General election news – live: Jo Swinson faces grilling from Andrew Neil as Boris Johnson continues to avoid interview
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Labour have suggested Downing Street may have “advised” Donald Trump on what to say about the NHS during his two-day trip to the UK. Shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner said: “Maybe his visit to No 10 … schooled him in what he ought to say.”
It comes as video showed Justin Trudeau and other Nato leaders appearing to mock Mr Trump at a Buckingham Palace reception. A huddle, which included Boris Johnson, was filmed apparently gossiping about the president. Mr Johnson said the idea he had been laughing at Mr Trump was “complete nonsense”.
Jo Swinson has endured an awkward encounter with Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed as bees, one of whom glued himself to the Lib Dem campaign bus.
She later apologised for the Lib Dems backing welfare cuts while in power with the Tories in an appearance on BBC One’s The Andrew Neil Interviews.
Jeremy Corbyn said he would give the PM’s country residence Chequers to a homeless family if he wins.
Trump touches down outside of Watford
Donald Trump has arrived at the Nato summit, after his helicopter touched down somewhere just outside of Watford. He has also tweeted about his one-on-one meeting with Boris Johnson on Tuesday evening. The president said he “enjoyed” the discussion about Nato and trade.
Johnson earlier said he had a “very good” bilateral session with the president – and denied trying to dodge having his photo taken alongside Trump.
“I’m going to be photographed with every possible leader of Nato and we’re having a very successful meeting.”
Johnson wants Nato alliance to ‘stay together’
We have the first photos of Boris Johnson and Trump shaking hands at the Nato meeting at The Grove country house hotel outside Watford. So what exactly will they and the others be discussing today?
The prime minister is urging the alliance to remain united. However, simmering divisions were on display on Tuesday after Trump and Emmanuel Macron clashed over the French president’s suggestion the alliance was experiencing a “brain death”.
Macron insisted he stood by the remarks prompted by Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds of northern Syria - seen as key allies of the West in the fight against Isis – after it was effectively given the green light by Trump.
The ensuing row has led Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to threaten to block Nato plans to expand the defence of the Baltic states and Poland in the face of the growing threat from Russia.
“Clearly it is very important that the alliance stays together, but there is far, far more that unites us than divides us,” Johnson told reporters as he arrived.
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump at Nato meeting (PA)
Extinction Rebellion ‘bees’ glue themselves to Lib Dem bus
A group of Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed as bees have been “buzzing” around the Lib Dem campaign bus. One activist appeared to glued himself to the windscreen of the vehicle.
Another could be heard saying “we want climate action now” and he mimicked a bee.
Patients should pay for NHS care, PM previously argued
Boris Johnson once argued some patients should be charged for using the NHS to stop health service being “abused,” a newly unearthed column has shown.
In a 1995 article for The Spectator, Johnson wrote that free health care should be reserved only for “those who are genuinely sick, and for the elderly”.
He wrote: “If NHS services continue to be free in this way, they will continue to be abused, like any free service.”
Johnson also remarked that “it seems reasonable that the middle classes should be required to stump up for non-essential services they can well afford”.
The PM recently complained that some of his old writings were being “stripped of context”.
Boris Johnson with health secretary Matt Hancock (AP)
Swinson stung by Extinction Rebellion ‘bees’
Jo Swinson has been speaking to the Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed as bees – one of whom has glued himself to the front of the party’s campaign bus.
She “thanked” them for coming and expressing their views, but one of the activists said he found her words “a little bit patronising”.
He told her: “We’re not campaigning – we’re in active rebellion against government.”
The Lib Dems have been pointing out their bus is electric. But the Extinction Rebellion group have reportedly said they are protesting against the Lib Dems’ target of getting the country carbon neutral by 2045, arguing it should be 2025.
BBC haven’t heard ‘a sausage’ from Tories about Andrew Neil interview
Rob Burley, the editor of the BBC’s live political programmes, has been tweeting about the failure to pin Boris Johnson down over his Andrew Neil interview.
He said that “at no stage did we tell any other party that a date for Boris Johnson was confirmed, whatever you may have read”, and quoted the BBC’s news director Fran Unsworth claim that “the logistics of pinning down party leaders is highly complex”.
Burley said there was “still time” to do the interview. But Neil himself tweeted yesterday that they have been waiting for the Tories to confirm a time and date for several weeks. “So far – not a sausage.”
Tory election ads banned from Youtube
Two Tory election videos have been banned from YouTube following complaints from the BBC.
The widely criticised videos – already removed from Facebook – took footage of BBC news presenters and edited them to suggest the journalists were agreeing with Conservative propaganda.
The videos had been seen as many as a million times, according to YouTube’s ad library, and the party had spent as much as €30,000 on promoting them.
Our technology editor has the details:
McDonnell: ‘Are we really living up to the values of Christianity?’
Labour’s John McDonnell said the level of inequality in Britain was not reflective of a country with Christian roots.
Speaking in Birmingham, the shadow chancellor said the recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme on child poverty had shocked him. “On Tuesday a new Shelter report found 135,000 children will be without a home this Christmas,” he said. “On the same day an analysis by the Equality Trust showed the UK’s six richest people control as much wealth as the poorest 13 million.
“It's three weeks to Christmas. The celebration of the birth of Jesus. Children going hungry and homeless in the fifth largest economy in the world begs the question: are we really living up to the values of Christianity – or any other of our religions or beliefs for that matter?
“We don’t believe it’s enough to offer people a hand-up out of poverty. We want to abolish poverty. That’s why we committed in our manifesto to abolishing in-work poverty within five years.”
McDonnell also accused Boris Johnson of lying about the Hillsborough disaster.
“I remember the Hillsborough tragedy like it was yesterday. I remember the brave campaigners who have fought for justice ever since. I remember how my best friend, Jeremy Corbyn, one of the bravest of politicians, stood up for them, fighting for justice for those denied it.
“Those killed and then lied about at Hillsborough - including by the prime minister in his days as a journalist. People need to remember what the Conservatives have done to us over the decades.”
In a widely-condemned article for The Spectator, Johnson wrote of Liverpudlians: “They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it.”
John McDonnell speaking in Birmingham (Reuters)
Macron’s moment of unscripted exasperation
Our writer Clémence Michallon has taken a closer look at that awkward encounter between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron over captured Isis fighters – and what Macron meant by saying: “Let’s be serious”.
The US president asked his French counterpart: “Would you like some nice Isis fighters? You can take everyone you want.”
Swinson claims XR targeting of electric bus ‘ironic’
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson tweeted that it was “great to speak” to the Extinction Rebellion demonstrators dressed as bees and thanked them for “cleaning up our electric coach afterwards”.
The man who glued himself to the bus was detained by police officers.
Swinson also told reporters there was some “irony” in the protest. “There is clearly a little bit of an irony in gluing yourself to an electric bus. A little bit like when the DLR was targeted. Obviously, again, a fairly environmentally friendly form of transport.
“But I recognise the general point. I welcome that the climate emergency is a really important issue in this election.”
Jo Swinson speaks to XR protesters (PA)
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