2 January – The
Home Office says it has fulfilled a pledge to clear a "legacy" backlog of 92,000 asylum applications lodged before July 2022. But after it subsequently emerges that over 4,000 cases are still waiting for a decision, the
Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) announces an examination of the figures the next day.[4]
3 January –
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the
Liberal Democrats, launches the party's election campaign by targeting constituencies with Conservative MPs.[5]
5 January –
Chris Skidmore, MP for
Kingswood, announces his intention to stand down from Parliament "as soon as possible" in protest at the UK government's decision to issue more oil and gas licences. His decision triggers another
by-election.[9]
6 January –
Government papers seen by the BBC indicate Sunak had significant doubts about
sending migrants to Rwanda when he was chancellor, and wanted to scale back the plans.[10]
Sunak describes the
Post Office scandal as "an appalling miscarriage of justice" and says the government is looking at ways to clear the names of those convicted because of faulty IT software.[12]
Green Party co-leader
Carla Denyer confirms the party intends to stand a candidate in every constituency in England and Wales at the forthcoming general election, the first time it has fielded a full list of candidates at an election.[16]
SNP MP
Joanna Cherry demands an apology from colleague
Mhairi Black, who suggested some members of the party are "too comfortable" at Westminster.[17]
Former Minister
Sir Alok Sharma announces he would vote against the
Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, describing plans to guarantee annual oil and gas licensing rounds as "a total distraction" that reinforce the idea the UK is "not serious" about tackling climate change.[18]
Secretary of State for Justice
Alex Chalk tells Parliament the UK government is giving "serious consideration" to introducing legislation to quash the convictions of the 700 or so sub post masters who were prosecuted as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.[21]
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells announces that she would hand back her CBE after more than a million people signed a petition calling for her to do so.[22]
Downing Street confirms that
Akshata Murty, the wife of the Prime Minister, has donated her shares in a childcare company to charity. The shares were at the centre of a conflict-of-interest controversy.[24]
Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak announces that emergency legislation would be brought through Parliament to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the Post Office scandal in England and Wales.[25]
First Minister of Scotland
Humza Yousaf confirms those in Scotland convicted because of the scandal would also be cleared, and that he would work with the UK government to bring this about.[26]
11 January –
The
Liberal Democrats ask
Ofcom to investigate
GB News over alleged bias in its coverage of the Post Office scandal, including what the party's deputy leader,
Daisy Cooper, describes as "a fictitious monologue"
Nigel Farage delivered about Sir Ed Davey, which she says contained "a number of factual inaccuracies".[27]
First Minister of Scotland
Humza Yousaf confirms that the Scottish Government would "in essence replicate" the law in England and Wales banning unlicensed ownership of American XL bully dogs.[28]
Sunak authorises talks between the
Labour Party and the civil service ahead of a general election later in the year to ensure a smooth transition if Labour becomes the party of government.[31]
Court documents reveal that Fujitsu, the company at the centre of the Post Office scandal, won a £184m contract by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2021, despite concerns the system it was offering was "unfit for purpose".[32]
Court documents show that former Prime Minister
Sir Tony Blair was warned the Horizon IT system could be "possibly unreliable" before it was rolled out, and raised concerns about it, but gave it the green light after receiving reassurance from others, including his
Secretary of State for Trade and IndustryPeter Mandelson.[33]
13 January – Yvonne Tracey, a former deputy postmistress from
New Malden, south London, announces her intention to stand in the Parliamentary constituency of
Kingston and Surbiton, Sir Ed Davey's seat, at the next general election.[34]
14 January – Foreign Secretary
David Cameron tells the BBC that military action was taken against Houthi rebels because the strikes were needed after months of attacks against cargo ships, and that the UK is "prepared to back our words with actions".[35]
15 January –
Sunak tells Parliament that air strikes against Houthi targets were means as a "limited, single action" but that the UK "will not hesitate to protect our security, our people and our interests where required".[36]
James Stockan announces he is stepping down from the post of leader of
Orkney Islands Council, as well as relinquishing his council seat, after six years in the role.[37]
The fifteen-year time limit on voting eligibility for British citizens living abroad is abolished under the
Elections Act 2022, enabling a further two million people to register to vote in UK elections.[41]
18 January – The
UK Statistics Authority rebuked the prime minister for misleading the public over the backlog of asylum applications, which he claimed in a social media post had been cleared, while several thousand still remained. The UKSA said the claim could have affected public trust in the government.[45]
The
House of Lords votes 214–171 in favour of an amendment to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill that calls for the delay of ratification of the bill until Rwanda improves its asylum procedures.[51]
The UK government rejects calls from Welsh MPs to add the
Six Nations Championship to the list of guaranteed free-to-air sporting events on British television.[52]
23 January –
Following more air strikes against Houthi targets, Sunak tells Parliament the UK would not hesitate to launch further strikes if the rebel group continue to attack shipping targets in the Red Sea, but does not seek confrontation with them.[53]
In a BBC interview, Conservative MP
Simon Clarke calls for Rishi Sunak to be ousted as prime minister, then later says he is acting alone in his comments.[55]
Retired British Army officer Colonel
Tim Collins is selected to run as the
UUP candidate for
North Down at the next general election.[56]
25 January – The UK has walked away from trade deal negotiations with Canada after failing to agree on how much access UK producers should have to the Canadian cheese market.[58]
Wales's Education Minister,
Jeremy Miles, criticises the way Wales' largest trade union,
Unite, declared its preferred candidate for the Welsh Labour leadership election. The union held a hustings with the two candidates before announcing its support for
Vaughan Gething.[60]
The UK government announces a fresh investigation into the sale of the Daily Telegraph after UAE-based
RedBird IMI made an eleventh-hour change to the details of its bid to purchase the newspaper.[63]
28 January – Former MP and cabinet minister
Nadine Dorries says she would repay £16,876 in severance pay she received by mistake, as she was too old to qualify for the payment.[65]
29 January –
Labour MP
Kate Osamor is suspended from the party after saying the Gaza conflict should be remembered as genocide in a post about
Holocaust Memorial Day.[66]
George Freeman, the Conservative MP for
Mid Norfolk, says that he resigned from his role in the
Sunak ministry in
November 2023 because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on the £118,300 ministerial salary after his mortgage increased from £800 to £2,000 per month.[67]
Following the first debate of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill in the
House of Lords, Peers vote 206–84 to move the bill on to the next stage of its passage through the House.[69]
During a visit to the Middle East, Foreign Secretary
David Cameron says that the UK is ready to bring forward the moment when it is ready to recognise a Palestinian state.[71]
Members of the Senedd vote 39–14 to back the
Senedd Reform Bill which expands the legislature to 96 members at the
2026 Senedd election and change the way members are elected.[72]
The
Media Bill, which proposes changes to radio in the United Kingdom such as reducing regulations for commercial radio and improving access through smart devices, passes its third reading in the
House of Commons.[73]
Shadow Chancellor
Rachel Reeves confirms that Labour would not reintroduce the cap on bankers' bonuses if they form a government after the
next general election.[75]
February
1 February –
A
Statutory Instrument paving the way for the Northern Ireland Executive to be re-established is passed by the House of Commons.[76]
Conservative MP
Mike Freer announces he is standing down from Parliament at the next election following death threats and an arson attack on his constituency office. Downing Street describes the situation as "an attack on democracy".[77]
Addressing a meeting of business leaders, Shadow Chancellor
Rachel Reeves says that Labour would not increase
corporation tax if elected, but may cut it to boost "competitiveness".[78]
2 February – Senior Labour MP
Darren Jones confirms that the party has ditched its commitment to spend £28bn a year on green investment schemes if it wins the
next general election.[81]
Sir
Bob Neill, MP for
Bromley and Chislehurst, announces he is stand down at the next election to spend more time with his wife, who has suffered a stroke.[86]
4 February –
Dafydd Wigley, a former leader of
Plaid Cymru, warns that reforms to Wales's political system pose "a very great danger" since it would destroy the relationship between voters and the people they elect.[87]
Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak arrives in Northern Ireland to visit ministers following the restoration of the Executive.[88]
5 February –
Sunak visits Stormont along with
TaoiseachLeo Varadkar to mark the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive.[89]
Sunak is criticised by opposition parties after appearing to agree to a £1,000 bet on the
Rwanda asylum plan, that the first flight to Rwanda would take off before the election.[90] He subsequently says the challenge, put forward by
TalkTV presenter
Piers Morgan, took him by surprise, but that it was not a mistake to accept it.[91]
Sunak says the government has "not made enough progress" on cutting NHS waiting lists in England, but that industrial action "has had an impact".[92]
The UK government sets out its
Disability Action Plan, which includes measures to protect people with assistance dogs from being illegally refused entry to businesses.[93]
The UK government launches a six-week consultation on plans for
Martyn's Law, which would make provisions to better protect the public against potential acts of terrorism.[94]
6 February –
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer
Kwasi Kwarteng announced he is stepping down from Parliament at the next election.[95]
Former Prime Minister
Liz Truss launches a campaign to "galvanise" the UK's "secret Conservatives" and fight back against the "left wing extremists" she claims have taken over the UK's institutions.[99]
7 February –
Sunak faced a call from a Labour MP to apologise after he ridiculed Starmer over his U-turn on "defining a woman" at Prime Minister's Questions.[100]
Met Office data obtained by
BBC Verify raises questions over UK government claims that poor weather conditions had no impact on a fall in English Channel migrant crossings during 2023. The number of crossings were fewer than during the previous year, which the government had said was nothing to do with the weather, but the figures suggest there were fewer days during 2023 when compared to 2022 when migrants could successfully cross the Channel.[101]
8 February –
Labour scraps its plans for a £28bn annual green investment, with Sir Keir Starmer saying the policy is unaffordable because of the Conservatives' economic record. In response, Sunak says Starmer "U-turns on major things, he can't say what he would do differently".
Momentum says the announcement "represents yet another capitulation to right-wing interests".[102]
Michael Matheson resigns as Scotland's Health Secretary ahead of the publication of a report into £11,000 of data roaming charges accrued by his Parliamentary iPad. He is replaced by
Neil Gray.[103]
The 2024 Special Honours are announced.[105] They include
Plaid Cymru nominee
Carmen Smith, a former public affairs adviser for the party, who at 27, becomes the youngest member of the
House of Lords.[106]
11 February –
Azhar Ali, Labour's candidate in the
Rochdale by-election, apologises after a recording of him reportedly saying that Israel had "allowed" the deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on 7 October was obtained by The Mail on Sunday.[111] Labour condemns his remarks but continues to offer its support to his candidacy.[112]
12 February –
Labour withdraws its support for Rochdale candidate
Azhar Ali.[113]
Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak appears on an hour long GB News People's Forum, where a selected audience of undecided voters are invited to ask him questions. The programme is presented by
Stephen Dixon.[115]
13 February – Labour withdraws its support for
Graham Jones, the former MP for
Hyndburn, who was going to contest the seat at the next general election, after it emerges he attended a meeting at which Azhar Ali made comments about Israel.[116]
Conservative MP
Tobias Ellwood tells
BBC Radio 4's PM programme that politicians cannot be viewed as "fair game" after a large-scale pro-Palestinian protest outside his family home.[118]
15 February –
By-elections take place in
Wellingborough and
Kingswood.[119] Labour's
Gen Kitchen takes Wellingborough, the Conservative
Peter Bone's former seat, which he had held with a majority of more than 18,000. The swing of 28.5% is the
second largest swing from Conservative to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.[120] Labour's
Damien Egan overturns an 11,220 Conservative majority in Kingswood to win
Chris Skidmore's former seat.[120]
Atiqul Hoque, the Conservative
Mayor of Salisbury, is expelled from the Conservative Party over antisemitic remarks made on social media and WhatsApp.[121]
16 February –
The Labour Party releases a summery of the tax paid by Sir Keir Starmer during 2023, showing he paid just under £100,000 in tax.[122]
The ballot to elect the next leader of Welsh Labour opens.[123]
Craig Browne resigns as deputy leader of
Cheshire East Council, saying he can no longer afford to do the role on the £30,000 annual salary.[124]
Henry Staunton, the former chairman of the Post Office, tells The Sunday Times that Business Secretary
Kemi Badenoch told him "Someone's got to take the rap" when he was dismissed from the post. In response Badenoch describes his comments as a "disgraceful misrepresentation" of their conversation.[126]
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer calls for a "ceasefire that lasts" in Gaza.[127]
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch tells the House of Commons that claims by Henry Staunton, the former chair of the Post Office, that he was told to delay compensation payments for sub-postmasters are "completely false".[129]
The UK government announces plans for new measures on holiday homes in England to stop local people being priced out of being able to live in their community.[130]
Ofcom launches an impartiality investigation into GB News's Q&A session with prime minister Rishi Sunak.[131]
The UK government announces that a scheme allowing Ukrainian nationals to join relatives in the UK has closed to new applicants.[132]
Birmingham City Council announces plans to raise council tax by 21% over the next two years as part of £300m in budget cuts.[133]
20 February –
BBC News reports that the
Cameron government were aware that the Post Office had ended a 2016 investigation that could have helped several sub-postmasters wrongly convicted as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.[134]
Labour calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the first time it has called for a ceasefire since the Israel–Hamas conflict began.[135]
In a statement on the Israel–Hamas conflict, the
Prince of Wales calls for an "end to the fighting as soon as possible".[136]
An
Opposition day House of Commons debate calling for a ceasefire in Gaza descends into chaos after Speaker
Sir Lindsay Hoyle breaks with Parliamentary convention to allow a vote on a Labour amendment calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" over the scheduled SNP motion calling for an "immediate ceasefire". The decision leads to protests from both Conservative and SNP MPs, who walk out of the House, leaving Labour's motion to be nodded through when the other two parties do not take part in the vote. Amid calls for his resignation, Hoyle says that he allowed the House to vote on the Labour motion so MPs could express their view on "the widest range of propositions", and to protect MPs' safety.[140]
King Charles III is seen back at work and meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first time he has been seen back at work since his cancer diagnosis.[141]
Senior civil servant
Sarah Munby writes to the Business Secretary to reject allegations by former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton that he was told to delay compensation payments to victims of the Horizon scandal.[142]
22 February –
More than 60 MPs have signed a House of Commons motion calling for the resignation of Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.[143]
The UK government announces that legislation will be introduced to clear hundreds of sub-postmasters in England and Wales who were wrongly convicted as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.[145]
Argyll and Bute Council votes to raise its council tax by 10%, and rejects the Scottish Government's council tax freeze by doing so.[146]
Former Prime Minister
Liz Truss addresses the
Conservative Political Action Conference in the United States, where she claims Western civilisation is at risk if Conservatives do not develop a louder voice, and attributes the downfall of
her administration to "antagonism" from the establishment.[147] She subsequently appears on a podcast with former Trump strategist
Steve Bannon, where she remains silent as Bannon describes the far-right political activist
Tommy Robinson as a "hero".[148]
23 February –
A UK government commissioned report prepared by
Lord Walney recommends giving police extra powers to tackle protests outside Parliament in order to protect politicians against "intimidation" that could influence the way they vote.[149]
Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham, has his conviction for a racially aggravated public order offence quashed following an appeal.[152]
24 February –
Lee Anderson is suspended from the Conservative Party after "refusing to apologise" for claiming "Islamists" had "got control" of London Mayor
Sadiq Khan during an edition of his GB News show the previous day.[153]
25 February –
Sunak warns of the dangers of polarisation and hatred in politics following a week of political friction at Westminster.[154]
Preet Gill, Labour MP for
Birmingham Edgbaston, tells BBC Politics Midlands that receiving death threats appears to have become the "norm" and that her job worries her "in a way I've never been worried before".[155]
