My colleague, Rajeev Syal, reports that Labour has ruled out pacts and coalitions if the party needs to run a minority government after next week’s general election.
As the opinion polls show a further narrowing of the Conservatives’ lead over the party, Jeremy Corbyn and the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said there would be no negotiations or deals over policy with the Liberal Democrats and the Greens if Labour was the biggest party but without an overall majority.
Their interventions were delivered a week before the general election at a rally in Basildon, Essex, and will be seen as a way of combating Conservative claims that a vote for Labour and other parties would lead to a “coalition of chaos”.
Asked if he would consider negotiating with other parties if there was a hung parliament, Corbyn said: “We are not doing deals, we are not doing coalitions, we are not doing any of these things. We are fighting to win this election.”
That concludes our live politics coverage for the day.
Voters in Scotland could be in a “pivotal position” in the general election as the polls narrow, the Scottish National party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon says.
With a week to go, Scotland is really finding itself in a potentially pivotal position in this election.
We’ve seen Theresa May exposed as a weak and evasive prime minister who can’t even answer questions about the impact of her own cuts on pensioners and hard-working families across the country.
As the polls narrow across the rest of the UK, yes the Tories might still be on track to win this election, but whether or not they increase their majority could come down to the outcome in Scotland.
That gives Scotland a choice: do we send Tory MPs to be rubber stamps for what Theresa May wants to do, or do we take the opportunity to keep the Tories in check and elect SNP MPs who will stand up for Scotland and make sure our interests are to the fore.
Updated
Tim Farron has said he would campaign to remain in the EU in any second referendum, regardless of any deal secured by the UK with Brussels.
Challenged by Andrew Neil in a tetchy BBC interview on Thursday, the Liberal Democrat leader said his party would be unlikely to accept any outcome of the Brexit negotiations, despite having made a referendum on the final exit deal the cornerstone of its election campaign.
I cannot see any chance of us getting a better deal than the one we have now. In a democracy it’s right to stand by your principles isn’t it? I will campaign in that referendum on the basis of what’s best for Britain. My view is I cannot see how Theresa May will be able to get a deal better than the one we currently have.
Neil also attacked Farron for describing himself as “a bit of Eurosceptic” during a campaign event in leave-leaning Cornwall and as “remoaner of the year” on leaflets in remain-supporting south London. “So you’re a Eurosceptic remoaner. How does that work out?” Neil asked. Farron said:
I’m passionate about the European ideal. I’m often critical of things the commission does, just as I’m critical of things the British government does.
If people cast insults at you it’s quite good to own them if you possibly can. I’m sure you do it from time to time. There can be nothing more honest than leading a party supporting Britain’s place in Europe, and we have since 1955.
A BBC source says that Woman’s Hour bid for Theresa May and was told by the Conservatives that she wasn’t available. The broadcaster had been planning for the last few weeks to air an interview with Amber Rudd, the home secretary, on Friday. But a last-minute substitution of Justine Greening, the education secretary, has now been made.
More on those reports that Theresa May has refused to appear on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Eddie Mair, the presenter of the BBC’s PM programme, which airs on the same radio station, reports:
Theresa May’s absence from last night’s leaders’ debate on BBC1 was criticised by many of her opponents. It’s not the only media event she’s turned down. While Jeremy Corbyn accepted an invitation to appear on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour this week, Theresa May chose not to be on the programme tomorrow and will send Justine Greening in her place.
Gina Miller, the businesswoman whose court challenge led to the government having to pass a bill to give it authority to trigger article 50, has described Theresa May’s decision not to take part in last night’s election debate as “scandalous”. At an election event with the Lib Dem candidate for Vauxhall, George Turner, she said:
[May’s] the one who called the election, she should be engaging in debate and going out on the doorstep, talking to ordinary people.
[She should] not be doing invitation-only events around the country and refusing to turn up and debate other leaders.
What does that say about her negotiating with 20 other leaders, if she can’t even negotiate with domestic leaders?
That’s all from me for today.
My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.
Updated
The prime minister’s aides are refusing to confirm whether she will appear on Woman’s Hour on Friday morning, as part of the BBC Radio 4 show’s series of leader interviews, after reports the education secretary Justine Greening will take part instead. (See 5.30pm.)
A Conservative source said there had been “a number of bids” for interviews with the prime minister, and pointed out that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had not said yes to every debate or interview he had been asked to do.
Corbyn had a difficult interview with Woman’s Hour on Tuesday, when he struggled to name the cost of the childcare policy he had launched that morning, under tough questioning from BBC journalist Emma Barnett.
Other party leaders, including Leanne Wood and Caroline Lucas, have already appeared.
Both May and Corbyn are due to appear in a televised BBC Question Time special on Friday evening.
Updated
According to the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, Theresa May has declined an invitation to appear on Woman’s Hour tomorrow.
BREAKING Theresa May has refused to appear on @BBCRadio4's Woman's Hour tomorrow morning. She is sending Justine Greening.
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) June 1, 2017
Woman’s Hour was the programme where Emma Barnett tripped up Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday with a question about the cost of his childcare plans.
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Europe spokesman and former party leader and deputy prime minister, has described Theresa May’s Europe speech (see 11.17am) as “delusional”. In a statement he said:
Only a year ago, Theresa May declared that being in the EU makes us more secure, more prosperous, more influential.
The relentlessly upbeat assessment of Brexit in her speech today is a U-turn of epic proportions.
It is also dangerous, because it is calculated to distract attention from the shark-infested waters which we are now entering, and the fact that Theresa May herself has steered us towards them.
What comes next is not the sunny picture described in this delusional speech.
Negotiating Brexit will be a task of monumental proportions which – even if handled expertly – will do great damage to our prosperity, the state of our public services and Britain’s place in the world.
Updated
Climate change is a “meaningless phrase”, a Ukip spokesman said today. Speaking a press conference, David Kurten, the party’s education spokesman and a member of the London assembly, said:
Climate change is a meaningless phrase. There’s been climate change for the last 3.5 billion years.
Since the middle of the last ice age 23,000 years ago, the Earth has been getting warmer and warmer.
We’ve had a medieval warm period - where temperatures were warmer than today.
We’ve had the mini-ice age in the 16th and 17th centuries where the temperature was cooler than today.
There are real environmental problems. There’s deforestation. There’s plastics in the oceans.
There are chemicals, particularly heavy metals and oestrogen mimickers and so on, in nature getting into water, into the land.
There’s air pollution - there’s nitrogen dioxide from diesel, there’s particulates.
Those are real environmental problems.
But what we aren’t in Ukip are carbon dioxide catastrophists. We don’t see a big issue with carbon dioxide as a huge environmental problem.
Some of the solutions that people have presented to this ideology of carbon dioxide catastrophism have actually done more damage than good.
So I would support pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, and Ukip would as well I think.
Nearly twice as many viewers opted to watch Britain’s Got Talent over the BBC’s general election debate just days before voters head to the polls, the Press Association reports.
Some 3.6m people tuned in to watch the seven-way clash on BBC News and BBC One, where home secretary Amber Rudd defended the government’s record against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, Ukip’s Paul Nuttall, Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas, Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru, and Scottish National party depute leader Angus Robertson.
At its peak, the BBC debate attracted around 4.2m viewers, boosting it beyond the BBC’s 2015 set-piece interview, which was watched by 4.1m people.
However around 7.2m people preferred to watch Britain’s Got Talent on ITV, which attracted a 37% audience share, while the results show at 9.30pm was watched by 6.1m viewers.
Poll suggests Labour on course to gain two seats in Wales
Welsh Labour could win two seats from the Conservatives as the party continues to surge in Wales, a new poll suggests.
