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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Andrew Sparrow, Kevin Rawlinson, Mattha Busby and Kate Lyons

General election: Corbyn declines to apologise over antisemitism in BBC interview – as it happened

Closing summary

That’s it from us for this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. My colleague, Andrew Sparrow, has put together this detailed summary of the day’s main events:

  • Since he wrote that, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faced a bruising encounter with the BBC’s Andrew Neil; a summary of which you can read here.
  • And the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said it would not be possible to negotiate a trade deal in the 11 months available in the prime minister’s timetable (see: 6.19pm).

Corbyn refuses to apologise to Jewish community

Here are the main points from Jeremy Corbyn’s interview this evening:

  • The Labour leader declined repeated opportunities to apologise to the UK’s Jewish community over his handling of antisemitism with his party. During sustained questioning on the damaging issue, which took up about a third of the interview, Corbyn sought to defend his record, claiming to have strengthened the party’s processes for rooting out antisemitism. But he would not issue an apology.

What I’ll say is this: I am determined that our society will be safe for people of all faiths. I don’t want anyone to be feeling insecure in our society and our government will protect every community against the abuse they receive on the streets, on the trains or in any or any other form of life.

He was also confronted with specific allegations of antisemitism that have been raised against Labour members who have not been suspended and into whom investigations have been running for lengthy periods of time.

  • Corbyn was unable to say who would campaign for the Brexit deal he has promised he would negotiate and then put to the country, alongside remain, in a referendum. Following a theme seen throughout the interview, Corbyn sought to explain his party’s policy and the intentions behind it, while Neil tried to pin him down on specifics. Corbyn presented his plan to remain personally neutral as statesmanlike as Neil asked him why the UK would want a prime minister who “doesn’t have a view on what really is the greatest peacetime issue that’s faced this country for 70 years”.

I would be the prime minister that would make sure that there was a fair debate and fair discussion, we’d come to conclusion at the end of it and I would carry out the result of that referendum in whatever way it went.

  • The Labour leader admitted his tax policies would, in fact, mean some people on less than £80,000 per year would see effective increases. Pressed on his claims that only the richest would pay more, Corbyn acknowledged that his plan to scrap the marriage tax allowance, for example, would actually mean people on lower incomes losing a £250-a-year relief.

They will also be getting a pay rise when we bring in a living wage. They will also be getting improvement in free nursery provision for two to four year olds. They’ll also get properly funded schools.

  • Some of Labour’s plans will require borrowing, Corbyn acknowledged. But he presented some elements as investments and others as moral obligations. Referring to his pledge to compensate the Waspi women, Corbyn said:

It’s a moral case. Those women were short-changed by government. Short changed in 2011 by the change in the pension rate.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, during a BBC interview with Andrew Neil
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, during a BBC interview with Andrew Neil Photograph: Jeff Overs/AP

Updated

My colleague, Rowena Mason, is putting together a comprehensive story on Corbyn’s interview with the BBC, which you can read here:

And that’s that, Neil calls the interview to a close.

Neil accuses the Labour leader of tending to side with the UK’s enemies. Corbyn says he wants to keep Britain safe.

He also declines to say for certain whether or not he would give the orders to kill any new leader of so-called Islamic State if it was not possible to arrest them. He says the UK must abide by international law and attempt to arrest someone “if it is possible”.

I will take the appropriate decision at the appropriate time with all the information, you asked me a hypothetical question in a hypothetical scenario.

And the Labour leader stressed that it was essential to look “to the future” and at how the terror group formed and spread, adding: “We also have to look at how we created these dangers as well.”

Asking how he will pay for his policy to compensate the Waspi women, Corbyn says it must be paid for because it’s a moral question.

Corbyn says the UK will pay for it over “some years” and the money will come either from government reserves or, if necessary, the government will borrow for it.

Neil asks Corbyn about his borrowing plans. The Labour leader acknowledges taking institutions into public ownership would require him to issue debt but says there will be a return as well. He added:

We are not going to willy-nilly borrow, what we are going to do is deal with the worst aspects of what’s happened in austerity, the worst aspects of poverty in Britain.

Corbyn defended his policy to scrap the marriage tax allowance, which Neil suggests undermines his promise that only those earning more than £80,000 per year would see tax increases.

The Labour leader says measures such as the introduction of a living wage would mitigate.

On his taxation plans, Corbyn denied that a significant part his income tax base would leave the country if he took power.

No, it doesn’t crumble at all ... I think they would also recognise that tax rates in general have gone down, that inequality has gone up ... They can see all around them the crumbling of public services and the terrible levels of child poverty that exist across Britain ... There is no reason why they would have to leave the country and they shouldn’t.

Neil moves on to Brexit, asking Corbyn why people would want a prime minister who would call a referendum and then decline to say which path he supports.

I will be the honest broker that will make sure the referendum is fair and make sure that the leave deal is a credible one and the remain option is alongside it.

Corbyn added: “That seems to me actually an adult and sensible way to go forward.” But he was unable to say who would lead the campaign for his Brexit deal.

Corbyn says he has spent his life “opposing racism of any form”, adding: “That is what my life is about.”

The Labour leader then declined to apologise four times to the Jewish community, saying instead that he wanted to protect all communities and work with them to ensure racism is “eliminated”.

Neil presents Corbyn with a specific example of comments the Labour leader agrees are antisemitic and asks why the person accused of making them has not been suspended – as well as why the party’s investigation into them has taken a year.

Corbyn responds that the process is independent of him and says he believes legal representations may have been made, causing delays.

Corbyn was challenged over Rabbi Mirvis’s allegation that Labour’s claims it is doing everything to tackle anti-Jewish racism was a “mendacious fiction”. He replied:

No, he’s not right. Because he would have to produce the evidence to say that’s mendacious.

Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with the BBC is starting now.

The interviewer, Andrew Neil, opens with a question on the chief rabbi’s claims on antisemitism within the Labour party.

Corbyn says antisemitism is not acceptable within society or his party and says he has amended the party’s processes to have people guilty of antisemitism from the party. He also denies the accusation that instances of antisemitism have risen during his tenure as leader.

It didn’t rise after I became leader. Antisemitism is there in society, there are a very, very small number of people in the Labour party that have been sanctioned as a result about their antisemitic behaviour.

The BBC has posted a clip from its interview with the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which is due to air in a few minutes:

We reported earlier that the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, believes it will not be possible to agree a comprehensive trade deal in the 11-month window that would be available if the UK left on 31 January (see: 6.19pm). Now, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, Chuka Umunna, has said:

These comments show Boris Johnson is lying to the country. It’s clearly not possible to do a trade deal with the EU in 11 months and now those on the other side of the negotiating table agree.

Johnson’s December 2020 deadline would mean yet another year of damaging uncertainty for businesses and families, with the threat of no deal continuing to loom over the country.

There is no deal with the EU that is better than the one we enjoy now as full members. Liberal Democrats will keep fighting to stop Brexit, deny Boris Johnson a majority and build a brighter future for the country.

Afternoon summary

  • Jeremy Corbyn has refused to apologise to the British Jewish community following a remarkable election intervention from the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who used an article in the Times to suggest that the “moral compass” of Britain would be awry if Labour won the election because of Corbyn’s failure to tackle antisemitism in his party. In his article Mirvis did not raise any new allegations about Corbyn or his party, but he said the Labour claim that it was doing everything it could to tackle antisemitism in the party was “a mendacious fiction”. He also claimed that Corbyn did not even understand the problem properly. Mirvis wrote:

The party leadership have never understood that their failure is not just one of procedure, which can be remedied with additional staff or new processes. It is a failure to see this as a human problem rather than a political one. It is a failure of culture. It is a failure of leadership. A new poison – sanctioned from the top – has taken root in the Labour party.

Many members of the Jewish community can hardly believe that this is the same party that they called their political home for more than a century. It can no longer claim to be the party of equality and anti-racism.

