Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have traded blows on the first day of the general election campaign trail as parties tool up for the 12 December poll.
Mr Johnson blamed the failure to meet his “do or die” pledge to deliver Brexit today on the Labour leader, while Mr Corbyn has lashed out at the “elite” at Labour’s campaign launch. He claimed the party would “get Brexit sorted within six months”.
As the UK braced itself for a gruelling campaign, US president Donald Trump waded into British politics by claiming Mr Corbyn would be "so bad for your country".
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond, as both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn hit the election campaign trail.
The prime minister is expected to do a series of photocalls in the south-east, while the Labour leader launches his party’s election campaign in London.
Corbyn set to blast ‘elite’ running ‘corrupt system’ at campaign launch
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will trade blows as they kick off their parties’ election campaigns by launching blistering attacks on each other.
Johnson will accuse Mr Corbyn of “incessant indecision”, while the Labour leader will use his first speech of the campaign to brand his rival’s party the “born-to-rule Conservatives”.
Corbyn is also expected to attack the “elite” – including businessmen including Sports Direct founder Mike
Ashley, media magnate Rupert Murdoch and the Duke of Westminster – as he promises to overturn a “corrupt system”.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn trade blows as party leaders kick off election campaign
Prime minister to accuse Corbyn of ‘incessant indecision’, while Labour leader will accuse rival of leading ‘born-to-rule Conservatives’Labour’s official Jewish affiliate boycotts election campaign
Not a great start to campaign launch day for Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour party’s official Jewish affiliate has announced that it will not support the party in the upcoming election campaign because of Corbyn’s “failure of leadership” over antisemitism.
The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) – affiliated with the party since 1920 – said it believed Corbyn was unfit to be PM, revealed it would only campaign for “exceptional candidates” who had been staunch allies in the fight against antisemitism. All the details here:
Labour's official Jewish affiliate to boycott party's general election campaign
Jewish Labour Movement claims 'a culture of antisemitism has been allowed to emerge and fester' under current party leadership as it says Mr Corbyn unfit to be PMGrant Shapps says parliament to blame for failure to leave EU
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said parliament is to blame for the failure to deliver Brexit by the Halloween deadline.
Boris Johnson promised during the Tory leadership campaign that Thursday would be the day Britain left the EU “do or die”.
However, Shapps told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “It is quite clearly parliament that has failed to deliver it. He did absolutely everything in his power to get parliament to come its senses.
“The clear thing is that parliament is not going to let it happen and we have to have this election which nobody particularly wanted.
“Unless you want us to start breaking the law that parliament sets, there is nothing you can do when parliament is so dithering and delaying.”
Nicky Morgan cites ‘abuse’ as she quits politics
Culture secretary Nicky Morgan is the latest high profile MP to declare she will not stand in the looming December general election.
Her departure from the political frontline mirrors that of a slew of prominent Conservative figures including former home secretary Amber Rudd.
Citing Britain’s increasingly toxic political culture, Morgan said: “The clear impact on my family and other sacrifices involved in, and the abuse for, doing the job of a modern MP can only be justified if, ultimately, parliament does what it is supposed to do.”
Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan to stand down as MP
Culture secretary says ‘now is the time for me to stand aside’ as she becomes latest Tory moderate to quitHancock ‘heartbroken’ at Tory MPs quitting over abuse
Health Secretary Matt Hancock commented on MPs citing online abuse as a reason for stepping down ahead of the December election.
There are now almost 60 parliamentarians who won’t be standing. Culture secretary Nicky Morgan and Amber Rudd were among the big hitters bowing out in the past 24 hours.
One departing Tory moderate, Mims Davies, said “too many” female MPs were leaving over the “horrid state of the discourse”.
Hancock said it was “heartbreaking” to see the number of colleagues stepping down.
Diane Abbott calls on Keith Vaz to ‘consider his position’
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has called on Keith Vaz to reconsider his decision to stand again as a Labour candidate in the forthcoming general election.
The Commons Standards Committee recommended the Leicester East MP should face a six-month suspension after he was found to have “expressed willingness” to purchase cocaine for others.
The committee said his explanation for what happened during an encounter with male prostitutes was “not believable and, indeed, ludicrous”.
Abbott told the Today programme: “I think he should consider his position. I think he himself should agree not to be a candidate. It has been a very sad issue, not just for him but for his family and his children.”
Diane Abbott suggests disgraced Labour MP Keith Vaz should not run in election after cocaine and prostitute scandal
'I think he should consider his position,' says shadow home secretaryNew poll shows eight-point lead for Conservatives
The latest Survation survey shows slight increases for the two main parties at the expense of the Lib Dems, Brexit Party and the Greens. A sign of voters returning to more familiar territory, perhaps?
Labour trailing by 15 points in YouGov poll
A new YouGov poll for The Times has the Tories on 36 per cent, a whopping 15 points ahead of Labour on 21 per cent.
A separate poll for the newspaper shows 49 per cent of people who voted Leave feel “betrayed” at the 31 October deadline being missed. The question is whether these angry Brexiteers blame Boris Johnson, or the opposition, for the failure to leave today.
Johnson’s failure to deliver Brexit by Halloween ‘his and his alone’, say Corbyn
The prime minister and his ministers may be desperate to blame the opposition for the fact the UK will not be leaving the EU by 11pm on 31 October, but the Labour leader is having none of it.
MPs tell Facebook to adopt Twitter ban on political advertising
MPs have been urging Facebook to follow in the footsteps of fellow social media giant Twitter by banning political advertising from its platform.
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has announced the company had decided to stop all political advertising on its service worldwide, saying “political message reach should be earned, not bought”.