There had been alarm in the Labour ranks when the first poll of the election suggested the Tories could win a majority of seats in Wales for the first time since the 1850s – before the era of mass democracy.
But since then Labour has fought back and if the new poll is correct would retake the seats of Gower in the south and the Vale of Clwyd in the north that it lost in 2015 thanks in large part to young voters.
Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems are on course to retain their seats – three and one respectively – but to make no gains.
Roger Scully, professor of political science at the Wales Governance Centre, said it had been an erratic campaign in Wales.
The first two polls of the campaign showed clear Conservative leads, and indicated that the Tories were on course for an historic electoral breakthrough.
Welsh Labour, these polls are suggesting strongly, are very much back. Indeed, if the figures from this poll were to be produced on election day then we would see the Labour party gain their largest vote share in Wales at a general election since 2001. That would be an extraordinary achievement for the party.
Labour success appears to be grounded particularly among younger voters: these have long been more inclined to support Labour than the Conservatives, but the Labour advantage among 18-yo-24-year-old voters in our latest poll is running at approximately three-to-one. Of course, such younger voters are often less reliable in terms of turnout, so one of the key factors for Labour in this last week of the campaign will be converting supportive attitudes amongst younger voters into actual votes in the ballot box.
The new poll gives the two main parties a combined 81% of the vote. The last time that Labour and the Conservatives jointly won over 80% of the vote in Wales was 1966.
Here are the figures:
Labour: 46%
Conservatives: 35%
Plaid Cymru: 8%
Liberal Democrats: 5%
Ukip: 5%
The poll implies the following result. (Projected seat changes from the 2015 result are in brackets):
Labour: 27 seats (+2)
Conservatives: 9 seats (-2)
Plaid Cymru: 3 seats (no change)
Liberal Democrats: 1 seat (no change)
The poll, for ITV-Cymru Wales and Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre, had a sample of 1,014 Welsh adults and was carried out by YouGov from 29-31 May 2017.
Updated
On election night ITV normally gets overshadowed by the BBC, which has far more resources to deploy, and of course David Dimbleby too. But this year ITV has secured something of a coup. It has hired George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor who now edits the Evening Standard, and Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor now best known for his Strictly antics, as election night commentators.
They are not there to represent their parties; they are there as “expert political analysts”. Given that neither has much admiration or affection for the person leading their party, we can be pretty sure they won’t just toe the party line.
Updated
Theresa May is doing a Q&A with workers in West Yorkshire now.
Q: Given that the polls show your lead narrowing, and your personal ratings going down, is it the case that polling day cannot come quickly enough for you?
May says she is just focused on polling day.
Corbyn's Q&A - Summary
At the start of the campaign journalists never asked Jeremy Corbyn questions about what would happen in a hung parliament because the prospect seemed so remote. Now they are starting to crop up regularly. Here are the key points from the Q&A.
- Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, ruled out Labour doing deals with any other parties in a hung parliament. If it was the largest party, it would put forward a Queen’s speech and a budget and gamble on the progressive parties not daring to vote them down, she suggested. She said:
The truth is we’re fighting to win and we’re fighting to win with a majority and that’s what we’re fighting to do.
If we end up in a position where we’re in a minority, we will go ahead and we will put forward a Queen’s speech and a budget and if people want to vote for it, then good, and if they don’t want to vote for it, they’re going to have to go back and speak to their constituents and explain to them why it is that we have a Tory government instead. If we are the largest party, we go ahead, no deals, with our manifesto, with our budget, and with our Queen’s speech. And that’s the conversations we’ve had. That’s it. That’s it. No deals.
Thornberry may have been keen to clarify things because, in a Newsnight interview last night, she refused to rule out Labour forming a coalition with the SNP. Asked if he agreed with Thornberry, Corbyn did not contradict her, but did not endorse her comment either. He just said “Emily and I are of the same mind on this, that we are determined to win the election.”
- Corbyn suggested that he would offer an effective “amnesty” to his Labour critics after the election if, as some polls suggest, he does much better than expected. Asked what his attitude would be towards those in the party who had expected him to do very badly, and whether he would be offering them a “group hug”, he said:
I do a lot of group hugs with lots of people. I love a group hug myself. In our family, the Labour party family, people say stuff. Do you know what? Sometimes it’s best to forget it.
- He said he would not try to delay the Brexit talks, which are due to start a fortnight Monday, if Labour won the election. Labour was ready to get on with the negotiation, he said.
- Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said Labour would not set a target for reducing immigration.
- Corbyn said any government he led would not tolerate the “barbarity” of blood sports. He said the first speech he ever made, at school, was against hunting.
- A Times journalist was booed, and told by Thornberry his question was “stupid”, when he asked what Corbyn would do in a hung parliament. Francis Elliott, the Times’ political editor, asked if he would invite Sinn Féin MPs to take their seats to help prop up a Labour government. Labour activists in the audience booed loudly, and when Thornberry asked them to stop, she said reporters were entitled to ask questions, “however stupid”. Fellow journalists have hit back. This is from Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick.
It's a very valid question - I wish I'd thought if it. Booing is another example of growing yobbery in British politics https://t.co/Owq7emfYTp
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) June 1, 2017
And this is from ITV’s Robert Peston.
.@elliotttimes loudly booed by Labour supporters in Basildon for asking legit question about kind of coalition @jeremycorbyn would consider
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 1, 2017
Updated
This is the crowd waiting for Jeremy Corbyn to leave the leisure centre pic.twitter.com/NKgMcqBbL4
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 1, 2017
Here is the Guardian’s Election Daily podcast, featuring Owen Jones, Rafael Behr and Jessica Elgot discussing last night’s debate.
Updated
Q: Labour came third here in Basildon in 2015. How will you persuade Ukip voters to back you when May is harder on Brexit than you.
Corbyn says if you go into an election looking for people to blame, that does not take people very far.
The Labour party is for investment and better services, for a high-wage, investment-led economy, with skills at its core.
And he believes in unlocking potential. He says he is particularly proud of the proposal for a pupils’ arts premium, so every child can learn a musical instrument.
He says he thinks this is an exciting offer.
He is looking forward to next Thursday.
Q: The polls suggest your Labour critics are wrong. If that proves true, will you give them a group hug after the election?
Corbyn says he likes group hugs. In the Labour family, people say stuff. “Sometimes it’s best to forget it,” he says.
Q: Would you legislate to take all blood sports out of the political arena?
Corbyn says he grew up in rural Shropshire and the first speech he ever made, at school, was on the need to ban foxhunting, hare coursing, badger baiting and otter hunting. It was a very rural area, and he lost the debate. But he was in parliament when the hunting ban went through. He says any government he leads “would not tolerate this kind of barbarity”.
That’s it.
I will post a summary soon.
Updated
Q: Can you confirm what Thornberry has just said?
Corbyn says Labour is fighting to win. If you want a Labour government, vote Labour. He says Thornberry and he are of the same mind. They want to win.
Q: Would you ask Brussels to delay Brexit talks?
Corbyn says Labour is ready to get on with this straight away.
He says he wants to resolve the position of EU nationals quickly.
Updated
Thornberry rules out pacts with other parties if Labour needs to run a minority government
Q: A new poll has come out showing the Tory lead narrowing. Don’t you owe it to people to say what you would do in a hung parliament? Would you invite Sinn Féin to take their seats?
This generates booing.
Thornberry asks people to stop. Journalists are allowed to ask questions, “however stupid”, she says.
The questioner continues. What parts of your programme are non-negotiable?
