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

General election 2017: Corbyn will not take part in TV election debates without May, Labour says - as it happened

Today sees Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn square off for PMQs for the last time in this parliament.
Today sees Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn square off for PMQs for the last time in this parliament. Photograph: Sky News Live

Afternoon summary

  • Michael Dugher, the former shadow culture secretary who is standing down as an MP, has given an interview saying it is “remarkable” how badly Labour is doing under Jeremy Corbyn. Speaking to the New Statesman, Dugher, who was sacked last year by Corbyn from the shadow cabinet for disloyalty, said:

You’d have to have a screw loose not to think things are pretty tough. I noticed when Jeremy addressed the PLP [parliamentary Labour party] he didn’t announce the key seats we’d need to take off the Tories to form a Labour government. I thought that was ominous.

It is a remarkable achievement for the leadership to have taken a catastrophic situation in Scotland and made it quite a lot worse. We seem to be doing worse in Wales ... We’ve gone backwards amongst every demographic, every region of the country. Jeremy is behind Theresa May on managing the NHS! It’s quite a special achievement to put all of that together in a short period of time. Hats off to Jeremy and Seumas [Milne], Diane [Abbott] and John [McDonnell]. That’s pretty special.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Tim Farron campaigning outside the National Pharmacy Association in St Albans earlier today.
Tim Farron campaigning outside the National Pharmacy Association in St Albans earlier today. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Home Office says admin error led to 130 places for unaccompanied child refugees being overlooked

In February the government announced that it would close the so-called Dubs scheme for taking unaccompanied child refugees from Europe after a total of 350 were admitted. This caused outrage because, when the government accepted Lord Dubs’ amendment to the Immigration Act committing it to take some unaccompanied child refugees, it was expected that around 3,000 could be admitted.

Today, in a written ministerial statement, the Home Office minister Robert Goodwill has admitted that a further 130 places are available for unaccompanied child refugees. The Home Office should have know about these extra places when it made its announcement two months ago but it didn’t because it lost the submission from a council saying it could provide the places.

In the statement Goodwill said:

The government remains fully committed to the implementation of our commitment under section 67 [the Dubs amendment] to transfer unaccompanied children to the UK from Europe and no eligible child has been refused transfer to the UK as a result of this error. The home secretary has written to her counterparts in France, Greece and Italy and we are working closely with member states, as well as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and NGO partners so we can identify and transfer children to the UK as soon as possible.

Commenting on the error, Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, said:

It is welcome that an extra 130 children will be brought to safety in Britain under the Dubs scheme. But it beggars belief that these children weren’t helped earlier because of a basic admin error. This shows a shameful failure by the Home Office to talk properly to local councils who were willing and able to help or to check they had counted the figures up right. This shows the Home Office simply hasn’t taken this seriously enough.

Time and again the select committee and local councils across the country told the Home office that there were more places available, but they wouldn’t budge and they failed to follow up. Surely on something as important as this, when children are at risk of trafficking and prostitution, they would have checked the numbers were right.

Here is another picture from Jeremy Corbyn’s NHS visit this afternoon.

Jeremy Corbyn poses for a selfie with NHS nurses, student nurses and midwives, after meeting them at Unison HQ to discuss Labour’s election guarantee for NHS staff.
Jeremy Corbyn poses for a selfie with NHS nurses, student nurses and midwives, after meeting them at Unison HQ to discuss Labour’s election guarantee for NHS staff. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

The Scottish Labour party has named a former chief of the pro-UK Better Together campaign, Blair McDougall, and a leading Corbyn supporter, Rhea Wolfson, in their first tranche of general election candidates.

After its rout by the Scottish National party at the 2015 election, Scottish Labour was left with one MP, leaving it the major task of finding up to 58 new candidates when its popularity is at a record low of 14%. This is the first election where Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale and her officials have autonomy from the UK party in choosing candidates.

McDougall, a leading Blairite who ran David Miliband’s unsuccessful Labour leadership campaign, is fighting to regain the East Renfrewshire seat lost by his ally Jim Murphy to Kirsten Oswald of the SNP. She demolished Murphy’s 10,420 majority and defends a smaller 3,718 vote majority.

East Renfrewshire is also a Tory target: the contiguous Holyrood constituency of Eastwood is held by Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw. An open critic of Jeremy Corbyn, McDougall suggested he expected pro-UK voters, including supporters of the Tories and Lib Dems, to back him.

“In East Renfrewshire the Tories are a distant third and are not at the races here,” he said in a party statement. “I brought together the anti independence majority in 2014 and I’m going to do the same on June 8.”

Wolfson, at 26 likely to be one of the party’s youngest candidates and a GMB branch secretary in Glasgow, was elected on the pro-Corbyn slate to Labour’s national executive committee last year and has been chosen to stand for Livingston, a new town west of Edinburgh held by the with a hefty 16,843 majority.

Cara Hilton is standing in Dunfermline and West Fife, where she won the equivalent Holyrood constituency in a byelection against the SNP in 2013. The SNP holds the Westminster seat with a 10,352 vote majority. Paul Sweeney, an engineer at the investment agency Scottish Enterprise, has been chosen to fight Glasgow North East, taken by the SNP in 2015 with a 9,222 vote majority.

Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has also criticised Jeremy Corbyn for not being willing to take part in a leaders’ debate without Theresa May. She is echoing what her friend and political ally, the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, said on Twitter earlier. (See 2.08pm.) In 2015 Wood and Sturgeon joined Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, and Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, in a so-called “challengers’ debate” that did not feature David Cameron.

Wood said:

It is disappointing to hear that the leader of the Labour party is not prepared to take part in any televised leaders’ debates without the prime minister.

These debates are a good opportunity for people to engage with the election and for the leaders to put forward their vision to voters.

They are also a chance for party leaders to challenge each other’s record - either in government or in opposition. By shying away from scrutiny and refusing to take part in the debates, the prime minister has presented the so-called leader of the opposition with an open goal.

However, it seems that Labour are still too busy fighting each other to be focusing on fighting the Tories.

Leanne Wood.
Leanne Wood. Photograph: Jon Super for the Guardian

You have probably got the point about “strong and stable leadership” by now, but just in case you haven’t, the Guardian video team have produced a video pointing out just how frequently the Tories hammered home this message at PMQs.

Can you guess what May’s soundbite was at PMQs?

Jeremy Corbyn has renewed his call for Theresa May to take part in TV election debates. And he has signalled that he won’t take part if she is not included. Speaking to Sky News, he said:

I asked Theresa May this morning about the TV debates, lots of people asked her about it, and she said they’re over because there are no more prime minister’s question times because parliament is now dissolved, or will be dissolved next week. And so, actually, the debate has to include the prime minister, the leader of the Conservative party, and we are up for that debate.

Asked what debates he would take part in if there was no leaders’ debate, he replied:

You will see me all over the country taking questions from people on the streets.

