Labour leader says platform rightly reflects the party’s views and not just his own on issues like Trident, while Theresa May faces grilling over Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn has said he is “not a dictator” as he justified why a series of long-held beliefs, including scrapping Trident, nationalising Britain’s banks and dissolving the monarchy, had not been included in Labour’s manifesto.



The opposition leader made the comments in the face of intense questioning from a studio audience and interviewer Jeremy Paxman, who also called Theresa May a “blowhard” in the May v Corbyn Live: the Battle for No 10 programme aired on Channel 4 and Sky News.

Corbyn said policies in his manifesto such as accepting the renewal of Trident after a lifetime of campaigning against the nuclear deterrent were part of his role at the helm of the Labour party.

“I am not a dictator who tells people what to do, this is a process in our party. That is why I was elected, to give a voice to our party and its members,” he said.

He hinted that he would not be prepared to press the nuclear button when he said that he would, if needed, “write the appropriate letters to our commanders who are obviously very loyal, responsible naval officers,” adding: “As prime minister, I would do all I can to bring about a nuclear-free world. I am horrified at the very idea of a nuclear attack.”

It was the first setpiece TV confrontation of the election campaign between the two party leaders after May had refused to debate Corbyn directly.

Paxman accused the prime minister of backing down over policies on national insurance and social care, suggesting that negotiators in Brussels might assume she would “collapse at the first sign of gunfire”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May listens to a question from the audience. Photograph: Reuters

The Conservative leader insisted that she had got her way in previous negotiations and repeatedly stressed her belief that “no deal is better than a bad deal”.

May’s suggestion that she would not accept a “deal at any price” came before a speech on Tuesday in which she will argue that failure to make a success of Brexit poses a threat to the NHS, public services, welfare payments, jobs and prosperity.

The prime minister’s relentless focus on leaving the EU is part of a campaign relaunch that also saw her raise the impact of “uncontrolled immigration” on some people’s wages as she sought to differentiate her party from Labour.

Asked by a Brexit-supporting member of the audience if he would set a migration target, Corbyn said the level would not increase under his leadership but he would “not be held” to any commitment to reduce numbers.

“I’m not going to stand here and put a figure. Our prime minister has done that in the third election running and she is nowhere near,” he said.

Corbyn was cheered when he said he would not allow companies to bring in whole groups of very low paid foreign workers to undercut British employees, a process he said was “destroying their working conditions”.

But he would not give any details of what a “managed migration system” under Labour would do to the overall level of net migration per year, which is currently at 248,000.

Pressed again on the overall level by Paxman, Corbyn said: “I suspect it probably would be slightly less, or less. We require migrant workers to maintain our health service and much of our industry because we have a skills gap in this country.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Faisal Islam, Jeremy Corbyn and Jeremy Paxman during the Sky News and Channel 4 election programme. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images

During her questioning by the studio audience, May faced hostility. She was accused by a police officer of presiding over “devastating” cuts, was asked by a midwife to justify her “chronic underfunding” of the NHS and heckled over school funding.

“Nobody can guarantee a real-terms per-pupil funding increase,” May said. “People are focusing on funding but actually we need to ensure we see good or outstanding schools. That isn’t just about funding, it’s about a whole variety of things.”



Her response on the health service caused one audience member to swear at her while another attempted, but failed, to get the audience on their feet for a standing ovation. It was notable that not once in her interview did she use the “strong and stable leadership” mantra that has been used so often in the campaign.

Corbyn was challenged by an audience member who claimed he had “openly supported the IRA in the past” by attending a commemoration for eight IRA members killed by the SAS in Loughgall in 1987. The Labour leader said there was a period of silence for “everyone who died in Northern Ireland”.

When pressed further, Corbyn said: “The contribution I made to that meeting was to call for a peace and dialogue process in Northern Ireland. It’s only by dialogue and process we brought about peace in Northern Ireland and I think that’s a good thing.

“My point was we have to have a foreign policy around the world that doesn’t leave large areas without an effective government which can become a breeding ground of enormous danger.”

He refused to say whether or not he would order a drone strike on someone like Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis militant also known as Jihadi John, saying it was a “hypothetical question”.

Responding to the suggestion that he once said the Falklands war was a “Tory plot”, Corbyn admitted that he felt Margaret Thatcher “was exploiting the situation” and said he would prefer to see the government pursue peace first.

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On his earlier desire to abolish the monarchy, he said: “We are not going to do it.” He described having a “nice chat” with the Queen, who he said was a titular head of state.

The Labour leader’s most passionate response was to a small business owner angry about policies to increase corporation tax and slap VAT on private school fees.

Corbyn replied: “The choice is clearly there: this manifesto, investing for the future, taxing more – a bit for the corporation tax and the wealthiest; 95% would pay no more. Or you can go down the road of continuing austerity and an ever widening gap between the richest and the poorest in society.”

May’s focus on Brexit comes after a Tory wobble following a U-turn on social care and a tightening in the polls in the race for Downing Street. The Brexit secretary, David Davis, said the prime minister had “brought it back to the fundamentals – who is going to get the best Brexit deal”. He said she had shown “strength and quiet determination” while Corbyn had “flannelled under pressure”.



The former Labour leader Ed Miliband said his successor had delivered an “assured performance” and Corbyn also won unexpected support from the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage who said he “came across as totally sincere” even if he disagreed with him.

The Spectator journalist James Forsyth said the Labour leader had kept his temper in the face of hostile questions, returned to his key messages and framed them “in a reasonable, rather than ideological manner”. However, he questioned Corbyn’s claims with regards to Northern Ireland, suggesting he had sympathised with the IRA.