And he concluded his article:

It is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I regret being in this situation at all. I simply pose the question: What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country? When December 12 arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience. Be in no doubt, the very soul of our nation is at stake.

This morning, at the launch of Labour’s race and faith manifesto, Corbyn said antisemitism was “vile and wrong” and “would not be tolerated in any form whatsoever” by him. He also offered to meet Mirvis to discuss this further. Many Corbyn supporters are exasperated by this line of attack, which they believe is being amplified by rightwing newspapers with no genuine anti-racist credentials, but Corbyn himself was careful to avoid criticising Mirvis personally or denying the existence of a problem. However, he did point out that while Labour has launched its own race and faith manifesto, the Conservative party said almost nothing on these issues in its own manifesto. Inspired by the chief rabbi, the Muslim Council of Britain said it was important to speak up for the experience of Mulsims in the Tory party too. In a statement the MCB said:

The way that the chief rabbi had shared his experiences and insights, has highlighted the importance of speaking out on the racism we face, whilst maintaining our non-partisan stance.

As a faith community, we commonly are threatened by Islamophobia. This an issue that is particularly acute in the Conservative party who have approached Islamophobia with denial, dismissal and deceit.

It is abundantly clear to many Muslims that the Conservative party tolerate Islamophobia, allow it to fester in society, and fail to put in place the measures necessary to root out this type of racism. It is as if the Conservative party has a blind spot for this type of racism.

  • Javid published a Tory analysis of the Labour manifesto that he claimed proved that ordinary people would pay more in tax under Corbyn’s plans. Labour claims only the richest 5% will pay more in tax. But the Tory document identified six “tax rises” (some of them were just financial penalties, not proper tax rises) that might effect non-wealthy taxpayers under Labour.

Javid also said that, following the publication of the Labour manifesto, the Conservatives have revised their calculations about how much extra spending they will entail, and what this will mean for taxpayers. By happy coincidence, the Tories have concluded that the overall cost, £1.2tr, and the cost to taxpayers, £2,400 per year, are the same as they were when the party calculated them before the Labour manifesto was published. Both those figures were widely seen as bogus because they were based on too many false or questionable assumptions.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is in charge now.

The chief rabbi’s remarks about Labour and antisemitism should concern “every right-thinking person”, Nicola Sturgeon has told reporters at a campaign visit to Uddingston.

I very much hope that the Labour party listen seriously and carefully to the chief rabbi’s comments today and act on these concerns about anti-semitism.

But I would say to people who have concerns about Jeremy Corbyn, if he gets himself into a position of being able to form a government with the help of others then better to have the SNP as a force in there making the right values, policies and priorities are pursued rather than having Labour without that influence.

Sturgeon was visiting a nursery to announce a proposal to “transform” parental leave, by extending shared leave to 64 weeks at an increased rate, including 12 weeks ring-fenced “daddy leave”.

The proposal was welcomed by campaigners – the work-life balance charity Working Families has been calling for a similar scheme aimed at fathers for a long time, given the uptake of shared parental leave remains low and the evidence suggests that fathers who do have some leave from work with young children are more involved as their families grow up.

The Westminster government is currently consulting on parental leave, although neither Tories nor Labour have proposed anything aimed directly at fathers in their manifestos.

EU negotiator dismisses Johnson's post-Brexit trade deal claims

It will not be possible to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal in the 11-month transition period that would follow an exit from the bloc on 31 January, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has told a private meeting of senior MEPs in Strasbourg.

The UK is due to leave the single market and customs union at the end of December 2020 under the terms of the withdrawal agreement. At that point, new arrangements – or none – will come into force. Any extension to the UK’s membership of the single market and customs union would need to be agreed before 1 July.

Barnier said that, if such an extension was not sought by the UK, negotiators would “need to focus on specific subjects” and that agreement on various issues, including the rights of British air carriers to operate as they do today, would have to wait until after 2020.

Barnier said the key areas on which the negotiators would work in the coming year would be trade in goods, data, fisheries, aviation, police and judicial cooperation.

The goal for the EU is to agree on “zero quotas, zero tariffs and zero dumping”, he said in a reference to the bloc’s determination to ensure that the UK signs up to a high degree of regulatory alignment to ensure British companies do not have a competitive advantage post-Brexit.

Barnier also told MEPs that the “toughest question” would be the EU’s insistence that free movement in goods comes as a package with the free movement of people. He added that the most “difficult outcome” for the EU would be a hung parliament as it would imperil ratification of the deal in Westminster.

The prime minister has claimed the UK can conclude a trade deal in time, though experts had already pointed out that such deal typically take years to negotiate and ratify.

Boris Johnson has claimed the Tory party takes anti-Islamic abuse seriously after criticism of his party’s handling of the issue from the Muslim Council of Britain.

The prime minister told reporters on a visit to the International Aviation Academy in Norwich that he did not agree with the claim that his party has approached Islamophobia with “denial, dismissal and deceit”. He said:

What we do in the Tory party is, when anybody is guilty of any kind of prejudice or discrimination against another group, then they’re out first bounce.

Johnson has himself been accused of Islamophobia over his own past comments about Muslims.

Earlier this month, the Guardian reported on a dossier of detailing Islamophobic and racist material posted by 25 sitting and former Conservative councillors:

Boris Johnson visiting the International Aviation Academy in Norwich.
Boris Johnson visiting the International Aviation Academy in Norwich. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

This is from Stefan Rousseau, the Press Association’s chief political photographer.

Javid claims inquiry into Islamophobia in Tory party not being 'watered down'

Here are the main points from Sajid Javid’s Q&A.

  • Javid, the chancellor, refused to endorse the language that Boris Johnson used in a Telegraph column when he described Muslim women in burqas as looking like letter boxes. Javid claimed that the Conservative problem with Islamophobia was not the same as Labour’s problem with antisemitism partly because “no one has every credibly suggested that it’s an issue with the leadership of the party”. But, when asked repeatedly whether he would have been willing to use the “letter box” language that Johnson used, Javid repeatedly refused to endorse what Johnson wrote. Javid said:

All politicians will choose their own words and ways to explain whatever is the point they are trying to get across. We’ve all got our own type of language.

Javid also said that Johnson had explained what he meant, and that Johnson was actually trying in that article to defend the rights of women to wear what they want.

  • Javid said the Conservatives should not be willing to accept Islamophobia in their ranks. Asked about this issue, he said:

We will never, ever as a party tolerate anyone among our ranks that has any kind of prejudice to any group of people, whether it’s based on their race or their religion or the gender or anything else. We will never tolerate it.

  • He rejected claims that the proposed inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative party had been watered down. During the Tory leadership contest, in one TV debate, Javid bounced Johnson and the other candidates into agreeing that there should be an inquiry into Islamophobia in the party. Johnson is going to set up an inquiry, but it will cover all forms of racism. Asked if he was disappointed about the inquiry being watered down in this way, Javid replied:

No, I’m not disappointed. Nothing is going to be watered down. We are absolutely committed to doing everything we can, doing more, to root any kind of prejudice amongst anyone who has got any association with the Conservative party. There is no excuse for it.

Javid said the inquiry would start before Christmas. And he said people would be impressed by how serious it was. He said:

Once that’s published, the terms, people will see just how serious we are. We will never, ever tolerate any kind of prejudice of any kind.

Sajid Javid speaking at a general election campaign event in Bolton.
Sajid Javid speaking at a general election campaign event in Bolton. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

Boris Johnson again made a series of unforced errors when he launched the Scottish Conservative election manifesto, wrongly claiming a spaceport was being built in Scotland; that the SNP wanted to use the euro and that Jeremy Corbyn wanted to scrap the armed forces.

Giving the carefully improvised stump speech he has made his trademark, Johnson accused the Labour leader of plotting to demilitarise the UK, staying: “Corbyn has said he wants to scrap our armed services, and can’t think of circumstances in which he would use them.”

