General election: Johnson re-launches Tory campaign as Labor unveils NHS plan – live news – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

Minister Michael Gove has refused to accept that no deal is effectively back on the table with a newBrexitdeadline of the end of 2020 for a trade agreement.

Gove’s friend and former colleague David Gauke, who is running as an independent after having the Tory whip removed as punishment for rebelling, warned earlier that “we will leave the implementation period without a deal with theEuropean Unionon WTO terms, in effect on no-deal terms ”.

Gove told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “I’ve got a lot of respect and affection for David but I think in this one particular area he’s wrong because what we have is a Brexit deal that’s been negotiated , a withdrawal agreement which will make sure we safeguard the rights of UK citizens abroad and EU citizens in the UK and also a political declaration that spells out a future relationship based on free trade and friendly cooperation. ”

Former Conservative minister David Gauke is not holding back this morning. He’s now told Sky’s Kay Burley the policy pursued by the prime minister is “reckless and irresponsible” and a majority Conservative government “would be detrimental to people’s jobs and livelihoods”.

Urging people not to vote Tory, he adds: “I think the Conservative party has fundamentally changed. There are a lot of traditional Conservative voters who feel politically homeless. Many of them will vote for the Lib Dems … and they are right to. ”

The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, says the party’s pledge to fund the NHS with an extra £ 26 bn a year will be “transformative”.

Labor is todayunveiling a “rescue plan ”for the NHS in Englandwith the extra funding paid for by higher taxes on companies and the wealthiest in society.

Ashworth told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “We’ll use this extra funding to raise performance in our NHS. Remember, we’ve got around four and a half million people on the waiting lists. Many elderly people left languishing on trolleys in hospital corridors and we’re anticipating that to get particularly worse this winter… ”

Challenged on whether the money will be genuinely transformative rather than just allowing the NHS to get back on top of waiting lists, Ashworth said: “If I may say so, and I say this with utmost politeness, when you’ve got patients with glaucoma [a degenerative eye condition] at Southampton waiting so long for treatment that they go blind, including a pregnant mother who went blind and now has never seen the face of her daughter because of waits, I think putting more money in to turn around waiting lists is transformative. ”

Ashworth was referring to a damning casefirst revealed by the Timeswhich reported on how 15 hospital patients were left blind or with severe sight loss after staff shortages led to delays in their treatment.

Bad news forLaborin Scotland as the party’s former minister Tom Harris, who was MP for Glasgow South, has revealed he is voting Tory – saying that Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to the UK.

Harris condemned some Labor candidates who “continue to spout racist, antisemitic hatred”, reports the Scottish Daily Mail. Harrisquit Labor last yearafter 34 years in the party.

Ruth Davidson, former leader of the Scottish Conservative party, has tweeted the Scottish Daily Mail’s front page this morning:

Here’s Conservative minister Michael Gove hitting back at his former colleague and “good friend” David Gauke’s criticism of the party, highlighting that there are “some very powerful voices from withinLabor.. warning us of the dangers of Jeremy Corbyn ”.

David Gauke, one of 21 Tory MPs who had the whip removed after rebelling against the government, says a Conservative majority will veer the country to a “very hard Brexit” that would be “disastrous for the prosperity of this country”.

The former Tory MP and justice secretary has opened up about his reasons forstanding as an independent candidatein the general election, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today program:

The reason being, and this pains me to say it, but a Conservative majority after the next general election will take us in the direction of a very hardBrexit.

And in all likelihood at the end of 2020 we will leave the implementation period without a deal with theEuropean Unionon WTO terms, in effect on no-deal terms. And that, I believe, would be disastrous for the prosperity of this country.

Asked about his decision to run as an independent, unlike former chancellor Philip Hammond – who also had the whip removed for rebelling against the government in order to stop a no-deal Brexit – he said:

Different individuals will reach different choices. I’ve got an enormous amount of respect for Philip. He is motivated by the national interest and that has run through his entire career.

But I, in good faith, have reached a different conclusion. I believe I can influence events in this general election to some small extent. And I think the best way I can do that.

He says he hopes the Liberal Democrats will stand aside in his seat in South West Hertfordshire but adds that “is a decision for them”. Gauke is also backing a second referendum on Johnson’s deal.

