Good morning and welcome to today’s briefing. Nigel Farage has inserted himself front and centre into the news cycle with a promise that his Brexit party will not contest Conservative-held seats. You can follow all the day’s developments at our politics live blog – but first let’s dive into this morning’s headlines.

What’s going on?

The Brexit party leader’s dramatic U-turn has given incumbent Conservatives clear air, but senior Conservatives are piling pressure on him to go further and stand down his candidates in Labour-held seats being targeted by Tories. Nigel Farage has conceded the Brexit party’s continued presence in those contests could lead to a hung parliament and a second referendum – the stopping of which was the “the single most important thing in our country”. He emailed supporters on Monday night pledging to “contest every seat held by Corbyn’s remainer Labour party” which he said had “openly betrayed” Labour leave voters.

Play Video 2:08 Nigel Farage reveals Brexit party will not stand in 317 Tory seats – video

Farage’s reversal has prompted claims from Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP that he has secretly struck a pact in favour of a hard Brexit – something both the Brexit party and Tories denied. He is due to announce on Friday which seats the party is contesting.

Labour will focus on education today, pledging that every adult will be entitled to six years of free study in a radical expansion of lifelong learning. The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, will announce the party would “throw open the doors” to adult learners if it wins government, including any adult without A-level or equivalent qualifications being able to study for them for free at college, and grants for low-income earners. Fiona Millar writes that Labour should be sweeping the floor with the Tories who have “brought schools to their knees” but even last week they were asking for education policy ideas.

Week one of this campaign is barely done and racism has reared its ugly head, with one Lib Dem candidate resigning and a Tory refusing to do so. Kevin McNamara, who holds the marginal seat of Thurrock in Essex, has stepped down after a series of racist and homophobic tweets emerged. He has apologised and the party has opened an investigation. But the Tory candidate for South Cambridgeshire and former Johnson aide, Anthony Browne, has refused to stand aside over comments that blamed immigrants for bringing germs and HIV to the UK and accused Muslims of having divided loyalties.

At a glance

The day ahead

Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee in response to the floods in the north.

Jo Swinson will travel to flood-affected South Yorkshire. The Lib Dems are promising €5bn for investment in flood defences.

Jeremy Corbyn will launch Labour’s adult education and further education policy in Blackpool.

Nicola Sturgeon will join SNP candidate Catriona MacDonald on the campaign trail in Edinburgh South.

There will be a Brexit party rally in Westminster at 11am.

Best of the rest

> Evo Morales, the former Bolivian president, has left the country for Mexico where he has been granted asylum after his disputed re-election led to national turmoil. Morales vowed he would soon “return with more strength and energy” to Bolivia. His exit has created further uncertainty and stoked fears about a power vacuum.

> Hospital admissions for children with pneumonia have risen by more than 50% in England in a decade, figures suggest, with the situation worst in deprived areas. Unicef and Save the Children say it equates to six children being taken to hospital every hour. A health expert said parents should have their children immunised with the pneumococcal and influenza vaccines to reduce their risk of getting sick.

> An antique turban-style hat made from the world’s most exclusive textile – sea silk – is to be auctioned this week in New York. Its threads come from a giant Mediterranean mollusc, Pinna nobilis, which roots itself to the seafloor with hundreds of fibres, known as byssus.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Byssus what it looks like up close. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Once extracted, cleaned and spun, the threads are a rich chestnut colour. It was once highly prized – Horatio Nelson wrote of his intention to send his lover, Emma Hamilton, a pair of gloves made from byssus – but fell out of favour among the synthetic fabrics of the 20th century.

Today in Focus podcast: Is the NHS up for sale at the election?

The NHS is one of the major battleground issues of the general election as parties debate the future of healthcare in the UK. Sarah Boseley and Denis Campbell discuss the extent of private company involvement in the NHS. Plus: Dan Collyns on the downfall of Evo Morales in Bolivia.

