General election news – live: Boris Johnson campaign hit after ‘secret plan to sell off NHS’ revealed, as PM’s most senior adviser warns about hung parliament
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Eric Garcia
Washington Bureau Chief
Jeremy Corbyn has released an uncensored version of government documents which he claims shows the NHS is “on the table” in any post-Brexit trade deal with the US. “This is not only a plot against our NHS, it’s a plot against our country,” said the Labour leader.
It comes as a record number of people registered to vote on the final day applications were open, with 660,000 signing up in the huge last-minute spike. Around 450,000 of them were under the age of 35 – the demographic most likely to vote Labour at the general election.
Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, has warned “there is worse to come” if the Tories win the election as she launched the SNP manifesto today. She claimed her party can stop the Conservatives “selling off Scotland’s NHS” under any future trade deal with the US.
Labour's Andy Burnham indicates he will campaign for Leave in second referendum
Andy Burnham has become the first senior Labour figure to indicate he will campaign for Leave if the party succeeds in forcing a fresh Brexit referendum.
The mayor of Greater Manchester broke with colleagues – most of whom are committed to backing Remain – to say it would be in “the public interest” to leave the EU with a new, better deal.
“If we get a deal that, you know, keeps us pretty close, with a customs union, I think the public interest will lie, in my view, in supporting that and helping the country move forward,” Mr Burnham said.
What was in secret government trade papers that 'prove health service is up for sale'?
Jeremy Corbyn caused a stir on Wednesday when he took to the stage in Westminster to announce that Labour had obtained more than 500 pages of government papers detailing the status of trade talks with the US.
Officials negotiating with Donald Trump’s administration made detailed notes of the discussions, but the government had previously only released a heavily redacted version.
Labour claimed the new documents showed the NHS was on the table during talks on a trade deal with the US, but the Tories insisted this completely untrue and accused Mr Corbyn of peddling “conspiracy theories”.
Labour accuses Boris Johnson of 'running scared' from BBC's Andrew Neil
Commenting on no date being firmed up for a televised BBC Andrew Neil interview with the prime minister, Ian Lavery, the chair of the Labour Party, said: “Boris Johnson backed out of a head-to-head debate with Jeremy Corbyn on Sunday, he is refusing to take part in the party leaders’ climate crisis debate tomorrow and now this.
“He’s running scared because every time he is confronted with the impact of nine years of austerity, the cost of living crisis and over his plans to sell out our NHS, the more he is exposed.”
Corbyn again falls short of apology on antisemitism
Away from the grilling handed to him by Andrew Neil, Jeremy Corbyn has again declined to apologise for antisemitism in the party after being approached by a reporter for the PA news agency.
Mr Corbyn's response in the BBC interview caused anger in the general public and in his own party - with some grassroots supporters saying they would not campaign for Labour this year over his refusal to say sorry on air.
However asked again if he would apologise for anti-Semitic incidents within the party and his handling of the issue, the Labour leader said: "The degree of anti-Semitic activity in the Labour Party is very, very small.
He added:
"Anybody committing anti-Semitic acts is breaking party rules and they are appropriately disciplined and sanctioned. All those rules came in since I became leader and indeed the latest regulations came specifically on my own request.
"Jennie Formby, our general secretary, has written a substantial article in the Jewish News today making clear the party deeply regrets and is very sorry for what happened before the new rules came in and obviously I support everything that she has said on that."
Pressed if that is as good as a personal apology, Mr Corbyn said:
"I have spent my life fighting racism in every conceivable form in our society.
"I don't want anyone to go through the hurt that Jewish women went through on the trains a few weeks ago, that Muslim women go through on our streets.
"I have made it very clear that our party will not tolerate racism in any form or anti-Semitism in any form and our party obviously deplores it and regrets what happened to those people who received that abuse and they have received the appropriate sanctions within the party, some of whom have been expelled."
Sadiq Khan: Johnson can't deliver on climate
Boris Johnson cannot be trusted to address the climate crisis, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned.
Speaking to the Green Alliance charity, he pointed to a 2013 report on air quality in the capital, whose author accused the former mayor of publicising its positive aspects while declining to publish in full her findings that deprived schools were disproportionately affected by toxic air.
“Frankly" he said, "I don’t believe we can trust Boris Johnson to take the action that’s necessary to address the climate crisis and protect the health of our citizens.
More from Andrew Woodcock below:
Chicken watch: And then there were two
Emily Thornberry has decided to join Nicola Sturgeon in taunting Boris Johnson with a chicken emoji.
However while Ms Sturgeon was cajoling him over his refusal to set a date for a one on one interview on the BBC, the shadow foreign secretary was taking aim at his dismissal of the Channel 4 climate debate slated for tomorrow.
Mr Johnson has been accused of "running scared" from the BBC’s Andrew Neil, after it emerged that he is the only major party leader not to agree a date for a grilling.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the PM was seeking to delay his inquisition until after the period when the bulk of postal votes are expected to be cast in the coming week.
More from Andrew Woodcock below:
MRP: Who is ☹️, who is 😏 and who is 😭?
Speaking of emojis...here's former Tory staffer and Telegraph contributor Joe Armitage on the rumours abounding on YouGov's MRP poll results - expected to be the most realistic measure yet of how the parties are faring.
The poll is due to drop at 10pm.
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