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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Andrew Sparrow, Kevin Rawlinson, Damien Gayle and Kate Lyons

General election: predicted Tory lead narrows in latest MRP poll – as it happened

Boris Johnson exits the cab of a flag-themed JCB, during a general election campaign event in Uttoxeter.
Boris Johnson exits the cab of a flag-themed JCB, during a general election campaign event in Uttoxeter. Photograph: POOL/Reuters

Closing summary

That’s all from us this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. If you’d like to read yet more, Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason have our main story:

My colleague, Andrew Sparrow, has put together this detailed summary of the day’s events:

And, since he wrote it, a major poll predicted a narrowing lead for the Tories, but suggested they could still be on course for a majority. The YouGov poll predicted a 28-seat lead for the Conservatives – down from 68 a fortnight ago. But it suggested a hung parliament was also a realistic outcome.

The shadow women and equalities minister, Naz Shah, has criticised the Tories for standing by a candidate who shared a message on social media claiming Muslims play the “race card” and have a “nasty culture”

The Guardian revealed on Monday that Linden Kemkaran retweeted a Twitter user last week who dismissed Islamophobia as nonsense, as well as two others who accused Shah of being “not white enough” to have experienced what they described as Bradford’s “no-go areas”.

It was reported that the Tories were investigating the claims against Kemkaran, who said she “didn’t and never would describe Islam or any other culture as ‘nasty’”. This evening, Shah has accused the party of refusing to take decisive action.

This rhetoric has serious consequences. It stokes hate and prejudice towards Muslims.

Instead of apologising and making amends, Linden Kemkaran doubled down. She is not fit to be an MP. She should be suspended immediately pending a full investigation.

Clearly, Boris Johnson’s claim that racist Conservative candidates are ‘out first bounce’ was yet another lie. He is refusing to suspend her and, in doing so, he is condoning racism towards minorities. Perhaps this is not surprising as Johnson himself has said ‘Islam is the problem’ and suggested Muslims are not loyal to Britain.

According to the Mail on Sunday’s deputy political editor, this is the Tory spin on the poll:

It’s been noted by various Westminster correspondents that the Tories were likely to be unsettled by the previous poll, which predicted a comfortable lead and which some voters could see as a reason not to turn out.

It follows, then, that they’d portray any potential narrowing of the gap in this evening’s as presenting a “danger” their supporters must get to the polls to see off.

Updated

Somewhat more interestingly, the poll suggests Thursday evening could be uncomfortable for the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and the former work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith.

Chingford and Wood Green has been a safe Tory seat since it was created in 1997, and was once held by Iain Duncan Smith. But with demographic changes and other local factors the comfortable advantage they had has changed. Current results now show a two-point lead for the Conservatives (47% versus Labour’s 45%).

In 2017, Dominic Raab won Esher and Walton with a majority of over 23,000. This constituency also voted Remain at the 2016 EU Referendum. The model shows that tactical voting is producing a shift towards the Lib Dems, with the party now on 44% and closing the gap on the Conservatives (46%).

One point to note: The YouGov poll released this evening seeks to measure the likely results if the general election were held right now. Without wishing to labour a somewhat tedious and clichéd point, the campaigning is not yet over.

Chris Curtis, YouGov’s political research manager, has said:

Our latest and final poll shows that a small Conservative majority is likely, with the Tories taking 22 more seats than in 2017 and Labour losing 31. This would be the best and worst results respectively for each party since the 80s.

But the margins are extremely tight and small swings in a small number of seats, perhaps from tactical voting and a continuation of Labour’s recent upward trend, means we can’t currently rule out a hung parliament.

As things currently stand there are 85 seats with a margin of error of 5% or less.

Updated

Poll predicts smaller majority for Tories, with hung parliament still possible

The Tories could still be on course for a majority at Thursday’s general election, but it may be smaller than was predicted a fortnight ago, according to one poll published this evening.

The YouGov poll for the Times suggests the Conservatives may have the upper hand in 339 seats; enough to form a government but 20 fewer than in a similar poll published on 27 November. Labour are also predicted to win 20 more seats than before, with 231.

The poll’s range of possible outcomes stretches from 367 Tory seats to only 311. Anthony Wells, YouGov’s director of political research, said:

Based on the model we cannot rule out a hung parliament.

The paper reports that the seat-by-seat analysis was based on more than 100,000 interviews conducted over the past seven days in the 632 constituencies in Great Britain and produced using a polling model that accurately predicted the outcome of the 2017 election.

It predicts vote shares of 43% for the Tories and 34% for Labour and suggests the SNP could win 35 seats, the Lib Dems 12, Plaid Cymru four and both the Greens and others on one each. The Brexit party is not predicted to win a single seat.

The poll does not cover the Northern Irish constituencies.

Updated

O’Neill also came under pressure over Sinn Féin’s policy of not taking their seats at Westminster. She insisted “one or two Irish MPs won’t make a difference”, in response to criticism by Eastwood and Aiken.

The latter put to O’Neill that her MPs in the last parliament were often seen sitting in the coffee shops and asked: “Why not take your seats on the green benches”? She said:

You are pretending you can go to Westminster and stop Brexit, that is nonsense.

The SDLP leader, who is running in Foyle, restated that, if elected, he would take his seat in Westminster. Long also pressed O’Neill over abstentionism. O’Neill responded saying her MPs will never take an oath of allegiance to the Queen.

The DUP leader, Arlene Foster, has not taken part in this evening’s BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight election debate. Lagan Valley candidate, Jeffrey Donaldson, has stood in for his party leader.

Of the other four main parties in the region, Sinn Féin has been represented by its vice president Michelle O’Neill, the SDLP by its leader Colum Eastwood, the UUP by its leader Steve Aiken and the Alliance party by its leader Naomi Long.

The first question put to them by a member of the audience was: “do you believe Brexit makes a united Ireland more likely?”.

Eastwood said he believes the first thing to be dealt with is “the emergency that is Brexit”, and called for a second referendum to “stop this Brexit madness”.

Donaldson said he doesn’t believe there is a threat to Northern Ireland’s position within the UK, and he opposed a second referendum on Brexit. He slated “poor negotiation” on behalf of the UK government and restated his party’s opposition to Boris Johnson’s proposed Brexit deal

My message to unionists is to send a strong unionist team back to Westminster, that’s what unionists want.

O’Neill said Brexit may make people rethink their stance on a united Ireland, if leaving the UK would mean re-entering the EU.

According to Long, Brexit has “certainly made Northern Ireland less stable”. She said it has brought arguments around borders back to the fore, adding: “The harder the Brexit, the more borders... the more likely people are to reconsider their position (on the constitutional question).”

Aiken said Johnson’s deal makes Northern Ireland “a place apart”, and urged for the proposals to be stopped.

Finally, the leaders are asked about climate change.

Sturgeon says the Scottish government has already passed a bill with the most challenging climate targets in the world. “We changed our mind on reducing air passenger duty, but the government also needs to work with companies as well as encouraging individuals to make changes.”

