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>> hello, "the context" bbc news. >> the winding road to polling data still has plenty around the corner and while every announcement prompts a flurry of reaction, each party seeks to undermine the others. >> this has been a closely fought election and that is because the anc's record government and government over the past 30 years is being questioned. >> in november, on the territory on which i'm standing, u.s. territory, there is a choice between trump and biden. behind me, mexicans will also have their choice. ♪ >> 2024 is the year of elections and here on "the context," for,"

the next hour we are taking you around the globe to some of the key boats coming up. we will start here in the u.k. as campaigning is in full swing as we head toward that july 4 election day. also tonight, and the last few minutes, polls have closed in south africa. we will be live in the capital of for the reaction as we await those results. we are also live in mexico near the u.s. border. it's election day in mexico on sunday, and immigration is set to be a big issue for voters. of course, an election in the u.s. this year. but before all of that, all eyes remain on donald trump. the jury has begun deliberations in his hush money trial in new york. whatever happens, it will have huge ramifications on november's vote. we begin tonight with the latest from the campaign trail here in the u.k. labour have been attempting to

focus its efforts on the nhs with plans for hospitals to do more, and use the private sector to tackle the nhs waiting list. but the attention has also been firmly on the parties handling of diane albert, still confusion over whether the long serving labour mp can or cannot stand in the general election. labor leader keir starmer says there is no decision about that yet, but diane abbott says she is banned, and has doubled down tonight after rallying her constituency. >> i was shocked to learn yesterday that i am going to be banned from running for the labour party. i have been selected by my local party members, many of whom are here today, but the national

party is insisting that i be ban ned. they had not communicated with me personally. they have not given a reason for banning me. they just want me excluded from parliament. >> diana abbott signed off on her speech by saying she wanted to remain the mp for her constituency for as long as possible but she didn't address the issue of whether she would run as an independent. our correspondent joe pike pressed her on that issue as she left that event. >> will you stand as an independent candidate in this election, diane abbott? will you stand as an independent? >> will she or won't she? lots of unknowns in all of this.

i am joining now by our correspondent who has been at that event in hackney for us. what do we know, what don't we know when it comes to what is happening with diane abbott and her candidacy? >> we don't know exactly what has happened here. there are competing stories between keir starmer and diane abbott. what we know is there is an almighty row taking place between factio of the labour party and it has completely overshadowed their campaign today. what diana has done tonight at hackney town hall become part of her constituency is seeing publicly what she has been saying privately today, which is she thinks she had been banned from standing for the seat she has held for 37 years. she is blaming the leadership, saying the leadership just doesn't want her in parliament. and she is making it absolutely

clear she doesn't want to stand. it is interesting because there has been sort of a rumor, doing the rounds for a few weeks, that labour was working on a deal to let diana back into the party, the expectation that she would call it a day in the general election. it doesn't sound like she wants to stand out at all, says that she will stay the mp here as long as possible. so it feels to me two things. firstly, she has left the door open to standing as an independent mp even though she is not engaging with the question tonight. secondly, it feels like the story will just run and run until there is some finality to it. keir starmer, the labor leader, was asked about it this afternoon, he said itas wrong to say that ms. abbott was barred from standing for parliament with the labour party. i asked for any updates. they say, no, that is still the position from their perspective.

until it is resolved, the questions will not go away, and that will be tricky for labor. that means some of the factionalism that keir starmer is trying to stamp out will continue to be in the headlines. rajini: nick to be at event where diane abbott just finished speaking, thank you. now let's turn to the conservatives. rishi sunak has been in southwest england today. he said his party would replace what his party described as ripoff university degrees and fund 100,000 more apprenticeships instea. the southwest is a key battleground for the conservatives. our political editor chris mason has been following the pm on his campaign training today. he sent us this report from devon. >> one week into the general election campaign. and the verdict from some folk here --

>> it's ok, really. good idea to have it. >> i think they are just fighting with each other and it is ridiculous. >> what do you make of the whole election fun and games? >> total nightmare. i cannot bear it. i cannot watch television. >> dreadful. >> you cannot tell me that you are not watching television. >> [laughter] i am trying not to. >> planes and policies, trains and yet more trains. the prime minister arriving this morning, not looking to rough after a night on the sleeper from london. firstly, talking about his idea on apprenticeships in england. >> taking the bold action of closing don't underperform university degrees that are letting our young people down and instead using at money to fund 100,000 new high-quality apprenticeships. >> meet, greet, talk and move on

is the rhythm for all the party leaders out and about. it is lunchtime. the prime minister is arriving here. having a go at other people's jobs, all part of many a visit. and listen out for the generous job offer, depending on how things turn out. >> i have the perfect slice. >> the winding road to the fourth of july polling day still has plenty around the corner. and where every announcement prompts a flurry of reaction, as each party seeks to undermine the others. >> our message that conservatives let people down in the west country over the health service, economy, things like sewage in the rivers, on our beaches, is resonating with people. >> conservatives have to say how they will pay for it. that is what we deliver in the labour party.

