Yahoo News Tuesday briefing: Debate awaits for Corbyn and Johnson
Good morning and welcome as we bring you today’s top election news – from Labour’s pledge to soak the super-rich, to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn facing off in tonight’s first TV debate. Our live coverage of the day’s political news is up and running.
What’s going on?
All political eyes will be on ITV tonight as it hosts the first leaders’ debate. Notably absent will be Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon, who lost their high court battle to be included. Johnson and Corbyn alone will be asked questions submitted by viewers. You can bet the health service will get high billing after revelations today that 90% of NHS bosses fear understaffing is endangering patients. Almost six in 10 of them think this winter will be the toughest yet for the service.
The Lib Dems will add to the NHS narrative when they pledge to invest an extra £35bn into health and social care over the next five years, by adding a penny to the basic rate of income tax. The party says this would raise £7bn, taking their proposed NHS budget to £142.8bn by 2023-24. The plan places them in between spending pledges by the Tories (£140.3bn) and Labour (£143.5bn).
Labour will take aim at the Tories’ £100bn tax giveaway to UK billionaires as John McDonnell ramps up his attack on the super-rich. McDonnell will say that Labour intends to “rewrite the rules of our economy”, whereas the PM is on the side of “the billionaires, the bankers and big business. Someone on the national minimum wage would have to work 69,000 years to get paid £1bn and a newly qualified nurse would have to wait 50,000 years. No one needs or deserves to have that much money, it is obscene.”
At a glance
The Conservatives will pledge that adults who commit the premeditated murder of a child will be given “whole-life prison terms”. Currently the rules require the murder to be of multiple children, or to be sexually or sadistically motivated.
The Corbyn-backing Momentum faction is scaling up for a “once in a generation chance” to change the country with a sophisticated online and doorstep campaign that borrows ideas from the US and makes innovative use of WhatsApp.
Labour will pledge to close loopholes used to hunt foxes, hares and deer as it launches its animal welfare manifesto.
Suzanne Moore has written why voting in this election feels like “clinging to the wreckage of a system we should dismantle. All the issues that really matter require cooperation, not silly, point-scoring conflict.”
You can read John Crace’s take on Boris Johnson’s bumbling speech at the CBI in which he shelved planned corporation tax cuts (“the less effort he was seen to make, the more the public seemed to like him”) and Polly Toynbee’s view on the poverty crisis and why the PM doesn’t care.
The day ahead
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, will call for immigration powers to be devolved from Westminster to to Scotland.
The Green party will launch its election manifesto, stressing its status as the only major party committed to zero carbon emissions by 2030.
The election debate starts on ITV at 8pm.
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Best of the rest
> About 600 protesters who were trapped by police inside Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University have surrendered, authorities have said, with 400 arrests made according to news just in. Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong leader, said among them were 200 children whom there were no immediate plans to arrest. Up to 200 remained inside at time of writing.
> The Trump administration has declared Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land are not necessarily illegal – a dramatic break with international law, the Geneva conventions, and the policy of the US and its allies. Senior Palestinian politician Saeb Erekat condemned Trump for “unceasing attempts to replace international law with the law of the jungle”. But Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, lauded it as the righting of a “historical wrong” and acceptance of “reality on the ground”.
> As winter approaches, doctors are warning of the risk of “feather duvet lung”. The condition, also known as hypersensitivity pneumonitis, is caused by an allergic reaction to dust from bird feathers. It can cause unexplained breathlessness, night sweats and a dry cough, but is often overlooked by GPs treating such symptoms, say medical experts. Repeated exposure can cause irreversible scarring of the lungs. Other forms of hypersensitivity pneumonitis include“farmer’s lung”, “bagpiper’s lung” and “paprika slicer’s lung”.
Today in Focus podcast: Brexit and Belfast politics
The Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, Rory Carroll, visits east Belfast, where a majority of the protestant and unionist population backed Brexit. Is there an opening for a new kind of centrist politics? Plus: Suzanne Moore on the questions that remain for Prince Andrew.
Lunchtime read: Holes in the theory
Fear of clusters of holes and cracks – called trypophobia – may be evolutionary in origin. But as details are shared, it is becoming a social contagion.
Sport
Gareth Southgate has admitted that he will not remain in his job as England manager if his team fail at Euro 2020 next summer. A late Matt Doherty goal gave the Republic of Ireland hope in their qualifier against Denmark, but the game in Dublin ended 1-1 and the Irish must now rely on the play-offs to reach the finals. Russia could be banned from next year’s Olympic Games and football’s European Championship after Wada was expected to recommend it be found “non-compliant” over anomalies in drug testing results.
Ferrari will launch an investigation into the conduct of their drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc after they clashed with one another on track at the Brazilian grand prix. Somerset have been handed a 12-point deduction for next season’s County Championship after being found guilty of breaching pitch regulations. Leon Smith, Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain, has said he has three good options, not just Andy Murray and one more, for the World Cup of Tennis singles in Madrid. And Warren Gatland, the former Wales head coach, has told the Guardian he would have taken his side into a Rugby World Cup final against England with a feeling they could win.
Business
Asian share markets have been mixed on another day awaiting clearer news on US-China trade negotiations. MSCI’s non-Japanese regional index inched 0.2% higher as hopes for stimulus in China lifted Shanghai blue chips by 0.8% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng by 1%. The Nikkei and the Kospi both fell slightly. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up slightly. The pound is trading around $1.295 and €1.169 while the FTSE is tracking higher by a few points ahead of the open.
The papers
The Guardian this morning warns of the “Staffing crisis putting safety of patients at risk” in the NHS – a majority of hospital bosses think this winter will be the toughest yet for the service. The FT leads with “Johnson shelves corporation tax cut” as the Tory leader moves to free up £6bn to meet spending promises.
It feels like this campaign has been launched umpteen times but the i insists that the “Battle for 10 Downing Street starts tonight” with Corbyn and Johnson’s TV debate. The Metro’s main story is “44 years for Jodie killers”. Svenson Ong-a-Kwie and Arron Isaacs were sentenced to at least 26 years and 18 years respectively for fatally stabbing Jodie Chesney, 17, in the back in a park in Romford.
Various takes on Prince Andrew occupy most of the other front pages. “Andrew’s accuser films BBC interview” reports the Mirror, about Virginia Giuffre talking to the Panorama programme. “Queen backs Prince Andrew despite backlash” declares the Express. But others see it differently: “Andrew under fire from the Palace” – the Telegraph says the BBC interview did not have the Queen’s blessing. “Andrew out in the cold”, the Mail tells us, as businesses cut their ties with his projects, while “City backers abandon Andrew” is how the Times puts it.
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