The SNP announces plans to apply for another parliamentary debate on Gaza in the coming week.[156]
The Scottish Government confirms that Economy Secretary
Màiri McAllan, who is pregnant, will take maternity leave during the summer, becoming the second Scottish Government minister to do so.[157]
26 February –
House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle rejects the SNP's request for an emergency debate on Gaza.[158]
Lee Anderson says that his words were clumsy, but refuses to apologise for his comments about Sadiq Khan.[159]
27 February –
A statement from
10 Downing Street says that the prime minister believed Lee Anderson's comments were wrong because they conflated "all Muslims with Islamist extremism".[160]
MSPs vote 68–55 in favour of the 2024 Scottish budget, which includes a council tax freeze and 45% and 48% income tax rates for higher earners.[162]
Fergus Ewing loses his appeal against a week-long suspension from the SNP group at Holyrood in September 2023 after he criticised the party leadership.[163]
MPs vote to suspend
Scott Benton from Parliament for 35 days, triggering a recall petition.[164]
28 February –
The UK government announces a £31m financial package to improve MPs security.[165]
Pro-Palestinian groups say they will continue to march after Home Secretary James Cleverly questioned whether holding regular marches "adds value" to calls for a ceasefire in Gaza during an interview with The Times.[166]
Addressing a meeting of police leaders, Sunak warns of a "growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule" and says that "a pattern of increasingly violent and intimidatory [sic] behaviour" cannot be allowed to stop elected representatives doing their job.[168]
MP
Julian Knight is told by
Essex Police he will face no criminal charges following an investigation into allegations of serious sexual assault that were made against him.[171]
Figures published by the Home Office show a reduction in the backlog of asylum applications, driven by an increase in decisions, with 74,172 initial decisions on asylum applications made during 2023, an almost fourfold increase on the 2022 figure.[172]
Sir Keir Starmer apologises to the voters of Rochdale for disowning the Labour Party's candidate, but says it was "the right decision".[173]
In a statement outside 10 Downing Street, Sunak warns that Islamists and far-right extremists, which he describes as "two sides of the same extremist coin", are trying to "deliberately" undermine the UK's "multi-faith democracy", and says the UK must face them down.[174]
Figures from the
National Audit Office show the UK government will pay Rwanda a total of £350m for the agreement to take asylum seekers, with £150,000 also being paid to Rwanda for each person sent there.[175]
Conservative peer
Lord Bamford, chairman of
JCB, retires from the House of Lords.[176]
2–3 March – The
London Labour conference is held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in Tower Bridge.[177]
4 March –
Sunak says the UK economy is "getting on the right track" ahead of what is expected to be the last budget before the next election.[178]
University Challenge contestant Melika Gorgianeh accepts substantial damages from Conservative peer
Jacqueline Foster after Foster accused her of being antisemitic following her appearance on the quiz show in November 2023.[185]
Senedd member
Rhys ab Owen is to be banned from the Senedd for six weeks after an investigation by the
Senedd Commission found he inappropriately touched two women during a night out in June 2021.[186]
In an article posted on
LinkedIn, senior UK government ministers
Anne-Marie Trevelyan and
Tom Tugendhat urge Sunak to increase defence spending to above 2.5% of
GDP, arguing that the UK needs to "lead the way" on defence spending and invest at a "much greater pace".[191]
A Daily Telegraph report alleging a conflict-of-interest involving First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf after the Scottish Government donated £250,000 to the UN agency
UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees, is rejected by Yousaf as an "outrageous smear" and a "far right conspiracy".[192]
10 March – BBC News reports that former Prime Minister
Boris Johnson flew to Venezuela during February for an unofficial private meeting with President
Nicolás Maduro.[193]
Addressing the
Institute for Government, former prime minister
Sir John Major criticises his recent Conservative successors for the attitude towards the civil service, and describes the quick succession of prime ministers in recent years as "not conducive to good government".[195]
As the UK government prepares to redraw the definition of extremism, former Home Secretaries
Priti Patel,
Sajid Javid and
Amber Rudd warn against attempting to politicise extremism at the next election.[196]
After the Welsh Government publishes plans to require parties in the Senedd to draw up lists of candidates composing of 50% of women, presiding officer
Elin Jones says that the Senedd does not have the power to enforce gender quotas.[197]
Conservative Party donor
Frank Hester apologises after The Guardian reported comments he is alleged to have made in 2019 about Labour MP
Diane Abbott, when he is said to have suggested she made him "want to hate all black women" and that she "should be shot".[198]
David Neal, the former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, has described the Home Office is dysfunctional and in urgent need of reform, citing problems with immigration as an example.[199]
12 March –
A spokesman for the prime minister describes the remarks allegedly made by Frank Hester about Diane Abbott as "racist and wrong".[200]
Sunak tells
Prime Minister's Questions he will not return £10m donated to the Conservative Party by Frank Hester, because he has apologised and "his remorse should be accepted".[202]
The UK government announces a scheme to offer failed asylum seekers £3,000 if they agree to move to Rwanda voluntarily.[203]
The UK government announces a ban on foreign state ownership of British newspapers and news magazines following controversy over a potential purchase of The Telegraph by a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates.[204]
Russia is reported to have jammed the GPS signal of an RAF plane carrying Defence Secretary
Grant Shapps back to the UK from Poland the previous day for around 30 minutes as the plane flew near the border of the Russian territory of
Kaliningrad.[206]
Speaking in the House of Commons, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Michael Gove outlines the UK government's new definition of extremism, and names five groups that would be assessed against the new criteria. They are the
British National Socialist Movement,
Patriotic Alternative, the
Muslim Association of Britain,
CAGE and
Muslim Engagement and Development. The new definition is criticised by civil liberties and community groups, while most of the groups named by Gove threaten legal action if they are added to the list.[207]
The news website Tortoise Media reports that the Conservatives have received a further £5m in donations from Frank Hester that are yet to be declared.[209]
Sir Brandon Lewis, a former Conservative Party Chairman, announces he is standing down from Parliament at the next general election.[210]
Government papers show that former prime minister Liz Truss accepted a £20,000 trip to the United States in February paid for by the
Green Dragon Coalition, an obscure group that takes its name from the
Green Dragon Tavern in Boston, Massachusetts, and is believed to support US Presidential candidate
Donald Trump. The trip was to attend a three-day conference at a hotel on
Sea Island, Georgia.[212]
The
Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced as a private member's bill, passes its first reading in the House of Commons after securing the backing of the UK government. The bill aims to ban the import of puppies, kittens and ferrets under the age of six months into the UK.[217]
Apple agrees to pay a £385m settlement on a lawsuit led by
Norfolk County Council, which was started over allegations Apple CEO
Tim Cook defrauded shareholders in a pension company administered by the Council by covering up lower demand for iPhones in China.[218]
16 March –
Vaughan Gething is
elected to lead
Welsh Labour, and will become
First Minister of Wales. He will be Wales's first
black leader, and the first black person to lead a country in Europe.[219] With Gething's win it means that three of the four governments in the UK will have non-white leaders.[220]
A group calling itself the South Devon Primary, which aims to unseat Conservative MPs in South Devon at the next election, chooses Liberal Democrat
Caroline Voaden as a candidate for one of its constituencies.[221]
Transport Secretary
Mark Harper tells the BBC that the Conservative Party welcomes members "whatever their race".[223]
Pete Wishart, the SNP's longest-serving MP at Westminster, distances himself from the party's election message of making Scotland "Tory-free", describing it as unhelpful.[224]
18 March –
Amendments to the
Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill tabled in the House of Lords are overturned again in the House of Commons. The changes included allowing courts to question Rwanda's safety as a country.[225]
Former US President
Barack Obama arrives at 10 Downing Street for talks with Sunak.[226]
Ofcom finds that five episodes of GB News shows presented by Jacob Rees Mogg, Esther McVey and Phillip Davies broke their rules, and warns the channel about its use of Conservative MPs to host news content.[227]
Business Secretary
Kemi Badenoch dismisses rumours of a plot to unseat Sunak as Conservative leader as the party continues to fair badly in the polls.[228]
19 March –
While speaking to a House of Lords Committee, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hints that the next general election may take place in October.[229]
Labour's
Clive Lewis, MP for
Norwich South, apologises for swearing in Parliament after he was overheard to use the word "shit" while voting on the government's Rwanda legislation the previous evening.[230]
The
Football Governance Bill, which aims to establish an independent football regulator for England, is introduced into Parliament.[231]
Mark Drakeford attends his final First Minister's Questions as First Minister of Wales.[232]
20 March –
The
Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which would make it illegal for anyone born after 2009 to purchase cigarettes by raising the minimum age by a year starting in 2027, begins its process through Parliament.[233]
The Senedd approves Vaughan Gething as the next First Minister of Wales.[234]
21 March –
Carmen Smith is sworn in as the youngest member of the House of Lords.[235]
The
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body confirms that members of Scottish Parliament staff will no longer be allowed to wear
rainbow lanyards, or any other badge or jewellery associated with social issues, while at Holyrood.[236]
The
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill passes its final vote in the Scottish Parliament. Among measures it introduces is a licensing scheme for land where grouse shooting takes place, and regulations for traps.[237]
BBC News reports that officials have raised concerns about the role of Secretary of State for the Environment
Steve Barclay in a proposed waste incinerator in his constituency, which he opposes, and he will consequently no longer have a role in the decision-making process.[240]
22 March –
West Yorkshire Police launches an investigation into the alleged comments made about Diane Abbott by Conservative Party donor Frank Hester.[241]
A private member's bill introduced to Parliament by Conservative MP
Gareth Johnson that aimed to prevent the expansion of London's
Ultra Low Emission Zone runs out of Parliamentary time.[242]
Penny Mordaunt dismisses rumours of a potential leadership challenge against Rishi Sunak as "nonsense".[243]
MPs in the House of Commons give their backing to a private member's bill that will ban the import of hunting trophies into the UK if it becomes law.[244]
24 March – Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says the Conservatives will keep the triple lock mechanism for deciding the rise in the
state pension if they win the next election.[245]
The UK formally accuses China of being behind a "malicious" cyberattack against MPs and the
Electoral Commission.[247]
26 March –
Education Minister
Robert Halfon and Armed Forces Minister
James Heappey announce their resignations from the
Sunak ministry, having decided to stand down from Parliament at the next election.[248]
The first meeting of the
East–West Council, established as part of the restoration of government in Northern Ireland, is held in London.[250]
27 March – A report clears Conservative MP
Bernard Jenkin of breaching COVID-19 laws over his attendance at a "wine and nibbles" event on the Parliamentary estate in December 2020, which the report describes as socially-distanced with "business and social elements".[251]
Honours are conferred on businessman and senior Conservative Party treasurer
Mohamed Mansour, Farming Minister
Mark Spencer and
Shipley MP
Philip Davies, all of who receive knighthoods, while former ministers
Tracey Crouch and
Harriett Baldwin are awarded damehoods. The announcement comes as part of an honours list published at the start of the Parliamentary recess.[253]
30 March – First Minister of Northern Ireland
Michelle O'Neill says she is determined the Stormont Assembly and Executive will continue to function following the resignation of Jeffrey Donaldson as DUP leader.[257]
31 March –
The UK government says it will work alongside the Northern Ireland Executive to maintain stability at Stormont.[258]
A
Survation poll of 15,000 people suggests the Conservatives could win fewer than 100 seats at the next election, forecasting Labour with 468 seats, the Conservatives with 98 seats, the Scottish National Party with 41 seats and the Liberal Democrats with 22 seats.[259]
April
1 April –
The
Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex, comes into force in Scotland.[260]
2 April – Education Secretary
Gillian Keegan says that proposed homelessness legislation will not be used against "excessive smells".[263] The
Criminal Justice Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will replace the
1824 Vagrancy Act.[264]
3 April –
Labour commits to the Conservatives' childcare expansion plans if it wins the next general election.[265]
MP
Johnny Mercer announces his intention to challenge a court order to reveal names of those who had told him about alleged war crimes by British special forces in
Afghanistan.[266]
4 April – Conservative MP
William Wragg tells The Times he shared the phone numbers of fellow MPs with someone he met on a dating app after sending the person intimate pictures of himself.[267]
5 April –
Veterans' Minister Johnny Mercer is given until 8 May to present his argument as to why he should not reveal the identity of those who told him about alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by British Special Forces.[268]
Conservative MP
Luke Evans identifies himself to police as "a victim of cyber-flashing and malicious communication".[270]
8 April –
Ofcom launches an investigation into the 29 March edition of
David Lammy's show on LBC to determine whether it broke the rules regarding politicians acting as newsreaders.[271]
William Wragg steps down as vice chair of the Conservative Party's
1922 Committee following revelations about the Westminster WhatsApp scam.[272]
Richard Tice, leader of
Reform UK, defends his party's vetting procedure after 12 general election candidates were deselected for offensive social media posts.[273]
9 April –
William Wragg voluntarily resigns the Conservative whip and will sit in Parliament as an independent MP. He also gives up his role on the Public Administration Committee.[274]
The brother-in-law of
First Minister of ScotlandHumza Yousaf appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court charged with abduction and extortion following an incident where a man fell from a block of flats and later died.[275]
Three people are arrested after staging a protest outside the London home of
Keir Starmer.[276]
10 April –
Figures published by the Foreign Office indicate that £4.3bn of its budget for 2023 – roughly a quarter of the overall foreign aid budget for the year – was spent on refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.[277]
Sally Bunce, the Green Party candidate for
Mayor of the Tees Valley in the
May election, drops out of the contest saying she does not want to split the vote against the Conservative candidate.[280]
Reform UK apologise to the family of their dropped candidate for
York Central Tommy Cawkwell for "inactivity" not knowing that he had died.[281]
Joe Haines and
Lord Donoughue, who were two of
Harold Wilson's advisers during his time as Prime Minister, tell The Times that Wilson had an affair with his deputy press secretary, Janet Hewlett-Davies, during the 1970s.[282]
Greater Manchester Police launch an investigation into Labour's deputy leader,
Angela Rayner, over the sale of her council house amid allegations she broke electoral law by giving false information about her place of residence.[284] Rayner pledges to step down if she is found guilty of any crime.[285][286]
Keir Starmer says that if elected to government, Labour will raise defence spending to 2.5% of
GDP.[287] He also makes an "unshakable" commitment to nuclear weapons.[288]
Tim Loughton, MP for
East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, announces he will stand down from parliament at the next election.[292] He becomes the 100th MP to announce they will not seek re-election at the next election.[293]
An
OpenDemocracy investigation reveals high level Labour politicians met with financial services firms following a £150,000 donation to the party from one of the companies.[294]
Mayor of London
Sadiq Khan launches what he describes as a "new climate action plan" for London, which includes a Net Zero Schools target and recommitting to making London Net Zero by 2030.[297]
14 April – Some Conservative MPs and businesspeople are proposing to boycott Downing Street's
Eid celebration, scheduled for the following day, because of the UK government's support for Israel.[298]
15 April –
Peers living outside London become eligible to claim £100 for accommodation expenses when they attend sittings at the House of Lords.[299]
Sunak is absent from the Downing Street Eid celebration.[300]
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill passes by 383 votes to 67, banning anyone born after 2009 from legally buying cigarettes in the UK.[302]
The House of Lords reinstates proposed changes to the UK government's Rwanda legislation.[303]
An amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill will make the creation of sexually explicit
deepfake images a specific criminal offence in
England and Wales if the images are created without the permission of the person.[304]
MPs overturn amendments to the UK government's Rwanda legislation made by the House of Lords only for them to be reinstated when the legislation is sent back to the Upper House for consideration.[306]
In a speech on
welfare, Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak sets out plans to tackle what he describes as the UK's "
sick note culture" by stripping GPs in England of their authority to sign people off work.[315]
Labour sets out plans to build more housing, with priority given to
