Tom Tugendhat said he wanted ‘to make clear to people what it is that Reform really is’

The Conservative party deputy chair Angela Richardson called the sewage crisis a “political football” and claimed opposition parties and activists had put Tory MPs in physical danger by campaigning on the issue.

Richardson, who is standing for re-election in Guildford, where the River Wey was recently found to have 10 times the safe limit of E coli, also suggested the only reason people were talking about the problem was “because the Conservatives let everyone know it was happening”.

Angela Richardson accuses campaigners against polluted water of putting Conservative MPs in danger

The Conservative party deputy chair Angela Richardson called the sewage crisis a “political football” and claimed opposition parties and activists had put Tory MPs in physical danger by campaigning on the issue.

Richardson, who is standing for re-election in Guildford, where the River Wey was recently found to have 10 times the safe limit of E coli, also suggested the only reason people were talking about the problem was “because the Conservatives let everyone know it was happening”.

A daughter who gave up full-time work to help look after her mother reveals her emotional and financial struggle

• Unpaid UK carers ‘face financial hit that can last decades’

We’re in the haematology department at the hospital and they call my mum in. We go inside, sit down and the doctor tells us the results of the test: she has myeloma – blood cancer – but will need a bone marrow test to confirm it.

I nearly faint, my heart sinks and I can see my mum’s face filled with sadness. Everything we hear after that is a blur but I know from that point things will be tough and that I am about to become a carer.

Tech firm’s bid to remove more CO₂ than it produces is being tested as AI spawns new energy-hungry datacentres

• Bill Gates: AI will help rather than hinder climate targets

If you want evidence of Microsoft’s progress towards its environmental “moonshot” goal, then look closer to earth: at a building site on a west London industrial estate.

The company’s Park Royal datacentre is part of its commitment to drive the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), but that ambition is jarring with its target of being carbon negative by 2030.

Police warn of ‘potentially contaminated batch’ after adults taken to hospital in County Durham

Seven people have been taken to hospital after taking the sleeping medication zopiclone, prompting concerns over a “potentially contaminated batch”.

Cleveland police said it had received reports on Friday of the adults being taken to North Tees General hospital in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham.

The comedian and candidate for Rishi Sunak’s Yorkshire seat on reintroducing Ceefax and beating the far right

Intergalactic space warrior Count Binface is the brainchild of comedy writer and performer Jon Harvey. In 2017, he made his political debut as Lord Buckethead, challenging Theresa May in her Maidenhead constituency in that year’s general election. As Count Binface he ran against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge and South Ruislip two years later. In 2021, he ran for London mayor and stood again for the post this year, winning 24,260 votes and beating Britain First. He is now fighting his third general election campaign in an incumbent prime minister’s seat, taking on Rishi Sunak in Richmond and Northallerton.

When were you happiest?
Friday 7 June 2024 at 5pm local time. That’s when I secured a place on the ballot for the Richmond and Northallerton seat. And I’m not just saying that as a cynical move to weaponise this article and garner support from local constituents.

As Labour and Tories promise rail reform and court motorists, many experts think road pricing is inevitable

Better railways, safer roads, cleaner fuels: in another decade, they would be the kind of transport issues commanding a pragmatic consensus in British politics.

But this election lands with transport wildly politicised, with clean air, speed limits and high-speed rail all dragged into the wider culture wars.

Some say it’s ageist, and they have a point. But whether in academia or elsewhere, it’s only fair for younger colleagues

• Mary Beard is an author, an honorary fellow of Newnham College and former professor of classics at Cambridge University

What is a “good” and “useful” old age, and how do we ensure it? Ageism is currently one of British culture’s biggest muddles. We rightly deplore turfing senior citizens – at some arbitrary retirement age – on to the scrap heap, their allotments, or towards decades of rail travel visiting the grandkids, courtesy of the Senior Railcard. And we love those doughty old ladies of broadcasting (think Joan Bakewell) who turn up from time to time to run rings around some unfortunate young man of 40. But whatever the rules of any profession, no one fancies having their heart bypass carried out by an 85-year-old. Nor do they want to force a scaffolder up 10 floors of dodgy metalwork much past their mid-60s – or watch a presidential debate in which one candidate can’t get the facts right and the other can’t get out his words.

There’s also the inconvenient truth that sometimes, keeping options open for the elderly can prevent,or delay more junior people getting a proper foothold on the career ladder. Forms of discrimination and fairness sometimes clash. You can see that in the argument over Labour’s proposed introduction of a retirement age of 80 for the House of Lords. Yes, it can be seen as an ageist gesture that would deprive parliament of some of its most experienced voices. But how do we rate the importance of hearing new people and voices, rather than making them wait until they are equally venerable?

