Boris Johnson has faced new questions about the state of the NHS after The Independent revealed a 12-year-old with learning disabilities and mental health issues had to stay in an Essex hospital A&E for 57 hours for a specialist bed to become available.
Mr Johnson remained under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy who slept on a hospital floor.
It came as the father of London Bridge attack victim Jack Merritt accused Mr Johnson of using his son’s death as “an opportunity” and said there was “no attempt” to contact the family from Downing Street, despite the insistence of a Number 10 spokesperson to the contrary.
Labour have accused the Conservatives of lying about an alleged assault on health secretary Matt Hancock’s aide in a bid to distract attention from the NHS crisis, while Jeremy Corbyn denied his party was using the case of the four-year-old boy as a “political football”.
Trade experts also uncovered fresh evidence that Boris Johnson is misleading voters about the impact of his Brexit deal on Northern Ireland – leading them to warn it is unlawful. The UK Trade Policy Observatory found tariffs would be charged on around 75 per cent of imports, including those from Britain, under the PM's plan for a customs border in the Irish Sea
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the general election campaign, with only two days until we go to the polls.
12-year-old girl waits more than 50 hours in hospital emergency department
Our exclusive this morning show the depths of the NHS crisis have been laid bare by a series of cases of sick children forced to wait hours in A&E departments for hospital beds.
One 12-year-old with learning disabilities and mental health issues had to stay in an Essex hospital A&E for 57 hours for a specialist bed to become available, a leaked NHS email shows.
She was one of four children left “in the middle of an emergency department” because of bed shortages. Another child, which was not a mental health case, had to wait 17 hours in A&E over the weekend at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Our health correspondent Shaun Lintern has all the details.
12-year-old girl waits more than 50 hours in A&E for a mental health hospital bed
Exclusive: Another child had to wait 17 hours at Birmingham Children’s Hospital over the weekend as pressure mounts on Boris JohnsonFalse news story claiming Labour activist punched Tory aide spreads
Labour have accused the Conservatives of lying about an alleged assault on an adviser to health secretary Matt Hancock in a bid to distract attention from the case of a four-year-old boy with suspected pneumonia left lying on an NHS hospital floor.
Senior journalists began tweeting that they’d been told about a Tory aide getting punched by a Labour activist outside the Leeds hospital. But when footage later emerged, it showed the adviser walking into a man on a bicycle’s outstretched hand.
Both the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston apologised for getting it wrong.
More details here:
False news story claiming Labour activist punched Tory aide spreads across social media after being amplified by leading political reporters
Police say there is no indication of any such attack, and video appears to show adviser actually walked into activist's handBrexit Party figures caught on hidden camera in racist tirade
Key figures from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in its number one target seat were caught on film making a string of racist comments.
One of the party’s councillors in Hartlepool said Muslims are “outbreeding us” and “live like animals”, boasting he once tried to bury a pig’s head under a mosque being built in the town.
David Mincher also made racist language against Pakistanis and Asians, saying: “Nearly all of Middlesbrough is P***s. Boro’s f***ing rife with all the f***ing Asians now like.”
Channel 4 News also filmed Gordon Parkin, who claimed to be the party’s assistant manager for the North East region, making a series of derogatory remarks against Muslims inside the Hartlepool campaign office.
The Brexit Party condemned the “grave and appalling comments”, saying it had removed the whip from Mincher and dismissed Parkin.
Brexit Party councillors caught on hidden camera in racist tirade against Asian people
Activist in key target seat of Hartlepool said Muslims are 'outbreeding us' and 'live like animals' - boasting he tried to bury a pig’s head under a mosqueTory minister blames PM’s refusal to look at photo of sick boy on ‘fluid situation’
The justice secretary Robert Buckland has said the election “should be fought upon the high ground and the big issue” as Boris Johnson continues to come under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy left sleeping on a hospital floor.
Buckland told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That particular story yesterday was one of those occasions where I think everybody was dealing with a very fluid situation.
