Jeremy Corbyn has released an uncensored version of government documents which he claims shows the NHS is “on the table” in any post-Brexit trade deal with the US. “This is not only a plot against our NHS, it’s a plot against our country,” said the Labour leader.
It comes as a record number of people registered to vote on the final day applications were open, with 660,000 signing up in the huge last-minute spike. Around 450,000 of them were under the age of 35 – the demographic most likely to vote Labour at the general election.
Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, has warned “there is worse to come” if the Tories win the election as she launched the SNP manifesto today. She claimed her party can stop the Conservatives “selling off Scotland’s NHS” under any future trade deal with the US.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the election campaign, with only 15 days left until we go to the polls.
Corbyn refuses to apologise for his handling of antisemitism
It’s the story making most of today’s front pages: Jeremy Corbyn refused four times to apologise for his handling of antisemitism in live interview with Andrew Neil on the BBC.
Corbyn rejected the Chief Rabbi’s accusation that Labour’s claims to be dealing with the problem were “a mendacious fiction”. He said the rabbi was wrong, telling Neil: “No, he’s not right. Because he would have to produce the evidence to say that’s mendacious.”
In a difficult encounter, Corbyn also admitted Labour might have to borrow some of the £58bn needed to compensate “waspi” women who missed out on money because changes to the pension age.
More details here:
Jeremy Corbyn refuses four times to apologise for his handling of antisemitism during interview
Labour leader faces challenge after chief rabbi said he was unfit to be prime ministerLabour spokesman: ‘Of course we’re sorry’
Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said “of course we’re sorry for the hurt caused” as he was pressed over the Labour’s handling of antisemitism.
Burgon, the Labour candidate for Leeds East, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Jeremy has apologised on a number of occasions and said that he’s sorry for the very real hurt felt by people in the Jewish community. So, on a number of occasions last summer for example, he has made those statements and it’s right that he did.”
Pressed to apologise: “Well, look, of course we're sorry for the hurt caused.”
He added: “Jeremy’s already said that the Labour Party’s processes were wrong, they weren't swift enough, they weren't hard enough, that's been proved and that's right.
“Of course we’re sorry, but the point I was making as well, and that Jeremy was making last night, is that a Labour government will be taking action to rebuild trust with the Jewish community and protect all communities.”
Record number register to vote after huge last minute spike
A record number of people registered to vote on the final day applications were open, with a huge last-minute spike taking the number of people who registered on Tuesday to just over 659,000.
The previous record for a single day was ahead of the 2017 election when just over 622,000 registered.
Most significantly, perhaps, around 450,000 of those people were under the age of 35 – the demographic most likely to vote Labour. Could this be the youthquake Jeremy Corbyn is looking for?
Record number of people register to vote on deadline day after huge last-minute spike
A record number of people registered to vote on the final day applications were openAlmost £200,000 spent on traffic cones for Brexit day
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed the cost of the government’s Operation Brock – a plan put in place on the motorway in Kent coast used by heavy goods vehicles.
According to the Politics Home website, the amount spend putting out traffic cones on the M20 on 28 October, three days before the UK was set to exit the EU, was £107,000.
The government spent another £88,000 “deactivating” it the next day.
Minister wants Tory Islamophobia review ‘by end of this year’
The housing minister Robert Jenrick insisted the Tories “will take the steps that are required” following a proposed inquiry into party discrimination. He said he wanted to see it in place by the end of 2019
Asked about criticism by the Muslim Council of Britain over the party’s handling of Islamophobia, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We want to be a party that has no tolerance whatsoever of racism, prejudice or discrimination of any kind.
“I want to see by the end of this year, as the Prime Minister’s promised, a thorough review of prejudice and racism and discrimination within the party.
“This will be a very thorough investigation led by independent individuals and the findings of it will be put into the public domain. So yes, I hope it will lay out the facts with regard to the Conservative Party’s record on discrimination of any kind and we will take the steps that are required.”
The 25 key seats where tactical voting could make a second referendum happen
Campaigners for a second Brexit referendum have released a list of 25 key election seats where tactical voting could block a Conservative majority and pave the way for the matter to be put back to the people.
The new Vote for a Final Say group is recommending that pro-referendum voters back Labour candidates in 17 constituencies, Liberal Democrats in seven and the Scottish National Party in one.
