Inside Politics: Boris Johnson forced to deal with empathy deficit

Ever thought about fleeing the godforsaken land of Brexit and starting a new life somewhere else? Ever thought about Finland? The lovely, lucky Scandinavians about to get the world’s youngest – and probably the hippest – prime minister on the planet. Former bakery worker Sanna Marin, only 34-years-old, will begin leading a left-wing, all-female coalition government later this week. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, is expected to elect an over-privileged 55-year-old, right-wing megalomaniac who ignores pictures of sick children when they’re placed in front of him. There’s still enough time for Britain to regain its senses. There’s also enough time to pack your bags and book a flight to Helsinki. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Our chief political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for on the campaign trail today:

With less than 48 hours to polls opening, campaigning will be intense. Boris Johnson will make a speech in Staffordshire, trying to avoid any more “E for empathy” moments after he refused to look at a photo of a four-year-old boy on a hospital floor. He is expected to visit more Labour-held marginal seats in the Midlands, which marks a switch from previous weeks, when he was mostly in the defensive territory of Tory-held marginals. Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, will be in the north-west and Scotland. He promises a relentless focus on policies to “pull the NHS back from the brink” – the issue Labour hopes will help close the gap in the final hours.

SEE NO EVIL: Can you imagine getting in trouble so bad you had to call Matt Hancock to sort it out? Like some reality-denying emperor, Boris Johnson repeatedly refusing to look at a photo of Jack Williment-Barr lying on coats at Leeds General Infirmary – even snatching away the ITV interviewer’s phone so he wouldn’t have to see it. He did eventually take a quick peek and muttered “terrible,” but the damage was done. There was only one thing for it: Hancock. The health secretary was rushed off to the Leeds hospital to roll up his sleeves and put on a convincing display of empathy. “To tell you the truth, I was horrified – I’ve got three small children myself, I’ve spent too many evenings in A&E … I want to make it better.” Amid the condemnation, Labour’s Jon Ashworth called Johnson “disgrace of a man,” while the SNP’s Ian Blackford said it showed “a man with no empathy and no moral compass”.

FRESH HELL: If Johnson and the Tories hopes to move on from the telling fiasco today, they’re fooling themselves. The Independent has revealed more cases of sick children forced to wait hours in A&E departments for hospital beds. One 12-year-old with learning disabilities and mental health issues was forced to stay in an Essex hospital A&E for more than two days – an astonishing 57 hours – for a specialist bed to become available, a leaked NHS email shows. She was one of four children left “in the middle of an emergency department” because of bed shortages. Another child had to wait 17 hours in A&E over the weekend at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Jeremy Corbyn will continues to hammer home his “save our NHS” message at large rallies over the next couple of days, and Labour is promising to carry out an immediate audit on risks to patient safety in the health service.

FAKE PUNCH: The bad headlines keep on coming for the Tories. Labour accused the party of lying about an alleged assault on Matt Hancock’s adviser last night in a bid to distract attention from the fall-out from photo-gate. Senior journalists began tweeting that they’d been told about a Tory aide getting punched by a Labour activist outside the Leeds hospital. But when footage later emerged, it showed the adviser walking into a man on a bicycle’s outstretched hand. It didn’t even amount to “handbags,” as the disgraced football commentator Ron Atkinson used to say. Both the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston apologised for getting it wrong. It didn’t stop Johnson claiming Labour were sending disruptive “flashmobs” to Conservative events during his speech in Gloucestershire last night.

BIGOTS FOR BREXIT: Hold onto your flat caps: the Brexit Party has been found to contain racists. Two officials have been expelled after some good old undercover footage by Channel 4 News showing them making Islamophobic remarks. Councillor Martin Mincher said Muslims “live like animals,” while north-east assistant manager Gordon Parkin said Muslims were “outbreeding us”. Just about the only interesting encounter on last night’s Question Time – featuring an audience of young people – was Labour’s Angela Rayner telling Nigel Farage he was guilty of “peddling hate” with his 2016 anti-immigrant posters. The other good bit was Rayner being asked if Labour was going to nationalise sausages. She said no. Sausages remain private sector stuff.

RELEGATION FORM: More bigotry news. From an unexpected place. The owner of League Two club Forest Green Rovers Dale Vince had some unpleasant things to say about Boris Johnson while being interviewed live on Sky Sports. “We’ve got an openly racist and homophobic prime minister – and I think that encourages people to be more openly racist and homophobic in wider life.” The sports broadcaster had to apologise. Meanwhile Pascal Lamy, the former general director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), said that moving onto WTO rules would come as a “shock” to the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit. He compared it to going “from first league football to fourth or fifth league football”.

TOTES EMOJI: Sir Alan Sugar – made a peer by the Labour party – has called the electorate into the boardroom and told us all to vote Tory. What sort of emoji is the appropriate reaction here? Raised eyebrow? Face palm? Deborah Mattinson from the Britain Thinks consultancy revealed she carried out a focus group in Peterborough and asked people to choose an emoji that best sums up the election campaign. “The two that were picked most were the weeping one – with floods of tears – and the other was the scream. People are incredibly unhappy with what is on offer.”

“You’ve refused to look at the photo, you’ve taken my phone, and put it in your pocket prime minister.”

ITV’s Joe Pike, amazed by events during his interview with the PM.

“Happy to apologise for earlier confusion about the punch that wasn’t a punch outside Leeds General – 2 sources suggested it had happened but clear from video that was wrong.”

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says sorry for passing on bad Tory info on the non-punch.

“Video footage suggests that the fracas involving Hancock’s adviser was not an intentional punch, but a misplaced arm. Tories also now saying it might have been an accident – but the adviser felt at the time it wasn’t.”

…while The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn passes on Tory info the advisor “felt at the time” it was a punch.

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