Boris Johnson news – live: Expert warns Tory rail fund ‘would only buy 25 miles of track’, as PM makes string of false claims in BBC interview
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Boris Johnson has made a series of claims about immigration and knife crime picked apart by fact checkers, and said there was “no evidence” of Russian interference in the UK. He also shut down questions about his family in testy BBC interviews.
He has also earmarked £50m for the rejuvenation of railways closed under the Beeching cuts of the 1960s - however figures in the rail sector are unconvinced by the amount pledged
It comes as Labour promises to nationalise part of BT and deliver free broadband for all the country if elected, with Jeremy Corbyn set to reveal more as he campaigns in the north-west today.
Nigel Farage, meanwhile, has claimed that the Tories offered jobs and peerages to his Brexit Party candidates in a bid to get them to drop out of marginal seats. Mr Farage said he expected “police investigations into what has gone on here”.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the general election campaign, with only 27 days to go until we head to the polls.
PM’s adviser says press have launched ‘full on’ attack against Corbyn
Tim Montgomerie, Boris Johnson’s special adviser on social justice, has claimed the “big newspapers” launched a “full-on” attack on Jeremy Corbyn from the beginning of the election campaign.
He suggests the right-wing media felt they left it too late at the last election.
The left-wing commentator Ash Sarkar says it’s an admission “the press is biased against Labour” and “they’re scared [Corbyn] can win”.
Labour promises free broadband for every home
Labour will deliver free superfast broadband to every house and business in the country if it is elected, the party has pledged.
Parts of BT would be brought back into public ownership to enable a massive upgrade to the UK’s internet infrastructure, Jeremy Corbyn will outline today.
Talking about the £20bn plan on the BBC, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “It’s visionary, I accept that, but other countries are having these visions and we’re not.”
It would be partly funded by new taxes on corporations such as Amazon, Facebook and Google.
Farage expects ‘police investigations’ in Tory pressure on Brexit Party candidates
Nigel Farage accused No 10 of offering peerages to Brexit Party candidates to get them to stand down before nominations closed.
Railing against “full-on Venezuela-style corruption”, Farage said: “I expect there will be police investigations into what has gone on here.”
The party is going to compile a “dossier” about all the forms of pressure and alleged enticement its candidates endured.
Rupert Lowe, the Brexit Party candidate for Dudley North, pulled out at 3.59pm – one minute before the deadline.
Farage claims Lowe had “no doubt been offered something very, very nice” (a claim he denies).
Sir John Curtice, meanwhile, said Farage’s party was unlikely to win any seats, but could seriously harm the Tory vote.
PM claims ‘bags of time’ to do trade deal – and shuts down questions about family in BBC interview
Boris Johnson has been interviewed on BBC Breakfast by host Naga Munchetty this morning.
Asked if he would request an extension from the EU to the transition period by 1 July 2020, he said: “No, I don’t want an extension.”
“Listen to what Phil Hogan, the commissioner, is saying. There’s no reason why we can't get cracking long before July. We’re going to come out of the EU in January.
“On developing the free-trade partnership we’ll have bags of time to do it and, don’t forget, the great advantage is that we already are in a state of perfect alignment went it comes to our tariffs, our quotas, our industrial regulatory standards.
“So, the deal that we’re doing with the EU is unlike any other deal that they have ever done.”
Asked if leaving the EU by 31 January would only be a technical departure from the EU, the PM replied: “More than technically, legally, in terms of money, borders, our laws, legally.
“Our abilities to do things differently, to do free trade deals, we will be out and that will be a great opportunity for this country.”
Johnson also shut down questions about his family.
Asked about his partner Carrie Symonds, his children and whether he is relatable to families across the UK, Johnson said: “What I want for every child in this country is to have a sense they can achieve their full potential.”
Asked again about families and why he connected with the British public or how he was relatable to other families and said: “I have not the faintest idea.”
PM admits Tories must ‘do better’ on NHS
Boris Johnson has said the Tories “have got to do better” on the NHS after key figures showed the service was performing at the worst level on record.
