22/05/2017 The Election Wrap

Hello and welcome to the election wrap. Climb-down, clarification or

U-turn. You choose. Nothing changed, says Theresa May. And social care.

A Labour big beast makes fun of the Tory change of heart,

with Jeremy Corbyn, bringing forward plans to scrap university tuition

as the SNP prepares to serve up a tasty, deilccious , delectable

The deadline to register to vote on June 8th, is one minute

And, with expert analysis.

For the the many, not the few, Nigel Nelson Political

Editor at the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, and the Political

Let's catch up on the latest developments on the campaign trail.

Theresa May is being accused of making a "major U-turn"

in her plans to reform the funding of social care in England.

But, tonight she denied anything of the sort,

in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil.

But Labour says the lady is for turning.

And the Conservatives can't be trusted.

We have not rewritten the manifesto, the principles upon which it is

written remain the same, we need to ensure that we have long-term

sustainability and social care, we need to be able to ensure that we

can fund social care for the future, we are doing the honest thing in

putting a proposal to the British people. How is it honest to reject a

cap in your manifesto and four days later say, we are going to have a

cap, what is honest about that?! What we set out in the manifesto was

a series of principles, to say to people, first of all, this is a big

issue, we need to address it and we are being honest that we must fix

it, and that is what I want to do, I am not going to play politics with

it, very my head in the sand, that is what Jeremy Corbyn does with it.

No, you are just going to change or mind on it, apparently. This woman

is already doing another U-turn! She decided it wasn't parliament that

decided her view. John Prescott today. Jeremy Corbyn has pressed

fast forward on plans to scrap tuition fees, saying he will scrap

them for university students in England this autumn. He says the

Conservatives have helped students back for too long by helping to

travel tuition fees to more than ?9,000 a year, the Labour leader

would like to live the cloud of debt, as he puts it, by making it

free for people to study at university in England. If we carry

on with this process of ever rising fares, a threat of lifting the cap

altogether, what happens? Two things, one, those that have

achieved enough to get into university, gone through university,

leave with debts of often ?50,000 and more than that. If they earn

more than ?21,000, they have to start repaying it, but the debt is

still there for a long time after that. I'm determined that university

education should be available for all.

Not the best of days for Theresa May. All the polls were coming out

in the Sunday papers yesterday, it is embarrassing, it is a U-turn, I

thought about bringing in a handbrake so we could all have a go,

she's beginning to sound a little bit like Bob the builder, I'll fix

it, fix it. You have to go through this 24, 48 hours, it's

embarrassing, but there is no way around it. She has done a U-turn.

The problem is not so much the social care policy, it is, one would

hope, there is a serious grown-up debate about it, but it is the

"strong and stable" looks like wobbling... That is the key,

chipping away that the edifice she herself put up, of being the strong

leader. "Strong and stable" is a real problem for her, she now looks

weak and feeble, and that will haunt her through the rest of the

campaign. I think also, the policy itself is a problem, she is going to

have to come up with a figure for the cap at some point. You're not

going anywhere! You are both locked down here. No U-turns from you! So

is it a cap, a floor, a change of heart? Chris Morris has been trying

to get to the bottom of today's Conservative social care

announcement. Social care was away is going to be a big issue, now it

is front and centre in a big political row. Last week, the

Conservative manifesto proposed that anybody receiving long-term social

care in England would be allowed to keep ?100,000 of their assets

including the value of their home, and no one would have to sell the

family home to pay for care in their lifetime, that is much aimed. But

last week the Conservatives also ruled out introducing any cap, or

maximum amount that anyone would be asked to pay for social care, once

the first hundred thousand had been taken into consideration.

Andrew Dilnot suggested there should be a cap on how much anybody has to

pay for care, in 2015, Tory manifesto supported the idea of a

cap which was set to be 72,000 at that point. When asked about a

proposed cap now, in 2017, this is what Jeremy Hunt told the BBC last

Thursday. Not only are we dropping it, we are dropping it ahead of the

general election, we are being completely explicit in the manifesto

that we are dropping it, we are dropping it because we have looked

again at the proposal and we don't think it is fair. Queue several days

of awkward conversations on the doorsteps for Conservative candidate

and four days later, a rather different message from the Prime

Minister, we will make sure, she said today, there will be an

absolute limit on what people will need to pay for care. -- cue. In

other words, there will be a cap, but there is no indication of the

level at which it might be set. If the cap fits, you've got to wear it,

what has prompted this change of heart?