will the cost of policies. >> in this election campaign, it is the cost of the union on the table. we have a cost crisis inflicted by westminster. >> the prime minister has made quite a thing of projecting a certain energy. he has hurdled around england, scotland, wales, northern ireland the first couple days. now he is in the southwest of england, a region teaming with conservative seats he really needs to cling onto. after a morning in cornwall, next, it is devon. >> this afternoon, rishi sunak arrived to a military vehicle manufacturer to staff and reporters. >> no doubt you are meeting plenty of people out and about. but are you changing many minds? prime minister sunak: you can see we are having a conversation here but i'm determined to talk to as many people as i can across the country over the remaining weeks of the campaign. that is how i started it.

as he heard, i am thoroughly enjoying myself, enjoying having conversations with people. yes, i am changing minds. >> the talk of all the party leaders trundled on. and you can tell and the elections are getting nearer when you see pictures like this. five weeks to go. chris mason, bbc news, in devon. rajini: we can speak to the bbc political correspondent rob watson. chris reporting that the prime minister is enjoying himself, i hope you are, as well, as we enter the early stages of this election campaign. we have lots to discuss. let's kick off with what we were talking about at the start of the program which is all about diane abbott, a long serving mp. lots of questions about whether or not she is going to be able to stand for the labour party or when she will choose to stand as an independent.

just to remind our viewers, why was she suspended from the labour party? >> i should say first of all, i am enjoying it. chris mason was enjoying it. best part about the election is getting out on the road. she was suspended because she said that the jewish people with red hair and travelers didn't really experience racism in the same way, they experienced a prejudice, but did not experience racism all the time. she had written that in an article in a newspaper in the u.k. disciplinary procedure followed. that brought us to where we are now. rajini: where dyou think this leaves the labour party, on a day where sir keir starmer wanted to focus on his party's plans for the national health service, a key issue whenever there is a general election? d now a distraction with this? >> for a party which is out in

front clearly pursuing a strategy of let's not rock the boat, because this is our election to lose, if the polls are to be believed, this is not welcome at all. but i suspect, stepping back from it all, if labour leadership are confronted with a choice concerning diane abbott, they have to choose between upsetting more on the left, activists on the left of their party, or upsetting centrist voters as they would see it. i suspect they will choose the former. that is really why keir starmer, every since he took over the leadership of the labour party from jeremy corbyn, it's always erring on the side of upsetting those on the left side of the party. he takes the view that you win elections in this country very much from the center ground. rajini: let's talk about the conservative campaign. we saw a rishi sunak on that journey. chris mason was tagging along today.

he has been in the southwest of england. there are a lot of seats that clearly, if you see where he has gone today, worried they could potentially lose, if the polls are to be believed. >> quite right. the problem the conservative party faces apart from the obvious one of political gravity and being in power for 14 years, they are in danger of having their votes nibbled from the right, if i can put it that way, by the reform party, pro-brexit, pro-immigration party. but they also risk losing votes to the left to you labour in parts of the country and in the southwest to the liberal democrats. just an incredibly difficult, tight spot to be in electorally, but that is where mr. sunak and his party find themselves. rajini: now we have the conversation -- confirmation of when the first television debate

would be. like tv tuesday at 9:00. what is your take on that? the first one of a number of them. >> i will definitely be watching. it is interesting the tv debates. relatively new phenomenon, i think started in 2010. i know people have had them in the u.s., other countries. i think the feedback so far is you get lots of people complaining. they say all the same things, they are very tedious. but they actually get quite high viewing numbers and people say they want with great interest, their boat is in some ways influenced. i'm not sure they change the outcome but do they energize politics in this count, do they get people watchingnd talking? to go back to the start with chris mason's peace where you heard from some ordinary voters, you get that sense of the really profound prevailing anti-politician move, not just

the government but all of them. things like debates are a chance for politicians to try and at least reach out to the voters, distrustful and rather fed up as they might be. rajini: our correspondent with the very latest, thank you very much. some developments on a story that we are following in the united states. as we have been reported throughout the day, jurors in donald trump's historic criminal trial have begun deliberations. development that we are hearing from the court is that the judge has said that they have received a note. one of the jurors has a question. we know that note contains four requests. we have more information on that on the bbc news live page that you can see there, where my colleague is inside the court,

sending us updates, so we know what is going on. it is typical of course when a jury is deliberating for them to send notes to clarify and ask questions. it is unclear what those four requests are, but we can confirm that as those deliberations in new york have begun on that criminal trial for donald trump around hush money allegations, that a note has been received by the judge containing four requests. we will have more information on at when we get it. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news.

