Theresa May will meet finance leaders in Downing Street on Thursday as part of efforts to keep the business community updated about the Brexit process, No 10 said. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Robin Walker, the Brexit minister, will also be at the meeting with “various CEOs” and “European chiefs of financial institutions who have a presence in the UK”, the prime minister’s spokesman said.
The National Audit Office has announced that it will investigate the government’s decision to spend up to £39bn on payments to the EU as part of the withdrawal agreement. It made the announcement in response to a request for an investigation of this kind from Nicky Morgan, the chair of the Commons Treasury committee. (See 11.35am.)
In response to Morgan’s letter Sir Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said:
I can confirm that we intend to report on the main elements of the financial settlement with the EU. We are already in discussions with HM Treasury aimed at planning our work. I expect our report to be published in late March.
On the subject of the Virgin Trains’ Daily Mail ban (see 1.44pm),Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has piled in. He posted this on Twitter.
Absurd ban on Daily Mail by Virgin! Pompous, censorious and wrong #virginontheridiculous
Here is a Telegraph article with details of the case Jeremy Corbyn raised at PMQs about Virgin Care being paid compensation after it failed to win an NHS contract. (See 12.21pm.) And here is an extract.
Virgin Care Services started High Court proceedings against NHS England, Surrey County Council and the CCGs in November last year, after its bid failed.
It said there were “serious flaws in the procurement process” which had left it “so concerned” that it had launched the proceedings.
And at the Labour press huddle after PMQs Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman revealed that, if any Virgin Trains passengers want the ban on buying a copy of the Daily Mail lifted, they should back Labour’s plans for nationalisation. This is from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.
Jeremy Corbyn spokesman says a Labour government would overturn Virgin’s ban on the Daily Mail: “There would be no bans on a publicly-owned railway.”
A government source confirmed that the Tories’ approach to this afternoon’s Labour-led debates on the health service winter crisis and the East Coast rail franchise will be to ask MPs to abstain.
“We will be abstaining on both the motions – people are not being whipped to turn up”, the source said, after PMQs.
Here is the main Press Association story about the exchanges between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.
Theresa May has accused Jeremy Corbyn of giving the impression that the NHS is failing everybody amid claims she was “too weak” to sack the health secretary.
The prime minister reiterated her apology to patients affected by winter pressures, including to the thousands who have seen their operations cancelled, as she defended the preparations.
This is what political commentators and journalists are saying about PMQs.
There is more praise for Corbyn than May, but generally the hacks are underwhelmed.
#pmqs summarises the political challenges facing the NHS. Neither Labour nor the Tories willing to engage at all with policy issues – reverting instead to petty point scoring. And it’s patients that will suffer as a result.
This is the appalling level of debate:
Corbyn: Tories aren’t spending enough on NHS May: But Wales Corbyn: Tories want to privatise NHS May: But Tony Blair Corbyn: Tories only care about the rich May: But we saved the economy Corbyn: We love the NHS May: But we love the NHS more
So another #PMQs in which the two leaders chuck statistics at each other. But NHS the right issue for Labour; JC quick on his feet.
This is a deeply tedious PMQs about a deeply serious issue.
All those hopes 2018 may be slightly different – gone in 18 mins of PMQs
Exchanges btw May and Corbyn aren’t telling us much so far
The Speaker has got to stop these long speeches. It is meant to be Prime Minister’s QUESTIONS. It is 12.23pm and we still have not got past the May/Corbyn exchanges.
This is from the Daily Mirror’s Dan Bloom.
Source close to Angela Rayner says Tory whips were aware that she was away because of “pairing” (where a Tory stands out of a vote to match a Labour MP who is unwell and vice versa). A bit embarrassing for May.
As usual, I missed the questions from Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, because I was writing the snap verdict. So here they are.
Blackford asked May to accept that clause 11 of the EU withdrawal bill, which would limit the Scottish parliament’s right to legislate on devolution-related areas using powers being repatriated from Brussels, must be changed. He said:
Does the prime minister agree with her colleague that we must amend clause 11, which is nothing more than a power grab from Scotland?
We continue to amend clause 11, we are looking to work with the devolved administrations to ensure we put the right frameworks in place so when we come to put any amendments forward it is in the best interests of all concerned.
The Tories always promise Scotland everything and deliver nothing. The prime minister has one more chance – will she assure the House that these amendments will be tabled next week, as promised?
[The SNP] say they want clause 11 amended and we are doing exactly that. [David Lidington] is intensifying his discussions with the Scottish government and the assembly in Wales.
Richard Drax, a Conservative, asks about the work of a lifeboat in Dorset who were called out over Christmas and averted a disaster.
May says she is happy to praise volunteers in the RNLI.
Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh asks about a foster parent in her constituency evicted by a landlord who refused to do a repair. Now the council won’t let her foster because her accommodation is not good enough. How does that make sense?
May says that does not appear to make sense. She says she hopes the local council will look at this again.
Simon Clarke, a Conservative, asks if government funds can be used to help workers affected by a closure in his constituency.
May says the DWP’s rapid response service will step in to help. The business department is looking at this too, she says.
Labour’s Fiona Onasanya says May said once not getting things done made her depressed. She says she wrote to May last year about a constituent kept waiting 18 months for a driving licence. But May has not replied.
May says she will reply.
PMQs – Snap verdict: In the light of the winter crisis, and the cancellation last week of 50,000-odd operations to free up beds and staff for A&E patients, health was an open goal for Corbyn this week and he was solid and convincing, quite comfortably getting the upper hand. But it wasn’t quite the clear walkover that some Labour MPs may have expected, and May was reasonably resilient. That is because both leaders had a point; it is perfectly possible for NHS planning to be better than ever, and yet hospitals still be stretched to an extent that leaves some patients suffering an appalling service. Corbyn put the case against May well, but his best question was probably his first, where he managed to use May’s answer at the last PMQs of 2017 against her. (A good example of how a lacklustre PMQs performance, which was how I judged Corbyn’s at the end of December, can nevertheless set a boobytrap for the future.) The payment to Virgin Care in Surrey sounded as if it was worth developing at greater length, and Corbyn could have probed May more aggressively about the relatively meaninglessness of May’s social care name change at the Department of Health. May was better than in some of the other NHS-focused PMQs because it sounded as if she was engaging with what Corbyn said, not just reading out statistics, and she got the balance about right between apologising and defending her record. You could tell that she felt reasonably confident because she did not resort to banging on about Wales until question four. Her reference to Angela Rayner being absent backfired when she was told Rayner was ill, but May had the sense to apologise fully and quickly, which allowed her to recover her stride quite well.
May says more people are being treated in the NHS. But you can only have a strong NHS with a strong economy. She says Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, who is not here …
Corbyn says May’s government has cut funding for Wales. May is responsible for the NHS in England. Giving Hunt a new job title will not affect the fact that £6bn has been cut from social care budgets. And NHS money is being siphoned off to private health companies. This is happening in Surrey, Hunt’s constituency, where money was paid to Virgin Care because it did not win a contract.
May says the government has given more money to Wales. It is the Labour government in Wales that has deprioritised health. And which government started bringing the private sector into health?
Corbyn quotes from Vicky. Her 82-year-old mother spent three hours on a trolley, having waited an hour to get to hospital. This is not an isolated case. Does May really believe the NHS is better prepared than ever?
May says nobody wants to hear of people experiencing things like this. We must learn from these incidents. She says this case will be looked at. But week in, week out, Corbyn is implying the NHS is failing everyone. She says 2.9m more people are going to A&E. Some 2m more operations are taking place every year. The NHS has been identified as the number one health system in the world.
Jeremy Corbyn starts by wishing everyone a happy new year too.
He says before Christmas he asked about the 12,000 people waiting in ambulances. She said the NHS was better prepared than ever before. So what will she say to the 17,000 people kept waiting in the week before Christmas. Is it “nothing is perfect” (as she said on the Marr Show on Sunday.)
James Cleverly, the new Tory deputy chair, asks May to passionately embrace the vision she set out last year, improving life chances and leaving the country in a better place.
May says Cleverly never got the kiss from her he once asked for. (Apparently he said kiss about May in a snog/marry/avoid quizz.)
Labour’s Mike Amesbury says at least 1.4m households have been victims of unfair practices in the leasehold market. It is a scandal, he says. What will the government do to help?
May says the government is looking to see what it can do to ensure that people are not subject to unfair practices.
Theresa May starts by wishing all MPs and staff a happy new year.
This is from the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.
Can’t remember Chamber being this empty before PMQs
Six of the women promoted by T.May are lined up at the bar of the House (ie by the doors to the Chamber – it’s not a pub bar).
This is from my colleague Dan Sabbagh, who has just started a new job covering politics at Westminster.
Watching PMQs from the gallery for the first time. However noisy it appears on television, it is far noisier here
For an interesting take on the state of the nation as 2018 begins, this Britain Thinks report (pdf) is worth reading. It is based on the findings of focus groups and a poll.
Nicky Morgan, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Treasury committee, has written to the National Audit Office asking it to investigate whether paying the EU a “Brexit bill” of up to £39bn is reasonable.
Here is the text of her letter, addressed to the NAO chief Sir Amyas Morse.
Various wide-ranging sums for the UK’s withdrawal payment to the EU have been bandied about. Last month, the prime minister told parliament that the so-called Brexit divorce bill will be £35-39bn.
Parliament must be able to scrutinise the reasonableness of this bill. Accordingly, I have written to Sir Amyas to request that the NAO examines the withdrawal payment, including the assumptions and methodologies used.
Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, told BBC Radio 5 Live this morning that she plans to publish details of the new procedures for dealing with harassment and bullying complaints involving MPs before the end of this month. In an interview with Emma Barnett she said she wanted to ensure the report had “some serious teeth” and that offenders could end up being suspended from the Commons and forced to fight a recall byelection if they want to remain an MP.
Dismissing the suggestion that the report would not impose proper sanctions, Leadsom said:
It will absolutely not just be an apology. As ever, with something like this, you want to focus on informal resolution, you want to focus on prevention, you want to focus on changing the culture. However there will be real sanctions at the end of this process.
If it’s a member of parliament, then it would be a referral to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, and ultimately to the Commons committee for standards, which has the ability to suspend members of parliament.
We had quite a short conversation, and she asked me to continue doing the job. She told me there was some important work that I was doing, and that she would like me to stay in the role, and I was delighted to do that.
On Sky’s All Out Politics, the Labour pro-European Chuka Umunna said that his party would eventually have to decide whether to vote for or against the final Brexit withdrawal deal expected to be agreed by the end of the year. He said if it involved leaving the single market and the customs union, he could not back it.
If we are not in the single market and the customs union, I would not be able to support any deal.
Labour is likely to announce by the spring that it wants to stay indefinitely in a modified version of the European customs union.
Senior Labour figures, including MPs for Brexit-supporting areas, said the move was intended to mark a significant break from the government’s policy.
The new Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley makes her first ever visit to the region this morning. She is meeting staff and students at Belfast Metropolitan College in the city’s Titanic Quarter.
The 47-year-old has replaced outgoing James Brokenshire who has stood down from the post as he faces lung surgery. Ahead of her trip to Belfast, the DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley claimed she has a “strong unionist outlook.”
Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, told the Today programme this morning that he was not bothered about the fact that he was wrongly named as the new Conservative chairman by a party Twitter account very briefly on Monday morning, as the reshuffle was taking place. He said there was always “endless speculation” with reshuffles.
I think over the last two weeks I’ve been going to be sacked, I’ve been going to become deputy prime minister, I’ve been going to become party chairman; actually I’m the transport secretary who’s always wanted to be transport secretary, who’s very happy doing it.
Nothing’s changed. Lots of media speculation and a mistaken tweet and that happens quite often these days.
No, not in the slightest. I’m doing a job I really enjoy doing, I want to make a difference, I believe we are making a difference.
The prime minister has only got one husband rather than six and I don’t think she’s got quite the same build as Henry VIII.
During the EU referendum campaign one argument constantly used by leave campaigners was that Brussels would have to offer the UK a good free trade deal because German car manufacturers, who export a lot to Britain, would insist on one and Angela Merkel would give in to their demands. So far there is little evidence that the “BMW factor” is having quite the effect Vote Leave expected, but the government has not given up and today Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, are both in Germany speaking to business figures and making the case that a wide-ranging free trade deal will be in Germany’s own interests.
My colleagues Lisa O’Carroll and Philip Oltermann have written an overnight preview story.
The economic partnership should cover the length and breadth of our economies including the service industries — and financial services.
Because the 2008 Global Financial Crisis proved how fundamental financial services are to the real economy, and how easily contagion can spread from one economy to another without global and regional safeguards in place.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May continuing the government reshuffle
Justine Greening, who was sacked yesterday as education secretary after refusing a move to work and pensions, has said leaving government was “the right thing to do”.
I did what what I thought the right thing to do was.
Honour & privilege to serve in Govt since 2010. Social mobility matters to me & our country more than my ministerial career. I’ll continue to do everything I can to create a country that has equality of opportunity for young people & I’ll keep working hard as MP for Putney.
As I said earlier, the today’s papers are relatively unanimous about the reshuffle being a bit of a disappointment. Here are the main front pages.
The Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames, but who is independent-minded but also an instinctive loyalist and no troublemaker, probably summed up the views of of most of his colleagues when commenting on the reshuffle on Twitter last night.
Is that it?
I don’t mean to be rude or to be seen to be disloyal but there needs to be a major improvement to the Reshuffle tomorrow #doitwell
It hasn’t finished yet. You’ll see today new talent coming into government in the reshuffle work that will be done today by the prime minister … You’ll see a really good breath of fresh air coming in with some really good people coming in.
I am closing this liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us today and for all your comments.
Here’s a round up of today’s reshuffle or “refresh” as Theresa May called it:
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says the reshuffle did not “entirely go to script” as of the three ministers Theresa May wanted to move, one quit, one persuaded her that he should stay and the other consequently wasn’t moved.
She also pointed out that the proportion of those from Oxbridge and private school backgrounds has increased.
By our numbers demographics of full Cabinet ministers pretty much unchanged but proportion of Oxbridge and private school has increased
Amber Rudd will take over the responsibilities of being minister for women and equalities – a role that was carried out by Justine Greening.
My colleagues Anushka Asthana and Rowena Mason have got the full story on today’s events.