Look at the Sunday Times front page, Tory wobble, as cuts for elderly

slash lead. The paper had a YouGov poll which

cut the advanatge to just 9 percent. "The dementia tax backlash"

was the lead for the Mail on Sunday and it had a separate

poll, by Survation, which suggested the Tories' lead had

slipped by 5 points. But it's not just the polls

and the front pages. There had been reports that

Mrs May's social care policy had been getting a lukewarm reception

on the doorstep over the weekend, something the PM found out

for herself yesterday: I haven't looked into it in detail

but I was thinking about what your manifesto has to say about the old

people's savings. Is this the kind of problem that a leader in counters

because they are so far ahead in the polls? A bit of that, she felt

comfortable enough to be able to go and do this because you would have

been as vague as you possibly could and assuming you win power, you

would do it, partly the idea that she is invincible but it has turned

out she has not been invincible, it has gone down to single figures, a

huge drop from where she was, looking at a massive majority, three

figures, the other danger is, imagine what a three figure majority

would be, you would not have U-turns like this, the idea would come up

and she would carry it out. Labour are still way back. Yes, we have a

long way to go, and it feels like an endless treadmill, for people out

campaigning on the doorstep, anything could happen, there are

always blips, there are always stumbles during election campaigns,

this happens to be a spectacular one because of the U-turn. It will not

be the first time that the polls may be wrong, they will change again by

the weekend, I've no doubt, Labour have yet to come up with anything

other than motherhood and apple pie and lollipops for everyone. That is

appealing to people. What is interesting is there was a poll at

the weekend, we talked about it Saturday night, which showed that

Jeremy Corbyn, for the first time, had actually got a slightly better

poll rating for personal rating in terms of leadership qualities... I

can't remember what the question was. It was about ordinary

qualities. On a personal level low, we have just seen a set piece

interview from Theresa May, very in control, we know how it works,

people on the doorsteps will be dealing with their prospective MPs

and candidates and Jeremy Corbyn is apparently doing quite well in

face-to-face stuff, I think there is everything to play for. Who knows

what else might happen. A U-turn like this as far as I can see is

unique in a general election, I cannot remember anybody else ever

going back on a policy from a manifesto. It is not just the

supreme confidence that you could go to your core voters, your reliable

older voters and do something like that, because you could have still

done it and said we are going to have a green paper in the autumn, to

look at, you did not have to lay it out in the manifesto, I think what

is happening, we are hearing from government and party is all the

time, a small group of people who are doing stuff and they are not

asking around, and nobody is saying, do you think how this will play?

Nobody is having difficult conversation before they go public.

So what do those people who receive care and those who provide it,

Our East Midlands Health Correspondent Rob Sissons has been

speaking to some of those who'd be affected:

I found I was decimated by the war. -- my father was decimated by the

war. My father and four brothers were all killed in action. When you

get older, you get worried about things like that. The state should

pay. In awful lot of people have made that much money and could

afford to look after themselves. such a tricky area and it has been

going downhill for years. If we are going to the nitty-gritty, it is

difficult. Things change in five years. We will be long gone.

Means testing for winter fuel payments, getting rid of school

lunches. Triple lock down to a double lock,

are these policies put forward precisely because the Conservatives

are convinced they are going to win? Yes, or they were at the time, the

one thing you can do by sticking to the manifesto is you do not have any

trouble in the House of Lords, the House of Lords will not challenge

policies that have been elected on through the manifesto, so that's

another reason to do it, but the idea of being quite so detailed

about this, it is because at this point she thought, I can lose a few

voters, it will be fine, this is a shoo-in, but she did not realise how

may voters she would be losing. That is a bit unfair, because some of

these things are the difficult conversations we referred to. She

said this at the launch of the manifesto. To be honest, if you

think, we can't afford this so we will look at it. It is an unusual

campaigning strategy! You know the convention, and campaigned in

poetry, YouGov and in prose. -- you know the convention, you campaigning

poetry, you govern in prose. There is another word we could use but no

bad language! Labour also turned their attention

to tuition fees today, and one which sank the political

aspirations of the Lib Dems after the broken pledge

of their 2010 manifesto. Labour says it would bring

forward a promise to scrap tuition fees completely,

to include students starting This is what Jeremy

Corbyn had to say. Since the fees have gone up, under

the coalition government, the numbers of working-class youngsters

going to university has declined, the number of university

applications has started to go down, surely we should be investing in our

future, somebody who does not achieve the profession they want,

nursing, teaching, medicine in some other form, engineering, whatever it

happens to be, they lose out but we as a society lose out because we

have lost a qualified person who can help improve industries, improve

services. Everyone knew what the answer was to the question, with

labour providing the answer, how are you going to pay for this,

corporation tax increase. Do bear in mind when people are adding this up

that John Donald has got ?250 billion he is going to borrow, and

so he can pay for all of the policies. You may not want to see

any more borrowing but it is one of the other, lives could be made

better and they can afford to do it but it might mean they do not meet

deficit targets. They need to say that instead of banging on about...

