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U.K. party leaders are facing questions from voters on national TV after a day of campaigning focused on domestic issues ahead of the Dec. 12 general election. Jeremy Corbyn said he would remain neutral in a referendum on any new deal negotiates with the European Union.
Key Developments:
- Johnson visited a hospital as he appealed for votes ahead of tonight’s BBC broadcast.
- Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn campaigned in Stoke-on-Trent as he seeks to increase voter registration ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
- Nigel Farage said his Brexit Party is helping Johnson by splitting the Labour vote.
- Corbyn, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson and Johnson are facing questions in a special edition of BBC TV’s Question Time show.
After the Institute for Fiscal Studies cast doubt on the plausibility of the Labour Party’s tax plans, Corbyn repeated his pledge that only the top 5% of taxpayers will have to pay more.
“What we’re planning is 95% of the population will pay no more tax,” he said, adding that corporations would pay a “bit more” tax up to a maximum of 26%.
Corbyn Would be Neutral in Brexit Referendum (7:20 p.m.)
Jeremy Corbyn was asked whether he would campaign for Leave or Remain under his plan to negotiate another a new deal with the EU then put it to a second referendum.
He gave a more detailed answer than he has previously, saying he would adopt a neutral stance in that second vote. “My role as Prime Minister will be to adopt a neutral stance so I can credibly carry out the result,” he said.
Corbyn has pledged to agree a new deal with the EU in his first three months in office and then put it to a referendum, with remaining in the bloc as the option on the ballot paper.
“My role and the role of our government will be to ensure that that referendum will be held in a fair atmosphere and we will abide by the result of it,” Corbyn said. He would be neutral so “I can credibly carry out the result, to bring our country together rather than carrying on a debate about Brexit’’
Corbyn Grilled Over Anti Semitism (7:10 p.m.)
Jeremy Corbyn faced his first tough line of questioning on the harassment, and anti-Semitic abuse, faced by Labour MPs. A voter in the audience said he doesn’t buy “this whole nice old grandpa” act and questions Corbyn on why he was seen chatting to a heckler after an event where one of his party’s MPs, Ruth Smeeth, had suffered verbal abuse.
“Nobody should suffer any abuse in public life or privately,” he said. “‘Bad behavior, misogynism and racism in any form is absolutely not acceptable in any form whatsoever in my party or my society.”
Corbyn: Business Has Nothing to Fear (7:05 p.m.)
Jeremy Corbyn, the first leader to face questions from the live studio audience in Sheffield, was asked whether businesses should be scared of an incoming Labour government. He replied that Labour will help support small and medium sized businesses, which he described as “the motor” of the British economy.
“The biggest businesses will be asked to pay a little bit more in corporation tax, but it’ll be lower than it was in 2010 and indeed lower than the average for most industrial economies,” he said.
He also said Labour will promote apprenticeships and increase infrastructure investment.
Tonight’s Leaders Debate: The Format (6:35 p.m.)
This evening’s two-hour special episode of BBC TV’s Question Time will feature the leaders of the four largest parliamentary parties: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, from the main opposition Labour Party, the Scottish National Party’s Nicola Sturgeon and Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson.
The leaders will not face each other directly. Instead, each will be asked questions for 30 minutes by a live studio audience, selected to represent the political make-up of the country.
Corbyn will appear first, followed by Sturgeon, Swinson and finally, Johnson.
Johnson: Brexit Enables House Tax on Foreigners (5:15 p.m.)
Boris Johnson said leaving the EU allows the government to introduce a new land surcharge (see Earlier) for all foreign buyers of homes in England.
“One of the advantages of getting Brexit done is you can now do it in a non-discriminatory way between all international buyers, because previously you couldn’t do it with people from the 27 other EU countries,” he said in a pooled broadcast interview. “It is only reasonable, when international buyers come in and buy property, they should make a contribution to life in this country.”
The Conservatives said they want to apply the new levy to damp housing demand, keep a lid on house prices and make it easier for first-time buyers to get a foot on the housing ladder. The proceeds will go toward measures to tackle homelessness, Johnson said.
Could Johnson Lose His Own Seat? (12:30 p.m.)
It seems far-fetched, but the bookmakers are taking bets on it: Boris Johnson losing his own seat in the west London suburb of Uxbridge.
The prime minister has about a one-in-five chance of losing it in the Dec. 12 general election, odds from betting firm Ladbrokes (LON:LCL) indicate. Johnson had a majority of about 5,000 votes in the 2017 election, a margin the Labour Party is seeking to overturn.
If Johnson lost his seat, it wouldn’t mean he couldn’t be prime minister: Alec Douglas-Home was briefly premier without being in Parliament in 1963. If the Tories won a majority while losing Uxbridge, the likeliest outcome would be that a Tory in a safe seat would resign, allowing Johnson to replace them in a special election.
Read more: Boris Johnson Has 22% Chance of Losing Seat, Ladbrokes Says
Farage: Trump NATO Visit Is Time to Talk Defense (12 p.m.)
