May promises belligerent Brexit stance, while Abbott's gaffe starts a difficult day for Labour
- Theresa May will be “bloody difficult” during Brexit negotiations, should she remain as prime minister after the general election, she has said. In an interview with the BBC, she indicated that she intended to serve a full term if she got to keep the keys to Number 10 but she she but would not be drawn on whether or not she intended to seek a longer spell in office.
- Labour’s shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, drew criticism after citing a series of inaccurate figures when discussing her party’s plan to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers in an interview with LBC in the morning. The Tories said her sums did not add up, though Abbott later pointed out that she had got them right in several other interviews during the day.
- A Guardian/ICM poll had the Conservative lead cut by two percentage points on last week, though the party was still well ahead of Labour with a projected 47% share.
Ireland should get special economic support from the EU over Brexit’s impact on the island, a Dublin government report recommends.
Irish negotiators are asking for financial help over the Brexit “economic shock” that will they believe will hurt the Republic. The Irish position paper on Brexit will be arguing for a “transition period” to enable the Republic to adjust to the UK leaving the European Union.
The Fine Gael-led minority government said it will prioritise its negotiations on economic issues.
The government statement from Dublin re-emphasised support for the common travel area between Ireland and the UK, and the importance of having no hard border on the island of Ireland.
The former justice secretary, Michael Gove, who ran against Theresa May for the party leadership last year, has said that her subsequent decision to sack him showed “very good judgment” on her part.
The prominent leave campaigner said May needed a “clearout” and to “appoint her own people” when she became prime minister after the Brexit vote. He has told Channel 4 News:
I think that in those 11 months we have seen the Conservative party governing the country in a way which not only reinforces that strength and stability at the heart of power, but also shows calmness and competence. I think that means Theresa has got the right team around her.
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has said Theresa May should “back off” in negotiations over Brexit because she could not conduct them by repeating “I want, I want, I want”.
“You need to be able to calm down, and you need to be able to make friends, and be prepared to compromise, otherwise we are heading for a hard Brexit. We are heading for no deal,” she has told Channel 4 News.
“And she must back off and we need to have a strong Brexit. But a strong Brexit is about a deal that works for the British economy, we are talking about people’s jobs.”
She also defended Diane Abbott, saying: “We’ve all been there. The truth is that people want politicians to be people, but they also expect us to be super-human and we’re not, and we will make mistakes at times. What can you do?”
Updated
Theresa May also used her visit to Bristol to drill home Amber Rudd’s attack on Labour over Diane Abbott’s LBC interview.
The prime minister said the gaffe was a “very serious” indicator of how Labour would behave in power.
I think [Abbott] was suggesting that you could employ a police officer for 8,000 a head. I think she needs to go and have another look at her figures.
Actually, this is very serious, Diane Abbott wants to be home secretary in our country.
I think that shows people yet again the very clear choice between the strong and stable leadership of the Conservative party in government and the coalition of chaos there would be under Jeremy Corbyn.
Abbott has said she “mis-spoke” when she stumbled over the cost of plans to put thousands of extra police on the streets and her party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has insisted he was not at all embarrassed by the episode.
Theresa May was greeted by dozens of protesters shouting “Tory scum” as she visited a social club on a housing estate in Brislington, in Bristol. She gave a speech to Conservative activists in the club with the curtains shut and police guarding the entrance, while curious local residents gathered outside - some with makeshift anti-Tory signs. Her speech focused on attacking the Lib Dems, although she was giving the speech in the Labour-held seat of Bristol East.
May was asked about Tuesday’s editorial in the London Evening Standard, the paper now edited by her former cabinet colleague George Osborne, that warned her about the risks of running an election campaign that “amounts to no more than a slogan”.
She said:
First of all, can I wish George all the very best. George did a great job for our party and for our country during his time as chancellor of the exchequer. He has now moved on to a new career and I genuinely wish him all the best in that career.
Now, what am I doing in terms of what I’m saying in this campaign? What I am doing is giving a very clear message at this election. I am doing that because this election is so important for the future of this country. And it is about who is going to lead those negotiations on Brexit. It is about who has got the plan and the vision to take this country forward to a better future.
I believe that leadership, that plan, that vision, is only there with the Conservative party and that is the very clear choice that people have when they come to vote in this election.
Do they want that strong and stable leadership in the national interest with the conservatives or a coalition of chaos headed up by Jeremy Corbyn?
May was also asked if she was worried about Vladimir Putin interfering in this election, as the Russian leader has been accused of doing in other elections.
I think we should all be very clear that free and fair elections are such an important part of our democracy. We want to see those free and fair elections continuing in the future.
It is not a question of looking to see what you will do after something has happened, it is actually about ensuring that we are taking steps so that people cannot interfere in our electoral process.
Ukip have attacked Labour over Diane Abbott’s “awful” interview with LBC. The former’s deputy leader, Peter Whittle, said it showed a “total lack of understanding of her own brief represented a new low for Labour”.
In a statement released today, he said:
The chaotic lack of thought or care showed Labour’s true disregard and disrespect for our police, especially at a time when we are under serious threat of another terror attack.
How they can expect the British people to vote for them when they come up with such ill prepared and ill thought out policy is laughable.
Britain deserves better. Ukip have and will continue to pledge an extra 20,000 police officers, funded properly by money saved by ending our EU membership.
The security of our country must be at the top of our priorities given today’s climate.
As such, I challenge Diane Abbott to a public debate on her own briefing area of Home Affairs to expose the willful ignorance of the Labour party. Diane Abbott, the ball’s in your court.
Updated
The Conservatives accused Tom Watson earlier of calling on people to “ignore Corbyn” after a speech he gave focused on the importance of getting Labour MPs into parliament, rather than on getting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10. That followed a Guardian/ICM poll that suggested nearly half of the people supporting Labour are more likely to vote for the party because they think there is little chance of Corbyn becoming prime minister.
Now the Liberal Democrats have got in on the act. The shadow First Secretary of State Alistair Carmichael said:
Tom Watson today showed clearly the splits in the Labour party. They are all embarrassed by Corbyn and seem committed to scrubbing him out of their election campaign altogether. It reeks of desperation. Their message is: ‘forget who would make the best PM and still vote Labour’. It won’t wash with the public.
The son of the murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, whose killing has been at the centre of alleged collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, is to stand for Sinn Féin in general election.
John Finucane will stand for the party in North Belfast, his home constituency and the scene of his father’s fatal shooting in 1989. Ulster Defence Association (UDA) assassins murdered Pat Finucane in front of his family, including John, while they were having dinner at their home.
At the time, at least 29 members of the UDA unit behind the lawyer’s murder were agents for RUC Special Branch or the army’s Force Research Unit. Like his father, John Finucane is a solicitor and has been actively involved in the campaign for an independent international inquiry into the 1989 murder
I'm very proud to have been nominated to go forward for selection as the North Belfast Sinn Féin candidate for upcoming Westminster election
— John Finucane (@johnfinucane) May 2, 2017
It had been expected that former the IRA Old Bailey bomber turned Sinn Fein minister at Stormont, Gerry Kelly, would be the party’s candidate.
John Finucane will challenge the sitting Democratic Unionist MP, Nigel Dodds, for the North Belfast seat. Dodds had a majority of more than 5,000 over Sinn Féin in the 2015 general election. Earlier today, it emerged that the Ulster Unionist party would not be standing in North Belfast to give Dodds a free run as the single unionist candidate.
