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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Andrew Sparrow, Simon Murphy, Kate Lyons and Kevin Rawlinson

World leaders gather at Buckingham Palace before Nato summit – as it happened

Trump and Queen
Donald Trump, with his wife Melania, meet the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Photograph: Reuters

Closing summary

That’s all from us for this evening. If you’d like to read more on today’s Nato reception, my colleague Caroline Davies has the full story:

And Andrew Sparrow has put together this detailed summary of the day’s politics news:

The faking of an email that was used to back up the Lib Dems’ claims in a row with a news website over an embarrassing story was “utterly unacceptable”, the party’s leader has said.

A senior member of the party’s campaign team was suspended over the debacle last week.

This evening, the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has said:

Clearly, as has been reported, that there was an email that was sent ... which was inaccurate, which was faked and that is not acceptable.

There is an investigation. The member of staff has been suspended, and I am not going to comment further on staffing matters. There is an investigation.

That particular incident is absolutely unacceptable and that’s why we have taken the swift action and are investigating.

We reported earlier that the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, had said he was planning to confront Donald Trump over the plausibility of his assurances on the NHS during a reception at Buckingham Palace this evening (see: 2.44pm).

There was some skepticism about whether or not Corbyn would be able to address the subject with Trump and the Guardian now understands he did not get the opportunity to do so.

Updated

Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, were left out in the cold outside No 10 as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, were invited to go inside ahead of them.

The world leaders arrived at the Downing Street reception together in the US president’s car, the Beast, this evening. A choir ran through Christmas songs as guests began arriving, including Hark the Herald Angel, Walking in a Winter Wonderland and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, had arrived about 20 minutes earlier, followed shortly after by Justin Trudeau, then Angela Merkel, who stopped to admire the choir.

The US president and first lady paused on the steps of No 10 for photographs but did not speak before entering.

The prime minister has met the German chancellor and the French and Turkish presidents this evening to discuss Syria, Libya and counter-terrorism. A Downing Street spokesman said:

The leaders discussed the broad strategic, economic and defence partnerships between their countries and agreed the importance of further deepening these, including through Nato.

On Syria, the leaders agreed that humanitarian access, including cross-border, must be ensured and that a UN needs assessment should form the basis for getting aid to those who require it in the north-east.

The leaders said they would work to create the conditions for the safe, voluntary and sustainable return of refugees and that the fight must be continued against terrorism in all its forms.

They also agreed that all attacks against civilians in Syria, including those in Idlib, must stop. They noted their support to the constitutional committee process and the importance of UNSCR 2254.

On Libya, the leaders reiterated their support for SRSG Salame [special envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salamé] to move forward a Libyan-owned political process, facilitated by the United Nations and supported by the Berlin Format.

The leaders agreed that meetings in this format should continue.

Updated

This is Kevin Rawlinson taking over the liveblog for the evening.

My colleague Vikram Dodd has this report on the damning comments of the former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, Robert Quick, who attacks the prime minister for peddling “cliches” about sentencing laws after last Friday’s terror attack. Quick says cuts to police numbers have played the greater role in jeopardising public safety.

Afternoon summary

  • Donald Trump has sought to counter Labour claims that the NHS would be at risk under a UK-US trade deal by saying he would not want it even “on a silver platter”. With the election just over a week away, the Tories have been worried that any overt endorsement of Boris Johnson by the US president could backfire. But they have also been anxious for him to respond to Jeremy Corbyn’s much-repeated allegation (which clearly has some traction with the public) that a Trump trade deal would pose a threat to the NHS, particularly via possible higher drugs prices. As a result, in an extended press briefing this morning, Trump staged an intervention in the election - while claiming to be doing the opposite. The intervention came when he was asked if the NHS should be included in trade negotiations. He replied:

No, not at all, I have nothing to do with it. Never even thought about it, honestly ...

I don’t even know where that rumour started. We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter, we want nothing to do with it.

This was, of course, disingenuous because one person who started the rumour was Trump himself, when he said in a press conference in the UK in June that “everything is on the table ... NHS or anything else”. Given Trump’s reputation when it comes to honesty, his assurance may have little or no impact on public opinion, and it ignores the granular detail of how a trade deal could impact negatively on British healthcare (which almost certainly would not involve US companies buying NHS hospitals). But, for the Conservatives, it is at least a quote they can use.

On broader electoral issues, Trump ostensibly avoided the temptation to take sides. He claimed that he had “no thoughts” on the election and, although he said he thought Johnson was “very capable”, he also said he could work with Corbyn if he became prime minister. Asked about this, he replied:

I can work with anybody. I’m a very easy person to work with. You wouldn’t believe it.

This was also disingenuous because, only a few weeks ago, Trump had very clear thoughts on the election: he thought Corbyn would be “bad” for the UK, and he wanted Johnson to align with Nigel Farage. In a rare display of self-awareness that helped to explain his relative reticence, Trump also told the press conference today that intervening in the election would not be helpful because in Britain “they may not like me”.

During his day in London Trump also managed to send share prices falling around the world, by saying a trade deal with China might be more than a year away, and to traduce the French president, Emmanuel Macron (for being rude about Nato, of all things - even Trump himself once called it “obsolete”). So, on the Trump mayhem front, the UK got off quite lightly.