Mary Beard is an author, an honorary fellow of Newnham College and former professor of classics at Cambridge University

Each government has been a challenge, each leader sillier and more ruinous than the last. But even cartoonists crave a bit of boring earnestness sometimes

For the past five weeks people have repeatedly said to me, “You must be really busy!” I’ve had to explain that elections aren’t like that; in fact, from the point of view of cartoonists, they’re boring. The only real fun comes when the wheels fall off the party machines and their careful choreography collapses into farce. But in this election even the Tories’ serial weapons-grade balls-ups are becoming a bore, serving merely to remind me of the universal truth that reality will always, always be weirder than anything satire could think up in a million years.

That said, in the empty hours of this interminable death watch while we’ve waited for the Tory tumbril finally to trundle to the guillotine, I’ve been reflecting on the past 14 years, and how the worst government of my lifetime has been succeeded five times by one that was even worse.

Outgoing Green MP calls for combined strategy to ensure net zero will not be done ‘on the backs of the poor’

Labour must combine tackling the climate crisis with pursuing social justice, if elected, to show that achieving net zero will not be done “on the backs of the poor”, the UK’s outgoing Green party MP has warned.

Caroline Lucas, who has held the seat of Brighton Pavilion since 2010, said: “The biggest priority is to demonstrate that is not the case. We have to make sure that this is a strategy and a policy that is the opposite of being done on the backs of the poor.”

Students are exempt during their course but as soon as they finish their final year they are liable to pay

Final-year university students have been urged to check that they do not owe council tax for the last few weeks of their rented accommodation.

While students are exempt from the tax during the course, they are liable to pay as soon as they finish their final year.

Loss of income, curbs on benefits and soaring bills are piling pressure on people caring for family members

People who look after family members free of charge are taking a huge hit to their finances which could continue into their retirement as they find themselves unable to balance paid work with their caring commitments.

Recent analysis of official figures by the financial firm Just Retirement found seven in 10 people who were receiving carer’s allowance were not in paid work, and missing out on earnings and private pension contributions.

Experts warn ‘health tourists’ to do their research, saying savings can lead to higher costs for work to be redone

Patients seeking medical treatments in Turkey and other countries should do their research and not be tempted by low prices, experts have warned.

From Brazilian butt lifts to Hollywood smiles and even organ transplants, the range of procedures offered by overseas providers is staggering, with myriad companies now promoting packages covering flights, accommodation and post-operative hotel accommodation.

RHS reports 35% surge in orders, while garden designers note pond trend at Hampton Court Palace flower show

A pond boom is happening in Britain’s gardens as people try to halt wildlife loss by digging water sources for amphibians and other aquatic life.

Data from the Royal Horticultural Society shows a marked increase in sales of pond greenery; their online store had a 35% increase in sales of pond plants for 2023 compared with 2022.

Investigation details industry campaign including legal threats and charm offensive aimed at Tory MPs

Rishi Sunak abandoned his “legacy” policy to ban smoking for future generations amid a backlash from the tobacco industry in the form of legal threats, lobbying and a charm offensive aimed at Conservative MPs, an investigation reveals.

The UK had been on course to become the first country to ban smoking for future generations, via the tobacco and vaping bill, which Downing Street hoped would help define Sunak’s place in British political history.

Likely contenders for party’s sixth leader in eight years could depend partly on who survives a big defeat

What, again? Most likely yes. If the pundits are right, then soon after a seemingly inevitable Conservative election defeat next week the party will be looking for its sixth leader in eight years to replace Rishi Sunak. Who could be in the frame? It depends in part on which MPs survive an electoral wipeout, but here are some likely contenders.

Next government urged to lower upfront visa costs that are 17 times higher than international average

Top international researchers cannot afford to take jobs in the UK because of a “tax on talent” that makes it impossible for them to afford the upfront costs, the head of the Wellcome Trust has warned.

Dr John-Arne Røttingen, who has led the biomedical research charity since January, said some of the best researchers offered posts in the UK would have to turn them down because they faced having to pay “tens of thousands” in visa fees and surcharges.