Sinn Féin has a policy of boycotting the House of Commons.
Scottish Labour’s efforts to seize a Tory-held seat in the Borders are in disarray after their election candidate claimed only a Jeremy Corbyn government would deliver another independence referendum.
The Scottish Tories published Facebook posts by Sally Prentice, Labour’s candidate in the Holyrood byelection in Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire on 8 June, where she openly touts for Scottish National party votes. In one from 26 April she claimed “a vote for Labour in Scotland is a chance of indyref2, more than what the Tories are offering!”
Their disclosure came one hour after Scottish Labour had formally announced Prentice’s candidacy, quoting her saying:
The people here need a local champion who will stand-up to the SNP in Holyrood and fight against a divisive second independence referendum.
I will work tirelessly over the coming weeks to get Labour’s message out to voters across the constituency.
The contest, triggered after the Tory MSP John Lamont resigned to contest the contiguous Westminster seat on 8 June, is seen a straight fight between the SNP and Tories. Labour only took 5.3% in the 2016 Holyrood election.
On Monday, it emerged that Douglas Beattie, Labour’s candidate for the neighbouring Westminster set of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, and a Labour councillor in the London borough of Camden, had urged Labour members to vote for independence in 2014 and had criticised the no campaign leader Alistair Darling.
Kezia Dugdale, Scottish Labour’s leader, backed Beattie on Tuesday. She told reporters in Edinburgh that Beattie now opposed independence and backed Scottish Labour’s plans for a federal UK, with more powers for Holyrood. She said:
I’m actually delighted Douglas is standing for us because actually he represents lots of people in Scotland who voted yes in 2014 and won’t do it again.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has claimed that the threat posed by the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister is “extreme”. Speaking in Wolverhampton a visit to the offices of the Express and Star, he said:
We should not under any circumstances underestimate the possibility of Labour getting into power under a dangerous Jeremy Corbyn.
People may well think that the risk of him becoming prime minister is not that great, but they have to understand that the severity of that risk is extreme.
We cannot discount it and we must be certain that the country is taken forward in the right way under a compassionate Conservative party.
That’s all from me for today.
My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over the blog now.
Theresa May says she intends to be 'bloody difficult' for EU negotiating Brexit
Theresa May has given an interview to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. In it, May she declared that she intended to be “bloody difficult” when negotiating Brexit with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, and other EU leaders.
It was intended partly as a joke - but only partly. She told Kuenssberg:
Look, I think what we’ve seen recently is that at times these negotiations are going to be tough.
During the Conservative Party leadership campaign I was described by one of my colleagues as a bloody difficult woman. And I said at the time the next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker.
After the interview, Kuenssberg may have felt that she and Juncker had something in common. Kuenssberg pressed the prime minister on Brexit and other topics for more than 10 minutes but she got very little out of her.
May did, however, refuse to deny that Juncker had said that Brexit “cannot be a success” when they had dinner in Number 10 last week. Asked about this, May said she did not “recall that account”, but did not explicitly deny it.
(Incidentally, the German FAZ article with a leaked account of that dinner has now been translated into English.)
May also said that, if she won the election, she intended to serve a full five-year term. Kuenssberg then asked if she would go for a third-term, but May would not be drawn on that.
The Ulster Unionist Party has just released its list of candidates for the general election and what is most interesting are the constituencies not mentioned on their slate.
In particular it is the absence of UUP candidates that is telling in terms of a pan-unionist election pact with the larger Democratic Unionist Party.
The UUP has confirmed it is not fielding a candidate in North Belfast, allowing for sitting DUP MP Nigel Dodds to defend the seat against an expected strong challenge from Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly.
There is no mention of any candidate standing for the UUP in South Belfast, which indicates a deal might be on the cards for a single unionist candidate to unseat the nationalist SDLP MP Alasdair McDonnell.
Ditto in East Belfast where the UUP has not announced a candidate, thus raising the possibility that sitting DUP MP Gavin Robinson will get a free run to defend his seat.
As payback the UUP has got a free run in Fermanagh/South Tyrone where their MP Tom Elliott will be engaged in a fierce contest to hold on against Sinn Fein’s Michelle Gildernew, herself once the MP for the border constituency.
Here is a write-up of today’s Guardian polling by ICM’s Martin Boon. And here are the tables (pdf).
The Guardian/ICM poll also suggests that Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader, is seen as doing the worst of all the UK party leaders during the general election campaign. (See 3.28pm.) As Harrison Jones reports for JUS News, Ukip’s mayoral candidate for Doncaster, Brian Whitmore, also thinks his party leader isn’t up to the job. Whitmore said:
Paul’s alright but I just don’t think he’s got that fire in him to lead the UKIP party. I think there will be a change ... I must say he’s the wrong bloke to be leader.
Nuttall himself has been campaigning in Dudley today. As this picture shows, his choice of campaign trail snack is healthier than Theresa May’s. (See 4.05pm.)
Today’s Guardian/ICM poll suggests that almost half the people who are backing Labour are more likely to vote for the party because they think there is little chance of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister. (See 3.28pm.) Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, gave a speech to the Usdaw conference this morning and he made a case for Labour focusing on the importance of getting Labour MPs into the Commons rather than getting Corbyn into Number 10.
In fact, he only mentioned Corbyn twice in the speech. But he did say this.
We’ve heard a lot of talk about the qualities you need in a prime minister. Theresa May doesn’t think that the ability to answer questions is one of them.
But sometimes the most important question isn’t what makes the best PM. It’s who makes the best MP.
I want to ask you to think about this.
Who do you think is going to work harder for you?
A Labour MP, rooted in your local community, with the interests of working people at their heart – an MP who cares about those on low pay, those juggling jobs, people who are worried about the cost of childcare, about losing their tax credits, about ballooning class sizes at the local school and what might happen if they have to go to the local hospital...
Or a Tory candidate who wants to get elected simply to push Theresa May’s right wing agenda through?
The Conservatives have dubbed this Watson’s “ignore Corbyn” speech, and they put out this response from the Tory MP and security minister Ben Wallace.
This is nonsense from Tom Watson. The simple fact is Jeremy Corbyn will claim each and every vote for any Labour candidate as a vote for him and his failed, disastrous and dangerous ideas.
Voters are opposed to bankers and baristas being given special visas to work in the UK after Britain quits the EU, according to polling, the Press Association reports.
Most people want doctors, nurses and academics to be allowed to head to Britain under new arrangements after Brexit, the Ipsos MORI study found.
But suggestions that a so-called barista visa should be introduced to stop coffee shops and cafes being hit by staff shortages were rejected by 52% of the public compared to 33% in favour.
Around eight in 10 backed special access for doctors and nurses, 69% for academics, 60% for care home workers and 56% for seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers.
Some 45% were opposed to such measures for bankers, compared to 41% in favour, and 44% were against enhanced access for restaurant and catering staff compared to 42%.
Voters do not believe Theresa May will be able to keep her promise to reduce migration to under 100,000, according to the polling.
The prime minister has said the Conservatives remain committed to reducing net migration to the tens of thousands - a target she failed to meet as home secretary.
But 68% of the public believe the Tories are unlikely to reduce levels to under 100,000, the level half would class as “sustainable”.
