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

Corbyn says he is 'surprised' by CPS decision not to prosecute over Tory election expenses – as it happened

The crowd who turned up in St Helen’s Square, York, to listen to Jeremy Corbyn speak this afternoon.
The crowd who turned up in St Helen’s Square, York, to listen to Jeremy Corbyn speak this afternoon. It was the biggest crowd Corbyn has attracted to a campaign event so far. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Afternoon summary

  • The Conservatives have said Labour plans announced today to increase corporation tax break a promise Jeremy Corbyn made less than a month ago not to raise the small business corporation tax rate. (See 4.27pm.)

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Osborne reveals that moped muggers outside BBC HQ tried to steal his phone

George Osborne, the former chancellor, has written the diary in this week’s Spectator. In it, he reveals that he almost lost his phone when a pair of muggers on a moped targeted him last week outside the BBC’s HQ. He says:

Last Thursday lunchtime I was walking along Portland Place, outside the BBC’s HQ, and looking at my mobile at the same time. Suddenly a moped swooped past me on the pavement, and the passenger on the back reached out and tried to grab my phone. His hand slid off, the moped sped away, leaving me still clutching the phone and completely stunned. At next morning’s news conference, our picture editor said that he’d got hold of an extraordinary photo of two thugs on a moped, with the one on the back wielding a hammer. We put it on the front page, and it was picked up by the dailies. When we asked the sharp-witted photographer Ian Lawrence where and when the photo was taken, he replied: ‘Yesterday, on Portland Place.’

Here is the Standard’s story, and dramatic photo, of muggers operating like this.

Still, Osborne’s week wasn’t all bad. He is enjoying editing the Evening Standard, and has a nice description in the diary of the wonders of newspapers.

There is something remarkable, magical even, about the way every day tens of thousands of words are written on everything from the implications of the French election to Arsène Wenger, to this summer’s trendiest cocktails; then laid out on pages with striking pictures and adverts; printed on a million copies; and delivered to hundreds of tube stations, supermarkets and the like around our capital every afternoon — all so you can have in your hand a daily quality compendium on what’s going on in the world. And it’s free. Amazing.

Theresa May speaking to workers at marketing services group Linney, in Mansfield.
Theresa May speaking to workers at marketing services group Linney, in Mansfield. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Here is more from the Theresa May Q&A in Mansfield. These are from my colleague Rowena Mason and the Independent’s Jon Stone.

  • May ruled out creating four extra bank holidays, as Labour is proposing.
  • She said she would keep tuition fees.
  • She played down the prospect of her promoting veganism in schools.

In her Q&A with reporters in Nottingham earlier Theresa May said all the main parties, including the SNP, had been fined by the Electoral Commission for mistakes with election expenses. This is from Chris Musson, home affairs editor of the Scottish Sun.

May was wrong about the SNP, Musson says.

A huge crowd turned up to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak in York a little earlier this afternoon.

Jeremy Corbyn makes a campaign speech in front of a large crowd in St Helen’s Square, York.
Jeremy Corbyn makes a campaign speech in front of a large crowd in St Helen’s Square, York. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

The Scottish Greens are standing only three candidates in the general election, including its national co-convenor Patrick Harvie, blaming a shortage of time to find candidates and the effort it expended fighting last week’s council elections.

The Scottish Greens had been accused by opponents of standing aside to allow their pro-independence allies the Scottish National party a clear run at defeating Tory candidates, after Maggie Chapman, its other co-convenor, recommended anti-Tory tactical alliances at local level.

Chapman identified the margin seat held by Scotland’s only Tory MP, David Mundell in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, which he won with by 798 votes over the SNP. The Greens took 839 votes in 2015, implying the SNP could have won if all Green supporters switched.

With growing signals the party would put up a small slate for 8 June, the Greens insisted the decision to stand only three candidates would allow the party to target key seats and target its resources. While there are six Scottish Green MSPs and 19 new councillors, it has never come close to winning a Westminster seat.

Harvie, a Glasgow list MSP, is standing in Glasgow North; Debra Pickering will campaign on anti-fracking platform in Falkirk and Lorna Slater will campaign in Edinburgh North & Leith, where it its best result in 2015, winning 3,140 votes (5.4%).

Yvonne McLellan, co-convenor of its elections and campaigns committee, also indicated the party did not have the funds to stand candidates across the country. She said:

Our volunteers and campaigners have put huge effort and financial resources into the Holyrood and local elections, and this effort has paid off with new Greens elected to represent their communities. Theresa May knows she can rely on self-interested wealthy donors and campaigners who’re allowed to break the spending rules without fear of prosecution. Greens don’t work that way, and we’re not in the pockets of the super-rich.

Updated

And this is what the Federation of Small Businesses is saying about the Labour plan to raise the small profit rate of corporation tax. (See 4.27pm.) A spokesman said:

We are pressing Jeremy Corbyn to honour the commitment he made when he met with FSB members last month, for no increases to corporation tax for small businesses under a future Labour government.

Tories accuse Corbyn of breaking promise not to raise tax for small businesses

Labour has released details today of how it would raise corporation tax. (See 9.54am.) The press notice includes the revelation that the party would raise the small profits rate of corporation tax, for firms with profits below £300,000, to 20% in 2018-19 and 21% in 2020-21.

The Conservatives have pointed out that this contradicts a promise Jeremy Corbyn made less than a month ago. In a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses, Corbyn said:

When I say any tax rises will fall on the broadest shoulders, I want to make it clear today that we will not raise the small business corporation tax rate.

Commenting on this, David Gauke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said:

This is yet more chaos from shambolic Jeremy Corbyn, who can’t even agree with himself about whether taxes on small businesses should rise.

Last month he promised them he wouldn’t put up corporation tax, now he’s hitting them with huge bills. While Theresa May and her Conservative team have simplified and cut taxes for small firms, Jeremy Corbyn would drop a tax bombshell on every small business and working family in Britain to pay for his nonsensical policies.

I’ve asked Labour for a response, and will post it when I get it.

Proposed corporation tax rates under Labour.
Proposed corporation tax rates under Labour. Photograph: IFS

Updated

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has produced two shortish briefing notes on aspects of Labour policy announced today.

The first, on education spending, concludes:

Labour have promised significant increases in education spending. If the additional £8.4bn, of which £4.8bn is for schools, is spent well then it will make a positive difference.

And the second is on Labour’s plans to increase corporation tax. It expands on the points made by Paul Johnson, the IFS director, in his Today programme interview this morning. (See 10.15am.)

Simon Day, the Conservative party’s treasurer, was reported to the Metropolitan police by the Electoral Commission in March after the watchdog’s inquiries found that the party’s general election return was “neither complete nor correct”.

After the Commission released its report into electoral irregularities (pdf), the Met confirmed it was investigating one alleged breach of electoral law while two other remained under assessment.

Today a Met spokesperson said they would not confirm the identity of individuals who are under investigation. A spokesman for the Conservative party declined to comment on Day and referred inquiries to the Met.

