Summary

  • David Cameron appoints new junior ministers before holding first cabinet meeting

  • He says measures to extend free childcare and lower the benefits cap will be in the first Queen's Speech

  • Chuka Umunna says he will run for the Labour leadership

  • Nigel Farage says his reinstatement as UKIP leader is "the right thing for the party"

  • Would-be Lib Dem leader Norman Lamb says his party has learned an "extremely painful" lesson from the tuition fees U-turn

Live Reporting

Marie Jackson and Rob Corp

  1. 'Appalling thing to do'

    Nicola Sturgeon visiting a hospitalPA

    Nicola Sturgeon says the Scottish government will resist any attempt by the UK government to scrap the Human Rights Act north of the border. New Scottish Secretary David Mundell told BBC Scotland this morning any such move would apply to the whole of the UK. But speaking on a visit to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Ms Sturgeon said:

    I oppose the repeal of the Human Rights Act, I think it's an appalling thing to be doing. Human rights are there to protect all of us, for example it was the Human Rights Act that enabled people to go to court to object against the bedroom tax. The idea that we take away human rights, I think, is just an awful suggestion, so the Scottish government will oppose that and work hard to make sure that in Scotland people still get vital human rights protection."

  2. Back in Westminster

    Senior political correspondent at BuzzFeed UK

  3. Reaction to Raab appointment

    Via Twitter...

  4. 'Let's get it over with'

    Sam Fawcett, deputy editor of The Young Fabians, is strongly in favour of keeping the Labour leadership race short and sweet.

    In his view, "no one is interested in a serious debate. Basically, if you’ve followed politics since the election, you’ve already heard the debate enough times."

    He also wonders if six long months of "candidates in the public arena hammering Ed Miliband" is really "going to win back disillusioned or wavering voters?"

    Finally he adds: "Whatever happens, it’s going to be a messy business", so "let's get it over with".

  5. Analysis: Chuka joins the race

    Laura Kuenssberg
    Newsnight Chief Correspondent

    Chuka Umunna joins Liz Kendall, the only other candidate who has so far gone public with her plans to run for the Labour leaderhip, but within days Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham are expected to join the race. Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, is highly likely to go for it too. But don't be surprised if other potential candidates emerge. Last night neither the party's energy spokesperson Caroline Flint or Mary Creagh would rule it out.

    The two issues preoccupying lots of Labour MPs right now are how long the contest should be, and whether or not the party should skip a generation for its next leader and look to someone like Umunna or Kendall. One senior figure told me "Andy and Yvette have both got too much baggage".

    A short race would benefit candidates like Burnham and Cooper no question - they already have huge name recognition among the party membership. Burnham in particular has spent a lot of time pressing the party flesh in the last couple of years. They might both struggle to shed their associations with the past, and past defeats, but their experience could help too.

    A longer race would give lesser known candidates more of a chance to cut through. The model of David Cameron's rise from an unknown contender to the heir apparent of the Tory party in 2005 is being cited by some. Read more from Newsnight.

  6. 'Tough and good'

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Baroness WarsiPA

    Former Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi tells The World At One she's optimistic that the new cabinet can alter some of the perceptions she met on the doorsteps while out campaigning.

    "I felt that people were voting for us with their head... but we now have the opportunity to show that our hearts are in the right place."

    The appointment of more women to cabinet, and people like Sajid Javid - whose father came to the UK with nothing and worked as a bus driver - to the focus on small businesses and the north will all help with that, she says.

    It was almost as if anything good that had been done was initiated by the Liberal Democrats... now is the opportunity for the Conservative Party to show it can be both tough and good."

  7. 'Ambitious targets'

    Boris Johnson and David Cameron visiting a nurseryGetty

    The CBI has welcomed the government's focus on apprenticeships and childcare right from the off.

    Of the former, Katja Hall, deputy director general, said:

    It’s right to set ambitious targets, though employers should get greater control over funding to develop high-quality apprenticeships that work for their industry, helping the UK to combat its growing skills gap. Better coordination between the government and businesses will also ensure apprenticeships are routes to good careers.

    And on childcare, Ms Hall added: “Increasing free childcare provision is important, and in time we would like to see the gap closed between the end of maternity leave and the start of free provision.”

  8. Missing minister

    There has been no announcement of a minister for Portsmouth in David Cameron's new government. The post was created in January 2014 - the now Defence Secretary Michael Fallon was the first holder - to help the city cope with jobs cut by BAE Systems in the local shipyard.

