Inside Politics: Farage fumes at No 10, while Labour offers free internet for all

Beauty is the eye of the beholder. On the same day protesters called him a “greedy fat Tory clown”, Boris Johnson was also compared to a precious vase from the Ming dynasty. The country’s top polling expert said the prime minister’s popularity had a fragile, porcelain-like quality. “He’s a really valuable asset – you just want to make sure he doesn’t fall on the floor”. Nigel Farage has decided to be the bull in the China shop. With the deadline for nominations now passed, around 300 Brexit Party candidates are going to be rampaging around Labour strongholds – accusing the Conservatives of corruption and splitting the Brexiteer vote in seats Johnson desperately wants to take. Could Farage smash the delicate one’s dreams of a Tory majority? I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for on the campaign trail today:

On the campaign trail in the north-west, Boris Johnson will unveil his general election battle bus as he sets out Tory plans to revitalise Britain’s high streets and “left behind” towns. Jeremy Corbyn will also be in the north-west – talking about Labour’s latest pledge: free broadband for all. For the Lib Dems, economics spokesman Ed Davey makes his keynote speech in Leeds. Davey will promise a Jo Swinson-led government would invest an additional £100bn in tackling the climate emergency. And he will say that stopping Brexit would free up a £1bn-a-week “Remain Bonus” to spend on schools and other priorities.

INNERVISIONS: John McDonnell has been having visions. He’s not been taking ayahuasca in the jungle or anything – just dreaming of reversing Margaret Thatcher’s legacy. Labour’s shadow chancellor wants to renationalise part of BT and give everyone free broadband. “It’s visionary, I accept that, but other countries are having these visions and we’re not,” he told the BBC. The £20bn plan would see BT’s Openreach, which owns almost of the full-fibre network, taken into public ownership and expanded to deliver free access across the country. It’ll be partly paid for by a tax on the tech giants. A freaked-out BT said it needed to be “carefully thought through”. The Tories dismissed it all as a “fantasy”. But Thatcher had an elaborate fantasy once – privatising British Telecom along with much else – and she made it happen.

BEECHING AND BOOBIES: The Lib Dems have accused both the big parties of looking backwards, claiming the Tories are enslaved to “fantasies born of nostalgia”. It’s hard to disagree when Johnson is pledging to re-open old railway lines. The PM is promising a £500m “Beeching reversal fund” to overturn the closures overseen by Richard Beeching in the 1960 – a matter of regret to every train-loving pub bore of the last half-century. Speaking of pub bores, the Tories are also pledging a £150m fund to help people buy up local public houses and post offices under threat of closure, while shops and cafes will be eligible for a 50 per cent business rate cut. Johnson got to share his love of transport when he sang The Wheels on the Bus with primary school children in Taunton. Reading a book about the Incredible Hulk, one boy pointed out Hulk’s “boobies”. Johnson replied: “Those aren’t boobies, they’re muscles.”

ONE-MINUTE WARNING: Nigel Farage is shocked – shocked! – that the Tory party would play games with right-wing political candidates. Nigel’s never doing anything like that. The Brexit Party leader railed against “full-on Venezuelan-style corruption” and accused No 10 of offering peerages to Brexit Party candidates to get them to stand down before nominations closed. The party is going to compile a “dossier” about it all. Farage raged: “I expect there will be police investigations into what has gone on here.” I expect there won’t be. Rupert Lowe, the Brexit Party candidate for Dudley North, did screw them over by pulling out at 3.59pm – one minute before the deadline. Farage claims Lowe had “no doubt been offered something very, very nice” (a claim he denies). Sir John Curtice – the polling guru who made the Ming vase comparison – said Farage’s party was unlikely to win any seats, but could seriously harm the Tory vote.

BATTLE OF THE BUCKETS: Can you have too much of a good thing? Not when it comes to surreal comedy candidates designed to embarrass the prime minister. Lord Buckethead – who stood against (and stood next to) Theresa May in her constituency in 2017 – is standing in Uxbridge against Johnson. But there’s a twist! The Monster Raving Loony Party has claimed the name by copyright for one of their own people, so the bloke who actually was Lord Buckethead is running as Count Binface instead – revealing a similar, receptacle-themed outfit on Twitter. So it looks like the constituency’s absurdist vote will be split. There’s another candidate standing in Uxbridge called Yace “Interplanetary Time Lord” Yogenstein. I can’t wait for the moment Boris is pictured alongside the three goons.

ANGUISHED AND AGHAST: Actress Joanna Lumley, spy thriller author John Le Carre and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales are among the celebs – let’s be more dignified and call them public figures – who have signed a letter declaring their refusal to vote Labour over antisemitism. Speaking of their “anguish”, the open missive accuses Corbyn of having “a long record of embracing anti-semites as comrades”. The Tories, meanwhile, are dealing with accusations the party provides a comfortable home for Islamophobes. Kyle Pedley, the deputy chair of the Stourbridge Conservative Association, said he was “aghast” at remarks made by local Tory officials during a recent selection meeting. He claimed a Muslim member was asked: “Are you really a Muslim? Do you pray five times a day? How many times a year do you go to the mosque?” Baroness Warsi said it was the kind of thing happening “in associations up and down the country”. Grim.

“There are lots of peerages being offered. This is full-on, Venezuelan-style corruption … an industrial-scale attempt to stop free and open politics happening in our country.”

Nigel Farage rages at the Tories – accusing them of exerting undue influence on his candidates to stand down.

“Wow. Every poll and focus group I’ve seen would suggest this policy is going to be extremely popular. Not just the free broadband but the tech company tax - people are really angry about that issue.”

Sky News’ Roland Manthorpe is impressed by Labour’s free broadband policy...

“Free broadband – because it’s a necessity of modern, Labour says. But you’ll still have to pay for water, food, electricity and gas. Because, y’know... luxuries.”

...but right-wing broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer says free stuff will never catch on.

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