While Corbyn has in the past suggested global demilitarisation and is a CND member, the Labour manifesto commits a Corbyn-led government to spending at least 2% of UK GDP on the armed forces, remain in Nato, replacing the Trident nuclear missile fleet and increasing UK funding for UN peacekeeping by £100m.

Johnson then referred to a prickly BBC interview between Andrew Neil and Nicola Sturgeon broadcast on Monday night, where Neil pressed the first minister on her plans for an independent Scotland rejoining the EU. Banging his fist on the lectern in emphasis, the prime minister told activists:

Confirmed last night, as I understood it, to Andrew Neil – did I get this right? – confirmed to rejoin the EU, to join the euro, to put up a border at Berwick, hand back control, obey very jot and tittle of the panoply of EU legislation and hand back control of the fantastic marine wealth of Scotland to Brussels.

The SNP said this was “utter fiction”; the party wants to first use sterling after independence and then in time create a new Scottish currency. It explicitly rejects taking on the euro, although its critics insist that EU membership requires a commitment to eventually joining the currency union.

Johnson finally wrongly asserted there was a spaceport in Sutherland, in the far north of Scotland, being built – only to be corrected by an audience member that it was still only planned. Riffing on the wealth- and job-creating potential of artificial intelligence and advance technologies, Johnson said:

Not forgetting the spaceport that is under construction or is it under construction or almost complete … [an audience member corrects him] on its way. The spaceport that is on its way in Scotland – it certainly will be complete in 10 years time, which will send British satellites into the heavens and drive one of our most exciting new industries.

That Space Hub Sutherland project has significant official backing but it is not yet cleared for construction, and is months away from receiving planning permission. It is expected to start that process next month.

Boris Johnson at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto.
Boris Johnson at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Updated

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From my colleague Peter Walker

Jo Swinson during a visit to Dunkertons Cider Company, an organic and plastic free brewery in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Jo Swinson during a visit to Dunkertons Cider Company, an organic and plastic free brewery in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Q: [From my colleague John Crace] In the Tory leadership contest you managed to get all candidates to agree to an inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative party. Are you disappointed it has been watered down into a general inquiry?

No, says Javid. He says “nothing has been watered down”. He says when people see the terms of inquiry, they will see how serious it is.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary soon.

Updated

Q: Why have you not committed to the whole of Northern Powerhouse Rail if you can afford it under your borrowing rules?

Javid says the party has not set out all its borrowing under the new borrowing rules. If they win the election, the Conservatives will say more in their first budget.

But he says he is “very keen” on Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Q: Boris Johnson says he wants to raise the national insurance threshold eventually to £12,500. But that is not in the manifesto. Will it happen in the next parliament?

Javid says the Tories are a tax-cutting party. The national insurance threshold will go up to £9,500, saving people around £100.

But he says he cannot say when the national insurance threshold will rise further.

Updated

Q: What extra spending would come to Bolton under a Tory government?

Javid says people think the north does not get enough infrastructure spending. He says he wants to address that.

Q: What about Boris Johnson’s use of Islamophobic language?

Javid says Johnson has defended the language he used in his Telegraph article that compared Muslim women to letterboxes. He says Johnson has given an explanation for this. Johnson was making a point about how women should be free to wear what they want.

He says the Labour situation is different. The Conservative party has not had MPs leaving because of the views of the party leader.

Q: Would you use that language? Incidents of Islamophobia went up 375% after that article.

Javid says Johnson has defended his language.

Q: Would you use that language?

Javid says politicians decide what language they want to use.

Q: So you are not saying you would not say that?

Javid says he wants to bring people together.

Updated

Javid's Q&A

Javid is now taking questions.

Q: Why do you think Labour would not be able to borrow to spend more? And, given that both main parties are planning to spend more, why should people trust you more on spending then them?

Javid says Labour itself admits it would put tax up.

It is also proposing higher borrowing. But there remains a black hole, Javid claims.

Javid says Labour would not just borrow more because it has fiscal rules. He says he is taking them at their word, assuming they would meet their fiscal rules. And if Labour does borrow more, taxpayers will eventually have to pay for that anyway, he says.

He says the Conservatives have published their own costs. In most cases he used Treasury figures in that costings document, he says. He says Labour has not challenged the figures in that document.

And he says his fiscal rules are much stricter than Labour’s.

Sajid Javid speaking at Bolton Lads & Girls club in Bolton
Sajid Javid speaking at Bolton Lads & Girls club in Bolton
 Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Javid claims ordinary taxpayers would have to pay more under Labour

Javid claims there are six tax rises in the Labour manifesto that would hit ordinary people.

There at least six confirmed tax rises they’ve hidden away that will hit people hard:

The marriage tax – removing an allowance so families lose £250 a year.

A stealth tax on drivers – hiking the cost of petrol by 16p a litre.

A stealth tax on heating – increasing the energy bills of 24 million households heated by gas.

Higher inheritance tax – reversing our previous cut.

The pension tax – reducing pensions by £11,000, hitting up to 10 million savers.

And the small business tax – adding a £5,000 bill to 1 million small business owners.

Updated

Javid says the Labour claim that 95% of taxpayers would not have to pay more under its plans is not plausible.

Labour’s numbers only add up with significant tax rises for the 95%, not just the 5.

They say they want to raise £83bn in new taxes every year.

As chancellor I can tell you, you can’t simply raise that amount of money from such a small group of people.

But it’s worse than that because there’s currently an £385bn financial hole in Labour’s plans.

And that means tax hikes on hard-working families on lower and middle incomes, like many of the proud people of Bolton.

Javid says the Tories published a claim earlier in the campaign that a Corbyn government would spend £1.2tn. He claims that, now the Labour manifesto has been published, the Tories have been able to review the figure. It could be an underestimate, he claims.

Well now they’ve released their final plans, and the direct cost of Corbyn is confirmed.

And it could actually be worse than we feared.

If anything it’s an underestimate.

Labour’s costings document shamelessly overlooked many of the commitments in their manifesto – 59 of which don’t have enough detail for us to cost fairly, so we have left those out.

Here is an article by my colleague Richard Partington explaining why the original £1.2tn figure was flawed.

Updated

Sajid Javid's speech on cost of Labour

Sajid Javid, the chancellor, is giving a speech in Bolton on the cost of Labour’s plans.

We will have a live feed at the top of the blog soon.

Nicola Sturgeon's interview with Andrew Neil - Summary

The most aggressive and forensic interviewer on TV at the moment is the BBC’s Andrew Neil and he is interviewing the party leaders during the campaign. Jeremy Corbyn gets the Neil treatment tonight. Last night Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, was put through the Neil wringer. I would not normally post on something that happened last night, but in the comments below the line some readers have been asking why we did not cover the interview in more detail, it came up briefly at the Scottish Tory launch earlier and I can’t find a good summary elsewhere on the web, so here is a round-up of the main points. You can watch the half-hour programme here.

  • Sturgeon said she did not think it was “credible” to believe that Jeremy Corbyn would refuse to grant the SNP demand for a Scottish independence referendum if he needed the SNP to support a Labour minority government. But she admitted that the SNP would back the Labour proposal for a second Brexit referendum whatever, and Neil put it to her that her bargaining position would be weak if Corbyn refused her request, because the SNP would not support a Tory government. Sturgeon rejected this. Asked if she would really be willing to withhold support from a minority Labour government if it did not agree to an independence referendum, she replied:

A minority government will have to demonstrate that it’s got the ability to govern, and yes, I’m trying to be frank - and I think more politicians could benefit from being frank about this - I don’t think it is reasonable for any Labour leader or any Westminster politician to say to the SNP, ‘give us support’ if they don’t accept that fundamental principle of Scotland having the right to choose our own future.

But Sturgeon also said compromise would be necessary.

I also accept that in any discussion of this nature, if we’re in this position after this election because no party’s got an overall majority ... compromise will be required on all sides. I get all of that and I accept that.

