Election campaigns to restart following death of Prince Philip

Politics

Election campaigning is to resume this week after being paused as a mark of respect following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer both agreed to the suspension after holding discussions in the wake of Friday’s announcement that Prince Philip had died.

The Conservatives and Labour have said campaigning will restart in full on Tuesday morning, before again being temporarily suspended for the duke’s funeral on Saturday.

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PM pays tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh

Millions of voters head to the polls next month in the first major set of elections since the coronavirus pandemic.

Conservative Party co-chair Amanda Milling said: “The respectful pause to campaigning will end on Tuesday morning.”

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Labour said leafleting will be permitted after tributes in parliament on Monday with a “full return to campaigning” the next day.

“Following the announcement that the funeral will be held on Saturday, there will be a further suspension of campaigning on 17 April to allow members to join a day of reflection,” the party said.

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“These arrangements have been agreed with the UK government.”

The House of Commons will return a day early from Easter recess on Monday to allow MPs to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh.

Peers, who were already due to return to parliament, will start their proceedings with a humble address of condolence to the Queen.

The Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Senedd have also been recalled on Monday for tributes.

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Starmer: ‘Our thoughts are with the Queen’

A large number of elections are taking place nationwide on 6 May – dubbed Super Thursday – including some that were postponed from 2020 because of COVID-19.

Voters in Scotland and Wales will be choosing new parliaments, while in London there will be elections for the mayor and assembly, which were originally due to take place last year.

Across the rest of England, voters will be choosing a mixture of councillors, local mayors, regional mayors and police commissioners.

There is also a parliamentary by-election to choose a new MP for the seat of Hartlepool.

The scale of Super Thursday means every voter in Great Britain will be able to take part in at least one type of poll, making it the biggest event of its kind outside a general election.

It will also be the first big electoral test for Sir Keir since he became Labour leader in April 2020, and for Mr Johnson since his general election victory in December 2019.

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