Boris Johnson news: PM delivers rambling Brexit speech on election trail, after being repeatedly jeered by angry members of public

Swinson denies losing control of Lib Dem candidates

Jo Swinson has denied she has lost control of Lib Dem candidates after the party’s standard bearer in Canterbury Tim Walker stood down saying he did not want to split the Remain vote.

The Lib Dem leader insisted the party would field a new candidate in the Kent constituency.

Swinson also said the party would continue to stand against former Tory cabinet minister David Gauke after he strongly criticised Boris Johnson.

Swinson was visiting a boxing gym in north London that offers training for young people in a bid to combat gang culture.

Sporting boxing gloves and a T-shirt with the slogan “Girly Swot” as she entered the ring at the gym, the Lib Dem leader was shown punching moves by an instructor at Total Boxer in Crouch End.

Jo Swinson visits Crouch End gym (Reuters) 

Lib Dem candidate threatens to quit over effort to thwart Remain alliance

Guy Kiddey, the Lib Dem candidate in High Peak, is not happy about the treatment of Tim Walker – the party’s Canterbury candidate who decided to step aside to give the Remain-backing Labour incumbent a better chance of holding the seat.

Kiddey has posted a statement saying he supports Walker’s move – and criticised the party for deciding to replace him with someone else.

He also says he stand down and resign her membership unless the party halts disciplinary proceedings against Walker and “apologises unreservedly” to him.

“The Labour Party’s steadfast refusal to negotiate with others is irresponsible … For the Lib Dems to behave in a similarly tribal fashion is arguably worse.”

Corbyn rules out indyref2 in first term of government

Jeremy Corbyn has ruled out holding a referendum on Scottish independence in the first term of a Labour government, even if the SNP gets a majority in Scotland.

As he kicked off his two-day tour of Scotland in Glasgow, Corbyn said: “No referendum in the first term for a Labour government because I think we need to concentrate completely in investment across Scotland.”

But pressed if it would be an undemocratic move if the SNP won a majority of seats in Scotland in the election, he said: “If the SNP win the majority of seats that’s the election of those MPs. I'm very clear that a Labour government's priority is investment in Scotland.”

Aides later backtracked and made it clear that Labour's position could change if the SNP won a majority in Holyrood in 2021.

Corbyn also said Boris Johnson’s “onanism" comment was “ridiculous and actually quite offensive”, and denied talk of another EU referendum was self-obsessive.

Johnson will promise on Wednesday to end the delays over Britain’s departure from the European Union if he wins next month’s election and he will describe the opposition Labour Party's plans as political ”self-obsession and onanism”.

Corbyn said: “Ridiculous and actually quite offensive to people. If you want to say something say it in clear plain language that everyone can understand.”

Jeremy Corbyn in Glasgow (Getty) 

Sturgeon tells Westminster to ‘get its act together’ on climate change

Nicola Sturgeon has challenged Westminster to “stop obsessing” about nuclear power and “get its act together” on green energy.

She vowed that a large team of SNP MPs in the House of Commons would push the UK government to act on the climate emergency.

Campaigning in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said: “At this election, Scotland can elect a strong team of SNP MPs to demand the radical action needed to tackle the climate emergency and secure the future of our green energy industry.

“Scotland is already a world leader on tackling the climate crisis and delivering green energy. By contrast, Westminster has wasted years obsessing over nuclear power and a complete lack of vision and ambition over the energy technologies of the future.

“Put bluntly, there is no more time to waste – it’s time for Westminster to get its act together.”

The Scottish government has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2045 - five years ahead of the corresponding UK target.

Nicola Sturgeon at The Shed in Edinburgh (PA) 

Church of Scotland rebukes minister who shouted at Corbyn

The man who heckled Jeremy Corbyn has been named as Richard Cameron, a Church of Scotland minister at Scotstoun Parish Church.

The minister yelled: “Do you think that the man who is going to be prime minister of this country should be a terrorist sympathiser, Mr Corbyn?”

A spokeswoman for the Church of Scotland later rebuked Mr Cameron.

She said: “The Church of Scotland as an organisation has a long history of engaging with politicians through a number of different channels.

“Whilst we may occasionally robustly challenge policy issues with which we disagree, we always intend to do that in a way that is polite and measured and allows for reasoned debate.”

The Corbyn-supporting commentator Owen Jones has shared some homophobic tweets from a “Pastor Richard” account, which links to Richard Cameron’s Scotstoun Parish Church.

Funding for ‘left behind’ towns spent in Tory marginals, analysis shows

The Conservatives have been accused of using public money to boost their election prospects after it emerged that funding designed to help deprived communities is being focused on wealthier Tory marginals. 

Analysis found that money from the government’s £3.6bn Towns Fund be spent in richer areas where Conservative MPs are fighting to keep their seats – at the expense of some of the country’s poorest towns.

Our correspondent Benjamin Kentish has all the details.

Lib Dems will stand against Remainer candidates

The Lib Dem leadership has vowed to stand candidates against Remainer MPs in several tightly-contested constituencies – despite a growing backlash from its own members.

A spokesperson for the party told The Independent on Wednesday morning that it would definitely be fielding candidates against ex-Tory David Gauke, who is standing as an independent.

Jon Stone has all the details about the growing row.

PM’s complacency about the floods could change the tide in the north

“If this had happened in Surrey instead of Yorkshire and the East Midlands, I think it would have been a very different story.”

It looks as if Jeremy Corbyn’s remark about the floods across large areas of England has stirred the prime minister into action today.

Our editorial today argues that complacency over the floods could be costly for Boris Johnson.

Read more here:

Opposition parties retreating into ‘pathetic old politics’, says Alistair Campbell

Alistair Campbell is not a happy man today. The campaigner for a second Brexit referendum has urged Labour, Lib Dems and others to work together to thwart the Tories.

He tells them to “GET A GRIP” or Boris Johnson will be handed the Christmas present of an election victory.

McDonnell says Labour would phase in four-day week for ‘everybody’ – including NHS

Labour’s plans for a 32-hour working week will apply to all employees and will be implemented over a decade, the shadow chancellor has said.

The shadow chancellor’s comments on a four-day week appeared to contradict earlier comments by shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth, who seemed to suggest it would not apply to the NHS.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, Ashworth said: “In 10 years’ time, when we’ve raised productivity in the economy... there’ll be a big review to see if the changes in workplace working around automation and things like that mean that workers... can reduce their hours.

“The idea that there’s going to be a four-day week in the NHS on December 13, which Matt Hancock was suggesting, was just nonsense, it was laughable.”

Speaking to an audience in central London alongside Ashworth later in the morning, McDonnell said it would apply to the NHS.

“It’s a 32-hour working week, implemented over a 10-year period. It will apply to everybody.

“What Jon was talking about this morning is how do you apply it over that 10-year period. The Tories have given this impression that we get elected on December 12... that on December 13 suddenly everybody is on a four-day week.

“No, that’s not what we said. It’s not what Jon was saying this morning either.

“It’s a bit like the implementation of the minimum wage, which was opposed then - if you remember - saying it will cost thousands of jobs and the economy would collapse et cetera.

“What we’ve said, just like every other reduction in the working week, it is planned and negotiated between employers and trade unions over time.”