Welcome to day two of the actually not all that snappy, seven-week snap election campaign. I’m Claire Phipps, bringing you the morning wrap of all things politics here and on our daily live blog.

General election 2017: result not a 'foregone conclusion', says Corbyn – politics live Read more

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What’s happening?

Real fight starts now, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes his first major campaign speech in Westminster this morning. He might have voted for Theresa May’s early election timetable (and for article 50), but from now, he’s playing by different rules, he’ll tell his audience:

Much of the media and establishment are saying this election is a foregone conclusion … They say I don’t play by the rules – their rules. We can’t win, they say, because we don’t play their game. They’re quite right: I don’t. And a Labour government elected on 8 June won’t play by their rules.

The Tories can keep “fatcat bosses” Philip Green and Mike Ashley, Corbyn will say: the Labour manifesto will be for “the nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker”.

Should the nurse, the teacher et al not propel him into No 10, though, Corbyn might not follow the unwritten rules that usually see a defeated opposition leader step down. The Independent reports today that even if he loses, “there is a good chance Mr Corbyn will either refuse to resign or run again to retain power”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremy Corbyn: ‘They say I don’t play by the rules …They’re quite right.’ Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Maverick rule-ripping, too, from Theresa May, who is sticking to her refusal to take part in head-to-head TV debates, instead insisting she prefers to “go out and knock on doors” to reach voters. Some 7 million people watched the 2015 ITV debate in which David Cameron squared off against Ed Miliband and co, so that’s an ambitious door target. The BBC and ITV have confirmed they will screen leaders’ debates, even if the actual leader isn’t there to debate.

Perhaps May’s intention is to steer clear of what she is keen to label the “coalition of chaos”, the Brexit naysayers who are dividing the country, once nostalgically known as “a democratic opposition”. After Nicola Sturgeon raised the prospect of an informal “progressive alliance” to try to oust the Conservatives, the PM seized the chance to recycle a 2015 Cameron slogan (one previous owner, slightly tarnished). Corbyn categorically ruled out any such pact – but don’t be surprised if some hastily recast versions of the Miliband-in-Salmond’s-pocket ads sneak their way out of CCHQ regardless.

At a glance:

Poll position

Brought to you, as polls must be these days, in association with a generous pinch of salt.

A YouGov poll for the Times – the first since we all knew an election was bearing down on us – has the Tories on double Labour’s score: 48% to 24%. It finds only 12% of Labour voters expect Corbyn’s party to win a majority. And that anticipated Lib Dem bounce hasn’t sprung through yet: they stay on 12%.

Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) EXC: Tonight Tories on 48% in the first YouGov poll taken since Theresa May called election - highest since May 2008 pic.twitter.com/awaKs7V0Yv

Latest polling in Scotland has the SNP streets ahead on 47%, with the Conservatives second on 27%, and Labour on 14%.

Diary

Brexit business at 9.15am, when Theresa May holds talks with Antonio Tajani , president of the European parliament, at Downing Street.



holds talks with , president of the European parliament, at Downing Street. At 10.30am, Jeremy Corbyn makes his first keynote speech of the election campaign, in Westminster.



makes his first keynote speech of the election campaign, in Westminster. At 1.15pm in Bristol, Green leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley will launch their party’s campaign.



and will launch their party’s campaign. And Boris Johnson hosts US House speaker Paul Ryan, on a trip to talk trade.

Talking point

On Wednesday, May repeatedly dodged questions on whether the Tory manifesto will delete Cameron’s 2015 commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid. Any cut to the £12bn aid budget would be a salve to the rightwing press – the Daily Mail today trumpets the speculative proposal as a “bonfire of the chumocracy’s legacy”. But Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates told the Guardian the ramifications could be devastating:

The big aid givers now are the US, Britain and Germany – those are the three biggest and if those three back off, a lot of the ambitious things going on with malaria, agriculture and reproductive health simply would not get done.

Read these

Nicola Sturgeon, writing in the Scotsman, says the PM’s motives for calling a general election are evident:

She knows that as the terms of her hard Brexit become clearer, the deep misgivings that so many people already have will increase and grow. So she wants to act now to crush the parliamentary opposition that she faces. Labour’s self-inflicted weakness has presented the excuse … No prime minister, not even Mrs Thatcher, has complained that there should not be robust debate in parliament. That is a healthy and indeed necessary in any parliamentary democracy, but Theresa May does not seem willing to acknowledge any views other than hers. That simply isn’t acceptable in a democracy.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon in London on Wednesday. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

Here’s Owen Jones on how Labour could up its media game:

What the Tories traditionally do is shoehorn in their vision, whatever the question, and repeat it in some form or other throughout the interview. That can be quite irritating – and not just for their opponents – but this constant repetition of what they stand for, regardless of what question they are asked, is very effective. The electorate end up absorbing a big chunk both of how the Tories want to be seen, and how the Tories want to see their opposition …

The Tories are very good at presenting THE CHOICE. On Brexit, for example, Labour could say: ‘Voters have a clear choice. Either a Labour Brexit deal that keeps Britain in the single market and protects jobs, or a chaotic Tory Brexit deal that damages jobs, living standards and the economy.’ … It’s not for me to pre-empt that clear Labour vision, but they have to present THE CHOICE as well. Here’s where we stand in a sentence or two, and here, by way of contrast, is where the Tories stand.

Suzanne Moore, in the Guardian, says voters will need to think tactically, too:

Militant remainers are delusional about how much support they have. They have mistakenly chosen to be led by discarded middle-aged Blairites and Nick Clegg. Many people just want politicians to get on with Brexit. They are not full of regret. But there is a real divide in this country; May is wrong to locate it in Westminster alone … Opposition has to come from an alliance. It is Labour who have refused to countenance alliances. It is that party that will pay the price. The politics of purity have polluted the atmosphere so much that when May saw that she could get a clean sweep, she went for it. Who can stop her?

Revelation of the day

Nigel Farage has told the Sun that he fancies his chances of winning in South Thanet, where he finished second to Conservative Craig Mackinlay in 2015. He told the Sun – after lunch with Ukip leader Paul Nuttall at man-of-the-people hangout/elite London private members’ club 5 Hertford Street:

A bit of me says what happened last time in South Thanet was so monstrous there that they wouldn’t dare try it again, so I think if I did run I would win it.



It would be Farage’s eighth attempt to win a Westminster seat. His previous seven runs were, for him, unsuccessful.

The day in a tweet

In the absence of an Ed Balls announcement, the jostling for seats lacks pizzazz:

Gaby Hinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) While I'm pleased to hear Bob Marshall Andrews is still alive, not sure his defection to the LibDems is the coup of the century tbh

And another thing

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