Election latest: 'Big banks and billionaires' to pay for £9bn NHS boost under Lib Dems (2024)

Sky Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies is quick off the mark to explain what Douglas Ross's resignation means.

He says there has been a lot of talk about some of Mr Ross's "missteps".

This includes his U-turn to decide to stand as an MP after previously ruling it out.

There are also claims he "stabbed a close friend in the back" when he decided to contest the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat.

David Duguid, who was in intensive care at the time, had planned to stand for the constituency but was replaced by Mr Ross.

There has also been speculation over the weekend over Mr Ross's expenses, with regards to another one of his jobs - being a football linesman.

"So Douglas Ross says he will resign if he succeeds in this general election," Connor says.

"This is a big moment in Scottish politics and a big moment again for the Conservatives in this campaign."

Sam Coates, Sky deputy political editor, says that "more than one quizzical eyebrow has been raised" over Mr Ross's behaviour.

And this latest development shows "this is not a party that is entirely focused on the general election at hand" - but rather its future, Sam adds.

Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, says he will stand down from the role following the election.

Mr Ross is running to be an MP - having previously ruled himself out of doing so - and is also a member of the Scottish parliament.

He says that, if he does get elected as an MP, he will stand down as an MSP.

This is an almost complete reversal of his previous position, where he said he would not stand as an MP so he could focus on being an MSP and his work in Scotland.

A statement from Mr Ross said: "I have served as MP, MSP and leader for over three years now and believed I could continue to do so if re-elected to Westminster, but on reflection, that is not feasible.

"I am committed to fighting and winning the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency. Should I be given the honour to represent the people and communities of this new seat, they should know being their MP would receive my complete focus and attention.

"I will therefore stand down as leader following the election on 4 July, once a successor is elected. Should I win the seat, I will also stand down as an MSP to make way for another Scottish Conservative representative in Holyrood.

"My party has a chance to beat the SNP in key seats up and down Scotland, including in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East. We must now come together and fully focus on doing exactly that."

Our deputy political Sam Coates - alongside Politico's Jack Blanchard - has been speaking to Kay Burley this morning.

Every weekday morning Sam and Jack are recording an episode of their podcast to get you up to speed on the election - you can see more here.

At the end of last week, Sam spoke to Rishi Sunak on behalf of all the news broadcasters, in the wake of the furore of the PM leaving D-Day commemorations early.

Mr Sunak apologised.

Sam says this morning: "This is a brutal thing to say - I don't really think he was that sorry.

"His tone was exasperated, not of somebody like Boris Johnson after partygate and the Prince Philip stories, who actually looked like they felt some real contrition.

"There was just a 'why are you doing this to me' air about him.

"And I think that's the thing that worries Tory candidates running for re-election more than anything else."

Both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer will take part in a special leaders' event programme on Sky News this week.

The Battle For Number 10 will air on Wednesday.

The new Grimsby and Cleethorpes constituency is complex and likely to be a key battleground in the election.

Sky News will put the main candidates vying to lead the country under scrutiny in front of a representative audience drawn from the local area and nationally.

The two men will look to pitch to voters in an in-depth interview before answering questions from the audience.

Watch The Battle For Number 10 on Wednesday from 7pm-10pm on Sky News - free wherever you get your news.

Freeview channel 233, Sky 501, Virgin 603, BT 313 and streaming on the Sky News website, app and across social channels. It is also available to watch on Sky Showcase.

Our live poll tracker collates the results of opinion surveys carried out by all the main polling organisations - and allows you to see how the political parties are performing in the run-up to the general election.

As our election guru Will Jennings has pointed out, the Conservatives have fallen to the lowest level of support since the 2019 election - dropping below levels of unpopularity seen during the Truss administration.

Read more about the tracker here.

Our deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Jack Blanchard are here with their guide to the election day ahead.

On day 19 of the campaign, Jack and Sam discuss Rishi Sunak's attempted reset after the D-Day debacle, Labour's plans for childcare, the Lib Dem's manifesto launch and the reaction to Emmanuel Macron's shock election announcement in France.

