Closing summary
That’s all we have time for today on politics live, but before we go here is a quick roundup of Monday’s highlights from the campaign trail.
Conservatives
- Theresa May has dismissed claims she is at loggerheads with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker over her Brexit negotiating strategy as “Brussels gossip”.
- The prime minister also restated she has no intention of raising taxes.
Labour
- Jeremy Corbyn claimed the reports of May’s dinner with Juncker in Downing Street on Wednesday showed May’s negotiating strategy was unravelling: “If you start with a megaphone, calling people silly names, it is not a great start to anything.”
-
Alistair Darling has been campaigning with the party’s sole Scottish MP, Ian Murray, and made comments that appear to cast doubt over whether Corbyn will remain as Labour leader after the election.
Liberal Democrats
-
Tim Farron was also out campaigning in south west London, putting forward the party’s case to be the official opposition.
SNP
- Nicola Sturgeon has said only her party can stop Theresa May having a “free hand to do whatever she wants” in government.
Updated
Chris Williamson aims to win back Derby North for Labour
.@ChriswMP has been selected to stand as Labour’s candidate in Derby North, describes himself as "most pro-Corbyn candidate" in election
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) May 1, 2017
.@ChriswMP In his press release, @ChriswMP calls himself "test case for Corbyn's politics" as he attempts to take back UK's most marginal seat - 41 maj
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) May 1, 2017
.@ChriswMP As many have pointed out, Gower is actually most marginal seat. But @ChriswMP neatly gets around that in the press release. pic.twitter.com/ww6zM9TBln
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) May 1, 2017
Theresa May has again said she has no intention of raising taxes. The prime minister told Tory party activists in the village of Mawdesley in Chorley, Lancashire she was not going to make promises that she did not know she could keep.
Responding to comments by former prime minister Tony Blair, who said Brexit had given him direct motivation to “get his hands dirty” in politics, May said she was interested in “Conservative voices of the future, not Labour voices of the past”.
Updated
Despite her spokesman dismissing the German report, Theresa May has still taken the opportunity to repeat her mantra that only she can provide the strong leadership needed to win the best Brexit deal for Britain.
“When it comes June 8 people have a clear choice. There will be 27 European countries on one side of the table - who do they want to see standing up for Britain on the other side - me, or Jeremy Corbyn?” the prime minister said.
However, the Labour leader, campaigning in Battersea, south London, claimed that May’s negotiating strategy was unravelling: “If you start with a megaphone, calling people silly names, it is not a great start to anything.”
Downing Street said it did not recognise the latest account of the dinner as reported by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
It quoted commission sources as saying the EU side left the meeting believing May was far too optimistic about the prospects for a deal.
When the prime minister told them “Let us make Brexit a success”, Jean-Claude Juncker was said to have replied: “Brexit cannot be a success”.
May was also said to have angered the EU side when she warned that the UK could not be forced to pay a “divorce bill” for leaving because there was no requirement under the treaties, which drew the response that the EU was “not a golf club”.
As he left, Juncker was said to have told her: “I leave Downing St 10 times as sceptical as I was before.”
Updated
May calls reports of Juncker dinner 'Brussels gossip'
Theresa May has dismissed claims she is at loggerheads with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker over her Brexit negotiating strategy as “Brussels gossip”.
The prime minister came under fire following reports Juncker walked out of talks last week in Downing Street saying he was “10 times more sceptical than before”.
Opposition parties warned the UK was heading for a “disastrous hard Brexit” after a detailed account in German media of their dinner suggested that Juncker left fearing the negotiations would end in failure.
But campaigning in Lancashire today, May brushed off the claims insisting that they were at odds with what the commission had said about the meeting.
“From what I have seen of this account, I think it is Brussels gossip,” she said. “Look at what the European Commission themselves said immediately after the dinner took place which was that the talks had been constructive.”
Updated
Guardian political correspondent Rajeev Syal adds:
Labour spox on Danczuk: "The NEC endorsement panel today unanimously recommended that he should not be endorsed as a Labour candidate."
— rajeev syal (@syalrajeev) May 1, 2017
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale has been told he can’t stand as a Labour candidate in next month’s general election, reports the Guardian’s Rajeev Syal.
BREAKING: @SimonDanczuk has been told he cannot stand again as a Labour candidate in Rochdale. He is considering legal action, sources said.
— rajeev syal (@syalrajeev) May 1, 2017
Updated
The Guardian’s north of England reporter Frances Perraudin is at Theresa May’s campaign rally in South Ribble, a safe Tory seat. Protesters are outside the venue waiting to greet the prime minister.
Protesters outside Mawdesley Hall in South Ribble, a Tory safe seat, where the PM is attending a campaign event pic.twitter.com/7hYEJ0IePe
— Frances Perraudin (@fperraudin) May 1, 2017
Afternoon summary
Conservatives
The prime minister is expected in the north-west of England this afternoon.
The Conservatives have been urged against ruling out increases in income Tax or national insurance contributions by the respected think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
A report in a German newspaper gives a painful account of the meeting between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker last week and has been the focal point of much discussion in UK politics today.
