Afternoon summary
- Jeremy Corbyn has challenged Johnson to TV debates on what has effectively been the first full day of campaigning since MPs agreed that there should be an election on Thursday 12 December. (See 4.06pm.) The bill approving the election is still being debated by peers, but it is expected to clear the House of Lords without a hitch by the end of today.
That is all from me for today.
A colleague will be picking up the blog later for any breaking news.
The disclosure from Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru leader, that his party may agree to form pro-remain pacts with other anti-Brexit parties such as the Lib Dems in certain seats (see 4.52pm) raises the question about the role in Scotland of Westminster’s largest anti-Brexit force: the Scottish National party.
The Lib Dems are explicitly ruling out any deals with the SNP, even though Nicola Sturgeon’s party has 35 MPs now and could well have nearer 50 after election day. It is, on the face of it, a curious decision.
After all, Plaid has, like the SNP, an explicit pro-independence policy for Wales and Scotland, and the Greens also support national autonomy for both countries. (Their sister party, the Scottish Greens, are often more gung-ho for a referendum than Sturgeon.)
Lib Dem officials at the Scottish parliament say the SNP is excluded from the party’s thinking about possible pacts for one simple reason: the SNP are closer to getting Scottish independence than Plaid is for independence in Wales.
Sturgeon made clear as she launched the SNP election campaign in Stirling on Wednesday morning that a second independence referendum will be central to her party’s manifesto. Under Price’s leadership, Plaid is much more explicit about its independence ambitions.
The difference, say Lib Dem officials, is that Plaid’s support has fallen by several points to 12% in the few opinion polls carried out in Wales, and so poses no threat, while the SNP dominates the polls in Scotland, and very much does.
There is another reason. Top of the Lib Dem target list is the most marginal Westminster seat in the UK, that of North East Fife which was won by the SNP’s Stephen Gethins with an extraordinarily slender two vote margin. North East Fife was held by former Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell for nearly 30 years and they’d very much like it back.
Corbyn confirms he would allow second Scottish independence referendum, but not 'any time soon'
One of Boris Johnson’s main lines of attack against Labour at the moment is the claim that Jeremy Corbyn would submit the country to two referendums after the general election. This is how he put it at PMQs. Johnson said:
[Corbyn] also offers a political disaster, consigning next year, which should be a wonderful year for our country, to two more referendums: another referendum on the EU because he cannot make up his mind what he thinks, flip-flopping this way and that; and another referendum on Scottish independence. Why on earth should the people of this country spend the next year, which should be a glorious year, going through the toxic, tedious torpor of two more referendums thanks to the Labour party?
Labour is committed to renegotiating Brexit and holding another referendum. As Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said in a briefing for journalists after PMQs, Labour would not agree to a Scottish independence election in 2020. But Corbyn has confirmed that he would be willing to agree to a Scottish independence referendum at some stage later. (For a Scottish independence referendum, Westminster has to allow it.) The Scottish Labour party used to be flatly opposed to a second independence referendum, but Corbyn changed party policy on this during the summer.
Speaking during a visit to Crawley Hospital in West Sussex this afternoon, Corbyn said he was “not in favour” of another referendum on Scottish independence “any time soon”. But he went on:
At a later stage, obviously under the terms of devolution, if the Scottish parliament demands it, then there could be, at a much later stage, a referendum. I make it very clear, we are against Scottish independence and we are certainly not in favour of any referendum in Scotland any time soon.
From the BBC’s Mark D’Arcy
I’m hearing the election for Speaker will go ahead on Monday - largely because it is seen as impractical to wait until after the election, because it would then take too long to get a Speaker in place, when Parliament May have to move rather quickly
— Mark D'Arcy (@DArcyTiP) October 30, 2019
According to BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham, who has written a good insider account of the Conservative election campaign, some senior Tories put their chances of winning at between 50/50 and two thirds. He says:
Senior Conservatives put their chances of forming a government on Dec. 13 at between fifty-fifty and two-thirds in favour.
The path to a Johnson majority has been made slightly easier after he restored the whip to 10 of the 21 Tory rebels who opposed his Brexit plans last month. But the Tories still go into the election well short of a majority and likely to lose their foothold in Scotland as well as further seats to the Liberal Democrats in areas of England where support for EU membership remains strong.
To win a majority healthy enough to comfortably pass his Brexit deal, Johnson would have to gain Labour seats far away from their usual target list — and with the added unknown factor of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party eating away at their vote in leave areas.
The fear among Conservatives throughout the party is that they fall short and that parliament remains hung and deadlocked. The potential of Corbyn in Downing Street in coalition with the Scottish Nationalist party is a risk some Tories did not want to take. But there is a growing worry that, even if Johnson has the numbers to stay in Downing Street but the Commons remains at an impasse, the conversation will turn to another long Brexit extension and a second referendum as the only way to find a definitive answer.
Wickham says some Tories are summing up their mood as one of “positive fatalism”.
Overall, while its various factions disagreed over when to go for an election, No 10 is united in the belief that it ultimately has the team and message to win. One Tory who spoke to BuzzFeed News talked about “positive fatalism” — the idea that the choice facing the country was clear, an election to break the deadlock in Parliament was inevitable at some point, and that if voters genuinely preferred Corbyn, then so be it.
According to CNN’s Luke McGee, Brexit party activists have been told not to say on social media where the party will be standing at the election, amidst rumours it may decide to not most seats, as originally planned, but just a handful. McGee writes:
Rumours are now circulating that the Brexit party will switch its focus from standing in every seat to concentrating on a handful of seats that they have a decent chance on winning.
On Wednesday morning, party campaigners were sent the following message, which has been seen by CNN. “Message from HQ ... IMPORTANT. Please go DARK on social media. DO NOT respond to any questions about where we are standing, what the strategy or plan is from now. Things will be made clear to all PPCs very soon. #changepoliticsforgood.”
Adam Price, Plaid Cymru’s leader, has confirmed that his party may form a pact with other pro-remain parties to maximise their chances. In August Plaid Cymru and the Greens stood aside in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, which helped the Lib Dems win the seat from the Tories. Price said:
The Brexit crisis has shown up Westminster to be totally unfit for purpose.
The Conservatives and Labour are divided and are simply not offering the solutions we need.
Plaid Cymru is a party of principle and we have consistently said that Wales is best served within the European Union.
That is why, as Wales’s leading remain party, we are open to working with others to secure our European future.
Tory MPs have been criticised for jeering Jeremy Corbyn over his green tie, which he wore as a sign of respect to those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, the Press Association reports. The Labour leader wore the garment for a House of Commons debate on Wednesday after the report into the disaster that killed 72 people was published. As relatives of those killed looked on from the public gallery, members from the Conservative benches mocked him for the bright tie. Theresa May, who was prime minister when the blaze took hold of the west London building in June 2017, could be seen admonishing them by stressing the tie was to mark the tragedy, PA reports.
Asked to comment on the MPs’ behaviour, Corbyn’s spokesman said:
I think that’s fairly contemptible. He was wearing a green tie as a mark of respect for the victims of the Grenfell disaster. I think those Tory MPs mocking his tie would be better supporting justice for the families and the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and those who died in similar conflagrations and to deliver safety and protection for people living in tower blocks all over the country.
As my colleague Rajeev Syal reports, the Commons standards committee has asked Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Commons, to schedule a debate tomorrow to allow MPs to pass a motion approving the committee’s recommendation for Labour MP Keith Vaz to be suspended for six months.
BREAKING: Kate Green, chair of the standards committee, is urging Jacob Rees-Mogg to find Parliamentary time before dissolution to decide whether Keith Vaz should be banned from Parliament and lose right to a former members pass.