Kully Kaur-Ballagan, head of race, faith and cohesion research at Ipsos MORI, said: “Despite her commanding poll lead, Theresa May shows little sign of overturning the public’s long-held scepticism that immigration can be brought down to the ‘tens of thousands’.
“Our data also shows that, even though many are concerned about immigration, the public does differentiate between different types, while remain and leave voters are still divided in their views.”
Cornwall Live eventually got to speak to Theresa May.(See 11.16am.) She told them that there would be more money for social care in Cornwall in the future.
Theresa May clearly didn’t get the memo about a pasty being the compulsory gastronomic prop when you are politician posing for a picture in Cornwall.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has today published a briefing on the public finances. It says that official forecasts suggest GDP per adult in 2022 will be 18% lower than if the economy had carried on growing at the rate of 2% a year since 2008.
It also explains why public spending as a proportion of GDP is roughly at the level it was before the financial crash, despite many years of government cuts.
On the spending side the striking fact is that after seven years of austerity public spending is only broadly back at pre crisis levels as a fraction of national income. Cuts to large parts of government spending have only resulted in the size of the state being broadly unchanged for three reasons. First, the financial crisis pushed spending as a share of national income up sharply, and this has been undone. Second, continued weak economic growth in recent years has meant that a given real-terms cut to spending has delivered a smaller reduction in spending as a share of national income relative to both history and expectation. Third, some elements of spending have risen as a fraction of national income, most notably spending on health, pensions and overseas aid, and so cuts have been required elsewhere.
Commenting on the IFS briefing, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said:
Today’s analysis by the IFS reveals the failure of seven years of Tory government.
Despite promising to balance the books by 2015, the IFS says the UK’s public finances ‘compare unfavourably to other advanced economies’ with the fifth largest deficit and the sixth largest debt pile.
The IFS points to ‘persistently poor economic growth’ as one of the factors explaining the UK’s poor public finances.
It is clear that under the Tories working people have suffered from sluggish growth, soaring debt and stagnating pay.
But Philip Hammond, the chancellor, said:
As the IFS acknowledge, we have made good progress in cutting Labour’s deficit by two thirds so we get back to living within our means and securing our economy for the future.
Nicola Sturgeon has dismissed claims her deputy Angus Robertson as at real risk of losing his seat to the Tories but seemed less confident the SNP would defeat Scottish Secretary David Mundell in southern Scotland.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, kickstarted a quick round of election campaigning in Edinburgh on Tuesday by predicting Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster leader, faced an “Ed Balls moment” on 8 June. (See 11.41am.) She said the Tories chances of winning his Moray seat were “pretty good.”
Asked whether she feared Robertson was vulnerable, Sturgeon retorted:
No, absolutely not. Angus is not only a really strong MP in Moray [but] as everyone will have observed over the last couple of years, he has been the only effective leader of the opposition in the House of Commons.
But she was more hesitant about the SNP’s chances of toppling Mundell, who is defending a slim 798 majority in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale. The Tory vote in Scotland has jumped as high as 33% in recent polls, suggesting the Conservatives are set to win a series of SNP seats.
Asked if she was confident of winning it, she said:
I’m confident of taking the campaign to every single seat in Scotland. We will campaign vigorously the length and breadth of this country.
The SNP meanwhile announced that Jim Eadie had been selected to fight against Ian Murray, Labour’s sole MP in Scotland, in Edinburgh South. Eadie held the contiguous Scottish parliament seat until losing it to Labour in 2016.
Toni Guigliano, a veteran of the Yes Scotland independence campaign, is to fight the Lib Dem target seat of Edinburgh West, where the former SNP MP Michelle Thomson was barred from standing again after a police inquiry into her business affairs.
Conservatives have 19-point lead over Labour, latest Guardian/ICM poll suggests
Here are the results of the latest Guardian/ICM poll.
Conservatives: 47% (down 1 from ICM last week)
Labour: 28% (up 1)
Lib Dems: 8% (down 2)
Ukip: 8% (up 1)
Greens: 4% (up 1)
Conservative lead: 19 points (down 2)
At the weekend a YouGov poll came out suggesting a sharp reduction in the Conservative lead (down to “only” 13 points). But an Opinium poll suggested a much more modest reduction in the Tory lead (down 2 points), and the ICM figures are in line with Opinium.
- Conservatives have 19-point lead over Labour, Guardian/ICM poll suggests.
Next we asked people what election result they expected. More than 70% think the Conservatives will gain a majority. Here are the figures.
Conservatives winning with majority of more than 100: 34%
Conservatives winning with majority of less than 100%: 38%
A hung parliament: 17%
Labour winning a majority: 10%
The detailed figures show that, even amongst people who say they are voting Labour, 51% of them expect the Conservatives to win a majority and only 23% of them think a Labour victory is most likely.
- Some 72% of voters think the Conservatives will win a majority, the poll suggests. A third of voters think Theresa May will get a majority of more than 100.
Some commentators have argued that the inevitability of a Conservative victory could paradoxically help some Labour MPs, because they can tell people to vote for them without the risk of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister and in the hope of minimising the chances of a Tory landslide. Labour’s Ben Bradshaw has made a version of this argument in an open letter to his constituents in Exeter.
In an attempt to find out if this could be a factor, we put it to respondents that many people think that Labour has no chance of winning and that Corbyn has no chance of becoming prime minister, and then asked if that made them:
More likely to vote Labour in the seat where they live: 14%
Less likely to vote Labour in the seat where they live: 15%
No difference: 64%
The headline figures suggest this factor will not have much of an impact. But the detailed figures show that amongst Labour voters this is a significant factor. Some 49% of people backing Labour now say they are more likely to vote for the party because Corbyn is unlikely to become PM (against 43% who say it makes no difference, and 4% who say likely defeat makes them less likely to vote for the party.)
- Almost half of people backing Labour say the perception that Corbyn is unlikely to become prime minister makes them more likely to vote for the party, the poll suggests.
One way of deciding who is winning an election campaign is to look at the state of the party polling. But there are other ways, and we finished with two questions intended to test how the parties are doing.
First, we asked people whether, based on what they had seen in the two weeks since the election was called, their chances of voting for these parties had increased or decreased.
Conservatives
Increased: 18%
Decreased: 15%
Stayed the same: 55%
Net: +3
Labour
Increased: 15%
Decreased: 21%
Stayed the same: 53%
Net: -6
Lib Dems
Increased: 10%
Decreased: 17%
Stayed the same: 59%
Net: -7
Ukip
Increased: 6%
Decreased: 18%
Stayed the same: 63%
Net: -12
Greens
Increased: 6%
Decreased: 13%
Stayed the same: 66%
Net: -7
- The Conservatives have done most to win voters over during the election campaign so far, the poll suggests.
We then asked about the party leaders, asking respondents if they thought the various figures were running a good campaign or a bad campaign based on what has been seen over the last fortnight.
Theresa May
Running a good campaign: 41%
Running a bad campaign: 22%
Don’t know: 37%
Net: +19
Jeremy Corbyn
Running a good campaign: 21%
Running a bad campaign: 40%
Don’t know: 38%
Net: -19%
Tim Farron
Running a good campaign: 17%
Running a bad campaign: 28%
Don’t know: 55%
Net: -11
Paul Nuttall
Running a good campaign: 8%
Running a bad campaign: 31%
Don’t know: 61%
Net: -23
Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartlett
Running a good campaign: 8%
Running a bad campaign: 17%
Don’t know: 74%
Net: -9
Given the amount of criticism Theresa May’s campaign is getting for being voter-allergic and content free (including from George Osborne today - see 12.47pm), these figures may be surprising. But perhaps they just confirm that, if a leader goes into an election with a high standing amongst voters, people will continue to think favourably of her or him unless said leader does something spectacularly inept - which May so far hasn’t.