The devastating account of a dinner in Downing Street between May and Juncker claims the European commission president ended discussions about a potential Brexit deal by telling the British prime minister: “I’m leaving Downing Street 10 times more sceptical than I was before.”
Those close to Juncker are said to have subsequently concluded that the chances of Brexit talks failing were now “over 50%”. An EU spokesman declined to comment, except to point out that Juncker had told reporters at a summit on Saturday that the dinner was a “very constructive meeting, a friendly atmosphere”.
Labour
Jeremy Corbyn was out on the campaign trail in south London this morning. He and his party have been pushing a policy announcement on renters’ rights today.
Corbyn has also attacked May’s “megaphone” diplomacy in the context of Brexit negotiations and warned they would not get a good deal from Britain.
Tony Blair has been doing the media rounds as part of his sort-of comeback. He told the Mirror “you need to get your hands dirty and I will…” when discussing how he will fight the hard Brexiteers. He added:
I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out into the country and reconnecting.
Alistair Darling has been with the party’s sole Scottish MP, Ian Murray, in Scotland as they try to elbow their way back into the game with a reminder of Labour’s record on tackling poverty.
Liberal Democrats
Tim Farron was also out campaigning in London, in the south west of the capital, putting forward the party’s case to be the official opposition.
SNP
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said only her party can stop Theresa May having a “free hand to do whatever she wants” in government.
The First Minister joined her predecessor Alex Salmond on the campaign trail in Aberdeenshire and said the SNP would provide a check on Conservative power at Westminster.
Anything else?
In a letter to the Guardian today, a host of Labour-friendly folk – our own Polly Toynbee and Owen Jones; obligatory Billy Bragg; and MPsClive Lewis, Tulip Saddiq and Jon Cruddas (the party’s former policy chief), among others – poke the recalcitrant leadership on the issue of a progressive alliance to sandbag the predicted Tory flood. Labour, they argue, should stand aside in favour of the Greens inCaroline Lucas-held Brighton Pavilion and in the Isle of Wight, “the one seat where they are the best-placed party to defeat the Tories”.
Germany's Europe minister Michael Roth tweets in English, to underline the post Juncker-May "different galaxy" briefings... pic.twitter.com/jGvRoUTQQe
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 1, 2017
Number 10 does not "recognise" account of May-Juncker meeting - spokesman
No 10 said it did not recognise the account of the meeting which took place over dinner last Wednesday, reports PA.
A Government spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister and Jean-Claude Juncker made clear, this was a constructive meeting ahead of the negotiations formally getting under way.”
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said only her party can stop Theresa May having a “free hand to do whatever she wants” in government, PA reports.
The First Minister joined her predecessor Alex Salmond on the campaign trail in Aberdeenshire and said the SNP would provide a check on Conservative power at Westminster.
On a visit to Dreams Daycare nursery in Insch, she said: “We’re here at a nursery highlighting the SNP’s policy to almost double state-funded childcare provision, helping young people get the best start in life and helping working families.
“That stands in stark contrast to the Conservatives who are taking child tax credits and working tax credits away from many working families, making their lives harder.”
She added: “We know Theresa May wants a free hand to do whatever she wants. We’ve got to make sure that there’s a check on the Tories, that there’s strong opposition and strong voices for Scotland standing up for progressive policies like this one, and that in Scotland can only come from the SNP.”
The Scottish Government currently provides 16 hours a week of free childcare for three- and four-years-olds and vulnerable two-years-olds, and has pledged increase this to 30 hours by 2020.
Tim Farron has stood by claims of being a Eurosceptic as he vowed to fight for a public vote on the terms of the Brexit deal, PA reports.
The Liberal Democrat leader urged party activists who braved the rain in Kingston not to “weep into your latte” over Brexit as he pledged to put staying in Europe at the heart of the campaign.
As he kicked off the Lib Dems’ election battle bus tour, he was joined by Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney and former cabinet ministers Sir Vince Cable and Sir Ed Davey, who are both standing in south west London after losing their seats in 2015.
Farron said that there should be a public vote on the final Brexit deal and pledged to fight for a second referendum.
Asked about describing himself as a “bit of a Eurosceptic” on BBC One’s Andrew Marr show, he said: “I am massively pro-Europe but I am also somebody... who is sceptical about people who hold power.
“What we don’t want is somebody who is wide-eyed and complacent about taking us out of the European Union, particularly on the hardest version of Brexit that Theresa May appears now to have chosen.”
His comments came amid reports that European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said May was from a “different galaxy” on Brexit.
Farron went on: “We are utterly clear about the fact that Britain’s best future is inside the European Union and our job is to make sure we get the best outcome possible from any potential deal.
“We are most likely to get the referendum we want on the deal if the Liberal Democrats do as well as we are proposing in this election and actually become the opposition to the Conservatives.”
The Lib Dems were also campaigning in Sutton and Cheam, and Hornsey and Wood Green, as they seek to tip the scale in marginal constituencies.