Email Jack and Sam:jackandsam@sky.uk

Tap here to follow Politics at Jack at Sam's wherever you get your podcasts

Question. If a prime minister is heckled at a rally and there's no backdrop scandal to imbue it with meaning, should it still end up on the news?

I ask because so often in election campaigns, individual and often innocuous events get sucked into the black hole of a political narrative and spat out as something very different and much more dangerous.

Exhibit A - the torrid two days Rishi Sunak has had after his early departure from the D-Day commemorations.

Such was the scale of this saga that even a solitary road sign in rural Gloucestershire was transformed into a symbol of the hapless Tory campaign stumbling from one PR disaster to another - simply because it read "Veterans Way" and happened to be next to a school the prime minister was visiting.

A GP with gripes about the widening of access to medical care topped off the party's hell day after she interrupted Mr Sunak at a rally in Wiltshire.

This was inevitably seen as another blow for the embattled campaign, despite the prime minister giving a fairly convincing defence of his policy.

You wonder how such a situation would have been received had it happened to Sir Keir Starmer - the drama potentially diluted by his huge lead in the polls and polished campaign machine.

None of this is to deny the importance of the D-Day story.

As one pollster put it, the debacle seemed almost "laser guided" to inflict the maximum amount of damage on a leader leaking votes to the right and facing frequent accusations of being out of touch.

That was certainly evident in Bishop Auckland on Saturday.

The Tories took this seat for the first time ever in 2019, but metres from a Conservative campaign stop one former candidate for the party told Sky News he could "never vote for that man" after events of the past two days.

"He's leading them off the cliff like rats following the Pied Piper," he said.

So how can Rishi Sunak change the weather?

Read Rob's full analysis below...

Over the weekend, Labour's shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said "it would be fine if we have to, in the short term, have larger classes" in the state sector.

This was in response to suggestions a VAT imposition on private education could cause independent institutions to close.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said Ms Thornberry was wrong.

"I'm afraid that's not our position," Ms Phillipson tells Kay Burley, saying her colleague misspoke.

Ms Phillipson is also asked about if Labour has any plans to raise any taxes in the wake of the election.

She rules out Labour increasing fuel duty, stamp duty and capital gains tax.

After repeating that taxes won't be raised on "working people", Ms Phillipson says this means people "that go out to work for a living, and have faced huge tax increases under the Conservatives - where they've risen to the highest point in 70 years".

The Liberal Democrats are launching their manifesto later today.

At the heart of the party's policy platform is a £9bn pledge to fix the health and social care - and they will be doing that by "looking to the big banks and to the billionaires".

Asked if £9bn is enough - it works out to about 5% of the health and social care budget - deputy leader Daisy Cooper says it is a "significant investment", and will be used to recruit 8,000 GPs.

It will also be used to "end the access crisis" in NHS dentists.

Ms Cooper says £9bn is a sum of money that can have "a really transformational effect".

Some £4bn will come from reversing a tax cut given to big banks, Ms Cooper says, and the other £5bn will come from reforming capital gains tax.

You can read more about the Lib Dem's manifesto launch below:

We've been hearing from policing minister Chris Philp this morning.

Asked how he felt when he heard the prime minister had left Normandy early, Mr Philp says he was "shocked and disappointed".

But Rishi Sunak has "apologised" since then, Mr Philp says.

He adds the PM has "a good track record" on the military and veterans while in office.

He is asked about the last time he spoke to Mr Sunak - the prime minister and leader of his party.

Mr Philp tells Kay Burley that he has not spoken face to face since parliament dissolved on 30 May - 10 days ago.

"We had a text message exchange a few days ago, but I haven't spoken to him since parliament broke up," Mr Philp says.

It's worth noting that Mr Philp is campaigning to get elected in south London - while Mr Sunak is looking to get elected in North Yorkshire, so their patches are not close together.

He is then asked about Mr Sunak not doing any interviews over the weekend, following the uproar over him leaving D-Day early.

Mr Philp says the PM is going to be out "on the campaign trail today" - where Mr Sunak will be "talking to journalists whenever they want to ask him some questions".