Hundreds of protesters marched to Buckingham Palace to protest Donald Trump's presence in London, amid fears for the future of the NHS.
Demonstrators, including some NHS staff, joined anti-war activists on the march as Nato leaders were hosted by the Queen.
It came after Jeremy Corbyn wrote to Mr Trump demanding he take the NHS “off the table” in any post-Brexit trade deal, though the president claimed the US wanted “nothing to do with [the NHS]”.
Earlier on Tuesday Dominic Raab admitted the US would be able to ramp up the cost of drugs bought by the NHS after Britain leaves the EU.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the general election campaign, with only nine days until we go to the polls.
Raab admits co-authoring pamphlet which said two-thirds of NHS hospitals should be privatised
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has claimed the Tories have no plans to privatise the NHS.
But he has been asked about his involvement in writing a paper advocating a system in which two-thirds of hospitals were run privately, he said: “You’ve picked probably a snippet from a pamphlet written a long time ago, but I can tell you categorically I’ve never advocated privatisation of the NHS.”
On trade talks with the US, Raab also told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “[We’re] absolutely clear there’s going to be no privatisation of the NHS under the Conservatives’ watch or this prime minister’s watch.
“In relation to drugs, there’s going to be no dilution of our protection of consumers in this country. Obviously we want the cheapest and highest quality medicines coming into the NHS, there's going to be no dilution of our position on that whatsoever.”
Corbyn writes to Trump demanding ‘urgent clarity’ over NHS
Jeremy Corbyn has written a letter to Donald Trump demanding he will not try to push medicine prices up through a post-Brexit trade deal.
To mark the US president’s arrival in London for the start of the Nato summit, Corbyn has written to him asking for “urgent” reassurances his administration will not try to include selling higher-priced US drugs to the NHS on its trade wish list.
The Labour leader wrote: “As you will know, the potential impact of any future UK-US trade agreement on our National Health Service and other vital public services is of profound concern to the British public.
“A critical issue in this context is the cost of drugs to our NHS. The cost of patented drugs in the US is approximately 2.5 times higher than in the UK, and the price of the top 20 medicines is 4.8 times higher than in the UK.
“Any increase in the NHS drugs bill would be an unacceptable outcome of US-UK trade negotiations,” he added: “Yet you have given a number of clear and worrying indications that this is exactly what you hope to achieve.”
Corbyn also said: “The British public need urgent clarity that our NHS is genuinely off the table.”
Johnson hopes Trump will avoid election talk during trip
Boris Johnson has made clear his hope that Donald Trump will steer clear of commentary on British politics during his two-day visit for a meeting of Nato leaders – and Downing Street has yet to confirm any one-on-one meeting between the pair.
But when the president faces the press following the meeting in a Hertfordshire country hotel on Wednesday, he will inevitably face questions on his view of the election, the ongoing Brexit process and the highly sensitive issue of whether the NHS should be on the table in trade talks between the UK and US.
Our political editor has more on the US president’s trip:
Trump's UK visit could shake up the election campaign
Prime minister hopes US president will stay out of battle for 12 December ballotUEFA president accuses Johnson of hypocrisy over racism
Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA, has criticised Boris Johnson when asked about racism in football.
“The situation in Europe is more and more tense,” said Ceferin in an interview with The Daily Mirror. “When you see high politicians, prime ministers - when you see presidents of republics who are racists, who were sexist, you see that something is wrong.”
Referring to Johnson, he said: “When a politician that calls women with burqas post boxes or mailboxes then says publicly that he condemns you UEFA – do you reply to that? Do you believe it’s honest? Come on.”
Johnson called on UEFA to crack down on racism after the England team was subjected to abuse during a European Championship qualifier in Bulgaria in October.
But Ceferin said: “if you see an idiot from the streets shouting you say: ‘Okay, put him in prison’ … But when politicians start speaking they are not punished. And we have that in Europe a lot more and more as more and more.”
Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans will cost economy up to £20bn a year, report warns
“Getting Brexit” on the terms of the Tory manifesto will inflict a hit of up to £20bn a year on government finances, rising as high as £28bn if the UK crashes out of the EU without a trade deal, a new report has warned.
Analysis by the UK in a Changing Europe (UKCE) think tank estimated that Labour’s softer proposed withdrawal deal would deliver a positive fiscal impact of £2-£12bn
The Lib Dem plan to halt Brexit altogether would provide a “Remain bonus” worth £12bn a year to government coffers.
