Politics live with Andrew Sparrow
General election: Boris Johnson urges voters to reject 'Sturgeon-Corbyn alliance' – as it happened
The prime minister delivers the first big set-piece speech of the campaign as Labour pledges £26bn extra per year for NHS
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McCluskey sparks party backlash over tough line on free movement
Boris Johnson makes election speech at electric car plant in Coventry. Photograph: Peter Powell/EPA
Andrew Sparrow, Kevin Rawlinson, Simon Murphy and Kate Lyons
Wed 13 Nov 2019 17.46 EST First published on Wed 13 Nov 2019 01.01 EST
5.46pm EST 17:46 Closing summary
12.13pm EST 12:13 Johnson's Q&A
12.11pm EST 12:11 Farage says he could vote Tory if he gets reassurances on Brexit
12.00pm EST 12:00 Johnson says British workers will get priority under Tories on public procurement projects after Brexit
11.50am EST 11:50 Boris Johnson promises to end 'groundhoggery of Brexit'
11.45am EST 11:45 Boris Johnson's speech
11.19am EST 11:19 Corbyn says capturing Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi would have been better than killing him
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3.18am EST 03:18
Former Conservative minister David Gauke is not holding back this morning. He's now told Sky's Kay Burley the policy pursued by the prime minister is "reckless and irresponsible" and a majority Conservative government "would be detrimental to people's jobs and livelihoods".
Urging people not to vote Tory, he adds:
I think the Conservative party has fundamentally changed. There are a lot of traditional Conservative voters who feel politically homeless. Many of them will vote for the Lib Dems ... and they are right to.
Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen)
Boom. David Gauke tells @KayBurley the policy Boris Johnson is pursuing is "reckless and irresponsible" and a majority Cons government "would be detrimental to people's jobs and livelihoods"
Updated at 3.44am EST
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, says the party's pledge to fund the NHS with an extra £26bn a year will be "transformative".
Labour is today unveiling a "rescue plan" for the NHS in England with the extra funding paid for by higher taxes on companies and the wealthiest in society.
Ashworth told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
We'll use this extra funding to raise performance in our NHS. Remember, we've got around four and a half million people on the waiting lists. Many elderly people left languishing on trolleys in hospital corridors and we're anticipating that to get particularly worse this winter.
Challenged on whether the money will be genuinely transformative rather than just allowing the NHS to get back on top of waiting lists, Ashworth said:
If I may say so, and I say this with utmost politeness, when you've got patients with glaucoma [a degenerative eye condition] at Southampton waiting so long for treatment that they go blind, including a pregnant mother who went blind and now has never seen the face of her daughter because of waits, I think putting more money in to turn around waiting lists is transformative.
Ashworth was referring to a damning case first revealed by the Times which reported on how 15 hospital patients were left blind or with severe sight loss after staff shortages led to delays in their treatment.
Jonathan Ashworth. Photograph: Peter Summers/Getty Images
Bad news for Labour in Scotland as the party's former minister Tom Harris, who was MP for Glasgow South, has revealed he is voting Tory – saying that Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to the UK.
Harris condemned some Labour candidates who "continue to spout racist, antisemitic hatred", reports the Scottish Daily Mail. Harris quit Labour last year after 34 years in the party.
Ruth Davidson, former leader of the Scottish Conservative party, has tweeted the Scottish Daily Mail's front page this morning:
Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonMSP)
Former Labour minister - and candidate for Scottish Labour leader - urges Labour supporters across Scotland to vote @ScotTories. @MrTCHarris says Corbyn's deal with Sturgeon for a second indyref is a threat to the UK. #TeamTory #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/5z8AW3fqJk
Here's Conservative minister Michael Gove hitting back at his former colleague and "good friend" David Gauke's criticism of the party, highlighting that there are "some very powerful voices from within Labour ... warning us of the dangers of Jeremy Corbyn".
BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics)
"There have been some very powerful voices from within Labour... warning us of the dangers of Jeremy Corbyn"
Michael Gove rejects former Tory colleague David Gauke's warning a Conservative majority would be "a bad outcome for the country"https://t.co/NXJxNNU5YJ #bbcbreakfast pic.twitter.com/6vYDVLmv5q
Tory majority will be 'disastrous for the prosperity of this country', former Conservative cabinet minister says
David Gauke, one of 21 Tory MPs who had the whip removed after rebelling against the government, says a Conservative majority will veer the country to a "very hard Brexit" that would be "disastrous for the prosperity of this country".
The former Tory MP and justice secretary has opened up about his reasons for standing as an independent candidate in the general election, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
The reason being, and this pains me to say it, but a Conservative majority after the next general election will take us in the direction of a very hard Brexit.
And in all likelihood at the end of 2020 we will leave the implementation period without a deal with the European Union on WTO terms, in effect on no-deal terms. And that, I believe, would be disastrous for the prosperity of this country.
Asked about his decision to run as an independent, unlike former chancellor Philip Hammond – who also had the whip removed for rebelling against the government in order to stop a no-deal Brexit – he said:
Different individuals will reach different choices. I've got an enormous amount of respect for Philip. He is motivated by the national interest and that has run through his entire career.
But I, in good faith, have reached a different conclusion. I believe I can influence events in this general election to some small extent. And I think the best way I can do that.
He says he hopes the Liberal Democrats will stand aside in his seat in South West Hertfordshire but adds that "is a decision for them". Gauke is also backing a second referendum on Johnson's deal.