brownfield sites and poor quality
greenbelt land dubbed "greybelt" land.[316]
Labour writes to Lancashire Police regarding allegations made against Mark Menzies. A review of information relating to the allegations is subsequently commenced.[318]
The
Scottish Greens announce their intention to hold a vote on whether to stay in government with the
Scottish National Party following the SNP's decision to scrap key climate targets.[319]
Biteback Publishing apologises over a false quote linked to an antisemitic conspiracy theory in Liz Truss's memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, and says it will be removed from future copies of the book.[320]
Robin Swann, who is the perspective
Ulster Unionist candidate for
South Antrim, announces he will step down from his post as Northern Ireland's Health Minister once the general election campaign begins.[324]
22 April –
Parliament passes the
Safety of Rwanda Bill, with plans to deport the first asylum seekers to Kigali in July.[325]
Two men, including a parliamentary researcher, are charged with spying for China after providing information that could be "useful to an enemy".[326]
Conservative councillor Richard Solesbury-Timms, who represents
Middleton Cheney on
West Northamptonshire Council, leaves the party to sit as an independent citing the party's dealing with allegations against the council leader.[327]
23 April –
Patrick Harvie says he will resign as co-leader of the
Scottish Greens if the party votes to end its coalition agreement with the SNP.[328]
Rishi Sunak vows to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.[330]
Labour unveils its plans for improvements to train services, which include automatic refunds for delays, a "best price" guarantee and improved internet coverage.[331]
Jeffrey Donaldson appears at Newry Magistrates' Court to face charges of historic child abuse.[332]
Johnny Timpson, the UK's inaugural disability ambassador, resigns over the UK government's policy of clawing back benefit overpayment.[333]
TUV leader
Jim Allister, whose party agreed a formal partnership with
Reform UK for the upcoming general election, distances himself from remarks in which Reform's deputy leader,
Ben Habib, suggested some migrants travelling to the UK in small boats should be left to drown.[342]
28 April –
BBC News reports that Yousaf had ruled out an electoral pact between the SNP and
Alba Party after
Alex Salmond suggested the party would support him in a vote of no confidence in the Scottish Parliament.[343]
Sunak refuses to rule out a general election in July following speculation of a summer election.[344]
The
FDA trade union announces plans to mount a legal challenge against the UK government's Safety of Rwanda Act amid concerns it breaches international law.[351]
MSPs vote 70–58 to defeat a motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government.[352]
John Swinney is set to become the next SNP leader and first minister after
Kate Forbes confirms she will not seek the party's leadership.[353]
3 May –
With 90% of council election results announced, the Conservatives have lost over 400 council seats, while Labour regains control of Hartlepool, Redditch, Rushmoor and Thurrock Councils.[354]
5 May – With all votes counted, the results from the local elections in England are: Labour 1,158 (+186), Liberal Democrat 522 (+104), Conservative 515 (−474), Independents and others 228 (+93), Green 181 (+74), Residents' Association 48 (+11), Workers Party of Britain 4 (+4), Reform UK 2 (+2).[360]
6 May –
Argentina's president,
Javier Milei, tells the BBC he accepts the Falkland Islands are currently "in the hands of the UK", but says his country will get them back through diplomatic channels.[361]
Former cabinet minister
Nadhim Zahawi says he will stand down from Parliament at the next election.[372]
Natalie Elphicke apologises for past comments in support of her ex-husband,
Charlie, which she made when he was convicted of sexual assault.[373]
Swinney confirms to the BBC that the SNP's strategy of using the next general election as a mandate for a second referendum on Scottish independence remains.[374]
The government announces that a ban on sex offenders in England and Wales changing their name to avoid detection will be brought in.[375]
The UK government scraps a planned amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would give police the power to move homeless people on because of "smells" following opposition from Conservative MPs.[385]
14 May –
MSPs unanimously approve the
Housing Cladding Remediation Bill with 116 votes in favour of the legislation that seeks to address problems with cladding on buildings and avoid a similar incident to the
Grenfell tower fire in Scotland.[386]
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps claims six new warships will help fight the "conflicts of the future".[387]
15 May –
Rishi Sunak is challenged in PMQs over the early release of dangerous criminals.[388]
The UK government agrees to make death by dangerous cycling a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison after a campaign by
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who proposed the measures as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, and after MPs vote in favour of the amendment.[393]
The
Rwanda Asylum Plan is expanded to include all failed asylum seekers rather than the original plan of those arriving in the UK after 1 January 2022.[394]
16 May –
The UK government announces plans to allow the use of debit cards in pub
slot machines, which it argues will allow pubs, casinos and gambling venues to compete in an increasingly
cashless society.[395]
Plaid Cymru ends its
co-operation deal with
Labour in Wales following concerns about a donation of £200,000 to First Minister
Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign by a company owned by a businessman twice convicted of environmental offences.[398]
18 May –
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, confirms he will be standing down from Parliament at the next general election.[400]
20 May –
Ofcom says it is considering imposing a statutory sanction against GB News after concluding its programme People's Forum: The Prime Minister, a Q&A session with prime minister
Rishi Sunak that aired in February, broke impartiality rules.[401]
First Minister of Scotland John Swinney announces he will not accept a parliamentary committee ruling to exclude
Michael Matheson from Holyrood for 27 days over his £11,000 iPad charges bill, claiming the decision is "prejudiced" due to the involvement of a Conservative MSP who previously made comments about Matheson.[410]
Former Education Secretary
Michael Gove announces he will not stand for parliament again at the next election.[412]
Junior health minister
Andrea Leadsom announces she will not contest the next election.[413]
Craig Mackinlay decides he will not contest the new parliamentary seat of
Thanet East after what he describes as "36 hours of intense soul searching" following the announcement of the election and his feeling that the work schedule would be too much to deal with while he continues to recover from sepsis.[414]
Jeremy Corbyn is ejected from the Labour Party after announcing he will stand as an independent candidate in the
Islington North constituency, which he has represented since 1983.[416]
Parliament is prorogued ahead of the general election.[417]
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is not among legislation to be rushed through Parliament before its prorogation.[418] The Renters (Reform) Bill, which would have brought in an end to no-fault evictions, is also shelved.[419] But the
Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill, which quashes the convictions of sub-postmasters convicted in the Horizon scandal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is passed,[420] as is the
Pet Abduction Bill, making the abduction of cats and dogs a criminal offence from August.[421] The
Victims and Prisoners Bill is also passed into law.[422]
The Times publishes a letter signed by 121 prominent business figures endorsing the Labour Party.[429]
Diane Abbott has the Labour Party whip restored following its suspension in April 2023.[430]
Greater Manchester Police confirm that, following their investigation, Labour deputy leader
Angela Rayner will not face any further police action over her living arrangements before her time as an MP.[431]
Former
Plaid Cymru MP
Jonathan Edwards, who represents
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, announces he will not contest his seat at the election; Edwards was asked to leave Plaid in 2022 after accepting a police caution for assaulting his wife.[432]
MSPs vote 64–0 to exclude Scotland's former Health Secretary,
Michael Matheson, from the Scottish Parliament for 27 sitting days, and to suspend his salary for 54 days, after he breached expenses rules by accululating an £11,000 bill on his parliamentary iPad. The governing SNP abstains from voting, and calls for a review of the complaints procedure, suggesting it could be open to bias.[434]
The
Welsh Conservatives table a motion of no confidence in First Minister Vaughan Gething following several weeks of controversy over donations to his leadership campaign. The motion is scheduled to face a Senedd vote on 5 June.[435]
Gavin Robinson is
ratified as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and announces the party will not stand a candidate in Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the general election.[437]
Nicola Sturgeon announced that she will be active in the SNP campaign in Scotland.[441]
Ed Davey campaigned in
Wales with
Jane Dodds.[442] He said that his party was confident in winning both of the parliamentary constituencies in
Powys.[443]
30 May –
Parliament is dissolved in preparation for the general election.[417]
Mark Logan, the former Conservative MP for
Bolton North East, tells BBC News he is backing Labour at the general election, describing the party as offering "centrist politics".[444]
The Plaid Crymru campaign is launched in
Bangor.[445]
Media, including BBC News, report that
Derbyshire Police are reviewing claims of election fraud relating to "concerns around marketing material" posted on social media by
Robert Largan, MP and Conservative candidate for
High Peak.[452]
3 June –
Nigel Farage announces that, contrary to his statement earlier in the campaign, he will stand for Parliament in
Clacton, and that he has resumed leadership of
Reform UK.[453]
The Medicines (Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues) (Emergency Prohibition) (England, Wales and Scotland) Order 2024 is scheduled to come into force.[438]
The first 2024 leaders debate takes place in Scotland, with the leaders of Scotland's four main political parties taking part in a debate on
STV.[454]
The UK government tells the High Court it has delayed the start date for flights sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to 24 July.[455]
The Welsh Government shelves plans to legislate for shorter school summer holidays in Wales until after the next Senedd election.[456]
4 June –
ITV airs Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate, a head-to-head election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer presented by
Julie Etchingham.[457] During the debate Sunak claims that Labour has a £38bn spending shortfall which would require it to raise taxes by £2,000 for the average household by the end of the next parliament. A letter from
James Bowler, the
Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, subsequently emerges in which he says the Conservative claims "should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service".[458]
First Minister of Wales
Vaughan Gething loses a nonbinding vote of no confidence in the Senedd with members voting 29–27 in favour of a motion put forward by the Welsh Conservatives. It follows an investigation into the activities of a leading donor to his election campaign.[462] Gething says he will not resign following the vote.[463]
David Duguid is prevented from standing as the Conservative candidate in
Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.[465] Instead,
Douglas Ross, who had previously intended to stand down at the election, announces he will contest the constituency at a press conference the next day.[466]
6 June –
The
Office for Statistics Regulation criticises Sunak for his comments about Labour tax rises, saying most people would have been unaware the figures related to a four year period.[467]
The FDA trade union which represents senior civil servants launches its High Court case against the UK government over the Rwanda asylum plan, arguing that they could be asked to break the law by ministers if they were asked to ignore a ruling from the
European Court of Human Rights to halt a flight to Rwanda.[468]
It is revealed that the Conservatives accepted a further donation from
Frank Hester after he was accused of making racist comments about Diane Abbott.[470]
Rishi Sunak apologises for leaving the D-day memorial early to return to the UK to give an ITV interview about the election. He says: "On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise."[472]
Keith Vaz, who stood down from Parliament after he was found to have "expressed willingness" to buy cocaine for male prostitutes, will stand in his old
Leicester East constituency for the
One Leicester Party.[473]
The
Unite trade union says it will not endorse Labour's election manifesto because it does not go far enough on protecting the rights of workers.[476]
The
Green Party says it has blocked a "small number" of candidates from standing as Green candidates at the election after investigations into their online activities.[477]
Plaid Cymru withdraws its support for Sharifah Rahman, who was scheduled to represent the party as a candidate in
Cardiff South and Penarth, following social media posts about the "situation in the Middle East" that "do not reflect the views and values of Plaid Cymru".[478]
The
Senedd Reform Bill Committee has warned that plans for gender quotas at the next Senedd election could face legal challenges, and urges the Welsh Government to take urgent action to protect the election.[479]
8 June –
Stewart Sutherland, the Reform UK candidate for
Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, withdraws his candidacy after allegations he reported racist content.[480]
Social media platform
X takes action against an organisation that has been smearing British politicians with deepfake videos by removing a number of accounts.[481]
9 June – The Sunday Mail reports allegations that Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross used Westminster expenses to travel in his role as a football linesman.[482]
10 June –
The list of candidates standing in the 2024 general election is published, with more than 4,500 candidates setting a new record for the number of people standing at an election.[483]
Douglas Ross announces his resignation as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, triggering a
leadership election. Ross says he will also resign from Holyrood if he is re-elected to Westminster.[484]
Ian Gribbin, the Reform UK candidate for
Bexhill and Battle, apologises after claiming the UK would be "far better" if it had "taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality" instead of fighting World War II.[485]
Sophie Raworth pulls out of presenting the BBC's The Prime Ministerial Debate, scheduled to air on 26 June, after fracturing her ankle; Mishal Husain will present instead.[490]
Vaughan Gething tells the Senedd he regrets the "impact" of his decision to accept a £200,000 donation from a man whose company was convicted of illegally dumping waste.[492]
12 June –
The Green Party launches its manifesto, with key points including increasing taxes for the better off, and higher spending on healthcare, housing and climate change.[493]
Craig Williams, who served as Sunak's Parliamentary Private Secretary, is being investigated by the
Gambling Commission after placing a bet on the date of the general election.[495] Williams subsequently describes the bet as a "huge error of judgement".[496]
Dr Anne McCloskey, an independent general election candidate for
Foyle, is sentenced to 14 days in prison for non-payment of a COVID-19 related fine by Derry Magistrates.[497]
Police say they are aware of YouTuber and internet prankster
Niko Omilana, who has registered himself as a general election candidate in 11 different constituencies.[498]
13 June –
Keir Starmer unveils the
Labour Party's
general election manifesto. He says that wealth creation is the "number one priority" and that Labour will focus on economic growth.[499]
The Green Party is forced to temporarily remove its manifesto from its website after facing criticism for using an image of an ill man to illustrate its policy on
HIV.[500]
Plaid Cymru launches its 2024 election manifesto, which includes plans for Welsh independence, 500 extra GPs and funding from rail improvements.[501]
A
YouGov poll for The Times puts Reform UK ahead of the Conservatives for the first time, with Reform on 19% and the Conservatives on 18%; the poll prompts Reform leader Nigel Farage to claim his party is "now the opposition to Labour".[502]
ITV holds a debate featuring senior figures from the UK's seven main political parties and moderated by Julie Etchingham.[503]
14 June –
Data published by the
Electoral Commission indicates that Labour raised £351,990 more in donations than the Conservatives during the first week of the general election campaign.[504]
BBC Wales sees a series of text messages from the mobile phone of Welsh Conservative Senedd member
Laura Anne Jones in which she appears to ask an employee to maximise her expenses claims.[505] Jones is subsequently asked to step back from Wales's
Shadow Cabinet as a result of the revelation.[506]
A coalition of commercial media and content businesses write to Labour to urge them not to introduce advertising on the BBC, fearing it could have a negative impact on consumers, licence fee payers and creative industries.[507]
Labour's
Rosie Duffield, who is campaigning to be re-elected as MP for
Canterbury, says she has withdrawn from hustings events because she does not feel safe; Duffield has previously faced death threats for her stance on sex and gender.[509]
Grant StClair-Armstrong, the Reform UK candidate for
North West Essex, resigns from the party after historic blog posts emerge in which he urged people to vote for the
British National Party.[511]
Nigel Farage launches Reform UK's election manifesto, which he describes as a contract, and which chiefly proposes a freeze on non-essential immigration.[513]
Lord Cashman is suspended from the
Parliamentary Labour Party for describing Rosie Duffield as "frit or lazy" in a social media post for withdrawing from hustings meetings over concerns for her safety.[514]
LBC's
Nick Ferrari presents the first of two editions of Britain's Next PM, a phone-in giving listeners the opportunity to speak to Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, with Starmer appearing on the first edition and Sunak the following day.[516]
The deadline for people wishing to register to vote in time for the 2024 general election expires at 23:59.[517]
Sunak announces that former prime minister Johnson will endorse Conservative candidates by writing to constituents urging them not to vote for Reform, claiming to do so will "make a difference".[518]
Businessman
John Caudwell, the founder of
Phones4U, who gave the Conservatives a £500,000 donation before the
2019 general election, tells the BBC he will be voting Labour for the first time in his life at the 2024 election.[521]
