Afternoon summary
- Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has rejected a claim by Ukip’s deputy chairman that Theresa May must bear “some responsibility” for the Manchester Arena attack. (See 2.10pm.)
- A surge in the number of Polish people and other European citizens leaving the UK since the Brexit vote means there has been an 84,000 drop in the UK net migration figure, to 248,000, the lowest level for nearly three years. The Institute of Directors said the figures should be a “big worry” for employers. Seamus Nevin, the IoD’s head of employment and skills policy, said:
Today’s migration figures underline the importance of immigration to the UK workforce and are a warning of the damage a significant reduction could do. Alarmingly, the fall in net migration is being driven as much by people leaving as by fewer arriving. This is a big worry for employers who risk losing key members of staff in positions that cannot easily be replaced from the home-grown pool available. The IoD has repeatedly called for the government to guarantee the status of EU migrants already living here. Doing so would allow businesses to start planning for the future.
There is a well expressed public desire for increased control of immigration but all parties in the general election should set out clearly the costs of any proposals they make. The Office for Budget Responsibility have calculated that cutting immigration to the “tens of thousands” would add £6bn a year to the national deficit, just in terms of the direct reduction in the taxes collected and so not including wider economic impacts.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Jacqui Smith, the Labour former home secretary, has joined those attacking Theresa May and the Tories for cutting police numbers. (See 12.32pm.) In an interview with Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett, Smith said she thought it was “simplistic” to link the police cuts to the Manchester Arena terror attack. But she said the police cuts since 2010 had had an impact on public safety.
It’s pretty clear that my party, and I in fact, think that reducing police numbers by 20,000 isn’t something that you can do without implications for peoples’ safety ...
I do think that, for example, one of the important elements of counter-terror activity is not just the intelligence that is gathered by the security services, but also the relationships that neighbourhood police officers, community police officers, build up at a local level with their communities, so that people feel confident about reporting things to the police.
One of the things that has suffered because we have 20,000 fewer police officers is precisely that community presence. And I think that that is a weakening of our police presence and effectiveness.
Here is my colleague Polly Toynbee on the Ukip manifesto. She says Ukip has “had its day”.
And here is an extract.
The truth is Ukip has had its day. Blaming May for this week’s massacre will find few takers outside the conspiracist fringe, and probably do her election campaign nothing but good. If he weren’t trying so hard to spread hate, Nuttall would be an enjoyably ludicrous figure of fun. It has been Britain’s good fortune that the periodic flare-ups of far-right movements have been led by absurd, inadequate people whose parties fight and split even faster than far-left groupuscules. If times get even harder, as Brexit bites, and some seek scapegoats in “filthy foreigners” or minorities at home, there could yet be fertile territory for a truly threatening party. But it’s not Ukip, was never the posturing Nigel Farage, BNP, or the Nazi fetishisers of various iterations of the old National Front.
Ukip has done its task, and done its worst when it intimidated lily-livered David Cameron into calling a referendum. In its death throes it is trying to catch a tide of anti-Muslim outrage. But the tide – at least for now – is mercifully not flowing that way. So let it quietly fade away and die at this election.
Here is some reaction to the immigration figures (see 9.57am) from two thinktanks.
From Stephen Clarke, an analyst at the Resolution Foundation
The sharp fall in migration since the referendum shows that British businesses need to start preparing now for a big shift in the labour market, even before we leave the EU.
Rising emigration among EU nationals, particularly from Eastern Europe, means that many firms would be wise to rethink their investment, recruitment and training policies.
What businesses also need during this election campaign is far more clarity from political parties about what their post-Brexit migration policy will be. The choices we make about post-Brexit Britain’s approach to migration will mean a fundamental shift in the way many run their business – the time to start preparing for that is now.
From Marley Morris, the IPPR’s senior research fellow for Brexit
Today’s immigration statistics show an overall significant decline in net migration, driven by a fall in net migration from Eastern Europe.
EU nationals play a key role in certain sectors of the economy – from the 60,000 workers in the NHS to the further 80,000 workers in social care. Our research has found that these workers are also concentrated in less well-known critical sectors such as food manufacturing, accommodation, and warehousing.
We need a properly managed migration policy for post-Brexit Britain that meets the needs of the economy and the concerns of the public. But if skilled EU workers are leaving the UK now because their future in the UK is uncertain, we could face a labour market crunch. Moreover, a sharp fall in migration now won’t give employers the time to adapt by investing in skills or automation.
If urgent action isn’t taken to provide certainty to EU nationals living in the UK, then we won’t be able to create the migration system we need for our post-Brexit economy to succeed – because skilled migrants will decide of their own accord to pack their bags and leave. We need to take steps now to grant deemed leave to all EU citizens in the UK and negotiate in good faith with the EU for a quick and fair deal on citizens’ rights.
The Scottish National party has moved its postponed general election manifesto launch to Perth, the Highland town in one of the party’s most keenly-fought seats, after its original event in Edinburgh was cancelled in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing.
Perth and North Perthshire is a key target seat for the Scottish Conservatives after the area was conquered by the SNP in their surge to prominence under Alex Salmond’s first period as SNP leader in the 1990s.
