Article in US paper claims Robert Winnett, due to join from Telegraph, used material from self-described ‘thief’

The Washington Post has published an investigation that accuses its own future editor of using the work of a self-described blagger who stole private records to order.

Under the headline “Incoming Post editor tied to self-described ‘thief’ who claimed role in his reporting”, the newspaper claimed that Robert Winnett used material from a self-confessed blagger, John Ford, while working as a journalist on the Sunday Times during the 2000s.

Complaints about BBC coverage can quickly become the story, drawing attention away from the actual issue

• UK election live – latest updates

Nigel Farage knows the BBC will not allow him to join its televised Sunak vs Starmer leaders’ debate later this month. But the he also knows that a battle with the BBC can be an effective political tactic.

“If the BBC want a fight with me on this, they can have one,” Farage has said.

Craig Williams’s £100 bet prompted inquiry by the Gambling Commission and fury within Conservatives

• Rayner, Mordaunt and Farage set for fresh general election debate clash – politics live
• Sunak aide’s bet: what are the rules?

The Gambling Commission has asked bookmakers to trawl through all substantial bets placed on a July election after one of Rishi Sunak’s closest aides put a wager on the poll date just days before it was announced.

The prime minister said he was “disappointed” with the behaviour of Craig Williams, which was revealed in the Guardian, but neither would be drawn on whether they had discussed the date of the election prior to the bet being placed.

Defence secretary says even bigger win than 1997 landslide would be ‘very bad news’ for country

• UK general election live – latest updates

The Conservatives are fighting to prevent Keir Starmer winning a “supermajority” even bigger than Labour’s 1997 landslide victory, Grant Shapps has said.

The defence secretary claimed such a result would be “very bad news” for the country as it would give Labour “unchecked power” – and as a result “would be a dangerous place to put this country”.

The broadcaster, free of the paralysing attention focused on the BBC, has defined many of the moments on which July’s vote might hinge

ITV is leading the way during this election campaign, producing many of the moments that have defined the contest. Talk to people at the broadcaster and they will tell you it is more confident than the BBC, thanks to a scrappier commercial mindset; it has fewer resources so has to punch harder.

But it is also free of the BBC’s paralysing knowledge that every editorial decision will be scrutinised by rightwing media outlets – and a government that would like to abolish the licence fee. As a result, even in an era when live TV ratings are in steep decline, the channel has succeeded in capturing (and provoking) some of the growing public anger against the Conservative government.

How are Labour and the Conservatives approaching their online campaign strategies? Jim Waterson reports

“In the past, you just needed to square the BBC, ITV and a handful of papers, and you controlled what people were reading about the election,” Jim Waterson, the Guardian’s political media editor, tells Helen Pidd.

But that doesn’t work in 2024. “You’ve got to go into different places, which is why you see Keir Starmer popping up with profiles in women’s magazines or going on podcasts to talk endlessly about football.”

Kim Johnson said city, much of which still boycotts paper over false Hillsborough reporting, would be disappointed in Labour

Labour has been criticised by one of its own parliamentary candidates for paying the Sun to advertise Keir Starmer’s policies to its readers.

Visitors to the Sun’s homepage on Monday afternoon were greeted with full-site takeover adverts featuring Starmer’s face, urging readers to “vote for change” and listing his “first steps”.