There’s less than two weeks to go to the election, and party leaders have been out there trying to persuade their core support, as well as undecided participants, to go out and vote for them on May 7. Over the past couple of days, two polls had the Conservatives ahead by four points and another two had Labour leading by two and three points respectively. That means the parties have been scheduling more speeches, more interviews and more photo ops. It’s all or nothing now.
The big picture
Ed Miliband gave his first speech on foreign policy in five years today, to the think-tank Chatham House. The Labour leader criticised the coalition’s policy on Libya and linked the chaos in the country to the current wave of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean. He said after Iraq, we should have learnt about the need for post-conflict planning:
The tragedy is that this could have been anticipated. It should have been avoided. And Britain could have played its part in ensuring the international community stood by the people of Libya in practice rather than standing behind the unfounded hopes of potential progress only in principle.
Ed Miliband the Labour leader delivers a speech on foreign policy at Chatham House. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
This sparked a row that carried on for most of the day. Liz Truss, the Conservatives’ environment secretary, called Miliband’s comments “outrageous and disgraceful”. David Cameron said they were “ill-judged”, and William Hague saidMiliband was being “opportunistic” because Labour had never proposed an alternative Libya policy.
Labour responded by calling the Conservatives’ complaints “a manufactured row”. Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, said Miliband was not directly blaming Cameron but was making the point that the crisis in the Mediterranean was down to a wider failure of the international community to stop Libya slipping into chaos after the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.
Either way, it was interesting to hear about foreign policy in an election campaign that’s been so dominated by domestic pledges.
David Cameron said a Conservative government would introduce English votes for English laws (Evel) within 100 days of the election. “Soon the Scottish parliament will be voting to set its own levels of income tax – and rightly so – but that has clear implications. English MPs will be unable to vote on the income tax paid by people in Aberdeen and Edinburgh while Scottish MPs are able to vote on the tax you pay in Birmingham or Canterbury or Leeds. It is simply unfair,” he said. Both Nicola Sturgeon and Jim Murphy said the plans were a breach of the Smith commission.
Ukip candidate Kim Rose, who said Europe was “turning into exactly what Hitler wanted in 1942” under the EU.
That’s it from me today. Join me again tomorrow morning, as I’ll attempt to bring you the latest news, reaction and analysis from the campaign trail. There’s not long left to go now, make sure you buckle in for the bumpy ride.
If the blue army is being outgunned that is not a matter of logistics, but because it lacks recruits. And that would not be surprising for a party that has been unable to reach very far beyond its core support for more than 20 years.
There has been too much emphasis from the Tories on the opposing leader’s weaknesses (or, in this case, the deals he may or may not do to get himself into office), which suggests to voters a party that can’t have much to say for itself.
Ashcroft said he was not blaming Conservative election guru Lynton Crosby, who could only work with the materials he was given and who had brought “discipline, organisation and consistency” to the Conservative operation.
But if after five years in government the Conservative Party’s policy advantage is confined to the economy and the public finances - crucial areas, but not, as far as voters are concerned, everything - that is hardly the fault of an Australian consultant.
From Sturgeon masks to meta-photography of party leaders, here’s our Friday night photo round-up from today’s various election campaigns:
Strikes a pose: Dame Jon Dixon, the Official Monster Raving Looney Party candidate for the Hove and Portslade constituency, in his kitchen before heading out on the campaign trail in Hove, East Sussex. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
Protesters wearing masks of Nicola Sturgeon the SNP leader hold placards outside Chatham House, a foreign affairs think-tank, where Ed Miliband the Labour leader delivered a speech. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images
Photo of photos: Ed Miliband meets supporters at Oaktree Community Centre in Acton where he posed for pictures with his party activists. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Nick Clegg speaks to Sylvia Cooke aged 90 as he meets with party activists at the Devonshire Arms pub in Sheffield. Photograph: Jon Super/AP
David Cameron the Tory leader speaks during an election campaign visit to Frinton-on-Sea. Photograph: Toby Melville/AP
The Press Association is reporting that Anas Sarwar, the Labour Glasgow Central candidate, has received a death threat. The message threatening to shoot the former Scottish Labour deputy leader was left on the machine of his Glasgow office between April 8 and 10. Scottish Labour said the matter has been reported to police. Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Kezia Dugdale said:
These types of threats have no place in our society. No-one, politician or otherwise, should have to face threats of violence. What has it come to when people seeking to be part of the democratic process face threats of this nature?