During an election debate on
BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, representatives from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Scottish National Party express their support for making
misogyny a hate crime.[522]
19 June –
A police officer working as part of the prime minister's close protection team is suspended and later arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into bets on the date of the general election.[523]
The Scottish National Party launches its election manifesto, with plans to "end Westminster cuts" and increase investment in the
NHS.[524] The party would also view winning a majority of Scotland's seats at Westminster as a mandate to begin
independence negotiations.[525]
After details of past social media posts made by two Reform UK candidates, Lee Bunker and Angela Begbie-Carter, are reported in the media, the party releases a statement in which it says candidates are free to express views that "are not shared by all their party colleagues" as they are not "political zombies".[528]
Secret government files seen by BBC News show work has been underway with consultants since January to limit "severe implications" to essential IT services by lining up alternative providers after
Atos, the UK subsidiary of which has contracts for NHS records and disability benefit claims, is more than £3bn in debt and undergoing restructuring.[529]
Sinn Féin launches its 2024 election manifesto, which includes plans for the transfer of fiscal powers from Westminster to Stormont and the creation of an all-Ireland national health service.[530]
Businessman
Zia Yusuf donates an undisclosed amount of money, but reported to be several thousand pounds, to Reform UK, claiming the UK has "lost control of our borders".[531]
The
Workers Party of Britain launches its election manifesto, with promises to improve "poverty pay" and provide more social housing.[532]
BBC News reports that Laura Saunders, the Conservative candidate for
Bristol North West, has become the second Conservative candidate to face an investigation by the
Gambling Commission over betting on the date of the general election. It is subsequently reported that her husband, Tony Lee, the Conservative Party's campaigns director, is also being investigated by the Commission.[533][534]
20 June –
BBC One airs a Question Time election special featuring the leaders of the UK's four main political parties.[474]
Sunak says he is "incredibly angry" to learn of allegations that members of his party have betted on the date of the election, and that he will "boot out" anyone found to have broken the law.[535]
Scottish Parliament authorities have launched an investigation into the potential misuse of expenses to buy postage stamps by members of the SNP in order to send letters to voters.[536]
The
Alliance Party launches its general election manifesto, with plans including reform of the devolved government at Stormont, and ringfencing funding for
integrated eductation.[537]
21 June –
Nigel Farage tells the BBC that he believes the Ukraine war to have been precipitated by the West's eastward expansion of
NATO and the
European Union, but that the war itself is Vladimir Putin's fault.[538]
BBC News publishes a list of eight Reform UK candidates who have made a wide range of offensive online posts about women between 2011 and 2023.[540]
Following criticism from other party leaders over his comments about Putin, Nigel Farage pens an op-ed in The Telegraph in which he says he has never been an "apologist or supporter" of Putin, but that "if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don't be surprised if he responds".[541]
The Sunday Times reports that Nick Mason, the Conservative Party's chief data officer, has become the fourth person to face investigation by the Gambling Commission for alleged betting on the date of the election. Mason denies any wrongdoing.[542]
BBC News reports that the Gambling Commission's investigation involves more people than those already named.[543]
Sunak says that he is "not aware of any other" Conservative candidates being investigated by the Gambling Commission.[546]
The
Institute for Fiscal Studies says that it will be a "considerable surprise" if UK taxes do not rise in the next five years and says the two main parties are "ducking" the issue in their manifestos.[547]
The
Scottish Conservatives launch their election manifesto, which includes plans to improve teachers' pay, cut the backlog of NHS waiting lists, and to beat the SNP.[548]
The Democratic Unionist Party launches its 2024 election manifesto, with policies including greater access to healthcare, opposition to assisted suicide and the removal of trade barriers within the UK.[549]
The Conservative Party withdraws its support for Craig Williams and Laura Saunders as election candidates.[551]
Cabinet minister
Alister Jack, who previously claimed to have won £2,100 by betting on the date of the election, then claimed he was joking, issues a statement in which he says he did not place a bet on the election.[552]
Russell George, the Senedd member for
Montgomeryshire, becomes the fifth Conservative politician to be investigated by the Gambling Commission for election betting.[553]
The Metropolitan Police confirms that the Gambling Commission are investigating a further five police officers for placing bets on the date of the election.[554]
Labour suspends
Kevin Craig, their candidate for
Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, after the Gambling Commission launches an unrelated investigation into him for placing a bet against himself losing in his constituency.[555]
Alex Cole-Hamilton, leader of the
Scottish Liberal Democrats, admits to placing bets on Scottish Liberal Democrat election candidates, but says he did not place bets on the date of the election itself.[557]
The Sun reports that
Sir Philip Davies, the Conservative candidate for
Shipley, allegedly placed an £8,000 bet on whether he would lose his seat at the election, which has a majority of 6,242.[558]
Police arrest a woman in her 20s in connection with the Westminster "honeytrap" scandal in which a number of MPs were sent unsolicited text messages, some of them explicit.[559]
Mishal Husain moderates The Prime Ministerial Debate, the BBC's head-to-head debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.[474]
The
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) launches its election manifesto, which includes a "
Marshall Plan" to address the backlog in Northern Ireland's health service, reforms to Stormont, and a repeal of the Troubles Legacy Act.[561]
27 June –
The Metropolitan Police says that at least seven police officers are now being investigated for placing bets on the date of the general election.[562]
Reform UK condemns campaigners in
Clacton who were filmed by an undercover reporter for Channel 4 News making racist, homophobic and Islamophobic comments, including one who used a racial slur to describe Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The party says those involved will no longer be involved in the election campaign.[563]
The final televised debate of the 2024 general election takes place on
BBC One Northern Ireland and features representatives from Northern Ireland's five main parties.[565]
Labour lifts its suspension of Rhianon Passmore after police say they had found no offence was committed regarding the number plates on her car.[566]
28 June –
Sunak speaks of his hurt and anger at his daughters having to hear a racial slur used about him by Reform UK activists.[567]
Essex Police say they are urgently trying to establish whether any criminal offences have been committed as a result of comments made by the Reform campaigners.[568]
Mark Hoath, the Reform UK candidate for
Sutton Coldfield, is referred to the police after claiming that a rival candidate, the Liberal Democrats'
John Sweeney, "loved" the
IRA.[569]
Edinburgh City Council establishes an emergency polling booth at
City Chambers after a number of people across Scotland reported not receiving their postal votes. The emergency polling booth, which allows those who did not receive a postal vote to cast their vote in person, will operate until 30 June.
Fife Council also announces an emergency polling booth at
Fife House, Glenrothes that will be open on 29 June.[570]
The
Green Party of Northern Ireland launches its manifesto, which includes plans to take
Lough Neagh into public ownership, reforms to Stormont, a tax on the richest one percent of people and protecting public services from cuts.[571]
29 June –
A spokesman for Reform UK confirms the party has dropped three candidates for making offensive comments. They are Edward Oakenfull (
Derbyshire Dales), Robert Lomas (
Barnsley North), and Leslie Lilley (
Southend East and Rochford), but the candidates will still appear on the ballot paper as Reform candidates because it is too late for them to be removed.[572]
East Lothian Council becomes the third local authority to establish an emergency facility for people who have not received their postal votes.[573]
Liam Booth-Isherwood, the Reform UK candidate for
Erewash, disowns the party, citing a "significant moral issue" following recent reports of "widespread racism and sexism", and gives his backing to the Conservatives.[576]
July
2 July –
Georgie David, the Reform UK candidate for
West Ham and Beckton becomes the party's second candidate to suspend their campaign and defect to the Conservatives, and claims the "vast majority" of her fellow Reform candidates are "racist, misogynistic and bigoted".[577]
The Welsh Government says it plans to bring in a ban on Welsh politicians telling lies before the
2026 Senedd election.[578]
3 July –
The Sun endorses the Labour Party ahead of the general election.[579]
Essex Police announce that no offences were committed by the Reform UK campaigners recorded making racist comments by Channel 4 News.[580]
An investigation concludes that former Conservative government minister
Owen Paterson acted as a lobbyist for a healthcare company without being registered to do so.[581]
Mick Antoniw, the
Counsel General for Wales, apologises after being formally reprimanded by the Senedd for tweeting "Tories so happy to see people and particularly children killed and injured on our roads".[582]
A hearing at Newry Magistrates Court rules there is sufficient evidence for former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand trial on charges of historical sexual abuse.[583]
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire becomes the final constituency to declare its election results, and sees the number of Liberal Democrat MPs rise to 72 after they defeat the SNP to win the seat.[594]
At his first press conference since taking office, Starmer announces that he wants to cut instances of re-offending to reduce the prison population.[595]
The Starmer administration announces that the final two migrants due to be deported to Rwanda will be released on bail in the next few days; a further 218 are confirmed to have been released on bail by the Sunak administration before the election.[600]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces plans to bring back compulsory housebuilding targets as part of plans to reboot the UK economy.[602]
Education Secretary
Bridget Phillipson writes to all teachers in the education sector saying she wants to "reset the relationship" with the sector as part of plans to recruit an extra 6,500 teachers.[603]
In an open letter to SNP members following the party's defeat in Scotland, former deputy leader
Jim Sillars has described John Swinney's leadership as "a busted flush" and Nicola Sturgeon as "Stalin's wee sister".[610]
The SNP confirms it will have to make the majority of its Westminster staff redundant after Parliament reduces its "
Short Money" – the annual amount paid to opposition parties – by
£1
m.[613]
A week after
his election to Parliament, GB News announces that
Nigel Farage is returning to his show on the channel, presenting on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 16 July.[615]
12 July – Justice Secretary
Shabana Mahmood confirms that thousands of prisoners in England and Wales will be released early from their sentences at the beginning of September, warning of the "total collapse" of the prison system and a "total breakdown of law and order" without steps being taken to ease prison overcrowding.[616]
Foreign Secretary
David Lammy makes his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territory to hold talks with leaders.[618]
Lord Walney, the UK government's adviser on political violence, writes to the Home Secretary urging an inquiry into potential intimidation of candidates at the general election by groups in different constituencies.[619]
Records show the Conservative Party accepted a £50,000 from Westminster Development Services Limited, a company established in 2015 by a consortium led by the
Hinduja Group shortly after its chairman,
Prakash Hinduja, was sent to prison for exploiting domestic staff.[621]
Records show that Labour received £9.5m in donations during the general election campaign, more than the other parties combined.[622]
18 July – Starmer pledges £84m in funding for education, employment and humanitarian projects in Africa and the Middle East designed to stop illegal migration "at source".[627]
19 July –
Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelensky visits Downing Street and addresses the cabinet, becoming the first foreign leader to address a British cabinet since 1997, and urges
Keir Starmer to "show your leadership" by helping to remove restrictions on on the use of weapons supplied to Ukraine.[628]
Sunak makes junior appointments to his shadow frontbench team, including some newly elected MPs, meaning 51 of the 121 Conservative MPs in parliament now have shadow ministerial posts.[629]
Foreign Secretary
David Lammy confirms the UK will resume funding
UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees.[630]
Figures produced by the
Institute for Fiscal Studies suggest the UK government would need to spend an extra £3bn to implement a 5.5% pay rise for teaching and NHS staff.[632]
Welsh Labour officials agree a timeline for the election, with a new leader to be in place on 14 September.[633]
Nominations open for candidates entering the leadership contest.[633]
21 July –
Writing in the Sun on Sunday, Home Secretary
Yvette Cooper announces that car washes and beauty salons will be targeted by immigration officials over the summer in a bid to crack down on businesses illegally hiring workers from overseas.[634]
Former Chancellor
Jeremy Hunt,
who was Health Secretary for a number of years before the
COVID-19 pandemic, apologises "unreservedly" to the families of people who died from the illness after a report prepared by the
COVID-19 Inquiry found significant flaws in the government's strategy for dealing with the pandemic.[635]
22 July –
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirms the UK government will resume processing asylum applications, including those from people who arrived in the UK illegally. She also tells the House of Commons the previous government's
Rwanda asylum plan cost £700m, with only four people being removed to the country voluntarily. The
shadow home secretary,
James Cleverly, says Cooper's words are "hyperbole" and "made up numbers", adding that Labour had scrapped scheme on "ideological grounds" and that its purpose was as a deterrent.[636]
Launch of
Skills England, a government body whose objective will be to reduce the need for overseas employees by improving skills training for people in England.[637]
Plaid Cymru expels Senedd member
Rhys ab Owen after he was found to have inappropriately touched and sworn at two women while drunk at a party.[640]
Former Chancellor
Nadhim Zahawi, who stood down from Parliament at the general election, is reported to be seeking financial backers in order to bid for the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator.[641]
23 July –
Seven Labour MPs, including former shadow chancellor
John McDonnell and former shadow minister
Rebecca Long-Bailey, have the Labour whip suspended for six months after voting against the government and in favour of an SNP amendment to scrap the
two-child benefit cap. McDonnel said, "I'm following Keir Starmer's example as he said put country before party".[642]
The Home Office confirms that contract for the Bibby Stockholm, the vessel used to house asylum seekers, will not be renewed after January 2025.[643]
Documents released by
The National Archives reveal that former prime minister
Harold Wilson agreed to sell his private papers late in life in order to provide funds for his care. A deal agreed with Canada's
McMaster University in 1990 attracted concern from the
Cabinet Office because documents relating to his time in office remained private under the
thirty year rule, which would not apply if they went to Canada. They were eventually sold to Oxford's
Bodleian Library.[644]
Eluned Morgan is elected unopposed as the new leader of Welsh Labour after nominations close at midday.[648]
The
Senedd will be
recalled on 6 August to choose a new First Minister of Wales following the resignation of Vaughan Gething and the subsequent Welsh Labour leadership election.[649]
Labour peer
Lord Falconer introduces the
Assisted Dying Bill into the House of Lords. The bill would allow anyone with a terminal illness and less than six months left to live to get medical assistance to end their life.[652]
28 July – Labour accuses the previous Conservative government of "covering up" "catastrophic" problems in the public sector and creating a multi-billion pound gap in public finances. The Conservatives say Labour are "lying" and "peddling nonsense" as all the detail of public finances has been put into the public domain by the
Office for Budget Responsibility since 2010. Former chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, says "the books have been wide open and what they show is a healthy, growing economy – not the fiction Labour is now peddling which is widely rejected by independent commentators" and that "trying to scam the British people so soon after being elected is a high-risk strategy doomed to fail".[656]
29 July –
The UK government and the
British Medical Association (BMA) reach agreement on an improved pay deal for junior doctors in England worth 22% on average over two years, which the BMA will put to its members.[657]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves conducts a
spending review in which she axes
winter fuel payments for pensioners not receiving
pension credit (roughly around 10 million people), while also announcing the cancellation of several infrastructure projects. Reeves argues she has had to make "necessary and urgent decisions" because of an "unfunded" and "undisclosed" overspending of £21.9bn by the previous government. Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt dismisses her claims as "spurious".[658][659]
Kemi Badenoch becomes the sixth person to enter the leadership race.[661]
Nominations close for candidates to be included in the first round of the leadership contest.[638]
The UK government drops its appeal against a court ruling against the
Troubles Legacy Act that found part of the legislation to be unlawful.[662]
August
6 August – The
Senedd is
recalled to choose a new First Minister of Wales.[649]
September
3 September – The Medicines (Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues) (Emergency Prohibition) (England, Wales and Scotland) Order 2024 ceases to have effect.[438]
