Asked during the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme whether she thought people should be having more children, Tory leader Kemi Bademnoch said: “I do, but that’s a personal choice. But we have to look at the demographics of our country. We cannot solve it with immigration.”

Badenoch’s position suggests she could develop policy solutions to encourage women to have more children, writes Rowena Mason. So far, since becoming leader last year, Badenoch has presented barely any policy, but she has said she wants to come up with honest solutions to long-term problems facing the country.

A newly elected Reform councillor has said she has been suspended by the party over posts where she hinted she could defect to another party.

Donna Edmunds, who was elected in Hodnet, Shropshire, posted on X saying she “woke up feeling proud to be one of 677 new Reform councillors” on Saturday, only to receive an email today saying she had been suspended form the party pending an investigation.

In a previous tweet, Edmunds had said “I’m a Reform candidate. I’m waiting for Rupert (Lowe) and Ben (Habib) to give us a real alternative and then I’ll defect.”

There is speculation that the ousted Reform MP Lowe and outspoken Nigel Farage critic Habib could join forces in a breakaway rightwing party.

Andrea Jenkyns gave the “most graceless clunky acceptance speech”, our columnist John Harris said he had ever seen.

As he writes on her mayoral victory in Greater Lincolnshire:

She said it was time for an end to ‘soft-touch Britain’ – kindness, be gone! – and suggested that asylum seekers should be forced to live in tents.

The biggest part of this story was about Tory defeat and collapse. But Reform got close to twice Labour’s vote in North East Lincolnshire, a local government area that includes Grimsby and Cleethorpes, a constituency with a Labour MP. Across the country, moreover, as the party took control of 10 councils and the Tories crashed, there was the same sense of a realignment of the right being part of something even bigger.

A vocal chunk of Reform supporters – men in particular – is nothing if not familiar. They want “British shops”, zero immigration, the return of capital punishment and all the other things that usually make it on to the average hard-right shopping list. But in Lincolnshire I also spoke to newly converted Farage voters who spoke in much vaguer, tentative terms about how they simply craved change.

You can read John’s full piece here:

Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns was challenged on LBC about her earlier comments that it should be “tents not rent” for asylum seekers in the UK.

LBC’s Lewis Goodall asked if the newly elected Lincolnshire mayor would be happy seeing streets of tents in her constituency. She replied: “It’s got to be a confined area.”

“We’ve got to stop the pull to Britain with this,” she continued. “Why are we paying these millions and millions of pounds to France when people come from a safe country such as France to come here.”

She did not directly answer a question about whether she would be happy to see children sleeping in tents.

Speaking to LBC, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said he thought Labour were making a mistake by trying to sound like Reform.

“I think the mistake the Conservatives are making is like trying to become like Reform themselves,” Davey said. “And I think Labour when it tries to sound more like Reform, is making a mistake. I think you’ve got to call them out.”

Davey also said he felt Labour had been “too weak in standing up to Donald Trump”.

You can read more on Wes Streeting earlier saying that Reform may become Labour’s main rivals at the link below.

The health secretary compared the fight between the Tories and Reform to a battle between two Hollywood monsters: “I don’t know whether it will be Reform or the Conservatives that emerge as the main threat. I don’t have a horse in that race, but like Alien v Predator, you don’t really want either one to win but one of them will emerge as the main challenger to Labour at the next general election.”

Reform’s Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns told LBC it should be “tents not rent” for asylum seekers who come to the UK, PA reports.

She was asked about her previous comments that asylum seekers should not be put up in hotels and that tents are “good enough for France”.

Put to her that the French public dislike seeing people living in tents, Jenkyns told LBC: “My whole point of making this statement is that we are soft-touch Britain and, you know, we’re acting like bees to honey by putting people in hotels.”

She added: “This is taxpayers’ money and it should actually be tents, not rent.”

Her comments echoed a line Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, said in an appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg earlier today: “People risk their lives to cross the English channel because we’re a soft touch.”

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has said he does not understand the appeal of Nigel Farage, PA reports.

Russell Findlay said it was “absolutely questionable” whether Reform UK was “even a party of the Union”.