Our political editor has all the details:
Boris Johnson's Brexit plans will cost UK economy up to £20bn a year, report warns
Tory manifesto plans mean Brexit uncertainty and risk no-deal crash-out at end of 2020, says think tankTrump threat to the NHS ‘very real,’ says SNP
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There is no question that if there is to be a trade deal with North America that drugs would have to be part of that.”
He added: “One of the things that we’ve asked is that we bring forward a bill to the House of Commons, an NHS protection bill, that would specifically protect the NHS from any negative consequences of a US trade deal.”
The US, he said, would have an “awful lot of clout and power” in those talks, adding: “We know these things are very real, we know there is a threat to the NHS.”
Questioned on the SNP's health record, Blackford argued: “There is a challenge that all governments face over national health, but the fact is that our performance in Scotland is far superior than that of the rest of the UK.”
He added: “With Boris Johnson there's a threat that we have anyway, a threat of taking us out of the EU and as a consequence of that, a trade deal that would divert resources that we need for front line spending away from that into additional costs for drugs if he does a deal with Donald Trump.”
Donald Trump says he will meet with Boris Johnson – and says PM doing ‘good job’
Donald Trump is answering reporters’ questions now about his two-day visit to the UK.
Asked about the election and whether he will be meeting Boris Johnson, he said: “It’s going to be a very important election for this, but I have no thoughts on it, but I will be meeting with him, yes.”
He said he was unsure when and where they would meet. “I have a lot of meetings.”
Asked why he is staying out of the election, Trump said: “Because I don’t want to complicate it.”
He added: “I’ll stay out of the election. You know that I was a fan of Brexit. I called it the day before,” he said.
Trump added: “I think Boris is very capable and I think he'll do a good job.”
The PM had made clear he had hoped the president will steer clear of any commentary on the campaign. Downing Street has yet to confirm any one-on-one meeting between the pair.
Trump says US wants ‘nothing to do’ with NHS – despite previous claim it was ‘on the table’
Asked about the controversy over the NHS and a potential UK-US trade deal, Donald Trump has denied wanting any part of the British health service.
He told reporters: “I have nothing to do with it, never even thought about it honestly – we have enough … Look, we are going to have a great healthcare system, we’re doing great heath care work, we’ve got things really running well.”
“If you handed it [the NHS] to us on a silver platter, we would want nothing to do with it.”
Trump previously publicly stated: “When you’re dealing in trade everything is on the table – the NHS or anything else.”
Trump also said he could “work with anybody” when asked whether he could work with Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. He replied: “I can work with anybody, I’m a very easy person to work with.”
500 NHS workers ask Trump to take NHS ‘off the table completely’
More than 500 NHS doctors, nurses and other workers have written to Donald Trump to ask him to take the health service off the table during UK-US trade talks.
In a letter sent to the US president as he travelled to the UK, the medics asked him to “rule out once and for all any increases to the cost of US drugs for our NHS and any trade deals that include NHS contracts”.
More details here:
500 NHS workers ask Trump to take NHS 'off the table completely' in trade talks as US president arrives in London
Jeremy Corbyn also urges Boris Johnson to halt negotiations following claims that NHS is ‘up for sale’Corbyn says he would speak to Trump about NHS – if they meet at Buckingham Palace
Jeremy Corbyn has said he will tell Donald Trump he does not want US companies running the NHS if they meet at Buckingham Palace during the Nato reception this evening.
Asked what he would say under the circumstances, the Labour leader said: “That obviously we want a good relationship with the USA but the trade talks that have been undertaken by the government have been done in secret and we do not accept any idea of US companies coming in to run our NHS or the idea of extending the patents of medicine that will increase the costs for our NHS.”
Asked what he would say to Trump over security matters and Nato, Corbyn said: “That we need to live in a world of peace, we need to live in a world that includes dialogue and we need to improve the dialogue with Russia whilst at the same time being critical of their human rights record.”
Corbyn has dismissed Boris Johnson’s claims that he sides with “our enemies” as “complete nonsense”. Asked about the PM’s allegation, the Labour leader said: “Not for the first time Boris Johnson is talking complete nonsense.”
Corbyn was speaking after launching his party’s manifesto on workers’ rights.
Leaked NHS document reveals plan to use cheaper staff to fill nurse vacancies
A leaked NHS document reveals that government plans to grow the number of nurses rely on using 10,000 cheaper and less qualified staff.
Even then, the health service will still be more than 20,000 nurses short of what is needed in five years’ time, according to the file seen by the Health Service Journal and The Independent, for the as yet unpublished NHS People Plan.
The projections could be problematic for Boris Johnson, who has promised 50,000 more nurses by 2024 – although 18,500 of these are existing staff he hopes to retain.
