General election news – live: Boris Johnson 'did not contact' family of London Bridge terror victim, as PM faces fresh accusations on NHS crisis
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Boris Johnson has faced new questions about the state of the NHS after The Independent revealed a 12-year-old with learning disabilities and mental health issues had to stay in an Essex hospital A&E for 57 hours for a specialist bed to become available.
Mr Johnson remained under fire for his apparent lack of empathy for a four-year-old boy who slept on a hospital floor.
It came as the father of London Bridge attack victim Jack Merritt accused Mr Johnson of using his son’s death as “an opportunity” and said there was “no attempt” to contact the family from Downing Street, despite the insistence of a Number 10 spokesperson to the contrary.
Labour have accused the Conservatives of lying about an alleged assault on health secretary Matt Hancock’s aide in a bid to distract attention from the NHS crisis, while Jeremy Corbyn denied his party was using the case of the four-year-old boy as a “political football”.
Trade experts also uncovered fresh evidence that Boris Johnson is misleading voters about the impact of his Brexit deal on Northern Ireland – leading them to warn it is unlawful. The UK Trade Policy Observatory found tariffs would be charged on around 75 per cent of imports, including those from Britain, under the PM's plan for a customs border in the Irish Sea
Corbyn: many Jewish Labour members feel ‘happy’ in party
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was asked about antisemitism during his BBC Breakfast interview.
“There are also very many Jewish members of the Labour party who have said to me ‘thank you for the processes put in place’ ... and they feel very at home and very happy in the Labour party.”
‘Furious, livid, angry’: Shadow health secretary on NHS cuts
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth has denied use the case of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr as a political football.
“Well, we aren’t using his case as a political football and my heart to goes out to Jack and his family,” he told the BBC.
He added: “I, like any parent, because I’ve got two young children, would be furious, livid, angry, fighting like a lion for my child, who had been let down after years of cutbacks in our health service.”
He went on: “Unfortunately, across the country these are not one-off events; we’ve seen in this election campaign other images of elderly people literally wasting away on trolleys in corridors for hours upon hours because they simply can’t get a bed.”
Ashworth said: “In the last year, 660,000 people were left waiting on a trolley because they weren’t able to get a bed in the overcrowded hospital and this at the same time that 17,000 beds have been cut under the Tories in our NHS.
“So I am saying if I’m elected health secretary on Thursday, I’ll bring the Tory bed cuts programme to an end on Friday.”
He also told Today: “The people who work in our NHS are exceptional people working under the most intense of pressures being asked to do more and more on less and less... But the problem is on every single measurement now people are waiting longer, the waiting list itself has ballooned to record levels.”
Economy stagnant, latest official figures show
The UK economy failed to expand in October as official figures revealed zero month-on-month growth.
But the data showed an improvement on the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) seen in August and September, when it fell by 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said growth also stagnated on a rolling three-month basis in October, which is seen as being less volatile than the monthly data.
Commie hats and Maoist bicycles: Corbyn reads out mean tweets
While Boris Johnson tweeted his Love Actually parody, Jeremy Corbyn posted his own pop culture-themed video on Monday evening.
In a video entitled “Mean Tweets with Jeremy Corbyn”, the Labour leader read out critical tweets about him in a format popularised by US late-night chat host Jimmy Kimmel.
The Labour leader sat by a fireplace and read out critical tweets about him and his campaign.
Corbyn replied: “What is a commie hat? I wear a cap! It’s a bit like when I was told I was riding a Maoist bicycle. It's a bicycle!”
Reading read out a tweet about being found sexy, he said: “Oh God this is bad.”
Sturgeon: NHS in Scotland ‘performing better’ than elsewhere
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the NHS in Scotland was “performing better” than the health services are in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Defending the SNP's record on health, Scotland’s first minister said: “I’m not sitting here saying it's job done in Scotland or that we are meeting those targets, the point I'm making is that we are making more progress in terms of building the capacity, doing the reforms in our health service that is required."
On supporting any possible Labour government, Sturgeon said: “We would offer support to a minority Labour government, the conditions for that we’ve set out very clearly in our manifesto.
“An end to austerity, an end to the welfare cuts that have caused so much misery, to so many people and yes respect for the principle that the question of whether there should be an independence referendum and the timing of that should be decided by the Scottish parliament elected by the Scottish people and not dictated by Westminster.”
Nicola Sturgeon with SNP LED campaign poster (AFP)
‘I want to wake up to a Labour government,’ says Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking to supporters in Bolton, outside the town’s community centre, on the first of a number of campaign stops across the north-west.
“We have now got until Thursday night to win this election. Thursday night to save the NHS. Thursday night to end child poverty in Britain. Thursday night to end homelessness in Britain. Thursday night to build the houses that we need. Thursday night to get a government you can trust that will actually represent people.”
Attacking the Tories on the health service, said: “We will not sell our NHS to anybody. It is simply not for sale.”
Corbyn concluded: “I want to wake up on Friday morning, if I get to sleep at all on Thursday night, to see that we have got a Labour government, that we have got a Labour majority and that the great work that’s in this manifesto we then start work on Friday morning making sure those changes come about. And all of us have to work together to make sure we achieve them.”
Jeremy Corbyn speaking in Bolton (Reuters)
‘Banter’: Shadow health secretary dismisses leaked comments he made critical of Corbyn
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth has just endured a very awkward interview with Victory Derbyshire on the BBC. The shadow health secretary dismissed as “banter” leaked comments in which he was heard criticising Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The Guido Fawkes website published an audio recording of remarks made by Ashworth in which he said the civil service machine would “pretty quickly move to safeguard security” if Corbyn entered No 10.
Ashworth insisted he was joking with a Tory friend and did not mean what he said. Asked about comments in which he said Labour “f***** it up” in keeping Corbyn as its leader, he said: “We’re having banter with each other – we’re joking around.
“No I don’t mean it because I’m joking around with my mate because he’s a Tory... If you leak it to Guido Fawkes of course it makes me look like a right plonker but it’s not what I mean when I’m winding up a friend – I’m trying to sort of pull his leg a bit.”
Owen Jones challenges Boris backer: ‘Is ‘bum boy’ homophobic?’
Labour-supporter commentator Owen Jones and Boris Johnson-backing campaigner Nimco Ali have been at odds on Boris Johnson’s use of the phrase “tank-topped bum boys” in a 1998 column.
Jones asked: “If you heard someone yelling at a gay person “bum boy,” would you accept that’s homophobic?”
Ali replied: “If I heard someone yelling it I would step in and say, “That’s unacceptable”.”
Jones said: “Why can’t you say it’s homophobic? I don’t get it.”
Ali replied: “Because he [Johnson] is not a homophobe,” before she went on argue it “depends on the context”.
Labour and Tory NHS spending assessed
If you wish to assess various claims made about investment in the NHS, our friends at Statista have taken a look at recent Labour and Tory government spending on the health service (based on IFS and Health Foundation figures).
It shows the Labour government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown invested well above the annual average 3.7 per cent real growth rates in public spending on health.
Investment in NHS (Independent / Statista)
Tories claim shadow minister’s leaked recording ‘devastating’
Both Boris Johnson and the Conservative party chairman James Cleverly has commented on shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth’s leaked comments about Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s potential election fortunes.
Cleverly said it was an “honest and truly devastating assessment of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership by one of his most trusted election lieutenants”.
Our correspondent Jon Stone has taken a look at Ashworth’s comments and the reaction this morning.
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