if the far right sweep to power in Sunday’s French parliamentary elections.
The leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has been mentored by Barack Obama. The relationship is likely to continue if Starmer wins the UK election.
A series of world events, poor decisions and fatal gaffes conspired to see Rishi Sunak lead the Tories to the worst electoral defeat in his party’s 346-year history
Taiwan will commission two Tuo Jiang-class stealth missile corvettes this week to enhance its asymmetric warfare capabilities in response to growing threats from Beijing's People's Liberation Army. Flare-ups between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea have drawn greater regional and even global attention, posing a challenge to Beijing's preference for a bilateral approach to resolving maritime disputes. Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The best we can possibly say is that it could’ve been worse. This wasn’t an “extinction level” event. The Tories have punched through the 100 seat mark.
After the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian wrote that it was “unacceptable in the Islamic Republic to arrest a girl for her hijab and then hand over her dead body to her family.” Days later, as nationwide protests and a bloody crackdown on all dissent took hold, he warned that those “insulting the supreme leader … will create nothing except long-lasting anger and hatred in the society." The stances by Pezeshkian, now Iran's 69-year-old president-elect, highlight the dualities of being a reformist politician within Iran's Shiite theocracy — always pushing for change but never radically challenging the system overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.