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| General election: Nicola Sturgeon launches campaign for 'most important election in our lifetimes' – live news | General election: Nicola Sturgeon launches campaign for 'most important election in our lifetimes' – live news |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| SNP leader speaks in Edinburgh as parties’ promises take shape | SNP leader speaks in Edinburgh as parties’ promises take shape |
| My colleague Rajeev Syal has written a piece about former Labour candidate Gideon Bull, who pulled out of the election race for the Clacton seat after accusations that he used the insulting term “Shylock” towards a Jewish councillor. | |
| Here an excerpt: | |
| “Bull told the Guardian he made the comment in a clumsy attempt to describe a person who relentlessly tries to get what they want. | |
| “I’m standing down because I don’t want anything to deflect from the fact that Clacton has had years of neglect under the Tories. It was an honest mistake. The fact that there was a Jewish councillor in the room had no bearing on me saying it.” | |
| Bull claims he did not realise the character from Merchant of Venice was Jewish and said he would have known if his schooling had been better. | |
| The Lib Dem MP Luciana Berger has criticised he BBC for excluding Jo Swinson from the standoff debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, arguing the decision granted an exclusive platform to two pro-Brexit leaders. | |
| A third Labour candidate has been been embroiled in controversy surrounding allegations of anti-Semitism in one day. | |
| JewishNews reported that Laura McAlpine, the party’s candidate for Harlow, defended her chief campaigner after he wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’ to the Israel and Palestine conflict. | |
| McAlpine, who is aiming to unseat Tory MP Robert Halfon, refused to condemn remarks of her top aide Brett Hawksbee, despite a party official warning Hawksbee had “breached IHRA (the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism) in almost every single way possible”, the article stated. | |
| Hawksbee blogged in September 2018: “The fear of many on the left is that the ideological successors of the bombers of the King David Hotel, the mass murderers who decimated Deir Yassin, would be quite happy to see a pogrom in Gaza and the West Bank, a Jewish final solution to the Palestine problem.” | |
| According to the article, one email circulated to Labour staffers stated that McAlpine “isn’t happy with the first line (of the apology) because she doesn’t want to be disloyal to someone who ‘organises so much for her and who she is on the phone with three times a day’.” | |
| Boris Johnson has turned his failed “Brexit - do or die” pledge into a “do or dry”, claiming he has given up alcohol until after Brexit is sorted, PA Media reports.But according to the report, the prime minister was “watched sipping whisky during a distillery visit in Scotland on Thursday, casting doubt on his commitment to the alcohol ban”. | Boris Johnson has turned his failed “Brexit - do or die” pledge into a “do or dry”, claiming he has given up alcohol until after Brexit is sorted, PA Media reports.But according to the report, the prime minister was “watched sipping whisky during a distillery visit in Scotland on Thursday, casting doubt on his commitment to the alcohol ban”. |
| Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will face each other in a live BBC debate in Southampton on 6 December just six days before Britons head to the polls. | Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will face each other in a live BBC debate in Southampton on 6 December just six days before Britons head to the polls. |
| The BBC will also present a live seven-way podium debate between senior figures from the UK’s major political parties on 29 November in Cardiff. | The BBC will also present a live seven-way podium debate between senior figures from the UK’s major political parties on 29 November in Cardiff. |
| The Today presenter and former BBC political editor Nick Robinson, who will present the two debates, said he hoped they would “illuminate the choice we all face between competing parties, leaders, policies and visions for the country”. | The Today presenter and former BBC political editor Nick Robinson, who will present the two debates, said he hoped they would “illuminate the choice we all face between competing parties, leaders, policies and visions for the country”. |
| This from Kamal Ahmed, the BBC’s editorial director: | This from Kamal Ahmed, the BBC’s editorial director: |
| Nicola Sturgeon had previously described the decision by Sky to only invite Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson for a live debate as “outrageous”: | Nicola Sturgeon had previously described the decision by Sky to only invite Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson for a live debate as “outrageous”: |
| A good point made by the Sun’s Kate Ferguson: | A good point made by the Sun’s Kate Ferguson: |
| This from my colleague Kate Proctor, reporting from Nigel Farage’s rally in Pontypool, south Wales. Pontypool is in the Torfaen constituency, which has been held by the Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds since 2015. | This from my colleague Kate Proctor, reporting from Nigel Farage’s rally in Pontypool, south Wales. Pontypool is in the Torfaen constituency, which has been held by the Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds since 2015. |
