Publicly owned Energy Company in every part of the uk. National grid, railways and Bus Companies are to be nationalised. Well, im joined byjack blanchard, the mirrors Political Editor replete with a copy of this thing. And with our own Political Editor, nick watt. Just to be clear, jack, what you have there is a print out. Its not a typeset, formalised version . Im afraid not. No cover, no glossy feel. It is a dodgy, leaked document. But it does have their draft measures. Give us some of the eye catching ones. Theres a lot in there. As you mention, there is the plan to bring a big part of the Energy Industry back into public ownership. There is a Huge Investment plans for the nhs, £6 billion extra a year, which will be funded with new taxes on people earning more than £80,000 a year. Theres Council Houses to be built every year, tuition fees abolished entirely. We kind of knew that anyway. And then the creation of new whitehall departments, a ministry of labour, a department for housing, because labour seat workers rights and housing as central. Lots and lots on workers rights. The telegraph have written it up tonight. You take a slightly different spin than the daily mirror. They are saying it is 1983 all over again. The moderates in the labour party are relatively relaxed about this Draft Manifesto which they had obviously seen. They are saying this is the closest the labour party has got to the 1980s, the famous 1983 manifesto, the longest suicide note in history, as the late sir Gerald Kaufman calls it. They are saying that they are upholding labours commitment to renewing trident in this manifesto, that there was a curious paragraph after that, saying any Prime Minister would want to use the Nuclear Deterrent with caution. Which i think they have done up until now 82 . Commitment to the 2 spending on defence. They are saying that robin cook couldve written that in 1997. Who has written this . Is it corbyns team . Absolutely. Two or three key members in his team. They obviously have not had very much time to do it. They started looking at all the things they wanted to do, and they have reached out from there. Labour are not doing well in the polls, but when you look at the policies, like nationalising railways, people will like it. Would you describe this as quite populist in flavour, taxing the rich more to pay more into the nhs . A nationalised Energy Company in all regions . I spoke to a Senior Member of corbyns team tonight asking if they wanted to say anything. They didnt want to comment on record, but when i said some of this looks quite left wing, they said, no, it is popular. If you look at these individual policies, like energy and privatised railways, and higher taxes on some people, people agree with them on that. I was talking to one moderate this afternoon. The moderates said that the abolition of University Fees would connect people. And they said, oh, dear me, is this going to raise questions about their strategy . The moderate strategy is to let Jeremy Corbyn own it. The one red line was a trident renewal commitment. For everything else, they are taking the tragedy the strategy owned byjohn golding. They say that he must own this so he can own the General Election result. Lets think about the process. This goes to this clause 5 meeting tomorrow. Is thatjust a formality . Will they not it through, or will the nec be over each others shoulders, trying to. I think it is tweaks more than anything more serious. I dont think they will change much. In the past, you had battles, although that would take place beforehand. Its notjust the nec, it is the shadow cabinet, and it is the trade Union Liaison and contact group. The trade unions have a big say. I was told one thing that might cause a problem at the meeting tomorrow is what it says about immigration. The trades union do not think it goes fast far enough. Will the party be really annoyed . Is it a shambles or a clever Media Strategy . Lets leak it out, lets get people talking. Its not that. It looks slightly shambolic. My understanding is this has happened before. Because labour has this process, this big meeting full of senior people who all discuss it, leaks can happen because of this process. But it is in their constitution and its how they work. Its not what they planned, but it was all due to come next week anyway. Whose interest is it to leak this, and for what motive . You could say that the corbynites have a good reason for leaking it, to get away with any problem. And to stop anybody watering it down . And you could play that game, so i dont exactly know. Thank you for coming in with it. Thanks very much. So a president fires the head of the internal Security Service, on perplexing grounds that are months old. Just as the Security Service is investigating the president s own campaign team. It doesnt sound like the us, but it is. Today, the New York Times reported that the terminated director of the fbi james comey had just been asking for more resources for the investigation into russian connections to the Trump Campaign. Was he sacked to thwart an inconvenient investigation . Or, do we believe the trump line that mr comey had lost the trust of democrats and republicans alike and the fbi needed a fresh start . Well, for many, the president has crossed a dangerous threshold the constitution has checks and balances on his power, but it has to allow him some discretion, and to them, hes broken the spirit of us convention, by exploiting his powers to an entirely self interested end. 0ur diplomatic editor mark urban is with me. In fbi terms, the