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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Chris Johnston (now) and Andrew Sparrow and Claire Phipps (earlier)

General election: May's husband says she wanted to be PM from shadow cabinet days – as it happened

Phil and Theresa May appear on The One Show.
Phil and Theresa May appear on The One Show. Photograph: BBC

Summary

That’s all from Politics Live for today - here’s Tuesday’s highlights in brief:

  • Labour confirmed that the UK will leave the EU if it wins the election after Corbyn repeatedly refused to give that assurance in a BBC interview. (See 3.44pm)
  • Corbyn has disowned a claim he made in an interview yesterday that he intended to stay on as Labour leader even if he lost the election. (See 4.21pm)

Electricity pylons

Trying to appear less robotic is not the only challenge the prime minister had had today. She’s been on the back foot after announcing a plan to limit energy bills.

My colleagues Adam Vaughan and Rowena Mason report that Theresa May will face a battle within her own party - as well as with the energy suppliers - if she decides to go ahead with a cap on gas and electricity prices.

A number of Tory MPs favouring free market policies, including some at senior ministerial level, feel the plan is far too interventionist for a Conservative government, and are aiming to water down the proposal in the next parliament.

The MPs are not breaking cover with direct criticism during the election campaign, but some are openly pushing for a more “relative” cap – which would link standard tariffs to the cheapest deals by capping the differential between the highest and lowest price an energy company can charge.

Speaking of Eurovision, as we were a bit earlier, don’t forget the first semi-final is on BBC4 live from Kiev right now.

And if you want to know what the song contest means in today’s Europe, read this:

Guardian reporter Ben Quinn adds:

The twittersphere is agog with reaction to Philip May’s first broadcast interview appearance on the One Show. These tweets from the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope sum up rather nicely what he and Theresa May “revealed”:

Updated

Both Philip and Theresa May agreed it was love at first sight when they were introduced at an Oxford University student disco by mutual friend Benazir Bhutto - who went on to become prime minister of Pakistan.

Asked for his first impressions of the woman who would become his wife, Philip said: “What a lovely girl!” And he gallantly added: “And she still is.”

Asked by presenter Alex Jones whether he “fancied her instantly”, Mr May replied: “Absolutely, it was love at first sight.”

Mrs May chimed in: “Likewise.”

Asked why there has been such a strong focus on her rather than the Conservative party in the campaign thus far, Theresa May manages to get not one but two mentions of her catchphrase in.

This election is about having a “strong and stable government, strong and stable leadership”, she says.

Philip May might have let a cat out of the bag: his wife had wanted to be prime minister since she was a member of the shadow cabinet.

He also says Theresa had been keen to stand as a local councillor, which was the start of her political career.

Theresa May says she had wanted to be an MP since her school days: “It’s always been about making a difference ... help people to get on and have a better future.”

And now to the first segment proper of Theresa and Philip May’s appearance on the One Show.

Presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones begin by asking the PM about growing up a vicarage and what values that instilled in her. She says it taught her to “take people as you find them and treat everyone equally”, adding: “Life in a vicarage is different.”

The prime minister also reveals that her parents encouraged her to “get on and do your best” whatever job she was doing.

The first question to Philip is about his father’s career - he spent his whole career working for a footwear company, from the 1940s to his retirement in the 1980s.

Theresa May tried a joke when she appeared on The One Show with her husband, Philip, in his first broadcast interview.

Asked by presenter Alex Jones whether the UK was leaving the Eurovision song contest as well as the EU, the prime minister responded, after a brief pause, with a slightly surprised sounding “no”.

She then added: “I’m not sure how many votes we’ll get.”

Philip and Theresa May on The One Show
Philip and Theresa May on The One Show. Photograph: BBC

Updated

As their election tour continues, John Harris and John Domokos watch the Labour party lose in Lancashire. Public services may have been ravaged by austerity, but the Conservatives appear to be on a roll. As children’s centres, libraries and buses are axed, even a passionate local anti-cuts campaigner cannot stop the blue surge. So what’s going on?

Cuts, anger, frustration – and Labour still can’t break through

Jeremy Corbyn sings along with busker Dan Hetfield in Ashton-Under-Lyne.
Jeremy Corbyn sings along with busker Dan Hetfield in Ashton-Under-Lyne. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Jeremy Corbyn has joined a busker for a rendition of Stand By Me after a marketplace rally in Greater Manchester.

The Labour leader sang along as Dan Hetfield strummed on his Union Jack-patterned acoustic guitar in front of supporters in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The crowd joined in and gave the pair a rousing reception after a stump speech in which Corbyn railed against his vision of “Tory Britain”, where public services are ravaged by cuts. He promised Labour would build a country “for the many, not the few”.

The event followed Labour battle bus visits to Salford and Wythenshawe on the first official day of the party’s general election campaign.

The Lib Dems have offered their two cents worth on Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal - seven times - to answer whether a bad Brexit deal could be rejected and thus let Britain stay in the EU.

The party’s shadow foreign secretary, Tom Brake, says:

“This is Corbyn’s Michael Howard moment, refusing repeatedly to answer a straight question. Labour is refusing to give people the final say no matter how bad the Brexit deal on offer. The Liberal Democrats’ position is clear: we think you should have the final say in a referendum, and if you don’t like the deal you should have the choice to remain in the European Union.”

Afternoon summary

  • Labour has confirmed that the UK will leave the EU if it wins the election, after Corbyn repeatedly refused to give that assurance in a BBC interview. (See 3.44pm.)
  • Corbyn has disowned a claim he made in an interview yesterday that he intended to stay on as Labour leader even if he lost the election. (See 4.21pm.)
  • Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool, has effectively accused the party of cronyism after the party blocked him from being the Labour candidate for a safe Labour seat in the city and selected a far less prominent and less local assistant to the Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, instead. (See 4.39pm.)
  • Miliband, the former Labour leader, has criticised the Tory version of his energy price cap plan. Speaking to ITV News, he said:

I think the real thing is always better than the imitation. We’ve had year after year of rising bills under the Conservatives. Now they’ve come up with a policy which Theresa May admitted this afternoon can’t guarantee that energy bills won’t carry on rising. I’m afraid it’s a price con not a price cap ...

If they were going to copy my idea, Theresa May should have done a much better job of it than she’s done because, looking at the detail and the fine print, they’re not guaranteeing that there won’t be a rise in prices as we did, they are saying somebody else has got to make that judgement. So she certainly can’t be promising money off bills or even actually that prices won’t carry on going up.

  • May has refused to rule out increasing national insurance contributions if she wins the general election. (See 2.09pm.)
  • May has said that she backs fox hunting and that she would give MPs a free vote on repealing the Hunting Act. (See 3.52pm.)

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Chris Johnston is now taking over.

Dan Carden, whose father was a trade unionist who lost his jobs in the 1995 Liverpool dockers’ strike, said being selected for Liverpool Walton was “the proudest moment of my life”. (See 4.39pm.)

“It’s the pinnacle of a journey I could not have dreamed of,” he said.

When my dad first explained to me, when I was just eight years old, that he had been sacked for refusing to cross a picket line, this lit the flame in me that has fired my dedication to the service of working people.

I am 30 years old, from a different generation with different experiences but I know that only Labour is on our side. I’m ambitious for what the Labour Party can do for our people, for this country as a whole. Only a Labour government will transform our economy, redistribute wealth fairly from the few to the many and give hope to communities like ours.

Carden joined the Labour party when still at school and then went to work for Knowsley MP George Howarth after university, before working for the Unite leadership over the last five years.

Unite had no comment, as the selection is a matter for the Labour party.

Last night BuzzFeed published a lengthy interview with Jeremy Corbyn, carried out by its political editor, Jim Waterson. It was interesting, candid and relatively sympathetic.

But it was headlined on Corbyn’s comment about staying on even if Labour lost the election and this has angered Corbyn’s team who have told BuzzFeed they will retaliate. It has written a story headlined: “BuzzFeed News Has Been Denied Access To Campaign Events After Our Interview With The Labour Leader.” Here is an extract.

A BuzzFeed News reporter covering Labour’s campaign launch in Manchester on Tuesday was told she could not join the leader on campaign stops in the afternoon. An aide told her BuzzFeed News was not invited and implied it was as a result of the interview, which led on Corbyn’s comment that he would “stay leader of this party” regardless of the election results.

