General election: Nigel Farage says aim should be ‘zero’ net migration – UK politics live | Politics

Sally Weale

Sally Weale is the Guardian’s education correspondent

The Welsh government has shelved plans to shorten school summer holidays after “a mixed response” to its consultation.

The controversial proposal to take a week from the long summer vacation and add it to the autumn break creating a two-week half-term was expected to be introduced next year.

While a “narrow” majority of the 16,000 responses were in favour of the change, Wales’s minority Labour administration said “the findings from the consultation were equivocal and contradictory which highlights more discussion and exploration is needed”.

The plans, which would have meant a five-week summer break rather than six weeks, was driven in part by research which suggested that parents struggle to find childcare over the long summer holiday.

Welsh education secretary Lynne Neagle said:

Opinion was hugely divided on this. To ensure we get this right, we need to continue listening to and engaging with schools, teachers, unions, as well as children, young people and parents, on how best we can implement any changes in the future.

I want to prioritise ongoing school reforms and improving attainment and therefore no changes will be made to the school year this Senedd term. In the meantime, our priority will be to maximise the support available to learners during the summer holidays including doing more to target that provision towards the poorest communities through a range of policies and activities.

Eithne Hughes, director of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Cymru, welcomed the decision, saying: “As the consultation proved, and as we knew all along, there is no unanimous call from parents or teachers for changes to be made to the school holidays.”

We mentioned in the opening summary that Nigel Farage told ITV’s Good Morning Britain his goal was to take the Conservative party over, rather than join it. Here are the fuller quotes from the interview.

“You can speculate as to what’ll happen in three or four years’ time, all I will tell you is if Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative party will join us – it’s the other way around,” he said.

Farage pointed to Canada, where “Reform did a reverse takeover of the Conservative party, rebranded it and Stephen Harper – who was elected as a Reform MP – became the Canadian prime minister for 10 years”.

He said: “I don’t want to join the Conservative party, I think the better thing to do would be to take it over.”

Farage – who had previously suggested he could be open to talks with the Tories – has said his ambition was to “reshape the centre-Right”. He has suggested a “chunk” of the Conservatives could join his party and says that many Labour voters, not just Conservative ones, will vote for Reform as they don’t see much of a difference between the two main parties.

Farage’s bid to win in Clacton, which was the first to elect a Ukip MP in 2014 and has a Tory majority of 24,702, will be his eighth attempt to enter parliament. He has failed on each of the previous seven occasions.

Nigel Farage has made no secret of his intention to put immigration at the heart of his campaign.

“Net migration at zero would be the target,” he told Mishal Husain on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, acknowledging this figure depends how many people are leaving the country each year (500,000 people left last year; net migration is about 600,000).

Farage was asked if people eligible for skilled workers visas, including paramedics and primary school teachers, could continue to come in. He said they could but in limited numbers.

The Reform UK party leader said:

We cannot go on as we are. We have to limit numbers. Our quality of life in this country is and if that means in some sectors there’d be shortages – what that then means is that wages woud then go up and we would start to encourage people to learn skills, rather than heading off to university and doing social sciences.

Good morning, and welcome to our continued coverage of the 2024 general election campaign.

Rishi Sunak is poised to propose an annual visa cap to try to reduce immigration ahead of his debate with Keir Starmer, the Labour party leader, on ITV tonight.

The Conservatives will propose an annual cap on worker and family visas in their efforts to try to reduce immigration year on year in a future parliament.

The proposed plan would give parliament a direct role in setting levels of migration, with MPs having a vote on the number.

The already under pressure prime minister, who, according to most polls, is on course to lose the 4 July general election many are now saying he called prematurely, is focusing on immigration as this is an area the Conservatives feel particularly vulnerable to Reform on.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Farage said the UK should aim for “zero” net migration – the difference between numbers of people arriving and leaving. We will have more for you on this shortly.

Suank’s campaign suffered a damaging blow yesterday after Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit party leader, called a surprise press conference in London to announce he intended to stand as an MP in Clacton, Essex and lead the Reform party for the next five years. Farage had previously said he would not stand in July’s general election.

In a further blow to Sunak, YouGov’s first MRP constituency projection, before Farage’s announcement, showed Keir Starmer could win a 194 majority, bigger even than Tony Blair’s 179 majority in 1997.

It put Labour on 422 seats (+222 from the 2019 election, based on new constituency boundaries), the Tories on 140 (-232), the Lib Dems on 48 (+40) and the SNP on 17 (-31). One senior Tory described Farage’s return as an “existential” risk.

Farage has suggested his long-term aim was to effectively take over the Conservative party, which has been in damage limitation mode since the announcement.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday that he could not stand for or seek to lead the Conservative party “as they currently are”.

But he added:

You can speculate as to what’ll happen in three or four years’ time, all I will tell you is if Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative party will join us – it’s the other way around.

Here is a list of what is on today’s agenda:

• Keir Starmer is to make energy policy announcement (around 9am) on campaign visit to North West

• Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, is expected to meet to endorse the party’s candidates for the general election.

• James Cleverley and Nigel Farage are answering broadcast questions on the morning rounds.

• Nigel Farage to launch general election campaign in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

• Lib Dem leader Ed Davey campaign visits to Cheadle this morning and North Shropshire this afternoon.

• Rachel Reeves and Anas Sarwar will hold a Q&A in Edinburgh with staff working in financial services.

• Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer in ITV general election debate at 9pm. The debate will be followed at 2210 by interviews with leaders of other parties with the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Reform UK and the Greens invited.

It is Yohannes Lowe here for the next couple of hours. If you want to get my attention then please do email me on [email protected].