history of the fbi, how big a deal is it for the fbi director to be sacked . I think you know the answer to this question. One has been sacked before, by bill clinton back in 1993. William sessions. People say this was a move like nixon. Nixon fired the Special Prosecutor who had been appointed to investigate the watergate burglary, so thats where there are parallels. Consternation in washington today, and all sorts of versions coming out of a beleaguered president becoming obsessed with this russia issue, finally boiling over and doing this. That is from anti trump media, but it is true that he hadnt been Doing Public Engagements in recent days, and its also true that even his press people seemed unaware until moments before this happened that it was going to happen. They have been putting some other lines out today, like saying, we thought the democrats would really like this and be supportive. Everybody has jumped to their own conclusion about why it happened, and that is largely to do with the russian thing. But that Russian Investigation will go on. Now it all comes back to the investigation of connections between the Trump Campaign and the russians. No one has produced evidence of it yet, but theres a Lurking Suspicion that team trump might have encouraged, co ordinated, or been in some way complicit with russian hacking of the clinton teams emails. If that was true, well, lets just say its not a good thing to do. Paul wood is in washington, and looks at whats left of the investigations into the russian connection to the Trump Campaign. The political melodrama House Of Trump is a ratings smash. But at times its a little dark, and the plot does stretch credulity. In part one, the fbi investigates whether the Trump Campaign conspired with a foreign power, russia, to steal the us president ial election. In part two, trump fires the fbi director, james comey. The audience is left to wonder why. Everybody knows. It was not to derail the fbi investigation, the president insists. Yes, that is Henry Kissinger next to him. The question is, naturally, were about comeys sacking. He wasnt doing a good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. The president wrote a terse letter to comey, saying it was Vital To Restore Public Trust and confidence in the fbi. Significantly, he recalled comey informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation. At the white house briefing, an avalanche of scepticism. Look, i think it was something that. Above my pay grade was decided to be included, and im not going to get into the specifics of that. Thank you, so much. Trumps critics paint a different picture. They dont believe that comey was sacked, as the white house says, because he was too tough on Hillary Clinton. The white house should perhaps recall what another president , lbj, said about another fbi director, j edgar hoover. Better to have him inside the Tent Pissing Out than outside pissing in. It is a delicious irony that russias Foreign Minister should be Visiting Washington today to see mr trump. Youre kidding . Such insouciance is impressive. Never forget that the Us Intelligence agencies all say that russia interfered in the election, and they did it to put President Trump in office. Raise your hand, please. That assessment was made by james clapper, when he was director of national intelligence. He told congress this week that russia had hacked leading democrats and then leaked out damaging information a sophisticated propaganda campaign. They must be congratulating themselves for having exceeded their Wildest Expectations with a minimal expenditure of resources. And i believe they are now emboldened to continue such activities in the future both here and around the world, and to do so even more intensely. No evidence has been made public proving that the Trump Campaign did conspire with russia. Nothing. Theres no evidence either for the claim that the kremlin is blackmailing the president , using a tape of him with prostitutes in moscow. Nor has it yet been shown that trumps Business Dealings put him in hock to the russians. But the fbi investigation will continue after comeys departure. There are also four separate congressional enquiries. All these investigations now have many more questions following the events of the last 2a hours. Why was comey sacked . What does he know thats yet to be made public . And, was trump reassured that he himself was not the subject of an investigation . Washington echoes to talk that a Special Prosecutor may be appointed. Inevitably, the president s critics compare this to watergate. There is a Clear And Present Danger of a cover up, history doesnt repeat but it rhymes. And this firing very much has the look and feel of an effort to stop an investigation and politically interfere with it. It is true. Not since watergate has a president dismissed the person leading an Investigation Bearing on him. But President Trump may be right that only his aides and associates are being targeted now. Then the question will be that which came to define watergate what did the president know, and when did he know it . Paul wood there. Mark urban is still with me. How much of a danger do you think this Russian Investigation is to President Trump . Well, we know that the idea mesmerises the intelligence community. Ex director comey and others, as well as the president s political opponents. It is that there is some kind of connectivity that is provable between the Trump Campaign, and the hacking and leaking of e mails during last years president ial election. That is clearly the main thing they are going for. There are peripheral issues with money, meetings coordinating policy, other things. But that is the central thing they want to prove. Clearly, if they get there, if it is possible to prove that connection of people meeting, and money going. But they are a long way off. The president s defences are holding up in certain respects. For example, today more than 75 democrats and independents joined the call for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor. No republicans, just three in congress and the senate, led byjohn mccain, backing the idea of a special committee of enquiry. 