Boris Johnson has made a series of claims about immigration and knife crime picked apart by fact checkers, and said there was “no evidence” of Russian interference in the UK. He also shut down questions about his family in testy BBC interviews.
He has also earmarked £50m for the rejuvenation of railways closed under the Beeching cuts of the 1960s - however figures in the rail sector are unconvinced by the amount pledged
It comes as Labour promises to nationalise part of BT and deliver free broadband for all the country if elected, with Jeremy Corbyn set to reveal more as he campaigns in the north-west today.
Nigel Farage, meanwhile, has claimed that the Tories offered jobs and peerages to his Brexit Party candidates in a bid to get them to drop out of marginal seats. Mr Farage said he expected “police investigations into what has gone on here”.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the general election campaign, with only 27 days to go until we head to the polls.
PM’s adviser says press have launched ‘full on’ attack against Corbyn
Tim Montgomerie, Boris Johnson’s special adviser on social justice, has claimed the “big newspapers” launched a “full-on” attack on Jeremy Corbyn from the beginning of the election campaign.
He suggests the right-wing media felt they left it too late at the last election.
The left-wing commentator Ash Sarkar says it’s an admission “the press is biased against Labour” and “they’re scared [Corbyn] can win”.
Labour promises free broadband for every home
Labour will deliver free superfast broadband to every house and business in the country if it is elected, the party has pledged.
Parts of BT would be brought back into public ownership to enable a massive upgrade to the UK’s internet infrastructure, Jeremy Corbyn will outline today.
Talking about the £20bn plan on the BBC, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “It’s visionary, I accept that, but other countries are having these visions and we’re not.”
It would be partly funded by new taxes on corporations such as Amazon, Facebook and Google.
Labour promises free broadband for all if party wins election
Parts of BT would be brought into public ownership as part of multibillion-pound upgrade to UK’s internet infrastructureFarage expects ‘police investigations’ in Tory pressure on Brexit Party candidates
Nigel Farage accused No 10 of offering peerages to Brexit Party candidates to get them to stand down before nominations closed.
Railing against “full-on Venezuela-style corruption”, Farage said: “I expect there will be police investigations into what has gone on here.”
The party is going to compile a “dossier” about all the forms of pressure and alleged enticement its candidates endured.
Rupert Lowe, the Brexit Party candidate for Dudley North, pulled out at 3.59pm – one minute before the deadline.
Farage claims Lowe had “no doubt been offered something very, very nice” (a claim he denies).
Sir John Curtice, meanwhile, said Farage’s party was unlikely to win any seats, but could seriously harm the Tory vote.
Farage claims Tories are 'abusing' his candidates to get them to stand down
Candidates facing ‘relentless phone calls, emails and abuse’, Brexit Party leader allegesPM claims ‘bags of time’ to do trade deal – and shuts down questions about family in BBC interview
Boris Johnson has been interviewed on BBC Breakfast by host Naga Munchetty this morning.
Asked if he would request an extension from the EU to the transition period by 1 July 2020, he said: “No, I don’t want an extension.”
“Listen to what Phil Hogan, the commissioner, is saying. There’s no reason why we can't get cracking long before July. We’re going to come out of the EU in January.
“On developing the free-trade partnership we’ll have bags of time to do it and, don’t forget, the great advantage is that we already are in a state of perfect alignment went it comes to our tariffs, our quotas, our industrial regulatory standards.
“So, the deal that we’re doing with the EU is unlike any other deal that they have ever done.”
Asked if leaving the EU by 31 January would only be a technical departure from the EU, the PM replied: “More than technically, legally, in terms of money, borders, our laws, legally.
“Our abilities to do things differently, to do free trade deals, we will be out and that will be a great opportunity for this country.”
Johnson also shut down questions about his family.
Asked about his partner Carrie Symonds, his children and whether he is relatable to families across the UK, Johnson said: “What I want for every child in this country is to have a sense they can achieve their full potential.”
Asked again about families and why he connected with the British public or how he was relatable to other families and said: “I have not the faintest idea.”
