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General election: Boris Johnson dismisses Labour's broadband plan as 'crazed communist scheme' – as it happened

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Fri 15 Nov 2019 14.31 ESTFirst published on Fri 15 Nov 2019 01.02 EST
Boris Johnson speaking at the unveiling of the Conservative party’s campaign bus.
Boris Johnson speaking at the unveiling of the Conservative party’s campaign bus. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Boris Johnson speaking at the unveiling of the Conservative party’s campaign bus. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

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Closing summary

That’s all from us for this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. For a comprehensive summary of the day’s politics news, see my colleague Andrew Sparrow’s wonderful election briefing:

And, for those who want to read yet more, Peter Walker, Rajeev Syal and Heather Stewart have our main UK politics story this evening:

A coalition of women’s groups has written to political leaders asking what they will do to end violence against women and girls if they win the general election.

The UK-wide coalition of more than 90 women’s organisations is calling for legislation to protect all women from domestic abuse. They want decisive action on the crisis in rape justice, proper funding for support services, and a duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment.

Sarah Green, the director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, said voters need to hear from party leaders and every candidate during the election that action in this area remains a priority.

Issues relating to the abuse and violence experienced by women and girls are no longer ‘behind closed doors’. Times have changed and many women and men demand that the government make a high priority of ending and preventing this abuse in the first place.

In their letter to the leaders, the coalition said:

Violence against women and girls is not inevitable, but it is enduring because it relates to women’s persistent inequality.

This election is taking place at a time of crisis in the criminal justice response to rape – even though more women than ever are coming forward to report to the police, just 1.5% of cases are being prosecuted.

Domestic abuse homicides are at their highest level for five years, reports of sexual harassment are reaching epidemic levels in our workplaces and education institutions and many women MPs are leaving political careers citing online abuse and threats of violence against them as factors.

These issues are deeply related and require urgent action by an incoming government.

Afternoon summary

Andrew Sparrow
Andrew Sparrow
  • Jeremy Corbyn has launched what is probably the most eye-catching, radical surprising policy of the election campaign so far, promising free, full-fibre broadband for everyone in the country. Labour would deliver it by 2030 by nationalising part of BT, with remote and rural areas of Britain currently getting the worst broadband receiving the new service first. The ongoing cost would be paid for by a new tax on tech giants, with the free broadband saving families on average £30 a month, Labour says. In a speech in Lancaster Corbyn said that only 10% of Britain has access to full-fibre broadband, while in South Korea coverage is 98%. He said this showed how Labour would be using the power of the state to deliver an essential public service. He said:

Labour believes that the British people deserve the very best.

As a country we should be proud of our history of building treasured public institutions and services.

In the 19th century it was the public waterworks.

In the 20th century it was our fantastic National Health Service, freeing people from the fear of illness.

British Broadband will be our treasured public institution for the 21st century, delivering fast and free broadband to every home.

Only the government has the planning ability, economies of scale and ambition to take this on.

This is a mission for everyone to get behind.

My colleagues Mark Sweney and Patrick Collinson have a good analysis here of how feasible the plan is.

  • Labour’s plans has caused alarm in the City, where it was claimed that the party has massively underestimated the cost of its free full-fibre broadband offer and that the prospect of further nationalisation could halt further investment in the sector. The plan to nationalise Openreach, the broadband division of BT, caused particular shock because until last night Labour had claimed that it had no nationalisation plans beyond its existing commitments to bring rail, energy, water and the Royal Mail back in to public ownership. The BT chief executive Philip Jansen said Labour’s plans would not cost £20bn, as the party claimed, but closer to £100bn. Julian David, chief executive of tech trade association techUK, said Labour’s plans would be a “disaster” for the sector. He said:

Re-nationalisation would immediately halt the investment being driven not just by BT but the growing number of new and innovative companies that compete with BT.

  • Boris Johnson dismissed the plan as a “crazed communist scheme”. And the Conservatives sought to play up fears that the Corbyn plan shows that Labour’s nationalisation agenda will turn out to be more extensive than the party admits.

What will Corbyn nationalise next?

