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Politics
Andrew Sparrow (now) and Claire Phipps (earlier)

General election 2017: MPs vote in favour of 8 June poll by margin of 509 – as it happened

Afternoon summary

  • May has accused the SNP and the Lib Dems of wanting to “prop up” Labour. In an echo of tactics used successfully by David Cameron against Ed Miliband in 2015, she said in a speech in Bolton:

There’s a very clear choice at this election. It is a choice between strong and stable leadership under the Conservatives or weak and unstable coalition of chaos led by Jeremy Corbyn. And that is very clear. The other parties are lining up to prop up Jeremy Corbyn. We have seen it with the Liberal Democrats. And we see it with Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish nationalists. They are very clear they want to do everything they can to frustrate our Brexit negotiations.

  • The Labour party has said that the party hierarchy, not local activists, will choose candidates in seats where there are vacancies. (See 4.55pm.)
  • The Cabinet Office has said MPs will be asked to vote to allow the Manchester Gorton byelection to be cancelled. (See 5.51pm.)
  • John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said Labour does not want to increase the overall tax burden. The Green have criticised the party for this. See 11.53am.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Here is more from Jeremy Corbyn’s speech in Croydon. I’ve taken the quotes from the Press Association.

This election is about the future of all of us - the future of our children, the future of social justice, the future of our jobs.

Are we going to be a country that gives riches and makes riches for all of us or are we going to be a country that works only to make the richest even richer? I know which side I’m on, you know which side you are on.

This election is going to be fought on the streets of this country. Up and down. In town halls, in streets, on beaches, on sea fronts, we are taking that message of the kind of country and kind of society we want to be.

I want a Labour government that builds council housing, I want a Labour government that makes sure that £10 an hour is the living wage and is paid to all workers all over the country.

I want a Labour government that ensures that carers are properly supported when they are caring for loved ones. I want a Labour government that ensures that people don’t wait for hours in A&E departments to get treatment. I want a Labour government that isn’t closing hospitals, that isn’t underfunding schools ... That is the difference between Labour and the Tories.

Jeremy Corbyn delivers a stump speech to Labour activists at Barclays in Croydon.
Jeremy Corbyn delivers a stump speech to Labour activists at Barclays in Croydon. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn's stump speeches compared

Stump speeches are the ones politicians have to deliver over and over again during an election campaign. They normally get adapted - politicians add newsworthy material when they have got an announcement to make - but the core stump speech tends to stay the same. By the end of a campaign anyone who has heard it regularly will thoroughly. Often it’s not that riveting on the first outing.

But, nevertheless, it is important. Most people who vote do not spend all day reading the Guardian Politics Live blog and they follow what is happening at Westminster only very casually. The stump speech is the message designed to seep into the electorate’s consciousness when all the screening filters are applied. It is meant to be the one thing you remember.

This afternoon Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May have both delivered preliminary stump speeches. Corbyn focused on cuts, austerity and public services, while May focused on leadership. What was better about Corbyn’s is that he sounded more passionate and engaged. The visuals worked better too, because he was outside. (This is an advantage an opposition leader has; Number 10 security is very nervous nowadays about prime ministers giving speeches outside.)

But May had a more memorable message. “Strong and stable leadership ... strong and stable leadership ... strong and stable leadership.” In fact, I lost count of how often she used the phrase. Get the message? You could not miss it. And we’ve got another seven weeks to go.

May says if we have five years of strong and stable leadership, she can deliver for the British people.

She says she will fight a positive and optimistic campaign. She is looking forward to it, he says.

Only we can give you a strong and stable leadership, she says. But, addressing the voters, she says only “you” can give her the mandate she needs.

Theresa May's speech

Theresa May is giving a campaign speech in Bolton.

She says she has just won the vote in the Commons. Having an election will be in the national interest, she says.

You will only get strong and stable leadership by voting for the Conservatives, she says.

At the election voters will have a choice, she says. You can have strong and stable leadership with the Conservatives. Or weak and unstable leadership with Jeremy Corbyn, a “coalition of chaos”.

She says the SNP and the Lib Dems are trying to “prop up Jeremy Corbyn”.

Theresa May speaking in Bolton
Theresa May speaking in Bolton Photograph: BBC

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has more from Labour’s NEC meeting this afternoon.

Cabinet Office to intervene to ensure Manchester Gorton byelection can be cancelled

The Cabinet Office has said that MPs will be asked to vote to allow the Manchester Gorton byelection to be cancelled. Earlier today the acting returning officer for the constituency said that she had been told she could not cancel it, even though it is scheduled to take place after parliament has prorogued. (See 1.40pm.)

This is from the Manchester Evening News’s Jennifer Williams.

Jeremy Corbyn has just delivered a short stump speech in Croydon. Here’s a flavour of it.

I want a Labour government that ensures that carers are properly supported when they are caring for loved ones. I want a Labour government that ensures people don’t wait for hours in A&E departments. I want a Labour government that isn’t closing hospitals, that isn’t so underfunding schools that when the parents take the children back in at the start of the summer term, they say goodbye to the children and in return they get a letter saying ‘please help us fund the school because the government isn’t providing us with the money for the books the children need’. That is the difference between the Labour and the Tories.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking in Croydon.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking in Croydon. Photograph: BBC/Jeremy Corbyn

George Osborne knew which paper should have the exclusive story he would stand down as an MP the next election; the one he is soon to edit, the London Evening Standard. He just didn’t realise it had such early deadlines.

In perhaps the first sign that a man with no previous experience of journalism has much to learn in his new gig running London’s daily paper, he decided to give his new team the scoop just a little too late to be published in anything other than a specially produced slip edition.

Veteran political editor Joe Murphy launched the exclusive with a tweet before lunch, but after the paper is printed.

Outgoing editor Sarah Sands, an old newspaper hand about to turn radio boss, quickly ordered an extra slip edition, seen by relatively few commuters on Wednesday.

Labour tells CLPs new candidates to be chosen by party hierarchy, not activists

The Labour party has emailed constituency Labour parties setting out the rules agreed by the national executive committee (NEC) for candidate selection.

Here are the key points.

  • MPs have to declare by 6pm tomorrow whether they will stand again.
  • MPs who want to stand again will be allowed to do so. The NEC has confirmed that a proposal to hold “trigger ballots”, allowing local activists to vote against MPs being candidates, has been rejected. The email says:

It is with the greatest regret that local party members will not be able to select parliamentary candidates. This process is necessary and it is only due to the exceptional snap General Election circumstances and will not set any precedent for future elections.

It will be simply impossible to hold trigger ballots, selection hustings and meetings in the 631 Parliamentary constituencies in the given timescale, especially at a time when members are out campaigning in the local and general elections.

  • Vacancies where MPs are standing down, or where no candidate is in place, will be advertised on Labour’s website from Friday and applications will close on Sunday at noon.
  • Candidates will be chosen by panels of NEC and regional board members. (This will give the Labour hierarchy the opportunity to select favoured individuals, although the number of vacancies coming up in seats the party is certain to win may be small.)
  • All women shortlists will be imposed “in the normal way” and, as a minimum, they will apply where female MPs are standing down.
  • Candidates who stood for the party in 2015 in seats they did not win will be asked if they want to stand again. But they will have to be approved by the panels involving NEC and regional board members.
  • The Scottish and Welsh parties will run their own selections.