The Conservative have put a press notice out about the LBC Angela Rayner interview. (See 3.45pm.) Schools minister Nick Gibb said:

It’s extremely worrying that the person Jeremy Corbyn wants to put in charge of our children’s futures clearly hasn’t done her homework. Corbyn and his top team repeatedly show they cannot cope with basic facts, so just imagine what a mess they would make of negotiating Brexit and running the country.

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, risked an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari this morning, and it wasn’t her finest hour. She did not suffer a full Diane Abbott-style meltdown, but Ferrari performed his numbers interrogation shtick and left Rayner floundering when she could not say how many pupils would be affected by the Labour promise to reduce class sizes to under 30 for five, six and seven-year-olds. You can listen to the audio, and read a full account, on the LBC website here.

Q: Why are you not doing live debates?

May says it is because she is doing other campaigning.

She is doing events like this. Later today she will be knocking on doors. She is doing what she calls “more traditional campaigning”.

Q: During the Brexit campaign I experienced a lot of nastiness. Are there no plans for a repeat?

May she she would be against that. She is committed to getting on with Brexit.

Q: Since 2010 homelessness and food bank use has increased dramatically in Mansfield what will you do about it?

May says the government has a £500m programme to tackle homlessness.

But she is also interested in measures to help people before they become homeless. She says she has been looking at schemes that do this in London.

On food banks, she says they have been with us for many years. The key thing is to ensure that we deal with the causes of people using food banks.

There are many, complex reasons why people find themselves needing to use them, she says.

BBC News have now cut away from the Q&A. Sky News aren’t showing it, and I can’t find a live feed.

I will monitor the rest of it from Twitter.

Theresa May's Q&A

Theresa May is now taking part in a Q&A with workers at a factory in Mansfield.

Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Rayner, Labour’s shadow education Secretary, chat to Alexander Devaney during a visit to Leeds city college.
Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Rayner, Labour’s shadow education Secretary, chat to Alexander Devaney during a visit to Leeds city college. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

The Evening Standard has an Ipsos MORI poll suggesting that at least four Labour MPs could lose their seats at the election. Here is the start of Joe Murphy’s story.

Labour looks set to lose at least four seats in London where the Ukip collapse is boosting the Conservatives, an exclusive Evening Standard analysis of the General Election fight in the capital reveals today.

A new YouGov poll of Londoners reveals Jeremy Corbyn’s party has gone into reverse in his home city since the 2015 election, slipping from a nine-point lead over the Conservatives to a gap of five points.

(But standards are clearly slipping at the paper since George Osborne took over. Murphy’s intro says Labour will lose at least four seats, but the headline says it will lose at least five seats.)

Plaid Cymru’s Jonathan Edwards has said the CPS decision not to press charges over alleged Tory election over-spending is “deeply worrying”. He said:

This is a deeply worrying decision that effectively sends out the message that political parties and politicians can take no notice of election spending rules from now on, making elections a spending free-for-all.

These rules are in place for a reason - to stop political parties with big donors and vested interests from effectively buying seats in parliament.

The Tories have broken the rules and taken their seats but have now been told not to worry about it, effectively inviting politicians across the country to go ahead, break the rules and just claim ignorance as a defence.

The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope says the Tories did not chose in advance who was going to get questions today at the Theresa May event.

But his Telegraph colleague Michael Deacon says aides would not let journalists hold the microphone.

(Press officers are sometimes reluctant to hand over the microphone at events like this because they want to stop journalists asking follow-up questions.)

May claims CPS statement showed Tory candidates did 'nothing wrong'

Here are the main points from Theresa May’s Q&A.

  • May claimed that the Crown Prosecution Service announcement today showed that Tory candidates did “nothing wrong” in 2015. In response to the first question about this she said:

After a full lengthy investigation, the legal authorities have confirmed what we believed all along, and what we said all along, which was that local spending was properly reported, was properly declared, and that the candidates had done nothing wrong.

She was challenged twice by reporters who pointed out that her account of what the CPS said was misleading. The CPS said that there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute, but that is not the same as saying people were not at fault. In its statement (see 11.02am) it said:

Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest.

May also ignored the fact that the CPS said that one case is still be reviewed.

When it was put to her that her first reply was misleading, she replied:

We have always reported expenses according to the laws. What the CPS found, very clearly in those cases that they looked at in local constituencies, was that local spending had been properly recorded, that candidates had done nothing wrong.

There was an error made in our national return for the 2015 general election. And the Electoral Commission fined us for that. And we have paid that fine.

And when she was challenged a second time by a reporter saying the CPS said local returns may have been inaccurate, she replied:

What the CPS has decided, they are an independent body, they have decided that no charges will be brought against any candidates in this matter. Candidates did nothing wrong.

  • May refused to apologise over the expenses affair. She was invited to do so, but declined, just arguing that Tory candidates had done nothing wrong.
  • She implied that those who complained about the Tory election expenses were guilty of wasting police time. When asked if she agreed with Patrick McLoughlin, the Conservative chairman, who said the complaints were “politically motivated” and wasted police time (see 11.12am), she replied:

Now, of course police time has been taken up in relation to this issue.

Those who made those complaints will have to consider the basis on which they made those complaints.

Theresa May attends a campaign event in Nottingham.
Theresa May attends a campaign event in Nottingham. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

Q: Can you really live in Mansfield, a place that has voted Labour for nearly a century?

May says this is not about how people have voted in the past. It is about the future, and who can best provide a strong future.

Q: The CPS said there was evidence to suggest that local candidates may have submitted inaccurate returns. So will you apologise, because candidates may have overspent.

May says candidates did nothing wrong.

She says this is about the future.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: Do you agree with the Tory chairman Patrick McLoughlin that those who complained about election expenses were “politically motivated” and did nothing wrong?

May says candidates did nothing wrong. And police time was taken up, she says.

She says all parties have made mistakes at national level with their expenses. The Tories have paid their fines.

Q: Tim Farron says he is the only working class leader. Are you middle class or upper class?

May says she is working on behalf of working people. She is proud of that.

Q: Do you accept that CCHQ made mistakes with regard to election expenses?

May says local candidates did not do anything wrong. She says the national party made mistakes, and was fined for this. It has paid that fine. she says.

Updated

May's Q&A

Theresa May is now taking questions.

Q: What do you say to people unhappy about school funding and plans to change the school funding formula?

May says school spending is at record levels.

But it is not just spending that counts; it is what happens in schools. And more pupils are in good schools, she says.

She says the government is consulting on reforms to the school funding formula.

Theresa May's speech in Nottingham

Theresa May is giving a speech in Nottingham. It is the standard stump speech, and so far it sound very familiar.

As usual, she asks people to imagine Jeremy Corbyn at the table negotiating for Britain against the “combined might” of the European Union and the other 27 member states.

She tells the activists in the audience not to take anything to granted. The party should leave no stone unturned in its fight for votes, she says.

And she tells them not to take victory for granted. The polls could be wrong, she says.

The World at One has just broadcast a packaged by Iain Watson about the election contest in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where Labour’s Paul Farrelly is defending a majority of just 650 over the Conservatives. Farrelly’s election leaflets do not say anything about what a future Labour government might achieve; they just focus on holding back a Tory landslide. Explaining this, Farrelly told Watson:

If I told anyone, given the national polls, this is what we will do in government, that Jeremy Corbyn is going to be prime minister, they’d laugh me off the streets, quite frankly. And it really is about not giving Theresa May a blank cheque, a lapdog parliament with a landslide, so that she can be properly accountable.