Leonard sets out Labour’s green industrial revolution – asked what unpopular decision he’s prepared to make on climate change, he says he wants a revolution by consent.

Carlaw says it’s not a case of foisting things upon people – there’s an international aspect in helping other countries to avoid the mistakes the UK has made. We need to manage resources better.

Updated

In Greater Manchester, the prime minister is holding a rally:

Updated

Going back to the audience on funding for policies, one woman tells the Tory leader, Jackson Carlaw, that his claims about increased employment are really evidence of subsidised employment, because so many working people are now relying on food banks.

Leonard says there is a real problem of low pay, which is why Labour is introducing a minimum wage of £10 an hour for everyone over the age of 16.

Sturgeon accuses Carlaw of being “out of touch”; his priority is passing on tax cuts to the rich, while the SNP has already introduced a higher rate of tax for high earners.

Updated

Danielle from Falkirk asks the money question: How are parties going to fund their policies?

Richard Leonard says Labour wants to “move forward through investment”, we will borrow to invest and put burden of taxation more fairly on companies.

Nicola Sturgeon says SNP priorities - and the experience they’d bring to a minority government - are progressive taxation, more room for responsible borrowing while interest rates low, and stop spending on the wrong priorities. “Every other party here wants to spend £200bn on Trident renewal”.

Ahead of the final day of campaigning, the BBC Scotland leaders’ debate – the final televised debate of this election campaign – has begun in Glasgow, with audience questions on trust in politicians and the inevitability of independence. There’s also a stage set that would be more appropriate to a Derren Brown show, but not to worry.

The audience immediately makes its presence felt: “Can I ask Willie Rennie to stop talking over people?” interjects one woman, “It’s really rude.” Another man says that the country has never been more divided “because of the way YOU [the party leaders] are acting”. Another woman who identifies herself as “of a certain age”, says that as a WASPI woman “I’ve been disrespected by all of you”.

Meanwhile, the leaders are still warming up, and sticking fairly firmly to their party lines. Asked about further devolution versus independence, Sturgeon says that Labour and the Lib Dems talk a lot about ideas like ‘devo max’ but without offering specifics.

It’s worth noting that Sturgeon is now a debate veteran, having appeared in many of the UK-wide debates, but this Scotland-focused one may bring more audience scrutiny of the SNP government’s record at Holyrood. Carlaw challenges her: “Its those public services are currently suffering because Nicola Sturgeon’s first, second, third and forth priority is independence, not the economy, not your jobs.”

In the BBC’s Scottish leaders debate, which is airing now, Nicola Sturgeon is asked about mistrust in politicians. The SNP leader says political leaders have forgotten they are “opponents, not enemies”.

The leader of the Scottish Tories, Jackson Carlaw, says we are living in a less deferential age and people no longer unquestioningly accept what politicians say.

Richard Leonard, of Scottish Labour, says political leaders have been guilty of “transposing their own priorities”, rather than listening to those of voters. He’s asked a follow-up on Jonathan Ashworth’s claim that he backs Jeremy Corbyn, which come after he was recorded speaking in less than flattering terms about his party leader. Is that not an example of the sort of thing that erodes trust? Leonard repeats Ashworth’s claim he was winding up a friend.

Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, says he is deeply concerned about public mistrust.

My colleague, Dan Sabbagh, has put together this guide to tactical voting:

The Guardian has just published its view on this Thursday’s general election:

Despite our misgivings, we believe that a vote for the Labour party offers the best hope for the country. A Labour-led government seems only possible with the support of parties that insist a second referendum on Europe is sacrosanct – some of whom also demand a second independence poll in Scotland. That means backing candidates who can defeat the Tories in constituencies where Labour is an also-ran – from the SNP, the Lib Dems, the Greens and Plaid Cymru to pro-European independents. Think of the electrifying impact of relieving Mr Johnson of high office and stopping the pro-Brexit Tory party in its tracks. Thursday is a fleeting opportunity to stop an unwanted national calamity – and address the reasons behind it. Voters must seize the day.

We reported earlier that a group of Extinction Rebellion protesters had stuck themselves to the Tory campaign bus (see 5.16pm). After about an hour and a half, the three men have been unstuck and placed in handcuffs by police.

Summary

  • Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has been told that he retains Jeremy Corbyn’s backing after a tape of a private conversation was released in which Ashworth said Labour was certain to lose the election and Corbyn was a major reason why. In the 11-minute recording Ashworth said:

Outside of the city seats, if you are in small-town Midlands and north, it’s abysmal out there. They don’t like [Boris] Johnson, but they can’t stand [Jeremy] Corbyn and they think Labour’s blocked Brexit ...

The electoral map is going topsy-turvy because of Brexit, and because of Corbyn. The question is for Labour, if it gets itself a half-decent leader next time round, whether it can reverse and regain its traditional heartland seats ...

Johnson and CCHQ would have to massively fuck it up in the last week [to lose the election].

The recording was obtained by the anti-Labour website Guido Fawkes and posted online this morning. Ashworth immediately accepted that the tape, which seems to have been recorded early last week, was genuine. He was talking to a Tory activist who had had known for years and whom he considered a friend, he said. Ashworth initially said that his comments, which included a vague hint that Corbyn might be considered a security risk by officials in No 10, were “banter” and later he expanded on this, saying that he was deliberately trying to lull the Tories into a false sense of security. He told the BBC’s Politics Live (no relation to the original Politics Live at the Guardian):

[My friend] was ringing me. I was talking to him. He was saying his sources at CCHQ say Labour’s doing well. I’m doing the old, what Alex Ferguson would do, football manager kind of thing, trying to psych him out, saying: ‘No, you’re going to win, don’t worry about it,’ because I know he’s an activist in Canterbury, I’m trying to make him complacent.

If Ashworth really was engaged in a cunning attempt to mislead CCHQ, he is a better actor than people have given him credit for and clearly has potential as a double agent. (You can listen to the recording here, and decide what to think for yourself.) Notwithstanding, he apologised to Labour members anyway. And Corbyn indicated that he accepted Ashworth’s explanation of what happened, telling the BBC:

Jon has my full support and I’m cool with Jon, we get along great.

He said to me it was all about reverse psychology banter as in football supporters and the other person was saying the opposite about their party and it all got a bit out of hand.

In politics, as in most walks of life, people do say disobliging things about their bosses in private from time to time and Ashworth’s comments were relatively mild compared to some of the comments made about Corbyn by his MPs behind his back. In public at least, Ashworth’s colleagues have been supportive. Most of them probably feel understandable sympathy for the way Ashworth appears to have been let down by long-standing friend he thought he could trust.

I don’t see any alternative but a working majority to deliver [Brexit] ... Nicola Sturgeon has just hired a bus with ‘Stop Brexit’ on it, so she’s obviously not in favour of it. And she’s the only way that Jeremy Corbyn can remain in office. So it is very hard to see how we do it without a working majority Conservative government. That’s what we need to go for.

That’s all from my for today.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is writing the blog now.

Updated

Complaint lodged with OECD about JCB allegedly not preventing abuse of its machinery in Palestinian occupied territories

A complaint has been lodged with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development accusing JCB of having done nothing to protect human rights over the use of its mechanical equipment in the Palestinian occupied territories.

