What’s happening?
Labour’s manifesto, which wasn’t supposed to be happening until next week, is what’s happening. Draft versions have found their way – there’ll be plenty of utterly contradictory explanations of how – to the press, first via the Mirror and the Telegraph. Why? To force changes ahead of official publication next week? To ensure there can’t be any changes ahead of official publication next week?
The key takeaways aren’t an enormous surprise to anyone who’s previously heard of Jeremy Corbyn: (re)nationalising railways, Royal Mail and energy companies. It’s not an enormous surprise, either, that the Telegraph didn’t like it (“Corbyn’s manifesto to take Britain back to 1970s”). The Daily Mail is even more upset – “Labour’s manifesto to drag us back to the 1970s” – but possibly because its other front-page story (“Girl jobs and boy jobs ARE the secret of lasting love”) suggests it would prefer the 1950s.
Here’s the Guardian take on the whole shebang, and a checklist of what’s actually in the manifesto. But in (very) brief? There are:
Policies we’ve heard already in this campaign: housing, education, lifting public sector pay cap, more police officers.
Policies we’ve heard already from older – dare I say New – Labour manifestos: Sure Start, early years funding, A&E waiting time targets.
Policies that will please many Labour supporters: bye bye bedroom tax, work capability and PIP assessments; repeal of the Health and Social Care Act; no repeal of the Human Rights Act; suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Policies for women: “at least 50%” cabinet representation; extending abortion rights to Northern Ireland.
Policies designed to irk some: “We will implement the recommendations of part one of the Leveson inquiry and commence part two”; anything mentioning trade unions.
Policies that could have gone either way: Trident would be renewed; university tuition fees would go; no second Scottish referendum.
Policies that mention large numbers: £6bn a year for the NHS; £8bn over five years for social care; £250bn over 10 years on infrastructure.
Policies that mention no numbers: The manifesto says all pledges are “fully costed”, but the details of what those earning over £80,000 a year will be asked to cough up aren’t in the leaked versions.
Policies that sound a tad Alan Partridge: a National Review of Local Pubs.
Oh, and there’s Brexit:
We will scrap the Conservatives’ Brexit white paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities that have a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the single market and the customs union … immediately guarantee existing rights for all EU nationals living in Britain … reject ‘no deal’ as a viable … ensure there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and that there is no change in the status or sovereignty of Gibraltar.
On immigration, it says Labour “will not make false promises on immigration numbers”. The Conservatives are expected to recommit to their promise to slice net migration to the “tens of thousands”, despite the less than 10-in-1,000 chance of it happening. But will a vanishingly unlikely promise prove more of a vote-winner than a non-promise?
Elsewhere a rare Tory manifesto pledge has been spotted: a commitment to bump up defence spending above the rate of inflation every year. The Times reports today that other manifesto details have ignited a spat between Theresa May and her chancellor, Philip Hammond. But one thing that now won’t be impeding the PM’s trudge through the campaign is the spectre of Tory MPs facing prosecution over spending in the 2015 election. The CPS yesterday said it would not bring charges (one case, involving Craig Mackinlay in Thanet South, is still being considered).
At a glance:
- Tim Farron makes pledge for UK to take 50,000 more Syrian refugees.
- Ukip leader criticised for disclosing confidential Hillsborough meeting.
- Labour party’s future lies with Momentum, says Noam Chomsky.
- Greens were offered £250,000 not to stand in Richmond Park byelection.
- SNP accused of twisting Andrea Leadsom’s fishing industry remarks.
- ‘Strong and stable leadership!’ Could May’s rhetorical carpet-bombing backfire?
Poll position
Strong and stable lead for the Conservatives in the latest Panelbase poll: a 17-point gap over Labour, the same as last week, though each party hopped up one point, to 48% and 31% respectively. The Lib Dems dipped two points to 8%; Ukip stands still at 5%.
It’s a different story in London, a YouGov survey for the Evening Standard shows. There, Labour heads the Tories by 41% to 36%. Follow the overall trends with our poll tracker.
Diary
Busy busy.
- At 9am, Jeremy Corbyn unveils the Labour campaign poster. Here’s a spoiler:
Labour's first 2017 general election campaign poster ... https://t.co/wSN7wOqpJG pic.twitter.com/C4rKOZrKUi
— Graeme Demianyk (@GraemeDemianyk) May 10, 2017
- The Labour shadow cabinet, NEC, backbench policy heads and National Policy Forum chairs have their “Clause V” meeting to confirm the manifesto. There’s been a mighty spoiler on that one too.
- Ukip casts its fisheries policy at 9.30am.
- At 10am, Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie sparks his campaign to become Scotland’s first Green MP with a rally in Glasgow.
- At 10.30, Caroline Lucas shows off the Green environment manifesto in north London.
- The Lib Dems kick off their Welsh campaign with Tim Farron in Cardiff.
- At 12.45, Gordon Brown hits the campaign trail for Labour, with a speech in Coventry.
- In Ireland, Tony Blair addresses a meeting of the European People’s party on Brexit; EU negotiator Michel Barnier will also speak.
- At 4pm, Nicola Sturgeon is in St Andrews.
- 4pm is the deadline for candidates to file their nominations. The Electoral Commission publishes the list at 5pm.
- At 7pm, Theresa May takes questions from real, actual voters on an LBC phone-in.
- At 7.30pm, Paul Nuttall is interviewed on ITV Tonight.
Read these
Annabelle Dickson in Politico profiles some of the new Tory hopefuls standing for election:
Theresa May’s snap general election looks set to usher in a new wave of Brexit true believers. While a handful of ardent and noisy eurosceptic veterans, including Peter Lilley and Gerald Howarth, are bowing out of the British parliament, believing Brexit to be in safe hands, candidates who were firmly on the Leave side of the referendum debate are poised to take their place.
With polls giving the Conservatives a clear lead in the UK general election, the question for the Conservative whips – the party enforcers in parliament – is how big, and crucially how obedient, will the class of 2017 be?
In the New Statesman, anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali responds to the backlash to her decision to stand as a candidate for the Women’s Equality party in Hornsey and Wood Green – against Labour incumbent Catherine West:
My critics tell me I shouldn’t run against another woman at all, and particularly not another feminist, as if all women and all feminists were interchangeable. As successful as I have been as a campaigner, black and minority ethnic women like me are largely invisible: talked about and talked at…
None of the traditional parties do enough for women. The current government, in common with every previous administration, continues to do huge damage to women in every corner of the UK. The Tories are pursuing a gender-blind economic strategy that means women suffer disproportionately from cuts. Theresa May is pushing for Brexit, deal or no deal, at whatever the terrible cost to women – and Labour have done far too little to stop this train.
Revelation of the day
It seems Tony Blair hasn’t been completely exorcised from the new (not New) Labour manifesto, which pledges:
We still need to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, too.
The day in a tweet
There might be an upside to going back to the 70s:
Do we get Bowie back? https://t.co/QliI7gI4et
— Mic Wright 👨🏼💻 (@brokenbottleboy) May 10, 2017
And another thing
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