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: Johnson arrives for Nato summit after 'very good' meeting with Trump last night - live news
General election: Johnson arrives for Nato summit after 'very good' meeting with Trump last night - live news
(32 minutes later)
President seen as a liability for Johnson with Labour saying Conservatives are willing to put NHS on table in trade talks
President seen as a liability for Johnson with Labour saying Conservatives are willing to put NHS on table in trade talks
Here is a question from below the line.
Q: Do you support the RMT holding a 27-day rail strike?
Do candidates see postal votes before election day?
McDonnell says he hopes both sides will get around the table to negotiate. He says the union is trying to address safety issues.
Candidates, or their agents, do get to see postal votes as they come in. They don’t get counted before polling day, but when they are opened someone has to check they are in order, and that process is overseen by the candidates.
Q: Are you worried about leave-supporters not backing Labour? And what has happened to prominent remainers like Keir Starmer, who are not being put up by the party for interviews?
But, under election law, no one is allowed to release information about how people have actually voted until polls close.
McDonnell says people like Starmer are campaigning all over the country.
So, if a candidate were to say ‘Postal votes show we’re on X%, and our rivals are on Y%’, they would probably be committing an offence.
On Brexit, he says Labour would let the people decide.
In the video clip cited above, in response to a question about his seat being at risk, Dominic Raab says: “Have a look at the postal votes.” But, beyond giving a knowing look, he does not go much further than that, saying he is not giving too much away.
But he says this election is not just about Brexit. People are asking about other issues, he says.
No one is likely to be marching him away in handcuffs on the basis of that.
Q: You said you will release details of how you will fund your plans in the next few days. Isn’t that too late?
Extinction Rebellion protesters have targeted the Liberal Democrats this morning, with one of them gluing himself to the Lib Dem battlebus. These are from my colleague Peter Walker, who is there.
McDonnell says the questioner misunderstood the point he was making earlier. (See 11.30am.) He says what he was referring to were announcements about what would happen in the first 100 days of a Corbyn government.
At his press conference later Donald Trump may be asked about the video that appeared to show world leaders including Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron joking about him at a reception last night. Our story about it is here. And here is the video.
The party will also announced details of its first Queen’s speech, and some details of its first budget, he says.
There’s an interesting analysis of the SNP’s manifesto from the Institute of Fiscal Studies this morning. Writing in the Scotsman, the associate director of the IFS David Phillips notes the absence of costings from the document launched by Nicola Sturgeon in Glasgow last week, but suggests that this may be because the spending plans would necessitate more, not less, austerity for Scotland if it were to become independent.
Q: Isn’t the idea that Labour can save families £6,700 a year make-belief?
Acknowledging that the manifesto “isn’t really about a plan of action for five years of governing the UK – rather it is about starting the process of leaving the UK in the next year”, Phillips points out that plans including increasing NHS spending across the UK by £136 per head to close the gap with Scotland would require significant outlay at a time when an independent Scotland was also starting out with a serious budget deficit.
McDonnell says Labour’s plans are costed.
Phillips adds:
And they been tested, he says. In the party he has a reputation as a bureaucrat who insists on detail. He says Labour’s plans are credible.
It should be noted that the IFS has already described both Labour and Conservative manifesto spending plans as “not credible”.
But the party also has an ambitious programme, he says.
The SNP’s own growth commission report on the economics of independence accepted that a newly independent Scotland would have to cut spending significantly in order to manage its deficit.
He says he wants to ensure there is never another programme like the Dispatches documentary. (See 11.14am.)
Boris Johnson is delivering a speech at the opening of the Nato summit. He says:
Q: Your manifesto largely protects middle-earners. Is that right?
And here’s the Boris Johnson/Donald Trump handshake.
McDonnell says he wants a fair tax system.
President Trump has now posed for a photograph with Boris Johnson. It came after Johnson and Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, formally welcomed him to the summit. Johnson and Stoltenberg had a handshake and picture with every Nato leader one by one, ahead of the “family photo” taking place about now.
At the last election he was accused of having a magic money tree.
On his arrival at the Nato summit the French president, Emmanuel Macron, defended his recent claim that the organisation was experiencing “brain death”. Asked if he still stood by the comment, he replied:
Now the Tories have a magic money forest.
He said those included how to create a durable peace in Europe and clarifying who was the enemy.