The OECD complaint alleges that the British multinational has allowed its products to be used repeatedly to bulldoze Palestinian villages, or construct illegal settlements in alleged breach of international law.

The claim was lodged on Tuesday by Lawyers for Palestinian Rights, the same day that Boris Johnson went to the JCB’s factory in the Midlands of the UK to knock over a polystyrene wall. JCB family members have been a long-term funders of the Tory party.

The legal charity is bringing the claim against JCB under Chapter 4 of the OECD guidelines for multinationals concerning the need to take into account human rights considerations when selling products.

The group’s claim states:

JCB has not sought ways to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their business operations and products by virtue of the use of its machinery by Israeli authorities and private contractors, that it is linked to via a supply chain.

JCB has failed to develop a human rights policy that: has been approved by its board; benefits from internal and/or external expertise; sets out the company’s expectations from its staff; is publicly available; and is embedded across the business.

It says JCB should “immediately suspend supply of products to Comasco (an Israeli company which is the exclusive dealer of JCB products in Israel) that could be identified as being part of the supply chain that results in demolitions or settlement-related construction, and to permanently cease supply to Comasco should it not be able to provide credible and verifiable guarantees that such products will not be involved in the violation of Palestinian human rights”.

Tareq Shrourou and Claire Jeffwitz of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, said:

The complaint presents credible, clear and compelling evidence that substantiates the material and prolific involvement of JCB heavy machinery products in specific demolition and displacement incidents that significantly impacts Palestinian families, including children and the elderly, and also its use in settlement-related construction.

JCB’s facilitating of these tightly connected policies and practices that result in human rights violations against Palestinians must cease immediately.

JCB has been contacted for comment.

Updated

Corbyn says his 'great' relationship with Ashworth not affected by taped conversation about Labour heading for defeat

Jeremy Corbyn has indicated that he accepts Jonathan Ashworth’s claim that what he said in a private conversation with a Tory activist whom he considered an old friend was just “reverse psychology”, intended to lull the Tories into a false sense of security. Asked about the tape (see 11.44am). Speaking to the BBC, Corbyn said:

This is Guido Fawkes tapping into a private bit of banter between two old friends.

I’ve had a chat with Jon Ashworth; he called me straight away.

He’s out there campaigning for a Labour government, he’s out there defending our NHS, and Jon has my full support and I’m cool with Jon, we get along great.

He said to me it was all about reverse psychology banter as in football supporters and the other person was saying the opposite about their party and it all got a bit out of hand.

Corbyn also said that Ashworth had been a “fantastic” shadow health secretary and that the material was leaked to distract media attention away from stories about the state of the NHS. (The Guido Fawkes website, which leaked the material, backs Boris Johnson.)

Asked if people would believe this was just banter, Corbyn said people could decide on Thursday whether they wanted to vote for a party that backed the NHS, or one that might destroy it “by a thousand cuts”.

Asked about Ashworth’s suggestion that Corbyn might be a security risk, Corbyn said his colleague was joking. He explained:

Jon and I have known each other for a very long time and he was actually making some jokes, a rather odd sense of humour surrounding it, but that is him. If you know Jon Ashworth like I do, he makes jokes the whole time.

Asked if Ashworth would become health secretary if Labour won the election, Corbyn said he would announce his team on Friday.

Jeremy Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: BBC News

Extinction Rebellion protesters, some dressed as bees, gathered around the Conservative campaign bus as it tried to leave JCB in Uttoxeter, the Press Association reports. They appear to have stuck themselves to the vehicle. Boris Johnson not on board.

Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed as bees glued to the Tory battlebus after the PM’s visit to the JCB plant in Uttoxeter.
Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed as bees glued to the Tory battlebus after the PM’s visit to the JCB plant in Uttoxeter. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

From MLex’s Matthew Holehouse

Boris Johnson's Q&A - Summary

Here are the main points from Boris Johnson’s Q&A at the JCB plant.

  • Johnson said that it was “very hard” to see Brexit happening if the Tories failed to get a working majority. Asked if he had a plan B to deliver Brexit in the event of not having a majority, he replied:

I don’t see any alternative but a working majority to deliver it ... Nicola Sturgeon has just hired a bus with ‘Stop Brexit’ on it, so she’s obviously not in favour of it. And she’s the only way that Jeremy Corbyn can remain in office. So it is very hard to see how we do it without a working majority Conservative government. That’s what we need to go for.

  • He claimed the leaked recording of Jonathan Ashworth’s private conversation about Labour and Corbyn showed that Corbyn was a security threat. Describing Corbyn as a “Hamas-backing, IRA-supporting, antisemitism-condoning appeaser of the Kremlin”, Johnson went on:

If you doubt me, look at what his health spokesman said today, Jon Ashworth. He revealed that he thought his own leader is a security risk.

And there is another fact Mr Ashworth mentioned which I think is even more terrifying when you look at the year ahead and the prospects for our country.

Jon Ashworth made it absolutely clear that the reason Mr Corbyn is failing to persuade some people to vote for him is he is blocking Brexit – he won’t get Brexit done.

Don’t just listen to me, look at what his health spokesman Jon Ashworth has said. He is absolutely right.

See 11.44am for a summary of what Ashworth does say on the tape. There is only one reference to Corbyn as a possible security risk, and Ashworth’s language is less specific than Johnson claims.

  • Johnson gave what might be his strongest hint yet that he is not planning to scrap HS2. Asked if he would press on with it if he won the election, he said he had already set up a review, under Douglas Oakervee, to consider whether the project should continue.

HS2 I think is a scheme that is running now at £88bn in estimated costs, projected costs, I think it could go higher to be perfectly honest.

If there is a chance to make HS2 work better, or if he [Oakervee] says it’s a bad idea then obviously we will have to look very seriously at that. But I want to give you my instincts. I think I’m probably the candidate at this election who has done the most to build massive infrastructure projects, I know a bit about it.

I’m a massive enthusiast for it. On the whole, this country is woefully under-provided for fantastic infrastructure. So whatever Doug says, whatever his team says, I’m going to be temperamentally very much inclined to want to go ahead with a great national project if I can.

But I’m also going to want to be able to save whatever money I can, those are going to be the instincts I will use when approaching it.

  • He rejected claims that the Conservatives were “home and dry” for an election victory. When asked if he accepted this, he replied:

Absolutely not.

This is a very close fought election and we need every vote.

As I say, the only mathematical alternative to a working majority Conservative government is a real risk of another hung parliament.

That’s another five years of confusion, chaos, dither, delay and division. We cannot go down that route.

I’m sorry to say this but you remember what happened in 2017 - polls can be wrong. We need to be fighting for every vote.

  • He said MPs would not be justifying their pay if they continued to block Brexit after the election. When an employee at the plant asked if Johnson agreed that MPs should stop getting paid if they continued to block Brexit, he replied:

Let’s move this thing forward ... if MPs turn up and continue to block Brexit how on Earth they can justify drawing their salaries, I don’t know.