Want to catch a few results before bed, or see it through to the moment of reckoning? We’ve got you covered

After months of speculation on when the election might be held, six weeks of actual campaigning, D-day blunders, gambling scandals, smashing the gangs, stopping the boats, surrendering finances, triple-lock-pluses, national service, VAT on private schools, taxes up and taxes down, the election night will soon be upon us. Here’s how it may unfold:

Charlotte Edwardes interviews the Labour leader as he closes in on power, but who exactly is the man who wants to run Britain? Plus the extraordinary story of the woman who stepped in as a surrogate for her daughter’s baby, and Sam Pyrah examines the latest scientific understanding about why we dream what we do

First minister says voters being disfranchised because some ballots yet to arrive with school holidays due to begin

John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, has raised concerns that voters are being disfranchised because of delays in receiving postal votes.

Voters in some parts of the UK, particularly Scotland, have not received their postal ballots ahead of the election on 4 July. Postal vote requests are particularly high in Scotland because schools are on holiday next week.

Serbian performance artist tells Pyramid stage crowd to confront cyclical violence in thousands-strong ‘collaboration’

It’s been home to some of the UK’s loudest singalongs, most propulsive rap lyrics and most cacophonous guitar solos. But the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury experienced something almost unprecedented in its history on Friday: total silence.

The Serbian artist Marina Abramović, invited by festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, led the audience in what she called a “collaboration” called Seven Minutes of Collective Silence, to “see how we can feel positive energy in the entire universe” and act as a bulwark against the horrors of war and violence.

Bodies of Lauren Evans, 22, and Daniel Duffield, 24, were discovered at a house in Hednesford, Cannock, on Tuesday

Police say they are not looking for anyone else after a a woman and a man were found dead at a house in Staffordshire.

A murder investigation was launched after the bodies of Lauren Evans, 22, from Bridgend, south Wales, and Daniel Duffield, 24, a paramedic, from Cannock, were discovered at a property in Hednesford, Cannock, on Tuesday.

Exclusive: Ofwat to investigate circumstances around payment of dividend to intermediate parent company

The board of Thames Water agreed to pay a £150m dividend hours before its shareholders U-turned on plans to pump emergency funding into the struggling water supplier, the Guardian can reveal.

The water industry regulator was examining the decision by the debt-laden company’s board to sign off the payout at a meeting on 27 March, sources said.

Essex police say they are ‘urgently assessing’ racist and homophobic remarks made by party’s volunteers

Rishi Sunak has said he was hurt and angry to hear a Reform UK canvasser using a racial slur against him, saying Nigel Farage “has some questions to answer”.

The prime minister responded after a Channel 4 undercover investigation found a Reform campaigner had called him a “fucking [P-word]”. Sunak repeated the slur and said he had done so because it was important to call it out for what it was.

Exclusive: Former Labour leader calls on party to ratchet up scrutiny of Reform in final week of campaign

Neil Kinnock has warned his party not to ignore the nationalist threat posed by Nigel Farage, as concern grows in Labour ranks that Reform UK could pose a long-term threat for them as well as for the Conservatives.

The former Labour leader told the Guardian he wanted Labour to turn its guns on Farage’s party in the final week of the election campaign, saying the populist right could gain a stronghold in the UK as it has across much of Europe.

Claimants include family of 11-year-old girl who spent three weeks on dialysis after eating chicken salad sandwich

Tesco and Asda are being sued by customers, including the family of an 11-year-old girl, who were left seriously ill after eating own-brand sandwiches linked to an outbreak of E coli.

The supermarkets face legal action after a child and adult were left in hospital. One person has been confirmed to have died and more than 120 others including a six-year-old have been hospitalised in the UK due to the bacteria.

Public servant who spearheaded the regeneration of post-industrial Manchester as the city council’s chief executive

In the staid world of local government, where town halls were traditionally seen by ministers as supplicants of Whitehall, Sir Howard Bernstein stood out as a rare public servant determined to break the mould of civic passivity.

As chief executive of Manchester city council for 19 years, Bernstein, who has died aged 71 after a short illness, was instrumental in transforming his native city from what he once called the doldrums of the post-industrial 1980s into Britain’s second biggest commercial and business centre, pulling in billions of pounds in investment.

South Korean 13-piece boyband take to Pyramid stage for ‘Glasteen’ in front of fanbase often overlooked by western festivals

When they bought their Glastonbury tickets last year, Leah Townsend and Taz Delarosa never expected their favourite K-pop band to end up in the lineup. “I cried so much when we found out,” said Delarosa, 26. “I think this is going to be massive for them.”

“I was over the moon,” added Townsend, 26. “It was completely unexpected – we didn’t think it was going to happen.”