If there is a magic money tree, it is in the Cayman Islands. He says Labour will dig it up and bring it back to the UK.
If you’re a UK viewer living outside Scotland, and feeling deprived of your leaders’ debate fix last night, then read on. It’s fair to say that STV’s debate between the Scottish party leaders – excluding Patrick Harvie of the Scottish Greens, bizarrely – was rather a shout-fest, although it was refreshing to see Nicola Sturgeon properly interrogated on Holyrood policy, which seldom happens when she takes part in the UK-wide debates. But of course that’s because education, health and so on are devolved – so while it was good to see those areas covered, they are not technically relevant to a UK general election.
Q: Donald Trump says he can work with Jeremy Corbyn. Is that encouraging?
The format, which really felt its lack of a live audience, involved a series of questions and interrogations of each leader by the other politicians, rather than by the host, Colin Mackay, and so lent itself to people (men, Sturgeon was the only woman there) talking across one another.
McDonnell says Labour will work well with whoever is in the White House - after the next presidential election, he jokes.
At one point I looked up from my notes to see the Scottish Conservatives’ Jackson Carlaw shouting at the Lib Dems’ Willie Rennie, Rennie shouting at Labour’s Richard Leonard, and Sturgeon standing there with her arms folded like a teacher who has already tried multiple timeouts with the kids and is now just waiting for the lunch bell to go.
He then says the party was encouraged by what Trump said yesterday about Corbyn.
Some interesting points: Tory leader Carlaw urged viewers to “lend us your vote to stop indyref2” – clearly the anti-independence message is working as well for the Scottish Tories, if not better than getting Brexit done. Challenged on Boris Johnson’s previous remarks about Muslim women and gay men, he admitted they were “completely unacceptable”, but insisted he would judge him on his performance in office. Carlaw and Rennie attacked Labour’s “clear as mud” position on Brexit, mocking Leonard for being “constantly overruled” by Jeremy Corbyn. Leonard struggled to answer the charge that voters didn’t trust Corbyn to stand up for the union.
John McDonnell is now taking questions.
Sturgeon failed to offer a plan B if a new Tory (or Labour) government refused her demand for the powers to hold a second independence referendum next year. Challenged on putting independence before public services, her defence of the latest Pisa report, which saw Scotland achieve its lowest scores in maths and science since it first took part in the survey almost 20 years ago and reported that pupils’ performance in reading tests had recovered only to the level it was at in 2012, was weak. But at least it prompted the zingiest response of the debate from Rennie:
Q: Is President Trump lying when he says the NHS is not on the table in UK-US trade talks?
Boris Johnson, or whoever controls his Twitter account, has just posted a picture of the PM meeting a blonde-haired admirer yesterday. But not that one ...
McDonnell says all the evidence suggests it is on the table.
President Trump has also retweeted the group photograph from last night.
McDonnell says he will say more about how Labour would implement change before polling day.
President Trump has tweeted about his meeting with Boris Johnson last night. But he hasn’t included a picture.
McDonnell says Labour policies could save families more than £7,000 a year if someone needs personal care.
President Macron has arrived at the Nato summit venue.
Ask our experts a question
Arriving at the Nato summit Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, said he was confident differences with Turkey over a new alliance defence plan to protect the Baltic states and Poland could be resolved. As the Press Association reports, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened to block the plan after criticism of Turkey’s incursion against the Kurds in northern Syria. Stoltenberg said:
As part of our election coverage you can ask our political team any questions you have about the general election, and they will post their responses on the politics live blog between 12.30pm and 1.30pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until polling week.
He said Nato leaders would for the first time discuss the rise of China, which was now the world’s second biggest spender on defence. “This provides opportunities and also challenges,” he said.
Today, Libby Brooks, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, will answer your questions about the SNP manifesto. You can ask your question via our form here.
On his arrival at the Nato summit, Boris Johnson was asked why he was avoiding being photographed with Donald Trump. (See 8.40am.) Johnson said he would be photographed with every Nato leader.
McDonnell dismisses claims that providing services for free is unrealistic.
McDonnell summarises some of the Labour measures that would lift living standards.
McDonnell says many people have had problems with the cost of living over the last decade. Stagnant wages have not affected just a few people; a majority of people have lost out, he says.
He claims families have lost almost £6,000 a year as a result of Tory policies.