Nicola Sturgeon holds a rolling pin as she and the party’s local candidate John Nicolson (left) make haggis pies with Table 13 Express co-owner Iain Murphy on a campaign visit to the cafe in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire.
Nicola Sturgeon holds a rolling pin as she and the party’s local candidate John Nicolson (left) make haggis pies with Table 13 Express co-owner Iain Murphy on a campaign visit to the cafe in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

In Scotland Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader, has come under intense pressure over the so-called “rape clause”, a provision introduced by the UK government saying that women who have a third child as a result of being raped will only be exempt from the new rule restricting tax credits to the first two children if they can prove rape or coercion.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live today, Davidson said she would be open to reviewing how this worked. She told the programme:

I think that it’s right that child tax credits are limited to the first two children.

I also think that it’s right that if you are going to have that limit, that you have exceptions in exceptional cases, including the very worst cases like the one that you are referring to.

In terms of how that works on the ground, if there are issues with that, then I am completely open - if there are better ways of doing it - to reviewing that.

In response, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, said that Davidson was being “mealy-mouthed” and that Davidson should condemn the policy outright. She said:

She seems to be talking about a review of how the rape clause operates, not a review of the rape clause in principle.

I don’t think you can operate the rape clause in any way that is acceptable because it’s wrong in principle that any woman should have to prove that she’s been raped in order to claim support for one of her children.

The rape clause is wrong in principle, the two-child cap is wrong in principle and I think it is shameful that Ruth Davidson can’t bring herself to say so.

The fact that she’s being mealy-mouthed about reviewing how it works, I think, shows that she knows she’s on the wrong side of the argument.

The fact that she doesn’t have the courage of her convictions to say so really does illustrate this point that Tory MPs will go to the House of Commons to rubber-stamp whatever Theresa May wants to do, whether that’s the rape clause or a reckless approach to Brexit or further austerity cuts.

Ruth Davidson at a local elections count last week.
Ruth Davidson at a local elections count last week. Photograph: Ken Jack - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Environment secretary Andrea Leadsom has reassured fishing leaders the UK will “look to disapply” the most unpopular parts of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) when the UK exits the European Union (EU), the Press Association reports.

In a private letter to the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF), Leadsom said “no decision has yet been made” on the extent to which the CFP would be incorporated into British law post-Brexit.

She pledged that as the UK leaves the EU “we will look to disapply the key elements of the CFP that are most unpopular and unworkable for the UK as a coastal state” - with this including the EU quota-setting regime and the right of European boats to fish in UK waters.

“It is essential that we take the opportunity to develop a fisheries regime that is better-suited to our seas and industries,” the environment secretary said.

The letter was released in full at the same time as Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson campaigned in the fishing town of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in the run-up to the General Election.

Commenting on the letter, the SNP candidate for Banff and Buchan, Eilidh Whiteford, said this showed the Tories were “plotting a gigantic sell-out” of fishermen. She said:

The letter couldn’t be clearer - for all their rhetoric, the Tories are planning to incorporate key parts of the CFP ‘into domestic law’.

They are also ‘committed to ongoing co-operation with other countries over the management of shared stocks’.

That means that they are planning to use Scottish waters and our fishing industry as a Brexit bargaining chip.

In doing so, they are also taking an enormous gamble with the livelihoods of those fish processors that depend on European exports by jeopardising our position within the single market.

Comedian Eddie Izzard campaigning For Labour In Cardiff today.
Comedian Eddie Izzard campaigning For Labour In Cardiff today.
 Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Sturgeon says, even though CPS not prosecuting, lots of evidence Tories were 'at it' over election expenses

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, has said that even though the CPS is not prosecuting over alleged election overspending, there is lots of evidence to suggest the Tories were “at it”.

I still think that it is likely that the fear of prosecutions and potential byelections was one of the factors in calling a snap election. But I think there are still really big questions for the Tories to answer in the light of the CPS announcement today.

Because what they’ve said is that there’s evidence that election returns may have been inaccurate. They just don’t have the evidence of the criminal intent that would have enabled them to prosecute.

Of course, the Electoral Commission has already levied fines against the Tories in respect of the election returns. So I think there are big questions to answer.

And, of course, the CPS have said they are still considering the constituency of South Thanet.

Notwithstanding the fact the CPS say there is not the evidence, the high bar of evidence, to prove criminal intent, there is lots to suggest that the Tories were “at it” when it came to how they were allocating election expenses in some constituencies.

(“At it” is not, to the best of my knowledge, a technical legal term, but you get the idea; she is saying the Tories were up to no good.)

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon Photograph: BBC/Nicola Sturgeon

Last summer David Allen Green, the FT’s legal commentator, posted a lengthy blog explaining why he thought prosecutions relating to the election over-spending allegations were unlikely. Here is an extract.

The central issue in the current police investigations is whether the expenses to do with the “battle buses” which visited a number of marginal constituencies, and hotel expenses for various activists and campaign workers who appear to have worked in marginal constituencies, are a local expense which should have been returned. If so, then it would appear the strict spending limits in a number of constituencies were breached, and a criminal offence had been committed.

It is not clear how any court would decide the status of the battle bus and hotel expenses to be a national or local expense. The status would be a matter of fact, rather than a matter of law. If there is sufficient evidence for a prosecution then it would be for a magistrate (or in a serious case, a jury) to decide.

In the 1999 case of Fiona Jones MP, where she was convicted and then acquitted on appeal of a “corrupt practice”, the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Bingham) made a distinction between an expense (in that case, rent of an office) “incurred for the promotion of the interests of the candidate” and “any value [the expense] had in raising the party’s profile or making its local presence felt”. There is no simple absolute divide between the two ...

Taking the 1999 and 2005 appeal decisions together, with judgments from senior judges of the highest calibre, it is clear that to prosecute any “corrupt practice” requires the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was dishonesty rather than mere non-compliance. And the Lord Chief Justice in the 1999 decision is just as clear that “shades of grey” expenses – where reasonable people may differ in good faith – are also not sufficient to establish criminal liability, regardless of any additional requirement to show dishonesty.

In respect of the current allegations against Conservative candidates and agents it would seem that any prosecution for either an illegal or a corrupt electoral practice will need to establish that it was clear that the expenses were such that they should have been on the candidates return (either in full or part). If the prosecution is for a “corrupt practice” then the prosecution will also have to demonstrate – beyond reasonable doubt – dishonest intent.

And today he has posted a thread on this on Twitter.

Here is the Guardian’s story about the CPS decision.

The Electoral Commission has issued this statement in response to the CPS decision. A spokesman said:

The evaluation set out by the Crown Prosecution Service in today’s announcement is consistent with that of the commission, which concluded that the Conservative party’s spending return was incomplete and inaccurate, as it contained spending that should have been included in the candidates’ returns.

The rules set by parliament to regulate political party finance are clear and well-established, they exist to ensure transparency in the system and to underpin public confidence in our democratic processes.