Jeremy Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: Sky News

CPS has received file from Kent police over expenses overspending allegations, BBC says

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Jeremy Corbyn has been meeting health workers today.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pretends to use a stethoscope with 2-year-old Haroon, after he met NHS nurses, student nurses and midwives at Unison HQ.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pretends to use a stethoscope with 2-year-old Haroon, after he met NHS nurses, student nurses and midwives at Unison HQ. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

A Panelbase poll is out today giving the Conservatives a 22-point lead over Labour. Here are the figures.

On BBC Radio 5 Live Michael Gove, the former Conservative justice secretary and a leader of the Vote Leave campaign, said he was “absolutely convinced” that Brexit would result in more money going to the NHS. When it was put to him that Vote Leave had said at one point that an extra £100m a week would go to the NHS if the UK left the EU, and he was asked if he still expected that, he replied:

I am absolutely convinced that we will be spending significantly more on the NHS [after Brexit.] I hope it’s £100m.

Of course, the Vote Leave bus also carried a slogan suggesting that leaving the EU would free up £350m a week for the NHS. The £350m figure was widely discredited (the UK’s net weekly payments to the EU are significantly lower), and during the campaign Vote Leave argued that the savings should not all be spent on the NHS.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has tweeted saying that he has “sacked” David Ward as a candidate. (See 2.26pm.)

Arlene Foster, Democratic Unionist leader and first minister in the last power sharing government in Northern Ireland, took time out today from electioneering to pay a highly symbolic visit to Irish language pupils at a Catholic school near the border.

Foster had been criticised earlier this year for her opposition to an Irish Language Act - a key demand by Sinn Fein - which would put Gaelic on an equal par to English throughout Northern Ireland.

At the time Foster likened giving in to Sinn Fein’s lobbying for the act as feeding a crocodile.

But the DUP leader, in a bid to draw the sting out of the row over the Irish language, met with pupils from Our Lady’s Grammar School in Newry today. She even managed a few words in Irish both at the start and end of her meeting which included “go raibh maith agat” - thank you in Irish to pupils and staff.

Foster said that after her encounter with the Irish language students she felt “uplifted.”

Her presence at the school is hardly likely to harvest many votes, either extra ones from within the unionist community or even new ones from within the nationalist community.

However it might improve the mood music at the talks which are still taking place in parallel with the general election campaign, which are aimed at restoring power sharing government in the region.

The atmosphere, nonetheless, is still relatively toxic between Foster’s DUP and Sinn Fein. Earlier today Sinn Fein’s leader in the Stormont parliament Michelle O’Neill came under withering criticism from the DUP over her decision to speak at the memorial for 8 IRA members shot dead by the SAS while they were attacking a police station at Loughgall, Co Armagh in 1987. One victims organisation accused O’Neill of engaging in “terrorism idolatory.”

Arlene Foster speaking to members of the media following a meeting with a delegation of Irish language speakers at Our Lady’s Grammar School in Newry.
Arlene Foster speaking to members of the media following a meeting with a delegation of Irish language speakers at Our Lady’s Grammar School in Newry. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

Now Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, is accusing Jeremy Corbyn of “running scared” after it emerged that Corbyn will not take part in TV election debates if Theresa May is not included. Farron said:

Corbyn is running scared. He is running away from facing his opponents, he is running away from defending his policies, he is running away from leadership.

Lib Dems drop David Ward as candidate over 'wrong and antisemitic' comments

The Liberal Democrats have barred former Bradford East MP David Ward from standing again for the party, after Tim Farron said his comments about Jews had been “deeply offensive, wrong and antisemitic”, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.

Corbyn will not take part in TV election debates without May, Labour says

In the huddle for lobby journalists after the final PMQs of the parliament, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman struck an upbeat note about Labour’s prospects. He said the Conservatives’ poll lead will narrow once the campaign gets underway and the public get to hear Labour’s message, “in our own voice”.

We are confident that we can win this election, and we’re fighting for every seat, and we’re confident that once Labour’s message is clearly heard, and there is a chance for the public to hear policies that many of them won’t have heard before, but which are extremely popular, and we know to be so, that will have cut-through, and Labour support will increase.

He also said recent events had shown that political polling has a “chequered record.”

The politics and the polling is actually quite complex and quite varied across different countries, and I don’t think it’s just a technical issue to do with the polling companies that we’re in; I think it’s to do with the volatile and fluid political situation, with much more fragmentation.

Labour believes the strict rules governing broadcasters during elections will help them to shift the focus to their policies - which internal polling suggests will be well received - rather than seeing everything through the prism of Corbyn’s leadership.

However, the spokesman said Corbyn would not appear in a broadcast debate during the campaign if it didn’t include the prime minister.

There has been some suggestion that Theresa May could be “empty chaired”, if she refuses to participate in a head-to-head debate; but the spokesman said just appearing alongside the other opposition leaders would not help voters to decide whether they want a Labour or Tory government.

The spokesman also dismissed the claim, raised by the prime minister, that the shadow chancellor has in the past supported disbanding MI5, as “recycled fake news”.

This was all dealt with when the allegation first came out, and it’s not the case that John McDonnell signed any such statement. When the story was first run about a year ago it was made clear that it was confusion about another statement; he never signed the statement involving MI5, it was another story entirely. This is recycled fake news.

Asked about pictures circulating at the time in which McDonnell held up the statement in question, the spokesman said: “As he made clear at the time, he thought he was holding something else up.”

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, has been campaigning in Stirling today.

Nicola Sturgeon meets SNP candidates and activists in Stirling on the local election campaign trail.
Nicola Sturgeon meets SNP candidates and activists in Stirling on the local election campaign trail. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

On the World at One Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s general election coordinator, said the party’s manifesto would be published on Monday 15 May. Asked how Labour would fund its promises, he replied:

I’m not in a position to spell out the Labour party’s full manifesto here. But we will have to wait until May 15 for the manifesto.

The Conservative manifesto is expected to be published a week earlier, on Monday 8 May.

Boris Johnson won't be sidelined in election campaign, Tories claim

Conservatives have denied that Boris Johnson is being sidelined from the party’s general election campaign by Theresa May, the Press Association reports.

Reports have suggested the foreign secretary has been told to keep a low profile because he is vulnerable to challenge over his pre-referendum claims that Brexit would deliver £350m a week to spend on the NHS.

A senior Conservative source dismissed the claims as speculation, and said Johnson would soon enter the fray.

“The foreign secretary will have a clear role to play,” said the source. “You will see him in a prominent role in the very near future.”

Since abandoning an expected challenge for the Tory leadership following last year’s vote, Johnson has been the occasional butt of May’s wit.

In her speech to last year’s annual Conservative conference, she made a joke at his expense, asking: “Can Boris Johnson stay on message for a full four days?”

