this is bbc news, the headlines. reform uk leader nigel farage holds a rally days after the party was embroiled in a racism scandal, which led to three candidates being dropped. he told 4000 come —— white supporters that he felt compelled to come out of retirement. police on the island told the bbc that yesterday was the final day of the search. and england take on

slovakia in their first knockout match at the european trip championships in germany. the knee —— right game kicks off in the next 30 minutes. now on bbc news — newscast: electioncast. hi everybody. so, rishi sunak is still fighting for votes and he is still fighting for hisjob, because it is not over yet and rule number one of journalism is, never assume. but he was on with us this morning and it was quite a big moment, ithink. i think it was maybe the last big moment that he will have during this election campaign and that's what makes it so big. because, look, there's lots of polls day by day — you can't move for polls, and publicly, rishi sunak says, he said to you, in fact, he still thinks he will be prime minister on friday after the general election. privately, i can tell you, the conservative campaign believe the polls and the labour campaign believe the polls. and, so, they need — rishi sunak needs — something to change and this was perhaps his big last opportunity to speak to the public about why

he thinks things need to change. i was struck by the fact that he has faced a much smaller electorate before when he stood as conservative leader and lost to liz truss and then magically he got the job anyway. so maybe in his head there's two outcomes and one of them is he is prime minister for another five years. let's see, let's discuss it on this sunday's episode of newscast. newcast from the bbc. hello. it's paddy in the studio. and it's laura in the studio. and it's henry in the studio. and it's the last sunday before the campaign. and it does feel, henry, doesn't it, this is sort of crackle in the air. it's like this is the moment approaching? yeah. i think there's a genuine mood of excitement, but also trepidation that sort of seeps out of every whatsapp i receive, every phone call i have with someone who's

working on these campaigns. i think the sort of energy of a campaign, it feels like at the start, they're obviously very lively and very excited and all the things they've been planning forfor ages, you know, they suddenly do them. and then you have the first debates and the first interviews and all of that. there was definitely a lull a couple of weeks ago when they realised, 0k, well, the manifestos are out. now you've just got to repeat yourselves. but the energy is ramping up again. but it's nervous energy now rather than sort of competitive energy. and also, i mean, i've been told i'm wrong to say to expect average turnout, sort of up towards 70% in a general election. and you and chris mason have told me to brace for lower turnout. i just think that's my hunch, we don't know. but my hunch is it will be lower. and a lot of people around the place sort of expect that it will probably be lower because we know there's that mood, notjust of apathy, but kind of actually kind of angry apathy. i mean, i get really kind of smug about thinking that a vote is a precious thing. it is a precious thing. putin kills his opponents, pushes them out of windows, poisons them and kills them. and we have a democratic system.

and ultimately, i still think we should take time to be humbled by what's about to happen. in france, in the uk, we are great democracies and this is a great democratic moment and i'm not going to be cynical. i think it is always really hard to know if low turnout is a sign of political failure or political success. we have actually had quite high turnout, especially since the 2014 scottish referendum. which obviously had a massive turnout in scotland. but also 2016 had a very high turnout in the eu referendum. and after that in 2017 and 2019 general elections, much higher than the preceding general elections. whereas in 2001... that was the low point. 2001 was the low point. quite people go, "oh, people care less then they used to." i think that is nonsense. people care when they think there is something huge at stake. which is why with the independence referendum, the eu referendum, people feel this is a profound moment and a profound question that they want to be part of giving the answer and it will be fascinating to see what happens next thursday. do people feel this is a profound moment that they want to take part

