Boris Johnson denies joking about Donald Trump at Nato reception and not taking him seriously – as it happened

Commenting on his interview with Johnson, Labour’s Barry Gardiner said to Peston:

Quite honestly, if I wanted to see two men shouting at each other without listening I’d go down to the local pub.

All he did was bully, hector, and ignore the questions that you put to him. And that is the nature of this man who’s putting himself forward to be elected as our prime minister.

As a prime minister, what I want to see somebody who’s prepared to take on the hard questions and actually try and give you a serious answer to them.

He didn’t do that with you. He certainly didn’t do it with Marr on Sunday, and he’s refused to do it with Andrew Neil. The guy’s running scared of any genuine sort of scrutiny that we could give to him.

On the prime minister being questioned about Brexit, Gardiner said:

You challenged him, you challenged him on how he was going to get it done. He didn’t have an answer, he just kept on repeating the slogan.

Asked about reports he forced Tory MPs to sign up to his withdrawal agreement deal, Johnson said: “I have not forced them, that is totally unfair, there was absolutely no lobotomy”

He insisted “no, not at all” when asked by ITV’s Robert Peston whether he had said they “couldn’t be candidates?”

Boris Johnson, in his interview with ITV, has insisted the UK “will be out” of the EU on 31 January, while simultaneously acknowledging that the country will actually enter the transition period – during which it will still be subject to the EU’s rules and regulations.

Johnson said the UK would legally have left the EU on 31 January and said it could end the transition period at any point it chose to thereafter.

Last month, the Brexit experts Anand Menon and Catherine Barnard wrote an interesting opinion piece for the Guardian on what this might all mean in reality:

Wrapping up the interview, Swinson indicated she believed she would be able to stay on as Lib Dem leader, even if the party secured fewer seats than it held in the last Parliament.

I’m staying as Liberal Democrat Leader and I’m excited ... about the movement, the Liberal movement that we need to build because we still need to make sure that we can stop Brexit and there is something bigger at stake here as well ... It is about who we are as a country. Whether we are open, whether we are inclusive, whether we go down the route that you see in America of populism and nationalism and it’s liberalism that is the answer to that and that is the Liberal movement that I’m building.

Pressed on whether she would stand down following poor results, she added:

I’ve got a job to do and I’ve just been elected to do it and I’m excited to be fighting this election and in terms of that wider movement - you know we have more Liberal Democrat members than ever before ... I’m absolutely here to stay.

Swinson declined to say whether she would begin campaigning for the UK to rejoin the EU immediately after Brexit. Asked if the country should join the Euro if it were deemed necessary to demonstrate commitment to “being at the heart of the European Union”, she added:

I don’t think we should be joining the Euro. You know, I think being at the heart of the European Union I do not interpret in the way that you have just described it. I think that’s about us playing a leadership role within the EU. We’ve done that on so many occasions. If you look at the climate talks, the Paris Accord, the UK played a leadership role getting the EU to adopt an ambitious position – and then the EU managed to get the world to adopt an ambitious position on the climate emergency. That’s the kind of thing about being at the heart of the EU.

Swinson confirmed she would want to extend voting in any second Brexit referendum to 16- and 17-year-olds. Asked if she would go ahead with it even if it meant delaying the referendum, she said:

Well, I think it’s possible, in discussions that I’ve had about how we could do this swiftly. So for example it would be possible to pass a law to extend the franchise to 16-year-olds. It’s easier with EU citizens because they’re already on the voters roll.

Asked whether she would sacrifice a second Brexit referendum if the price of securing one was a second Scottish independence referendum, Swinson said:

I will vote for a people’s vote on the Brexit deal and I think SNP members of parliament will also vote for that legislation because they will know that, you know, that’s what people in Scotland want.

Swinson insisted again that she would not “put Jeremy Corbyn in No 10” but she said she would vote with him – or any other government – to secure a second Brexit referendum.

I will vote for legislation to pass a people’s vote, of course I will and I would have done that under the previous Conservative government, just as I would do under any other government. But I will work with people on a cross-party basis. If we can elect enough MPs who support a people’s vote and we have the chance of delivering it, Liberal Democrat MPs are the strongest advocates of remain.

But I’m not going to put Jeremy Corbyn in No 10. But, if a government of any colour puts down a bill in parliament to have a people’s vote, then we will support having a people’s vote to put a specific Brexit deal to the people with the option of remaining in the EU.

Asked about her personal approval rating, which Neil said was “even lower than Nigel Farage” at minus 31 – down from minus 20 at the start of the campaign – she said:

At the end of the day, I’m going to stand for what I believe in and there will be people who dislike that, but I’m not going to ... just have a kind of message that’s full of... I mean, you know, Jeremy Corbyn’s not saying where he stands on Brexit and I’m proud to be able to be clear that I think our best future is in the European Union.

In a reference to her election campaign tactics, Swinson was asked if she would now acknowledge she will not be the next prime minister. She said:

Well, I would obviously love to be prime minister. Clearly, when you look at the polls that’s not the most likely scenario. I will certainly grant you that. But I’m, you know, very glad to be standing up for the millions of people in this country who want to remain in the European Union and the more Liberal Democrat MPs we elect, the more likely we are to be able to stop Brexit.