But I don’t think I would have the powers ... under any circumstances to take away salaries from MPs.

I think I would be accused of anti-democratic behaviour. But I take your point very sincerely.

Boris Johnson at the JCB plant in Uttoxeter.
Boris Johnson at the JCB plant in Uttoxeter. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

Boris Johnson has 'empathy bypass', says Jo Swinson

Jo Swinson has accused Boris Johnson of showing “an empathy bypass” in his attitude to other people, as the Liberal Democrats made a final push to persuade traditional Labour supporters to vote tactically and deny the Conservatives a majority.

Speaking to the Guardian during a campaign rally in Bath, Swinson said her party could confound gradually slipping national poll ratings to spring a series of surprises in up to a dozen or so Conservative-held seats, if the anti-Tory vote coalesces.

The Lib Dem leader said the task of denying Johnson a majority was all the more urgent following his much-criticised ITV interview in which the prime minister repeatedly refused to look at a photograph of Jack Williment-Barr, the four-year-old boy pictured sleeping on the floor of an overstretched A&E unit in Leeds.

Calling Johnson’s approach astonishing, Swinson said it fitted a wider pattern of behaviour, such as over the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran, and his dismissal as “humbug” female MPs’ concerns over inflammatory political language. She went on:

It’s tone deaf. It’s like he doesn’t respond to people as human beings.

It’s like he has had an empathy bypass. Does he care about anyone? I can only conclude that he just doesn’t really care. It’s a pretty damning conclusion, but that’s the situation ...

He’s a danger to the future of this country. That’s why he’s prepared to say anything he thinks will work on Brexit, regardless of whether he can do it, regardless of what the consequences will be.

Jo Swinson addressing activists at a campaign rally in Somerset.
Jo Swinson addressing activists at a campaign rally in Somerset. Photograph: Peter Summers/Getty Images

Updated

This YouGov poll suggests people do not believe the Tory suggestion (see 3.30pm) that leaving the EU on 31 January would amount to Brexit being over.

Jeremy Corbyn is speaking at a Labour event in Carlisle.

He talks about the report about the UK from the UN special rapporteur on poverty. That is shaming, he says.

He says he is glad the press highlighted the problems with the NHS yesterday. And he says it is extraordinary that, when Boris Johnson was asked about this, he chose to put the phone showing the picture in his pocket.

The dossier from the UK-US trade talks showed that the NHS is on the table in those negotiations, he says. He saPeople have a right to know what was going on, he says, and that is why Labour published it.

He says people accuse him of politicising the NHS. But setting up the NHS was a political choice, he says. And he says Aneurin Bevan said it would last as long as there were folk around to fight for it. Well, we are folk, and we will fight for it, he says.

Updated

The Johnson Q&A is over.

He only took three questions from journalists.

Johnson says it is 'very hard' to see how Brexit will happen if Tories don't win working majority

Q: If you are running a minority government after the election, what is your plan B for Brexit?

Johnson says it is “very hard” to see how they can achieve Brexit without a Conservative government with a working majority.

Johnson is now taking questions from journalists.

Q: Jonathan Ashworth says you are going to win. He’s right, isn’t he? You are home and dry.

Johnson says he does not accept that.

He says polls can be wrong. Remember what happened in 2017.

He claims Ashworth raises serious questions about the security risk Jeremy Corbyn would pose.

He claims the tape also shows Labour would block Brexit.

Updated

Q: What will life be like for towns like Newcastle-under-Lyme under the Tories?

Johnson says, as London mayor, he realised some parts of the capital were doing well, and others weren’t.

You need to invest, particularly in transport, he says. He says he is obsessed by this issue. He would focus on roads and rail. But also broadband, he says.

If you are going to start a business, you need fantastic internet connections.

We need full-fibre broadband, he says.

Johnson says you also need to give local people the power to do things for themselves.

Johnson suggests he is not minded to scrap HS2

Johnson is now taking questions from JCB employees.

Q: If you win, will HS2 happen, and is it what the country needs?

Johnson says HS2 is due to cost £88bn. He thinks the cost will rise above £100bn.

He says it is right for a new government to review it. He has commissioned a study. The report will come in after the election.

If HS2 can be made to work better .... Johnson tails off.

He says, if the report recommends cancelling the plans, he will consider that.

He says he is “temperamentally very much inclined to want to go ahead with a great national project, if we can”.

But he is also temperamentally inclined to want value for money.

  • Johnson suggests he is “temperamentally very much inclined” to carry on with HS2, subject to the findings of the government review.

Johnson claims the UK will benefit from Brexit. He cites being able to change animal welfare laws, being able to get rid of the tampon tax, and being able to set up free ports.

He says he wants to be able to “level up”. Talent is evenly distributed, he says, but opportunity isn’t.

Johnson says he could talk about his plans for childcare, or his plans to make the UK greener. But there is not much time left. He says we have little time. He has never known such an important election, he says.

There are 48 hours to get rid of the roadblock, he says.

Updated

Johnson claims that Jonathan Ashworth admitted in the private conversation leaked today that Jeremy Corbyn would be a security risk.

(Ashworth’s language was not that clear-cut. See 11.44am.)

Boris Johnson is speaking now.

He says everyone should take the opportunity to drive through the gridlock on Thursday.

He claims Labour would increase taxes, to the tune of £2,400 per head.

(This Guardian factcheck explains why this claim is not plausible.)

Javid claims there will be economic 'crisis by Christmas' if Labour wins

Javid says there will be an economic crisis within days if Labour takes power.

Such will be the loss in investor confidence there will be a crisis by Christmas.

Sajid Javid speaking at the JCB plant in Uttoxeter.
Sajid Javid speaking at the JCB plant in Uttoxeter. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

Boris Johnson's Q&A

Boris Johnson is due to hold a Q&A with workers at the JCB plant in Staffordshire.

Sajid Javid, the chancellor, is doing the warm-up speech.

He claims Labour’s policies will guarantee an economic crisis.

Updated

A reader put it to me the other day that the best way to view the Boris Johnson campaign is as an extended picture caption competition. It is tempting to agree, but Johnson’s photo opportunities often end up as ready-made TV metaphors, staged on the assumption, one assumes, that the more obvious they are, the harder it will be for broadcasters to ignore them.

This afternoon’s (see 3.09pm) was about the most blatant yet. Johnson is due to explain them in a short speech with these words, which were released in advance overnight by CCHQ. Johnson will say:

The stalemate in parliament has held this country back for too long.

Instead of concentrating on your priorities, Westminster has been mired in division and deadlock. Politicians have spent so much time shouting at each other and devising ways of wriggling out of Brexit that they have neglected the issues people care about.

It’s time to send in the bulldozers and smash through the gridlock.

But the problem with metaphors is that they can be open to multiple interpretations. To many viewers, this may not convey quite the impression Johnson intended.

1) Brexit is a destructive force. It does not make anything; it just knocks things down.

2) With Brexit, nothing is quite what it seems. These looked like proper bricks. But they were made of polystyrene.

3) After Johnson got through the Brexit “gridlock” he did not know where to go next and ground to a halt.