in, that precious process of casting your vote, or do they think that, nah, not interested. because it as the parties fear, as labour party fear, lots of people listening to this now think that politics has lost its ability to be a force for good. but it's interesting. rishi sunak this morning... sorry, henry, you want to come in? no, i was just going to say, keir starmer has been hammering this message to the shadow cabinet for, i think, the best part of two years. i remember a couple of years ago, a shadow cabinet minister leaving one of these meetings and saying, that keir starmer had said to them after he had done a reshuffle, they have two opponents between then and the general election which is now approaching. one is the conservative party and the other is the idea that the labour party can't make a difference. as well as seeing if they can beat their conservative party on thursday, we will get sense of turnout of whether they have beaten that idea that they can't make any difference and that they are any different. incumbency is something that you fight, this is my record and if you are fighting that, you say it is a rubbish record. you are about to release people

from prisons, there are potholes, we have the cost of living crisis, rishi sunak says that is all true, but i am the guy that has brought inflation down from 11% to 2%. obviously his opponent say he did not do that single—handedly. when you had him in the sights and on the sofa, you have interviewed him many times, did you see the fight that we have seen in the leaders debates, did you see the fight? yes, today this was fighty sunak not, "i am a mild—mannered, measured manager." he is clearly... i felt he was very tense. quite sort of wound up and feeling the pressure of this being the last few days and feeling the pressure of someone who most of the poll suggest, someone who is trying to stop his party heading for a complete asteroid landing on them from planet earth and who is trying to salvage something and end this in a way that might feel as if it is respectable.

but it is very interesting, we started with that sentiment in the public where so many people think the country is not working after so much time of one party being in charge. what we wanted to do this morning was to force him to confront that sentiment, notjust to sit and fight about statistics. you can do that forever in a political interview. i want to read to you some of the messages that we read to him because our viewers got in touch. michael said, "why does my son's school not have enough money for glue sticks?" "why do i have potholes on almost on every road i drive on?" why are beaches closed when it rains and rivers polluted beyond measure? why can't i get a doctor's appointment. sheila wrote in, one of your viewers, our biggest worry is not about tax it's about having the basics. the basics! i was so struck by that. it is the basics, it is not even we would like more

from the government. a genuine sentiment from most people, not everybody. tell us what you think, but this is what we wanted to put to rishi sunak, this is a genuine sentiment held by many people. this is what he had to say. of course it has i been very difficult. when inflation has rises to the highest level - we have seen in decades. when energy bills double - because of the war in ukraine, of course that has an impact on sheila and everyone else| and that is why i am working so hard to deliver people financial _ security. and i do think it is about tax because people are working | very, very hard. i want them to be able to keep more of their money so they can spend - that on their families in the wayl that they want and we have been able to start to do that. after a difficult few years, which is very positive. - after a difficult few years, i saw in those questions and his answer, one of the fault lines of this general election campaign. he is trying to make this general election about the last 18 months, ie, the time he has been prime minister and what he wants to do going forward

in the next five years. and members of the electorate keep yanking him back to the last 14 years. the labour party want to make it about that as well. and i think one of the most fascinating parts of the interview was when you said to him, is the country in a better state now then when it was 14 years ago when the coervatives came into office? and he said yes. of course he has to say that. and then he had started talking about what he had done in the past 18 months. and those poor primary schools children in england who are better readers, and hats off to them, but every tory minister mentions them every single day. it feels to me, there's a lot of pressure on the seven—year—olds as they make their way through cat in the hat. beyond that, i don't think rishi sunak has made only in a way he feels comfortable defending the record of the last 14 years. not because he does not feel it is defensible, but because he thinks that he is standing as rishi sunak, not as the combined effect of david cameron, theresa may, borisjohnson and liz truss and rishi sunak.

it is difficult for him as people feel like this is an election that is delivering a verdict on their conservative party. you are asking me as a voter, i need 19 years. i need 19 years and if you vote labour, you are going to vote than for the rest of your life. you will never have another party. when you look at the tax question, what we have nailed on this programme, taxes are going up under labour and taxes have gone up under the tories and will continue to do so if they stay in because of the threshold and because of the fact they have raised taxes to the highest burden since the 1940s. those things are both true at the same time, if you are a voter, if you did think it was about tax, labour has ruled out their three big levers of tax raising. that has been one of the big dynamics of the campaign, the conservative party doing this sort of raffle of taxes where you spin the ball and what comes out. inheritance tax on farmland. will you rule that out?