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has criticised Jeremy Corbyn for apparently refusing to take part in an election debates if Theresa May is not involved. She posted this on Twitter.

Sturgeon was commenting on this tweet from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.

PMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs.

Mostly people are quite positive about Jeremy Corbyn, although several people think Angus Robertson was more effective.

From Sky’s Beth Rigby

From the i’s Nigel Morris

From the Times’s Patrick Kidd

From Sky’s Adam Boulton

From Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett

From Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh

From Sky’s Faisal Islam

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith

From the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot

Labour sources are also criticising Theresa May for referring to Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs as a terrorist sympathiser.

The May reference came when May quoted from the “I like Corbyn but” website that Diane Abbott promoted on Twitter.

And here is the relevant extract from the website.

Labour are ruling out Jeremy Corbyn taking part in any TV debates that do not feature Theresa May, Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh reports.

Theresa May refused to commit to keeping the triple lock at PMQs. But, according to today’s Times, the Tories are thinking of keeping the policy, which ensures pensions rise every year in line with earnings, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest, on the grounds that it would be cost free. Here’s an extract from Francis Elliott and Oliver Wright’s story (paywall).

Theresa May is considering keeping the “triple lock” guarantee on state pension increases because it is likely to be a cost-free promise for the next parliament, according to senior ministers.

Labour has promised to increase the state pension by a minimum of 2.5 per cent a year, despite warnings that it could cost taxpayers an additional 1 per cent of GDP by 2036. The lock is triggered only if inflation falls below that figure and the Office for Budget Responsibility is predicting that wages and prices will increase at a faster pace in the next few years.

Cabinet ministers admit Mrs May fears handing Jeremy Corbyn a propaganda victory. “It’s a matter of pretty intense debate about whether to include it in the manifesto,” one senior figure said. “On one hand it is politically costly and doesn’t actually save any cash. On the other, it’s clearly a nonsense.”

The argument that the triple lock would be cost free is based on the belief that, if the Conservatives were to abandon it, they would still have to commit to increasing pensions every year at least in line with inflation, or in line with earning or inflation, whichever was higher (a double lock). With inflation going up, there is more likelihood of the inflation benchmark being more generous than 2.5%.

The Lib Dem peer Olly Grender, who worked in Number 10 as deputy communications director during the coalition, says Theresa May was wrong at PMQs to argue that the Conservatives deserved credit for increasing council house building during the coalition.

This is from Politico Europe’s Tom McTague.

The SNP’s Alex Salmond says Liam Fox went to the Philippines and said we had “shared values” with it. What shared values do we have with Rodrigo Duterte?

May says we need trade deals after Brexit to ensure a strong economy.

And that’s it. PMQs has finally finished.

It lasted almost an hour, which may well be a record. It lasted so long partly because John Bercow, the speaker, was intentionally calling MPs who are standing down.

Sir Simon Burns, a Conservative, says he has been Chelmsford MP for 30 years. They are perspicacious, he says. They want a government with a strong economy, strong defences and strong leadership. May will deliver that for the next five years, he says.

May thanks Burns for his contribution as an MP and as a minister.

Douglas Carswell, the independent MP, asks what assurance May can give to the 3.8m people who voted Ukip at the last election.

May says she wants to see the UK getting control of its borders and control of its laws.

Dame Angela Watkinson, a Conservative, asks May why people should continue to vote Conservative.

May says every vote for her and the Conservative candidate will be a vote to strengthen her hands in the Brexit talks.

Labour’s George Howarth says Andy Burnham had a debate yesterday on contaminated blood. He called for a Hillsborough-style panel to get to the truth. Will May join the SNP and Labour in backing the idea.

May says the government has put more money into compensation. The department of health will respond to the consultation.

Mike Wood, a Conservative, says it is good to be back. Doctors saved his life in January. Will May look at what can be done to reduce deaths from sepsis.

May says it is fantastic to see Wood back. She says he is right to focus attention on this problem. The department of health is working on a new sepsis action plan.

Labour’s Grahame Morris asks why May is afraid of TV debates. One should be held in Easington, he says, where May could see the impact of her policies.

May says she has been debating Corbyn every week.

Sir Gerald Howarth, a Conservative who is standing down, says he came into the Commons in 1983, when the country had a strong woman leader, and he leaves as another one is restoring British sovereignty. He appeals to Howarth to protect the armed forces guarding “this sceptred isle”.

May says people will have a choice at the election. The Tories will continue to protect the armed forces.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, says May once berated her party as the “nasty party”. But it has never been nastier. And Labour is not holding to account. Doesn’t the country need the Lib Dems?

May says Farron talks about a decent opposition. She says Farron cannot say that when the Lib Dems have just elected a candidate with a questionable record on antisemitism.

Sir Eric Pickles, the Conservative, asks May about anti-semitism, and if she shares his disgust at the selection of David Ward, a former MP accuses of anti-semitism, as a Lib Dem candidate. (See 10.35am.)

May pays tribute to the work Pickles had done tackling anti-semitism. She says people will be disappointed to see the Lib Dems adopt a candidate with a questionable record on anti-semitism.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP MP, asks May if she agrees that those who refuse to take their seats (Sinn Fein) and who are refusing to form a government in Northern Ireland are not serving their constituents.

May agrees. She says she wants to work for the restoration of a government in Northern Ireland.

Peter Lilley, the Conservative, says he is standing down because of Theresa May. He says he has confidence that she will deliver Brexit properly. And we must accept that no deal is better than a bad deal. To deny this would be to admit that no price would be too high. That would be the worst possible deal, he says.

May thanks Lilley for everything he has done, not just as an MP, but as a minister in government. She says it is right to get on with delivering Brexit. The only way to ensure that is to get a Conservative government elected.

PMQs - Snap verdict

PMQs - Snap verdict: At PMQs you can deploy the sniper’s rifle or the shotgun, and today we saw Angus Robertson try one, and Jeremy Corbyn use the other. They were both effective in their way, although Theresa May’s shield of slogans and talking points managed to protect her quite adequately. It did not feel as if anyone secured a great triumph.

But in the circumstances, and with polling organisations pouring humiliation over Corbyn by the hour, that probably amounted to something of a win for the Labour leader. He asked about a range of topics, resorting to the “here’s a question from a viewer” formula that he used frequently in his first PMQs outings and neatly skewering May over her reluctance to take questions from members of the public. It was not flashy or eye-catching, but it was honest and solid and his points were strong. In response, May resorted to carpet-bombing Corbyn with the “strong and stable” leadership stuff. Her message discipline is outstanding, and conventional wisdom has it that you cannot repeat these slogans too often (although May seems to be testing that theory to destruction.)

Robertson focused on a forensic question about the triple lock, and he secured what amounted to another clear hint that the triple lock is set to be ditched. The exact wording of May’s response was interesting; she talked about “pensioner incomes” continuing to go up. It is not quite clear what that means, but doubtless the Tory manifesto will clarify it.