Theresa May’s new year reshuffle was thrown off course when senior members of the cabinet refused to move and Justine Greening quit the government after turning down a job as work and pensions secretary.
Earlier, Jeremy Hunt rejected a new position as business secretary and instead persuaded the prime minister to allow him to remain at health in a beefed-up role taking on more responsibility for social care.
So far not a single black or minority ethic Tory MP has joined the Cabinet #cabinetreshuffle
And that’s it for tonight. Number 10 have ended the day with a tweet about the number of women who will attend cabinet and said more ministerial appointments will be made tomorrow.
Julian Smith stays on as chief whip. He has been in post since November when Gavin Williamson, who previously held the post, was promoted to Defence Secretary by Theresa May.
My colleague Claire Phipps has sent me a screengrab of yet another Conservsative social media gaffe, this time from Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi.
Earlier this evening, Jeremy Hunt liked – and then “unliked” – a tweet about Justine Greening resigning and this morning the Conservatives mistakenly announced Chris Grayling as chairman in a tweet that quickly got deleted.
Elizabeth Truss will stay on as chief secretary to the treasury.
Here’s the hot take from former Conservative minister Nicholas Soames.
Is that it?
There was sympathy for Justine Greening following her resignation, and regret from many in the sector who have welcomed her less combative approach and her willingness to listen to teachers’ concerns.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said her departure was disappointing at a time when stability was needed in the sector after the “policy pyrotechnics” of recent years.
She has tried hard to tackle the school funding crisis, without any help from the Chancellor or Prime Minister. She has demonstrated an absolute commitment to social mobility, to addressing the serious difficulties in teacher recruitment and retention, and to developing education policy on the basis of evidence.
Children need stability and their teachers can only provide that if the backdrop of education policy provides continuity for the profession.
New secretaries of state often feel that new announcements are obligatory. In 2018, where budgets are at breaking point and recruitment is still a massive challenge, education does not need more upheaval.
We hope that he fully understands these two items are inextricably linked whilst all the independent evidence confirms that grammar schools and widespread social mobility are mutually exclusive.
We had a good relationship with Justine Greening, with whom we had regular meetings. She listened to teachers and the unions, although she was not able to make the necessary changes in education policy.
We hope Damian Hinds will be similarly willing to meet and engage with us and the profession. And we hope he will be able to make the changes we need in education policy. Most crucially we hope he champions the need for extra funding for education and is able to get more money for education from the Treasury.
Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary, has wished Justine Greening well in the future in a tweet following her surprise decision to leave government.
I understand that @JustineGreening has resigned as Secretary of State for Education. Whilst l did not agree with her on a range of issues in our respective roles Justine always treated me with respect and dignity. I wish her well in the future in whatever path she chooses to take
The only rational explanation would be that this is an acknowledgement that the Conservatives have a failed schools policy.
A department of health spokeswoman has released a statement regarding Jeremy Hunt’s new role, after it was announced he would also be taking on the social care portfolio as well as staying on as secretary of state for health.
The spokeswoman confirmed the department will be changing names and that Hunt will be responsible for the forth coming social care green paper.
From today the department will be renamed Department of Health and Social Care, taking on responsibility for the forthcoming social care green paper which will set out the Government’s proposals to improve care and support for older people and tackle the challenge of an ageing population.
All costs associated with changing the department’s name will be kept to a minimum.
My colleague Heather Stewart looks back on today’s largely underwhelming reshuffle.
By the end of Monday, Theresa May must have felt like all the other hapless British workers who returned to the office for the new year with a spring in their step and the best of intentions, only to find the fearless resolutions they made over the Christmas break crumbling in the face of reality.
Lucy Fisher from The Times has her own prediction about the women and equalities brief. She suggests Theresa May may make the role a cabinet position in its own right following the Westminster sexual harassment scandal.
Will Theresa May make women + equalities a cabinet position in its own right? Could be a canny move in the wake of the Pestminster scandal. Departed cabinet minister Justine Greening held the portfolio up until now, along with education brief.
Jeremy Wright remains as attorney general and will attend cabinet.
Justine Greening has released a short statement on Twitter in the wake of her resignation from government. She says it was an “honour and privilege” to serve since 2010 and that social mobility “matters more” than her ministerial career.
Honour & privilege to serve in Govt since 2010. Social mobility matters to me & our country more than my ministerial career. I’ll continue to do everything I can to create a country that has equality of opportunity for young people & I’ll keep working hard as MP for Putney.
Claire Perry will attend Cabinet and take on the role of minister of state at the department for business, energy and industrial strategy. She will also become member of the Privy Council.
The Evening Standard’s editor (and former chancellor) George Osborne has called the reshuffle “unusual” in a tweet praising his old colleagues.
Glad to see many of the old Treasury team thriving (and surviving) in this unusual reshuffle – well done @DavidGauke@DamianHinds@sajidjavid@GregClarkMP and my former chief of staff @MattHancock. All competent, creative, hardworking and good to work with.
Esther McVey becomes Secretary of State for Work and Pensions after the role was turned down by Justine Greening.
In an embarrassing twist to a reshuffle beset with social media mistakes, Jeremy Hunt, who was kept on as health secretary with an extended social care role in the shake-up, was forced to explain why he had “liked” a tweet stating that Justine Greening had resigned from government.
He quickly unliked the tweet after it was spotted by Guido Fawkes’ Alex Wickham.
Like button pressed by accident. Justine was an excellent minister and will be a great loss to govt. https://t.co/OOjZHYlPmp
For those just joining us, here is the full story so far on Theresa May’s cabinet refresh from my colleague Peter Walker.
Justine Greening resigned from the government on Monday after Theresa May tried to move her from her post as secretary of state for education to the Department for Work and Pensions in a cabinet reshuffle designed to reboot her government.
In a statement Theresa May said said she was “disappointed” but respects Greening’s decision. Greening was succeeded as education secretary by Damian Hinds who was promoted from being a junior work and pensions minister.
ITV’s Paul Brand has predicted Claire Perry, who has just arrived at number 10, will be the new minister for women and equalities. Justine Greening previously held the role alongside her education job.
Brand also suggests Esther McVey could get the department for work and pensions.
Okay so not much left to play for and two MPs remain inside No 10. My guess is Perry gets Equalities and perhaps McVey gets DWP? #cabinetreshuffle
Damian Hinds has been appointed Education Secretary, taking Justine Greening’s job.
Justine Greening was once dubbed a “Tory to watch” back in 2013. Here’s an interview from shortly after she had become the international development secretary, a position she held before taking on the department for education in 2016.
Theresa May is “disappointed” but respects former education secretary Justine Greening’s decision to leave the Government after being offered the Work and Pensions Department, Downing Street sources have said.
The Telegraph’s Asa Bennett suggests Greening may join the high profile Tory remainers who rebelled against the government in December.
The BBC’s Nick Robinson agrees.
May loses Justine Greening, a cabinet minister who has a slim majority in a super-Remainy constituency. The ‘mutineers’ will welcome their new recruit with open arms https://t.co/srOefs3fgD
Decision of @JustineGreening to quit rather than be moved adds another potential rebels for Tory whips to worry about. She has a history of independence eg opposing Heathrow expansion 3/3
Downing Street have confirmed that Justine Greening has resigned from government.
Anushka Asthana, our political editor, says Greening was “offered DWP, but declined to take it”.
Greening was “offered DWP, but declined to take it” according to Govt source. Says PM respects her decision but disappointed
Justine Greening has been seen leaving number 10. No news yet on what she will be doing, if anything.
BREAKING: Greening leaps into car and leaves Downing St.
David Mundell stays on as secretary of state for Scotland.
Justine Greening is still inside number 10 with The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn saying she has been offered the department of work and pensions but is refusing to take it.
Education Secretary Justine Greening now going into her 3rd hour inside Number 10…. #reshuffle
Justine Greening is going badly: in No10 for over an hour and still arguing. Removed from Education Secretary, offered DWP, currently refusing it.
Jeremy Corbyn has been discussing the reshuffle in a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, saying it is a “pointless and lacklustre” PR stunt.
He said:
In 2018, the impact of Tory austerity is hitting home with the public, most tragically with the most serious NHS winter crisis yet.
And yet the Government’s big plan for the new year is to dodge the real issues and reshuffle the pack in a pointless and lacklustre PR exercise.
Michael Gove is also staying on in his role heading up the department for environment, food and rural affairs, making him the 12th cabinet minister to stay put.
Now a dozen remain in post. Gove stays on as Environment sec. Greening & Hinds still not out…..
This is Nicola Slawson taking over from Andrew for the remainder of this mini shuffle.
The latest is that Penny Mordaunt is staying on as Secretary of State for International Development. She has only been doing the role since early November, when she succeeded Priti Patel.
Channel 4 News’s Gary Gibbon has written a good blog on the reshuffle. It is headlined: “Reshuffle: night of the long plastic forks.”
Here’s an extract.
Well it wasn’t really worth the drum roll build-up. As reshuffles go this has not been transformatory. There’s more still to come tomorrow with middle and junior ranks outside the cabinet, but Theresa may has not felt able to shift big irritants from senior jobs and, as I write, has yet to announce any cabinet sackings …
But it seems like quite a lot of power has migrated to Vote Leave leaders Michael Gove and Boris Johnson in recent months. They decree what Brexit supporters will tolerate as the negotiations progress. Some think it was fear of their reaction that meant the prime minister didn’t reverse the decision to appoint Toby Young as a director of the Office for Students. His tweets and other public comments would be the sort of stuff that people close to Theresa May say she would find repugnant. Her reflex would be to make that clear by removing him from the post, allies say. But what hope a really drastic reshuffle from a prime minister who can’t act as she pleases over a board member of a university regulator? The small scale of this reshuffle reveals the prime minister’s weakened political position … but, she’s still there.
This is from the FT’s George Parker.
Told that @GregClarkMP kept waiting in No 10 for 90 minutes (while Jeremy Hunt refused to take his job and @theresa_may went to a Welsh reception) before learning he would stay at BEIS. Business relieved
Meanwhile, the parliamentary Labour party is meeting. According to the Daily Mirror’s Mikey Smith, the leading pro-European Chuka Umunna has just walked out.
Chuka Umunna just…ahem…walked purposefully out of #PLP, dramatically sighing and shaking his head.
Meanwhile at the PLP I’m told Jeremy Corbyn has just reiterated his view that “when people voted to leave the EU they voted to leave the single market” and said “single market membership requires us to be members of the EU” https://t.co/taw3DxlJ2F
As Guido Fawkes’s Alex Wickham points out, the new secretary of state at DCMS is already noted for his contribution towards cultural excellence. Here is Matt Hancock singing.
From Labour’s Jon Trickett, the shadow Cabinet Office minister
With the NHS in crisis, working people worse off and Brexit preparations in turmoil, Theresa May is leading a failing government.
By simply rearranging the deckchairs in her reshuffle, Theresa May has shown that her floundering government is out of fresh ideas. It takes more than re-naming departments to erase seven years of failure.
Today’s shambolic on-going cabinet reshuffle has confirmed that Theresa May is a prisoner to the Brexit hard liners who now hold the power in the government, and cannot be moved. They are calling the tune.
The truth is that this prime minister cannot make a move without upsetting one faction or another of her party – and her authority since her disastrous election is being diminished day by day.
Just like Theresa May’s U-turn on the hated dementia tax, this reshuffle can be summed up with the phrase ‘nothing has changed.’
We still have a hapless prime minister and an incompetent government, dragging the country towards a destructive Brexit.
Here is the BBC’s health editor Hugh Pym on whether or not changing the name of the department of health to include social care actually makes any difference or not. Like the rest of us, he doesn’t know.
No detail on what rebranded Dept of Health and Social Care will take on – Assoc Director of Adult Social Services and Local Govt Assoc haven’t yet been told.
DHSS had more central control of social care till reforms in the early 1990s which gave local councils the lead role in planning community care – not clear what rebranding current DH will change
Marc Stears, who was an adviser to Ed Miliband when he was Labour leader, reckons that if Theresa May can get out-negotiated by Jeremy Hunt (see 5.51pm), she does not have much chance with Michel Barnier and Jean-Claude Juncker.
Is someone who can be out-negotiated by Jeremy Hunt really going to get a great Brexit deal? https://t.co/gIBmthhbNu
The Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb, who used to be a social care minister in the department of health, reckons the change to the department’s name (see 4.44pm and 5.45pm) is just cosmetic.
So what does new title of Sec of State for Health and Social Care actually mean? I was Minister responsible for social care IN Health Department in 2015 so unless they are proposing change to funding of social care, this looks like window dressing
And Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, has gone into Number 10 too.
And Grayling has just walked in.
Which is good for my social media work, as I can’t get five pictures onto one tweet.#CabinetReshuffle
Matt Hancock, minister for digital at the culture department, has arrived at Number 10.
A rather pleased looking Matt Hancock has just skipped into No10. He would be very good as Culture/Digital Secretary though.
Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, is replacing James Brokenshire as Northern Ireland secretary.
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg is also saying that Theresa May wanted to move Jeremy Hunt but was persuaded to let him stay.
Understand Hunt ‘argued passionately’ to stay at Health and take on reponsibility for sorting out social care (which had been under Damian Green) His arguments persuaded the PM to leave him in place
Damian Hinds, minister of state at the department for work and pensions, has arrived at Number 10, the BBC reports.
This is from Nick Golding, editor of the Local Government Chronicle, on Jeremy Hunt getting social care added to his departmental title.
Not sure I buy suggestions the addition of social care to the DH’s title is significant. DH oversaw social care policy anyway. DCLG role on social care limited to overseeing councils and their finance. Most significant change could be if Hunt takes on social care green paper
Hunt takes on responsiblity for social care green paper, had been Cabinet Office’s job
As mentioned earlier, David Gauke will be the sixth justice secretary in less than eight years. At the afternoon lobby briefing Downing Street denied that having such a high turnover was a problem. The prime minister’s spokesman said:
The commitment from the government throughout its time has been into ensuring that rehabilitation is a priority and to break the cycle of reoffending. That has been a continuous theme and I’m sure it will be one that the new secretary of state will continue with.
The health minister Philip Dunne has committed a gaffe while defending the government’s handling of the NHS winter crisis in the Commons when he was responding to the Commons urgent questions earlier. When Labour MP Tracy Brabin raised the issue of poorly people sleeping on the floor in A&E, he apologised for cancelled operations and said people sleeping on the floor was not acceptable but added: “There are seats available in most hospitals where beds are not available.”
David Gauke has moved from the department for work and pensions to the ministry for justice.
The Conservative party has now send out a press notice about today’s party appointments. In addition to the nine vice chair posts announced earlier (see 1.41pm), the party has confirmed that another four vice chairmen remain in post. They are:
The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn says it wasn’t Greg Clark who refused to budge; it was Jeremy Hunt.
Breaking: the reshuffle’s big shock – Jeremy Hunt refused a move to BEIS to insist he stay on as Health Sec with a beefed up brief of social care too. https://t.co/9zrScUDg19
Greg Clark saw the PM after Hunt’s long chat with her, and must have been extremely surprised to have been swiftly reappointed BEIS Sec.
The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn says Jeremy Hunt was supposed to come out of Number 10 as the new business secretary.
The reshuffle is now in serious trouble. Hunt was supposed to emerge from No10 as the new Business Secretary. Appears Greg Clark has refused to budge.
Greg Clark is staying as business secretary. There was a lot of speculation, fuelled by briefing from within government, that he was going to be moved, but he’s defied predictions.
Theresa May’s intermission with members of the Welsh assembly is over, and the reshuffle is back on, Sky’s Faisal Islam reports.
PM back shuffling again, after meeting Welsh assembly members… new announcements incoming
As BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg has 90 minutes to prepare her reshuffle package for the News at Six. It sounds as if she’s worrying about not having anything to report …
It’s 4.30pm and we only have one Cabinet change so far and a new acronym for one department
This is from the Times’ Patrick Maguire.
Karen Bradley tipped for Northern Ireland secretary. Has spoken about it twice in the commons before, once on organised crime, and once on the Home Office selling a department Toyota Prius there for £3,073.
Here is another Institute for Government reshuffle graph.
So pleased Home Secretary responded to my Parliamentary question by announcing action on access to sanitary products for women in custody. Important issue
Appalling decision by @Theresa_May to promote Maria Caulfield to Vice Chair for Women given her stance on abortion. Women deserve to have the strongest advocates at the top of politics, not people who seek to restrict their rights and freedoms.
This is not an abstract issue. Women in across the UK have faced prosecution and prison sentences for ending pregnancies using abortion medication bought online.
These are often women in the most desperate of circumstances. One study found 1 in 5 who tried to use online abortion medication were in a violent or controlling relationship. Should these women face criminal prosecution? According to the new CCHQ vice chair for women, yes.
These are from Sky’s Faisal Islam.
Greg Clark and Jeremy Hunt have been in Number 10 for some time now…
Whatever the weekend whispers, Clark does have some leverage at his disposal, he is the one that has given personal Brexit reassurances in trading conditions eg to a Japanese car manufacturers…
This is from the BBC’s Hugh Pym.
Health minister Philip Dunne has told Commons that the the NHS has a “crisis of some sort or other every winter”
In the Commons the health minister Philip Dunne has paid tribute to Jeremy Hunt. Labour whips, an official account, reckons that could be a sign Hunt is on the move.
Jeremy Hunt has now been inside Number 10 for 56 minutes.
I have been in this chair for minutes beyond my ability to count.#CabinetReshuffle
Prospect’s Tom Clark says this is a “nothing has changed’ reshuffle.
“nothing has changed” — May’s infamous line in election campaign. 4 of the last 5 @Number10gov Tweets are “Person X remains in Job Y”; the firth is announcement that Javid’s job title is slightly tweaked
If you like machinery of government graphs and quotes from ex-ministers about their time in government (confession: I do), then you’ll agree thatGavin Freeguard’s live blog about the reshuffle for the Institute for Government is excellent.
He’s been tweeting too.
Been asked an excellent question about when ‘Housing’ was last in a dept title – think it was Ministry of Housing and Local Govt, 1951-70.
In the Commons the health minister Philip Dunne is responding to the urgent question on the NHS winter crisis. We don’t know yet whether Jeremy Hunt is still his boss, and Dunne hasn’t said.
James Brokenshire, who resigned as Northern Ireland secretary this morning on health grounds, has tweeted a message of thanks to people who have expressed support.
Really appreciate all of the kind messages. Standing down will allow me to focus completely on my family, my health and recovering from surgery speedily so that I can get back to frontline politics as early as I can. Not quite how I thought I’d mark my 50th birthday! http://pic.twitter.com/EDMGBR56y6
More speculation about how might be the next justice secretary, from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
David Gauke and Greg Clark the names being bandied about for Justice Secretary / Lord Chancellor
And here is my colleague John Crace on Sajid Javid’s new title.
The reshuffle is now going so badly the govt has had to resort to reshuffling the name of Sajid Javid’s department #reshuffle
Here is ITV’s Robert Peston on Sajid Javid’s new title.
So the new housing minister is actually the old housing minister. It is a radical rebranding of a department but no structural change. Yawn http://pic.twitter.com/ftuUb7Lzcy
Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, has kept his job. But his department has now got housing in the title, suggesting that housing is now his priority.
Previously he was secretary of state for communities and local government. Now he is secretary of state for housing, communities and local government. In media shorthand, he will probably be known as the housing secretary.
My colleague Alan Travis, the Guardian’s home affairs editor, says David Lidington’s move means the Ministry of Justice will have had six justice secretaries in less than eight years.
David Lidington’s promotion will mean there has been six justice secretaries in less than eight years. Ken Clarke (2 years 4 months), Chris Grayling (2 years 8 months), Michael Gove (1 year 4 months), Liz Truss (11 months) and Lidington (6 months). #nocontinuity
And Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has gone in.
Now Jeremy Hunt arrives #reshuffle bit of a queue forming in there
Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, phoned James Brokenshire today while on a visit to Cairo to wish him well following the news that Brokenshire has resigned as Northern Ireland secretary on health grounds.
Coveney said Brokenshire had shown unfailing dedication and determination to secure political progress consistent with the objectives and commitments of the Good Friday agreement. He said:
His unwavering commitment – in public and in private – over the last year to securing the effective operation of the devolved power-sharing institutions in Belfast has been hugely important.
While it is not always obvious to the public gaze, very important progress has been made on significant issues over the last year and I believe that a positive outcome can still be achieved. If it is, it will be a testament to the quiet, understated but hugely valuable work of James Brokenshire.
Latest speculation …
From ITV’s Robert Peston
Speculation: Raab for justice, Milton for health, Hunt for business.
new possibly worthless gossip: Jeremy Hunt for Beis, Greg Clark to DCMS and Karen Bradley to NI
At some point we’re going to get a Labour reshuffle too, ITV’s Paul Brand reports.
NEW: Labour MP tells me leader’s office has informed them to expect a shadow reshuffle too, though no confirmed timetable. Unclear whether it’ll be shadow cabinet or just lower ranks.
Greg Clark has just gone into number 10 – so no sacking for him but probably a job swap
Theresa May posed for a picture outside Number 10 earlier with Brandon Lewis, the new Conservative party chairman, James Cleverly, the new Conservative party deputy chairman, and the new Conservative party vice chairmen.
If David Lidington is moving to the Cabinet Office, Dominic Raab must be favourite to replace him. Raab is already minister of state at the ministry for justice – effectively Lidingon’s number two.
David Lidington has moved from justice minister to Cabinet Office minister and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
This means he will take on the Westminster coordinating role (chairing committees etc) that Damian Green had. But May has not made Lidington first secretary of state, the title that Green also had.
A government source has confirmed that the three new Conservative vice chairmen who were ministers have now left the government. They are: Chris Skidmore, the minister for the constitution; Andrew Jones, a Treasury minister; and Marcus Jones, the communities minister.
It is hard to believe that any of them would have voluntarily given up a (paid) government job for an (unpaid) position with the party, and so it is probably that case that they have been sacked. But I haven’t been told that, and it is conceivable that one or all of them may have voluntarily opted for a quieter life.
And Conservative HQ has also announced the appointment of nine new vice chairmen.
Three of them were until this morning junior ministers. This may well mean that they have been sacked – vice chairmen are not normally government ministers – but that has not been confirmed yet.
Our new CCHQ Vice Chairman for Policy is @CSkidmoreUK
Our new CCHQ Vice Chairman for Candidates is @KemiBadenoch
Our new CCHQ Vice Chair for Business Engagement is @AJonesMP
Our new CCHQ Vice Chair for Local Government is @Marcus4Nuneaton
Our new CCHQ Vice Chair for Training and Development is @JamesMorris
The Conservative Party has confirmed that James Cleverly has been made deputy chairman.
Very pleased to confirm @JamesCleverly as our new Deputy Chairman
Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP, has issued this tribute to James Brokenshire, who has resigned as Northern Ireland secretary for health reasons. She said:
This is clearly a difficult time for not only James but for Cathy, his wife and his children. I send my best wishes to him and the entire Brokenshire family. I trust James will have the surgery he needs and will make a full recovery.
Since becoming secretary of state in 2016, Mr Brokenshire had immersed himself fully in the role by dedicating long hours to trying to make progress.
There’s been another reshuffle Twitter error, my colleague Peter Walker reports.
Reshuffle chaos latest: after Chris Grayling error, No 10 tweets that Brandon Lewis is new party chair, then deletes and tweets again after they spell “minister without portfolio” as “porfolio”
While we wait for some more actual facts, here are some tweets about other reshuffle cock-ups.
From the Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff
to be fair nothing will ever beat the Blair reshuffle featuring two MPs with same name, where the wrong one was given a ministerial job for about 10 minutes
That happened with me and Ed Davey. I was trade minister for 30 minutes https://t.co/C4oD8h60U8
There was a story I was told about one the Blair/Brown reshuffles that Malcolm Wicks missed out on a job because the post-it note with his name on it fell on the floor, and no-one noticed till it was all over.
The Downing Street Twitter account has made its first reshuffle announcement. It has confirmed that the immigration minister Brandon Lewis has become Conservative party chairman.
Nigel Farage has welcomed the prospect of a minister for a no-deal Brexit (see 11.23am), while accusing the government of ignoring the issue of immigration in negotiations with the European Union.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, following a 30-minute meeting with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, Farage said:
It is a very good thing that there is going to be a minister for no-deal. It does at least show that Theresa May is prepared to walk away. And I think that is because she has been getting these under-the-radar voices for business saying we can’t spend years trying to get somewhere if it is frankly going to be unachievable.
I really don’t think he gets it. And when I suggested to him that it might be something to do with open door immigration within the European Union, he almost looked at me with incredulity.
[Theresa May] says she is the Brexit prime minister. She fought the general election on that basis and we find she is the Brexit prime minister, apart from one issue, called immigration, which she hasn’t event talked about.
Here’s Rupert Harrison, who was chief of staff to George Osborne, on the reshuffle.
So far this reshuffle is both very stable and genius
We’ve got two urgent questions in the Commons this afternoon.
Turning to Brexit for a moment, the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has been tweeting about his meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
It is clear that the government have not yet discussed border controls with Mr Barnier. Deeply worrying for Brexiteers. http://pic.twitter.com/rpz3i2G4X2
Mr Barnier clearly did not understand why Brexit happened. I left with the impression that it has not been previously explained to him that the Brexit vote was primarily about controlling mass immigration and democratic self-determination.
Unless Mr Barnier can compromise somewhat and be prepared to give on services and financial services, the calls to go out of the EU under WTO rules will increase.
And here is the text of May’s response to Brokenshire.
In it, May suggests that Brokenshire could be offered another government job when he recovers. She says:
I very much look forward to working alongside you again when you are back to full health.
Here is the text of James Brokenshire’s resignation letter.
Sir Patrick McLoughlin, the outgoing Conservative party chairman,has confirmed that he has left the cabinet. Speaking to Sky News, he said that he had been in cabinet for eight years and that he had had “a very good run”.
Sky’s Beth Rigby says McLoughlin told May in the autumn that he wanted to stand down, but that he was asked to stay on until the reshuffle.
James Cleverly, a backbencher, is going to get the deputy post at CCHQ, the Spectator’s James Forsyth and the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner report.
James Cleverly to be number two to Tory chairman Brandon Lewis
James Cleverly has now entered No10, which seems to confirm rumours that Brandon Lewis would become chairman and Cleverly would be his deputy.
This is from the BBC’s Denis Doherty.
Looks like Patrick McLoughlin has just walked out the front door of Number 10.#Reshuffle
Christopher Hope, who wrote the Telegraph splash about May appointing a minister for a no deal Brexit (see 11.23am), reports the job could go to a remainer, and not Steve Baker.
Latest rumour: Greg Clark not Steve Baker could be the new Cabinet minister for No Deal. Tory Brexiteers will NOT be pleased. #reshuffle
This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.
Brandon Lewis is the new Conservative Party Chairman.
Am told tweet, inaccurately, announcing Grayling as party chairman was sent to all Tory MPs on Twitter. What a cock up!
The Times’ Sam Coates says a CCHQ official was to blame for the Grayling error.
I’m told CCHQ operative Iain Carter send all Tory MPs whatsapp group that Chris Grayling was to be party chairman – then deleted it and apologised. He is probably behind the tweet too
Iain Carter – who a announced to MP Chris Grayling was to be party Chair then deleted it – is political director of CCHQ https://t.co/bHSsjKijgK
Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, has arrived at Number 10. He is now being tipped for Conservative chairman.
I am told Brandon now likely to be chair
Lewis was crucial in May’s leadership campaign – well liked and trusted in tory circles
Sky’s Faisal Islam is speculating that Chris Grayling could turn out to be the shortest-lived Conservative party chairman of all time.
This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
Danger for Number 10 is that following that deleted tweet, the press are now going to report the whole reshuffle through a cock-up prism
And this is from the Times’ Sam Coates.
I’m told there’s “internal pushback” against Chris Grayling to CCHQ. Hence confusion and Teeet deletion
The Chris Grayling announcement may be premature, it has now emerged.
BBC confirming Grayling appointment but advisers saying its speculation and he hasn’t been to no10 yet. The Conservatives had tweeted a congrats, though its now disappeared. What is going on!? http://pic.twitter.com/8GDc0RE4kS
Hold the horses everyone, Grayling still not confirmed – another source has just told me it is Brandon Lewis to Tory HQ – we’ll know v soon –
More on James Brokenshire. These are from two Northern Ireland journalists.
Mr Brokenshire is leaving on health grounds. It is understood he is due to have major surgery on his right lung in the coming weeks.
Mr Brokenshire resigning on health grounds. He has a small lesion on his right lung and will be having major surgery in the coming weeks. Resignation letter to follow.
According to the Times’s Sam Coates, the Conservative party has just deleted a tweet announcing Chris Grayling’s appointment as party chairman.
The Press Association has more on James Brokenshire’s illness.
#Breaking A source close to outgoing Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire says he is set to undergo major surgery within the next few weeks for a lesion to his right lung
This is from the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner.
Several sources now saying David Lidington will be made First Secretary of State in reshuffle. James Brokenshire resigns as NI Sec due to ill health.
Two sources suggesting Grayling new chair at Tory HQ – not officially confirmed tho
James Brokenshire’s resignation has not been officially announced yet, but Sky News says the story has been confirmed.
This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
Hearing David Liddington to the Cabinet Office but without Damian Green’s seniority and baubles
This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole. He says James Brokenshire is resigning as Northern Ireland secretary because of ill health.
These are from my colleague Jennifer Rankin on Nigel Farage’s meeting with Michel Barnier.
Leaving EU meeting, Nigel Farage says Michel Barnier doesn’t get why people voted for Brexit. Welcomes mooted ‘minister for no-deal’.
And coffee was offered. Nigel Farage was in the Berlaymont for abt 50 minutes.
A “cabinet minister for no deal” is to be appointed by Theresa May as part of the reshuffle of her top team which begins on Monday, the Telegraph can reveal.
The government should not even be considering leaving the EU with no deal – that is the worst of all possible options. However, this shows the journey the Conservatives are taking, steering the country further and further into a highly damaging hard Brexit.
The prime minister should be negotiating Brexit on what are the best terms for Britain, not on what might temporarily salve ideological arguments in her deeply divided party. For the good of our economic future, a no deal Brexit must be ruled out immediately.
We’re going to get the first reshuffle names imminently, but they will be new appointments at Conservative party headquarters. Cabinet appointments will follow after that.
And the PM is planning to see all ministers who are staying and all new ministers, we’re told.
By the end of the day we will know the facts about the reshuffle, but for the moment all we’ve got is speculation of sorts, some of which will turn out to be well-founded – and some won’t. Here’s the latest from the Sunday Times’ Tim Shipman.
HEALTH WARNING: One source only – Lidington to first sec. Greening to DWP. Perry to BEIS. Grayling party chairman.
ITV’s political editor Robert Peston has written an interesting blog on the reshuffle. Here’s an extract.
Justine Greening seems to be dead minister walking at the Department for Education.
Her crimes?
There is not necessarily a direct relationship between successful reshuffles and prime ministerial authority. Strong leaders have botched them sometimes. But clever reshuffles can embolden weak prime ministers.
According to Sky’s Beth Rigby, ministers being sacked won’t have to do the “walk of shame” up Downing Street (see 8.58am) after all.
Latest on reshuffle; told kick off now about the 11.30am when cabinet ministers who are keeping jobs/being moved start coming thru Downing Street gates. Those being sacked won’t have to do the walk
Theresa May has just arrived back in Downing Street from her Maidenhead constituency, the BBC is reporting.
PM has only just arrived at Number 10 – expecting first name 11ish, probably Green’s replacement, then most of Cabinet names at about 1
The wikipedia page of Anne Milton, tipped as possible incoming health secretary, has just been edited from somewhere on the parliamentary estate, according to this Twitter bot, which tracks wiki edits made from the parliamentary estate.
Milton has already faced questions on social media about her husband’s role with Virgin Care. The page did say that Dr Graham Henderson holds a high level position with the private healthcare company, but as of 9.10am this morning, now says he “previously served” as one. Fancy that.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said that leaving the EU with no deal would be “unthinkable”, and again insisted that the UK should be seeking the softest possible Brexit deal.
In her first broadcast interview of 2018, Sturgeon told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme stressed she believed there was no option facing the UK which would be economically more beneficial that remaining the EU. But she had to be pragmatic. She said:
There is no doubt at all that staying in the single market, staying in the customs union – they’re not the best outcomes, staying in the EU is, in my view the best outcome – but it’s the least damaging outcome.
I think 2018 has to be the year where we say jobs, the economy, the protections that come from EU membership, like workers rights, consumers rights, really come to the fore and the hardline Tory Brexiteers sidelined rather than given greater precedence.
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Most important bits of reshuffle may well be not about cabinet headlines – what happens at tory hq after elex embarrassment, and how big the changes are in junior ranks tmrw
These are from ITV’s Paul Brand.
#Reshuffle to kick off mid morning. One minister texts with his mid-level predictions: – Anne Milton for health (ex nurse, v popular) – Removals of John Hayes, Alan Duncan, Nick Gibb – Promotion of Mark Spencer to DEFRA – Graham Stuart to Education – Andrew Griffiths to Home
Every cabinet member – new, staying, or outgoing – will have to attend Downing St to face PM. Perhaps Johnson, Davis, Rudd et al will get a bit of feedback.
Here are tweets from the BBC’s Adam Fleming and Rob Watts about Nigel Farage, who is meeting Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, about now.
Arriving for his meeting with @MichelBarnier@Nigel_Farage says he “hasn’t heard a dickie bird about immigration” and is worried about the UK/EU trade deal. If we get served coffee we’ll know it’s going to be a good meeting, he said. He hasn’t brought a present.
Writing about reshuffles in his memoirs, Tony Blair said: “Here’s some advice: you should always promote or demote for a purpose, not for effect.” He says this in a paragraph describing the 2006 reshuffle, in which he – rather pointlessly, he now admits – replaced Jack Straw as foreign secretary with Margaret Beckett. Blair says overall that reshuffle was a failure; “it did little for the government and harm to me.”
There is a casual assumption that, with a bold reshuffle, a prime minister can somehow boost the fortunes of a government. In crude terms, that’s not the case. There may be some examples of a government receiving an obvious bounce in the opinion polls, or in electoral contests, as a direct result of a reshuffle, but I can’t think of one.
The Labour whips are expecting a Commons statement on the NHS winter crisis – although they don’t know who will deliver it.
Busy first day back in the Commons, we expect at least one statement from 3.30pm on the NHS Winter Crisis. Wonder whether we’ll have a new Secretary of State by then?
These are from my colleague Heather Stewart.
Back to Westminster for the NY on #reshuffle day – musing how much less powerful May is now than at that brutal first reshuffle in July ‘16.
Then: Osborne, Morgan out; Johnson, Davis, Fox in; two new Whitehall departments created. Today, big beasts expected to remain in place.
This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.
Lot of chatter about a return to the front line for Maria Miller today who quit over expenses and a row over press regulation.
On the Today programme this morning George Freeman, the Tory MP who until November headed May’s policy unit, called for a significant “freshening and sharpening of the team”to promote younger talent.
“I’m encouraging her to be bold,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I think the country will reward and enjoy a prime minister determined the make Brexit a moment of inspiring renewal for the next generation.”
Politics is changing. I think this election showed that our party structure is not fit for winning modern elections. We don’t just need to repair it, I think we need to be really bold and set out what a 21st century Conservative party looks like.
Sky News doorstepped Justine Greening, who is expected to lose her post as education secretary, as she left her home this morning. Greening said good morning to the reporter but after that ignored repeated questions about whether she expected to be in her post by the end of the day as she got into her car.
On the Today programme Tim Shipman, the Sunday Times political editor, has just said that ministers facing the sack will be summoned to Downing Street where they will have to walk past the cameras before they go through the door. This hasn’t happened for a while; in recent years, to avoid publicly humiliating the reshuffle losers, prime ministers have tended to meet people they are sacking (when they do meet them face to face) in their office in the Commons, where MPs can come and go without reporters seeing.
Shipman also said there would be an extensive shake-up at Conservative HQ, going well beyond the appointment of a new party chairman.
These are from the Times’ Matt Chorley.
Theresa May has not yet told the reshuffle losers the bad news. Tricky conversations to be had before the fun bit. Cameron needed a stick drink for sackings
Expect the first appointment to be announced at 11am. Likely to be new First Secretary of State
Michael Howard, the former Conservative leader, told the Today programme this morning that he hoped Theresa May would use the reshuffle to promote new talent in the Conservative party. He said:
The challenge facing the prime minister today, what she will want to do is to give fresh impetus to the government and there is an array of talent on the back benches, and in junior ministerial position …
There really is, particularly but not exclusively those who have entered parliament relatively recently and I hope and I believe that the prime minister will seize this opportunity to give some of those people a chance to show what they can do.
We’ve got a cabinet reshuffle today. Here’s our overnight preview.
A forum where readers can discuss today’s politics and share links to breaking news and to the most interesting politics stories, blogs and tweets on the web
I’m not writing my usual blog today but here, as an alternative, is the Politics Live readers’ edition. It is a place for you to discuss today’s politics, and to share links to breaking news and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web.
Feel free to express your views robustly, but please treat others with respect and don’t resort to abuse. Guardian comment pages are supposed to be a haven from the Twitter/social media rant-orama, not an extension of it.
.@SadiqKhan says it’s “astonishing” that Theresa May approved appt of @toadmeister to OfS given his views on inclusion. “It’s another example of the chumocracy that makes the British public sick to death of the political elite”. #LBC
Here is Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), on the latest NHS performance figures. (See 10.13am.) She said:
Today’s figures show that almost every day last week, NHS hospitals in England were at bursting point, with over 90% of beds being used – well above the 85% safe limit recommended by experts.
Lack of beds for new patients is a major factor contributing to the current severe pressure on the NHS, but it’s impossible for trusts to open extra beds without more nurses to staff them.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, told BBC News a few minutes ago that today’s ambulance delay figures are “absolutely appalling”. He said”
These figures are absolutely appalling. They are dismal. Seventeen thousand people trapped in ambulances beyond 30 minutes waiting to get into a hospital – just imagine if that was one of your elderly relatives, waiting to get into the hospital, trapped in an ambulance – 17,000 is absolutely shameful.
And it’s no good government ministers offering listless apologies. We want them to get a grip of this situation. And the crisis we are seeing in the NHS today is because we’ve now got eight years of underfunding, cuts to community health provision and social care provision cut back by billions so that lots of elderly and vulnerable people do not get the support in the community they need.
Here are the main points from the articles and from Blair’s Today interview.
Make Brexit the Tory Brexit.
Make them own it 100%.
Because the Labour party is saying that we too would do Brexit, we cannot attack its vast distractive impact.
Labour could mount such a powerful assault on the government’s record from the appalling state of the NHS to crime, which through neglect and failure to support the police is on the rise again, if we were saying to the country: here’s the agenda which could be delivered for the people were it not for the fact that all the energies of government and substantial amounts of cash are devoted to Brexit.
My bet is that the government will try to negotiate an agreement which leaves much detail still to negotiate, because there is no way round the dilemma. They will bank some low hanging fruit possibly e.g. tariff free access for goods (leaving for later non tariff issues). For Europe since they have a whacking great surplus with Britain on goods, this is a no-brainer.
But on access for services, which have driven most of our export growth over the last 20 years, are 70% of our economy, and where we have the surplus, we will be blocked without major concessions.
This story is a complete fabrication, literally beginning to end. I’ve never had such conversations in the White House, outside of the White House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else.
I never sought one, was never offered one, don’t want one.
Here is Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, on the latest NHS waiting figures. In a statement Cable said:
These figures show the NHS crisis is worsening, with thousands of patients being stuck in ambulances outside A&Es and many hospitals suffering from a severe lack of beds.
Every day seems to bring yet more bad news about the state of the health service. The blame lies firmly at the government’s door.
Delays in ambulances delivering patients to A&E departments in England have reached their highest level of the winter, new figures show, as hospitals struggle with mounting demands on their services. As the Press Association reports, a total of 16,900 people were forced to wait for more than 30 minutes to be seen by staff at emergency departments over the Christmas week, up from 11,900 the previous week, including 4,700 delayed for more than an hour. The PA story goes on:
NHS England’s weekly operational update also showed showed non-emergency calls to the NHS hotline again reached a record high in the week ending December 31.
Calls to the health service’s 111 service shot up 21% on the previous week to 480,400 – the most received in a single week since the hotline was created.
Almost 80% of Labour party members agree with Tony Blair’s call for a second referendum on Brexit, a new survey has revealed. The research was carried out by Prof Tim Bale and colleagues from the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London and it involved a survey of more than 4,000 members of the main political parties.
This is from Sir Christopher Meyer, who was ambassador to Washington when Tony Blair was PM. He is probably right, if you accept the argument that the collapse of the Brexit talks is one of the few events that could shift public opinion decisively in favour of a second referendum and remain.
Blair on @BBCr4today underlined yet again that real divide in UK not between Remainers and Leavers but between those who accept the referendum result and those who don’t. The latter have vested interest in negotiations’ failure.
And here are some highlights from the FT’s Laura Hughes, who has been listening.
Michael Gove tells #OFC18 the CAP is “fundamentally flawed”. He says paying land owners for the amount of agricultural land they have is “unjust, inefficient and drives perverse outcomes.” Says it gives the most from the public purse to those who have the most private wealth.
He says the CAP “perversely” rewards farmers for “sticking to methods of production that are resource-inefficient & also incentivises an approach to environmental stewardship which is all about mathematically precise field margins and not ecologically healthy landscapes.”#OFC18
On threat of lowering food standards under new post- Brexit trade deals, Michael Gove says that would be foolish because people “know when they’re buying British they’re buying food which is guaranteed to be high quality and more sustainable” #OFC18
The Blair interview didn’t really take us on very much, I’m afraid. Brexiters like the way John Humphrys repeatedly challenged him on the grounds that he is refusing to accept the result of the EU referendum, although I felt they ended up just going around in circles.
This is what other political journalists and commentators are saying about it.
To be fair to Tony Blair he does know a thing or too about how a once-popular political product can quickly become completely toxic
Isn’t Tony Blair making the same point about brexit and another referendum which the Lib Dems made in last year’s election?
Tony Blair was the outstanding politician of his generation, but sadly his baggage now stops him conveying an argument
I remember Tony Blair telling me that if Britain didn’t enter the Euro, it would lead to financial disaster for the country. Then he told me Britain had to go to war with Iraq because Saddam had WMD. So I’d take his ‘Brexit will be a disaster’ claims with a pinch of salt.
High fives all round in No 10 as Blair reinforcing case for Brexit dominates media cycle instead of NHS
Tony Blair is the ex-boyfriend who feels it’s still valid for him to comment on your life choices
Tony Blair sounding pretty manic on #r4today. Not a great look for the anti-Brexit campaign.
John Humphreys just single-handedly justified licence fee. Much of broadcasting boss class still hero-worships Blair. Humphreys far shrewder
It’s now in vogue to attack Tony Blair but his stance on ‘Breggsit’ is coherent and really not that controversial #r4Today
Brilliant dissection of Tony Blair’s position on Brexit on @BBCr4today now. Worth listening to Humphries’ demolition job whatever yr view.
Here is some more Tory reaction to the Blair interview, from two prominent Brexiters.
From the MEP Daniel Hannan
The only effect – the ONLY effect – of Tony Blair demanding a referendum between the final deal and continuing EU membership is to encourage Brussels to offer a worse deal.
How dare Tony Blair, the man who ratted on his promise to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty , is now prepared to ignore the result of the EU referendum which was promised and given to the British people. This man has no shame!
Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s co chief of staff until the general election, and the person credited with doing more than anyone else to encourage May to approach a hard Brexit approach, thinks Blair’s intervention will be counter-productive.
Tony Blair is making an excellent case for Brexit on the radio.
The BBC’s Chris Mason has posted this response to the Blair intervention from an unnamed shadow minister.
Tony Blair live on @BBCr4today now. Shadow minister tells me Mr Blair’s intervention is “utterly unhelpful.” “Lots of Labour voters voted for Brexit and this to them sounds like the metropolitan elite ignoring them.” (1/2)
Shadow minister adds: “The whole Tony Blair project was about being on the right side of public opinion. And now look at this. Are you telling me the Tony Blair of 1994 would have said this?” (2/2)
The Spectator editor Fraser Nelson says Blair was wrong to say the Brexit vote is creating staff shortages in the NHS.
Tony Blair tells @BBCr4today that, since the Brexit vote, there are “significant staff shortages in the NHS”. Here are the facts on EU nationals in the NHS since the referendum. http://pic.twitter.com/LzWPziRGLJ
Norman Lamont, the former chancellor and Tory Brexiter, is being interviewed on the Today programme now. He says that Tony Blair is trying to “sabotage the result of the referendum” and that he is increasing cynicism about politics. The interview was “pure cynicism by him”, Lamont says.
He also says trying to stop Brexit would be against the national interest.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, claims Tony Blair was wrong to link Brexit with the NHS winter crisis.
Tony Blair’s memory is as selective in office as out of office: does he not remember his own regular NHS winter crises? Perhaps he was too focused on joining the euro to give his full attention to the NHS…
Humphrys turns to the allegation that he told President Trump that the British were spying on him. (See 8.10am.)
Blair says this story is a “complete fabrication”.
Q: So how should people have the chance to vote again. An election or a second referendum?
Blair says it could be a second referendum. But it would be a referendum with two options.
Q: A shadow minister has described your intervention as unhelpful. They are saying lots of Labour voters voted for Brexit. You are making it sound as if the metropolitan elite is against them.
Blair says there are elites and ordinary people on both sides. He says 17m people voted to leave, but 16m people voted to remain. Those 16m aren’t all elite.
Q: You say in your article people should have the option to rethink and stay. How can we do that when we have had the referendum?
Blair says that at the time of the referendum people did not know that the alternative was.
Blair says the government is spending substantial sums preparing for Brexit.
His argument, directly to Labour as much as the government, is that Brexit is a distraction. It is stopping the government focusing on the problems facing the country./
Q: No on thinks we will not be able to recruit EU nurses after Brexit.
Blair says EU workers are leaving.
John Humphrys is interviewing Tony Blair.
Q: You have been accused of spreading fear about Brexit.
Tony Blair warned Donald Trump’s aides that British intelligence may have spied on them during the election, according to an explosive new book.
The former prime minister met Jared Kushner, son-in-law to Donald Trump and a senior aide, at the White House last February.
Tony Blair confirmed last month that he is trying to stop Brexit and he is intervening again today. He is giving an interview to the Today programme and he has published a long article on the subject, summarised here by my colleague Peter Walker. Here is the start of Peter’s story.
Labour will become “the handmaiden of Brexit” if it continues to prevaricate and be timid over the issue, Tony Blair has warned in a passionate call for the party he formerly led to oppose the government on leaving the EU.
In a lengthy article published on his own website, coinciding with the release of a report from his political institute detailing the current state of play over Brexit, Blair reiterates his call for the British people to have the final decision on whether the withdrawal from the EU goes ahead or not.
My colleague Martin Belam has rounded up some of the most controversial things Toby Young said on Twitter and elsewhere prior to his appointment as a member of the board of the new Office for Students.
Theresa May has refused to comment on the longstanding suspension of a former Tory whip, the Press Association reports. Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke was suspended by the Conservative party on November 3 following “serious allegations”. Elphicke has denied any wrongdoing and says he still does not know what the allegations are.
On her visit to Wokingham today May was asked what she would like to say to the MP two months on from his suspension. She replied:
I am not going to comment on an individual case, this is a matter that is now for the police to investigate and that’s what’s happening.
With Jeremy Hunt being praised for his presentational skills (see 2.51pm), and even tipped as a possible replacement for Damian Green in the expected reshuffle (see here and here), it it worth pointing out that until recently he was out of favour with Number 10. As Tim Shipman writes in his book about the general election and Theresa May’s first year in office, Fall Out, Hunt was one of the ministers effectively banned from the airwaves by Number 10 during the campaign.
Those on the ‘never use’ list in a so-called ‘Brexit election’ included Brexiteers like Liam Fox, Andrea Leadsom and Chris Grayling, who spent the campaign doing regional tours, described by one aide as ‘trying to organise a bunch of cats in the middle of a firework display’. Others banished to media Siberia included Justine Greening, the education secretary; Liz Truss, the justice secretary; and David Lidington. [Fiona] Hill’s sheet [Hill was May’s co chief of staff] decreed that Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, should be confined to ‘canvassing’. It is curious that ministers responsible for the public services were banished from the airwaves in an election where Labour was fighting austerity cuts in schools and hospitals.
Paul Kelso, Sky’s health correspondent, thinks Jeremy Hunt was better than Theresa May at defending the government’s record on the NHS in their respective interviews earlier.
Contrast between @Jeremy_Hunt & @Number10gov response to NHS pressure. Both praise staff, Hunt apologises for postponed ops and acknowledges long-term funding challenge 1/2
2/2 PM meanwhile says NHS “better prepared” than ever & calls op deferral “disappointing”. But if NHS is better prepared & staff working miracles, yet service still on its knees, her analysis inevitably begs further questions
In his World at One interview, and in a separate interview with BBC News, Jeremy Hunt the health secretary, largely repeated the points that he made to Sky’s Beth Rigby. (See 1.11pm.) But he did make some fresh arguments too. Here they are.
In terms of staff, we have more staff in the NHS, but I think we need even more.
Staff salaries have to be funded. But it isn’t just about money. It’s also about training the number of staff that you want, and that’s why in the last couple of years we have seen a very important change, which is that we have said we will increase the number of doctors and nurses we train by a quarter. That’s actually the biggest increase in the history of the NHS.
Actually, if you look at the last monthly figures, over half of A&E departments are actually doing better than they were doing in the same period as last year. So I think there are some signs that things are better.
And this is what the Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb is saying about Jeremy Hunt’s apology to NHS patients. Lamb said:
This apology will be little comfort to the tens of thousands of people across the country seeing their operations delayed. There is no doubt that patients will die and families will suffer because of the impossible pressure the NHS is being put under.
Tragically this crisis was wholly predictable and preventable. People will rightly be infuriated that the government has refused to put in enough resources to stave off another winter crisis.
Yesterday Toby Young told me he’d tweeted 56,000 times. Today, fewer than 9,000 tweets remain. It seems he’s deleting them as he comes under pressure over his appointment to the Office for Students (OfS) board.
We’ll be posting an article soon on what some of the deleted tweets say.
I’ve composed over 56,000 tweets and, if someone is prepared to spend hours trawling through them, it’s not altogether surprising if they come up with a few sophomoric, politically incorrect remarks. I regret these, obviously. I hope people will judge me on my actions, not on silly things I’ve tweeted or written in my 30-year career as a journalist.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, says Theresa May’s comments on the NHS winter crisis (see 12.23pm) show she is “out of touch”. In a statement he said:
Yet again Theresa May reveals how entirely out of touch she is. Next, she will be trying to lecture patients that ‘nothing has changed’ for patients.
The reality is we see hospitals at full capacity, ambulances backed up, cancelled operations and patients waiting for hours on trolleys.
Cancelled operations, ambulances backed up, hospitals at capacity, patients waiting hours on trolleys and NHS bosses pleading for staff to come in over social media. Dismal consequences of of 8 years Tory underfunding & cuts to health & social care http://pic.twitter.com/oGlpQ6Rlsl
Jeremy Hunt is now being interviewed on the World at One.
Q: Is this a crisis?
Here are the main points from Jeremy Hunt’s interview on Sky News. Beth Rigby was asking the questions.
There are real pressures, no question about it. And this is the busiest week of the year for the NHS …
But I think what is different this year compared to last year is that we had a lot of operations cancelled at the last minute, a lot of people were called up the day before their operation and told ‘I’m sorry, it can’t go ahead’, and we recognise it is better, if you unfortunately are going to have to cancel or postpone some operations, to do it in a planned way. And that’s why this year we’ve decided to take this decision, or this independent panel has decided to take this decision. And that, I think, in the end is better for people, although if you are someone whose operation has been delayed, I don’t belittle that for one moment. And, indeed, I apologise to everyone that has happened to.
First thing I want to say is a massive thank you to NHS staff who are working incredibly long hours, through the night, beyond the call of duty in every possible way. It is not just me that’s grateful to them; it’s the whole country. They are doing an absolutely heroic job.
It is absolutely not what I want. In July an independent American thinktank called the Commonwealth Fund said the NHS was the best healthcare system in the world, and that is what we are all so proud of in the NHS. And when the standards of care fall below those very high standards – very few other countries, for example, have a 95% target [95% of patients attending A&E should be dealt with within four hours]; we do, because we want to promise everyone in the country that in an emergency they will get treated as quickly as they need to be.
But we also have to recognise that we have around 3,000 more people going to our A&Es every single day than we did year ago. We have an ageing population. There are huge pressures.
We’ve also got an additional pressure this year of an uptick in flu and respiratory illness which we didn’t have last year. It’s too early to say whether we are going to experience what they experienced in Australia. But that has undoubtedly created extra pressures on the system.
There is a longer-term funding issue that we have to address as a society because we want our NHS to be the best, to continue to be the best in the world, the fairest healthcare system in the world. And with the extra number of older people that is going to need substantially more resources in the years ahead.
But as we come to the end of the five-year forward view, which is the plan the NHS is working towards, then of course we are going to have more discussions going forward about the long-term funding needs of the NHS.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt apologises for postponed operations saying “it’s absolutely not what I want” http://pic.twitter.com/mNNAh4Us63
The Press Association has now filed Theresa May’s comments on the NHS. She was on a visit to Wokingham, where she was promoting the government’s stamp duty cut for first-time buyers (see 10.43am), and a reporter asked: “If this is not a crisis in the NHS this winter, how would you classify it?” May replied:
Can I say a huge thank you to NHS staff for their hard work, they work hard and do a fantastic job for us day in and day out all year round, but obviously there are extra pressures in winter.
They’re doing a fantastic job and their dedication is ensuring that people are getting treatment that they need.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has also been talking about the NHS.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has used an interview with Sky News to apologise to patients who have had operations postponed or faced upheaval saying “it’s absolutely not what I want”
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says the decision to postpone operations was taken to allow “a planned, methodical, thoughtful” approach
Theresa May has said the NHS is “better prepared for this winter than ever before”, Sky reports.
Prime Minister Theresa May says the postponement of non-urgent operations in hospitals in England is “disappointing” and “frustrating” but says the “NHS has been better prepared for this winter than ever before”
And here’s another interesting thread on the TPP story, from Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in German and European studies at King’s College London. It starts here.
Remarkable that UK pundits don’t seem to have clocked that TPP isn’t even a stable framework. The US has walked out. The Canadians show signs of backing out. The Japanese are struggling to keep it going. The Australians are sceptical. And the Chinese are working to subvert it
The British Medical Association has been tweeting about the situation in the NHS.
Situation in our A&Es is symptomatic of pressures across whole system. Hospitals are at capacity, GP surgeries full, and a shortage of social and community care means many who no longer need to be in hospital can’t be discharged – there’s nowhere for them to go! #NHSCrisis
Short-term fixes will only get us so far. Each winter the pressure on the NHS worsens, and politicians are not taking the long-term view needed to ensure the NHS can keep up with rising demand #NHSCrisis
We have to look at NHS funding, which is well below what other comparable European countries spend, to ensure the NHS can deal with the pressures it faces year in, year out, but which are compounded during winter. Read the full statement from @docantheahttps://t.co/FPkWqLSFuE
Like everyone else we’ve been practicing corridor Medicine on a brutal shift today. Moreover,we have two triages: normal triage and resus triage. Our 5-bed has been running with 7-8 patients. Each blue-light ambulance – and there have been MANY…(cont.) #corridorEM#NHSCrisis
Here is George Magnus, the economic commentator and a former UBS chief economist, on the TPP proposal. (See 10.16am and 11.07am.)
So the Dept of Trade thinks it’s a good idea to leave the biggest FTA in the world on our doorstep for a new one in the Pacific with its own non sovereign legal structure and complex rules. No wonder the civil service is tearing its hair out
I wondered if initial scepticism was more visceral than reasoned. But it wasn’t. Close geography matters, so does export concentration. TPP fails for us both ways: UKlooks to join Pacific trade group after Brexit via @FT https://t.co/perBHYMue5
2) there are good reasons why most successful trade deals are regional nowadays. As you can see here for example https://t.co/pAR1yhaAYH UK trade concentration in EU isn’t random.
3) UK does < 8% total trade with TPP countries. And scope to do sig more trade with Oz, NZ, Japan is quite limited. In any event, nothing can happen with TPP or any other group or major trade nation b4 they know the details of UK future arrangements with EU
4) Dept of Trade and govt overall should be focusing on sequencing of trade arrangements starting with EU and not grandstanding Global Britain fantasy to Brexit supporters.
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is on a visit to China where he has told Reuters that it is a “bit premature” to talk about the UK joining the trans-Pacific partnership (TPP) at this point. But he confirmed that it was an option for the future. He told Reuters:
We don’t know what the success of the TPP is going to yet look like, because it isn’t yet negotiated. So it would be a little bit premature for us to be wanting to sign up to something that we’re not sure what the final details will look like.
However, we have said that we want to be an open outward looking country, and therefore it would be foolish for us to rule out any particular outcomes for the future. So we’ll keep an open mind, and we’ll want to talk to our global trading partners.
Theresa May has been tweeting too – about the stamp duty cut in the budget.
In November’s Budget we cut stamp duty – helping thousands of people afford their own home. 95% of first time buyers are saving money. 80% are paying no stamp duty at all today as a result of this Government. http://pic.twitter.com/5C6hsdW7rl
Jeremy Corbyn has tweeted this about the winter crisis in the NHS.
We face yet another winter crisis because of this Tory Government’s failure to properly fund and run our NHS. https://t.co/JheTheSNVI
The Markit/CIPS UK Construction purchasing managers’ index (PMI) recorded a reading of 52.2 for December, down from 53.1 in November, the Press Association reports. Economists were expecting a figure of 53.1. A reading above 50 indicates growth.
Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, says Lord O’Neill is right about the Tory Brexiters. (See 9.16am.)
Jim O’Neill right to say that leading Brexiteers are clueless about world economy. Far-flung trade deals will never compensate for leaving the world’s largest market sitting on our doorstep https://t.co/xvEP8KwZf9
The European Union is much more than just a trade bloc. But it is a trade bloc, and it’s adjacent to the UK. There is a land border in Ireland, which means that after Brexit you will be able to walk from Northern Ireland into the EU. Getting into the EU across the English channel will be more tricky, but if you are particularly strong and fit and you choose the shortest route, you can swim it.
Reaching the Pacific is another matter. But that hasn’t stopped an international trade minister, Greg Hands, floating the idea that Britain could join the trans-Pacific partnership (TPP) trade bloc after Brexit. It is for countries bordering the Pacific and its current members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. (The US pulled out after the election of President Trump.) “With these kind of plurilateral relationships, there doesn’t have to be any geographical restriction,” Hands told the Financial Times (paywall).
The department of health did not put up a health minister for the Today programme this morning. Ministers often take the view that on days like this people are more inclined to trust professionals and instead the job of defending the NHS was left to Prof Keith Willett, a trauma surgeon who is director of acute care at NHS England.
Here are the main points from his interview.
A crisis is when you haven’t got in place mitigations and you haven’t got a plan to deal with it. We’ve gone into this winter in a way that we’ve never prepared before, so we went into the winter before Christmas having cancelled fewer elective operations than we had previously, discharges from hospital were at a lower level than they had been previously, so we were better prepared.
We’ve also set up a national, regional and local structure – if you like, a winter pressures protocol – which we are invoking now and we are monitoring a whole series of things, activity in the service and the pressures.
I fully accept that for the individual that will be really very uncomfortable, but what we know is if we don’t have a plan in place and we don’t do this in a structured way, what will happen, as we’ve had in previous winters, is lots of last-minute cancellations which is really distracting for patients, it’s inconvenient, it upsets the plans they’ve put together with their family, particularly for elderly patients where their care needs are often quite significant.
That’s certainly a possibility … Intention always is not to cancel patients or postpone patients more than once – that’s one of the principles we try to follow – but clearly it is unpredictable, we don’t know what the weather we do, we don’t know the pressures in the system, we’re taking precautionary action here.
“Crisis is when you haven’t got a plan in place to deal with it”
Good morning. Theresa May is out this morning doing a visit to highlight how some house buyers are benefiting from the abolition of stamp duty for first-time purchases up to £300,000 but, in the light of last night’s announcement about the further cancellation of non-emergency operations to help staff cope with the surge in demand for A&E, all the questions are likely to be about the crisis in the NHS.
The point is, if you have a very major increase in people who are living longer with complex conditions, that produces particular demands on the health system that I think they need to get a better grip on, to understand the sheer scale of the increase in demand across health and social care. And that’s what they need to do better planning for.
Certainly what we have is a system that is running at absolutely full stretch across both health and social care. And, despite all the planning that we’ve heard about, I’m afraid there are serious issues with capacity, far too many bed closures that have happened, and probably not enough money that has gone in over a number of years now to keep up with the sheer scale of the increase in demand and complexity.
[They are] very intellectual, smart people. But they have no clue about the world of economy. They are clueless, sadly. Clueless.
Ridiculous outcry over Toby Young. He will bring independence, rigour and caustic wit. Ideal man for job
Jeremy Corbyn has formally dropped his policy of not nominating new Labour peers. His office has, I’m told, “engaged” with the latest process of peerage nominations. Expect 2-3 Labour nominees in the imminent list of new peers.
When he stood for leader Corbyn said he wouldn’t nominate any new Labour peers, but then elevated Shami Chakrabarti in 2016. He’s now formally returned to practice of past Labour leaders, joining most other parties in nominating peers, as Lab ranks in Lords get ever more depleted
The department for transport has finally got back with a bit more information about Chris Grayling’s visit to Qatar. As Number 10 revealed this morning, Grayling is meeting the Qatari prime minister and the ministers for transport, finance and the interior, as well as the chief executives of the Qatar Investment Authority and Qatar Airways and representatives from UK businesses. After Qatar Grayling is also visiting Turkey.
This is what the DfT said in a briefing note for journalists.
Following the success of the Qatar-UK Business and Investment Forum, which took place in London and Birmingham in March 2017, and which was led by the prime ministers of both countries, the UK is seeking to build on our already close and growing trade and investment relationship. The transport secretary is seeking to support the delivery of commitments made by both sides at the conference, including a commitment to invest a further £5bn across the UK in the next 3-5 years.
As the UK prepares to leave the EU, we want to strengthen our commercial ties with partners around the world, creating new opportunities for British businesses. The secretary of state’s visit to Qatar aims to strengthen our relationship for the future of both countries.
The Conservative MP Martin Vickers, who sits on the Commons transport committee, told the World at One at lunchtime that he was a “lukewarm” defender of today’s rail fares increase. Vickers, who represents Cleethorpes on Humberside, explained:
The vast majority of my constituents never use the railway, I suspect the percentage is in single figures and the argument they would put forward quite reasonably is why should they contribute towards getting people into central London each day and it’s a fair point.
Season ticket holders have got reason to complain, it’s a massive hike for them and I do sympathise with them, but the reality is someone has to pay and it’s either the general tax payer or the users of the system.
The department for transport has put out a statement about Chris Grayling’s visit to Qatar. A spokesperson said:
The secretary of state is currently on a pre-planned visit to Qatar to promote the UK overseas, support British jobs and strengthen the important relationship between the two countries.
This trip has been specifically arranged to take place outside of parliamentary time. The secretary of state has repeatedly answered questions on [the rail fare increase] ever since fare increases were first announced by the industry in August.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT rail union, has put out this statement about Chris Grayling, the transport secretary.
Chris Grayling knew that the fares story would be top of the news agenda today but instead of being available to defend his government’s great rail rip-off he booked himself a trip to the Qatari sunshine.
While millions of passengers are taking a financial hit as they battle their way back to work in the cold and the rain today they will draw their own conclusions from the transport secretary’s decision to book himself a trip to the desert.
Here is Jeremy Cliffe, the Economist’s Berlin bureau chief, on rail prices in Britain.
An annual London-Peterborough season ticket now costs £7,864. In Germany you can buy an annual BahnCard 100, providing travel on *every train in the country*, for less than half that (€4,270, or £3,797).
When he was chancellor George Osborne frequently clashed with Theresa May, the then home secretary, over her hardline approach to immigration. He was particularly sceptical about including foreign students in the immigration statistics. In today’s editorial, Osborne’s Evening Standard welcomes hints that May is going to be forced to back down on this.
Every effort to get the students out of the net migration target — by David Cameron in the last government and by most of the current cabinet — has been single-handedly blocked by Theresa May. As home secretary and as prime minister she insisted students should be in the official numbers because, the Home Office claimed, 100,000 of them overstayed. Last year it emerged that this number was completely bogus — fewer than 5,000 do, one 20th of the estimate that drove government policy. Still Downing Street refused to budge.
So why might they back down now? Credit must go in part to the subversive operations of various ministers. The home secretary, Amber Rudd, quietly commissioned rational advice on the economic benefits of international students and shifted her department’s mindset. Meanwhile, Jo Johnson, the effective universities minister, has used every opportunity to promote our higher education institutions abroad. But in this hung parliament it’s not the government that dictates policy, it’s the House of Commons — as MPs are starting to realise. That’s why, last August, this paper said, “let’s hope someone puts down an amendment in parliament to remove students from migration numbers… [for] it will surely be carried”.
This is Stefaan De Rynck, senior adviser to Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, responding to what David Davis, the Brexit secretary, is saying in his Telegraph article. (See 9.31am.)
Quote April EUCO #Brexit guidelines: welcomes the recognition by the British Government that the four freedoms of the Single Market are indivisible and that there can be no “cherry picking”. The Union will preserve its autonomy as regards its decision-making.
Labour and the Lib Dems have condemned Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, for going to Qatar on a day when he could, and arguably should, have been on the Today programme defending the annual rail fair increases. Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, said:
The secretary of state for transport’s failure to publicly explain to rail passengers why they are being hit with crushing fare increases today smacks of a man running scared. Chris Grayling won’t defend his multi-million pound bailout of Stagecoach on the East Coast line because he can’t.
Passengers and taxpayers deserve better than a failing transport secretary who refuses to defend his track record.
After great rail fares rally at Kings X, and then meeting brilliant campaigners at Stevenage, now en route to Leeds only for our Virgin train to breakdown with complete loss of power just like this awful Tory government!
My day of campaigning has been interrupted by a broken down train on the recently bailed-out Virgin East Coast on the same day fares are hiked by 3.6%. Let’s take our railway back into public ownership! http://pic.twitter.com/Y6YrK0iTMT
Rail passengers are shivering on platforms angered by the biggest fare increase in years while Chris Grayling is off globetrotting.
It’s very difficult to see what useful function he can perform in Qatar and Turkey that our excellent trade officials could not.
I’m back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. Here are the key points.
Chris Grayling is working hard and doing a good job as transport secretary.
Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, is opposed to Brexit. But, in an interview with LBC, he claimed that he had an “open mind” and that he could be persuaded to support it if Theresa May secured a fantastic Brexit deal. When it was put to him that he was just opposing Brexit and the will of the people, he replied:
If Brexit is the way it’s now looking, I think we should be aiming to stop it, but I have an open mind … We would stay within the European Union. We haven’t left it yet, but it’s possible that Theresa May could produce a miracle and we could have some really good outcome and people would be positive about it but I’m sceptical we’ll get there.
Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, was on the Today programme earlier talking about Labour’s plans for rail. Here are the main points he made.
You’ve got to remember, through British Rail there was a remarkable achievement. [It was] so derided and abused, when we have the curly-lip sandwiches stories and all the rest of it. But that was actually 3% more efficient in its last 20 years than we’ve had under privatisation, with little or no investment, because it was a declining industry and the investment didn’t go in. If British Rail had half the investment that’s gone in under privatisation, we’d have had a gold standard railway.
No, it’s not about British Rail. It’s about a new era of railways that delivers the very, very best for the British people.
You pay for that by not wasting money in the franchising system itself, which is immensely costly for the taxpayer and for the TOCs, the train operating companies, and who pays for that ultimately? The passengers.
You reduce that cost. You take out this terrible duplication, you’ve seen it over the last couple of days, endless CEOs on massive amounts of money duplicating costs. And, lastly, [you stop] profits and dividends going out to, not only the corporate entities, but to [foreign] state-owned and controlled railways.
We have a fractured, expensive and complex system, we are wasting money in the franchising system itself, it duplicates costs … This is a nonsense, this is an absolute racket.
I think instead of being at war with the people who work in the rail industry, we should be in partnership with them to ensure that we deliver the best possible service and they want to commit to that, but what’s happening here is ideologically we’ve got a government who prefers to have battles and wars, rather than sit round a negotiating table and resolve these very, very real issues.
Here are some of the campaigners at King’s Cross station in London protesting about the annual rail fare increases.
Here is Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s Brexit minister, responding to the David Davis article.
David Davis says in today’s Telegraph that he wants a relationship with the EU that “involves working together, not simply rule taking”. David, that is called “membership”
The Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed a reading of 56.3 last month, down from 58.2 in November, the Press Association reports. Economists were expecting a figure of 57.9. A reading above 50 indicates growth.
The negotiations about the future will not be straightforward. They will generate the same public thunder and lightning that we have seen in the past year. But I believe they will be successful, because the future of the Europe continent is best served by strong and successful relationships.
The EU might work for countries who have chosen to be members, but at a time when the commission themselves say that the vast majority of future global growth will come from outside Europe, it makes sense for Britain to place itself at the cutting edge of new technologies and the regulatory regimes they will require.
The emphasis here must always be on raising standards. There is no route to prosperity in trying to become cheaper than China, or in undermining the safety standards which give confidence to British goods.
Whether it’s the prime minister’s commitments to workers rights, or Michael Gove’s determination to uphold animal welfare standards, this government believes the UK’s future lies in a race to the top in global standards.
Our approach is simple: we are looking at the full sweep of economic cooperation that currently exists and determining how that can be maintained with the minimum additional barriers or friction, while returning control to the UK Parliament.
In terms of scope, the final deal should, amongst other things, cover goods, agriculture and services, including financial services, and be supported by continued intelligent cooperation in highly-regulated areas such as transportation, energy and data.
For decades we have been happy to let European bodies carry out the assessments that ensure products like these — from cars to medical devices — are fit to go to market in the United Kingdom. Given the level of trust we place in each other’s institutions I see no reason why, with the right relationship, such mutual recognition should not continue after we leave.