— CCHQ Press Office (@CCHQPress) November 15, 2019

But the Tories were also keen to stress their own plans to roll out improved broadband services, and there is likely to be some nervousness in CCHQ about how voters will react to the Labour giveaway. As a retail offer, it is big enough to get noticed - even by a public that seems bored and disengaged from the election. Corbyn’s analysis of the problem faced by the public is sound (Ed Miliband had a very pithy summary here), and ‘people like free stuff’ is not a bad guide to electoral behaviour. But this is a plan that marks an extension of the nationalisation agenda (other services being nationalised by Labour were once in the public sector; broadband wasn’t, because it did not exist in that era), and although voters might easily agree with Corbyn that the broadband service they are getting now is unsatisfactory, whether they think it would be any better under a monopoly state provider is another matter. The Tories claim a similar project in Australia has been a disaster. At this stage it is just too early to know how the electoral politics of this announcement will unfold.

  • Johnson has escalated his attacks on Cobyn and Labour, claiming that that Corbyn’s plans are “absolutely terrifying”. In a short speech unveiling his battlebus, he sought to justify this charge with a series of allegations about the opposition - many of which were partially or wholly untrue.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is writing the blog now.

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A former North Sea diver has been selected as the Brexit party’s candidate in Tynemouth, despite the fact he lives in Australia and has only ever passed through the northern English seaside town.

Ed Punchard, who survived the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster in 1988, claimed he had an affinity with Tynemouth, which is on the north bank of the Tyne, because it has a North Sea coast.

The 62-year-old, who grew up in North Wales, said he was willing to leave Australia – where he has lived for the past 30 years – if he is elected. He said he has family links to the fishing industry in south-west England and felt at home in Tynemouth. He said:

I have come here to win, not to muck about. I wouldn’t have come if I had not thought I could do it.

Tynemouth has been held by Labour’s Alan Campbell since 1997. He is standing again. The other candidates are John Appleby for the Liberal Democrats, Lewis Bartoli for the Conservatives and Julia Erskine for the Greens.

Another question from BTL (below the line).

What happens if someone casts a postal vote and then dies before polling day?

@andrewsparrow what happens if a voter with a postal vote dies after posting their vote, but before election date? It could take days before there is any notification and/or death certificate and, as the election is being held during the winter, there may be a few who won't have a right to vote, because they're in the morgue. With some really slim majorities "ghost voters" (yes, I know, but I couldn't let anyone else have it) could affect the result. Ditto, I suppose proxy voters.

The answer to this one is easy; the vote still counts.

But it begs a much harder, and more interesting, question; can the votes of the dead decide an election?

In the new edition of Sex, Lies and Politics, a book edited by Philip Cowley and Robert Ford of 50 essays summarising the findings of research into elections and voting behaviour in a very readable manner, Kingsley Purdam addresses exactly this question. He says that 8.4m people requested postal votes in 2017 and that around 3,000 postal votes could have been completed by people who went on to die before polling day. That is around five votes per constituency. Purdam says that in North East Fife Stephen Gethins won by just two votes and “such a small margin could easily have been determined by voters who had already died before the count began.”

Lib Dems would regulate to make City 'gold standard of climate capitalism', says Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, has delivered a speech on Lib Dem economic policy this afternoon. Here are the main points.

Our climate investment plan includes a new £10bn renewable power fund.

It alone would leverage in over £100bn of extra private climate investment.

Not a new subsidy, but state climate finance, to fast-track clean power deployment and give a healthy profit to the taxpayer. Payback as we clean up.

This fund will confirm Britain as the world leader in offshore wind, and make

Britain the global number one in tidal power too.

From Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon to a whole suite of tidal power stations round our coast. Creating another new climate industry.

And we will invest £15bn more to make every building in the country greener, with an emergency ten-year programme to save energy, end fuel poverty and cut heating bills. Cutting the average household’s energy bill by a whopping £550 a year.

  • He said the Lib Dems would regulate the City to address the climate emergency. he said:

We will regulate the City for climate.

From pension funds to banks, from the debt markets to the stock exchange.

Mandatory disclosure on fossil fuel investments, to expose investors to their climate risks.