That’s all from me for this evening.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

Updated

The BBC’s Andrew Neil has said the Tories are still refusing to suggest a date for his proposed interview with Boris Johnson.

Anti-Trump protesters in Trafalgar Square this afternoon.
Anti-Trump protesters in Trafalgar Square this afternoon. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/PA

These are from my colleague Damien Gayle, who is covering the anti-Trump protest in London this afternoon.

And Sky’s Sam Coates has the latest YouGov polling.

Here are three polling-related stories/blogs that are worth reading.

In a big squeeze on smaller parties as polling day draws closer, Labour appears to be taking votes from the Liberal Democrats and Brexit party, which have both lost support.

Labour’s lead in the capital has improved to 17 points, according to the YouGov survey commissioned by Queen Mary University of London’s Mile End Institute, and its leader’s image has improved.

But the poll marks a significant decline compared with its 22-point lead in the capital at the 2017 general election, putting at least two Labour marginal seats in danger.

This table has the figures.

Polling in London.
Polling in London. Photograph: Evening Standard

After weeks of what looked like noise within the margin of error – thanks in part to the fact that very few pollsters are now doing polls more than once a week, which makes it difficult to draw out trends – we can now say with certainty that Labour are gaining ground in the polls. They are not doing so at the rate they did at the last election yet, and the Conservatives remain ahead in the polls, but there is a clear trend: of Labour gaining ground thanks to defections from the Liberal Democrats and Greens.

As I’ve written repeatedly, you should pay very little attention to the headline figures, because they might be wildly wrong in either direction. As it stands, we are a normal-sized polling error – that is to say, if either or both of the parties are being systematically under- or over-estimated by three percentage points – from either a Labour minority government or a Conservative landslide.

Johnson’s lead over Jeremy Corbyn on who would make the best prime minister has widened slightly to 17 points (44% to 27%) from 15 points last week. The proportion of Labour leavers naming Johnson is up slightly from last week at 40%, though still lower than when the campaign began. 84% of 2017 Conservatives name Johnson as the better of the two, while just 55% of 2017 Labour voters name Corbyn.

Leadership polling
Leadership polling. Photograph: Lord Ashcroft polls

The changes marked in the chart are from last week.

Updated

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

Boris Johnson floated the idea of introducing charges for the NHS, including for ambulance visits, in a Spectator column in 1995, Business Insider’s Adam Bienkov has revealed. In his story Bienkov reports:

“If NHS services continue to be free in this way, they will continue to be abused, like any free service,” [Johnson] wrote in the Spectator magazine in 1995.

“If people have to pay for them, they will value them more.”

He added that those who say “the future NHS should be for those who are genuinely sick, and for the elderly,” are “bang on the nail.”

Writing about his own experience of calling for an ambulance for one of his children, who then turned out not to be seriously ill, he asked: “Why should I not be charged, say, £50 for that inglorious episode, a fraction of its real cost?”

Johnson added that “it seems reasonable that the middle classes should be required to stump up for non-essential services they can well afford.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has claimed that this proves Johnson has “extremist views on the NHS” and that he does not support the NHS being free at the point of use.

At the time Johnson wrote the Spectator article he was not an MP. He has not expressed views like this recently, and the Conservative manifesto describes the NHS as representing “the best of this country”, particularly because it is free at the point of use.

Updated

Swinson says Trump cannot be trusted when he gives assurances about NHS

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, has said that she does not trust Donald Trump when he says that he does not want the NHS to be included in a UK-US trade deal. (See 10.15am.) Responding to what Trump said this morning, and referring to what the president said in a press conference in Britain in the summer, she said:

[Trump] said something different earlier in the year when he said it would certainly be on the table. So, I think he is hardly somebody who is known for you being able to trust what they say.

Swinson also suggested that Trump’s comments this morning had been coordinated with No 10. Asked if she thought they had been agreed with Downing Street, she replied:

We can just remember what it was like when Trump went on Nigel Farage’s radio show and said that he wanted Farage and Johnson to do a deal, and a few days after that that’s exactly what happened ...

I’m sure they have had conversations whether he will be helpful or not during the time that he is here.

Jo Swinson on the Lib Dem campaign bus.
Jo Swinson on the Lib Dem campaign bus. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Updated

At a campaign event in Perth, where the SNP’s Pete Wishart is hoping to increase his majority of 23 votes over the Tories, I witnessed a phenomenon that it’s important to register is still ongoing: someone bursting into tears as they get a selfie with Nicola Sturgeon.

“How can you not love her?” asked a tearful June Abbott, 69, a long-time independence supporter after the first minister had apologised for making her cry. “She just feels like she’s one of us.”

As cheering activists congregated around Wishart and Sturgeon at the city street stall, many reported what they believe is a change in mood towards their party since the last election campaign. The presence of a Brexit party candidate, who locals say has not been particularly visible, certainly helps in terms of hoovering up some former Tory voters, but Wishart himself was in buoyant mood, telling journalists that the two words doing best on the doorstep were “Boris” and “Johnson” in terms of winning SNP votes.

