But he says hes now concluded, there comes a moment when you know its time to leave, that a new generation should lead. Rishi has the plan our country needs, he added, i will do everything i can to support him. But as rishi sunak toured the Titanic Quarter in belfast, the list of mps jumping ship continued to grow. Among more than 100 other mps Standing Down, the former Prime Minister theresa may, the former leader of the house of commons, Andrea Leadsom, and former defence secretary ben wallace. While the conservatives are now seeing more mps walk away than in 1997, labours losses are less substantial. Keir starmer took his campaign to glasgow, hoping scotland will pave his way to a win. After mps lined up to mark the close of Parliament Last night, the campaign is well and truly under way, with both potential Prime Ministers constructing their arguments to the country as they try to build up support to win. Hannah miller, bbc news. Lets cross to the newsroom and speak to our Political Correspondent helen catt. They are out and about today, the leaders. Talk us what they will be doing today and their focus. Yes. Leaders. Talk us what they will be doing today and their focus. Yes, we will be seeing doing today and their focus. Yes, we will be seeing them doing today and their focus. Yes, we will be seeing them out doing today and their focus. Yes, we will be seeing them out in doing today and their focus. Yes, we will be seeing them out in various i will be seeing them out in various locations across the country. Rishi sunak has been out this morning in the north of england meeting veterans. It is a lower case bit of campaigning than we have seen from him in the last couple of days when he has been doing a frenetic tour of all four nations of the uk. Today much more low key, quieter. We are expecting sir keir starmer to be out later. He will be talking about the economy, during a big Campaign Events and also expecting to see ed davey, the lib dem leader, out in another target seat that the liberal democrats are targeting in england. We expect him to talk about the lib dems� s position on water quality. The Snp Leaderjohn Swinney is taking part in a day of National Action in scotland. fix, taking part in a day of National Action in scotland. Taking part in a day of National Action in scotland. A busy all day. Lets talk about action in scotland. A busy all day. Lets talk about michael action in scotland. A busy all day. Lets talk about michael gove action in scotland. A busy all day. Lets talk about michael gove and | lets talk about michael gove and Andrea Leadsom, and the growing list of mps, particularly tory mps, who we wont be seeing again in Parliament Afterjuly because they are not contesting their seats. I pick a blow as this to rishi sunak . Michael gove is a massive figure in conservative circles and for him to step down, that is going to be a blow. He is seen as a political operator, someone very good at the politics out of things. He has been in politics for a long time, nearly 20 years, so that will be seen as a bit of a blue. It is more of the sort of dangerfor bit of a blue. It is more of the sort of danger for rishi sunak is that as you get these mps having to step down because of a snap election, those who are deciding to go have to do it in a short time frame, so youre getting a flow of mps leaving, so for example it wasntjust mps leaving, so for example it wasnt just michael gove mps leaving, so for example it wasntjust michael gove and Andrea Leadsom yesterday, also the former business secretary greg clark was Standing Down after more than 20 years another minister saying there are going, too. The rich risk for rishi sunak is that it looks like a lack of confidence in this election. There are a large number of conservative mps who are going, 78, Thatis Conservative Mps who are going, 78, that is more than step down at the i997 that is more than step down at the 1997 election and the later numbers are much smaller, closer to 20. There are a lot more conservative mps leaving at this stage. There are a lot more conservative mps leaving at this stage. Thank you ve much, mps leaving at this stage. Thank you very much, helen. I asked lizzy buchan, deputy Political Editor at the daily mirror, and james hanson, times Radio Presenter and political commentator, what they thought of the latest election developments. Its become quite dramatic in the last two days. So weve been tracking the number of mps Standing Down for a while. There was a sort of steady drip of conservatives in the last six months, and theres lots of people whove been employed for a long time. Its been a very turbulent parliament. You can see that some people might want to go and do Something Else, but obviously the timing of the General Election was sprung on a lot of conservative mps and theres been this sudden sort of influx of people deciding theyve had enough and they they dont want to fight the elections. So its a bit destabilising for the Prime Minister, but i expect, you know, there are some people who think five years more, im not sure im not up for it. James, how Big A Loss Is Michael Gove to rishi sunak, do you think . I mean hes been there for such a long time and right at the front, hasnt he . He has. And a lot of people inside whitehall, even though hes a very divisive figure, would say that he has probably been the Standout Minister of the past 14 years of conservative led government because he does have a reputation