Corbyn says he does not comment on polls.
But there is a mood out there, he says. People want something different.
He says he is not doing deals. He is fighting to win the election.
Thornberry says Labour is fighting to win with a majority.
If it is in a minority, it will put forward a Queen’s speech. It will ask people to vote for it. If other parties vote it down, their MPs will have to explain to people why they allowed a Tory government.
- Thornberry rules out pacts with other parties if Labour needs to run a minority government.
Updated
Corbyn's Q&A
Corbyn is now taking questions.
Starmer answers the first one, on immigration.
He says Labour will bring in new rules. They must be fair and effective.
Labour will not set a target for immigration.
- Starmer says Labour will not set a target for immigration.
But, by reducing the drivers of immigration, it will bring immigration down. So the direction of travel is clear.
Corbyn says the Tories are so “weak and wobbly” they cannot even stick to their own manifesto commitments.
And they are a party that will always put the interests of the rich and of business first, he says.
Corbyn is now running through Labour’s approach to Brexit, and the sort of deal it wants.
A deal that will allow us to upgrade our economy through public investment in infrastructure and high skilled jobs. A deal that will make Britain a centre for science, technology and research, attracting the brightest and best from around the country and the world, through strategic investment.
A deal that allows us to transform Britain into a country with the strongest rights and protections, and ends exploitation and undercutting in the labour market. A deal that allows us to become a country that values and protects its public services and invests in its communities.
And a deal that will allow Britain to be a safe and outward looking country, strengthening friendships and working with allies to create a better future for our country, continent and our planet.
Corbyn says he is proud to be joined by Labour’s Brexit team, Starmer, Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, and Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary. They are experienced, sensible people, he says.
And he contrasts them with their Tory opposite numbers.
We know the three Tories in whose hands Theresa May has placed our national future - David Davis, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox. Now you know I don’t do personal attacks, so let me just say that in Labour’s Brexit team, there is no one who has fibbed to the British people about spending an extra £350m a week on the NHS because of Brexit, and nobody who has promised to use Brexit to slash workers’ rights or slash tax for big corporations in a continental race to the bottom.
Jeremy Corbyn is speaking now.
He says Theresa May called the election three years early.
A lot has happened since then, including the Manchester attack. He says we should not allow it to divide us. We should be united.
And there was the Conservative manifesto meltdown. He says it is now impossible to find anyone who knows the Tory policy on pensioner benefits or social care. The older generation are being reminded of a central truth - you can’t trust the Tories, he says.
May shown herself to be not 'strong and stable' but 'weak and wobbly', says Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is introducing Jeremy Corbyn.
He says Brexit has not come up a lot on the doorstep.
But the campaign has revealed how Theresa May would approach Brexit. You cannot call yourself strong and stable and then abandon your main manifesto policy after four days.
She wanted strong and stable, but she has shown herself to be weak and wobbly, he says.
Sir Keir Starmer: "This was billed as a Brexit election but it hasn't been a Brexit election" on the doorstep. Reason for Corbyn surge? pic.twitter.com/gz2KEhSiNr
— Arj Singh (@singharj) June 1, 2017
Updated
Jeremy Corbyn's Brexit speech
Jeremy Corbyn is delivering his Brexit speech in Basildon now.
Some excerpts were released in advance. See 11.17am.
Here is a link to the Evening Standard splash story (see 11.17am) about its poll showing Jeremy Corbyn more popular than Theresa May in London. And here is an extract.
The current standing of the parties reflects how London voted in 1997 when Tony Blair won his landslide first victory, according to the YouGov poll of 1,000 Londoners produced for Queen Mary University of London. Labour is on 50 per cent, up from 41 per cent a month ago. The Tories are on 33 per cent, down from 36 in a month. In March the parties were just three points apart, at 37/34.
Asked who would make the best Prime Minister, 37 per cent picked Mr Corbyn and 34 per cent Mrs May. A survey taken just after the manifesto launches last month had Mrs May ahead by 38 to 32.
May's Q&A - Summary
Journalists covering Theresa May’s campaign are getting frustrated at her refusal to answer questions and the highlight of the Q&A came when Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick delivered a mini-diatribe on their behalf. Addressing May, he asked her:
Isn’t the reason that you are doing so badly that whenever people ask you about policy, all they get are cliches and platitudes, and we’ve seen the same today. People think there is nothing there. Now, let’s get something straight, shall we? You mentioned £8bn for the health service. You mentioned managing money. Where is the £8bn coming from?
Sometimes aggressive questions work, by provoking politicians into saying more than they intended, but not this time. May gave her standard response about how a growing economy would generate more money for the NHS. But what if the economy goes downhill, Crick asked in a follow-up. People should vote Conservative to ensure it does not go downhill, she replied.
May was not any more forthcoming when pressed on immigration (one of the many policy areas where Tory plans consist of blank sheets of paper). But the Q&A did generate some useful replies. Here are the key points.
- May twice praised Amber Rudd, the home secretary, for doing “an excellent job” in the debate last night and refused to rule out making her chancellor. When May was asked if she would make Rudd chancellor, by a journalist who pointed out that May had praised her in her last two answers, May laughed nervously before moving on to say she was focusing on winning the election. If a nervous laugh is May’s poker tell, then Rudd can probably start writing her next budget now – assuming, that is, that the YouGov election model, which has Rudd’s Hastings constituency “leaning Labour”, turns out to be wrong.
She won't make it to Number 11 because she won't win her seat... pic.twitter.com/HxjZx7JZh6
— Pete Burgess (@pete_doom) June 1, 2017
- May refused to say whether or not she actually watched last night’s debate.
- She said she had urged President Trump not to pull out of the Paris climate change treaty – but declined to criticise him on the basis of the reports saying that is what he will do. Asked about this, she said:
We retain our commitment [to the Paris agreement], we are a leading nation in the world in terms of dealing with climate change, and it was only at the G7 last week that I was making clear to President Trump, as were other leaders sitting around that table, the importance we attach to Paris agreement.
She said it was up to the US what it decided to do.
- She refused to back Boris Johnson’s claim (see 8.32am) that the audience for last night’s TV debate was biased to the left.
- She partially defended the Conservative election candidate who once said that a woman’s “promiscuity” is relevant in determining how likely it is that she consented to sex in alleged rape cases. Asked if Peter Cuthbertson was fit to be a candidate, May said he had made it clear that his views had changed since he expressed those opinions. She also stressed her own personal commitment to tackling rape and domestic abuse.
Updated
Q: You are a feminist. Your candidate in Darlington has said in the past a woman’s sexual history should be brought up in rape trials because a woman of low morals is more likely to consent to sex. Is he appropriate to be a candidate?
May says the candidate has made clear his views have changed. She says more people are reporting rape, and being prosecuted for it. She will bring in legislation on domestic violence, she says. She wants to eradicate this abuse.
Q: Will you be disappointed if President Trump ignores your advice on the Paris climate change agreement?
May says the UK will retain its support for the Paris deal.
Q: Do you agree with Boris Johnson about the audience at last night’s debate being the most leftwing he had seen?
May says Amber Rudd did an excellent job in the debate.
Q: Did you watch the debate?
May says Amber Rudd did an excellent job in the debate.
Q: You have said that twice. Will you make her chancellor if you win the election.
May laughs. She says she is focusing on making sure that people know what the choice is at the election.
Anyone know if a nervous laugh is Theresa May's tell? If so, looking good for Rudd heading to Number 11 ...
— AndrewSparrow (@AndrewSparrow) June 1, 2017
And that’s it. I will post a summary soon.
