Summary
That’s your lot today. Here’s a summary.
- Jeremy Corbyn has accused Theresa May of pandering to Donald Trump who he accused of recklessly making the world more dangerous. In a reference to May’s slogan about “coalition of chaos” Corbyn warned that the prime minister was seeking to “build a coalition of risk and insecurity with Donald Trump”.
- In a speech on defence and foreign policy Corbyn said the war on terror had failed and called for fresh approach based on diplomacy.
- The Labour leader said he would review UK airstrikes against Isis in Syria and Iraq and accused May of trying to escalate the war in Syria. “All wars and conflicts eventually are brought to an end by political means,” he said.
- Corbyn again evaded questions about whether he would use nuclear weapons. Speaking at an event that included members of the shadow cabinet but notably not the shadow defence secretary, Nia Griffith, who has questioned Corbyn’s line on Trident, Corbyn said: “Labour’s support for the renewal of the Trident submarine system does not preclude working for meaningful, multilateral steps to achieve reductions in nuclear arsenals.”
- The Conservatives said Corbyn posed a threat to security. Defence secretary Michael Fallon said: “Jeremy Corbyn is simply too weak and shambolic to stand up to terrorists and tyrants who want to do us harm.”
- Theresa May has continued to target Labour voters by campaigning in the party’s heartland area of the north-east. Speaking in Northumberland she said: “This election is not about who people might have voted for before, it is about who they want to see leading this country over the next five years.”
- The Lib Dems have revealed they plan to pledge to legalise cannabis. Former Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert said: “Our current laws mean cannabis is controlled by criminals, with no incentive to reduce harm. We must end that.”
- The shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, has accused the BBC of trivialising politics. In a tetchy interview on the Today programme Gardiner urged the BBC not to focus on personalities and criticised the programme for giving prominence to critical coverage in the Sun of Labour’s manifesto.
Updated
As well as attacking what he called Theresa May’s “coalition of risk and insecurity” with Donald Trump during his speech, Corbyn also criticised the US president during questions afterwards.
On global warming he said: “I more than regret the language President Trump used during his election campaign about the global threats of climate change and environmental degradation around the world.
“We already have conflicts and wars based on environmental disasters. We have to be prepared to do far more to sustain our natural world.”
He used almost the same form of words to question Trump’s scepticism about Iran’s nuclear deal. Corbyn said: “I find it more than regrettable that President Trump seems to be trying to tear up the agreement that President Obama’s government and others had so painstakingly negotiated with Iran.”
And while there would be no hand-holding with Trump, Corbyn did not rule out meeting the US president. “Obviously a Labour government would meet with President Trump and would have discussions with him,” he said.
Here’s the start of Heather Stewart’s first take on Corbyn’s speech.
Jeremy Corbyn has urged Britain to “walk the hard yards to a better way to live together on this planet” as he set out Labour’s foreign policy in an election campaign speech.
Corbyn said a Labour government would pursue what he called a “triple commitment” to defence, development and diplomacy, and seek to resolve potential conflicts through political action rather than relying on military force.
Speaking to an audience of foreign policy experts at the Chatham House thinktank in London, the Labour leader and longtime peace campaigner described how his personal views on armed conflict had been fuelled by hearing from his parents about the horrors of the second world war, and seeing graphic images of the Vietnam war.
The New Statesman’s George Eaton accuses Corbyn of dodging the question of whether he would use nuclear weapons.
When pressed on whether he would approve a nuclear retaliation, Corbyn limited himself to saying that there were “circumstances” where “military force” would be appropriate. It’s hardly surprising that the CND vice-president can’t bring himself to say he would use nuclear weapons, but it leaves the Conservatives with room to attack.
As the event drew to a close, Corbyn was asked whether he supported the full renewal of Trident (encompassing four Vanguard-class submarines). Corbyn noted that while parliament had voted for a like-for-like replacement, Labour would hold a Strategic Defence Review, which he did not wish to pre-empt. Though aides subsequently stated that abolition was not an option, the possibility of downgrading the system remains. Labour’s nuclear headache will not end here.
Here’s some more reaction to the speech.
Is Corbyn really claiming that 8 billionaires, not war, have driven the refugee crisis? How does that work?
— Rob Ford (@robfordmancs) May 12, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn insists he can defend Britain and is ‘no pacifist’ in key defence speech despite creating a ‘Ministr… https://t.co/KfQJiFlJ2l
— Sun Politics (@SunPolitics) May 12, 2017
Failures of UN painfully clear from Syria. Corbyn invokes the UN all the time without saying what he would do about Russia/China SC veto.
— Joan Smith (@polblonde) May 12, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn reasonable, authoritive, compassionate & knowledgeable on a subject he knows well, putting distance from petulant child Trump
— Paul Flynn (@PaulFlynnMP) May 12, 2017
Theresa May has just made her “strong and stable” stump speech in Felton, Northumberland.
