In opening remarks, the prime minister is expected to say the Golders Green attack was “part of a pattern of rising antisemitism that has left our Jewish communities feeling frightened, angry, and asking whether this country, their home, is safe for them”.

Voters in the home counties will “regret it for a long time” if they do not back the Liberal Democrats and wake up to a Reform-led council, Ed Davey has said.

The Lib Dems leader has identified five councils – East Surrey, West Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex and Huntingdonshire – where his party could win overall control, as well as swathes of the former “blue wall” where Davey said it was a “straight fight” between his party and Reform at the English local elections.

More than 5,000 councillors will be elected on Thursday, with more than half of these being in either London or the south-east. Some projections show the Lib Dems gaining 500 seats, with Labour losing as many as 1,800. The Greens are also expected to gain hundreds of seats, with top projections putting the figure at 1,700. The pollsters More In Common expect the Lib Dems to take the newly created East and West Surrey councils.

“If we are going to stop Reform, we are the party most capable of doing that, it is on a knife edge in some of these areas,” Davey said. “People could vote Labour or Green and then we will get narrowly beaten by Reform and people will regret it for a long time.”

Unlike previous elections, Labour and the Conservatives have a fractured voter base, putting many seats up for grabs for the Greens, Liberal Democrats and Reform.

Davey said the Lib Dems were a better bet than the Greens, adding: “We are finding that when people realise the choice is us or Reform, lots of people who were even thinking of voting Conservative were coming to us, certainly Labour and Green are coming to us. Tactical voting will be key, Reform is working really hard, spending lots of their money, meaning results will be on a knife edge.”

He said that in parts of the north of England polling showed a straight fight between the Lib Dems and Reform, including Stockport and Hull, and that areas such as Portsmouth in the south should consider voting Green to stop Reform. “I am determined we stop them now,” he said.

A lack of opposition to Donald Trump and weakness over the war in Iran had hurt the chances of Reform and the Conservatives, he said, adding that it was a mistake for the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, to have tacked so hard to the right.

“When you talk to that traditional one-nation, pro-Europe liberal Tory, they are pretty upset with Kemi Badenoch; they feel the Conservative party has left them,” he said. “They look at us and see us standing up for Britain against Trump’s bullying, they like what we are saying on the economy and defence, and they feel more comfortable with us.”

The Lib Dems were well placed to take these areas because, he said, unlike Labour and the Greens, they could convince disillusioned Tories to give them their vote. “There is a big difference between us and the Greens,” he said. “The Greens are basically taking votes from Labour. We are taking votes off the Tories to stop Farage. I don’t think the Greens are going to play much role in stopping Reform, whereas we are literally central.”

He said his party had been fighting hard on local issues, including fly tipping, potholes and sewage pollution in rivers. Davey also plans to campaign to reduce the price of a pint after it was reported that it had hit £10 in some parts of London.

“I like a pint like everyone else and the idea of £10 a pint should make people think twice,” he said. As well as proposing to cut national insurance tax for employers if the Lib Dems were elected to government, “we would look at cutting VAT for hospitality as well”.

But more broadly, he said he had noticed the US president come up in conversations on the doorstep. “He is coming up all over the place, people will talk about potholes and then they will go on to Trump in the same conversation. The vast majority of people detest Donald Trump and they associate Nigel Farage as being Trump’s champion; he recently referred to Trump as the ‘boss in Mar-a-Lago’.”

Davey reiterated that people who do not want “Trump-style policies” should vote tactically, including voting Liberal Democrat in areas where they were polling second behind Reform.

“The fact Farage was cheerleading for Donald Trump and calling for us to get into the war has angered many,” he said. “Progressive voters obviously can’t stand Trump, but even Tory voters and some Reform voters [can’t either] if they have seen that Farage wants to bring Trump-style policies to the UK.”

A British crew member was in need of urgent medical care and a passenger from the UK remained in a critical but stable condition following a suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a luxury cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Three people have died and medics on Monday were scrambling to evacuate two others from the MV Hondius, which set off in March from southern Argentina carrying 149 people from 23 countries. The crisis emerged late on Sunday after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was investigating a suspected outbreak.

The luxury cruise ship was stranded off the coast of Cape Verde after several people feel ill, forcing crew and passengers to isolate on board.

On Monday the WHO said seven cases of hantavirus – a disease primarily found in rodents – were either confirmed or suspected as the stricken ship was held off west Africa with mostly British, American and Spanish passengers on board.