And here is the timetable, as set out in the email.

Thursday 20 April - 6pm Deadline for MPs to declare intention to stand

Friday 21 April Applications open for candidates in all seats

including retirement seats

Sunday 23 April - Noon Applications close

Week commencing 24 April NEC officers long-list, interview candidates in retirement seats

By close of Friday 28 April Candidates selected in retirement seats

From Sunday 30 April NEC and Regional Board panels meet to appoint candidates in all other seats

By close of Tuesday 2 May All candidates in place

Thursday 4 May Local elections

Thursday 11 May Close of nominations

Thursday 8 June General election

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Labour’s national executive committee is meeting this afternoon. According to my colleague Jessica Elgot, Jeremy Corbyn has told NEC members that he is definitely ruling out a “progressive alliance”.

This is a proposal being pushed particularly hard by the Greens.

Here’s another blast from the past: onetime Labour MP, Shahid Malik, who was ousted from his Dewsbury seat in 2010 after being embroiled in the expenses scandal, says he fancies contesting Rochdale for Labour if the party doesn’t reinstate the incumbent, Simon Danczuk, in time.

Danzuk has been suspended since late 2015 after a sexting scandal involving a 17-year-old dominatrix who sold her toenails on the internet. In the 2015 general election he increased his majority by more than 11,000.

Burnley-born Malik told the Guardian:

I have been approached by many local friends in Rochdale seeking a strong Labour voice and an experienced campaigner. I have explained that although they don’t currently have a Labour MP, we all nonetheless will have to wait until the party decides on any potential selection.

It would of course be a great honour to be considered for a seat in the Lancashire town where I got my first ever general manager role, helping to equip hundreds of young people and adults with the skills to enable them to find meaningful employment.

Malik, who in 2007 became Britain’s first Muslim minister as international development minister, claimed £235 on his second home allowances to pay insurance premiums for the engagement ring belonging to his wife.

John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, said that Malik was guilty of a “clear-cut breach of the rules”.

Danczuk met with Nick Brown, the chief whip, on Tuesday night after the snap general election was called. He said he wanted to represent Labour on 8 June but would stand as an Independent if he was not reinstated in time. Under Labour party standard procedure the national constitutional committee needs to meet him, take evidence and make a decision, but Danczuk remains unclear whether time pressures will allow this to happen. He said:

I don’t think Rochdale would be well served by an ex MP who wasn’t good enough to hold on to his previous parliamenaty seat. He has no connection to the town and doesn’t understand its needs.

I’m quietly confident that the Labour party will let me stand as their candidate on 8 June. The Labour party has taken some time to reach a conclusion but it is now essential that they act quickly in readiness for the general election.

There has been a lot of talk about electoral pacts in Northern Ireland today especially between the two main unionist parties. Two years ago in the 2015 general election a pan-unionist pact in a limited number of constituencies delivered an important victory for the Ulster Unionists in the border constituency of Fermanagh/South Tyrone. By standing aside in the frontier area the Democratic Unionists helped the UUP wrestle back the seat from Sinn Fein.

And in East Belfast last time around, by having the UUP not standing, the DUP recaptured that seat back from the centrist cross-community Alliance party.

After a psychologically bruising assembly election back in March which saw Sinn Fein’s number of seats in the devolved parliament rise the two unionist parties are determined it seems to repeat the pact deal from 2015.

Fermanagh/South Tyrone UUP MP Tom Elliott confirmed today that talks will take place with the DUP “within days” to hammer out an election agreement.

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said this time the forces of unionist should “go further” and come to arrangements in more constituencies. This would mean, for example, single unionist candidates not only in Fermanagh/South Tyrone and East Belfast but also North Belfast and crucially South Belfast.

A single unionist candidate in the latter constituency, probably a DUP one, would be strongly placed to challenge the sitting MP, the SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell.

Conversely there appears to be no unity of purpose within nationalism regarding any electoral pact. SDLP MP for South Down Margaret Ritchie ruled out any pan-nationalist pact with Sinn Fein today. She said:

We don’t do electoral pacts. The SDLP fights the election - each and every election - on our own mandate and our own basis.

Margaret Ritchie.
Margaret Ritchie. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Osborne signals he's willing to make life awkward for Theresa May as Evening Standard editor

George Osborne, the former chancellor, has been speaking to the BBC about his decision to stand down as an MP. In the interview he signalled that in his new job, as editor of the Evening Standard, he would be willing to make life awkward for Theresa May. When he was asked if he would be willing to be “a pain in the neck” to May, he replied:

Without fear or favour we will speak for London. And also speak for the values that I have espoused as a chancellor and as a member of parliament for 16 years, which are the openness, the tolerance, the diversity that I think makes Britain a great country. That’s what I’ve fought for all my life and for now I’m not going to be fighting for those things in the House of Commons. I will be fighting for them in the seat of a great British newspaper.

George Osborne being interviewed by the BBC.
George Osborne being interviewed by the BBC. Photograph: BBC

Simon Danczuk was the only independent MP who voted for an early election. (See 3.10pm.) But an election now is not in his own best interests. He is currently suspended from Labour, over allegations that he sent sexually explicit messages to a 17-year-old girl, and while he remains suspended he cannot stand again as the Labour candidate in Rochdale.

He has appealed to the party to reinstate him.

Officially the party has not yet said what it will do in response to Danzcuk’s request, but sources have suggested that reinstating Danzcuk is not exactly a priority.

Simon Danczuk.
Simon Danczuk. Photograph: Jon Super for the Guardian

Natalie McGarry, the Scottish MP who was one of the 13 MPs who voted against an early election (see 3pm), fainted in the Commons earlier. She has revealed that she is pregnant.

Theresa May’s spokesman said after the vote for an early election that the election timetable would see parliament officially dissolved at a minute past midnight on 3 May, 25 working days before the election.

The prime minister would be expected to see the Queen the day before to formally ask her to dissolve parliament, he added. May had spoken to the Queen on Monday, a day before announcing her plans to seek an early election.

A Downing Street source said May was still not planning to take part in any TV debates, and that the prime minister aimed to interact with voters “on the doorstep”.

Asked about the prospect of other party leaders taking part in debates without her, the source said: “It’s their decision what programmes they take part in.”I

It was too early to say whether May would take part in any more formal town hall-style question and answer sessions with voters, the source added.
The No 10 source repeated May’s refusal at PMQs (see 12.49pm) to confirm that the current target of 0.7% of national income per year on foreign aid would continue after the election.

We are meeting our commitments now. In terms of the future manifesto, that’s something which you’ll have to wait for the manifesto for.

Theresa May in the Commons today.
Theresa May in the Commons today. Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters

Ken Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor and father of the Commons, is standing again, his fellow pro-European Tory Anna Soubry reports.

Clarke had said that he would stand down at the next election. But he did not mean now, the Telegraph’s Steven Swinford says.

Party breakdown of MPs voting for early election

And here are the party breakdown figures for the 522 MPs who voted in favour of an early election.