Maybe they should, maybe they should. Why don't they? Why won't

they say that? They do not want to admit they are boring, because they

know what will come back and haunt them is the borrowing, the tax and

spend. In fairness, the tax might actually raise the money, the

problem about raising taxes at the higher level is you often don't get

the return that you are expecting. You also damage business, if you

bring in a corporation tax, if you do the anti-business stuff, any

sensible businessman who thinks there will be a Labour government,

given "Brexit" as well will be planning for the next two or

three... I'm not quite sure about business, they would say the minimum

wage will damage them, when it first came in, if they don't like taxes...

At the level you are talking about, to raise the money Jeremy Corbyn

needs in corporation tax, businesses will be preparing for how they will

invest in infrastructure, the extra cost of "Brexit", all of that. The

idea that they will sit there and say, that is fine, corporation tax

going up... They are not going to say it is fine, any more than

anybody else is about anything. I think Labour is being disingenuous

by not saying, and we would borrow. Good day for Labour. Very good day.

The mere fact that the polls have come down to where they are... This

time last week, Jeremy Corbyn looked like he had not got a hope of

winning the election at all, today, it looks like he could. All right,

OK. So the former Deputy Prime Minister,

Lord Prescott, joined Jeremy Corbyn Now remember how many elections I

have been around, I have been around a while, remember, 1997, after 18

years of Tories, hospitals were collapsing. There was homelessness

in our society. Unemployment was high, and we came in and we

promised. Did we reduce the unemployment to get people back to

work? Yes! Did we do that? Now we are talking! CHEERING

Old hands can be useful, even Lord Prescott, remember this from the

Scottish referendum campaign. At last, the world is hearing the

voices of the real people in Scotland, there is not a cemetery in

Europe that does not have Scott 's, Welsh, English and Irish lying

side-by-side. Let us tell the Nationalists, this is not their

flight, their country, their culture, their streets. -- Scots.

This is everyone's flag, everyone's culture, everyone's culture and

everyone's streets! That was Gordon Brown speaking

the day before the Scottish independence referendum in 2014,

some credited him afterwards Lord Prescott was Deputy Prime

Minister to Tony Blair, one wonders, with the lukewarm reception, the

lukewarm response to John Prescott, when he first asked for people to

show appreciation, the achievements of the Blair government, was... The

break with old Labour, cementing of new Labour, it was John Prescott who

were sent out as Tony Blair's cannon fodder, if you like, to go and say,

this is what is going to happen. And were going to get rid of Clause IV.