Rowena Mason

(Labor) is to unveil a “rescue plan” for the NHS in England with an extra £ 26 bn of funding a year paid for by higher taxes on companies and the wealthiest in society, as the party puts the health service at the heart of its election offer to Voters.

The party’s pledge would give the health service £ 5.5bn more a year by 2023 – 24 than the £ 5bnConservativeshave promised and represent the biggest boost to health spending since Labor was last in power between 1997 and 2010 .

It puts pressure on Boris Johnson to increase the money he is committing to the NHS, which he has made one of his three “people’s priority” andSeeking to make a Tory vote-winner.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, will say that “proper funding” is needed to maintain a world-class health service as he proposes a 4.3% annual rise in funding.

Labor says the sums it is pledging would end the lengthening delays faced by patients for A&E care, cancer treatment and planned operations, tackle the NHS’s worsening staffing crisis, restore bursaries for student nurses, improve mental healthcare, let hospitals buy scores of new CT and MRI scanners and pay for a new generation of hospitals, GP surgeries and mental health facilities.

How the papers covered it

TheGuardianfeatures a picture from the Australian bushfires but leads with election news and Labor’s “£ 26 bn rescue plan for NHS ”. The (Mirror) calls that “Labor’s 10 – point plan to save the NHS. ”

Thei’sangle is “Battle for the NHS ”as the Tories also flash more cash for the health service. The (Times) and theExpressfocus on a 14 – point lead for the Tories. YouGov for the Times has put the Tories on 42%, Labor on (% and the Lib Dems on) %. TheTelegraph’ssplash is “Brexit will start green revolution, pledges PM”, asBoris Johnsonsays that if re-elected his government will spearhead a drive to tackle climate change.

We begin the day with some fighting words from Angela Rayner, whosat down with the Guardian’s Heather Stewart yesterday.

The shadow education secretary claimedBoris Johnsonis “in cahoots” with Nigel Farage after the announcement that Brexit party candidates would stand aside in Conservative-held seats to help deliver Johnson a majority.

“Nigel Farage is working in cahoots with Boris Johnson, trying to hoodwink the public – and they are very friendly with Donald Trump,” Rayner told the Guardian.

She warned voters, particularly in the Midlands and the north, to stick withLaboror risk “a hard-right nasty Tory government, that will privatize and deregulate our markets – and they will make Margaret Thatcher look like a pussycat ”.

Farage’s deal with the Conservatives seems to have everyone up in arms today. The Conservatives are unhappy with him afterNigel Farage refused calls from Conservativesfor the Brexit party to stand down in Labor marginal seats, saying the request was “almost comical” and that the Brexit party needed to get MPs into parliament to hold Boris Johnson’s feet to the fire.

On the other side of politics,there are ructions in the Liberal Democrats, after Tim Walker, the Lib Dem candidate for Canterbury, announced he would be stepping out of the race in order to give Rosie Duffield, the Labor candidate whoTook Canterbury from the Toriesfor the first time in 2017 by just 187 votes, the best chance of winning. Almost immediately afterwards, a party spokesman said Walker would be replaced “in due course”. But a local Lib Dem source said the party in Canterbury was vehemently opposed to replacing Walker and that all four members approved to stand as MPs had said they would not do so.

And the former Tory ministerDavid Gauke has announced he will stand as an independent candidate, saying he represents “a form of liberal Conservatism ”and had become increasingly uncomfortable with the direction the Conservative party had taken regarding Brexit, saying“ the Conservative party has got it badly wrong ”.

Kate Lyons

Good morning and welcome to Politics live, as we bring you every tasty morsel of news during this election campaign.

Johnsonwill relaunch the Conservatives’ election campaign today,with a speech at anelectric vehicle plant in the West Midlands, the first big set-piece speech of the campaign. In it, he will offer the familiar roll-call of core policies, including a pledge to “end the groundhoggery of Brexit”, spend more on the NHS and cut crime.

Johnson will also attack Jeremy Corbyn’s party, saying a Labor government would condemn the UK to the “intellectual cul-de-sac of far left Corbynism”. The entry of the prime minister to the full electoral fray after a relatively quiet start to his campaign comes after hisstarring turn in an election videothat sought to portray Boris Johnson as a man of the people, but which some viewers thought made him look more like David Brent.

I’ll be at the helm of the blog for the early hours, you can reach me onTwitteror via email ([email protected]).

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