May turns guns on Corbyn’s leadership credibility
THERESA May launched an assault on Jeremy Corbyn’s credibility as the Labour leader struggled with the cost of a key manifesto commitment.
The Prime Minister sought to get back on the front foot after the U-turn on social care and the Manchester bombing pushed her campaign off course, claiming Mr Corbyn was “simply not ready to govern and not prepared to lead”.
Meanwhile, the Labour leader apologised after a difficult broadcast interview saw him repeatedly fail to provide the cost of Labour’s childcare policy.
During an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour he paused several times when repeatedly asked to give a cost for the pledge to roll out free care to all two to four year-olds in England, before asking: “Can we come back to that in a moment?”
Mrs May had Mr Corbyn in her sights as she launched a personal attack on his record and ability during a speech in Wolverhampton.
In an effort to get back to her key election messages of leadership and Brexit, she said Mr Corbyn was not prepared for the crunch talks with Brussels that will start within days of the General Election and would find himself “alone and naked” in the negotiations.
Looking back at Mr Corbyn’s performance when questioned by Jeremy Paxman and a studio audience in Monday night’s televised showdown, Mrs May said: “He is not prepared to use the nuclear deterrent.
“He is not prepared to take action against terrorists. He is not prepared to give the police the powers they need to keep us safe.
“He is not prepared to take a single difficult decision for the good of our economy.
“He is not prepared to answer questions about his long track record of supporting people who want to harm and even attack our country.
“And with Brexit negotiations due to begin only 11 days after polling day, he is not prepared for those negotiations.”
She added: “But I am prepared – prepared to take the difficult decisions that leadership demands. Prepared to do what is necessary to protect and defend our country. Prepared to go into the negotiating chamber with the EU just 11 days after polling day.
“I am prepared. I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not.”
Evoking one of Labour’s most revered figures, Nye Bevan – who pleaded with colleagues not to send a foreign secretary “naked into the conference chamber”, in a party row over nuclear disarmament – Mrs May said: “Last night showed that Jeremy Corbyn’s minders can put him in a smart blue suit for an interview with Jeremy Paxman, but with his position on Brexit he will find himself alone and naked in the negotiating chamber of the European Union.”
To raucous laughter from supporters,
she added: “Now, I know that’s an image that doesn’t bear thinking about, but actually this is very serious.”
Mrs May said she would be ready “from day one” to work on a new “deep and special relationship” with the EU, while Mr Corbyn had “no plan for Brexit”.
Setting out the challenge facing whoever is in Number 10, she said: “The Europeans are ready to go and are determined to fight for a deal that works for them. This is not time for a weak government and a weak leader to be making it up as they go along, particularly not when that leader has shown poor judgment and weak leadership throughout the process so far.”
She added: “As always with Jeremy Corbyn and Labour, the shambles and the responsibility would be theirs but the consequences and the bill would be ours.”
Mr Corbyn was attempting to focus on policy issues with the commitment to the extension of free childcare, but his own performance was firmly in the spotlight after the Woman’s Hour interview.
Despite having a copy of the manifesto and apparently logging on to his iPad for help as he was pressed to give the cost for the policy, it was left to presenter Emma Barnett to provide the Opposition’s estimate of the £4.8bn annual price tag by 2022.
Answering questions on the interview at a campaign event in Watford, Mr Corbyn said: “I didn’t have the exact figure in front of me, so I was unable to answer that question, for which obviously I apologise.
“But I don’t apologise for what’s in the manifesto and I will explain exactly what the cost is. It’s £4.8bn it will cost by the end of the Parliament and it means that one million children will get childcare, free childcare 30 hours per week between the years of two and four.”
The figure differed from a costing he had earlier given in a webchat on Mumsnet of £5.3bn because that included an additional £500m to reopen Sure Start centres.
Mr Corbyn also dismissed suggestions made by some of his supporters online that he had been treated unfairly in the Woman’s Hour interview.