Look at these old hands, they are very good. Doesn't matter which

political party they are, they are interesting and funny because the

weight of standing for election is completely taken from them. A lot of

people on the hard left saw John Prescott as a traitor, because he

did the bidding of Tony Blair. Far more comfortable with Jeremy Corbyn

than Tony Blair. But he does understand that in order to win, you

have two... 20 years since he punched a voter, he is a bit of a

character. At the comedy awards... He got a bucket of water or

champagne tipped over him, at the Brit awards. The ice buckets

challenge, or something, wasn't it(!) that was something entirely

different. I was buying it later on. The Green Party has called for bold

action on the environment, education, welfare and Brexit

at the launch of its manifesto. The party's co-leader,

Caroline Lucas, said they had "very distinct" plans for a universal

basic income aiming for a "confident

and caring" nation. This election is about what kind

of future we want for our children. It is about protecting our values

of openness, It's about our promise that

a confident and caring future is possible if we work together,

if we do politics differently, Sinn Fein has unveiled

its election manifesto. Their plans include a proposal

for a referendum on Irish called for a special designated

status for Northern Ireland and proposals to install

an Irish Language Act. Their Stormont leader

Michelle O'Neill said that they were seeing the beginnings

of a 'new political era'. So this is very much an opportunity

to tell both the Tories and the DUP again, in the strongest possible

terms, that we reject Brexit, that we would reject any border,

that we reject any attempt to put limits on our freedom of movement,

we reject barriers to That we stand for rights,

for equality, and for Irish unity. So, what have the SNP

been up to today? Well, they've been cooking up

pledges and policies Nicola Sturgeon was getting

in the mood today, meeting out a few tasters as to what we can expect,

and giving the voters in Scotland Well, a peanut butter cupcake

for breakfast is perhaps not the and the cakes were

definitely a highlight. Now, on a serious note,

you're here campaigning in the constituency this morning,

jobs mainly the focus today. Jobs and fairness are, I think,

at the heart of this election. And when the SNP outlines our

manifesto tomorrow we will put the protection of jobs, through

standing against an extreme Brexit, We will also put the issue

of fairness at its heart as well. We see in equality

rising across the UK, and more and more people being

plunged into poverty Bid leaders debate in Scotland

yesterday, are the SNP feeling confident they will be able to pull

out all the stops? No, I don't think they are, and I think part of the

problem is, although it feels like 300 years ago, when Nicola Sturgeon

launched the promised that there would be Indyref two, only a few

days later, Theresa May called a general election. -- big leaders

debate. The polls in Scotland suggest people do not want another

referendum, or if they do, they are lukewarm about it, possibly as she

would be about the peanut butter thing she had for breakfast,

slightly better than a deep-fried Mars bar, I think they are under

threat, the SNP, Nicholas Durden is an extremely able, good, compelling

politician but I do think that they are under attack, and they will lose

some seats. Not least of all because they will be judged on their record

domestic, if you only have one team which you play, another referendum,

another referendum, when actually, there are other things going on,

funding of social care, education, and cuts and things like that, then

I think they will tend to lose, probably to the Tories. Is it the

conservatives who stand to gain? Yes, Nicola Sturgeon was taken on

the hop by the election, she would not have called Indyref two had she

known there was an election round the corner. Let's move on, though we

might not know the result, certain things about an election campaign

are guaranteed, your letterbox will be stuffed with leaflets, and

politicians will kiss babies at every opportunity. Campaign veteran

John Hess 's missing something, I will let him explain. This is my 12

general election campaign but there is something strangely missing from

this campaign. This is my question for the parties.

Where are... Where are the election posters! Party campaigners are still

seeking the prime position to hammer down their political messages, even

they detect something is different. Social media is important as well,

we are spending a lot more time doing that on the selection than on

any other election before us. The youngsters are on social media but a

lot of the shall we say more mature people who are not social media

friendly need to see what's happening as well. On a staircase at

the University of Nottingham, a gallery of iconic posters from past

elections. It was a classic negative slogan. The irony is that this was

the Hendon young conservatives, not the unemployed at all, that was

another irony, this snake, one of the most successful posters of all

time. Where are they in this campaign? The advertisers have been

caught on the hop, this entry was not time, advertisers usually need

time to think these things through. Simply has not been the time to

generate the posters. VOICEOVER: Eyes on Westminster, that goes for

more than 1700 election candidates... Screaming Lord such...

Some election posters are now collectors items, although their

value at the time is not always appreciated. So, if you feel you are

missing out on those posters in this snap election, you can always make

your own. STUDIO: Labour isn't working, Labour's tax bombshell,

some of those classics, I was trying to think of a Labour poster knocking

the Conservatives but I can think of any famous ones. We were thinking

about the demonise, and... That was iconic. I can think of any others,

Labour isn't working, that was... Not as good as John Hess's main

poster... What we are not seeing is leaflets in windows... I have seen

loads. I don't know if voter fatigue has already set in. And posters in

gardens, that is in the real world. Is this campaign... In an age of

social media, as the campaign change, a lot of analysis done by

both campaigns from Facebook and whatever, voting intentions and so

full, has that taken the fun out of campaigning? I don't know that there

is any fun in campaigning, having trudged around canvassing! LAUGHTER

This is a bit of a chaotic collection because it was a snap

one, people not expecting it, it has taken some time to get the wheels

moving. It is been sprung on everybody. Even the Tories who you

would think that notice about it have also struggled. In some parts

of the country there were local elections as well. So... But I think

the other thing is, although you say it has been sprung upon people, we

are so used to doing things at the last minute, it is almost like,

let's see if the price of this cheap flight goes down by June eight, do

you know what I mean, that sense of that is how we shop, that is how we

do things, let's see what happens. That is how we choose Prime

Ministers, potentially. we'll be back tomorrow

with another Election Wrap. Thank you for watching.

Goodbye. 25 degrees today, that was the

maximum temperature in the south-east