Labour’s Wes Streeting tweeted: “Facebook should follow suit”, while the SNP’s Stewart McDonald tweeted:
“Good call. Now facebook.” Lib Dem MP Sarah Wollaston added: “Now let’s hope facebook stops the big money, targeted attack ads too that distort our democracy & fuel hate.”
Labour’s David Lammy, the SNP’s Angus MacNeil and former home secretary Amber Rudd all also reacted to the announcement on Twitter. “Now remove the cesspool of hate speech on here and ban the endless stream of deliberate fake news,” said Lammy.
Labour MP Toby Perkins took aim at the PM’s closest adviser Dominic Cummings. He tweeted: “If Facebook did the same, Dominic Cummings entire strategy for General Electio2019 would be in tatters.”
Campaign against Corbyn will be ‘hard and dirty’, says Labour MP
Labour frontbencher Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, says there will be a “hard and dirty” fight against Jeremy Corbyn and his party. Burgon says there will be “unfair stories” appearing over the next five weeks.
Why? “Because we stand for taking on some of these powerful vested interests,” he says, attacking the “rotten rigged system”. Burgon invites us to imagine a more positive “festival of political conversation” during the campaign.
Why where students go to vote matters
The possibility some students would have difficulty registering so close to the end of term became a big part of this week’s wrangling over the election date.
Our correspondent Benjamin Kentish has taken a look at how students can register to vote in their home town or at university. The difference could be crucial.
How students can register to vote in their home town or at university
Students could play a crucial role in deciding the result in a number of key seats, but will need to think ahead about where they are going to voteJohn Bercow arrives for his last day at work
It is Speaker John Bercow’s last day today. No really. Honestly. He’s finally leaving. It’s like So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music, with all those kids singing “Goodbye” over and over again.
Boris Johnson told the Speaker it was “the longest retirement since Frank Sinatra,” and hailed Bercow’s ability to make time “stretch” like Stephen Hawking.
We’re expecting a business statement from Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg in the chamber very soon, and it may kick off a day of tributes.
Over 300,000 apply to register to vote in two days
More than 300,000 people have applied to register to vote in 48 hours, according to government figures. Just over 139,000 applications were submitted on Tuesday, followed by 177,000 on Wednesday.
This is well above the typical number for weekday applications, which has been averaging around 37,000 for the past month.
They are also the highest and second highest number of applications submitted on a single day this year. Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of applications were from people aged 34 and under, while just 4 per cent came from those aged 65 and over. A third were from people under 25.
But the increase in the volume of applications can’t be treated as direct evidence of an increase in the number of people able to vote. At previous polls there have been applications from people below the legal age to vote or who are already on the electoral register.
The deadline for applying to register is Tuesday November 26. Full details on how to register are at gov.uk/register-to-vote.
Lib Dems pledge to ‘stop Brexit’ in campaign slogan
Not to be outdone by Labour’s general election campaign launch today, the Lib Dems have unveiled their own campaign slogan: “Stop Brexit: Build a brighter future.”
It’s a phrase Jo Swinson used yesterday, and it’s on a van outside parliament this morning.
Sajid Javid ‘shocked’ Hugh Grant wouldn’t shake his hand
Chancellor Sajid Javid has criticised Hugh Grant after the star refused to shake his hand at a film premiere. The politician said the actor had been “incredibly rude” at an event for Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman.
“I recognised him and put my hand out and said, ‘Lovely to meet you’, and you know what he does? He refuses to shake my hand. He says, ‘I am not shaking your hand’. I am completely shocked.
“He said, ‘When you were culture secretary you didn’t support my friends in (anti-media intrusion campaign) Hacked Off.’ I think that is incredibly rude.
“I think that is incredibly rude. I wonder if people like Hugh Grant think they are part of the elite and they look down on working class people no matter what station they reach in life.”
But a spokesman for the actor said Grant had a different version of events. When offered a handshake, “Grant’s words were ‘If you don't mind, I won’t shake your hand because you were rude and dismissive to the victims or press abuse when you met them as culture secretary.’”
“Hugh would like to point out that the victims in question were not celebrities. They were people with personal family tragedies who had been abused by sections of the press.”
Jeremy Corbyn launches 'anti-elite' Labour campaign
The Labour leader is speaking now at an arts centre in Battersea in south London, having got a thunderous welcome by activists and introduction by local MP Marsha de Cordova.
It’s his first major stump speech of the countdown to the pre-Christmas political clash, and Corbyn is set to hit out at the “tax dodgers, bad bosses, big polluters, and billionaire-owned media holding our country back”.
Corbyn is also expected to use the speech in London to “call out” people like the media baron Rupert Murdoch, Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley and the Duke of Westminster.
He is setting his party up against the “elite … the few who run a corrupt system”.
Corbyn vows to get Brexit done ‘within six months’
Addressing Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn has rejected criticism his party’s position is too “complicated”.
“After three long years of Brexit division and failure from the Tories, we have to get this issue sorted out,” he says.
“We need to take it out of the hands of the politicians and trust the people to have the final say.”
Corbyn explains: “Labour will get Brexit sorted within six months. We’ll let the people decide whether to leave with on a sensible deal or remain. It really isn’t that complicated. We will carry out whatever the people decide.”
He also claimed the Lib Dems “want to cancel a democratic vote with a parliamentary stitch-up”.
Labour activists chant ‘not for sale’ after Corbyn vows to protect NHS
Corbyn claims Boris Johnson is planning a “toxic Brexit trade deal with Trump” that “could hand over £500m a week of NHS money to big drugs corporations”.
He vows: “We will stop them. Labour won’t let Donald Trump get his hands on our National Health Service. It’s not for sale, to him or anyone.”
The crowd of Labour activists lead a chant of “not for sale chant” for a while. Corbyn says: “I think we’re all agreed on that.”
