Darren Jones says Labour government will ‘return to service of British people’ as Keir Starmer continues his tour of the UK

Good morning, and welcome to the first full working day of the new Labour government. Parliament is not sitting until tomorrow, but many new MPs will be arriving at Wesminster in the hope of finding an office (good luck with that – it normally takes a while), and the new cabinet is busy. Keir Starmer is in Belfast, on the latest leg of his tour to meet the devolved governments, Rachel Reeves is making a major speech on growth this morning, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is starting the process of setting up a new Border Security Command, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is meetng the British Dental Association to discuss changes to the dental contract, and Downing Street is holding its first lobby briefing under the new regime.

Darren Jones , chief secretary to the Treasury, was on the media round. Policy-wise he did not really have anything new to say, but in an interview with the BBC he struck a note of confidence that contained a withering put-down to the previous government. Asked if he thought the Tories would not be able to provide a credible opposition given the leadership contest might take a while, he replied:

I expect that we will be challenged in the House of Commons.

Of course the Conservatives suffered a historic loss, but that doesn’t mean there’s no opposition in the House of Commons and of course, we have the House of Lords to get any legislation through as well.

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Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Kemi Badenoch, who have all ruled out deal with Reform, seen as more viable candidates

Conservatives have suggested that the former home secretary Suella Braverman is losing support as a potential party leader, as some who lost votes across southern England privately urged colleagues to resist a lurch to the right.

A number of MPs now see Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Kemi Badenoch, all of whom have ruled out a deal with the hard-right Reform leader Nigel Farage, as more viable candidates.

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Many students have to do 20-plus hours a week of paid work to get by, and grants would let them focus more on learning than surviving, says Wendy Sloane , while Prof Andy Long also calls for reform of financial support for undergraduates

I’ve taught in higher education since 2010 and have known few students who haven’t had to take on paid work, often 20 hours weekly or more in low-paid retail or hospitality jobs ( More than half of UK students working long hours in paid jobs, 13 June ).

The lack of maintenance grants for less well-off students affects their livelihoods and education. It requires almost superhuman planning and fortitude to ensure that working long hours does not encroach on university life. One student got out of bed every weekday at 4.30am to spend four hours before class opening up a Pret – he graduated with a first. Another worked as a pub manager, often closing after midnight, yet managed to regularly attend class on time.

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Everywhere I go in Britain, people are exhausted. But there’s good reason to believe a Labour government would bring unseen possibilities

In the midst of dizzying opinion polls and a seemingly unprecedented Tory collapse, it is worth remembering a basic political fact: Labour governments do not get elected very often, and it is a feat that is chronically difficult to pull off.

Some of this is down to the UK’s creaking electoral system, and the awkward coalition of voters Labour must build to surmount it, from pensioners in post-industrial towns to urban twentysomethings. But some of the party’s eternal challenge is also down to a set of deeply sceptical attitudes, in England in particular. Younger voters seem to be largely free of such ideas, but in other parts of the electorate, Labour is for ever suspected of being profligate and wasteful, while the wider political left – not entirely unreasonably – is seen as pious, privileged and unbearably bossy. On top of all that, there is a deep national queasiness about change that becomes even clearer at times of national crisis. Two centuries ago, it was summed up by that great English agitator William Cobbett: “We want great alteration, but we want nothing new.”

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

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Four target voter groups all represented by white people in images in Conservative strategy leaflet

Meet Harold, Denise, Alison and Mark: the four key target audiences identified by Conservative strategists as the right people to win them seats in the general election.

The four theoretical voters are defined as the “persuasion audience”, very likely to head to the polls and open to considering backing the Tories.

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Apathy, economic insecurity and feeling ignored is driving the under-35s away from Labour and the Tories

Young people feel more economically insecure, ignored and apathetic than the average voter before the election, amid evidence that they could be fuelling the growth of smaller parties.

A strong rejection of the Conservative party among the youngest voters continues to be evident: the latest Opinium poll for the Observer has a 52-point Labour lead among the under-35s.

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A year after Boris Johnson’s old seat united against Labour in anger over Sadiq Khan’s emissions policy, voters are split

Six weeks may be a long time in politics, but for pedestrians trying to cross the dual carriageway to get to the shops and library on Yiewsley High Street, it feels even longer.

The traffic lights here haven’t been working since 3 May, when they were vandalised by anti-Ulez protesters. It’s a side-effect of the self-styled blade runners’ attacks on the cameras on top of the traffic lights put there to monitor cars as they come in and out of London’s ultra-low ­emission zone in Uxbridge.

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Rishi Sunak and his cronies have helped spread an epidemic of disinformation in this campaign – it’s a political way of life for the right

“It’s the lying I can’t stand.” That’s the close of the affair cliche isn’t it? We can forgive so much – incompetence, petulance, flatulence – but in the end dishonesty derails things. I suppose that’s why the nation’s 14-year abusive relationship with the Conservative party is finally finished. That’s all folks, bar an argument about who gets Natalie Elphicke , the political equivalent of a smelly pet dog with dangly yellowing genitals and incontinence that the most compassionate partner will, ultimately, come to regret taking.

Yes. It’s the lying we can’t stand. Some of Rishi Sunak’s faults are excusable. It is understandable that he would not consider the sacrifice of the soldiers of D-day especially significant when his own parents had so nobly sacrificed his family’s Sky TV subscription to pay his Winchester College school fees. But it was on Tuesday of the week before last that, unforgivably, lying Sunak vomited out his instantly discredited lie about Labour’s £2,000 tax plans, live in an ITV debate against the lightning-reflexed Keir Starmer. Luckily Starmer shut Sunak’s false claims down with all the speed of an arthritic slug lurching towards a distant cabbage (though to compare lying Sunak to a vegetable at this stage in the Conservatives’ election campaign is perhaps to exaggerate his gifts as a communicator and electoral asset and is, moreover, unfair to cabbages).

Stewart Lee introduces the garage punk greats at the Lexington, London N1, performing a 45-minute standup set before the Primevals (1 July), The Shadracks (2 July) and the Fallen Leaves (3 July)

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