Inside Politics: Tom Watson shocks by dropping out

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There are only 35 days left until we go to the polls

It’s time to turn on, tune in and drop out, everyone. Our mind-bending general election is turning positively psychedelic, with Boris Johnson telling a rally of groovy Tory acolytes to get it together and stop freaking out. The PM has warned of a great “technicolour yawn” under a coalition government. But it seems as though Johnson is the one having a bad trip, claiming events at Westminster have left him “wanting to chew my own tie”. One Labour MP recently suggested he would need “strongly hallucinogenic drugs” to get through an election. But the party’s campaign has got off to a better start than many predicted. And now that deputy leader Tom Watson has unexpectedly decided to stand down, Jeremy Corbyn will be feeling high as a kite. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Chancellor Sajid Javid is heading to the north-west today and is expected to announce plans to loosen the Conservatives’ borrowing rules. Warning that Labour will ruin the health of the economy, he’s expected to describe the opposition as the “anti-vaxxers of economic policy”. John McDonnell won’t let that one go without a fight. The shadow chancellor will give a speech in Liverpool pledging to borrow an extra £150bn for the “transformation” of schools, hospitals and social care. Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, meanwhile, will reveal the scale of an electoral pact with Plaid Cymru and the Greens that might just be a game-changer.

Daily briefing

MAGIC BUS: Boris Johnson just can’t stop going on about buses. At a Trump-style rally in Birmingham last night he blamed parliament for the Brexit delay, complaining the Commons was as stuck as a “bendy bus jack-knifed in a yellow-box junction”. He did have a nice line comparing Labour’s Brexit policy to the “Bermuda Triangle”, but do his after-dinner speech gags really work in a general election campaign? Introducing the PM, Priti Patel said with a straight face – well, as straight a face as the permanently-smirking home secretary can manage – that the Conservatives were “the greatest political party in the world”. But after a day of gaffes and mishaps, the world-class Tories are down two points in the latest YouGov poll. How do senior figures think it’s all going? Sounding vaguely disappointed they hadn’t yet inspired a mob mentality, one cabinet minister told the BBC “it’s not parliament versus the people, it’s more positive than the pitchfork, but it feels good on the ground”.

NICE LIFE IF YOU CAN GET IT: Having shed all that weight, Tom Watson’s political ambitions have shrunk completely: Labour’s deputy leader is standing down. While it’s no secret the de facto leader of the non-Corbyn crew hated the direction Jezza has taken the party, one of Watson’s pals said he’s going because he “wants to have a nice life … he wants to do something else”. In a rather sweet letter to Corbyn, Watson omitted the botched bid to oust him at the recent conference, and said the pair would work together again some day. Corbyn replied: “I hope the horseradish plants I gave you thrive.” See? They loved each other really. So where does that leave the rump of Labour MPs who’ve been fed-up for a long time? An angry Ian Austin announced this morning he’s also standing down, and went as far as urging people to vote for Boris Johnson. “Jeremy Corbyn is completely unfit to run the country.” Oh dear.

FREE RUNNERS: Quite a few would-be MPs are ready to give up the battle today – but it’s all part of the longer war for the Remainer cause. Jo Swinson is set to reveal how many seats will see candidates step aside as part of an anti-Brexit pact between the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru. It sounds like it could be quite extensive. According to BBC Wales, 11 of the 40 seats in Wales will be part of the arrangement, while the Greens hinted they could make way for others in 50 seats across the UK to avoid splitting the Remain vote. The mighty John Bercow, meanwhile, outed himself as a Remainer. The unleashed former speaker said Brexit was the “biggest mistake” since the Second World War. The Brexiteers will hate him for that – but then they hated him anyway. Like a lairy football hooligan, Bercow also taunted the PM but recalling the Supreme Court result on prorogation. “11-0. You got it? 11-0. Maybe it’s not clear: 11-0!”

WITCHES AND STITCH-UPS: Campaigners worried about antisemitism will be delighted with the big result from Labour’s latest National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. Chris Williamson is one of three former Labour MPs told they were barred from standing for the party. Williamson – suspended back in February over accusations he was aggressively dismissing antisemitism – has aggressively vowed to stand as an independent instead. He claimed to be the victim of a “witch hunt against hundreds of socialists loyal to Jeremy Corbyn”. Another interesting one to watch is Sally Gimson – deselected by the NEC having only been selected a little over a week ago. There were reportedly “serious allegations” made against her by members, but Gimson claimed she had been “condemned by kangaroo court”. Ex-Labour MP Lord Mann called it the “mother of all Momentum stitch-ups”.

PULLING TEETH: Nigel Farage is desperately trying to stitch-up a few Labour seats in the north of England for the Brexit Party. He denounced the idea of Workington man – an ideal working-class voter imagined by a right-wing think tank – as “patronising cobblers”. But he headed up to Workington to patronise voters in his own unique way. While he wandered around the streets eating chips, a man stopped him to tell he was spreading “hate”. A pro-EU lady shouted: “What about your German wife Nigel? How come she’s allowed in?” She then complained her trip to the Costa del Sol was under threat: “What about my holiday to Fuengirola?” It was a typically chaotic day for Farage. His party got rid of the retired barrister who was supposed to be standing in the Workington area, and installed a local dentist instead. Farage promised the dentist would be “harder working”.

TAKE A CHANCE ON THEM: Tom Watson is not the only one leaving the bosom of the party behind and heading off on his own (or “self-partnering” as Emma Watson would say). So how will the 60 or so departing parliamentarians cope? Nick Boles was among those changing his Twitter profile, explaining: “Recovering politician gradually returning to normal life”. Music might help them get over it. Owen Smith reminded people that while he’s no longer an MP, he’s still a “Springsteener”. Justine Greening boasted about the fact she’s an Abba fan. Former culture secretary Ed Vaizey said he would take up a role in the arts and creative industries, claiming it “felt more real” than being a politician. How very la de da. Vaizey also said he would be putting a picture of the text he got informing him had the Tory whip restored “on the loo wall”. That’s not very arty, is it Ed?

On the record

“This is not the end of our work together. Our many shared interests are less well known than our political differences, but I will continue to devote myself to the things we often talk about.”

Tom Watson tells Jeremy Corbyn he hasn’t seen the last of him – in a nice way.

From the Twitterati

“Tom Watson is leaving the Labour Party because the moderates have lost. It’s that simple.”

Corbyn-hating commentator Dan Hodges thinks he knows why Watson quit...

“Wow. Tom Watson is stepping down as an MP and Labour deputy leader. Perhaps because he could never do a TV interview again without having to deal with his erroneous VIP child abuse claims?”

...while Andrew Neil thinks he’s going because his credibility was already gone.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Boris Johnson launched the Conservative election campaign with a sewer of lies

John Rentoul, The Independent: Have gaffes and mistakes ever changed the course of an election?

Ailbhe Rea, New Statesman: What’s really going on when we call James Cleverly stupid?

Tom McTague, The Atlantic: The coming Brexit farce

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