Call of duty
Amber Rudd represented Theresa May during last night’s televised leaders’ debate, just 48 hours after the death of her father. The Home Secretary attacked Jeremy Corbyn over ‘defending terrorists’ and his ‘fantasy’ economics
JEREMY CORBYN’S last-minute gamble of taking part in the BBC leaders’ debate backfired last night when he came under sustained attack from all sides over terrorism, migration and spending.
The Labour leader – who had previously said he would sit out the televised debates – announced just hours before the event in Cambridge that he had changed his mind. He had hoped the ploy would expose Theresa May, who was being represented by Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, but found himself caught in the cross-fire between the six other participants.
Mr Corbyn’s worst moment came when he refused to described the Manchester suicide bomber as a terrorist, leaving him struggling to form a sentence as he said the attack happened “because somebody decided they wanted to go and kill a large number of people”.
He was responding to condemnation from the other party leaders of his suggestion last week that British foreign policy was partly to blame for the bombing. Ms Rudd, the Home Secretary, pointed out that as recently as 2011 Mr Corbyn had boasted of opposing “every piece of anti-terror legislation in his 30 years” as an MP.
On migration, Mr Corbyn was accused by the SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson of adopting Ukip’s policies by promising “managed migration” to end the exploitation of workers. And on his plans for the funding of £50 billion of extra public spending, Ms Rudd suggested he had adopted “fantasy” economics, with policies paid for with a “magic money tree”.
Also taking part in the debate were Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas, Ukip leader Paul Nuttall and the Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.
Leadership
Mr Corbyn said leadership was about understanding people, protecting them, and caring for everyone.
Mr Nuttall said he doesn’t “flip flop” and had always followed the principle that Britain should leave the EU.
The Home Secretary added that part of being a good leader was having a strong team – justifying her appearance at the debate instead of Mrs May. She pointed out that in a vote of no confidence four out of five Labour MPS had failed to support Mr Corbyn. “300,000 people elected me to lead this party,” he replied, to audience applause.
Ms Lucas, Ms Wood and Mr Farron used the opportunity to continue attacks on Mrs May for failing to take part in the debate. “The first rule of leadership is to show up,” said Ms Lucas. Mr Robertson said this was a “totally unnecessary election” and called Mrs May “the U-turn Queen”.
Economy and taxation
Ms Rudd said the Conservatives had a strong record on the economy which allowed the party to ensure people “keep more of the wages they earn”.
She warned that Mr Corbyn has a “fanciful” list of things he would like to spend money on but no means of funding them. She said: “He has this money tree wish list in his manifesto... it’s very easy to think about how you’d spend money but much harder to think about how you raise money. This is people’s hard earned money, we will protect that, we won’t roll the dice.”
The Labour leader hit back and claimed living standards have fallen over the past seven years. “Have you seen the levels of poverty that exist because of your Government’s conscious decisions on benefits?,” he said.
“We cannot go on giving money away to the very rich ... instead I say turn it round and invest in the future of our people.”
Public spending
Ms Lucas said the Green Party would scrap HS2 and nuclear weapons and raise taxes for those with “the broadest shoulders” to fund public spending.
The point was echoed by Mr Corbyn, who said he would protect 95 per cent of people from increases in their tax bill but those at the top would pay more. But he was challenged by Ms Wood over Labour’s record in Wales after he vowed to scrap tuition fees. The Plaid Cymru leader asked why this policy was not already implemented in Wales where Labour is in power. Mr Corbyn was unable to answer.
The Home Secretary was laughed at by the audience when she asked voters to judge her on her record in Government so far, but she received applause for stating that the biggest danger to the economy would be to ruin the Brexit negotiations.
Mr Robertson pushed Ms Rudd to respond to questions about how much pensioners might lose in benefits if the Conservatives are re-elected. She replied: “Theresa May may not be here but I hope to make a good fist of setting out our policy”.
Climate change
Every leader except Ukip’s Mr Nuttall agreed that it was a bad thing for the rest of the world that Donald Trump has decided to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement. Mr Nuttall said the US president is putting his country first and called for Britain to do the same.
Ms Lucas said she had struggled to get climate change onto the election agenda while the Home Secretary, who led the Paris climate change agreement talks, said she was “disappointed” by Mr Trump’s decision.
Migration
Asked how the parties would ensure Britain has “the workers and skills we need” to make the country a success, Mr Nuttall said the country’s borders needed to be controlled. Mr Farron warned against “demonising immigrants”. Ms Rudd said immigration was an “important part” of strengthening the economy but said “we need to make sure we have an immigration policy we can control”.
Mr Corbyn was repeatedly asked by Mishal Husain whether he would pledge to cut immigration. He said that following Brexit “free movement will end” but Labour would guarantee that those EU citizens already in Britain could stay. He added that “managed migration” was necessary to prevent problems in communities caused by the “exploitation of workers”.
Ms Wood said she wanted to ensure EU workers in Wales could stay. Mr Robertson said he was more concerned with the people Scotland was “losing”.
Security
Mr Robertson cited the “horror” of the attack in Manchester, saying it was important to invest in the police and that Mr Corbyn’s link between foreign policy and domestic attacks was “dangerous”. Mr Corbyn said that under Ms Rudd and Mrs May 20,000 police officers had lost their jobs and “I think it’s important that we restore that.”
Ms Rudd said the first job of any government was to keep the public safe and secure and that the Conservatives had increased the budgets of security services. The Home Secretary was “shocked” that Mr Corbyn had boasted of opposing every piece of anti-terror legislation since becoming an MP. Mr Corbyn pointed out that Mrs May and other Conservatives had also opposed some anti-terror legislation because of concerns they had.
Mr Nuttall said the war in Iraq and the air strikes in Libya were wrong, but the cause of domestic attacks was “Islamist extremism”.
Ms Lucas said Britain needed intelligence-led policing and “community engagement”. She also asked why Britain was selling arms to so many countries, including Saudi Arabia.
Audience bias
The BBC was forced to defend the way it gathered audience members for the debate after there were loud cheers for Left-wing candidates while Amber Rudd and Paul Nuttall were booed. The official press office Twitter account replied to a journalist who claimed the audience did not seem balanced by saying: “The BBC asked polling company Comres to pick an audience that is representative of the country demographically and politically.”
‘Theresa May may not be here but I hope to make a good fist of setting out our policy’