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General election: Corbyn urged to say if he would use nuclear bomb - live news
General election: Nigel Farage unveils Brexit party's campaign strategy - live news
(32 minutes later)
Labour and Tories pledge more help for service personnel, and controversial former minister to stand down. Follow all the developments now
Labour and Tories pledge more help for service personnel, and controversial former minister to stand down. Follow all the developments now
Farage says he weighed up Johnson’s promises, against the threat that the Brexit party standing could let the Lib Dems in.
Farage says the Brexit party will not stand against the Tories in the 317 seats they won in 2017.
But it will concentrate its efforts on seats held by the Labour party.
And it will also challenge other remainer parties.
Farage says last night he saw something that was optimistic.
He says he saw a video of Boris Johnson saying he would not extend the Brexit transition.
He says people might say Johnson broke his promise not to delay Brexit beyond 31 October.
But at least this was an unequivocal statement.
But Farage says Johnson also said he would negotiate a super Canada-plus trade deal with no alignment.
Here is the video Farage is referring to.
Farage says he tried to build a leave alliance.
He tried to put out the idea that putting country before party was the right thing to do. But that came to naught, he says.
Farage says he has had to consider what the consequences of this would be.
He says he does not accept fielding 600 candidates would allow Jeremy Corbyn to win.
But, he says, he does think that would have led to there being a hung parliament.
And it would have led to a large number of Lib Dem gains.
If the remainer parties could get to 320 seats, there would be a second referendum, he says.
He says the UK would be offered a false choice between remain, and a form of remain.
He says it has not been easy to decide what to do.
Farage says what he was worried about most was that the UK would align itself to EU rules under Boris Johnson’s plan.
He says he thought this was not real Brexit.
That is why the Brexit party decided to stand candidates in 600 seats.
Farage says he was “very unhappy” when he heard about Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Unlike many people who praised it, he read it, and drew the conclusion it was not Brexit, he says.
Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, is speaking now.
He says he will reveal his party’s election strategy in a moment.
From the BBC’s Faisal Islam
My colleague Kate Proctor is in Hartlepool for the Brexit party news conference, which is due to start shortly. She has just posted this on Twitter.
And the Labour party has today committed to having a qualified, on-site counsellor in every secondary school in England, as part of a “healthy young minds” plan worth £845m a year. The party is also committing to setting up a network of mental health hubs to allow children more access to mental health support and ensuring every primary school has access to a qualified counsellor.
In a news release about the plan, Jeremy Corbyn said:
The SNP has this morning called for at least £1bn of North Sea revenues to be set aside to help areas heavily dependent on oil and gas make the switch to a greener economy.
The SNP has this morning called for at least £1bn of North Sea revenues to be set aside to help areas heavily dependent on oil and gas make the switch to a greener economy.
With the Office for Budget Responsibility having forecast the UK’s oil and gas sector will raise £8.5bn in revenue over the next five years, the SNP is calling for that cash to be ring-fenced in its entirety, to fund efforts to tackle the climate crisis. As the Press Association reports, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is saying that at least £1bn should be set aside to support a “just transition” for areas like the north-east, Falkirk and Shetland where the oil and gas industry is a major employer.
With the Office for Budget Responsibility having forecast the UK’s oil and gas sector will raise £8.5bn in revenue over the next five years, the SNP is calling for that cash to be ring-fenced in its entirety, to fund efforts to tackle the climate crisis. As the Press Association reports, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is saying that at least £1bn should be set aside to support a “just transition” for areas like the north-east, Falkirk and Shetland where the oil and gas industry is a major employer.
In a statement issued this morning Sturgeon said:
In a statement issued this morning Sturgeon said:
SNP ministers have already put through legislation committing Scotland to achieving net zero emissions by 2045 - five years ahead of the UK target.
SNP ministers have already put through legislation committing Scotland to achieving net zero emissions by 2045 - five years ahead of the UK target.
Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, is in Hartlepool today, and at 12pm he will be holding a press conference. Perhaps he will announce he has been appointed by Boris Johnson as the UK’s new European commission? (See 11.23am.)
Probably not. But Sky’s Lewis Goodall says Farage will announce whether the party remains committed to standing candidates in almost all seats in Britain.
This is from my colleague Jennifer Rankin in Brussels.
And this is from my colleague Heather Stewart, who has just come back from the No 10 lobby briefing. (During the election campaign the civil service wing of Downing Street briefs journalists just once a week, on Mondays.)
Labour continues to face criticism over its decision to select Kate Osborne as its candidate in Jarrow despite the fact that two years ago she posted a picture on social media showing a gun being held to Theresa May’s head. According to a party source, 37 members of the Jarrow CLP (constituency Labour party) have written to Jennie Formby, the party’s general secretary, saying that even though Osborne has apologised, she should not be a candidate. Her selection “sends a message that threats of violence against women in politics can sometimes be accepted”, the letter claims.