The BBC’s interview with the Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, has started. She has been defending her personal popularity ratings and her tactics in the election campaign; particularly her decision to insist on reversing Brexit unilaterally.

The prime minister has claimed people will stop talking about Brexit after the extension period ends on 31 January 2020, despite the fact the UK would then enter the transition period and no future trade deal is in place to come into force at that point.

Asked whether such could happen by ITV News in an interview due to air on Tuesday evening, Boris Johnson said:

Yes, and now let me say something: I think we will have got Brexit done and you will find that it moves, because what will happen is that the parliamentary agony will be over, and the political agony will be over, and the misery and tedium and procrastination that’s been going on… will be over.

The interview, Robert Peston, interjected to tell Johnson that his claim was untrue.

Earlier, we reported that the EU had drawn up plans for how Brexit talks might run if the Tories win the election (see: 5:47pm).

Some of Boris Johnson’s campaign visits seem designed entirely to construct visual metaphors for TV reporters. That is certainly the case with his visit to Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes. (See 4.39pm.) Just in case any reporters missed the hint, Johnson declared:

This whole country is stuck in the pits because of this blocked parliament. What we need to do is change the wheel and get it back on track.

This is from ITV’s Paul Brand.

These are from the BBC’s Ross Hawkins, who has spent more time on the road than most journalists this election.

The New Statesman has published its election leader article and it has said that it cannot back any of the three main parties. It does come quite close to backing the Green party, saying it would like to see more Green MPs in parliament, although it won’t endorse the Greens because it says they are not in a position to govern.

The New Statesman is broadly on the left and in the past it has backed Labour. But it says it cannot do so because of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. It says:

Labour has rightly chipped away at the edifice of ‘capitalist realism’, the term the late cultural theorist Mark Fisher used to describe the sense that ‘not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system… it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it’.

But the essential judgement that must be made is on Mr Corbyn himself. His reluctance to apologise for the antisemitism in Labour and to take a stance on Brexit, the biggest issue facing the country, make him unfit to be prime minister.

Before becoming Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn described Nato as “a danger to world peace” and said it should have been disbanded at the end of the cold war. Channel 4 News has a roundup of some of his quotes on the topic here.

Today, asked what had made him change his mind and commit to the UK remaining in Nato, Corbyn replied:

Our party is committed to remain a part of Nato. It’s also what we do in Nato and what Nato does itself that’s important – and that’s why I make the point about the need for criticism of human rights abuses wherever they occur, including Russia, but also an understanding of other countries so that we do reduce those tensions and we don’t recreate the tensions of the cold war.

Pressed on what had personally made him change his mind, he replied:

I have always been in favour of a policy of detente and lowering of tensions and we have decided we will remain in Nato as a party.

Asked if he thought Nato now contributed to world peace, he replied:

I think we’ll have to contribute to world peace through Nato and any other alliance – principally through the United Nations.

Here is some reaction to the Boris Johnson press conference from political journalists.

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From my colleague John Crace

From the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner

From the Independent’s Benjamin Kentish

From my colleague Dan Sabbagh

President Trump has confirmed that he is not holding an end-of-summit press conference.

Q: Did you make it clear to Trump that the NHS would not be on the table in trade talks? If so, does that mean this time next year the UK could be leaving the transition with no EU trade deal and no US trade deal?

Johnson says the questions are now scraping the bottom of the barrel. He will wrap up. He ends with a riff about the choice at the election: between getting Brexit done, and having two referendums.

There is also a choice about Nato. He wants to strengthen Nato. Corbyn wants to scrap it, he says. And Diane Abbott wants to disband MI5, he claims.

(She doesn’t, although in the 1980s she signed an early day motion that implied that she did.)

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: Trump said yesterday he did not know Prince Andrew. But there are lots of photographs of them together. Is Trump an amnesiac or a liar?

Johnson says that is a good effort to get an answer on something that did not come up at the summit.

Q: Did the issue of Turkey’s purchase of Russian missiles come up?

Johnson says this did not come up formally at the meeting.

Q: President Trump wants the UK to take more Islamic State fighters back. Are we going to take them back?

Johnson says our legal system makes it very hard to secure convictions if people return. People must accept the consequences for their choices.

Q: [From the Telegraph] Are you concerned about how the full text of the dossier about the UK-US trade talks became public? (The Telegraph has implied the Russians were involved.)

Johnson says he thought this material had been on the internet for some time. He says he is not concerned about this.

Q: President Trump said every leader he had spoken to here has agreed not to let Huawei play a role in its critical infrastructure. He spoke to you last night. So does that mean the UK will not let Huawei build the 5G network here.

Johnson says he does not want the country to be “unnecessary hostile to investment from overseas”. But he will not prejudice security. Those principles will decide his approach to Huawei.

This is from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn on this topic.

Q: Were you joking about President Trump at the reception last night?

Johnson denies it. That suggestion is “complete nonsense”, he says.

Johnson is now taking questions.

Q: President Trump has spoken of his admiration for you. Do you think the president, as a man, is good for the west and good for Britain?