Updated

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, asks for a clear and unambiguous commitment to keeping the triple lock for pensioners.

May says she has been very clear that pensioners have benefited to the tune of £1,250 a year. Under her pension incomes will continue to increase.

Robertson says May made it clear that she will drop the triple lock. They won’t guarantee it because they want to cut pensions. Isn’t she giving the message to pensioners that they cannot trust the Tories.

May says pension incomes would continue to increase under the Tories. Pensioners in Scotland know that, if the believe in the union, they must vote Conservative.

Ben Howlett, a Conservative, asks if May agrees that his voters should give him a renewed mandate to improve traffic around Bath.

May agrees. A vote for any other party is a vote for wrecking the economy.

Corbyn says millions of women will have heard that answer. Labour will guarantee the triple lock. And it won’t move the goalposts. Sybil, who witnessed the founding of the NHS, said she is 88. She has had wonderful service from the NHS. But now she is scared of going into hospital. With more delayed discharges, isn’t she right to be frightened.

May says the NHS is treated more people than ever before. But that is only possible with a strong economy. She says she will defend her record. She says Diane Abbott has been directing her followers to a website “I like Corbyn but ..”. It addresses questions about Corbyn not being able to pay for his policies and being a terrorist sympathiser. Even Corbyn’s supporters know he is not fit to run the country.

Corbyn says his question was about the NHS. May should go to a hospital and take questions from the staff. Strong leadership is about standing up for the many not the few. The Conservatives only look after the rich, and ignore the rest. They are strong against the weak and weak against the strong. The election is a choice, between a Conservative government for the few and a Labour government that will stand up for everyone.

May says if Corbyn wants to talk about the NHS, he should talk about Wales. Labour’s record there is bad. In six weeks’ time they will be back, she says. She says the choice is about who will be PM. A vote for Corbyn is a vote for a chaotic Brexit. A vote for her is for strong leadership. A vote for Corbyn is a vote for a “coalition of chaos”. A vote for her is a vote for strong leadership.

Corbyn says the last Labour government delivered a decent homes standard for every council in the country. House building has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s. Children are being held back by cuts. Laura, a teacher, said she was seeing less cash every year to pay for children, and more reliance on parent funding. Is May still denying funding per pupil is being cut.

May says record levels of funding are going into schools. People will have a choice, she says. The government has delivered more good school places. Corbyn believes in a one-size-fits-all, take-it-or-leave-it approach to education.

Corbyn says Labour is not slashing school budgets or putting money into pet projects. It does not want schools to have to rely on parents. Many people feel the system is rigged against them. Maureen wrote to him saying women born in the1950s have been treated disgustingly because the pension age was increased. What can be done to help them?

May says the government has taken steps to help them. It has ensured there is a time limit on these changes. But if Corbyn wants to talk about pensions, remember Labour’s record. One year the pension went up 75p under Labour. Under the Tories it has gone up £1,250. Only yesterday the economy emerged from Labour’s crash, she says.

Corbyn says Andy is concerned about how his children are being held back. All three of his children, in their mid 20s, cannot afford to move out of the family home. Don’t we need a housing strategy to deal with it?

May asks what happened under Labour. Under Labour, house building starts fell by 45%. And the number of social homes fell. Under the Conservatives more than twice as much council housing has been built as under Labour.

Jeremy Corbyn says this is the last PMQs of this parliament. It would be appropriate to pay tribute to MPs who are leaving, he says. And he thanks the speaker for presiding over these exchanges.

He says when he became leader 18 months ago he said he wanted people’s voices to be heard in parliament. So, instead of just speaking to handpicked audiences, will May today answer questions from the public. Christopher wrote to him this week saying hus husband had only a 1% increase in wages. But their buying power had gone down 15%. So where is his share in the stronger economy.

May also pays tribute to MPs leaving.

She notes Corbyn did not answer the points about security.

Today Corbyn is talking about raising wages for NHS staff. Around half of those staff will get a pay increase of 4% because of progression pay.

She says she will tell Christopher he will have a choice at the election between strong and stable leadership and Labour, who would crash the economy.

Richard Drax, a Conservative, asks about a leftwing campaign for socialist victory that proposed disbanding M15. Would May allow anyone like that to draft her manifesto?

No, says May. She says the plan to disband MI%, disarm the police and scrap the deterrent was endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn’s policy chief, Andrew Fisher. Corbyn is “simply not up to the job”, she says.

Theresa May starts by answering a closed question from the Conservative MP Michael Fabricant about the economy in the West Midlands. It is doing well, she says. And so are public services, because you can only have those with “strong and stable leadership”.

Fabricant says the country needs “strong and stable leadership”.

May says in the West Midlands people will be able to elect a strong local mayor, Andy Street. And in the general election people will be able to elect a strong, Conservative government.

I think you can tell how this is going to go ....

This is from the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs

PMQs will start in 10 minutes. It is the last of this parliament.

And it is also only the second, and last, election TV debate between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn (counting last week’s PMQs as the first.)

Ipsos MORI has more good news for the Conservatives on the polling front. As Joe Murphy reports in the Evening Standard, Theresa May has the best ratings on “best PM” since the firm started polling on this in the 1970s. Here’s an extract from Murphy’s story.

Theresa May’s leadership score has soared higher than either Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair enjoyed in their best years, an exclusive poll reveals today

The Ipsos MORI survey shows the Conservatives on 49 per cent, with an extraordinary 23 per cent lead over Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour who are on 26 ...

But the most striking evidence that voters could deliver Mrs May an overwhelming victory is the revelation that she has the best score yet recorded by Ipsos MORI since the 1970s when the veteran pollsters began asking who would make “the most capable prime minister” among party leaders of the day.

Some 61 per cent chose Mrs May, with 23 per cent picking Mr Corbyn.

Three-times election winner Baroness Thatcher never came close - her best score was 48 per cent which she first hit in May 1983 on the eve of a landslide triumph against Michael Foot.

Labour’s most successful election winner Tony Blair touched 52 per cent in May 2001, just before he crushed William Hague in the general election.

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall claims he will be vindicated like Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the great figures of the 20th century. He led India to independence and championed a form of non-violent civil disobedience that inspired campaigners around the world. It is hard to think of a modern equivalent, but the Ukip leader Paul Nuttall has suggested a possible candidate: himself.

Nuttall did quite put himself in the same league as the great Gandhi, but in an interview with the Wolverhampton Express and Star suggested they had something in common and the paper’s website has headlined the story: “I’m like Gandhi, says Ukip leader Paul Nuttall in Wolverhampton.” This is what Nuttall told the paper:

Raising issues of equality, women’s rights, and FGM are the issues other parties don’t want to tackle.

Ukip will lead on these and as I said in our press conference I feel as if we are a decade ahead of our time – a bit like we were a decade ahead of our time on getting out of the EU, and on mass immigration.