Britain to make legal arguments over jurisdiction in case of alleged war crimes by the Israeli PM

An intervention by the UK government at the international criminal court is expected to delay a decision over whether an arrest warrant can be issued against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Judges at the ICC ruled on Thursday they would allow the UK to make legal arguments in the case as they consider whether to approve requests made by the ICC’s chief prosecutor for warrants against Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Nigel Farage’s party is poaching angry Conservative voters, but damage control measures may limit the impact

The Labour lead in the opinion polls has been 20 percentage points throughout the campaign. But the polls haven’t been entirely static.

Over the past five weeks there has been one key change in polling that has the potential to turn a historic defeat for the Conservatives into an obliteration when the election is called.

University sought order after students slept in building for more than a month in response to report about LSE’s Gaza-linked investments

The London School of Economics has been granted a court order indefinitely barring encampments in one of its buildings after students slept in its atrium for more than a month in support of Palestine.

Several students set up the camp in the atrium of the ground floor of the Marshall Building in central London on 14 May, vowing to remain there until LSE met its demands.

Politicians are refusing to acknowledge the link between Brexit and falling living standards, says Robin Prior, while Chris Webster says voters must accept responsibility for their choices

Larry Elliott is correct that Brexit is a live issue in this election, even if politicians are doing their best to avoid it (Brexit may have felt absent from this election – but it will still define it, 26 June). And he is spot-on when he says that there is “no real difference between Labour’s growth strategy and its Brexit strategy. If one fails then so does the other”.

Keir Starmer says Labour will boost economic growth while continuing to hobble trade and relations with our nearest major market. It’s as if his shoes are tied together, but he’s refusing to untie them while also promising to win an international running race. Does he really take us for fools?

Site’s edge on whistleblowing is gone and its co-founder must recover, yet their resilience may make revival a possibility

As Julian Assange enjoys his first weekend of freedom in years, there appeared to be no question in the mind of his wife, Stella, about what the family’s priorities were.

The WikiLeaks co-founder would need time to recover, she told reporters after they were reunited in his native Australia, after a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents.

The Conservatives have taken to venting their frustrations publicly, and often in very vivid terms

• UK election live – latest updates

When the former Olympic rower James Cracknell, a Tory candidate, called his own party a “shower of shit” this week, he was not the first Tory to pour scorn on their electoral efforts.

A disastrous campaign, kicked off by Rishi Sunak in heavy rain and mired in repeated insider betting scandals, has led many Conservatives to vent their frustrations publicly. Here are some of their thoughts on their own party.

Damon Tingay punched the body of one man twice and performed sex acts on two male bodies, court heard

A Grimsby man who went on a rampage in a hospital mortuary, violently and sexually attacking bodies, was told by a judge there was a “very, very dark side” to him as he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Damon Tingay, 30, broke into the Diana, Princess of Wales hospital in Grimsby in the early hours of 17 March and was caught on CCTV opening a number of fridges and interfering with the bodies.

Exclusive: Boom Radio listeners share in election fatigue but demographic arguably has less to lose than younger voters

Sometimes only a song can sum up the national mood. When a soggy Rishi Sunak fired the starting gun on the general election in May, D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better blared across Downing Street. Five long weeks later and voters are cueing up rather more mordant tracks to capture their political fatigue.

Listeners to Boom Radio, asked to pick a classic song to sum up their feelings about the campaign, have selected Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (“Is this the real life?/Is this just fantasy? / Caught in a landslide / No escape from reality”) and Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower (“There must be some way out of here / Said the joker to the thief”).

Betting on election date merits serious investigation but it is not an offence for MPs to bet on themselves winning

Until the past few weeks, online casinos and bookmakers have made handy villains for an under-pressure government.

Ministers could legitimately claim to be cleaning up Labour’s mess with reforms that partially roll back the permissive regulatory regime ushered in under Tony Blair.

Lawyers acting for victims of Horizon IT scandal accuse Gareth Jenkins of protecting ‘out of control monster’

A former Fujitsu engineer has been accused by a lawyer acting for victims of the Post Office scandal of “hiding” problems with the Horizon IT system to protect the “out of control monster”, a public inquiry heard.

Gareth Jenkins, formerly a senior engineer at Fujitsu, which developed the Horizon IT system, faced tough questioning by lawyers acting for post office operators caught up in the scandal, which has been described as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in recent history.

Let’s take Starmer at his word that it is the party of wealth creation and growth, not redistribution and equality. What will this mean for our politics?

We now live, despite appearances, in an age of consensus. We should perhaps call it Starnakism, a much more profound consensus than Blatcherism (the portmanteau of Blair and Thatcher) or the postwar Butskellism (Rab Butler and Hugh Gaitskell). Its most telling feature is that the Labour party’s fundamental criticism of the Tories is their lack of competence, rather than their policies.