Johnson says America has been a loyal ally to the UK. The alliance has been good for the UK. After the Salisbury poisoning attack, the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats. He contrasts that with the approach taken by Jeremy Corbyn, who wanted to involve Russia in the investigation.

This happened under the current administration, he says.

• Johnson sidesteps opportunity to praise Trump personally.

Here is the declaration issued at the end of the Nato conference.

One of the interesting moment in the ITV leaders’ debate came when Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson were both asked if the monarchy was fit for purpose. Tories assume that Corbyn will always on the royal family agenda (not singing the national anthem damaged him badly), but on this occasion Corbyn said the monarchy needed improvement, and the audience applauded. Johnson said it was beyond reproach, and his reply was met with stony silence. Corbyn gave the right answer - so much so that Johnson resorted a few days later to claiming that, when he had been asked about the monarchy, he had actually been speaking about the monarch (ie, the Queen).

But today Corbyn hasn’t had such a good outing on royal family territory. In an interview with ITV’s Julia Etchingham he was asked if he watched the Queen’s speech on Christmas day. He said that he normally did, although the full exchange suggests otherwise.

ITV has sent out the transcript of the exchange.

JE: Talk to us a bit about Christmas in the Corbyn household. Do you sit down to watch the Queen’s speech? Mr Corbyn.

JC: It’s on the morning, usually we have it on .. some of the time.

JE: It’s not on in the morning .. it’s at three o’clock in the afternoon

JC: It’s when its repeated .. in the afternoon

JE: So you don’t sit down, as a family, to watch the Queen speech.

JC: We don’t watch television very much on Christmas Day. Maybe a film in the evening. Erm I’d like to do a bit of exercise on Christmas morning

JE: You do some exercise on Christmas morning. I don’t think the Queen’s speech is in the morning. It’s three o’clock in the afternoon. That’s when everybody watches it.

JC: Well. Our Christmas is sometimes ...

JE: You don’t watch it do you Mr Corbyn?

JC: There is lots .. lots to do .. I enjoy the presence of my family and friends around Christmas. Obviously, like everybody else does. And, I also visit the homeless shelter, either on Christmas Day, or the day before, to talk to, and listen to people’s lives, about how they could be made better with a government that cared for them.

It’s not quite Frost/Nixon, although Corbyn would probably have been better off just saying he caught up with the Queen’s speech through the news (if at all), like most of the population.

Here is the clip of President Trump calling Justin Trudeau “two-faced”.

And a a final answer to your questions from me ...

Q: What issues do the SNP anticipate in calling another independence referendum in the case of either a returned Tory government, or a new Labour administration? Which would be better for their campaign, is essentially the question. Fighting it out with Johnson or extracting a promise from an incoming PM Corbyn? Chris, Renfrewshire

In the election campaign so far, the SNP has been careful not to entertain any “plan B” talk, should either Labour or Tories refuse to grant the s30 order that Holyrood requires to legally hold a second independence referendum. You may recall that an attempt to debate a plan B was swiftly quashed at SNP conference in October, and Sturgeon herself has insisted that a second indyref must meet the “gold standard” internationally.

Instead, SNP politicians throw the question back to the other parties: who are you to deny the democratic will of the Scottish people? It will depend on next week’s results how powerful that argument is going to be: Sturgeon has described SNP successes at the ballot box as “an instruction to Westminster”.

It’s certainly clear already that Labour don’t want to be seen as anti-democratic, so they are willing to entertain a pro-independence mandate at the next Holyrood elections in 2021 as reason to grant a s30 order. But Johnson has said that he’ll refuse under any circumstances. I think both are good for the campaign now, since they both refuse to grant it next year, which is what Sturgeon says she wants, so it fits well with the narrative of Westminster frustrating Scottish democracy.

Thanks for all your questions today

Next up will be Guardian political correspondent, Kate Proctor. She will be answering any questions you may have about the Brexit party at 12.30pm on Friday. You can ask your question via our form here.

President Trump is speaking to reporters at the end of the Nato summit, at a meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

Trump says he thinks he will solve the trade crisis with China. There must be fairness in trade, he says.

Some interesting questions on different issues from readers here. If you’d like to ask a question in the comments please @Libby or via our form.

Q: Why has reformation of the Gender Recognition Act, present in the 2017 manifesto, been removed in the 2019 manifesto? Is there any explanation or reassurance for trans and non-binary people in Scotland who are alarmed by the signal that this withdrawal sends? Will the results of the publicly funded consultation carried out to gather information for the planned reformation be made available to the taxpayer? Sophie, 29, Edinburgh, software developer

Thanks Sophie, a number of people raised this concern after the manifesto was published, and the Scottish government’s equalities minister Shirley-Anne Somerville sought to reassure them, pointing out that she would be publishing a draft bill following further consultation by the end of the year. But it’s certainly true that this issue has caused a great deal of controversy within the party, with Sturgeon facing a significant amount of push-back on her plans to proceed with a devolved gender recognition act, aimed at streamlining the process by which a transgender person gets legal recognition. The fact that the issue has gone out for consultation twice has alarmed many in the LGBTI community, who saw this as a roll-back from a more solid earlier commitment. But the strength of feeling around the proposals, and the concerns from many women within the party who feel that the impact on equalities legislation and on women-only spaces in particular has not been taken into account , meant that the SG had little option.

