Election debate: reaction and analysis after Jeremy Corbyn and party leaders spar – as it happened

The Press Association has also been told Jeremy Corbyn will take part in tonight’s debate. It has snapped this:

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is set to announce he will take part in tonight’s live TV general election debate, according to sources.

My colleague Heather Stewart says Jeremy Corbyn will be taking part in tonight’s BBC debate.

Official Labour sources are not confirming this.

My colleague Anushka Asthana has produced a Guardian election video assessing the Tories’ claim to be the party of the working class.

Here are the main points from the Jeremy Corbyn press conference.

• Corbyn claimed that another five years of Tory government would be “disastrous” for the public services. Publishing a dossier showing what would happen to key public service indicators on the basis of current trends, he said:

The future of the NHS and our schools are at stake in this election. The state that the Conservatives have left our NHS and our children’s schools in is anything but strong and stable.

Labour will invest in our people, schools and hospitals. We will cut class sizes, take a million people off the NHS waiting list and ensure people get the care they deserve.

By contrast another five years of the Tories would be disastrous for our public services. At the rate we’re going we could see 5.5 million people on the English waiting list and 1.5 million older people with unmet care needs. And young people and their families face the prospect of more overcrowding in schools and having to pick up the bill for the Tories’ unfair plan to scrap free school meals for hundreds of thousands of children.

• He claimed a leaked Labour policy document suggesting the party would allow unskilled immigration from the EU did not represent party policy. Asked about it, he said:

What you’ve been reading is a document that was being discussed between researchers in our teams, as happens every day of the week in every party and all around parliament. Our policy is in our manifesto. That is the policy that we will be carrying out.

Corbyn said Labour would manage migration. He also accused Theresa May of making “false promises” on immigration, because the Tories have failed to get annual net migration below 100,000 despite having promised to do so in their 2010 and 2015 manifestos.

• He firmed up his opposition to a second Scottish independence referendum while the Brexit talks are still going on. Going further than what he said yesterday (see 10.32am), he said it would be “extremely wrong and unwise” to have a referendum before the Brexit process was over. He said:

I believe that the last thing Scotland needs now is that debate. What is needed now is a serious debate about the problems of under-funding of public services in Scotland ... And I think it would be extremely wrong and unwise to go into a referendum while the Brexit negotiations are going on. So the invitation I would give to the Scottish government and parliament is, ‘Think again.’

Earlier today Corbyn also posted this on Twitter to clarify his position.

• He refused to rule out a “confidence and supply” arrangement with the SNP if Labour had to form a minority government. He suggested the question was irrelevant because Labour was on course to win.

• He renewed his challenge to May to debate with him. He said it was very odd to take part in the Sky/Channel 4 event on Monday, being in the same building as May but not debating her. Describing what happened, he said:
  

And then the prime minister is hiding away in a room upstairs to come down to do exactly the same. How ridiculous is that. Come on, prime minister. Come and have a chat. Come and have a debate. And I can be ever so polite.

• He refused to say whether or not he would attend the BBC leaders’ debate tonight. Previously he has said that he will not take part if May is not attending (and she isn’t.)

• He criticised May for talking about him being “naked” in the Brexit negotiating chamber on Tuesday. Asked about this, he said:

I certainly would not use language like that myself. I think it’s totally inappropriate to describe anyone as naked, even me.

• He said that he had always wanted an IRA ceasefire in Ireland, but he dodged a question about whether he has publicly called for one. Asked about this, he said:

I always wanted there to be a ceasefire. I supported ceasefires.

• He said that he had met loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, as well as republican ones. As an example, he said he had had “long conversations” with David Ervine, the former loyalist terrorist who became leader of the Progressive Unionist party.

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31 May 201705.32 EDT

Severin Carrell

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, has again been forced to shore up her party’s manifesto pledge to oppose a second independence referendum after Jeremy Corbyn again said he would be happy to allow one.