Anas Sarwar has a family who will rightly be concerned and staff who should, at all times, be able to go to work without fear of violence. In the face of threats we have to stand together and unite in our condemnation of this vile and disgusting behaviour. Anas Sarwar is a popular local figure and this sort of threat will not deter him.
Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt has released a statement about Labour’s policy on free schools, calling the Conservatives’ claim that his party will close existing free schools “complete nonsense”. He said:
Photograph: David Hartley/Rex Shutterstock
Labour will not close existing free schools. What this represents is another desperate attempt from the Tories to distract from their record of failure. Their Free Schools programme is damaging standards and wasting money which would be better spent capping infant class sizes at thirty.
Labour has a better plan. We will end the Tories’ flawed Free Schools programme, make sure all teachers are qualified and cap class sizes for five, six and seven-years-olds at thirty.
There appears to be a lot of Ed Miliband interviews out there today. Politics Home’s House magazine are running an interview with the Labour leader, which you can read here. The key thing that stands out is Miliband saying he will lead the UK climate negotiations in Paris.
I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that we get a successful outcome in those talks, attending if necessary, participating with other leaders. It’s absolutely a key priority for me. It’s a key foreign policy priority because there’s nothing more dangerous for the long term future of the planet than climate change and we are the only people actually talking about climate change in this election, even the Greens don’t seem to be talking about it.
Ed bounced on to the stage with a wide grin and kept his tried-and-trusted hustings tics of “friends” and “let me just say this” to the barest of minimums. International relations usually scores less than zero on the campaign trail, but Ed was on Mission Statesman. He was here to show that he wouldn’t look like an out of place plasticine Wallace standing next to Barack Obama and Angela Merkel at a G7 meeting. And, by and large, it was job done. He did look the part. At times he also almost sounded it.
Jon Trickett, Labour’s Shadow Minister without Portfolio, has responded to Nigel Farage’s comments on Ukip MPs supporting a Conservative government, saying it is clear that the Tories and Ukip are preparing to work together. This is what Farage said on Sky News earlier:
From a Ukip perspective, we would rather see David Cameron as the biggest party, though we don’t trust him at all to hold the referendum on free and fair terms, but David Cameron as the biggest party with enough Ukip MPs to hold his feet to the fire is for us the best option.
Trickett said:
Once again it is clear that the Tories and Ukip are preparing to work together.
Their shared agenda of increased NHS privatisation, more tax cuts for millionaires and extreme spending plans is a recipe for disaster for working people.
The Tories refuse to rule out doing a deal with Ukip and the terms of a deal are now clear. It’s what a growing proportion of Tory backbenchers and activists want and so David Cameron should come clean and tell us about his plans to work with Nigel Farage.
Ed Miliband received challenging questions from an energetic BBC Radio One Ask the Leaders audience, covering issues on the highly topical Libyan migrant crisis, to tuition fees, from the economy to LGBTQ rights in Northern Ireland. Chris Smith, the Newsbeat host, didn’t hold back and went full-on Paxo with the Labour Leader. Here’s a summary of the debate:
Listeners were reminded that Miliband was adept at solving a Rubik’s cube in a minute and a half, before delving straight into a question on Scotland.
Tomiwa, a 19 year old from Edinburgh, asked the Labour leader how he planed to regain Scotland as a Labour stronghold and stop the SNP “destroying Labour in the polls”?
Miliband told the audience the SNP’s priority was separation who have yet to rule out another referendum, while his party can “stand up for people across the United Kingdom.”
When Miliband was pressed on Labour’s poor poll performance in Scotland, he said: “I don’t think anybody knows what the result will be in Scotland” and that every one less Labour MP makes it more likely for a Conservative government.
