Inside Politics: Floods crisis flows into election campaign, as PM condemned for biblical insult

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Wednesday 13 November 2019 09:11 GMT

General Election 2019: What you need to know

There are 29 days until the 2019 general election

Boris Johnson used to give a standard after-dinner speech in which he claimed his political hero was the mayor from Jaws. Johnson would claim how much he admired the optimism of Amity Island’s leader. Despite all the gloomsters and doomsters, “he kept the beaches open!” The prime minister is now finding out how difficult it is to manage a real-life crisis involving lots and lots of water. The flooding in the north of England is threatening to make him look a bit out of his depth. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson are sounding the alarm about the severity of the damage, scratching the chalkboard like Jaws’ grizzled old sea dog Quint. Will Johnson try to chortle his way out of this one, or can he rise to the challenge of an emergency? I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

Jeremy Corbyn will begin a two-day tour of Scotland, a former Labour stronghold which is no longer such promising territory. Although Labour activists will give Corbyn a warm welcome, some Labour candidates are alarmed the leader has softened the party’s opposition to a second referendum on Scottish independence, in the hope of landing SNP support for a minority Labour government. Boris Johnson will make his second visit of the campaign to the marginal-rich West Midlands – and is set to cause a stir by making a very rude remark in his keynote speech. And stand by for some punchy photo-ops: both Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage will meet boxers on the campaign trail.

Daily briefing

MUDDY WATERS: Johnson has complained our political system is suffering from “groundhoggery”. Like Bill Murray in the 1993 classic, he may have to get use to a lot of repetitious weather chat – with the floods set to dominate the election for days to come. Corbyn and Swinson got on the front Wellington-booted foot by heading north and meeting afflicted residents, while calling on the PM to declare a “national emergency”. The Labour leader said the government’s response had been “woeful”, while the Lib Dem leader vowed to commit £5bn to a flood prevention flood. Politicians weren’t universally welcome, however. One volunteer helping sort clothes in Stainsforth, where Swinson paid a visit, said: “If they cared they’d have been here on Saturday”. Johnson has committed to 100 Army personnel to help in South Yorkshire and promised affected households could apply for relief funding. Labour called it “too little too late”. Expect more of that rhetoric.

BIBLICAL ABASEMENT: If you thought the floods crisis might allow Johnson to act like a statesman, think again. The PM will make a joke about masturbation in an election speech today. But only the finest, most arcane Biblical terms for self-gratification will do for Johnson. He will accuse Corbyn of “political self-obsession and onanism”. A Labour spokesperson said: “We’re not bothered by Johnson’s obscure, crude insults”. The party will ignore the filthy language and stick to big numbers – promising to outspend the Tories on the NHS by delivering a budget of £155bn by 2023-24. The only big numbers Johnson will really pay attention to, however, can be found in the latest YouGov poll. It shows the Conservatives enjoying a 14-point lead, becoming the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit Party’s poll slump after Nigel Farage withdrew from Tory seats nationwide.

MIDNIGHT GAMBLER: The high-rolling risk-taker Nigel Farage insists he’s all in on fielding 300 candidates in Labour / Remain party areas the Tories would desperately like to take. But will he stick, or could there be another twist? His ally Arron Banks, co-founder of Leave.EU, is urging him to stand down yet more Brexit Party candidates and concentrate on just 40 Labour seats where the Tories “haven’t got a hope”. Banks said: “Nigel reminds me of a gambler at a casino that’s been winning all night and it’s time to take the chips off the table and step away. What we are offering the geezer ... is Brexit.” With Brexit Party candidates getting antsy about whether they’re part a proper political outfit or merely a Farage plaything, the leader has until the end of Thursday to decide what to do. A Brexit Party spokesperson said: “We are not going to listen to [Banks].” But when it comes to Nigel, who really knows?

CANTERBURY TALE: Let us now salute the brave and selfless Tim Walker, who had until last night been the Lib Dem candidate for Canterbury. Perhaps inspired by Farage’s talk of unilaterally-declared alliances, Walker declared his own, one-man unilateral pact by stepping aside to give Labour’s Remainer candidate Rosie Duffield a better chance of beating the local Tory. “Politics does not always have to be grubby and small-minded,” he said. I’m afraid Tim’s quite wrong about that. The Lib Dems immediately announced they will simply field someone else instead, provoking howls of outrage from local activists. Swinson insists Labour “aren’t qualified” to be part of any Remain alliance. Elsewhere, the expelled Tory David Gauke said he would fight for his South West Hertfordshire seat as an independent, saying he didn’t want to “go quietly”.

FOND FAREWELL: If, like me, you suspect our current crop of politicians are particularly crap, it’s worth confirming your instinct by watching a clip of Frank Dobson on Newsnight doing the rounds on social media: an honest, intelligent and waffle-free communicator. Tony Blair led the tributes to his former health secretary, who died at the age of 79 after a long period of illness, calling him a politician of “the highest calibre”. Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick recalled his favourite Dobson story, in which the Labour minister was seen sitting in a restaurant when Paul McCartney walked in. “Everyone else turns and thinks: “Wow, it’s Paul McCartney!” McCartney says: “It’s Frank Dobson!”

On the record

“A Conservative majority are the next election would be a bad out outcome for the country.”

Ex-Tory cabinet minister David Gauke, standing as an independent, offers a damning indictment of his former party.

From the Twitterati

“Tomorrow the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury will call the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition a political w****r. Literally.”

The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn is shocked at Johnson’s linguistic stunt...

“Actually, he will suggest a Corbyn government would offer the country “MORE political self-obsession and onanism”. Which implies something about the current government.”

...while author Robert Hutton spots something telling about the crude insult.