What’s happening?
The Conservatives – sorry, Theresa May’s Team – continue to try to elbow their way into Labour heartlands with today’s fresh-out-of-the-packet policy on extending workers’ rights. In a bid to capture the votes of “ordinary working people” (the PM’s phrasing, not mine, don’t @ me), May will promise to hang on to EU protections for workers, up the national living wage, offer a statutory two weeks’ leave for bereaved parents, and initiate 12-month (unpaid) sabbaticals for those needing to care for relatives, including elderly parents. Writing in the Financial Times today, the PM labels it:
the greatest extension of rights and protections for employees by any Conservative government in history.
While the suspiciously red-tapey-sounding new rules might frighten some in her party, the Daily Mail seems cock-a-hoop at what it’s calling a “revolution in the workplace” (one of those genteel, non-Marxist revolutions, obviously).
This new appeal to “ordinary” folk follows Saturday’s effort – a promise of more social housing – which Labour scorned as “spin with no substance” after it turned out there would be no extra money for it. Revolutions don’t come cheap, you know.
On which note, Labour has its own Monday announcement, if you pretend not to have seen the massive spoiler alerts that came with the leak of its draft manifesto last week. Jeremy Corbyn will promise an extra £37bn over the course of the next parliament for the NHS, reducing waiting lists by a million patients, and restoring the four-hour target for A&E. There will be extra money for this, Labour says: from income tax rises for those earning £80,000+ and upward nudges in corporation tax.
Plus, with many hospitals still hobbled by the ransomware attack that spread on Friday, expect questions over why some were still using outdated – and vulnerable – Windows XP software. Extra money might rear its head here too…
There’ll also be more from the Labour leader in an interview with ITV News this evening. Sneak previews reveal he’ll be talking about Brexit:
Clearly, free movement ends when we leave the European Union. But there will be managed migration and it will be fair.
About whether he considers himself wealthy:
I consider myself well paid for what I do and I am wanting to say to everyone who’s well off, make your contribution to our society … I’m not wealthy because of where I put the money, but I’m not going into that.
And – according to an ITV tease – his beard. Which I’m sure will be just as fascinating as the neverending questions about May’s shoes.
At a glance:
- Lib Dems promise to scrap mass snooping powers if elected.
- Emily Thornberry accused Michael Fallon of talking “bollocks” over the Falklands – and reminded him of his meeting with Bashar al-Assad.
- Nicola Sturgeon: independent Scotland may need ‘phased’ return to EU.
- Nurses vote in support of strike ballot over low pay.
- Jobs market will suffer a Brexit slowdown, say experts.
- Business leaders want next government to build two more runways.
Poll position
A flurry of Sunday polls to digest. The Tories have a 15-point lead on Labour according to yesterday’s Observer/Opinium poll: 47% (+1 on the week before) v 32% (+2). ORB for the Sunday Telegraph also pegged Labour on 32%, with the Conservatives on 46%. Though the edging-up is only by a point or so, that 32% is, according to the FT poll tracker, the highest score Labour has recorded in the last six months. It’s also a smidgen above the 30.4% vote share the party secured in the 2015 election.
But a couple of other polls gave the Conservatives more of an edge: Comres for the Sunday Mirror and the Independent had them on 48% to Labour’s 30%; in YouGov for the Sunday Times it’s 49% v 31%. The Lib Dems continue to plod along in a remote third, on 8%-10% in the weekend polling.
Diary
- This morning Ukip reveals its economic policy.
- The Royal College of Nursing conference continues in Liverpool, with Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron both speaking. The Conservatives have been invited but have not yet put anyone forward.
- At 3pm, Theresa May continues her “I love talking to real voters” drive with a Facebook Live interview with ITV News political editor Robert Peston. Post your questions here.
- At 6.30pm, Ruth Davidson gives the Orwell Prize lecture in London, titled ‘Nationalism should not be confused with patriotism’.
- At 7pm, also in London, it’s the launch of the Progressive Alliance campaign, with Labour’s Clive Lewis, Green Sian Berry, Sophie Walker of the Women’s Equality party and Claire Sandberg, who worked on Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
- And at 8pm, it’s back to ITV, this time for its televised interview with Corbyn.
Talking point
“Young people don’t vote” headlines and motivational tweets are part of any election campaign. But new analysis by the Electoral Reform Society suggests 2017 could be a year when it matters more than most, with the number of school-leavers on the electoral roll crumbling by more than a quarter in three years – and by more than a third in Scotland.
Theresa May has rejected suggestions that 16-year-olds should get the vote. But Labour and the Liberal Democrats are snaffling for that youth endorsement. Lib Dem Sarah Olney said Harry Styles should be casting his ballot for them after he said he’d vote for “whoever is against Brexit”. Corbyn’s push involved handing over his Snapchat to grime star Jme. Young people: you can stop all this by registering to vote.
I met @jeremycorbyn today, and explained why bare of us don't vote. I forgot to ask for a pic, so here's one I borrowed 📸 pic.twitter.com/9X62jU8pQg
— Jme (@JmeBBK) May 14, 2017
So, if you’re a young person reading the Snap … first of all, HELLO and thanks, young and intelligent, news-aware person. Second, if you’ve signed up for a daily email about the election campaign, I strongly suspect you’re already registered to vote. But you could pass this link to a less clued-up friend.
Read these
In the New Statesman, Chris Deerin questions if Nicola Sturgeon is really focused on her day-to-day job:
Critics will argue that ‘running the country’ is a less apposite description of what Ms Sturgeon is about than ‘gaming the country’ – that the purpose of her premiership is proving to be little more than cattle-prodding Scotland towards a second independence referendum. And I must say that more and more often these days, the school-gate political chat I hear is likely to contain a frustrated variant on the first minister’s own phrase: ‘I wish she’d just get on with running the country.’
Isabel Hardman, in the Spectator, wonders if the PM’s Ronseal slogan – “it does what it says on the tin” – really fits:
The Tories are trailing manifesto pledges on council house building, while last week they promised more mental healthcare workers. Housing and mental health enjoy the same rather miserable status as being issues that everyone has got rather good at describing as ‘in crisis’, before proposing modest solutions that won’t come anywhere near solving that crisis – and which they don’t implement anyway.
One of the things that has most frustrated May’s Cabinet ministers has been the way she curbs their enthusiasm for radical policies. Her allies say this is because she wants to promise things that will actually happen and that she has had such difficult parliamentary arithmetic that proposals must necessarily be modest. But after a Tory landslide, she’ll have a tremendous opportunity to be radical.
Chris Hanretty, on Medium and with both graphs and gifs, assesses the polls:
We are at the point at which polls rapidly become more informative about final-day polling. Maybe that’s because this is the point at which people start paying attention to the election. Maybe it’s because this is the point at which parties’ policy offer crystallises (the publication of manifestos is expected [this] week). Or maybe it’s because this is the point at which we run out of ‘game-changers’, or ‘dead cats’, or other such stuff and nonsense.
Revelation of the day
“To avoid disappointment”, Labour supporters have until midnight tonight to snap up a “limited edition Labour tote bag”. But which design to choose? “Most people are picking our Jeremy Corbyn tote bags,” an email to members nudges. How very on-message.
The day in a tweet
Theresa May, revealed pic.twitter.com/1NdpwY9s14
— Henry Mance (@henrymance) May 14, 2017
And another thing
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