Parties and candidates need to ensure they fully comply with these responsibilities under the law. The Commission will continue to provide guidance and advice to parties and others to ensure they are clear on the rules, including during the current campaigning period leading up to the UK parliamentary general election.

Here is Sir Eric Pickles, the former Conservative party chairman, on the CPS decision.

It remains unclear whether any Conservative party officials remain at the centre of a police inquiry in relation to electoral expenses.

Simon Day, the Conservative Party’s treasurer, was reported to the police by the Electoral Commission in March after the watchdog’s inquiries found that the party’s general election return was “neither complete or correct”.

In March, the Met was still investigating an allegation in relation to expenses irregularities while two others remained under assessment.

The Guardian has asked the Conservatives to confirm whether Day has been told if he is at present under investigation.

Updated

Farron says expenses investigation has left 'cloud hanging over British politics'

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, says the investigation has left “a cloud hanging over British politics”. He said:

The observation I would make of the Conservative party is it appears to have stayed on the right side of the law by the letter of it, but has driven a battlebus and horses right the way through the spirit of it. It’s a shame. In one sense, it would appear there is a cloud hanging over British politics.

William Wragg, who is seeking re-election as Conservative MP for Hazel Grove and who, like Karl McCartney (see 11.43am), was one of the Tories being investigated, has put out this statement about the CPS decision.

I welcome this decision by the CPS today. I am pleased the matter is now resolved, and that after a very thorough investigation of over a year, the authorities have confirmed what I knew was the case all along, that I’ve done nothing wrong and acted with integrity and honesty ...

When we look across the world, however, we should be glad that we live in a country where democracy and fairness in elections are held in such high regard that full investigation and attention is given to maintaining the fairness of our system. I do not begrudge the attention that the police and CPS have given to this case, and I maintain my respect and support for our police and justice system in the essential and difficult tasks which they conduct every day.

I wish to thank my colleagues, local association members, and the vast, vast, majority of my constituents who never lost faith in me, and who have continued to support me throughout this process, which has at times been a source of great stress. It is never a good experience to be accused of something which you know you have not done.

As for those handful of political opponents who have been quick to vilify myself and others, particularly those who call themselves ‘progressive’ whilst simultaneously abandoning the principles of natural justices and innocence until proven otherwise which have been enshrined in Britain for the best part of a millennium: I hope they reflect on their words and actions over recent weeks, and I look forward to receiving their apologies, which I will graciously accept.

Tory says Electoral Commission should be abolished if its top managers don't resign

The Conservative Karl McCartney, who is seeking re-election as MP for Lincoln and who was one of the MPs under investigation, said the Electoral Commission’s chief executive, Claire Bassett, and her senior management team should resign.

If they don’t, Tory MPs after the election will urge the government “to abolish this incompetent organisation”, he said in a statement.

McCartney has also said that he wants “heads to roll”. This is from the BBC’s Tim Iredale.

And McCartney has posted this on Twitter.

NFA stands for no further action.

Here is Labour’s Barry Sheerman, who is seeking re-election as MP for Huddersfield, on the CPS decision.

Corbyn's statement on the CPS decision in full

Here are Jeremy Corbyn’s comments on the CPS decision in full.

On the question of the CPS, I’ve only just heard that news. I am interested and surprised by it. But we’ll have to look at the details of it. But quite clearly the Electoral Commission is independent, the Crown Prosecution Service is independent, the director of public prosecutions is independent. They have to make a judgment on it.

But our election laws must be enforced and must be adhered to. There are strict spending limits for a reason, so that money can’t buy power. Only votes in the ballot box should be able to get power. And that’s why I want you all to register to vote.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at Labour’s education policy launch at Leeds city college.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking at Labour’s education policy launch at Leeds city college. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Corbyn says he is “surprised” by the CPS decision

At the Labour education event Jeremy Corbyn has just been asked about the CPS decision.

He says he has only just heard the news. He says he is “interested and surprised” by it. He will look at the details.

The Electoral Commission and the CPS are independent, he says.

But he says election laws “must be enforced”. They are there for a reason, he says.

  • Corbyn says he is “surprised” by the CPS decision.
  • He says election spending laws “must be enforced”.

I will post the quote in full in a moment.

Tories claims allegations about over-spending in 2015 were 'politically motivated'

Patrick McLoughlin, the Conservative party chairman, has put out this statement in response to the CPS decision. He said:

After a very thorough investigation, we are pleased that the legal authorities have confirmed what we believed was the case all along: that these Conservative candidates did nothing wrong. These were politically motivated and unfounded complaints that have wasted police time. We are glad that this matter is finally resolved.

A number of false and malicious claims continue to be spread on the internet. People should be aware that making false claims about a candidate’s personal character and conduct is an electoral offence, as well as being defamatory.

Notwithstanding these false claims, Conservatives want to strengthen election rules to safeguard electoral integrity – in light of the real and proven cases of electoral fraud exposed in Tower Hamlets in 2015.

And here are the key points.

  • McLoughlin claims the allegations about Tory election over-spending in 2015 were “politically motivated”.
  • He says the Tories are “pleased” the CPS is not pressing charges. Candidates have been vindicated, he says. They “did nothing wrong”.
  • He says people spreading allegations on the internet could be breaking electoral law and committing libel.
  • He says Tories want to strengthen electoral rules.

CPS presses no charges over alleged 2015 Tory election over-spending, but one case outstanding

The Crown Prosecution Service has put out this statement. It’s from Nick Vamos, its head of special crime.

We have considered files of evidence from 14 police forces in respect of allegations relating to Conservative Party candidates’ expenditure during the 2015 General Election campaign.

We considered whether candidates and election agents working in constituencies that were visited by the Party’s ‘Battle Bus’ may have committed a criminal offence by not declaring related expenditure on their local returns. Instead, as the Electoral Commission found in its report, these costs were recorded as national expenditure by the Party.

We reviewed the files in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and have concluded the tests in the Code are not met and no criminal charges have been authorised.

Under the Representation of the People Act, every candidate and agent must sign a declaration on the expenses return that to the best of their knowledge and belief it is a complete and correct return as required by law. It is an offence to knowingly make a false declaration. In order to bring a charge, it must be proved that a suspect knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration. Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest.

The Act also makes it a technical offence for an election agent to fail to deliver a true return. By omitting any ‘Battle Bus’ costs, the returns may have been inaccurate. However, it is clear agents were told by Conservative Party headquarters that the costs were part of the national campaign and it would not be possible to prove any agent acted knowingly or dishonestly. Therefore we have concluded it is not in the public interest to charge anyone referred to us with this offence.

Our evaluation of the evidence is consistent with that of the Electoral Commission. While the role of the Commission is to regulate political finances and campaign spending, the role of the CPS is to consider whether any individual should face criminal charges, which is a different matter with different consideration and tests.

One file, from Kent Police, was only recently received by the CPS, and remains under consideration. No inference as to whether any criminal charge may or may not be authorised in relation to this file should be drawn from this fact and we will announce our decision as soon as possible once we have considered the evidence in this matter.

This is from my colleague Jamie Grierson.

This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.

Updated

This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.