for being a real reformer and being on top of his brief have been very good at delivering in government. But the fact hes Standing Down is a symbol of the fact that many leading conservatives simply dont think there is any chance theyre going to be back in office after the next election. So if youre michael gove, you are young enough to go off and do Something Else after this election. There have been all kinds of rumours about him returning to fleet street, for instance, so clearly hes decided that is preferable to sitting out his time on the backbenches in opposition. Yeah. Well, should we talk about the economy, then . That seems to be the one that theyre going on principally. I see Rachel Reeves writing in the mail today, the shadow chancellor, saying i wont play Fast And Loose with your money. I suppose, lizzie, in terms of what labour are wanting to sort of get across is that they are the party to be trusted on the economy, arent they . Meanwhile, we have the conservatives promising tax cuts, although we dont have anything specific on that. What do you make of Rachel Reeves comments today . Labour will be very pleased to see those comments splashed on the front page of the daily mail. You know, theyve theyve thrown everything at trying to show that labor is a party to be trusted on the economy. Theyve tried to capitalise on everything that happened during liz trusss premiership and theyve tried very hard to not make any unfunded spending commitments to repeatedly say that they can be trusted. So, you know, talking about sound money, thats the key message that theyre going to want to be landing with voters, that that labour arent scary, theyre not going to do anything that means youre worse off. And those voters in the mail on some of the kind of more right leaning papers are people that labour still needs to convince, to make sure that they can, you know, to ensure that they can win a majority at the next election. Yeah, and yes, go ahead, james. Do you want to come back in . No, i completely agree with lizzie, to be honest. You know, the big hurdle, the Big Fear For Labor is, is this going to be 1992 all over again when despite dissatisfaction with the conservative government, the tories were able to accuse labor were able to accuse labour of Planning Tax Hikes after the election. We remember those posters, labors Tax Bombshell and the fallout we remember those posters, labours Tax Bombshell and the fallout from john smiths shadow budget. Now, i think this election actually is going to be very, very different to 1992. But you speak to labor insiders, thats their big fear that you might have a repeat of that. So theyre being incredibly cautious. Keir starmer and Rachel Reeves, to avoid any such a piece of that. So do you think, james, that we will see specific promises on tax cuts from the conservatives . I see this warning from the ifs, the think tank, the Institute For Fiscal Studies today, talking about how the current financial situation is a dark cloud hanging over the election and basically talking about how anybody is going to have to increase borrowing. And in terms of the tax cuts, it looks very like a challenging prospect. Do you think well hear specifics in the run up to the election from the conservatives on that front . Well, what were waiting for now, of course, is the manifesto launches, and there may well be in the tory manifesto a commitment to reduce taxes. For example, the Headline Rate of income tax will move the threshold by the end of the next parliament. But there is a risk for rishi sunak because one of the reasons many people say he chose to go for this july election as opposed to wait until the autumn, is that he actually thought there wouldnt be what they call the fiscal headroom. They wouldnt be able to afford to make tax cuts in the autumn, they wouldnt be able to do another mini budget. And that actually it might backfire because a bit like liz truss found out in 2022, you may get forecasters saying actually these are unaffordable, so there are risks here, but i think given where the conservatives are in the polls and given a very difficult first few days of campaigning for rishi sunak, it wouldnt surprise me if they do decide to gamble and put some kind of commitment for tax cuts over the course of the next parliament into the manifesto. Yeah, and how much is decided by voters in an election campaign, how much is what is said between now and and six weeks time actually listen . I know that they will be repeating their slogans over and over again in the hope of getting their messages across, but how much do you think in terms of if somebody is turning away from a party, the damage has already been done. Yeah. I think thats the real battle, particularly for the conservatives, is to try and get their voters to turn out, to hold on to people who backed them in 2019, particularly the people who had never voted conservative before, who sort of came in to where borisjohnson� s kind of get brexit done message appealed to them and they moved over and it wasnt a natural space for them. Theres a huge amount of disillusionment. You can see it sort of anecdotally and in the polls that people are really fed up and its going to be very difficult to get people, get voters to really listen to all of this stuff when they feel that politicians arent really doing anything from them anyway and its just more of the same. And particularly with the timing, obviously, you know, a Summer Election people