Journalist Paul Waugh has just announced that he will be standing as the Labour candidate at the general election for Rochdale.

Sharing the news on social media, Waugh says it is an honour to be selected to represent his home town.

He will be contesting the seat against incumbent George Galloway of the Workers Party of Britain, who won at the by-election in February.

Waugh had applied to be the Labour candidate for that by-election, but lost to Azhar Ali, who had the party's support withdrawn two weeks prior to the vote over comments he apparently made about Israel and Jewish people.

In addition to Waugh and Galloway, two other candidates have announce they are running in Rochdale: Martyn Savin of the Greens, and Andy Kelly of the Liberal Democrats.

BBC Sounds

Image source, PA Media

Junior doctors in England have announced that they will hold fresh strike action in the run up to the general election.

The latest round of industrial action, set to last five days, comes as part of a long-running dispute over pay.

Striking doctors are due to walk from 07:00 BST on 27 June - one week before voters go to the polls

In this episode of our 5 Questions On podcast, BBC Health Reporter Jim Reed explains why they are planning to walk out again, and how it might affect the election campaign.

Listen here on BBC Sounds.

Where have talks got to on junior doctors' pay?published at 20:09 British Summer Time 29 May

20:09 BST 29 May

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Ministers have attacked the timing of the junior doctors' strike in England called by the British Medical Association.

Talks only resumed in mid May - with the help of independent mediation.

This was the first time the two sides had sat down officially since the BMA walked out of the previous round of talks at the start of December.

In theory, these negotiations could have continued during the election period, but with both ministers and civil servants occupied by the election and the prospect of the Tories not even being in power post 4 July it is hard to see what would have been achieved over the next month or so.

At the same time, the independent pay review body for doctors is considering what pay rise to recommend for this financial year.

Last year junior doctors were given an average of nearly 9% - and another 3% on top was being discussed when the BMA walked out of the talks in late 2023.

So why strike now? Officially the BMA says it is to get the prime minister to come forward with a fresh offer in the next few weeks before the walkout.

But, of course, if that doesn’t happen it also has the effect of ensuring whoever wins power in the election is under immediate pressure to try to find an end to the dispute.

Susana Mendonca
BBC Radio London, reporting from north London

Around 150 supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are gathering for his launch event in north London.

The room is filling up and the Bob Marley song 'Stand Up for Your Rights' is playing as the crowd waits for the former Labour leader to make an entrance.

Corbyn's running as an independent candidate after Labour refused to let him stand for them in the general election.

Lots of journalists are at the launch event which he’s holding in a community centre in Crouch Hill that he opened in 2018 as part of a social housing project.

Labour members in the queue were saying they should have been given a choice to select him as the party's candidate.

Labour have selected Islington Councillor Praful Nargund to contest the Islington North seat. The Liberal Democrat candidate is Vikas Aggarwal, the Green candidate is Sheriden Kates and the Reform UK candidate is Martyn Nelson, the Conservatives have yet to announce a candidate.

A complete list of candidates standing in Islington North will be available on the BBC website after nominations close.

As we've been reporting on Diane Abbott's claims that she has been barred from standing as a Labour candidate in the upcoming general election, we should remind you of what Labour leader Keir Starmer said about it earlier today.

Asked to confirm whether it was true that she had been barred from standing, Starmer denied this was true.

"The process that we were going through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day, so she's a member of the Parliamentary Labour Party and no decision has been taken barring her," he said.

As a reminder, Abbott herself sent a text message to the BBC's Joe Pike this morning to say she had been barred.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside Hackney Town Hall to hear Diane Abbott's remarks, breaking into chants calling for her to remain as MP after she finished.

Here's a summary of the key points she made at the rally just now:

• Abbott said in her 50 years with the Labour party, she has disagreed with the leadership at times, notably with Tony Blair over the Iraq war, but she said she has always been loyal
• She said she was shocked to learn yesterday that that she would be banned from running for the party in the general election
• She was selected by the local party, but the national party is "insisting" she be banned, and claims they haven't communicated with her personally on the matter at all
• "It is as if you are not allowed to be a Labour MP unless you’re prepared to repeat everything the leader says," she said
• She says she has to keep faith with the loyalty that saw her elected as the first black woman MP, and vows that, "as long as it is possible, I will be the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington"

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent, reporting from Hackney

What will Diane Abbott do next? She’s just told supporters here in Hackney she intends to be MP for this area for as long as possible.

Could that mean she stands as an independent - if Labour don’t allow her to be their candidate? She didn’t say she would, but some will wonder.

Interestingly, a couple of miles from where I’m standing, Abbott’s ally Jeremy Corbyn is launching his campaign to be an independent MP.

At the last general election, he was standing to be a Labour prime minister.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent, reporting from Hackney

Diane Abbott has arrived and says she’s shocked to learn she’s going to be barred from standing for Labour.

She says she’s been given no reason and she thinks the party wants her excluded from Parliament.

She tells the crowd she joined the Labour Party 50 years ago - and says she’s always been a loyal member.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

Rishi Sunak indicated the day after he called the general election that there would be no flight to Rwanda before polling day. However, his words did not satisfy a top judge at the High Court who has been demanding clarity.

Mr Justice Chamberlain is overseeing a major challenge to the Rwanda plan brought by the FDA union which represents senior government officials. They're concerned part of it would force them to break international law and the Civil Service's code.

He's repeatedly asked ministers to give him the actual flight date. At first, they said 1-15 July. Then they said the earliest flight would be 24 June.

Yesterday, the judge disclosed in a court order that ministers were "apparently unable", external to give him a date at all.

Today, the government has formally told the court, external that no asylum seekers will be forced on to a Rwanda flight before 4 July.

This assurance to the court underlines that flights are only going to happen if the Conservatives win the general election - because ministers have now definitely ruled out any plane taking off before the result is known - and Labour will abolish the policy if Sir Keir Starmer becomes PM.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent, reporting from Hackney

I’m at Hackney Town Hall where a group of Diane Abbott supporters are gathering to back her.

The organisers say they want her to have a fair process and that she should be allowed to be the Labour candidate in the local area.

Some of those here are particularly angry at Keir Starmer and say it’s outrageous there isn’t more clarity on Abbott’s position.

Labour hasn’t provided details of the situation, but Keir Starmer has denied that she’s been banned from standing as a Labour candidate.

Daniel Wainwright
BBC Verify

Image source, .

We are a week into the campaign and you’d probably struggle to spot the difference with a magnifying glass on the BBC’s poll tracker.

On average, the polls suggest Labour’s lead is about 21 points over the Conservatives.

Of the 12 companies whose polls make up our latest averages, nine completed their work at least a day after Rishi Sunak called the election - but we don’t yet have more than a handful concluded since the policy pledges and speeches by the parties over the bank holiday.

A little earlier we brought you the news that Lloyd Russell-Moyle said he has been suspended from the Labour party over a complaint made about his behaviour.

The MP for Brighton Kemptown described the complaint as “vexatious and politically motivated", and added he believes he will be "fully exonerated".

In response, a spokesperson for the party said: "The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken."

Does the Tories’ claim about one in eight 'rip off' degrees stack up?published at 18:32 British Summer Time 29 May

18:32 BST 29 May

The Conservatives say they will fund 100,000 apprenticeships in England by closing the worst-performing university courses.

They would choose the ones with the highest drop-out rates or poorest job prospects and have estimated these would amount to 13% - or one in eight - of courses taken by students.

They are calling this a conservative estimate, because research from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, external suggested that one in five, or 20%, of graduates would have been better off not going to university.

But one of the IFS report’s authors Ben Waltmann told BBC Verify:

The Conservatives reckon that of the students whose courses would no longer exist, 25% would do a better quality course instead, 25% would go straight into employment and 50% would do an apprenticeship instead.

But as there is no overall limit to the number of students a university can take, the policy might raise standards but would not necessarily reduce the number of students taking degree courses or save money any time soon.

It's been a big day of news both on and off the campaign trail. Let's take a moment to review what's been going on.

• Junior doctors have announced a strike a week before the 4 July election - Rishi Sunak says it looks "incredibly political" that the announcement came as Labour were campaigning on health policy, while Sir Keir Starmer says the government should have negotiated a settlement
• Starmer has denied Diane Abbott has been barred from standing for the party, despite Abbott having earlier told the BBC she had been
• We've heard that Sunak and Starmer will go head-to-head in their first election TV debate 21:00 next Tuesday on ITV
• On the campaign trail, Sunak has been out in Cornwall and Devon today, where he said he would scrap some university courses in England and fund 100,000 apprenticeships a year instead
• Starmer has been speaking to medical students in the West Midlands with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting. The Labour leader pledged to reduce NHS wait times to 18 weeks by the end of the first term in government
• SNP leader John Swinney has been putting "pressure" on Labour to nationalise Network Rail
• The Liberal Democrats have been on their bikes in Wales, where they are pledging to increase the agricultural budget by £1bn
• The head of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, announced she will stand in the election as a candidate for Sinn Féin

The MP for Brighton Kemptown says he has been suspended from the Labour party because a complaint has been made about his behaviour.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle says he has been told he won’t be eligible to be a candidate at the next election because of what he believes to be a “vexatious and politically motivated complaint” about his behaviour eight years ago.

He says he will cooperate with the investigations process to clear his name, telling BBC South East: “I believe I will be fully exonerated.”

Lloyd Russell-Moyle was elected as the MP for Brighton Kemptown in 2017. The Labour party has been approached for comment.

Image source, Getty

Image source, PA Media

Junior doctors in England will strike for five days in the run up to the general election.

The action is part of a long-running pay dispute with the government.

Members of the British Medical Association will walkout from 07:00 BST on 27 June until 07:00 BST on 2 July.

The union has asked for a 35% pay rise to make up for what it says is 15 years of below inflation pay rises.

It will see junior doctors walk out of all services, with senior doctors having to be drafted across to provide cover.

That will cause huge disruption to elective services, such as routine operations, days before the general election.

This strike comes on the heels of Labour announcing their big plans to tackle the NHS backlog, should the party be elected on 4 July.

• Read more about the junior doctors' strike here

We've just brought you what Rishi Sunak thinks about the timing of the junior doctors' strike - but what does Keir Starmer think?

The Labour leader was asked about it in Worcester earlier today, while announcing his party's waiting list pledge.

"I think the government should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement," he said.

"And what they've effectively done is kicked it [the negotiation] to the other side of the general election. That's unforgivable.

"Obviously I don't want the strike to go ahead. I don't think health staff want to go on strike and it really impacts on patients. So I don't want it to go ahead."

Earlier, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government may not be able to meet the doctors' demands.

"I want to be really upfront with junior doctors this side of the election - the 35% pay claim they've put in... I'm just not going to be able to afford that on day one of a Labour government," he said.

Image source, Reuters

We can bring you more now from Rishi Sunak's Q&A in Devon that we were reporting on a little earlier (see our posts below).

During this session, Sunak was asked if the announcement today that junior doctors will go on strike during the election period is an indictment of his time in office.

The prime minister responded by suggesting that the timing of the strike announcement, "on the same day as the Labour party are having a health day", does "make it look incredibly political.

“It’s hard to escape that conclusion, given the timing and to call a strike in an election campaign, especially as we found a constructive resolution with the remainder of the NHS workforce."

He notes a deal was reached with consultant doctors, and says the junior doctors have "failed" to do so "in spite of them already being offered a pay deal that is worth on average a 10% increase".

Labour, he adds, “won’t condemn the strikes”.

How have the Conservatives been doing on apprenticeships?published at 17:30 British Summer Time 29 May

17:30 BST 29 May

The Conservatives' plan to increase the number of apprenticeships has been one of the Tories go-to policies on the campaign trail today.

Earlier, we heard education minister, Damian Hinds, tell Radio 4 Today: “We’ve had a huge upgrade of apprenticeships.”

Government regulation of apprenticeships has increased, but there has also been a decline in apprenticeship numbers in recent years.

The number of new apprenticeship starts in England has fallen by around 30% since a new Apprenticeship Levy on firms was introduced in 2017.

And, within that total, the numbers doing the lowest level of apprenticeships - known as “intermediate apprenticeships” - which is equivalent to GCSE level, have fallen by 70%.

The number of people below the age of 19 starting apprenticeships has fallen by around a third.

By contrast the number of higher or degree apprenticeships has increased, with concerns that some of the people becoming apprentices are older workers being sponsored by their employers to do expensive management courses.

Expensive courses like this, such as MBAs, would not fit with the common perception of what an apprenticeship is.

Tomos Morgan
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Meanwhile, we've heard that Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething will face a vote of no confidence in the Senedd next Wednesday.

The Welsh Conservatives have tabled the vote on the first minister after weeks of controversy over donations to his recent leadership campaign.

There have also been question marks over Covid-era text messages and the sacking of a minister for allegedly leaking information to the media, something she denies.

For the vote to succeed, Plaid Cymru would have to back it and at least one Labour Senedd member would have to abstain.

Even if he were to lose, the result would not be binding on the first minister - but it would put him in a difficult decision.