Rishi Sunak faces Starmer at first PMQs since local elections as Mordaunt tells Tories to end infighting – live

Keir Starmer has promised a ‘decade of renewal’ but his chancellor will have a hard job funding it, says Sean O’Grady.

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The Perthshire North MSP has officially become Scotland’s seventh first minister after pledging his alliance to the king.

The ceremony was presided by Lord President Lord Carloway at the Court Session in Edinburgh.

Swinney, 60,  has now the authority to make decisions and lead the country with the support of the Scottish parliament.

He attended the ceremony with his wife Elizabeth, his 13-year-old son Matthew and brother David.

Mr Swinney said it is an “extraordinary privilege” to become Scotland’s new First Minister as he pledged to “give everything I have” to the role, after winning the selection process on Tuesday.

Rishi Sunak needs to win back Tory voters who have gone “on strike” because of the failure to curb immigration and tackle extremism, former minister Robert Jenrick said.

The Prime Minister needs to ensure Conservatives who stayed at home rather than vote in the local elections came back to the ballot box at the national contest later this year.

The Newark MP, who has produced a paper on measures to curb net migration, said: “What I’ve tried to set out are a series of policies that could be implemented before the general election, such as what I’m saying today on legal migration, which would convince some of those Conservative voters – who are essentially on strike – to come back and support the party at the general election.

“And also to persuade some of those voters who are considering voting Reform that we do care about the issues that they do, which are principally immigration, but also on crime, on extremism and on lower taxes.

“But that will require honesty, it requires levelling with the public about the mistakes of the past and using every last minute we have in office before the general election to actually deliver positive change for the public.”

Rishi Sunak teased Manchester United fans yesterday while on a visit to Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace defeated United 4-0 on Monday.

“United fans, look away now,” the prime minister wrote on X.

“Football changes lives and it’s great to see initiatives like this bringing communities together.”

Pollsters have dismissed Rishi Sunak’s claims that his party still has a fighting chance with a general election likely to produce “a hung parliament.”

The prime minister is set to try to persuade MPs tomorrow that the result will be closer than many people predict at the first of two briefing sessions on the local elections alongside his party chairman Richard Holden and head of election strategy Isaac Levido.

Michael Gove told his colleagues “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” as he invoked supermodel Kate Moss to warn against “comfort eating” on hard-line policies.

The secretary of state for housing and communities comments came during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting – the first since the Tories lost nearly 500 councillors in last week’s local elections drubbing.

He urged cabinet ministers not to pursue policies that “make us feel good,” The Times reported. But not everyone agreed, with Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary and Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, raising concerns about the direction of their party.

“I disagree with you. We shouldn’t be apologists for what we believe in,” the latter said.

The Conservatives are aligned with the priorities of the British public, a cabinet minister has insisted despite the party’s drubbing in last week’s local elections.

Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, conceded the results were “disappointing” but said the Tories have a “positive message” they want to outline to the public.

Asked if the party needed to shift to the right after losing hundreds of councillors last week, Ms Coutinho told Times Radio: “I think what we need to do is to go where the country is.”

She added: “They want us to be tough on immigration. They want us to be cognisant of the fact that they’ve had a difficult time when it comes to public finances, which is why we’re putting forward £900 of tax cuts.

“They want us to make sure that we’re protecting their security, which we are when it comes to defence, when it comes to energy as well.

“I would just have contrast with some of Labour’s positions, when it comes to their mad energy plans which will hike up people’s bills and heap costs on people, with the 75 new business regulations which will deter investment at a time when we need investment coming into this country and on things like immigration where they don’t have a plan at all.”

Penny Mordaunt gave a speech in central London last night warning the Tory MPs that their factionalism is the main reason Labour is expected to win the general election.

The leader of the House of Commons recently dismissed claims that she is positioning herself as a unity candidate to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.

The former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has called on the government to “undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations” that “betrayed” the public’s wish for lower immigration before the general election.

He had put forward more than 30 recommendations to curb migration in a Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) report he co-authored.

The proposals include capping health and care visas at 30,000, scrapping the graduate route for international students, and indexing salary thresholds for visa routes in line with inflation.

It argues that net migration needs to be wound back to “the tens of thousands”.

Mr Jenrick, who is seen as a potential Tory leadership contender, argue that large-scale migration has failed to deliver significant fiscal benefits while putting pressure on housing, public services and infrastructure.

Mr Jenrick said: “It would be unforgivable if the Government did not use the time before the general election to undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations that betrayed the express wishes of the British public for lower immigration.

“The changes we propose today would finally return numbers to the historical norm and deliver the highly-selective, highly-skilled immigration system voters were promised. These policies could be implemented immediately and would consign low-skilled mass migration to the past.

“Immigration is consistently one of the top concerns of voters and they deserve a department whose sole mission is controlling immigration and securing our borders. For far too long, the Home Office has proven incapable of doing that.”