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said he deliberately left defense policy out of his announcements to keep his power dry for the NATO summit in the U.K. in December, which U.S. President Donald Trump will be attending.
He said his concern is that Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal would keep the U.K. tied to a future European Defense Union. “When President Trump arrives on Dec. 2, we’re going to have three days where we are talking about NATO, we are talking about defense and I will say a lot lot more on that subject then.”
It’s not only on defense that Trump’s visit has the potential to influence politics ahead of the election. The state-run National Health Service and its inclusion -- or not -- in any future U.S.-U.K. free-trade deal is already a key talking point in the campaign, while Labour has described Johnson’s Brexit deal as driving the U.K. into the arms of Trump.
Taking questions from reporters after his speech, Farage also refused to say if he’ll stay on as leader if the Brexit Party fails to win any seats in the election. “I’m going to campaign for years to come in whatever role it’s in,” he said.
Farage Says His Brexit Party Helps Johnson (11:30 a.m.)
Nigel Farage said that far from damaging Boris Johnson’s chances of securing a majority on Dec. 12, his Brexit Party is helping the Conservatives by splitting the Labour vote in some key areas. “We are picking up Labour votes,” he said.
In a speech in London, Farage repeated his demand for a “clean break” from the European Union and said he would be scrutinizing what the Tories say in their manifesto about the U.K.’s future ties to the bloc.
In a separate statement, the party announced its main policies, including:
- Reform the U.K. voting system and abolish the House of Lords
- Reduce annual immigration, introduce points-based visa system
- No corporation tax on the first 10,000 pounds of company profits
- Leave the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, invest in coastal communities
Ahead of his Brexit Party’s policy launch this morning, leader Nigel Farage called for immigration to the U.K. to be restricted to 50,000 people per year in what he described as a return to typical postwar levels.
“What I think is very real is that we now have in many ways a population crisis in this country,” Farage told BBC Radio 4. “We had a 60-year postwar norm of about 30,000 to 50,000 people coming into the United Kingdom. That has completely gone out of the window.”
Farage called for an Australian-style points-based immigration system, and said any labor shortages -- including in the state-run National Health Service -- should be managed with temporary work permits.
Experts ‘Wrong’ on Labour Spending Plans: McDonnell (Earlier)
Labour’s economy spokesman John McDonnell defended the party’s plans to raise income and corporation taxes to fund a huge increase in spending if elected. He rejected a claim by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that the tax rises would eventually hit most people, even as Labour said they only target companies and the top 5% of earners.
“I have a great deal of respect for the IFS, of course I do,” he told the BBC. “I just think they’ve got it wrong on this one.” McDonnell said analysts are ignoring other aspects of Labour plans, including companies having employees as board members, and consumers sitting on supervisory boards.
“What we’re saying is with the structural changes we will make in the economy, we’ll make sure that actually the corporations themselves do not take that easy option of cutting wages or rising prices,” he said. “Because we’re democratizing the way these corporations work and are more accountable, they will actually invest in their companies.”
McDonnell said there was little evidence to show cuts to corporation tax under the Conservative Party had boosted investment. Rather, firms are “sitting” on their gains or using them to increase pay for top executives, he said.
Hammond: Size of Tory Majority Will Be Crucial (Earlier)
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said that if the Conservative Party wins the Dec. 12 general election as expected, the size of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s parliamentary majority could determine how Brexit plays out and the U.K.’s future relationship with the European Union.
“The bigger the majority, the more personal authority the prime minister will have, and that means the more he’ll be able to use flexibility to operate in the way that he thinks is in the best interests of the country,” Hammond said in an interview on the sidelines of Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Beijing. “If it’s a slim majority, the fear is that the hardliners within the party will always be able to hold the leadership to ransom.”
Hammond said he hopes Johnson will have the authority to deliver Brexit quickly, and then work toward the “best possible trade deal” with the EU. He said the Tory party’s plans to ramp up spending “can stack up -- provided there is a commitment to doing a comprehensive trade deal” with the bloc.
But Labour’s spending plans under Jeremy Corbyn are a different matter, he said, predicting they “would undermine confidence in the economy and would certainly undermine investment.”
Higher Tax for Foreign Buyers of U.K. Houses (Earlier)
The Conservative Party plans to introduce a land tax surcharge for foreign buyers of U.K. homes in an effort to damp demand, keep a lid on house prices and make it easier for first-time buyers to get a foot on the housing ladder.
The 3% surcharge -- on top of the existing land tax known as stamp duty -- will raise as much as 120 million pounds ($155 million) a year, which will be put toward programs to help tackle homelessness, the Tories said in an emailed statement.
Read more: Tories Plan Extra Land Tax for Foreign Buyers of U.K. Homes
Earlier:
Corbyn Has a Radical Labour Message. Can He Sell It to Britain?Tories Plan More Tax on Foreign Home-Buyers: U.K. Campaign TrailNever Mind Brexit, U.K. Vote Hinges on Future of the NHSWhy Elections Aren’t a Big Deal For U.K. Polling Stock Up 350%