The Tories believe their candidate Ian Duncan, a prominent Tory MEP, has a very strong chance of unseating Pete Wishart, a long-established MP who has held the seat for the SNP since 2005 and previously its predecessor seat of North Tayside since 2001.
A prominent SNP figure latterly chair of the Scottish Affairs select committee in the Commons, Wishart has held the seat in successive elections, winning larger majorities each time.
He is defending a 9,641-vote majority over the Tories but the Conservatives now believe the surge in their vote, which hit 33% in one recent Scottish poll, puts the seat in play. They point to the 2005 general election, when Wishart won with a far narrower 1,521 majority.
The Tories have been itching to regain the seat, which has long been a weathervane of the Conservatives decline in Scotland, since North Tayside was lost by former Tory MP Bill Walker in the Scotland-wide wipe out of the Tories in 1997. The previous neighbouring seats of Kinross and West Perthshire, and then Perth and Kinross, was held by Sir Nicholas Fairbairn til his death in 1995.
Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Tory MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, which includes Perthshire, said:
Suddenly, Nicola Sturgeon has discovered that Perth and north Perthshire exists. For far too long, she has taken parts of Scotland outside the central belt for granted. A manifesto launch in Perth will not fool anyone that the SNP is going to change.
An SNP spokesman said the Perth concert hall was a “good venue”. It was once frequently used by the party for its annual conferences, until the party got too large, he said. “It’s nice to be back.”
The Guardian’s daily election podcast is back. Today’s features Jonathan Freedland, Owen Jones, Helen Pidd and Ian Cobain discussing the Manchester Arena attack.
The Conservative party has received more than four times as much money in donations as Labour during the second week of the general election campaign, figures show. As the Press Association reports, Labour received £382,925 from May 10 to 16 to help in its fight to win seats, compared with £1,639,108 for the Tories, the Electoral Commission reported.
The GMB trade union provided Labour with £290,125 - accounting for the majority of the second week’s donations.
Unison, the Communication Workers Union, Fujitsu Services Limited and the National Union of Mineworkers also donated to the party.
Major Conservative donors included Lord John Sainsbury, as well as Rainy City Investments Limited and Investors in Private Capital Ltd.
The Liberal Democrats received £160,000 over the same period, Ukip was given £35,000 and the Greens and Women’s Equality party both received just under £19,000.
More than £7m in donations of more than £7,500 to all political parties was reported to the Electoral Commission in the first week of the campaign, while a total of 2.5 million was given during the second week.
As Theresa May arrived at the Nato summit in Brussels, she said she would be pushing for Nato to do more to tackle terrorism.
[The Manchester attack] I think, shows why it is important for the international community including Nato to do more in our fight against terrorism and that is what I am going to be pushing for today.
I am also going to be pushing the UK’s agenda on burden-sharing and we are proud, as the UK, that we meet the target of spending 2% of our GDP on defence and 20% of our defence budget on equipment.
And other nations must be prepared to take responsibility and that includes more investment in defence.
She also confirmed that she would be telling President Trump that intelligence shared with the US must be shared securely.
On the issue of the intelligence-sharing with the USA, we have a special relationship with the USA, it is our deepest defence and security partnership that we have.
Of course, that partnership is built on trust. And part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently and I will be making clear to President Trump today that intelligence that is shared between law enforcement agencies must be shared securely.
The Liberal Democrats have withdrawn their party election broadcast that was due to air on BBC One in England this evening, replacing it with a personal message from party leader Tim Farron.
The party, which will recommence its national campaign tomorrow after a pause following Manchester Arena attack, said the message was intended to be “heartfelt, personal and non-political” and was recorded after Farron attended the vigil in Manchester on Tuesday night.
Farron said Manchester was his “capital city” where he had spent many nights of his teenage years.
Almost by the hour now we get the name of another child, maybe some of them are adults but they’re all someone’s children. Dead. People whose lives have been lost. Another family utterly, utterly shattered and it’s heart breaking.
My kids each know somebody who was there on that night and for all of us it feels beyond devastating, beyond heart breaking.
Farron said the terrorist had “died in vain” trying to divide the country, and ended the video quoting from poet Tony Walsh, who spoke at the vigil.
It feels raw now, it really feels raw but I want to just say those children, they’re our children. We’re all Manchester. We’re all Britain. In the words of Tony Walsh the poet ‘we’re all Britain whether we are born here or drawn here’.
The broadcast will air on BBC One at 6.55pm.
In an interview on the World at One Suzanne Evans, Ukip’s deputy chairman, defended her claim that Theresa May should bear “some responsibility” for the Manchester attack. (See 12.43pm.) Asked if her comment was “crass”, Evans replied:
No. This is not a personal attack on the prime minister. It’s an attack on her record as home secretary which needs looking at ... The only person who was responsible for these attacks is the terrorist and those who supported him, let’s be absolutely clear about that. But the way in which we have allowed this culture of extremism to develop in our country, somebody’s got to take responsibility for it.
Rudd rejects Ukip's claim May must bear 'some responsibility' for Manchester attack
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has hit back at the Ukip claim that Theresa May must bear “some responsibility” for the Manchester attack. Speaking to Sky’s Faisal Islam, she said that was an “entirely wrong” approach and that Ukip should not be making political points from the attack at this point.
