Donald Trump has said he would not be interested in putting Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) on the table during trade talks with the UK even if it was ‘handed on a silver platter’.
Trump, who is in London for a Nato summit, said: ‘We have absolutely nothing to do with [the NHS], and we wouldn’t want to. If you handed it to us on a silver platter, we’d want nothing to do with it’
Continue reading...Lib Dem leader said leaders should be ‘very careful’ about relationship with US president, ahead of his arrival for Nato
Morning, Amy Walker here, I’ll be taking over the politics liveblog for the next hour or so.
The former head of the parole board, Nick Hardwick, has criticised government changes to the criminal justice system after London Bridge attacker Usman Khan was released from prison under licence.
PA Media reports a vigil will be held to pay tribute to the victims killed in the London Bridge terror attack and to honour the emergency services and members of the public who responded to the incident.
Continue reading...PM accused of ‘distasteful’ attempt to turn London Bridge attack into election issue
Boris Johnson has been accused of twisting the facts of the London Bridge terror attack in a “distasteful” attempt to turn it into an election issue, as he tried to blame Labour for the release of the terrorist who stabbed two people to death.
Despite one of the victims’ families pleading for their son’s death not to be used as an excuse for kneejerk political reaction, Johnson claimed that “a lefty government” was responsible for Usman Khan being freed.
Continue reading...PM refuses to comment when asked how involved he is in his children’s lives
Boris Johnson has refused to disclose how many children he has or whether he is involved in their lives, in an appearance on a radio phone-in show during which he was questioned over past comments about single mothers.
Answering listeners’ questions on LBC, Johnson was challenged by one caller about an article he wrote in 1995 in which he blamed single mothers for “producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children.”
Continue reading...Party’s dossier contains dubious and outdated claims about Lib Dems and Labour
Conservative candidates in the general election have been issued with a detailed dossier on how to attack Labour and Liberal Democrat rivals which contains numerous rehashed and potentially misleading claims, the Guardian can reveal.
The documents accuse the Liberal Democrats of pushing “pro-pimp” policies and sex work as a career for schoolchildren.
Continue reading...Labour leader says documents leave Boris Johnson’s denials on post-Brexit US trade deal ‘in tatters’
Labour has obtained official documents showing that the US is demanding that the NHS will be “on the table” in talks on a post-Brexit trade deal, Jeremy Corbyn has said.
The Labour leader said the uncensored papers gave the lie to Boris Johnson’s claims that the NHS would not be part of any trade talks, and revealed that the US wanted “total market access” after the UK leaves the EU.
Continue reading...At launch of manifesto, PM says he will not raise income tax, VAT or national insurance for five years
Boris Johnson will commit a Tory government to not raise income tax, VAT or national insurance for five years as he promises to “put more money back in people’s pockets” after Brexit.
Launching the Conservatives’ general election manifesto on Sunday, the prime minister will also pledge to protect the value of state pensions, boost spending by £1bn on childcare during school terms and holidays, and cut energy bills by up to £750 a year for those in social housing.
Continue reading...The Conservatives have taken a commanding 19-point lead over Labour with less than three weeks to go before voters head to the polls, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
Related: Poll models fail to spot voting variation in similar seats
Continue reading...Party promises record investment blitz and to scrap tuition fees and universal credit
Corbyn is now responding to questions from students at the venue, Birmingham City University.
He says young workers will benefit from the living wage.
Q: Some voters do not see you as patriotic. Is that fair?
Corbyn replies:
Yes, I do support this country. I am patriotic about this country.
Continue reading...Prospect of crashing out of EU leaves UK more exposed to global financial risks, thinktank says
The UK’s GDP growth rate will slip to 1% next year even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided, according to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation.
The OECD said the economy would slow down from growth of 1.2% this year if parliament passes Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal before the 31 January deadline, before returning to 1.2% in 2021.
Continue reading...PM’s apparent blunder over £12,500 threshold could benefit him amid ‘factchecking’ row
Boris Johnson has said he wants to raise the national insurance threshold to £12,500, letting slip a major Tory tax cut from the manifesto as he was speaking to workers in Teesside.
The prime minister blurted out the key announcement as he was pressed by an employee at a fabrication yard about whether he would help “people like us”, not just the rich.
Continue reading...Labour leader claims service will be sold by PM, who keeps repeating Brexit mantra
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have clashed over which of them is best placed to safeguard the NHS if they win the general election, with the Labour leader accusing the prime minister of being ready to sell it off to US corporations.
In a testy live debate on ITV, during which the prime minister repeatedly returned to the claim that he would “get Brexit done”, both men lavished praise on the NHS, but Corbyn said Johnson would put it up for sale.
