This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/nov/20/general-election-poverty-and-pledges-to-the-fore-after-tv-debate-live-news
The article has changed 25 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 10 | Version 11 |
|---|---|
| General election: Boris Johnson speaks to workers in Stockton-on-Tees | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Prime minister speaks on Brexit while Labour attacks Twitter over Tories’ bogus ‘factcheck’ from leaders’ debate | |
| Increasing aviation duties for frequent flyers, raising up to £5bn a year, is among policies announced by the Liberal Democrats in an election manifesto based around investment in green technologies and higher spending on public services, my colleague Peter Walker reports. | |
| Johnson says he is committed to the nuclear deterrent. That investment will continue, he says. | |
| He says Jeremy Corbyn has been a unilateralist and in favour of getting rid of the nuclear deterrent. | |
| And that’s it. The Q&A is over. | |
| Johnson seemed to get a respectful hearing from the workforce, but it was hard to detect much evidence of enthusiasm for him from what was said in the questions. | |
| Q: Why is the government withholding the dossier on Russian interference in elections when it has been cleared by the security services? | |
| Johnson says he has seen no evidence of Russian interference in British elections. He says he saw no reason to change the normal timetable for publication of these reports. | |
| Q: Don’t the public have a right to know what it says? | |
| Johnson does not address this point directly, and just repeats what he said in his first answer. | |
| Q: Why do MPs think the 17.4m people who voted for Brexit did not know what they voted for? | |
| Johnson says most MPs voted remain. He says Brexit provides great opportunities. The UK can still be great friends with the EU. But it should be able to determine its future, he says. | |
| Q: Can you guarantee us that you will never sell off the NHS? | |
| Yes, says Johnson. He says what Jeremy Corbyn was saying about this last night was an invention. The NHS is a fantastic thing, he says. He says under no circumstances will it be for the sale. He says he will invest massively in it. And he can because he understands how to achieve a strong economy. | |
| He says Corbyn has produced this “nonsense” because they want to conceal the gap in their Brexit plan. They won’t say what they want to do. He says he asked Corbyn nine times what side he would be on in the next Brexit referendum. Johnson says he did not get an answer. That is not “dynamic leadership”. | |
| Q: You says you believe in low taxes. Is that for people like you, or people like us? | |
| Johnson says he is talking about low taxes for the people here. He says Labour’s policies would inevitably lead to higher taxes. “The problem with socialism is that you always run out of other people’s money.” | |
| He says he wants a high wage, high skills, low tax economy. | |
| Q: Will foreign workers be hired for the new ships being built by Babcock? | |
| Johnson says Brexit will allow the UK to take control of its immigration policy. That does not mean the country will become hostile to immigrants, he says. | |
| He says he would like to have a shipbuilding renaissance in this country. | |
| He says the Type 26 frigate is an amazing ship. He wants to be able to export them to the US. | |
| In response to a question about social care, Johnson says he understands the problem. More money has been put into social cafe. And he will put “a lot more” in, he says. | |
| Johnson is now taking questions. | |
| Q: It took a long time to get trade deals with other countries. How confident are you you can get trade deals quickly. | |
| Johnson says he has a deal ready to go. | |
| (He is talking about the withdrawal agreement, but he was asked about post-Brexit trade deals - a completely different matter.) | |
| He says, after Brexit, we will be able to change our rules on animal welfare. | |
| That deal is ready to go, he says. He can put his deal in the oven - gas mark four, gas mark eight - and by January it will be pretty crispy, he says. | |
| Johnson asks his audience how enthusiastic they are about another Brexit referendum. Let’s get this done, he says. | |
| Boris Johnson is opening with a version of his standard stump speech. | |
| He claims that he had to have an election because parliament was blocking Brexit. He has an oven-ready Brexit deal all ready to go. | |
| Boris Johnson is now doing a Q&A with workers at an engineering company in Stockton-on-Tees. | |
| There is a live feed at the top of the blog. | |
| My colleague Rowena Mason is there. | |
| One thing to note about Nicola Sturgeon on this election campaign so far: she looks like she is really enjoying herself. She is smiley, joking with activists and media and generally more relaxed than she’s appeared for a while. At her speech this morning (see 1.30pm) told reporters that she was picking up ‘enthusiasm and optimism’ about a second referendum from voters. Despite telling activists that everyone is “heartily sick” of Brexit, that attitude clearly doesn’t extend to constitutional matters. | |
| She was also clear that Boris Johnson was wrong about a current deal between Labour and the SNP on a second independence referendum, although asked about her red lines for future post-election negotiations she joked that Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘were looking pretty pink’. She added that she thought Corbyn has ‘kind of accepted the principle’ of Scotland deciding its own future. | |