“There isn’t such a thing as being unfair to politicians – if you put yourself up for elected office in public life you are subject to permanent scrutiny,” he said. “I never get upset by these things, never be so high and mighty that you can’t listen to everybody else and make sure that you understand the motives of the majority of our people and the kind of society that we want to live in.”
Mr Corbyn defended journalists after Barnett said she was subjected to abuse online, some of which appeared to be anti-Semitic, with several Twitter users calling her a “Zionist”.
“It is totally and absolutely completely unacceptable for anyone to throw abuse at anyone else,” the Labour leader said.
AN INTERNAL party row has led to a situation where neither Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns nor Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies represented the party in last night’s BBC TV leaders debate, we can reveal.
Instead, the party fielded its Shadow Education Secretary Darren Millar in one of the biggest events of the election campaign in Wales.
A well-placed Tory source told us: “Originally the invitation went from BBC Wales to Alun Cairns, but for some reason he did not want to do a debate with [Welsh Labour leader and First Minister] Carwyn Jones.
“In addition to the BBC debate, there were two TV programmes last week: an ITV Wales leaders’ debate and a BBC Wales Ask the Leader show.
“Andrew RT Davies would have been prepared to do all three programmes, but Alun Cairns wanted to do Ask the Leader, where he appeared on his own and didn’t debate with any other leaders. Essentially it was a Q&A with the audience.
“Andrew took the view that it would be better for one person to do all three programmes. The final show coincides with his wedding anniversary, and he’s gone for a short break abroad with his wife. Even so, he was prepared to fly back for the final programme and go back abroad, until Alun Cairns said he would do the Ask the Leader show.
“Flights both ways had even been booked for Andrew.”
With Mr Cairns unwilling to join the debate and Mr Davies no longer available, the party decided it would be represented by Mr Millar, the AM for Clwyd West.
Mr Cairns and Mr Jones both appeared on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2, but the Tory source suggested that instead of a 15-minute debate, Mr Cairns insisted on appearing separately.
Two separate interviews lasting seven and a half minutes each were, therefore, broadcast.
The Tory source pointed out that at the last general election debate in 2015, the Conservatives had been represented by then Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb.
Prime Minister Theresa May has refused to join any leaders debates during the general election campaign.
She is also appearing separately to Jeremy Corbyn in election events on BBC One and Channel 4.
Also appearing in the BBC Wales debate, which was broadcast live on BBC 1 Wales and the BBC News Channel last night, was Carwyn Jones, Plaid Cymru
leader Leanne Wood, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mark Williams and Ukip Assembly group leader Neil Hamilton.
A spokesman for Mr Cairns, who is seeking re-election as MP for Vale of Glamorgan, said: “The fact is that Andrew RT Davies was invited to participate in the BBC leaders debate and pulled out.
“There was never any question of the Secretary of State appearing. He is not the leader.”
Asked why, therefore, Mr Cairns had appeared in last week’s Ask The Leader show, the spokesman said: “That was an entirely different programme, with an audience Q&A. The Secretary of State was always going to be appearing on it, not Andrew RT Davies.”
Mr Cairns’ spokesman said he understood that Mr Davies’ Assembly group deputy Paul Davies, the AM for Preseli Pembrokeshire, had also been unavailable for the debate, and that in those circumstances it was appropriate that Mr Millar, who was involved in writing the party manifesto, should represent the Welsh Conservatives.
A spokesman for Andrew RT Davies said: “With the Secretary of State unwilling to take part in the General Election debates, Andrew was more than happy to fill in – but that agreement was reached on the basis that it would be best for the party to put forward one candidate for all of the programmes.
“Given that Alun was willing to take part in the Ask the Leader programmes Andrew felt that it was no longer necessary to return from celebrating his wedding anniversary to do the debate. It’s a bit of a surprise that Alun isn’t taking part tonight, but our Policy Director Darren will do a brilliant job.”