- May is seen as running the best election campaign so far, the poll suggests.
ICM Unlimited interviewed a representative sample of 1,970 adults aged 18+ online between 28 April and 2 May. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
I will post a link to the tables here as soon as ICM put them on their website.
UPDATE: Here is the academic Glen O’Hara on what the figures about the election campaigns show.
Afraid ICM bad/good campaign figures a picture in negative/positive reinforcement. Ppl like you, cu on TV, like you more - and vice versa.
— Glen O'Hara (@gsoh31) May 2, 2017
FURTHER UPDATE: Here is a write-up of today’s Guardian polling by ICM’s Martin Boon. And here are the tables (pdf).
Updated
Not sure this one’s happy about #indyref2, Nicola ...
Osborne broke rules for ex-ministers taking jobs by accepting editorship before getting clearance, watchdog says
Spare a thought for the poor Evening Standard news editor. What is he or she going to do with this story, about the new boss being criticised by the advisory committee on business appointments?
In a letter released today on its website (pdf), the committee says it was wrong for Osborne to sign a contract accepting the job of Evening Standard editor before receiving advice from the committee, the body that advises ex-ministers on what jobs they should or should not accept. Lady Browning, the committee’s chair, told Osborne in the letter:
You submitted your application on 13 March. The committee considers it to be a matter of regret that your appointment as Editor was announced by the Evening Standard on 17 March, just days later and before the committee had an opportunity to make the necessary enquiries, consider your application, and provide its advice. You informed the committee that you had no involvement in the timing of the announcement, which you assured the committee was made by your prospective employer due to your appointment becoming known to other media organisations. The committee also notes that the press statement issued by the PR firm working for ESI Media (parent company of the Evening Standard) stated: “As required of former ministers, Mr Osborne is seeking the advice of the advisory committee on business appointments on his appointment.”
However the committee is very concerned that despite the press statement noting you were still seeking the committee’s advice, you subsequently signed a contract of employment with the Evening Standard on 20 March - without having received the committee’s advice. It was not appropriate for you to do so. You did not disclose any intention to do so to the committee when you originally submitted your application, nor have you provided an explanation for this during the course of the committee’s consideration. This is not in compliance with the business appointment rules, which state that former ministers ‘must abide by the advice of the committee’ – advice which you were yet to receive.
The committee says it is not opposed to Osborne taking the job. But it does say that Osborne should not use any “privileged information” he obtained when he was chancellor in his new job, that he should not contact the government in relation to press regulation, and that he should not lobby the government on behalf of the Evening Standards until two years have passed since his departure from ministerial office.
- Osborne broke business appointments rules by taking Evening Standard job before receiving clearance from advisory committee, watchdog says.
Updated
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg thinks George Osborne is not best placed to lecture anyone on blank cheques.
Irony alert - George Osborne's first editorial in Standard warns govt against only repeating slogans, and asking for a 'blank cheque'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 2, 2017
Osborne was the champion of the “longterm economic plan”, another election slogan rather devoid of content. (Does anyone remember what the plan consisted of? Me neither.) He was also chancellor when the Conservatives went through the last general election proposing to cut welfare spending by £12bn while giving almost no information about where those cuts would fall.
Here is Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s national election chair, commenting on reports that the Conservatives strictly limited media access to Theresa May on her visit to Cornwall. (See 11.16am.) He said:
Theresa May’s campaign is going to extraordinary efforts to avoid any form of public scrutiny.
What is especially worrying is that we’ve still not even heard from the Prime Minister on the alarming leaks from Brussels, which expose just how reckless her Brexit plans are
Rather than hiding away, the prime minister needs to come out and explain just what on earth is going on.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party’s co-leader, has said the Labour leadership is blocking a desire among many of the party’s members for some form of electoral alliance to limit Conservative gains, saying this is a betrayal of the British people, my colleague Peter Walker reports.
And here is the cartoon in George Osborne’s first edition of the Evening Standard.
So @George_Osborne starts today as editor of the London Evening Standard. This the first political cartoon.. pic.twitter.com/cTjNRgZ4d4
— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) May 2, 2017
Greens calls for second referendum on Brexit
The Green party is calling for a second referendum on Brexit. Speaking at a campaign even in Hackney, Caroline Lucas, the party’s co-leader, said that the vote last year was an instruction to the government to start Brexit talks. She went on:
We do not accept, however, that the decision should be irreversible.
The referendum should be the start, not the end, of the democratic process.
And it’s therefore right that people should have the right to have a say on the final deal in a ratification referendum - with the option to remain in the EU firmly there on the ballot paper.
Osborne’s Evening Standard says Tory election campaign so far 'amounts to no more than slogan'
Reverse ferret, as seasoned journos like George Osborne are fond of saying. The Evening Standard’s splash headline under its new editor, the former chancellor, may be relatively neutral towards Theresa May (see 12.26pm), but Osborne has used his first editorial to criticise the woman who sacked him from the cabinet.
- Osborne’s Evening Standard says Tory election campaign so far “amounts to no more than a slogan”. The paper’s leader article criticises May for not giving enough detail about her plans for Brexit.
Here is the key paragraph.
No one should assume that the referendum gave a mandate to the government to answer any of these questions about Britain’s future. It did not. A general election victory for the Conservatives could provide more of a mandate, but only if the prime minister and her colleagues spell out in much more detail what their intentions are. It’s early days, but that is not happening, thanks in part to the failure of the desperately weak Labour leadership to offer a proper opposition. There’s nothing wrong with repeating election campaign slogans; the problem comes when the election campaign amounts to no more than a slogan. If you ask for a blank cheque, don’t be surprised if later it bounces.
The editorial also says the row about Theresa May’s Number 10 Brexit dinner shows “how unrealistic were the claims made about the strength of Britain’s hand” in the negotiations.
It says that, although the Evening Standard accepts the result of the referendum, it continues to believe that leaving the EU will be a “historic mistake”. And it suggests that May does not have a mandate for hard Brexit, not least in relation to immigration. “The British people don’t want clumsy immigration controls to contribute to the rising prices we are already seeing as a result of Brexit,” it says.
Updated
George Osborne, the former chancellor, has tweeted an image of his first Evening Standard splash as editor. In political terms the headline is relatively neutral, and not obviously helpful to Theresa May, unless you take the view that any reporting that emphasises the EU’s belligerence reinforces the need for “strong” UK leadership. (The alternative view, put forward this morning by Nick Clegg, among others - see 9.48am - is that the Number 10 dinner debacle shows shows that May is mishandling Brexit.)
Today's front page of @EveningStandard pic.twitter.com/yfWQ0lhW6S
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) May 2, 2017
Q: What level would capital gains tax by under Labour?
Abbott says Labour would reverse the cuts introduced by the government. That would raise £2.7bn, she says.
Diane Abbott's interview on the Daily Politics
Diane Abbott is being interviewed on the Daily Politics.
She says she did know the figures for the cost of Labour’s policing pledge. She says she gave six other interviews this morning and got them right.
