Related Articles
Afternoon summary
- Jeremy Corbyn has challenged Johnson to TV debates on what has effectively been the first full day of campaigning since MPs agreed that there should be an election on Thursday 12 December. (See 4.06pm.) The bill approving the election is still being debated by peers, but it is expected to clear the House of Lords without a hitch by the end of today.
That is all from me for today.
A colleague will be picking up the blog later for any breaking news.
The disclosure from Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru leader, that his party may agree to form pro-remain pacts with other anti-Brexit parties such as the Lib Dems in certain seats (see 4.52pm) raises the question about the role in Scotland of Westminster’s largest anti-Brexit force: the Scottish National party.
The Lib Dems are explicitly ruling out any deals with the SNP, even though Nicola Sturgeon’s party has 35 MPs now and could well have nearer 50 after election day. It is, on the face of it, a curious decision.
After all, Plaid has, like the SNP, an explicit pro-independence policy for Wales and Scotland, and the Greens also support national autonomy for both countries. (Their sister party, the Scottish Greens, are often more gung-ho for a referendum than Sturgeon.)
Lib Dem officials at the Scottish parliament say the SNP is excluded from the party’s thinking about possible pacts for one simple reason: the SNP are closer to getting Scottish independence than Plaid is for independence in Wales.
Sturgeon made clear as she launched the SNP election campaign in Stirling on Wednesday morning that a second independence referendum will be central to her party’s manifesto. Under Price’s leadership, Plaid is much more explicit about its independence ambitions.
The difference, say Lib Dem officials, is that Plaid’s support has fallen by several points to 12% in the few opinion polls carried out in Wales, and so poses no threat, while the SNP dominates the polls in Scotland, and very much does.
There is another reason. Top of the Lib Dem target list is the most marginal Westminster seat in the UK, that of North East Fife which was won by the SNP’s Stephen Gethins with an extraordinarily slender two vote margin. North East Fife was held by former Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell for nearly 30 years and they’d very much like it back.
Corbyn confirms he would allow second Scottish independence referendum, but not ‘any time soon’
One of Boris Johnson’s main lines of attack against Labour at the moment is the claim that Jeremy Corbyn would submit the country to two referendums after the general election. This is how he put it at PMQs. Johnson said:
[Corbyn] also offers a political disaster, consigning next year, which should be a wonderful year for our country, to two more referendums: another referendum on the EU because he cannot make up his mind what he thinks, flip-flopping this way and that; and another referendum on Scottish independence. Why on earth should the people of this country spend the next year, which should be a glorious year, going through the toxic, tedious torpor of two more referendums thanks to the Labour party?
Labour is committed to renegotiating Brexit and holding another referendum. As Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said in a briefing for journalists after PMQs, Labour would not agree to a Scottish independence election in 2020. But Corbyn has confirmed that he would be willing to agree to a Scottish independence referendum at some stage later. (For a Scottish independence referendum, Westminster has to allow it.) The Scottish Labour party used to be flatly opposed to a second independence referendum, but Corbyn changed party policy on this during the summer.
Speaking during a visit to Crawley Hospital in West Sussex this afternoon, Corbyn said he was “not in favour” of another referendum on Scottish independence “any time soon”. But he went on:
At a later stage, obviously under the terms of devolution, if the Scottish parliament demands it, then there could be, at a much later stage, a referendum. I make it very clear, we are against Scottish independence and we are certainly not in favour of any referendum in Scotland any time soon.
Adam Price, Plaid Cymru’s leader, has confirmed that his party may form a pact with other pro-remain parties to maximise their chances. In August Plaid Cymru and the Greens stood aside in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, which helped the Lib Dems win the seat from the Tories. Price said:
The Brexit crisis has shown up Westminster to be totally unfit for purpose.
The Conservatives and Labour are divided and are simply not offering the solutions we need.
Plaid Cymru is a party of principle and we have consistently said that Wales is best served within the European Union.
That is why, as Wales’s leading remain party, we are open to working with others to secure our European future.
Tory MPs have been criticised for jeering Jeremy Corbyn over his green tie, which he wore as a sign of respect to those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, the Press Association reports. The Labour leader wore the garment for a House of Commons debate on Wednesday after the report into the disaster that killed 72 people was published. As relatives of those killed looked on from the public gallery, members from the Conservative benches mocked him for the bright tie. Theresa May, who was prime minister when the blaze took hold of the west London building in June 2017, could be seen admonishing them by stressing the tie was to mark the tragedy, PA reports.
Asked to comment on the MPs’ behaviour, Corbyn’s spokesman said:
I think that’s fairly contemptible. He was wearing a green tie as a mark of respect for the victims of the Grenfell disaster. I think those Tory MPs mocking his tie would be better supporting justice for the families and the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and those who died in similar conflagrations and to deliver safety and protection for people living in tower blocks all over the country.