After official figures showed a record 4.42 million people were waiting for treatment, the PM - who has made the NHS a key battleground in the election - said they had to do more.
“We have got to do better, I don't deny that,” he said on BBC’s Breakfast programme.
“That doesn’t mean that I am not incredibly proud of what the NHS is achieving. We have amazing staff and amazing doctors and, yes, we need to be investing more in them. That is exactly what we are doing.”
When asked about the response to the floods in northern England and if he had done enough to support victims, Johnson said: “Obviously I’ve been twice to the affected areas, once to Derbyshire and once to South Yorkshire, and seen for myself what's going on.
“We’re today announcing more support for affected homes, full council tax relief for affected businesses, business rate relief, there’s a huge amount of work that has been going on round the clock.
“You can never do enough for somebody who has suffered a disaster like flooding and you only have to go there and to see them and talk to them to understand the depth and the huge psychological impact it has.”
Naga Munchetty then asked Johnson how he personally felt when a resident of an affected area told him his visit was not wanted. “I understand how they feel,” he said.
“Of course there’s always more you can do and you can never do enough.”
Lord Buckethead – and Count Binface – standing against PM
Can you have too much of a good thing? Not when it comes to comedy candidates designed to briefly embarrass the prime minister, surely.
Lord Buckethead – who stood against (and stood next to) Theresa May in her constituency in 2017 – is standing in Uxbridge against Johnson.
But there’s a twist.
The Monster Raving Loony Party has claimed the name by copyright for one of their own people, so the bloke who actually was Lord Buckethead is running as Count Binface instead – revealing a similar, receptacle-themed outfit on Twitter.
So it looks like the constituency’s absurdist vote will be split.
There’s also another candidate standing in Uxbridge called Yace “Interplanetary Time Lord” Yogenstein.
Labour’s ‘free broadband for all’ plan sparks industry backlash
The Labour party’s promise to nationalise part of BT and deliver free superfast broadband to every house and business in the country is causing quite a stir in the telecoms industry.
The £20bn plan would see BT’s Openreach, which owns the bulk of the full-fibre network, taken into public ownership and expanded to deliver free access across the country. And it’ll be partly paid for by a tax on the tech giants.
Shares in BT dropped nearly 4 per cent within moments of the London Stock Exchange opening.
The company appear stunned by the proposal, saying that it needed to be “carefully thought through”.
The sale of TalkTalk's full fibre broadband business FibreNation, meanwhile, has been put on hold after John McDonnell’s announcement last night.
And James Lusher, Virgin Media’s head of external communications, made his views on Labour’s broadband policy clear by tweeting a gif of a raccoon stealing food from a cat bowl captioned with the words: “This mine now.”
‘Can we have free broadband?’ PM answers’ questions from the public
The prime minister has been answering questions from the public on BBC’s Radio 5 Live. And very entertaining it is too.
“I would ask parliament why they want to stay on the Titanic,” asks Pamela in Cardiff, referring to the EU. She doesn’t liked the EU. And she doesn’t like the last crop of MPs in parliament. “They are not fit for purpose, as Oliver Cromwell 500 years ago.”
Johnson says: “I think I’ve got the gist of Pamela’s point – I’m in a large measure of agreement with you. And you’re also right, in a way, about the EU…”
Someone then asks: “Can we have free broadband?”
Johnson, referring to Labour’s pledge to deliver free broadband for all, replies: “What we won’t be doing is some crackpot scheme that would involve many, many tens of billions of taxpayers’ nationalising a British business.”
‘We need to plant more trees’: PM addresses floods crisis
Boris Johnson has been asked about the NHS and flooding on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Sarah from Sawbridgeworth has asked the PM: “The NHS needs more money … will you be looking to fix the running problems or throwing money at it?”
Johnson tells her he wants to stop the waste in public procurement and put more money into “frontline services”. He says he feels a “massive sense of responsibility for the NHS”.
Asked by Alex about what he will do to prevent more flooding in the north, the PM says the government has invested in flood defences.
“We also have to think, as a country, about how we manage water,” he adds. “The ground is super-saturated. We need to be thinking about planting more trees … and how to retain water on the higher ground.”
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