Speaking in front of her battlebus the prime minister made this plea to former Labour voters:
This election is not about who people might have voted for before, it is about who they want to see leading this country over the next five years.
She didn’t answer questions.
Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, said Corbyn had shown he would put Britain’s security at risk. PA quoted him saying:
He says he would never use Trident, dithers over confronting Islamic State and wants to tie the hands of our intelligence services.
Jeremy Corbyn is simply too weak and shambolic to stand up to terrorists and tyrants who want to do us harm.
Updated
The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, says he is alarmed at the prospect of Corbyn becoming prime minister.
Speaking to reporters in Newport in South Wales, Johnson said:
I’m genuinely worried about some of things that Jeremy Corbyn stands for and believes in. This is a time of great uncertainty in the world. We have to have a very robust response to the threat of terrorism. Jeremy Corbyn is a guy who all his life has campaigned to weaken the UK’s defences.
Updated
Joseph Harker makes a plea to progressives to back Jeremy Corbyn and stop bashing him.
Yes, he’s flawed too; he’s not a great performer, and so far the signs of him rescuing the party are patchy, to say the least. But on 8 June we have a simple choice. It’ll be either Labour or Conservative. And in terms of policy there’s only one of these two parties that any liberal or progressive could want running the country. The party of the rich, of the bankers, of austerity for the many and tax breaks for the few? Really? The party that leaves the NHS on its knees, cuts back on schools and access to universities, bashes the working poor and people with disabilities, demonises the jobless, and fuels fears about migrants?
And all of this in lockstep with its cheerleaders at the Daily Mail, which sees the party as a partner for its vile agenda of scapegoating minorities and taking Britain back to the 1950s.
Here are the key passages from Corbyn’s speech.
Corbyn said the war on terror had failed
Regime change wars in Afghanistan Iraq, Libya, and Syria – and western interventions in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen – have failed in their own terms, and made the world a more dangerous place.
This is the fourth general election in a row to be held while Britain is at war and our armed forces are in action in the Middle East and beyond.
The fact is that the ‘war on terror’ which has driven these interventions has failed.
They have not increased our security at home – just the opposite. And they have caused destabilisation and devastation abroad. We need to step back and have some fresh thinking.
Corbyn accused Donald Trump of recklessly making the world more dangerous
The global situation is becoming more dangerous.
And the new US president seems determined to add to the dangers by recklessly escalating the confrontation with North Korea, unilaterally launching missile strikes on Syria, opposing President Obama’s nuclear arms deal with Iran and backing a new nuclear arms race.
A Labour government will want a strong and friendly relationship with the United States. But we will not be afraid to speak our mind.
Waiting to see which way the wind blows in Washington isn’t strong leadership. And pandering to an erratic Trump administration will not deliver stability.
When Theresa May addressed a Republican party conference in Philadelphia in January she spoke in alarmist terms about the rise of China and India and of the danger of the West being eclipsed.
She said America and Britain had to ‘stand strong’ together and use their military might to protect their interests.
This is the sort of language that led to calamity in Iraq and Libya and all the other disastrous wars that stole the post-cold war promise of a new world order.
I do not see India and China in those terms. Nor do I think the vast majority of Americans or British people want the boots of their young men and women on the ground in Syria fighting a war that would escalate the suffering and slaughter even further.
Britain deserves better than simply outsourcing our country’s security and prosperity to the whims of the Trump White House.
So no more hand holding with Donald Trump.
Corbyn put forward a diplomatic approach to Syria
It’s become clear that a vote for Theresa May could be a vote to escalate the war in Syria, risking military confrontation with Russia, adding to the suffering of the Syrian people and increasing global insecurity.
When you see children suffering in war, it is only natural to want to do something.
But the last thing we need is more of the same failed recipe that has served us so badly and the people of the region so calamitously.
Labour will stand up for the people of Syria. We will press for war crimes to be properly investigated. And we will work tirelessly to make the Geneva talks work.
Every action that is taken over Syria must be judged by whether it helps to bring an end to the tragedy of the Syrian war or does the opposite.
Even if Isis is defeated militarily, the conflict will not end until there is a negotiated settlement involving all the main parties, including the regional and international powers and an inclusive government in Iraq.
All wars and conflicts eventually are brought to an end by political means.
On Trident and nuclear weapons Corbyn was nuanced
Labour’s support for the renewal of the Trident submarine system does not preclude working for meaningful, multilateral steps to achieve reductions in nuclear arsenals.
A Labour government will pursue a triple commitment to the interlocking foreign policy instruments of: defence, development and diplomacy ...
I am often asked if as prime minister I would order the use of nuclear weapons.
It’s an extraordinary question when you think about it – would you order the indiscriminate killing of millions of people? Would you risk such extensive contamination of the planet that no life could exist across large parts of the world?
If circumstances arose where that was a real option, it would represent complete and cataclysmic failure. It would mean world leaders had already triggered a spiral of catastrophe for humankind.
Labour is committed actively to pursue disarmament under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and we are committed to no first use of nuclear weapons.
Updated
Corbyn says he did support the deployment of British troops in East Timor and Cyprus.
He says he supports the reunification of Cyprus.
Q: Would you talk to Isis?
No, says Corbyn. He says he wants to pursue peace negotiations through the Geneva process.
Corbyn criticises Trump on climate change. I would be very strong on those issues, he promises.
On Syria, Corbyn says the Assad regime has committed human rights abuses, but he says others in conflict have also done so.
He says he would examine the role of RAF airstrikes against Isis militants in Syria.
Labour has released the full text of Corbyn’s speech.
Corbyn is asked again about whether he would use nuclear weapons and military force.
Ultimately there are circumstances when military action is justified, Corbyn says. He cites the second world war.
Corbyn says the responsibility to protect should be backed up by international law and the United Nations.
Corbyn is challenged about his criticism of Trump.
We have a very close relationship with the US, Corbyn concedes. But he says this does not mean the UK always has to join US-led military action. He cites the Vietnam war.
Corbyn commits to maintaining GCHQ.
On hand-holding with Trump, Corbyn says a Labour government would meet Trump. He says China should be praised for trying to calm tensions with North Korea.
You can also follow Corbyn’s Q&A here.
Corbyn is taking questions now. He claims that engagement with China on climate change has created progress. Echoing a theme in his speech, he talks about the need to tackle “grotesque levels of inequality”.
Corbyn is read a letter about the need for cyber security. He says it is crucial for Britain to defend itself against cyber attacks. He says the government needs to balance privacy against the real threat of cyber attack.
Updated
Human rights will drive our foreign policy, Corbyn says.
He repeats Labour’s pledge to maintain the Nato commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence.
He says Labour will invest in the diplomatic service. He claims Theresa May is building a coalition of risk and insecurity with Donald Trump.
Updated
Corbyn says being asked about whether he would fire nuclear weapons is an “extraordinary question”.
He adds: “If elected prime minister, I will do everything necessary to protect the safety and security of our people and our country.”
This doesn’t make me a pacifist, Corbyn says.
A vote for the Conservatives is a vote to escalate the war in Syria, Corbyn insists.
The conflict will not end until there is a negotiated settlement, he says.
Labour would adopt a new approach in Syria and support the UN in resolving the conflict.
Updated
Corbyn adds:
The ‘bomb first, talk later’ approach to security has failed. To persist with it, as the Conservative Government has made clear it is determined to do, is a recipe for increasing not reducing threats and insecurity.
Corbyn accuses Donald Trump of making the world more dangerous, citing his rhetoric on North Korea.
He accuses Theresa May of “pandering” to Trump and says this is not the sign of strong leadership.
Waiting to see which way the wind blows in Washington isn’t strong leadership. And pandering to an erratic Trump administration will not deliver stability.
Britain deserves better than simply outsourcing our country’s security and prosperity to the whims of the Trump White House.
So no more hand-holding with Donald Trump – a Labour government will conduct a robust and independent foreign policy made in London.
Updated
Corbyn says: “My own political views were shaped by my parents’ descriptions of the horrors of war.” Growing up he says was haunted by images of people fleeing chemical warfare.
Corbyn says this is the fourth election in a row when Britain has been fighting a war abroad. He claims the war on terror is not working. He says it has fuelled the rise of Isis and calls for fresh thinking.
He talks about a refugee crisis on “epic proportions”.
Updated
Corbyn is speaking now. He introduces members of his shadow cabinet, including Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, and Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general.
He doesn’t mention Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, because she isn’t there. Griffith has clashed with Corbyn over the policy on the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Updated
Corbyn gave a longwinded answer to the question of whether he was a pacifist in an interview with Faisal Islam in 2015.
“I have a very low threshold on accepting any level of violence – total pacifist hard to say. I remember discussing it with my Dad – over the second world war, he was very anti war like me, he like men of his generation took part in the war. So I couldn’t say an absolute one but I am very much opposed to violence and opposed to wars and that has been the whole purpose of my life”.
Updated
You can watch Corbyn’s speech on a Chatham House live stream.
My speech on how Labour will seek peaceful solutions to the world’s problems will be live at 11.30am: https://t.co/IZZIqlp9fE #CHcorbyn pic.twitter.com/5xMwA35vcC
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 12, 2017
Updated
Corbyn is due to give his I’m-not-a-pacifist speech at Chatham House in the next few minutes.
Media scrum outside Chatham House, where Jeremy Corbyn is giving a speech on foreign policy. He's in there somewhere. pic.twitter.com/rL64PdKowB
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) May 12, 2017
Rowena Mason looks ahead to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn trading blows on defence and foreign policy later today.
Corbyn will give a speech in London announcing a fresh approach to international affairs, saying a Labour government would not hold hands with Donald Trump.
His remarks are an implicit attack on May for her decision to have a close relationship with the new US president and signs that she could allow the UK to join bombing raids on the Syrian regime if asked to do so by Washington. She allowed Trump to hold her hand on her first trip to see him at the White House in January.
In his speech, Corbyn will say he is “not a pacifist” but he will argue that military intervention has become “almost routine in recent times”. Foreign policy aiming at a more peaceful world has long been one of his personal priorities, especially support for unilateral disarmament and Palestinian rights.
Later, May will give a speech in the north-east arguing that Labour voters in the party’s northern heartlands are “increasingly looking at what Corbyn believes in and are appalled”.
One of her ministers has attacked the Labour leader on the issue of security, saying Corbyn is only “pretending what he’s got to keep us safe” after a lifetime of trying to disarm Britain.
Mike Penning, an armed forces minister, said: “It’s nonsense – we know he wants scrap Trident, abandon our allies and would rather talk to Daesh than strike its barbaric leader. We all want peace, but you can’t take tea with terrorists who order attacks on innocent civilians on our streets.”
Lib Dems pledge to legalise cannabis
The Lib Dems are due to pledge to legalise cannabis, according to BuzzFeed.
Tim Farron’s party will campaign in the general election with a pledge to completely upend the existing system of selling weed, making it the first time a major political party has fought an election on a platform of legalising the drug.
Under the Lib Dem proposals the sale of marijuana would be fully legalised, with the quality strictly regulated to reduce harmful chemicals and sales restricted to over-18s. Purchases would be allowed only through licensed cannabis shops, similar to the system used in several US states.
Lib Dem Julian Huppert, who is standing to retake his old marginal Cambridge seat from Labour, confirmed the plan.
If you want to see detail behind our cannabis policy, read our full expert report at https://t.co/nQyJxYGhkV - the panel was impressive! #fb pic.twitter.com/5MlyDF2Ohf
— Julian Huppert (@julianhuppert) May 12, 2017
Our current laws mean cannabis is controlled by criminals, with no incentive to reduce harm. We must end that https://t.co/dbm3FXtCPy #fb
— Julian Huppert (@julianhuppert) May 12, 2017
Updated
Labour has called for legislation to enshrine the recent convention of consulting parliament on any military action.
Fabian Hamilton, the shadow minister for peace and disarmament, praised Tony Blair for setting the precedent when he secured parliamentary approval for the invasion of Iraq.
Speaking on Sky’s All Out Politics, Hamilton said: “Tony Blair set a very good precedent and it’s very important and I think we should put that in law actually – that parliament must be consulted and must approve of any declaration of war or any warmongering that the United Kingdom wants to conduct for whatever reason.”
He added: “We shouldn’t bomb now and discuss later that is entirely wrong. We should do far far more diplomacy to resolve those conflicts before they become hot wars.”
His comments come after the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, faced an outcry last month when he signalled that the UK could join any US military action against Syria without parliamentary approval.
Hamilton also said Jeremy Corbyn had changed his anti-war views since becoming leader of the party.
Asked about Corbyn’s record as a Stop the War campaigner, Hamilton said: “He was a backbencher then, he’s party leader now. It is not just about what he thinks, it is about what the whole party thinks.”
He underlined Labour’s commitment to spending 2% of GDP on defence. Hamiliton said:
“We have always taken the view that we should not leave this country defenceless, that we should defend ourselves and that 2%, which is the Nato minimum, is about the right amount. We’ve said time and time again that we will stick to that 2%.”
“Like Jeremy I’m not a pacifist. I would defend our country. But we have to find far more creative solutions to the world’s conflicts.”
Updated
PA has picked up on Emily Thornberry’s article in the Guardian. It says the shadow foreign secretary warned that a Tory victory would lead to the UK becoming embroiled in the Syrian civil war in a sign of Theresa May’s “devotion” to Donald Trump.
PA highlights this passage in the article.
“A disregard for human rights leads to disdain for the human consequences of war.
“If she wins on June 8, as a fresh act of devotion to Trump, she will call an immediate vote on military action against the Syrian government. Not only would that escalate and prolong the war in Syria, it would risk bringing us into conflict with Russia and Iran - and all without any UN agreement or authorisation.”
Labour’s Barry Gardiner has defended his tetchy interview with Nick Robinson (see earlier).