jini: we promised we would take you around the world and witness various elections in this hour. let's take you from elections in the u.k. straight to south africa, where the polls have just closed in the country's general election. the boat is being seen as the

most pivotal in three decades, consered a test of the ruling anc, african national congress, and their hold on the country. the party of nelson mandela, the anc has been the majority party in power since the end of apartheid, and has held the presidency since then, but could corruption scandals, rising crime, on employment, and frequent power cuts impact their fortunes? the current leader and president cast his ballot tod, saying he was in no doubt that voters would once again back in the anc. let's go live to my colleague who is in south africa with the latest where the polls have just closed. >> this polling station where we are, a high school, could be seen as a model polling station. it has just gone 9:00 here and this polling station is closed. party representatives are also

inside, taking a short break, and then the vote counting will begin here. what we are hearing from across south africa is that in some polling stations there are still hundreds of people waiting to cast their ballots. the electoral commission says that if they are in the queue at 9:00 they can then wait and will be given the opportunity to cast their ballots. so why does this matter? it matters in a hotly contested election where the margins could be small. making sure that each party gets its voters out, voting freely does matter. this electiois important, of course, as you mentioned, the prospect that the anc, which has dominated south africa's politics for 30 years, could lose its majority in parliament. but it is also 30 years since the end of apartheid, the dawn

of democracy in this country. this is also a moment where some of those people who didn't live through apartheid are also taking stock of the legacy of the anc. we are joined by one of the people called the born free in south africa. you were born in 1994, after the dawn of democracy here south africa. this election has been described as historic for the country. how do you see it yourself? >> you know, as a country, i feel like we are left feeling despondent and failed. we need a change. that is where we sit right now. >> what does change mean personally for you? he told me earlier, you came to vote earlier, you mentioned you had a child. what does change, what does the future look like for you? >> we just need to have less

violence, less crime, less load shedding. i cannot be working and minding my child in the darkness. we cannot be having water cuts in this day and age, not having the same problems that my grandmother had in 2024. that needs to change. >> thank you once again for joining us on bbc news. she cast her vote and talked about change. that is something that we heard about consistently throughout the day from various voters, people who support the anc, and also those who want to vote for the opposition. what does this all mean in terms of the final results that we could be seeing out of south africa today? we are joined by a pitics professor at the university of cape town. he joins us from cape town. thank you for joining us here on bbc news.

the word "change" had been mentioned throughout the day not only on bbc news but also on south african media. what do you think this means for the final results, what this could mean for the anc itself? >> good evening and thanks for having me. i think there is expectation that every election will somehow produce the kind of results that we will see either an anc loss or change in the party seat distribution that will make our system a lot more competitive. i think the problem of that, in fact, in the last 20 years or so, there has been no significant impact that the party has made to dent that deficit between themselves and the anc. so, even though people have very

high expectations as to what this election can achieve, i don't think the deficit between the anc and the second largest party, da, is small enough to warrant us to think that there will be the kind of shift or the nd of change that you want. last 15 years or so. we are expecting more or less a predictable result, but one where there is a reduced anc shift. >> just briefly, the anc is losing votes consistently over the years, but the opposition, as you say, is not gaining votes. what is happening, people are

just choosing not to come out and vote? >> the dynamic is one where the swing voter is huge. if you take percentages out of it and look at the actual number of people who are registered, who vote for the agency, and those who vote for the second and third largest party, we have about 27 million people on the voter rolls as of the first election. in the last 25 years, the anc's share of that has always been within a band of 10, 11 one million people. it has never shifted. if one looks at the second largest party, da, it has never gone beyond 3.5 one million. which means the number of people not showing up is more than the combined total of all people who vote for -- we do not vote for the anc.

that also means that people who do not show up equal the amount of people who work for the anc. what we have here -- >> incredible statistics there, professor. of course, as we get those results, we will be able to analyze them. thank you for joining us here on bbc news. there you have it. polls closing across most polling stations in south africa. those results will start coming in overnight and we will bring them to you here on bbc news. rajini: thank you for the moment. let's show you these pictures. donald trump walking back into court. we just heard the jury, which has been deliberating, has requested to see and hear some evidence again. more on that after the break, so stay with us here on "the context."

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