Our political editor has all the details:
25 key seats where tactical voting could make a second Brexit referendum happen
New campaign urges Remain supporters to make their votes count'He lied to the Queen’: Lib Dems target Boris Johnson with new posters
The Liberal Democrats have gone on the attack on Boris Johnson personally, with new general election posters accusing the prime minister of lying to the Queen and parliament – and being in league with Donald Trump and Nigel Farage on Brexit.
The posters, which focus on the question of trust, will be displayed in target seats which Jo Swinson’s party believes it can win from the Conservatives to deny Johnson the overall majority he craves.
Liberal Democrats target Boris Johnson with new election posters accusing PM of lying to the Queen
Election ad shows prime minister with Trump and Farage, asking: 'Brexit's good for them, how is it for you?'Corbyn to discuss NHS, while Johnson talks mobile phone reception
So what’s on the schedule for Wednesday? Jeremy Corbyn will hope to get his campaign back on track when he makes a statement on the NHS during a speech in London. The Labour leader will later travel to the south-west for a rally about climate change.
Boris Johnson will also be campaigning in the south west, where he will promise to tackle the scourge of poor mobile phone reception in rural areas through a deal under which phone companies will share masts and infrastructure.
As for the Liberal Democrats, former top Tory Lord Heseltine will join Chuka Umunna and Sam Gyimah for a press conference about Brexit in London.
Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, will launch the SNP’s general election manifesto in Glasgow. She’s expected to say that “a vote for the SNP is a vote to escape Brexit” and stop Johnson getting a majority.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage will visit Doncaster to speak alongside some of his outfit’s local candidates.
Corbyn vs Neil: Redefining the interview genre
Our sketch writer Tom Peck has dissected Jeremy Corbyn’s “difficult” interview with Andrew Neil.
He thinks it contained so many horrors, “it can only really be compared to a montage that has now been quite rightly taken off YouTube, featuring all the horrific injuries suffered by various contestants on Channel 4’s ill-considered extreme sports celebrity show The Jump.”
Read more here:
Corbyn hails 4.1m who registered to vote since end of October
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has thanked those who encouraged people to register to vote, after the deadline passed on Tuesday night.
Corbyn tweeted: “4.1 million registered to vote in the last five weeks, compared to 2.9 million in the same period in 2017. Thank you to the enormous efforts of people across our country who made this happen. Real change is coming.”
Over 2.5m young people have registered to vote since election called
Our friends at Statista have taken a look at the record voter registration surge following last night’s deadline.
More than 2.5m people signing up since the election was called are under the age of 35 – around two-thirds of the total.
Islamophobia ‘tolerated’ by the Tories, says MCB
The Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Miqdaad Versi said “people don’t have any trust” in the Tory party’s handling of the issue, adding: “Islamophobia is a specific problem within the Conservative party.”
He told the BBC: “There’s unfortunately a structural problem with Islamophobia within the Conservative Party, where ... Islamophobia is not only tolerated, but people who have engaged in Islamophobia in different ways are let back into the party. If any action is taken in the first place and when they are secretly let back in, we don't know about it.
“There’s no transparency, the processes themselves are not clear and unfortunately people don't have any trust in the way that things happen.
“What we need is transparency, what we need is trust being built up, and we can’t have this deceit where even actually the prime minister goes around saying ‘there’s zero tolerance, people are out on the first bounce’. There’s just example after example after example that that’s not the case.”
Asked if the Equality and Human Rights Commission should investigate the party’s processes, he said: “They definitely need to look at this.”
Housing minister Robert Jenrick said earlier he hoped the Conservatives would launch a review into “prejudice and racism and discrimination” within the party by the end of the year.
Corbyn claims Labour has ‘unredacted documents’ showing NHS is on the table for post-Brexit trade deals
Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on the NHS began with a video with about talks between UK officials and US drug companies – and clip of Trump saying the NHS is “on the table”.
Corbyn says Labour has obtained “451 pages of unredacted documents” about the role of the NHS in future trade deals – and he holds up the government’s redacted version as comparison.
The Labour leader said: “These uncensored documents leave Boris Johnson’s denials in tatters.”
Corbyn claims any NHS deal with US will ‘put lives at risk’
Jeremy Corbyn and shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner has been answering questions about what they claim to have found – after several NHS staff members hand out the 451 pages of the “unredacted” documents.