We led the debate on those issues and we will lead on these.

It is a bit like the Gandhi thing – first they laugh at you, then they attack you, and then you win.

Although that quote is often attributed to Gandhi, reportedly there is no record of him saying it. But Nuttall is in good company. As the Times of India reports, Donald Trump has attributed it to Gandhi too.

Mahatma Gandhi. The Ukip leader Paul Nuttall believes that, like the great Indian leader, in time his views will be vindicated.
Mahatma Gandhi. The Ukip leader Paul Nuttall believes that, like the great Indian leader, in time his views will be vindicated. Photograph: Dinodia Photos/Getty Images

YouGov has released some new polling this morning. Since February, Theresa May’s net favourability rating has gone up (from +6 to +10) and Jeremy Corbyn’s has gone done (from -40 to -42).

Favourability ratings.
Favourability ratings. Photograph: YouGov

The Conservative party’s favourability rating has also gone up since February. Its net rating is now -2, ahead of the Greens on -11, the Lib Dems on -25, Labour on -27, the SNP on -39 and Ukip on -43.

The SNP figure in the chart is misleading, because it is a GB figure. Many English voters dislike the SNP, as Tory election strategists realised all too well in 2015. But the SNP does not stand candidates in England. The YouGov crosstabs show that, in Scotland, the SNP’s net favourability rating is +15.

By comparison, the Conservative party’s net favourability rating in the south of England, excluding London, is +12.

Favourability is not the same as voting intention. It measures how people feel generally about a party. But given that electoral success is a mix of what voters think about leaders, parties and policies, it is an important indicator.

Favourability of parties.
Favourability of parties. Photograph: YouGov

Peter Lilley, the Conservative former social security secretary regarded as one of the Eurosceptics cabinet “bastards” once denounced by John Major, is standing down, the Guido Fawkes blog reports. In a statement announcing his decision Lilley said:

Now we have in Theresa May an outstanding Prime Minister in whom I have great confidence.

I profoundly hope she will be returned with a strong mandate to complete the process of leaving the EU and to seize the opportunities which regaining control of our laws, border, money and trade will give our country.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron is continuing his tour of remain seats with Brexiteer MPs, after vowing to unseat Labour’s Kate Hoey in Vauxhall. His stop today is St Albans, where more than 62% of voters backed staying in the EU but Conservative MP Anne Main campaigned for leave.

Farron used the campaign stop to highlight the risk to the economy of leaving the EU and tell businesses they should stop funding the Conservatives while they pursue a hard Brexit.

My message to business is this – dump the Tories. Every penny you give them will hurt you; you are funding your own funeral. The success of British business matters. Strong British businesses mean more jobs and a stronger society.

With this disastrous hard Brexit the government is hurting businesses, both big and small, costing jobs and hitting families. All this means fewer jobs, higher prices and spiralling costs of things like fuel. This is a Brexit squeeze affecting millions of people.

Liberal Democrat strategists hope to gain dozens of remain-leaning seats from Labour and the Tories in London and the south-west by making opposition to Brexit their key issue of the seven-week snap election campaign.

Flanked by cheering activists, Farron appeared with the party’s candidate in the seat, Daisy Cooper, one of the joint executive directors of Hacked Off, the media privacy pressure group set up in the wake of the hacking enquiry.

Overnight, Farron faced calls to act after local Lib Dems re-selected David Ward to fight the seat of Bradford East. The ex-MP was suspended from the party in 2013 after a series of inflammatory comments about the Jewish community and Israel, including a Holocaust Memorial Day blogpost where he said he was saddened that “the Jews” had inflicted suffering on Palestinians. He was later reinstated but lost his seat to Labour in 2015.

The Conservatives have also produced a briefing accusing Labour of spending the money it proposes to raise from corporation tax over and over again. The Lib Dems cited 10 examples, although two items on their list were essentially the same. (See 9.09am.) In a note for journalists a few days ago, the Tories cited 11 examples. Most of the Tory ones were the same as the Lib Dem ones, but the Tories had three examples not on the Lib Dem list. Here they are, as set out in the Tory briefing.

Scrapping university tuition fees. Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘At the moment what we’re doing is asking students to fund universities rather than the public to fund universities. I would rather move in to the other way around, with public funding of it … It would be largely on levels of corporate taxation’ (Victoria Derbyshire Labour Leadership Hustings, 17 August 2016).

Reversing changes to Universal Credit. John McDonnell: ‘Universal Credit. We’re hoping on Wednesday the government will reverse that … If you had a fair taxation system, you weren’t giving the tax giveaways to corporations and to the rich, if you seriously tackle tax evasion and tax avoidance, if you grew the economy we’d be able to afford – we’d be able to afford our public services’ (The Andrew Marr Show, BBC One, 21 November 2016).

Schools budget. Angela Rayner: ‘you can’t keep cutting the budgets for schools’. (Interviewer: ‘But where are you going to get the money from?’). Rayner: ‘Well the government have cut corporation tax, we’re one of the lowest corporation tax economies across Europe, that didn’t need to happen’ (BBC Radio 4, The World at One, 17 March 2017).

I’ve asked Labour for a response. I’ll let you know when they get back to me.

Green party promises to scrap tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants

Tuition fees will be scrapped and maintenance grants brought back, the Green party are announcing as key features of their election manifesto.

Co-leaders Jonathan Bartley and deputy leader Amelia Womack will also say in a speech today that students and universities will be protected after Brexit if the Green party were in power.

The series of commitments to students will be made during a visit to the University of Sheffield. They will be joined by students, members of the Young Greens and Natalie Bennett, the party’s former leader.

Bennett is standing against Labour’s Paul Blomfield, who the Greens came second to in 2015. The party hopes to capitalise from remain anger and Sheffield central is one of their key battle grounds – the city, which had been expected to vote to stay in the EU, voted in favour of Brexit by a paper-thin margin, leaving many in shock.

As well as pledging to abololish tuition fees and reinstate maintenance grants, the party promises to continue the Erasmus programme, matching EU funding for universities with a UK equivalent after Brexit.

Ahead of the announcement, Bartley said:

The Green party is the only party standing up for students and putting young people at the heart of its campaign.

Education is a right not a commodity to be bought and sold, and we need a level playing field so everyone has the chance to go to university or college.

Students need a liferaft in the Brexit storm. They are being ignored in the Brexit negotiations, despite having the most to lose. Funding for our universities is under unprecedented threat. The Green party will not let young people miss out on opportunities to study, travel and work across Europe because of a decision that they so emphatically voted against.

Building a better future for young people is an absolute priority and today we are committing to policies that will help us work towards an open, fairer society where everyone has the chance to succeed.

The party says it would fund its proposals “through progressive taxation including a rise in corporation tax for large companies”.