Yet the idea that Labour remains a progressive social democratic party hiding in plain sight is still in the air. While it is granted this is not obvious from its programme, it is held that deep down it is the party of change, of welfare, of state intervention; the party of labour rather than of capital, the party of international law, not war. It is held that in power, either circumstances or opportunity will make it more radical. That hope animates many.

David Edgerton is Hans Rausing professor of the history of science and technology, professor of modern British history at King’s College London, and the author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation

Guardian Newsroom: Election results special
On Friday 5 July, 7.30pm-9pm BST, join Gaby Hinsliff, Hugh Muir, John Crace, Jonathan Freedland and Zoe Williams for unrivalled analysis of the general election results. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

Liam Booth-Smith spoke to regulator after revelations about betting by those close to PM on date of election

• UK election live – latest updates

Rishi Sunak’s most senior adviser has been interviewed as a witness by officials at the Gambling Commission as part of its investigation into widespread betting by Westminster figures on the date and outcome of the general election.

Liam Booth-Smith, the prime minister’s chief of staff, spoke to the regulator last week after a series of revelations about betting by people close to the prime minister on the date of the election.

Viral video of Prince William prompts experts to laud benefits of men ‘communicating their hormones’, from lifting mood to boosting trust

In his early 20s, Prince William was often seen stumbling out of night clubs after a night of grooving. Now, however, as though a clock has struck 12, this youthful cavorting appears to have transformed into something altogether more cringeworthy: dad dancing.

In a viral video captured at a Taylor Swift concert, the heir to the throne was filmed with his arms aloft, chest shimmying swiftly – and somewhat stiffly – to the beat.

We start with evidence of humanity’s unfathomable stupidity, before moving to Exhibit B: Glastonbury

A Highlands red deer known as Callum the Stag has had to be put down. His teeth had rotted, leaving him unable to forage for his natural diet, and his overall health had deteriorated largely, it is posited – though the National Trust for Scotland did not make the connection directly – because tourists kept feeding him their snacks whenever he approached them as they took his picture.

Sometimes Sunak only makes sense if you assume he is actively trying to lose this joyless election

Less than a week to go. For which everyone – most politicians included – will be breathing a huge sigh of relief. Rishi Sunak must be wondering why on earth he chose to go for a six-week campaign when he had so little to say and such a poor record to defend. It’s as if he’s already given up and is just going through the motions.

Nor have Labour appeared that energised by being clear favourites to win a large majority next Thursday. Their main aim has been to do as little as possible. To not rock the boat and to let the Tory party self-destruct. To be fair, it looks to have been a successful strategy so far but it has made the last few weeks feel particularly joyless. Keir Starmer, knowing he will inherit a mess, is so desperate not to raise expectations too high that his pitch has often sounded like: “Vote for me. Things will be a bit less rubbish.”

Owner of plants in south Wales says it could cease operations at blast furnaces in response to strike action

Labour politicians have been urged to step in to help avert a “costly mistake” by Tata Steel, which has told staff it could close operations at its steel plant in Port Talbot just days after the general election.

The Indian owner of the vast south Wales steelworks said on Thursday that it intended to cease operations at two blast furnaces on the site by 7 July – three days after the general election – in response to strike action announced by Unite members from 8 July. The company had planned to shut one furnace by the end of June and a second by September.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Updated quarterly GDP confirms UK was fastest-growing economy in G7 with consumer confidence returning

• Business live – latest updates

The UK economy grew at a faster rate than previously thought in the first quarter of 2024, handing the next prime minister an improved economic backdrop.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.7% in the first three months of 2024, revised upwards by the Office for National Statistics from a first estimate of 0.6%.

Police had called for volunteers to help in search of rocky wildness close to where teenager went missing

A “mass search” for the missing teenager Jay Slater is due to begin in Tenerife on Saturday after police called for more volunteers to take part.

Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last heard from on the morning of Monday 17 June when he called a friend to say he had no water and only 1% battery left on his phone.

Gavin Plumb claims previous convictions for false imprisonment were attempt to escape a toxic relationship

A man accused of plotting to rape and murder the TV presenter Holly Willoughby has told a court he spent 99.9% of his time online as he struggled with mental health problems triggered by his life-threatening weight gain.

Gavin Plumb, 37, who denies plotting to kidnap, rape and murder Willoughby, told the judge, Mr Justice Murray, he would be unable to stand as he started to give evidence in his defence at Chelmsford crown court on Friday.