Conservatives: 325

Labour: 174

Lib Dem: 8

DUP: 8

Plaid Cymru: 3

UUP: 2

Greens: 1

Independent: 1 (Simon Danczuk, who is still suspended from Labour)

These figures suggest that many Labour MPs chose to abstain. There are 229 Labour MPs in total.

By contrast, almost all the Conservatives’ 330 MPs voted for the early election.

The 13 MPs who voted against an early election

Here are the 13 MPs who voted against an early election.

Labour

Ronnie Campbell

Ann Clwyd

Paul Farrelly

Jim Fitzpatrick

Clive Lewis

Fional Mactaggart

Liz McInnes

Dennis Skinner

Graham Stringer

SDLP

Alasdair McDonnell

Independent

Lady Hermon

Natalie McGarry

Michelle Thomson

And the two tellers for the Noes were Margaret Ritchie and Mark Durkan, who are both SDLP MPs

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MPs vote to allow early election by majority of 509

MPs have voted for an early election by 522 votes to 13 - a majority of 509.

That is well above the two-thirds majority needed under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

So the election is going ahead on 8 June.

UPDATE: John Dawson argues that, given the two-thirds threshold rule applying to this vote, the actual majority is much lower.

Updated

The BBC is also planning an election debate or debates. This is what Jonathan Munro, its head of newsgathering, told the Telegraph:

There is a proven track record over two elections and two referendums that debates reach huge audiences including a lot of young people who don’t watch conventional political coverage in great numbers.

We think it is very much in their interest that peak time debates go ahead. In 2010 and 2015 the number of young and first time voters going to the polls was up on previous elections.

We believe there was a relationship between that and the audience the debates pulled in. It helps engagement with hard to reach audiences.

Alongside Yvette Cooper’s (see 1.59pm), the other really effective opposition question at PMQs was Dennis Skinner’s. Here it is.

And, while we’re on the subject of Yvette Cooper, the Scottish secretary David Mundell has clarified what he was shouting as she asked her question. On Twitter some people have been claiming, on the basis of the video clip, that Mundell called her a bitch.

The reality is more mundane, more plausible (Mundell is not offensive) - and more accurate.

Updated

MPs are now voting on the motion calling for an early general election.

John Bercow, the speaker, puts the question. Most MPs shout “aye”. But some shout “no” and, after appearing to weigh it up, Bercow calls a division. (If it is obvious from the shouting that the Commons is in favour a motion goes through on the nod.)

ITV’s Robert Peston has posted this about George Osborne’s decision to stand down.

George Osborne has tweeted a link to the full text of the letter he has sent to his local Conservative association explaining why he is standing down from the Commons - “for now”.

The Greens are calling for 16 and 17-year-olds to be allowed to vote in the general election. Caroline Lucas, the party’s co-leader, said:

Theresa May should give Britain’s 1.5m 16 and 17 year olds – the first generation to have received citizenship education – a say in what will very much be their future. The government should urgently change the law to expand the electorate – using the remaining parliamentary time to truly hand people control. After trebling tuition fees, cutting housing benefit for young people and slashing the educational maintenance allowance – surely the government should give young people a chance to have a say on the policies that are affecting them.

In the Commons Mark Durkan, the SDLP MP, says he will vote against the early election motion. He says if the Tories are really worried about the prospect of being defeated in the Lords, they should abolish or reform it.

Jeremy Corbyn has welcomed ITV’s decision to stage an election debate. (See 1.17pm.) He said:

I welcome ITV’s decision to attempt to hold a TV debate with the Prime Minister. If Theresa May is so proud of her record, why won’t she debate it?

She cannot be allowed to run away from her duty to democracy and refuse to let the British people hear the arguments directly.

During PMQs the most effective question was probably the one posed by Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee. Here it is.

Updated

In the Commons Nigel Evans, the Conservative MP who is gay, asks Tim Farron if he thinks that being gay is a sin.

“No, I do not,” says Farron.

In the past Farron, an evangelical Christian, has been evasive on this topic.

Updated

Back in the Commons Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, is speaking now. She says Theresa May is calling an election now because, having looked at the state of Labour, she could not resist the political equivalent of taking candy from a baby.

Let us all be very, very honest and clear about this: She has chosen this election because she looked across the despatch box and she could not resist the temptation of doing the political equivalent of taking candy from a baby and facing a Labour party in a general election.

Asked by a Labour MP if he will rule out a coalition with the Conservatives, Farron refuses to answer directly. He says he does not expect the election to result in a “balanced parliament” (Lib Dem-speak for a hung parliament).

Updated

Manchester returning officer says she does not have power to cancel Manchester Gorton byelection

The Manchester Gorton byelection is due to take place on 4 May. But parliament is due to be dissolved on 2 May, meaning a new MP could be elected to a House of Commons no longer sitting.

In the Commons yesterday David Lidington, the leader of the Commons, told MPs that he expected to byelection to be cancelled. He said the acting returning officer had the discretion to do this.

But today Manchester’s acting returning officer Joanne Roney said she did not have the legal power to call the vote off. In a statement she said:

Since the prime minister’s announcement yesterday regarding a general election on 8 June, we have been in active discussions with government and the Electoral Commission about the implications for the Manchester Gorton parliamentary by-election given parliament would be dissolved by the date of poll.

Legal advice has confirmed that as (acting) returning officer I have no power in law to cancel the by-election in these circumstances.

This matter has therefore been raised with parliamentary authorities to clarify the position as a matter of urgency should parliament vote for an 8 June general election later today.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, is speaking now.

He says there are two reasons why Theresa May is holding an election.

First, May wants to eliminate opposition at Westminster.

And, second, it has finally dawned on her how difficult it will be to get a Brexit deal, he says.

He says May may be able to get rid of opposition in England. But she will not be able to eliminate it in Scotland.

Referring to the news from ITV that there will be debate (see 1.17pm), he says it is inconceivable for May not to take part. She could be empty-chaired, he says.

The public deserves a debate, and more than one debate, he says.

The debate will run for another hour before MPs vote.

Judging by the opening speeches, it is not going to be a memorable parliamentary occasion. I will cover the highlights, but not every single speech.

Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, is speaking now. He is making a rather good, self-mocking speech telling MPs how he assured readers of his local paper that there would not be an early election because May could not call one without a vote in parliament and Labour MPs would not help because “turkeys do not vote for Christmas”. He says he also defended the government of its plan to increase national insurance contributions for the self-employed just before the Treasury abandoned the policy.

Corbyn says it does not have to be like this. Labour believes that everyone should receive a decent wage.

And there should be decent homes for all. Housing policy should be for people, not an investment opportunity.

He says there is no obstacle in parliament to Theresa May delivering Brexit.

She is pointing out that the Lib Dems have said they will bring parliament to a standstill over Brexit. But there are only nine of them, he says, and they managed to split three ways over article 50.

He again challenges May to hold a TV debate.

Labour offers a better future, not a country run for the rich, he says.

And that’s it.

ITV to hold election debate

ITV is going to hold an election debate. It will be chaired by Julie Etchingham, who chaired a leaders’ debate in 2015.