Continue reading...All the day’s developments on the campaign trail before Johnson and Corbyn’s first TV debate
Boris Johnson has gone for some Rocky Balboa-type posturing ahead of tonight’s ITV debate. (See 2.33pm and 4.50pm.) As you would expect, Jeremy Corbyn’s warm-up routine is rather different.
Labour leader @jeremycorbyn has arrived for the #ITVdebate, saying he hopes for a respectful debate and prepared by eating a Caesar salad#GE2019 #Leadersdebatehttps://t.co/itw9efaa2W pic.twitter.com/Z2PVqCmgEd
And here is another useful Twitter thread on the likely impact of the debate tonight, from the academic Prof Tim Bale. It starts here.
THREAD: Did a @SkyNews bit today on debates. Here's (some of) what we think we know from research in the UK and elsewhere. 1/8
Continue reading...Party under pressure on climate crisis as Corbyn says Johnson can not be trusted
The Conservative party’s record on tackling the climate crisis was condemned by leading scientists and former government advisers on Sunday, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned that the forthcoming election was the last chance to halt the escalating emergency.
Experts accused the Conservatives of copying rightwing politicians in the US by deliberately weakening environmental protections. Meanwhile, new analysis by Labour reveals that environmental policies put forward since 2017 and opposed by the Tories would have led to emissions reductions of over 70m tonnes a year by 2030 – more than the annual emissions of Portugal.
Continue reading...Youth campaigners have stepped up efforts to oust Boris Johnson from his constituency with grassroots organisations increasingly hopeful they can make history by ensuring he is the first prime minister to lose their seat at a general election.
Despite speculation that Johnson might have relocated to a safer seat, it was confirmed on Thursday that he would stay put, ignoring an internal assessment from the intelligence agency GCHQ that he is potentially at risk.
Continue reading...Nick Boles says ‘final resolve’ of supporters was lacking
Advanced plans for another centrist political party to be launched after Brexit were developed by MPs earlier this year, it has emerged.
Dozens of figures from inside and outside Westminster were involved in the project, designed to go public once a second Brexit referendum was no longer possible.
Continue reading...PM makes false statements about Brexit being ‘blocked’ and his record as London mayor
Boris Johnson is facing criticism over a series of inaccurate statements made in a flurry of live broadcast interviews during a difficult day of campaigning.
The prime minister was challenged on Friday on subjects as varied as crime, Brexit, the abandoned London garden bridge project and the number of children he has fathered.
Continue reading...Jeremy Corbyn will announce free internet plan in speech in Lancaster, while prime minister is in Oldham
Johnson is now asked whether he has done enough for the flood victims. He says you can never do enough for someone who has suffered in a flooding. Of course there’s always more you can do, he says, but he will make sure that the insurers don’t “weasel out of their obligations” to the flood victims. His government has put far more into flood defence than previous Labour governments, he says, 2.6bn.
They move on to migration. Is net migration going to rise and fall under a Conservative government? Johnson says “it’s a great thing” that there are “more EU nationals in the UK than ever before”. Once we come out of the EU, in January, we will take control of our borders, the PM says. When pressed for particular target numbers, Johnson says he doesn’t want to play the numbers game. He says the problem is uncontrolled immigration, and that this is what Labour wants to pursue. He brings up an Australian-style point-based immigration system again. Is a brain surgeon or a porter getting more points? His analysts haven’t decided yet, the PM says.
PM cancels stop-off in Glastonbury after being heckled on visit to school
Boris Johnson has been accused of refusing to meet members of the public and running scared of protests during a visit to Somerset.
Johnson was in south-west England to try to bolster the campaigns of Tory colleagues against strong Liberal Democrat challenges. But in Taunton he was heckled by protesters as he visited a school and a planned stop-off at a bakery on the edge of Glastonbury was ditched.
Continue reading...The prime minister delivers the first big set-piece speech of the campaign as Labour pledges £26bn extra per year for NHS
That’s all from us for this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. For a comprehensive rundown of the day’s events, see my colleague Andrew Sparrow’s daily election briefing:
Related: Andrew Sparrow's election briefing: Johnson won't change Brexit stance to please Farage
Related: Boris Johnson heckled over floods but does not apologise for 'slow response'
Hoey also said complained that MPs had spent the last two years trying to thwart Brexit, telling LBC:
We’ve had two years of parliament – a remain parliament – doing everything they can to stop us leaving; by different methods and some not so serious as others. But most of the Labour MPs in there and a substantial number of Conservatives have tried to stop it.
Continue reading...