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Jeremy Corbyn is again embroiled in a row over antisemitism, after the U.K.’s chief rabbi suggested the Labour leader is unfit for high office and said a “new poison — sanctioned from the very top — has taken root” in his party. The timing could hardly be worse. Labour trails Boris Johnson’s Conservatives going into the Dec. 12 election, but appeared to have secured a poll boost on the back of plans to dramatically reshape the British economy.
Coming up:
Deadline for British citizens to register to vote is 11:59 p.m.Corbyn launches Labour’s race and faith manifesto in North LondonBBC interview with the Labour leader airs at 7 p.m.Johnson is campaigning in Scotland, where he warned that a Labour win would see Corbyn’s party working with the SNPAn ICM/Reuters poll released Monday put the Conservatives on 41%, Labour on 34%, Liberal Democrats on 13% and the Brexit Party on 4%There’s now a 69% chance of a Conservative majority, based on odds offered by bookmaker Paddy Power, down from 74%
Johnson: No Referendums Even If No Majority (12:40 p.m.)
Boris Johnson ruled out holding a second referendum on either Scottish independence or the U.K.’s European Union membership — even if he finds himself in a minority government after the Dec. 12 general election.
“I genuinely think they would be bad for our country,” Johnson said in Fife, Scotland at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto. “It’s not the way forward now. We need to honor democracy.”
The red line leaves Johnson with few options if he does find himself with the biggest party in Parliament but no outright majority. That’s because Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party all want a second referendum on Brexit, while the SNP is demanding a second vote on Scottish independence. Johnson has also alienated the Tories’ traditional allies in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, with his Brexit deal.
Labour’s Shah: Party Should Have Acted Sooner (11:30 a.m.)
Labour’s women and equalities spokeswoman Naz Shah said the party should have acted faster on instances of antisemitism and to rebuild trust with the Jewish community.
“It is not acceptable that the Jewish community does not feel that the Labour Party is its natural home,” Shah told the BBC on Tuesday. “We haven’t been as good as we could be, we need to get better even today. We could do things differently, we do need to do much better at it and that means listening and that means responding accordingly to the Jewish community.”
Jeremy Corbyn’s party launches its race and faith manifesto shortly in Tottenham, north London, and the furore over the intervention by the U.K.’s chief rabbi will inevitably dominate proceedings.
Corbyn’s Spending Blitz Wins Economists’ Backing (Earlier)
Former Bank of England policy maker Danny Blanchflower and more than 160 other economists and academics have backed the Labour Party’s election promises as the best way to help the U.K. economy.
In a letter published in the Financial Times, the economists said productivity growth has all but stagnated over the past decade and more public investment is needed, particularly into green technology aimed at energy, transport, housing, industry and farming.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plans include an extra 83 billion pounds ($108 billion) of day-to-day spending and 55 billion pounds more for investment, which amounts to about six pounds of new spending for every one pledged by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.
Gove: Rabbi’s Labour Intervention ‘Unprecedented’ (Earlier)
Cabinet minister Michael Gove called criticism of Labour by the U.K.’s chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis “an unprecedented intervention in a general election.”
“Jeremy Corbyn has been warned about antisemitism at the heart of his party for years now,” Gove told Talk Radio on Tuesday. “The chief rabbi has confirmed that Jeremy Corbyn just hasn’t taken the action required.”
But Labour’s faith envoy Stephen Timms told the same station “steps have been taken to deal with” antisemitism in the party, and accused Gove’s Tories of ignoring its own problems with racism and prejudice.
“There have been problems of antisemitism in the Tory Party as well, as well as a very big problem of Islamophobia which the Tory party has largely ignored,” said Timms, a Labour member of Parliament.
Johnson, Corbyn Dig Up Old Attack Lines (Earlier)
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are digging up attack lines from past elections as they seek to get an edge ahead of the Dec. 12 election.
Johnson’s Conservatives on Tuesday said a Labour win would see Corbyn’s party, allied with Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party, spending next year — and 150 million pounds ($194 million) — holding fresh referendums on Scottish independence and the U.K.’s EU membership. That revives their 2015 warning that Labour would form a “coalition of chaos” with Sturgeon, which helped David Cameron win a surprise majority.
Labour, meanwhile, unveiled a “pledge card” for pensioners including a 10.8 billion-pound package for social care, and said the Tories couldn’t be trusted to look after the elderly. That sparks memories of the 2017 campaign when Labour branded the Tory social care plan a “dementia tax,” helping to derail Theresa May’s bid to extend her majority.
Read more: Labour, Tories Dig Up Old Attack Lines in Bid for U.K. Power
Anti-Brexit Tories Ramp Up Johnson Criticism (Earlier)
Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine urged voters to back the Liberal Democrats and accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of pursuing an “utterly disastrous” policy on Brexit.
“The real issue is what is at stake and it is the prosperity of this country, the world influence of this country, our relationship with our neighbors in Europe,” Heseltine told BBC radio on Tuesday. “I cannot vote or support people who are going to make the country poorer or less influential.”
It’s the latest example of anti-Brexit Conservatives trying to make their voices heard in the run up to the Dec. 12 vote. On Monday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s Tory predecessor in his Esher and Walton constituency in south of London said voters should back for the Liberal Democrat candidate.
“Brexit has scrambled traditional party allegiances,” Ian Taylor, who held Esher and Walton for 23 years until 2010, said on Twitter. “It is not a time for tribal party loyalties.”
Read more: Threat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. Voters
Earlier:
Four Ways the U.K. Election Could Play Out for BrexitLabour, Tories Dig Up Old Attack Lines in Bid for U.K. PowerThreat to Raab Shows the Shifting Loyalties of U.K. Voters
–With assistance from Andrew Atkinson.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at [email protected];Kitty Donaldson in London at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at [email protected], Stuart Biggs, Andrew Atkinson
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