Political editor Jim Waterson, who carried out the interview, then contacted Corbyn’s spokesperson to find out why we had not been invited to the campaign stops. A senior Corbyn aide told him that BuzzFeed News would now find its access limited because the interview had disrupted media coverage of Labour’s launch event, that we had not informed Corbyn’s team in advance of the headline we intended to run, and that we had press released the interview to other media organisations who then chose to pick it up.

In his interview with the BBC Corbyn also denied telling BuzzFeed that he would stay on as leader even if Labour lost the election. (See 4.21pm.)

But that is not correct. BuzzFeed has released audio and a transcript of the relevant part of the interview, and Corbyn was clearly responding to a question about what would happen if Labour lost.

A political analyst, Prof James Mitchell, has challenged suggestions last week’s council elections has greatly boosted the chances of Scotland’s pro-UK parties, Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems, winning back large numbers of seats from the Scottish National party in June’s general election.

Data on the votes cast in Thursday’s vote implied the SNP were performing far below their recent opinion polls ratings of about 44%, gaining just 32% of first0 preference votes against 25% for the Tories, 20% for Labour and 7% for the Lib Dems, under the single transferrable vote system used in council elections.

With the pro-independence Scottish Greens winning just 4%, that implies the pro-UK vote in Scotland stands at a strong 52% against 36% for pro-independence parties. The Electoral Management Board Scotland data also showed far higher turnout in affluent councils - areas where the Tories in particular hope to beat the SNP on 8 June.

Tory target seats East Renfrewshire had the highest turnout of 58% and Perth and Kinross 54%, with Lib Dem target seat East Dunbartonshire at 56%. In contrast, Glasgow - where the SNP is now the largest party - recorded the lowest turnout of 39%. Dundee, Scotland’s second “yes city” in the 2014 independence campaign, had a 42% turnout, also below the Scottish average of 47%.

However, the Scottish council elections included 10.5% votes for independent, unaligned candidates who won 13.7% of the seats. Mitchell, professor of chair of public policy at Edinburgh university, said it was dangerous to assume first preference votes in council elections where candidates compete in multi-member wards were comparable to Westminster’s very different first past the post system. While the high turnout was interesting, council elections had to be treated carefully. Given the SNP won 32% of first preferences in 2012, last week’s 32% for the SNP “would suggest to me the opinion polls [for the SNP] are probably about right. This is a standstill result [but] they will lose seats on 8 June. The danger is that the Tories are over-hyping things at the moment.”

Ben Williams, secretary of Liverpool Walton constituency Labour party, says he will resign over the decision to select Dan Carden as Labour’s candidate. (See 4.39pm.) He says it is a “disgraceful, undemocratic stitch-up”.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party co-leader, has said her party will turn its back on “progressive alliances” after Labour expelled three members who backed a progressive candidate, the Press Association reports.

Lucas said the Labour and Liberal Democrat stance has “betrayed the people they represent” by failing to properly consider electoral pacts between broadly left-wing parties.

Her comments came after Labour members in South West Surrey were expelled for backing Louise Irvine, a GP who is standing for the National Health Action (NHA) party against health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Steve Williams, a former Labour parliamentary candidate and member of his local party’s executive committee, told the Press Association he was “very disappointed” to have been expelled for trying to unseat Hunt.

Lucas said: “Labour and the Lib Dems defied their own members on the ground - and the time has now come for the Greens to focus entirely on winning votes up and down the country.”

She said Labour refused to even meet with the Greens to discuss these alliances, while the Lib Dems were only willing to engage at arm’s length.

“Having done what we can, our focus is now entirely on winning votes up and down the country - and sending more MPs to Parliament on June 8,” said Lucas.

“The other parties have proved in recent weeks that they aren’t fit for the modern political age.”

Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot’s story about the expulsion of the three Labour members backing the NHA party in South West Surrey.

And here is a picture of the so-called “Godalming three”, posted by one of them.

Theresa May speaks to workers and members of the media during a general election campaign meeting at a door manufacturer’s company in Leeds.
Theresa May speaks to workers and members of the media during a general election campaign meeting at a door manufacturer’s company in Leeds. Photograph: Phil Noble/AFP/Getty Images

Labour mayor of Liverpool accuses party of cronyism after safe seat gifted to Unite official

Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool, has put out a statement saying that the decision not to chose him as Labour’s candidate for Liverpool Walton shows the party “is not always a meritocracy”. Despite his record as Labour leader on the council, taking the party back to power, and as a twice-elected mayor, Labour chose Dan Carden, an aide to the Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, instead. (See 3.32pm.)

Liverpool Walton is Labour’s safest seat by one measure. Carden grew up in the city but, as the Liverpool Echo reports, is a relative unknown compared to Anderson, the leading figure in local government in the city. But Carden does work for McCluskey, Jeremy Corbyn’s most important ally in the union movement.

Effectively Anderson is accusing the party of cronyism. Here is is statement.

Updated

Corbyn steps back from saying he will stay on as leader even if Labour loses

In his BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg Jeremy Corbyn also stepped back from the suggestion in his BuzzFeed interview that he would stay on as Labour leader even if he lost the election. (See 9.47am.)

Here is the key excerpt from the interview.

LK: Your closest political colleague John McDonnell said it was inevitable that you and he would resign if you lose at a general election. Is he right. Would you resign?

JC: We’re planning to win the general election so the question doesn’t arise.

LK: Well the question arose …

JC: The question doesn’t arise.

LK: ... when John McDonnell said it and you told a different media outlet that you would stay on.

JC: The question, the question doesn’t arise because we’re campaigning this election to win it.

LK: You have told other media outlets that you would stay on if you lose.

JC: No I told them I would carry on as leader because we’ll have won the election by then.

LK: So you will carry on as leader even if you lose?

JC: Listen, we’re in this campaign to win it. We’re in this campaign to get support for the policies that we’ve put forward and we’ve had a huge increase in party membership even since the election started and a massive numbers of people coming forward wanting to be part of our campaign.

Corbyn claimed that in his interview with BuzzFeed (the “other media outlet”), when he talked about staying on as Labour leader, he was talking about in the event of Labour winning. But that is not how BuzzFeed reported it. (See 9.47am.)

Updated

Sir Roger Gale, a Conservative party vice chairman and a patron of Conservatives Against Fox Hunting, said it was a mistake for his party to promise a free vote on the repeal of the Hunting Act. He told the Press Association:

I cannot see many Conservative votes for fox hunting in marginal seats we are hoping to win ... We have more than enough to occupy parliamentary time with Brexit and all that follows. In my view, it’d be folly to waste further time on the issue.

Labour’s plan extending free school meals to all primary pupils in England would cost £950m a year, but might not deliver the promised gains, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says in a short briefing today. Here’s an excerpt.

Universal free school meals can improve attainment in some circumstances. A 2012 pilot study by IFS researchers and others found that Year 6 students in Newham and Durham, where all primary children were offered free school lunches, made around two months’ additional progress over a two-year period compared to similar children in other areas. In this observation we argue that extending the policy nationwide would come at a significant cost and might not lead to similar gains. Other policies, such as offering free breakfast clubs (as is the case in Wales and as trialled in England) might be a cheaper and more effective way to improve both education and health outcomes.

May backs fox hunting and says Tory government would give MPs free vote on repealing ban

Theresa May has confirmed that, if the Conservatives win the election, it will allow a free vote on lifting the ban on fox hunting. Speaking at the event earlier in West Yorkshire she said:

This is a situation on which individuals will have one view or the other, either pro or against.

As it happens personally I have always been in favour of fox hunting and we maintain out commitment - we have had a commitment previously as a Conservative party - to allow a free vote.

And that’s what it will allow, would allow, parliament the opportunity to take a decision on this.

Allowing a free vote has been Tory policy for some years but, even though the government has been Conservative-led or Conservative since 2010, hunting supporters have not pressed for a vote because there have not been enough pro-hunting MPs in the Commons for them to win. But a big Conservative victory next month could change that. Today’s Daily Mirror quotes Lord Mancroft, chairman of the Council of Hunting Associations, as saying that a majority of 50 or more would give them “a real opportunity” to repeal the Hunting Act.

Labour confirms UK will leave EU if party wins the election

The Labour rebuttal unit has been in action again this afternoon - rebutting, or at least clarifying, what Jeremy Corbyn was saying earlier. If Labour wins the election, the UK will leave the EU, aides to the Labour leader say.

This is not the first time aides have had to tidy up after a Corbyn interview. Last month the party had to confirm that Labour was committed to renewing Trident after Corbyn gave an interview to Andrew Marr that suggested there might be a possibility of a rethink.

Tim Farron had continued in the fine but niche tradition of Lib Dem leaders climbing aboard hovercrafts on the campaign trail, taking the orange vessel for a spin in Burnham-on-Sea.

Farron and Wells candidate Tessa Munt made a series of u-turns on the beach, though avoided taking the hovercraft out to sea. The vessel was captained by volunteers from BARB, the local search and rescue operation.

“We’re leaving the EU, so no health and safety,” Farron joked as he climbed into the hovercraft.

Farron is the latest of a number of Liberal leaders to use the transport as an election stunt. The former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe lead a rather more ambitious hovercraft expedition in 1974, touring the southwest coast on a hovercraft and disembarking to canvass the then-liberal heartlands.

Nick Clegg also took a turn in the Burnham-on-Sea hovercraft in 2008, before his rather more prominent about-turn in coalition as deputy prime minister.

Updated

Dan Carden, an aide to the Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, has been selected as Labour’s candidate in Liverpool Walton. There will be a row about this because, as Rowena Mason wrote earlier (see 3.24pm), activists in the constituencies wanted someone more local.

Tory HQ is furious about Michael Crick’s tweets. (See 2.31pm.) One senior source said the party does decide in advance which news organisations will get to ask questions, but that it only does this to ensure that questions are shared around fairly between different papers. Newspapers that get left out one day are included another day, the source.

But what CCHQ is really angry about is the suggestion in one Crick tweet that reporters get banned from asking questions if they don’t declare in advance what they are going to ask. A senior figure said that the party doesn’t, and wouldn’t, do this. Colleagues who spend more time at these events than I do also say the Crick story does not fit with their experience.

Crick quotes an unnamed reporter who told him otherwise. Press officers do sometimes ask what topics reporters intend to raise, and so perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Alternatively, there may have been an over-zealous aide on one occasion going beyond the wishes of CCHQ.

Labour is facing a local revolt in Liverpool over the shortlisting of an aide to Unite general secretary Len McCluskey for one of the party’s safest seats vacated by the city region’s new mayor, Steve Rotheram.

Dan Carden, who works for McCluskey, is one on a shortlist of three Labour candidates, which also includes Joe Anderson, Liverpool’s longstanding local council chief, and Theresa Griffin, a northwest MEP who was a local councillor in the city.

Carden grew up in Liverpool but senior figures in Liverpool Labour politics have mounted an attempt to stop him winning the seat, as the party’s national executive committee (NEC) meets to interview candidates on Tuesday afternoon.

The Guardian understands a group of dozens of local Liverpool councillors and local members have written to the NEC ahead of the selection, demanding that someone with a “proven track record of representing the people in our area” is selected for the seat

“Liverpool Walton is one of the safest Labour seats in the Country but we must never take a single vote for granted,” wrote the members, who include Ben Williams, secretary of Liverpool Walton’s constituency Labour party. “Local residents deserve to be represented by a member of our community rather than by someone imposed... The extraordinary situation of the snap general election means that the NEC has been forced to move quickly to select Labour candidates. However this doesn’t mean local concerns should be sidelined.”

Updated

Transcript of Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly refusing to say UK certain to leave EU under Labour

Here is the relevant passage from the BBC transcript in full where Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly refused to say if the UK was certain to leave the EU if Labour won the election. Corbyn (JC) was being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg (LK).

LK: Jeremy Corbyn let’s start with Brexit because if you become prime minister it will be the biggest task in front of you. You said today Brexit is settled. Does that mean if you’re prime minister, come hell or high water, whatever the deal on the table, we will be leaving the European Union?

JC: Look there’s a clear vote in the referendum a year ago. But there is now the negotiations which have already begun. I sent a letter to President Elect Macron last night congratulating him on his election and also setting out in broad terms what our aims are in these negotiations: To have good relations with Europe of course, secondly to make sure there is a trade access, a tariff free trade access, to European markets. Thirdly, that we will of course protect the rights of EU nationals living in Britain which we will do straight away and that we will also ensure that the regulations that we got from the European Union such as Working Time Directive and employment conditions will be defended and maintained. It has to be put very clearly.

LK: That is what you would hope to achieve. But on that specific point if you say Brexit is settled whatever happens in the negotiations - however well or badly they go - we would be leaving if you were prime minister.

JC: We will go into the negotiations with the determination to achieve what I’ve just outlined. And it’s not a one-off meeting, it’s not a one-off discussion. It also involves relations with all the governments across Europe in every one of the member states as well as their parliaments and the European governments and the commission.

LK: But forgive me Jeremy Corbyn that’s not quite my question. My question is if you’re prime minister we will leave come hell or high water whatever is on the table at the end of the negotiations?

JC: We win the election we’ll get the good deal with Europe. A good deal with Europe that will ensure that the very large number of manufacturing jobs in Britain that rely on trade with Europe won’t suddenly find themselves under World Trade Organization rules where there’ll be a tariff wall put up immediately around this country.

LK: But on that specific point Jeremy Corbyn few few can predict how the negotiations will go either for Theresa May...

JC: The specific point is we’re negotiating to gain that market access to Europe.

LK: But you won’t say then that we might potentially stay or we might... just to be completely clear because people will want to know this. If you’re prime minister we will leave whatever happens?

JC: People know that there’s been a referendum and a decision was made a year ago. We’ve set out very clear our terms for negotiations. Keir Starmer has built those relationships across Europe and that is what we’ll be pursuing in the European Union. I don’t know any more than you do exactly what is going to happen in the future on this, but I do know we are not approaching this from megaphone diplomacy. We’re not approaching this from threats. We’re not proposing to set up some kind of tax haven on the shores of the European Union. We’re serious about these negotiations.

LK: But forgive me Jeremy Corbyn this is a very important point to lots of people. As you say, we don’t know what will happen in the negotiations. If you are prime minister can you categorically say that we would definitely leave because if you won’t there is a chink of a possibility that things could change and we might end up looking differently at our options.

JC: The danger is of the approach the Conservatives are taking in their megaphone diplomacy with Europe and approaching the whole thing as though what you’ve got to do is shout loud and be abusive to people across the Channel. Our view is you have to talk to them, negotiate with them and recognise there is actually quite a lot of common interest, particularly in manufacturing industry. That is the process we’re following.

LK: So you won’t you won’t address that point specifically?

JC: We are negotiating a trade arrangement with Europe and protection of the things that we’ve gained from the European Union.

The Telegraph’s Steven Swinford says the BBC transcript shows Jeremy Corbyn refusing seven times to confirm that the UK will definitely leave the EU if Labour wins. (See 2.36pm.)

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, who conducted the interview, says she asked the question five times.

Just to make things confusing, by my count Kuenssberg put the question six times.

Whatever, Corbyn was repeatedly asked to confirm that the UK would definitely leave the EU if Labour won the election, and did not once answer with a clear yes.

Corbyn repeatedly refuses to say UK certain to leave EU if Labour wins election

The BBC has just released the transcript of an interview that Jeremy Corbyn gave to Laura Kuenssberg.

Here is one of the highlights. I will post a full summary soon.

Updated

Q: You said we will leave the EU. Will EU nationals be allowed to stay afterwards?

May thanks EU workers here for their contribution. And she says she hopes to reach an early agreement guaranteeing that EU nationals can stay in the UK after Brexit, and that Britons in other EU countries can stay too.

Theresa May's factory Q&A

Theresa May is now doing a Q&A with workers at a factory in West Yorkshire.

Presumably employees won’t be subject to the same rules that apply to journalists, as described by Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick.

UPDATE: Tory HQ is furious about Michael Crick’s tweets. One senior source said the party does decide in advance which news organisations will get to ask questions, but that it only does this to ensure that questions are shared around fairly between different papers. Newspapers that get left out one day are included another day, the source.

But what CCHQ is really angry about is the suggestion in one Crick tweet that reporters get banned from asking questions if they don’t declare in advance what they are going to ask. A senior figure said that the party doesn’t, and wouldn’t, do this. Colleagues who spend more time at these events than I do also say the Crick story does not fit with their experience.

Crick quotes an unnamed reporter who told him otherwise. Press officers do sometimes ask what topics reporters intend to raise, and so perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Alternatively, there may have been an over-zealous aide on one occasion going beyond the wishes of CCHQ.

Updated

Corbyn says he would oppose Nato request for more UK troops in Afghanistan

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested he would oppose sending fresh British troops to Afghanistan, as Nato has requested, telling journalists it would not help to resolve the conflict.

Speaking after he launched Labour’s general election campaign bus, Corbyn said:

I want to see a peace settlement in Afghanistan, I was opposed to the deployment of troops in the first place in Afghanistan, I think we have to look at promoting political stability in Afghanistan, and we will look at that request when it comes.

Asked if British troops had undermined stability in Afghanistan, he said:

I think British troops have suffered a great deal in Afghanistan and I’ve spoken to many troops who have been through awful, awful situations there, and they want to see a secure political solution in Afghanistan. At the end of the day, wars are not solved by the presence of foreign troops, they’re solved by political solutions, that’s what I believe.

The Labour leader refused to reopen the question of whether he will step down, if the party loses the general election.

On Monday, Corbyn said he would be “carrying on” but asked about it again, he said:

I think we’ll win this election: that’s the only question.

An aide then said: “Moving on...”.

Corbyn also dismissed the idea that Labour-supporting voters should vote tactically for other parties, including the LibDems and the Greens, in a so-called “progressive alliance” to limit the size of the Tory majority. He said:

We’re a party that covers the whole country, and I want people all over the country to have the chance to vote Labour, which they’ve got. There are Labour candidates all over the country, and I want people to vote Labour, for the policies we’ll bring forward, which will change this country, which will produce more opportunity, more equality wherever you are. So vote Labour wherever you are.

Jeremy Corbyn with the shadow cabinet after his speech at the Labour campaign launch.
Jeremy Corbyn with the shadow cabinet after his speech at the Labour campaign launch. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

McDonnell claims Tories will increase national insurance if they win election

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that Theresa May’s comments about national insurance (see 1.41pm) suggest the Tories will put up national insurance if they win the election. In a statement he said:

Theresa May has once again failed to rule out more national insurance contribution increases. There is already a £2bn black hole in the Budget from when the Tories tried to sneak through a hike in NICs only a month ago, and it is becoming clear they are looking to try to go ahead with this tax hike if they’re re-elected next month.

The Tories still won’t rule out further tax rises on those with low and middle incomes and are a threat to working people.

Labour’s personal tax guarantee rules out rises in national insurance contributions, VAT and income taxes for the 95%. Labour is now the party of low taxes for the many and not the few.

Theresa May's Q&A - Summary

Jeremy Corbyn did not take questions immediately after his speech, although he did do a round of broadcast interviews and, I gather, is speaking to print journalists too. Theresa May did take questions after her stump speech this morning, although, given the thoroughness and accuracy of some of her replies, that might not have been a big bonus.

Here are the key points.

  • May refused to rule out increasing national insurance contributions (NICs). Asked specifically if she would match Labour, which has promised not to raise employee NICs, she said that it was not her intention to put up tax but that she would not make commitments she could not be sure of keeping. She said:

It is not our intention to increase the level of tax but I’m not going to make any tax commitments that we are not absolutely sure we can keep. But our instinct is to reduce taxes on working families.

She said the Conservatives always had been and always would be a low tax party. In contrast, she claimed that in the past Jeremy Corbyn talked about raising the basic rate of tax to 25p in the pound. (At this election Labour has committed to not raising income tax for anyone on less than £80,000.)

No. First of all, we are Conservatives. We believe in free markets and competition, but we want to see competition working.

  • She falsely claimed that her proposal was different from Miliband’s, claiming Miliband was proposing a price freeze that would have stopped prices going up or down. When it was put to her that her plan was the same as Labour’s in 2015, she replied:

You are wrong. Ed Miliband didn’t suggest a cap on energy prices. Ed Miliband suggested a freeze on energy prices that would have frozen them so people paying above the odds would have continued to pay above the odds and, crucially, the prices could not have gone down. Under our cap, prices will be able to go down.

But it is May who is wrong. The Labour 2015 manifesto (pdf) said:

Labour will freeze energy bills until 2017, ensuring that bills can fall but not rise ...

See 8.34am for more details.

  • She refused to confirm that energy bills would definitely go down under her plan. She implied they would, but could not be definite. Asked about this, she said:

What we are talking about is a cap on energy prices that will be set by an independent regulator and that will be a reflection of the market. Crucially it will be possible for that cap to move. But the independent regulator will set it.

But the key thing is that people are clearly paying too much for their energy bills today.

  • She refused to say whether or not some cabinet ministers were opposed to the plan to impose a cap on energy prices.
Theresa May speaking to supporters in York.
Theresa May speaking to supporters in York. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Updated

Here is some more comment on the Corbyn speech from journalists.

From ITV’s Daniel Hewitt

From the Manchester Evening News’ Jennifer Williams

From the Times’ Sam Coates

From the Mail’s James Tapsfield

Q: Will you join a campaign against fake news?

May says we all want to see accurate reporting.

A lot of people put a lot of faith in local papers, she says.

She says a free press is one of the important pillars of our democracy.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: Labour says it won’t raise national insurance. Can you give that assurance? And what is your message for high earner?

May says the Conservatives believe in low taxes. But she will only make promises she can keep.

She says Labour’s instinct is always to raise taxes.

She says Corbyn has talked in the past about raising income tax to 25p.

  • May refuses to commit to not increasing national insurance.

May's Q&A

Q: Did anyone in your cabinet oppose the energy cap? And are you guaranteeing that prices will go down?

May says the CMA said customers were paying £1.4bn more than they would have done if the energy market were truly competitive.

The cap will be reflective of the market. It will be set by the regulator and it will move.

But the crucial thing is that people are paying too much now.

(May dodges both the questions that were asked.)

Q: David Cameron said Ed Miliband was living in an Marxist universe when he proposed this. Are you living in a Marxist universe?

May says Miliband was proposing a freeze. Prices would not have been able to go down. Under the Tory plan prices will be able to go down.

(May is just wrong about this - see 8.34am.)

May repeats the point that she made yesterday about why Emmanuel Macron winning a big majority boosts the need for her to get a big mandate.

(It is a rather tenuous point - see here.)

She also repeats the line she used yesterday asking people to imagine Jeremy Corbyn conducting the Brexit negotiations.

And, just as she did yesterday, she urges candidates to work flat out for a Conservative victory.

Theresa May's speech in York

Theresa May is speaking at an election event in York.

My colleague Frances Perraudin is there.

Jeremy Corbyn's speech - Verdict

That may have been Jeremy Corbyn’s best speech as Labour leader. It did not feel as if it was transformative - in fact, it contained almost nothing that counts as hard news (a statement of something we didn’t know) - but it made the case for change and for social justice with a measure of clarity and simplicity (and brevity) that previous speeches have lacked.

It was full-on socialist populism, depicting Britain as a country, where politics and the economy are “rigged” in the interests of the few and where the election provides Labour with an opportunity to bring about a moment of “reckoning” for the “tax cheats, rip off bosses, greedy bankers” and other assorted villains of neo-liberalism.

Conventionally elections are fought by appealing to the supposed “middle ground”. And perhaps there are enough people in Britain who share Corbyn’s outrage at injustice and inequality (notice how in the speech “Monsieur Zen” [see 9.47am] became Mr Angry [see 11.40am]). But last week’s local election results suggest otherwise, and it was hard to see what was in the speech to make those people who are already sceptical about Corbyn’s Labour think again.

But Labour supporters will love it. The speech was almost entirely focused on domestic issues (he did not mention defence or foreign policy, which are the areas where he had serious policy differences with mainstream Labour MPs) and it was a speech around which the party can unite. It will be seen as one intended to shore up the “core vote”, probably with a view not just to what happens on 8 June, but to what happens afterwards.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at his campaign launch in Manchester.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking at his campaign launch in Manchester. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Updated

Here is the passage from Jeremy Corbyn’s speech where he talked about how the Sunday Times rich list showed that Britain’s richest people have seen their wealth rise by 14% in the last year.

But Britain is a rich country – the sixth richest in the world.

We caught a glimpse of that wealth only two days ago when Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times published its Rich List.

In the last year, Britain’s 1,000 richest people have seen their wealth rise by 14 per cent to £658 billion – that’s nearly six times the budget of our NHS.

Imagine the outcry if public sector workers put in for a 14 per cent pay rise.

But it’s no surprise that the richest have got even richer after the tens of billions the Tories have handed them in tax cuts.