Updated
Q: The latest poll gives you a lead of just three points. Why has the 24-point lead that you had evaporated?
May says there is only one poll that matters, the one next week. The choice people have is, how do they see the future. Do they want her or Corbyn?
Q: Do you accept that cutting immigration will have an effect on the economy? And how much will it come down by?
May says the Tories have kept their commitment to cut immigration because they recognise the impact it has on jobs and services. They want to train more people.
Q: Two days ago you launched a blistering attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Today you are calling for unity. Is your messaging mixed?
May says today she has said Corbyn is not up to the job.
May's Q&A
Q: You said recently there would be dire consequences if we do not get a Brexit deal. What would they be? And in what circumstances would you walk away?
May says people in Europe are saying they want to punish us. That would amount to a bad deal. And there are people in the UK who want a deal at any price. That would be a bad deal too.
Q: How do you think the campaign is going? Did you ever think it would be like this?
May says she is visiting all parts of the country, taking her message across. She wants to talk not just about getting Brexit right, but having the best future after that.
Q: What have you done to try to persuade President Trump not to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement?
May says at the G7 summit last week she told him the importance the UK attaches to the Paris deal.
Q: [From Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick] Aren’t you doing badly because all you come out with is cliches? Can you tell us where the extra funding for the NHS will come from?
May says the Tories have shown that, with extra money from a growing economy, they are able to generate more money for the NHS.
Q: So if the economy goes downhill, the money won’t be there?
May says people should vote Conservative to ensure it does not go downhill.
Updated
May says people can have faith in her.
As I have said many times in the past, people can have faith in me because I have faith in them.
I believe in the British people. I believe that with determination, ingenuity and common sense, we can use this moment of great national change to shape a better future for Britain.
And she says Britain is at a turning point.
Because at moments like these – great turning points in our national story – the choices we make define the character of our nation.
We can choose to say the task ahead is too great. We can choose to turn our face to the past and believe it can’t be done.
Or we can look forward with optimism and hope – and to believe in the enduring power of the British spirit.
I choose to believe in Britain and that our best days lie ahead.
And I do so because I am confident that we have the vision and the plan to use this moment to build a better Britain.
So over the next seven days, I will fight to earn every vote in this election.
Because every vote will count to strengthen my hand in the Brexit negotiations. And every vote will be a step towards that brighter future that we can build beyond Brexit together.
Updated
May goes on to attack the opposition.
Because make no mistake, not everyone shares this view.
They say we’re too small and too insignificant. That Britain can’t do it. That the British people are not up to the task.
In short, they don’t believe in Britain. And if that’s where you start, you have no hope of getting the right deal for Britain in Europe.
You can’t negotiate the right Brexit deal for Britain if you don’t believe in Britain.
You can’t fight for Britain if you don’t have confidence in our strengths and in all that we have to offer.
You can only deliver Brexit if you believe in Brexit.
You can only fight for Britain if you believe in Britain.
You can only deliver for Britain if you have the strength, the plan and the determination to see it through.
And she mentions Jeremy Corbyn for the first time.
And what we know in this election is that the only other person that can be prime minister in seven days’ time is simply not up to the job. He doesn’t believe in Britain. He doesn’t have a plan. He doesn’t have what it takes.
And after last night it’s clearer than ever that just 11 days after the election when the negotiations begin, Jeremy Corbyn’s focus wouldn’t be on trying to negotiate a deal for Britain in Europe, but on trying to stitch up a deal with Nicola Sturgeon and the rest.
May says keeping the economy strong is crucial.
But we can only do all of this with an economy that is strong and secure.
We can only do this with an economy based on sound money and responsible economic management. An economy run by a government that is committed to bringing the deficit down and getting the country back to living within its means.
We can only do this with a government that understands that if you cannot manage your money properly, you won’t command the confidence of investors at home or abroad.
A government that knows that if you can’t manage your money properly, investment will dry up, taxes will rise and businesses – and the jobs they provide – will flee from our shores.
May says she wants Britain after Brexit to be the world’s great meritocracy.
And she affirms her commitment to new grammar schools – or selective schools, as she calls them.
So the government I lead will continue to transform education in this country, with more good schools, more – and fairer – funding, and yes – we will lift the ban that stops people establishing selective schools in England too.
Because for too long politicians have said to people and communities who are crying out for change that they can’t have what they want.
For too long, politicians have said that if you’re rich or well off, you can have a selective education for your child. You can send them to a selective private school. You can move to a better catchment area or afford to send them long distances to get the education you want.
Yet for too long, those same politicians have sought to deny that right to others – to ordinary working people up and down this land.
That is a scandal and we will bring it to an end.
Updated
May turns to the NHS.
The government I lead will invest in the institutions that bring us together as a country – things like our vital public services, our schools, our hospitals, our NHS.
The NHS is the essence of solidarity in our United Kingdom. An institution that binds us all together. The symbol of our commitment to each other, between young and old, those who have and those who do not, and the healthy and the sick.
So the government I lead will give the NHS its full support and back it with the resources it needs – increasing spending by a minimum of £8bn in real terms over the next five years.
Updated
May says she wants to revolutionise skills training.
And as we announced in the budget in March, we will implement the recommendations of the Sainsbury review into post-16 skills: increasing by over 50% the number of hours training for 16-to-19-year-old technical students, including a high-quality three-month work placement for every student.
That means that when those students qualify they will be genuinely “work-ready” and able to make the most of the opportunities ahead.
And to support all of this, the government I lead will invest in a new generation of Institutes of Technology in every major city in England – important new institutions providing sought-after skills for local, regional and national industry.
They will be encouraged to develop their own local identity to make sure they meet the skills needs of local employers. And they will give young people the chance to get a good job and put down roots in their local communities – the place they want to call home.
Updated
May says the UK will have the chance to strike new trade deals.
As we pursue a bold and ambitious free trade agreement between the UK and the European Union – and as we get out into the world to do new trade deals with old friends and new allies around the globe – the opportunities for our economy will be great.
We have already started discussions on future trade ties with countries like Australia, New Zealand and India. While countries including China, Brazil, the US and the Gulf states have expressed their interest in striking trade deals with us as soon as they can.
Set free from the shackles of EU control, we will be a great, global trading nation once again, bringing new jobs and new opportunities for ordinary working families here at home.
Updated
May says she has a plan for Brexit, set out in the government’s white paper.
But Brexit is not a process, she says; it is an opportunity.
Because if we get Brexit right, then together we can do great things.
We can build a Britain beyond Brexit that is stronger, fairer and more prosperous than it is today. A Britain beyond Brexit that is more global and outward-looking.
A Britain alive with possibilities, more confident in itself, more united and more secure.
A country our children and grandchildren are proud to call home.
If we get Brexit right, we can be a confident, self-governing country once again. A country that takes the decisions that matter to Britain here in Britain.
May says she respects the referendum result.
For we are a great country. A country that is proud of its European heritage, but a country that has always looked beyond Europe to the wider world.
And 12 months ago, the British people chose to do so again. They chose to build a more global Britain.
And let us be clear: they did so with their eyes open. They knew that it would not be straightforward. They knew the road ahead may be uncertain. But they believed that it would lead towards a brighter future for their children – and their grandchildren too.
So with determination and characteristically British quiet resolve, they defied the establishment, ignored the threats and made their voice heard.
I respect that decision and am clear about what needs to be done. It is time to act on their instruction. To deliver their will.
Updated
Theresa May's speech
Theresa May is speaking now.
She starts by saying voters can use the general election to affirm the EU referendum decision.
We are now 12 months on from the EU referendum. Twelve months since the British people voted for a brighter future for our country. Twelve months since they voted to leave the European Union and embrace the world.
And in one week’s time, they have the opportunity to affirm that decision and secure that brighter future by voting for me to continue as prime minister.
If they do, I am confident that we can fulfil the promise of Brexit together and build a Britain that is stronger, fairer and even more prosperous than it is today.
Because the promise of Brexit is great – the opportunities before us enormous.
Updated
During an election political parties have to declare their donations on a weekly basis. Here are the latest figures from the Electoral Commission.
They show that in the third week of May the Tories received more than 10 times more than Labour in donations.
And here is a Guardian chart showing donations to date.
Updated
This is from Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick on Theresa May’s itinerary today.
Conservatives may be in trouble, but May's itinerary today suggests she's still very much on the offensive, visiting seats held by Labour
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) June 1, 2017
Updated
Sky’s Darren McCaffrey has been doing vox pops in Bridgend in south Wales.
EVERY traditional @UKLabour voter I speak to in Bridgend tempted by @Theresa_May at start, now sticking with party, as PM runs bad campaign. pic.twitter.com/hUvq2eULh8
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) June 1, 2017
Updated
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has released a briefing note today on the parties’ plans for educational spending for 16- to 18-year-olds. Here is the overall summary.
At this election, the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats are all proposing extra spending on 16-18 education over the course of the next parliament. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would do enough to keep spending per 16- to 18-year-old pupil constant in real terms. Labour propose increasing spend per pupil by 8% in real terms. The Labour and Conservative proposals would represent larger increases than the parties’ respective commitments on schools spending per pupil for younger pupils. But all would leave spending per 16- to 18-year-old pupil around 10% lower than the parties’ respective proposals for secondary schools.
Updated
Andrew Hawkins from ComRes, the polling firm that selected the audience for last night’s BBC debate, has responded to claims that the audience was biased. As the BBC reports, he said:
If you have a panel of people – one from the governing party (Conservatives) – one from what’s regarded as a rightwing party (Ukip) and five from broadly leftwing parties, and you give those speakers equal airtime, it means you’re giving five slots of airtime to the leftwing parties for every two slots to the not so leftwing parties.
Therefore it’s inevitable that the cheering is going to be skewed in one direction.
What I can say is that the recruitment for this was more complex and more rigorously executed than any I’ve ever witnessed.
Here is a blogpost from ComRes explaining in more detail how the audience was selected.
Updated
The new Evening Standard editor, George Osborne, has more good news for the woman who sacked him as chancellor.
1st edition @EveningStandard has our shock @YouGov London poll with Corbyn now ahead of May as 'best PM' + @Campbellclaret on Prince William pic.twitter.com/9rIASclGNy
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) June 1, 2017
May tells voters to use election to 'affirm' EU referendum result
The Conservatives have released some extracts from Theresa May’s speech in advance, and they show that May is urging voters to use the general election to “affirm” the decision to vote to leave the EU.
We are now 12 months on from the EU referendum. Twelve months since the British people voted for a brighter future for our country. Twelve months since they voted to leave the European Union and embrace the world.
And in one week’s time, they have the opportunity to affirm that decision and secure that brighter future by voting for me to continue as prime minister.
If they do, I am confident that we can fulfil the promise of Brexit together and build a Britain that is stronger, fairer and even more prosperous than it is today.
Because the promise of Brexit is great – the opportunities before us enormous.
This is an interesting strategic shift, for three reasons.
1 - May is asking voters to see the election as an EU referendum re-run - even though last year she was on the losing side. But you would not guess that from May’s recent rhetoric, or from what she says in today’s speech. Elsewhere in the speech she talks about how, after Brexit, the UK will be “set free from the shackles of EU control”, which is the language of Ukip, not the language of the remain Tories she was aligned with until last June. There is nothing in the extracts released in advance about any downsides to leaving the EU. The leave vote won the referendum by 52% to 48%. That was close. But 52% is a lot higher than 44% (which is what the Tories are currently getting on the FT’s poll tracker).
2 - May has ruled out a second referendum on the EU (which is Lib Dem and Green party policy) - but today she is implying that in some respects the election will be a second vote on EU membership.
3 - Arguing that the election is about Brexit suggests May is not entirely comfortably fighting on her manifesto. Normally a leader would put their policy platform at the centre of the election campaign. But the Tory manifesto launch backfired badly, and now May seems keener to campaign as a Brexit surrogate.
Updated
Theresa May is due to give her speech in Guisborough shortly.
As the Telegraph’s Jack Maidment reports, with a big crowd of journalists on her tour today, the Tories have wheeled out two battle buses.
We now have two Theresa May battle buses. pic.twitter.com/e5vr2Ht0VS
— Jack Maidment (@jrmaidment) June 1, 2017
Updated
As Theresa May battles to inject a bit of vigour back into her campaign after last night’s no-show in the leaders’ debate, journalists have been invited to join the bright blue Tory battle bus for a tour of northern Labour seats. Leather seats, branded mugs and Jaffa cakes – no expense spared.
We’re currently corralled in a small beige office at a construction firm in Guisborough, awaiting the prime minister’s arrival. She’s expected to take questions from staff.
It’s in the Middlesbrough and East Cleveland constituency held by Tom Blenkinsop at the 2015 general election with a majority of just over 2,000. He stepped down when the election was called.
Updated
Corbyn says leaving the EU with no deal would be 'an economic disaster'
Jeremy Corbyn is due to give a speech on Brexit in Basildon this afternoon, but Labour has released some extracts in advance. Here are the key points.
- Corbyn will argue that leaving the EU with no deal would be “an economic disaster”.
The Conservatives’ reckless approach has left us isolated and marginalised, increasing the chances of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal, which would be the worst outcome for Britain.
Britain is leaving the EU. But let’s be clear, there is no such thing as ‘no deal’. If we leave without a positive agreement because we have needlessly alienated everyone, we still have to trade with the EU. But on what terms?
Theresa May says no deal is better than a bad deal. Let’s be clear: ‘no deal’ is in fact a bad deal. It is the worst of all deals because it would leave us with World Trade Organisation tariffs and restrictions, instead of the access to European markets we need.
That would mean slapping tariffs on the goods we export – an extra 10% on cars – with the risk that key manufacturers would leave for the European mainland, taking skilled jobs with them.
In sector after sector, ‘no deal’ could prove to be an economic disaster – Theresa May’s approach risks a jobs meltdown across Britain.
- He will accused Boris Johnson of lying to the public during the EU referendum last year.
We know the three Tories in whose hands Theresa May has placed our national future - David Davis, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox. Now you know I don’t do personal attacks, so let me just say that in Labour’s Brexit team, there is no one who has fibbed to the British people about spending an extra £350m a week on the NHS because of Brexit, and nobody who has promised to use Brexit to slash workers’ rights or slash tax for big corporations in a continental race to the bottom.
Updated
The Economist stands for economic and social liberalism and, true to its instincts, it is backing the Liberal Democrats at the election. In its election leader, it says the two main parties represent “a dismal choice”.
Jeremy Corbyn has taken Labour to the loony left, proposing the heaviest tax burden since the second world war. The Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, promises a hard exit from the EU. The Liberal Democrats would go for a soft version, or even reverse it.
The party leaders could hardly differ more in their style and beliefs. And yet a thread links the two possible winners of this election. Though they sit on different points of the left-right spectrum, the Tory and Labour leaders are united in their desire to pull up Britain’s drawbridge to the world. Both Mrs May and Mr Corbyn would each in their own way step back from the ideas that have made Britain prosper – its free markets, open borders and internationalism. They would junk a political settlement that has lasted for nearly 40 years and influenced a generation of western governments. Whether left or right prevails, the loser will be liberalism …
We want a government that maintains the closest ties with the EU while honouring the referendum, and that uses Brexit to reassert the freedom of Britain’s markets and society – the better to keep dynamic firms and talented people around. In their different ways, both Labour and the Tories fail this test.
No party passes with flying colours. But the closest is the Liberal Democrats. Brexit is the main task of the next government and they want membership of the single market and free movement. (Their second referendum would probably come to nothing, as most voters are reconciled to leaving the EU.) They are more honest than the Tories about the need to raise taxes for public services; and more sensible than Labour, spreading the burden rather than leaning only on high-earners. Unlike Labour, they would reverse the Tories’ most regressive welfare cuts. They are on the right side of other issues: for devolution of power from London, reform of the voting system and the House of Lords, and regulation of markets for drugs and sex.
As the Guardian knows from experience, backing the Lib Dems at an election does not always quite deliver what one might want, but the Economist is quite realistic about its choice. It says the Lib Dems are “going nowhere” and heading for a “dreadful result”. But it describes the endorsement as a “down-payment for the future”.
We know that this year the Lib Dems are going nowhere. But the whirlwind unleashed by Brexit is unpredictable. Labour has been on the brink of breaking up since Mr Corbyn took over. If Mrs May polls badly or messes up Brexit, the Tories may split, too. Many moderate Conservative and Labour MPs could join a new liberal centre party – just as parts of the left and right have recently in France. So consider a vote for the Lib Dems as a down-payment for the future. Our hope is that they become one element of a party of the radical centre, essential for a thriving, prosperous Britain.
Updated
Bloomberg’s Tim Ross has been calling pollsters asking them for their election forecasts. Despite YouGov today giving the Tories a lead of just three percentage points, three of the four pollsters who gave Ross a prediction said they expected Theresa May to win a majority of at least 50, and two of them thought there was a fair chance it could get into triple figures.
Updated
My colleague Heather Stewart is on the road with the prime minister. As she tweets, Tory HQ have been keen for journalists to accompany them today.
Tories so keen to show May's running a tip top campaign they've invited the lobby journalists on the big blue bus. pic.twitter.com/qPCzQEEoSe
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 1, 2017
Updated
Corbyn floats prospect of Labour writing off some student tuition fee debts
The Labour party is committed to abolishing university tuition fees, with the policy coming into effect from 2018, although students who are starting courses in September this year will also benefit.
But what about students and former students already saddled with debt? In his interview with the NME, Jeremy Corbyn floated the prospect of Labour being able to do something to help them. As PoliticsHome reports, when asked if he could remove the £30bn backlog of debt built up since tuition fees were raised to £9,000, he replied:
Yes, there is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I’m looking at ways we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing the debt burden.
I don’t have the simple answer for it at this stage. I don’t think anybody would expect me to, because this election was called unexpectedly.
We had two weeks to prepare all of this – but I’m very well aware of that problem.
And I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after. I will deal with it.
In this week's magazine: "The future belongs to the youth" – @JeremyCorbyn answers your questions. Get yours here > https://t.co/mZG7nqMBaZ pic.twitter.com/1gHraKB5JB
— NME (@NME) June 1, 2017
Updated
This, from the writer and comedian Armando Iannucci, is quite fun.
So far, the only person Theresa May has debated on TV is her husband.
— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) June 1, 2017
In his interviews this morning, Boris Johnson has also welcomed the news that the opinion polls are tightening. Asked about this on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said:
If this means that people focus on the election, if it means that everybody turns out to vote, if it means that everybody realises how vital this election is then that for me is a fantastic thing ...
For me it is great that this is tightly fought. It is great that people think that this is a very hotly contested election, because it is. We are fighting for every vote, because the future of our country is at stake.
Updated
Boris Johnson refuses to criticise Trump over expected US withdrawal from climate change deal
Boris Johnson refused to explicitly condemn Donald Trump over his reported intention to withdraw the US from the Paris climate change agreement. In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Johnson was asked about Trump’s decision, to be formally announced today:
Let’s see what the president actually does, because there are a number of different strokes that he could play here. But, yes, of course we want to see America continue to show leadership on climate change and in reducing CO2 emissions. And we continue to lobby with the Americans to encourage them to do that.
To those who are worried about what the president might or might not be about to do, and I stress that we are not there yet, I just want to make one point, which is that it is the state governments, at state level, that so many of the gains have been made in the last few years in reducing CO2. And we will continue to work, as the UK, with all levels of government in the United States. We will continue to work with our friends and partners in the White House, in the federal government, but also of course with the state governors. America, like the UK, has actually made huge progress in reducing C02, very often through a lot of technical fixes of one kind or another. We want to continue to encourage that process.
Johnson was then asked by the presenter, Charlie Styat, why he was not willing to criticise Trump more directly:
Why have you not got a strong message for the United States on this issue. Why have you not got a strong message for Donald Trump? You are just saying, ‘We continue to lobby’. Is that all you’ve got? Where’s the strength?
Johnson replied:
I can assure you that a great deal of lobbying is going on, even now, and over the last few days and months, to persuade our friends and partners in the United States of the wisdom of sticking with American leadership on climate change. I think you want me to depart into a more aggressive style of language, perhaps. I’m not going to do that. We’ve been very clear and very firm with our friends in the United States. But in the end it’s a matter for them.
Updated
Boris Johnson claims BBC debate audience was 'most leftwing I've ever seen'
Boris Johnson has been on Sky News to defend Theresa May’s decision to dodge last night’s debate, saying it showed “prudence and wisdom”.
The foreign secretary said he also felt the studio audience was “the most leftwing” he could recall. He said:
What that debate showed very clearly is the wisdom of the prime minister in not coming. It was a chaotic cacophony of different voices, and elucidated absolutely nothing, I thought, except for a couple of good points that Amber Rudd was able to get over to Jeremy Corbyn.
You had the most lefwing audience I’ve ever seen, you had Tim Farron and the Scottish Nationalists supporting Corbyn, and they would effectively be going into the negotiations in Brussels backing him up, but with a very different view of what they want the outcome of the Brexit talks to be.
Johnson was dismissive when asked whether Brexit negotiators around Europe would see May’s no-show as a sign of weakness:
As they would say in Brussels, ‘Donnez moi un break.’ … With the greatest respect to the debaters last night, I’m not sure that sure that Europe were watching in quite the way that you suggest.
He was also asked about the infamous “£350m a week more for the NHS” slogan of the leave campaign, coming up with an explanation which, while arguably more realistic, would be a lot harder to fit on the side of a bus:
When you complete Brexit negotiations in a couple of years’ time it would obviously be possible for the government to take some of that cash that we get back and put it in the NHS.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has also been giving interviews this morning. On Sky News he refused to condemn Donald Trump in the light of the reports that the US president intends to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement.
This is from Sky’s Michelle Clifford.
Astonishing For Sec Boris Johnson wouldn't give opinion on #DonaldTrump pulling out of #ParisAgreement when pressed on Sky News. Come on
— Michelle Clifford (@skynewsmichelle) June 1, 2017
I will post more from Johnson’s interviews soon.
Updated
Damian Green goes next.
Q: Why is the energy price cap not in the manifesto?
Green says it has already been announced.
Q: You told ITV it would be in the manifesto, and it is not. People will be suspicious.
Green says they don’t need to be. A Conservative government will help people with their energy bills.
Q: So the cap will come in on variable energy bills. And it will have the impact you said - saving millions of families £100 a year.