4) “Get Brexit done.” Johnson did once promise to lie in front of a bulldozer. If you take the view that leaving the EU in January won’t amount to Brexit being done, now the lie is on the front of a bulldozer.

Boris Johnson drives a union flag-themed JCB, with the words “Get Brexit Done” inside the digger bucket, through a fake wall emblazoned with the word “GRIDLOCK”, on a visit to a JCB construction company in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.
Boris Johnson drives a union flag-themed JCB, with the words “Get Brexit Done” inside the digger bucket, through a fake wall emblazoned with the word “GRIDLOCK”, on a visit to a JCB construction company in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
The bulldozer goes through the wall.
The bulldozer goes through the wall. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
Boris Johnson is at the wheel.
Boris Johnson is at the wheel. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
And he poses for a picture.
And he poses for a picture. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

I’m in Staffordshire today on the campaign trail with Boris Johnson, where the Tories are really wheeling out the visual metaphors as the campaign comes to an end.

We’re at a factory for JCB, the company chaired by the Conservative donor Sir Anthony Bamford.

A few minutes ago we were ushered downstairs on to a vast factory floor. After a short wait, the prime minister smashed noisily through a wall of polystyrene bricks with “GRIDLOCK” written on it, at the wheel of a digger.

He was then ushered away, as were we: we’re awaiting a Q&A session in a few minutes.

From the Daily Mirror’s Oliver Milne

Updated

As the Scottish party leaders prepare for their BBC Scotland debate in Glasgow this evening, both the SNP and the Scottish Tories are pushing their tactical voting messages, while the personalised campaigning against Nicola Sturgeon steps up.

In her interview with the Guardian yesterday, Sturgeon noted that “there’s no doubt that there’s a narrative, discussion and consideration around tactical voting in this election that I have not experienced previously”.

With the SNP running second in all Scottish Tory seats, she appealed to voters to lend the SNP their votes, adding: “People understand that this election is not going to decide the issue of independence.”

This morning, Conservative MSPs from Labour backgrounds appealed to current Labour supporters to lend them their votes. Speaking at a campaign event in Bothwell – part of the SNP-held Lanark and Hamilton East constituency, which the Tories are very confident they can win on Thursday – Adam Tomkins, the party’s constitutional affairs spokesperson, said:

Until I joined the party, I’d never even voted Tory. But I joined because, like so many other people in Scotland I realised that the Scottish Conservatives are the only party dedicated– come what may– to protecting Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom. Everyone else runs scared of Nicola Sturgeon. But not us.

The Scottish Lib Dems were likewise pushing the message of “make Nicola Sturgeon think again” at their own campaign event today, underlining how confident pro-union parties are that a focus on the SNP leader herself will galvanise undecideds.

Nicola Sturgeon campaigning in Paisley.
Nicola Sturgeon campaigning in Paisley. Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters

Updated

My colleague Peter Walker has a judicious take on the Jonathan Ashworth tape.

Earlier I said that Labour had released a lengthy dossier, based on information from NHS trusts in England, highlighting risks facing a large number of hospitals. (See 9.20am.) The party claims it shows the NHS is “in crisis and on the brink”.

The full document is now available here, on the Labour website.

Updated

From Sky’s Beth Rigby

Dave Merritt also criticised the way Boris Johnson was using Jack’s death in the London Bridge terror attack to justify his law and order agenda in an article for the Guardian last week.

Jeremy Corbyn attracted a large crowd when he spoke at an event in Nelson in Lancashire this morning. Here is some video.

Ashworth apologises to Labour members for saying in private conversation party would lose

In his appearance on the BBC’s Politics Live Jonathan Ashworth also apologised to the Labour party for his comments about the party being on course to lose – comments that he claimed were part of an attempt to “psych out” the Tories. (See 11.44am and 12.58pm.) He said:

Obviously with the benefit of hindsight I’ve been too clever by half and I look like an idiot as a result of doing it.

But I thought I was having a private conversation with someone who I’ve always had conversations with over the years.

It’s obviously stupid. I apologise to Labour party members but the reason it has come out today is because the Tories don’t want to be talking about the fact that we’ve had a toddler lying on the floor in a hospital.

Asked if he thought Labour would win on Thursday, he replied: “Yes.” The presenter, Jo Coburn, asked: “And you believe that?” Ashworth replied: “Yes.”

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn participating in an arts and crafts session while visiting Sandylands Community Primary School in Morcambe.
Jeremy Corbyn participating in an arts and crafts session while visiting Sandylands Community Primary School in Morcambe. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Farage claim about PM changing Brexit policy highlights ambiguity in Tory talk of 'oven-ready' deal

When he announced his decision to stand down in Tory-held seats last month, Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, claimed he was doing so because a video message posted on Twitter by Boris Johnson the previous day meant that he had changed his Brexit plans, and that he was now aiming for a “super-Canada-plus” trade deal (acceptable to Farage).

At his press conference today Farage claimed that Johnson had again changed his Brexit plans, and he said that as a result he would spoil his ballot paper on Thursday, instead of voting Tory. (He lives in a Tory-held constituency, where his own party is not standing.) Farage said:

I know it is very rare to have an appearance from Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn but [in the BBC debate] on Friday night, [Johnson] has gone the wrong way. He has stepped back from a Canada-plus-style trade deal and he was talking about his ‘oven-ready deal’ - it’s going to be put in the oven and ready before Christmas.

All I can say is that will lead to many long years of indigestion because we will be trapped inside an international treaty. We have given Michel Barnier the upper hand.

Although Farage is now claiming that Johnson has changed Brexit policy twice during the election, in truth Johnson’s policy has not changed at all. The PM has negotiated a new version of the 540-page withdrawal agreement (pdf), which has been published and which would determine the form of the UK’s departure from the UK. He has also published a much shorter political declaration (pdf) which gives some information about the sort of trade deal with the EU that he would want to negotiate next year, although most of the crucial detail remains to be negotiated.

What is true, though, is that as the campaign has been going on, Johnson and other Tories have increasingly been suggesting that the fact that he has an “oven-ready” withdrawal agreement ready to go (which is true) also means that his eventual UK-EU trade deal is also nearly complete (which is not true at all).

Johnson was doing this in the BBC debate on Friday and was doing it again in a campaign Q&A yesterday. It is not clear whether he was being deliberately misleading, or just cavalier with the truth. Partly this is happening because the term “Brexit deal” is ambiguous. Sometimes it is used to refer to the withdrawal agreement, and sometimes it is used to refer to the proposed post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Johnson seems to be exploiting this ambiguity for his own advantage.

Nigel Farage speaking at a press conference in Westminster.
Nigel Farage speaking at a press conference in Westminster. Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Farage urges leave supporters to vote tactically

At a news conference in Westminster Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, urged leave voters to vote tactically at the election and back his party rather than the Conservatives. The Brexit party is not standing in Tory-held seats, but it does hope to win in some Labour seats where Farage thinks the Tories have no chance. He told the press conference:

My appeal is to leave voters in those constituencies that have been Labour forever - and will be Labour when you wake up on Friday morning - unless you use your vote tactically and sensibly. And to leavers in those seats I say ‘Leavers, don’t waste your vote’.