PM admits Tories must ‘do better’ on NHS
Boris Johnson has said the Tories “have got to do better” on the NHS after key figures showed the service was performing at the worst level on record.
After official figures showed a record 4.42 million people were waiting for treatment, the PM - who has made the NHS a key battleground in the election - said they had to do more.
“We have got to do better, I don't deny that,” he said on BBC’s Breakfast programme.
“That doesn’t mean that I am not incredibly proud of what the NHS is achieving. We have amazing staff and amazing doctors and, yes, we need to be investing more in them. That is exactly what we are doing.”
When asked about the response to the floods in northern England and if he had done enough to support victims, Johnson said: “Obviously I’ve been twice to the affected areas, once to Derbyshire and once to South Yorkshire, and seen for myself what's going on.
“We’re today announcing more support for affected homes, full council tax relief for affected businesses, business rate relief, there’s a huge amount of work that has been going on round the clock.
“You can never do enough for somebody who has suffered a disaster like flooding and you only have to go there and to see them and talk to them to understand the depth and the huge psychological impact it has.”
Naga Munchetty then asked Johnson how he personally felt when a resident of an affected area told him his visit was not wanted. “I understand how they feel,” he said.
“Of course there’s always more you can do and you can never do enough.”
Lord Buckethead – and Count Binface – standing against PM
Can you have too much of a good thing? Not when it comes to comedy candidates designed to briefly embarrass the prime minister, surely.
Lord Buckethead – who stood against (and stood next to) Theresa May in her constituency in 2017 – is standing in Uxbridge against Johnson.
But there’s a twist.
The Monster Raving Loony Party has claimed the name by copyright for one of their own people, so the bloke who actually was Lord Buckethead is running as Count Binface instead – revealing a similar, receptacle-themed outfit on Twitter.
So it looks like the constituency’s absurdist vote will be split.
There’s also another candidate standing in Uxbridge called Yace “Interplanetary Time Lord” Yogenstein.
Labour’s ‘free broadband for all’ plan sparks industry backlash
The Labour party’s promise to nationalise part of BT and deliver free superfast broadband to every house and business in the country is causing quite a stir in the telecoms industry.
The £20bn plan would see BT’s Openreach, which owns the bulk of the full-fibre network, taken into public ownership and expanded to deliver free access across the country. And it’ll be partly paid for by a tax on the tech giants.
Shares in BT dropped nearly 4 per cent within moments of the London Stock Exchange opening.
The company appear stunned by the proposal, saying that it needed to be “carefully thought through”.
The sale of TalkTalk's full fibre broadband business FibreNation, meanwhile, has been put on hold after John McDonnell’s announcement last night.
And James Lusher, Virgin Media’s head of external communications, made his views on Labour’s broadband policy clear by tweeting a gif of a raccoon stealing food from a cat bowl captioned with the words: “This mine now.”
‘Can we have free broadband?’ PM answers’ questions from the public
The prime minister has been answering questions from the public on BBC’s Radio 5 Live. And very entertaining it is too.
“I would ask parliament why they want to stay on the Titanic,” asks Pamela in Cardiff, referring to the EU. She doesn’t liked the EU. And she doesn’t like the last crop of MPs in parliament. “They are not fit for purpose, as Oliver Cromwell 500 years ago.”
Johnson says: “I think I’ve got the gist of Pamela’s point – I’m in a large measure of agreement with you. And you’re also right, in a way, about the EU…”
Someone then asks: “Can we have free broadband?”
Johnson, referring to Labour’s pledge to deliver free broadband for all, replies: “What we won’t be doing is some crackpot scheme that would involve many, many tens of billions of taxpayers’ nationalising a British business.”
‘We need to plant more trees’: PM addresses floods crisis
Boris Johnson has been asked about the NHS and flooding on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Sarah from Sawbridgeworth has asked the PM: “The NHS needs more money … will you be looking to fix the running problems or throwing money at it?”
Johnson tells her he wants to stop the waste in public procurement and put more money into “frontline services”. He says he feels a “massive sense of responsibility for the NHS”.