Hello folks, Simon Murphy here, taking the helm of the liveblog to steer you through this morning's politics news.
Rowena Mason
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (L) and Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth (R) will announce Labour's NHS spending plan in London today. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images
Labour is to unveil a "rescue plan" for the NHS in England with an extra £26bn of funding a year paid for by higher taxes on companies and the wealthiest in society, as the party puts the health service at the heart of its election offer to voters.
The party's pledge would give the health service £5.5bn more a year by 2023-24 than the £20.5bn the Conservatives have promised and represent the biggest boost to health spending since Labour was last in power between 1997 and 2010.
It puts pressure on Boris Johnson to increase the money he is committing to the NHS, which he has made one of his three "people's priorities" and sought to make a Tory vote-winner.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, will say that "proper funding" is needed to maintain a world-class health service as he proposes a 4.3% annual rise in funding.
Labour says the sums it is pledging would end the lengthening delays faced by patients for A&E care, cancer treatment and planned operations, tackle the NHS's worsening staffing crisis, restore bursaries for student nurses, improve mental healthcare, let hospitals buy scores of new CT and MRI scanners and pay for a new generation of hospitals, GP surgeries and mental health facilities.
Labour vows to outspend Tories with £26bn 'rescue' plan for NHS
How the papers covered it
The Guardian features a picture from the Australian bushfires but leads with election news and Labour's "£26bn rescue plan for NHS". The Mirror calls that "Labour's 10-point plan to save the NHS".
The i's angle is "Battle for the NHS" as the Tories also flash more cash for the health service. The Times and the Express focus on a 14-point lead for the Tories. YouGov for the Times has put the Tories on 42%, Labour on 28% and the Lib Dems on 15%. The Telegraph's splash is "Brexit will start green revolution, pledges PM", as Boris Johnson says that if re-elected his government will spearhead a drive to tackle climate change.
The Guardian (@guardian)
Guardian front page, Wednesday 13 November 2019: Labour vows to outspend Tories with £26bn 'rescue' plan for NHS pic.twitter.com/66VOdx1j0f
i newspaper (@theipaper)
Wednesday's front page: Battle for the NHS - spending race begins between Tories and Labour#tomorrowspaperstoday #skypapers #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/urtrLOyZpI
The Telegraph (@Telegraph)
The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph: 'Brexit will start green revolution, pledges PM' #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/uWNPedGrFu
Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews)
Wednesday's TIMES: "Tories lead by 14 points after Farage climbdown" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/c2V0IomzQ2
Wednesday's Daily MIRROR: "Labour's 10-Point Plan To Save The NHS" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/KBS4HKc15j
Shadow education minister Angela Rayner being interviewed by the Guardian's Heather Stewart. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
We begin the day with some fighting words from Angela Rayner, who sat down with the Guardian's Heather Stewart yesterday.
The shadow education secretary claimed Boris Johnson is "in cahoots" with Nigel Farage after the announcement that Brexit party candidates would stand aside in Conservative-held seats to help deliver Johnson a majority.
"Nigel Farage is working in cahoots with Boris Johnson, trying to hoodwink the public – and they are very friendly with Donald Trump," Rayner told the Guardian.
She warned voters, particularly in the Midlands and the north, to stick with Labour or risk "a hard-right nasty Tory government, that will privatise and deregulate our markets – and they will make Margaret Thatcher look like a pussycat".
Farage's deal with the Conservatives seems to have everyone up in arms today. The Conservatives are unhappy with him after Nigel Farage refused calls from Conservatives for the Brexit party to stand down in Labour marginal seats, saying the request was "almost comical" and that the Brexit party needed to get MPs into parliament to hold Boris Johnson's feet to the fire.
On the other side of politics, there are ructions in the Liberal Democrats, after Tim Walker, the Lib Dem candidate for Canterbury, announced he would be stepping out of the race in order to give Rosie Duffield, the Labour candidate who took Canterbury from the Tories for the first time in 2017 by just 187 votes, the best chance of winning. Almost immediately afterwards, a party spokesman said Walker would be replaced "in due course". But a local Lib Dem source said the party in Canterbury was vehemently opposed to replacing Walker and that all four members approved to stand as MPs had said they would not do so.
And the former Tory minister David Gauke has announced he will stand as an independent candidate, saying he represents " a form of liberal Conservatism" and had become increasingly uncomfortable with the direction the Conservative party had taken regarding Brexit, saying "the Conservative party has got it badly wrong".
Kate Lyons
Good morning and welcome to Politics live, as we bring you every tasty morsel of news during this election campaign.
Johnson will relaunch the Conservatives' election campaign today, with a speech at an electric vehicle plant in the West Midlands, the first big set-piece speech of the campaign. In it, he will offer the familiar roll-call of core policies, including a pledge to "end the groundhoggery of Brexit", spend more on the NHS and cut crime.
Johnson will also attack Jeremy Corbyn's party, saying a Labour government would condemn the UK to the "intellectual cul-de-sac of far left Corbynism". The entry of the prime minister to the full electoral fray after a relatively quiet start to his campaign comes after his starring turn in an election video that sought to portray Boris Johnson as a man of the people, but which some viewers thought made him look more like David Brent.
I'll be at the helm of the blog for the early hours, you can reach me on Twitter or via email (kate.lyons@theguardian.com).
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