Home Sec Amber Rudd to me on immigration numbers down: "this is good news, good that the overall figure has come down by nearly a quarter"
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 25, 2017
Rudd: "I don't agree with that net target [zero], good progress on 10s thousands, but always going to do it in a way that protects economy"
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 25, 2017
...that was in response to my question about UKIP's net target of zero
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 25, 2017
Re Ukip May blame, Rudd: "Entirely wrong approach, we're trying to support police/victims, this is not a time for making political points"
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 25, 2017
The FT’s Henry Mance says Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, may not be happy about one of the proposals in the party manifesto.
UKIP's manifesto proposes reducing the number of pubs. pic.twitter.com/iFp9wrZHDY
— Henry Mance (@henrymance) May 25, 2017
And the Times’s Lucy Fisher says the Ukip manifesto suggests that there is at least one form of full-face covering the party approves of.
Despite banning *all* face coverings, Ukip feature a beekeeper, replete with full mask, in their manifesto pic.twitter.com/0XVLYYW1Tx
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) May 25, 2017
Ukip manifesto launch - Summary
You can read the Ukip manifesto here (pdf).
And here are the main points from the Ukip launch.
- Ukip put challenging Islamist extremism at the centre of its politics as it published its manifesto. Paul Nuttall, the leader, said he wanted a “far more muscular approach”. Speaking at the manifesto launch he said the Manchester attack confirmed the need for the sort of policies he was promoting.
The fact that this Islamist terrorist targeted a concert which was primarily attended by children and teenagers simply proves that there is no depth to which these evil and warped individuals will not stoop.
When I was elected leader of Ukip six months ago, I was clear right away that the threat posed to our people by Islamic fundamentalism was one of the major issues I and indeed all politicians would face in the coming years.
I also identified the need to take a far more muscular approach to social integration and against segregation as a key policy area.
Ukip policies include banning full-face veils, subjecting girls at risk of female genital mutilation to medical checks and closing schools teaching “Islamist ideology”. Suzanne Evans, the Ukip deputy chairwoman, also said immigrants would have to pass a “social attitudes test” to show they accept equality for women and gays. She said:
We will test their social attitudes, and if they do not agree, for example, that women or gay people are equal and not second-class citizens, then quite simply they will not get in.
Evans also dismissed critics of Ukip’s integration policies as “leftwing virtue signallers”. She said:
When Ukip launched our integration policies last month they were met with hysteria from leftwing virtue signallers and cowardly politicians, who refuse to admit there is a problem with radical Islam in this country.
- Evans said Theresa May must bear “some responsibility” for the Manchester attack. (See 12.43pm.) When pressed, Evans said she was not saying May was directly to blame. The terrorists were ultimately responsible, she said. But she went on:
The circumstances that allowed their ideology to breed, allowed their hatred to spread – politicians should have taken action on that long ago.
In his opening speech Nuttall criticised May for cutting police numbers and failing to tackle Islamist extremism. But, when the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg put it to him that he seemed to be coming close to blaming May for the attack, Nuttall said he was not saying that. He said:
No, I’m not accusing the prime minister. I’m saying that politicians in this country have been weak on this issue for many, many years. In terms of her record as home secretary I think it’s appalling. This is a home secretary who cut the numbers of police officers, cut the number of border guards, cut the number of prison officers. I’m sorry, it isn’t a good record at all.
But as for blaming her personally for the attack - absolutely not, I’m not doing that. What I’m saying is the politicians in this country are too cowardly at the moment to actually face up to what the real Britain is.
- Nuttall denied that Ukip was exploiting the Manchester attack. When Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick put it to him that his opening speech was exploiting the attack, Nuttall replied:
No Michael, it certainly wasn’t exploiting Manchester ... I wasn’t trying to jump on the back of Manchester or anything like that. It was basically telling these people they will not beat us.
- Nuttall dismissed “lighting candles” as a response to the Manchester attack. In his opening speech he said.
It is not the British way to turn a blind eye to evil in our midst. It is not good enough to light candles and proclaim that extremists will not beat us. Action is required on multiple fronts.
When challenged, he said this was not intended as an insult to those who attended rallies and lit candles. He said he was just trying to make the point that, for politicians, actions like that were not enough.
- He said Ukip was proposing hiring 20,000 more police officers, 20,000 more members of the armed forces, 7,000 more prison officers and 4,000 more border guards.
- He refused to rule out internment without trial for terrorist suspects. This was an idea floated by Ukip’s energy spokesman, Roger Helmer, on Twitter. Helmer posted this:
I hate the idea of internment in a liberal democracy. But maybe it's time to think the unthinkable. https://t.co/uVPvzbRyQs
— Roger Helmer (@RogerHelmerMEP) May 24, 2017
Asked about this, Nuttall claimed not to have seen the comment. He would not say whether he agreed, but he said that politicians had to “get real”.
- He declined to say whether he would take action against Gerard Batten, Ukip’s Brexit spokesman, for writing a blog on Tuesday describing Islam as “barbaric”.
- Several journalists who asked challenging questions at the launch were aggressively heckled by Ukip activists. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg probably received the most abuse, with one Ukip shouting at her after she asked her questions comments like “Crawl back down your hole”, “Don’t you understand English?”, and “What a stupid question”.