i think in some ways, it has been quite effective. but the reason they have been left doing that, spin the wheel, what is it today? is because labour were so adamant from start that the three main taxes, they were going to meet their conservatives pledges right there. one of the dynamics we will talk about and lots of sundays going forward should labour win the general election, whether in so doing labour have held a few are several dozen seats they would not have one at the general election, might they have constrained the room for manoeuvre fiscally too far for a potential labour government? that would be one of the fascinating dynamics if they win on thursday. it may well be. but i will put this on record, call me an old cynic... i would never use the word cynic. successive chancellors, conservative and labour chancellors,

when they hit a problem and their calculator showing 0.000 money left in the money back. what do they change — the rules. i am not saying that because i have had prior insight, this is some secret plan that has been whispered to me, i'm seeing this with years of experience, in campaigns people treat the fiscal rules as if they are carved in stone. and i have seen plenty of chancellors take a giant blast this with years of experience, in campaigns people treat the fiscal out of that tempest of stone and change the rules and find some

money in the back of the couch. this campaign has been dominated by the trap of their own choosing for both party's chancellors will go, this is how we change the rules. they will get in and they will say, wow, the books are even worse than they would be. pauljohnson says that is ridiculous, the books are public. the treasury is transparent. i rememberages ago, maybe a year ago, having a discussion with someone senior in the conservative party, david cameron and george osborne one the general election, when they did. press conference after a press conference talking about what a rubbish state they had found the country and labour have learned from that and if they win the general election, they will do the same. i've had discussions of people about how they might if they win and the will peel the carpet back to look at the floorboards. and conversations about how they will communicate that to the public. the statistics are there if you look for them in the treasury is the same ifs that says the detail is not there from the two parties. they call it a conspiracy of silence about what you will actually do

when you get the carpet up. i know and i know i economists all the time by using metaphors, but economists are not... economists and politicians are not the same. politicians are realistically, in real life, rarely going to win a campaign when they say, roll—up, roll—up everyone, this is going to be horrendous. you are not going to get anything and i am going to take away all your sweeties. gordon brown, to sell the gold disaster. there is hardly any money to spend. in general, it is not a way to win an election by saying to people it will be horrible gruel and a bit of gravel for your pudding if you are lucky. that is not to say it is not important to explain the economic picture and it is important to point out that the main parties have been shy of giving very much economic detail.

but it is also, there is a bit, for me, and i can say this will be a bit of... what's the word? it's unrealistic. does not mean it is ok. does not mean i am justifying it that people are getting their knickers in a twist this week is about something not realistic to be done. i agree with you it is unrealistic. we should also think, as asjournalists, but as and everyone as voters, why is it unrealistic? if the country cannot have a conversation about why things will be tough, and if politicians have assessed it is not in their interest not to say so, that is maybe because as voters who get high and mighty they were saying this point, people think we can turn the tap on. debt, climate change and brags

we try to do a lot this morning debt, climate change and brexit we tried to do a lot this morning on subjects which have not been discussed in the campy, the size of the national debt, one minister told me who got wound up and cross, that people have not been talking about the sky high level of the national debt, which has hitjust about to hit of gdp. on brexit, nigel farage appeared on newsnight and said brexit had been a failure. he subsequently changed those words to say, been a failure because the conservatives did not do it correctly. now he is back. rishi sunak is a brexiteer and brexit itself has not been given the airtime that the d—day nonappearance had, that the gambling had, i have not heard the party is held to the flame about brexit. what progress did you make this morning? on brexit we asked labour and the tories about this morning, on brexit, there is the overwhelming

consensus from economists and of course there is a big range here, but the consensus is that brexit has made it harder for the uk to make ends meet in the long term. that is the economic consensus. the obr said it and all sorts of experts have said it. mr sunak�*s old boss said it. one of his friends said on the radio the other day, it has made trading more difficult. rishi sunak did not want to touch that with a barge pole and i mean a very long and spiky barge pole. he did almost everything he could to avoid addressing that point. we were not trying to get him to say, it was a terrible thing.

