4 hours agoLaura Kuenssberg and Jennifer McKiernan,BBC NewsPA MediaLong-serving Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove has announced he will not stand at the general election, as the second full day of campaigning was marked by an exodus of MPs.Mr Gove, first elected MP for Surrey Heath in 2005, is understood to have made the decision in the last couple of days.He is the most high-profile of the nearly 80 Conservative MPs who have stepped down ahead of the 4 July vote – alongside public health minister Dame Andrea Leadsom.Mr Gove has been a close ally of Rishi Sunak, who he said “has the plan our country needs”.As Parliament was prorogued and a handful of government bills rushed through before the cut-off:Plans to reform homeowners’ rights in England and Wales passed in time, but without the Conservative manifesto commitment to restrict ground rents paid by leaseholders to next to nothingA Conservative promise to abolish no-fault evictions for renters failed to get over the line, but a bill which paves the way to establish an independent Infected Blood Compensation Authority passedRishi Sunak admitted he was disappointed his plan to phase out smoking did not have enough time to become law, but he said it would be back if the Conservatives are returned to governmentLabour leader Keir Starmer said he can’t commit to scrapping university tuition fees – which he backed when running to be Labour leader – or repealing the two-child benefit cap, blaming a lack of resourcesMr Gove had a majority of 18,349 at the last general election. But his Surrey Heath seat is a key Liberal Democrat target on 4 July. The Lib Dems claimed Mr Gove was “running scared” of their candidate Alasdair Pinkerton, who came second in the constituency in 2019. Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said: “The drumbeat of Conservative MPs stepping down has been getting louder as the days go by – now it’s deafening.”A long ministerial career saw Mr Gove first enter the cabinet as education secretary when David Cameron became prime minister in 2010. Alongside Mr Johnson, he was one of the leaders of the Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum. And he has been a key part of Mr Sunak’s top team as housing minister.The PM has yet to comment on Mr Gove’s resignation, but earlier insisted he is “pumped up” on a whirlwind tour of all four nations of the UK in his first day of campaigning.Also on Friday, energy regulator Ofgem confirmed consumer bills will drop again from July, by seven per cent.Mr Sunak said the fall showed “the economy has turned a corner” and “our plan is working”.In Scotland, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was also eager to focus on energy, arguing that despite the falling price cap, an average family would still pay around £400 ($509) more annually than a few years ago.He insisted his party’s plans to set up a new “Great British Energy” firm would help bring down bills and spearhead a Scottish-led “clean energy revolution”.Elsewhere in Scotland, Deputy First Minist …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn4 hours agoLaura Kuenssberg and Jennifer McKiernan,BBC NewsPA MediaLong-serving Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove has announced he will not stand at the general election, as the second full day of campaigning was marked by an exodus of MPs.Mr Gove, first elected MP for Surrey Heath in 2005, is understood to have made the decision in the last couple of days.He is the most high-profile of the nearly 80 Conservative MPs who have stepped down ahead of the 4 July vote – alongside public health minister Dame Andrea Leadsom.Mr Gove has been a close ally of Rishi Sunak, who he said “has the plan our country needs”.As Parliament was prorogued and a handful of government bills rushed through before the cut-off:Plans to reform homeowners’ rights in England and Wales passed in time, but without the Conservative manifesto commitment to restrict ground rents paid by leaseholders to next to nothingA Conservative promise to abolish no-fault evictions for renters failed to get over the line, but a bill which paves the way to establish an independent Infected Blood Compensation Authority passedRishi Sunak admitted he was disappointed his plan to phase out smoking did not have enough time to become law, but he said it would be back if the Conservatives are returned to governmentLabour leader Keir Starmer said he can’t commit to scrapping university tuition fees – which he backed when running to be Labour leader – or repealing the two-child benefit cap, blaming a lack of resourcesMr Gove had a majority of 18,349 at the last general election. But his Surrey Heath seat is a key Liberal Democrat target on 4 July. The Lib Dems claimed Mr Gove was “running scared” of their candidate Alasdair Pinkerton, who came second in the constituency in 2019. Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said: “The drumbeat of Conservative MPs stepping down has been getting louder as the days go by – now it’s deafening.”A long ministerial career saw Mr Gove first enter the cabinet as education secretary when David Cameron became prime minister in 2010. Alongside Mr Johnson, he was one of the leaders of the Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum. And he has been a key part of Mr Sunak’s top team as housing minister.The PM has yet to comment on Mr Gove’s resignation, but earlier insisted he is “pumped up” on a whirlwind tour of all four nations of the UK in his first day of campaigning.Also on Friday, energy regulator Ofgem confirmed consumer bills will drop again from July, by seven per cent.Mr Sunak said the fall showed “the economy has turned a corner” and “our plan is working”.In Scotland, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was also eager to focus on energy, arguing that despite the falling price cap, an average family would still pay around £400 ($509) more annually than a few years ago.He insisted his party’s plans to set up a new “Great British Energy” firm would help bring down bills and spearhead a Scottish-led “clean energy revolution”.Elsewhere in Scotland, Deputy First Minist …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