This is from the BBC’s home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds.

At the Labour event Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, is speaking now.

She says that if you are a parent or a teacher, you are being held back by the Tories.

That is not what it would be like under Labour, she says.

Citing Harold Wilson and Tony Blair (not a name you hear often at official Labour party events these days), she says Labour governments have always invested in education.

Rayner says she knows herself what it is like to be held back. She grew up poor on a council estate and left school pregnant, she says.

Angela Rayner.
Angela Rayner. Photograph: Guardian

Corbyn says that, even if Labour raises corporation tax to 26%, it will still be lower than it was under the last Labour government, when it was 28%.

Kevin Courtney, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, has put out a statement about Labour’s education plans. Here is an extract.

Parents and teachers will strongly welcome the fact that the Labour Party has grasped the enormity of the problem schools and colleges face through drastic real terms cuts to their budgets.

“This indicates a much better understanding of what’s happening in our schools than the constant assertion by the Conservatives of the half- truth that ‘funding has never been higher’. While that is the case it disguises the fact that we have more pupils than ever before and that school running costs are running far ahead of funding, as demonstrated by the thousands of teachers, head teachers, parents and school governors who have written to the Prime Minister or held local meetings to raise awareness of the problems. It is simply not right that parents are being sent begging letters for money, that our pupil’s subject choices are being cut back, and their class sizes increased due to cuts to school staff and teachers.

Courtney has also welcomed the Lib Dem plans to increase education spending.

Jeremy Corbyn is speaking in Leeds. He says the room is not big enough for all the students who wanted to attend.

He says he hopes all students are registered to vote.

Labour wants everyone to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential, he says.

If you are being stuck in a job you don’t like, you are being held back, he says. Labour is on your side.

(He is now using much of the same language and arguments he used in his speech at the Labour campaign launch yesterday.)

Labour's education launch

Jeremy Corbyn is about to speak at the Labour education launch.

People at risk of HIV should be given drugs on the NHS that will protect them from infection, the Liberal Democrats will pledge in their manifesto.

The Lib Dem policy would instruct the NHS to immediately provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs, already available in Scotland for those at high risk, across the UK. Access to the drugs would be provided to BAME communities and women, with a fast-track process for those most at risk, such as people who have a partner living with HIV.

It will also include funds for public education on effective condom use, paid for by the party’s previous pledge to increase income tax by 1p ring-fenced for health and social care.

There have been calls for the UK-wide availability of PrEP treatment since access was granted to at-risk groups in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium last month. NHS England has resisted prescribing the drug because of cost implications.

Lib Dem policy chiefs say providing PrEP on the NHS to treat high-risk individuals would save money long-term, highlighting the cost of a life-time of HIV treatment, around £360,000. Estimates have put a year’s supply of PrEP at a cost to the NHS of about £3,000 per patient, but NHS England has said potential costs could reach as high as £20m a year to reach everyone who could benefit.

In 2015, around 101,200 people were living with HIV in the UK and 594 people with HIV died, with 6,095 new HIV diagnoses that year.

Tim Farron has been visiting a school in Cornwall today, where the wife of the Conservative candidate turned up to protest. My colleague Jessica Elgot was there.

Farron also had another disagreement with a leave supporter.

IFS says Labour's tax and spending plans do add up, but create 'some risk' for the economy

Are the Tory claims about Labour’s spending commitments not adding up (see 9.54am) fair? Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, was on the Today programme discussing this in the 6.50am slot (the one reserved for a ‘worthy but dull’ public policy interview - Johnson features a lot) and his comments were illuminating. We have already posted some of them, but here is a full write-up.

  • Johnson said Labour’s plans to fund its education commitments did add up.

Would they raise more from corporation tax than they are promising to pay on education? The answer is yes. The reason for that is they are suggesting a very, very big increase in corporation tax, raising somewhere in the region of £15bn to £20bn a year by the time they have put it fully in place.

It would make it one of the biggest tax increases in the last 30 years or so. You could introduce an increase of that level; it would return the main rate of corporation tax to where it was six or seven years ago.

  • He said that he thought it was likely that increasing corporation tax would pay for Labour’s various policy pledges - at least in the short term. He stressed that he had not looked at everything Labour has promised (see 9.54am) in detail, but he said the potential revenue from the tax increase was huge. Asked specifically about the Conservative line of attack (that Labour has spent the revenue 12 times over), he said:

Well, I haven’t looked in detail at all the things they’ve promised, but even if you add in the increased public sector pay numbers, yes it would all be covered, I think, in the short run.

  • But he said that in the long run raising corporation tax by as much as Labour proposed could lead to less revenue than expected being raised.

Two important things about corporation tax – first, it’s not a victimless tax. This would increase taxes by about 1% of national income, so it would leave us all in the long run about 1% worse-off.

And of course, it is people in the end who pay it and it would reduce incentives for companies to invest in the UK ....

The risk is that whilst this would raise knocking on for £20bn in the short run, it’s probably going to raise rather less than that in the long run as companies invest less and take other opportunities to reduce the amount of tax they pay. So the long run behavioural effect of this tax would result in revenues being less than the immediate headline increase.

  • He said the even if Labour put corporation tax back up to 26%, as they propose (see 9.54am), corporation tax would still be “not be particularly high by international standards”.
  • But he said that raising corporation tax by this much would create “some risk” for the economy.

Even if you take it back it back up to 26%, as the Labour party are suggesting, it would not be particularly high by international standards.

But there have been other increases - not to the main rate of corporation tax, but to other elements of corporation tax - over the last few years and whilst we have a low headline rate, we have a very broad base. So the effective rate of corporation tax in the UK would start to look relatively higher by international standards. In a world where we are particularly worried about investment into the UK, and a Brexit situation, to significantly increase the rate of corporation you would have to say is taking some risk with the productivity and investment in the economy over the next decades.

Paul Johnson.
Paul Johnson. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

There has been some minor turmoil in the Ukip heartland of Clacton-on-sea, formerly held by the party under Douglas Carwell, after Ukip’s national executive rejected the local candidate for the seat in favour of a senior party member.

Jeff Bray, a local councillor, had been selected by Ukip in Clacton over Paul Oakley, a London-based barrister and member of the national executive, who contested the Mole Valley constituency in Surrey in 2015.

However, Ukip’s NEC has declined to let Bray through its vetting process after social media messages emerged from accounts linked to him which disparaged Muslims.

One tweet asked whether Jimmy Savile’s actions would have been similarly condemned “if he had been Muslim”.

Speaking to the Huffington Post, which unearthed the messages, Bray said he did not recognise many of them, but said he had posted the comment about Savile.

A Ukip source said the NEC had not been able to confirm what messages were linked to Bray, but had decided to remove him from the seat to avoid the issue dominating the campaign. Bray had appealed, but this was rejected on Tuesday night, confirming Oakley in his place.

The source said: “There would have been advantages to a local candidate, but after the hustings Jeff only won narrowly against Paul – it was 19 votes to 17 – so it’s not as if he is not welcome.”

It is nonetheless a reverse for the party, which took the seat by a 3,400 majority in 2015 under Carswell, who had defected from the Conservatives and won a byelection the year before.