Q: This election my vote will go to a party that will legalise cannabis. What is the SNP policy on this? Gavin, Dumfriesshire

Worth noting first of all that drugs laws are reserved to Westminster. Nicola Sturgeon has said that devolution of drug laws is one her key demands should another party seek SNP support for their minority government after the election and the SNP’s manifesto calls for this and - pending devolution - that the UK government should introduce a supervised drug consumption facility in Glasgow. Delegates at the SNP’s autumn conference in Aberdeen in October also backed the decriminalisation of controlled drugs, branding the Misuse Of Drugs Act, which dates back to 1971, as “not fit for purpose”. As you’ll probably know, Scotland is dealing with unprecedented numbers of drug related deaths, and this resolution was linked to attempts to open a safe drugs consumption room in Glasgow, which has so far been blocked by the home office.

Q: What is SNP stand on more support for veterans in Scotland? Anonymous, disabled veteran from service in the Gulf War, Dunfermline

I know that the next Scottish census will include a question about veteran status, a significant change prompted by the British Legion’s campaigning to make it easier to identify and support veterans. I believe that the SNP government was the first UK administration to make this change and also the first to appoint a Veterans’ Commissioner in the autumn of 2018. Practically, there’s support for getting into employment and also for veterans requiring social care, the Scottish Government has exempted the War Disablement Pension from assessment of income – meaning that veterans get the help they need and keep the full value of this pension.

Q: How would a border work between independent-but-in-EU Scotland and out-of-EU England. Would it be a hard border, like the feared one in Scotland? Jack, 29, works in insurance, St Albans

That’s going to be one of the looming questions should there be a second independence referendum campaign, and I’m afraid I can’t give you as much clarity as I’d like at this stage. In 2014, the yes campaign was able to argue that there would be no border between a newly independent Scotland and the rest of the UK because both would remain within the EU. Not so now of course. On The Andrew Marr Show recently, Sturgeon refused to rule out a hard border, saying: “We need to see how things play out and what the final relationship between the UK and the EU will be,” and adding that Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit was not an inevitability.

“As that picture clarifies, I will be honest with the people of Scotland but that opens a situation where Scotland’s best interests depend on being independent and in charge of our own future and I don’t want borders.”

Q: How far into nationalism is the SNP prepared to go? We’ve seen the effects of nationalism in Italy, amongst the far-right in Germany and with the EDL in England as well as with Trump in North America, for but a few examples. Do you consider it a potentially dangerous path to travel? Tim Eslip, middle-aged professional, England

The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, was questioned on precisely this at the Edinburgh Fringe festival this August, so I think it’s helpful to reproduce her answers at length, since it was the most comprehensive I’ve heard her on this in a while. Asked about the types of nationalism you refer to, she told the audience during an interview with Matt Forde that the “civic nationalism” of the SNP was “on another spectrum altogether” from “far right, racist, insular movements” seen in other parts of the world.

Asked by comedian Matt Forde about Scottish nationalism, Sturgeon said: “A lot of the regimes called nationalist today are not countries striving to be independent, because often they already are, but are based on some kind of racial exceptionalism, or superiority often very illiberal and oppressive of minorities, and Scottish independence is not just at the other end of the spectrum of that, but on another spectrum altogether

Questioned specifically about a protester who had been pictured on the Royal Mile with an “England get out of Scotland” banner, Sturgeon said: “The person with that banner does not speak for the SNP. That kind of sentiment has no place in Scotland. You can’t get to a situation in any party where you say we’ll never attract the wrong kind of person but you can be absolutely vehement and resolute about calling it out. The people who put up that banner, I don’t want them in the SNP.”

This is from Bloomberg’s Sebastian Salek.

I have not seen the text of his speech, but will post more on it when I can track down a copy.

Here’s more on the economics of an independent Scotland ...

Q: Given that GERS (Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland) for 2018-9 shows a deficit of £12.6bn or 7.7% of Scottish GDP, how would an independent Scotland pay for the extra spending proposals in the SNP manifesto or even current levels of spending. Richard, Australia

Thanks Richard - that’s precisely the question that the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which published an analysis of the SNP’s manifesto spending pledges in the Scotsman this morning, asked. As others have noted, the SNP manifesto was notably slim on costings, and associate director of the IFS David Phillips suggests that this may be because the spending plans would necessitate more, not less, austerity for Scotland if it were to become independent. As I set out in an earlier post on this live blog, Phillips points out that pledges including increasing NHS spending across the UK by £136 per head to close the gap with Scotland, an end to the two-child benefit cap and an increased national living wage, would require significant outlay at a time when an independent Scotland was also starting out with a serious budget deficit.

Phillips adds: “Pursuing the types of policies suggested in the SNP manifesto in an independent Scotland would mean either those cuts would have to be even bigger, or other taxes would have to be increased to pay for the proposed net giveaways ... in the short-term at least, independence would likely necessitate more not less austerity.”