Jeremy Corbyn's speech

Jeremy Corbyn is speaking now. He says Theresa May said there would not be an early election. How can anyone trust her now?

He says the election will give people a chance to oppose cuts. Some 4m children live in poverty. People do not have security in work, he says.

Tory MPs jeer, implying it is Labour MPs who don’t have job security.

In a reference to the SNP, May says anyone who abstains in this vote will endorsing the record of the Conservative government.

May says having an election now will strengthen the hand of the government as it delivers a strong future for the country.

Labour’s David Winnick asks if May is concerned that, having built up a reputation for integrity, she will be seen as an opportunist.

May says having an election now is necessary to give the government the strongest possible hand in the Brexit talks.

Labour’s Andy Burnham says May wants to make the election about Brexit. But it could become a referendum on her brutal cuts, he says.

May says if Burnham wants to talk about the economy, he should remember how Labour trashed the economy when he was chief secretary to the Treasury.

The SNP’s Ian Blackford asks why it is right to have an election, but not a Scottish independence referendum.

May says a general election will strengthen the government’s hand in the Brexit talks. An independence referendum would weaken the government’s hand, she says.

It is a choice between strength and unity with the Conservatives, and division and weakness with the SNP, she says.

Labour’s Stephen Timms asks if May supports fixed-term parliaments.

May says we have a Fixed-term Parliaments Act. But it is right to have an election now, she says.

Paul Farrelly, the Labour MP, says May promised many times not to hold an early election. Why does she have such a loose relationship with the truth?

John Bercow, the Speaker, tells Farrelly he must withdraw. MPs are not allowed to call each other liars in the chamber.

Farrelly refuses. Why does May have such a loose relationship with expressing her intentions.

May says she has made her intentions very clear.

Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative, says it will be a brave MP who votes against this motion. So the Fixed-term Parliaments Act has no purpose. Will the Tories commit to scrapping it?

May says she does not want to be drawn on what is in her manifesto.

Theresa May's speech

Theresa May is opening the debate.

She says MPs have a chance to vote for an election that will give the country strong and stable leadership. It will be in the national interest, she says.

MPs debate motion allowing Theresa May to call an early election

MPs are now about to start the debate on the motion allowing Theresa May to call an early election.

Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, May can only call one if two-thirds of MPs vote in favour.

Andrew Smith, the Labour former work and pensions secretary, has announced he is not standing again at the general election.

Smith, 66, had a majority of 15,280 at the general election.

May refuses to commit to keeping commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid after election

The Conservative MP Richard Beynon asked May to confirm that she would maintain the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence and 0.7% on international aid.

May said she would maintain the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence every year this decade. And she said the government was meeting its commitment to spend 0.7% of national wealth on aid.

  • May refused to commit to keeping the commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid after the election.

Labour’s Dennis Skinner asks May for an assurance that all Tory MPs under investigation for election over-spending will not be allowed to stand again.

May says she stands by all election candidates.

Here is more from George Osborne’s statement about stepping down as an MP.

At the age of 45, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life just being an ex-chancellor. I want new challenges.

I’m very excited about the opportunity to edit the Evening Standard. I’ve met the team there, and their energy and commitment to this great newspaper are positively infectious.

Updated

PMQs - Snap Verdict

PMQs - Snap Verdict: Corbyn and Robertson both pressed May over her refusal to take part in TV debates, but without seriously discomforting her, and without anyone saying anything especially illuminating or noteworthy.

Corbyn v May was a relatively tedious stalemate. Corbyn launched a broadside attack, covering a range of what he described as broken Tory promises, but without delivering a memorable headline soundbite. His points about the debate were effective (particularly the comeback towards the end), but anyone listening and hoping to glean one single reason why people should vote Labour would have been disappointed. May at least had a more robust soundbite - set up for her in advance by Alberto Costa’s question (see 12.05pm). It was glib, but serviceable for the election campaign.

Robertson also asked about the debates but, more interestingly, he noticed that on the Today programme May broke the habit of a lifetime and said something critical of the Daily Mail. She said she did not agree with its Crush the Saboteurs headline. (See 9.21am.) Asked about it again by Robertson, this time she refused to disown the headline. She said it was important to defend a free press (ignoring the rather obvious point that you can support a free press without having to agree with everything it prints.)

Updated

Osborne quitting Commons to focus on his new job editing Evening Standard

George Osborne is standing down as an MP, the Evening Standard (where he is about to become editor) reports.

In a statement he said:

I am stepping down from the House of Commons - for now. But I will remain active in the debate about our country’s future and on the issues I care about, like the success of the Northern Powerhouse.

I want a Britain that is free, open, diverse and works with other nations to defend our democratic values in the world.

I will go on fighting for that Britain I love from the editor’s chair of a great newspaper. It’s still too early to be writing my memoirs.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, says the tone and content of debates is important. Does May agree political opponents are not saboteurs and that MPs with mandates should be respected?

May says it is right that politicians are challenged. But last year people voted to leave the EU. It is clear that the SNP and others want to frustrate that process.

Robertson says it is disappointing that May did not take the opportunity to condemn the way the Daily Mail (he does not mention the paper by name) described politicians. If May is so confident her case is right, she should debate it in the campaign. Why is she running scared of a debate with Nicola Sturgeon?

May says one of the crucial things in this country is a free press. MPs should stand up for a free press. She says she will go out and defend her record. And she urges the SNP to put aside their tunnel vision on independence and explain why the Scottish government is not putting as much money into the NHS as the Westminster goverment and why Scottish education is getting worse.

Michelle Donelan, a Conservative, asks May if she will continue to back reform of school funding.

May says reforms are intended to make the system fairer.

May says record amounts of money are going into schools. But it is not just about money. It is about standards. More pupils are going into good schools.

Corbyn says many parents will receive letters from schools begging for money. The Tories said they would protect school funding. They have not done that; it is another broken promise. The NHS is in an all-year crisis. Why are people waiting in pain?

May says she is proud of her record on the NHS. You can only do that with a strong economy. What would you get from Labour? Only bankruptcy and chaos.

Corbyn says that is another reason for a debate. The Tory manifesto promised more money for health. Say that to people waiting for care. The Tories have broken every promise on debt, living standards, health and school funding. Why should anyone believe what they say?

May says she will be taking her record to the country. Every vote for the Conservatives will help her when she negotiates for Britain in the Brexit talks.

Corbyn says this year Philip Hammond said the deficit would be eliminated in 2022. He does admire Tory consistency. They always want to eliminate the deficit in five years time. How long will it be before debt comes down?

May says Labour wants to borrow an extra £500bn. The former Labour shadow chancellor said if Labour were in power you would have to double income tax, double national insurance and double VAT.

Corbyn says all the government has delivered is more debt and less money for schools and hospitals. If there is a stronger economy, why are corporations getting tax giveaways while schools are being starved of funds.

Jeremy Corbyn says Labour welcomes the general election.

Tory MPs jeer.

But this is a prime minister who promised there would not be one, who cannot be trusted, who says this is about leadership yet who is refusing to defend her record in TV debates. It is not hard to see why, he says. She cannot explain why wages are lower than they were 10 years ago, more households in debate, 6m people earning more than the living wage, and child and pensioner poverty up. Why are so many people getting poorer?