Green says that is the policy.
Q: Will you look again at the benefits freeze?
No, says Green.
Q: Iain Duncan Smith (the former work and pensions secretary) says you should.
Green says the government’s priority is to make sure people have work.
Q: In the debate last night Caroline Lucas said the most important part of leadership is showing up. It was damaging for Theresa May not to attend, wasn’t it?
Green says he does not agree. He says the priority is Brexit.
Q: Did May watch it?
Green says he does not know.
And that’s it.
Updated
Q: People will see you giving to students, and to wealthy pensioners, but not saying to people on benefits all the freezes will be abolished.
Abrahams rejects that interpretation. She says Labour will spend £2bn a year countering the effects of the benefit freeze. People will be better off, she says.
Debbie Abrahams goes first.
Q: Welfare benefits are frozen under the Tories. Will you keep the freeze?
Abrahams says Labour wants to reform and redesign universal credit. She says it is “ridiculous” that the government cut UC work allowances. People have to wait six weeks for their first payment. That would never happen with a job, she says.
Q; So you will reverse cuts to something like child tax credit.
Absolutely, says Abrahams.
Q: So none of the welfare freezes will stay if Labour is in power? There has been some doubt about this.
Abrahams says the 2016 Welfare Reform Act froze a large number of benefits until 2020. Labour will reverse a number of measures, she says.
Q: Why not just reverse all the freezes. That is what people want to know.
Abrahams says under Labour the minimum wage will go up to £10. The overall package will make people better off.
Q: So some benefits will remain frozen?
Abrahams says there will be a significant improvement for people under Labour’s overall package.
- Abrahams refuses to commit Labour to reversing in full the benefits freeze.
Updated
Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.
Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, and his Labour shadow, Debbie Abrahams, are about to be interviewed on Today.
With that, it’s time to hand the live blog to Andrew Sparrow.
If you’d like the Snap briefing email to land in your inbox tomorrow, and every weekday till the election is done and dusted, do sign up here.
Although this reads like parody, this article in the Plymouth Herald is, says chief reporter Sam Blackledge, the entirety of the newspaper’s interview with the prime minister on her visit to the city yesterday:
The Herald: Two visits in six weeks to one of the country’s most marginal constituencies – is she getting worried?
May: I’m very clear that this is a crucial election for this country.
TH: Plymouth is feeling the effects of military cuts. Will she guarantee to protect the city from further pain?
M: I’m very clear that Plymouth has a proud record of connection with the armed forces.
TH: How will your Brexit plan make Plymouth better off?
M: I think there is a better future ahead for Plymouth and for the whole of the UK.
TH: Will you promise to sort out our transport links?
M: I’m very clear that connectivity is hugely important for Plymouth and the south-west generally.
(See the video – and Blackledge’s “deflated” reaction – here.)
With both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn making speeches on Brexit today, the Lib Dems are focusing on one aspect of the break-up: potential NHS staff shortages if workers from the EU leave the UK.
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, says up to 26,500 NHS workers could go, triggering staff shortages and costing millions to hire and train new nurses and doctors:
The NHS is heavily dependent on doctors, nurses and other support staff from the EU, many of whom are now planning to leave the country because their rights have not been guaranteed.
These are skilled and hard-working people, who all work tirelessly to look after all of us. Our NHS, and the care we all rely on, will suffer without them.
It will cost the NHS around £265m to bring in EU staff to fill these jobs over the next five years, a wholly unnecessary burden at a time when the NHS is being asked to make dramatic efficiency savings.
Updated
I joked earlier that the PM might have skipped the debate in order to binge on the new season of House of Cards.
Those behind the show seem to think she made the wrong call:
@theresa_may They respect you more when you show strength. Or show up. pic.twitter.com/mNXXDKL0xd
— House of Cards (@HouseofCards) May 31, 2017
With the latest Times/YouGov poll putting the Tory lead over Labour at just three points – see the Snap briefing here for more detail on that; and my colleague Alan Travis’ analysis of polling trends here – some are now toying with the idea of a Conservative loss, among them the former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown:
Cameron had a Refo thinking he couldn't lose, but did. May has an election thinking she couldn't lose, but can Such is the price of hubris!
— Paddy Ashdown (@paddyashdown) June 1, 2017
Overall poll trackers still peg the gap rather wider: the FT tracker has it at nine points; the Guardian’s at 11.
Updated
Labour pledges rail fare cuts
Labour has promised to save the average rail commuter more than £200 a year on their season tickets by mandating rail companies to only increase fares by a maximum of a lower measure of inflation than is currently used.
The Conservative manifesto from the last election promised that regulated fares can rise by no more than the retail price index (RPI). However, Labour wants to instead cap them at the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation which tends to be lower. The most recent figure for CPI over the previous 12 months was 2.7%, against 3.5% for RPI.
As with the current cap, it would apply only to regulated fares, which make up about 45% of the total and fall under the authority of the relevant transport minister in England, Wales and Scotland.
Labour says that using official projections for the levels of CPI and RPI over the next parliament, the user of the average-cost annual season ticket of just under £2,800 would save £1,000 in total by 2022 under the party’s formula.
The party is already promising to take the rail companies back into public ownership. However, this will happen over a period of time, as the individual franchises expire. The fares pledge says the aim would be to introduce further caps or reductions over time as more companies became publicly owned.
Updated
The Daily Mail front page today is furious at what it calls the “bias” of the audience at last night’s BBC debate.
Its story admits that the claim of “the most left-wing audience ever” comes from this tweet, from the New Statesman’s political editor, George Eaton:
This feels like most left-wing audience in any election debate. #BBCDebate
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) May 31, 2017
The BBC has clarified that the audience was independently selected by polling company Comres to be “representative of the country demographically and politically”:
The BBC asked polling company ComRes to pick audience that is representative of the country demographically and politically.
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) May 31, 2017
That included a balance between those who voted leave and remain last year, the BBC added.
Eaton has also clarified that his was a “casual observation … not allegation of bias”.
It is true that the most enthusiastic audience responses were not in the government’s favour. A huge laugh greeted Amber Rudd’s entreaty to “judge us on our record”. An even heartier one came when Tim Farron advised viewers at home to make a cup of tea and switch to the Great British Bake Off on BBC2 given the prime minister hadn’t made the effort to appear.
Updated
Today Theresa May will attempt to divert attention away from her absence at last night’s BBC debate with a major speech on Brexit – describing it as a “great national mission”.
May, who spent the debate night working at No 10, will say Brexit is a chance to “set [Britain] free from the shackles of EU control” in a speech in Teesside that will echo some of the most bombastic language of the leave campaign last June.
The election is a chance to “affirm that decision” to leave the EU, she will say:
It is time to act on their decision. To deliver their will. To respect the decision of the British people and take Britain out of the European Union.
The Conservatives said the prime minister is expected to set out her plans for a post-Brexit immigration system in more detail, as well as how money currently paid into the EU budget would be spent on domestic priorities.
She will say:
If we get Brexit right, we can be a confident, self-governing country once again; a country that takes the decisions that matter to Britain here in Britain.
Updated
The Snap: your election briefing
Welcome back to the campaign live blog, with just one week to go until we’re watching politicians ostentatiously exiting polling stations. I’m Claire Phipps with a catchup of last night’s debate action, and the early political news; Andrew Sparrow is along later. Chat to us in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.
What we learned
It was a debate of the many, not the few, in that Jeremy Corbyn turned up and it’s hard to keep track of seven politicians barking over each other. It was also a debate that will be remembered – as Andrew Sparrow noted in his pithy summary – more for the absence of Theresa May than for anything those present said or did.