May engaging in "megaphone" diplomacy - Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn has hit out at Theresa May’s Brexit negotiating strategy, warning her “megaphone” diplomacy would not get a good deal from Britain, PA reports.
The Labour leader said threatening to walk away from the talks without an agreement was not a sensible way of dealing with countries responsible for half of the UK’s overseas trade.
His comments came amid weekend reports that European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker said May was from a “different galaxy” after they met last week for dinner in Downing Street.
Campaigning in Battersea, south London, Corbyn said a Labour government would approach the negotiations with “respect and sense”.
“She (Mrs May) seems to be sending rather mixed messages.
“To start negotiations by threatening to walk away with no deal and set up a low tax economy on the shores of Europe is not a very sensible way of approaching people with whom half of our trade is done at the present time.
“Of course they are going to be difficult (negotiations), but you start from the basis that you want to reach an agreement, you start from the basis that you have quite a lot of shared interests and values.
“If you start from that basis and show respect, you are more likely to get a good deal. But if you start with a megaphone, calling people silly names, it is not a great start to anything.”
Updated
Here’s our take on the reportedly disastrous dinner meeting between the UK prime minister and president of EU commission.
Daniel Boffey, Philip Oltermann and Rajeev Syal report:
A devastating account of a dinner in Downing Street between Theresa May andJean-Claude Juncker has emerged, claiming the European commission president ended discussions about a potential Brexit deal by telling the British prime minister: “I’m leaving Downing Street 10 times more sceptical than I was before.”
Those close to Juncker are said to have subsequently concluded that the chances of Brexit talks failing were now “over 50%”. An EU spokesman declined to comment, except to point out that Juncker had told reporters at a summit on Saturday that the dinner was a “very constructive meeting, a friendly atmosphere”.
The detailed account of the meeting on Wednesday between May and Juncker, who was accompanied by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, and key staff, suggests the two sides are dangerously divided on key issues such asBritain’s divorce bill and the future rights of EU citizens.
Just back from a photo op with former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling in the leafy South Edinburgh constituency of Ian Murray - currently Scotland’s only Labour MP (the Herald reported a few days back that his seat is only one of three that Labour are putting resources into trying to win, the others being seen as a lost cause).
Like his former boss Tony Blair on Thursday, Darling resoundingly refused to provide a rousing endorsement for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
I asked him directly if he endorsed Corbyn. This was the less than convincing reply:
He is the leader, and he’s the leader right up until the general election. You know where I stand on that. My view is that we are fighting in a General Election campaign, you know, leaders come and go, it’s important we get the best possible result for the country and that means having a sensible, sizeable opposition who can actually make a difference.
As I didn’t, in fact, know where he stood on that, I asked again. Did he endorse Corbyn?
He’s the leader. There’s no question that he’s the leader. It’s for him to convince people in the next six weeks and the voters will make of it what they will. What I’m concerned about is that we get people like Ian returned at the next election so that we’ve got decent people arguing against an ever more extreme and bleak view of what might happen.
So there we have it - to be clear, Jeremy Corbyn is the leader... “right up until the general election”.
The message Darling wants voters in Scotland to take home is this - this is no longer a vote about traditional tribal loyalties. A vote for Labour is, in fact, a vote against extreme nationalism. Against the extreme Tory Brexiteers who “want to build a wall around the English channel and cut us off from our biggest trading partner”; and against the Scottish nationalist SNP who want another referendum.
When you look at politics today it’s increasingly divided, not just in Scotland or the UK but in other parts of the world along nationalistic lines.
The big issue in this election is about this country’s future post the Brexit referendum. And it’s also interesting that people’s old loyalities change from time to time.
But what I’m very focused on is that a clear majority of people in Scotland don’t want a second referendum [...]
We now face a situation where we face a very very uncertain future following the Brexit vote [...] And I think there is a very real risk that the debate in this country is going to be hijacked by people who take a very extreme, bleak and narrow view of what this country can be.
That’s why I want to see as many Labour MPs as possible in the house of commons.
Lunchtime summary
Conservatives
The prime minister is expected in the north-west of England this afternoon.
The Conservatives have been urged against ruling out increases in income Tax or national insurance contributions by the respected think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
A report in a German newspaper gives a painful account of the meeting between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker last week and has been the focal point of much discussion in UK politics today.
Labour
Jeremy Corbyn was out on the campaign trail in south London this morning. He and his party have been pushing a policy announcement on renters’ rights today.
Corbyn has also attacked May’s “megaphone” diplomacy in the context of Brexit negotiations and warned they would not get a good deal from Britain.
Tony Blair has been doing the media rounds as part of his sort-of comeback. He told the Mirror “you need to get your hands dirty and I will…” when discussing how he will fight the hard Brexiteers. He added:
I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out into the country and reconnecting.
Alistair Darling has been with the party’s sole Scottish MP, Ian Murray, in Scotland as they try to elbow their way back into the game with a reminder of Labour’s record on tackling poverty.
Liberal Democrats
Tim Farron was also out campaigning in London, in the south west of the capital, putting forward the party’s case to be the official opposition.
SNP
Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond have been campaigning on an SNP childcare policy push - more on this shortly.