Ashworth says he was trying to 'psych out' Tories when he said Labour would lose in private call

Jonathan Ashworth is now saying that when he told his Tory activist friend that Labour was bound to lose the general election (see 11.44am), he was actually just trying to “psych out” the opposition. He told the BBC’s Politics Live he was speaking to Greig Baker, a Tory activist and old friend who runs a political intelligence agency. Ashworth went on:

He was ringing me. I was talking to him. He was saying his sources at CCHQ say Labour’s doing well. I’m doing the old, what Alex Ferguson would do, football manager kind of thing, trying to psych him out, saying: ‘No, you’re going to win, don’t worry about it,’ because I know he’s an activist in Canterbury, I’m trying to make him complacent.

Obviously I look a plonker now. I was a smart Alec - too clever by half.

You’re going to say: ‘Well, you said this about Jeremy, you said that about the Labour party.’ Well, I’m deliberately throwing the Tory attack lines back at him to say this is what we’re getting.

Updated

Almost 200 reports were made to police about parliamentary candidate safety in less than three weeks during the election campaign, PA Media reports. Around half of the 198 reports made between 15 November and 4 December were serious enough to be treated as crimes, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) told the news agency. Most of the incidents were allegations of malicious communications online. There were also reports of criminal damage and harassment.

As PA reports, there were three reports of assaults against campaign volunteers but none against candidates and the incidents were not thought to be serious. A third of reports came from campaign volunteers and staff, with the remainder coming from candidates themselves, the NPCC said. The body said it had not seen trends of abuse being directed against any one particular party.

Updated

Just in case Jonathan Ashworth’s day could not get any worse, he has now had an endorsement from the Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove.

A colleague has just asked if Ashworth is one of the possible contenders to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the event of Labour losing the election. My reply? Until today, possibly, but probably not any more ...

A false online story that the photograph of an ill boy lying on the floor of Leeds General infirmary was staged came from a hacked account, according to the medical secretary whose name was attached to the initial post. My colleague Alex Hern has the story.

What Jonathan Ashworth said about Labour's election chances and about Corbyn in leaked private conversation

Here are extracts from what Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, says in the leaked tape of a conversation he had recently with a Tory activist whom he considered a longstanding friend. Ashworth has not disputed the accuracy of the tape, although he claims that he was not being sincere, that he was just engaged in “banter”, and that he was just humouring an opponent. (See 11.02am.)

If you listen to the tape in full, it certainly doesn’t sound as if Ashworth was making it all up just to humour his friend. But perhaps he’s a terrific actor. You can listen to it here and come to your own view.

Here the main points Ashworth makes.

  • Ashworth says the outlook is “abysmal” for Labour in some parts of the country and that he expects the party to lose the election. He repeatedly says he expects Boris Johnson to win, and he does not seem to be in any doubt about this at all. He says:

Outside of the city seats, if you are in small town midlands and north, it’s abysmal out there. They don’t like [Boris] Johnson, but they can’t stand [Jeremy] Corbyn and they think Labour’s blocked Brexit. I don’t think their long-term gains for the Tory party. But I can well see them going Tory [at] this election and if Labour ever got its act together they presumably would fall back ...

I think [amongst] middle-class graduates, remainy people, Labour is probably doing well, and the Lib Dems are probably doing well, but not in big enough numbers to deny the Tories a majority.

And, at another point, he says:

I just can’t see how you [ie, the Tories] don’t have a majority, to be honest.

  • He says the electoral map has turned “topsy-turvy”, with both main parties likely to win in unexpected places. Labour could win Canterbury, a former Tory seat it won unexpectedly in 2017, he says. But it could lose Bolsover, a former safe Labour seat represented by Dennis Skinner. Ashworth says:

The electoral map is going topsy-turvy because of Brexit, and because of Corbyn. The question is for Labour, if it gets itself a half-decent leader next time round, whether it can reverse and regain its traditional heartland seats.

Ashworth says the situation for Labour is “dire” in its heartland seats.

In places like Mansfield and Ashfield, it’s dire for the Labour party up there, these traditional areas.

  • He says “the combination of Corbyn and Brexit” is to blame for the “awful” problems Labour candidates are having in some areas.
  • He says Johnson’s ‘get Brexit done’ message is effective. Talking about why Johnson is picking up support, Ashworth says:

It’s a combination of those who want Brexit, the leavers, and others, who probably voted for remain or maybe weren’t that bothered, but are now just sick to death of it and want it done and put away. And they think that he’ll be the person who just gets it done.

  • He says Johnson would have to “massively fuck it up” to lose. He says:

Johnson and CCHQ would have to massively fuck it up in the last week [to lose the election.

  • Ashworth declines to express confidence in how Corbyn would perform as prime minister. Asked if he would be as bad as people like his Tory friend expect, Ashworth pauses for a long time before replying “I don’t know.”
  • Ashworth hints that officials in No 10 might have some security concerns about Corbyn. In response to the question about what Corbyn would be like in office, Ashworth says:

On the security stuff, I worked in No 10. I think the machine will pretty quickly move to safeguard security things - I mean the civil service machine.

But he also stresses that he does not expect Corbyn to become PM. “It’s not going to happen. I can’t see it happening,” he says.

  • He says Labour MPs opposed to Corbyn made a mistake in 2016 when they tried to depose him too early. Asked about what Labour MPs might do to get rid of Corbyn, he says:

We fucked it up. We fucked it up in 2016 when we went too early. People like me were internally saying ‘this isn’t the right moment’ but I got ignored.

  • Ashworth suggests Corbyn could be replaced quite quickly after an election defeat. Asked how long it might take for the party to replace him, he replies: I think things can change quickly.





UK economy stagnates as Brexit uncertainty hits growth

The UK economy has stagnated in October, and also over the last quarter, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, my colleague Graeme Wearden reports. He says:

On an annual basis, the economy only grew by 0.7% over the last year – the weakest since March 2012, the ONS says.

Graeme has more on his business live blog here.

Updated

Here are more quotes from what Jonathan Ashworth told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme about the tape recording of him saying Labour would lose, which was leaked to the Guido Fawkes website. (See 10.30am.) He said:

We’re having banter with each other – we’re joking around.

No, I don’t mean it, because I’m joking around with my mate because he’s a Tory ... If you leak it to Guido Fawkes of course it makes me look like a right plonker, but its not what I mean when I’m winding up a friend – I’m trying to sort of pull his leg a bit.

Asked if he thought Jeremy Corbyn was a threat to national security, Ashworth replied:

No, of course I don’t …

I’m joshing around with somebody who I thought was an old friend, who has now leaked it to Guido Fawkes, an old friend who I’ve known for many years.

He’s a Tory and we’ve always had a bit of banter together … I’m winding him up, I’m teasing him, he’s been winding me up saying ‘oh, everyone at CCHQ thinks it’s going to be really close, Corbyn’s going to win’ and all this sort of stuff.