The SNP’s own growth commission report on the economics of independence, which came out in 2018, proposed that the inherited deficit be cut by growing the economy rather than cutting spending. It also said it should delay launching its own currency and introduce tax cuts for migrants. Analysing the report at the time, the IFS commended it for being honest about “the challenging public finance position an independent Scotland would start life with”.

However, it went on to dispute claims that its economic strategy would end austerity, suggesting it in fact implied cuts in spending and benefits equal to 4% of GDP over a 10-year period.

Questioned about Scotland’s notional deficit by Andrew Neil last week, which stands at 7% according to current figures, and whether it could hinder renewed membership of the EU (EU members’ budget deficits must not exceed 3% of GDP) Nicola Sturgeon argued: “Our task is to get our deficit reducing faster. That is principally through growing our economy faster which remaining in the EU or returning to the EU helps us to do.”

My colleague Richard Partington has been factchecking the John McDonnell claim that a Labour government would save families an average of £6,700 a year.

Here is his verdict.

Nationalisation could save households money that would otherwise go to private investors, but is reliant on the smooth execution of Labour’s plan. The party could face difficulties and unintended consequences, putting savings at risk. Some of the savings are also not open to families until 2030.

And here is the full article.

According to Joe Murphy and Nicholas Cecil in the Evening Standard, No 10 sources have been keen to insist that Boris Johnson was not one of the world leaders joking about Donald Trump at the reception last night. Here is an extract from their story.

Downing Street quickly made clear that Mr Johnson had not been involved in any laughing about any disruption caused by the US president’s press conference, which was held at the American ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park yesterday morning.

A senior source said: ‘The prime minister was hosting and engaging with world leaders. It is others that were having the conversations and Boris certainly was not leading, as can be seen from the clip.

‘You did not see any commentary from him except for an innocent question as to why one was late.’

If you want to ask a question in the comments please @Libby, so they’re easier to find.

Many of you have been asking about the economics of an independent Scotland.

Q: This is a question that the Scottish press don’t ask. What would the cost of setting up the structure of an independent Scotland be and where will the newly independent Scotland get the money? Robert, 68, retired, Edinburgh

Hi Robert, you’ll recall this was a much-disputed area during the 2014 campaign. A Treasury report in May of that year estimated the costs of setting up an independent state to be around £1.5bn - including £750m to create a new tax regime and £400m for computers and IT for welfare - but this was vigorously challenged by the then first minister, Alex Salmond. Prof Patrick Dunleavy of LSE was quoted by both the UK and Scottish governments as the leading expert on transition costs, and he suggested that “start-up costs” would come in at around £200m but then a further £900m would be required for tax and welfare infrastructure. Nicola Sturgeon confirmed in September this year that she had instructed civil servants to work on a second white paper to convince voters of the case for independence, although it should be noted that the original version relied heavily on projected oil revenues which have since plummeted.

Q: Would an independent Scotland find it easier to join Efta rather than the EU, which would give an independent Scotland many of the benefits which eg. Norway has, but also allow us to opt out of CFP and the CAP?

While the SNP has explored the possibility of rejoining the single market via the European Free Trade Association, with the option of returning to full EU membership later, the response from other member states is mixed. In 2017, Iceland’s foreign minister warned that Scotland could not apply to join Efta until after it had fully separated from the UK, but in the same year Norway said it would keep an open mind to Scottish membership.

Accession to Efta is seen as more straightforward than rejoining the EU, but it is not certain that Scotland would then be allowed into the European Economic Area, membership of which would still have to be agreed by the EU. New members of Efta must be accepted unanimously by the existing four members: Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Since the Brexit vote, there have been some encouraging noises from EU officials that an independent Scotland could automatically join the EU or inherit the UK’s membership after it leaves. But in 2017, Jacqueline Minor, the European commission’s head of representation in the UK, warned that Scotland would need to formally apply after leaving the UK, although it could be fast-tracked because it already complies with EU rules and regulations.

You have been sending in your questions about the SNP manifesto, policies and campaign which I will be answering until 1.30pm. You can share your questions with us via our form here.

Many of you have asked questions about the state of education in Scotland.

Q: Does Ms Sturgeon recognise the pledge, “Judge me on my record for education”? As she has not narrowed the attainment gap why should parents and children give her more than an F? Iain RF MacIain, 45, working in education, Scottish Borders

Interesting you mention that today – you no doubt saw the latest Pisa report yesterday, which saw Scotland achieve its lowest scores in maths and science since it first took part in the survey almost 20 years ago, and reported that pupils’ performance in reading tests had recovered only to the level it was at in 2012. A professor of education at Edinburgh University, Lindsay Paterson, described children’s reading performance as “stagnating around mediocrity”, arguing that the reason the attainment gap on reading had narrowed was because middle-class kids were getting worse. The education secretary, John Swinney, described the results as “very encouraging”, while accepting there were still challenges. The problem is that this is just one element of the overall picture, as you’ll know if you work in education yourself.

Another serious concern is teacher shortages. In rural Scotland we have some of the most severe shortages in Europe; also the numbers of days lost to stress-related illness for teachers who are in post; and worries about availability of subjects to children taking high school exams, with reports of kids travelling for hours each week to access teaching in their chosen subject which is only available in another school in their council area.

Q: Why don’t the SNP stand candidates in England or Wales? From the reactions to debate it seems they’d win a lot of people over. Levi, 20, student, Caerphilly

As a nationalist party whose primary aim is Scottish independence, the SNP has only ever fielded candidates in Scotland, but it’s a question that often comes up – particularly after viewers have been impressed by Nicola Sturgeon’s performance in UK-wide televised debates.

Indeed, the question of whether non-residents of Scotland could vote for the SNP featured in a list of most searched-for terms provided by Google after Sturgeon impressed voters across the UK in the first leaders’ debate of the 2015 general election campaign.

And the SNP is well aware of the usefulness of appealing to voters elsewhere: the question of whether Labour could make a post-election pact with the SNP has become one of the key debates of the general election – but also one of the Conservatives’ main attack lines.

I’m Libby Brooks, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, and will be answering your questions on the SNP manifesto, policies and campaign today. I’m based in Glasgow and returned to Scotland – where I grew up – on a six-month secondment to help out with coverage of the 2014 independence referendum and since then I’ve reported on some of the most seismic developments in Scottish politics for decades. Before that I was an editor and columnist on the opinion desk and have also written for features, foreign and home news over the years.

If you have a question you can send it to us by filling in the form here.

Here is the full text of the John McDonnell speech.

McDonnell says he thinks that, just as the Attlee government is remembered for founding the NHS, the Corbyn government will be remembered for setting up a national education service.

Education is not a commodity, he says. It is a gift from one generation to another. The national education service will transform lives, he says.

He says the number of young people involved in Labour’s campaign is terrific. He says he thinks people will be surprised by how many young people turn out to vote next week.

Young people have forced the climate crisis onto the agenda, he says. This is a make-or-break moment for the world.

And that’s it. The Q&A is over.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: Why were you not more explicit about the Waspi women pledge in the manifesto?

McDonnell says he was working on this for 18 months. He was worried if it got announced on manifesto day, it would be swamped by other issues. And he says he wanted the policy to be launched on a day when Labour could also launch its calculator, to show how much women might get. That took a lot of work, he says.

He says the money will be paid over five years. If the government had lost the court case on this, it would have to have paid up anyway.

He says this is a lot of money. But £100bn has been given away to the rich in tax cuts, he says. And he says when the banks were in trouble, hundreds of billions were found to bail them out.

He says he wanted a scheme that was straightforward and readily implementable. He is proud of it, he says.

McDonnell says Labour will reintroduce sectoral collective bargaining for wages. That will lead to wages going up, he says.

Q: Do you support the RMT holding a 27-day rail strike?

McDonnell says he hopes both sides will get around the table to negotiate. He says the union is trying to address safety issues.

Q: Are you worried about leave supporters not backing Labour? And what has happened to prominent remainers like Keir Starmer, who are not being put up by the party for interviews?

McDonnell says people like Starmer are campaigning all over the country.

On Brexit, he says Labour would let the people decide.

But he says this election is not just about Brexit. People are asking about other issues, he says.

Q: Isn’t the idea that Labour can save families £6,700 a year make-believe?

McDonnell says Labour’s plans are costed.

And they have been tested, he says. In the party he has a reputation as a bureaucrat who insists on detail. He says Labour’s plans are credible.

But the party also has an ambitious programme, he says.

He says he wants to ensure there is never another programme like the Dispatches documentary. (See 11.14am.)

Q: Your manifesto largely protects middle-earners. Is that right?

McDonnell says he wants a fair tax system.

At the last election he was accused of having a magic money tree.

Now the Tories have a magic money forest.

If there is a magic money tree, it is in the Cayman Islands. He says Labour will dig it up and bring it back to the UK.

Q: Donald Trump says he can work with Jeremy Corbyn. Is that encouraging?

McDonnell says Labour will work well with whoever is in the White House – after the next presidential election, he jokes.

He then says the party was encouraged by what Trump said yesterday about Corbyn.

McDonnell says he will say more about how Labour would implement change before polling day.

For those of us, who believe that real change is not only necessary but readily achievable, we need to spell out in detail how concretely, step by step, that change can be brought about.

We have done that, through our manifesto and our grey book. And I’ll be saying even more about that theme in the days ahead. So that before polling day people will know not just what we want to achieve.

McDonnell says Labour policies could save families more than £7,000 a year if someone needs personal care.

That’s why Labour has a fair approach to tax: raising income tax rates for the top 5% while closing loopholes and taxing income from wealth the same as that from work.

And what a difference that could make. Paying for free childcare – saving on average almost £3,000 a year per child. Providing free school meals for all primary school children, saving parents over £400 and ensuring that no child struggles to concentrate because of hunger. Paying for the personal care that we or our family members might need in old age. If you or someone in your family needs care at home, that could mean a saving of over £7,000 a year. Paying for a reduction in rail fares, to keep the cost of living down and encourage more people on to public transport. And paying for free prescriptions, saving those with monthly prescriptions over a hundred pounds a year.

Ask our experts a question

As part of our election coverage you can ask our political team any questions you have about the general election, and they will post their responses on the politics live blog between 12.30pm and 1.30pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until polling week.

Today, Libby Brooks, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, will answer your questions about the SNP manifesto. You can ask your question via our form here.

McDonnell dismisses claims that providing services for free is unrealistic.

Because you’ve heard the Tories and Liberal Democrats over recent weeks telling you that the essentials of life can’t be provided free at the point of use, paid for through taxation. And you’re a dreamer if you think otherwise. The same people whose political ancestors would have laughed at the idea of free healthcare, free roads or education are now telling you that we can’t possibly provide free social care, prescriptions or childcare.

McDonnell summarises some of the Labour measures that would lift living standards.

In our exciting manifesto launched two weeks ago, Labour set out its plan for real change. Change that will help tackle that burden of rising living costs. How can we do that? After nearly 10 years during which it’s seemed impossible that anything might change. I’ll tell you where it starts. It starts with adopting the principle of “do no harm”. “At least don’t make things worse.” So we’ll scrap universal credit, stopping its rollout and putting in place a package of fixes while we design a replacement that’s fit for purpose.

Of course that won’t help everyone. We need to raise wages across the country so people don’t need to rely on universal credit. That starts with our real living wage: £10 an hour, straight away, for everyone over 16. An average pay rise of up to £6,000 a year. A pay rise for seven and a half million people.

For public sector workers, it’s a boost of 5% in the first year of a Labour government ...

Our proposals to bring the major energy companies into public ownership has been independently estimated to save an average of £142 a year, while our proposals to retrofit almost every home in the country would slash the average household bill by over £400 a year.

McDonnell says many people have had problems with the cost of living over the last decade. Stagnant wages have not affected just a few people; a majority of people have lost out, he says.

He claims families have lost almost £6,000 a year as a result of Tory policies.

Labour has published today a report setting out the cost to most, of the nearly 10 years of the Conservatives in government and the policies of privatisation under successive Conservative governments. Going all the way back to the Thatcher and Major administrations selling off our nation’s public utilities and natural assets. ‘The family silver’ – as a former Conservative prime minister called it.

Profiteering through privatisation and the Conservatives’ failure to curb rising bills has cost families nearly £6,000 a year since 2010. While wages are still lower than before the financial crash, inaction and economic mismanagement by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over the past decade has meant the cost of living for millions of households has soared.

Here is a question from below the line.

Do candidates see postal votes before election day?

saf2008

04 December 2019 10:23am

@Andrew - question: Are canidates allowed to see postal votes before election day? I ask as Dominic Raab has admitted to seeing them on this video (at 5mins). Is he allowed to do so or is it illegal?

Candidates, or their agents, do get to see postal votes as they come in. They don’t get counted before polling day, but when they are opened someone has to check they are in order, and that process is overseen by the candidates.

But, under election law, no one is allowed to release information about how people have actually voted until polls close.

So, if a candidate were to say ‘Postal votes show we’re on X%, and our rivals are on Y%’, they would probably be committing an offence.

In the video clip cited above, in response to a question about his seat being at risk, Dominic Raab says: “Have a look at the postal votes.” But, beyond giving a knowing look, he does not go much further than that, saying he is not giving too much away.

No one is likely to be marching him away in handcuffs on the basis of that.

At his press conference later Donald Trump may be asked about the video that appeared to show world leaders including Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron joking about him at a reception last night. Our story about it is here. And here is the video.

Boris Johnson is delivering a speech at the opening of the Nato summit. He says:

The fact that we live in peace today demonstrates the power of the simple proposition at the heart of this alliance: that for as long as we stand together, no one could hope to defeat us – and therefore no one will start a war.

This essential principle is enshrined in article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty: that if any one of us is attacked, all of us will go to their defence.

If Nato has a motto, it is: one for all, and all for one.

And here’s the Boris Johnson/Donald Trump handshake.

President Trump has now posed for a photograph with Boris Johnson. It came after Johnson and Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, formally welcomed him to the summit. Johnson and Stoltenberg had a handshake and picture with every Nato leader one by one, ahead of the “family photo” taking place about now.

On his arrival at the Nato summit the French president, Emmanuel Macron, defended his recent claim that the organisation was experiencing “brain death”. Asked if he still stood by the comment, he replied:

Yes, absolutely. In fact it allowed us to raise some crucial debates.

He said those included how to create a durable peace in Europe and clarifying who was the enemy.

So I think it was our responsibility to raise ambiguities that could be harmful, and to tackle a real strategic debate. It has started, I am satisfied.

Boris Johnson, or whoever controls his Twitter account, has just posted a picture of the PM meeting a blonde-haired admirer yesterday. But not that one ...

President Trump has also retweeted the group photograph from last night.

President Trump has tweeted about his meeting with Boris Johnson last night. But he hasn’t included a picture.

President Macron has arrived at the Nato summit venue.

Arriving at the Nato summit Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, said he was confident differences with Turkey over a new alliance defence plan to protect the Baltic states and Poland could be resolved. As the Press Association reports, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened to block the plan after criticism of Turkey’s incursion against the Kurds in northern Syria. Stoltenberg said:

I am confident that we will find a solution to the updating of the revised defence plan.

He said Nato leaders would for the first time discuss the rise of China, which was now the world’s second biggest spender on defence. “This provides opportunities and also challenges,” he said.

On his arrival at the Nato summit, Boris Johnson was asked why he was avoiding being photographed with Donald Trump. (See 8.40am.) Johnson said he would be photographed with every Nato leader.

Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, has mounted a stout defence of Jeremy Corbyn’s record on foreign intervention and his attitude to Nato, suggesting that his peace-promoting credentials are in fact the best defence policy for Britain.

Corbyn has, as they say in politics, been on a journey as regards his position on Nato. Five years ago – as a backbencher – he was speaking at an anti-Nato conference. Now, the Labour party he leads is campaigning on a manifesto promise to maintain the UK’s commitment to Nato.

Responding to suggestions that Corbyn was ambivalent over Nato, which many consider a cornerstone of the UK’s national defence, Gardiner retorted:

The way you defend this country is to make sure that you don’t go on foreign wars and don’t start bombing before you have started thinking.

Ouch! Gardiner was challenged: Is that what Nato does? He continued:

Consistently, if you look at the Iraq war, who was on the right side of history on that? Jeremy Corbyn was not the president at the time and indeed not the Labour party at the time under Tony Blair. But all of parliament went into that, Jeremy Corbyn did not.

What I’m saying is that if you look at the way in which we want to use a defensive alliance it is to think carefully through positions, to learn the lessons of the Chilcot report, learn about how we should try and prevent conflict and de-escalate a situation, rather than actually then promoting a conflict.

When we went into Libya, when we joined the bombing raid on Libya, we were told it was absolutely essential to do that. I didn’t vote for that, neither did Jeremy Corbyn. That has proved to be a disaster. It’s proved to allow groups like Isis to form and take control and to make that country a complete basket case.

Speaking on Today this morning, Jeremy Hunt denied any knowledge of talks between the UK and the US on NHS drugs pricing, despite documents unearthed recently showing that officials began negotiations during his tenure as health secretary.

“When I was health secretary, I wasn’t aware of any talks going on with the United States at all,” said Hunt, who left his post as foreign secretary when Boris Johnson became prime minister.

In so far as there have been preliminary discussions between officials on both sides, not between politicians, we have made absolutely clear that NHS drugs prices are not on the table.

I’m afraid this is the traditional scare story. What would really damage the NHS are economic policies that destroy jobs in the economy and destroy the tax base that the NHS depends on.

We have at the moment a very, very radical economic platform from John McDonnell which would do immense damage to our tax base and therefore our ability to fund the NHS.

Since that last post, it’s Damien Gayle now at the helm of the blog, taking over from my colleague Kate Lyonsr, and filling in while Andy Sparrow eats his cornflakes and limbers up to take you through the day’s political drama.

What the papers said

A story to give you a chuckle over your breakfast: a Tory councillor climbed dustbins and scaled a school fence to escape a climate crisis debate after she met with a crowd unimpressed with her answers.

Nancy Bikson’s great escape would have stayed secret were it not for a 13-year-old girl who saw the incident at Priory school in Lewes, East Sussex.

Trust me, everything about this story is designed to amuse.

The day ahead

• The prime minister’s time will be split between campaigning in the home counties and hosting leaders for the Nato summit.
• Jeremy Corbyn is campaigning in the East Midlands, while John McDonnell gives a speech on the economy in the West Midlands outlining how Labour’s policies will save average people money.
• In the Lib Dem camp, Jo Swinson will visit a youth centre in London and then sit down for her Andrew Neil interview, which will be broadcast at 7.30pm.
• The Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, will speak at a public meeting in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, in the morning while the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, will campaign in Edinburgh. The Ulster Unionist party will launch its manifesto in Belfast.

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian live blog, where we bring you all the politics news you could possibly want. We’re a little more than a week out from the election and there’s a lot going on today, so strap in.

Donald Trump’s presence in the UK for Nato talks continues to loom over the election. The summit started with heated exchanges and further tensions are expected as leaders meet again today. Donald Trump is seen as an electoral liability for the Conservatives over fears that he may be interested in putting the NHS on the table in US-UK trade talks – though yesterday the president categorically denied the US was interested in the health service. Boris Johnson has so far managed to keep his distance from Trump, with Marina Hyde writing that Johnson will continue to studiously avoid the president because “Tories sense even a handshake with Trump could piss their electoral bed”.

Meanwhile, Labour will today try to convince voters of the financial benefit of electing a Corbyn government. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, will say his party’s policies would save families an average of £6,700 a year by “putting a stop to rip-off Britain” as Labour narrows its focus to bread-and-butter issues.

In a dossier to be published alongside the speech, McDonnell will claim that policies including nationalising utilities and reducing the cost of rail season tickets – as well as free childcare for all two- to four-year-olds, free prescription charges and free school meals – will help the hip pocket of average households.

However, Labour candidates are privately concerned about the scattergun nature of the giveaways, with one Labour saying the manifesto, while good, is “just long and confusing” and some promises could appear too good to be true.