May says she has been debating with Corbyn every Wednesday since she became PM. She will take out a proud record: a stronger economy, taxes cut, people taken out of poverty, and more money for pensioners.

Corbyn says, if May is so proud of her record, why won’t she debate it. The Tory manifesto said they would get rid of child poverty. They have got rid of the child poverty targets, but not child poverty. They have not eliminated the deficit, despite promising it in 2010 and 2015. When will the deficit be eliminated?

May says it has taken Corbyn a while to get the hang of PMQs. People will have a choice at the election, between a party offering a strong economy and one that would bankrupt the country.

The Conservative MP Alberto Costa says strong countries need strong economies, strong defences and strong leaders. Apart from Theresa May, who else can provide the leadership needed at this time?

Theresa May says Costa is right. There are three things a country needs: a strong economy, strong defences and strong leadership.

Jeremy Corbyn would bankrupt the economy, weaken our defence and is not fit to lead, she says.

Here are the MPs down to ask questions at PMQs.

This is from the Mirror’s Ben Glaze.

After PMQs there is a 10-minute rule bill. Then the debate on the motion allowing Theresa May to call an early election will start. May will open it, and Jeremy Corbyn will respond for Labour.

PMQs

PMQs is starting in five minutes.

It will be the penultimate PMQs before the general election.

Greens criticise Labour for not wanting to increase overall tax burden

On the Today programme this morning John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said that Labour did not want to increase the overall tax burden. Asked if he wanted to increase the total tax take, he replied:

We would maintain the average at the moment because what we want to ensure is actually there is a fair taxation system. We believe that if we can get a fair taxation system, tackling tax evasion and tax avoidance, making sure that we end the tax giveaways to the corporations and the rich, we will be able to afford the public services that we need.

  • McDonnell said Labour does not want to increase the overall tax burden.

McDonnell did say Labour wanted corporations and the rich to pay “their share” (ie, more).

But, when asked to define the rich, McDonnell said he was not talking about people paying the 40% higher rate of tax (levied on those earning more than £45,000 a year). McDonnell said he was talking about people earning “above £70,000 to £80,000 a year”.

Asked explicitly if people in this bracket would pay more, he said: “That’s not what we’ve said.” But he also said that Labour wanted to raise more from inheritance tax and capital gains tax. So people on £70,000 might not pay more in income tax, but he seemed to be saying they were the kind of people who would pay more in inheritance tax and capital gains tax.

  • McDonnell said Labour defined the “rich” as those earning more than £70,000 a year. He suggested that people like this were likely to pay more tax under Labour, although not necessarily more income tax.

In response, Jonathan Bartley, the Green party’s co-leader, said that it was “deeply disappointing” that Labour was not proposing to raise the tax burden. He said:

It’s deeply disappointing to hear the shadow chancellor back away from a radical shakeup of the tax system to truly redistribute wealth and support our public services.

The truth is that that anyone paying higher rate tax is in the top 15% of earners in the country, and we should be asking them to pay more to stop our NHS crumbling and our welfare state being destroyed. Indeed the general level of taxation in the country should be going up. That’s why the Green party will, in the coming weeks, reveal a bold tax plan which would provide Britain with world-leading public services.

John McDonnell.
John McDonnell. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

As ITV’s Robert Peston says, at her Q&A with reporters Nicola Sturgeon has been qualifying her remarks about the possibility of a “progressive alliance”.

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, has said Theresa May would have more freedom to ignore Brexit hardliners in her own party, and negotiate a more liberal deal, if she won an increased Westminster majority.

Davidson said that Amber Rudd, the home secretary, was “absolutely right” to suggest on Newsnight on Tuesday that a substantial win in June would allow her to strike a more flexible single market deal with other EU nations. She said:

If the prime minister is returned with a healthy majority, it gives her the freedom to make decisions in the best interests of the country without having to pay a penalty in terms of people in the Conservative party or outwith it putting undue pressure on [her].

Davidson was a leading Tory remain campaigner in last year’s referendum, taking on the then leave campaigner Boris Johnson, now foreign secretary, in one TV debate. She will also believe a liberal flexible Brexit deal will weaken Nicola Sturgeon’s case for Scottish independence, and dilute support for a fresh independence referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, has been holding a photocall with her MPs at Westminster.

She accused Theresa May of pursuing Ukip-style policies.

And she also said she would join a “progressive alliance” with anti-Tory parties.

As the Daily Record’s Torcuil Crichton says, this means the Tories will in theory be able to revive their 2015 election strategy (although, given the state of the polls, trying to alarm people about the prospect of a Corbyn/Sturgeon alliance may be a bit of a hard sell.)

Speaking on Radio 5 Live this morning Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, said that he still did not expect to see another Labour government in his lifetime. According to the BBC the 75-year-old Kinnock told John Pienaar:

I think that it’s unlikely that we will make the kind of gains because - as you will recall John with your perfect clarity - that I said that unless there are substantial changes that I am unlikely to live to see another Labour government.”

There haven’t been the substantial changes that I would have wanted and therefore I’m as gloomy about my prospects of living to see another Labour government as I was then.

Updated

Nick Boles, the Conservative MP who has been receiving treatment for cancer, has revealed in a post on Facebook that his treatment has been successful and that he will be standing at the election. Here is an extract.

I have now decided to put myself forward and will be writing to my local Conservative association to ask them to re-adopt me as their candidate.

Last week I completed my final treatment for non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Recent scans have shown that the cancer has been eradicated and doctors tell me I can expect to make a full recovery by the end of the summer. Although my current state of health will prevent me from playing an energetic part in the election campaign, I am confident that if I am re-elected I will be able to resume my duties as Member of Parliament with renewed vigour within a very few months.

The Lib Dem MP for Southport, John Pugh, has announced that he is not standing at the election, his local paper, the Southport Visiter, has revealed.

Pugh, who has been an MP since 2001, had a majority of just 1,322 over the Conservatives at the last election.

On BBC Radio Scotland this morning David Mundell, the Conservative Scottish secretary, rejected claims that Theresa May was being inconsistent calling a general election while refusing to allow Scotland a referendum on independence. Asked if this was “hypocrisy”, Mundell replied:

It absolutely isn’t, because the propositions are completely different.

Theresa May is proposing a vote in six weeks’ time to allow people to set out the direction of the Brexit negotiations, to have a five-year period in which to take Brexit forward.

Nicola Sturgeon is proposing a divisive referendum campaign during the Brexit negotiations.

She actually wants to be campaigning for independence in Scotland during the period in which this country is engaged in the most extensive post-war negotiations.

That’s why it’s inappropriate to have a referendum during the Brexit negotiation process.

Gina Miller, who launched the legal challenge that resulted in the supreme court saying the government could not trigger article 50 without parliamentary approval, is involved in a campaign to encourage pro-European tactical voting. They are crowdfunding, and there are details here. They say they will support candidates who support “a real final vote on Brexit, including rejecting any deal that leaves Britain worse off” and “who commit to keeping the options open for the British people”.

