i am on the conservative campaign bus which had its launch event today and previously viewers have seen us aboard what we have been calling campaign buses and they may not have actually been the properly branded bus but we are now on that after it was unveiled in redcar earlier today and we are now heading back down south towards the capital and earlier the prime minister, rishi sunak, did get on the bus for it s kind of inauguraljourney as the campaign coach but he is not on it now so it is basically just reporters and journalists who have been tracking the prime minister and the conservative campaign over recent days and we have gone to a variety of places, sort of middle to late in the week, including buckinghamshire, and as i say, we went to redcar and we were in the north west yesterday as well and there have been a variety of announcements over those days and the one we had today, as you mentioned a moment ago, was this idea of kind of extending the levelling up fund to
and i sat in the back, working out the swings with a calculator and a pad of paper, which i then passed him a piece of paper so that he could sound terribly informed about the swings in each constituency. i also spent a bit of time clock watching output, both the bbc and itv and others, for a private company that was just assessing whether or not they were meeting the election guidelines and giving all the parties a fair crack at the whip. which is why you ve always been so intrinsically fair at election time. it s hard wired into you! but i know that this is probably the first. well, i know for a fact this is the first ever uk general election where the party leaders have had to comment on the fact that a former us president has just been found guilty of a felony. yeah. cos it s never happened before. it is just sort of. when you say it like that, itjust. itjust takes your breath away. and, yes, they ve all had to comment. right, and we will discuss what they ve been saying,
tonight there is still confusion over whether the long serving labour mp diane abbott can or can t stand again in the general election. she had been readmitted as a labour mp after being suspended last year. today she has said she has been barred from standing, but sir keir starmer later said that wasn t true and no decision had yet been taken. there is a rally tonight in support of her in her local constituency in east london. will you be standing as an independent? will you be standing as an independent? will you be standing as an indeendent? ~ . , ., will you be standing as an indeendent? . ., , ., ., independent? what is labour said to ou? she independent? what is labour said to you? she was independent? what is labour said to you? she was labour s independent? what is labour said to you? she was labour s pic independent? what is labour said to you? she was labour s pic after - independent? what is labour said to you? she was labour s pic after last| you? she was