werent expecting. There are other things going on at the moment. Theres the football. Theres, you know, looking ahead to the summer holidays, people do have other things on their mind. So it is going to be a real battle, i think, tojust make sure that those messages are getting across. The tv debates, as well. Do they do they make a massive impact . Im not sure. I mean, in 2010 they certainly appeared to do so. But it depends whether it depends whether people actually want to watch them. I mean, the conservatives were sort of trying to challenge labor to case starmer to do six, whichjust seemed an excessive number to me. I mean, even politicaljournalists dont want to watch that many, so i dont know why a normal person would. The European Unions top diplomat says the bloc will have to make a choice between supporting israel or International Institutions and the rule of law. Josep borrell was speaking after the Uns Highest Court ruled that israel had to halt its Military Offensive in rafah in response to a case brought by south africa. Theyhave accused israel of violating the Un Genocide Convention in gaza. Israel has said no power on earth will stop it going after hamas. Lucy williamson reports from jerusalem. Theres certainly no sign yet of a let up in israels Military Campaign in the Southern Gaza strip. Weve heard reports this morning of fresh air strikes in the rafah area. What we dont yet know is the situation on the ground. We know that israeli troops and armour are poised very close to the center of rafah, but they havent yet gone into the center of that built up area. And we dont know exactly what the military� s plans are. Israel continues to say that the operation is limited. It highlights the fact that it has given civilians lots of opportunity to move out of harms way. But the Uns Humanitarian Affairs boss, martin griffiths, tweeted last night that there is nothing limited about this campaign. He said, and i quote, the Ground Incursion In Rafah has displaced more than 800,000 people, fleeing once again in fear for their lives and arriving in areas without adequate shelter, latrines and clean water. So the uns view is that this is having a major impact on the civilian population of the Southern Gaza strip and one that is not being properly addressed from the Point Of View of aid and shelter and Everything Else that people need. Of course, there is still the fear of what happens to the hundreds of thousands of people who are still in rafah, who have yet to flee, who have yet to be told to flee by the israelis. What happens to them if indeed a full scale invasion of the city takes place . 0ne Slight Development on the Aid Situation Last Night following a call Betweenjoe Biden and the egyptian leader Abdel Fattah Al sisi. Egypt has agreed to send trucks that were backed up, waiting to go into through the rafah crossing, which is closed has been for the last two or three weeks, egypt has agreed to send those trucks round to the kerem shalom crossing, that is the israeli crossing nearby that could help the flow of aid into the Southern Gaza strip, but its a little early to know. Political rallies are taking place across south africa today as parties make their final attemps to win support ahead of wednesdays election. Lets cross to my colleague catherine byaruhanga, who is following events from the anc� s final pre election rally in johannesburg. This is shaping up to be an exciting, loud events for the anc supporters here injohannesburg. The stadium behind me helped the World Cup Final back in 2010 and it has and 90,000 capacity and the anc is adamant it will fill it with its volunteers and activists. The other parties are also holding rallies this weekend. Tomorrow, the democratic alliance, the long standing Opposition Party here in south africa, will be holding its rallies. The focus is on the anc at the moment. Its legacy as the party that helped bring down the Apartheid Regime 30 years ago is cemented in south african history. At right now with the question that faces the party is whether they have done enough to provide for south africans after three decades in power. I will tell you some of the challenges that south africans are facing right now. The issues around employment, around 30 of south africans dont have a job. The chronic issues with power shortages, water shortages, health care. When president Cyril Ramaphosa comes here and a couple of hours his message will be that the situation has improved to where it was 30 years ago after apartheid. We have done a lot as the anc to bring a lot of services to south africans, but he will be asking for more time. He insisted his party is the one that will bring about the fundamental change that so many south africans are calling for today. In change that so many south africans are calling for today. Are calling for today. In terms of what the opposition are calling for today. In terms of what the opposition are are calling for today. In terms of. What the opposition are promising, what the opposition are promising, what are they going on . Well. What the opposition are promising, what are they going on . What are they going on . Well, it is those key issues. What are they going on . Well, it is those key issues. A what are they going on . Well, it is those key issues. A lot what are they going on . Well, it is those key issues. A lot of what are they going on . Well, it is those key issues. A lot of the those key issues. A lot of the opposition will