But it will require the support of our regulators working together, collaborating on assessments to authorise products and sharing data on public health and safety risks.
Here’s a summary of today’s events. Thanks for all your comments and Happy Christmas from me as well as I’m off now until Boxing Day.
The Cabinet Office has ruled that Mark Garnier, who admitted asking his former assistant to buy sex toys, did not breach the ministerial code when doing so. The crucial point, from the investigation’s perspective, seems to be that he was not a minister at the time that that particular behaviour occurred.
Garnier was one of many politicians named in reports as allegations of sexual harassment swirled around Westminster after the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Following allegations of sexual misconduct, the prime minister asked the Cabinet Office to look into the behaviour of Mark Garnier MP, parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for International Trade.
The Cabinet Office’s investigation primarily considered Mr Garnier’s behaviour as a minister, but also heard evidence from before he was appointed to government.The Cabinet Office concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that Mr Garnier’s conduct as a Minister since 2016 had breached the expected standards of behaviour.
The Press Association reports that the prime minister was tickled by a reference to her as “Madame Brexit” during the press conference in Warsaw:
Theresa May could not help smiling as an interpreter for the Polish prime minister referred to her as “Madame Brexit” in a translation broadcast live on television.
A passage of Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki’s opening speech was translated as: “It’s very important for us that this co-operation, even though it will be based soon on different rules and different regulations than it has been so far because of Brexit, because as Madame Brexit said, Brexit is Brexit…”
Poland’s prime minister’s signalled his country would back the UK on a bespoke Brexit deal including services, at a joint meeting with Theresa May in Warsaw where he warned against “very dangerous” EU protectionism.
Five senior cabinet ministers accompanied May on the visit to Warsaw, a signal of the growing strategic importance of the relationship, but which risked being overshadowed by the deepening rift between prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s administration at the EU over his hardline government’s crackdown on judicial independence.
On economic co-operation, there is hard to find closer partners than we are. The UK is a very important trade partner for Poland. The UK is a very powerful country exporting services, it’s obvious for the UK they would like to remain a very strong player in this area.
All the protectionist movements are very dangerous and that’s why we really regret losing the UK as our ally in a number of discussions at the EU level where we tried to mitigate and reduce the red tape and a number of regulations.
But we do believe in this new agreement that will soon be worked out, will soon be negotiated, and we will be able to co-operate with the UK as close as possible.
Labour has commented on the government’s defeat in what it calls a “landmark” court case against “discriminatory” personal independence payment (Pip) legislation (see previous post).
The shadow work and pensions secretary, Debbie Abrahams said:
This landmark ruling is a damning indictment of the government’s discriminatory approach to Pip support and its refusal to make this support available to people with mental health conditions. So much for the prime minister’s commitment to deliver parity of esteem for mental health.
When the government should have been listening to successive court rulings on PIP payments and correcting injustices for people with debilitating mental health conditions, they decided to undermine the legal basis for the judgments and introduce emergency legislation. This was a step too far, even for this Tory government.
Charities have urged the government to take heed of a high court ruling, which found in favour of a woman with mental health difficulties who questioned the fairness of personal independence payments (Pips), designed to help disabled people maintain independence.
The judge, Mr Justice Mostyn, said the regulations were “blatantly discriminatory” against people with mental health impairments.
Thousands of disabled people rely on Pip to live independently and help meet the often substantial extra costs they face related to their condition or impairment.
The government must listen carefully to today’s ruling and act quickly to reverse these changes, rather than further dragging the issue through the courts.
As the judgment suggests, not everyone fits neatly into categories, and people shouldn’t be denied support because of this. We’re urging the government to scrap these rules so that people don’t have to rely on courts to get the support they need.
This ruling is hugely significant for many autistic adults, who struggle to make new and unfamiliar journeys because of anxiety and psychological distress. We opposed the changes the government made earlier this year, which limited psychological distress as a factor in assessing eligibility for mobility payments and we gave evidence in this case, because we knew how serious the impact of this change was on autistic adults.
So we are very pleased that the courts have agreed that the changes were discriminatory and that the new rules should be quashed.
I’m delighted that the court has agreed the government’s decision to change the law to prevent people with mental health conditions accessing the support they need was blatantly discriminatory.
PIP replaced a system that was less generous for people with mental health conditions and is designed to consider the broader picture of how someone’s life is affected by their disability or health condition…
We are disappointed the judgment fails to recognise that PIP provides more support to people with mental health conditions than ever before.”
My colleague Haroon Siddique is taking over the blog now. I’ve got to head off for a meeting.
Since this will be the last blog of 2017, Happy Christmas to everyone. Thanks for reading, and thank you to all of those who comment. Smart, informative comments are an important part of what makes this blog successful, and I know my reporting is definitely improved by the way you flag things up and challenge me BTL.
May says she is glad the UK and the EU have made progress on citizens’ rights.
Poles in the UK will be able to apply for settled status. That will be an easy process. There will be a significant period of time during which people can apply.
Morawiecki asked again about the bespoke deal; says he is happy with the current state of negotiations and keeps dialogue with France and Germany open to discuss this in details
Q: Do you want to see the UK get a bespoke trade deal from the EU?
Morawiecki says he supports the best possible deal, but stops short of saying whether that means a bespoke deal for Britain or not; he adds he opposes any protectionist movements and is sorry to see the UK leave as Britain was always a great ally in tackling these attitudes
Q: Are you concerned about reports of a Russian spy in Number 10?
That was a reference to this. The tweet is from a BBC Kiev correspondent.
BREAKING: Was a Russian spy inside Downing St in July? Ukrainian authorities have arrested the interpreter in the middle of this photo and claim he reported to Moscow. http://pic.twitter.com/kRYVANFuNV
Q: [From the BBC] Have you done enough to deal with sexual harassment? And have the police questions to answer?
May says this is a wide question. The government is continuing to address this question. It has a strategy for addressing domestic violence. And, in parliament, she has taken steps to ensure it is a workplace where people can raise concerns about harassment or bullying. Work is being done to put a proper grievance procedure in place.
Theresa May is speaking now.
She says our ties with Poland are rooted in history. We will never forget Polish troops who fought alongside British troops in the war, or the contribution of Polish airmen. And she says many Poles are in the UK now where their contribution is valued.
These are from Jakub Krupa from the Polish Press Agency.
Morawiecki says he hopes Britain’s negotiations of implementation/transitional period will have ‘unprecedented pace’ & he hopes for Brexit that will be ‘as unproblematic as possible’
Morawiecki says he is pleased that NATO is increasingly important both as a military and political alliance & looks forward to close cooperation with Britain
Morawiecki says Poland and Britain have similar views on refugees, particularly making clear distinction between economic migrants and refugees
Morawiecki says he hopes that free access to services will continue after Brexit; also mentions that both countries agree on changes to the directive on posted workers
Morawiecki says the PMs discussed payments to the EU budget and says the compromise reached by the EC on behalf of the EU27 is ‘very satisfactory’
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, goes first.
He is talking about cooperation between Poland and the UK.
The press conference is starting now.
It is going to begin with the signing of a defence cooperation treaty.
In some ways Mr Green was a classic second-division politician, sensible and reliable but never a man to make the weather. He liked to present himself as the solid embodiment of middle-class common sense, which might be one reason why he got on so well with Mrs May. He also specialised in pouring oil on troubled waters. But in other ways he was more interesting. He was brought up in a council house in South Wales and nevertheless won a place at Balliol College, Oxford. He remained on the left wing of the Conservative Party through thick and thin, and even contemplated leaving the party in the early 1980s for the breakaway Social Democrats, because he worried that Margaret Thatcher might tear the country apart. This columnist, though a few years younger than Mr Green, remembers seeing him in Balliol College Junior Common Room looking and sounding almost the same as he does today, a member of that strange breed of politicians, of which William Hague is the archetype, who arrive at university fully formed as middle-aged fogies.
When Mrs May became PM last year she ripped out all the inner wiring that had made the Cameron Government function — getting rid of virtually the whole Downing Street staff and Cabinet Office ministerial team, for no other apparent reason other than that her own advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, didn’t much like them.
All the lessons that had been learnt over the previous six years were lost. Unsurprisingly, the result was paralysis — and no real domestic achievements. It was an approach that culminated in the most disastrous manifesto in modern UK history. In the election aftermath, the Cabinet forced Mrs May to fire her advisers and Mr Green was hired to pick up the pieces. Although a university contemporary, he was not especially close to her. But as a rational, calming voice at the centre Mr Green was welcomed by an exasperated Civil Service. Now that he’s gone there is no one around Mrs May with any enduring bonds of loyalty to her — the new, competent team recruited to No 10 hardly knew her at all before they got the call-up.
Theresa May is about to hold a press conference in Poland.
Despite being effectively sacked, Damian Green will receive a pay-off of nearly £17,000, the Cabinet Office has confirmed.
Under the legislation which governs these things, the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, all minister who lose their jobs and don’t get a new post within three weeks – it seems pretty likely Green will not – receive three months of salary as a severance payment.
Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, has put out this statement about the Metropolitan police’s decision to refer the Green case to her. (See 12.39pm.) She said:
We can confirm that we have received a referral from the Metropolitan police service that explains their belief that offences under the Data Protection Act 1998 have been committed by former MPS officers.
As the UK’s data protection regulator, we’ll be looking at whether individuals acted unlawfully by retaining or disclosing personal data.
In Edinburgh there were emotional scenes at the final first minister’s questions of the year as Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie spoke about the fire at Cameron House Hotel in her constituency, which killed a young couple and injured several others earlier this week.
Fighting back tears, Baillie called on the first minister to ensure that lessons are learnt once the investigation into the fire is completed, or if a need to enhance building standards regulations becomes apparent.
Damian Green has posted a tweet saying that he has been “overwhelmed” by the support he has received from friends, colleagues and constituents since he was sacked.
I am overwhelmed by the number of friends, colleagues (on all sides) and constituents who have sent supportive messages this morning. My thanks to you all, and a Happy Christmas. See you in 2018.
The government’s Brexit reports have been published by the Commons Brexit committee. But the committee, which has a narrow Tory/DUP majority, decided to leave out the “sector views” sections, which cover what firms and trade bodies are saying about Brexit, and it has not said much about what the reports actually say.
But the reports were also sent to the House of Lords EU committee. And that committee, which does not have a Conservative majority, has delivered a verdict of sorts on the reports.
In light of these findings, we can see no reason why the sectoral analyses should not be published in full – they pose no risk to the UK’s negotiating position, and making them publicly available would, in our view, only promote an informed public debate on the options for Brexit. We understand that the House of Commons exiting the EU committee has decided to publish a redacted version of the documents. Nevertheless, we would urge you to publish them in full.
Views on particular Brexit options, such as single market membership, differ across sectors, but in most cases there is a wish to minimise disruption and uncertainty.
A number of themes recur in the views of stakeholders. These include: access to EU labour; the minimisation of tariffs and regulatory barriers to trade; data sharing; mutual recognition of qualifications; access to cross-border services; and the importance of EU R&D funding.
Here is more on the government Brexit reports.
From the Labour MP Jo Stevens
Govt’s top secret ‘sectoral reports’ have been published. Last week I had to sign a page long set of rules about secrecy & disclosure to read them in a supervised room having handed in my phone. I wasn’t allowed to have a copy of the rules I signed 1/2 https://t.co/WOAPf46RTE
I asked for the rules to be emailed to me. I’m still waiting for them. If you can find any analysis of the impact of #Brexit in any of these repetitive, copy & paste, school homework level reports do let me know! 2/2
This has been a long campaign and it is clearly in the public interest that much as possible of the reports are published. In my view the reports fall far short of the impact analysis the government implied it was doing a year ago. #brexitstudieshttps://t.co/7IxsvDFTgvhttp://pic.twitter.com/XB5Pe92nxf
Today’s ‘secret Brexit papers’ read like the padding students put in essays when they have absolutely no idea how to answer a question. Here’s just one eg.: we are an island nation apparently. https://t.co/RyDfPF9bg3http://pic.twitter.com/Jk3Nb4oOYk
Here is the statement from the Metropolitan police about the decision to ask the information commissioner to investigate the release of private police information about what was found on Damian Green’s computer in a police raid. The Met said:
The Metropolitan police service has asked the information commissioner’s cffice (ICO) to investigate the apparent disclosure to the media of confidential material gathered during a police investigation in 2008 by two former officers.
An ex-assistant commissioner and ex-detective constable have both made a number of disclosures to the media, passing on information that they were privy to as part of a police investigation. Due to the length of time that has passed since both officers left the MPS, legal advice was sought regarding the most appropriate action to take.
I am pleased to see the Met is taking seriously what appears to have been a gross abuse of trust from former police officers.
If the general public is to have future confidence in the force’s ability to protect sensitive information, this case must be dealt with robustly.
An investigation into allegations about the private life of Labour MP Keith Vaz has been suspended by the House of Commons sleaze watchdog “for medical reasons”, the Press Association reports. The halting of the probe was revealed in an update of the list of ongoing inquiries on the parliamentary commissioner for standards’ website, and her office did not give any more details. In 2016, the Leicester East MP issued a public apology to his wife and children, and quit as chairman of the Commons home affairs Committee, following reports in the Sunday Mirror that he paid two male escorts for their services. The PA story goes on:
The probe by the standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson will determine whether Vaz was guilty of a conflict of interest as he headed the home affairs committee’s review of vice laws at the time of the allegations regarding male escorts.
The watchdog was also looking into whether the former Europe minister has caused “significant damage” to the reputation of parliament.
Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, has also criticised the government for the lack of analysis in the Brexit reports.
I see ministers have published their Brexit impact assessments. Looks to me like they’ve just printed off Wikipedia pages on bits of the economy. I know it’s the end of term, but we can do better than this.
Here is Tom Brake, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, on the publication of the government’s secret Brexit reports.
This is the biggest case of the dog ate my homework the world has ever seen.
We’ve been given binders of old information, extracts from Wikipedia, and a few choice quotes, and yet nothing at all on how Brexit will hit each sector.
Damian Green went for lying over porn allegations, yet BoJo clearly breaks Ministerial code in the Telegraph, criticises Government policy, promotes private interests & reneges on cabinet responsiblity. Complete hypocrisy from May! Far more evidence that Boris should be sacked.