Our health correspondent has the details:
Leaked NHS document reveals government plan to use cheaper staff to fill nurse vacancies
Internal NHS plan reveals 10,000 less qualified staff will be recruited to reduce demand for registered nursesPM’s Marr interview prompts so many complaints the BBC site directs people to specific link
So many people have complained about Boris Johnson’s interview by Andrew Marr that the BBC’s website is now making it easier for viewers to criticise the presenter.
Those visiting the Beeb’s complaints page since are greeted with a message at the top featuring a link to a form in which viewers can raise objections specifically around The Andrew Marr Show.
The interview on Sunday prompted widespread criticism, with many suggesting the PM had not been challenged properly on false claims.
More details here:
Boris Johnson's Marr interview prompts so many complaints BBC website encourages people to criticise its own presenter
System appears intended to make it easier to follow BBC’s responseDavid Gauke does impression of supporter Ken Clarke
The former Tory minister David Gauke recently caused some moderate amusement when he posted a video of his dad endorsing him as the independent candidate for South West Hertfordshire.
Gauke has now announced, in another moderately amusing video, that he’s got the endorsement of “all round good egg” and fellow rebel Ken Clarke.
He does a fairly good impersonation of Clarke as he reads out a message of support.
Boris Johnson told he has dandruff
The prime minister was given tips about looking smart while visiting veterans living near Salisbury.
“You’ve got dandruff on you,” Paul O’Rourke told Johnson as they chatted either side of the window of his room.
The 56-year-old, who served in the Royal Irish Rangers, said afterwards: “Someone had to say something.”
O’Rourke had explained how he previously lived in a tent before arriving at the Wilton Veterans Hub in recent days.
‘Obviously I’m very sorry,’ says Corbyn on antisemitism
Jeremy Corbyn has been asked about antisemitism and the London Bridge attack by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on ITV’s This Morning.
Asked by Willoughby about antisemitism and why “sorry seemed to be the hardest word” for him to say on the issue, Corbyn said: “It’s not at all.”
Challenged repeatedly by Schofield why he did not simply say sorry, Corbyn said: “Our party and me do not accept antisemitism in any form... obviously I’m very sorry for everything that has happened.
“But I want to make this very clear: I am dealing with it, I have dealt with it, other parties are also affected by antisemitism.
“Candidates have been withdrawn by the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives and by us because of it. We just do not accept it in any form whatsoever.”
Accepting the Labour government had introduced the system of automatic early release – under which London Bridge attacker Usman Khan was released – Corbyn said: “My own view of it is there should be a proper psychological profile before release and the parole board involved.”
The This Morning hosts also asked about the veracity of the leaked document detailing UK-US trade negotiations over the health service. The Labour leader said: “No minister has claimed it is inaccurate.”
Hugh Grant and the Lib Dems: is the rom-com over?
The actor Hugh Grant has been out campaigning for Jo Swinson’s party this week – but has also urged voters to think tactically to give Remain candidates the best chance of winning.
The star has just tweeted to complain about a “not true” claim made by the Lib Dems’ official account – “Only the Lib Dems can take seats off the Tories”.
Labour gets huge poll boost in London
Earlier in the campaign there was a lot of talk about a strong Lib Dem support in London, where Jo Swinson has her eye on several Tory seats.
But the latest YouGov poll makes grim reading for Swinson – and very good reading for Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour are up eight points in the capital, while the Lib Dems have slumped by four.
Tory party’s complaint about Channel 4 climate debate ice sculpture rejected by Ofcom
Ofcom has rejected a complaint made by the Conservatives over Channel 4’s use of an ice sculpture to replace Boris Johnson during its recent climate change debate.
Ofcom said it had decided the broadcaster’s “use of editorial techniques ensured that the Conservative’s viewpoint on climate and environmental issues was adequately reflected and given due weight”.
“The Committee also took into account that the globe ice sculpture was not a representation of the Prime Minister personally, and little editorial focus was given to it, either visually or in references made by the presenter or debate participants.”
Tory minister admits US could increase drug prices
Dominic Raab has admitted the US will be able to ramp up the cost of drugs bought by the NHS after Brexit – but claimed the prospect is “hugely unlikely”.
Asked if the US would be free to “jack up prices”, the foreign secretary replied: “The Americans will take their decisions.”
He then claimed: “I think it’s hugely unlikely, why would they do that?” – prompting Sky News host Adam Boulton to say: “To get money that’s why.”
Earlier admitted co-authoring a pamphlet that advocated increased privatisation of the NHS, as he was challenged on the issue during a live radio interview.