New laws to require a financial institution or large corporate to publish their multi-year strategy to move to net zero.

New accounting standards and laws, to write down climate damaging assets to a zero value by 2045.

Under Liberal Democrats, the UK can become the gold standard of climate capitalism for the world.

  • He said that by remaining in the EU, the Lib Dems would generate a £50bn “remain bonus” for the economy. The Lib Dems are committed to revoking article 50 if they form a majority government (which is probably impossible, given their size and the extent of their support). Interestingly, although Davey spoke about the Lib Dem commitment to keep the UK in the EU, he did not mention revoking article 50. There have been claims that voters are reacting badly to this promise, and that instead the Lib Dems are more keen on stressing their commitment to backing remain in a second referendum.
  • He said the Lib Dems would adopt “well-being budgeting”. He said:

What does well-being budgeting mean? Well, go check out the early experiments in New Zealand – where investment in mental health services has gone up.

And then think what a well-being approach to human capital would mean for investment in education and training.

I can confirm today, that investment in infants, children, young people and adults – their education, their training, their wellbeing – this would be the top day-to-day spending priority for the Liberal Democrats.

  • He said the Lib Dems would aim for a structural surplus in current spending. He said:

How you ensure that your day-to-day spending on things like salaries and benefits, is covered by your revenue, primarily tax receipts.

The Resolution Foundation have proposed a new fiscal rule for day-to-day spending - that a government should target a structural surplus in current spending equal to 1% of national income over a parliament.

And their rule retains sensible flexibility, allowing spending up to minus 1% of national income - if there’s a downturn and forecasts turn out wide of the mark.

Liberal Democrats will adopt that fiscal rule – and our spending plans meet it, with current account surpluses in every year of our five year costings.

Sir Ed Davey Photograph: Michael Bowles/REX/Shutterstock

Here is a question from below the line prompted by the post at 2.34pm, saying Boris Johnson will be defending the smallest majority for a prime minister since 1924.

Can Boris Johnson remain as prime minister if he loses his seat?

@andrewsparrow what happens if an incumbent PM loses his seat?

In 1906 the Conservative leader Arthur Balfour lost his seat only weeks after being replaced as PM by the liberal, Henry Campbell-Bannerman. But Balfour soon returned to the Commons in a byelection and served as leader of the opposition.

If the Tories lose the election, and Johnson loses his seat, he may decide to follow the Balfour example. Or he may decide to walk away and do something else.

The much more interesting question is, what would happen if Johnson loses his seat, but the Conservatives win.

In Britain the prime minister has always been a member of parliament and since 1902, when the Marquess of Salisbury stood down, the PM has always been a member of the House of Commons, not the House of Lords.

But there is nothing in the constitution or in law saying that the prime minister has to be an MP. And there are precedents for people serving in government and not being members of the Commons or the Lords. Harold Wilson made Patrick Gordon Walker foreign secretary even though he lost his seat in the 1964 election. But when Gordon Walker lost a byelection three months later, he had to stand down.

Unless there is something in the Conservative party rules saying the party leader has to be an MP (which the party may be able to bypass anyway), it would theoretically be possible for Johnson to remain as PM, even if he had lost his seat, pending a byelection at which he might return. This would be unprecedented, but precedent has become a poor guide to our politics recently. A lot would depend on whether his party accepted this (ie, whether he was still seen as an election winner), and perhaps on whether Buckingham Palace were willing go along with this arrangement.

Doubtless the idea of being prime minister but without having to turn up to PMQs every week might appeal to Johnson. Most politically-conscious Britons would consider it unthinkable to have a prime minister not sitting in parliament, but in many other parts of the world the head of the executive is not a member of the legislature and it is not entirely impossible to imagine that one day in the UK this could change.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected the post to reflect the fact that, by the time he lost his seat in the 1906 general election, Arthur Balfour had already been been replaced as prime minister by Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who replaced him when the Conservative government fell in December 1905, precipitating the election.

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And if you don’t trust polling, you can always try using focus groups to get an understanding of public opinion. Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative peer and polling specialist, is conducting regular focus groups during the election campaign. He has just a report about the findings from his latest ones, conducted in three leave-voting, Labour-held seats (Stoke-on-Trent North, Bolton North East and West Bromwich East).