“I note that the family of the young lad concerned want their privacy to be maintained, they don’t want the issue to be used as some sort of political football and I think we need to respect that and remember that this a general election fought upon - should be fought upon the high ground and the big issues, rather than ending up in a sort of argument about who said what to whom.”
Defending Johnson over pocketing a reporter’s phone when asked about the treatment of Jack Williment-Barr and shown a photograph of him, Buckland said: “There will come moments where you’re suddenly sprung with something and it's difficult to know exactly what is happening.”
He added: “He did talk about it and he did express sorrow and regret for what he saw and an apology and of course the health secretary went to Leeds as well, spoke to the family and apologised and I think that apology is a very important part of all of this, an understanding and a recognition that what happened to this young lad was not acceptable.”
Corbyn denies using four-year-old boy’s case as ‘political football’
Jeremy Corbyn has been asked about the NHS during his interview with BBC Breakfast.
Asked if the case of Jack Williment-Barr was being used as a “political football,” the Labour leader said: “It’s an example of what’s happening in our NHS, and it is obviously awful for that little boy and the family.
“All research shows there is a very large number of hospitals where patients are at risk because of staff shortages, because of equipment, because of hospitals too. It is a serious issue. It is a political issue – how we fund the NHS … The NHS has to be properly funded and at the moment it isn’t.”
Asked about whether Labour’s spending plans are credible. “Our plans are completely credible.”
Challenged on the Labour administration’s record in the NHS in Wales, Corbyn said: “Of course A&E waiting times is a bad record … the issue of the Welsh government has lost a billion pounds in funding.”
PM warns tactical voting could deny Tories election victory
Boris Johnson will try to rally Tory supporters after coming under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy left sleeping on a hospital floor because there was no bed available.
With two days to polling day, the PM will warn there is a “clear and present” danger of another hung parliament unless voters back the Conservatives on Thursday.
On thecampaign trail in Staffordshire, he will say the opposition parties need to gain just 12 seats to put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
The opinion polls have consistently shown the Tories on course for an overall majority, but senior figures - including Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings - have warned the race is much tighter.
A leaked memo from Tory pollster Michael Brooks to campaign director Isaac Levido seen by The Daily Telegraph said the “major risk” for the party was “the belief that the Conservatives are indeed on course to win a comfortable majority”.
At the same time the Remain United campaign - which opposes Brexit - said polling it had commissioned from Savanta ComRes showed the Tory lead was down to 7 per cent, which it projected would give them a majority of just two in the new parliament.
The PM is expected to say on Tuesday that while the Conservatives need just nine more seats to secure a majority, they face “sophisticated and well-financed” efforts to thwart them.
“The danger of another hung parliament is clear and present. There are sophisticated and well-financed attempts under way to prevent a Conservative majority through tactical voting,” he will say.
Tory minister says ‘confusing scene of public disorder’ led to false story about punch
Justice secretary Robert Buckland, as well as defending Boris Johnson for his refusal to look at photo of four-year-old boy, has tried to explain a false Tory media briefing about Matt Hancock’s aide being punched by a Labour activist.
He said: “I don’t know who briefed what to whom and I have seen the footage... what I saw was a very confusing scene of public disorder.
“People who had clearly organised themselves to come along, create trouble and mischief, the sort of disorderly conduct I'm afraid from the left that we've seen in this campaign. It’s not a way to conduct civilised politics, people were shouting and gesticulating towards Matt Hancock and his team.”
Asked about it on BBC Breakfast, he said: “Clearly there was something going on there … it seems like some sort of public order incident.”
BBC host Dan Walker said: “It was just pointing, how’s that a public order issue?”
Buckland said: “I think there’s more to it than that.”
Jeremy Corbyn will appoint new team of Brexit negotiators backing 'both Leave and Remain'
Jeremy Corbyn has revealed he would appoint a new team of ministers to negotiate a fresh Brexit deal – backing both Leave and Remain – after criticism of who would carry out the role.