but would he acknowledge the economic consensus now that brexit has made it harderfor the uk to trade around the world. he of course, came back with evidence of new trade deals that he says they have signed. he was citing recent statistics that the uk has been doing better recently than other eu countries. but neil got in touch to say, "this interview is painful, "does he understand his response to questions is a terrible look?" what did it look like to you? what does it look like when you were watching it? he was feisty, for sure, which i thought was a continuation to his approach to wednesday's debate. and i thought then, i thought it worked very well for him. but it is a fine line. i think i wrote on the bbc live page, saying it is a very fine line. if you are on the right side of it, you look passionate. if you nudge onto the other side of that line,

you can look a bit rude. and i think that will be in the eye of the beholder here. one other thing we should say, is the very fact that he was there on your programme on the sunday before, and sir keir starmer was not, sent pat mcfadden their park the bus merchant. can you clarify? jose mourinho when he was chelsea manager used to accuse other... i don't know if he accused other teams that he would say they would turn up and park the bus. you're really saying, he is a safe pair of hands. my head is so much in euros mode, i am already at the barbecue to see england demolish slovakia. can we hear some of these exchanges, can we hear the prime minister and pat mcfadden? we probably should.

people might be in touch and wonder why, we invited keir starmer to come in the programme today. we have invited him to come on the programme throughout the campaign. if people are wondering, it was not a choice. we did not say, come on rishi sunak, do not come on keir starmer. he chose not to. let's make that clear before the conspiracy theorists do their thing. and then we went on to ask rishi sunak about the astonishing row on friday after the reform activist from nigel farage�*s used

used appalling racial slurs against them. rishi sunak said he had to call that out. some viewers got in touch said his approach to racism in the tory party had not always been zero tolerance. they wanted to know why they had taken money from tory donor who had made racist remarks. i draw this all the remarks that were made by mr hester to diane abbott and their shameful remarks that was made about the prime minister's background to see the well of public conversation in the united kingdom is polluted. how can we persuade people to stand for parliament? i don't think that question is going away. in parliament, over the last few days they have been setting up sort of welcome packs and welcome desks for mps and amongst them is a presentation in the ways that they should or could instantly protect their security, upon becoming mps. that is clearly a sensible thing to be advised on instantly. but my god what a grim fact that that is one of the first things

they get told on what must be one of the proudest days being in parliament as an mp. if someone on your party is overtly racist and you call out, that is how the system works. if you are wrong you have to come out and say you are wrong, that is how the system works. voters want to know, did frank hester saying racist things about diane abbott get called out in the same way that a man identified with reform has been a row about how he was informed, saying these things, has that been cold out equally? i think rishi sunak has said it was ok to take their money from frank hester because frank hester apologised. the difference here is where activist had in the same way stop his answer is they are not the same because then when there was a clear sense

there was a sense of contrition on the other when there was not. it is complicated. i think it is one that viewers and others will take differently. we had a strong response from our viewers in advance of the programme this morning saying, please ask rishi sunak about this. we hate what happened to him but we do not look at the record of the conservative party in this area and think they have always taken the right steps. people are looking at politicians and wanting to believe what they say. some people have been confused about is how can labour's promise on energy be believed. having this energy company called gb energy which will be publicly owned and invest in energy projects which would then end... contributing to growth. the promise they have put aside that is it would save people £300 a year.

