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.
General election: DUP does not rule out backing minority Labour government if Corbyn replaced – live news
General election: Boris Johnson speaks at Scottish Conservatives' manifesto launch – live news
(32 minutes later)
Party’s chief whip hints that it may rethink opposition to Labour if there were a new leader
Party’s chief whip hints that it may rethink opposition to Labour if there were a new leader
Johnson says Nicola Sturgeon confirmed her plan for Scottish independence in her interview with Andrew Neil last night. This would involve borders at Berwick, and handing back control of Scottish fishing waters to the EU, he claims.
Johnson is now speaking French, imagining Jeremy Corbyn’s first meeting with Michel Barnier. “What do you mean, you don’t really want it, Mr Corbyn?”
Johnson speculates about whether “Monsieur Starmer” or “Monsieur MacDonnell” or “Madame Abbott” might back it.
In Fife Boris Johnson is still speaking. It’s a rehash of his standard stump speech. He has just used the line about how Jeremy Corbyn supposedly sided with Russia at the time of the Salisbury novichok poisonings.
Here is a live feed of the Labour event.
More from the Labour race and faith manifesto launch in London. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has posted these in the last few minutes.
Johnson says the climate change conference is coming to Glasgow next week. That is happening because Scotland is in the United Kingdom, he says.
Boris Johnson is speaking at the Scottish launch now.
He says he did not want a general election, but parliament was blocking Brexit. He has a deal ready to go, he says. But he says Jeremy Corbyn would hold a second referendum. And Corbyn won’t say how he would vote in a second referendum. It is the only time in history someone has stood for PM without saying how they would vote on the most important issue of the day, he claims.
This is from ITV’s Peter MacMahon.
Boris Johnson has repeated the same mixed metaphors and rhetorical flourishes in his preface to the Scottish Tories election manifesto that he used in the UK manifesto on Sunday, somewhat tweaked for Scottish voters.
Alluding to more than 12 years of Scottish National party rule at Holyrood, Johnson asserts:
The Scottish Tory manifesto puts blocking a second independence referendum in the foreground. Johnson repeats his usual tropes, insisting a Tory government would defend and protect the “awesome foursome” of nations which make up the UK.
Unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Johnson writes, who is plotting to stage a second referendum with Sturgeon, “I can guarantee that we will reject any request from the SNP government to hold an independence referendum. There will be no negotiation – we will mark that letter return to sender and be done with it.”
Jackson Carlaw, the acting leader of the Scottish Conservatives, is speaking at the launch now.
He urges Labour unionists to back the Tories at this election, saying the Conservatives are best placed to oppose the SNP plans for independence.
Boris Johnson is about to speak at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto in Fife.
There will be a live feed at the top of the blog shortly.
From the Telegraph’s Michael Deacon
From ITV’s Paul Brand
From ITV’s Paul Brand
PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield says it seems that journalists won’t be able to ask any questions at the launch of the Labour race and faith manifesto this morning.
PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield says it seems that journalists won’t be able to ask any questions at the launch of the Labour race and faith manifesto this morning.
Boris Johnson is launching the Scottish Conservatives’ manifesto in Fife this morning. This is from the Herald’s Tom Gordon.
From the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge.
Peter Kellner, the former YouGov president, has written an interesting article on current polling for the Article. He has been using YouGov data to look at how opinion has shifted since 2015 and he says “Brexit has completely transformed Britain’s political landscape, by prompting millions of voters to rethink their politics and their party loyalties”. His main point is that, although there has been a 9.5 swing from Tories to Labour among remain voters since 2015, the Labour to Tory swing among leave voters over the same period is double that.
Kellner thinks “a Conservative landslide is not inevitable; but it is certainly possible”. He explains:
The Electoral Commission has published information about donations to political parties in the third quarter of 2019. This is not the same as the information about donations received during the election campaign period. That data is published weekly, and the first of those reports came out last week.
In total more than £19m was donated to political parties in July, August and September (the third quarter). The Conservatives received the most, £5.8m in total, followed by Labour (£5.5m), the Brexit party (£3.4m) and the Liberal Democrats (£3.3m).
The Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, has described the chief rabbi’s intervention (see 6.15am, 7.50am, 9.41am and 10.20am) as “hugely worrying”. She said:
Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, has told Sky News that he thinks Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, was wrong in what he said in a Times article about antisemitism being entrenched in Labour. McDonald said:
The Mirvis Times article is here (paywall). And here is an extract.
The Labour peer Lord Dubs was on the Today programme this morning responding to the claims from the chief rabbi that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed antisemitism to take root in his party. Dubs, who arrived in the UK in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, said he respected Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, but thought he was wrong on this. Dubs said:
Asked if he thought Corbyn was fit to be prime minister, Dubs replied:
Asked whether Jewish people should fear a Labour government, Dubs said:
Here are some of the campaign events in the diary for today.
11.30am: Jeremy Corbyn launches Labour’s race and faith manifesto with Dawn Butler, the shadow minister for women and equalities, at an event in Tottenham in London.
12pm: Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, speaks at an event in Barnsley.
3pm: Sajid Javid, the chancellor, gives a speech in Manchester.
7pm: Corbyn is interviewed by Andrew Neil on BBC One.
Boris Johnson and Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, are also doing campaign events, but the timings have not been confirmed yet.
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Mattha Busby.
In an interview with Sky News last night Lord Kerslake, the former head of the civil service who has been advising the Labour party, suggested that, if Labour needed SNP and Lib Dem support to form a minority government, Jeremy Corbyn’s role as party leader could be part of the negotiation. Labour sources are disputing this, but Kerslake said:
In his Today interview this morning Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP chief whip, also hinted that the DUP could rethink its opposition to Labour if Corbyn were to be replaced as leader. The DUP had a confidence and supply arrangement with Theresa May. But now it finds itself isolated because Boris Johnson is proposing a Brexit deal that would in effect create a customs border down the Irish Sea, which is unacceptable to unionists. Asked who the DUP wanted to win the election, Donaldson replied:
When it was put to him that his use of the phrase “Corbyn-led Labour government” implied the DUP might take a different view of a Labour government led by someone else, and when he was asked if the DUP could “do business” with such a government, Donaldson replied:
Asked if the DUP could support Labour’s plan for a second referendum featuring two options, remain and a leave option, Donaldson did not rule this out. “Well, we’d need to see what the deal was, of course,” he replied.
Political parties tend to react very badly to other parties telling them who they should have as leader, and it is hard to imagine Labour ditching Corbyn just to win parliamentary support from the Lib Dems or the DUP. But there is some sort of precedent for gestures of this kind. After the 2010 general election Gordon Brown announced that he would quit before the end of the year in the hope that this might make the Lib Dems more willing to form a pact with Labour. (Of course, it didn’t.)
Labour’s Jess Phillips has appeared to advise the party’s leadership on how to respond to the chief rabbi Ephraim Mervis’ intervention.