Quite shocked by@BBCr4today trivialising approach to serious issue of our country's security global instability & international rule of law https://t.co/tubdui5a2m
— Barry Gardiner (@BarryGardiner) May 12, 2017
In his foreign policy speech at the Chatham House thinktank Corbyn is expected to claim that he is “not a pacifist” despite his record as anti-war campaigner.
His pre-released remarks have disturbed the Peace Pledge Union. Its co-ordinator, Symon Hill, said politicians should not be ashamed to call themselves pacifists.
In an email to the Guardian he said:
Politicians have this week thrown around the term ‘pacifist’ like a dirty word. First, Michael Fallon called Jeremy Corbyn a pacifist, now Corbyn feels the need to deny it.
We’re of course very pleased that Jeremy Corbyn opposes most wars and wants to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia. We’re disappointed that Labour hasn’t proposed ending aspects of everyday militarism such as school cadet forces.
We’ve campaigned alongside Jeremy many times, and we hope he’ll join us in marking International Conscientious Objectors’ Day on Monday.
But unlike Jeremy, we believe that war and militarism must be rejected at all times and in all places if they are to be defeated and replaced. The disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a reminder that armed forces don’t make Britain or the world any safer.
The word ‘pacifism’ is sometimes used to mean ‘doing nothing’. Someonewho advocates doing nothing is not a pacifist. Pacifism is an active alternative to both war and passivity, involving nonviolent resistance to war and injustice. The Peace Pledge Union’s members include people who have been arrested for taking direct action against war as well as others who have gone unarmed into war zones as human rights monitors. Militarism is about doing what you’re told; pacifism is about not doing what you’re told.”
(Apologies for previously incorrectly stating that Corbyn was due to give is speech at the Rusi thinktank).
Updated
The Conservatives are cranking up the anti-Brussels rhetoric that seemed to play so well in last week’s local elections.
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, claimed the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, was trying to force him out of his job. Last week Theresa May claimed Brussels figures were trying to influence the outcome of election and warned Juncker that she would be a “bloody difficult woman” in the Brexit negotiations.
Speaking to the the Daily Telegraph, Davis said:
“I think to be honest he [Juncker] has now learned his lesson - he is not going to be meddling in British politics any more or at least if he does he will get the same reaction.”
“All these stories are briefing against me, trying to get me sacked - which, of course, is a compliment by the way.
“If they don’t want me across the table, there is a reason for that - it is in Britain’s interests, not theirs.
“One of the things that may have led to that briefing is the fact they know a big mandate from the British people is a big mandate in the negotiation and helps (us) and doesn’t help him.”
Updated
The rapper and poet Akala has never voted before, but writing in the Guardian he explains why he is backing Corbyn.
It’s not that I am naive enough to believe that one man (who is, of course, powerless without the people that support him) can fundamentally alter the nature of British politics, or that I think that if Labour wins that the UK will suddenly reflect his personal political convictions, or even that I believe that the prime minister actually runs the country. However for the first time in my adult life, and perhaps for the first time in British history, someone I would consider to be a fundamentally decent human being has a chance of being elected.
I recognise that Corbyn is an imperfect ‘leader’. He was abysmal during the Brexit campaign for example. He is a politician, and he will make more mistakes.
We do not need perfect politicians, because we are not perfect people ourselves. As well as his historical stances on apartheid and other issues, Corbyn has consistently voted against the UK’s worst acts of foreign aggression, including being one of only 13 MPs to vote against Nato’s horrific intervention in Libya in 2011 – an intervention that has played no small part in the subsequent refugee crisis and the direct spreading of terrorism.
Updated
The hostility to Corbyn in the press paradoxically acts to strengthen him, according to Tom Crewe in the London Review of Books.
If the majority of Britain’s media outlets weren’t unremittingly and unthinkingly hostile – or, in the case of the BBC, occasionally and seemingly unknowingly hostile – it would be far easier to judge Corbyn’s leadership on its own merits and against its own objectives, without having always to make allowances for the effect the onslaught may have had on his behaviour as well as on his and the party’s polling. As it is, Corbyn has been given the equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card by many of his supporters. This is reasonable enough, but media hostility has also meant that from the very beginning the Corbyn project has been heavily invested in the idea that the greatly increased Labour membership (528,000) should play the key role in disseminating the party’s message, with Momentum activists (in theory, at least) acting as the shock troops. This is the crux of Corbyn’s vision of the Labour party as a ‘social movement’. As a political strategy it has so far gone largely unexamined. But there is no doubt that Corbyn’s supporters believe strongly in it, and a political dynamic has been created whereby Corbyn’s weakness calls for ever greater efforts on his behalf: the problem can only be that more people need to hear his message, direct from the source.