Here is Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, responding to comments by Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, in her Today interview this morning that she personally supported military intervention in Kosovo to protect Albanians from Serbia. Thornberry was replying to a question about how Jeremy Corbyn didn’t back this campaign, or other recent occasions when the UK government decided to deploy the armed forces.
Adam Wagner, the barrister and legal blogger, has posted a useful Twitter feed about the Tory plan to amend the Human Rights Act to say it does not apply to events before 2000, in an attempt to limit prosecutions of armed forces veterans over historical cases. (See 7.38am and 8.05am.) It starts here.
And here are two of his main points.
And here is the New Statesman’s Patrick Maguire on the same plan.
Britain has narrowly avoided going into recession, according to the official growth figures out this morning. My colleague Graeme Wearden has all the details on his business live blog.
From Boris Johnson’s point of view, as an election development that’s probably an item of news to file under the category “it could have been worse”. The claim in the Daily Express splash (they were taking a punt before the growth figures were published) that the economy is “firing on all cylinders” is laughable. As Graeme reports in his blog, annual growth is at the lowest level since 2010.
As my colleague Peter Walker reports, in an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, also said that Labour would introduce “managed migration” for EU nationals in the event Brexit happens. Peter’s full story is here.
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Mattha Busby.
It was only a matter of time before Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on nuclear weapons became an election issue, and this morning it has happened. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, gave a series of interviews this morning and, given that it is Armistice Day and that both main parties have been announcing policies relating to the armed forces, it was not surprising that Thornberry was asked about defence policy, and in particular nuclear weapons.
In interviews on Good Morning Britain and the Today programme, Thornberry was asked if Jeremy Corbyn would ever authorise the use of nuclear weapons. Soon after being elected Labour leader in 2015, Corbyn said categorically that he would never authorise the use of nuclear weapons. But, as a party, Labour supports the nuclear deterrent, and the multi-billion pound spending programme to renew the Trident nuclear weapons programme, and during the 2017 election campaign Corbyn struggled during a TV debate when asked if he would be willing to use the missiles Labour would be spending so much money on.
Thornberry made three points in response to these questions.
She refused to say whether or not Corbyn would be willing to use nuclear weapons. She told Today:
And she told Good Morning Britain.
She claimed that previous prime ministers had refused to say whether or not they would use nuclear weapons. She told Good Morning Britain:
And she told the Today programme:
On this point, Thornberry is wrong. Previous prime ministers have routinely said that, in extremis, they would be willing to use a nuclear weapon. The deterrent only has deterrent value if people think it might be used. What is true, though, is that previous prime ministers have not discussed the exact circumstances in which it would or would not be used.
Thornberry claimed any Labour decision over the use of nuclear weapons might not just be taken by Corbyn on his own. She told Good Morning Britain:
This is also questionable. Although prime ministers consult on almost all decisions, ultimately the final say with decisions about war rest with the PM.
In response to her interviews, the Conservatives are urging Labour to clarify its position. In a statement issued by CCHQ, the defence minister Johnny Mercer said:
Although there is an inherent contradiction in Labour’s policy – no one who knows anything about Corbyn believes for a moment he would ever authorise a nuclear strike, regardless of what the party’s official position is – it is worth pointing out that there are good reasons to question whether any PM would, in extremis, authorise a nuclear attack. Three years ago the BBC filmed a simulated war gaming exercise, which involved former top military figures and government officials deciding how to respond to a Russian invasion of Latvia. The exercise ended with Russia launching a nuclear attack against the west. To the apparent surprise of the film-makers, the committee decided not to retaliate with a nuclear attack against Russia, on the grounds that the consequences would be just too awful.
Later, on the Today programme, Thornberry said service personnel would be paid a “proper wage” through the lifting of the public sector pay cap under Labour’s proposals.
Thornberry welcomed the Tories’ pledge to stop “vexatious and unfair actions” against veterans, but pointed towards Theresa May’s undelivered announcement of a similar policy. However, she said she did not believe the Human Rights Act had to be changed to address this, and said prosecuting authorities should instead not allow such claims to be heard in court.
Questioned about Jeremy Corbyn’s personal support for the armed forces, Thornberry said: “When you see Jeremy interacting with members of the armed services … you can see he is incredibly empathetic.”
However, she was unable to provide an example of when Corbyn backed UK military action abroad.
Pointing to interventions in the Middle East and Libya, she said recent military campaigns had not led to what the UK had wanted. Nevertheless, she restated Labour’s support for maintaining the Trident nuclear weapons system.