The announcement throws doubt on the continued influence of Keir Starmer the current Remain-supporting shadow Brexit secretary, who was not mentioned by the Labour leader in his interview.
On BBC Breakfast, Mr Corbyn said: “I will be appointing ministers representing different parts of country and whose personal views are different – both Leave and Remain.”
Asked if that would include new ministers, he said: “Of course, yes, but I’m not naming any ministers now.”
Jeremy Corbyn will appoint new team of Brexit negotiators backing 'both Leave and Remain' if Labour wins election
Move follows Boris Johnson's criticism of who would carry out the role - and casts doubt on future influence of Remain-backing Keir StarmerHugh Grant mocks Boris Johnson over ‘tell the truth’ card
The rom-com star Hugh Grant, who has been campaigning for both Lib Dem and Labour candidates, has mocked the Tories for adapting one of his most famous films for a campaign ad.
In a video posted by Boris Johnson on Monday evening, the PM emulated a scene from Love Actually as he approached an apathetic voter with a series of placards on her doorstep.
Referencing a famous moment from the 2003 Christmas-themed romantic drama, the “Vote Conservative Actually” video showed him silently showing a woman a series of Brexit-themed messages after pretending to be a group of carol singers.
One of the placards read: “With any luck, by next year we'll have Brexit done (if Parliament doesn't block it again).”
“I thought it was quite well done,” the actor told Radio 4’s Today programme. “Clearly the Conservative party have an awful lot of money. Maybe that’s where all the rubles went.
“One of the cards from the original film that he didn’t hold up is the one Andrew Lincoln holds up saying: ‘Because of Christmas you tell the truth.’ I just wonder if the spin doctors in the Tory party thought that was a card that didn’t look too great in Boris Johnson’s hands.”
Corbyn: many Jewish Labour members feel ‘happy’ in party
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was asked about antisemitism during his BBC Breakfast interview.
“There are also very many Jewish members of the Labour party who have said to me ‘thank you for the processes put in place’ ... and they feel very at home and very happy in the Labour party.”
‘Furious, livid, angry’: Shadow health secretary on NHS cuts
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth has denied use the case of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr as a political football.
“Well, we aren’t using his case as a political football and my heart to goes out to Jack and his family,” he told the BBC.
He added: “I, like any parent, because I’ve got two young children, would be furious, livid, angry, fighting like a lion for my child, who had been let down after years of cutbacks in our health service.”
He went on: “Unfortunately, across the country these are not one-off events; we’ve seen in this election campaign other images of elderly people literally wasting away on trolleys in corridors for hours upon hours because they simply can’t get a bed.”
Ashworth said: “In the last year, 660,000 people were left waiting on a trolley because they weren’t able to get a bed in the overcrowded hospital and this at the same time that 17,000 beds have been cut under the Tories in our NHS.
“So I am saying if I’m elected health secretary on Thursday, I’ll bring the Tory bed cuts programme to an end on Friday.”
He also told Today: “The people who work in our NHS are exceptional people working under the most intense of pressures being asked to do more and more on less and less... But the problem is on every single measurement now people are waiting longer, the waiting list itself has ballooned to record levels.”
Economy stagnant, latest official figures show
The UK economy failed to expand in October as official figures revealed zero month-on-month growth.
But the data showed an improvement on the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) seen in August and September, when it fell by 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said growth also stagnated on a rolling three-month basis in October, which is seen as being less volatile than the monthly data.
Commie hats and Maoist bicycles: Corbyn reads out mean tweets
While Boris Johnson tweeted his Love Actually parody, Jeremy Corbyn posted his own pop culture-themed video on Monday evening.
In a video entitled “Mean Tweets with Jeremy Corbyn”, the Labour leader read out critical tweets about him in a format popularised by US late-night chat host Jimmy Kimmel.
The Labour leader sat by a fireplace and read out critical tweets about him and his campaign.