But she “mis-spoke” in her LBC interview (see 10.15am), she says.
I do know my figures. I did seven interviews that morning and that was the seventh and I mis-spoke but I do know my figures.
She criticises the presenter, Jo Coburn, for not talking about policing for instead focusing on her LBC interview.
Q: But you fluffed your interview?
Abbott says the public will understand that Coburn does not want to talk about the real figures.
Q: You says you knew the figures, but we could not find them in a press release. Have you instilled confidence in people.
Abbott says people who heard her other interviews will know that she does know the figures.
Q: People will think you do not know your brief. Is it important to use the right figures?
Abbott says it is important to talk about the right figures.
But we should be talking about policing, she says.
- Abbott says her LBC blunder came out because she “mis-spoke”.
Updated
Draft air pollution to be published within the week, says No 10
A draft plan to tackle air pollution will finally be published within the next week, after No 10 said it would not challenge a court ruling forcing the government to release information before the election.
Theresa May’s official spokesman said the government would not be appealing the high court judgement, which rejected attempts by ministers to keep the policy under wraps until after the poll.
This means the government will have to publish its draft air quality plan before May 9, but No 10 said it will want to wait until after the purdah period for the local elections is over on Thursday.
The strategy will set out how ministers plan to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis, which is believed to be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths a year.
New measures are likely to include the imposition of multiple clean-air zones across the country, where drivers will face fines if their vehicles do not pass roadside emissions tests.
Ministers had applied to the court to keep their plans secret until after the general election, saying it was necessary to “comply with pre-election propriety rules”.
But Mr Justice Garnham said the environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, was in breach of a court order to take action in the shortest possible time and that any further delays would constitute a further breach.
Updated
In her Sky interview this morning Diane Abbott also claimed that Jeremy Corbyn was ready to become prime minister because he had more experience than Tony Blair. Asked why she thought he was ready to govern, she replied:
Well, apart from anything else, Jeremy Corbyn has rather more experience in parliament than Tony Blair had before he became leader of the party.
Strictly speaking, Abbott is right. Blair was elected to parliament in 1983 and became Labour leader 11 years later. Corbyn was also elected in 1983, and he did not become Labour leader until he had notched up 32 years as a parliamentarian.
But Blair became leader after 10 years on the front bench, including stints as shadow energy secretary, shadow employment secretary, and shadow home secretary where he was deemed a success. Corbyn’s first frontbench job was leading the opposition.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, has predicted the Tories are close to unseating the SNP’s deputy leader Angus Robertson in the general election, claiming it would be “a real Ed Balls moment for Scotland.”
Likening the contest to the former Labour chancellor’s defeat by the Tories in 2015, Davidson said the Conservatives had a “close to 50%” chance of winning Robertson’s seat in Moray, which he has held since 2001, retaining it in 2015 with a 9,065 vote majority.
Buoyed by a sharp surge in Tory support in Scotland up as high as 33%, and a fall in SNP support to as low as 44%, the Tories believe they can win a fistful of seats from the SNP.
Moray was the most pro-Brexit area of Scotland in the 2016 EU referendum (the leave campaign came within 122 votes of winning there) and voted heavily against Scottish independence in 2014, by 58% no to 42% yes.
Speaking after a local council election event in Edinburgh, Davidson said the Tory candidate, Douglas Ross, a former councillor and now a regional MSP, was in “a really titanic battle up there” with the SNP.
Updated
Abbott rejects claims that Labour has over-committed its capital gains tax revenue
Labour says that all their election proposals are fully costed and that the details of how will be set out when the party publishes its manifesto.
But the Conservatives and the Lib Dems have claimed otherwise, saying that Labour has effectively “spent” the money it would raise by reversing corporation tax cuts and capital gains tax cuts many times over.
Last week the Conservatives and the Lib Dems identified around a dozen examples of Labour spending pledges involving corporation tax money. See here and here for details.
Today they have done the same exercise with capital gains tax revenue. Between them, they have identified about five other putative uses for this money, in addition to paying for 10,000 extra police officers, the Labour announcement being promoted today.
Here are three examples from the Lib Dems. (The links are from the Lib Dems.)
1 - Introducing an arts pupil premium for primary schools and reversing arts spending cuts
2 - Bailing out the British steel industry.
3 - Creating “hypothecated” funding dedicated solely to health
And here are two more from the Tories. (The links are from the Tories.)
5 - Reversing cuts to disability benefits.
When Diane Abbott was challenged about this on Sky News, she claimed that previous comments from Labour figures about the party using capital gains tax money were only illustrative. The only commitments that mattered would be the ones in the manifesto, she said.
We’ve not actually committed that money to anything. We’ve used these huge cuts in capital gains tax, cuts which will only help the top 5%, we’ve used them to illustrate the type of places where we could get the money to fund some of our policies, but as we roll out our manifesto, you will see that each policy pledge is specifically costed, and this is a really important issue – the rise in violent crime on our streets.
Updated
Theresa May is in Helston in Cornwall today. But my counterparts at Cornwall Live, who are trying to cover the visit on a blog, are having some difficulty. Here are some excerpts from their rather spiky account.
Having covered several high-profile politicians’ and royal visits over the years, the level of media control here is far and above anything I’ve seen before. We’re not even allowed to show you her visiting the building ...
We’ve been allowed to ask our questions to the prime minister (although we are forbidden to film or photograph her answering them).
We were given at most three minutes and were refused to be allowed to ask why we were not allowed to film her.
Our reporter Lyn was then ushered out of the room.
We were locked in room and banned from filming @theresa_may - tight media control from the @Conservatives https://t.co/fpF3UAIEBy pic.twitter.com/M9tGECzUOd
— Cornwall LIVE (@CornwallLive) May 2, 2017
And these are from Cornwall Live’s Steve Smith.
So we're covering PM's visit but have been told by @Conservatives that we can't film her because we're 'print media' https://t.co/2CLVRMeF7P
— Steve Smith (@SteveSmithCG) May 2, 2017
Never known a visit like this. Our reporters banned from watching PM walk around a factory by @Conservatives PR team https://t.co/6dbZzNeRKP pic.twitter.com/or8NacPLdX
— Steve Smith (@SteveSmithCG) May 2, 2017
The Conservative party’s Diane Abbott transcription service has also sent out large chunks of Abbott’s interviews this morning with Sky News and ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
On GMB Piers Morgan asked Abbott nine times whether Labour would be willing to use the nuclear deterrent. Abbott, the shadow home secretary, repeated refused to say yes or no, although she clearly signalled that she would be opposed. Here is an extract from the transcript.
Piers Morgan: Ok Diane, look, you’re the shadow home secretary, and if you get in to power you might well be home secretary, therefore in charge in many ways of the defence of this country. Jeremy Corbyn got in to all sorts of problems recently when he was asked pretty straightforward questions about how he would defend us if he was prime minister. Let me ask you some similar questions – would you be prepared to authorise, along with whoever was Prime Minister, the use of a nuclear weapon from our nuclear armament if we had to?
Diane Abbott: On the question of nuclear weapons, you will know as well as I do, that if we press the button for a nuclear weapon, we’re not just incinerating millions of people oversea ... (Interrupted)
Piers Morgan: Sure but my question is would you use it? We have a nuclear armament – would you be prepared to use it? People I think are entitled when they vote on June 8th to know whether a Labour government would actually use our nuclear deterrent if it came to it?