Anything else?
In a letter to the Guardian today, a host of Labour-friendly folk – our own Polly Toynbee and Owen Jones; obligatory Billy Bragg; and MPs Clive Lewis, Tulip Saddiq and Jon Cruddas (the party’s former policy chief), among others – poke the recalcitrant leadership on the issue of a progressive alliance to sandbag the predicted Tory flood. Labour, they argue, should stand aside in favour of the Greens inCaroline Lucas-held Brighton Pavilion and in the Isle of Wight, “the one seat where they are the best-placed party to defeat the Tories”.
Updated
The Conservatives have given their take on this letter, in which Labour figures including Helena Kennedy, MPs Jon Cruddas and Clive Lewis, Billy Bragg and Ruth Lister call for the party to stand down for the Greens.
The Tories say this is proof that Labour is working on backroom deals for a “coalition of chaos”, one of the oft-repeated slogans of the campaign so far, along with “strong and stable leadership”.
Commenting on the letter, Conservative party chairman Patrick McLoughlin said:
This is proof that Jeremy Corbyn and his closest allies are working day and night on backroom deals to build a coalition of chaos that would prop him up in Downing Street.
From the Greens to the Liberal Democrats and the SNP to Plaid Cymru, Corbyn will roll over for anyone who will help deliver his nonsensical agenda that would crash the economy, weaken the Union and put Brexit negotiations at risk.
It is a stark reminder of the choice facing the British people on 8 June, between strong and stable leadership with Theresa May and the Conservatives for Brexit and beyond, or chaos and uncertainty under Jeremy Corbyn.
Former labour chancellor Alistair Darling is speaking to some students in a lovely French cafe, La Barantine in sunny Edinburgh.
Alistair Darling speaking abt Blair legacy with students in Edinburgh. One has just said she wasn't born when he was elected #GE17 pic.twitter.com/BSSIju3EgB
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) May 1, 2017
He’s here to mark 20 years since Labour’s landslide 1997 victory. To
kick off conversation his man asks what those years mean to these
students. There is a bit of a pause, then, finally, one says: “Well, I
wasn’t actually born then ... But I benefited from the education
reforms Labour brought in.” (I feel old).
Most of these students sound English to be honest, but the press team
are at pains to point out the Scots among them.
Updated
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat leader, was speaking in Kingston-upon-Thames, alongside former business secretary Vince Cable and other Lib Dem supporters.
What could be worse for south London, for the country as a whole, if you have a Conservative majority, a colossal majority, a coronation on the 8th June that allows her to ignore the plight of local hospitals, ignore the plight of schools, ignore the reduction in the number of police officers, ignore the reduction in the strength of our armed forces and ignore the growing clamour for Britain to remain at least within the single market.
The worst governments are the ones with the weakest oppositions and there is a vacancy for an opposition in this country and the Liberal Democrats are here to fill it.
Updated
Footage is coming in from the campaign trail.
Corbyn has been speaking in south London on the campaign trail about the renters’ rights policy announcement unveiled by the Labour party overnight.
Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing, John Healey, who appeared along Corbyn this morning in Battersea, said his party would commit to new minimum standards to help renters “call time on bad landlords”.
Surrounded by Labour supporters, Corbyn said:
Housing is a massive massive issue all over the country. What we’re launching today is essentially a consumer rights petition for private tenants.
Because they lack security of tenure, often live in unsatisfactory conditions and through the housing benefits system we end up subsidising bad conditions through this process.
I represent a London constituency where a third of the people live in private rented accommodation, often very insecure and have real problem getting repairs done and it’s simply wrong.
This is the first stage of our policy announcement. Today a consumer rights petition.
“If you go down the road now, you go to Currys or somewhere, and you buy a computer or a fridge-freezer, whatever you decide to buy, you’ve got more consumer rights buying something like that than you have in renting a flat.
May-Juncker meeting reports "deeply worrying - Starmer
Keir Starmer, shadow secretary for exiting the EU, has commented on reports of the UK prime minister’s apparently disastrous meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker last Wednesday, calling them “deeply worrying”, with Theresa May’s approach at risk of marginalising and isolating her and the UK from the rest of the continent. He says:
Whatever the purpose of these leaks, this is a deeply worrying account and further evidence that Theresa May’s rigid and complacent approach to Brexit negotiations risks leading Britain over a cliff edge. It is clearer by the day that an extreme Tory Brexit poses a severe risk to the British economy and to people’s jobs and living standards.
Theresa May talks about strengthening her hand, but in reality she has misjudged her hand at every turn, weakening Britain’s position. By refusing to acknowledge the complexity and magnitude of the task ahead the Prime Minister increases the risk that there will be no deal, which is the worst of all possible outcomes.
In pursuing a rigid and complacent approach, the Prime Minister now finds herself marginalised and isolated across the continent. Since day one, she has been driven not by the national interest, but by the interests of the Tory party.
We urgently need a new approach. Labour will seek a new collaborative partnership with our European allies. We will guarantee the rights of EU nationals, immediately setting a different and more positive tone. And we will rebuild relations with the EU and make sure that jobs, the economy and rights come first.