  • She claimed that, even if UK were to vote to remain in the EU in a second referendum, a second independence referendum would still be justified. Neil put it to her that in those circumstances Scotland would not have undergone the “material change” that the SNP said would be needed for a re-run of the 2014 independence referendum to be justified. Sturgeon rejected this. She claimed that the experience of the last three years was enough to justify one because of “the way in which Scotland has had it completely demonstrated to [it] over the past three years that our views and our views doesn’t matter”.
  • She refused to say how long it would take Scotland to rejoin the EU if Scotland voted for independence after Brexit. Neil put it to her that it would be five to 10 years, because that is how long the SNP’s growth commission report said it would take for Scotland to establish its own currency.
  • She rejected claims that Scotland would need its own independent currency before it would be allowed to join the EU. She said an independent Scotland would start off using the pound. Neil claimed the EU would not allow this. But Sturgeon did not accept that. She said:

We would have a discussion with the European Union about the journey an independent Scotland goes on in terms of currency and the accession, if Scotland was already out of the European Union [at] the point where we rejoined the European Union.

  • She was unable to say how an independent Scotland would build up the currency reserves needed to support a new currency. Neil pointed out that Scotland was running a deficit. Sturgeon accepted this, but said the deficit was coming down.
  • She was unable to explain why the SNP says leaving the EU would lead to job losses in Scotland, but why leaving the United Kingdom would not lead to similar job losses. Neil said the Scottish government has accepted research showing that 80,000 jobs in Scotland could go after Brexit because of the impact of trade friction. Asked why the same thing would not happen after Scottish independence, if Scotland ended up in the EU and the rest of the UK was outside, Sturgeon just said we did not know yet what England’s final relationship with the EU would be. She said:

We don’t yet know what the UK’s final relationship with the EU will [be]. When we have clarity on that we have to understand those implications and we have to set out clearly how we deal with those implications in order to keep trade flowing between Scotland and England, which is in our interests and in the interests of the rest of the UK.

  • She claimed that a confirmatory referendum was necessary on Brexit because leavers did not give details of what they were planning in 2016, but she said that if Scotland had voted for independence in 2014, a second confirmatory referendum would not have been necessary because the SNP had been very clear about what it was planning. But Neil rejected this argument, saying that the SNP plan in 2014 assumed oil revenues of £8bn by 2016, but that the actual figure was £300m in 2016.
  • She admitted that the NHS in Scotland was only meeting two of its eight key waiting time targets. Neil said: “You’ve called for legislation to protect the NHS from Donald Trump. Maybe the NHS needs legislation to protect it from Nicola Sturgeon?” Sturgeon said obviously she did not accept that.
Andrew Neil interviewing Nicola Sturgeon.
Andrew Neil interviewing Nicola Sturgeon. Photograph: BBC/PA

Lord Falconer, who was lord chancellor when Tony Blair was PM, told the World at One that he thought the chief rabbi’s criticism of Labour over antisemitism was justified.

UPDATE: Presumably Falconer was using the word “vote” in a loose, metaphorical sense when he really meant “support”. As Phil Gibson points out BTL, members of the House of Lords do not get a vote in general elections.

User avatar for Phil Gibson

Andrew - isn’t Charlie Falconer disqualified from voting as a member of the House of Lords? He won’t be voting for Labour or anyone else!

Updated

Johnson rules out backing Brexit or independence referendums in hung parliament as price of power

Here are the main points from Boris Johnson’s Q&A at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto in Fife.

  • Johnson ruled out agreeing to a second referendum on Brexit or Scottish independence if rival parties demanded them as the price for supporting the Tories in a hung parliament. Asked what would happen if the Tories were the largest party in a hung parliament, and another party demanded a second referendum on Scottish independence or on Brexit as the price for putting Johnson in power, he replied:

I don’t normally answer that kind of hypothetical question but I think in your case I’m going to make an exception; I certainly can rule out any such referendums. I genuinely think they would be bad for our country. It’s not the way forward now. We need to honour democracy, we need to get the economy moving.

  • Johnson said the chief rabbi’s comments about Labour and antisemitism were “very serious” and showed that Jeremy Corbyn was guilty of “a failure of leadership”. Asked about the comments, he said:

I do think it’s a very serious business when the chief rabbi speaks as he does. I have never known anything like it, and clearly it’s a failure of leadership on the part of the Labour leader that he has not been able to stamp out this virus in the Labour party.

But Johnson said Corbyn was also showing a “general failure of leadership”, particularly by refusing to take a position on Brexit.

  • Johnson laughed off a question about his unpopularity in Scotland. (See 12.35pm.)
Boris Johnson speaking at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto.
Boris Johnson speaking at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto. Photograph: Ken Jack/Getty Images

Updated

Jackson Carlaw, the Scottish Tories’ interim leader, said his party would block requests from Holyrood for the powers to hold a second independence referendum “for a generation”, accusing Nicola Sturgeon of supporting “disposable democracy” by insisting on one.

Speaking to reporters after Boris Johnson launched the Scottish Tory election manifesto at a hotel only a mile or so from Gordon Brown’s home in North Queensferry, Carlaw said there were no circumstances in which a Conservative government at Westminster would transfer those powers to Holyrood.

Citing the Scottish government’s white paper on independence in 2013, Scotland’s Future, Carlaw said:

I have been very clear about this. You have a referendum because it’s a binary question; a question you’re unable to resolve through the normal political process and in 2014 we had a once-in-a-generation referendum.

It actually said in the Scotland’s Future document that it would be once-in-a-generation, and it actually also said on page 60 of that document – that the Scottish government spent a lot of money sending to every household – that if the Conservatives were elected in 2015 there was the prospect of a referendum on Europe, and we might then leave the European Union.

So I argued that in 2014 when people made that decision to stay in the United Kingdom, they understood what staying in the UK might in future represent. And 2 million people, the biggest number of people we’ve seen for anything in Scotland’s history, voted to remain in the UK.

[We] had that referendum in 2014 and I don’t believe in a culture of disposable democracy, which the SNP now subscribe to, where you can say that you’re going to have a once-in-a-generation referendum and then within a matter of a few years, say that you need to have that whole process again. We are not going to betray the record number of Scots who participated in 2014 on that basis.

In a combative BBC interview on Monday night with Andrew Neil, Sturgeon was pressed on how she would defend staging a second vote if Labour succeeded next year in holding a fresh EU referendum in which the UK voted to stay in the EU.

Neil said that staying in the EU would neutralise Sturgeon’s argument for justifying a second independence vote so soon after 2014 – that Brexit was a substantial change to Scotland’s constitutional position.

Sturgeon, who supports a second EU referendum, said the chaos of the last three years was argument enough. She said:

This is going to dominate Westminster politics for many years to come, and Scotland has had it demonstrated to it beyond any doubt over the past three years that right now, our future path as a country is not in our own hands. It’s in the hands of Westminster politicians like Boris Johnson with the strings being pulled by Nigel Farage. I think it is time for people in Scotland to have a choice.

Jackson Carlaw at the launch of the Scottish Conservative’s manifesto in in North Queensferry, Fife.
Jackson Carlaw at the launch of the Scottish Conservative’s manifesto in in North Queensferry, Fife. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

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Ahead of the SNP’s manifesto launch tomorrow, Nicola Sturgeon is visiting a nursery this afternoon to announce a proposal to “transform” parental leave, by extending shared leave to 64 weeks at an increased rate, including 12 weeks’ ringfenced “daddy leave”.

The proposal was welcomed by campaigners; Working Families has been calling for a similar scheme aimed at fathers for a long time, given the uptake of shared parental leave remains low and the evidence suggests that fathers who do have some leave from work with young children are more involved as their families grow up. The Westminster government is currently consulting on parental leave, although neither Tories nor Labour have proposed anything aimed directly at fathers in their manifestos.

This follows a difficult interview for Sturgeon with Andrew Neil on the BBC last night, in which she was pressed hard on her economic plans for independence and the state of the Scottish NHS.