That implies support for a second referendum on Brexit, or committing to staying in the EU, although the campaign blurb does not say that explicitly.

Stephen Dorrell, the former Conservative health secretary who now chairs the European Movement, has put out a statement urging people to vote for pro-European candidates. He said:

Britain is still a member of the EU and our future is in own hands. We urge voters to support candidates who pledge to ensure that we continue to develop our relationship with these neighbours and play a full part in the life of the continent in which we live.

It is not too late to change our minds.

Here is the scene in the Today programme studio when Theresa May was being interviewed earlier.

Theresa May (left) in the Today programme studio.
Theresa May (left) in the Today programme studio. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA

More than 150,000 people applied to register to vote yesterday, the Press Association’s Ian Jones reports.

Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader and former deputy prime minister, has put out a statement confirming he is standing again for parliament. He said:

Theresa May has called a general election out of opportunism and intolerance: opportunism in seeking to exploit the weakness of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party; and intolerance in seeking a landslide majority to bring about ‘unity’, by which she means the ability to impose whatever interpretation of Brexit she wishes without meaningful scrutiny from parliament.

Meanwhile, her Brexit-obsessed government is failing to provide the decent schools, hospitals and social care which communities, including those I represent in Sheffield, rightly deserve.

This general election once again places the interests of the Conservative party ahead of the daily needs of the British people.

I will be re standing as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in Sheffield Hallam – a constituency I have had the immense privilege to represent in parliament for twelve years – because I vehemently oppose the direction that Theresa May wishes to drag our wonderful country.

Here is the White House read-out from President Trump’s call with Theresa May yesterday.

The Labour MP Ian Wright, who chairs the Commons business committee, has announced that he will not be standing again.

Wright was elected in a byelection in 2004, replacing Peter Mandelson when he went off to become a European commissioner. Mandelson had a majority of more than 17,000 at the 1997 general election, but two years ago Wright’s majority was just 3,024. Ukip were in second place, and Hartlepool is one of their key targets.

Theresa May's Today interview - Summary and analysis

It is going to be a long 50 days. Conventional political and journalistic wisdom has it that elections provide an opportunity to subject politicians to scrutiny, and that politicians are made to spend weeks answering questions about their policies and their beliefs so that voters can make an informed choice in the polling booth. That’s why newspapers and broadcasters clear the decks and devote so much time to it all.

Well, we could be wasting our time. Theresa May may be the least forthcoming prime minister since Clement Attlee and her Today interview made it clear that she intends to get through the campaign saying as little as possible about Brexit. She seems particularly nervous about admitting that the Brexit talks will involve compromise - perhaps in case the Daily Mail twig that, if anyone is going to soften Brexit, it won’t be the “saboteurs” but Theresa May when she comes back with a bigger majority.

Nick Robinson, who did an excellent job, focused mostly on Brexit and the decision to call an early election and did not really get onto the subject of domestic policy. It would be nice to think that when the questions do get onto that subject, May will be more enlightening. But I would not bet on it. According to a blog by Channel 4 News’s Gary Gibbon, the Conservative manifesto will be a “slimmed down affair”, with relatively little detail.

Here are the main points from the interview.

  • May confirmed that she will not take part in any TV election debates. She said:

We won’t be doing television debates ...

I believe in campaigns where politicians actually get out and about and meet with voters. That’s what I have always believed in, it’s what I still believe and I still do it - as prime minister, as a constituency MP, I still go out and knock on doors in my constituency. That’s what I believe in doing, that’s what I’m going to be doing around this campaign.

  • She refused to admit that she was holding an election now because that would make it easier for her to compromise during the Brexit talks. In an interview with the Sun published this morning she implied this was part of her reasoning for calling an early election. She said:

If we’re negotiating at a point that is quite close to a general election, I think the Europeans might have seen that as a time of weakness when they could push us. Now we will be much freer.

Amber Rudd, the home secretary, was more explicit on Newsnight last night. She said:

What I can say is it certainly gives her an opportunity, if she gets what we hope she’ll get, a good majority, the opportunity to arrive at potential compromises within the EU, potential lines that she can set.

But when Nick Robinson put it to May that she was having an election now so that she would have wriggle-room, freedom, and “the chance to compromise” in the Brexit talks, she replied:

No. This negotiation is going to be about getting the best possible deal for the UK, the best possible deal for people in every part of the United Kingdom.

Why is May so reticent? The answer lies in the next point.

  • May hinted that the government’s Brexit transitional deal will involve the UK accepting free movement and the jurisdiction of the European court of justice for some time after 2019. When Robinson asked her to guarantee that by 2020 there would be no more free movement, and that the ECJ would not be ruling on UK law, she refused to give that assurance. Presumably May is worried that those newspapers, like the Daily Mail, that are so excited about an early election may be less enthusiastic if they realise the election is going to result in Brexit being significantly softened.
  • She effectively confirmed that she will not be giving any fresh details about her Brexit plans during the election campaign.
  • She said she was committed to getting immigration down to “sustainable levels” but would not give any further details about what this might mean. She said:

What people want is for us to have control of our borders. I am very clear that we want migration at sustainable levels. What we will now have when we leave the European Union is the ability to have control in relation to people moving to the UK from the European Union.

  • She claimed that holding an election was a risk. When it was put to her that she was only holding one because she has a 20-point lead in the polls, she replied:

Nick, every election has a risk. No politician wants to go into an election just for the sake of having an election.

  • She claimed that she did not think about her opponents as Brexit saboteurs. Asked about today’s Daily Mail headline, and if that was how she saw her opponents, she replied:

Absolutely not. Politics and democracy are about, of course, people having different opinions, different views. It is important in parliament that people are able to challenge what the government is doing.

She also admitted, when pressed by Robinson, that she has not lost any votes on Brexit in the Commons, despite arguing yesterday that parliamentary opposition to her Brexit plans made an early election necessary.

Theresa May being interviewed on the Today programme, with Laura Kuenssberg in the background.
Theresa May being interviewed on the Today programme, with Laura Kuenssberg in the background. Photograph: Handout/Getty Images

Updated

Theresa May's Today interview - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about Theresa May’s interview on Twitter. They’re not particularly impressed.

From the Times’ Tim Montgomerie (founder of the ConservativeHome website)

From James Randerson

From the Guardian’s Rowena Mason

From the Daily Mirror’s Jack Blanchard

From PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield

From Mary Riddell

Q: You once said that we should remain in the EU. Now you say we should leave. You once said an early election would be wrong. Now you say it is the right thing. Do you do doubt?

May she says did back remain. But she also said the sky would not fall in if the UK left.

Q: So you have any doubts about calling an early election? Some people will think of this as opportunism.

May says she genuinely came to this decision reluctantly, having looked ahead at the circumstances and at the negotiations.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary and analysis shortly.

May confirms she won't take part in TV debates

Q: Will you debate with your opponents?

May she say constantly does that.

Q: So you will be doing that on TV?

May she will not do TV debates.

She will be going out and campaigning. She likes knocking on doors.

  • May confirms she won’t take part in TV debates.

Q: Are you saying to the electorate, “This is it. Give me a majority, and there will be no further vote on Brexit?”