In March, Carswell quit the party, declaring its work done, and then opted to not fight the seat as an independent.

Tories accuse Labour of making repeated spending promises from proposed corporation tax increase

Here is the Labour press release with details of the party’s various plans to increase education spending. The notes at the end explain how the party would fund it plans.

Significantly, the party has for the first time clarified its plans to increase corporation tax. Here is the key section.

From next tax year, the headline rate of corporation tax will rise from its current 19 per cent to 21 per cent in 2018-19, 24 per cent in 2019-20 and 26 per cent in 2020-21. This will still leave it at the lowest rate in the G7. The small profits rate, payable by firms with profits below £300,000, will rise less sharply to 20 per cent in 2018-19 and 21 per cent in 2020-21

According to Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility figures, the Tories’ tax giveaways are costing the exchequer £65.2 billion over the four years from 2018-19 to 2021-22, including £19.4 billion in the last year of the parliament. This contrasts with £46.8 billion based on the forecasts when the cuts were introduced.

In their response, the Conservatives said the plans did not add up because Labour has committed to spending the revenue raised from increasing corporation tax on 12 separate things. The Lib Dems have also used this line of attack, and two weeks ago on the blog, here and here, I listed 13 examples of spending commitments using corporation tax revenues that have been cited by the Tories and/or the Lib Dems. In a statement issued last night David Gauke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said:

Jeremy Corbyn can’t deliver any of this – they’re just made up promises on the back of nonsensical spending plans. He’s spent this damaging tax rise on businesses on 12 different things.

The Tory press notice lists the 12 other corporation tax pledges Gauke mentioned. Mostly they are the same as the ones they were talking about two weeks ago, although last month the Tories only had 11 examples on their list. (The Lib Dems had 10 on their list; eliminating the duplications, I got to a total of 13.)

But now the Tories have found another not on the previous lists: a suggestion from the shadow work and pensions minister Alex Cunningham, in an interview last month, that corporation tax revenue could allow Labour to reverse cuts in bereavement payments.

Sky’s Faisal Islam has details of some of the Labour seats that the Tories are targeting.

The Green party has decided to stand aside in Ed Balls’ old seat of Morley and Outwood in Leeds to help Labour try to win it back from the Tories. Balls lost in 2015 by just 422 votes to Andrea Jenkyns, with the Greens fifth on 1,264. Morley Labour party’s chair, Neil Dawson, is hoping to beat Jenkyns and has persuaded the Greens not to field a candidate this time aroundin return for cooperation on issues such as Trident and electoral reform, the Yorkshire Post reports.

The announcement follows a similar decision by the Wakefield Green party, which will not be running a candidate against the incumbent Labour contender Mary Creagh. The Greens have also stepped aside in Shipley to help the Women’s Equality Party leader fight Tory filibusterer Philip Davies, and in Pudsey, a Tory/Labour marginal in Leeds.

Explaining the move, the party admitted it had not been a unanimous decision, but was of “critical importance” in the fight to secure a “constructive” Brexit deal.

“After consultation with our membership, we have decided not to stand in the marginal constituencies of Pudsey and Morley and Outwood,” a spokesman told the Yorkshire Post. “It is with great regret that we have chosen to do this, as the Labour party and Liberal Democrats have not been interested in formal alliances and we disagree with them on many fundamental policies.”

Abigail Howard, 3, (centre) and Jonathan Howard, 8, (right) with other Labour supporters in Morley yesterday at a campaign event where Jeremy Corbyn was speaking.
Abigail Howard, 3, (centre) and Jonathan Howard, 8, (right) with other Labour supporters in Morley yesterday at a campaign event where Jeremy Corbyn was speaking. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Earlier we mentioned today’s Telegraph splash (see 6.33am), which claims that “moderate Labour candidates are already in talks with potential donors about a new ‘Progressives’ group forming in parliament if [Jeremy] Corbyn stays on as leader after a Tory landslide”.

Labour’s Lucy Powell, who is fighting for re-election as MP for Manchester Central and who is on what the Telegraph calls the “moderate” wing of the party, says the story is “utter nonsense”.

A CPS spokeswoman declined this morning to give any details on the planned timing of any announcements about possible prosecutions in relation to alleged election over-spending by Tories at the 2015 election, or to confirm or deny whether any statement would be made later today.

Farron says he is a parent himself. He is determined to build a country where people are decent to each other.

The government is planning to take £3bn out of schools. Teachers will be sacked as a result. That is because the Conservatives have taken different priorities.

Q: And part of your costings come from an assumption that the UK would stay in the single market.

Farron says that is what most people want.

Q: You say you are not forming pacts with other parties. But in Brighton Pavilion the Lib Dems are not putting a candidate up against Caroline Lucas, the Green candidate.

Farron says he is an admirer of Lucas’s. What he is saying is that the Lib Dems will form pacts with other parties.

Q: But you are doing a deal in Brighton.

No, says Farron. He says the local party is withdrawing there. He says he is “relaxed” about that.

It is obvious we are heading for a Tory landslide. Imagine what it will mean if Theresa May gets a bigger landslide than Margaret Thatcher had in the 1980s. The Lib Dems are the only party that can win seats from the Tories, he says.

Q: What do you make of Vince Cable saying, if he were in Ealing, he would find it hard to vote against Labour’s Rupa Huq?

Farron says he is a pluralist. He has worked with other parties. But at this election the Lib Dems are the party that can provide a strong opposition.

Q: Will you resign if you don’t meet your goal of doubling your number of MPs?

Farron says he is entirely focused on the next four weeks.

  • Farron won’t commit to resigning if the Lib Dems do badly in the election.

And that’s it. The interview is over.

Q: You are announcing extra money for education. How would you fund it?

Farron says the Lib Dems would raise corporation tax. Unlike Labour, they are only proposing to spend this once, not 11 times. He says it would go up from 17% to 20%.

He says the Lib Dems would also scrap the married couples tax allowance.

He says the Lib Dems’ priorities are health and education. And they have plans to fund them. For health, as they have announced, they would put an extra penny on tax.

Farron says Tories will win a “landslide” victory at the election

Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, is being interviewed on Today.

Q: Were you disappointed by your results in the local elections?

No, says Farron. He says the Lib Dems increased their vote share. And Ukip almost ceased to exist. That’s not surprising because the Tories have adopted their views, he says.

He says there will be “a landslide” in the general election.

  • Farron says Tories will win a “landslide” victory at the election.

The Lib Dems are in a strong position to be the effective oppositon, he says.

He says Labour is not only not an alternative government. It is not even an effective opposition.

Andrew Sparrow is picking up the live blog and will take you through the rest of the day.

To sign up to receive the Snap, our election email briefing, tomorrow and every weekday morning (till it’s all over), head over here.

A number of Conservative MPs and their agents have been under investigation by 14 police forces for more than a year over their spending declarations at the 2015 election.

They are now likely to learn their fates before the general election, possibly as soon as today, as the various time limits for bringing charges are coming to an end.

If it happens today, this could be in time for Theresa May to jettison any candidates facing prosecution before the deadline for final nominations at 4pm on Thursday, but the timeline for replacements would be extremely tight.