Findlay ruled out any deals with the right-wing party as he accused Farage of helping to keep the SNP in power.

Asked on BBC Scotland’s the Sunday Show if he understood the appeal of Farage, Findlay said: “Do I understand the appeal? No, I don’t.

“What I understand is why people, voters in Scotland and across the United Kingdom, feel disillusioned, they feel disconnected and left behind with politics.

“I’m not a career politician - I’m new at this. I’ve been doing this job for seven months.

“I completely understand why people feel that way, but Reform are not the answer in Scotland.”

Writing in the Mirror, prime minister Keir Starmer said he wants to see the whole of Britain come together to honour heroes of the Second World War as four days of VE Day commemorations begin tomorrow to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the conflict in Europe.

“This week, in communities across Britain, we will all show how proud and grateful we are for that dedication.

I will be celebrating by welcoming the brave service men and women who wear our colours at home and abroad. Of course, as our special guests, we will host some of the heroes of 1945,” Starmer wrote.

The Greens’ co-leader Adrian Ramsay also spoke on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

He said Reform’s success in the local elections “is not built on strong foundations.”

“Many of their people have been elected without having strong roots in their local communities. It remains to be seen whether they’ll be willing to put in the hard yards.

“Green councillors have strong a track record in our communities. People know what we stand for: fighting to protect local services, defend our environment, get more affordable housing.”

“Whereas I’m now deeply worried where we’re left with Reform arguing for cuts to local councils that are already severely overstretched.”

The Greens gained 44 councillors across the 23 councils involved in this election.

Health secretary Wes Streeting said he has “sympathy” for NHS workers seeking higher pay as the government faces the potential headache of public sector strikes, PA reports.

“What I’d say to resident doctors who are currently balloting is they’ll see and receive in the coming weeks the recommendation of the pay review body,” Streeting said during his appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning.

“So I’d urge them to kind of wait and see the figure that’s recommended and how Government takes that forward, same as the rest of the NHS workforce.

“I do understand, we’ve got a lot of sympathy with the arguments that are being made, particularly by the lower-paid members of the NHS workforce.”

Streeting said he wants to make sure people are paid fairly and asked them to “judge us on our record”.

Resident doctors in England – the new term for junior doctors – will be balloted on strike action over pay later this month, the British Medical Association announced last week.

Kemi Badenoch also said the Conservatives are going to “come out fighting” to try to regain public support

She told Laura Kuenssberg that protest voting has been a factor in recent results, adding: “I do think it is protest but that doesn’t mean we sit back. We are going to come out fighting.

“We are going to come out with the policies that people want to see, but what we are not going to do is rush out and tell the public things that are not true just so we can win votes.

“This is not about winning elections; this is about fixing our country. Yes, of course, you need to win elections to do that, but you also need a credible plan.”

Reform leader Nigel Farage is “trying to be all things to all men”, Conservative co-chairman Nigel Huddleston said.

Questioned on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme about Reform’s success in the local elections, Huddleston suggested the party may not be able to deliver on their promises long-term.

He said: “The one thing about Nigel Farage is, and we’re seeing this again and again and again, he is a populist – he is increasingly saying everything that anybody wants to hear.

“Nigel Farage is saying everything to anybody in order to get their votes at the moment, and it’s an incredibly effective political strategy in the short term but you cannot be a party of going around the world trying to get right-wing votes, promising low tax, and then to other people saying you want nationalisations and high spending, that’s not correct long-term.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has successfully tapped into the frustration of voters, Kemi Badenoch said, PA reports.

The Tory leader told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “He is expressing the feeling of frustration that a lot of people around the country are feeling, but he also doesn’t have a record in government like the two main parties do.

“Now he is going to be running some councils – we’ll see how that goes – but he is expressing a feeling of frustration (and) that is not my job.

Badenoch said her role is to come up with answers and solutions, adding of the voting public: “We understand why they were angry with us. We understand why they removed us from office. They’re not going to come rushing back just because Labour was bad.