According to Ashcroft’s write-up, the groups divided into those who saw the election in terms of Brexit and those who did not. Amongst the latter group, opposition to the Tories was still quite high, Ashcroft says.

The thoughts of those – including leave voters, and even some 2017 Conservatives – for whom Brexit is not the main priority illustrate that taking these seats from Labour is by no means a done deal for the Tories. With echoes of the last election, austerity still loomed large in these voters’ minds.

But Ashcroft also found people sceptical about Labour’s proposals.

And this week’s policy news? “Promises on the health service, which I don’t believe;” “Labour said something about bringing back bursaries for nurses. I don’t think they’ll do it, but it was nice that they thought of it;” “There was something about a Russian file that they won’t release until after the election. It makes him sound a bit Trumpish;” “Corbyn is trying to get McDonald’s workers up to £15 an hour! If they do that, the price of food goes up, people don’t go into McDonald’s anymore and people lose their jobs;” “It’s more than half the people on the front line in the public sector;” “Just the money, Corbyn promising so many billion. They’ll put another note in at the end of the term, and say ‘sorry, there’s no money left’,” “Labour want to raise the Corporation Tax, don’t they. Businesses will just move. There will already be a cost with Brexit, so if you then raise Corporation Tax, what incentive is there for any company to stay in this country?” “The four-day week. I can get behind that;” “It’s all well and good if you’re not self-employed. Who’s going to pay me for a four-day week?” “I’m a business owner. If my staff come to me and say ‘Jeremy Corbyn says I only have to work four days,’ well, you’re no use to me.”

Panelbase has released a new poll. Polls, of course, do not always turn out to be accurate predictors of election results, but they are a better guide than using hunches or guesswork.

@PanelbaseMD @panelbase GB poll (changes since Nov 06-08)

Westminster #GE2019
Con 43% (+3%)
Lab 30% (NC)
Lib Dem 15% (NC)
Brexit Party 5% (-3%)
Green 2% (-1%)

EU Referendum
Remain 52% (-1%)
Leave 48% (+1%)

Fieldwork Nov 13-14

Methodology note in graphic. pic.twitter.com/lhNm51BrKY

— PanelbasePolitical (@PanelbaseMD) November 15, 2019

Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, has described the behaviour of Rupert Lowe, who stood down as a candidate for his party in the Labour/Tory marginal Dudley North yesterday, allowing no time for it to choose a replacement, as “disgusting”. Farage also offered an apology to voters in the constituency, who now will not have the option of voting for his party. Lowe, a Brexit party MEP, announced his decision moments before the 4pm deadline for nominations.

In their overnight press notice about their plans to revive neglected communities, the Conservatives said they would “reverse many of the Beeching rail cuts of the 1960s, reconnecting towns that have suffered since their railways were removed”. The party said it would fund this through a £500m “Beeching reversal fund”.

As the Press Association reports, Sim Harris, managing editor of industry newspaper Railnews, has said this fund “is not going to buy you very much”. Harris said opening many of the lines closed by the Beeching cuts would cost billions. He explained:

[£500m] is not going to buy you very much railway. A rebuilt railway costs millions for each kilometre.

It depends what’s happened to the railway since it closed. If it’s still there, and it’s a matter of upgrading and reopening a freight line, that is the cheaper option, but you’ve still got to spend money on the stations.

It would cost far more than that to really reverse Beeching.

Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach (prime minister) has said that agreeing a UK-EU free trade deal before the end of next year would be “difficult but not impossible”. The government insists that the deal will have to be concluded within this period, because Boris Johnson says he will not extend the transition period. Speaking at the British Irish Council meeting, he said:

In terms of negotiating a trade agreement before December 2020, it would be difficult but not impossible.

Even though the deal might be agreed, we could run into issues with ratification.

My aim is we will continue to have tariff-free trade with Great Britain, not just Northern Ireland.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, Taioseach Leo Varadkar (centre) and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith at the British Irish Council in Dublin. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

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