Tomiwa pressed the Labour leader again and said: “you’ve clearly not doing enough.” Miliband said he was proud of the policies put forward and would keep fighting the fight. He added that he had been to Scotland “a few times” and plans on going back. Miliband was reminded of when he was heckled walking around a shopping centre, which he described as an “interesting time” but said the he will “absolutely” spend some more time campaigning in Scotland, adding: “We will be going out and making our case. And it’s a case across the United Kingdom.”
Trust from voters
Miliband was then asked how he can be loyal to the country when he can’t even been loyal to his own brother. The Labour leader replied that he thought he was the right person and won the narrow Labour leadership election adding: both of us have moved on. In a spiky retort, the audience member said: “my friends don’t trust you”.
Economy:
Miliband said some will think it’s gone great in the last five years and others won’t, adding that the Tory-led government had not cleared the deficit and the NHS has gone backwards.
The host pressed Miliband on this and said Labour run health service in Wales was facing challenges and that patients were “piling over the border” to get treatment in England. Miliband said no one in Wales was calling for a Tory government.
Tuition Fees
Asked why Labour are proposing to slash tuition fees when it will only be the richest that benefit, Miliband replied that the psychology and reality of sending people into the world with a huge level of debt is wrong.
Foreign Policy:
Miliband was asked when he last raised the issue of Libya. The host informed the Labour leader “the last time you asked was four years ago” adding he had the chance to ask every week. Miliband said that the country had to engage with the problems and learn the lessons from previous interventions.
Miliband was asked how many Libyan refugees will Labour let in? How many Syrians will Labour let in? Miliband replied that he would not be not plucking figures from the air.
There was an interjection from an audience member who said there was no point in asking this.
Migrants arrive at the port in the Tunisian town of Zarzis, some 50 kilometres west of the Libyan border, following their rescue by Tunisia’s coastguard and navy after their vessel overturned off Libya. Photograph: Fethi Nasri/AFP/Getty Images
Votes at 16
Miliband committed to votes at 16 and better citizenship lessons in schools, especially learning that 7million people were not registered to vote in this election.
LGBT rights:
Miliband was pressed on LGBTQ rights in Northern Ireland. He answered and said “I know it’s frustrating, I will keep making the case for LGBT across the country” and added that Northern Ireland is devolved.
Tonight I’m in the leafy Cheshire constituency of Tatton, held by George Osborne in 2010 with a majority of 14,487. First elected in 2001 when he was just 29, Osborne has steadily increased his majority over three elections.
Though now considered solidly Tory, in Tony Blair’s first term Tatton was memorably represented by an Independent MP, former BBC correspondent Martin Bell. He stood on an anti-sleaze platform after the long-serving Tory incumbent, Neil Hamilton, became embroiled in the cash for questions scandal. Labour and the Lib Dems withdrew from the 1997 race in order to ensure Bell’s victory.
No one would ever say they came from Tatton. It’s the name of a deer park in Knutsford, one of many well-heeled Cheshire towns in Osborne’s chi-chi empire. Home to a Rolls Royce showroom, another selling McLaren supercars, an “olde sweet shoppe”, numerous pet grooming parlours and a monster branch of Booths – the north’s superior answer to Waitrose – Knutsford is also hosting tonight’s hustings. Held at the Knutsford Academy, it’s the first such event attended by Osborne this time around.
Around 250 people are expected. According to the Knutsford Guardian, which has organised the event, the candidates have not seen any of the questions in advance. It’s likely to be a lively affair. The Green’s candidate, Tina Louise Rothery, is quite a character – last year she was part of a group of grandmas who occupied a field outside Blackpool in a protest against fracking. Labour’s contender, David Jonathan Pinto-Duschinsky, is the son of a right-wing academic; the Lib Dem is a cheerful local councillor called Gareth Wilson. Completing the line-up is Ukip’s Stuart Hutton, who the other candidates claim is essentially a paper candidate concentrating his efforts retaining his council seat elsewhere.
George Osborne: "I always put this constituency first." Nevermind the day job, eh
On businesses: Miliband said the government’s priority is to cut tax for the largest businesses, he wants to cut tax for smaller businesses.
On the cuts he’d make in first budget as PM: “We’ll protect key departments like health and education. We could save from police budget and local government budget, but detailed plans we’ll have to set out in government.”