Scottish Labour officials say Corbyn has been repeatedly briefed there is one party line: Labour opposes independence and opposes a fresh referendum. Yet he repeatedly fails to keep to the script.

Corbyn on Tuesday repeated his view that it was hard for any UK prime minister to deny demands for a second referendum if there was a Holyrood mandate and popular support. Speaking on a campaign visit in London on Tuesday, he insisted he believed independence was a bad idea but said:

What I’ve said is that if the Scottish parliament and the Scottish people want a referendum, they have the right to do that. That was the whole point of the devolution agreement of the 1990s.

I think the referendum should take place, if there is to be one, after the Brexit negotiations are concluded because this is the most important thing.

Labour officials will point out that the Scottish National party cannot pass one of Corbyn’s tests, in that there is not majority support amongst the Scottish electorate for a fresh referendum yet. But the SNP has passed his first test: Holyrood agreed by 10 votes in March to support Nicola Sturgeon’s call for one, ideally between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Ask the Leader programme on Tuesday evening, Dugdale insisted there were no policy differences with Corbyn. She said:

You picked one 10-second quote there. I’m pointing you to an entire record, a manifesto and a programme for government that says we’re opposed to independence and a second independence referendum.

It couldn’t be clearer than that.

With its poll ratings still under 20%, the Scottish party feels under intense pressure to reinforce its pro-UK credentials to stem the tide of strongly unionist voters in once Labour areas towards the Scottish Tories. Accepting the case for a referendum also undermines Dugdale’s efforts to present federalism as the best answer to separatism – a policy Corbyn has yet to support.

Theresa May is on a visit to Plymouth this morning. Commenting on the Telegraph splash, which says a leaked policy paper shows that Labour is considering letting unskilled EU workers come to the UK after Brexit, she said:

What we need to do is have proper control of our immigration and, of course, we are going to be able to put in rules for people coming from the EU to the UK once we leave the European Union.

There’s a very clear choice at this election, there’s a very clear difference between myself and Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party.

I want to ensure we are controlling migration because too high uncontrolled migration puts pressure on our public services but it also lowers wages at the lower end of the income scale.

I want to ensure we control migration. Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party want uncontrolled migration.

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We tried to put a live feed of the press conference at the top of the blog, but there was a glitch, and it did not work. That’s why there’s no picture and just a URL there now. We are trying to get it fixed.

Rayner is winding up.

She says she talks a lot about being brought up on a council estate by a single mum who could not read. She does this to make the point about how much schemes like Sure Start can make a difference, she says.

She says Labour’s plans for free childcare, and for a national education service, would ensure that children like her get real opportunities.

The Tories will tell you you cannot have that, she says. But you can.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: What does Labour think is a reasonable figure for how much people should pay for social care? Would you back £72,000, the cap proposed by Andrew Dilnot.

Ashworth says Labour would put more money into social care.

He says Labour thinks the Dilnot principles are “sound”. Labour would consult on them. Over a parliament, it wants to move to a national care service.

Corbyn says the current crisis is appalling. The fact that the Tories have done a U-turn on a manifesto promise is unprecedented.

Q: What would you say to Theresa May saying if you negotiated Brexit, you would be alone and naked in the debating chamber.

“Not a pretty sight”, says Angela Smith, the Labour leader in the Lords, who is charing the session.

Corbyn says he would not use language like that himself. He thinks it is inappropriate to describe anyone as “naked”.

He would approach the negotiations in a serious way.

But he is not approaching them by threatening Europe, threatening to walk away and set up a rival tax haven.

We are leaving the EU, but will need a relationship with Europe in the future.

He says Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has been reaching out already, and has been holding meetings in Europe.

Q: Did you ever meet loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland?

Yes, says Corbyn. He says he had long conversations with people like David Ervine, the former loyalist terrorist who became leader of the Progressive Unionist party.

He says we should celebrate what has been achieved in the peace process.