Asked by Alex about what he will do to prevent more flooding in the north, the PM says the government has invested in flood defences.
“We also have to think, as a country, about how we manage water,” he adds. “The ground is super-saturated. We need to be thinking about planting more trees … and how to retain water on the higher ground.”
Johnson grilled on Russian report and oligarch donations
Georgie has the prime minister why he isn’t publishing the Russia report – the intelligence and security committee report on alleged interference that’s now with No 10 awaiting release.
“Georgie, I see absolutely no reason to change the normal procedures … just because there’s an election coming.”
Challenged on what the procedures are and whether there’s any reason to delay if it’s been clearing by the intelligence services, Johnson says: “Because they’re not normally published at that pace.”
Asked if there’s anything to hide, he says: “Absolutely not.”
Asked how many Russian oligarchs donate to the Conservatives, Johnson says: “Frankly I have …,” he says before pausing. “All donations to the Conservative party are properly vetted and properly publicised ... I leave it to your teams of researchers to … bring that fact before us.”
When told it was a serious question about Russian interference in our politics, Johnson says “there is no evidence for that”.
He adds: “I think that you’ve got to be very careful before you simply cast aspersions on everybody who comes from a certain country, just because of their nationality.”
The prime minister’s claim was in direct contradiction of the assessment of his predecessor Theresa May, who used a speech in 2017 – while Johnson was foreign secretary – to accuse Russia of attempting to influence British politics.
Tories dismiss Labour’s free broadband offer as ‘crackpot scheme’
Boris Johnson dismissed Labour’s pledge to deliver free broadband for all by nationalising part of BT as a “crackpot scheme that would involve many, many tens of billions of taxpayers’ nationalising a British business”.
And the Conservatives have shared this dial up-era ad on Twitter, claiming Corbyn and Labour are “making promises they just can’t keep”.
John Curtice would be ‘surprised’ if Tories didn’t lose seats in Scotland
Polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice has said he “would be surprised” if the Conservatives do not lose some of their 13 seats in Scotland.
Sir John told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Friday that polls currently put the SNP on around 40 per cent of the vote, while Labour has dropped to 20 per cent north of the border.
“A slight question mark over the Conservatives, recent polls still had them down about seven points in Scotland, but given they have been making some ground across the UK as a whole and there’s something of a Brexit Party vote to squeeze in Scotland, it would be surprising if the Conservatives were not at risk of losing some of their seats.”
The professor also claimed it is a “widespread misapprehension” that Labour voters are not in favour of Scottish independence.
He said: “If you look at the polling evidence in Scotland, sure, a majority of Labour voters in Scotland are in favour of staying inside the union.
“But the polls consistently find in the high 30 per cent of those who say they are going to vote Labour, are in favour of independence.
“As compared with the Conservative Party, Labour’s vote in Scotland is very different. The party is much more able to pick up votes from independence supporters than the Conservatives.”
Boris Johnson shuts down questions about his children
Before the end of his questions-from-listeners session on Radio 5 Live, host Rachel Burden raised the topic of Boris Johnson’s children while discussing education, asking: “None of your children have been to state school, as I understand it?”
Johnson replied: “Sorry, I don’t comment about my children. I’m not going to comment on my children, if that's alright."
Burden said the topic of Johnson’s children is a “question that frequently comes up”.
She told him: “Lots of people have been in touch this morning saying, ‘ask the prime minister how many children he has’. That is a question that frequently comes up, just so you’re aware.
“I think people find it odd that someone who is a public figure can’t answer that question.”
Johnson said: “Your assertion that none of my children have been to state school is wrong. That’s all I’ll say.”
PM’s claims on knife crime, immigration and indyref2 rejected as false
Some of the claims made by Boris Johnson in his BBC interviews have already been picked apart.
The PM said the proportion of EU and non-EU net immigration is 50-50. But actually, ONS figures show that EU citizens have only made up around 20 per cent of the total proportion.
He claimed that as London mayor he took 11,000 knives “off the street” through the stop and search policy. But as Labour party have pointed out, only 4,500 knives were recovered through stop and search.