2 January – The
Home Office says it has fulfilled a pledge to clear a "legacy" backlog of 92,000 asylum applications lodged before July 2022. But after it subsequently emerges that over 4,000 cases are still waiting for a decision, the
Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) announces an examination of the figures the next day.[4]
3 January –
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the
Liberal Democrats, launches the party's election campaign by targeting constituencies with Conservative MPs.[5]
5 January –
Chris Skidmore, MP for
Kingswood, announces his intention to stand down from Parliament "as soon as possible" in protest at the UK government's decision to issue more oil and gas licences. His decision triggers another
by-election.[9]
6 January –
Government papers seen by the BBC indicate Sunak had significant doubts about
sending migrants to Rwanda when he was chancellor, and wanted to scale back the plans.[10]
Sunak describes the
Post Office scandal as "an appalling miscarriage of justice" and says the government is looking at ways to clear the names of those convicted because of faulty IT software.[12]
Green Party co-leader
Carla Denyer confirms the party intends to stand a candidate in every constituency in England and Wales at the forthcoming general election, the first time it has fielded a full list of candidates at an election.[16]
SNP MP
Joanna Cherry demands an apology from colleague
Mhairi Black, who suggested some members of the party are "too comfortable" at Westminster.[17]
Former Minister
Sir Alok Sharma announces he would vote against the
Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, describing plans to guarantee annual oil and gas licensing rounds as "a total distraction" that reinforce the idea the UK is "not serious" about tackling climate change.[18]
Secretary of State for Justice
Alex Chalk tells Parliament the UK government is giving "serious consideration" to introducing legislation to quash the convictions of the 700 or so sub post masters who were prosecuted as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.[21]
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells announces that she would hand back her CBE after more than a million people signed a petition calling for her to do so.[22]
Downing Street confirms that
Akshata Murty, the wife of the Prime Minister, has donated her shares in a childcare company to charity. The shares were at the centre of a conflict-of-interest controversy.[24]
Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak announces that emergency legislation would be brought through Parliament to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the Post Office scandal in England and Wales.[25]
First Minister of Scotland
Humza Yousaf confirms those in Scotland convicted because of the scandal would also be cleared, and that he would work with the UK government to bring this about.[26]
11 January –
The
Liberal Democrats ask
Ofcom to investigate
GB News over alleged bias in its coverage of the Post Office scandal, including what the party's deputy leader,
Daisy Cooper, describes as "a fictitious monologue"
Nigel Farage delivered about Sir Ed Davey, which she says contained "a number of factual inaccuracies".[27]
First Minister of Scotland
Humza Yousaf confirms that the Scottish Government would "in essence replicate" the law in England and Wales banning unlicensed ownership of American XL bully dogs.[28]
Sunak authorises talks between the
Labour Party and the civil service ahead of a general election later in the year to ensure a smooth transition if Labour becomes the party of government.[31]
Court documents reveal that Fujitsu, the company at the centre of the Post Office scandal, won a £184m contract by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2021, despite concerns the system it was offering was "unfit for purpose".[32]
Court documents show that former Prime Minister
Sir Tony Blair was warned the Horizon IT system could be "possibly unreliable" before it was rolled out, and raised concerns about it, but gave it the green light after receiving reassurance from others, including his
Secretary of State for Trade and IndustryPeter Mandelson.[33]
13 January – Yvonne Tracey, a former deputy postmistress from
New Malden, south London, announces her intention to stand in the Parliamentary constituency of
Kingston and Surbiton, Sir Ed Davey's seat, at the next general election.[34]
14 January – Foreign Secretary
David Cameron tells the BBC that military action was taken against Houthi rebels because the strikes were needed after months of attacks against cargo ships, and that the UK is "prepared to back our words with actions".[35]
15 January –
Sunak tells Parliament that air strikes against Houthi targets were means as a "limited, single action" but that the UK "will not hesitate to protect our security, our people and our interests where required".[36]
James Stockan announces he is stepping down from the post of leader of
Orkney Islands Council, as well as relinquishing his council seat, after six years in the role.[37]
The fifteen-year time limit on voting eligibility for British citizens living abroad is abolished under the
Elections Act 2022, enabling a further two million people to register to vote in UK elections.[41]
18 January – The
UK Statistics Authority rebuked the prime minister for misleading the public over the backlog of asylum applications, which he claimed in a social media post had been cleared, while several thousand still remained. The UKSA said the claim could have affected public trust in the government.[45]
The
House of Lords votes 214–171 in favour of an amendment to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill that calls for the delay of ratification of the bill until Rwanda improves its asylum procedures.[51]
The UK government rejects calls from Welsh MPs to add the
Six Nations Championship to the list of guaranteed free-to-air sporting events on British television.[52]
23 January –
Following more air strikes against Houthi targets, Sunak tells Parliament the UK would not hesitate to launch further strikes if the rebel group continue to attack shipping targets in the Red Sea, but does not seek confrontation with them.[53]
In a BBC interview, Conservative MP
Simon Clarke calls for Rishi Sunak to be ousted as prime minister, then later says he is acting alone in his comments.[55]
Retired British Army officer Colonel
Tim Collins is selected to run as the
UUP candidate for
North Down at the next general election.[56]
25 January – The UK has walked away from trade deal negotiations with Canada after failing to agree on how much access UK producers should have to the Canadian cheese market.[58]
Wales's Education Minister,
Jeremy Miles, criticises the way Wales' largest trade union,
Unite, declared its preferred candidate for the Welsh Labour leadership election. The union held a hustings with the two candidates before announcing its support for
Vaughan Gething.[60]
The UK government announces a fresh investigation into the sale of the Daily Telegraph after UAE-based
RedBird IMI made an eleventh-hour change to the details of its bid to purchase the newspaper.[63]
28 January – Former MP and cabinet minister
Nadine Dorries says she would repay £16,876 in severance pay she received by mistake, as she was too old to qualify for the payment.[65]
29 January –
Labour MP
Kate Osamor is suspended from the party after saying the Gaza conflict should be remembered as genocide in a post about
Holocaust Memorial Day.[66]
George Freeman, the Conservative MP for
Mid Norfolk, says that he resigned from his role in the
Sunak ministry in
November 2023 because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on the £118,300 ministerial salary after his mortgage increased from £800 to £2,000 per month.[67]
Following the first debate of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill in the
House of Lords, Peers vote 206–84 to move the bill on to the next stage of its passage through the House.[69]
During a visit to the Middle East, Foreign Secretary
David Cameron says that the UK is ready to bring forward the moment when it is ready to recognise a Palestinian state.[71]
Members of the Senedd vote 39–14 to back the
Senedd Reform Bill which expands the legislature to 96 members at the
2026 Senedd election and change the way members are elected.[72]
The
Media Bill, which proposes changes to radio in the United Kingdom such as reducing regulations for commercial radio and improving access through smart devices, passes its third reading in the
House of Commons.[73]
Shadow Chancellor
Rachel Reeves confirms that Labour would not reintroduce the cap on bankers' bonuses if they form a government after the
next general election.[75]
February
1 February –
A
Statutory Instrument paving the way for the Northern Ireland Executive to be re-established is passed by the House of Commons.[76]
Conservative MP
Mike Freer announces he is standing down from Parliament at the next election following death threats and an arson attack on his constituency office. Downing Street describes the situation as "an attack on democracy".[77]
Addressing a meeting of business leaders, Shadow Chancellor
Rachel Reeves says that Labour would not increase
corporation tax if elected, but may cut it to boost "competitiveness".[78]
2 February – Senior Labour MP
Darren Jones confirms that the party has ditched its commitment to spend £28bn a year on green investment schemes if it wins the
next general election.[81]
Sir
Bob Neill, MP for
Bromley and Chislehurst, announces he is stand down at the next election to spend more time with his wife, who has suffered a stroke.[86]
4 February –
Dafydd Wigley, a former leader of
Plaid Cymru, warns that reforms to Wales's political system pose "a very great danger" since it would destroy the relationship between voters and the people they elect.[87]
Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak arrives in Northern Ireland to visit ministers following the restoration of the Executive.[88]
5 February –
Sunak visits Stormont along with
TaoiseachLeo Varadkar to mark the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive.[89]
Sunak is criticised by opposition parties after appearing to agree to a £1,000 bet on the
Rwanda asylum plan, that the first flight to Rwanda would take off before the election.[90] He subsequently says the challenge, put forward by
TalkTV presenter
Piers Morgan, took him by surprise, but that it was not a mistake to accept it.[91]
Sunak says the government has "not made enough progress" on cutting NHS waiting lists in England, but that industrial action "has had an impact".[92]
The UK government sets out its
Disability Action Plan, which includes measures to protect people with assistance dogs from being illegally refused entry to businesses.[93]
The UK government launches a six-week consultation on plans for
Martyn's Law, which would make provisions to better protect the public against potential acts of terrorism.[94]
6 February –
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer
Kwasi Kwarteng announced he is stepping down from Parliament at the next election.[95]
Former Prime Minister
Liz Truss launches a campaign to "galvanise" the UK's "secret Conservatives" and fight back against the "left wing extremists" she claims have taken over the UK's institutions.[99]
7 February –
Sunak faced a call from a Labour MP to apologise after he ridiculed Starmer over his U-turn on "defining a woman" at Prime Minister's Questions.[100]
Met Office data obtained by
BBC Verify raises questions over UK government claims that poor weather conditions had no impact on a fall in English Channel migrant crossings during 2023. The number of crossings were fewer than during the previous year, which the government had said was nothing to do with the weather, but the figures suggest there were fewer days during 2023 when compared to 2022 when migrants could successfully cross the Channel.[101]
8 February –
Labour scraps its plans for a £28bn annual green investment, with Sir Keir Starmer saying the policy is unaffordable because of the Conservatives' economic record. In response, Sunak says Starmer "U-turns on major things, he can't say what he would do differently".
Momentum says the announcement "represents yet another capitulation to right-wing interests".[102]
Michael Matheson resigns as Scotland's Health Secretary ahead of the publication of a report into £11,000 of data roaming charges accrued by his Parliamentary iPad. He is replaced by
Neil Gray.[103]
The 2024 Special Honours are announced.[105] They include
Plaid Cymru nominee
Carmen Smith, a former public affairs adviser for the party, who at 27, becomes the youngest member of the
House of Lords.[106]
11 February –
Azhar Ali, Labour's candidate in the
Rochdale by-election, apologises after a recording of him reportedly saying that Israel had "allowed" the deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on 7 October was obtained by The Mail on Sunday.[111] Labour condemns his remarks but continues to offer its support to his candidacy.[112]
12 February –
Labour withdraws its support for Rochdale candidate
Azhar Ali.[113]
Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak appears on an hour long GB News People's Forum, where a selected audience of undecided voters are invited to ask him questions. The programme is presented by
Stephen Dixon.[115]
13 February – Labour withdraws its support for
Graham Jones, the former MP for
Hyndburn, who was going to contest the seat at the next general election, after it emerges he attended a meeting at which Azhar Ali made comments about Israel.[116]
Conservative MP
Tobias Ellwood tells
BBC Radio 4's PM programme that politicians cannot be viewed as "fair game" after a large-scale pro-Palestinian protest outside his family home.[118]
15 February –
By-elections take place in
Wellingborough and
Kingswood.[119] Labour's
Gen Kitchen takes Wellingborough, the Conservative
Peter Bone's former seat, which he had held with a majority of more than 18,000. The swing of 28.5% is the
second largest swing from Conservative to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.[120] Labour's
Damien Egan overturns an 11,220 Conservative majority in Kingswood to win
Chris Skidmore's former seat.[120]
Atiqul Hoque, the Conservative
Mayor of Salisbury, is expelled from the Conservative Party over antisemitic remarks made on social media and WhatsApp.[121]
16 February –
The Labour Party releases a summery of the tax paid by Sir Keir Starmer during 2023, showing he paid just under £100,000 in tax.[122]
The ballot to elect the next leader of Welsh Labour opens.[123]
Craig Browne resigns as deputy leader of
Cheshire East Council, saying he can no longer afford to do the role on the £30,000 annual salary.[124]
Henry Staunton, the former chairman of the Post Office, tells The Sunday Times that Business Secretary
Kemi Badenoch told him "Someone's got to take the rap" when he was dismissed from the post. In response Badenoch describes his comments as a "disgraceful misrepresentation" of their conversation.[126]
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer calls for a "ceasefire that lasts" in Gaza.[127]
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch tells the House of Commons that claims by Henry Staunton, the former chair of the Post Office, that he was told to delay compensation payments for sub-postmasters are "completely false".[129]
The UK government announces plans for new measures on holiday homes in England to stop local people being priced out of being able to live in their community.[130]
Ofcom launches an impartiality investigation into GB News's Q&A session with prime minister Rishi Sunak.[131]
The UK government announces that a scheme allowing Ukrainian nationals to join relatives in the UK has closed to new applicants.[132]
Birmingham City Council announces plans to raise council tax by 21% over the next two years as part of £300m in budget cuts.[133]
20 February –
BBC News reports that the
Cameron government were aware that the Post Office had ended a 2016 investigation that could have helped several sub-postmasters wrongly convicted as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.[134]
Labour calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the first time it has called for a ceasefire since the Israel–Hamas conflict began.[135]
In a statement on the Israel–Hamas conflict, the
Prince of Wales calls for an "end to the fighting as soon as possible".[136]
An
Opposition day House of Commons debate calling for a ceasefire in Gaza descends into chaos after Speaker
Sir Lindsay Hoyle breaks with Parliamentary convention to allow a vote on a Labour amendment calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" over the scheduled SNP motion calling for an "immediate ceasefire". The decision leads to protests from both Conservative and SNP MPs, who walk out of the House, leaving Labour's motion to be nodded through when the other two parties do not take part in the vote. Amid calls for his resignation, Hoyle says that he allowed the House to vote on the Labour motion so MPs could express their view on "the widest range of propositions", and to protect MPs' safety.[140]
King Charles III is seen back at work and meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first time he has been seen back at work since his cancer diagnosis.[141]
Senior civil servant
Sarah Munby writes to the Business Secretary to reject allegations by former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton that he was told to delay compensation payments to victims of the Horizon scandal.[142]
22 February –
More than 60 MPs have signed a House of Commons motion calling for the resignation of Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.[143]
The UK government announces that legislation will be introduced to clear hundreds of sub-postmasters in England and Wales who were wrongly convicted as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.[145]
Argyll and Bute Council votes to raise its council tax by 10%, and rejects the Scottish Government's council tax freeze by doing so.[146]
Former Prime Minister
Liz Truss addresses the
Conservative Political Action Conference in the United States, where she claims Western civilisation is at risk if Conservatives do not develop a louder voice, and attributes the downfall of
her administration to "antagonism" from the establishment.[147] She subsequently appears on a podcast with former Trump strategist
Steve Bannon, where she remains silent as Bannon describes the far-right political activist
Tommy Robinson as a "hero".[148]
23 February –
A UK government commissioned report prepared by
Lord Walney recommends giving police extra powers to tackle protests outside Parliament in order to protect politicians against "intimidation" that could influence the way they vote.[149]
Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham, has his conviction for a racially aggravated public order offence quashed following an appeal.[152]
24 February –
Lee Anderson is suspended from the Conservative Party after "refusing to apologise" for claiming "Islamists" had "got control" of London Mayor
Sadiq Khan during an edition of his GB News show the previous day.[153]
25 February –
Sunak warns of the dangers of polarisation and hatred in politics following a week of political friction at Westminster.[154]
Preet Gill, Labour MP for
Birmingham Edgbaston, tells BBC Politics Midlands that receiving death threats appears to have become the "norm" and that her job worries her "in a way I've never been worried before".[155]
