Politics

General election latest: Leaders rally in final weekend of campaigning after Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn’s TV clash



Party leaders are making last ditch bids for votes in the final weekend of campaigning before the general election.

Labour has narrowed the Tories lead but Boris Johnson’s party remains ahead in every poll with less than a week to go until polling day on December 12.

The parties return to the campaign trail on Saturday, after Mr Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn’s TV clash last night, with Labour promising every bus in England will be electric-powered by 2030, reducing emissions by more than 70 per cent.

The Tories are pledging extra cash for grassroots football to bolster the UK and Ireland’s bid for 2030 World Cup, with an an extra £550 million over 10 years for community sports facilities.

Boris Johnson narrowly won last night’s leader’s debate (PA)

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats are promising to bring in “safe standing” areas at top flight football matches, saying it would offer fans more choice, a better atmosphere, and cheaper tickets.

Mr Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn were involved in a series of acrimonious exchanges over racism and anti-Semitism in the final TV debate of the campaign yesterday.

With less than a week left to polling day on Thursday, the two men traded accusations of a “failure of leadership” on one of the key issues which has hung over the campaign.

A snap YouGov poll of 1,322 viewers following the debate narrowly gave victory to Mr Johnson by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, although Mr Corbyn was judged the more trustworthy by a margin of 48 per cent to 38 per cent.

Both sides will be relieved that they avoided any major slip-ups in the course of the hour-long confrontation before a live BBC studio audience in Maidstone.

Corbyn and Johnson clash over anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in leaders’ debate

But with the Tories continuing to lead in the polls overall, they are likely to be the happier with the outcome.​

Elsewhere, it emerged that leaked documents which Labour shared, detailing UK-US trade talks which it said showed the NHS would be “on the table”, could have been subject to Russian interference.

Culture secretary Nicky Morgan said this was an “extremely serious” matter. 

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Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Morgan said: “I understand from what was being put on that website, those who seem to know about these things say that it seems to have all the hallmarks of some form of interference.

“And if that is the case, that obviously is extremely serious. And actually as Culture Secretary, obviously one of the things that we are looking for and monitoring is any interference in our elections.”

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald called on the Government to allow a report detailing Russian interference in UK elections to be published.

Mr McDonald said it would be “perfectly legitimate” for an inquiry to now be held.

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Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr McDonald said: “If we want to get to the bottom of the extent to which the Russian state interferes in elections, can we please publish the Intelligence and Security Committee report?

“Let’s get that out there. That should have been published ages ago.”

Last month, Boris Johnson insisted there was “absolutely” nothing to hide in a report by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) into possible Russian interference in the UK democratic process, which will not be released before next week’s General Election.

Meanwhile, Lib Dem business spokesman Sam Gyimah said his party would not support any Labour leader in a coalition because the party is now “hard left”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Gyimah said: “The Labour Party is now a hard-left Labour Party and in terms of their values are diametrically opposed to us.

“Where we stand … the choice before the country is between a hard-Brexit Government or a hard-left Labour Party. Both of them are not in our national interest.”



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