The WHO said: “As of 4 May 2026, seven cases (two laboratory confirmed cases of hantavirus and five suspected cases) have been identified, including three deaths, one critically ill patient and three individuals reporting mild symptoms.”

The UN health agency linked the rare disease to the deaths of three people, including a married couple from the Netherlands and a German national, and blamed it for making at least three others on the ship ill and sending a 69-year-old British tourist to intensive care in South Africa.

The cruise operator said in a statement on Monday that two staff members – one British and one Dutch — were continuing to show “acute respiratory symptoms”, one mild and one severe, and required urgent medical care.

The ship may instead continue to Las Palmas or Tenerife, but no final disembarkation point has been finalised.

On Monday, a US travel blogger on the ship said the most difficult part was the question over what would come next for those onboard. “We’re not just headlines: we are people,” Jake Rosmarin said as he fought back tears in a video posted to social media. “People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home. There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part.”

The cruise ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said the first passenger, a Dutch national, had died on 11 April and that the cause of death had not been determined onboard. “On 24 April, this passenger was disembarked on St Helena, with his wife accompanying the repatriation,” it said in a statement.

Days later, the company said it had been informed that a woman, also a Dutch national, had become unwell and later died. Officials in South Africa said the woman, 69, collapsed at an airport in the country as she was trying to return to the Netherlands. She later died at a nearby hospital.

On 27 April, another person on the MV Hondius, a British national, became seriously ill and had to be evacuated to South Africa. He remains in intensive care in Johannesburg, where he is in critical but stable condition. “A variant of hantavirus has been identified in this patient,” the company said.

Another passenger, a German national, died on 2 May.

It noted that hantavirus infections, which are usually spread by infected rodents’ urine or faeces and can lead to severe respiratory illness and death, had not been confirmed in the two crew members. “The exact cause and any possible connection are being investigated.”

Oceanwide Expeditions said almost 150 people of 23 nationalities, including four Australians, had been on board the ship. While it did not specify which cruise the passengers were on, the company’s website suggests it offers 33-night or 43-night “Atlantic Odyssey” cruises on the 107-metre-long (351ft) Hondius. Departing from Argentina, the tours travel through Antarctica and stop off at some of the world’s most remote islands.

The ship is currently anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, with passengers informed of what happened. “Strict precautionary measures are in process onboard, including isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring,” said Oceanwide Expeditions.

The vessel had asked to dock at a port in Cape Verde but on Monday health authorities in the country said they would not authorise its docking “with the aim of protecting national public health”.

Instead they said they were in contact with authorities in the Netherlands and the UK about the Dutch-flagged ship. “This coordination has enabled a swift, safe and technically appropriate response, ensuring the clinical monitoring of patients and the preparation of all necessary precautionary measures, including a possible medical evacuation by air via air ambulance for patients under observation,” they added.

Oceanwide Expeditions said it was considering sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands, potentially Las Palmas or Tenerife, where further medical screening and handling could take place.

The company said it was working with Dutch authorities to organise the repatriation of the two crew members. “The body of the deceased individual is also planned to be included in this repatriation, along with a guest closely associated with the deceased,” it said, noting that the accompanying guest was “not symptomatic”.

It said the repatriation relied on several authorities working together. “This repatriation depends on many factors, including the authorisation and support of local Cape Verdean health authorities for the transfer of individuals requiring medical attention from MV Hondius.”

The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which is assisting with the situation, said the source of the infection remained unclear.

“You could imagine, for example, that rats on board the ship transmitted the virus,” a spokesperson told Reuters. “But another possibility is that during a stop somewhere in South America, people were infected, for instance via mice, and became ill that way. That all still needs to be investigated.”

On Monday, the WHO said the risk to the wider public remained low and that there was no need for panic or travel restrictions. “To date, one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases,” it said in an earlier statement on Sunday.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases was carrying out contact tracing in and around Johannesburg in order to assess whether people had been exposed to the infected passengers.

The UK’s Foreign Office said it was closely monitoring reports of the suspected outbreak. “We are in touch with the cruise company and local authorities,” it said.

While it is rare, hantavirus infections can spread between people, according to the WHO. The family of viruses made headlines last year after the actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died following a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.

In 2019, a hantavirus outbreak in southern Argentina killed at least nine people. As officials raced to halt the spread of the disease, a judge ordered dozens of residents of a remote town to stay in their homes for 30 days, according to the Associated Press.