General election 2024 live: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer make final pitches to voters ahead of polling day

At the launch of Reform UK’s general election launch, party leader Richard Tice revealed that 630 candidates will be standing in the upcoming ballot.

The right-wing party will stand in seats across the country, but missed the registration deadline in Northern Ireland.

It comes after Nigel Farage ruled out standing for the party in the general election for Reform UK, for which is is honorary president. But Tice said in his launch speech that he will be “helping out significantly” as Reform UK looks to lure away traditional Tory voters.

Other speakers at the launch of Reform UK’s campaign included Ben Habib and Anne Widdecombe, but Lee Anderson, the party’s only sitting MP, notably skipped out on the event.

Opting for a staunchly anti-immigration stance, the party will hope to attract voters of the opinion that Sunak hasn’t gone far enough to “stop the boats”.

NationalWorld’s Political Editor Ralph Blackburn was at the launch of the campaign, where he spotted that the party might be hoping to get immigration levels back to... 1066?

Rishi Sunak has confirmed that his long-awaited and controversial flights carrying asylum to Rwanda will not take off before the general election.

The Prime Minister’s key policy plan to get jets off of the ground by July has now been halted due to his decision to call an election for July 4.

It comes amid rumours that minister would be working to the wire to get the flight in the air as an example to voters on the work being done to ‘stop the boats’, a key feature of Sunak’s pledges when taking up the role of PM.

However, he has now confirmed that the flights will go ahead “if I’m re-elected” in the July election and used the possibility as an incentive for those who agree with the policy to vote Conservative on polling day.

He told BBC Radio 4: "If you think stopping the boats is important, and you think like I do that you need a deterrent to do that [...] then I'm the only one that's going to deliver that."

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to the Prime Minister saying that no flights to Rwanda will happen before July, said: “The Prime Minister’s own words this morning show this whole Rwanda scheme has been a con from start to finish.

 “With all the hundreds of millions they have spent, it would be extraordinary if 'symbolic flights' didn't take off in early July, as the Tories planned. But Rishi Sunak's words confirm what we've known all along - he doesn't believe this plan will work and that's why he called the election now in the desperate hope that he won’t be found out.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has kicked off his party’s election campaign with a speech at Gillingham Football Club.

Kicking off his speech, the opposition leader joked: “It is great to be here in Gillingham. Last time under a Labour government, Gillingham was in the same league as Manchester City, so that is a good place to start.”

He then went onto describe the general election as one with the power of “change”.

Starmer said: “This election is about a choice: Two different countries, two different futures. Decline and chaos continuing under the Tories, or rebuilding our country under Labour.

“The power of the vote is with you. If you want change, you have to vote for it. And if you vote Labour, it is a vote to stop the chaos, it is a vote to turn the page and it is a vote to rebuild our country together.”

Reform UK, Richard Tice’s right-wing anti-immigration party, is holding a press conference today in Westminster, which I will be attending. There has been some speculation that it could have been to announce that the party’s honorary president Nigel Farage will be standing as a candidate. However, the Brexiteer has ruled this out but said he will “do my bit to help in the campaign”.

Rishi Sunak caught most of Westminster on the hop yesterday by calling a general election on 4 July. That means we’ve got a six-week campaign to look forward to before polling day, when the UK will decide who will be its next Prime Minister. NationalWorld’s reporters across the country will bring you all the twists and turns on our live blog. Should Sunak have called an election? Let me know [email protected].