Cameron says a large Tory majority would give May 'more time' to deal with Brexit

If the referendum result had gone the other way David Cameron - remember him? - would be in Downing Street this morning preparing for PMQs. Instead he happens to be in Bangkok, where he has just finished speaking at a tourism conference. My colleague Oliver Holmes was there and he has sent me the highlights.

Here are some of the key points he made.

  • Cameron said a large majority would give Theresa May “more time” to deal with Brexit. Welcoming her decision to call the election, he said:

Let me be optimistic … It’s very good that we are having this election, because I think if Theresa May is successful, she’ll actually have a larger majority and, potentially, more time to deal with Brexit and its consequences.

That seemed to be a reference to how holding the election now might make it easier for Theresa May to sign up to a transitional arrangements for the period after Brexit in spring 2019 but before the full impact of Brexit comes into force. If the election had gone ahead as planned in 2020, May might have found it politically awkward agreeing to things like continued payments into the EU budget which might have been hard to defend in an election campaign

  • He said the Conservative party was thriving because it has accepted the result of the referendum. Cameron is thought to have reservations about Theresa May - his decision to leave parliament seemed partly motivated by his doubts about some of her policies, like grammar schools - but in this comment he seems to be praising her for getting on with implementing Brexit. He said:

Arguably, you could say, looking at the state of British politics, the Conservative party having accepted the referendum result and got on with the process and responsibly delivering it, is probably the most healthy mainstream political party anywhere in western Europe.

  • He defended his decision to call the referendum, saying the lack of a referendum was “poisoning British politics. He said:

It was a legitimate cause of populist concern, that Britain was a member of this organisation, the organisation had changed a huge amount over the last forty years, it had gained more powers, it had passed more treaties, it had become more important in more areas. And yet in spite of the fact that the British people were occasional offered a referendum by their leaders, most famously by Tony Blair, they never got a referendum.

If you want to address the causes of populism, it was necessary, in my view, to have a referendum.

He admitted that he felt “regret” about the result. But he went on:

But I think it was the right thing. The lack of a referendum was poisoning British politics and so I put that right.

  • He criticised President Trump’s ban on travellers entering the US from six mainly-Muslim countries. He said:

These terrorists and their apologists are trying hijack a great religion and twist and pervert it for their own ends. We must not play into their hands. And that was to me, the biggest problem with President Tump’s travel ban. It would be seen, could be seen, as labelling whole countries as extreme and dangerous because they were predominately Islamic. It’s not a clash between civilisations that we face. That is what the extremists want us to think. This is if you like a war within Islam.”

There would have been a big lesson learn. I thought it was misconceived from the very outset.

David Cameron.
David Cameron. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the Today programme earlier that Labour would have to raise “significant extra sums” to fund its plan to give NHS staff a pay rise. He said:

Each 1% on pay, just 1%, costs half a billion pounds each time. It’s not possible to say from what the Labour party have said quite how much more they intend to spend on the NHS.

If you are going to do that over the next two or three years you will also clearly need to raise significant extra sums in tax revenue.

Lib Dems claim Labour's plan for NHS pay increase 'isn't credible'

Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem former health minister, told the Today programme that he agreed with Labour about the need for NHS staff to be paid more. He said the current 1% cap on NHS pay increases was unsustainable.

In effect we are asking very many staff across the NHS to just, year on year, take a pay cut in real terms in order to sustain our NHS. And I don’t think that’s acceptable. I think ultimately it’s dangerous. We are seeing widespread vacancies ... Actually people will vote with their feet and leave if you don’t maintain wages at least in real terms.

The Lib Dems would explain how they would fund a pay increase when they published their manifesto, he said.

But he said the Labour plan, to fund an increase through reversing corporation tax cuts, was not credible.

The problem with the Labour position is their proposal just isn’t credible ... The money from corporation tax increase has been spent about 10 times over.

In a briefing note the Lib Dems claimed that Labour has already made 10 separate spending commitments involving reversing the corporation tax cuts. Here is their list. The links are those provided by the Lib Dems.

Labour have already committed to using funding from an increase to corporation tax ten times since the last general election:

1. Bringing back the education maintenance allowance and university maintenance grants.

2. Paying for additional teachers, nurses and police.

3. Funding social care

4. Extending pension credit to support women affected by the change to the state pension.

5. Paying for an efficient post office, good public transport, and fast and comprehensive broadband for small businesses

6. Supporting the pensions triple lock and investing in social care

7. Funding public sector pay rises

8. Investing in the UK steel sector.

9. Reversing cuts to disability benefits

10. Reversing the cuts to the adult skills budget

To be fair, numbers 2 and 7 on the list cover the announcement being made by Labour today, so a more accurate Lib Dem claim would be that Labour have committed the money eight other times.

In his Today interview Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said that Labour’s plans would be fully costed. He said the details would be set out in the manifesto. (See 8.16am.)

Norman Lamb.
Norman Lamb. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Updated

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, will announce his guarantees for NHS staff in a speech to the Unison conference in Liverpool. According to extracts released in advance he will say:

NHS staff have been taken for granted for too long by the Conservatives. Cuts to pay and training mean hard working staff are being forced from NHS professions and young people are being put off before they have even started. Now Brexit threatens the ability of health employers to recruit from overseas.

What is bad for NHS staff is bad for patients too. Short staffing means reduced services and a threat to patient safety. Labour’s new guarantees for NHS staff will help keep services running at the standard which England’s patients expect ...

Safe staffing levels will be a priority for a Labour Government. After seven years of Tory mismanagement our health services are dangerously understaffed. We are thousands short on the numbers of nurses, midwives, GPs and paramedics that we need.

Time and again expert reports have told us that staffing levels are linked to patient safety but the Conservative Government has failed to deliver the numbers of extra staff that patients need.

So the next Labour government will legislate ensure safe staffing levels in England’s NHS.

Jonathan Ashworth.
Jonathan Ashworth. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

In his Today interview earlier Jeremy Hunt admitted that Brexit would have an impact on the NHS.

There’s no point saying that Brexit and the Brexit negotiations won’t affect the NHS. This is absolutely critical for our public services.

But Hunt went on to argue that this was why the UK needed - you guessed it - a strong leader during the Brexit negotiations.

Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, has also spoken about the impact Brexit will have on the NHS, especially on staffing.

Q: Are you saying you will give the NHS whatever it needs?

Ashworth says the NHS has not had what it needs.

He says Theresa May lied about not wanting an early election. She has also not told the truth about NHS funding. She said she was giving the NHS what it wanted. He says Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, said that was not correct.

Q: Jeremy Corbyn says he wants to get rid of private provision in the NHS. How would you do that?

Ashworth says Labour would reverse the legislation that allows that to happen.

Q: So, within a parliament, private provision could go?

Ashworth says there will always be an element of private provision in the NHS. GPs are private. And dentists.

