As it happened: PM meets new Tory MPs in North East

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Former Welsh secretary Lord Hain says Labour must not resort to "wishy-washy centrism" after its disastrous general election showing.

He says Labour must offer "a clear alternative to the Tory project" which would be "disastrous for Wales".

The party lost six seats in Wales, leaving it with 22 of Wales' 40 MPs.

Lord Hain, a cabinet minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, says the "intolerance" to voters "not necessarily of your tribe" under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership must end.

He adds: "The Corbyn project has some very searching self-examination [to do] that has to be done honestly."

Read the full story here.

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Labour MP Conor McGinn says poor leadership of his party left it without a connection to working class people, leading to its worst general election result in decades.

He said his party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership was seen as "out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people".

"The Labour Party over the last number of years has spoken only to itself."

Northern Ireland-born McGinn was re-elected in St Helens North in England but lost about a third of the votes he won in 2017.

He said: "[Labour] has been penetrated by what I would call hobbyists who are in politics because they enjoy it and... the pursuit of left-wing ideological purity.

"But they're not interested in improving people's lives because the only way you can do that is by being in power." Read the full story here.

The future of Labour is one of the main talking points today for politicians - and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has jumped in.

She is suggesting the party "would do well to listen" to voices like that of Scottish Labour councillor Alison Evison, who tweeted that her party needs to enable the voice of Scotland to be heard - which "must mean a referendum on independence".

As all the parties begin to reflect on their election performances, here's what's been making the headlines:

• Boris Johnson is in Sedgefield, north-east England - one of the former Labour strongholds won by the Conservatives - meeting new Tory MPs. He thanks new voters for "breaking the voting habits of generations" to back his party
• Shadow chancellor John McDonnell rejects suggestions that Jeremy Corbyn was the wrong Labour leader, but looking ahead he picks out Rebecca Long-Bailey, Angela Rayner and Richard Burgon as possible replacements. He also warns that Labour faces a "long haul" as it attempts to gain power after a fourth election defeat in a row
• The future of Labour is also being discussed by Scottish officials at a meeting in Glasgow after Scottish Labour lost all but one seat in the election
• Also in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has been welcoming the SNP's new raft of MPs in Dundee - after her party won 48 of 59 constituencies. She says the result "renews, reinforces and strengthens" the mandate for another Scottish independence referendum

Boris Johnson thanks the new Tory MPs and their teams for their election success, saying they've changed the future of Britain for the better.

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Speaking to reporters on his Sedgefield visit, Boris Johnson was asked whether his promise to be a one nation government meant bringing back Tory politicians like Penny Mordaunt and Jeremy Hunt, who left the cabinet in July after Mr Johnson became PM. Both are still Conservative MPs.

"We’re a very big, broad church in the Conservative Party," Mr Johnson replied.

"Every single one of the candidates standing was backing our deal. We all have the same approach to getting Brexit done."

But he added: "I’m not going to speculate about personalities. There’ll be plenty of time for that."

As BBC correspondent Nick Eardley explained earlier this week, there's no strict definition of "one nation Conservatism" - but it's an idea which has been around in Tory circles for some time.

Broadly, it refers to the idea the Conservative Party should act for everybody in the UK. That means policies that work for people from different economic backgrounds, from different regions and from the different nations of the UK.

Mr Johnson was also asked if he broke his alcohol ban (he previously said he was off booze until Brexit was done) on election night.

"There may have been a brief libation because I think Brexit is now unstoppable but we must get Brexit done," he said.

Confirmation here from shadow chancellor John McDonnell that he'll be off as soon as Jeremy Corbyn goes - but will stick around until a new leader is elected.

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Scottish Labour officials have met to discuss the party's future after losing all but one seat in the election.

Shadow Scottish secretary Lesley Laird, one of six Labour MPs who lost their seat, said there were "lessons to be learned".

Ahead of the meeting of the party's governing body, she called for her colleagues to "take some time to pause and reflect".

Labour won just 18.5% of the votes in Scotland - down 8.5 points from the last election.

They lost out to the SNP, which won 48 of Scotland's 59 constituencies, meaning Ian Murray is Scotland's only Labour MP.

Ms Laird, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, lost her seat to Neale Hanvey, who was suspended by the SNP for posting anti-Semitic comments on social media.

She was among officials at Labour's Scottish Executive Committee convened in Glasgow on Saturday to consider how to rebuild after the defeat.

She told BBC Scotland: "There was a lot of positives to come out of our campaign and we need to not lose sight of the fact that all of these results don't change some of the real issues that as a society we need to come to terms with."

Asked whether party leader Jeremy Corbyn should go immediately, she said: "Everybody's always raw after events like this and I think making decisions on knee-jerk reactions... is not the right thing to do."

Read the full story here

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Political strategist John McTernan, who was former Labour leader Tony Blair's political secretary, says the party needs to put ideals aside and vote tactically when the time comes to pick a new Labour leader.

"The membership have to ask themselves: Do they see the world in left, right - and therefore we've got to choose a left leader, even though we've gone to the left for the last three elections and we've lost every time.

"Or do we see the world in which we need a Labour government and therefore the test is not of the leader, are you left are you right? or do I like you? The test is: Could you win a general election?"

He says Jess Phillips would be the best candidate, as she's not been associated with Jeremy Corbyn nor the leadership of his predecessor, Ed Miliband.

"They've had their time and they've lost," he says.

"It needs to be a new voice, a new face with new ideas because we will need a lot of ideas in post-Brexit Britain."

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While in Dundee, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also joined the rest of the SNP's newly-elected MPs for a group photo outside the V&A Museum.

The SNP won 48 seats in Scotland after securing 45% of the vote - 8.1% more than in the last general election, when the party won 35 seats.

The result "renews, reinforces and strengthens" the mandate for another referendum on Scottish independence, she said.

Read more on the SNP's "watershed" election win here.

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SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has been meeting one of her new MPs this morning - Amy Callaghan - outside the V&A Museum in Dundee.

Ms Callaghan was responsible for one of the biggest shocks of election night - taking Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson's Dunbartonshire East seat.

Ms Sturgeon was caught on camera celebrating Ms Swinson's defeat and has since apologised, saying she "got overexcited" at the SNP's performance.

The SNP made big gains across Scotland, winning 48 out of 59 seats.

Mr Johnson is speaking in the Sedgefield constituency, once the seat of former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The Conservative MP Paul Howell ousted Labour’s Phil Wilson to win the Sedgefield seat.

Mr Johnson thanks his new north-east MPs for their "excellent campaigns" and he congratulates them on being elected.

He tells them: "We are going to do some fantastic things. Our country is now embarked on a wonderful adventure. We're going to recover our national confidence, our mojo, our self belief."

He finishes by telling the Tory activists and MPs: "Thank you for you wonderful achievement in transforming our party, transforming the political map of this country.

"And I think putting Britain on a brighter, better path."

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Arriving to chants of “Boris, Boris” he then reads out a list thanking all of the people from the eight north-east constituencies won by the Tories.

He says he wants to thank them for putting their trust in him, saying he knows how difficult it would have been to make that decision to vote for him.

He says he wants the people in the North East to know he will “repay that trust”.

He then gets the crowd involved as he talks about getting Brexit done, asking them "what sort of deal is it?" – they respond with “oven ready”.

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After a bit of a wait, Boris Johnson has now arrived to meet Tory activists in Sedgefield, north-east England, and thanks them for their efforts during the election campaign.

The Tory’s crushing election victory came after the party swept aside Labour in its traditional heartlands.

The Conservatives won eight seats in the North East at this election.