The SNP announces plans to apply for another parliamentary debate on Gaza in the coming week.[156]
The Scottish Government confirms that Economy Secretary
Màiri McAllan, who is pregnant, will take maternity leave during the summer, becoming the second Scottish Government minister to do so.[157]
26 February –
House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle rejects the SNP's request for an emergency debate on Gaza.[158]
Lee Anderson says that his words were clumsy, but refuses to apologise for his comments about Sadiq Khan.[159]
27 February –
A statement from
10 Downing Street says that the prime minister believed Lee Anderson's comments were wrong because they conflated "all Muslims with Islamist extremism".[160]
MSPs vote 68–55 in favour of the 2024 Scottish budget, which includes a council tax freeze and 45% and 48% income tax rates for higher earners.[162]
Fergus Ewing loses his appeal against a week-long suspension from the SNP group at Holyrood in September 2023 after he criticised the party leadership.[163]
MPs vote to suspend
Scott Benton from Parliament for 35 days, triggering a recall petition.[164]
28 February –
The UK government announces a £31m financial package to improve MPs security.[165]
Pro-Palestinian groups say they will continue to march after Home Secretary James Cleverly questioned whether holding regular marches "adds value" to calls for a ceasefire in Gaza during an interview with The Times.[166]
Addressing a meeting of police leaders, Sunak warns of a "growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule" and says that "a pattern of increasingly violent and intimidatory [sic] behaviour" cannot be allowed to stop elected representatives doing their job.[168]
MP
Julian Knight is told by
Essex Police he will face no criminal charges following an investigation into allegations of serious sexual assault that were made against him.[171]
Figures published by the Home Office show a reduction in the backlog of asylum applications, driven by an increase in decisions, with 74,172 initial decisions on asylum applications made during 2023, an almost fourfold increase on the 2022 figure.[172]
Sir Keir Starmer apologises to the voters of Rochdale for disowning the Labour Party's candidate, but says it was "the right decision".[173]
In a statement outside 10 Downing Street, Sunak warns that Islamists and far-right extremists, which he describes as "two sides of the same extremist coin", are trying to "deliberately" undermine the UK's "multi-faith democracy", and says the UK must face them down.[174]
Figures from the
National Audit Office show the UK government will pay Rwanda a total of £350m for the agreement to take asylum seekers, with £150,000 also being paid to Rwanda for each person sent there.[175]
Conservative peer
Lord Bamford, chairman of
JCB, retires from the House of Lords.[176]
2–3 March – The
London Labour conference is held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in Tower Bridge.[177]
4 March –
Sunak says the UK economy is "getting on the right track" ahead of what is expected to be the last budget before the next election.[178]
University Challenge contestant Melika Gorgianeh accepts substantial damages from Conservative peer
Jacqueline Foster after Foster accused her of being antisemitic following her appearance on the quiz show in November 2023.[185]
Senedd member
Rhys ab Owen is to be banned from the Senedd for six weeks after an investigation by the
Senedd Commission found he inappropriately touched two women during a night out in June 2021.[186]
In an article posted on
LinkedIn, senior UK government ministers
Anne-Marie Trevelyan and
Tom Tugendhat urge Sunak to increase defence spending to above 2.5% of
GDP, arguing that the UK needs to "lead the way" on defence spending and invest at a "much greater pace".[191]
A Daily Telegraph report alleging a conflict-of-interest involving First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf after the Scottish Government donated £250,000 to the UN agency
UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees, is rejected by Yousaf as an "outrageous smear" and a "far right conspiracy".[192]
10 March – BBC News reports that former Prime Minister
Boris Johnson flew to Venezuela during February for an unofficial private meeting with President
Nicolás Maduro.[193]
Addressing the
Institute for Government, former prime minister
Sir John Major criticises his recent Conservative successors for the attitude towards the civil service, and describes the quick succession of prime ministers in recent years as "not conducive to good government".[195]
As the UK government prepares to redraw the definition of extremism, former Home Secretaries
Priti Patel,
Sajid Javid and
Amber Rudd warn against attempting to politicise extremism at the next election.[196]
After the Welsh Government publishes plans to require parties in the Senedd to draw up lists of candidates composing of 50% of women, presiding officer
Elin Jones says that the Senedd does not have the power to enforce gender quotas.[197]
Conservative Party donor
Frank Hester apologises after The Guardian reported comments he is alleged to have made in 2019 about Labour MP
Diane Abbott, when he is said to have suggested she made him "want to hate all black women" and that she "should be shot".[198]
David Neal, the former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, has described the Home Office is dysfunctional and in urgent need of reform, citing problems with immigration as an example.[199]
12 March –
A spokesman for the prime minister describes the remarks allegedly made by Frank Hester about Diane Abbott as "racist and wrong".[200]
Sunak tells
Prime Minister's Questions he will not return £10m donated to the Conservative Party by Frank Hester, because he has apologised and "his remorse should be accepted".[202]
The UK government announces a scheme to offer failed asylum seekers £3,000 if they agree to move to Rwanda voluntarily.[203]
The UK government announces a ban on foreign state ownership of British newspapers and news magazines following controversy over a potential purchase of The Telegraph by a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates.[204]
Russia is reported to have jammed the GPS signal of an RAF plane carrying Defence Secretary
Grant Shapps back to the UK from Poland the previous day for around 30 minutes as the plane flew near the border of the Russian territory of
Kaliningrad.[206]
Speaking in the House of Commons, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Michael Gove outlines the UK government's new definition of extremism, and names five groups that would be assessed against the new criteria. They are the
British National Socialist Movement,
Patriotic Alternative, the
Muslim Association of Britain,
CAGE and
Muslim Engagement and Development. The new definition is criticised by civil liberties and community groups, while most of the groups named by Gove threaten legal action if they are added to the list.[207]
The news website Tortoise Media reports that the Conservatives have received a further £5m in donations from Frank Hester that are yet to be declared.[209]
Sir Brandon Lewis, a former Conservative Party Chairman, announces he is standing down from Parliament at the next general election.[210]
Government papers show that former prime minister Liz Truss accepted a £20,000 trip to the United States in February paid for by the
Green Dragon Coalition, an obscure group that takes its name from the
Green Dragon Tavern in Boston, Massachusetts, and is believed to support US Presidential candidate
Donald Trump. The trip was to attend a three-day conference at a hotel on
Sea Island, Georgia.[212]
The
Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced as a private member's bill, passes its first reading in the House of Commons after securing the backing of the UK government. The bill aims to ban the import of puppies, kittens and ferrets under the age of six months into the UK.[217]
Apple agrees to pay a £385m settlement on a lawsuit led by
Norfolk County Council, which was started over allegations Apple CEO
Tim Cook defrauded shareholders in a pension company administered by the Council by covering up lower demand for iPhones in China.[218]
16 March –
Vaughan Gething is
elected to lead
Welsh Labour, and will become
First Minister of Wales. He will be Wales's first
black leader, and the first black person to lead a country in Europe.[219] With Gething's win it means that three of the four governments in the UK will have non-white leaders.[220]
A group calling itself the South Devon Primary, which aims to unseat Conservative MPs in South Devon at the next election, chooses Liberal Democrat
Caroline Voaden as a candidate for one of its constituencies.[221]
Transport Secretary
Mark Harper tells the BBC that the Conservative Party welcomes members "whatever their race".[223]
Pete Wishart, the SNP's longest-serving MP at Westminster, distances himself from the party's election message of making Scotland "Tory-free", describing it as unhelpful.[224]
18 March –
Amendments to the
Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill tabled in the House of Lords are overturned again in the House of Commons. The changes included allowing courts to question Rwanda's safety as a country.[225]
Former US President
Barack Obama arrives at 10 Downing Street for talks with Sunak.[226]
Ofcom finds that five episodes of GB News shows presented by Jacob Rees Mogg, Esther McVey and Phillip Davies broke their rules, and warns the channel about its use of Conservative MPs to host news content.[227]
Business Secretary
Kemi Badenoch dismisses rumours of a plot to unseat Sunak as Conservative leader as the party continues to fair badly in the polls.[228]
19 March –
While speaking to a House of Lords Committee, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hints that the next general election may take place in October.[229]
Labour's
Clive Lewis, MP for
Norwich South, apologises for swearing in Parliament after he was overheard to use the word "shit" while voting on the government's Rwanda legislation the previous evening.[230]
The
Football Governance Bill, which aims to establish an independent football regulator for England, is introduced into Parliament.[231]
Mark Drakeford attends his final First Minister's Questions as First Minister of Wales.[232]
20 March –
The
Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which would make it illegal for anyone born after 2009 to purchase cigarettes by raising the minimum age by a year starting in 2027, begins its process through Parliament.[233]
The Senedd approves Vaughan Gething as the next First Minister of Wales.[234]
21 March –
Carmen Smith is sworn in as the youngest member of the House of Lords.[235]
The
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body confirms that members of Scottish Parliament staff will no longer be allowed to wear
rainbow lanyards, or any other badge or jewellery associated with social issues, while at Holyrood.[236]
The
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill passes its final vote in the Scottish Parliament. Among measures it introduces is a licensing scheme for land where grouse shooting takes place, and regulations for traps.[237]
BBC News reports that officials have raised concerns about the role of Secretary of State for the Environment
Steve Barclay in a proposed waste incinerator in his constituency, which he opposes, and he will consequently no longer have a role in the decision-making process.[240]
22 March –
West Yorkshire Police launches an investigation into the alleged comments made about Diane Abbott by Conservative Party donor Frank Hester.[241]
A private member's bill introduced to Parliament by Conservative MP
Gareth Johnson that aimed to prevent the expansion of London's
Ultra Low Emission Zone runs out of Parliamentary time.[242]
Penny Mordaunt dismisses rumours of a potential leadership challenge against Rishi Sunak as "nonsense".[243]
MPs in the House of Commons give their backing to a private member's bill that will ban the import of hunting trophies into the UK if it becomes law.[244]
24 March – Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says the Conservatives will keep the triple lock mechanism for deciding the rise in the
state pension if they win the next election.[245]
The UK formally accuses China of being behind a "malicious" cyberattack against MPs and the
Electoral Commission.[247]
26 March –
Education Minister
Robert Halfon and Armed Forces Minister
James Heappey announce their resignations from the
Sunak ministry, having decided to stand down from Parliament at the next election.[248]
The first meeting of the
East–West Council, established as part of the restoration of government in Northern Ireland, is held in London.[250]
27 March – A report clears Conservative MP
Bernard Jenkin of breaching COVID-19 laws over his attendance at a "wine and nibbles" event on the Parliamentary estate in December 2020, which the report describes as socially-distanced with "business and social elements".[251]
Honours are conferred on businessman and senior Conservative Party treasurer
Mohamed Mansour, Farming Minister
Mark Spencer and
Shipley MP
Philip Davies, all of who receive knighthoods, while former ministers
Tracey Crouch and
Harriett Baldwin are awarded damehoods. The announcement comes as part of an honours list published at the start of the Parliamentary recess.[253]
30 March – First Minister of Northern Ireland
Michelle O'Neill says she is determined the Stormont Assembly and Executive will continue to function following the resignation of Jeffrey Donaldson as DUP leader.[257]
31 March –
The UK government says it will work alongside the Northern Ireland Executive to maintain stability at Stormont.[258]
A
Survation poll of 15,000 people suggests the Conservatives could win fewer than 100 seats at the next election, forecasting Labour with 468 seats, the Conservatives with 98 seats, the Scottish National Party with 41 seats and the Liberal Democrats with 22 seats.[259]
April
1 April –
The
Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex, comes into force in Scotland.[260]
2 April – Education Secretary
Gillian Keegan says that proposed homelessness legislation will not be used against "excessive smells".[263] The
Criminal Justice Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will replace the
1824 Vagrancy Act.[264]
3 April –
Labour commits to the Conservatives' childcare expansion plans if it wins the next general election.[265]
MP
Johnny Mercer announces his intention to challenge a court order to reveal names of those who had told him about alleged war crimes by British special forces in
Afghanistan.[266]
4 April – Conservative MP
William Wragg tells The Times he shared the phone numbers of fellow MPs with someone he met on a dating app after sending the person intimate pictures of himself.[267]
5 April –
Veterans' Minister Johnny Mercer is given until 8 May to present his argument as to why he should not reveal the identity of those who told him about alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by British Special Forces.[268]
Conservative MP
Luke Evans identifies himself to police as "a victim of cyber-flashing and malicious communication".[270]
8 April –
Ofcom launches an investigation into the 29 March edition of
David Lammy's show on LBC to determine whether it broke the rules regarding politicians acting as newsreaders.[271]
William Wragg steps down as vice chair of the Conservative Party's
1922 Committee following revelations about the Westminster WhatsApp scam.[272]
Richard Tice, leader of
Reform UK, defends his party's vetting procedure after 12 general election candidates were deselected for offensive social media posts.[273]
9 April –
William Wragg voluntarily resigns the Conservative whip and will sit in Parliament as an independent MP. He also gives up his role on the Public Administration Committee.[274]
The brother-in-law of
First Minister of ScotlandHumza Yousaf appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court charged with abduction and extortion following an incident where a man fell from a block of flats and later died.[275]
Three people are arrested after staging a protest outside the London home of
Keir Starmer.[276]
10 April –
Figures published by the Foreign Office indicate that £4.3bn of its budget for 2023 – roughly a quarter of the overall foreign aid budget for the year – was spent on refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.[277]
Sally Bunce, the Green Party candidate for
Mayor of the Tees Valley in the
May election, drops out of the contest saying she does not want to split the vote against the Conservative candidate.[280]
Reform UK apologise to the family of their dropped candidate for
York Central Tommy Cawkwell for "inactivity" not knowing that he had died.[281]
Joe Haines and
Lord Donoughue, who were two of
Harold Wilson's advisers during his time as Prime Minister, tell The Times that Wilson had an affair with his deputy press secretary, Janet Hewlett-Davies, during the 1970s.[282]
Greater Manchester Police launch an investigation into Labour's deputy leader,
Angela Rayner, over the sale of her council house amid allegations she broke electoral law by giving false information about her place of residence.[284] Rayner pledges to step down if she is found guilty of any crime.[285][286]
Keir Starmer says that if elected to government, Labour will raise defence spending to 2.5% of
GDP.[287] He also makes an "unshakable" commitment to nuclear weapons.[288]
Tim Loughton, MP for
East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, announces he will stand down from parliament at the next election.[292] He becomes the 100th MP to announce they will not seek re-election at the next election.[293]
An
OpenDemocracy investigation reveals high level Labour politicians met with financial services firms following a £150,000 donation to the party from one of the companies.[294]
Mayor of London
Sadiq Khan launches what he describes as a "new climate action plan" for London, which includes a Net Zero Schools target and recommitting to making London Net Zero by 2030.[297]
14 April – Some Conservative MPs and businesspeople are proposing to boycott Downing Street's
Eid celebration, scheduled for the following day, because of the UK government's support for Israel.[298]
15 April –
Peers living outside London become eligible to claim £100 for accommodation expenses when they attend sittings at the House of Lords.[299]
Sunak is absent from the Downing Street Eid celebration.[300]
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill passes by 383 votes to 67, banning anyone born after 2009 from legally buying cigarettes in the UK.[302]
The House of Lords reinstates proposed changes to the UK government's Rwanda legislation.[303]
An amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill will make the creation of sexually explicit
deepfake images a specific criminal offence in
England and Wales if the images are created without the permission of the person.[304]
MPs overturn amendments to the UK government's Rwanda legislation made by the House of Lords only for them to be reinstated when the legislation is sent back to the Upper House for consideration.[306]
In a speech on
welfare, Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak sets out plans to tackle what he describes as the UK's "
sick note culture" by stripping GPs in England of their authority to sign people off work.[315]
Labour sets out plans to build more housing, with priority given to