Meanwhile Boris Johnson – writing in this morning’s Scottish Daily Mail ahead of his visit to Fife – has pledged that he would never allow another “chaotic and divisive” independence referendum, his strongest statement yet.

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What Corbyn said about chief rabbi's complaints

This is what Jeremy Corbyn said in the Q&A (see 1.42pm) about antisemitism, and about what Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, said about Labour’s record.

I made it very clear in my speech, and I make it very clear again now, there is no place whatsoever for antisemitism in our society, our country or in my party and there never will be so long as I’m leader of the party.

And, since I become leader of the party, the party has adopted processes that didn’t exit before, has had a disciplinary process that didn’t exist before. And when people commit antisemitic acts, they are brought to book, and if necessary expelled from the party or suspended or asked to be educated better about it.

I’ve also introduced an education system within the party.

I want to live in a country where people respect each other’s faith. I want to live in a country where people feel secure to be Jewish, to be Muslim, to be Hindu, to be Christian, and I want to lead a government that has an open door to all of the faith leaders.

So I invite the chief rabbi, I invite the archbishop of Canterbury, I invite all the other faith leaders to come talk to us about what their concerns are.

But be absolutely sure of this assurance from me: no community will be at risk because of their identity, their faith, their ethnicity, or their language. I am proud to represent a diverse community in parliament. I’ve spent my life fighting racism in any form, right outside here on Tottenham High Road in the 1970s.

And so there is no place for it, and I ask those that think have not been done correctly to tell me about it, talk to me about it, but above all engage. I’m very happy to engage with anybody. My whole life has been engagement with people. Sometimes you agree with them, sometimes you don’t, but you only learn by that process of engagement.

So I say to all communities, let’s make our country safe for all of us. That is what our manifesto is all about and that’s why I’m so proud of our race and faith manifesto today.

Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour launch.
Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour launch. Photograph: Peter Summers/Getty Images

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Corbyn says Tories should address Islamophobia in their party

Q: How would you combat Islamophobia?

Q: Can you assure Muslim communities they would be safe?

Corbyn says this arts centre is not far from Finsbury Park, where a far-right killer murdered a Muslim just near where Corbyn lives. After the attack happened, the imam from the mosque intervened to protect the attacker.

He says he would not tolerate attacks on mosques any more than attacks on any other places of worship.

He says the Conservative party should address the Islamophobia problems they have in their own party.

Islamophobia will always be challenged in any form in which it raises itself, he says.

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Corbyn invites chief rabbi to meet him to discuss antisemitism concerns

Jeremy Corbyn is now taking questions. (There was a suggestion earlier that there would not be a Q&A.)

Q: If the chief rabbi thinks most Jews are worried about a Labour government, how can the wider public vote Labour?

Q: There have been complaints about antisemitism during the whole of your time as Labour leader. You say you are addressing this. But you have not persuaded the chief rabbi. Why?

Q: Do you accept you have failed personally on this?

Corbyn repeats the point he made in his speech: there is no place for antisemitism in society, or in Labour, and there never will be.

He says he has introduced processes in Labour to deal with this that were not there before.

He wants to live in a country where people respect each other’s faiths.

He wil have an open door as PM. So he invites the chief rabbi, and other faith leaders, to come and talk to him.

He says no faith community will be at risk under his government. He has spent his life fighting racism – including right out here, on Tottenham High Road.

He says people with concerns should tell him about them, and engage. You only learn by engagement, he says.

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Jeremy Corbyn (left) next to Tan Dhesi, Labour candidate for Slough, at the launch of the Labour race and faith manifesto at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre
Jeremy Corbyn (left) next to Tan Dhesi, Labour candidate for Slough, at the launch of the Labour race and faith manifesto at the Bernie Grant arts centre. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

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Butler says we need to be honest about what Britain did wrong in the past.

When people ask why people can’t get over this, they don’t realise how offensive that is.

Turning to the Windrush scandal, she refers to the case of Hubert Howard, a Windrush victim who died recently without having had compensation or an apology. Butler says the system that created that injustice is still in place.

Butler is now talking about the value of diversity.

She says Norman Tebbit used to talk about the cricket test as a way of evaluating if people were loyal to the country. But this year England won the cricket World Cup with a team that included a West Indian, a Pakistani, a South African, a New Zealander and an Irishman.

She says Labour will establish an independent review into the rise of the far right.

And it will ensure more black history is taught in schools. Because black history is British history, she says.

She says, within a month of taking power, Labour would launch a review into the shortage of BAME teachers in schools.

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Jeremy Corbyn says he is just the warm-up act for Dawn Butler, the shadow minister for women and equalities.

Butler takes to the stage. She says there are people trying to divide the country. She says a video has gone viral of a man and his children receiving antisemitic abuse on a train. It is unsettling to watch, she says. She says some of the people on the train did not intervene. But it was a woman in a hijab who intervened, she says. She says the woman said she knew what it was like to be abused like this.

Butler says all forms of racism are wrong.

She says after Boris Johnson compared Muslim women to letterboxes the number of incidents of Islamophobia went up by 375%.

Dawn Butler.
Dawn Butler. Photograph: Dawn Butler/Guardian

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Corbyn says running through the Labour manifesto is the “golden thread” of a society that works for all and respects all.

He is very proud to lead a party of diversity. And he would be proud to speak on the world stage on behalf of a country proud of its diversity, he says.

His manifesto can change lives for millions of people, he says.

Corbyn says antisemitism 'will not be tolerated in any form whatsoever' under Labour

Corbyn says sometimes when people are challenged they are asked if they are “tolerant” of others. He does not like the word, he says. He prefers the idea of being respectful, he says.

He says abuse has no place in our society. Attacks on people, and attacks on churches or synagogues or mosques, are attacks on all of us, he says. He says Labour would ensure there was full protection for places of worship. And attacks on places of worship would count as aggravated crimes, he says.

He says:

Antisemitism in any form is vile and wrong. It is an evil in our society … It grew in Europe … and ultimately led to the Holocaust … Under a Labour government it will not be tolerated in any form whatsoever.

He says Labour has a rapid process for dealing with these complaints. That process is constantly being reviewed. And Labour supports educating people about the problem, he says.

Corbyn says he wants to work with people of all faiths and none. It has always been his pride and his pleasure to do this, he says. In government, his door will be open to all faith leaders, he says.

He says the chief rabbi will be very welcome, as will be the archbishop of Canterbury, and leaders from other faiths.

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Corbyn says he thinks history may be the most important thing children learn at school.

Labour would promote the emancipation education trust, to ensure that children learn more about slavery. It should not just be taught during black history month. It should be taught all year round, he says.

Corbyn says there is not proper BAME representations at the top of public life. There are only 25 black female professors in British universities. He says a Labour government would carry out a review to ensure BAME people are properly represented at the top of the education system.

A Labour supporter holding up a copy of the party race and faith manifesto at its launch this morning.
A Labour supporter holding up a copy of the party race and faith manifesto at its launch this morning. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images

Corbyn says Labour wants to push ahead with anonymised job applications, so people do not face discrimination because of their name.

Corbyn says the Tory manifesto does not mention race and equality issues. Labour is the party of equality and human rights, he says.

He says he wants to lead a government where this is central to everything it does. He says people have until tonight to register to vote. He urges people to register.

And he says Labour will not pursue the voter ID plans in the Tory manifesto. These would suppress voting, he says.

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Corbyn speaks at launch of Labour's race and faith manifesto

Jeremy Corbyn is now speaking at the Labour race and faith manifesto launch. He starts by thanking Alf Dubs for what he said, and for all his campaigning on behalf of immigrants.

He is speaking at the Bernie Grant arts centre in Tottenham. Corbyn says he knew Grant very well, and is proud to be speaking at an arts centre named after him. He says Grant taught people a lot about the impact of Britain’s colonial past.

He says N15, the postcode area where he is speaking, is the most diverse in Britain. He says 150 languages are spoken here.