He says Corbyn has been clear: the privatisation agenda will be ended in the NHS.

Jonathan Ashworth's Today interview

Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is on Today now.

He says his plans for the NHS are ambitious. We need to be investing in our NHS staff, he says. And in training.

He says he will be a health secretary who never compromises on safety. That is why he will legislate for safe staffing levels.

Q: What sort of pay rises will you give NHS staff?

Ashworth says Labour will follow the advice of pay review bodies.

Q: Pay rises in line with inflation.

Ashworth says that is the sort of thing.

Q: That is going to cost billions.

Ashworth says the corporation tax cuts introduced by the government would be reversed.

Q: Corporation tax has gone done from 28% to 19%, and is due to go down to 17%. Would it go back up to 28% under Labour?

Ashworth says the party will set out its exact plans in its manifesto.

Q: But there is a long list of measures Labour wants to fund from corporation tax. It does not sound credible, does it?

Ashworth says all Labour’s plans will be costed. They will be in the manifesto.

We will outline what level corporation tax will be in our manifesto when we publish it in the coming days ... The whole programme that the Labour Party will be putting to the country in this election campaign will be costed.

  • Ashworth says all Labour’s policies will be costed and details will be set out in the manifesto.

Updated

I’m now handing over the live reins to Andrew Sparrow, who’ll take you through the rest of the day’s political news.

A quick reminder: you can sign up for the Snap, our daily election briefing email, here.

Updated

In a video for the Guardian, Paul Mason pushes back against the argument from the Daily Mail and others that those who oppose the government and its Brexit plans are “saboteurs”. Meaningful opposition to the Tories is necessary for the country and for democracy, he argues:

Don’t buy the lie. To oppose the government is not sabotage

Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who chairs the cross-party public accounts committee, has been talking about its free schools report.

NHS crisisLabour MP and Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier introduces witnesses appearing before the committee at the House of Commons, London, after the influential parliamentary committee said public “bickering” between Theresa May and the NHS over funding at a time when the health service is facing severe financial problems is an “insult to taxpayers”. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday February 27, 2017. See PA story HEALTH NHS. Photo credit should read: PA Wire
Meg Hillier.

She told the Today programme that part of the problem with the free schools programme is that local authorities are still held responsible for ensuring there are enough school places in their neighbourhoods – but free schools and academies are accountable not to local authorities but to Whitehall.

This leads to the situation outlined in the PAC report, she says, where some areas have spare capacity of more than 20%, while elsewhere there is pressure for places.

The education department – which is currently in election purdah – has said of the report:

We will consider the recommendations carefully and respond in due course.

Updated

MPs on free schools: 'incoherent and poor value'

As well as Labour’s own NHS pledges, we might expect Jeremy Corbyn to press Theresa May on this damning MPs’ report on free schools when the two leaders meet for the final PMQs of this parliament at noon.

In the – so far – planned absence of televised head-to-head debates during the campaign, today could be the last time we see May and Corbyn take each other on ahead of 8 June.

The report from the public accounts committee certainly gives the Labour leader something to joust with.

The report from the Conservative-dominated committee concludes that the government’s funding of the free schools programme has been “incoherent and too often poor value for money”, with the Department for Education of spending “over the odds” on unsuitable sites and building free schools in areas that already have enough school places.

The report says:

The DfE is spending well over the odds in its bid to create 500 more free schools while other schools are in poor condition. Many free schools are in inadequate premises, including many without on-site playgrounds or sports facilities …

The department is in a weak negotiating position and commonly pays well in excess of the official valuation. On average, it has paid 19% over the official valuation, with 20 sites costing over 60% more.

Leaders in Europe will demand that Theresa May respects the right of EU nationals who have lived in the UK for five years to acquire permanent residence, Daniel Boffey and Lisa O’Carroll report:

In a sign of growing anger over the perceived bureaucratic hurdles being put in their way, the call will be made at a summit on Saturday, where the leaders of the 27 other EU member states are set to sign their negotiating guidelines.

The guidelines were amended by officials on Monday to strengthen demands over Britain’s €60bn divorce bill, open the door to further cooperation on EU-UK foreign policy and law enforcement, and add a call for transparency during the talks.

The member state officials have also included an extra clause on the legal position of EU nationals who have lived in the UK over a long period.

The EU document had always insisted on reciprocal guarantees “to safeguard the status and rights derived from EU law at the date of withdrawal”, but now says:

Such guarantees must be effective, enforceable, non-discriminatory and comprehensive, including the right to acquire permanent residence after a continuous period of five years of legal residence. Citizens should be able to exercise their rights through smooth and simple administrative procedures.

Pressed on the issue of social care – which Theresa May has pledged to “stop ducking” – Jeremy Hunt is similarly reticent about what the not-ducking will look like:

We need a long-term sustainable solution.

You’ll have to wait and see what manifesto says … I’m not going to speculate on what the contents of our manifesto are.

But, he adds, “our vision” is about “dignity and respect” for older people.

And that’s all we’re getting for now.

Jeremy Hunt: NHS staff 'working harder than ever before'

And here’s Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, who’s popped up to defend his record against the Labour claim that staff are “ignored, insulted, undervalued, overworked and underpaid by this Tory government”.

I think they are working harder than they’ve ever worked before … You see a government that’s responding to that.

The priority, he says “is to get more staff on the wards”, adding that, in the coming years:

We will be able to train record number of nurses.

Applications have dropped by a quarter, it’s pointed out to him, but Hunt compares this to the dip in university candidates when tuition fees were introduced:

Applications do then recover.

With an unmistakeable whiff of a party-line election briefing, Hunt insists “what really matters for the future of the NHS” is to vote for a “strong leader … getting the best deal” in upcoming Brexit negotiations.

“What is absolutely critical is to get a good outcome from the Brexit negotiations” to protect the economy and continue to fund the NHS, he says.

There’s no figure (not even the ghost of a £350m-a-week) on this funding yet, as Hunt insists:

You’ll have to wait and see what the manifesto says.

Labour's guarantees for NHS staff

Labour will be attempting to shift the debate today on to the NHS, with shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth making a number of pledges:

  • lift the 1% cap on pay rises for NHS staff.
  • move towards public sector wages being agreed through collective bargaining and the evidence of independent pay review bodies.
  • require NHS trusts to have regard for patient safety when setting staffing levels.
  • reinstate bursaries for students of health-related degrees.

Ashworth says the changes would be funded by reversing government cuts to corporation tax.

Updated

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader (with Caroline Lucas) of the Green party, has been updating Radio 4’s Today programme on the progress of the progressive alliance, their proposed anti-Tory electoral pact.

The response from Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron, says Bartley, has been

very disappointing … they haven’t responded.

He says this election is a “time to put tribal politics aside”, but adds:

On a local level, people are talking to each other …

We want people to vote Green [but] we will support whatever the local party wants to do. But it has to be a reciprocal arrangement.

