Boris Johnson news: Farage sparks backlash after ‘bottling it’ by dropping Brexit Party candidates in Tory-held seats
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Nigel Farage has said his Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats won by the Conservatives at the last general election, claiming his party will only fight seats held by Labour and “the rest of the Remainer parties”.
The right-wing party leader came under huge pressure to drop hundreds of candidates – with the Leave.EU campaign group threatening to release a tactical voting app showing Leave voters where they should back the Tories.
It comes as Boris Johnson pledged to protect Armed Forces veterans from “vexatious” legal action, as he announced a series of measures to support military personnel. Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, has vowed to boost conditions for forces families by improving housing support and access to schools.
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Labour peer says he has ‘problems’ with Corbyn as PM
Labour peer Lord West, who served as First Sea Lord and was a security minister in Gordon Brown’s government, said he did not like the idea of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister because of his views on the nuclear deterrent.
Lord West told Sky News: “I have real problems with Mr Corbyn.
“I have a problem with his view on the deterrent. I think his ill-chosen words actually weaken the deterrent.
“The whole point of the deterrent – which is there to protect us – is that people who might wish to do us harm and use nuclear blackmail think ‘Gosh, if I get this wrong, I could be wiped out as well’. When someone says ‘I would never push the button’, he doesn’t understand deterrence, and that worries me.
“I also have real worries that, looking at his past history, he is a friend very often to people who I would not wish to associate with. I don’t like the thought of him being prime minister.”
Tory MP stands down following comments on food poverty and feminism
Antony Calvert, standing to be Tory MP for Wakefield, has stepped aside after he said claims made about food poverty in Britain were “ludicrous”. He had read an article about “a chap with two young boys bleating that he needs food banks to avoid going hungry”.
He also referred to the capital as “Londonistan”, complained Labour MP Harriet Harman was “banging on about wholly and utterly irrelevant feminist issues”, and said of a female appearance on TV: “Obviously the BBC make-up [department] don’t work on Sunday.”
Meanwhile the Brexit Party says it stands behind one of its candidates embroiled in a row over his membership of a Luftwaffe-inspired heavy metal band.
Dr Graham Cushway is an army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and holds a doctorate in history. He is also a guitarist for Stuka Squadron, a band billing themselves as “the greatest metal act consisting entirely of undead pilots of the Luftwaffe the world has ever seen”.
SNP wants £1bn of North Sea oil money set aside for green economy
Nicola Sturgeon has said at least £1bn of North Sea revenues should be set aside to help areas heavily dependent on oil and gas make the switch to a greener economy.
The SNP leader wants to see areas such as Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland “supported to make the transition to new low or no carbon industries”.
With the Office for Budget Responsibility having forecast the UK’s oil and gas sector will raise £8.5bn in revenue over the next five years, the SNP is calling for that cash to be ring-fenced in its entirety, to fund efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
Scotland’s first minister argued at least £1bn should be set aside to support a “just transition” for areas like the north-east, Falkirk and Shetland where the oil and gas industry is a major employer.
She said: “The SNP will never argue for the oil and gas industry to be shut down overnight.”
Chancellor hails ‘solid’ growth … of 0.3 per cent
Chancellor Sajid Javid has reacted to the latest GDP figures showing 0.3 per cent increase in the third quarter. “Great to see solid Q3 growth,” he said.
Matthew Hancock, the health secretary who is getting a reputation for his slightly pointless morning campaign updates on Twitter, claims it shows economy is growing “strongly”.
This despite the fact growth slowed to lowest rate in almost a decade.
Labour promises £845m for children struggling with their mental health
Labour has pledged to employ a qualified counsellor at every secondary school in England, announcing an additional £845 million per year for its Healthy Young Minds plan.
Labour has pledged to recruit just under 3,500 on-site secondary school counsellors, and said it would ensure every primary school received a visit from a qualified counsellor at least once a week.
The party has also vowed to establish a network of drop-in, open access mental health hubs to enable 300,000 more children access support directly.
NHS data suggests one in eight five to 19-year-olds were diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder in 2017.
“Almost every day someone talks to me about the terrible stresses a child or young person they know are going through,” said Jeremy Corbyn.
“As a country, we have to start treating mental health as seriously as physical health. If we don’t help our young people, we are not only failing them, but storing up problems for the future for a whole generation.”
The truth behind the Tory-Labour spending row
Are the big two parties taking the electorate for fools? Our editorial argues that few fiscal promises survive their first skirmish with reality, and whoever wins the election will inevitably be reversing some spending pledges in government.
Read more here:
BBC apologises for ‘incorrect’ Remembrance Day service footage
The BBC has apologised for showing three-year-old footage of Boris Johnson at a Remembrance Day service, blaming a “production mistake”.
The clip appeared during a segment about the prime minister’s appearance laying a wreath at the Cenotaph yesterday, but instead showed Johnson laying a wreath at a 2016 service instead.
Live footage of Sunday’s ceremony appeared to show Johnson laying a wreath upside down.
Tory peer says her party ‘institutionally Islamophobic’
Tory peer Baroness Warsi has been talking about racism in the Conservative party. “I think we have an institutional problem with Islamophobia in the party,” she told Radio 5 Live.
Asked directly if the Conservative Party institutionally Islamophobic, she said: “Yes.”
The peer added: “I wish to stay and make a difference. I wish to change it.”
Local Labour party complains about candidate who shared post of Theresa May at gunpoint
Members of Jarrow’s Constituency Labour Party (CLP) has reportedly written to the general secretary to complain about a controversial candidate “imposed” on them.
A group of prominent female MPs seeking re-election have also written to party bosses urging them not to back Kate Osborne in Jarrow, as it would “undermine” efforts to stamp out abuse.
In 2017 Osborne shared a post which showed the former prime minister Theresa May cowering at gunpoint with the words, “Say strong and stable again”.
Nigel Farage to speak about election plans
We expecting Nigel Farage to speak at a Brexit Party campaign in Hartlepool at noon, with the leader set to take questions about whether he will continue to insist upon fielding candidates across the country.
He warned the Tories at the weekend that “the clock is ticking” on the deadline for candidate nominations this Thursday – urging the PM’s party to forge a “Leave alliance”.
But with the Brexit Party falling in the polls and Leave.EU threatening a tactical voting app that would tell people to vote Tory in all but a small number of Labour seats, Farage is the one under pressure to relent.
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