Speaking to reporters during the visit, Sturgeon repeated concerns that Scotland’s NHS was “on the line” if a Tory-Trump post-Brexit trade deal were to take place.

Asked about continuing concerns from the Scottish Jewish community about the SNP propping up a Corbyn minority administration, she said that she had yet to watch Corbyn’s earlier remarks on antisemitism (see 11.32am), but added:

My position is clear. We take action, as we did last week with a candidate [suspending Neale Hanvey, the SNP candidate for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, after allegedly antisemitic social media posts came to light] where there is a need to do that. I am not responsible for Jeremy Corbyn’s actions or lack of action, but my position on antisemitism is clear and I think for people who are worried about Corbyn on any issue, far better to have strong, progressive SNP influence on a Labour government, if there is to be a Labour government after this election, than not.

Nicola Sturgeon posing for a selfie with a supporter in Perth.
Nicola Sturgeon posing for a selfie with a supporter in Perth. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Updated

Boris Johnson is only PM because of me, says Farage

Speaking at a rally in Bassetlaw earlier Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, claimed that his decision to stand down candidates in Tory-held constituencies might have cost up to 24 seats. He said:

If we had stood against the Conservatives in those seats, I think you’d have seen two dozen more Liberal Democrats led by Jo Swinson.

Farage also claimed that he deserved the credit for Johnson becoming prime minister. He said:

The only reason Boris is prime minister is because, earlier this year, I had had enough. After the launch of the Brexit party in Coventry in April ... we managed to get rid of the worst prime minister we have ever seen.

Interesting, this analysis is one that Johnson shares himself. In their excellent new book about the Theresa May premiership, May at 10, Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell quote what Johnson said to his supporter Conor Burns on the day of the final ballot of MPs in the summer leadership contest. Johnson said:

There are two people I credit for my emergence as frontrunner: Theresa May for her failure to deliver, and Nigel Farage, who exploited the position left by her failure to deliver.

If you can bear reliving the last three years, May at 10 is well worth reading. Some of the revelations are extraordinary.

Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor, has posted a very good thread on Twitter explaining the extent to which drug prices would be an issue in a UK-US trade deal. It starts here.

And here are his conclusions.

From the Times’ Steven Swinford

Corbyn expresses doubts about Trump's NHS assurance ahead of possible Buckingham Palace encounter tonight

Here are the main points from what Jeremy Corbyn said in his interview with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 earlier about President Trump and the NHS.

  • Corbyn said he hoped to be able to tell President Trump tonight that the NHS would not be for sale in UK-US trade talks. The two men are both attending a Buckingham Palace reception for the Nato summit. Corbyn said, if he got the chance, he would deliver a message to Trump. Asked what he would say, he replied:

I will say: ‘Welcome to this country. I hope you’ll understand how precious our national health service is, and in any future trade relationship with the USA, none of our public services are on the table, none of our public services are for sale and investor state protection is not acceptable to our government when we’ve won this election.’

Corbyn also stressed that he would be polite. He was “always polite”, he said.

  • Corbyn said he would ask Trump to change the guidelines issued to his trade negotiators to reflect the fact that the NHS was not on the table. Asked what he would say to Trump if Trump told him that he did not want access to the NHS, Corbyn replied:

I will say: ‘Thank you very much. I assume that will now be the basis of your administration’s talks with our Department of [International] Trade.”

  • But Corbyn also expressed scepticism about the assurances that Trump has given on this subject today. Asked about Trump saying this morning that the US would not want access to the NHS, even if that were offered “on a silver platter” (see 10.15am), Corbyn replied:

I’m pleased that he said that. But if that’s the case, why have these talks gone on for two years. Why have they been kept secret? Why was, on a freedom of information request, the document only produced in redacted form? And eventually the full text has been released.

And I think there [are] very, very legitimate grounds for very, very serious concerns.

Corbyn was referring to the talks between UK and US officials described in detail in confidential government papers that were leaked and released by Labour last week. When it was put to him that those papers did not contain evidence of British officials agreeing that the US would get access to the NHS in a trade deal, Corbyn replied:

Clearly [the officials] were working under authority. And clearly there was a serious discussion about the relationship with access to public services and investor state protection, which is a very bad thing, in my view, because it gives multinational companies the power to sue national governments in an international legal process. That’s already happened with Philip Morris tobacco and various governments around the world. I don’t think we want any of that written into any trade agreement we have with another country.

  • Corbyn dismissed the significance of the claim in the Conservative election manifesto that “when we are negotiating trade deals, the NHS will not be on the table.” Asked about this assurance, Corbyn replied:

Well, it absolutely is on the table because they’ve discussed patent extensions. And patents are the things that give us the very high prices for specialist medicines. And if we reduce the length of patents or, if there has been a public investment in those patent researches, we buy that patent, then we get cheaper medicines.

This is what the Tory manifesto says in full on this point:

When we are negotiating trade deals, the NHS will not be on the table. The price the NHS pays for drugs will not be on the table. The services the NHS provides will not be on the table.

  • Corbyn said, if he became prime minister, he would be respectful towards Trump in their dealings. Asked how he would treat the US president, he replied:

I will treat him with respect, as I would everybody else. And also make very clear that any trade relationship with the USA will not involve investor protection for US companies and will absolutely not involve access to our public services, and crucially, of course, our national health service.

Jeremy Corbyn posing for a selfie on a visit to SOAS this morning.
Jeremy Corbyn posing for a selfie on a visit to SOAS this morning.
 Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Updated

And this is from my colleague Rowena Mason, who was with Boris Johnson in Salisbury this morning.

Updated

Boris Johnson visiting a Christmas market in Salisbury this morning.
Boris Johnson visiting a Christmas market in Salisbury this morning. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

From BuzzFeed’s Mark Di Stefano

Q: You have the lowest popularity ratings for a leader since records began. Does that worry you?

Corbyn says he does not comment on polls. He will not start now.

This is not just about him, he says.

He says he has a lot of highly motivated candidates who want to win the election.

The interview is over. Vine says they asked if there was a record Corbyn wanted to play. He says he was told Get Ready, by the Temptations.

Updated

Corbyn says he would be an “honest broker” in a second referendum campaign.

Q: What happens if your team negotiates a fantastic Brexit deal, and you can hardly contain your excitement?

Corbyn says he can contain his excitement in all circumstances.

Q: But what happens if it is so good that you should campaign for it?

Corbyn says he wants the public to take the decision.

Q: In your heart of hearts you are a Brexiter, aren’t you?

Corbyn says he has been accused of many things. He wants a prosperous economy, and for the people to make the final decision.

Q: You are promising lots of free stuff. Can you afford this?

Referring to broadband, Corbyn says this is an essential service.

Q: The IFS says it is unlikely Labour will be able to raise the sums it needs for its plans.

Corbyn says that is what the IFS says. He says Labour thinks it can raise the money. There is a debate to be had about this, he says. He says the Labour party has spoken to the IFS about this.

Q: And, after the manifesto came out, you announced plans to spend £58bn compensating the Waspi women. Where does that money come from?

Corbyn says Labour would use the “headroom” available.

Is it right to break a contract with these women, he asks. He says these women paid into the system expecting a pension.

Q: Shouldn’t Labour have pointed out in the 1990s what the government was doing on this?

Corbyn says Labour has said it will address this, and it will.

Updated

And here are some lines from earlier in the interview.

Jeremy Corbyn's interview on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show

Jeremy Corbyn is being interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 now.

Q: Dave Merritt, whose father Jack was killed in the London Bridge attack, said he did not want politicians to exploit his son’s death. But hasn’t Labour done some of this as well as the Conservatives, by talking about spending cuts?

Corbyn says he met Dave Merritt at the vigil yesterday. He says resources for prisons and the Probation Service are an issue.

Q: But won’t lots of people support the Tory ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ approach?

Corbyn says this would require many more prison places. And eventually prisoners come out.

Q: Doesn’t this case suggest deradicalisation does not work?

Corbyn says the government should not allow prisons to become a breeding ground for extremism.

Updated

'They may not like me' - Trump admits his endorsement may not be helpful in UK

Here is more from what President Trump said in his press briefing earlier.

Asked if he could work with a possible Prime Minister [Jeremy] Corbyn, Trump replied:

I can work with anybody. I’m a very easy person to work with. You wouldn’t believe it.

Trump also seemed to acknowledge that he might not be popular in the UK. This sounded new; on previous visits, he has been keen to boast about how popular he is in the UK. (He isn’t.) In response to a question about the UK election, Trump said in the US, when he endorsed candidates, he helped them win elections. But Britain was different, he said.

I’ve won virtually every race that I’ve participated in [in the US, where he has endorsed candidates.]. But this is a different country.

I say often, in Germany they like Obama. The reason they like Obama is because Obama gave the ship away. He allowed them to take everything. He gave them things that I wouldn’t do. I love Germany, I love this country, I love other countries. But I’m representing the US. So they may not like me because I’m representing us, and I represent us strong. President Obama did not represent us [strongly]; he gave everything away, and he shouldn’t have done that. And that’s why we’re still paying a price for what he did.

So, I’ll stay out of the election.

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney talks with US President Donald Trump at Winfield House this morning.
The White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, talks with the US president, Donald Trump, at Winfield House this morning. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Updated

Ofcom rejects Tory complaint about Channel 4 replacing Johnson with ice sculpture

Channel 4 has been cleared over its use of an ice sculpture to stand in for Boris Johnson during a debate on climate change, Ofcom has said. As PA Media reports, Ofcom said the prop “was not a representation of the prime minister personally”, and that “little editorial focus was given to it, either visually or in references made by the presenter or debate participants”.

The Conservatives complained that the broadcaster failed to allow the former environment secretary Michael Gove to be its representative for the debate, during which party leaders faced questions over how they would tackle climate change.

Rejecting the complaint, Ofcom said:

Broadcasters have editorial freedom in determining the format of any election debate.

Depending on the circumstances, they may choose to proceed without having agreed the participation of a particular political party or politician, providing they take steps to ensure the programme complies with our due impartiality and elections rules.

In this case, the election committee concluded that, across the one-hour debate and a subsequent news programme, Channel 4’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.

The committee therefore considered that this programme, including the use of the ice sculpture, did not raise issues warranting further investigation under our due impartiality and elections rules.

Updated

Johnson describes Labour claims about NHS being under threat from US as 'Bermuda Triangle stuff'

Boris Johnson said he could “categorically rule out” that “any part of the NHS will be on the table in any trade negotiations”, including pharmaceuticals, when he spoke to reporters during a campaign visit to Salisbury this morning. He described Labour claims that the NHS was under threat (see 9.19am) as “pure Loch Ness Monster, Bermuda Triangle stuff”.

Asked if Donald Trump’s support was an embarrassment to him, Johnson said:

On the contrary and I have good relations with Washington, the president, with President Macron, Chancellor Merkel and that’s vital for the UK and we’ll be having a series of meetings – bilateral, trilateral of all kinds – in the course of the next couple of days.

Any readers requiring an explanation of the “Bermuda Triangle” jibe will find one on Wikipedia here. Like many of Johnson’s cultural references, this one relates to something prominent in the media in the 1970s.

Boris Johnson in Salisbury this morning.
Boris Johnson in Salisbury this morning. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

Boris Johnson alongside war veteran James Gammer during a visit to a veterans centre in Salisbury this morning.
Boris Johnson alongside war veteran James Gammer during a visit to a veterans centre in Salisbury this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Almost a third of voters now say they will vote tactically in the election, according to polling carried out for the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), with the proportion rising rapidly.

The polling by BMG found 30% of people said they would be “voting for the best-positioned party/candidate to keep out another party/candidate that I dislike” on 12 December. This is up from 22% saying this at the start of the election campaign, and 24% in a parallel poll last week.

Only 51% of people said they would pick “the candidate/party I most prefer, regardless of how likely they are to win”.

The ERS, which has long campaigned for a move from the first-past-the-post electoral system to a proportional method, said the polling “should sound alarm bells for our democracy”, adding that given the sometimes contradictory advice on who to vote for tactically in different seats, the election could become “a lottery”.

Updated

'Obviously I'm very sorry' - Corbyn on antisemitism in Labour

In his ITV This Morning interview Jeremy Corbyn also said that he was “very sorry” for “everything that has happened” in his party regarding antisemitism.

This came when he came under repeated pressure to say sorry from the presenter, Phillip Schofield. (See 10.56am.) 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.

Corbyn has apologised to the Jewish community several times in the past for his party’s handling of antisemitism, but he caused controversy when he refused to apologise last week when challenged to do so in his interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil.

Updated

That interview was mostly rather bland, but at the end Jeremy Corbyn said something that at face value sounded very interesting.

Phillip Schofield asked:

Would you still be Labour leader at the end of, if you were prime minister, or whatever happens on 12 [December], would you still be Labour leader at the end of the next term?

Corbyn replied:

I hope so, yes, because I feel I’m fit, I feel I’m quite young enough to do the job ... and I’m very determined to carry out what we’ve got there, because we’ve got [to] change our country, we’ve got to change our society, we cannot go on with this massive division between the richest and the poorest, and call ourselves a decent, civilised country. So, I want to help people all across the country. And that’s what I want our government to do. And, do you know what? I’m absolutely looking forward to doing it, starting in Christmas week.

Taken literally, Corbyn seems to be saying he intends to stay on as Labour leader for a full parliamentary term regardless of whether or not he wins the election.

But, taking into account the context (ie, the reference to carrying out the Labour manifesto, and being in government) it seems much more likely that Corbyn was addressing the point about whether he intended to serve a full term as prime minister if he wins the election. (He does - or at least, he always says he does when asked this question.)

There are very few people at the top of the Labour party who would expect him to stay on for another five years as leader if the party loses, and that does not seem to be what he meant to say. But I will ask the party for clarification.

UPDATE: I have amended the paragraph above to say there are very few people at the top of the Labour party who think Jeremy Corbyn could stay on for five years if he loses. The original sentence said that was the view in the party as a whole. It might be, but we don’t know that the membership as a whole thinks on this point, and some members would want Corbyn to stay on for as long as he wanted.

Updated

Q: Aren’t you exhausted by the campaigning?

No, says Corbyn.

He says he believes in public service. He believes in representing people. And he wants to have a society where we don’t have food banks, or child poverty.

He says he is inspired by the wisdom he encounters.

He says he goes around with a note book. He writes notes everywhere he goes. He says everyone you meet knows something you don’t.

Q: What happens if you don’t win?

Corbyn says he intends to win.

Q: But if you don’t?

Corbyn says his principles and life will be the same.

Corbyn says, when he became Labour leader, there were no processes for dealing with antisemitism. He introduced those, plus a fast-track disciplinary system. And a system of education.

He says a rabbi was attacked in north London this week. That was disgusting. He has discussed this with other rabbis, he says.

Q: Will you apologise to the Jewish community for any antisemitism committed by Labour members?

Corbyn starts an explanation.

Schofield intervenes: “Just say sorry.”

Corbyn says he is sorry for what has happened.

He says antisemitism is a poison. You know what happens, from 20th century history, if it is allowed to continue.

Updated

Q: Many people will fear that, if you tax big business more, prices will go up for everyone.

Corbyn says people need higher wages. And we need to so something about child poverty. Raising wages is good, he says.

He says he wants to invest in infrastructure and training.

Q: President Trump said today he wants nothing to do with the NHS. And it has been claimed that you obtained a dossier about UK-US trade talks that the Russians might have helped to publicise.

Corbyn says no one has suggested that that dossier was not accurate.

Trump himself has said in the past that everything would be on the table in trade talks.

Q: Diane Abbott has called for the abolition of groups like MI5. And you have called for similar things?

Corbyn says he is not calling for the abolition of MI5. But he wants these organisations to be accountable.

UPDATE: This question relates to an early day motion that Abbott signed in 1989. Abbott does not back the abolition of MI5 now.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn is being interview now by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.

Q: Boris Johnson says in the Sun today that the country would not be safe with you as PM. Is that true?

Corbyn says his first job as PM would be to keep people safe. That requires more spending on the police. And, internationally, we should not allow there to be vast areas of ungoverned space.

Q: Should terrorists serve life sentences?

Corbyn says it depends what they did. Sentences should be decided by courts. But the Prison Service is woefully underfunded, he says.

He says the lesson from the London Bridge attack is that we need to improve this.

Jeremy Corbyn's interview on ITV's This Morning

Jeremy Corbyn is about to give an interview to ITV’s This Morning.

At his press briefing President Trump was asked about Prince Andrew. Trump claimed he did not know him.

As BuzzFeed’s Mark Di Stafano points out, the picture archive suggests otherwise.

Updated

Trump says Macron's anti-Nato comment 'very, very nasty' as he criticises French president's domestic record

At his press briefing President Trump was most critical of his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, who recently said that Nato was suffering “brain death”.

Trump said Macron’s comments were “very insulting”. He also said has “very surprised” at Macron’s analysis. He said:

Turkey responded by saying that he was brain dead which was interesting ... I heard that President Macron said that Nato was brain dead. I think that is very insulting to a lot of different forces. It has a great purpose.

Trump said Macron was being “very disrespectful” to other members of the Nato alliance members, and he attacked Macron’s own domestic record.

It is a very, very nasty statement. I think they have a very high unemployment rate in France. France is not doing well economically at all.

It is a very tough statement to make when you have such difficulty in France when you look at what is going on with the yellow vests.

They have had a very rough year. You just can’t go around making statements like that about Nato. It is very disrespectful.

Trump is not necessarily the best person to complain about people being rude about Nato. Before he became president, he called the alliance “obsolete” in an interview in 2016. Only this week he also called some of its members “delinquent”.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg (left) with President Trump at Winfield House this morning.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg (left) with President Trump at Winfield House this morning. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

The Trump press briefing is over.

According to Sky, he was only expected to say a few words at what had been billed as essentially a photo opportunity. Instead he took questions for around 50 minutes.

I will be post more from what he said shortly.

What Trump said about NHS and trade deal

This is what President Trump said when he was asked if he thought the NHS should be on the table in trade deals. He replied:

No, not at all, I have nothing to do with it. Never even thought about it, honestly ...

I don’t even know where that rumour started. We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter, we want nothing to do with it.

Donald Trump speaking to the press at Winfield House, the residence of the US ambassador to the UK in Regent’s Park.
Donald Trump speaking to the press at Winfield House, the residence of the US ambassador to the UK in Regent’s Park. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Trump has just been asked if he thinks Jeremy Corbyn needs to do more to tackle the problem of antisemitism in his party. He says he does not know anything about this issue.

What Trump said about UK election and Boris Johnson

This is what President Trump said about the UK election.

I have no thoughts on it. It’s going to be a very important election for this great country, but I have no thoughts on it.

But Trump also said he would be meeting Boris Johnson while he is in the UK for the Nato meeting. Asked if there would be a meeting, he said:

I will be meeting with him, yes ... I have many meetings. I have meetings set up with lots of different countries.

Asked why he was staying out of the election, Trump said:

Because I don’t want to complicate it. I’ll stay out of the election. You know that I was a fan of Brexit. I called it the day before.

I think Boris is very capable and I think he’ll do a good job.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he predicted the result of the Brexit referendum in advance, when he was visiting his golf course in Scotland. As explained here, this is not true.

Updated

Trump defends his policy towards North Korea. He has a good relationship with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, he says. He says if President Obama were still in the White House, the two countries would be at war.

Trump claims he has become “a bigger fan” of Nato because Nato members have been flexible.

He also says Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, is doing a great job.

Stoltenberg is with him at this press briefing at Winfield House, the US ambassador’s residence in London, but Stoltenberg is not getting the chance to say very much because Trump is rambling on at length.

Here is the NHS quote.

Trump claims US wants nothing to do with NHS in trade deal, even if 'handed on silver platter'

Here are more lines from the Trump press briefing.

Donald Trump is speaking to reporters at Winfield House, the US ambassador’s residence, now.

He has also claimed he could work with Jeremy Corbyn. He could work with anyone, he said.

Trump claims he has 'no thoughts' on UK election as he seeks to help Johnson by not backing him

This is from CNN’s White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins.

As Rowena Mason and Heather Stewart report in their overnight story, No 10 has been very anxious for Trump to avoid doing or saying anything that would be seen as an endorsement of Boris Johnson because, given Trump’s unpopularity in the UK, that would not be helpful. Trump seems to have got the message (although whether he can maintain his self-restraint for two days remains to be seen).

Obviously, the claim that Trump has “no thoughts” on the election is not true. He told LBC in an interview last month that Jeremy Corbyn would be “bad” for the country and that Johnson was a “fantastic man”.

Updated

These are from my colleague Kate Proctor, who has been covering a Jeremy Corbyn event in London this morning.

Corbyn tells Trump to make eight changes to US trade negotiating objectives to protect NHS

Last night Jeremy Corbyn released the text of an open letter he has written to Donald Trump asking for assurances that the NHS, and drug prices in particular, will not be included in the proposed UK-US trade deal. It is one of those letters from politicians clearly not drafted in the expectation that it might receive a reply, but it is interesting nonetheless, particularly for the amount of detail it contains about the eight changes Corbyn wants to the American negotiating objectives for a UK-US trade deal.

Here is the key extract.

To assure the British public that the NHS and other UK public services will not be opened up to “total market access” and irreversible privatisation, and that all aspects of NHS pharmaceuticals procurement will truly be taken off the table in a US-UK trade agreement, I am writing to you today to ask you to request US negotiating objectives are revised as a matter of urgency so that they:

  • Exclude any reference to pharmaceuticals.
  • Accept the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to set the threshold for the cost-effectiveness of drugs for the NHS.
  • Drop the demand for “total market access” to UK public services.
  • Explicitly rule out any investor-state dispute settlement mechanism by which the UK government could be sued for protecting public services.
  • Exclude any provision on regulatory exclusivities such as data exclusivity, marketing exclusivity, therapeutic exclusivity and other non-patent monopolies.
  • Exclude any provision that could remove caps on the amount the NHS spends on branded medicines each year, including anything that might enable the US to take legal action against the UK’s voluntary price access scheme.

  • Ensure NHS patient data are fully exempted from digital trade and data sharing provisions in the agreement.

  • Exclude any provision that would prevent the NHS from negotiating deals for the health service as a whole.

A revision of the US negotiating objectives along these lines would go a long way to reassuring the British public that the US government will not be seeking total market access to the UK public services; that the NHS will not be on the table in US-UK trade negotiations; that a US-UK trade deal will not open up NHS services to irreversible privatisation; and that the US government accepts that our NHS is not for sale in any form.

Corbyn also released this video making the same point.

This video features a quote from Trump at a press conference with Theresa May in June saying the NHS would be included in trade talks. But when Trump was asked specifically about the NHS, he did not seem to know what the acronym referred to and later, after his comment provoked a major row, he gave an interview saying he did not want the NHS to be included in trade talks.

Updated

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Simon Murphy.

As reported earlier, in his Today interview Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, was asked by the presenter Nick Robinson about his involvement in a book that advocated privatisation of health services. (See 8.21am) Raab said he has never personally advocated NHS privatisation.

Robinson was referring to After the Coalition, a book published in 2011 and written jointly by Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Chris Skidmore, Liz Truss and Raab. At the time they were all Conservative backbenchers. Now three of them are cabinet ministers (Raab, Patel and Truss), Kwarteng attends cabinet as a minister of state and Skidmore is also a minister of state.

The Mirror’s Dan Bloom has posted an extract from the book on Twitter.

Some would argue that allowing private providers to supply NHS services (which happens quite extensively at the moment) does amount to “privatisation of the NHS”, which is what Raab said this morning that he opposed. But others would argue that phrase implies the wholesale sell-off of the NHS, which is something quite different.

More from Dominic Raab’s interview earlier on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as the foreign secretary also claimed the Conservatives have no plans to privatise the NHS.

It comes after Jeremy Corbyn last week produced leaked papers detailed US trade talks which he claimed proved the NHS was “up for sale” – an allegation denied by the Tories.

“[We’re] absolutely clear there’s going to be no privatisation of the NHS under the Conservatives’ watch or this prime minister’s watch,” Raab said.

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.

Asked about his involvement in writing a paper advocating privatisation, 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.

Updated

The Labour shadow minister Laura Piddock has dodged questions on reports suggesting Russia had a role planting a leaked NHS document that Jeremy Corbyn presented last week as proof the country’s health service was on the table in US trade talks.

Reuters reported last night that experts at Oxford and Cardiff universities, as well as the Atlantic Council thinktank, said the document’s release on Reddit before it was seized on by Labour “resembles a disinformation campaign uncovered this year that originated in Russia”.

“Whoever did this … was absolutely trying to keep it a secret,” Graham Brookie, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told Reuters. “It carries the spectre of foreign influence.”

The story, which the Daily Telegraph splashed on today, led to questioning of Piddock by Sky’s Kay Burley this morning but she dismissed it as a “massive distraction”.

Updated

Footage has emerged of Donald Trump’s motorcade apparently arriving in north London to shouts of abuse last night after he touched down on UK soil in Air Force One.

The US president’s motorcade was given a frosty welcome as it passed through Camden, with yells of “get out of here” – and some ruder cries – from passersby caught on camera.

Updated

The foreign secretary also said he sympathised with the father of Jack Merritt, whose son was murdered during the London Bridge terror attack on Friday, after he said the tragedy had been used to “further an agenda of hate”.

Dave Merritt wrote an impassioned piece in the Guardian saying that his son would have been seething at how his death was being used. “What Jack would want from this is for all of us to walk through the door he has booted down, in his black Doc Martens,” he wrote.

“That door opens up a world where we do not lock up and throw away the key. Where we do not give indeterminate sentences, or convict people on joint enterprise. Where we do not slash prison budgets, and where we focus on rehabilitation not revenge.”

Dominic Raab refused to accept that he had a fundamentally different worldview to that of Jack Merritt. “I sympathise with the anguish of the family and can’t imagine what they must be going through. The first duty that we’ve got as a government is to take every measure we can to make sure that we don’t see further families going through that same suffering and anguish,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Our duty is to protect the public and that’s why, and you mentioned prison places, our manifesto is clear, we don’t want to cut those, we want to increase them by 10,000. Of course, we want to reform and rehabilitate criminal offenders where that’s possible but I think, in this case and in the level of very serious dangerous, criminal offenders, it’s clear that some of those we will struggle to be sure that we can reform, that they will rehabilitate. We are absolutely clear, we will not allow the release of people onto the streets who present a danger.

He added: “And that separates us from Jeremy Corbyn, who has made clear he would be willing to see those sorts of dangerous offenders released.”

Updated

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, claims he does not know whether Boris Johnson will be meeting the US president, Donald Trump, for one-on-one talks during his visit to the UK for the Nato summit.

Amid claims that the prime minister is dodging bilateral talks with Trump, fearing it would hamper his campaigning efforts in the general election, Raab was evasive on the issue.

“I don’t know the full range of bilaterals, those things are always very fluid,” Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Actually, the role of this leaders’ summit, and we are hosting it, is for the prime minister to bring all of our north American and European partners together and show that through Nato we can be bigger than the sum of our parts.

Asked to clarify again whether he does not know whether the two leaders will be meeting, Raab said:

I said that the arrangements for bilaterals are always quite fluid because they’re done on the margins. This is a meeting for Nato as a whole and the prime minister’s job … is to bring all of our allies together in the same room, not syphoned off in bilaterals because we’ve got this unity of purpose we need to forge to strengthen Nato and that’s the leadership role that the prime minister is taking.

Updated

Good morning folks, Simon Murphy here to take you through the morning’s politics news as Donald Trump visits the UK for the Nato summit. Looks like the US president still had his attention on affairs back at home when he touched down on UK soil last night:

Updated

From Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary

Updated

Labour vows to end 'prejudice' faced by disabled people in UK

Labour will announce the party’s disability manifesto today.
Labour will announce the party’s disability manifesto today. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

Labour has promised to end what it calls the “hostile environment” for disabled people in the social security system as part of a raft of plans to tackle discrimination.

The party’s disability manifesto, published on Tuesday morning, proposes a range of measures across welfare, public services, transport, housing and jobs to enable disabled people to live independently, be treated with dignity and respect, and participate fully in society.

The manifesto promises to sweep away a hostile environment of prejudice against disabled people it says was promoted by government to justify nine years of austerity cuts, and replace it with system that ends poverty and offers people security and dignity.

Updated

“What British democracy needs right now is the advice of a cartoonist who doesn’t even live in your wretched country,” writes Guardian Australia’s cartoonist First Dog on the Moon.

The day ahead

• Boris Johnson is expected to be campaigning in south-west England.

• Jeremy Corbyn is due to give a speech in London on workers’ rights.

• Jo Swinson is expected to visit a farm in the east of England.

• Nato leaders are gathering for the alliance summit over Tuesday and Wednesday. The main talks will take place on Wednesday near Watford and Johnson will break off from election campaigning to play host.

Updated

Good morning and welcome to another day in politics. Today, Donald Trump is in town and his presence in London today for Nato meetings is causing jitters in the Conservative camp, as the Tories worry about the US president’s unpredictability and tendency to say things without necessarily thinking through the consequences.

Trump is being seen as a potential liability for Boris Johnson in the campaign, amid Labour’s accusations that a US-UK trade deal will lead to an NHS sell-off and higher drug prices for Britons, with the Guardian’s Rowena Mason writing that Johnson will seek to downplay his relationship with the president in light of the NHS accusations.

Johnson has made clear that he would not welcome any input from Trump at such a sensitive time in the campaign, after the US president offered his endorsement over the summer. But Trump has a full two days in the UK and is expected to give a press conference on Wednesday. The Tories will be hopeful he says little or nothing to inflame voter fears.

Trump will be among world leaders attending a banquet with the Queen tonight at Buckingham Palace. NHS nurses and doctors will lead a “Hands off our NHS” protest starting at Trafalgar Square then heading down the Mall to arrive at Canada Gate, opposite the palace.

Also protesting outside Buckingham Palace will be the family of Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old who was killed in a motorbike crash in Northamptonshire in August. Anne Sacoolas, the 42-year-old motorist allegedly responsible, claimed diplomatic immunity and was allowed to return to the US.

We’ll have all the politics news for, so stay with us. I’ve got the blog for the first hour or so, you can get in touch with me on Twitter. Thanks for reading.

Updated

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