The respected think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has urged all parties to avoid ruling out increases in all of income tax, national insurance contributions and VAT during the next parliament.
The intervention comes as Theresa May signalled that it is likely the Tories will abandon their so-called “triple tax lock” commitment, ruling out increases to VAT, but suggesting that she could allow a future Conservative government to raise national insurance and income tax.
The IFS says committing not to raise the three core tax revenues would be a serious constraint on the ability to raise additional funds.
Helen Miller, associate director of the IFS, said:
Regardless of whether a party wants to raise or cut taxes overall, the tax lock is bad policy and should not be repeated in any of the upcoming manifestos. Constraining the workhorse taxes in this way prevents desirable tax reforms, as we have seen in relation to the taxation of the self-employed, and restricts the policy levers available to deal with any unexpected change in the economy.
One of the major talking points this morning remains the report in German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), on the UK prime minister’s apparently disastrous dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission (see here).
Here’s a smattering of reaction from the Twitter commentariat and journalists:
Law and policy commentator David Allen Green:
The detail of Juncker-May dinner is worrying.
— David Allen Green (@davidallengreen) May 1, 2017
But as worrying is May just walked straight into it being leaked, like walking into a door.
Writer and poet Michael Rosen:
Please google FAZ, May, Juncker and read the minutes of May-Davis trying to bully the EU. #farce #desperate #amateur
— Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) May 1, 2017
Former senior FT editor Brian Groom:
Remarkable thread. Juncker's team now think it more likely Brexit talks will collapse than not. https://t.co/2bWisxJc30
— Brian Groom (@GroomB) May 1, 2017
Our very own home affairs editor Alan Travis:
Details of May's Downing Street Brexit dinner with Juncker leaked to German newspaper v. disturbing https://t.co/ZzmNnNWmE4
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) May 1, 2017
Politico reporter Tom McTague:
1) Remarkably hostile for Juncker to tell May "Brexit cannot be a success" and then leak it. Surely plays into her hands for campaign?
— Tom McTague (@TomMcTague) May 1, 2017
The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton-Dunn:
A fascinating feed. But looked at another way; what if May presumed Juncker would leak the lot so threw out handy election lines for effect? https://t.co/r5Y3UIE4ZC
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) May 1, 2017
It’s 20 years to the day that Tony Blair became Labour prime minister on a wave of optimism, and to mark the occasion - and try and rebuild the decimated Labour vote in Scotland - former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling is in Edinburgh today.
He is joining Labour Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray, and hoping to persuade voters that the Labour party they voted for did some good - he’s focusing on Labour’s record of lifting 120,000 out of poverty in Scotland, introducing the minimum wage and establishing the Scottish Parliament, among some other bits and bobs.
In his speech he’s expected to say:
Twenty years ago today a Labour government that transformed the lives of people in Scotland and right across the UK was elected. We delivered on our promises, by lifting millions of families out of poverty, investing in schools and hospitals, and introducing a National Minimum Wage.
Labour’s proud record shows what can be achieved when a government focuses on the day job. The priority of a Labour government is always to grow the economy, create jobs, lift people out of poverty and give everybody a fair chance in life, not seeking to divide the country.
Like every other party north of the border - apart from the SNP, of course - he is trying to make the vote in Scotland another mini referendum on Scottish independence.
He’ll add:
On 8 June people can vote Labour to send Nicola Sturgeon a message that Scotland doesn’t want or need another divisive referendum.
In 2014 we were told that the referendum was a once in a generation event, and Scotland voted No by a clear margin. That’s the mandate the Nationalists must respect.
Scotland is divided enough. The majority of people in Scotland believe that together we’re stronger by remaining in the UK.
Ian Murray will say that only Labour can keep the Tories out in Edinburgh South, so if his constituents don’t want to vote - AGAIN - then they should vote Labour:
Only Labour can defeat the SNP in Edinburgh South. The Tories came a distant third in 2015, so the only way to send Nicola Sturgeon a message that she should scrap her plan for another divisive referendum is to vote Labour.
The thirteen years of Labour government transformed the lives of people from ordinary backgrounds like me.
We invested in schools and hospitals, delivered a boost to low-paid workers, and gave our young people a fair chance in life. That’s what our government should be focused on, not trying to force another divisive referendum that most Scots don’t want.
As Tony Blair continues his sort-of comeback tour of newspaper pages and broadcaster’s studios, looking to the future as well as reflecting on the past, the Tories have hit out at Labour’s current approach to the party’s landslide victory 20 years ago.
Labour’s campaign chief Andrew Gwynne has said the message of 1997 is “as relevant today as it was then” adding people need to vote for Labour.
However, the Tories point out at that Corbyn continues to pour scorn on Blair’s record, proving as critical of Blair’s leadership now as he was when he was prime minister.
In a statement released from Conservative campaign headquarters, Andrew Griffiths, Conservative MP for Burton, said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour are even in chaos over whether or not the 1997 General Election result was a good thing or not.
“Their campaign chair Andrew Gwynne thinks Tony Blair is an inspiration, Jeremy Corbyn thinks he’s a war criminal.
“This is just further demonstration of what you’d get from Corbyn - a coalition of chaos full of Labour MPs who don’t even think he’s the right man for the job.”
The Conservatives’ candidate to become West Midlands mayor has defended spending up to £1m on the campaign, dwarfing his opponents’ spending power.
Andy Street, the former John Lewis boss who quit to run for the role, said that targeting voters before spending rules begin can be justified because the role is vital to 2.5m people in Birmingham and the surrounding area.
The comments come ahead of a tightly-fought race and a string of mayoral contests to be held on Thursday. Many council elections are also happening that day.
There is a strict spending limit of about £130,000 during the final five weeks leading up to the May 4 election but there is no cap on spending before that, and most of Street’s material was distributed during January, February and March.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Street said: “I haven’t spent quite a million, but I have spent a substantial amount more than my opponents and actually I think that’s ok, and I’ll tell you why.
“This is a very important election, a new start in democracy for this region. It is 2.5m people and so it is absolutely appropriate.
“We have worked within the rules, which are that if you raise money you can spend it.”
Updated
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has started his bank holiday Monday campaigning with a tweet drawing attention to a Labour pledge that we can probably expect to see in its manifesto on the rental housing market.
Under Labour, tenants will have security & a home fit to live in because we're standing up for the many, not the few https://t.co/1uCp10oLCK
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) May 1, 2017
Labour’s shadow secretary of state for housing, John Healey, said his party would commit to new minimum standards to help renters “call time on bad landlords”.
According to research by the party, renters in England are paying £800m every month to live in homes that are classified as “non-decent” by the government.
It finds that 400,000 families with children are among those living in 1.3m substandard private rented properties with problems including unsafe wiring, severe damp and vermin infestation.
Street, who used to run John Lewis, is challenged over his campaign spending - with some local reports suggesting it has been in the region of £1m.
Street says he hasn’t spent £1m but concedes he has spent “more” than his rivals. But he says this is fair because the unprecedented nature of the election and the volume of the electorate justifies greater spending.
Updated
Simon stumbles a little when he refuses to throw his direct support behind Jeremy Corbyn for prime minister.
Asked who would be better prime minister, Corbyn or Theresa May, Simon at first dodges the question. When pressed, he says he believes it “will always be better for the West Midlands to have a Labour government” and he will be voting for Labour.
But he refuses to explicitly back Corbyn. It’s pointed out that Simon doesn’t appear to want to even mention the Labour leader’s name.
“All my efforts are on this crucial election,” he says.
It’s awkward.
Updated
The rival candidates are asked what they disagree on.
They take public ownership of the M6 toll road as an example of a point of dispute.
Simon wants to take the M6 toll road into public ownership, Street is against nationalising.
“It’s not the right use of the money,” Street says.
Updated
Morning all. Kicking things off with candidates for the West Midlands mayoralty speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning - Labour’s Sion Simon and the Conservative’s Andy Street.
Asked what the role of the mayor will be in the region, Simon says he will lead the process of “taking back control” to run the West Midlands.
Street, fundamentally agrees, but there’s one other aspect - representing the West Midlands, acting as a spokesman for the region.
It’s the point at which I hand over the live blog; today Jamie Grierson is taking you through the rest of the day.
And do sign up for the Snap, our daily election briefing, and we’ll deliver it to your inbox every morning so you’ll know the latest before you’ve even had your coffee.
That account of the dinner between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker – which prompted the suggestion, denied by the PM, that she is inhabiting “a different galaxy” – doesn’t seem to be available in full online (please do shout in the comments below or @Claire_Phipps if you see otherwise).
But there’s a shorter version in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) here; and a longer one, if your eyesight and German is up to it, in this print grab:
Typical EU unreasonableness that the must-read report on May's difficult dinner with Juncker is in a language few Brits can read. pic.twitter.com/BbiselCwx6
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) May 1, 2017
There’s also a pithy tweeted precis from the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe starting here. And here’s one of the conclusions:
28) Presumably as a result, May seems to be labouring under some really rather fundamental misconceptions about Brexit & the EU27.
— Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) April 30, 2017
Updated
Guardian columnist Zoe Williams, one of the signatories to this letter calling on Labour to step aside for the Greens in Brighton Pavilion and the Isle of Wight, has more here on what she sees as the benefits of a progressive alliance:
Labour, Greens, Liberal Democrats, SNP, SDLP, the Women’s Equality party, all of these are on the same path. Those of us who bounce between them, sometimes joining, sometimes lapsing, are on the same path. Apparently intractable constitutional disagreements – membership of the EU, Scottish independence – sound important in the mouths of people who talk about national destiny, but are not important set against core political beliefs: that climate change is real, but human ingenuity can stop it; that pooling resources for world-class education and heathcare for everybody is not a drag or even a duty, but an honour; that if you can’t afford food and shelter on a full-time wage, you’re not the problem; that everybody will spend some part of their lives economically unproductive, and it’s better to support rather than blame each other.
All progressives believe these things; the Conservatives and Ukip believe the opposite.
Theresa May is due to be out meeting voters again today, repeating her insistence that her favoured campaign method is door-knocking.
But that insistence is looking thinner following multiple reports that the PM’s appearances so far have been heavily stage-managed.
On Saturday, a “rally” in Aberdeenshire was held in a in a tiny community hall with such poor communications coverage that live reporting of the event was impossible.
Been out all day on the campaign trail in Mansfield. Can someone please explain to me why our Prime Minister is hiding in a forest? https://t.co/Yj5bscvn6x
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) April 29, 2017
The Independent reports that the event was booked at Crathes village hall as a “child’s party” (insert your own witticism), a not entirely encouraging invitation to local voters.
May has also faced accusations last week that she spoke only to a handpicked crowd of Tory activists at a Leeds community regeneration project – and not to the workers there, who had all left for the day before she swooped in.
Updated
We still await formal manifestos but today we have a new pledge from Labour, aimed squarely at renters.
John Healey, shadow secretary of state for housing, told the Guardian:
Our homes are at the centre of our lives, but at the moment renters too often don’t have basic consumer rights that we take for granted in other areas. In practice, you have fewer rights renting a family home than you do buying a fridge-freezer.
As a result, too many are forced to put up with unacceptable, unfit and downright dangerous housing.
Healey says Labour’s manifesto will include new legal minimum standards for rented homes.
What is Tony Blair actually proposing to do to “get his hands dirty” in the campaign?
You can read the full interview in the Mirror, and many of his comments are in line with what the former PM has been saying over recent weeks and months: he’s concerned about Brexit, we know:
This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in the politics. You need to get your hands dirty and I will.
What he’s not doing is standing to be an MP again or – though some are reading this into his words – setting up a new party. Not quite:
It is not frontline politics in the sense I am not standing for parliament.
I am not sure I can turn something into a political movement but I think there is a body of ideas out there people would support.
And he says he knows he won’t be welcomed with open arms by many people:
I know the moment I stick my head out the door I’ll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me, but I really do feel passionate about this…
People on the right are desperate never to have my politics come back to the Labour party because they know it can end in a Tory defeat.
And then unfortunately it has always been the way of the left that it tends to attack its own.
Updated
The Snap: your election briefing
Good morning and welcome to elections week. Not that one – you have to plough through another month and another bank holiday before 8 June is upon us – but this Thursday’s trip to the ballot boxes. With all 32 Scottish councils, all 22 Welsh councils and 34 English authorities up for grabs, along with eight mayoralties (six of them spanking new), 4 May will be a dress rehearsal for the gala to follow.
We’ll have it all live here, on our daily – and occasional nightly – live blogs, and in the Snap, our weekday election briefing, which follows right here. (You can also sign up to have it effortlessly delivered to your inbox each morning.)
What’s happening?
Twenty years ago today, the Labour movement had rather a jolly May Day. This morning, it’s a tad more fractious. As the leadership continues determinedly to try to steer the campaign towards policies – today it’s tackling bad landlords, before that ousting zero-hours contracts – others argue the focus should be elsewhere. Saboteurs or democracy in action? So hard to tell these days.
First up, here’s Tony Blair, announcing, as if we’d perhaps failed to notice, that he is back. A rash of anniversary interviews (here’s the Observer one) spreads to the Mirror today, where the former PM says he’s not angling to return to Westminster. But there’s a but:
This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in the politics. You need to get your hands dirty and I will…
I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out into the country and reconnecting.
Also seeking reconnection today is Scottish Labour, which in 1997 scooped 56 Westminster seats to the SNP’s six and the Conservative’s round zero. But that was then. Today Alistair Darling will man-mark the party’s sole Scottish MP, Ian Murray, as they try to elbow their way back into the game with a reminder of Labour’s record on tackling poverty.
In a letter to the Guardian today, a host of Labour-friendly folk – our own Polly Toynbee and Owen Jones; obligatory Billy Bragg; and MPs Clive Lewis, Tulip Saddiq and Jon Cruddas (the party’s former policy chief), among others – poke the recalcitrant leadership on the issue of a progressive alliance to sandbag the predicted Tory flood. Labour, they argue, should stand aside in favour of the Greens in Caroline Lucas-held Brighton Pavilion and in the Isle of Wight, “the one seat where they are the best-placed party to defeat the Tories”.
Lewis again, this time with fellow ex-shadow cabinet member Rachael Maskell, calls on Labour to offer a second referendum once the terms of a Brexit deal are hammered out.
On both those last two points, of course, Jeremy Corbyn has said no. On the Blair one, we might imagine his resolve to be yet firmer.
What to expect from Theresa May on May Day – or indeed month? After “strong and stable leadership” got another un-cheered-for encore on the Sunday politics shows, there’s no sign of a vocab reboot, but an inkling of a manifesto change. VAT increases are out, but rises in national insurance and income tax could be in. As could an elderly care version of childcare vouchers, allowing so-called “sandwich generation” workers tax breaks to fund social care for their parents.