— rajeev syal (@syalrajeev) October 30, 2019
The full text of Green’s letter to Rees-Mogg is here (pdf).
Sinn Fein tells DUP's Nigel Dodds it thinks it has 'real opportunity' to win his seat
Michelle O’Neill has said Sinn Fein is hoping to unseat “an architect of Brexit” - DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds - as it aims to increase its number of MPs from seven to eight. As the Press Association reports, the Sinn Fein vice president said the December 12 general election will be about maximising the return of pro-Remain candidates.
Standing alongside the party’s North Belfast candidate John Finucane, O’Neill said:
We will stand in our seven constituencies in which we currently hold seats and we will stand in North Belfast to win that seat.
We believe there is a real opportunity in North Belfast to oust someone who has been architect of Brexit, someone who has actively worked against the interests of people who live here on this island, and John Finucane can provide local representation but also will reflect Ireland’s interests in all of this mess.
Dodds had a majority of 2,081 over Sinn Fein in 2017. But at that election Dodds did not face a challenge from the Ulster Unionist party, which agreed to give the DUP a clear run to maximise the unionist vote. But this time the UUP intends to put up candidates in all 18 of Northern Ireland’s constituency because it does not want to be seen to endorse the DUP’s Brexit stance.
Corbyn challenges Johnson to TV debates
Jeremy Corbyn is challenging Boris Johnson to face him in head-to-head televised debates during the election campaign, the Press Association reports. But it was unclear whether the Labour leader was willing to accept a challenge for a three-way discussion from Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson.
After PMQs, Corbyn’s spokesman told journalists:
As we demanded of Theresa May and she refused to agree, we would challenge Boris Johnson to agree today to head-to-head TV debates in this campaign.
But when asked about a three-way discussion with Swinson, the spokesman replied:
We are in discussion with the broadcasters. But there are only two people who can be prime minister at the end of this campaign and I think the British public have a clear right to see them debate head-to-head on TV and hear their cases.
'An honour, not a right' - Tory chief whip tells Amber Rudd why she can't have whip restored as she quits
The number of MPs who have said they are standing down has now reached 57. Sir Alan Duncan, the former Foreign Office minister, is the latest to announce his departure.
57
— Gavin Freeguard (@GavinFreeguard) October 30, 2019
Sir Alan Duncan https://t.co/8IYMv4FSAc
Peter Heaton-Jones https://t.co/8CySCFgvR3
(h/t @ThimontJack @sukh_ss)
Data: https://t.co/gXQRdXv3sR pic.twitter.com/lfKNul37g1
Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about two of the most prominent departures, the former Tory work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd and the former “de facto deputy prime minister” David Lidington.
As the Mail’s Jack Doyle revealed, Mark Spencer, the Tory chief whip, sent a letter to Rudd today saying he was not willing to restore the whip to her because he did not trust her not to criticise the prime minister again. He told her:
I appreciate that you surrendered the whip in an act of solidarity [with the 21 fellow Tories who had had the whip withdrawn] but I am of the view that the receipt of the whip is an honour, not a right, and as such it cannot be discarded or returned at will if it is to have any meaning.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
— Jack Doyle (@jackwdoyle) October 30, 2019
Chief whip Mark Spencer tells Amber Rudd she WONT be getting the Tory whip back.
Tells her he doesn’t trust her not to turn on Boris Johnson again.
‘Receipt of the whip is an honour, not a right and it cannot be discarded or returned at will.’ pic.twitter.com/B2oKXTIfcF
The Scottish Tories will run a “decisive and determined” election campaign promising voters there will be a “referendum free period ahead”, the party’s interim leader Jackson Carlaw said.
Speaking as the Scottish Tories launched its campaign in Perth, Carlaw said his was the only party pledging no more referendums, in contrast to Nicola Sturgeon’s support for a fresh EU poll and a second Scottish independence vote next year. He told reporters:
We’ve now fought several referendums. I have respected the result of them all, win or lose; Nicola Sturgeon has never respected the result of any referendum, other than the illegal one in Catalonia.
[As] we go forward from here Scottish Conservatives are promising a referendum free period ahead. Nicola Sturgeon is promising another two referendums. If we want to end that division, if we want to move on, we have to keep Scotland in the UK, and no more referendums.
Sturgeon, who kicked off the Scottish National party’s campaign on Wednesday at an event in Stirling at which newspaper reporters were not invited, would dispute Carlaw’s claims she respected the result of the unofficial Catalan referendum in 2017. She backed the case for staging one in principle, but did not endorse the event itself.
Previously deputy Scottish leader, Carlaw replaced Ruth Davidson after she resigned unexpected in August, partly in protest at Boris Johnson’s premiership, pending a leadership contest next year, but the party’s campaign literature still promotes Davidson prominently.
It sent out election letters to Tory voters signed by Davidson, a keen remain campaigner during the referendum, saying the threat of a second independence vote was a very real one. The A3 election leaflets Tory activists handed out in Perth on Wednesday did not name Carlaw once. Perth and North Perthshire is a key Tory target seat: the SNP’s Pete Wishart retained it with a wafer-thin majority of 21 votes, or 0.04%, over the Tories.
Carlaw insisted that promoting Davidson prove the Tories had a strong team, which included both his predecessors – Davidson and Annabel Goldie, while sidestepping questions on whether he personally trusted Boris Johnson. He said:
We’re absolutely delighted we have got former leaders that we’re able to use in this campaign. I doubt the SNP will be using Alex Salmond. I doubt the Labour party will be using Kezia Dugdale.
Brexit minister changes 'exit day' in UK law to 31 January
Brexit day has now officially been changed, in UK law, from 31 October 2019 to 31 January 2020. Although the Brexit extension was agreed with the EU earlier this week, the government still had to change the date of “exit day” set out in the EU (Withdrawal) Act for EU law to continue to apply until the new exit date.
Ministers have now just done this, by approving the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Exit Day) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2019. James Duddridge, the Brexit minister, was the person who signed it.
Under the Act, ministers can change the exit date in the legislation without the need for a vote in parliament. There was a vote the last time it got changed, but that was because Theresa May agreed to hold one in response to a request from Tory Brexiters.
Updated
Overseas voters have been advised to consider finding a proxy voter for December’s snap general election because of the risks their postal votes may not arrive in time.
The Association of Electoral Administrators, the body which represents the UK’s returning officers and other election staff, said there were logistical challenges in getting postal ballots printed and sent out in time.
After MPs voted last night to stage the election on 12 December, it has now officially recommended that option. The Cabinet Office has advice on how to apply on its website, and says an overseas voter can ask anyone to be their proxy, as long as they’re able to vote.
A number of councils began floating this option some weeks ago after the threat of a snap election gained traction: Tower Hamlets and Islington councils in London were amongst a number who began contacting overseas voters by email in September raising this option.
Postal ballot packs cannot be sent out until all the candidates have been confirmed. The registration deadline is 14 November while the deadline to register for a vote is 25 November. Only a few printers around the UK are contracted to produce ballot papers and postal ballot forms, adding to the pressure. The Royal Mail will also be over-stretched by Christmas post, without factoring in any bad winter weather.
The AEA said:
Our members have been actively working on provisional polling station bookings, alerting temporary staff and working with printers to agree orders for poll cards and postal vote packs. Election teams will now be working extended hours across seven-day weeks to make sure that the polls on 12 December and subsequent counts go smoothly.
As always, we will be working with our partners at the Cabinet Office, Electoral Commission, Royal Mail and more widely to ensure that our members are kept fully supported and up to date.
As postal vote packs cannot be printed until candidate nominations close in the middle of November, it may be prudent for UK voters living overseas to consider setting up a proxy vote to have someone they trust vote on their behalf on 12 December.
Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about the opening of the Grenfell Tower debate.
I won’t be covering the rest of the debate, and I will be turning back now to general election developments.
Turning to the “stay put” doctrine, May says this doctrine had been developed for good reasons.
The problem was, there was no flexibility in implementing this, she says.
She says firefighters should get training to ensure that they know when and when not to enforce “stay put”. She says one father survived the fire because he ignored advice to stay put.
Labour’s Andrew Slaughter asks May if she accepts that Grenfell Tower would have benefitted from sprinklers. Should they be fitted in all new tower blocks, and retrofitted in old ones?
May says the Lakanal House report did not say sprinklers should be obligatory.
May praises the bravery of the firefighters who attended the fire. But she says it is clear from the report that there are problems with the way the fire service worked that need to addressed.
The emergency services must be able to work together, she says.
She says, as home secretary, she oversaw the JESIP project that was intended to address this. But the report shows that there were still problems.
May says she has been struck by the care that the Grenfell Tower community have shown for each other. She says others have a lot to learn from this.
She says people living in the tower were raising concerns about its safety well before the fire. But those concerns were ignored, she says.
She says this was one of the most shocking aspects of what happened.
She says housing ministers, including Alok Sharma, now international development secretary, worked on a plan to ensure people in social housing have their concerns heard. She was the government has been working on a green paper on this. She urges the government to publish this as soon as possible.
Labour’s Karen Lee asks May if it is acceptable that the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have not been properly rehoused.
May says, in the early stages, the work to find permanent homes for survivors did not go fast enough. She says she accepts that the survivors think the government has not done enough. But every effort will be made to support these families, she says.
She says it is not just housing; mental health support is important too, she says.
Theresa May, the former prime minister who set up the Grenfell Tower inquiry, is speaking now.
She thanks Boris Johnson for the serious tone of his speech, and pays tribute to the dignity and fortitude shown by the survivors in their fight for justice.
He says it cannot have been easy for the survivors to give evidence to the inquiry.
And he thanks Sir Martin Moore-Bick for his report. It is detailed, and shocking, she says.
Corbyn says, although Boris Johnson spoke about building a beautiful memorial to the victims of the fire, the real memorial will be a properly funded fire service and having people living in safe buildings.
Corbyn says the night of 14 June 2017 will never be forgotten. And he pays tribute to the Kensington MP, Labour’s Emma Dent Coad, who had to respond to the fire only days after being elected to parliament.
Corbyn says government cuts have degraded the fire service. And Boris Johnson was involved when he was mayor of London.
As mayor of London, the now prime minister was at the forefront of the cuts to our fire service. In the eight years that he was mayor, the London fire brigade was required to make gross savings of over £100m, cutting of 27 fire appliances, 552 firefighters, 324 support staff, two fire rescue units, three training appliances and closing ten London fire stations.
Corbyn says it is “disgraceful” that the “stay put” policy has not been reviewed.
He says concerns have been raised about this for years, including by the Fire Brigades Union, but the government has dragged its feet.
Corbyn says firefighters were not to blame for the fire.
While this phase of the report makes criticism of the London fire brigade we should remember; it was not firefighters that deregulated building safety standards. It wasn’t firefighters who ignored the concerns of tenants. It wasn’t firefighters who ignored a coroner’s report and failed to put sprinklers in high rise blocks and it wasn’t firefighters who put flammable cladding on Grenfell Tower.
Updated
Corbyn says we are not seeing urgent action from government.
Councils know that if they spend money removing cladding they may not get compensation from government, and other services may suffer.
Grenfell Tower would not have happened to wealthy Londoners, he says.
Updated
Corbyn criticises the government for failing to learn the lessons from previous high-rise fires, particularly the Lakanal House fire and the Shirley Towers fire.
He criticises the fact that some Grenfell Tower survivors are still living in temporary accommodation.
Labour’s David Lammy says many people believe what happened at Grenfell Tower amounted to corporate manslaughter.
Corbyn says he hopes ministers will have heard the point Lammy made. There has be be justice, he says. He says it may be for the courts to find out if people installed cladding that they knew to be dangerous. He says the government should not stand in the way of that.
Labour’s Jim Fitzpatrick says many in the media have been targeting the fire brigade. They should be waiting for the big picture to emerge, he says.
Corbyn thanks Fitzpatrick for what he said. He says Fitzpatrick is a former fireman. He says the media should be “cautious” about throwing blame around, because there is another report to come.
Corbyn says he has been on a number of the walks for Grenfell.
He has been on many marches on his life, he says. But he has never been on anything as poignant as this – people walking silently past what is left of the Grenfell Tower.
He says, as the march went passed the fire station, it was clear how much respect people have for the firefighters.
Updated
Jeremy Corbyn is speaking now.
He starts by thanking Johnson for the serious tone of his speech.
He says many of the survivors are in the gallery watching. For them, this is another day for horrid memories, he says.
He says he remembers visiting the tower himself afterwards.
This was a tragedy, he says. But it was an avoidable tragedy, he says.
All the survivors deserve a new home in the UK, he says.
Johnson says the government will continue to support the affected families “long after the television cameras are gone”.
He says it will ensure a beautiful and appropriate memorial is built to the families.
The government will also ensure that regulations are tightened up in line with the recommendations.
He says he is personally committed to ensuring that the lessons do not get forgotten.
The survivors had every reason to hide away. But instead they have fought for the truth, and dedicated their lives to ensuring that those who died will always be remembered.
He says the truth will out, justice will be done, and Grenfell Tower, and the people who called it home, will never be forgotten.
Johnson says the report will be “harrowing” for survivors.
But he says he hopes it will show them that Sir Martin Moore-Bick is determined to get at the truth.
Johnson says he will accept Grenfell Tower inquiry recommendations for central government
Johnson says he has never met any firefighter anything less than totally committed to public safety.
He says he will ensure the lessons of Grenfell Tower are accepted.
Where Moore-Bick says the government should take responsibility for fire safety, the government will legislate.
And he says the government will accept all the report’s recommendations for central government.
Updated
Johnson says it is easy for MPs to have 20/20 hindsight.
But they do not have to run into fires like firefighters, he says.
Labour’s Rushanara Ali asks if Johnson regrets the cuts the fire services he implemented as London mayor. And does he accept that the regulators have had their powers reduced by the government.
Johnson says the fire service arrived on the scene within minutes. He says today’s report does not make any criticism about resources.
Johnson says the fire presented an unprecedented challenge for the fire service.
He says Moore-Bick does not question the actions of any of the rank and file firefighters at Grenfell Tower. Moore-Bick said they showed courage and “selfless devotion to duty” as they faced choking smoke and temperature up to 1,000 degrees, he says.
But the report says the firefighters were faced with a situation for which they had not been properly prepared, he says.
He says the report says there was a serious failure of stated policies.
The failure to order an evacuation of the fire after it was clear the fire was out of control probably led to the deaths of people who could have been saved, the report says.
Johnson says fire procedure in blocks of flats is based on the “stay put” policy. In most circumstances this is the best policy. But at Grenfell Tower that was not the case. By 1.30am it was clear compartmentalisation (the theory that a fire will be contained) had failed. By 1.50am it was not too late to evacuate. But senior officers could not conceive of a situation in which compartmentalisation might not work.
By the time an evacuation was ordered, the tower’s single staircase was filled with impenetrable smoke.
Johnson says the report is clear that the cladding was responsible for the fire escalating in the way that it did. It was because of the cladding that a routine fire ended up killing so many people.
He says Moore-Bick is clear that the cladding that was installed contravened building regulations.