we asked pat mcfadden how to get to that statistic. it is not quite so simple. that is based on current prices compared to what we can get. you through generation two, nuclear energy. i it is an estimate of where you hope you can get to in six years' time. it does not seem you should be making a solid promise to people on the manifesto saying this is what will come off their monthly budget. this is a good way to illustrate - transitioning to renewable energy. if we do not do that, - we will be left at the mercy of international oil and gas prices. we are also at the mercy- of who controls those fossil fuels and we saw the kind of energy blackmail that vladimir putin i attempted to put on europe. now, it is not true to say it is an estimate based on current prices, it is an estimate based

on prices from july and september last year when prices were more expensive. it is an estimate put together by a think tank outfit based on estimates of what might happen if we have 98% of decarbonisation by 2030. it is an aim but not a solid estimate even though it is not a solid figure even though it is a solid promise from the labour party. you can see pat mcfadden saying it is an illustration. but it is a manifesto promise. he did not say if gb energy will generate its own energy or invest across the private sector in certain projects. he said the latter. at other points during the general election campaign, other people have said different things. it is a complicated policy area but i am confused. i have been following this closely. i feel we are near the end in every sense. thank god for that!

of the campaign and of newscast. it is an emotional issue for some people. voting. sometimes you make up your mind days and weeks in advance of the election being called. you will be all over our tv. thursday night we will be on before the exit poll. you will be on the radio? we will be on the air at a quarter to ten. if you want to steal a march, you can listen to ten minutes of that. then you can watch laura. you can listen to our dulcet tones through the night. thank you everybody. hello there! part two of the weekend. looking cloudier and cooler across the board.

we saw top temperature of 25 degrees across the south east of england yesterday, looking more like 20 or 21 today. and that's pretty much how the week ahead is shaping up. it's going to be changeable, low pressure, always close by. most of the rain will be in the north and the west of the country, and it will be rather cool for the time of year. still no signs of another hot and sunny spell on the cards. this ridge of high pressure has brought quite a bit of dry weather around this morning. a few splashes of rain in towards the south east of england through the afternoon the cloud just may be thick enough on the spine of the country for the odd spit and spot of rain, otherwise mostly dry, limited sunshine, probably the best of it. southern and southwest england, where we could be up to highs of 20 or 21 degrees. for most of though, it's the mid to high teens now. this evening, any showers or spits and spots of rain fade away and overnight it turns drier with clear spells developing. but we look to the west to a new set of weather fronts, pushing in to bring thicker cloud and outbreaks of rain. here, temperatures becoming a little bit 12 degrees here, but under clearer skies further east we could see a few single digits. so into monday we've

got this weather front crossing the country. i think on its southern flank there won't be that much in the way of rain. it should be mostly dry or it should fizzle as it pushes towards eastern areas. but we start with some sunshine. most of the rain will be across scotland, northern england into the afternoon, not pushing out into the north sea. and again, temperatures because of a lack of sunshine will be a bit disappointing. 20 or 21 degrees. remember, monday is the first day of wimbledon. there may be the odd spot of rain on that front as it moves through during the afternoon. i think a better chance of staying dry though. on tuesday, perhaps a few glimmers of brightness and again, temperatures into the low 20s. and the reason for that is this ridge of high pressure exerts its force across the country just a little bit more on tuesday. so we start off on a fine note. lots of sunshine around for england and wales. cloud tending to build up though into the afternoon, and on this westerly breeze we will see some showers or longer spells of rain pushing into scotland, certainly across northern and western scotland. so here a little bit wetter again, temperatures pretty disappointing 14 to 20 or 21 degrees.

and that's how it stays for the rest of the week. most of the rain will be in northern and western areas. a better chance of escaping the rain across the south and the east, but it will be rather cool for the time of year, both by day and by night.

live from london, this is bbc news. fans gather before england's match against slovakia. he reformed uk candidate disowns the party and endorses the local conservative candidate instead. the uk prime minister defends 14 years of conservative rule in a bbc interview. and, labour says the country isn't "going back to freedom of movement," with the eu, if they're elected. the french are voting in parliamentary elections, with the far—right poised to make significant gains.

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