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Chief rabbi's attack on Corbyn over antisemitism 'unjustified and unfair', says Lord Dubs

Lord Dubs is speaking now at the Labour event.

He says he is “bitterly disappointed” at what the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said about Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism. He does not accept a lot of what Mirvis said, although Dubs says he thinks Labour should have addressed the problem more quickly. But the chief rabbi’s comments were “unjustified and unfair”, he says.

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Q: Why won’t you take part in the Channel 4 News debate on the environment on Thursday?

Johnson says he is taking part in other debates. He says as mayor of London he showed how emissions could be cut without the economy being harmed. But Labour would take a sledgehammer to the economy, he says.

And that’s it. The event is over.

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Q: Do you think Nicola Sturgeon should consider the chief rabbi’s comments before propping up a Labour government?

Johnson says Corbyn has not been able to stamp out antisemitism in his party. That is part of a wider failure of leadership, he says. He says you cannot be PM and refuse to take a position on Brexit. He says you cannot be neutral on that any more than you can be neutral on antisemitism.

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Q: If you are the largest party after the election, but don’t have a majority, will you rule out holding a second referendum on independence or on Brexit.

Johnson says he normally does not answer hypothetical questions like that. But he will answer this. Yes, he says. He says he genuinely thinks they would be bad for the country.

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Johnson laughs off question about his unpopularity in Scotland

Q: Polling shows your personal popularity in Scotland is only slightly better than Jeremy Corbyn’s. You’re on minus 34.

Johnson interrupts. Minus 34 – we can build on that, he says, to audience laughter.

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Q: Would you have any more city deals for Scotland?

Johnson says he will have a sectoral deal for the oil industry. And he will put £3.1bn more into Scotland as a result of his manifesto plans, as a result of the Barnett formula.

On city deals, Johnson says the whole of Scotland is covered.

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Q: How much of Brexit will be done by 31 January?

Johnson says the UK will be out of the EU. It will be in control of its laws and money. Getting a trade deal by the end of the year will be tight. But people said he would not be able to get a Brexit deal, and he did get one, he says.

Q: You have been talking about the cost of two referendums next year. How does that compare with how much you have spend on no-deal planning, and now much Brexit will cost Scotland?

Johnson sidesteps the question, and says what is harming the economy is the delay.

Johnson's Q&A

Johnson is now taking questions.

Q: Scotland voted remain. Nicola Sturgeon thinks your policies are catastrophic for Scotland. She does not like Jeremy Corbyn, but she seems to have a loathing for you. Is that mutual?

Johnson says he does not nurture grudges like this. He says our politics needs less of that. All that Sturgeon and Corbyn would do together would be waste 2020 on another Brexit referendum.

Sturgeon said the 2014 independence referendum was a once in a generation one. She should stick to that, he says.

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Johnson ends with his joke about wanting to go carbon-neutral by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by Christmas. He urges people to support sensible, moderate, one-nation Scottish Conservatism.

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Johnson says in 10 years’ time people in Scotland will be passionately proud of their Scottish identity, but also citizens of a proud United Kingdom.

Johnson says a space port in Scotland is under construction or almost complete. He asks someone in the audience to clarify. It is “on its way”, he says subsequently.

Johnson says Nicola Sturgeon confirmed her plan for Scottish independence in her interview with Andrew Neil last night. This would involve borders at Berwick, and handing back control of Scottish fishing waters to the EU, he claims.

Johnson is now speaking French, imagining Jeremy Corbyn’s first meeting with Michel Barnier. “What do you mean, you don’t really want it, Mr Corbyn?”

Johnson speculates about whether “Monsieur Starmer” or “Monsieur McDonnell” or “Madame Abbott” might back it.

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In Fife, Boris Johnson is still speaking. It’s a rehash of his standard stump speech. He has just used the line about how Jeremy Corbyn supposedly sided with Russia at the time of the Salisbury novichok poisonings.

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Here is a live feed of the Labour event.

More from the Labour race and faith manifesto launch in London. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has posted these in the last few minutes.

Johnson says the climate change conference is coming to Glasgow next week. That is happening because Scotland is in the United Kingdom, he says.

Boris Johnson is speaking at the Scottish launch now.

He says he did not want a general election, but parliament was blocking Brexit. He has a deal ready to go, he says. But he says Jeremy Corbyn would hold a second referendum. And Corbyn won’t say how he would vote in a second referendum. It is the only time in history someone has stood for PM without saying how they would vote on the most important issue of the day, he claims.

This is from ITV’s Peter MacMahon.

Boris Johnson has repeated the same mixed metaphors and rhetorical flourishes in his preface to the Scottish Tories election manifesto that he used in the UK manifesto on Sunday, somewhat tweaked for Scottish voters.

Alluding to more than 12 years of Scottish National party rule at Holyrood, Johnson asserts:

For the last decade Scotland has been trapped, like a lion in a cage. You have been like some super-green supercar blocked in the traffic. You can see the way ahead. You know where you want to go – and you know why you are stuck.

You have been paralysed by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, who simply refuse to accept your decision to keep our United Kingdom together. And that is why this election is so essential.

The Scottish Tory manifesto puts blocking a second independence referendum in the foreground. Johnson repeats his usual tropes, insisting a Tory government would defend and protect the “awesome foursome” of nations which make up the UK.

Unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Johnson writes, who is plotting to stage a second referendum with Sturgeon, “I can guarantee that we will reject any request from the SNP government to hold an independence referendum. There will be no negotiation – we will mark that letter return to sender and be done with it.”

Jackson Carlaw, the acting leader of the Scottish Conservatives, is speaking at the launch now.

He urges Labour unionists to back the Tories at this election, saying the Conservatives are best placed to oppose the SNP plans for independence.

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Boris Johnson launches Scottish Conservative manifesto

Boris Johnson is about to speak at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto in Fife.

There will be a live feed at the top of the blog shortly.

From the Telegraph’s Michael Deacon

From ITV’s Paul Brand

PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield says it seems that journalists won’t be able to ask any questions at the launch of the Labour race and faith manifesto this morning.

The Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, (centre) alongside the party’s candidate for Truro and Falmouth, Ruth Gripper, and founder of Finisterre, Tom Kay, as he gave them a tour of the workshop of the British surfing brand, which creates sustainable surfing gear, in St Agnes, Cornwall, this morning.
The Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, (centre) alongside the party’s candidate for Truro and Falmouth, Ruth Gripper, and founder of Finisterre, Tom Kay, as he gave them a tour of the workshop of the British surfing brand, which creates sustainable surfing gear, in St Agnes, Cornwall, this morning. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

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Boris Johnson is launching the Scottish Conservatives’ manifesto in Fife this morning. This is from the Herald’s Tom Gordon.

From the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge.

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Peter Kellner, the former YouGov president, has written an interesting article on current polling for the Article. He has been using YouGov data to look at how opinion has shifted since 2015 and he says “Brexit has completely transformed Britain’s political landscape, by prompting millions of voters to rethink their politics and their party loyalties”. His main point is that, although there has been a 9.5 swing from Tories to Labour among remain voters since 2015, the Labour to Tory swing among leave voters over the same period is double that.

Shifts in voting intention since 2015
Shifts in voting intention since 2015. Photograph: The Article

Kellner thinks “a Conservative landslide is not inevitable; but it is certainly possible”. He explains:

Taking account of the figures in the table above, I reckon that current voting intentions could result in swings of around 8% to the Conservatives in leave seats defended by Labour. Overall the Tories would capture 71 Labour seats if they achieved such a swing everywhere. However, 15 of these seats voted remain. That leaves 56 Labour marginals that voted leave.

If we assume the Tories lose around 20 seats to the SNP and Liberal Democrats (without tactical voting, their losses may be fewer), and gains 56 seats from Labour, then Boris Johnson ends up with a majority of 65 (assuming Sinn Féin MPs stay away from parliament).