Diane Abbott: A Labour government would do everything in its power to protect the people of this country, and we believe that there are more important and more vital ways to protect the people of this country than actually nuclear weapons.
Some of Morgan’s nine questions on this were about whether Labour would rule out the first use of nuclear weapons; others were just about whether Labour would use them generally.
We have now had had at least three different answers from Labour shadow cabinet members to this question: Abbott refused to say Labour would be willing to use nuclear weapons; Jeremy Corbyn ruled out the first use of nuclear weapons in an interview with Andrew Marr (pdf), and implied that he would not use them in any circumstances, without explicitly saying so; and Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, said she would be willing to use them.
Corbyn says he is 'not embarrassed in the slightest' by Diane Abbott's interview blunder
Jeremy Corbyn is campaigning in Southampton and he was asked by Sky News about Diane Abbott’s interview. He said he was “not embarrassed in the slightest” by the wrong answers she gave. He said:
She corrected the figure and that’s the figure [£300m - the cost of the extra police officers] and it will be paid for by not going ahead with the cuts in capital gains tax.
Asked if he found her performance embarrassing, he replied:
Not at all. We have corrected the figure. And it will be absolutely clear now, today, and in the manifesto. I’m not embarrassed in the slightest.
Abbott is a fellow leftwing and a close friend of Corbyn’s and one of most important allies in the shadow cabinet.
Tories claim Labour's sums 'don't add up' after Abbott messes up interview about police pledge costings
You can tell when a political interview has gone badly because the other parties send you a transcript. Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, was interviewed by Nick Ferrari this morning about Labour’s plan to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers and, when she was questioned about costings, it turned into a disaster. The Lib Dems and the Conservatives have both sent out extracts.
Here is an extract from the Tory version (which is an accurate account, as you can hear for yourself - see below.)
Nick Ferrari: So how much would 10,000 police officers cost?
Diane Abbott: Well, if we recruit the 10,000 policemen and women over a four year period, we believe it’ll be about £300,000.
Nick Ferrari: £300,000?
Diane Abbott: Sorry, ... (Interrupted)
Nick Ferrari: 10,000 police officers? What are you paying them?
Diane Abbott: No, I mean, sorry ... (Interrupted)
Nick Ferrari: How much will they cost.
Diane Abbott: They will cost [long pause], it will cost, erm, about, about £80m ....
Nick Ferrari: The £80m is the figure we use. But I don’t understand. If you divide £80m by 10,000, you get 8000.
Diane Abbott: What ... (Interrupted)
Nick Ferrari: Is that what you’re going to pay these policemen and women?
Diane Abbott: No, we’re talking about a process over 4 years.
Nick Ferrari: I don’t understand. What is he or she? £80m divided by 10,000 equals £8000. So I don’t, what are these police officers going to be paid?
[papers rustle]
Diane Abbott: We will be paying them the average ... (Interrupted)
Nick Ferrari: Has this been thought through?
Diane Abbott: Of course it’s been thought through!
Nick Ferrari: Where are the figures?
Diane Abbott: The figures are that the, the additional cost in year 1 when we anticipate recruiting 250,000 policemen will be £64.3m
Nick Ferrari: 250,000 policemen?
Diane Abbott: And women.
Nick Ferrari: Right. Where…? So you’re getting more than 10,000? You’re recruiting 250,000?
Diane Abbott: No, we are recruiting 2000 and perhaps 250. And the cost ... (Interrupted)
Nick Ferrari: Where did 250,000 come from?
Diane Abbott: I think you said that not me.
Nick Ferrari: I can assure you - you said that figure because I wrote it down.
Diane Abbott: What I’m saying about the cost is in year 1 obviously we’re getting ready to recruit, but in year 2 the cost will be £64.3m, in year 3 the cost will be £139.1m, year 4 the cost will be £270m, and year 5 the cost will be £298m, and that can be amply covered by reversing the cuts in capital gains tax.
Ironically, by the end Abbott did actually get to a proper answer. But by then the damage had been done.
You can listen to the inteview here.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, claimed the interview showed that Labour’s sums don’t add up. In a statement she said:
Diane Abbott has laid bare the chaos that Britain would face if Jeremy Corbyn is voted into Downing Street.
One of Corbyn’s closest allies has clearly shown that Labour’s sums don’t add up, they would weaken our defences, and their nonsensical promises aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.
Updated
Clegg suggests it is hypocritical of May to complain about being the victim of a leak
And here are some more quotes from Nick Clegg’s Today interview.
- Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader and former deputy prime minister, said that Brexit was already making people poorer and that Theresa May would make it worse by pursuing “the most uncompromising version” possible.
These are figures about what is happening. As you heard just recently, growth is down, consumer spending after the splurge last year is also down and, crucially, the amount of money that people have in their pockets is down in real terms because of course, tragically, while last year people’s earnings were starting to creep up above the increase in prices in the shops, that’s now flipped around because of the increase in inflation brought about by depreciation in the pound. In other words, there’s a real Brexit squeeze already imposing itself on millions of hard-pressed folk in this country which, in my judgment, will only be made considerable worse by the choice - and it is a choice - that Theresa May has made to pursue the most uncompromising version of Brexit in the months and years ahead.
He said that it would have been better if May had decided last summer to adopt the “least economically disruptive”, which would have involved staying in the single market and a relationship with the EU akin to Norway’s.
- He suggested it was hypocritical of May to complain about being the victim of a leak. He said:
I remember [she] – or rather the hitmen and hitwomen in her office – used to leak furiously when I was in coalition if they didn’t like something.
- He said the leaks from the Brexit dinner at Number 10 last week suggested that May was adopting the wrong approach to the negotiations.
What is worrying about the reports, if they are true, is that Number 10 appears to be treating the rest of the EU as if they were running the Home Office – just barking instructions at the EU and expecting them to fall into line.”
[These are] complex Rubix cube negotiations, which requires agility and charm to be successful. None of that appears to be in evidence at that dinner last week.
Stephan Mayer, home affairs spokesman for Angela Merkel’s parliamentary Christian Democrat group in Germany, was on the Today programme this morning talking about Brexit, and Theresa May’s dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker last week. He said it was a mistake to think Brexit could be good for the UK.
I’m also convinced that this Brexit isn’t in the interest of the European Union, and especially not in the interest of Germany, but the consequences will be worse for the UK.
If someone in Great Britain thinks that Great Britain will be the winner or takes advantage of this Brexit, I’m convinced this would be an illusion.
Clegg says Brexit is already costing families £500 a year
In his speech later today Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader and former deputy prime minister, will claim that Brexit is already making people poorer and that households face a “£500 Brexit squeeze” this year.
To justify the claim, he will cite research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research saying that in 2016 the average UK household had a disposable income of £35,300, but that this is expected to go down to £34,800 this year. Cebr claims that is because of rising inflation and poor earnings growth. It says:
Rising inflation and meagre earnings growth will combine to put a strain on household finances. Although poor wage growth has been a persistent characteristic of the entire post-financial crisis period (between 2001 and 2008 gross earnings grew by an average of 4.2% per annum, but in the 2009 to 2016 period this dropped to 1.6% annually) households have managed to keep up their spending in the last few years thanks to stable prices.
Driven by higher input costs (partially a result of the weaker pound) and oil prices, inflation is on the rise. Cebr expects inflation to average 2.7% this year, above total earnings growth of 2.2%. This will make 2017 the first year since 2013 to see a fall in real incomes.