Updated
Labour’s leaked manifesto and its clause V meeting were given hostile treatment on most of the newspaper front pages
The Guardian and the Daily Mirror took a different line.
Reaction to Gardiner’s interview from the commentariat has been largely negative.
Wonder if BarryGardiner had three ShreddedWheat this morning? @BBCr4today
— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) May 12, 2017
Re Gardiner, one of worst aspects of these people who ruined Labour is the shamelessness. Rather than feel shame they're puffed up + pious.
— Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) May 12, 2017
Barry Gardiner claims when Jeremy Corbyn said he couldn't think of circumstances he would deploy troops it was "a throw away remark".
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 12, 2017
Labour's Barry Gardiner sounds like he has been overdosing on the grumpy pills before his interview to defend Corbyn on @BBCr4today.
— David Wooding (@DavidWooding) May 12, 2017
Gardiner seems strangely outraged that people should take Corbyn's own words and quote them
— James Tapsfield (@JamesTapsfield) May 12, 2017
But there’s also been some sympathy for him.
Wow Nick Robinson is getting his arse handed to him on #R4 by Barry Gardiner. He was extraordinary on Newsnight as well last night 😊
— nickyclark (@MrsNickyClark) May 12, 2017
In case you missed it, you can watch our interview with Labour's @BarryGardiner on YouTube: https://t.co/vh8eCsbTyE pic.twitter.com/aevFE8Ze8d
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) May 12, 2017
Gardiner also gave a tetchy interview to Radio 4’s Nick Robinson on the Today programme in which he repeatedly accused the BBC of trivialising politics.
He took issue with the programme’s newspaper review which gave prominence to the Sun’s negative coverage of Labour’s manifesto under the headline ‘Crash, Bang, Wallies.’
Tomorrow's front page: Crash Bang Wallies pic.twitter.com/SCYpxIkzXn
— The Sun (@TheSun) May 11, 2017
Gardiner said: “I did think your earlier report was beneath you, this crash bang wallop stuff.”
When it was pointed out that programme was just quoting the Sun, Gardiner said: “I know it was, but this is the Today programme, people expect a standard and a quality of debate that is higher than ‘crash band wallop’ even if you are quoting people. They expect you to exercise a degree of choice and discretion.”
Gardiner urged the BBC to focus on issues not personalities, and then had a frosty exchange with Robinson when asked about remarks Jeremy Corbyn made about nuclear weapons during the leadership hustings in 2015.
After a big sigh, Gardiner said: “Nick, this is really, really, you know picking up points like that. I do think you are trivialising the debate. Let’s focus on the really important stuff, which is about the need for conflict prevention in this world, the whole that diplomacy has to play in reducing the tensions that we see ... and you want to focus on a throwaway remark in leadership hustings two years ago.”
He added: “Because you want to take this down to personalities and not the policy of the party ...There is nobody in parliament who has spoken out against human rights abuse, genocide and war crimes, over that 30-year period more than Jeremy Corbyn.”
Updated
Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, has pledged that the bulk of Labour’s spending plans will be funded by business not individuals.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he was challenged about the Daily Mail analysis of Labour’s spending plans which claimed that they would cost £93bn or £4,000 per family.
Gardiner said: “All our policies are fully costed, and the costings will be revealed on Tuesday next week when we reveal the manifesto and where that money is coming from. Nobody who is [paid] under £80,000 a year will be seeing an increase in their tax rate.
“95% of people in this country are going to have less costs in their life not greater. The bulk of funds that are going to be necessary to implement these polices are coming not from taxation on individuals, but actually from restoring the cuts that this government has made to corporation tax.”
Gardiner promised that Labour would shift the burden of tax from ordinary people to businesses and the highest 5% of earners.
He said: “When we were in office the tax burden on the British people was 33.9% of GDP, under this government it is currently 34.4%. And they are projecting that by 2020 it will be 37.2%. What we are saying is that we will shift the burden of taxation from ordinary people.
“It will be levied on the rest of society through corporation tax, through capital gains tax, and inheritance tax.”
He also defended Labour’s manifesto on defence and Corbyn’s reluctance to commit to using nuclear weapons. He said:
I want a prime minister who is going to think very carefully and is going to be reluctant to put our servicemen and women into harm’s way. I want a prime minister who is not just going to jump to it, the moment the president of the United States snaps their fingers and says ‘come and join us in a bombing raid’.
So I welcome what Jeremy has said. He has put the security of the United Kingdom and our people here as his top priority.
There are many major economies in the world from Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, who don’t possess a nuclear weapon and don’t feel that as a result of that that their country is imminently under threat. We are going to maintain that nuclear deterrent. But we are going to put some energy into the non-proliferation treaty. What we want is a world that is free of such weapons.
Updated
Polling data on shifting working-class voting patterns, shows why May is heading for the north-east.
Theresa May to target working class today
— Matthew Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) May 12, 2017
Quick & crude - how low skill workers have shifted 2016->2017
ICM data pic.twitter.com/ob1rDydv7W
Updated
Theresa May will continue to target Labour voters by campaigning in the party’s heartland area of the north-east.
She will say that people have voted Labour for generations but many are “appalled” by Jeremy Corbyn’s beliefs, according to passages of a speech she is due to give.
The BBC quotes what May is expected say:
“Proud and patriotic working-class people in towns and cities across Britain have not deserted the Labour party – Jeremy Corbyn has deserted them.
“We respect that parents and grandparents taught their children and grandchildren that Labour was a party that shared their values and stood up for their community.
“But across the country today, traditional Labour supporters are increasingly looking at what Jeremy Corbyn believes in and are appalled.”
“I will be reaching out to all those who have been abandoned by Labour and let down by government for too long. I will be doing everything I can to earn their trust,” she will say.
“My commitment to them is this: if you put your trust in me, back me, I will strive to be a leader worthy of our great country.”
Updated
No Andrew Sparrow today (we all have to rest occasionally); Matthew Weaver picks up the live blog for the rest of the day.
To sign up for the Snap, our weekday email briefing, nip over here.
Analysis by the BBC after nominations for 8 June closed yesterday suggests there will be fewer female candidates than in the 2015 election.
Labour, it finds, has the largest proportion of women standing, at 41% of candidates. In this most recent parliament, 44% of its MPs were women.
The Liberal Democrats – who lost all their seats held by women in the 2015 wipeout but won back Richmond Park in a byelection with Sarah Olney – have 191 candidates out of 630 (30%), the BBC says.
In Scotland, 33% of SNP candidates are women: 20 of 59 seats.
The Tories lag behind, with 29% of its candidates female. In 2015, 21% of its elected MPs were women.
The Snap: your election briefing
Welcome to the official halfway point in the campaign. Hang on in there.
I’m Claire Phipps with your early morning catchup to kick off the live blog. Do join us in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.
What’s happening?
After Labour’s manifesto detonated earlier than planned, Jeremy Corbyn today takes the fight to foreign policy. He’ll tell an audience at Chatham House that he’s “not a pacifist” – but instead wants a resurrection of the ethical foreign policy championed by the late Robin Cook. What that means, says the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, writing in the Guardian, is an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a review of contracts with Bahrain and other repressive regimes, and no unilateral action against Syria.
What it’ll also mean is the special relationship becoming a bit less special. In his speech this morning, Corbyn will distance himself from the US president (with a dig at the solicitousness of Theresa May on her White House visit):
Pandering to an erratic Trump administration will not deliver stability … So no more hand-holding with Donald Trump; a Labour government will conduct a robust and independent foreign policy made in London.
Also made in London: the finishing touches to that leaked manifesto, confirmed by Labour’s clause V meeting yesterday. Also confirmed: shadow cabinet member Barry Gardiner told BBC Newsnight that Labour did accept that free movement of people would end when the UK handed in its EU membership card – a detail missing from the leaked draft.
Reaction to the manifesto has been not so much mixed as centrifugally polarised. Corbyn calls it a set of policies to “transform the lives” of many Britons. The Guardian calls it a bold step. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, calls it “the state getting deeply involved in much more of the private sector than it has been … perhaps since the 1940s”. The Daily Mail and the Telegraph call it a cost “to every family” of £4,000 – though, once you wade through their questions over Labour’s costings, they are curiously reluctant to show their own workings. Both put the manifesto spending commitments at £93bn; John McDonnell tots it up as £55bn.
But why not see for yourselves? Here are the key policies analysed. Or read it in full here.
Meanwhile, the PM takes her strong and stable pitch to South Shields, where she’ll bring the Conservatives’ battlebus out of hibernation and also try out a new alliteration as she appeals to “proud and patriotic working-class people”. Apparently stung by accusations that she had avoided meeting “ordinary” voters – which arose after she repeatedly avoided meeting ordinary voters – May has upped her ordinary voter quota.
Yesterday the PM submitted to an LBC radio phone-in, during which she defended the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, from an NHS doctor who said she was considering resigning “because things have got so bad”. May also had a chance to practise her wordplay in an answer on tax:
We have no plans to increase the level of tax but what I’m saying is that’s because we are party that believes in a low tax … As a government, we would go into government with no plans to raise the level of tax.
Oh, and if Trump came to dinner, she’d cook him a slow-roast shoulder of lamb. Another key policy distinction between the two prime ministerial contenders.
At a glance:
- Scottish Labour will pledge to raise income tax rates by 1p for everyone earning above £21,500; while the SNP says it may introduce a 50p top rate.
- Ghost of PMs past: Gordon Brown didn’t mention Corbyn in his campaign speech; David Cameron said May needed a big mandate to escape being manoeuvred into an “extreme Brexit”.
- Lib Dems and Labour pledge to double length of paid paternity leave.
- Police car carrying Corbyn runs over foot of BBC camera operator.
- Paul Nuttall stands by Ukip MEP who called Islam a death cult.
Poll position
A Comres poll for the Daily Mirror shows several of the policies in Labour’s leaked manifesto hit the right (left?) spot for voters. A majority supported nationalising energy companies (49% v 24% opposed); railways (52% v 22%); and Royal Mail (50% v 25%). A ban on zero-hours contracts won 71% for and 16% against. Some 65% (v 24%) backed raising income tax on those earning over £80,000. And 78% favour retaining the ban on foxhunting.
But, in the same poll, when asked which party has “more realistic and well thought through policies”?
Labour 31%.
Conservatives 51%.
Diary
- At 11am Nicola Sturgeon gives a speech at the National Economic Forum in Inverness. Kezia Dugdale is in Stornoway; Patrick Harvie, Scottish Greens co-convenor, in Glasgow; and Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie in Fife.
- At 11.30 Jeremy Corbyn makes his foreign policy speech at Chatham House.
- At 11.45 John McDonnell speaks at the Fire Brigades Union conference in Blackpool.
- This afternoon, Theresa May ding-dings the Tory battle bus launch in north-east England.
- At 1.30pm, Chuka Umunna will be in Westminster for the Vote Leave Watch event to discuss Labour opposition to a hard Brexit.
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Tony Blair and EU negotiator Michel Barnier also talk Brexit in Ireland.
- And the two-day Convention on Brexit convenes in London, with keynote speakers including Gina Miller, Ian McEwan, Caroline Criado-Perez … and Jarvis Cocker. (Saturday headliners are Nick Clegg and Michael Gove.)
Read these
Ignore the “blue rinse rising” condescension, and this Economist analysis has some striking figures on older voters:
Fortunately for Theresa May … her retirement-age base currently looks rock-solid. Before the Brexit referendum last year, around a fifth of over-60s supported the UK Independence party. But after the surprise vote to leave the EU stripped Ukip of much of its reason for being, nearly three-quarters of that group have abandoned the party, with the vast majority shifting their allegiances to the Conservatives. As a result, the Tories are currently some 50 points ahead of Labour among the old – an advantage roughly double the size of their already-large margin with that group in 2015. Labour may have chosen a relatively aged leader in the 67-year-old Jeremy Corbyn, but the polls suggest he shouldn’t count on his sexagenarian peers for any help.
Rachel Shabi, in the Independent, says Labour’s manifesto is proof that populism isn’t the preserve of the right:
Rather than seeking to accommodate a negative mood over migration (which invariably ends up confirming the far-right’s framing), left populism tries to persuade even those who disagree over ‘cultural issues’ of a common political cause.
There’s another fundamental distinction too: the populist left in the UK, as elsewhere, casts decades of ravaging neoliberalism as the source of both economic hardship and public despair with politics; in this context, centrism’s tinkering around the edges while subscribing to the same economic playbook isn’t going to cut it – and also perpetuates the feeling often heard on doorsteps that, whoever you vote for, nothing changes.
Revelation of the day
To regain her seat in Maidenhead, May will have to see off 12 other would-be MPs, including the Official Monster Raving Loony party’s Howling Laud Hope, Ukip’s Gerard Batten, and the enigmatic Lord Buckethead. It’s unclear if this is the same Lord Buckethead who won 131 votes in the 1987 general election in Finchley against Margaret Thatcher (she won more). Elsewhere, Mr Fishfinger will stand against Tim Farron in Westmorland and Lonsdale. In Islington North, Corbyn faces nine challengers, including one from the Communist League.
Jack Monroe has abandoned her bid to become an MP in Southend West. The Greens have stepped aside in 22 seats, in favour of Labour in Hastings and Rye (held by the home secretary, Amber Rudd), in Chester and in Eltham, where Labour incumbent Clive Efford has reportedly pledged to “oppose a harmful Brexit”. Brexit is also among the reasons Ukip has decided not to contest hundreds of seats where pro-leave Tories are standing. Another reason is that party officials weren’t sure if would-be candidates had submitted their nomination papers before yesterday’s 4pm deadline.
The day in a tweet
When manifesto announcements go wrong – this time in 2001, when Labour’s then election coordinator Douglas Alexander was handed a note:
(13/17)The pictures on Sky News showed the egging incident. This was not the broadcast coverage we'd anticipated on manifesto day...
— Douglas Alexander (@D_G_Alexander) May 11, 2017
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