brownfield sites and poor quality
greenbelt land dubbed "greybelt" land.[316]
Labour writes to Lancashire Police regarding allegations made against Mark Menzies. A review of information relating to the allegations is subsequently commenced.[318]
The
Scottish Greens announce their intention to hold a vote on whether to stay in government with the
Scottish National Party following the SNP's decision to scrap key climate targets.[319]
Biteback Publishing apologises over a false quote linked to an antisemitic conspiracy theory in Liz Truss's memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, and says it will be removed from future copies of the book.[320]
Robin Swann, who is the perspective
Ulster Unionist candidate for
South Antrim, announces he will step down from his post as Northern Ireland's Health Minister once the general election campaign begins.[324]
22 April –
Parliament passes the
Safety of Rwanda Bill, with plans to deport the first asylum seekers to Kigali in July.[325]
Two men, including a parliamentary researcher, are charged with spying for China after providing information that could be "useful to an enemy".[326]
Conservative councillor Richard Solesbury-Timms, who represents
Middleton Cheney on
West Northamptonshire Council, leaves the party to sit as an independent citing the party's dealing with allegations against the council leader.[327]
23 April –
Patrick Harvie says he will resign as co-leader of the
Scottish Greens if the party votes to end its coalition agreement with the SNP.[328]
Rishi Sunak vows to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.[330]
Labour unveils its plans for improvements to train services, which include automatic refunds for delays, a "best price" guarantee and improved internet coverage.[331]
Jeffrey Donaldson appears at Newry Magistrates' Court to face charges of historic child abuse.[332]
Johnny Timpson, the UK's inaugural disability ambassador, resigns over the UK government's policy of clawing back benefit overpayment.[333]
TUV leader
Jim Allister, whose party agreed a formal partnership with
Reform UK for the upcoming general election, distances himself from remarks in which Reform's deputy leader,
Ben Habib, suggested some migrants travelling to the UK in small boats should be left to drown.[342]
28 April –
BBC News reports that Yousaf had ruled out an electoral pact between the SNP and
Alba Party after
Alex Salmond suggested the party would support him in a vote of no confidence in the Scottish Parliament.[343]
Sunak refuses to rule out a general election in July following speculation of a summer election.[344]
The
FDA trade union announces plans to mount a legal challenge against the UK government's Safety of Rwanda Act amid concerns it breaches international law.[351]
MSPs vote 70–58 to defeat a motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government.[352]
John Swinney is set to become the next SNP leader and first minister after
Kate Forbes confirms she will not seek the party's leadership.[353]
3 May –
With 90% of council election results announced, the Conservatives have lost over 400 council seats, while Labour regains control of Hartlepool, Redditch, Rushmoor and Thurrock Councils.[354]
5 May – With all votes counted, the results from the local elections in England are: Labour 1,158 (+186), Liberal Democrat 522 (+104), Conservative 515 (−474), Independents and others 228 (+93), Green 181 (+74), Residents' Association 48 (+11), Workers Party of Britain 4 (+4), Reform UK 2 (+2).[360]
6 May –
Argentina's president,
Javier Milei, tells the BBC he accepts the Falkland Islands are currently "in the hands of the UK", but says his country will get them back through diplomatic channels.[361]
Former cabinet minister
Nadhim Zahawi says he will stand down from Parliament at the next election.[372]
Natalie Elphicke apologises for past comments in support of her ex-husband,
Charlie, which she made when he was convicted of sexual assault.[373]
Swinney confirms to the BBC that the SNP's strategy of using the next general election as a mandate for a second referendum on Scottish independence remains.[374]
The government announces that a ban on sex offenders in England and Wales changing their name to avoid detection will be brought in.[375]
The UK government scraps a planned amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would give police the power to move homeless people on because of "smells" following opposition from Conservative MPs.[385]
14 May –
MSPs unanimously approve the
Housing Cladding Remediation Bill with 116 votes in favour of the legislation that seeks to address problems with cladding on buildings and avoid a similar incident to the
Grenfell tower fire in Scotland.[386]
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps claims six new warships will help fight the "conflicts of the future".[387]
15 May –
Rishi Sunak is challenged in PMQs over the early release of dangerous criminals.[388]
The UK government agrees to make death by dangerous cycling a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison after a campaign by
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who proposed the measures as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, and after MPs vote in favour of the amendment.[393]
The
Rwanda Asylum Plan is expanded to include all failed asylum seekers rather than the original plan of those arriving in the UK after 1 January 2022.[394]
16 May –
The UK government announces plans to allow the use of debit cards in pub
slot machines, which it argues will allow pubs, casinos and gambling venues to compete in an increasingly
cashless society.[395]
Plaid Cymru ends its
co-operation deal with
Labour in Wales following concerns about a donation of £200,000 to First Minister
Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign by a company owned by a businessman twice convicted of environmental offences.[398]
18 May –
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, confirms he will be standing down from Parliament at the next general election.[400]
20 May –
Ofcom says it is considering imposing a statutory sanction against GB News after concluding its programme People's Forum: The Prime Minister, a Q&A session with prime minister
Rishi Sunak that aired in February, broke impartiality rules.[401]
First Minister of Scotland John Swinney announces he will not accept a parliamentary committee ruling to exclude
Michael Matheson from Holyrood for 27 days over his £11,000 iPad charges bill, claiming the decision is "prejudiced" due to the involvement of a Conservative MSP who previously made comments about Matheson.[410]
Former Education Secretary
Michael Gove announces he will not stand for parliament again at the next election.[412]
Junior health minister
Andrea Leadsom announces she will not contest the next election.[413]
Craig Mackinlay decides he will not contest the new parliamentary seat of
Thanet East after what he describes as "36 hours of intense soul searching" following the announcement of the election and his feeling that the work schedule would be too much to deal with while he continues to recover from sepsis.[414]
Jeremy Corbyn is ejected from the Labour Party after announcing he will stand as an independent candidate in the
Islington North constituency, which he has represented since 1983.[416]
Parliament is prorogued ahead of the general election.[417]
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is not among legislation to be rushed through Parliament before its prorogation.[418] The Renters (Reform) Bill, which would have brought in an end to no-fault evictions, is also shelved.[419] But the
Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill, which quashes the convictions of sub-postmasters convicted in the Horizon scandal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is passed,[420] as is the
Pet Abduction Bill, making the abduction of cats and dogs a criminal offence from August.[421] The
Victims and Prisoners Bill is also passed into law.[422]
The Times publishes a letter signed by 121 prominent business figures endorsing the Labour Party.[429]
Diane Abbott has the Labour Party whip restored following its suspension in April 2023.[430]
Greater Manchester Police confirm that, following their investigation, Labour deputy leader
Angela Rayner will not face any further police action over her living arrangements before her time as an MP.[431]
Former
Plaid Cymru MP
Jonathan Edwards, who represents
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, announces he will not contest his seat at the election; Edwards was asked to leave Plaid in 2022 after accepting a police caution for assaulting his wife.[432]
MSPs vote 64–0 to exclude Scotland's former Health Secretary,
Michael Matheson, from the Scottish Parliament for 27 sitting days, and to suspend his salary for 54 days, after he breached expenses rules by accululating an £11,000 bill on his parliamentary iPad. The governing SNP abstains from voting, and calls for a review of the complaints procedure, suggesting it could be open to bias.[434]
The
Welsh Conservatives table a motion of no confidence in First Minister Vaughan Gething following several weeks of controversy over donations to his leadership campaign. The motion is scheduled to face a Senedd vote on 5 June.[435]
Gavin Robinson is
ratified as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and announces the party will not stand a candidate in Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the general election.[437]
Nicola Sturgeon announced that she will be active in the SNP campaign in Scotland.[441]
Ed Davey campaigned in
Wales with
Jane Dodds.[442] He said that his party was confident in winning both of the parliamentary constituencies in
Powys.[443]
30 May –
Parliament is dissolved in preparation for the general election.[417]
Mark Logan, the former Conservative MP for
Bolton North East, tells BBC News he is backing Labour at the general election, describing the party as offering "centrist politics".[444]
The Plaid Crymru campaign is launched in
Bangor.[445]
Media, including BBC News, report that
Derbyshire Police are reviewing claims of election fraud relating to "concerns around marketing material" posted on social media by
Robert Largan, MP and Conservative candidate for
High Peak.[452]
3 June –
Nigel Farage announces that, contrary to his statement earlier in the campaign, he will stand for Parliament in
Clacton, and that he has resumed leadership of
Reform UK.[453]
The Medicines (Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues) (Emergency Prohibition) (England, Wales and Scotland) Order 2024 is scheduled to come into force.[438]
The first 2024 leaders debate takes place in Scotland, with the leaders of Scotland's four main political parties taking part in a debate on
STV.[454]
The UK government tells the High Court it has delayed the start date for flights sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to 24 July.[455]
The Welsh Government shelves plans to legislate for shorter school summer holidays in Wales until after the next Senedd election.[456]
4 June –
ITV airs Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate, a head-to-head election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer presented by
Julie Etchingham.[457] During the debate Sunak claims that Labour has a £38bn spending shortfall which would require it to raise taxes by £2,000 for the average household by the end of the next parliament. A letter from
James Bowler, the
Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, subsequently emerges in which he says the Conservative claims "should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service".[458]
First Minister of Wales
Vaughan Gething loses a nonbinding vote of no confidence in the Senedd with members voting 29–27 in favour of a motion put forward by the Welsh Conservatives. It follows an investigation into the activities of a leading donor to his election campaign.[462] Gething says he will not resign following the vote.[463]
David Duguid is prevented from standing as the Conservative candidate in
Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.[465] Instead,
Douglas Ross, who had previously intended to stand down at the election, announces he will contest the constituency at a press conference the next day.[466]
6 June –
The
Office for Statistics Regulation criticises Sunak for his comments about Labour tax rises, saying most people would have been unaware the figures related to a four year period.[467]
The FDA trade union which represents senior civil servants launches its High Court case against the UK government over the Rwanda asylum plan, arguing that they could be asked to break the law by ministers if they were asked to ignore a ruling from the
European Court of Human Rights to halt a flight to Rwanda.[468]
It is revealed that the Conservatives accepted a further donation from
Frank Hester after he was accused of making racist comments about Diane Abbott.[470]
Rishi Sunak apologises for leaving the D-day memorial early to return to the UK to give an ITV interview about the election. He says: "On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise."[472]
Keith Vaz, who stood down from Parliament after he was found to have "expressed willingness" to buy cocaine for male prostitutes, will stand in his old
Leicester East constituency for the
One Leicester Party.[473]
The
Unite trade union says it will not endorse Labour's election manifesto because it does not go far enough on protecting the rights of workers.[476]
The
Green Party says it has blocked a "small number" of candidates from standing as Green candidates at the election after investigations into their online activities.[477]
Plaid Cymru withdraws its support for Sharifah Rahman, who was scheduled to represent the party as a candidate in
Cardiff South and Penarth, following social media posts about the "situation in the Middle East" that "do not reflect the views and values of Plaid Cymru".[478]
The
Senedd Reform Bill Committee has warned that plans for gender quotas at the next Senedd election could face legal challenges, and urges the Welsh Government to take urgent action to protect the election.[479]
8 June –
Stewart Sutherland, the Reform UK candidate for
Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, withdraws his candidacy after allegations he reported racist content.[480]
Social media platform
X takes action against an organisation that has been smearing British politicians with deepfake videos by removing a number of accounts.[481]
9 June – The Sunday Mail reports allegations that Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross used Westminster expenses to travel in his role as a football linesman.[482]
10 June –
The list of candidates standing in the 2024 general election is published, with more than 4,500 candidates setting a new record for the number of people standing at an election.[483]
Douglas Ross announces his resignation as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, triggering a
leadership election. Ross says he will also resign from Holyrood if he is re-elected to Westminster.[484]
Ian Gribbin, the Reform UK candidate for
Bexhill and Battle, apologises after claiming the UK would be "far better" if it had "taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality" instead of fighting World War II.[485]
Sophie Raworth pulls out of presenting the BBC's The Prime Ministerial Debate, scheduled to air on 26 June, after fracturing her ankle; Mishal Husain will present instead.[490]
Vaughan Gething tells the Senedd he regrets the "impact" of his decision to accept a £200,000 donation from a man whose company was convicted of illegally dumping waste.[492]
12 June –
The Green Party launches its manifesto, with key points including increasing taxes for the better off, and higher spending on healthcare, housing and climate change.[493]
Craig Williams, who served as Sunak's Parliamentary Private Secretary, is being investigated by the
Gambling Commission after placing a bet on the date of the general election.[495] Williams subsequently describes the bet as a "huge error of judgement".[496]
Dr Anne McCloskey, an independent general election candidate for
Foyle, is sentenced to 14 days in prison for non-payment of a COVID-19 related fine by Derry Magistrates.[497]
Police say they are aware of YouTuber and internet prankster
Niko Omilana, who has registered himself as a general election candidate in 11 different constituencies.[498]
13 June –
Keir Starmer unveils the
Labour Party's
general election manifesto. He says that wealth creation is the "number one priority" and that Labour will focus on economic growth.[499]
The Green Party is forced to temporarily remove its manifesto from its website after facing criticism for using an image of an ill man to illustrate its policy on
HIV.[500]
Plaid Cymru launches its 2024 election manifesto, which includes plans for Welsh independence, 500 extra GPs and funding from rail improvements.[501]
A
YouGov poll for The Times puts Reform UK ahead of the Conservatives for the first time, with Reform on 19% and the Conservatives on 18%; the poll prompts Reform leader Nigel Farage to claim his party is "now the opposition to Labour".[502]
ITV holds a debate featuring senior figures from the UK's seven main political parties and moderated by Julie Etchingham.[503]
14 June –
Data published by the
Electoral Commission indicates that Labour raised £351,990 more in donations than the Conservatives during the first week of the general election campaign.[504]
BBC Wales sees a series of text messages from the mobile phone of Welsh Conservative Senedd member
Laura Anne Jones in which she appears to ask an employee to maximise her expenses claims.[505] Jones is subsequently asked to step back from Wales's
Shadow Cabinet as a result of the revelation.[506]
A coalition of commercial media and content businesses write to Labour to urge them not to introduce advertising on the BBC, fearing it could have a negative impact on consumers, licence fee payers and creative industries.[507]
Labour's
Rosie Duffield, who is campaigning to be re-elected as MP for
Canterbury, says she has withdrawn from hustings events because she does not feel safe; Duffield has previously faced death threats for her stance on sex and gender.[509]
Grant StClair-Armstrong, the Reform UK candidate for
North West Essex, resigns from the party after historic blog posts emerge in which he urged people to vote for the
British National Party.[511]
Nigel Farage launches Reform UK's election manifesto, which he describes as a contract, and which chiefly proposes a freeze on non-essential immigration.[513]
Lord Cashman is suspended from the
Parliamentary Labour Party for describing Rosie Duffield as "frit or lazy" in a social media post for withdrawing from hustings meetings over concerns for her safety.[514]
LBC's
Nick Ferrari presents the first of two editions of Britain's Next PM, a phone-in giving listeners the opportunity to speak to Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, with Starmer appearing on the first edition and Sunak the following day.[516]
The deadline for people wishing to register to vote in time for the 2024 general election expires at 23:59.[517]
Sunak announces that former prime minister Johnson will endorse Conservative candidates by writing to constituents urging them not to vote for Reform, claiming to do so will "make a difference".[518]
Businessman
John Caudwell, the founder of
Phones4U, who gave the Conservatives a £500,000 donation before the
2019 general election, tells the BBC he will be voting Labour for the first time in his life at the 2024 election.[521]