That’s what we mean when we say the system is rigged for the rich.

So thanks for making that clear, Mr Murdoch – though I imagine it’s the only help you will give us in this campaign.

Updated

The event has now wrapped up. Jeremy Corbyn did not take questions.

I will post a summary shortly.

The shadow cabinet are now joining Jeremy Corbyn on stage as the applause continues.

Corbyn is now on his peroration.

Don’t wake on up on 9 June to see celebrations from the tax cheats, the press barons, the greedy bankers, Philip Green, the Southern Rail directors and crooked financiers that take our wealth, who have got away with it because the party they own, the Conservative Party, has won.

We have four weeks to ruin their party. We have four weeks to have a chance to take our wealth back.

We have four weeks to show what kind of country we are. We know that the people of Britain don’t pass by on the other side. That is the principle we will take into government so that we can unlock every person’s potential and everyone can make their best contribution to our society.

We have four weeks to win and transform Britain for the many not the few.

We must seize that chance.

Thank you.

'Enough is enough' - Corbyn's message to 'tax cheats, rip off bosses and greedy bankers'

Corbyn says Labour wants to transform Britain for the many, not the few.

When we win, the British people win. The nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker win.

Labour is offering a real choice, a real alternative to the rigged system holding us back and to the Conservatives who are running our country down.

The economy is still rigged in favour of the rich and powerful.

And he says there will be a “reckoning” for those who have exploited the system when Labour wins.

When Labour wins there will be a reckoning for those who thought they could get away with asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed and ripping off workers and consumers.

When did the Conservatives – David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Boris Johnson - ever stand up to their financial backers and demand our money back?

Never and they never will.

Instead, they make others foot the bill – they make our nurses, our carers, our soldiers, our disabled, our young people trying to get a home of their own, our elderly looking for dignity in retirement and those working hard to get on, foot the bill.

It makes me angry. And I know it makes the people of Britain angry too.

So today, I say to tax cheats, the rip off bosses, the greedy bankers; enough is enough.

In this election, Labour is standing for decent jobs, investment for the future, shared wealth creation, security at work, affordable homes for all, a fully funded NHS and schools, training and skills, an end to rip-off privatisation, fair taxation and a fairer, more equal country.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Corbyn sets out his plan to transform Britain

Corbyn uses the line briefed in advance about how the election is not about Brexit and about how “that issue has been settled”.

And he turns to Labour’s plan.

Labour’s plan to transform Britain will mean:

A big deal to upgrade the economy: new infrastructure to support the industries of the future. And an investment in training and skills to equip our workforce to compete globally.

It means rebuilding our NHS and social care services with the funding they need.

It means building a million homes to rent and buy.

And it means tackling the scandal of air pollution which contributes to 40,000 deaths per year.

We won’t be paying lip-service to working people.

We will introduce a comprehensive programme to strengthen rights at work, make sure new jobs are good jobs, and end the race to the bottom in pay, conditions and job security.

Low pay and insecurity have spread like an epidemic under the Tories.

Labour will invest in skills and jobs, and take action to enforce a floor under employment standards across the board – so that all jobs are decent jobs, so that all workers – the true wealth creators - can play their part in transforming Britain and benefit fully from it.

Updated

Corbyn says Theresa May claims to be on the side of working people.

But does she think people will forget how the Tories have actually treated working people?

It was this Tory leader who sat alongside David Cameron in government for six years.

She was with him when they introduced the bedroom tax.

What’s remotely fair about the bedroom tax? What was fair about racking up tuition fees? Or about taking benefits away from people with disabilities?

Or about closing Sure Start Centres. Or starving schools of cash. Or opening up the NHS to be feasted on by profiteers.

(I am using the text released by Labour. Corbyn is making some minor additions as he goes on, but he is not diverging from the text on substance.)

Corbyn says Labour will draw a line under three decades of privatisation

Corbyn says Labour is under attack because it is drawing a line under “three decades of privatisation”.

Our Westminster system is broken and our economy is rigged. Both are run in the interests of the few.

Labour is under attack because we are standing up to the elites who are determined to hijack Brexit to pay even less tax and take even more of the wealth we all create.

Labour is under attack because we are standing up to the corporate interests plundering our NHS. How much more will be privatised if the Tories get another five years?

We’re drawing a line. Three decades of privatisation – from energy and rail to health and social care – has made some people very rich but it has not delivered richer lives for the majority.

Updated

Corbyn says he is not expecting Murdoch to give Labour any more help during the election.

Change always provokes opposition, he says.

Change always involves taking on vested interests.

And there is a real danger that the Tories’ fearmongering and spin machine will make some people settle for less than they should. Resign themselves to things the way they are - underestimating just how many more burdens the Tories could impose if their mission to rig the system for the rich isn’t halted.

He says people are being held back, like families who cannot get their children into decent schools, or people who cannot afford to buy a home, or people who cannot pursue their retirement dreams because they are supporting adult children.

He says the Sunday Times rich list on Sunday showed the 1,000 richest people saw their wealth rise by 14% over the last year. Imagine the outcry if public sector workers applied for a 14% pay rise.

But it is no surprise. The Tories have given tax cuts to rich. That is what people mean when they say the system is rigged. So thanks, Rupert Murdoch, for making that plain, he says.

Updated

Corbyn says it is fantastic to be launching the campaign in Manchester. Manchester shows the way in many things, as it did when it elected Andy Burnham as mayor.

Burnham takes the stage and joins Corbyn briefly.

Think how much more Burnham could achieve with a Labour government, he says.

Corbyn says Britain can be transformed. It does not have to be like this.

He is now using some of the material briefed earlier. See 10.56am.

Jeremy Corbyn's speech

Jeremy Corbyn is speaking now.

Or trying to - but the applause is going on too long.

The actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, from Coronation Street and Broadchurch, is speaking now.

She says she had never felt as excited about politics as she did when Jeremy Corbyn became leader.

She says Labour politics were finally in tune with her deeply held socialist beliefs.

She says Labour has 30 days to turn things around.

People think politicians are all the same. But they emphatically are not, she says.

We have 30 days to create a fairer society and 30 days to save the NHS, she says.

Let’s turn this mass movement “into a society that truly gives a toss about stuff”, she says.

She says Corbyn has dedicated his life to giving a toss about other people.

Updated

Lavery says Labour will experience setbacks.

But it has to get back up, dust itself down, and carry on with the fight.

The Labour and trade union movement was born in a struggle. They don’t call it a struggle for nothing, he says.

Things can be different. No one has to be held back.

He says they have a moral duty to communicate their message and policies to every town and village in the UK.

Let’s organise, he concludes. “Onwards and upwards.”

Updated

Lavery says it is 2017. This poverty cannot continue. Labour will stand for it no more.

It does not have to be like this, he says.

The Labour manifesto is bold and distinct, he says.

It seeks to protect young people, for example by extending free school meals and brining back the educational maintenance allowance.

And there are policies for old people too, he says, including on tackling the epidemic of loneliness.

And for working people, Labour would introduce a proper living wage.

He says on the BBC last week Theresa May was asked if it was fair that nurses, who have had a 14% pay cut, are having to use food banks. She said the reasons for this are complex. But it is not complex, he says. It is because they don’t have enough money.

Lavery says Labour’s aim is not complex. It is about serving the many not the few, about transforming society, about making people’s lives better.

We cannot continue down the well-trodden Tory path, he says, where a few at the top take all the gains.

An election is about the future of the many not the few.

We are the sixth richest economy in the world, he says. He will not stand for anyone saying we don’t have the finances to look after those at the bottom.

In the last year the top 1,000 richest people got richer by £83bn, while 1m people use food banks.

He won’t take lectures on wealth, he says.

He mentions in a photograph in the Daily Mirror showing a child in hospital lying on two chairs pushed together.

We have seen schools under attack, he says. Yet the prime minister is pursuing a wasteful grammar schools programme.

He says Labour will ban zero-hours contracts.

The Labour event is starting now.

Ian Lavery, the joint Labour election chair, welcomes people to the event.

Manchester is a wonderful city, he says.

He says he is terribly excited about the election and about the party’s policies.

He was a coal miner in the north east. It was a fantastic job, he says. And is proud to be the party’s joint election coordinator.

My colleague Heather Stewart is at the Labour event. She has posted a picture on Twitter of the Labour battlebus.

Here is the extract from Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the event released in advance.

We have four weeks to take our message to voters to convince them Britain can be better. It can be transformed.

We can transform Britain into a country that - instead of being run for the rich - is a one where everyone can lead richer lives.

And I mean richer in every sense. Richer because all of us have potential to fulfil, family to support, interests to pursue, richer when that potential is not held back.

Labour will not allow the Tories to put their party interests ahead of the real national interest, the interests of the British people.

This election isn’t about Brexit itself. That issue has been settled. The question now is what sort of Brexit do we want – and what sort of country do we want Britain to be after Brexit?

Labour wants a jobs-first Brexit, a Brexit that safeguards the future of Britain’s vital industries, a Brexit that paves the way to a genuinely fairer society and an upgraded economy.

When Labour wins, the British people win. The nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker win.

Labour is offering a real choice, a real alternative to the rigged system holding us back and to the Conservatives who are running our country down.

The economy is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful.

When Labour wins there will be a reckoning for those who thought they could get away with asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed and ripping off workers and consumers.

Don’t wake on up on 9 June to see celebrations from the tax cheats, the press barons, the greedy bankers, Philip Green, the Southern Rail directors and crooked financiers that take our wealth, who have got away with it because the party they own, the Conservative party, has won.

We have four weeks to ruin their party. We have four weeks to take our wealth back. We have four weeks to win and transform Britain for the many not the few.

Updated

Labour's general election campaign launch

The Labour general election campaign launch starts at 11am. It is in Manchester, and Jeremy Corbyn is speaking.

(Not to be confused with the manifesto launch, which is expected next week.)

Farron describes Tory energy price cap plan as 'short-term gimmick'

One of the ironies generated by Theresa May’s decision to pinch Ed Miliband’s energy price cap plan is that the Lib Dems now appear to be the only main party still defending the David Cameron stance on this policy (although, obviously, they don’t put it quite like that.) Here’s Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, commenting on the May plan this morning.

Let’s remember what this will mean, the reality is energy prices will go up before this happens, it will mean bad news for the small providers.

The way to get energy prices down is to invest in widening the markets, so you have to get more small players, more competition.

That was working, and it is the Conservative decisions in the last couple of years to undermine those small energy providers which has made prices go through the roof.

This is just a short-term gimmick and nobody believes it.

Tim Farron.
Tim Farron. Photograph: Ken Jack - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

More than a million applications to register to vote have been made since Theresa May called the general election, the Press Association reports.

A total of 1,038,877 applications have been submitted since April 18, almost a third of them from people aged under 25.

Applications from those aged 25 to 34 make up another third.

By contrast, just 1% have come from people aged over 75.

The figures do not necessarily mean one million new voters will be able to take part in the general election, however.

Applicants typically include people checking to see if they are already registered to vote, as well as those who are ineligible.

During the 2015 general election around five million applications to register to vote were made in England and Wales between January 1 and the deadline on April 20 - but the number registered to vote increased by only 1.4m.

What Labour members think about whether Corbyn should stay as leader if the party loses

The debate about whether or not Jeremy Corbyn will, or should, resign if he loses the election is, at this point, still hypothetical.

It is attracting considerable interest in Labour circles, where there is an assumption that Corbyn would be strongly urged to stay on by his leftwing allies, not least because they hope to get conference to pass a rule change in September which would increase the chances of another leftwinger winning the next leadership contest.

But there is a peculiar bluntness and brutality about an election defeat that can make anything said in advance by a leader about staying on if they lose irrelevant. Alex Salmond in 2014 and David Cameron in 2016 provide good examples. It is also the case that having family saying it’s time to end the humiliation (something that applied to Ed Miliband in 2015) can be a factor not anticipated in advance.

Everything will depend on what the landscape looks like on the morning of Friday 9 June. And, of course, it is possible that Labour could be better than expected.

For what it’s worth, we do know what Labour members said about this when they were asked in March. YouGov conducted a survey of Labour members and, when asked if Corbyn should stay as leader if Labour lost the election, they replied:

Continue as leader: 20%

Not continue as leader: 68%

Don’t know: 12%

Even among people who joined the party after Corbyn became leader, 56% said he should stand down if he lost the election. Amongst people who joined before Corbyn became leader, the figure was 87%.

And even amongst members who voted for Corbyn in the 2016 leadership contest, 50% said he should stand down if Labour lost.

The full poll results are here (pdf).

Energy UK, the trade body that represents energy companies, has criticised the Tory plan to cap energy bills. This is from its chief executive, Lawrence Slade.

Today’s announcement effectively risks giving up on competition at a time when we need engaged consumers more than ever.

Change is happening at a rapid pace in the energy sector, with ever-increasing levels of engagement, more choice and improving customer service.

Further intervention risks undermining so many of the positive changes we are seeing in the market which are delivering benefits for consumers ...

The solution is not to distort the market as a whole but see through the market reforms, allow competition to drive innovation and benefits for customers, while ensuring that there is targeted support for those most in need.

In his Today interview Greg Clark, the business secretary, was unable to say that the Conservative energy price cap would definitely lead to prices going down. (See 8.19am.)

That has prompted this tweet from Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader.

Here is my colleague Matthew Weaver’s write-up of the Clark interview.

Corbyn says he will stay on as Labour leader whatever the election result

Here is the BuzzFeed interview where Jeremy Corbyn said he would not resign even if Labour lost the election.

Here is the key quote.

Jeremy Corbyn is enjoying his first general election as Labour leader, and he wants to make something very clear: He intends to remain in the job, even if he isn’t victorious in next month’s vote.

“I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party,” Corbyn told BuzzFeed News, taking a few minutes out from campaigning in the Warwickshire town of Leamington Spa.

No matter what happens on 8 June, he said, he would be “carrying on”. And he insisted that the constant criticism and poor poll ratings were not getting to him. “Monsieur Zen is fine,” he said.

“Monsieur Zen” is a name Corbyn first called himself in public last week.

Labour sources have dismissed talk of what Corbyn might do after the election as a “distraction”, saying they are fully focused on the campaign.

But Corbyn’s comment is generating quite a bit of interest on social media. Here are some of the more interesting Twitter responses.

From James Morris, a former Labour pollster

From the vicar and Guardian columnist Giles Fraser

From the journalist and Guardian contributor Joan Smith

From Adrian McMenamin, a former Labour staffer

From BuzzFeed’s Stuart Millar

From Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

(According to the Guido Fawkes website, Corbyn’s allies have been citing Neil Kinnock in 1987 and James Callaghan in 1979 as precedents for Labour leaders staying on after an election defeat, arguing Corbyn could do the same.)

From the Conservative Michael Fabricant

Labour has come under criticism for selecting a veteran MP to fight Rochdale in the general election rather than a new face, with one 2015 general election candidate describing the choice as “poor”.

Tony Lloyd, 67, who served as MP for Stretford from 1983 to 1997 and then MP for Manchester Central until 2012 when he became Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner, has been chosen over less experienced candidates, with Labour fearful that the incumbent, Simon Danczuk, will stand as an Independent.

Manchester Labour councillor Amina Lone, who lost Morecambe and Lunesdale in 2015 and was recently on the shortlist to contest the Manchester Gorton byelection, tweeted the Labour party: “Very poor decision. Are you incapable of nurturing/supporting new talent. No wonder people have little faith in politics.”

Danczuk, who was barred from standing for Labour after a sexting scandal, will decide in the next day or two whether to fight Lloyd, turning Rochdale into a five-way marginal between him, Labour, the Conservatives, Ukip and the Lib Dems.

Lloyd lost his job on Friday when Andy Burnham was elected mayor of Greater Manchester. Under the terms of the region’s devolution deal, the new metro mayor takes on responsibilities of the police and crime commissioner.

Updated

CBI warns thatTory energy price cap plan could have 'unintended consequences'

The CBI has criticised the Conservatives’ energy price cap plan. This is from its deputy director general, Josh Hardie. He said:

Putting customers at the heart of the energy market is important for everyone.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s thorough two-year investigation identified low levels of consumers switching energy providers as a challenge, and put forward a range of recommendations to address this.

It is important that these measures bed in before looking to further interventions.

A major market intervention, such as a price cap, could lead to unintended consequences, for example dampening consumers’ desire to find the best deal on the market and hitting investor confidence.

Theresa May has written an article for the Sun explaining her proposal for a price cap on energy bills. Here is an extract.

It is clear to me that the energy market is not working for ordinary working families. Too many people simply aren’t getting a fair deal.

I want to pay tribute to the Sun’s tireless campaigning on this issue.

So I am making this promise: if I am re-elected on June 8, I will take action to end this injustice by introducing a cap on unfair energy price rises.

It will protect around 17 million families on standard variable tariffs from being exploited with sudden and unjustified increases in bills.

The cap will be set by the energy watchdog Ofgem and will help close the gap between standard tariffs and the cheapest deals.

I expect it to save families on poor value tariffs as much as £100.

It is part of my determination to stand up for Sun readers and build a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

Voting to leave the EU has put an additional 5p on a litre of petrol, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and now the party’s spokesman on Europe, said motorists were paying the price for the post-referendum slump in the value of the pound.

The Lib Dems said that the average price of a litre of petrol has risen by 7p since the Brexit vote last June. Of that, 2p was due to the increase in the international oil price, with the rest down to the fall in sterling which followed the referendum, the Lib Dems said.

They said the 5p Brexit price rise worked out at £2.50 on a tank of petrol for an average-sized car, or £60 per year for the average motorist.

Clegg said:

Theresa May claims that Brexit is going to be a great success. The reality is it’s going to make us poorer. The effects are already being felt. The rise in fuel costs will push up prices in the shops. This means consumers are going to be hit twice, once at the pump and again at the checkout.

Claire has posted an extract from the Labour manifesto in 2015 which makes it clear that Ed Miliband was proposing an energy price cap that would allow bills to fall but not to rise. Greg Clark implied this morning that the Labour plan would not allow prices to fall. (See 8.19am.) Two weeks ago Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, explicitly said prices would not be able to fall under Labour’s freeze. Miliband accused him of talking “garbage”.

Q: When did you lose your faith in free markets?

Clark says ensuring that markets cannot exploit customers is entirely in keeping with the Conservative tradition.

And that’s it.

Q: Businesses are opposed to getting net migration below 100,000. What do you say to them?

Clark says the government does not want to stop net migration.

The key point is that the UK will have control.

It will design a policy that ensures businesses still have access to labour.

Q: So where are you going to get your reduction from?

Clark says it will come from the UK being able to set its own policy.

Q: But where will you find the reductions? Who is coming that won’t be able to come in future?

Clark says the UK needs to develop skills in this country. Nuclear power is expanding. At the moment skilled workers are being imported. Part of the Hinkley investment involves building a college to develop these skills.

Q: Will you aim to meet this target in the five years of a parliament?

Clark says the details will be in the manifesto.

Clark says, when the government knows some of the most vulnerable people are being charged £1.4bn more than they should, the government has to act.

Q: The big firms have already put their prices up in anticipation of this. So people are paying a price for it already.

Clark says some people actively switch providers. In that market, there is vigorous competition.

But he says, amongst those people who do not switch, the firms exercise “market power”.

Q: Your idea is the same as Labour’s, isn’t it? We were told this would lead to less investment, and prices going up. Those things will happen under your plan.

Clark says Labour’s policy was crude. It was for a freeze. And politicians would have set the level.

He says the Tory policy is based on the findings of a CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) investigation.

Q: But you have gone beyond what the CMA proposed. They just called for a cap for people on pre-payment meters.

Clark says the CMA was in two minds about whether to extend this to other consumers. A minority report said it should.

Q: Can you guarantee that prices will go down.

Clark says that will depend on what is happening to wholesale prices.

He says the energy regulator would decide the cap.

Q: Does the energy regulator have this power?

Clark says the Tories would legislate to give the regulator this power.

Greg Clark's Today interview

Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.

Greg Clark, the business secretary, is being interviewed on Today.

Justin Webb is interviewing him. He starts by playing a clip of David Cameron accusing Ed Miliband of wanting to live in a “Marxist universe” when he proposed something similar.

Q: What is your plan?

Clark says the government is proposing a cap on default tariffs.

Q: That would affect 17m, saving them £100m a year?

Clark says overcharging has been estimated as costing consumers £1.4bn a year.

He says the Competition and Markets Authority has said there is a lack of competition in the industry. So this cap could put firms under pressure to compete more effectively.

Andrew Sparrow is picking up the live blog reins now.

To sign up for the Snap, our daily election briefing email, pop over here for a moment.

LBC has just announced that it’ll be hosting a radio phone-in with the PM on Thursday evening – billing it as “the first broadcast interview with Theresa May in which voters can ask the questions”.

May has been repeatedly accused of dodging interactions with the public: yesterday’s campaign event in Harrow was stocked with her party’s own candidates, and last week she avoided meeting residents during a visit to a Bristol housing estate, and shut reporters out of a factory visit in Cornwall.

The BuzzFeed interview in which Corbyn said he wouldn’t be quitting if Labour were to lose the general election covers more ground, including:

  • his thoughts on current EastEnders storylines (“She’s [Bex] being bullied at school by her mates and she’s turning around in a good way and challenging them. The story is developing in a very, very interesting way.”)
  • Russian hacking (“We’re all under threat from hackers all the time … Let’s not get paranoid about it.”)
  • the non-mainstream media (“I think it’s good that people go to all the alternative sites and check out what they want. I’ve read The Canary quite a bit, I’ve read yours, I do read a lot of them.”)
  • Labour voters who say they won’t cast a ballot for the party as long as he’s in charge (“It doesn’t get to me at all.”)

A senior Labour source said the question of Corbyn’s future after the election was a “distraction”, claiming that the focus was fully on the campaign itself, which he described as offering “our plan to transform Britain for the many, not the few”.

A fresh Survation poll for ITV’s Good Morning Britain gives the Tories a 17-point lead over Labour:

  • Conservatives 47% (+10 on 2015)
  • Labour 30% (-)
  • Liberal Democrats 7% (-1)
  • Ukip 5% (-9)
  • SNP 5% (-)
  • Greens 3% (-1)

Further down the list, it’s not much of a boost for the Lib Dems or Ukip, either.

Brexit was the “number one issue” for most voters, with 15% picking that, ahead of the NHS, the economy and immigration.

Separate questions on the party leaders put Theresa May consistently ahead of Jeremy Corbyn. Some 60% said she’d make the best prime minister, against 21% for Corbyn.

And for a nuanced look at what opinion polls mean and how far – if at all – we should trust them, try Alan Travis’ analysis.

Amid a so-far relatively predictably general election campaign, a minor if nonetheless eye-opening surprise could be brewing on the Isle of Wight.

The island’s parliamentary constituency is being targeted by the Greens, even though there was a 13,703 Conservative majority in 2015.

“I just think it’s a brave person now who makes predictions about what is and isn’t possible in this election,” Lucas says before posing for a promotional photo with some of the party’s 13 local councillors and activists at a local community centre. “I just know from my time on the island that there is such an upswell of people who want to have a progressive MP.”

The bullishness is based on several factors, not least last week’s local polls, which saw the Greens win more votes than Labour or the Liberal Democrats on the Isle of Wight.

There is also the fact that the Green candidate, Vix Lowthion, a local secondary school history teacher, is the only candidate remaining from the 2015 election, after the sudden political demise of the Conservative MP, Andrew Turner.

Lucas accused the Conservatives of showing “an extraordinary complacency” in a seat Turner held since 2001.

“I think there’s an appetite for a change. Yes, if you look at the bare figures it will take a big swing, but nevertheless I do feel people on the island are at the end of their tether and the concerns of the island are not being heard.”

The sudden evaporation of the Ukip vote, which went from 14,000 at the 2015 election to 900 in last week’s local polls, has provided Lowthion with hope.

Jeremy Corbyn is in Manchester this morning, where he’s launching Labour’s official campaign alongside Andy Burnham, who won a thumping victory to become mayor of Greater Manchester last week.

Corbyn will talk about Brexit, as reported in the Snap below – to say the matter is settled.

What he wants to talk about is what comes next. Labour’s priority, he will say, is to ensure a

reckoning for those who thought they could get away with asset-stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed and ripping off workers and consumers during the financial crisis.

There are four weeks left, he will add, to

take our wealth back.

Talking to the Guardian yesterday, the Labour leader set out his wishlist:

There are obviously many priorities but the crisis of housing and setting in train a housing programme that would build more council housing at socially affordable rents and ensuring there is proper regulation of the private rental sector is a very high priority for me.

And he isn’t despondent about last week’s local election losses, he added:

Not at all. I don’t do downhearted.

So what is Theresa May’s new policy to cap energy bills (that sounds suspiciously like Ed Miliband’s old policy to cap energy bills?