According to extracts of his speech released in advance, Clegg will say:
Theresa May alone is responsible for pursuing this course. It is already hurting the very people who need most help in society. So the question in this election is this: who will hold Theresa May accountable for the economic harm she will inflict on Britain?
The economic damage is already being felt by the people who the Tories have always cared about least: the poor, the insecure and the vulnerable.
If Theresa May really cared about the just about managing, the very last thing she should do is impose a hard Brexit on them.
Nick Clegg’s interview with Nick Robinson on the Today programme was relatively good humoured this morning. The same can’t be said for Clegg’s encounter with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain earlier. There is a clip here.
MUST WATCH: It's fair to say that our 'extraordinary' @piersmorgan rattled @nick_clegg's cage this morning pic.twitter.com/kKX0icztdi
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) May 2, 2017
According to the Press Association, compared to his predecessor as Evening Standard editor, George Osborne opted for a bit of a lie in this morning.
Osborne began his tenure as Evening Standard editor half an hour later than his predecessor’s typical start time.
Ex-editor Sarah Sands, who has joined the BBC, said in a 2014 interview she would be browsing the day’s papers at her desk by 6.30am.
Her replacement appeared at the doors of the building at around 7am on Tuesday.
The Police Federation has cautiously welcomed Labour’s plan to fund an extra 10,000 police officers, the BBC’s Danny Shaw reports.
A cautious welcome to Labour pledge to recruit 10,000 extra police in England/Wales from Police Fed...1/2
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawBBC) May 2, 2017
Police Fed "whilst we do need to replace the 22,000 we have lost we desperately need to retain the skills and experience that we still have"
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawBBC) May 2, 2017
Police Fed says conditions of service need to improve to attract recruits & fuller debate needed on how extra funding could be spent.
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawBBC) May 2, 2017
And these are from the Police Federation.
"10,000 new officers is only halfway to replacing the 20,000 lost since 2009" @PFEW_Chair speaking with @NickFerrariLBC @LBC
— Police Federation (@PFEW_HQ) May 2, 2017
"Whoever's in government must have clear plan to tackle issues the service faces. Not an overnight fix." @PFEW_Chair on @NickFerrariLBC @LBC
— Police Federation (@PFEW_HQ) May 2, 2017
The Police Federation chair (@PFEW_Chair) is Steve White.
One of the big unanswered questions about Theresa May’s plans for Brexit is what immigration policy her government would adopt. In her interview on the Today programme Amber Rudd, the home secretary, said that there would be “some” detail about this in the Conservative manifesto - but, by implication, not a full prospectus. This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Rudd - 'we will set out some of our strategy' for immigration in manifesto... note, 'some'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 2, 2017
Here is George Osborne, the former chancellor, arriving for work on his first day as editor of the Evening Standard.
He told reporters he wanted to offer readers “straight facts” and “informed analysis”.
It’s very exciting to be starting in the new job.
It’s a really important time in our country when people are going to want the straight facts, the informed analysis so they can make the really big decisions about this country’s future.
The Evening Standard is going to provide that and it is going to entertain along the way.
Now I’ve got to get in there - we’ve got a paper to get off stone so I better get started.
Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.
Nick Clegg is on the Today programme, being interviewed ahead of his speech today.
He says Theresa May has chosen to adopt the hardest version of Brexit.
But if May had gone to Europe last summer, and asked if the UK could leave the EU in the least damaging way possible, for example, by going for the Norway option, then EU leaders would have agreed.
Q: How will having more Lib Dem MPs help?
Clegg says it is crucial that May does not get a massive majority.
And he says parliament needs MPs willing to work with other parties to challenge May’s drive towards a hard Brexit.
Q: So you think the Conservatives will get into government, but you are proposing a coalition of opposition MPs working to oppose her?
Clegg says he is not just talking about opposition MPs. Some Conservatives are opposed to May’s plans too, he says.
If the promises made about Brexit turn out to be wrong, it is right for the country to have another chance to think about this.
Q: What do you think about the leaking of the details of May’s dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker.
Clegg suggests he does not approve of leaking, although he says it is not for May to complain. He says her team at the Home Office leaked against the Lib Dems when they were in coalition.
Time to hand over to Andrew Sparrow to steer you through the rest of the day.
Should you want to wake up tomorrow, and every weekday, with our election briefing email in your inbox, do sign up for the Snap right here.
Today programme talk turns to the EU and that testy dinner between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker.
Amber Rudd, asked if reports of the dinner are true, replies:
I don’t know.
But a tough line from the EU was to be expected, she says:
This is their opening salvo … I’m not surprised there is briefing coming out.
The UK, she says, “will conduct our negotiations more discreetly”.
We need to be united … In any deal there’s going to have be a negotiation … people to have to make deals.
Rudd says the EU should be keen to move quickly on the rights of EU citizens, ahead of other complex unpicking of the relationship:
We have been very upfront … we want to do this as soon as possible.
It must come as no surprise to the EU that this is a priority for us and it should be a priority for them.
On immigration, though, Rudd is less upfront. It’s another “wait for the manifesto” moment – and not a full-throated one:
We will set out some of our strategy towards immigration.
Updated
The home secretary, Amber Rudd, is now speaking on the Today programme.
She says the crime has fallen since 2010, despite cuts in police numbers.
Rudd goes a bit awry on the Conservative campaign script with mention of a “strong and stable home office”.
She says the Labour plan is “totally without credibility”, but also declines to say anything about what might be in the Tory manifesto on policing.
Diane Abbott continues her morning interviews tour, talking about Labour’s policing policy, but inevitably questioned about other things.
Including Tony Blair.
Jeremy Corbyn is better placed to become PM than Tony Blair was because he has "a lot more experience" says @HackneyAbbott
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) May 2, 2017
Tony Blair "is a very talented man who has a big contribution to make in the community" - Diane Abbott #nolovelost
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) May 2, 2017
An insider glimpse from our political editor, Anushka Asthana, into Conservative HQ as it gears up for the crunch period of the campaign:
The ground floor consists of an open room with one corner office for the Conservative chair, Patrick McLoughlin, and an open space in which most of the team are asked to hotdesk.
A central pod is reserved for key figures such as Sir Lynton Crosby (who has yet to properly decamp), deputy chair Stephen Gilbert and May’s joint chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.
The room is staffed from early morning until late at night, with a breakfast of cereal, muffins and croissants served each day and a hot meal brought in for dinner. At one side is the Thatcher room, which sources say is used for key meetings. A basement floor is available for phone-banking.
Even some of the most key advisers based there, with critical logistical roles over the next two months, were given just hours’ notice of the snap general election.
Read the full dispatch here:
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott is on Radio 4’s Today programme to expand on Labour’s new policing pledge (see more on that here).
She denies Conservative claims that the boosted police numbers cannot, as Labour says, be funded by reversing cuts in capital gains tax.
The reversal would save £2.7bn, Abbott says, part of which would be used to pay for extra police officers. Other pledges that had previously been tied to the CGT reversal – welfare, schools and arts – will be explained more fully in the manifesto, she says:
We will have a fully costed manifesto.
More police numbers need to be a priority, Abbott says:
Austerity is causing real issues and forces are struggling to cope.
She says the Office of National Statistics says there has been a genuine increase in some types of crime; she cites gun and knife crime as those that particularly worry the public.