Today in Focus Is the NHS being sold out? Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2019/11/11-71494-20191111_TIFPRIVATE_NHS.mp3 00:00:00 00:29:39

Lunchtime read: History as a giant data set

In 2010, a letter in the scientific journal Nature warned that a coming decade of dazzling technological progress risked being unravelled by mounting global political instability. This turmoil, the writer predicted, was due to peak in the US and western Europe around 2020. Human societies go through predictable periods of growth, during which the population increases and prosperity rises. Then come equally predictable periods of decline. These “secular cycles” last two or three centuries and culminate in widespread unrest – from worker uprisings to revolution.

The writer was biologist Peter Turchin, who warned that in recent decades a number of worrying social indicators – such as wealth inequality and public debt – had started to climb in western nations, indicating societies were approaching a period of upheaval. Turchin had previously used sophisticated maths to show how the interactions of predators and prey produce oscillations in animal populations in the wild. After answering all the ecological questions that interested him, he found himself drawn to history: could the rise and fall of human societies be captured by his variables and equations? Could calculating the patterns and cycles of the past lead us to an objective version of history – and help us prevent a looming crisis?

Sport

Raheem Sterling has been dropped for England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro on Thursday after a bust-up with Joe Gomez at St George’s Park. Gareth Southgate has warned his young side they must “raise the bar” set by previous generations of England teams if they are to end the long wait for success on the international stage. Alex Zverev, the reigning ATP Finals champion, beat the world No 1 Rafael Nadal in straight sets after Stefanos Tsitsipas had defeated Daniil Medvedev at the O2 Arena.

England’s new head coach, Chris Silverwood, wants his batsmen to concentrate on building an innings in his first Test series against New Zealand. Cardiff City are looking for a manager after Neil Warnock left his position by mutual consent. Shane Sutton’s eagerly awaited testimony at the Dr Richard Freeman medical tribunal was delayed by hours of legal argument behind closed doors on Monday. And the independent disciplinary panel that considered Danny Brock’s use of a modified whip on a horse has decided it was a “case of mistake rather than deliberate conduct”.

Business

Boeing thinks its 737 Max jets could be flying again by January after it completed the first of several crucial tests on its autopilot software. The planes were grounded in March after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia left 346 people dead. The owner of Boots the chemist is reportedly being eyed up for the world’s biggest ever private equity buyout. According to Bloomberg, Walgreens Boots Alliance could be taken into private hands in a deal worth up to $70bn. The pound held on to post-Farage pledge gains overnight to sit at $1.286 and €1.165 this morning. The FTSE100 is on course to edge up slightly.

The papers

The Times steps out of line today to give prime billing to something other than Nigel Farage pulling his Brexit party out of Tory-held seats. The biggest point size on its front is reserved for “HS2 will boost north despite soaring costs”. Farage still goes across the top – the headline theme adopted being similar to the Guardian’s which says: “Farage urged to give Tories free run at Labour seats”. In the Guardian’s main picture, Farage stands next to a rusty cannon with its business end blanked off.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, Tuesday 12 November 2019.

The FT declares: “Farage hints at broader retreat as party ditches fight for Tory seats”. In the Telegraph it’s phrased as “Farage retreats from every Tory seat”. A tactical retreat, the Brexit party leader would argue no doubt. The Express calls it “Farage’s election gift for Boris”.

Then we get into the papers that run a picture of a pint-clutching Boris Johnson at varying stages of imbibement. “Cheers Nige …” says the Sun, “now help us beat Labour by pulling out of EVERY seat”. The Metro says: “Cheers Nigel” and Johson’s got the glass almost touching his mouth. “Farage’s retreat” says the i, and at this click of the shutter those famed vocal cords have paused their resonations to let the ale sluice past. Finally the Mirror also has a non-Farage lead story: “Sold down the river”, about how flooded northern communities missed out on flood defence spending that was mostly spent in the south.

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