Labour’s David Lammy asks what the government is being done to help people who are still living in flats with this cladding.
Johnson says the government has allocated money to remove this cladding. He accepts that progress on getting rid of it has not been as fast as he would like. All buildings owned by central or local government have had this removed, or at least have had the removal work scheduled.
But in the private sector progress is slower, he says.
Matthew Offord, a Conservative, asks what will happen to owners who do not remove the cladding by the June 2020 deadline.
Johnson says the government is planning to name them. The people in those blocks are safe, because of 24 hour patrols. But the government needs to go further, he says. He says the government will take action to force owners to remove this cladding.
Johnson says this stage of the inquiry looked at what happened.
The next stage will look at why it happened. That will consider, among other things, why concerns raised by residents were ignored.
Johnson says the government will allow time for MPs to debate the report at a later point, when they have had time to read it.
Johnson says for too long those living in Grenfell Tower had their voices ignored – before the fire, and after.
He says when firefighters were first called to Grenfell Tower, after a fire started by a faulty fridge, they thought it was a routine call. But the fire expanded rapidly. Within 45 minutes it was clear that the inferno was out of control.
He says there were almost 300 people in the tower, 72 of whom died.
Many people who lived together died together, he says.
And those who survived saw everything they owned reduced to dust and ash, he says.
Johnson says Theresa May ordered an inquiry soon afterwards. She was determined that the survivors would not have to wait years for justice.
Today Sir Martin Moore-Bick has published the first report from his inquiry, Johnson says. He says it is almost 1,000 pages long.
The full report is available here.
And an executive summary is here (pdf).
Updated
Boris Johnson opens debate on Grenfell Tower fire inquiry report
Boris Johnson is now opening a three-hour debate on the first report from the Grenfell Tower.
Our main story about the report is here.
John Bercow is now thanking his staff, and his wife and children for their support. His voice briefly cracks with emotion, and afterwards there is a brief round of applause.
He announces that Tricia Hillas, the canon pastor at St Paul’s Cathedral, has been appointed as the next Speaker’s chaplain. He says he is delighted that she will be the second BAME person to take up that role. She will succeed Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who has been appointed bishop of Dover.
UPDATE: This is from St Paul’s Cathedral.
We are pleased to share that Canon Tricia Hillas, currently Canon Pastor at St Paul's, has been appointed as Speaker's Chaplain.
— St Paul's Cathedral (@StPaulsLondon) October 30, 2019
We will miss her and her contributions very much and will be praying for her as she takes up her new ministry.https://t.co/ggyFKaKSkD pic.twitter.com/xx0zBltCW8
Updated
Richard Benyon, a Conservative, says Boris Johnson once said there was more chance of his being decapitated by a frisbee than becoming PM. He urges Johnson to continue the UK’s strong record on ocean conservation.
Johnson praises Benyon’s own record on this topic.
John Bercow admits he is “stretching time” but he is going to take two more MPs.
He calls Labour’s Ronnie Campbell, who starts by saying Bercow is the best Speaker he has seen in his time in parliament. Campbell asks about the Waspi women (women who have lost out by increases in the state pension age for women, which were not well advertised in advance).
Johnson says he is looking at what more can be done. But it is a very difficult issue, he says.
Updated
From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg
Goodness me.... this PMQs which is Bercow’s last, has gone on for more than an hour - it’s a like a leaving do where no one feels they can go first in case they get into trouble from the boss
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 30, 2019
PMQs - Snap verdict
We’ve got six more weeks of this. Sometimes PMQs is used as an opportunity for a forensic analysis of a particular issue, but today, more than ever, it was dominated by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn rehearsing their election sloganising. And neither leader seems to have an overwhelming advantage.
Corbyn focused on the NHS in all his questions. Traditionally this has been Labour’s strongest electoral territory and Corbyn had Johnson on the defensive throughout. His arguments about NHS underfunding and increasing waiting lists were more persuasive than Johnson’s “all is fine” bravado, and Johnson was confounded when Corbyn started talking about an individual case, because Corbyn sounded more emphatic than the PM.
Corbyn also made it clear that he is going to spend much of the time claiming that a Johnson Brexit would open the door to the further marketisation and privatisation of the NHS. Whether this is wholly true is contestable, but it is a fear that registers with people, and may work well on the doorstep.
Johnson was weak on the actual details of how the NHS works. But his attack lines against Corbyn – accusing him of sweeping anti-Americanism, and wholesale hostility to the involvement of private firms in the NHS (even though many NHS services are privately provided anyway – were much more powerful than anything Theresa May threw at Corbyn, and delivered with relish.
At the end of the exchanges Corbyn and Johnson both segued into wider themes. Corbyn’s line about the election providing a once in a lifetime opportunity for change resonated. But it wasn’t as catchy as Johnson’s argument about Labour offering two referendums, which was just about true enough to register and stick as a key election message. (Labour are certainly promising a second Brexit referendum, which would fill some of the electorate with dread. Corbyn does not favour a second Scottish independence referendum, but he has not 100% ruled one out, and a minority Labour government dependent on SNP support would probably end up agreeing to one.)
Johnson’s most lively attack lines were probably those he delivered against the SNP. It is widely assumed that the Tories will lose most of their seats in Scotland, and Ian Blackford had a good line when he said Johnson would be welcome in the country because he boosted SNP support. But, even if this is true, Johnson seemed to enjoy the chance to bang on about “borders at Berwick”. (See 12.35pm.)
Updated
Labour’s Karen Buck asks how Johnson can justify spending £2bn on no-deal Brexit planning.
Johnson claims that under Labour’s Brexit plan the UK would have to spend an extra £1bn a month to stay in the EU.
(This is misleading. Because of the transition, even if the UK were leaving the EU at the end of the month, it would still be contributing to the EU as it is now.)
UPDATE: Rather than “misleading”, it would be better to say this was just untrue. The Full Fact factchecking website explains why here.
At #PMQs the Prime Minister repeats his claim that extending the date of Brexit costs £1 billion a month. It does not, as we have written many, many times. https://t.co/dGZsp2cGJc
— Full Fact (@FullFact) October 30, 2019
Updated
Steve Baker, a Conservative, says thousands of his constituents in Wycombe have relatives living near the line of control in Kashmir.
Johnson says this is a serious issue. But it is a matter for India and Pakistan, he says. He says it is not for the UK to decide what the solution must be.
Updated
The SNP’s Ronnie Cowan says fireworks can cause great disturbance to people and livestock. The Scottish government carried out a consultation that showed people favour greater controls. Does Johnson agree?
Johnson says the law should strike a balance. He says animal welfare is important. And Brexit will allow the government to introduce more animal welfare measures.
Updated
Labour’s Jess Phillips says it is a delight to see Bercow’s children in the gallery. She knows Bercow takes his responsibilities as a parent seriously.
“And now to the prime minister,” she goes on, in a clear jibe at Johnson’s own record as a parent. She asks for an assurance that schools will be properly funded, so that they do not have to close early (a problem in Phillips’ constituency).
Johnson says his government will fund schools properly. Phillips’ son will have a great future under them, he says.
Updated
Nigel Evans, the Tory MP, says that as a former deputy Speaker he wants to pay tribute to what John Bercow did for LGBT rights.
He says a survey last week showed that the Ribble Valley (Evans’ constituency) is the happiest place in Britain. A Tory election victory will make them happier. And will Johnson deliver the Brexit people want.
Johnson says he will, and he promises more police officers too.
Updated
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, also offers his best wishes to John Bercow. He says he hopes Bercow enjoys his retirement. Bercow will always be welcome in Scotland, he says.
And Blackford wishes England all the best for the rugby on Saturday.
He says the PM’s Brexit will take a wrecking ball to the economy and cost it up to £70bn. The PM is willing to throw Scotland under his big red bus to deliver Brexit, he says.
Johnson says the greatest damage that can be done to the Scottish economy would come from the SNP’s plan for independence. That would break up the most successful political partnership in history. The SNP have a crackpot plan for borders at Berwick, he says. And the SNP would hand back control of Scottish fisheries to Brussels, just at the point where control is coming back to the UK.
Blackford says it is PMQs, not the time for a “rant” from the PM. He says Johnson will be welcome in Scotland; every time he comes up, he drives up support for the SNP. The SNP is the only party standing up for Scotland’s interests. Only a vote for the SNP will secure an escape route from Brexit, he says. And it will secure Scotland’s right to protect its future.
Johnson says Blackford rants himself. And he says the SNP wants to conceal its record. It is not running health or education well. And if good things are happening in Scotland, it is thanks to Scottish Conservatives. He says they can be relied upon to keep the union together.
Corbyn says he is surprised Johnson can keep a straight face when his government has cut so much from the Welsh budget. He says anyone who has tried to get a GP appointment will know the problems. He quotes from a letter from Gillian, who says her mother died as a direct result of the GP shortage. The care her mother got always came after long delays. He says people who have to wait should be sympathised with and supported.
Johnson says there are 17,300 more doctors and 17,000 more nurses since 2010. It is time to differentiate between the politics of protest and the politics of leadership. It is all very well to side with Russia and make huge promises and flip-flop on the referendum. Leadership means standing up for the police, for the economy, for wealth creators. And above all, it means getting Brexit done.
Corbyn says, coming from a PM who withdrew his own bill, that sounds a bit odd. He says Johnson should have tried to show some empathy. GPs are in short supply. The NHS has suffered its longest spending squeeze ever.
He says this election is a once-in-a-generation chance to end underfunding in the NHS. The NHS is up for grabs in a Trump-style trade deal, he says. It is up for grab by US corporations. Isn’t the truth that his government is planning to sell out the NHS?
Johnson says he agrees there is a stark choice. It is between economic catastrophe under Labour, which would spend £196bn on nationalisations. And there would be a political catastrophe under Labour too. There would be two referendums, on Brexit and on Scotland. The UK would suffer “toxic torpor”. He says his government will invest in schools and education and infrastructure. That is what he is going to deliver. And he will deliver a fantastic future. That is the choice: “drift and dither” under Labour, or a brighter future under the Tories.
Updated
Corbyn says of course the NHS needs to import medicines. He just wants it to be done openly. He does not approve of secret talks.
Patients are waiting longer for cancer treatment, he says. Why can’t Johnson put the necessary resources into the NHS. Corbyn asks why NHS privatisation has doubled under this government. Nearly £10bn is spent on the NHS under this government.
Johnson says, if Corbyn is saying that he does not want dentists and Macmillan nurses to work with the NHS, he is “out of his mind”. Corbyn should pay tribute to the hard work of NHS staff. He should not talk down their achievements. He says a strong economy supports the NHS. Corbyn would wreck that.
Corbyn says we should not have private companies like Virgin Health suing the NHS. NHS money should not go into making people richer. Why has the number of people waiting for an operation reached a record high?
Johnson says the NHS is working harder and achieving more. He says the SNP government negotiated a much higher price for the cystic fibrosis drug than did NHS England. If people want to know what a Labour NHS would look like, look at Wales. Targets there are routinely missed, he says.
Updated
Corbyn says he welcomes the cystic fibrosis drug decision. But we have not been told what the deal actually was.
He says, although Johnson talks of 40 new hospitals, the real figure is just six.
He says the US wants full market access to the NHS. While the government is having secret meeting with US corporations, patients here are suffering. Why has the number of patients waiting longer for urgent NHS treatment tripled over the last nine years?
Johnson says waiting lists are improving. He says Corbyn should not be claiming credit for the cystic fibrosis drug decision. The drug company involved is American. Is Corbyn really saying the NHS should not be talking to companies like that?
Updated
Jeremy Corbyn pays his own tribute to John Bercow. He says Bercow has stood up for parliament. He says Labour hopes to form a government and expects to be held to account.
Bercow has also done his bit to open up parliament, Corbyn says. He has changed some of the strange customs, and has promoted diversity. And he has tried to change the Commons from being a gentlemen’s club and turn it into a democratic institution.
Corbyn says the PM’s sellout deal with Donald Trump will mean more NHS money going into private profit. He says the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation showed the health service has been repeatedly discussed with US officials. Why does Johnson say the NHS is not on the table?
Because it is not on the table, says Johnson.
He pays tribute to the way the NHS has recently made a cystic fibrosis drug available.
The NHS is getting more money because the economy has been growing under the Tories, he says.
Updated
Johnson confirms that the scheme for giving grants to thalidomide victims, which is due to end soon, will be reviewed with a view to it continuing.
Updated
Labour’s Alan Whitehead asks about the news that the Tory manifesto will be written by a lobbyist for the fracking industry.
Johnson says the government will soon make an announcement about fracking.
But this government yields to no one in its enthusiasm to cut carbon emissions, he says.
Updated
Boris Johnson starts by saying that after PMQs he will open the debate on the Grenfell Tower fire report.
He goes on to pay tribute to John Bercow, the Speaker, saying this is his last PMQs. He says Bercow has peppered the chamber with comments like some tennis player machine. (Bercow is a huge tennis fan, and an accomplished player himself.)
He says he disagrees with some of Bercow’s innovations as Speaker. But Bercow has done more than anyone since Stephen Hawking to “stretch time” in the chamber. (See 12.03pm.)
Updated
From Sky’s Lewis Goodall
I remember the last #pmqs of the previous Parliament was the longest ever. Given this will be the last PMQs of this one AND John Bercow’s final one too, we can expect to still be here tomorrow lunchtime.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) October 30, 2019
From ITV’s Joe Pike
In Press Gallery for final pre-election #PMQs:
— Joe Pike (@joepike) October 30, 2019
-Lots of cross-party hugs for Amber Rudd who is standing down.
-Sally Bercow and kids watching on (Speaker’s final #PMQs too).
-Cheers from Tory benches as PM takes his seat (he had a chat with Nigel Dodds behind Speaker’s chair).
PMQs
PMQs is about to start. It is only Boris Johnson’s third PMQs since he became prime minister in July.
Here is an interesting question from below the line.
Psephologists will tell you that there is a minor incumbency advantage in election; ie, sitting candidates do better all other factors considered than new candidates, because voters know who they are.
However, the impact is marginal. And since both the Conservatives and Labour have broadly similar numbers of MPs standing down, it is hard to see this factor making a difference. Some of the MPs standing down represent very safe seats. But in places like Putney, which is 35th on a list of Labour target seats and where Justine Greening is standing down, and Ashfield, 10th on a list of Tory target seats and where Gloria De Piero is standing down, the departure of an incumbent might arguably make a bit of a difference.
Here is an up-to-date list of MPs standing down from the Institute for Government’s Gavin Freeguard.
*CORRECTION*
— Gavin Freeguard (@GavinFreeguard) October 30, 2019
We reckon it's 53, excluding John Mann (h/t @MShepheard)
Data here, corrections welcome: https://t.co/gXQRdXv3sR pic.twitter.com/T1Glt3Pqnv
What is probably more significant is how these departures will affect the composition of the parliamentary Conservative party and the parliamentary Labour party after the election. There are clearly some people around Boris Johnson who want to purge his party of remainers like Philip Hammond. And, in Labour, replacing centrists with leftwingers who back the Corbyn project has long been an ambition of those in the leader’s circle. It is too early to be know quite to what extent both these parties will be transformed after the election, but in both parties the post-election centre of gravity will probably be in a slightly different place.
You can read all of the Guardian’s election 2019 coverage here, including my colleague Dan Sabbagh’s analysis of the latest polling.
And here are three other articles from today’s papers about the polling situation.
- Prof Sir John Curtice, the BBC’s lead polling expert, says in an article in the Times (paywall) Boris Johnson cannot afford not to achieve a majority.
If the substantial net swing from Labour to Conservative in the present polls were to be realised at the ballot box, there are nearly 50 Labour seats that would fall into the Tory column. Winning those would more than compensate for losses elsewhere.
Moreover, they are disproportionately located in the north of England and the Midlands, where many a voter backed leave, though, at 55%, the average support for leave in these seats was only somewhat above the 52% vote across the country as a whole.
But while Mr Johnson’s hopes rest on taking Labour seats, the principal foundation underpinning his lead over Mr Corbyn’s party is not any marked success in winning over Labour votes.
Rather it rests on his success in squeezing support for the Brexit party ...
Above all, this is a contest that Mr Johnson cannot afford to emerge from without an overall majority. Biggest party in a hung parliament will not do. In that event, Labour will potentially be able to look to the Liberal Democrats and the SNP for support – for they all want to stop Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal in its tracks.
One crucial piece of the puzzle is in Labour leave seats. Two years ago, Theresa May won only six of these seats and so found herself unable to compensate for losses elsewhere. This time around, Johnson will have to do much better. If his invasion of Labour Brexit territory can go as far as Wolverhampton North East, which was last Tory in 1987, or Stoke-on-Trent North, which has never been held by the Conservatives in the postwar era, a wave of other pro-Brexit Labour seats will likely turn blue, from Dudley North to Barrow and Furness, from Ashfield to Bishop Auckland. A strong majority would surely follow.
Consolidating the leave vote would be made infinitely easier were the Brexit party to stand down, or the two parties to form some kind of pact. May did manage to squeeze the Ukip vote down to less than 2%. Farage is polling at about 10%.
An analysis by the Financial Times of the opinion polls suggests Mr Johnson’s party is facing an electoral landscape hardly changed since the 2017 election was called. Labour was polling on 25% on Tuesday, exactly the same level as when Mrs May called her snap vote.
Worryingly for Mr Johnson, however, the Conservatives are significantly further behind than at the start of the last campaign. Whereas the Tories were polling 44% on the day the previous election was called, they are currently projected to garner 36% share of the vote.
The political circumstances mirror those of Mrs May who was seeking to win a majority to secure a Brexit deal; Mr Johnson is doing so to achieve the same goal.
Updated
From the Times’ Steven Swinford
I'm told Boris Johnson raised fact his own seat of Uxbridge is on internal CCHQ list of seats potentially at risk at Political Cabinet
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) October 30, 2019
.@oliver_wright spotted Tories spent £1,178 on Facebook this week targeting 200,000 Uxbridge voters with call to keep police station open
Here is Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, on tactical voting. (See 10.32am.)
Seeing lots of chat this morning about tactical voting to maximise Remain vote. @theSNP is the challenger in every Tory held seat in Scotland. So if you want to stop Brexit and remove Boris Johnson, #VoteSNP is the only way to do it. #GE19
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 30, 2019
Boris Johnson is on course to win a Commons majority unless remain voters work tactically to block a Tory victory and ensure an EU-backing leadership, according to research. As PA Media reports, the Conservatives would achieve a majority of 44 if no tactical voting took place but anti-Brexit voters could scupper this, according to a study by the Best for Britain campaign. If fewer than a third of remain voters (30%) used their vote tactically they could swing the election to deny the prime minister and to secure a remain majority of four. The research by the anti-Brexit campaign was based on seat-by-seat analysis of 46,000 people over September and October and was released this morning, PA reports.
The study does not seem to be online yet, but when it goes up, I will post a link.
Updated
Amber Rudd says she is standing down from Commons
Now we’re up to 51 MPs standing down. (See 10.04am.) Amber Rudd, the former Conservative work and pensions secretary, who sits as an independent, has announced that she won’t stand as a candidate at the election.
Moving on. Good luck to colleagues in forthcoming GE. Amber Rudd reveals she will not stand at next general election https://t.co/MPkxUrQa3b
— Amber Rudd MP (@AmberRuddHR) October 30, 2019
Rudd had been talking about possibly standing as an independent (see 9.43am.) But, in an interview with the Evening Standard (edited by her Tory ally, the former chancellor George Osborne), she hinted that she might try to return in the future. She said:
I’m not finished with politics, I’m just not standing at this election.
Rudd also insisted that her relations with Boris Johnson were good. She told the paper:
I spoke to the prime minister and had a good meeting with him a few days ago. I’m really confident of my position.
I will be leaving the House of Commons on perfectly good terms with the prime minister and I want him to succeed.
That is not how it was a few weeks ago. When she resigned from cabinet in early September, Rudd accused Johnson of “an assault on decency and democracy” because he had removed the whip from the 21 Tories who rebelled over Brexit. She also said she did not think Johnson was seriously committed to getting a Brexit deal.
That judgment is now looking rash, in the light of the fact that Johnson did manage to negotiate a Brexit deal with the EU that passed its second reading in the Commons, although it is arguable that Johnson committed properly to a deal only when rebels like Rudd made it clear to him that a no-deal Brexit would be unacceptable to parliament.
Updated
The Labour MP Adrian Bailey, 73, who represents West Bromwich West, has also announced he is standing down, the Express and Star reports.
Gavin Freeguard from the Institute for Government, who is keeping a tally, says Bailey’s decision takes the number of MPs leaving parliament to 49 – although his table does not include Patrick McLoughlin (see 9.59am), and so there are now at least 50 MPs leaving.
49https://t.co/Z75eABlsAc pic.twitter.com/0EB2nXaIyT
— Gavin Freeguard (@GavinFreeguard) October 30, 2019
Updated
The Tory MP Sir Patrick McLoughlin, a former chief whip and former transport secretary, has announced that he is standing down. He is the only former miner in the Conservative parliamentary party and got involved in Tory politics after he was one of the miners who carried on working during the 1984-85 strike. Aged 62, the MP for the Derbyshire Dales has been in parliament since 1986.
This morning, I am announcing my intention to retire as the Member of Parliament for Derbyshire Dales at the forthcoming General Election
— Patrick McLoughlin (@Patrick4Dales) October 30, 2019
From Sky’s Sam Coates
Tory MP: “You’d be hard pressed to find a colleague who is certain this election is a good idea”
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) October 30, 2019
Worries include
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) October 30, 2019
- Knocking on doors at Christmas will generate backlash (some say they won’t doorknock at all)
- How does brexit impact the debate
- How do Tories make net gains when their own ministers predict lots of losses in Scotland
Last night, as my colleague Peter Walker reports, the Tories announced that 10 of the MPs who had the whip withdrawn after rebelling on Brexit were being readmitted to the parliamentary party. But the list did not include Amber Rudd, who voluntarily resigned the whip when she resigned as work and pensions secretary, also in protest over Boris Johnson’s Brexit policy.
This morning on the Today programme, Nick Robinson said he had heard Rudd was coming back to the party. But it seems the situation is not straightforward. These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
Rudd is not back with the whip yet - she has apparently had a positive conversation with Johnson but they haven't agreed a way back - No 10 indicate it's not happening
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 30, 2019
On Amber Rudd, figures at the top of the Tory party think she doesn’t want to return to the fold. Remember she resigned the whip rather than having it taken away. Also manner of her resignation created a lot of bad blood
— James Forsyth (@JGForsyth) October 30, 2019
One problem might be that Rudd has already told her constituents that she does not want to stand again in Hastings and Rye, where she had a majority of only 346 at the last election. In recent interviews, she said she might stand as an independent somewhere else, but she has not committed herself to a particular constituency.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, will ask the UK government for a section 30 order to proceed with planning a second independence referendum before the end of this year, despite the general election.
Speaking to the National newspaper, her spokesman insisted she would make the request this “calendar year”, saying:
As the first minister has made clear, we will be demanding the transfer of power for a referendum before the end of this calendar year. Independence will be at the very heart of this election campaign, and another win for the SNP will be an unequivocal and irresistible demand for Scotland’s right to choose its own future.
This assurance comes despite practical concerns about when exactly Boris Johnson’s government would be able to respond to the request, given that the Commons will shortly be dissolved and no policy announcements are made during the campaign period.
Meanwhile, the Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, has left open the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “31 January is the next threat if you like for a no-deal Brexit, that’s the next deadline.”
Jack added: “We have a deal which we’re going to put in our manifesto and we’re asking people to give us a mandate to put that deal through and that will bring the matter to a conclusion”.
Updated
In his Today interview, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, was asked if drug pricing would be on the agenda in trade talks with the US after Brexit. The question was prompted by the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation saying drug pricing has been discussed at meetings between UK and US officials.
Hancock said drug prices would be “off the table” in a future trade deal.
Asked why it had come up in talks, as Dispatches revealed, he replied:
It is off the table. There has been no agreement and no formal meetings. There is no mandate for how these trade talks will happen.
He also said it was “against the government’s policy to make any changes to drug pricing”.
Updated
Agenda for the day
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Mattha Busby.
It may feel like the first full day of the 2019 election campaign, but the legislation for the December poll has not cleared parliament yet and the Commons is still sitting. Here are the items on the agenda for the day.
10am: The first report from the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire is published.
10am: The anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign publishes research intended to assist anti-Brexit tactical voting at the election.
11am: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, launches the SNP’s general election campaign at an event in Stirling.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.
Around 1pm: Johnson is expected to make a statement to MPs about the Grenfell Tower fire report. There will then be a three-hour debate on the report.
After 3.30pm: Peers begin their debate on the early parliamentary general election bill. It is due to clear all its Lords stages today. In theory, peers could amend the bill but in reality, given that the House of Commons has agreed to an early election with the backing of all the main parties, it is very hard to imagine circumstances in which unelected peers would want to tamper with this legislation.
Updated
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, was asked if he would like to apologise on behalf of the Conservative party for breaking their “do or die” promise that Brexit would take place on 31 October. He told the Today programme:
No. Because it’s parliament that’s blocked delivering Brexit.
Asked if he could clear up whether Amber Rudd would be a Tory candidate in the election, Hancock said: “I don’t know. I’m not in the whips office.”
He said he considers Rudd a good friend, adding: “Amber chose to resign from the Conservative party,”, before adding: “What I’d say is the Conservative party is at its best when we’re a broad church.”
He was questioned over his previous statements regarding a general election, after he said that “people didn’t want to do it” and it was “an unacceptable risk”.
“Well I’m certainly not yearning for a general election and haven’t been, but its the only way to move the country forward,” the MP, who has a 17,000 majority in West Suffolk, said, adding: “We have to respect the result of the referendum because we’re democrats.”
Asked if he thought the public could punish the Tories for not delivering Brexit this year:
I don’t think anyone in this country thinks that that Boris Johnson hasn’t been doing everything he possibly can to deliver on Brexit. He was the architect of the campaign to leave and he’s now succeeded in getting a new deal with the EU, which many people said was impossible.
It’s parliament that has blocked delivering Brexit and that’s why we need a general election. Parliament was given the vote and chose to delay.
He said the Tory party had an “optimistic, positive one nation agenda rooted in the centre ground of British politics”, and that this was not the case in 2017.
On what the party is offering voters, Hancock said:
What we’re proposing is to be able to deliver Brexit on a deal, and then to be able to get on to the NHS, to having 20,000 more police, to the increases in spending on schools and strengthening school standards, on to strengthening the environment, and all the other things on the domestic agenda that only we can deliver, because it’s only by having a majority in parliament we’ll be able to move beyond all the things that have blocked this from all happening in the last few years.
Updated
Asked if he had doubts about a general election, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said the Lib Dems “went into coalition with the Tories basically and the SNP jumped ship”. Meanwhile, no deal was taken off the agenda.
Bring it on, let’s have a go, despite it being December and cold and dark .. we’re going to have a real go at this and I think we’ll win. I think we’ll have a majority government by Christmas, so I can’t think of a better Christmas present.
Asked on the Today programme about Jeremy Corbyn’s personal popularity, McDonnell pointed towards Boris Johnson’s own ratings and said the Labour leader was “one of the best campaigners I’ve ever seen”.
He said Labour in government would make sure there is a “sensible, Brexit option” in contrast to the “disaster” deal being offered by the Conservatives, but also give people the option to remain. “We’re saying, let the people decide.”
On the possibility of deciding to go forward as an overtly pro-remain party, McDonnell said: “We’re a much more democratic party than that.”
He added there would be “a range of views” in Labour, “like every political party”, confirming the party would seek to convey a nuanced message on doorsteps.
The basic principle for us, not like the Lib Dems who are just saying ‘we’re just going to revoke, that’s it’, not like the Tories who are saying ‘we’re going to foist upon you virtually a no deal to damage the economy’, we’re saying – democracy, let the people decide.
On the possible ending of EU freedom of movement laws, McDonnell said the UK needed immigration into the country. “We’re going to have an immigration policy which has as much freedom of movement as possible.”
McDonnell turned his fire on to the government at the end of the interview.
People aren’t mugs out there. They’ve listened to these Tories, they’ve seen what they’ve done over this near decade to our public services, they’ve seen what they’ve done to their living standards and quite honestly, most of them will never forgive them for what they have done.
Updated
Upon the reinstatement of 10 Tory rebels who had the whip removed after backing legislation criticised as delaying Brexit, the Today programme has been speaking to former minister Ed Vaizey – who has returned – and Dominic Grieve, who has not.
Asked what he had to be welcomed back to the fold, Vaizey said:
I had an argument with the prime minister about no deal, and I voted against him to try and get no deal off the table but I have voted with the government ever since. Not because I was sucking up to the prime minister to try to get the whip back but because I wasn’t having arguments with him about his deal or the programme motion and timetable for his deal. So I suspect that is why I’ve got the whip back and others haven’t.
Dominic has been a heroic figure in parliament. I’m perhaps, you can either take it, weak or vacillating or pragmatic, depending on your glass half-full, glass half-empty perspective.
Asked whether the Conservatives would be fighting the election as a narrow, ideological, factional party, he said: “Yes.”
Grieve, the former attorney general, said he had fundamental disagreements with Boris Johnson over his leadership and Brexit, and that he assumed the Tories would put a candidate up against him in his constituency of Beaconsfield.
This deal is extraordinarily dangerous for the future of our country. It carries with it the implication for the breakup of the United Kingdom and I think also that the likely outcome particularly because of the role of the [European Research Group] in the party that we are going to end up at the end of transition, which is only a few months away now, in fact at risk of crashing out. The very thing Ed doesn’t want.
If the prime minister wins a working majority .. in six months we will be in very difficult and dangerous waters for our country.
I will run as an independent. I’ve made that decision. I have no idea what the outcome will be. Logically, I probably ought to lose. It’s a very safe Conservative seat. And if normal loyalties prevail then a Conservative candidate will be elected against me. But I think my constituents are entitled to a choice.
Updated
The Liberal Democrats leader, Jo Swinson, has said her party’s “stop Brexit” message is resonating with remainers as she positioned herself as a future prime minister.
She told the Today programme:
People recognise our consistency and standing up for what we believe in. I don’t think that the choice that we are being offered between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn is anywhere near good enough.
Neither of those men are fit to lead our country and be prime minister. And I know there are millions of people out there who are longing for a positive alternative that is looking to the future.
She said polling shows they are “within a small swing” of winning “hundreds of seats”, citing the massive increase in seats for the SNP in 2015 as evidence of sudden swings.
Asked if she was ruling out supporting either Johnson or Corbyn as prime minister, Swinson said:
I can’t be clearer. Neither Boris Johnson nor Corbyn is fit to be prime minister. Our country deserves a better choice, and I am standing as candidate to be prime minister.
Asked if she would be prepared to enter into some kind of informal deal with the Tories or Labour without those two men at the helm, she said they are parties that want to “force through Brexit on our country”. She added:
It’s going to be bad for our country. And they both have that shared vision for the future. The Liberal Democrats have a different positive alternative vision for the future.
Updated
Laura Parker, Momentum’s national co-ordinator, says it would be “madness to stick with things as they are” and she claims that the “vast majority” of Labour MPs, voters and “most of the public” understand there is now an opportunity for fundamental change.
“People can no longer tolerate the incompetence and callousness, and I would say dishonesty, of this government,” she told the Today programme.
Asked if she will be giving advice on voting tactically, Parker said:
We will be advising all of our members to get out there and campaign for Labour, wherever they are in the country. It’s only a Labour government that will both end this Tory Brexit madness and end austerity and help us rebuild Britain.
Updated
Ben Bradshaw, MP and senior Labour backbencher, said his party will do better in the election than some may think, and said Labour will be “totally united” as candidates and MPs.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I actually think Labour will do much much better than the pundits and a lot of commentators are predicting. The reason that we thought the referendum was the best way is a democratic reason.
In a binary issue like Brexit, the only way of resolving that with democratic legitimacy is to hold another referendum and Labour is the only party offering that now in the general election.
That’s why you have to vote Labour if you want to stop Brexit.
Updated
To my British friends,
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) October 29, 2019
The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time.
I also want to say goodbye to you as my mission here is coming to an end. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.
The General Election is here.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 30, 2019
We are a party of half a million people. We want you out there, door to door, talking to your neighbours about how we will transform our country.
Not sure what that involves? Find out here: https://t.co/ZgWounAr5v pic.twitter.com/ARFL8UYPte
Conservatives’ manifesto being written by fracking lobbyist
The Conservatives’ election manifesto is being written by a lobbyist for the fracking company Cuadrilla and major internet companies such as Amazon and Facebook, raising concerns about whether her paying clients could influence the party’s policies.
Rachel Wolf is drawing up the Conservatives’ platform for the general election while continuing to work as a partner at Public First, a business that lobbies ministers on behalf of the shale gas industry. Cuadrilla is facing a battle to keep its fracking projects on track in the UK at a time when public opinion is moving against the extraction of shale gas, with the Labour party threatening to ban the practice altogether.
Her company also represents the Internet Association, the trade body for major tech companies including Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Microsoft and Amazon. The organisation is attempting to influence the government’s policies on online harms, the regulation of social media and taxes on digital companies – all of which are likely to feature in some form in the Conservative manifesto.
There is no suggestion Wolf is breaking any rules by writing the Conservative manifesto while running a lobbying company representing major businesses, given her company makes regular declarations of its clients to the public lobbying registrar in line with current legal requirements.
However, Francis Ingham, of the Public Relations and Communications Association, which represents many leading PR and lobbying agencies, but not Public First, said: “Communications professionals have a duty to avoid conflicts of interests. There is never an excuse. The PRCA code – to which all members are bound – is explicit in this regard.”
Jon Trickett, the shadow cabinet minister with responsibility for the lobbying industry, said it was an “outrage to democracy that the frackers, the tax avoiders and the zero-hour exploiters will have the biggest say when it comes to Tory policy”. He pledged that a Labour government would strengthen lobbying regulations if it won the next general election.
Full story is here:
Updated
So, how are the parties selling themselves in these early days of the campaign that hasn’t officially launched yet?
Well, the announcement of the general election barely been made before the online campaigns kicked off with videos on social media.
The indisputable winner of the first round is Labour, which not only has the best backing track (Invincible by US rapper Jonezen), but has also racked up the most views – 1.2m at the time of writing – by a very large margin.
Though points to the Lib Dems who didn’t launch with a campaign video, but did launch a Bring It On campaign meme.
The General Election has just been called.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 29, 2019
It's time for real change. pic.twitter.com/aiUwhxm5K6
#BackBoris to get Brexit done.
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) October 29, 2019
🇬🇧 Only @BorisJohnson can take our country forward and deliver on the people's priorities.#GE2019 pic.twitter.com/3pTkzI6vFy
#GE2019 pic.twitter.com/HGNf1fd5wt
— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) October 29, 2019
🗳 Parliament has voted for a general election. People in Scotland will have a choice, to put Scotland's future in Scotland's hands or in those of Boris Johnson.
— The SNP (@theSNP) October 29, 2019
🏴 Register to vote and invite your friends to do the same: https://t.co/7Rfhd84RqK pic.twitter.com/VSKuPJgjUo
BREAKING: MPs have voted to hold a General Election - we're ready to run our biggest ever campaign! #GE19
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) October 29, 2019
Sign up here to keep up to date with the Green campaign and find out how you can be part of it: https://t.co/fktQ7rnf3o pic.twitter.com/9UV7d7rkSx
Very late last night Owen Smith, Labour MP for Pontypridd, and the man who made a bid to topple Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2016, announced he would not be standing in the election.
For political and personal reasons, I have written tonight to @jeremycorbyn informing him of my decision not to stand at the coming General Election. It has been a great honour and a privilege to serve the people of the Pontypridd Constituency. pic.twitter.com/mIxz8spZte
— Owen Smith (@OwenSmith_MP) October 29, 2019
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the day’s political news and won’t there be a lot of it over the next six weeks?
So, we’re going to have an election, which means the politicians and party machines will be in overdrive trying to convince you of who to vote for. We’ll bring you the news, the speeches, the campaign events, the pitches, the pictures and the gaffes from the campaign trail over the next six weeks.
As for today, the Lords are expected to debate the early parliamentary general election bill at 3:30pm, giving the rubber stamp of approval to the 12 December election. Boris Johnson will face prime minister’s questions at midday before a general debate on the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
If the Lords pass Johnson’s legislation, as is expected, parliament will sit for one more week before dissolving next Wednesday for a campaign of five weeks.
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Johnson argued that a “new and revitalised” parliament was needed to take Britain out of the European Union. “We are left with no choice but to go to the country to break free from this impasse,” he told MPs.
But he later struck a cautious note, telling a backbench meeting of Tory MPs that it would be “a tough election but we will do the best we can”. He told them he had not wanted an election but was forced to seek one because Labour would have “sliced and diced” his Brexit legislation beyond recognition.
In a move to unite his party, the prime minister decided to readmit 10 of the 21 MPs he expelled last month for defying his Brexit plan.
As always, you can get in touch with me on Twitter and via email (kate.lyons@theguardian.com), I’ll be at the helm for the next hour or so before handing over to my colleagues who will steer you through for the rest of the day.
Updated
Andrew, what is the likely effect on the election of 51 MPs standing down? Are those seats more likely to switch from current party to another? Or less?