    BBC South's political editor Peter Henley tweeted last night:

    But now it seems there might be some movement... A few minutes ago, Peter tweeted this:

  9. MSP resigns

    BBC political correspondent tweets...

  10. MSP quits and demands Murphy's head

    Alex Rowley

    Labour MSP Alex Rowley has quit as the party's local government spokesman at Holyrood and urged Jim Murphy to stand down as Scottish leader.

    In his resignation later, Mr Rowley said the party needs a "fundamental change in direction and strategy". Read more here.

  11. Farage 'too toxic'

    The Daily Politics

    Matthew Goodwin

    Professor Matthew Goodwin, who has written a book on the rise of UKIP, is discussing Nigel Farage's return, after a very brief hiatus, to the top of the party. The feeling among Eurosceptics at Westminster, he says, was that Nigel Farages shouldn't play any role in the EU referendum debate - "he was seen as being too toxic and controversial" - and his resignation made that easier. However, now he's back, "it raises some difficult questions for more moderate Eurosceptics".

  12. Back in the fold

    The deputy political editor of the Daily Mail tweets...

  13. Labour leadership - a road map

    Ed MilibandReuters

    Just a bit of a heads up on the process we're expecting to see on the Labour leadership front. The party is considering three options to replace Ed Miliband, with a final decision to be taken by the ruling national executive on Wednesday. The options are:

    - a short campaign with the result on 31 July

    - a longer campaign with the new leader chosen a week or two before the party conference in September

    - or using the conference as a final hustings with a ballot after that

  14. Government 'hell-bent' on anti-strike law

    Bill Strutton from the GMB union, who is also a low pay commissioner, has also spoken to the Guardian.

    The main trade unions will spend some time over the next six months helping to rebuild Labour, but the problems posed by a Conservative government seemingly hell-bent on anti-strike and anti-union legislation will be foremost in our minds. We will adjust to the attacks on our organisations because, as history shows us, trade unions live longer than governments. In short, it's business as usual."

  15. Raab promoted
    Breaking

    Dominic Raab becomes the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice.

  16. Union predict 'collapse' of public services

    Six union leaders have outlined to the Guardian their concerns about a Conservative-only administration, predicting the "collapse" of public services once the government begins implementing its new austerity plan.

    Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, said the consequences of the Conservatives' win "will be stark and distressing for many of those that rely upon, and provide, our public services".

    The public will notice. With further pay restraint for NHS staff and council employees - who have already paid a high price under austerity - on the cards, the morale of those working in our under-valued public services is likely to sink yet further. No wonder the government plans further restrictions on the ability of public service workers to take industrial action."

  17. 'Defying political gravity'

    Alan Milburn says Ed Miliband fought "a commendable campaign" with "dignity" and "a great deal of resilience".

    However, Labour was "trying to defy the laws of political gravity" as it was behind with the electorate on both leadership and economic strategy, he argues.

    "The disastrous experiment of a core vote strategy didn't even deliver the core vote," he adds.

    "You only win when you're firmly in the centre ground."

  18. Labour needs to 'think again'

    The Daily Politics

    Alan Milburn and Stella Creasy

    Labour MP Stella Creasy joins Alan Milburn on the Daily Politics to discuss the future of her party following the election.

    She argues that "we have to think again across the piece" including about the way Labour talks to voters.

    She said campaigning in the election showed he that people had a sense that "it's not just whether you trust politicians but whether they could actually do any of the things they were talking about being able to do".

    Labour needs to be a "grassroots movement" and "can't do everything from Westminster".

  19. Milburn: Labour 'didn't deliver'

    The Daily Politics

    Former Labour minister Alan Milburn - who has worked as the coalition government's social mobility "tsar" - tells the Daily Politics he hopes David Cameron "really means" what he has said about wanting to lead "the party of working people".

    He says the Conservatives' election win was not "a victory of acclamation" but one "by default, because the Labour Party, frankly, didn't deliver the goods."

  20. From 'unresigning' to by-election bid?

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Nigel Farage has also been speaking to John Pienaar on 5 Live, telling him that he would like to stand in the next by-election that comes up in a Labour seat.

    I've been telling you John and all the Westminster commentators for years that UKIP's greatest potential was amongst the Labour vote. Nobody believed me and arguably the Conservatives got that majority because of the lump we tore out of the Labour vote in the East Midlands and the West Midlands and the north... I would look forward to a by-election in a Labour seat very much indeed."