Corbyn that the meetings between UK and US government officials took place in Washington and London from July 2017 to “just a few months ago”.
“We are talking here about secret talks for a deal with Donald Trump after Brexit,” he said.
On medicine pricing, the Labour leader said discussions had already been concluded between the two sides on lengthening patents.
“Longer patents can only mean one thing - more expensive drugs. Lives will be put at risk as a result of this,” he said.
Despite wanting to talk about the NHS, the Labour leader is also asked about antisemitism. He pledges that he will lead “the most anti-racist government you’ve ever seen.
PM’s ‘new’ Tory manifesto plan for mobile phone blackspots was agreed in last parliament
Boris Johnson is under fire for hailing a “new” £1bn plan to end poor mobile signals after it emerged the deal was struck in the last parliament.
Countryside areas would no longer be dogged by so-called ‘not spots’ through a plan for companies to create a “shared rural network” by 2025, the PM said.
But it was pointed out that the agreement with the mobile phone firms had been reached last month.
All the details here:
Boris Johnson's 'new' plan for mobile phone blackspots was actually agreed in last parliament
Conservatives have also 'watered down' Boris Johnson’s pledge to deliver full-fibre broadband to every homeTory candidate calls on PM to apologise for comments about Muslim women
Parvez Akhtar, the Tory candidate for Luton South, has called on Boris Johnson to apologise over his comments about Muslim women – and demands an inquiry into Islamophobia in the party.
He refers to the “hurt and anger caused” by the PM’s own statements about Muslim women (he described hijab-wearing women as resembling “letterboxes”) in his statement – and said it reinforced the “widely held view that the Conservative Party has a blind spot when it comes to Muslims”.
Momentum says 120,000 registered to vote through its Facebook ads
The left-wing, Corbyn-backing Momentum group said just over 122,900 people registered to vote via its voter registration adverts on Facebook between the start of the election campaign and the registration deadline on Tuesday evening.
The campaign group said more than 100,000 of those who registered through Momentum were under the age of 35 – almost all of whom were in marginal constituencies.
Laura Parker, Momentum’s national co-ordinator, said: “People of all ages who have never voted before now have a reason to. They have a chance to break with nine years of the same old Tories running the country into the ground by voting for real change with Labour. December 12 could be the date of the biggest establishment upset in British political history.”
Sturgeon will demand ‘Scotland’s NHS’ protected from US trade deals
Nicola Sturgeon has claimed her party can stop the Conservatives “selling off Scotland’s NHS” under any future trade deal with the US.
Speaking at her party’s manifesto launch in Glasgow, Scotland’s first minister said: “A vote for the SNP is a vote to stop the Tories selling off Scotland’s NHS.”
She said there would be “worse to come” if Johnson remained PM, adding: “This is just the start. Brexit is nowhere near being done. The Tories have barely got going.
“Because of Johnson’s hardline position there’s every chance that the UK could leave without a trade deal next year.” Sturgeon added that, even if Johnson gets the deal he wants before the December 2020 deadline, it will “be a nightmare”.
Sturgeon said her party pledged a second referendum on Brexit while attacking the Labour leader's plans for a neutral stance. “Jeremy Corbyn, incredibly, says that he is neutral on the issue of Leave or Remain … he would be happy to sit back and see Scotland taken out of the EU, even if there is a majority for Remain in Scotland but not in the UK.”
She reiterated her assertion that Brexit will “dominate” Westminster in the coming years, adding that “Scotland will pay a heavy price for the Tories’ Brexit obsession.”
Sturgeon said she was open to forming a “progressive alliance” with other parties following the election. She said: “There is every chance that the SNP could hold the balance of power at Westminster.
“Unlike the Liberal Democrats, the SNP will never, ever help the Tories into government, but we will be prepared to talk to other parties about forming a progressive alliance.”
Andy Burnham will campaign for Leave
The mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has become the first senior Labour figure to indicate he will campaign for Leave if the party succeeds in forcing a fresh Brexit referendum.
Burnham broke with colleagues – most of whom are committed to backing Remain – to say it would be in “the public interest” to leave the EU with a new, better deal.
“If we get a deal that, you know, keeps us pretty close, with a customs union, I think the public interest will lie, in my view, in supporting that and helping the country move forward,” Burnham said.
Our deputy political editor has the details:
