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The electorate mulled over the words of Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary: ‘You don’t want to have somebody receive a supermajority.’ A question that lodged in the election campaign was put by Beth Rigby of Sky News to Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, asking whether he had meant it when he said his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, would make a great prime minister; he replied: ‘I was certain we would lose the 2019 election.’ A few days later, Sir Keir told a phone-in questioner that serving in a Corbyn administration ‘didn’t cross my mind because I didn’t think we would win’. He evaded questions on council tax, taxing pensions and VAT on schools. A dishevelled Boris Johnson made some short videos endorsing Conservative candidates. Three suppliers recalled 61 types of pre-packed sandwiches, wraps and salads from major supermarkets after salad leaves were suspected of spreading Escherichia coli, which made more than 200 ill, with more than 60 taken to hospital.
The annual rate of inflation fell to 2 per cent, from 2.3 per cent the month before, prompting Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, to say he wanted to be ‘cutting people’s taxes’. After the excitement of a YouGov opinion poll putting Reform one point ahead of the Tories, Nigel Farage launched the party’s ‘contract’ (rather than manifesto), which undertook to freeze non-essential immigration, leave the European Convention on Human Rights, add 30,000 to the Armed Forces and cut income tax. In the seven days to 18 June, 1,066 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. Sir Ian McKellen fell off the stage during a performance of Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre in London.
Surrey Police, unable to capture a heifer called Beau Lucy that had strayed from a meadow in Staines, decided to ram it repeatedly with a police car; the Home Secretary said: ‘I can think of no reasonable need for this action.’ The beast survived, with a wounded leg. The value of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange overtook those listed in Paris again, having lost the European primacy in November 2022, according to Bloomberg. The King and the Princess of Wales were both able to attend Trooping the Colour.
Abroad
The G7 agreed to use the interest on frozen Russian assets to finance a $50 billion loan to Ukraine to help it fight invading Russian forces. Russia was firmly blamed for the suffering and destruction of the war in Ukraine in a statement by a summit of more than 90 countries and international organisations at Bürgenstock in Switzerland. Russia was not invited, China did not attend and India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia did not sign the statement. Four Russian naval vessels anchored for five days in Havana bay. President Vladimir Putin of Russia paid a state visit to North Korea. Li Qiang, the Chinese Premier, visited Australia and offered two new pandas for Adelaide Zoo in a trade-in for Wang Wang and Fu Ni, who had been there on hire since 2010 at $1 million a year.
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed when their armoured vehicle exploded as they were returning from an overnight operation in Rafah. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, dissolved his six-member war cabinet. Ten migrants’ bodies were found below decks in a sinking wooden boat off Lampedusa; 66 were missing after a vessel sank 125 miles off the coast of Calabria. President Joe Biden of America announced a new policy to protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of US citizens from deportation, and allow them to work legally, if they had been in the country for ten years. At a farm in Kirkland, New York, two men fell into a manure tanker after losing consciousness and died.
In South Africa, a majority of MPs re-elected Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress, for a second term as President, after his party formed a coalition with the Democratic Alliance. Jacob Zuma, a former president of South Africa, said his political party, uMkhonto weSizwe, was entering an opposition alliance. As protestors set fire to cars outside, Argentina’s Senate approved President Javier Milei’s economic reforms, declaring a state of economic emergency, cutting pensions and reducing labour rights. An Indian Air Force flight brought back the bodies of 45 workers killed in a fire at a residential building where 176 lived in Kuwait. The French football captain, Kylian Mbappé, urged voters not to let the ‘extremes’ into power. Police shot and wounded a man who was carrying an axe in Hamburg, where thousands had gathered to follow the Euros. CSH
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