Anushka Asthana and Adam Vaughan report:

The prime minister will set out plans for an “absolute price cap” on standard variable tariffs to save households up to £100 a year after a government-backed study found customers had collectively been forced to pay £1.4bn a year in “excessive prices”.

The rate would be set by the regulator Ofgem every six months in order to prevent it from limiting competition in the market. It would target people who are less likely to switch, including elderly and disabled customers, and who find themselves on over-priced rates as a result.

May referred to the policy at a campaign event in Harrow West on Monday where she argued that “capping energy prices to support working families” was in the national interest.

(For more on that campaign event – “not an unfamiliar face in sight” – do read John Crace’s sketch.)

Although some who lambasted Miliband seem more won over by May’s proposal, former energy secretary and Lib Dem candidate Ed Davey thinks they’re both as bad as each other:

It is never a good idea to copy the economic strategy of Ed Miliband.

The energy industry is also not keen. British Gas owner Centrica said a cap would push up average prices:

Evidence from other countries would suggest this will lead to reduced competition and choice, and potentially higher average prices.

The Snap: your election briefing

Welcome back to today’s campaign live blog. I’m Claire Phipps with your get-up-to-date-before-breakfast briefing, and the early politics news. Andrew Sparrow joins the live blog later.

What’s happening?

It’s Labour’s official campaign launch today, and Jeremy Corbyn heads to Manchester for the “real fight starts now” moment, with a message that it’s all to play for over the next four weeks.

With some exceptions.

Corbyn will tell supporters – including newly installed Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham – that Brexit isn’t on the list:

This election isn’t about Brexit itself. That issue has been settled. The question now is what sort of Brexit do we want – and what sort of country do we want Britain to be after Brexit?

Corbyn’s plan comes with promises on economic fairness, council house building and rental reform – and a vow that, whatever the picture on 9 June, he’ll be the leader of the Labour party. In an interview with BuzzFeed, he said he’d be “carrying on” regardless of the result:

I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party.

If he wins, he told the Guardian, Brexit won’t be the only thing to remain non-negotiable:

I’m an incorrigible runner, cyclist and allotment gardener. Balancing life is important.

And would he relish the move to No 10?

I’m very happy in the house I’ve got, so let’s work it out when we get there.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the Dhamecha Lohana Centre in north west London, where she is meeting Conservative party general election candidates from across London and the south east of England, Monday May 8, 2017. Britain will hold a general election on June 8. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)
Theresa Me. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Meanwhile, the leader of the Conservatives seems rather less keen to hang on to the label. She prefers Theresa May’s Team. She’s also developed a liking for Ed Miliband’s policy to cap energy bills, if her policy to cap energy bills is any clue.

Back in 2013, many on the right thought Miliband’s plan was a terribly bad idea. David Cameron trumpeted it as proof the then Labour leader was in pursuit of a “Marxist universe”. “The lights will go out over Britain,” flustered the Daily Mail. No such fears for your EU-unfriendly incandescent lightbulbs this time round. Now capping energy bills is a terribly good idea, according to Theresa May’s Team.

Not a terribly good idea is to exhort people to vote for “stability” if you’re not trying to encourage people to vote for the party whose slogan is all about stability. Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has had to clarify that a letter he and John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, sent to all parishes ahead of the election was not an endorsement of the Conservative party. Welby told the Guardian:

Was the letter a shift to the right? Absolutely not.

At a glance:

Poll position

Yesterday’s Guardian/ICM poll was a record-breaker: the largest vote-share ever for the Conservatives in a Guardian/ICM poll, and the biggest Tory v Labour lead in ICM’s history: 22 points.

  • Conservatives: 49% (+2 since last week)
  • Labour: 27% (-1)
  • Lib Dems: 9% (+1)
  • Ukip: 6% (-2)
  • Greens: 3% (-1)

For those who think – rightly – that relying on one poll is a bit wobbly, let our new poll tracker put it into context for you. For those who think that all polling is a bit wobbly, our home affairs editor Alan Travis has analysed the caveats. This is quite a big one:

It should be borne in mind that when British pollsters do get it wrong, it has tended to be an underestimate of the Tory vote and an overestimate of the Labour vote, so a policy of ignoring the polls is unlikely to provide much comfort for Jeremy Corbyn.

Diary

General Election 2017Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron (centre) with Edinburgh West candidate Christine Jardine and Edinburgh West MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton during a rally at Davidson Mains Primary School in Edinburgh, Scotland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday May 8, 2017. See PA ELECTION stories. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrats: coming to a campaign stop near you, slightly terrifyingly. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
  • The Greens continue their Isle of Wight campaign, with Caroline Lucas launching a health policy in Newport at 9.30am.
  • At 11am Jeremy Corbyn is in Manchester for the official launch of Labour’s election campaign. There will be a battle bus.
  • Expect to see the Lib Dems’ bus if you’re in Penzance: Tim Farron is there for a public Q&A with the readers of Cornwall Live, a rather friendlier hobnob than the news website experienced with the PM last week.
  • Theresa May is in Yorkshire, before hotfooting it to the BBC’s One Show sofa for an interview alongside her husband, Philip May; that’s at 7pm.

Talking point

The Conservatives are keen to make the win for Emmanuel Macron in France part of their push for votes, and last night rolled out an email from Boris Johnson that they might as well have sent straight to the fact-checkers:

Yesterday a new French president claimed a strong negotiating position on Brexit as a result of his election win.

It is critical that we have someone of the calibre and strength of Theresa May with an equally strong position and an equally strong mandate to protect Britain in Brexit…

As our country prepares to enter talks with the presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of the European Union, now more than ever we need strong and stable leadership.

It’s true that Macron is no fan of Brexit, which he’s described as a “crime”. It’s not true – unless he said it very, very quietly and perhaps only to Boris Johnson – that he “claimed a strong negotiating position on Brexit as a result of his election win” (voilá); his chief economic adviser, Jean Pisani-Ferry, said yesterday the new president had no interest in punishing Britain (though he’s probably not minded to make it easy, either). It’s not even clear if the PM and her team will be negotiating with anyone other than Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. It’s unlikely that May will win 66.1% of the vote.

It is, however, true that the “they’re all out to get us” line is a highly effective one:

Read these

Vincent Boland in the Financial Times looks at the very particular role Brexit is playing in Northern Ireland campaigning:

The DUP was the only party in Northern Ireland to support Brexit in the run-up to last year’s EU referendum. But now senior party figures are conceding that Brexit will pose challenges for Northern Ireland that the party may have previously underestimated…

Sinn Féin has adopted a fiercely anti-Brexit stance since last year’s referendum. In recent weeks, the nationalist party has appealed to the 56% of Northern Irish voters who voted Remain by demanding a ‘special designated status’ for Northern Ireland within the EU.

In the Times, Rachel Sylvester says the centrists in the Labour party need to draw courage from Macron’s win:

Of course, the French presidential electoral system is different to the British one; it would be harder for a new party to break through here than it was for a single candidate to come from nowhere to end up in the Élysée Palace – but the gap in the political market for a credible voice of the centre is exactly the same here as it was in France…

Critics of a new party always cite the failure of the SDP as evidence that there is no point trying to break the mould, but politics is far more fractured and less tribal than it was in the 1980s. The few remaining traditional loyalties were severed by the EU referendum. Labour’s traditional base has all but disintegrated, with many white working-class voters switching allegiance to the Conservatives (often having gone through the Ukip gateway) and liberal metropolitans feeling alienated by Mr Corbyn. As one MP puts it, with brutal honesty: ‘Labour no longer has a core vote.’

And catch up with the Guardian’s new series, Voices and Votes, which sees six Guardian reporters embedded in constituencies across the country. First up: Hartlepool.

Revelation of the day

The Mirror reports that the Council of Hunting Associations sees a Conservative landslide as “the chance we have been waiting for” to reintroduce fox-hunting. They think a pledge to hold a free vote on the issue will find its way into the manifesto – as it did in 2010 and 2015, with as much success as the commitment to reduce net immigration to “tens of thousands”.

The day in a tweet

You’ll want to know, of course, that it was a border collie called Maya, belonging to SNP MSP Emma Harper, who was crowned top dog.

And another thing

Would you like to wake up to this briefing in your inbox every weekday? Sign up here!

And one last thing

Unlike many news organisations, the Guardian hasn’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. Here’s how you can support it.

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