May says people want the government to deliver.

Q: So, for remainers, it is over.

May says she has been clear there will be no second referendum.

Q: There won’t even be a meaningful vote in parliament.

May says there will be a vote in parliament.

She wants to deliver a successful Brexit.

Q: Will you have an immigration system that delivers what we have now? Immigration at 100,000? Or lower than that?

May says she has spent six years as home secretary trying to reduce immigration.

She wants migration at “sustainable levels”, she says.

Q: You seem committed to fighting an election without saying anything new. That is a blank cheque.

May says telling people to look at what she has done already is not seeking a blank cheque. She mentions policies like her industrial policy.

Q: None of these things are Brexit.

May says she wants clarity for the future, for going beyond Brexit.

Q: Everyone is in favour of the best possible deal. People are entitled to know what you want.

May says she has already spelt out what she wants in her Lancaster House speech, the white paper and her article 50 letter.

Q; So nothing new in the manifesto?

The manifesto will be one for taking the country forward, she says.

She says she wants to make sure jobs are spread around the country.

Q: Amber Rudd said last night that this would make it easier to compromise in the Brexit talks.

May says she still thinks she will be able to complete the negotiations in the two-year timescale.

Q: But that does not mean after 2019 no more rulings from the ECJ or freedom of movement.

May says people voted to end free movement and to get control of our laws.

Q: So you are guaranteeing that we will be free of those things by 2020.

May says she will get the best possible deal. She wants the best possible trade deal.

Q: It is the duty of the opposition to oppose. The Daily Mail headlines says: “Crush the saboteurs.” Is that how you see your opponents?

No, says May. She says people are entitled to express their views.

Q: What is is about the recent 20-point lead in the polls that made an early election attractive?

May says every election has a risk. No politician wants an election just for the sake of it.

She says she wants to take the right decisions for the long term.

Q: In the Sun you say you will be “much freer” in your Brexit negotiations?

May says there are two things.

If the public give her a mandate, and back her plan for Brexit, that will strengthen her hand.

And if she had not called an election, she would have been concluding the talks just before an election.

Q: So this gives you wriggle-room, the space to compromise.

May does not accept this. She says she wants the best possible deal.

Q: You are blaming the opposition for changing your mind. In Scotland you said now is not the time for a vote.

May says the election will strengthen her position in the Brexit negotiations.

The public want the government to deliver, she says.

She says having an election will create certainty.

Q: How many times have you been defeated in the Commons on Brexit?

May confirms there have not been any.

But she goes back to nine months ago. People wanted the government to leave the EU. But, as she triggered article 50, it became clear that the opposition would frustrate her.

Nick Robinson is interviewing Theresa May.

He starts by playing the clip from Brenda. (See 6.41am.)

Q: You present yourself as someone committed to getting on with the job. Do you regret breaking your word?

May says she does get on with the job. When she became PM should thought the UK needed stability. She got through the process of working on Brexit, and triggering article 50.

But around the time she triggered article 50 it became clear who the opposition was intent on frustrating the process.

The Lib Dems said they wanted to grind government to a standstill. Labour said they might vote against the final deal.

Theresa May's Today interview

Good morning. I’m here to take over from Claire.

I’ll be starting with Theresa May’s interview on Today, which is coming up at 8.10.

Theresa May will be interviewed on the Today programme shortly and I’m handing over the live blog to Andrew Sparrow who’ll take you through that, and the rest of the day.

Don’t forget to sign up to The Snap, our new daily email briefing that brings all the campaign news to your inbox for 7am BST. You can put your name on the list here, and read today’s roundup here.

Gisela Stuart, one of the most prominent of the Labour Leavers in last year’s referendum (yes, it really was only last year), says she is going to talk to her local party in Birmingham Edgbaston before announcing whether she will stand in this election.

She told the Today programme that, given polling numbers, she did not think Jeremy Corbyn would be prime minister:

I think I want a government that actually takes responsibility for the whole nation.

It is unlikely … that we will have a Labour government.

Calling it a “very unusual election”, she did clarify:

I would like Labour to win it.

Thornberry: Labour 'hasn't picked a side' on Brexit

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has said the party can win the election. Speaking on BBC2’s Newsnight late on Tuesday, she said:

We can win, absolutely. Game on.

She [Theresa May] has come into this election because she thinks she’s 20 points ahead and she can’t put forward what it is she wants from Brexit because she wants to promise everything at this stage.

We will not give her a blank cheque. If people vote Conservative, they will be giving her a blank cheque.

On what Labour wants from Brexit, Thornberry said:

We haven’t picked a side. We are a national party and we want to represent the nation.

“There needs to be a strong party in parliament that is willing to say no” to Theresa May and a hard Brexit, Cable says. But he adds:

There is no prospect of us having an electoral deal with the Labour party.

He says, for one, it is “utterly remote” to consider that Jeremy Corbyn will be prime minister, which makes the issue of coalition irrelevant.

Updated

Vince Cable, the former business secretary, is planning to run for the Lib Dems again in Twickenham, the seat from which he was ousted in 2015 by the Conservatives’ Tania Mathias.

He’s also on Radio 4 now. He says Brexit is “sufficiently important” for the Lib Dems to support the casting-aside of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. And he’s ready for his comeback, he says:

In 2015, what happened was a terrible election for us … I think we ought to set the record straight and win back the seats that we lost.

Vince Cable: ready for a Twickenham comeback?
Vince Cable: ready for a Twickenham comeback? Photograph: David Tett/REX/Shutterstock

McDonnell adds:

I don’t think this election is about Brexit.

Rather, he says, it’s about the economy, which “is about to turn”. The Tories “know they’ll be deeply unpopular” if it does.

Pressed on Labour’s tax plans, he says:

We’ll be looking to corporations and to the rich to pay their share … middle- and low-earners are being hit very, very hard.

McDonnell: Brexit deal could be 'put to the British people'

John McDonnell is asked if Labour is committed to the single market:

We’ll want to negotiate tariff-free access to the single market.

He says Labour believes the UK can negotiate a “managed and fair migration system” alongside that.

But he won’t be drawn on whether Labour would commit to staying within the customs union, saying only that he wants to “maximise the benefits we currently get”:

That does not necessarily mean full membership of the customs union.

McDonnell says the Tory government has failed to deliver a vision of Britain post-Brexit, and dangles – though without a commitment – the prospect of a further referendum.

When a deal is struck with the EU, he says, it should be “put to parliament and possibly the British people”.

That’s not a Labour pledge, he clarifies – just that, at that point, a government could choose to take any deal to the country.

Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has been on Radio 4’s Today programme.

He says he welcomes the early election, arguing it will give voters the opportunity to decide between a Labour or Conservative government – and what they want from a Brexit deal.

The government has a mandate from the referendum, he says, but not for the type of Brexit it’s pushing for. An election campaign is a chance to work that out, he says:

Let’s get on, let’s have this debate.

What does the snap election mean for Northern Ireland, which has been without its devolved government for three months?