Ukip says May 'must bear some responsibility' for Manchester attack
At the Ukip manifesto launch Suzanne Evans, the party’s deputy chairwoman, said Theresa May “must bear some responsibility” for the Manchester attack.
Here is the key quote.
I think she [May] must bear some responsibility - all politicians who voted against measures or voted for measures to make cuts bear some responsibility.
As I said, I think when 9/11 happened we should have had a serious rethink about immigration, it didn’t happen.
Of course the European Union is equally culpable as well and I also lay a lot of blame at the feet of the commissioners as well.
But Evans also stressed that she was not saying May was directly responsible. Only the terrorists were responsible for what actually happened, she said.
Full summary of the Ukip launch coming soon.
Updated
Former Manchester police commissioner says he warned May cuts could reduce flow of terrorism intelligence
At the Ukip manifesto launch Paul Nuttall and Suzanne Evans criticised Theresa May over police cuts and other Tory policies, suggested they had hindered the fight against crime. A similar criticism has been made by Tony Lloyd, the Labour former police commissioner for Greater Manchester.
Lloyd, who stood down from a five year tenure in the post on May 9, said that he repeatedly warned that cuts to community policing could harm Greater Manchester Police’s ability to combat crimes such as terrorism. He said he “constantly” raised the issue of cuts to police numbers and warned the then home secretary that it could cut off a flow of intelligence from local communities.
He told the Guardian:
The issue [of resources]has certainly has been raised with government around counter-terrorism. You begin and end, with any form of policing, whether its combating organised crime or terrorism, with community policing.
I constantly raised the issue of resources with the home secretary to stop the cuts. The response that May has always given is that crime has gone down.
Lloyd, who is standing as a Labour parliamentary candidate in Rochdale, said that GMP has been cut from 8,000 police officers to 6,000 since the coalition government took the reigns of power in 2010.
He said there have been cuts to community policing which have harmed the force’s ability to gather intelligence.
If you cut off the neighbourhood link you cut off a source of intelligence. If you have not got that then you haven’t got someone whispering in someone’s ear that that is the person who stole that bike or that is the person who is heading towards an unhappy future as an extremist - whether that is the person who killed Jo Cox or the person who killed children in Manchester. Neighbourhood policing is the bottom line.
Lloyd said Rudd would argue that the number of counter-terrorism officers remain the same, but claimed that this would not make up for a cut in community intelligence. He said:
It is a zero sum gain if you allow community policing to decline because you are weakening a vital link.
Forces are facing a 5% cut in government funding in 2015/16 and more cuts after the general election.
Lloyd was not the only person to raise this with May when she was in home secretary. In 2015 she was confronted at a Police Federation conference by an officer who said cuts to community policing in Greater Manchester meant intelligence had “dried up”, in a way that ultimately damaged the fight against terrorism.
Inspector Damian O’Reilly told May:
I worked in inner-city Manchester for 15 years. I felt passionate about what I was doing.
In 2012 I had to leave. I couldn’t take it any more because the changes that have been imposed have caused community policing to collapse.
That’s the reality ma’am. Intelligence has dried up. There aren’t local officers.
They don’t know what’s happening. They’re all reactive. There’s no proactive policing locally ...
We run the risk here of letting communities down, putting officers at risk and ultimately risking national security.
In 2015 this Manchester policeman warned Theresa May that "intelligence has dried up." pic.twitter.com/zN4oRIkpbC
— ES Sandberg (@eriksandberg82) May 25, 2017
Yesterday Amber Rudd, the home secretary, told the Today programme that she has been reassured by police and other agencies that they have enough resources to combat terrorism.
Updated
Theresa May chaired a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee this morning, and recorded a short clip for broadcasters afterwards. Here are the main points.
- May said the threat level would remain at critical.
I have just chaired a meeting of Cobra where I was updated on the extraordinary response of the police and emergency services to Monday’s horrific attack. The police have confirmed that eight suspects remain in custody and that progress is being made in the case but the threat level, as assessed by the independent joint terrorism analysis centre, will remain at critical and the public should remain vigilant.
- She suggested that the troops deployed to help the police would remain on the streets at least over the weekend.
- She confirmed that when she meets President Trump at the Nato summit later, she will complain to him about the Americans leaking details of the Manchester investigation.
[At the summit] I will make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure.
- She said she would lead a discussion on counter-terrorism at the G7 summit in Italy tomorrow. It would focus on “how we will work together to prevent the plotting of terrorist attacks online and to stop the spread of hateful extremist ideology on social media”.
- She said the G7 and Nato would enable the UK to work more closely with allies “as we work to defeat the evil of terrorism”.
This is a blog focusing on the general election campaign. May is not campaigning today, and she has been chairing Cobra, and will be attending the Nato and G7 summits, in her capacity as prime minister. It is what any prime minister would have to do. But it would be naive to think this activity has no bearing on the campaign. People will be voting two weeks today and a pre-Manchester poll showed May had a 30-point lead over Jeremy Corbyn on the issue of who is most trusted to protect people from threats at home and abroad. Elections are often determined by ‘what is the question on the exam paper’, and if security is deemed to be the key issue, all the polling up to now suggests that helps the Conservatives.
After the Ukip manifesto launch was over, Ukip activists in the audience continued to challenge journalists, especially Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick, for their coverage of the party.