Updated

James Cleverly, the Conservative party chair, has just put out this statement about the Ashworth tape. (See 10.30am.) He said:

This is an honest and truly devastating assessment of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership by one of his most trusted election lieutenants.

He admits that Labour has blocked Brexit and that is why voters ‘can’t stand Corbyn’. If even Corbyn’s closest political allies think he is unfit to be prime minister, why on earth should voters be expected to put their trust in him and them?

Shadow health secretary dismisses as 'banter' tape recording of him telling friend Labour will lose

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has dismissed as “banter” a tape that has been leaked to the Guido Fawkes website that shows him saying Labour will lose the election.

The website, which strongly backs Boris Johnson, has released an 11-minute tape of a conversation. It’s here.

On the tape, which seems to have been recorded early last week, just before President Trump’s visit to the UK, Ashworth can be heard repeatedly saying he does not expect Labour to win the election. He says:

I just can’t see it happening. It wouldn’t surprise me – for sake of argument – we held Canterbury because of sort of middle-class, Guardian-reading people, but then the Tories take Bolsover off of Labour it wouldn’t surprise me. The electoral map has being going topsy-turvy because of Brexit and Corbyn.

In the recording Ashworth also says Jeremy Corbyn is a serious problem for Labour, hints that officials in No 10 might have security concerns about him, and argues that Corbyn’s critics in the parliamentary Labour party made a mistake in 2016 because they launched the attempt to get rid of him too soon.

Ashworth has just been on Victoria Derbyshire’s show on the BBC. He told her that it was a recording of a conversation he had had with Greig Baker, a Tory activist whom he had considered a friend. They had travelled around the US together many years ago, he said. Ashworth said he was “joshing” with Baker when he spoke about Labour losing, as you would if you were trying to reassure someone worried their football team might lose. He said:

I’m winding him up - I’m joshing with him. It’s banter ...

I’m joking around with my mate.

Ashworth said he was disappointed he had been betrayed by someone he considered a friend, and he accepted that this had made him look foolish.

It makes me look like a right plonker.

He also insisted that he did not see Corbyn as a threat to national security.

Jonathan Ashworth.
Jonathan Ashworth. Photograph: Peter Summers/Getty Images

Updated

Corbyn tells Labour supporters they have until Thursday night 'to save the NHS'

Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking at a Labour rally in Bolton. He told activists that they had until Thursday night “to save the NHS”. He said:

We have now got until Thursday night to win this election. Thursday night to save the NHS. Thursday night to end child poverty in Britain. Thursday night to end homelessness in Britain. Thursday night to build the houses that we need. Thursday night to get a government you can trust that will actually represent people.

So when Boris Johnson denied there was talks with the USA on a trade deal which would involve our NHS, then the documents came out in a redacted form and then the full documents came out which showed that’s exactly what they had been discussing for two whole years - how to hand over our public services to American corporations to run them.

As if £10bn of privatisation in the NHS already is not bad enough, this would be much, much worse. We will not sell our NHS to anybody. It is simply not for sale.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the Blackrod Community Centre in Bolton.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the Blackrod Community Centre in Bolton. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn gave a longish interview to BBC Breakfast this morning. We’ve quoted some of it already. (See 8.20am.) Here are some more lines.

  • Corbyn played down suggestions that his leadership was a problem for Labour, stressing that this was not a presidential election. When it was put to him that Labour candidates weren’t putting him on their leaflets because he was unpopular, he replied:

It’s not a presidential election, it’s a parliamentary election in which we elect members of parliament. I’m the leader of the Labour party and I’m very proud to have that position.

  • He said he “absolutely” had the stamina to serve a full five-year term as PM. When it was put to him that, at 70, he would be the oldest prime minister to enter Downing Street for more than a century, he said:

I’m very healthy, very fit and very active and I’ve travelled more than any other party leader in this election, I’ve attended more events than any other party leader in this election, and I’ve still not finished yet – we’ve got another two days to go, and I’ll be out on the road the whole time – right up till 10 o’clock on Thursday night.

  • He claimed the NHS would not be forced to adopt a four-day working week. Asked about Labour’s plans to, over a decade, reduce the average working week to 32 hours, and whether this would be imposed on the NHS, he said:

It’s not going to be forced on the NHS. The whole point is that, over a period, increases in productivity will lead to lower working time hours, but it’s not going to be forced on the NHS.

Corbyn said the change would be funded “through productivity in all industries and places of work”.

Well, I disagree. Our plans are completely credible. We’ve put forward a spending plan which will, I believe, give sufficient resources to the NHS, will also properly fund the maintenance issues, and of course, on a wider level, the education issues surrounding nurse training, doctor training, and the funding that goes behind that.

Because we have 40,000 nurse vacancies in the NHS, we have buildings crumbling, we have very expensive deals on which some of those places were built, and we have privatisation within the NHS which doesn’t fit in often with the NHS culture.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking to Louise Minchin on BBC Breakfast from Bolton.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking to Louise Minchin on BBC Breakfast from Bolton. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Updated

Labour claims new dossier shows NHS 'in crisis and on the brink'

Overnight the Labour party has released a dossier of evidence that it says shows the NHS is “in crisis and on the brink”. The information comes from board papers from NHS trusts in England. Those trusts have to classify the risks they face.

Here are some examples of risks relating to staffing.

In Doncaster and Bassetlaw, there is an extreme risk to staffing of registered children’s nurses on two different sites, which could lead to children being harmed and delays to treatment.

In Newcastle upon Tyne there is an extreme risk of a shortage of radiologists affecting breast cancer screening.

In Mid-Cheshire, there are extreme risks: that a patient experiencing a cardiac event will be missed because of nursing shortages; of major harm to rheumatology patients after getting inappropriate care because of a shortage of consultants; and to dependent respiratory patients, either due to nursing shortages or because there are too few beds.

At Southport and Ormskirk hospital trust, there is a catastrophic risk of inadequate staffing levels in the anaesthetic department due to burn out, sickness, annual leave or lack of sufficiently cheap agency staff. This could affect the safety of emergency, ICU and maternity departments, and could mean that A&E would be closed to high-risk patients, including children.

There are more details in the Labour press release. There is also a more detailed dossier, but that does not seem to be online.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said:

These shocking reports reveal an NHS in crisis and on the brink.

It is one thing for clinicians and managers to say what needs fixing, but we need a Labour government that will crack on and do it.

Jonathan Ashworth.
Jonathan Ashworth. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated

Here is Love Actually star Hugh Grant on the Conservative party’s parody video released last night. (See 6.50am.)

On the Today programme this morning Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, said Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan would take the UK into “years of negotiation”. It would not amount to getting Brexit done, he claimed.

I do believe that, unless we get a Brexit party voice in the House of Commons, we are not going to get a realistic Brexit because he’ll push through this new EU treaty as it is.

Updated

PM's response to boy on hospital floor photo 'clear and unforced and natural', claims Tory minister

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Damien Gayle.

Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, has also given an interview to BBC Breakfast this morning defending Boris Johnson’s actions yesterday when he tried to avoid commenting on the photograph of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr having to sleep on a hospital floor. When it was put to Buckland that the PM’s response was awkward to watch, Buckland did not accept that. He said:

Elections are really difficult things. Things will happen in elections, unpredictable events. I don’t think he was forced into it. I think when he looked at it, the reaction was clear and unforced and natural, and the apology was forthcoming and fulsome.

Jeremy Corbyn is appearing on the sofa on BBC Breakfast. The first topic of conversation is the NHS. He starts off defending the use of the image of Jack Williment-Barr to make a political point about the NHS.

It’s an example of what’s happening in our NHS and it’s obviously awful for that little boy and the family and the way that they were treated, but it does say something about our NHS that this would happen ...

It’s a serious issue, it’s a political issue about how we fund the NHS.

Updated

Jon Ashworth, the shadow health and care secretary, has defended using the picture of Jack Williment-Barr sleeping on the hospital floor, after the boy’s mother reportedly wrote to the press regulator complaining about the use of her son’s image.

Ashworth insisted that he and Labour were not using Jack as a political football. Indeed, Ashworth insisted, his heart went out to Jack, and baby Lily (on the front of today’s Mirror), and to the family of the “12-year-old child waiting 57 hours - 57 hours - in an A&E in Essex, for a very specialist bed”.

I, like any parent, because I’ve got two young children, would be furious, livid, angry, fighting like a lion for my child who had been let down after years of cutbacks in our health service.

No, not using them for political capital at all, Ashworth insisted after it was pointed out he had tweeted Jack’s picture, and Jeremy Corbyn had held it up at a rally.

Unfortunately, across the country, these are not one-off events. We have seen in this election campaign other images of elderly people literally wasting away on trolleys in corridors for hours and hours, because they simply can’t get a bed.

According to Ashworth, 600,000 people were left waiting on a trolley for a bed last year, while 17,000 beds had been cut from hospitals by the Conservatives - cuts he pledged to reverse if he became health secretary.

Updated

Hi there, Damien Gayle taking over in London now, covering the morning’s political developments until Andrew Sparrow’s had his Weetabix.

Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, was just speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, attempting more or less to explain away what political observers have described as the worst day so far for the Conservative election campaign. Asked about Johnson’s fumbling response to the photo of Jack Williment-Barr sleeping on the floor of Leeds General infirmary, Buckland said:

Politics and general elections, despite the best efforts of political parties, can be unpredictable, and that particularly story was one of those occasions where everybody was dealing with a very difficult situation.

The child’s family want privacy, Buckland insisted. In the meantime, general elections ought to be fought “on the high ground, the big issues” rather than “who said what to who”, he chastised. Suggestions that Jack was a symbol of Tory failure to care for the National Health Service were “rather insulting to all the hard-working people in our NHS”, Buckland said. If only the Conservatives could have a chance to implement their “targeted and structured programme”, everything would be fine.

Answering for Johnson’s bizarre pocketing of a television reporter’s phone to avoid looking at Jack’s picture, Buckland gave a kind of defence of temporary delirium:

I think that in all the hundreds of interviews that the prime minister has done or indeed a lot of us have done, there will come moments where you’re suddenly sprung with something and it is difficult to know what it is.

He saved his strongest words for the rowdy Labour activists outside Leeds General, who Conservative press office had claimed assaulted Matt Hancock’s adviser. The claims, widely reported by senior journalists briefed by senior Tory sources, were quickly disproved by a video of the incident. But, Buckland said:

What I saw was a very confusing scene of public disorder, people who had clearly organised themselves to come along, create trouble and mischief, the sort of disorderly conduct, I’m afraid, from the left, that we have seen in this campaign. It’s not a way to conduct civilised politics. People were shouting and gesticulating towards Matt Hancock and his team.

So there you go.

Updated

Boris Johnson has parodied what is perhaps the most famous (and most divisive) scene in Love Actually, in a video he has called Brexit, actually.

It’s pretty painful to watch.

Awkwardly, it’s also not even an original parody. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who was elected as Labour MP for Tooting, did her own version of the Love Actually scene for a campaign advertisement more than a fortnight ago. She is very unimpressed with the fact, in her words, “Boris Johnson has copied my #ElectionActually video.” Her version is below.

Updated

There will be a flurry of campaigning today as the leaders criss-cross the country in a last-minute bid to win votes. Jeremy Corbyn, who will start his day in the north-west before travelling to Glasgow, has told the Guardian he feels confident as the election campaign enters its final days, saying he thought Labour had “got the message out” across the six-week campaign. However, John Crace was at Corbyn’s rally in Bristol yesterday, which he says felt less like the first gig of The Comeback Tour and more like The Long Goodbye.

Updated

The day ahead

Busy days all around as party leaders sprint to the finish line.

Boris Johnson will start his day in the Midlands with a press conference before travelling up to north-west England in the evening. The Tory leader is expected to head to Manchester for a rally on Tuesday night, via a stop in north Wales to visit businesses.

Jeremy Corbyn will start his day in north-west England at a library before visiting a primary school and a pub in the region, before heading to Glasgow.

The Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson will spend the day in the south-west, canvassing in the area and attending a rally in Somerset.

Nigel Farage will be in London, where he is expected to hold a Brexit party press conference.

The Green party is also staying in London, where it will host an event announcing policies to help students with economic issues.

Updated

Good morning, we’re just two days out from the election and the Conservatives are reeling after what was probably their worst day of the campaign yesterday.

The week did not get off to a great start for the prime minister. Yesterday, Johnson woke up to a photograph of a four-year-old boy being treated on a hospital floor because of a lack of beds on the front page of the Mirror, which later in the day he repeatedly refused on camera to look at, before pocketing the phone of the reporter who tried to show it to him. Marina Hyde on this episode is as brutally funny as you might expect.

Then Matt Hancock, the health secretary, was dispatched to Leeds General infirmary in an effort to show that the party was taking the case seriously. Johnson’s team wrongly briefing that a Tory aide was “punched” outside the hospital by a leftwing activist, in what was interpreted as a deliberate attempt to deflect attention from the bad news day the Tories were having. The claims quickly turned out to be untrue when video footage showed that the adviser was accidentally brushed in the face and they have now been accused of “lying and cheating” to distract attention from their bad day.

These two (Johnson and Matt Hancock) did not have a good day yesterday.
These two (Johnson and Matt Hancock) did not have a good day yesterday. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Pressure will stay on the Tories today as Jo Swinson accuses Boris Johnson of putting EU citizens in the UK at risk of abuse and hate crimes through a Vote Leave-style “dog whistle” approach to immigration.

On a campaign trip to Bath on Tuesday, a seat held by her party, Swinson will condemn the prime minister for his language towards EU citizens, such as saying that too many of them felt able to “treat the UK as if it’s part of their own country”.

Thanks for joining us for the last days of this crazy campaign ride.

Updated

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Caught In The Echo is the third track to be released from upcoming 12th Foo Fighters album Your Favorite Toy
Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
30 years later, we're still quoting these iconic 'Happy Gilmore' lines
Adam Sandler’s golf classic remains the ultimate proof that the Sandman is a comedy god
Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
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