| In his Q&A after her speech in Dundee Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, insisted that the SNP has not done a deal with Labour about supporting a minority government after the election. It is the line that party has always used, and there is no reason to believe that a private deal has been agreed. But what was striking was how, even without any pact, the SNP and Labour are starting to sound very similar in what they say about the Tories. | |
| Sturgeon said that a Tory government would strike a post-Brexit trade deal with the US that would lead to the cost of drugs rising. This is word for word what Labour says. And last night, in the ITV debate, Jeremy Corbyn used the argument that under the Tories the Brexit crisis would go on for years, because negotiating a UK-US trade deal would take most of a decade. Today Sturgeon said much the same thing. (See 12.14pm.) | |
| (Why are the SNP and Labour saying the same thing? Presumably because they both know that these attack lines are persuasive with voters.) | |
| Here are the main points from Sturgeon’s speech and Q&A. | |
| Sturgeon claimed that Scottish independence would not be as disruptive as Brexit. She said she understood why people were claiming that Scottish independence would be as chaotic as Brexit. But that was not true, she claimed. In her Q&A she said: | |
| Sturgeon said that, unlike the Brexiters, the SNP had a detailed plan for independence when it was proposing this ahead of the 2014 referendum. She went on: | |
| She said there were multiple threats to Scotland from remaining in the UK. | |
| She said a Tory government would strike a trade deal with the US that could lead to drug prices rising for the NHS. She said: | |
| She insisted that, even if Brexit were stopped, that would not undermine the case for Scottish independence. (See 12.30pm.) | |
| She backed claims that in practice Labour would have to agree to holding a second Scottish independence referendum in 2020, regardless of what Corbyn says now. (See 12.34pm.) | |
| She said that the SNP were the only party that could take seats from the Conservatives in Scotland. (See 12.19pm.) | |
| Boris Johnson has said that flood-hit families and businesses will eligible for government grants worth up to £5,000 for new resilience measures. He made the pledge in a Yorkshire Post article. Here’s an excerpt. | Boris Johnson has said that flood-hit families and businesses will eligible for government grants worth up to £5,000 for new resilience measures. He made the pledge in a Yorkshire Post article. Here’s an excerpt. |
| Sturgeon says it was no inevitable that Brexit had to be this chaotic. | Sturgeon says it was no inevitable that Brexit had to be this chaotic. |
| She says, if Scotland were to vote for independence, the process of separating from England would not have to be like Brexit. | She says, if Scotland were to vote for independence, the process of separating from England would not have to be like Brexit. |
| Q: Boris Johnson said last night Labour had already done a deal with the SNP on independence. Jeremy Corbyn said that was not true. But this morning Humza Yousef said in practice Labour would allow an early second referendum. (See 10.54am.) | Q: Boris Johnson said last night Labour had already done a deal with the SNP on independence. Jeremy Corbyn said that was not true. But this morning Humza Yousef said in practice Labour would allow an early second referendum. (See 10.54am.) |
| Sturgeon says she is surprised anyone believes anything Johnson says. | Sturgeon says she is surprised anyone believes anything Johnson says. |
| She says there has been no deal with Labour. | She says there has been no deal with Labour. |
| But she says she agrees with what Yousef said this morning. Jeremy Corbyn favours self-determination “for virtually every other country on the planet”, she says. | But she says she agrees with what Yousef said this morning. Jeremy Corbyn favours self-determination “for virtually every other country on the planet”, she says. |
| She says she would expect Scotland’s desire for a second referendum to be granted. | She says she would expect Scotland’s desire for a second referendum to be granted. |
| Nicola Sturgeon is now taking questions. | Nicola Sturgeon is now taking questions. |
| Q: If you manage to stop Brexit, won’t that take away your justification for a second independence referendum? | Q: If you manage to stop Brexit, won’t that take away your justification for a second independence referendum? |
| No, says Sturgeon. | No, says Sturgeon. |
| She says Brexit illustrates why Scotland should be in charge of its own future. But it is only one example. | She says Brexit illustrates why Scotland should be in charge of its own future. But it is only one example. |
| If Brexit is stopped, there is no guarantee it won’t return as a prospect. Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, is not just going to give up, she says. | If Brexit is stopped, there is no guarantee it won’t return as a prospect. Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, is not just going to give up, she says. |
| A Tory candidate who claimed British Jews who visited Israel returned “brainwashed” has been suspended from the party, the Press Association reports. The PA story goes on: | A Tory candidate who claimed British Jews who visited Israel returned “brainwashed” has been suspended from the party, the Press Association reports. The PA story goes on: |