“They are looking at the two parties as parties that haven’t delivered

“I need to come up with a plan that will deliver. Easy announcements and easy slogans are not a plan.”

“Your new mayor in Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, said asylum seekers should go in tents, is that now the party policy?” Laura Kuenssberg asks Reform chairman Zia Yusuf.

“That’s what France does, do you think that’s unreasonable?” he replied. “People risk their lives to cross the English channel because we’re a soft touch Laura.”

Pushed on whether this would be Reform policy, Yusuf replied: “We held a press conference around ten days ago, where we announced we will be publishing a plan to deport everybody who is currently in this country illegally in our first term of government.”

Laura Kuenssberg quizzed Zia Yusuf about figures in his party claiming they will reject migrants going to council areas under Reform control.

Kuenssberg said it would not be feasible as migrants are housed in hotels through contracts between the home office and private companies – with break clauses not due until 2029.

Yusuf replied: “We’re realistic about the fact that, yes we won an overwhelming victory. But the levers of power at local level pale in comparison to the levers of power in Westminster. That’s why this is part of journey to make Nigel [Farage] the prime minister with Reform.”

“What our commitment is to our constituents and the people who voted for us, this is our mandate, those levers of power with all of our might.”

He cited judicial reviews, injunctions and planning laws as potential options on the table.

Wes Streeting has said although NHS waiting lists were coming down, he recognised millions were still waiting for their treatment.

He told Sky News’s Sunday With Trevor Phillips that although hundreds of thousands of people had been treated faster, not everyone could be helped as soon as they wanted.

“As I have done before and said, NHS waiting lists are falling. They’ve fallen six months in a row. The three million more appointments we promised, we delivered seven months early, we’re actually over three million, and we’ll be even higher by July,” he said.

“Well, for hundreds of thousands of people who have been seen faster and come off the waiting list, great news (but) if you’re one of seven million cases still on there, this is the point at which you start shouting at the telly, saying, ‘hang on a minute - you’re saying the NHS is improving. I’m still waiting’.

“Now both those things are true, the NHS is improving, but people are still waiting.”

“Does it wash away the cost-of-living crisis? No.”

Nigel Huddleston, the shadow Treasury financial secretary, has said Lucy Powell’s comments on grooming gangs were “completely inappropriate”.

Speaking on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Huddleston, who took part in the Radio 4 debate on Saturday during which Powwell referred to grooming gangs as a “dog whistle”, said: “This is a really serious issue and to kind of belittle ... it is completely inappropriate.”

“I think that shows that, unfortunately, Wes Streeting and the Labour Party have underestimated how big an issue this is, how it resonates with the public and how they are angry about what they perceive as this government’s lack of action here.”

The head of Unite, the UK’s biggest union, has urged staff at Reform UK-controlled councils to join them after Nigel Farage warned employees working on diversity or climate change initiatives to seek “alternative careers”.

Read our full report below:

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea says the local election results are a “wake up call” for the Labour government.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, McAnea said: “Just talking in soundbites and rhetoric won’t work anymore. People expect more from a Labour party, especially those who voted for them, obviously, and they’re not getting it at the moment. They need to feel better about the world and about their own lives, sadly that’s not been delivered so far.”

McAnea said Labour could look at relaxing fiscal rules. “That would give them a bit more flexibility in terms of where they could spend money.”

Wes Streeting has said Lucy Powell’s comments that appeared to describe a question about grooming gangs as a “dog whistle” were not interpreted as his cabinet colleague had intended, PA reports.

Asked if he and his Labour colleagues see the grooming gangs scandal as a dog-whistle issue or a “coded signal to racists”, the health secretary said: “No and I don’t think that’s what Lucy intended to imply in a heated debate on Radio 4, and that’s why she’s apologised for what she said.

“I don’t think for a moment she would have meant or wanted to imply that raising these issues, talking about these issues, is dog whistle.”

“We all make mistakes” and the important thing is that “we own it”, Streeting told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. Asked if Powell’s job as leader of the House of Commons was safe, he said: “I think she’s made a genuine mistake, she’s owned up to it she’s said sorry and we’ll move on.”