Any decision to prosecute them would be an explosive twist in the general election with more than 20 MPs in the last parliament potentially facing charges under the Representation of the People Act. But the bar for prosecution is considered to be high, with the police having to prove intent to submit wrongful expenditure claims. Tory MPs maintain they recorded their spending as directed by the national party.

The allegations centre around the declaration of spending on Conservative battle bus tour in 2015, which took activists to dozens of marginal seats before the election. This was declared as national campaign spending, with the Tories some millions below their official limit. But it emerged that the activists had been campaigning on behalf of specific Conservative MPs, rather than the party generally, leading to claims that the spending should have been record as local expenditure.

The Conservative Party election battle bus is seen between muddy fields during a general election campaign visit to a housing development in Chorley, northwest England, on April 3, 2015. British Prime Minister David Cameron and his austerity policies came under attack on April 2 from six other party leaders in the only full debate before next month’s general election. AFP PHOTO / POOL / LEON NEALLEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images
The battlebus at the heart of the allegations. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, has claimed that May called the snap election in part because she feared that numerous MPs would be prosecuted for fraud over their election expenses and implied the Conservatives may have “bought” the last election.

It is understood the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is planning to group together announcements rather than make them one-by-one. The exception could be a decision relating to Craig Mackinlay, the Tory hoping to be reelected as MP for Thanet South, as the allegations relating to that constituency involve claims that senior Conservative aides were based full time in his constituency helping to orchestrate the campaign to stop then Ukip leader Nigel Farage getting elected in 2015.

Angela Rayner is quizzed on Labour – or rather, Corbyn’s – position on Brexit. The Labour leader was accused of vagueness yesterday after he repeatedly declined to say whether the UK would definitely leave the EU if he were PM. (Labour later clarified that Brexit would mean Brexit.)

Rayner told the Today programme:

I think our position has been absolutely clear on Brexit … We’re a lot clearer than what Theresa May says.

We’d reject the Tories’ cliff-edge approach because we think that’s extremely dangerous … We’d return to the negotiating table.

We’ve said that we’re leaving the European Union … it’s about how you start those negotiations and how you continue.

And she says the Labour leader thinks the same way:

Every conversation I’ve had with Jeremy has been absolutely clear and that’s that we’re leaving the European Union.

It’s about what type of Brexit we get … We’ve been a laughing stock around Europe and we’re not going to get a good deal under her [May].

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, is on the Today programme to talk about Labour’s education plans (see here).

She says the plans to funnel £6bn into schools and further education, funded by corporation tax rises, is achievable:

It will mean that actually we can grow our own skills, adults will be able to go back into education …

This will help businesses because we hear up and down the country that there just isn’t the workers and the skills.

But she is less forthcoming on whether – as Jeremy Corbyn has said he wants to do – Labour will scrap university tuition fees. We will (you guessed it) have to wait for the manifesto:

Watch this space.

The focus today is on schools, Rayner says:

Funding to schools will be there and it will be protected.

Media coverage of immigration before Brexit vote 'overwhelmingly negative'

Media coverage of the EU referendum campaign was dominated by “overwhelmingly negative” reports about the consequences of migration to the UK, according to a new report.

King’s College London’s centre for the study of media, communication and power (CMCP) looked at more than 15,000 articles published online by 20 national news outlets. The study found that immigration and the economy were the two most-covered issues in coverage described by as “acrimonious and divisive”.

Media interest in immigration more than tripled during the 10-week campaign, rising faster than any other political issue and appearing on 99 front pages, compared with 82 about the economy. Most of these front pages (79) were published by pro-leave newspapers.

Specific nationalities were singled out for particularly negative coverage – especially Turks and Albanians, but also Romanians and Poles.

The majority of this negative coverage was from three online publications: the Mail, the Sun and the Express. Some of them led to complaints, including the “Let us in: we’re from Europe” Mail front page that needed a correction after it was revealed that the refugees depicted were from the Middle East.

Labour’s plan to increase corporation tax would be sufficient to pay for its education plans, according to Paul Johnson, director of the Institute For Fiscal Studies.

But, Johnson told the Today programme, there would be a cost:

It would make it one of the biggest tax increases in the last 30 years or so. You could introduce an increase of that level; it would return the main rate of corporation tax to where it was six or seven years ago.

But, I think, two important things about corporation tax – first, it’s not a victimless tax. This would increase taxes by about 1% of national income, so it would leave us all in the long run about 1% worse-off.

And of course, it is people in the end who pay it and it would reduce incentives for companies to invest in the UK.

Labour's plans for extra education spending - Details

Today’s Labour policy unveiling is on education, promising a big cash prize for schools and the creation of a National Education Service – designed to evoke NHS notions of cradle-to-grave, free at the point of use.

The details:

  • An extra £5.6bn for the annual schools budget by the end of the next parliament.
  • Guarantee of maximum class sizes of 30 for five-, six- and seven-year-olds.
  • University tuition fees out; maintenance grants for poorer students back in.
  • Educational maintenance allowance (EMA) restored for 16- to 18-year-olds in full-time study.
  • Free adult education to allow workers to upgrade their skills.

And as for the sums – Labour says all this would cost £6.7bn a year by 2020-21, and it would cover this by reversing successive cuts to corporation tax made since 2010. That year, the rate was 28%; today it’s 19%. Under Labour’s plan, it would creep up again, with gradual increases to 26% by 2020-21.

Angela Rayner.
Angela Rayner. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said:

We are not interested in cutting corporation tax to levels that are unsustainable when our public services are at crisis point. It’s about investing in our young people.

Updated

What is the Tory election expenses row about?

The Guardian’s Whitehall correspondent, Rajeev Syal, has the background on the investigation into Tory campaign spending:

The row centres on the Conservative party’s use of a battlebus to campaign in key seats during the 2015 general election. Each party is allowed to spend about £15,000 in each constituency on an allowance that is calculated on a population basis. It is claimed the Conservatives allocated thousands of pounds spent on the battlebus as national spending when it was used to re-elect specific MPs.

The Electoral Commission fined the party a record £70,000 and reported its former treasurer to the police after an investigation found “significant failures” by the party to report its campaign spending.

The campaigns to re-elect up to 20 MPs are believed to have been under investigation by their local police forces. They include Craig Mackinlay, who defeated Nigel Farage in South Thanet, Kent. The Tories are particularly worried about South Thanet, where Mackinlay beat Farage by 2,000 votes in a contest the Tories were desperate to win.

The campaign return was under the £15,000 local limit, imposed to ensure a level playing field. But it has been claimed another £18,000 was spent at nearby hotels.

Overall, the Electoral Commission found the party failed to declare or accurately report more than £275,000 of campaign spending at three byelections in 2014 and at the 2015 general election.

The spending return for the UK general election was missing payments worth at least £104,765 and payments worth up to £118,124 were either not reported to the commission or were incorrectly reported by the party. Invoices and receipts were missing for £52,924 worth of payments.

The Snap: your election briefing

Welcome back to another day on the battlebuses. I’m Claire Phipps with the morning catchup and the early politics news. Andrew Sparrow will be here later. Catch us in the comments below or on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.