It would not take much for the Tories to do significantly better than that. Labour has 90 seats vulnerable to a 10% swing. Of these, 70 voted leave. If the Conservatives gain all these, their majority approaches 100.

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The Electoral Commission has published information about donations to political parties in the third quarter of 2019. This is not the same as the information about donations received during the election campaign period. That data is published weekly, and the first of those reports came out last week.

In total more than £19m was donated to political parties in July, August and September (the third quarter). The Conservatives received the most, £5.8m in total, followed by Labour (£5.5m), the Brexit party (£3.4m) and the Liberal Democrats (£3.3m).

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The Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, has described the chief rabbi’s intervention (see 6.15am, 7.50am, 9.41am and 10.20am) as “hugely worrying”. She said:

I think it is hugely worrying that the chief rabbi has felt compelled to make such an intervention in an election.

It speaks volumes about the genuine fear that people in the Jewish community feel about Jeremy Corbyn and his inability to tackle antisemitism in the Labour party.

I think all of us whatever our religion, or none, whatever our race, we should take very seriously the concerns of a community within our country that is genuinely feeling unsafe.

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Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, has told Sky News that he thinks Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, was wrong in what he said in a Times article about antisemitism being entrenched in Labour. McDonald said:

It is a serious intervention. It is a reminder of the hurt that has been caused to the Jewish community by the instances of antisemitism within the party and broader than that.

I really do take issue with the conclusions the chief rabbi has raised about the character and nature of the party and indeed Jeremy Corbyn, who has devoted his life to fight racism of all kinds.

People come into the Labour party to fight racism in all its manifestations and it is upsetting, to say the least, to find ourselves trying to deal with these small number of incidents.

We are a huge movement and this represents a tiny fraction of our membership.

Nevertheless it is serious and it has to be dealt with head on.

The Mirvis Times article is here (paywall). And here is an extract.

The Jewish community has watched with incredulity as supporters of the Labour leadership have hounded parliamentarians, members and even staff out of the party for challenging anti-Jewish racism. Even as they received threats, the response of the Labour leadership was utterly inadequate. We have endured quibbling and prevarication over whether the party should adopt the most widely accepted definition of antisemitism. Now we await the outcome of a formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into whether discrimination by the party against Jews has become an institutional problem. And all of this while in opposition. What should we expect of them in government?

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Chief rabbi has 'gone too far' in comments about Labour and antisemitism, says Lord Dubs

The Labour peer Lord Dubs was on the Today programme this morning responding to the claims from the chief rabbi that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed antisemitism to take root in his party. Dubs, who arrived in the UK in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, said he respected Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, but thought he was wrong on this. Dubs said:

I think, I have a lot of respect for the chief rabbi, I’ve co-operated with him on campaigns on behalf of child refugees, I’ve spoken to him in many synagogues and I’ve got a lot of positive feeling about the Jewish community, but I think today the chief rabbi has gone too far …

I think the Labour party has been much too slow in getting to grips with this, and I’ve been critical of the Labour party over the last two or three years, but I feel we are getting there, and I want to look at it from the point of view of where we are today and moving forward.

Asked if he thought Corbyn was fit to be prime minister, Dubs replied:

I think he is, yes, I think he is fit to be prime minister. I do not believe he is antisemitic. I believe things have happened under his leadership which should have been stopped way back.

I don’t believe he is personally antisemitic and I believe he will find it very, very hurtful that people accuse him of being antisemitic or racist or Islamophobic. He is none of those things.

Asked whether Jewish people should fear a Labour government, Dubs said:

I would say you do not have to fear. There are many of us in the Labour party who will ensure that there is no fear for you, and we respect your concerns but let’s move forwards.

Alf Dubs, the Labour peer.
Alf Dubs, the Labour peer. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

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Agenda for the day

Here are some of the campaign events in the diary for today.

11.30am: Jeremy Corbyn launches Labour’s race and faith manifesto with Dawn Butler, the shadow minister for women and equalities, at an event in Tottenham in London.

12pm: Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, speaks at an event in Barnsley.

3pm: Sajid Javid, the chancellor, gives a speech in Manchester.

7pm: Corbyn is interviewed by Andrew Neil on BBC One.

Boris Johnson and Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, are also doing campaign events, but the timings have not been confirmed yet.

DUP does not rule out backing minority Labour government if Corbyn were replaced as leader

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Mattha Busby.

In an interview with Sky News last night Lord Kerslake, the former head of the civil service who has been advising the Labour party, suggested that, if Labour needed SNP and Lib Dem support to form a minority government, Jeremy Corbyn’s role as party leader could be part of the negotiation. Labour sources are disputing this, but Kerslake said:

[Labour] would then need to have conversations with those [minority] parties to really establish on what basis they would give that support.

We don’t yet know in truth how that would play out, although the Liberal Democrats have said they could not support a Jeremy-Corbyn-led Labour government and the SNP have said they would want a second referendum.

All of that, no doubt, would form part of the conversation that Labour would be having informally with those two parties.

In his Today interview this morning Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP chief whip, also hinted that the DUP could rethink its opposition to Labour if Corbyn were to be replaced as leader. The DUP had a confidence and supply arrangement with Theresa May. But now it finds itself isolated because Boris Johnson is proposing a Brexit deal that would in effect create a customs border down the Irish Sea, which is unacceptable to unionists. Asked who the DUP wanted to win the election, Donaldson replied:

Well, that’s a matter for the electorate, but clearly we’ve stated we believe a Corbyn-led Labour government would be disastrous for the UK.

When it was put to him that his use of the phrase “Corbyn-led Labour government” implied the DUP might take a different view of a Labour government led by someone else, and when he was asked if the DUP could “do business” with such a government, Donaldson replied:

Of course, it would depend what their platform was. We would have to look at that very carefully.

Asked if the DUP could support Labour’s plan for a second referendum featuring two options, remain and a leave option, Donaldson did not rule this out. “Well, we’d need to see what the deal was, of course,” he replied.

I’m not going to commit myself to something at this stage that is entirely hypothetical. But clearly there isn’t a single major party in Northern Ireland that supports the prime minister’s Brexit deal and that’s a major problem for us because, if this deal is imposed, I believe it will create further instability, and we certainly don’t need that.

Political parties tend to react very badly to other parties telling them who they should have as leader, and it is hard to imagine Labour ditching Corbyn just to win parliamentary support from the Lib Dems or the DUP. But there is some sort of precedent for gestures of this kind. After the 2010 general election Gordon Brown announced that he would quit before the end of the year in the hope that this might make the Lib Dems more willing to form a pact with Labour. (Of course, it didn’t.)

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Labour’s Jess Phillips has appeared to advise the party’s leadership on how to respond to the chief rabbi Ephraim Mervis’ intervention.

Michael Gove has said he feels a “certain sense of sadness” about Michael Heseltine’s views on the Conservative party.

However, he said he “respectfully disagreed” with the peer on Europe and described him as a “longtime advocate” of further integration with the EU. Gove then said Heseltine was wrong to advise people to vote Liberal Democrat.

I think that the most important thing at this general election is the choice between the two alternative prime ministers – Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn – and I think that Boris would undoubtedly ensure that we got Brexit done and avoid the dangers of two referendums, whereas Jeremy Corbyn, as we know by the words of the chief rabbi today, poses a threat to more than just our economy.

On the chance of securing a trade deal, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster said:

First of all, we’ve heard this scepticism before. It’s the sort of default position of many commentators. It’s also the case that we have a political declaration which accompanies the withdrawal agreement that sets out the broad structure of the agreement that we’d want, and it’s pretty clear the sort of agreement that would work in the EU’s interests and the UK’s interests.

It would be a free trade agreement with friendly co-operation – co-operation on security, on science and on education.

Pressed on whether services would have access to the EU freely, Gove said:

Well, at the moment we do not have a single market in services even within the European Union.