Scenes after Ukip manifesto launch as members surround Michael Crick and tell him "media has blood on its hands" for "calling Ukip racist" pic.twitter.com/SIP1WyKcsR
— Michael Deacon (@MichaelPDeacon) May 25, 2017
Ukip hecklers are continuing their tirade against the media who "are part of the problem" pic.twitter.com/KnZ4OXpelC
— Laura Hughes (@Laura_K_Hughes) May 25, 2017
UKIP manifesto launch is going well then pic.twitter.com/YhsBunAlPR
— Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett) May 25, 2017
Perhaps Ukip have got a point about social standards being on the decline. According to BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson, one of the Ukip “rabble” who was heckling the press (see 11.09am) turns out to be a parliamentarian and a member of the aristocracy.
Earl Dartmouth, UKIP MEP, on why he heckled Laura Kuenssberg: "The BBC is fake news, BuzzFeed is not fake news but the BBC is fake news."
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) May 25, 2017
Political parties often invite activists to press events, and it is not unusual now for supporters to heckle journalists who ask questions deemed unhelpful. But I’ve never seen it happening quite to the extent it did at the Ukip manifesto launch.
As the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope says, it made the party look like a rabble.
Lots of off-camera shouting at the @UKIP press conference. Yelling at journalists asking proper questions makes the party look like rabble
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) May 25, 2017
I will post a summary soon.
Q: What part of the economy would suffer under your plans to cut immigration?
Evans says Ukip wants migrants coming to the UK to have a job.
But the manifesto accepts that farmers need short-term labour.
Unskilled workers would not be welcome, she says. She says Ukip would put a five-year moratorium on unskilled labour coming to the UK. She says she does not accept that there are not workers in the UK who can do this job.
Nuttall wraps up the press conference now, to allow time for the minute’s for the victims of the Manchester attack at 11am.
Q: Do you think May is responsible for Manchester?
Evans says May must bear some responsibility for what happened.
Asked to clarify this, Evans says the only people who were responsible were the terrorists.
But politicians should take responsibility for allowing the culture that enabled this poison to spread.
Q: Why did you not include a plan to cut mosque funding in your manifesto?
Nuttall says he would like to stop Saudi Arabia funding mosques.
Evans says it is not fair to single out one country. The manifesto was produced in a hurry. She would have liked time to investigate which countries are funding mosques. It is probably not just Saudi Arabia. But Ukip did not have time to do the analysis, so the policy is not in the manifesto.
Q: [From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg] You criticised Theresa May in your speech. It sounds like you are as good as blaming May for Manchester.
This generates lots of shouting from the audience. “Is that the BBC?” someone asks.
Nuttall says that he was criticising May’s record. He says he is not saying she is personally to blame.
Q: When the minute’s silence was announced, you could have postponed this press conference.
Nuttall says Ukip will take part in that. Ukip wanted to push back the time of the launch. But the broadcasters said it should happen now.
Q: Your energy spokesman said last night it was time to consider internment for terrorism suspects.
Nuttall says he has not seen those comments. But he thinks it is time to get real.
Q; Do you back internment?
Nuttall says he is not commenting. He has not seen the comments. But it is time to get real, he says.
Ukip Q&A
Nuttall is now taking questions.
Q: [From Michael Crick] Wasn’t your opening speech exploiting Manchester?
There are shouts of “rubbish” from Ukip supporters in the audience.
No, says Nuttall. He says the terrorists hate our democracy. They must not be allowed to win.
Q: Has anything been added to the manifesto since Manchester?
No, says Nuttall. It went to the printers on Saturday.
Q: You say lighting candles is not enough. Isn’t that an insult to those who attended the rallies.
Someone shouts “rubbish”.
Nuttall denies that. There is nothing wrong with lighting candles, he says. But that is not enough.
Evans says Ukip would also build more homes. Up to 100,000 high-quality, low-cost factory-build homes will be rolled out. They will cost less than £100,000 a year.
Ukip would fund the development of modular home building.
Maintenance grants would reintroduced for the poorest students.
And tuition fees would be abolished for students studying STEM subjects, and medicine.
Ukip would get rid of VAT on takeaway food.
It would abolish the House of Lords. And it would create an English parliament, sitting in the House of Lords chamber, she says.
(This gets a round of applause.)
And Ukip would introduce proportional representation for the Commons, she says.
Winding up, she says Ukip is the only party that is serious about tackling radical Islam and that will reverse the Tory cuts to defence and the police.
And it is the only party going into the election promising not to put up taxes, she says.
Evans says people should not worry about the impact of cuts to the aid budget.
Trade is a better means of boosting prosperity, she says.
Ukip would continue to fund aid projects that make a real difference, like inoculation programmes and clean water projects.
Evans says Ukip would introduce the toughest ever crackdown on health tourism.
But it would also guarantee EU nationals the right to stay in the UK.
Evans says Ukip has costed its policies. It would save £35bn a year by cutting foreign aid, stopping contributions to the EU, and ending vanity projects like HS2.
It would not need to put up taxes, she says.
She says Ukip can promise not to raise any taxes.
And it would put an extra £11bn a year into the NHS, she says.
Evans says Ukip is setting out six Brexit tests.
She says there are signs our fishing communities may be sold out. Ukip will fight for them, she says.
Ukip will also fight for coastal communities, and not treat them as being “at the end of the line”.
Evans says May weakened stop and search in 2014. Ukip said this would lead to an increase in knife crime, and it has been proved right, she says. She says there have been 14 deaths in London in recent weeks.
Ukip would favour stop and search.
It would reverse cuts to the prisons budget, she says.
She says it would make national defence a priority too. The army is at is smallest since the Napoleonic wars. And the RAF has only 20 fighter planes.
But the end of the next parliament Ukip would hire an extra 20,000 more armed forces personnel.
Ukip would “refuse to allow culture to be an excuse for crime”, she says.
She says Islamism will not be tolerated “anywhere in our society”.
She says our entire way of life is under threat.
Evans says combating radical Islamism will take a dramatic change in attitudes. Only Ukip has the stomach for this, she says.
She says hundreds of thousands of immigrants have not tried to adapt to British life, she says.
She says May backs the wearing of the niqab and the burqa - even though they are symbols of the oppression of women.
Ukip will ban them, she says. There is no human right to protect your identity, she says.
She says Ukip would introduce checks for those at risk of female genital mutilation.
Suzanne Evans also offers sympathy to the victims of the Manchester attack.
But more attacks are being planned, she says.
She says the first duty of government is to protect the country.
Theresa May made deep cuts to the border force as home secretary, she says.
And they Tories made 17,000 police officers redundant. Some 7,000 police officers and 20,000 members of the armed forces also lost their jobs, she says.
She says nothing will change if May wins a majority. Reportedly not a single member of her cabinet backs cutting immigration, she claims.
And she says Jeremy Corbyn is not the answer either.
Ukip would set a target of zero for net migration, she says. That means 300,000 immigrants would still be able to come, she says (matching the 300,000 people leaving each year.)
But immigrants would only be allowed to come if they accept British values. If they do not recognise the rights of gays and women, they will not be allowed in, she says.
Nuttall says Ukip has set out six tests for Brexit.
Ukip will be the country’s Brexit insurance policy, to make sure there is no backsliding, he say.
He says Ukip will be proved right about Britain’s integration emergency.
It is not easy being a Ukip member, he says.
But Ukip will fight for what it thinks. He says it is not the British way to turn a blind eye to evil.
He is now handing over to Suzanne Evans, the party’s deputy chairman, who is running through some of the specific policy proposals.
Nuttall says Ukip would give the NHS an extra £11bn a year, by taking money from the foreign aid money.
Nuttall says Theresa May has failed to get immigration down.
Today’s figures show a population the size of the city of Hull is coming to the UK every year.
He says May has failed to tackle the problem of Islamist radicals returning to the UK.
He says Ukip would ensure anyone going abroad to fight for Islamic State loses their passport.
Nuttall says he was criticised for calling radical Islam a cancer affecting British life after the Westminster attack.
But he has no regrets about saying that.
He says he will continue to make this point, even if it upsets the Westminster chatteratti.
You can read the Ukip manifesto here.
The UKIP 2017 Election Manfiesto is here if you want to have a look for yourself https://t.co/iWmJbk6gyI
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 25, 2017
Ukip manifesto launch
Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader, is speaking now at the launch of the Ukip manifeso.
He starts by offering condolences to the family and friends of the victims of the Manchester bombing.
He says that the “vast majority” of Muslims in this country are peaceful.
But more needs to be done to tackle Islamist extremism, he says.
He says Ukip is calling for 20,000 extra troops, 20,000 extra police officers, 7,000 extra prison officers and 4,000 extra border guards.
Net migration falls by 84,000
The latest immigration figures are out, and they show that net migration to the UK fell by 84,000 from 2015 to 2016, taking the figure down to 248,000. These are from my colleague Alan Travis.
Net migration to UK fell to 248,000 in 2016 - 84,000 down on 2015 - ONS
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) May 25, 2017
Main drivers of 84,000 fall of net migration are 40,000 increase in emigration, mainly EU citizens going home, and 43,000 immigration drop.
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) May 25, 2017
And here is a chart from the ONS report with more detail.
The UK economy suffered an even deeper slowdown at the start of the year as the services sector came under pressure and inflation dealt a blow to household spending, the Press Association reports.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2017, revising down the figure from its initial estimate of 0.3%.
Economists had been expecting GDP growth to slow from 0.7% in the fourth quarter of last year, but they had pencilled in growth of 0.3% for the first three months of 2017.
Patrick O’Flynn, Ukip’s economics spokesman, told Sky News that the party manifesto coming out later today will include a “whole range of policies about integration”. He said that Ukip were proposing hiring 20,000 extra troops and 20,000 extra police officers. But he also said the party wanted to “force the pace on integration” and he claimed that Muslim communities were not doing enough to tackle extremism.
I’m afraid the degree of reporting of extremism from within the Muslim communities is just simply not high enough, ranging from Imams down to ordinary Muslims in their community. And I think the British people want a bit more of a vigorous challenge to our communities. We want to have integration. We want to allow every person from every background to fulfil their potential in our society. But we also want to say, ‘Stop clinging to victimhood here, face up to the truth of the matter, which is within your communities, on a whole load of fronts - whether it is grooming gangs through to supporters of Islamic State and terrorists - you host a lot of victimisers here.’ And let’s get tough on that.
O’Flynn’s claim will be strongly contested by Muslim groups who have condemned the Manchester bombing unreservedly. This is from an article that Harun Khan, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, published earlier this week.
Invariably every attack is followed by calls on Muslims to do more to root these people out. Many thousands do although this is not always easy: the people who commit these atrocities operate on the sidelines – their actions a mystery to even their own parents. But as Chris Phillips, the former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said on the radio today: some people will always slip through.
So what are we to do? Clearly there needs to be renewed action. If there is anything we Muslims can do to combat this we should proactively look into it. That means Muslim communities, other faith communities and government inclusively working together.
Above all though we must not allow these murderers and thugs to succeed by furthering mistrust and division. Instead we must promote our far superior, positive narrative.
Blunkett calls for Tpims to be strengthened
David Blunkett, the former Labour home secretary, was on the Today programme a few minutes ago talking about the Manchester attack. He said that, with the Labour party still suspending its national campaigning, he did not want to make party political points. But he did say that he thought that Tpims (terrorism prevention and investigation measures) needed to be strengthened.
Tpims were introduced by the coalition government to replace control orders, the controls brought in by Labour that allowed terrorist suspects who have not been convicted of an offence to be subject to very tight restrictions, akin to house arrest. Tpims are similar, but less restrictive.
Blunkett said:
I think we do need, carefully, after the general to take another look at strengthening what they call Tpims, in order to allow the police, through these civil orders, with proper constraints and reviews which have been built into the Investigatory Powers Act that we passed last year, that we ensure that the balance is right between those who are genuinely suspected of putting us at risk being under surveillance and being restricted in what they can do, in order to protect us from the threat, whilst at the same time retaining our freedom and democracy.
Blunkett said that the army should only deployed on the streets to help the police sparingly.
It is only in very rare circumstances that you would even backfill. I’ve got no problem with the military outside Buckingham Palace. I would have considerable problems if the military were used, for instance, this weekend at Wembley.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has rejected calls for changes to the Tpim regime. Speaking on the Today programme yesterday, she said in her conversations with police “there has been no additional request for strengthening of Tpims or additional tools.”
Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.
As well as interviewing the Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, ahead of his manifesto launch today (see 7.45am), the Today programme broadcast a report from Ross Hawkins about the views of Ukip members in Yorkshire about the state of the party. It went out in the graveyard 6.40 slot, which is just as well for the party, because it did not reflect well on Nuttall. As Hawkins tweets, he found one Ukip parliamentary candidate who thinks Nuttall should resign after the election, and another former Ukip official who said Nuttall came over as “an idiot”.
UKIP candidate in Rotherham says Nuttall should quit after election. Allen Cowles says he "only added to chaos" @BBCr4today
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) May 25, 2017
Maureen Vines, fmr UKIP Yorkshire official, on Nuttall: comes across like an idiot... wonder if he came up here if he'd have a whippet
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) May 25, 2017
You can listen to it here, about 40 minutes after the start of the programme.
Nuttall was asked about Allen Cowles’ comment when he was interviewed, and he said it was normal for a party contain people with different views.
Paul Nuttall on candidate who told me he should quit - I don't agree, it's a political party and people have different opinions
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) May 25, 2017
Roger Helmer, the Ukip MEP, described the report as a “hatchet job”.
Extraordinary hatchet job on UKIP by the Today Programme a couple of minutes ago. No attempt at balance. #BlabyBrexiteer
— Roger Helmer (@RogerHelmerMEP) May 25, 2017
Andrew Sparrow is now taking the live blog for the rest of the day.
A reminder that you can sign up to receive our daily election briefing email here.
The BBC is reporting that, following the leaks to US media, UK counter-terrorism officials have stopped sharing intelligence with their American counterparts:
BREAKING: The BBC has learnt that police have stopped passing on information about #Manchester bombing to the US following leaks.
— Dominic Casciani (@BBCDomC) May 25, 2017
Ukip aside, other parties have said they will not resume national campaigns until Friday.
The Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have agreed that no national events will take place today, but local campaigning, such as leafleting, will restart after the minute of silence for the Manchester victims at 11am.
In Scotland, the SNP, Scottish Greens and Scottish Liberal Democrats have said their manifestos, which were due to be published this week, will be postponed to next week.
Nuttall indicated that immigration would be central to the Ukip manifesto, to be launched a few hours from now:
We’ve got a population problem in the country … of course immigration allows GDP to grow but GDP per head isn’t growing.
What we need to do is get the population under control.
We’re becoming a more divided society than we’ve ever been before … It’s because too many people are coming to the country, too quickly and they’re not learning the language, for example.
He insists:
We’re certainly not racist.
He says countries across Europe are looking at similar proposals to one he wants, which would see a ban on face coverings in public.
And he warns that Ukip MPs are needed to be the “guard dogs of Brexit”, saying Theresa May could give way in negotiations over fisheries, freedom of movement and the payment of an EU divorce bill:
This isn’t what people voted for … We can put pressure on the government.