What’s happening?

Today could be the day a number of Conservative MPs find out if they will be charged with fraud over spending in the 2015 election campaign. The investigation has taken more than a year, but with the deadline approaching – tomorrow – for candidates to be nominated (or withdraw/be speedily withdrawn) for this year’s election, we could hear the outcome this morning. For a quick primer on the expenses allegations – which centre on the party’s deployment of its battlebus in key seats – check here.

Back to this year’s bus timetable, and Labour’s has hit the road. The smooth running of the service was delayed by questions over Jeremy Corbyn’s determination to stay on as leader even if Labour does not win the election. He told the BBC that, contrary to a BuzzFeed report, he hadn’t said that:

No, I told them I would carry on as leader because we’ll have won the election by then.

09/05/2017 Morely Leeds .Jeremy Corbyn leader of the Labour party arrives on the campaign bus at to meet surpporters . Photo SEAN SMITH
I’m old enough to remember when people used to queue at bus stops. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Tricky for him, then, that BuzzFeed had a recording of the interview in which Corbyn said what BuzzFeed said he had said. BuzzFeed reports it has now been told its access to Labour campaign events will be “limited”.

Also less welcome than he would have been at Corbyn HQ (which I’m guessing was already not very) will be Lord Glasman, former adviser to Ed Miliband and “Blue Labour” advocate. Glasman, according to the Financial Times, has been in chats with Nick Timothy, the PM’s co-chief of staff and the man charged with whipping up a Conservative manifesto.

Bernie Sanders, being a different kind of blue, is another matter. Corbyn told the Guardian he was angling for an endorsement from the losing US Democratic candidate, soon to visit the UK:

I hope he will. I think he probably will, actually. But we mustn’t predict these things.

Day two of Labour’s official campaign sees Corbyn and Angela Rayner promise £6bn in extra funding to schools by the end of the next parliament (which should be 2022, but that Fixed Term Parliaments Act hasn’t really proved itself so far), as well as scrapping university tuition fees and reintroducing student grants – paid for by reversing cuts to corporation tax since 2010.

It’s a school day for the Liberal Democrats, too, with Tim Farron announcing that they’d invest more in schools and colleges: their figure is £7bn. Plus the Lib Dem leader has a hovercraft. The stakes are rising.

General Election 2017Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron and the party’s local candidate Tessa Munt on board a hovercraft during a visit to the Burnham Area Rescue Boat (BARB), a charity that operates two life-saving rescue hovercrafts and an inshore rescue boat, at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday May 9, 2017. See PA ELECTION stories. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Tim Farron: it ain’t hover till it’s hover. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

But not, somehow, for the PM, who – despite the expenses shadow, a party row over her Miliband-esque energy policy, and a backlash to her support for foxhunting – settled unruffledly with husband Philip May on the One Show’s green sofa for a chat about Eurovision, shoes and cookery books. For the best take on this surreally humdrum exchange, read John Crace’s sketch (obviously). But what did we learn?

Theresa May had her sights on No 10 ever since she was “well established in the shadow cabinet” (which she first joined in 1999), her husband told the show’s presenters. A strong and stable ambition, one might say.

What else? Philip May takes the bins out. “There’s boy jobs and girl jobs, you see,” said Theresa May, prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Her husband does the “boy jobs”, he confirmed:

Obviously if you’re the kind of man who expects his tea to be on the table at 6 o’clock every evening, you could be a little bit disappointed.

Not as disappointed as those tuning in for a bit more meat on the interview (in 2011, presenter Matt Baker asked David Cameron: “How on earth do you sleep at night?”). But we did get this killer insight from Mr May:

I quite like ties, jackets, stuff like that.

At a glance:

Poll position

A Kantar poll suggests a narrowing of the gap between the Conservatives (on 44%, down four points from last week) and Labour (on 28%, up four points). It says 11% of people are still undecided as we enter the final four weeks of campaigning.

While May maintains her poll lead on decisiveness and negotiating skills, the Labour leader pulls ahead on being “in touch with ordinary people” (57% to 43%) and “interested in other people’s lives” (55% to 45%). Quite unconnectedly, the PM took some unprepared questions from “ordinary people” on a campaign stop yesterday. (“You’ve got a pen in your hand. Are you a journalist?” she sleuthily checked first.)

But the overall trend still has the Tories chillaxing on 47%, Labour on 29%, and the Lib Dems hovering around 9%; follow our poll tracker here.

Diary

  • At 9am, Theresa May holds talks with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at Downing St, before campaigning in Nottingham.
  • At 10am Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Rayner launch Labour’s schools policy in Leeds.
  • For Scottish Labour, the focus is NHS pay, with Kezia Dugdale and Anas Sarwar meeting nurses in Edinburgh.
  • The Tim Farron battlebus tour of Lib Dem targets in south-west England continues.
  • At 10.30 in Worcester, Greens co-leader Jonathan Bartley unveils the party’s mental health policy.

Read these

We’ve heard similar rumblings before, of course, but Christopher Hope in the Telegraph says “as many as 100” moderate Labour MPs could be set to walk – or at least sit – away from the party after the election:

Moderate Labour candidates are already in talks with potential donors about a new “Progressives” group forming in Parliament if Mr Corbyn stays on as leader after a Tory landslide.

One potential scenario is for the MPs to resign the Labour whip and become independents grouped together in the Commons under the Progressives banner. They could then rejoin the parliamentary Labour party once Mr Corbyn had been replaced with a leader they supported…

Although they do not intend to form a new party, a well-organised anti-Corbyn faction, who would sit together on the back benches, could make it difficult for Mr Corbyn to form a viable opposition because of a shortage of MPs to take up shadow cabinet posts.

ERDINGTON, 3 May 2017 - Local author Collette Elliott in the near deserted Central Square shopping centre in Erdington, north Birmingham in the run up to the general election. Labour’s Jack Dromey has been the constituency’s MP since 2010. Christopher Thomond for The Guardian.
Collette Elliott in the near-deserted Central Square shopping centre in Erdington. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

In the latest dispatch in the Guardian’s Voices and Votes series, Nazia Parveen is in Birmingham Erdington:

At Erdington’s heart is the high street, a once booming shopping area that has had a mass exodus in recent years. When we asked Guardian readers from the area to tell us about the issues that would decide how they voted, many said the decline of the high street was among their concerns, alongside worries about segregation, failing services and homelessness…

For Collette Elliott, who has lived here all her life, the perceived decline of the area feels personal … We take a tour of Erdington together, into deserted squares that were once thriving shopping areas and are now empty cut-throughs to car parks, past closed businesses. During the hours that we spend together, there is a sentence that repeatedly passes Elliott’s lips: ‘This used to be a … but now it’s closed.’ Like others in the suburb, she feels abandoned.

‘Yes, this totally, definitely happened’ of the day

The PM on the power of shoes:

It can have a serious side to it … about four or five years ago I was in the lift in the House of Commons and there was a young woman in the lift and I happened to look down. I said, oh, nice pair of shoes. And she said, I like your shoes.

And then she looked at me and she said, your shoes got me involved in politics.

The day in a tweet

Or two, in the interests of balance:

And another thing

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