Sinn Fein tells DUP’s Nigel Dodds it thinks it has ‘real opportunity’ to win his seat
Michelle O’Neill has said Sinn Fein is hoping to unseat “an architect of Brexit” – DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds – as it aims to increase its number of MPs from seven to eight. As the Press Association reports, the Sinn Fein vice president said the December 12 general election will be about maximising the return of pro-Remain candidates.
Standing alongside the party’s North Belfast candidate John Finucane, O’Neill said:
We will stand in our seven constituencies in which we currently hold seats and we will stand in North Belfast to win that seat.
We believe there is a real opportunity in North Belfast to oust someone who has been architect of Brexit, someone who has actively worked against the interests of people who live here on this island, and John Finucane can provide local representation but also will reflect Ireland’s interests in all of this mess.
Dodds had a majority of 2,081 over Sinn Fein in 2017. But at that election Dodds did not face a challenge from the Ulster Unionist party, which agreed to give the DUP a clear run to maximise the unionist vote. But this time the UUP intends to put up candidates in all 18 of Northern Ireland’s constituency because it does not want to be seen to endorse the DUP’s Brexit stance.
‘An honour, not a right’ – Tory chief whip tells Amber Rudd why she can’t have whip restored as she quits
The Scottish Tories will run a “decisive and determined” election campaign promising voters there will be a “referendum free period ahead”, the party’s interim leader Jackson Carlaw said.
Speaking as the Scottish Tories launched its campaign in Perth, Carlaw said his was the only party pledging no more referendums, in contrast to Nicola Sturgeon’s support for a fresh EU poll and a second Scottish independence vote next year. He told reporters:
We’ve now fought several referendums. I have respected the result of them all, win or lose; Nicola Sturgeon has never respected the result of any referendum, other than the illegal one in Catalonia.
[As] we go forward from here Scottish Conservatives are promising a referendum free period ahead. Nicola Sturgeon is promising another two referendums. If we want to end that division, if we want to move on, we have to keep Scotland in the UK, and no more referendums.
Sturgeon, who kicked off the Scottish National party’s campaign on Wednesday at an event in Stirling at which newspaper reporters were not invited, would dispute Carlaw’s claims she respected the result of the unofficial Catalan referendum in 2017. She backed the case for staging one in principle, but did not endorse the event itself.
Previously deputy Scottish leader, Carlaw replaced Ruth Davidson after she resigned unexpected in August, partly in protest at Boris Johnson’s premiership, pending a leadership contest next year, but the party’s campaign literature still promotes Davidson prominently.
It sent out election letters to Tory voters signed by Davidson, a keen remain campaigner during the referendum, saying the threat of a second independence vote was a very real one. The A3 election leaflets Tory activists handed out in Perth on Wednesday did not name Carlaw once. Perth and North Perthshire is a key Tory target seat: the SNP’s Pete Wishart retained it with a wafer-thin majority of 21 votes, or 0.04%, over the Tories.
Carlaw insisted that promoting Davidson prove the Tories had a strong team, which included both his predecessors – Davidson and Annabel Goldie, while sidestepping questions on whether he personally trusted Boris Johnson. He said:
We’re absolutely delighted we have got former leaders that we’re able to use in this campaign. I doubt the SNP will be using Alex Salmond. I doubt the Labour party will be using Kezia Dugdale.
Overseas voters have been advised to consider finding a proxy voter for December’s snap general election because of the risks their postal votes may not arrive in time.
The Association of Electoral Administrators, the body which represents the UK’s returning officers and other election staff, said there were logistical challenges in getting postal ballots printed and sent out in time.
After MPs voted last night to stage the election on 12 December, it has now officially recommended that option. The Cabinet Office has advice on how to apply on its website, and says an overseas voter can ask anyone to be their proxy, as long as they’re able to vote.
A number of councils began floating this option some weeks ago after the threat of a snap election gained traction: Tower Hamlets and Islington councils in London were amongst a number who began contacting overseas voters by email in September raising this option.
Postal ballot packs cannot be sent out until all the candidates have been confirmed. The registration deadline is 14 November while the deadline to register for a vote is 25 November. Only a few printers around the UK are contracted to produce ballot papers and postal ballot forms, adding to the pressure. The Royal Mail will also be over-stretched by Christmas post, without factoring in any bad winter weather.
The AEA said:
Our members have been actively working on provisional polling station bookings, alerting temporary staff and working with printers to agree orders for poll cards and postal vote packs. Election teams will now be working extended hours across seven-day weeks to make sure that the polls on 12 December and subsequent counts go smoothly.
As always, we will be working with our partners at the Cabinet Office, Electoral Commission, Royal Mail and more widely to ensure that our members are kept fully supported and up to date.
As postal vote packs cannot be printed until candidate nominations close in the middle of November, it may be prudent for UK voters living overseas to consider setting up a proxy vote to have someone they trust vote on their behalf on 12 December.
May praises the bravery of the firefighters who attended the fire. But she says it is clear from the report that there are problems with the way the fire service worked that need to addressed.
The emergency services must be able to work together, she says.
She says, as home secretary, she oversaw the JESIP project that was intended to address this. But the report shows that there were still problems.