He also said the murder rate fell below 100 for “several years” while he was at City Hall – a claim he’s made before that’s already proved to be incorrect.
The PM says Jeremy Corbyn would have a Scottish referendum “next year”, but Corbyn says he would “not countenance an independence referendum in the early years of a Labour government”.
He also tried to avoid responsibility for the failed “Garden Bridge” project – launched under his watch at City Hall.
The Russia report could be damning for the Tories
Our columnist Mary Dejevsky suspects the prime minister may be right to think that keeping the Russia report under wraps will be less costly than releasing it now.
Read more here:
Labour’s free broadband ‘incompatible’ with EU rules, claims Lib Dems
The Lib Dems’ business spokesman Sam Gyimah said Labour’s broadband plans would be incompatible with EU rules, claiming the plan was an “admission they want Brexit”.
“Assuming they can nationalise BT Openreach under EU state aid rules, there’s no way they could give it away free under EU competition law. Labour is not a Remain party,” he said.
The party’s economic spokesman Sir Ed Davey have accused both the big parties of looking backwards: “Fantasies born of nostalgia for a British Imperial past, competing with fantasies from a failed 1970s ideology.”
The Liberal Democrats are today expected to announce that they would spend £100bn with a five-year investment that would “jump-start” efforts to combat the “climate emergency”.
Corbyn says broadband ‘too important’ to be left to corporations
The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking in Lancaster about his party’s plan to nationalise part of BT and establish “British Broadband”.
He said: “This is core infrastructure for the 21st century. I think it’s too important to be left to the corporations.
“The most efficient and rapid way to deliver a broadband network fit for our times, and make it a genuine public service for all, is for the public to take control.”
“So under our plans, we will create a new public enterprise – and we’ll call it British Broadband.”
Corbyn claims a publicly-owned full-fibre network will deliver free broadband to every home within ten years. “To do that we will bring the relevant parts of BT, including Openreach, into public ownership.”
How are they going to pay for it all?
Corbyn says the initial infrastructure upgrade will be funded through its “Green Transformation Fund”, and big companies will be taxed to pay for running costs.
“A Labour government will close down tax tricks used by giants like Google and Facebook, who make millions in Britain while paying next to nothing to the public purse.”
McDonnell says British Broadband will be ‘public ownership for the future’
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has been giving more detail on Labour’s plan to nationalise parts of BT and roll-out free, full-fibre broadband.
“British Broadband will be a new public service for the twenty-first century,” he said.
“That entity will bring the broadband-relevant parts of BT into public ownership. That will include Openreach, which has installed the majority of existing full-fibre coverage, parts of BT Technology, BT Enterprise, and BT Consumer.”
He added: “EE, Plusnet, BT Global Services, and BT TV will not be brought into public ownership and we will work the workforce and unions to finalise the details of these plans.”
Claiming that “nostalgia for some bygone era is no substitute for vision,” McDonnell explained: “British Broadband will not represent a return to the 1970s in how it operates. They didn’t have broadband in the 1970s, this is public ownership for the future.”
Widdecombe claims she was offered role by No 10 if she stood down
Ann Widdecombe, the Brexit Party MEP standing for the party in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said she was offered a government role in the Brexit negotiations if she was prepared to stand aside.
“I was rung up twice by somebody at No 10. The first time it was really about how I had a moral obligation to stand down. It was all that kind of stuff,” she told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme.
“The second time it was to say that if I did stand down, I would be offered ‘a role in the negotiations’.
“I have no idea what that means, because I immediately said that I had played no role in the Tory party for a large number of years. I couldn’t now be flattered and buttered up and promised things.”
Widdecombe declined to say who she had spoken to, although she said it was not Johnson or his senior advisers Dominic Cummings and Sir Edward Lister.
Social media is an increasingly important battle ground in elections - and home to many questionable claims pumped out by all sides. If social media sites won't investigate the truth of divisive advertising, we will. Please send any political Facebook advertising you receive to digitaldemocracy@independent.co.uk, and we will catalogue and investigate it. Read more here.