0n the hill his defences are holding up. Self evidently theyve not got the point where they could launch a charge against individuals on these very serious potential allegations, and of course even if they do, they may well be arms length associates, people who were dismissed from the campaign at some point during the campaign. It may be, if there is in the end a parallel to watergate, the attempts to cover up or disrupt investigations that could finally do for him. Mark, thank you. 0ne concern is whether the president is somehow undermining the institutions of the us, politicising justice and damaging morale at the fbi and department ofjustice. The kind of thing that you might expect of lesser countries. Lets talk to Sidney Blumenthal, a senior aide to bill clinton who worked at the clinton foundation. First charlotte laws, an author and political commentator who was one of President Trumps earliest supporters. Charlotte, why do you think the president acted now on this . This question of why now seems to be one that has iffiifilef if fifi beer eyilfiifilfi this goes all the way back to january. Comey was increasingly viewed as a political figure which is inappropriate for someone who is the director of the fbi. There were calls from the republicans to sack him. Here in los angeles, im an independent but i know a lot of republicans and they were all saying to me back injanuary, why doesnt trump fire comey . There was a big push for this. I think that trump had it in his ear like i had it in my ear. The democrats were calling for comey to be fired during the campaign and there were reports that within the fbi there is disgruntlement and they were unhappy with the leadership. That was happening at the same time. You have controversy from a few days ago where comey went out and misstated information regarding e mails which created huge controversy and he had to come out and change what he had 5. 3. In f 3i§¥ifiz § all of these things had come together and i think that trump had an erosion of confidence. On that list are convincing or not. Do you not think that the president should have thought about how it looks . He is being investigated fifi . . . He 93351 . H . . . §§h§7 i will wait until the investigation is over before i sack him . Well, i think you dont do Something Like this you dorrltgvoutafidbofnowaofia and put it in your driveway if you dont have a pure heart. I think his detractors would have criticised him no matter when he fired comey. The investigation may not be over for years, and secondly, if he did it back injanuary when he first came into office, he still would have been criticised for the same basic reasons. I think so many people are anti trump in the media and the democrats and political figures that it is hard for him to do anything that is seen as right or proper. I want to ask you one question. This perplexes me. In the letter that trump sent to comey, he used the line while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, blah blah blah. What a strange thing to write. It is like it is on trumps mind, as he terminates this guy, is the investigation into his team. Why would you write that in there . It is very strange to me. Because being president is very much public relations. He wants to make it clear to america that he is not personally under investigation. As i understand he isnt. Personally. He wants to make it clear. I also think that the reason why he did not call comey himself was because trump has a reputation of not liking to confront people and make them feel bad. Its very hard for him to fire people. Ive heard many people say it with regards to the trump organization, he would leave people in the company even though he wanted them gone because he couldnt bring himself to fire them face to face or he would get someone else to do it. Thats probably the reason why he did not call him and that is the reason for that comment in the letter. His catchphrase was youre fired. But you are ironically saying he was incapable of firing people. Let me go to Sidney Blumenthal now. I may come back to you afterwards. Do you think that this is a constitutional crisis . Or at least a constitutional moment . It is a crisis in democracy and it has been ever since the moment that donald trump was inaugurated. Hes declared war on the free press and called them enemies of the people. There hasnt been that kind of language since middle europe in the 1930s. Against the free press. And hes has attacked judges. He has called them so called judges, and attacked the judicial system on cases that he is involved in, attempting to ban people based on their religion from the country. It puts enormous stress on those institutions. There has not been a president like donald trump in the entire not even nixon. While nixon was guilty of crimes which were the articles of a peach empeachment, there hasnt been such a systematic assault on the institutions of democracy in the us. Then under donald trump. We heard