Paul Nuttall will launch Ukip’s manifesto this morning and has been talking to Radio 4’s Today programme about why the party is the first to return to campaigning after the Manchester attack:
We took the decision that the best way to show these people that we will not be beaten … is to get back into the saddle, to launch our manifesto.
He denies the party, which is standing in far fewer seats than in 2015, is heading to oblivion:
Obviously we took a hit in the first weeks of the campaign [in polling] … We’re targeting sensibly, drilling down in local communities.
Nuttall points out he has only been leader for six months and denies that Ukip membership is dropping dramatically, insisting it’s “not falling that much”.
At the Nato summit in Brussels today, Theresa May is also expected to challenge Donald Trump over the intelligence leaks that have seen details of the attack and investigation reported in the US media against the wishes of British officials.
Yesterday the New York Times published images from the Manchester blast scene showing an apparently sophisticated device was used.
A senior Whitehall source told the Guardian:
These images from inside the American system are clearly distressing to victims, their families and other members of the public. Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our US counterparts.
They are in no doubt about our huge strength of feeling on this issue. It is unacceptable.
Updated
Conservative promises to plug the hole in school budgets could be ruined by its manifesto offer of free breakfasts for primary school pupils, after researchers found the policy would cost far more than the party claimed.
Figures compiled by the Education Datalab thinktank showed that even if only one in five of England’s 3.6 million primary school pupils ate just 25p worth of food, the costs for the daily breakfast clubs would cost £100m a year more than the Conservatives’ estimate.
“We think they are under-costing free breakfasts in primary schools by something like a five-fold factor. They say its going to cost £60m but we think it’s going to cost something over £200m to £400m,” said Rebecca Allen, the director of Education Datalab.
The free breakfast offer in the Conservative manifesto was to replace giving free lunches to all state school pupils up until the age of seven, with the savings used to plug the looming black hole in England’s school finances.
The analysis found the costs would far exceed the Conservatives’ estimate of £60m a year, with a 20% takeup costing more than £170m once staffing costs for the breakfast clubs – held an hour before the start of the formal school day – were taken into account.
A spokesperson for the Conservative party disputed the figures, saying the policy was based on a breakfast club programme evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
“These clubs didn’t have 100% uptake – only around 25% of children attended, as in a Department for Education trial of breakfast clubs – but they still had positive effects for all the children in the school,” the spokesperson said. “If many more children now start eating breakfast in school then the costs will go up but the evidence of two large trials is that they won’t.”
The prime minister will be hoping today for an agreement for Nato to join the international counter-Isis coalition, which has 69 partners including individual nations, the Arab League, Interpol and the EU.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary-general, said joining the coalition could show unity after the Manchester attack, although there is no consensus yet among members about the idea due to fears it could lead to them getting dragged into putting troops on the ground.
The Nato chief made it clear earlier this week that it was “out of the question for Nato to go into combat operations” against Isis forces but said it would “send a strong message of unity … especially in light of the attack in Manchester” for the alliance to join the international effort.
At the meeting, May will say she is “grateful for the support and solidarity shown by all our Nato allies” after the “callous and cowardly” act in Manchester. But she will urge more unity in the fight against terrorism.
“A strong and united Nato is at the heart of the security of each and every one of our nations. Unity in responding to common threats is our most potent weapon … We must redouble our resolve to meet threats to our shared society whether from terrorism or Russia,” she will say.
The Snap: your election briefing
Welcome back as campaigning for the general election resumes on a low-key note, and the politics live blog does likewise. I’m Claire Phipps with a run-through of the day’s key political news; Andrew Sparrow joins the live blog later.
Our live coverage of the Manchester attack and investigation continues here.
What’s happening?
After a pause in the wake of the terror attack in Manchester, some parties will restart campaigning today. The Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens have agreed that no national events will take place until Friday, but local campaigning – leafleting, and so on – will resume today after a UK-wide minute of silence for the Manchester victims at 11am.
The SNP confirmed that Nicola Sturgeon would not be campaigning before Friday; the party manifesto, which was due to have been launched on Tuesday, will now be published next week, as will those for the Scottish Green party, and the Scottish Lib Dems.
Yesterday, Ukip became the first party to announce it would be returning to the stump, with leader Paul Nuttall saying he would launch the postponed manifesto this morning:
For those who say that nothing must change, but then complain, it is by prolonging the disruption to normality that we allow the terrorists to win. Politics has never been more important. Politicians must deal with these issues.
The issues brought into sharp focus by the attack on Manchester Arena will dominate the prime minister’s agenda as she heads to Brussels for a Nato summit. Theresa May will press the coalition to do more to tackle the Isis threat, as investigations continue into Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber, and his wider network.
At a glance:
- May’s manifesto pledge on free school breakfasts ‘undercosted’.
-
Rafael Behr: Robust debate, not unanimity, is the only riposte to this evil.
- What do the election manifestos pledge for social care?
- Why are so few disabled candidates standing for parliament?
Diary
- Theresa May will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, Cobra, this morning.
- Then she, along with Boris Johnson and Michael Fallon, will travel to Brussels for the Nato summit.
- At 9.30, the latest immigration figures are published by the Office for National Statistics.
- At 10.15 Paul Nuttall launches the Ukip manifesto in London.
- At 11am, there will be a nationwide minute’s silence for the Manchester victims.
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Updated
