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General election 2019: Labour says its 'extend free movement' conference motion misinterpreted – live news | General election 2019: Labour says its 'extend free movement' conference motion misinterpreted – live news |
(32 minutes later) | |
Opposition parties are using Equal Pay Day to announce equalities packages, while Johnson tries to brush off hostile reaction from flood victims | Opposition parties are using Equal Pay Day to announce equalities packages, while Johnson tries to brush off hostile reaction from flood victims |
The Brexit party event flagged up earlier (see 10.15am) has just started. Nigel Farage, the party leader, is due to speak soon, but at the moment David Bull, a doctor and Brexit party MEP, is speaking. | |
One in six patients waited longer than four hours in A&E in England during October – the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced in 2004, according to official data released this morning. | |
In response Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said these figures showed why the NHS needed Labour’s £40bn rescue plan. He said: | |
In his response Matthew Hancock, the health secretary, said almost nothing about why the figures were so bad, but instead just attacked Labour. He said: | |
It is not true to say that Labour is planning uncontrolled and unlimited immigration. (See 9.45am.) Labour is finding it harder to explain how the NHS would absorb the possible costs of its plans for a 32-hour working week (the Times has splashed on the issue today), but, as John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, explained at a news conference yesterday, this is a 10-year aspiration, not something to be introduced immediately, and the idea is that productivity increases will make it affordable. | |
Here is an explanation of the Labour 32-hour working week plan. | |
It may feel to some of us as if the election campaign has been going on for ages, but on the Today programme this morning Deborah Mattinson, the pollster and public opinion specialist, issued a healthy corrective. Most members of the public are not yet taking any notice, she said. She told the programme: | |
Mattinson said it was only in the last fortnight of the campaign that non-committed voters would start to take an interest in what was going on. | |
Jeremy Corbyn was heckled by a supporter of another Scottish independence referendum as gave a speech this morning at the Queen’s Hotel in Dundee, PA Media reports. The report goes on: | |
Boris Johnson began campaigning in a rainy south-west by visiting a school, the Press Association reports. Pupils at West Monkton primary school, near Taunton, welcomed the prime minister who was accompanied by Rebecca Pow, the Conservative candidate seeking re-election for Taunton Deane. | Boris Johnson began campaigning in a rainy south-west by visiting a school, the Press Association reports. Pupils at West Monkton primary school, near Taunton, welcomed the prime minister who was accompanied by Rebecca Pow, the Conservative candidate seeking re-election for Taunton Deane. |
In the overnight Conservative party press notice about immigration Priti Patel, the home secretary, restates her commitment to introducing an “Australian-style points system so what we can control our borders”. | In the overnight Conservative party press notice about immigration Priti Patel, the home secretary, restates her commitment to introducing an “Australian-style points system so what we can control our borders”. |
What do you think David Cameron, the former Tory prime minister, thinks of that? Apart from a low-key day of canvassing in Reading West, he does not seem to have played a role in the election so far, and it would be surprising if he were to start giving interviews criticising his successor. But on this issue we know what he thinks, because he covers it in his revealing and extremely readable memoir, For the Record. Writing about the Brexit campaign, he says: | What do you think David Cameron, the former Tory prime minister, thinks of that? Apart from a low-key day of canvassing in Reading West, he does not seem to have played a role in the election so far, and it would be surprising if he were to start giving interviews criticising his successor. But on this issue we know what he thinks, because he covers it in his revealing and extremely readable memoir, For the Record. Writing about the Brexit campaign, he says: |
From the Brexit party | From the Brexit party |
I don’t know what that will be about, but we’ll tune in ... | I don’t know what that will be about, but we’ll tune in ... |
In his Today interview Brandon Lewis, the security minister, said wealthy Russian businessmen had an “absolute right” to donate to the Conservative party if they were British citizens. Admitting that he had received donations from prominent Russians himself, he said: | In his Today interview Brandon Lewis, the security minister, said wealthy Russian businessmen had an “absolute right” to donate to the Conservative party if they were British citizens. Admitting that he had received donations from prominent Russians himself, he said: |