Corbyn replied: “What is a commie hat? I wear a cap! It’s a bit like when I was told I was riding a Maoist bicycle. It's a bicycle!”
Reading read out a tweet about being found sexy, he said: “Oh God this is bad.”
Sturgeon: NHS in Scotland ‘performing better’ than elsewhere
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the NHS in Scotland was “performing better” than the health services are in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Defending the SNP's record on health, Scotland’s first minister said: “I’m not sitting here saying it's job done in Scotland or that we are meeting those targets, the point I'm making is that we are making more progress in terms of building the capacity, doing the reforms in our health service that is required."
On supporting any possible Labour government, Sturgeon said: “We would offer support to a minority Labour government, the conditions for that we’ve set out very clearly in our manifesto.
“An end to austerity, an end to the welfare cuts that have caused so much misery, to so many people and yes respect for the principle that the question of whether there should be an independence referendum and the timing of that should be decided by the Scottish parliament elected by the Scottish people and not dictated by Westminster.”
‘I want to wake up to a Labour government,’ says Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking to supporters in Bolton, outside the town’s community centre, on the first of a number of campaign stops across the north-west.
“We have now got until Thursday night to win this election. Thursday night to save the NHS. Thursday night to end child poverty in Britain. Thursday night to end homelessness in Britain. Thursday night to build the houses that we need. Thursday night to get a government you can trust that will actually represent people.”
Attacking the Tories on the health service, said: “We will not sell our NHS to anybody. It is simply not for sale.”
Corbyn concluded: “I want to wake up on Friday morning, if I get to sleep at all on Thursday night, to see that we have got a Labour government, that we have got a Labour majority and that the great work that’s in this manifesto we then start work on Friday morning making sure those changes come about. And all of us have to work together to make sure we achieve them.”
‘Banter’: Shadow health secretary dismisses leaked comments he made critical of Corbyn
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth has just endured a very awkward interview with Victory Derbyshire on the BBC. The shadow health secretary dismissed as “banter” leaked comments in which he was heard criticising Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The Guido Fawkes website published an audio recording of remarks made by Ashworth in which he said the civil service machine would “pretty quickly move to safeguard security” if Corbyn entered No 10.
Ashworth insisted he was joking with a Tory friend and did not mean what he said. Asked about comments in which he said Labour “f***** it up” in keeping Corbyn as its leader, he said: “We’re having banter with each other – we’re joking around.
“No I don’t mean it because I’m joking around with my mate because he’s a Tory... If you leak it to Guido Fawkes of course it makes me look like a right plonker but it’s not what I mean when I’m winding up a friend – I’m trying to sort of pull his leg a bit.”
Owen Jones challenges Boris backer: ‘Is ‘bum boy’ homophobic?’
Labour-supporter commentator Owen Jones and Boris Johnson-backing campaigner Nimco Ali have been at odds on Boris Johnson’s use of the phrase “tank-topped bum boys” in a 1998 column.
Jones asked: “If you heard someone yelling at a gay person “bum boy,” would you accept that’s homophobic?”
Ali replied: “If I heard someone yelling it I would step in and say, “That’s unacceptable”.”
Jones said: “Why can’t you say it’s homophobic? I don’t get it.”
Ali replied: “Because he [Johnson] is not a homophobe,” before she went on argue it “depends on the context”.
Labour and Tory NHS spending assessed
If you wish to assess various claims made about investment in the NHS, our friends at Statista have taken a look at recent Labour and Tory government spending on the health service (based on IFS and Health Foundation figures).
It shows the Labour government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown invested well above the annual average 3.7 per cent real growth rates in public spending on health.
Tories claim shadow minister’s leaked recording ‘devastating’
Both Boris Johnson and the Conservative party chairman James Cleverly has commented on shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth’s leaked comments about Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s potential election fortunes.
Cleverly said it was an “honest and truly devastating assessment of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership by one of his most trusted election lieutenants”.
Our correspondent Jon Stone has taken a look at Ashworth’s comments and the reaction this morning.