George Osborne isn’t standing in the election but he’ll certainly have a (highly scrutinised) role in it. He starts today as new editor of the London Evening Standard.
Excited about first day in new job @EveningStandard. Without fear or favour we'll provide the facts & analysis - and entertain along the way
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) May 2, 2017
See here for Amelia Gentleman’s take on the stories that London readers might be seeing less of in those pages from now on.
Today’s Labour policy push – to get 10,000 extra police officers on the streets of England and Wales – is an attempt to position the party as one focused on law and order, often a motto the Tories have had in their pocket.
The plan to be outlined by Jeremy Corbyn in Southampton today would fund the 43 forces in England and Wales to recruit 10,000 additional community policing roles – the equivalent of one officer for every electoral ward.
It will be funded, he will say, by reversing Tory cuts to capital gains tax (CGT), which Labour says could save more than £2.7bn over five years.
But the Conservatives have called the plan “nonsensical”. They say Labour has already committed the CGT savings to pay for at least three other pledges: increased welfare payments, schools and arts funding.
Updated
The Snap: your election briefing
Welcome back to another day on the campaign trail. I’m Claire Phipps with your daily election catchup (sign up here and it’ll be dispatched to your inbox every morning) and today’s early politics action. Do hang out in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps. Andrew Sparrow joins us later.
What’s happening?
Tony Blair’s bank holiday foray into the campaign fray was greeted precisely as you – and he (“I know the moment I stick my head out the door, I’ll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me”) – predicted. Today in Lazarus news, allow me to reintroduce Nick Clegg. The former Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister is still an MP, of course, and hopes to remain so after 8 June. This afternoon he’ll use his first speech of the campaign to prod the Tories on Brexit:
We can’t have a strong economy and a hard Brexit. Theresa May alone is responsible for pursuing this course. It is already hurting the very people who need most help in society.
So the question in this election is this: who will hold Theresa May accountable for the economic harm she will inflict on Britain?
Another question in this election is whether May will continue to regurgitate her “strong and stable leadership” line after damaging leaks about her Brexit dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker (of course she will, it’s a rhetorical question, don’t write in).
“Brussels gossip” is the Conservative line; “remarkable and deeply worrying” is, via Keir Starmer, Labour’s; “a mass of very spiky hurdles to overcome” the Guardian’s.
May will be giving her second favourite soundbite a roll around the west country today, as she heads to what was once a Lib Dem heartland to warn that a vote for Tim Farron’s team is a vote for – you guessed! – a “coalition of chaos”:
The opposition parties are lining up to prop up Jeremy Corbyn and disrupt our Brexit negotiations – a recipe for years of drift and division at this crucial time.
Meanwhile, back at the toddlers’ debating society, Tom Watson has – a full five days after the foreign secretary’s “mutton-headed mugwump” jibe at Corbyn – raided the rejected verses from the Jabberwocky for a riposte. Today, media have been briefed (this is not a drill), Labour’s deputy leader will tell the Usdaw union’s annual meeting in Blackpool:
Boris Johnson is a caggie-handed, cheese-headed fopdoodle with a talent for slummocking about.
Corbyn himself will be in Southampton, advancing a fresh Labour policy to get 10,000 additional police officers on to the streets of England and Wales, arresting the fall in “bobbies on the beat” since 2010. The Labour leader, it’s worth noting, did not bite back at what he called Johnson’s “personal name-calling” (“I’ve never been involved in that and never will be”). Yesterday he managed to respond to the Blair bait without referencing a single foodstuff:
That government brought about the national minimum wage. And I just remember going home at 5am from an all-night sitting in parliament to pass the national minimum wage legislation … And I just thought, this is what politics is about. This is worthwhile.
At a glance:
- Alistair Darling says Corbyn is “the leader right up until the general election”.
- Labour bans Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk from standing in election.
- Conservatives launch late push to raise up to £19.5m for campaign.
- UK warned it needs new Middle East policy that does not rely on Trump.
- Britain’s energy supply is in jeopardy after Brexit, warn MPs.
Poll position
No fresh polls that I could spot so far today, so your guess is as good as mine (and quite possibly as good as the polls themselves).
Diary
- At 7am, George Osborne clocks in for his first day as editor of the London Evening Standard.
- At 10.30am, Caroline Lucas and MEP Molly Scott Cato unveil the Green party’s Brexit policy in Hackney.
- Nicola Sturgeon campaigns in Leith with the SNP’s Edinburgh candidates at 2pm.
- At 3pm, Nick Clegg makes his Lib Dem campaign debut with a speech on Brexit.
- Leader-wise, Jeremy Corbyn is in Southampton to talk policing; Theresa May targets the south-west of England with a rally in Bristol; Tim Farron speaks at Westminster synagogue; and Ukip’s Paul Nuttall is in the West Midlands.
Talking point
Liberated from his Tatton seat, former chancellor turned “how hard can it be?” newspaper editor George Osborne today switches his attention to the Evening Standard. Here, Amelia Gentleman deftly picks through the stories Londoners might be less likely to see in its pages: rough sleeping, cuts to local authority budgets, the bedroom tax among them. But of course all eyes will be on how the paper positions itself ahead of polling day. As Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, puts it:
The main issues that we are campaigning on are directly the consequences of policies created by George Osborne.
First reader to spot a “strong and stable leadership” headline wins a retreat in David Cameron’s luxury garden shed.
Read these
In the Times, Rachel Sylvester wonders, does it matter if May isn’t “likeable”?
Unlike most other politicians Mrs May does not want to be liked. She does not bother with small talk or embark on charm offensives with the media or MPs. She could not care less if European leaders find her rude and unhelpful…
She relies on her husband Philip – and a small circle of trusted advisers – but does not crave wider external approval. Unlike [Boris] Johnson, she does not have an irresistible urge to entertain. Unlike Donald Trump she does not have a compulsive craving for attention. She is not approaching a likely electoral landslide nervously, like someone carrying a Ming vase across a slippery floor – as Roy Jenkins said of Tony Blair in 1997.
Dull campaign? Janan Ganesh, in the Financial Times, says we are all to blame:
It is short-sighted to blame the proximate culprits. They just respond to incentives. Corbynites would be remiss not to command a party that so few citizens of the moderate left could be bothered to join. The prime minister would be foolish not to sloganise her way through this campaign when the political cost is near zero. People whom few would mistake for Alexander the Great would be lazy not to run for office when there is so little competition.
The problem is not them. The problem is us. Our apathy has inescapable consequences. The smaller politics becomes, the riper it is for capture by ideologues and second-raters (and ideological second-raters). In my role as a commentator, I encounter just two attitudes to politics: indifference and obsession. A civic culture needs more hobbyists, engaged enough to scrutinise the news and join a party, but removed enough to bring a perspective born of civilian life.
Revelation of the day
It turns out there’s a reason why the PM’s “talking to honestly-they-really-are-real-voters” events have so far been keenly stage-managed:
Knocking on doors to appeal to 'real people' on the campaign trail hasn't always gone to plan for #TheresaMay pic.twitter.com/pJQFowpSMj
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 1, 2017
The day in a tweet
It was 20 years ago today:
New Labour end 18 years of Conservative rule, they have 330 seats and a majority in the House of Commons #election97
— Iain (@Iain_Whiteley) May 2, 2017
And another thing
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