On failures in the NHS under Labour: When confronted by a caller who said her mother died in the NHS, Miliband apologised and said when anything goes wrong in the NHS it needs to be properly investigated. “I think theNHS is a fantastic institution, overall we made progress but that can’t excuse any one case that went wrong. We have a plan for NHS but that won’t satisfy you. Was there a system in place to find out why it went wrong? If anything goes wrong in NHS best thing I can say is there has to be systems to prevent it from happening again in the future.”
Some on Twitter are calling these answers evasive. Others are calling them honest. You decide.
It wasn’t the most revealing interview, Miliband didn’t say anything that he hasn’t said before, but he came across quite well. There were some light-hearted moments and chances for him to express his conviction. He also stood by his assertion that the British government hadn’t engaged enough with Libya, and said people shouldn’t be worried about his lack of foreign policy experience. Here are the key points he made:
On not looking prime ministerial: Miliband said it’s about what you’re looking for in a PM: ideas that can change the country, the strength to stand up for those values, and having decency, which are all traits he has. “Something like the bedroom tax offends by basic sense of decency,” he said.
On David Miliband tweeting that he’d voted for Labour: “He has been sending me very encouraging messages throughout this campaign and I am very grateful to him for that,” Miliband said. He added that his brother would not be coming back to the UK to campaign for him in person, saying that when David quit frontline politics he declared he no longer wanted to be “part of the soap opera... he’s got his own job in America.”
On the crisis in the Mediterranean: Miliband said there’s two distinct issues - rescuing people from drowning by restarting search and rescue, and working with the UN and EU to take our share of refugees. There’s no trade off between showing humanitarian aid to refugees and being strict on immigration, he said. He refused to “pluck a number from the air” about how many north African refugees the UK should take, stating: “At the moment the key issue is to rescue drowning people.”
On his speech criticising Cameron’s stance on Libya: “When I supported action in Libya one of points I made was that we have to learn the lessons of Iraq, one of them being about post conflict planning. I do think the Conservative party want to whip up a big row about it, but I think I was making the absolutely correct point that the British government hadn’t engaged.” He added that three things haven’t happened as part of the post conflict planning: a political tract (working with Friends of Libya), a security tract (enforcing an arms embargo), and a diplomatic tract (engaging other countries in region). He said he raised the Libya issue as recently as February, when David Cameron himself said post conflict planning hadn’t been good enough. “I want Britain engaged in the world, but I will only doing it knowing we have a plan for peace as well as for military action.”
On his lack of foreign policy experience: Miliband said people shouldn’t be worried about his lack of foreign policy experience. “I’ve got more experience than Cameron had, I was climate change secretary which meant going around the world, people have to make a judgement both about experience and about judgment.” He said it was him that stood up to Obama in 2013 over Syria.
On HSBC threatening to leave the UK: Miliband said staying in EU is best thing for the UK. “I don’t want to leave the EU, and I don’t want to plunge this country into that sort of uncertainty.” He said he doesn’t believe HSBC will leave the country because of a bank levy. One thing we learned from the financial crisis is that when banks say they’d leave it’s not necessarily correct, he said.
On Lord Janner: Miliband said it’s not for politicians to second guess legal judgements that are made, but added: “My heart goes out to victims of these alleged crimes, and since it doesn’t seem like justice will be gained for them it’s important for them to tell the stories, and the overarching inquiry set up by the government must take evidence from them. As somebody who wants to be PM you can’t expect to second guess these decisions. But it’s regrettable if there’s evidence and he hasn’t be prosecuted.”
On whether he will give preferential treatment to Scotland: Miliband said he’ll stand up for whole of the UK. “What unites us is greater than what divides us. We are stronger together. There will be some people in this election who want to set up England against Scotland. That will break up this country.” He said the rise of SNP was in part due to the independence referendum, but this election is not the independence referendum, “you either have a Labour government or a Conservative government.”
On Milifandom: “You’re as surprised by it as I am,” he said, before adding that if Milifandom allows him to be the champion of young people he’s all for it. Iain Dale mentioned that commentators have been saying you know the tory campaign is tanking when Ed Miliband becomes a sex symbol. “That’s very rude isn’t it,” Miliband responded.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion