The Brexit Party
Mail
Nigel Farage has threatened to report No10 to the police tonight for allegedly phoning his candidates to bribe them with peerages if they stand aside in the general election. Mr Farage faced a revolt this afternoon as Dudley North hopeful Rupert Lowe and Andy Wood, who was due to fight Hove, withdrew just after the election nominations meaning he cannot replace them. The furious Brexit Party leader said he was considering reporting the Tories to the police, claiming they had offered his candidates seats in the Lords and government jobs to stand aside. In a tweet Mr Farage alleged: ‘Even Boris Johnson’s Chief Strategic Adviser Sir Edward Lister is calling our candidates and offering them jobs if they withdraw. The system is corrupt and broken.’ The Conservative Party deny the allegations which, if true, would contravene Section 107, ‘Corrupt withdrawal of candidature,’ of the Representation of the People Act.
Independent
Downing Street has been accused of a “stitch-up” after Nigel Farage claimed senior Tories had attempted to bribe Brexit Party figures with jobs and peerages in return for withdrawing from marginal seats. Mr Farage claimed figures “deep inside Number 10” had attempted to pressure him to pull candidates out of the general election, conduct he said was “bordering on corruption”. The claims came as the European Commission launched legal action against the UK over Boris Johnson‘s failure nominate a new EU commissioner to send to Brussels.
Mirror
A top aide to Boris Johnson last night denied allegations of “political corruption” after Nigel Farage claimed Downing Street had offered Brexit Party candidates peerages not to stand in the election. It came after Mr Farage said that Brexit Party candidates were being subjected to “Venezuelan-style” intimidation by the Conservative Party, in order to give Mr Johnson an easier path to No 10. Mr Farage said: “Even Boris Johnson ’s Chief Strategic Adviser Sir Edward Lister is calling our candidates and offering them jobs if they withdraw. The system is corrupt and broken.”
Telegraph
Nigel Farage threatened to report the Conservatives to the police, after accusing Downing Street of offering Brexit Party candidates jobs and peerages to withdraw from the general election on Thursday night. The Brexit Party leader claimed the Tories were guilty of “corruption of the worst level” as he alleged they had offered eight peerages as incentives in what he likened to “living in Venezuela”. No 10 categorically denied any inducements had been offered. It came after three Brexit Party candidates stood down from marginal seats on the day the nominations deadline passed, prompting speculation that others could refuse to campaign.
Times
Nigel Farage faced a rebellion within his party yesterday as parliamentary candidates, including one of his MEPs, defied him and pulled out of the general election. Rupert Lowe, an MEP for the West Midlands, said that he was “putting country before party” as he withdrew at the last minute with an attack on Mr Farage’s electoral strategy. Mr Lowe had been due to contest Dudley North, one of the most marginal seats in England. As he announced that he had quit, a minute before nominations closed, he said that standing could have let in Labour by the back door.
Mail
Nigel Farage is harming the Tories more than Labour, a polling expert warned yesterday. The Brexit Party leader last night refused to withdraw candidates from seats Boris Johnson needs for a Commons majority. But as the deadline for nominations passed, at least two of his candidates refused to hand in their papers to avoid splitting the pro-Brexit vote. Sir John Curtice, a professor of politics at Strathclyde University, yesterday said the election is a ‘binary choice’ between Mr Johnson and his Brexit deal or a second referendum under Jeremy Corbyn.
Conservative Party
Telegraph
Boris Johnson will reinstate local railway lines axed under the Beeching cuts in the 1960s as part of a package of measures to rejuvenate provincial towns. The Conservatives will make a manifesto pledge to spend £500 million opening branch lines that closed more than 50 years ago, starting with routes in the north of England. Writing in The Telegraph, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps promises the plan will: “Banish the shadow of Beeching and restore those connections which made our country great and brought our people together.”
BBC News
The Conservatives have pledged to reduce business rates for small firms in a bid to help “left- behind” towns, if they win the general election. Under their plans, they would also extend discounts on business rates to smaller cinemas and music venues. They are also offering to make it easier for local groups to buy community buildings such as post offices. But Labour said the Tories had destroyed High Streets and towns.
Mail
Boris Johnson will today promise to spend £500million on reopening rail lines axed in the notorious Beeching closures of the Sixties. The ‘Beeching reversal fund’ will be spent on reconnecting branch lines to towns cut off from the rail network. It forms part of a package of support aimed at communities that Mr Johnson said had been ‘left behind.’ The pledge will also be seen as a pitch to parts of the Midlands and the North, where the Tories believe they can win over Leave voters from Labour at next month’s election.
Times
Boris Johnson is promising to revitalise “left behind” high streets through tax cuts for pubs and shops and reversing some of the Beeching rail cuts to branch lines. Towns have been promised a share of a £150 million fund to help local people to buy up pubs and post offices threatened with closure. Shop, cafés and pubs will be given a 50 per cent discount on business rates, up from 33 per cent, saving them an average of £1,400 each.
Labour Party
Mail
Jeremy Corbyn faced fresh humiliation last night as it emerged his own candidates have accused him of destroying Labour and leading the party to electoral annihilation. A dozen would-be Labour MPs savaged Mr Corbyn’s character and his chances of becoming PM. Some slammed his Brexit dithering while others blamed him for not driving anti-Semitism out of his party and blasted him for allowing hard-Left zealots to take control. The embarrassing remarks were made in social media posts and articles – some made this year but most before they were selected to stand for the party – uncovered by the Mail.
Sun
JOANNA Lumley is among a score of stars warning that electing Jeremy Corbyn would mean giving up the fight against anti-Semitism in a bombshell letter. Anti-Semitism is more central to the wider debate about the future of Britain and ignoring it over Brexit is a dangerous path, the letter argues. Joanna Lumley, Dan Snow, Trevor Phillips and 21 others have signed the letter declaring they cannot vote for Labour in the upcoming election. The letter explains: “To ignore it [anti-Semitism] because Brexit looms larger is to declare that anti-Jewish prejudice is a price worth paying for a Labour government.
Express
JEREMY Corbyn’s plans to abolish private schools, ensure Britons work a four-day week, and place significant taxes on cars have been branded nothing more than “unrealistic empty promises”. The past 14 days has seen the emergence of many of the details of the much-anticipated Labour manifesto, which is expected to be released next week, with the socialist party promising big changes for workers, the public sector and the climate. But analysts have savaged the plans days before they are expected to be officially released into the public domain, with one even claiming that forcing the nation to work a four-day week would provoke a mass surge in unemployment causing an “angry electorate on the dole”.
Telegraph
Every home and business in the UK could get free full-fibre broadband by 2030 under a multi-billion pound plan by Labour to part-nationalise BT. A new state body, British broadband, would be created to bring into public ownership the parts of BT responsible for rolling out the super-fast broadband. The £20 billion cost will be partly funded by a tax on tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. It will save the average person some £30.30 a month.
Mail
Labour have been mocked for their ‘reckless fantasy’ to spend £20billion to give free broadband to every home through a renationalised BT paid for by taxing Google and Apple. ‘It’s visionary I accept that, but other countries are having these visions and we’re not,’ Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told the BBC on Thursday night. His project was swiftly trashed by government, with Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan ridiculing the ‘fantasy plan’ to roll-out fibre for all by 2030.
Times
A Labour government would nationalise Britain’s broadband network and offer free internet access to every household and business in the country, the party will say today. Outlining its most radical policy of the campaign to date, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, will say that Labour would commit £20.3 billion to speed up the introduction of broadband. It would also nationalise BT’s Openreach, which owns the bulk of the full-fibre network.
Independent
Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of winning an overall majority for Labour in the 12 December general election are “as close to zero as one can safely say it to be”, Professor Sir John Curtice has said. But Mr Corbyn could still enter 10 Downing Street as prime minister next month, the polling guru said. Speaking at Westminster, the Strathclyde University election expert said that the most likely outcomes based on current polling is either a fairly sizeable Tory majority delivering Brexit on Boris Johnson’s terms or a hung parliament resulting in a minority Labour administration propped up by other parties delivering a second referendum.
Mail
A senior Labour frontbencher admitted the party will ‘extend’ freedom of movement rights if it wins the election today as a furious civil war broke out over its immigration policy. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott made the admission on Twitter after a trade union kingpin had warned that such a plan could cost it seats in its working class heartlands. Another shadow minister had earlier refused to say whether Labour would keep or scrap freedom of movement if it took power.
Sun
LABOUR’S bitter civil war on immigration exploded into the open yesterday as Diane Abbott insisted the party would extend its open door pledge. Long-running tensions finally erupted as leader Jeremy Corbyn’s key lieutenants face a 48-hour deadline to agree their General Election offer. Unite boss Len McCluskey called a vote by left-wing activists at Labour’s conference in September to widen free movement rules as “wrong”. Hours later, Shadow Home Secretary Ms Abbott, who controls the immigration policy brief, publicly hit back on Twitter.
Times
Jeremy Corbyn has refused to say whether migration will rise or fall if Labour wins the election, after a split among his senior team over free movement. The Labour leader said that people needed to be “realistic” about the jobs that have to be filled so the economy’s needs can be met and criticised “arbitrary” migration targets. He suggested, however, that a policy to “extend free movement rights”, which was voted through at the Labour Party conference in September, would not be included in its election manifesto.
EU
Telegraph
The European Commission brought legal action against Britain for breaking its EU treaty obligations on Thursday, after Boris Johnson rejected its demands to name a new commissioner to serve in Brussels. The commission said it would kickstart a process that could end with Britain sued in the European Court of Justice and subjected to huge, daily fines, unless it complies or leaves the EU before the case reaches the EU.
Guardian
British taxpayers face paying out for a large fine after the EU launched a legal action against Boris Johnson’s government over his failure to abide by the law and nominate a candidate for the new European commission. Despite knowing for weeks that the UK would remain in the EU beyond 31 October, when a new EU executive had been due to be in place, Downing Street failed to put someone forward to join the bloc’s 28-strong top team.
Yahoo News
The European Commission launched a legal case against Britain on Thursday after London, in the throes of a Brexit-focussed election campaign, served notice it would not name its representative to the European Union’s new executive body. The dispute added to the political muddle dogging the final stages in the formation of a new Commission after the bloc’s parliament refused to swiftly ratify Hungary’s appointee, an ally of his country’s eurosceptic nationalist prime minister.
Breitbart
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that European Union member states are not allowed to kick asylum seekers out of asylum homes even if they have been violent in the past. The ruling comes after a case involving an Afghan migrant in Belgium who had been involved in a fight between other migrants in an asylum home and was kicked out of the home for 15 days, during which he lived on the streets of Brussels or with his friends, Kronen Zeitung reports. The ECJ ruled that the decision to remove the Afghan, even if just temporarily, was a violation of EU law and that a 2013 regulation on refugees banned such penalties for offences, even if they were violent.
Independent
EU citizens who miss the deadline to apply for residency after Brexit will only be granted leniency from deportation in exceptional circumstances, according to people briefed on the plans. A narrow list of exemptions from deportation, such as people with physical or mental incapacity, or children whose parents fail to apply on their behalf, are included in government guidelines as reported by the Reuters news agency, “We are looking at a fairly high threshold, saying ‘I forgot’ won’t be good enough,” an immigration lawyer briefed on the plans told Reuters. “If someone fails to apply before the deadline they will have no lawful residence.
Express
BREXITEERS have hit back at Donald Tusk, accusing him of “insulting and deriding” British voters, after he urged Remainers to keep up their fight to stop the UK leaving the EU. The outgoing president of the European Council used a speech in Brussels to lay bare his aversion for Brexit in a stinging attack, claiming the UK will become a “second-rate player” on the world stage after it has broken ties with the EU. The Eurocrat also had a message for anti-Brexit campaigners calling for a second referendum, telling them “don’t give up”.
LibDems
Reuters
Britain’s anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats will promise on Friday to spend 100 billion pounds ($128 billion) on tackling climate change if they win a Dec. 12 election. The Liberal Democrats trail Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party in opinion polls and are expected to fall a long way short of winning the election outright. But they could have an important role if neither the Conservatives nor Labour win a majority and have to find a partner in order to form a government.
NHS
Telegraph
Accident & Emergency waiting times are the worst since records began, figures reveal, as the health secretary claims the situation would deteriorate under Labour. One in six patients waited longer than four hours in A&E in England last month – the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced in 2004. Just 83.6 per cent of such patients were treated or admitted in four hours, according to the figures from NHS England. Labour said the statistics show the NHS is heading for a winter of “abject misery”.
Times
One in six patients is waiting more than four hours in A&E, with the worst monthly figures on record leading to warnings that patients are about to endure one of the bleakest winters in NHS history. Furious doctors said that NHS performance “should be a source of shame for politicians” as the state of hospitals forced to treat patients in corridors and chairs was thrust to the centre of the election campaign. The Tories are acutely nervous of the impact of NHS waits on their efforts to win over older, poorer voters and sought to argue that things would get even worse under Labour, which accused the government of creating the crisis.
Mail
October was the worst month ever for A&E waiting times in England, NHS figures revealed today in a pre-election blow for Boris Johnson. Just 83.6 per cent of patients were seen within four hours, a record low which meant 320,000 people sat for longer while medics decided what to do with them. Figures this year have shown the NHS is not having crises in the winter and recovering over summer but is under immense strain all year round. Five of the 10 worst monthly performances on record have all been this year and even those for May, June and July were worse than autumn months in 2018.
Immigration
Telegraph
Britain is braced for the return of dozens of home-grown Islamic State fighters after Turkey yesterday began the process of sending back captured UK citizens. Turkey announced yesterday it was deporting a British jihadist fighter signalling a change of policy that threatens the UK strategy of leaving terrorists to fester abroad. Hours later the suspect, a 26-year-old British citizen, was arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorism offences after arriving at Heathrow airport on a flight from Turkey. The maximum sentence if charged and found guilty is life in prison.
Rail travel
Times
Taxpayers had to fork out more than £400 million to prop up loss-making train companies last year, renewing calls to renationalise the railways. Official figures show that the government had to subsidise private operators last year for the first time in almost a decade. Figures from the Office of Rail and Road show that companies received a net subsidy — the amount they receive from the taxpayer minus the sum they pay the government — of £417 million in 2018-19.
Mail
London Underground drivers are to stage a 24-hour strike amid claims of a ‘fundamental breakdown’ in industrial relations. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union on the Victoria line will walk out from 10pm on November 27. The line is one of the busiest on the Tube network, carrying hundreds of thousands of passengers a day. The union warned that it will consider further strikes in December if the dispute is not resolved. RMT general secretary Mick Cash accused LU management of reneging on agreements reached during talks.
Say what you will about Nigel – but as far as I know he has not issued a single monetary childish bribe during the course of his promotion of Brexit. What the other clowns are offering is positively laughable. The Brexit promise, laughably denied; immigration control. laughably betrayed; social housing building, largely to house immigrants and naer-do-wells; The NHS impossible to finance simply by taxes, and recovery of monies due from overseas leeches, pathetically managed. There is NO WAY that we could be any worse of with a dozen or more TBP MP’s.
Yes, TBP have promised to enable this country and the population to have the freedom to decide their own fate – let’s face it. Would YOU choose Barnier or Drunkard to decide the fate of this still great country?
“There is a tide in the affairs of men……….
THIS is that tide……and TBP offers the chance, after forty years of servitude, to show the world what we are capable of.
Just out of interest, when does UKIP appoint a new Leader?
When can you start?
LOL
If Nigel Farage’s allegation that the Tories are offering TBP candidates peerages in return for standing down is correct then I suggest Boris’ battle bus should bear the slogan ‘We Buy Any Seats.com’.
Does no one care that all this money has to come from the taxpayer. There is something deeply sinister with our establishment that they think the British public are so very stupid that they can be bought with their own hard earned money. It is high time the electorate started to vote for new parties, new ideas and new faces. We truly must clear down the fetid swamp in Westminster.
If these lying, conniving, self-serving bunch of ne’er do wells ,were to put all their ‘miraculously acquired billions into the development of industry and infrastructure -what a very different country this would be.
Scrap all those ‘mushroom’ excuses for Universities, churning out Media-Morons’ – and expand our engineering and sciences Institutions, together with a National Service and there will be a sea-change in the quality of our youngsters.
We owe it to our young to offer them mature guidance in the furtherance of their aspitprations. They’re not all bad – but often badly served by family as well as our political ‘leaders’.
It can and should be done.
Well said Angela – but do you really think this miserable lot we have in the Leadership race really give a damn when it comes to we mortals?
How is it that a bumbling, scruffy, monosyllabic cheat like Boris can percolate to the very top tier of our fantastic country?
What sort of quality as a statesman has he been displaying in the last few years?
Five kids, three or four (or is it five?) different wives/girlfriends: innumerable cock-ups in his different Government jobs.
As for Corbyn – surely I couldn’t add to the litany of faults he openly displays? He is just as scruffy and unkempt as Boris.
Where Oh! where do they find these grisly characters.
Of course neither of them have gleaned the public vote as ‘leaders’.
Surely now is our chance to ‘de-throne’ both of them in one fell swoop.
Give TBP enough power to sway the votes in the HofC and we may well see some real men and women emerge who sincerely have their country at heart – I am STILL hopeful.
Just how many TBP voters do you imagine is needed under FPTP to win ANY seats in Parliament Mister P? They’re spread evenly across the country. It’s gonna be around three times the number estimated nationally to vote for the party. Sad to say.
FPTP is an evil system whose only purpose is for the Tory Party to survive in perpetuity.
“It is high time the electorate started to vote for new parties, new ideas and new faces”.
Great idea. AFTER First Past The Post has been replaced by PR, otherwise it ain’t gonna happen.
free full-fibre broadband by 2030
– the fine print says, and you will be
1) permanently monitored
2) blocked from nasty sites such as gambling, facebook and twitter – porn, you must be joking
3) charged for internet traffic usage ‘to offset the ”free” aspect of the compulsory offer’.
And “Hate Sites”, like Independence Daily, will be deleted, “quietly and without sorrow”.
Re-opening of railway lines closed for 50+ years. A bit difficult if the land has been developed into, say, industrial estates; old station houses sold off as private houses; trackway turned over to “green” paths, bridleways etc. Nice idea though.
Where I live, they took away all the bridges rather than pay the upkeep. Plus all the old railway entrances are one way streets – the wrong way or as post below, built over.
Shake the money tree anyone?
Five hundred million pounds to reinstate closed railway branch lines interesting that as many have been built over and bridges removed along with access roads and infrastructure. Then how do you get to the station, nearest closed line to me is seven miles away and no bus service, then there is the question of car parking at the station , sounds like another dead cat on the table to me. Although with labours free wifi we will least be able to chat to ‘Alexa ‘ as we wind our way in the pony and trap as cars will presumably be banned to the station, hope they build in lots of stabling though as I wouldn’t want to leave the horse tied up outside all day.
In the 1970s I produced a feasibility study to re open a railway line in south London. On dicovering this two bridges were instantly demolished. Thus trumping the idea.
Motto’
The Civil Service can act like lightening if their own or EU interests are involved.
Never trust a committee.