| As predicted by some, the official Twitter account of the Conservative party just shared a meme featuring Nicola Sturgeon with a miniature Jeremy Corbyn in her pocket. | As predicted by some, the official Twitter account of the Conservative party just shared a meme featuring Nicola Sturgeon with a miniature Jeremy Corbyn in her pocket. |
| Many of you, dear readers, will remember the original, a billboard showing Ed Miliband stuffed into the pocket of Alex Salmond, with some believing it was this poster that forced Miliband to rule out an SNP coalition during the 2015 general election campaign. | Many of you, dear readers, will remember the original, a billboard showing Ed Miliband stuffed into the pocket of Alex Salmond, with some believing it was this poster that forced Miliband to rule out an SNP coalition during the 2015 general election campaign. |
| While Nicola Sturgeon used her election campaign launch speech to declare war on Boris Johnson, he was given a tour of a school and tried to make a clay figure inspired by British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, PA Media reports: | While Nicola Sturgeon used her election campaign launch speech to declare war on Boris Johnson, he was given a tour of a school and tried to make a clay figure inspired by British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, PA Media reports: |
| Political commentators widely consider Sturgeon’s hints that Labour might support a second Scottish referendum a boost for the Tory campaign. | Political commentators widely consider Sturgeon’s hints that Labour might support a second Scottish referendum a boost for the Tory campaign. |
| This from ITV’s Paul Brand: | This from ITV’s Paul Brand: |
| And this from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield: | And this from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield: |
| This from Sky’s Lewis Goodall on Sturgeon’s speech, making a point others have previously made about the Catalonia independence referendum: | This from Sky’s Lewis Goodall on Sturgeon’s speech, making a point others have previously made about the Catalonia independence referendum: |
| Here are Sturgeon’s comments on the possibility of a hung parliament, courtesy of the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: | Here are Sturgeon’s comments on the possibility of a hung parliament, courtesy of the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: |
| Will Nicola Sturgeon also demand that the Trident missile system be moved from Scottish waters before she will support a Corbyn government? | Will Nicola Sturgeon also demand that the Trident missile system be moved from Scottish waters before she will support a Corbyn government? |
| This from the BBC’s Norman Smith: | This from the BBC’s Norman Smith: |
| Sturgeon said her party would not lend support to any party that would stand in the way of a new Scottish independence referendum. It will be interesting to see how this pledge will be compatible with her statement that the SNP MPs “would seek to form a progressive alliance to lock the Tories out of government”. | Sturgeon said her party would not lend support to any party that would stand in the way of a new Scottish independence referendum. It will be interesting to see how this pledge will be compatible with her statement that the SNP MPs “would seek to form a progressive alliance to lock the Tories out of government”. |
| This is the take of Sky’s Beth Rigby: | This is the take of Sky’s Beth Rigby: |
| This from Sky’s Tamara Cohen: | This from Sky’s Tamara Cohen: |
| Sturgeon wraps up and says she looks forward to the campaign trail. | Sturgeon wraps up and says she looks forward to the campaign trail. |
| My colleague Severin Carrell asks: One of the key challenges for Corbyn would be getting a budget passed. Would the SNP not pass that budget if Labour wouldn’t support another Scottish referendum? Sturgeon says it can’t be expected of the SNP to support anybody who doesn’t recognise the Scottish right to self-determination. | My colleague Severin Carrell asks: One of the key challenges for Corbyn would be getting a budget passed. Would the SNP not pass that budget if Labour wouldn’t support another Scottish referendum? Sturgeon says it can’t be expected of the SNP to support anybody who doesn’t recognise the Scottish right to self-determination. |
| Sturgeon adds that Corbyn is someone who supports self-determination “for literally every other country in the world”. It would be “mighty strange” if he didn’t support it for Scotland. | Sturgeon adds that Corbyn is someone who supports self-determination “for literally every other country in the world”. It would be “mighty strange” if he didn’t support it for Scotland. |
| We don’t even know whether Jeremy Corbyn would campaign for remain or leave, Sturgeon says. That’s why voting SNP is the best way for the Scottish to avoid Brexit, she adds. | We don’t even know whether Jeremy Corbyn would campaign for remain or leave, Sturgeon says. That’s why voting SNP is the best way for the Scottish to avoid Brexit, she adds. |