It is interesting that CCHQ put up Brandon Lewis, a Home Office minister, to give interviews this morning defending what is the Conservative party’s overnight attack line against Labour - the claim that average net immigration would rise to 840,000 a year under Jeremy Corbyn – and not his boss, Priti Patel. Patel, the home secretary, is very popular with with rightwing Tories and Brexit party supporters, but she is not one of the cabinet minister most skilled at dealing with forensic questioning. | It is interesting that CCHQ put up Brandon Lewis, a Home Office minister, to give interviews this morning defending what is the Conservative party’s overnight attack line against Labour - the claim that average net immigration would rise to 840,000 a year under Jeremy Corbyn – and not his boss, Priti Patel. Patel, the home secretary, is very popular with with rightwing Tories and Brexit party supporters, but she is not one of the cabinet minister most skilled at dealing with forensic questioning. |
Here is the extract from the Conservative news release explaining how the party justifies its claim. (Bold type in the original document.) | Here is the extract from the Conservative news release explaining how the party justifies its claim. (Bold type in the original document.) |
This claim is that it is based on a motion passed at Labour party’s conference. But there are two problems with citing it as evidence that Labour would allow annual net immigration to rise to 840,000 a year. First, the wording of the motion was very generalised (the full text is here), and it was not clear what it would mean in practice. And, second, Labour is only committed to implementing policies in its manifesto, not motions passed at conference. | This claim is that it is based on a motion passed at Labour party’s conference. But there are two problems with citing it as evidence that Labour would allow annual net immigration to rise to 840,000 a year. First, the wording of the motion was very generalised (the full text is here), and it was not clear what it would mean in practice. And, second, Labour is only committed to implementing policies in its manifesto, not motions passed at conference. |
Today Labour is arguing that, when the conference motion demanded a manifesto pledge to “maintain and extend free movement rights”, this was not a reference to allowing non-EU nationals to come and live in the UK freely. “There was no mention [in the motion] of geographically extending freedom of movement to other countries,” a party source said. Instead this was a reference to extending the rights that already apply to British citizens and others with the right to live in the UK, for example by making it easier for spouses to join them, the source argued. | Today Labour is arguing that, when the conference motion demanded a manifesto pledge to “maintain and extend free movement rights”, this was not a reference to allowing non-EU nationals to come and live in the UK freely. “There was no mention [in the motion] of geographically extending freedom of movement to other countries,” a party source said. Instead this was a reference to extending the rights that already apply to British citizens and others with the right to live in the UK, for example by making it easier for spouses to join them, the source argued. |
This may be a fair way to interpret the motion passed by Labour conference, but this is not a point that the party made particularly forcefully at the time. | This may be a fair way to interpret the motion passed by Labour conference, but this is not a point that the party made particularly forcefully at the time. |
Today Labour has dismissed the Tory claims as “fake news”. In a statement Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said: | Today Labour has dismissed the Tory claims as “fake news”. In a statement Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said: |
What is true, though, is that Labour has yet to say what its immigration policy would be. Jeremy Corbyn and others have said things that imply that they would like to keep free movement for EU nationals after Brexit, but during the campaign Corbyn has tended to sidestep questions about what Labour’s exact policy will be, saying details will be given in the manifesto. But Labour does want to negotiate a soft version of Brexit with the EU, keeping the UK aligned to the single market, and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has admitted that negotiating this would involve a negotiation about whether or not the UK would maintain EU free movement rules. | What is true, though, is that Labour has yet to say what its immigration policy would be. Jeremy Corbyn and others have said things that imply that they would like to keep free movement for EU nationals after Brexit, but during the campaign Corbyn has tended to sidestep questions about what Labour’s exact policy will be, saying details will be given in the manifesto. But Labour does want to negotiate a soft version of Brexit with the EU, keeping the UK aligned to the single market, and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has admitted that negotiating this would involve a negotiation about whether or not the UK would maintain EU free movement rules. |