During an election debate on
BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, representatives from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Scottish National Party express their support for making
misogyny a hate crime.[522]
19 June –
A police officer working as part of the prime minister's close protection team is suspended and later arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into bets on the date of the general election.[523]
The Scottish National Party launches its election manifesto, with plans to "end Westminster cuts" and increase investment in the
NHS.[524] The party would also view winning a majority of Scotland's seats at Westminster as a mandate to begin
independence negotiations.[525]
After details of past social media posts made by two Reform UK candidates, Lee Bunker and Angela Begbie-Carter, are reported in the media, the party releases a statement in which it says candidates are free to express views that "are not shared by all their party colleagues" as they are not "political zombies".[528]
Secret government files seen by BBC News show work has been underway with consultants since January to limit "severe implications" to essential IT services by lining up alternative providers after
Atos, the UK subsidiary of which has contracts for NHS records and disability benefit claims, is more than £3bn in debt and undergoing restructuring.[529]
Sinn Féin launches its 2024 election manifesto, which includes plans for the transfer of fiscal powers from Westminster to Stormont and the creation of an all-Ireland national health service.[530]
Businessman
Zia Yusuf donates an undisclosed amount of money, but reported to be several thousand pounds, to Reform UK, claiming the UK has "lost control of our borders".[531]
The
Workers Party of Britain launches its election manifesto, with promises to improve "poverty pay" and provide more social housing.[532]
BBC News reports that Laura Saunders, the Conservative candidate for
Bristol North West, has become the second Conservative candidate to face an investigation by the
Gambling Commission over betting on the date of the general election. It is subsequently reported that her husband, Tony Lee, the Conservative Party's campaigns director, is also being investigated by the Commission.[533][534]
20 June –
BBC One airs a Question Time election special featuring the leaders of the UK's four main political parties.[474]
Sunak says he is "incredibly angry" to learn of allegations that members of his party have betted on the date of the election, and that he will "boot out" anyone found to have broken the law.[535]
Scottish Parliament authorities have launched an investigation into the potential misuse of expenses to buy postage stamps by members of the SNP in order to send letters to voters.[536]
The
Alliance Party launches its general election manifesto, with plans including reform of the devolved government at Stormont, and ringfencing funding for
integrated eductation.[537]
21 June –
Nigel Farage tells the BBC that he believes the Ukraine war to have been precipitated by the West's eastward expansion of
NATO and the
European Union, but that the war itself is Vladimir Putin's fault.[538]
BBC News publishes a list of eight Reform UK candidates who have made a wide range of offensive online posts about women between 2011 and 2023.[540]
Following criticism from other party leaders over his comments about Putin, Nigel Farage pens an op-ed in The Telegraph in which he says he has never been an "apologist or supporter" of Putin, but that "if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don't be surprised if he responds".[541]
The Sunday Times reports that Nick Mason, the Conservative Party's chief data officer, has become the fourth person to face investigation by the Gambling Commission for alleged betting on the date of the election. Mason denies any wrongdoing.[542]
BBC News reports that the Gambling Commission's investigation involves more people than those already named.[543]
Sunak says that he is "not aware of any other" Conservative candidates being investigated by the Gambling Commission.[546]
The
Institute for Fiscal Studies says that it will be a "considerable surprise" if UK taxes do not rise in the next five years and says the two main parties are "ducking" the issue in their manifestos.[547]
The
Scottish Conservatives launch their election manifesto, which includes plans to improve teachers' pay, cut the backlog of NHS waiting lists, and to beat the SNP.[548]
The Democratic Unionist Party launches its 2024 election manifesto, with policies including greater access to healthcare, opposition to assisted suicide and the removal of trade barriers within the UK.[549]
The Conservative Party withdraws its support for Craig Williams and Laura Saunders as election candidates.[551]
Cabinet minister
Alister Jack, who previously claimed to have won £2,100 by betting on the date of the election, then claimed he was joking, issues a statement in which he says he did not place a bet on the election.[552]
Russell George, the Senedd member for
Montgomeryshire, becomes the fifth Conservative politician to be investigated by the Gambling Commission for election betting.[553]
The Metropolitan Police confirms that the Gambling Commission are investigating a further five police officers for placing bets on the date of the election.[554]
Labour suspends
Kevin Craig, their candidate for
Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, after the Gambling Commission launches an unrelated investigation into him for placing a bet against himself losing in his constituency.[555]
Alex Cole-Hamilton, leader of the
Scottish Liberal Democrats, admits to placing bets on Scottish Liberal Democrat election candidates, but says he did not place bets on the date of the election itself.[557]
The Sun reports that
Sir Philip Davies, the Conservative candidate for
Shipley, allegedly placed an £8,000 bet on whether he would lose his seat at the election, which has a majority of 6,242.[558]
Police arrest a woman in her 20s in connection with the Westminster "honeytrap" scandal in which a number of MPs were sent unsolicited text messages, some of them explicit.[559]
Mishal Husain moderates The Prime Ministerial Debate, the BBC's head-to-head debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.[474]
The
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) launches its election manifesto, which includes a "
Marshall Plan" to address the backlog in Northern Ireland's health service, reforms to Stormont, and a repeal of the Troubles Legacy Act.[561]
27 June –
The Metropolitan Police says that at least seven police officers are now being investigated for placing bets on the date of the general election.[562]
Reform UK condemns campaigners in
Clacton who were filmed by an undercover reporter for Channel 4 News making racist, homophobic and Islamophobic comments, including one who used a racial slur to describe Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The party says those involved will no longer be involved in the election campaign.[563]
The final televised debate of the 2024 general election takes place on
BBC One Northern Ireland and features representatives from Northern Ireland's five main parties.[565]
Labour lifts its suspension of Rhianon Passmore after police say they had found no offence was committed regarding the number plates on her car.[566]
28 June –
Sunak speaks of his hurt and anger at his daughters having to hear a racial slur used about him by Reform UK activists.[567]
Essex Police say they are urgently trying to establish whether any criminal offences have been committed as a result of comments made by the Reform campaigners.[568]
Mark Hoath, the Reform UK candidate for
Sutton Coldfield, is referred to the police after claiming that a rival candidate, the Liberal Democrats'
John Sweeney, "loved" the
IRA.[569]
Edinburgh City Council establishes an emergency polling booth at
City Chambers after a number of people across Scotland reported not receiving their postal votes. The emergency polling booth, which allows those who did not receive a postal vote to cast their vote in person, will operate until 30 June.
Fife Council also announces an emergency polling booth at
Fife House, Glenrothes that will be open on 29 June.[570]
The
Green Party of Northern Ireland launches its manifesto, which includes plans to take
Lough Neagh into public ownership, reforms to Stormont, a tax on the richest one percent of people and protecting public services from cuts.[571]
29 June –
A spokesman for Reform UK confirms the party has dropped three candidates for making offensive comments. They are Edward Oakenfull (
Derbyshire Dales), Robert Lomas (
Barnsley North), and Leslie Lilley (
Southend East and Rochford), but the candidates will still appear on the ballot paper as Reform candidates because it is too late for them to be removed.[572]
East Lothian Council becomes the third local authority to establish an emergency facility for people who have not received their postal votes.[573]
Liam Booth-Isherwood, the Reform UK candidate for
Erewash, disowns the party, citing a "significant moral issue" following recent reports of "widespread racism and sexism", and gives his backing to the Conservatives.[576]
July
2 July –
Georgie David, the Reform UK candidate for
West Ham and Beckton becomes the party's second candidate to suspend their campaign and defect to the Conservatives, and claims the "vast majority" of her fellow Reform candidates are "racist, misogynistic and bigoted".[577]
The Welsh Government says it plans to bring in a ban on Welsh politicians telling lies before the
2026 Senedd election.[578]
3 July –
The Sun endorses the Labour Party ahead of the general election.[579]
Essex Police announce that no offences were committed by the Reform UK campaigners recorded making racist comments by Channel 4 News.[580]
An investigation concludes that former Conservative government minister
Owen Paterson acted as a lobbyist for a healthcare company without being registered to do so.[581]
Mick Antoniw, the
Counsel General for Wales, apologises after being formally reprimanded by the Senedd for tweeting "Tories so happy to see people and particularly children killed and injured on our roads".[582]
A hearing at Newry Magistrates Court rules there is sufficient evidence for former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand trial on charges of historical sexual abuse.[583]
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire becomes the final constituency to declare its election results, and sees the number of Liberal Democrat MPs rise to 72 after they defeat the SNP to win the seat.[594]
At his first press conference since taking office, Starmer announces that he wants to cut instances of re-offending to reduce the prison population.[595]
The Starmer administration announces that the final two migrants due to be deported to Rwanda will be released on bail in the next few days; a further 218 are confirmed to have been released on bail by the Sunak administration before the election.[600]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces plans to bring back compulsory housebuilding targets as part of plans to reboot the UK economy.[602]
Education Secretary
Bridget Phillipson writes to all teachers in the education sector saying she wants to "reset the relationship" with the sector as part of plans to recruit an extra 6,500 teachers.[603]
In an open letter to SNP members following the party's defeat in Scotland, former deputy leader
Jim Sillars has described John Swinney's leadership as "a busted flush" and Nicola Sturgeon as "Stalin's wee sister".[610]
The SNP confirms it will have to make the majority of its Westminster staff redundant after Parliament reduces its "
Short Money" – the annual amount paid to opposition parties – by
£1
m.[613]
A week after
his election to Parliament, GB News announces that
Nigel Farage is returning to his show on the channel, presenting on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 16 July.[615]
12 July – Justice Secretary
Shabana Mahmood confirms that thousands of prisoners in England and Wales will be released early from their sentences at the beginning of September, warning of the "total collapse" of the prison system and a "total breakdown of law and order" without steps being taken to ease prison overcrowding.[616]
Foreign Secretary
David Lammy makes his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territory to hold talks with leaders.[618]
Lord Walney, the UK government's adviser on political violence, writes to the Home Secretary urging an inquiry into potential intimidation of candidates at the general election by groups in different constituencies.[619]
Records show the Conservative Party accepted a £50,000 from Westminster Development Services Limited, a company established in 2015 by a consortium led by the
Hinduja Group shortly after its chairman,
Prakash Hinduja, was sent to prison for exploiting domestic staff.[621]
Records show that Labour received £9.5m in donations during the general election campaign, more than the other parties combined.[622]
18 July – Starmer pledges £84m in funding for education, employment and humanitarian projects in Africa and the Middle East designed to stop illegal migration "at source".[627]
19 July –
Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelensky visits Downing Street and addresses the cabinet, becoming the first foreign leader to address a British cabinet since 1997, and urges
Keir Starmer to "show your leadership" by helping to remove restrictions on on the use of weapons supplied to Ukraine.[628]
Sunak makes junior appointments to his shadow frontbench team, including some newly elected MPs, meaning 51 of the 121 Conservative MPs in parliament now have shadow ministerial posts.[629]
Foreign Secretary
David Lammy confirms the UK will resume funding
UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees.[630]
Figures produced by the
Institute for Fiscal Studies suggest the UK government would need to spend an extra £3bn to implement a 5.5% pay rise for teaching and NHS staff.[632]
Welsh Labour officials agree a timeline for the election, with a new leader to be in place on 14 September.[633]
Nominations open for candidates entering the leadership contest.[633]
21 July –
Writing in the Sun on Sunday, Home Secretary
Yvette Cooper announces that car washes and beauty salons will be targeted by immigration officials over the summer in a bid to crack down on businesses illegally hiring workers from overseas.[634]
Former Chancellor
Jeremy Hunt,
who was Health Secretary for a number of years before the
COVID-19 pandemic, apologises "unreservedly" to the families of people who died from the illness after a report prepared by the
COVID-19 Inquiry found significant flaws in the government's strategy for dealing with the pandemic.[635]
22 July –
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirms the UK government will resume processing asylum applications, including those from people who arrived in the UK illegally. She also tells the House of Commons the previous government's
Rwanda asylum plan cost £700m, with only four people being removed to the country voluntarily. The
shadow home secretary,
James Cleverly, says Cooper's words are "hyperbole" and "made up numbers", adding that Labour had scrapped scheme on "ideological grounds" and that its purpose was as a deterrent.[636]
Launch of
Skills England, a government body whose objective will be to reduce the need for overseas employees by improving skills training for people in England.[637]
Plaid Cymru expels Senedd member
Rhys ab Owen after he was found to have inappropriately touched and sworn at two women while drunk at a party.[640]
Former Chancellor
Nadhim Zahawi, who stood down from Parliament at the general election, is reported to be seeking financial backers in order to bid for the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator.[641]
23 July –
Seven Labour MPs, including former shadow chancellor
John McDonnell and former shadow minister
Rebecca Long-Bailey, have the Labour whip suspended for six months after voting against the government and in favour of an SNP amendment to scrap the
two-child benefit cap. McDonnel said, "I'm following Keir Starmer's example as he said put country before party".[642]
The Home Office confirms that contract for the Bibby Stockholm, the vessel used to house asylum seekers, will not be renewed after January 2025.[643]
Documents released by
The National Archives reveal that former prime minister
Harold Wilson agreed to sell his private papers late in life in order to provide funds for his care. A deal agreed with Canada's
McMaster University in 1990 attracted concern from the
Cabinet Office because documents relating to his time in office remained private under the
thirty year rule, which would not apply if they went to Canada. They were eventually sold to Oxford's
Bodleian Library.[644]
Eluned Morgan is elected unopposed as the new leader of Welsh Labour after nominations close at midday.[648]
The
Senedd will be
recalled on 6 August to choose a new First Minister of Wales following the resignation of Vaughan Gething and the subsequent Welsh Labour leadership election.[649]
Labour peer
Lord Falconer introduces the
Assisted Dying Bill into the House of Lords. The bill would allow anyone with a terminal illness and less than six months left to live to get medical assistance to end their life.[652]
28 July – Labour accuses the previous Conservative government of "covering up" "catastrophic" problems in the public sector and creating a multi-billion pound gap in public finances. The Conservatives say Labour are "lying" and "peddling nonsense" as all the detail of public finances has been put into the public domain by the
Office for Budget Responsibility since 2010. Former chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, says "the books have been wide open and what they show is a healthy, growing economy – not the fiction Labour is now peddling which is widely rejected by independent commentators" and that "trying to scam the British people so soon after being elected is a high-risk strategy doomed to fail".[656]
29 July –
The UK government and the
British Medical Association (BMA) reach agreement on an improved pay deal for junior doctors in England worth 22% on average over two years, which the BMA will put to its members.[657]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves conducts a
spending review in which she axes
winter fuel payments for pensioners not receiving
pension credit (roughly around 10 million people), while also announcing the cancellation of several infrastructure projects. Reeves argues she has had to make "necessary and urgent decisions" because of an "unfunded" and "undisclosed" overspending of £21.9bn by the previous government. Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt dismisses her claims as "spurious".[658][659]
Kemi Badenoch becomes the sixth person to enter the leadership race.[661]
Nominations close for candidates to be included in the first round of the leadership contest.[638]
The UK government drops its appeal against a court ruling against the
Troubles Legacy Act that found part of the legislation to be unlawful.[662]
August
6 August – The
Senedd is
recalled to choose a new First Minister of Wales.[649]
September
3 September – The Medicines (Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues) (Emergency Prohibition) (England, Wales and Scotland) Order 2024 ceases to have effect.[438]