The Snap: your election briefing

Good morning and welcome back to another day on the campaign marathon.

I’m Claire Phipps, bringing you this morning’s essential – should your morning be incomplete without news of constituency selection battles – briefing, and steering the live blog until Andrew Sparrow joins us later.

What’s happening?

Today sees Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn square off for PMQs for the last time in this parliament. Will we see them across the dispatch box in this formation again?

Expect Twitter klaxons every time May recycles her “strong and stable leadership” mantra; for Labour, you get a bonus point for every Corbyn question that sticks to the Labour election script – the NHS, schools and social care (points deducted for utterances on defence, Brexit and immigration, which fall in the “best not to mention” section of the leaked campaign document).

While Labour is inching halfway towards a consensus on the last issue – with apparent agreement that free movement from the EU will end with the divorce – what comes next (and is stamped into the manifesto) is still apparently at the intractable brainstorm stage.

But there is a present giftwrapped, beribboned and couriered straight to the Labour leader’s desk this morning courtesy of MPs on the public accounts committee, who have condemned the government’s free schools policy as incoherent and wasteful. No missed cue, either, from shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth, who will announce today that the pay cap on “ignored, insulted, undervalued, overworked and underpaid” NHS workers would be lifted by a Labour government.

“A Labour government” is being rolled around on the tongues of Tory strategists worried (or tactically affecting to be) that talk of a Conservative landslide might not inspire supporters to pop to the polls – or could even prompt potential backers to vote for the opposition simply to hold the presumptive PM in check. But with manifesto pledges still a way off, May has promised she will “stop ducking” that most duckable of issues, social care.

Meanwhile, the who’s in, who’s out, who just can’t make up their mind carousel reels on, with Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood ruling herself out of a Westminster run; veteran Tory Andrew Tyrie stepping down in Chichester; suspended independent Simon Danczuk probably back for Labour in Rochdale; foot-shooting independent Zac Goldsmith possibly back for the Conservatives in Richmond Park; David Ward – previously suspended from the Lib Dems over antisemitism – reportedly back for his old party in his old Bradford East seat; and Tory MSP John Lamont stepping down from Holyrood to try to win Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk from the SNP. That’s assuming he’s not disqualified for crimes against bar charts:

Tory MSP John Lamont is stepping down from Holyrood to try to win Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk from the SNP in the 2017 general election.
Spot the deliberate mistake. Photograph: @John2Win

Oh, and Ukip leader Paul Nuttall still doesn’t know whether or not he’ll be standing, as he ponders the pros and cons of integration.

At a glance:

Poll position

The prime minister dishes out today’s essential caution:

Remember, the opinion polls were wrong in the 2015 general election; they were wrong in the referendum; and Jeremy Corbyn himself has said that he was a 200-1 outsider for the Labour leadership in 2015 – and look where that got him.

With that lodged firmly in mind, Kantar has the Tories in a commanding lead – on 46% to Labour’s 24% – with the Lib Dems trotting behind on 11%, Ukip on 8%, SNP on 5%, the Greens on 4% and Plaid Cymru on 1% (you can insert your own caveats on Scottish and Welsh parties here).

Diary

  • Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn bow out of this parliament with the final PMQs at noon.
  • Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier pop in for private talks with the PM at No 10.
  • Tim Farron campaigns in St Albans, a Tory-held seat on the Lib Dem target list.
  • Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth shares more on Labour’s NHS plans at the Unison health conference in Liverpool.
  • Ukip is due to select its candidates in meetings around the country this evening.

Talking point

Political Cabinet meeting,London,UK-25th April 2017Mandatory Credit: Photo by Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock (8632650ab) Boris Johnson,Foreign secretary,arrives for the political cabinet meeting Political Cabinet meeting,London,UK-25th April 2017
Boris Johnson: safely contained? Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock

That evergreen question – how do you solve a problem like Boris? – sprouts again, with a report in the Times today (downplayed by Downing Street) that May will be urged to “bury” the foreign secretary during the election campaign. A plan to tuck him into the shadows of the 2015 campaign was squashed by Johnson’s ability to boom his way out of (almost) any efforts to sideline him. Back then he collywobbled – with all the conviction with which he stood beside the “£350m a week to the NHS” Vote Leave battle bus – that “never have I been so worried about what could happen under Labour”. If Corbyn gives him the jitters, will we get the chance to find out?

Read these

Bonnie Greer in the New European says that the PM, in making this election explicitly about Brexit, has made a tactical mistake:

In effect, this is EU Referendum 2. This is the chance for those who didn’t vote/couldn’t vote, to come out. It’s a chance for Remainers to convert more people, help their friends to see the catastrophe that Brexit is …

‘My own constituency voted Remain,’ Theresa May announced in the Commons as an example of her adhering to the ‘will of the people’. But if everyone in Maidenhead who voted Remain backed the Lib Dems in June, the PM could lose her seat.

This is the level of the gamble she’s taking; the campaign that she could be giving voice to; the reason why this may not be the slam-dunk the Tory press want us to believe.

Gisela Stuart with the Brexit battle bus
Gisela Stuart with the Vote Leave battle bus: she has some advice for Labour on winning. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

In the Telegraph, Gisela Stuart, the outgoing, Brexit-backing Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, says her party needs to up its campaign game:

The Labour party will need more than a wish list and a collection of grievances. I’ll offer three topics for starters. How do we ensure a fair intergenerational settlement? How can our education and tax system respond to the changes of the world of work and employment? Where do we anchor democratic accountability in a world of global flows of goods, money and people?

Planning for parliamentary deadlock and pacts with other parties might be tempting. But these are the methods of counter-insurgents. If Labour instead wants to be a party of government, it has to go into the 2017 election fighting for every vote.

Federica Cocco in the Financial Times takes a look – with correctly-scaled charts! – at what Brexit means for traditional battleground seats:

The gap between first- and second-place party in 2015, 2010 or earlier, as well as any byelection result, is not the only factor. Strategists are having to look at how many people in a given seat voted leave or remain in last year’s EU referendum. This information is especially crucial for the Liberal Democrats …

A 30- to 40-point improvement (that is, a 15% to 20% swing that went entirely from the first-placed party to the Lib Dems) would do the job in seats where a majority voted remain – but that is an incredibly ambitious target.

Revelation of the day

The PM’s speech in Bridgend yesterday came exactly one year after her only major pronouncement during the Brexit campaign – in favour of remain, for those with too-much-news-hazed memories. Politico Europe rounded up some of her key warnings, on trade, security and the union (UK version):

I do not want the people of Scotland to think that English eurosceptics put their dislike of Brussels ahead of our bond with Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The day in a tweet

Trudy Harrison, who won Copeland for the Conservatives in a byelection just two months ago, squeezed in her maiden speech in the Commons just before she has to fight for the seat all over again:

And another thing

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