So where was the PM on Wednesday evening? Not bingeing on House of Cards season five, apparently, but thinking really, really hard about Brexit. With negotiations opening just 11 days after the vote, May can’t waste time on the election she herself called just two years into a five-year parliament. No: she refuses to be distracted by herself.
May (who has appeared on the One Show, the Sky News/Channel 4 Q&A and an Andrew Neil interview, ahead of a Question Time special on Friday) accused Corbyn (who has appeared on the One Show, the Sky News/Channel 4 Q&A and an Andrew Neil interview, ahead of a Question Time special on Friday, PLUS last night’s debate) of craving TV attention instead of thinking about the Brexit negotiations that she insists he won’t be negotiating anyway:
I’m interested in the fact that Jeremy Corbyn seems to be paying far more attention to how many appearances on telly he’s doing. I think he ought to be paying a little more attention to thinking about Brexit negotiations. That’s what I’m doing, to make sure we get the best possible deal for Britain.
As the PM hits the stump again today, we’ll all be keen to hear what she came up with in her ruminations last night. No “dog ate my Brexit” excuses, please.
For those who did pitch up – including May’s stand-in, the home secretary Amber Rudd, who continued despite the death of her father on Monday evening – here’s a zip through what we heard.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour
Key themes: public services. Fair migration (but let’s not get into numbers).
[Addressing Rudd] Have you been to a food bank? Have you seen people sleeping around our stations? Have you seen the levels of poverty that exist because of your government’s conscious decisions on benefits?
Amber Rudd, Conservatives
Key themes: there’s plenty of time to talk about social care caps after the election. Coalitions are noisy and bad. Corbyn’s “magic money tree” (repeat to fade).
His proposals don’t add up. It’s as though he thinks it’s some sort of game, a game of Monopoly perhaps, where you ask the banker for the red money to buy the electrics, the green money to buy the railways, and the yellow money to buy the gas works.
(The person who wrote this line has never read the rules of Monopoly. Do not play Monopoly with this person.)
Caroline Lucas, Greens
Key themes: politics doesn’t have to be this way, you know. Perhaps we ought to talk about climate change occasionally. And, to Rudd:
I genuinely wonder how you sleep at night … Arms sales to Saudi Arabia cannot be justified on the grounds of this being good for industry.
Angus Robertson, SNP
Key themes: austerity isn’t a must-have. SNP opposition is. So is immigration.
I don’t think there is anyone in this room, or anybody watching this debate from Cornwall to Caithness, who does not understand the positive contribution that people have made to this land who have come from the rest of Europe and the rest of the world, and demonising those people is totally unacceptable.
Paul Nuttall, Ukip
Key themes: immigration; extremism; boo to elites; Brexit.
A city the size of Hull came to this country, net: that’s going to be a Birmingham over a five-year period. It’s unsustainable.
Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru
Key themes: Don’t take Wales for granted. Brexit – notably this line to Nuttall, who vowed the UK should “pay no divorce bill” to the EU:
Would you refuse to pay your dues if you were going through a real divorce? … We all know about blokes like you.
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrats
Key themes: Brexit. “Hair-shirt, muesli-eating Guardian readers” can’t solve climate change alone (at least we’re trying, eh, Tim?). Being there.
Amber Rudd is up next. She is not the prime minister. The prime minister is not here tonight. She can’t be bothered. So why should you?
In fact, Bake Off is on BBC2 next. Why not make yourself a brew? You are not worth Theresa May’s time. Don’t give her yours.
(Farron wins the inaugural Snap burn emoji award for biggest audience laughter of the night. Rudd came second, with the self-inflicted: “I would say, judge us on our record.”)
At a glance:
- Labour paper leak: Corbyn denies wanting ‘uncontrolled migration’.
- Tory candidate’s blogposts on rape ‘absolutely shocking’.
- Northern Ireland’s Alliance party launched its manifesto.
- As did the DUP.
- Catch up with the Guardian’s Election Daily podcast.
- The Financial Times endorses May, grudgingly.
Poll position
Another day, another Times/YouGov poll (and do take a moment to read my colleague Alan Travis’s take on yesterday’s hung parliament prediction). Today’s nudges the Conservatives down three points to 42%, and Labour up one to 39% – a three-point gap that YouGov pegged at 24 at the start of the campaign. The Lib Dems have slid down two points to 7%.
YouGov – as with other pollsters predicting snug leads for the Tories – allows for a high turnout of young voters. Those with more gaping margins – such as this week’s Guardian/ICM poll putting the Conservatives 12 points ahead – assume that, as in previous elections, those aged under 24 are less likely to pitch up on the day. Consider that a challenge, youngsters.
And an STV/Ipsos Mori poll of Scottish voters projects the SNP will hang on to 50 of the 56 seats it won in 2015, with the Tories on course to add six to their current sole Westminster slot. Among Scottish party leaders, Nicola Sturgeon came off worst – but the most popular, Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie, also scored highest in the “no opinion/no idea who he is” category, proving that the limelight can be a dangerous place.
Diary
- At 9.30am it’s Ukip’s education launch.
- A big Lib Dem contingent – Tim Farron, Nick Clegg, Sarah Olney and Ed Davey – are in Kingston upon Thames to support EU staff in the NHS.
- The Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, and her Scottish Lib Dem counterpart, Willie Rennie, campaign – separately – in Edinburgh this afternoon, after Nicola Sturgeon takes first minister’s questions at midday.
- At 2.30pm Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley does an LBC radio phone-in.
- At the same time, it’s Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit speech in Basildon.
- Theresa May will be in Teesside, thinking and speaking only about Brexit at all times.
- At 7pm it’s the turn of Farron to face Andrew Neil on BBC1.
- David Davis, Barry Gardiner, Angus Robertson, Suzanne Evans and Clegg again are in East Barnet for BBC Question Time at 10.45pm.
Read these
Pollsters treat Northern Ireland as a lump of 18 MPs. It’s more complicated than that, writes Patrick Maguire in the New Statesman:
Should the pro-EU SDLP lose one or more seats to the DUP and Sinn Féin – a scenario that most informed observers agree is unlikely, but not impossible – then the 56% of Northern Irish electors who voted remain could end up under-represented in Brexit debates. The DUP are devout leavers, while Sinn Féin, of course, won’t be in the room…
Any lopsided composition of the Northern Irish cohort in favour of Leave could well distort the conversation around Brexit – and deprive voters of valuable parliamentary scrutiny – as negotiations begin in earnest.
Suzanne Moore, in the Guardian, challenges assumptions about the generational voting gap:
The inter-generational conflict is largely cultural. Parents and carers often know how unfair things are. We anxiously overcompensate for the squeezing of our offspring’s choices. The continuing idea that young people must vote because they alone can change the outcome of this election is appealing. But it is trite and untrue. There are just not enough of them. It also becomes a somewhat divisive way to write off older generations as Ukippy Tories.
Revelation of the day
With a week to go, Corbyn has been ladling out interviews all over the place: to the NME (“youth clubs will be properly funded”; the key news here being that youth clubs are still a thing); to the Guardian Sport Network (“Wenger in”); and to the Independent, in which he reveals that, if elected, he’ll be bringing his cat, El Gato, to join Larry, Downing Street’s resident feline:
There are socialist tendencies in Gato’s character. He’s allowing a stray cat to share his food.
The day in a tweet
Never tweet. (Here’s the original – and the BBC response.)
Since my tweet has become Mail splash, should say it was casual observation ("feels like"), not allegation of bias. pic.twitter.com/D5V5reGhcz
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) May 31, 2017
And another thing
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