Talks on forming a new power-sharing deal are due to resume today after the Easter break. This analysis from the Belfast Telegraph says news of the early general election is not expected to make negotiations any easier:

Mrs May suggested the election could achieve more stability and unity in the UK, particularly in the face of the challenges of Brexit, but it is likely to mean exactly the opposite in Northern Ireland.

On Tuesday night, Theresa May and the Irish taoiseach, Enda Kenny, reportedly spoke by phone for 15 minutes on the prospects of a resolution to the Stormont stalemate.

The Snap: your election briefing

Good morning and welcome to strangely familiar territory. Hot on the heels of General Election 2015 and the difficult second album, EU Referendum 2016, comes General Election 2017.

I’m Claire Phipps and I’ll be kicking off each weekday between now and 8 June with a briefing on the day’s campaign news. (If you’d like it in your inbox by 7am BST, you can sign up here.) The daily politics live blog will be up bright and early, with Andrew Sparrow joining later in the morning.

What’s happening?

An evergreen question, but for now designed to steer you through Wednesday’s political action.

On Tuesday, Theresa May said she wanted an election on 8 June. Today she has to persuade MPs to let her have one. The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, which was supposed to keep us from the ballot boxes until 2020, can be tipped over if two-thirds of the Commons say aye. Jeremy Corbyn wants Labour MPs to support the early election; not all Labour MPs agree with him (another evergreen statement there).

The Liberal Democrats and the SNP have said they will not block it – though Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon called May’s move a “huge political miscalculation”.

So let’s recklessly guess that the super-majority will be won: what next?

Labour talks late on Tuesday concluded that sitting MPs should be automatically reselected, despite reports that Corbyn had been less than keen on the idea. A policy burst in recent weeks – on free school meals, minimum wage and carers’ allowance – also helps lessen the risk of a rash of party manifestos reading: “Aargh, Brexit.”

Jeremy Corbyn visit to BirminghamLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives for a discussion organised by Birmingham Carers Hub to launch Labour’s Carer’s Allowance increase, which would bring it in line with Job Seekers Allowance. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 18, 2017. See PA story POLITICS Labour. Photo credit should read: Ben Birchall/PA Wire
Real fight starts here: Jeremy Corbyn in Birmingham on Tuesday. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

The Conservative manifesto will find room for grammar schools, alongside – speculates the Sun in an interview with May – possible breaks from 2015 commitments to foreign aid spending and the pensions triple lock.

The prime minister insists the election isn’t all about Brexit (except, well, it mostly is, counters Lib Dem leader Tim Farron). It’s also, says May, writing in the Scotsman, a chance to give a second independence referendum the boot – while not quite answering the question of why one vote would sow division and the other unity:

As well as presenting an unfair choice to Scottish voters between two unclear outcomes, [a referendum] would create uncertainty and division in our country at a time when we need to maximise certainty and unity to get the best deal for the whole UK.

For those same reasons, a UK general election now is firmly in our national interest.

Not in May’s interest, it seems, will be taking part in televised debates with other party leaders. “Our answer is no,” a No 10 source told the Guardian, meaning avid viewers will be denied even the sole PM v contenders face-to-face-off that David Cameron deigned to attend in 2015.

At a glance:

Poll position

This section is brought to you couched in so many caveats it’s effectively a (hazardous) beanbag, but let’s take a look at the poll numbers, if only to give ourselves a handy reference for mockery on 9 June.

A Guardian/ICM survey on Tuesday put the Conservatives 21 points ahead of Labour, 46% to 25%, with the Lib Dems scooping up 11%.

YouGov polling from 12-13 April – before May’s announcement – also gave the Conservatives a buoyant 21-point lead. A snap poll on the snap poll on Tuesday found 49% thought the PM was right to call an early election, with 17% against, and 34% not sure (or possibly at a loss for words).

The Financial Times’ poll tracker, which takes account of the seven most recent surveys, shows the Tories with an 18-point lead.

Diary

  • The main focus of the day will be in the Commons, with PMQs at noon, followed by May’s election statement.
  • Then there’s a 90-minute Commons debate before the vote.
  • At 2pm, Labour’s NEC meets: it’s likely to confirm that all sitting MPs will be reselected, as well as finding candidates for non-Labour seats and those where incumbents – including Alan Johnson and Tom Blenkinsop – are stepping down.

Talking point

Wednesday morning’s newspapers have reacted in typically nuanced style, with the Daily Mail ordering a vote to “Crush the saboteurs” – that’s the Remoaners and the “unelected” Lords (the Mail’s own “unnecessary” quotation marks there) – and the Sun calling it “Blue Murder: PM’s snap poll will kill off Labour”. Given the last national vote campaign witnessed the actual murder of an MP, perhaps they ought to have given that one more thought. Jane Martinson analyses the front pages here.

PAPERS MAY ELEC 1 copy
Tomorrow belongs to May.

Read these

Some Marmite reading with your breakfast toast: here’s Tony Blair writing on his website on why this election must be about Brexit – and should cross party lines:

We risk a parliament which is lopsided in its make-up; which has a big Tory majority – in part delivered not because of the intrinsic merits of Brexit or the Tories themselves but because of the state of Labour; where they will claim a mandate to take us wherever they will; when we desperately need representatives who will at least keep an open mind …

To be clear: I am not urging tactical voting or some anti-Tory alliance; I am urging that, as part of this election campaign, we create the capacity for the people to know exactly what the choices are; and elect as many MPs as possible with an open mind on this issue who are prepared to vote according to the quality of the deal and the interests of the British people.

Rachel Sylvester, in the Times, ponders a Lib Dem resurgence:

After their virtual annihilation the last time the country went to the polls – leaving them with eight MPs – the only way is up. Success in the Richmond Park byelection last year with a swing of 22% from the Tories shows the power of a clear pro-European message in seats that voted Remain. The party has drawn up spreadsheets of Tory and Labour MPs showing the strength of the pro-EU vote in their constituencies so they can decide which seats to prioritise …

There is a conundrum in that many of the West Country seats previously held by the Lib Dems voted to Leave but one strategist said: “They voted for Brexit but not hard Brexit.”

Sarah Olney – who won the Richmond Park byelection – with Lib Dem leader Tim Farron.
Only EU: Sarah Olney – who won the Richmond Park byelection – with Lib Dem leader Tim Farron. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

In the Spectator, Isabel Hardman warns that the PM’s repeated insistence that there would not be an early election could bounce back on her:

Theresa May’s statement seemed to make the […] admission: things had turned out to be harder than she’d thought and so she needed to break her promise. Oddly one of her complaints was that Westminster wasn’t ‘coming together’ after the referendum, as though it would be better if everyone agreed on everything she suggested, because consensus is such a good way of refining legislation so that it leaves Westminster in good shape …

Actually, politicians are decent people, and all people can end up breaking promises. But the problem is that the voters have the same childlike sense of justice that doesn’t easily forget those broken promises (remember what happened to the Lib Dems in 2015 after their broken tuition fee pledge?).

Revelation of the day

Don’t expect May to be taking to Twitter, Donald Trump-style, to rally voters. She told the Sun: “I don’t see tweets … I never pay attention to tweets.” Sad!

The day in a tweet

How could it be anything other than Brenda from Bristol?

And another thing

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