Asked whether services would be better or worse than at present, he added:

It would depend on the individual sector. But I think what we are likely to get, and I think this is certainly what Europe wants as well, is a no tariffs, no quotas, no quantitative restrictions as part of that free trade agreement.

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The DUP parliamentary candidate Jeffrey Donaldson has warned that the Tory Brexit deal would “destabilise Northern Ireland’s relationship with the rest of the UK” and be “disadvantageous” to the Northern Ireland economy.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he added:

Clearly there isn’t a single major party in Northern Ireland that supports the prime minister’s Brexit deal, and that’s a major problem for us because if this deal is imposed, I believe it will create further instability and we certainly don’t need that. We believe the prime minister needs to look again at this idea of creating a border in the Irish Sea.

He reiterated that a Corbyn-led Labour government would be “disastrous” for the UK and said the party would look “very carefully” at joining forces with a Labour government that its current leader was not involved in.

On the Brexit deal proposed by the Tories, Donaldson said: ‘It will create further instability’
On the Brexit deal proposed by the Tories, Donaldson said: ‘It will create further instability.’ Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

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Heseltine says UK faces 'another year of uncertainty' under Johnson's Brexit plan

Conservative party grandee Michael Heseltine has urged voters to back the Liberal Democrats to stop Brexit being delivered by Boris Johnson.

Speaking last night alongside former Tory MPs David Gauke, Dominic Grieve and Anne Milton in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, Heseltine was reported to have said:

I’m telling them to vote for what they believe and what the Conservative party has stood for all my life and certainly all of theirs – and to put country first. And what I think that means in practical terms is they either vote for the defrocked Conservative candidates, of which we have three excellent examples here, or they vote Lib Dem.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, the former deputy prime minster asserted that Jeremy Corbyn had no chance of becoming prime minister and that “traditional reds under the beds” scares came about in every election.

The 86-year-old former deputy prime minster said a more pressing question was whether Corbyn would be leader of the Labour party by Christmas, though he appeared to urge people against voting for the Tories.

Anyone who might form a temporary coalition will insist that it’s not Jeremy Corbyn. The real issue is what is at stake. It is the prosperity and world influence of this country. Our relationships with our neighbours in Europe. This is transcendently the overarching issue at stake in this election and I cannot vote or support people who are going to make this country poorer and less influential.

The peer has long supported a second referendum, due to the lies made during the 2016 vote by influential Brexit supporters.

He recognised that the Liberal Democrats – with their ”Stop Brexit” pledge – are not going to win the election, although he is voting for the party, and warned of the consequences of Johnson winning a majority.

It’s complete nonsense to suggest that [Brexit] can be done by Christmas. All you can do by Christmas is to pass legislation to enter into negotiations. It’s preposterous. We are in for another year of uncertainty and a possibility of a no-deal exit at the end of it. That’s the reality of what we’re facing if Mr Johnson gets an overall majority.

Michael Heseltine.
Michael Heseltine. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

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Visible action must accompany stands against antisemitism, says Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said nobody can afford to be “complacent” about antisemitism, reiterating that political parties must avoid worsening a “perception of fear” and calling on them to offer reassurances.

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The cross-bench peer Rabbi Julia Neuberger has said the UK could become a less comfortable place for Jews to live if Jeremy Corbyn came to power.

She said she agreed with the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, that the Jewish community is gripped by anxiety ahead of the general election due to an “unwillingness” of the Labour leadership to tackle a creeping “insidious antisemitic tone”.

“People in the Jewish community have seen that unwillingness and asked what is going on, why are they not gripping it?” she asked.

The interviewer cited recent polls suggesting 87% of Jews believe Corbyn is antisemitic and almost half would consider emigrating from the UK if he became prime minister, to which Neuberger replied:

I think the anxiety is that if in opposition Jeremy Corbyn and his top team do not tackle the antisemitism which has for instance been shown against Labour MPs. If they’re not willing to tackle that, apologise for it and sympathise then something is going very wrong. A political party where some of its MPs leave because of antisemitic taunting, and still cannot deal with it, makes people feel very uncomfortable. The other part of it is what you see on social media, people who claim to be Corbyn supporters saying the most appalling things about Jews.

The author said that although UK remains a good place to live as a Jew, that is shifting and if Labour under Corbyn comes to power then “this comfortable place to live may become less comfortable”.

People will look for ways of moving or having a place somewhere else, or whatever they can possibly do to mitigate what feels oppressive, uncomfortable, dangerous.

Asked why non-Jews potentially more concerned with austerity and benefit cuts should care enough to not vote Labour, Neuberger said: “If a section of the population is feeling uncomfortable because of racism, that is serious.”

Baroness Julia Neuberger: ‘If a section of the population is feeling uncomfortable because of racism, that is serious.’
Baroness Julia Neuberger: ‘If a section of the population is feeling uncomfortable because of racism, that is serious.’ Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

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The former Labour MPs Luciana Berger and Ian Austin have spoken out in support of the condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn from the UK’s chief rabbi of the UK.

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The papers

Former envoy to EU decries the government's 'diplomatic amateurism'

Meanwhile, Britain’s former envoy to the EU Sir Ivan Rogers has issued a scathing verdict of the government’s “diplomatic amateurism”, saying Boris Johnson is sowing the seeds of “the biggest crisis of Brexit to date”.

In a lecture in Glasgow, Rogers said Johnson was repeating Theresa May’s “strategy errors” and would soon find himself “unwisely” boxed in by his campaign promises.

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Labour accused of ‘poison sanctioned from the top’ by chief rabbi

Ephraim Mirvis, writing in the Times, says Jews are anxious about the prospect of a Corbyn-led Labour government.
Ephraim Mirvis, writing in the Times, says Jews are anxious about the prospect of a Corbyn-led Labour government. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

The chief rabbi has accused Jeremy Corbyn of allowing a “poison sanctioned from the top” to take root in Labour, saying Jews are justifiably anxious about the prospect of the party forming the next government.

Ephraim Mirvis, the spiritual leader of the UK’s 62 orthodox synagogues, made the rare political intervention on the day that the Labour party is planning to unveil its race and faith manifesto in Tottenham this morning. Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler will attend.

Writing for the Times, Mirvis said it was not his place to tell people how to vote but argued that the way in which the Labour leadership had dealt with anti-Jewish racism was “incompatible with the British values of which we are so proud – of dignity and respect for all people” and that in this election the “soul of the nation” was at stake.

Labour has always strongly denied any suggestion that Corbyn has failed to get to grips with allegations of antisemitism in Labour, pointing to his record as an anti-racist campaigner and moves to overhaul the party’s complaints process.

The rabbi wrote: “The party leadership have never understood that their failure is not just one of procedure, which can be remedied with additional staff or new processes. It is a failure to see this as a human problem rather than a political one. It is a failure of culture. It is a failure of leadership. A new poison – sanctioned from the top – has taken root in the Labour party.”

Updated

Good morning politics early birds, welcome to our rolling coverage of the day’s news and today, we’re talking about money.

The huge gap in the spending promises of the two major parties is the main topic of debate today, after it emerged that Labour was committing 28 times as much in public spending as the Conservatives.

Jeremy Corbyn defended his multibillion pound general election spending pledge on public services, saying that even with the increased spending of £83bn a year that he has promised, the UK would still spend less on public services than France or Germany. Zoe Williams writes that Labour has outlined its promises, now its job is to make those promises seem real.

Meanwhile, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has released analysis showing that child poverty is at risk of rising to a record 60-year high under a Conservative government because its manifesto retains the coalition’s benefit cuts. The analysis says the number of British children living in relative poverty would increase from 29.6% in 2017-18 to 34.5% in 2023-24 under a Boris Johnson-led government. Though it adds that Labour’s £9bn of extra spending on social security would mean 550,000 fewer children in poverty but would not lead to current poverty rates falling.

I’ll be with you for the first hour of the live blog before I send it in the direction of my esteemed colleagues. You can get in touch with me on Twitter or via email (kate.lyons@theguardian.com).

Updated

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