No sandwiches for NHS workers, mind. Pressed by the BBC’s Andrew Marr on whether it was wrong that some nurses were (with a 1% pay rise cap in place) being compelled to rely on food banks, the PM said:
There are many complex reasons why people go to food banks.
Well, sure. But hunger is one fairly basic reason.
At a glance:
- SNP denies split over general election’s impact on independence vote.
- Labour election losses could bolster Corbyn’s support – thinktank.
- Irish reunification referendum would be dangerous, says Bertie Ahern.
- Social media firms must face heavy fines over extremist content, say MPs.
Poll position
A Polling Matters/Opinium survey finds that, whatever Brexit means, 38% of voters say “who will negotiate the best Brexit deal as Britain leaves the EU” is the most important factor influencing the x on their ballot paper. A plump 51% of those polled named Theresa May as the more trusted negotiator, with just 13% opting for Jeremy Corbyn; even among remain voters, she retained a 40% versus 20% advantage. Only 7% of leave voters preferred the Labour leader.
A whip-through the Sunday voting intention polls also has May 1st on 1st May (we’ve a whole month of May/May puns ahead of us. Buckle up). This week’s Opinium/Observer poll gives the PM a 17-point lead, with the incumbents on 47% (+2 on the previous week), against Labour’s 30% (+4), with the Lib Dems on 8% (-2) and Ukip on 7% (-2). ICM for the Sun on Sunday has the Conservatives on 47%, Labour on 28% and Lib Dems on 9%. YouGov for the Sunday Times offers a more slender lead, with the Tories on 44% and Labour on 31%; the Lib Dems perk up to 11% here.
The FT’s helpful poll synthesis gives us 46% for the Conservatives, an 18-point lead over Labour on 28%.
Diary
- From 10.15, the Lib Dem battle bus eschews bank holiday timetables and pelts across London, with stops at Kingston and Surbiton, Sutton and Cheam, and Hornsey and Wood Green. Tim Farron is your cheery conductor, with candidates Sarah Olney, Vince Cable and Ed Davey aboard.
- At 11.15, Alistair Darling and Ian Murray speak in Edinburgh South.
- Nicola Sturgeon joins Alex Salmond for an SNP childcare policy push at 11.30.
- London’s May Day rally in Trafalgar Square will hear from Labour’s John McDonnell around 2.30pm.
- Theresa May is expected in Lancashire this afternoon.
Talking point
Will anything puncture the “strong and stable” bubble? Reports from Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on last week’s meeting between May and European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker put a dent in that notion – from the EU side, that is. The FAZ take has Juncker despairing of No 10’s inability to grasp the complexities of Brexit negotiations and declaring himself “10 times more sceptical” about the chances of a deal post-conversation with May. The PM, Juncker reportedly told Angela Merkel, was living “in a different galaxy”. Yesterday, May rebuffed the assertion, making her just about the only person who hasn’t wished at some point in the past couple of years to be far, far away.
Read these
Zubaida Haque, writing in the New Statesman, examines the diversification of what is often clumped together as “the BME vote”:
Polling suggests that where ethnic minority communities are most concentrated, Labour are making their safe seats safer still, but are failing to appeal to growing BME [black and minority ethnic] populations in less diverse marginal seats, where those BME communities could make a difference to the outcome. The Conservatives, on the other hand are making some in-roads in the most diverse seats (not enough), but able to capitalise on the BME votes in the less diverse seats.
This is because while the BME population is, on average, poorer than the white British population, some groups, notably the Indians and the Chinese, are increasingly more middle-class than their ethnic minority peers and more likely to live in suburbs and vote Conservative, like their neighbours.
In the Herald, David Torrance analyses the Conservative resurrection in Scotland:
After the [2015] election … they worked hard to identify and ‘model’ No voters, the sort of detailed groundwork Nationalists have been deploying for years. They then targeted two groups of voters, those who regarded themselves as Conservatives but didn’t think there was any point voting for them (‘credibility’ voters) and those, generally younger, who were attracted by Ruth Davidson’s leadership (‘fashionable’ voters). Both were ‘latent’ groups of voters that required motivation. The Scottish Tories also started asking No voters who was best placed to ‘stand up’ to Nicola Sturgeon, and increasingly they heard ‘Ruth Davidson’ in reply…
It’s important not to exaggerate this: the SNP will still ‘win’ the general election in Scotland in terms of both seats and votes, but the point is they’re likely to experience a knock, and that’s something they’re not used to.
Revelation of the day
There is an official election artist for 2017 and she is Cornelia Parker. Known for her 13-metre-long embroidered Magna Carta and various exploded artworks, Parker is charged with producing a work for the parliamentary art collection that sums up … whatever this campaign turns out to be. You can chart her progress – and, politicians beware: breakfast bacon – on Instagram.
The day in a tweet
The whole thread, from the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe on the FAZ Brexit story, is worth a trawl, but yes: the EU club secrets rule is over.
29) Also clear that (as some of us have been warning for a while...) No 10 should expect every detail of the Brexit talks to leak.
— Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) April 30, 2017
And another thing
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