Here is some more reaction to the publication of the secret government Brexit reports. Open Britain, which is campaigning for a soft Brexit, has put out this statement from the Labour MP Pat McFadden.
The knots the government has tied itself in over publication of these reports says more about the state of politics and the government’s paranoid state of mind than it does about Brexit. There is little or nothing in them that couldn’t be learned from the annual reports of different trade bodies yet we were asked to believe that somehow revealing how many cars were made in Britain every year was an act of national treachery.
The government’s most ardent supporters on the select committee voted not to reveal the sections which showed the industry views of Brexit and what they hoped the outcome of the talks would be. You have to wonder what they have to fear.
These reports are the most useless and shoddy piece of work a government department has ever produced. Even the Iraq Dodgy Dossier had some useful information in it.
These are a shoddy mess that a sixteen year old wouldn’t be proud of. It is a masterclass in copy and paste.
This is from Sky’s Jason Farrell, who is with Theresa May on the trip to Poland.
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has told the London assembly that the release of private police information about what was on Damian Green’s computer has been referred to the information commissioner, LBC’s Theo Usherwood reports.
Cressida Dick tells City Hall plenary session that Met has referred leak of investigation into porn on computer in Damian Green’s office has been referred to the Information Commissioner.
Here are some tweets from journalists and specialists who have been looking at the government’s Brexit reports.
From the Guardian’s Dan Roberts
Based on my reading so far, the government’s Brexit sector analysis reports are about as illuminating as an inflight magazine travel guide. Sample insight: “The food chain includes agriculture”. Please tell me if you find anything more interesting. https://t.co/lIZpEEyh5N
Just in case anything accidentally relevant or interesting were to slip through, the government’s official Brexit sectoral analysis reports include the following caveat: “The views in this section do not represent a Government position”
39 sectoral reports on Brexit published. https://t.co/Cr4juVwOqh Have flipped through the aerospace one. It’s entirely descriptive. Zero analysis of Brexit impact.
The just-published Brexit impact report on health and social care says nothing about the impact of Brexit on health and social care. Plus all views from the sector, which must have included councils’ views, are redacted. A pointless document. https://t.co/DJhnQbjH4G
what of course they are not is assessments of impact – still hoping Ministers really do have those for their discussions
At the regular Number 10 lobby briefing we had a few details confirmed about the process behind Damian Green’s departure.
Theresa May’s spokesman said the report was first received by May on Monday, and she then passed the findings to Sir Alex Allan, the former senior civil servant who is now her adviser on ministerial appointments.
A very quick skim through the Brexit reports suggests their news value is minimal, if not non-existent.
They all seem to start with a blurb that includes this paragraph.
As the government has already made clear, it is not the case that 58 sectoral impact assessments exist. The government’s sectoral analysis is a wide mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis contained in a range of documents developed at different times since the referendum. This report brings together information about the sector in a way that is accessible and informative. Some reports aggregate some sectors in order to either avoid repetition of information or because of the strong interlinkages between some of these sectors.
The Brexit select committee has just published most of the government’s secret Brexit reports. They were supplied to the committee after the Commons voted for Brexit impact reports to be published, although the government subsequently said that proper impact reports did not exist. These are described as sectoral analysis reports instead.
The Brexit committee has published 39 of them. You can read them all here.
Theresa May has been meeting the new Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Warsaw.
ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, has written a good blog about the sacking of Damian Green on his Facebook page. Earlier this month he reported, on the basis of what he was told by his sources, that Green would survive. In the blog he explains what changed.
I understand that at the time, the keeper of the government’s conscience, Sue Gray of the Cabinet Office, had only one example of Green making a misleading press statement about what he knew about the computer porn. And just one inaccurate statement could have been seen as an accident.
Green was expected by the prime minister to cling on because this one example of misleading the press could be seen as cock-up not conspiracy.
Whitehall, and in particularly the cabinet secretary, Heywood, have reasserted their authority, having for months looked like affection-starved poodles.
Green’s exit also shines a new light on the political troika – the chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, the former chief whip and now defence secretary Gavin Williamson, and the current chief whip Julian Smith – who live and breathe to serve HER.
This is from ITV’s Joe Pike.
Damian Green just walked into Portcullis House: alone, no tie. Keeping visible on day one out of govt.
Last month ICM did some polling for the Guardian to find out what people think of various types of sexual misconduct that MPs have been accused of. We weren’t asking about Damian Green, or any other individuals, and of course Green denies watching pornography on his office computer or propositioning Kate Maltby. But the findings were interesting because they show how seriously people take these matters. Voters are more unforgiving than some people might expect.
I wrote the findings up here. And Britain Elects helpfully turned them into a graphic.
Having legal porn on a work computer is unacceptable and should be career ending according to 54% of voters.
Theresa May not replace Damian Green as first secretary of state, the BBC reports.
No 10 source has told reporters travelling with PM to Poland that Green’s departure is matter of sadness for the PM – his role of First Secretary won’t’ necessarily be replaced
Theresa May is not expecting to announce a replacement for Green until after parliament returns in January, a government source said.
The prime minister flew out this morning to Warsaw this morning, away from the crisis which forced her to sack her deputy, but has landed in Poland in the midst of another storm.
The women’s equality party thinks Damian Green and Michael Fallon should both resign as MPs because of their conduct towards women. In a statement its leader Sophie Walker said:
That Damian Green regrets being asked to quit, despite accepting that he breached the ministerial code, shows how many lessons he still has to learn about taking responsibility for his conduct. If he is not suitable to be minister because of his actions then he is not suitable to be an MP. It is bizarre that both he and Michael Fallon, who also resigned from cabinet, think they retain legitimacy to stay on in parliament. That decision should be given to their constituents, with a proper system of recall introduced so that they can decide whether these men should still be representing them.
The former Labour MP Andy Sawford is one of various people on Twitter who have been making this point about the downfall of Damian Green.
In politics it is always the lie that gets you. #DamianGreen should read more political history
People who say ‘it’s always the cover up’ never seem to think about all the times they don’t know about when the cover up worked.
I’m hearing that Brexit select committee will today publish the bulk of the “impact assessments” – or whatever the government would like to call them- today. But they are withholding parts of the documents after a committee disagreement.
The Labour MP Jess Phillips, a prominent campaigner on behalf of the victims of sexual harassment, told Sky News that she welcomed the decision to sack Damian Green. But she said she thought the inquiry took “longer than it needed to”. And she said she thought that the conclusions of the inquiry meant that Green might avoid being investigated by the new body parliament is setting up in the light of the sexual harassment scandal. She said:
The fact that he left for lying, essentially, about pornography on his computer does seem to be the slight get-out to stop potentially the new independent system in parliament that is going to be set up looking into this further. It does seem they are trying to protect him from any future claims of sexual harassment.
Here are the main points from Jeremy Hunt’s Today interview.
He lied on a particular incident, yes. I think lots of people who understand the context would appreciated why that might have happened. But that doesn’t make it any more acceptable. And I think what this shows is that in our democracy we hold cabinet ministers to the very highest standards of conduct, rightly. But I think we should remember that those are standards that would probably not apply in many other countries. And those standards apply even to cabinet ministers who are the most senior, as he was.
I think if you look at what happened, some of the actions, particularly of a retired police officer, don’t sit comfortably in a democracy, and Theresa May made very clear in her letter that she was very uncomfortable with what had happened and that she was pleased that Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, also felt that which is why an investigation is happening.
This is a very sensibly frank interview from Jeremy Hunt. By admitting Green was sacked he gains space to take a pop at the police. He is now the official minister for the Today programme. Buy shares
That was an adept interview by @Jeremy_Hunt – frank about Damian Green, critical of the retired police officer, loyal to @theresa_may, sounding reasonable on the NHS and a decent body swerve on the leadership. He is ending the year on a high.
Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s communications chief when Blair was prime minister, says that if Theresa May wants to sack cabinet ministers who have told lies, other culprits spring to mind …
If Damian Green resigned not because of porn but dishonesty, can someone tell me why @BorisJohnson is Foreign Secretary?
If Damian Green resigned because of porn not dishonesty, can someone tell me why David Davis got away with dishonesty about impact papers?
If Damian Green resigned not because of porn but dishonesty could May now sack @michaelgove and all who promised £350m a week extra for NHS?
It is a real mistake to say this is principally about money.
Q: May has lost the people close to her. Who are her close advisers now?
Hunt says leadership is lonely. Despite the most incredible pressure, May has carried on. She has taken big decisions, and made big progress. What is emerging is “someone of the most extraordinary resilience in very, very challenging circumstances”.
Hunt says we need to get to the bottom of the police’s role.
Q: People will say this was not the fault of the police. They will say this happened because Green made a sexual advance to a young woman. Shouldn’t Green have been sacked or suspended then?
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Claire.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is being interview on Today now by Nick Robinson.
He lied on a particular incident, yes.
I’m now handing over the live blog to Andrew Sparrow, who’ll bring you Jeremy Hunt’s Today programme interview, more Green fallout and the rest of the day’s politics news.
Thanks for reading and for the comments and tweets.
And for all those commenters asking when David Davis will be handing in his resignation letter: don’t hold your breath.
There has been speculation about whether the Brexit secretary, David Davis, could follow Green out of the door, given his previous threat to quit if his colleague were forced out.
The Brexit secretary let it be known that he would resign in protest were Green to be forced out solely on the basis of allegations by former Met officers, although he accepted that other factors could lead to Green having to quit as first secretary of state.
And here are those two statements made by Green last month that the inquiry judged were “inaccurate and misleading” and breached the ministerial code – as well as Green’s admission yesterday that they were misleading.
The police have never suggested to me that improper material was found on my parliamentary computer, nor did I have a ‘private’ computer, as has been claimed. The allegations about the material and computer, now nine years old, are false, disreputable political smears from a discredited police officer acting in flagrant breach of his duty to keep the details of police investigations confidential, and amount to little more than an unscrupulous character assassination.
I reiterate that no allegations about the presence of improper material on my parliamentary computers have ever been put to me or to the parliamentary authorities by the police. I can only assume that they are being made now, nine years later, for ulterior motives.
I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013. I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point.
For those readers who weren’t awake for the politics live blog’s early start this morning, a reminder of the key findings from the inquiry, issued by the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood. (The bolding is mine.)
The investigation has concluded:
The cabinet office investigation has not looked into the 2008 police investigation itself. That is a matter for the police, not for the cabinet office; and in any event has no bearing on Mr Green’s ability or conduct as first secretary of state.
Mr Green continues to deny that he viewed the pornography found on his parliamentary computers and the investigation reaches no conclusion on this matter.
Theresa May is prepared to challenge her Polish counterpart over his government’s controversial interference in the country’s judicial system, Downing Street said, as the prime minister flew to Warsaw on Thursday.
Her visit will come in the aftermath of an unprecedented decision by the EU to censure Poland for a “serious breach” of its values, which could ultimately see Warsaw stripped of its voting rights in Brussels.
In what is presumably a pre-recorded interview for the Radio 4 Today programme, health secretary Jeremy Hunt will apparently have some harsh words for his former cabinet colleague:
As noted earlier, we’re not anticipating a reshuffle today, or this year in fact, with Theresa May not expected to conjure up a new first secretary of state/minister for the cabinet office/de facto deputy prime minister until after the parliamentary recess.
There is another administrative headache brewing as Green chaired nine cabinet committees, including the sub-committees for:
For now, Green’s constitutional tasks – devolution and Brexit liaison with regions – will be taken on by the Chief Whip and Scots, Welsh and NI Secretaries. https://t.co/5VBSy4eJNv
Comments are now switched on, should you want to come and chat below the line.
It seemed impossible that Theresa May could be rendered a lonelier figure than she has been of late, but with Damian Green now the first secretary of state as was she seems lonelier than ever. Her devoted lieutenants Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill were torn from her nest. Now Green, her anchor in a sea of Brexit, has gone.
This was not a ministerial performance issue. That doesn’t happen. If performance and competence were salient these days May’s cabinet meetings would not be quorate. Rather, his fate was sealed by continuing questions about his alleged behaviour and character. And principally his failure to speak candidly about his knowledge of claims that pornography was found on his parliamentary computer – he still denies having downloaded or viewed pornography – and allegations that he made inappropriate advances to the young journalist Kate Maltby, a family friend. May had to part company with him. But without Green, she loses political balance and an ally as she stumbles towards Brexit.
With the de facto deputy prime minister gone, this is a reasonable question:
Jetting off to Poland this morning with the PM, who is taking five cabinet ministers with her – Chancellor, Defence sec, Foreign sec, Home sec, Business sec. Not entirely sure who’s in charge at home….
No Christmas prizes for guessing what leads the front pages today. We get multiple takes on the ousting of the deputy prime minister, from Metro’s curt “Green out” to City AM’s careful “Theresa May ally Damian Green resigns amid pornography allegations”.
The Guardian front page, Thursday 21.12.17: Green sacked after admitting he lied over pornographic images http://pic.twitter.com/EHQhCqy5Fz
Kate Maltby, whose allegations of harassment prompted the cabinet office inquiry into Green’s behaviour, has not yet commented on his sacking.
We are pleased that the cabinet office has concluded its inquiry into the conduct of Damian Green.
We are not surprised to find that the inquiry found Mr Green to have been untruthful as a minister, nor that they found our daughter to be a plausible witness.
The inquiry said it was “not possible to reach a definitive conclusion” on the allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Green, but said it did find Kate Maltby’s “account to be plausible”.
In his letter to Theresa May, Green said:
I deeply regret the distress caused to Kate Maltby following her article about me and the reaction to it. I do not recognise the events she described in her article, but I clearly made her feel uncomfortable and for this I apologise.
You have expressed your regret for the distress caused to Ms Maltby following her article about you and the reaction to it. I appreciate that you do not recognise the events Ms Maltby described in the article, but you do recognise that you made her feel uncomfortable and it is right that you have apologised.
All the indications are that we shouldn’t expect a reshuffle today, this week or even this year.
With May on her way to Poland this morning for a two-day trip, and parliament on its Christmas recess, the next first secretary of state/minister for the cabinet office/de facto deputy prime minister might not materialise until 2018.
May has lost her oldest & closest political friend. Who will replace him? Allies left in her cabinet are basically her old home office team; Brandon Lewis, James Brokenshire, Karen Bradley. She also relied on Rudd in election campaign
An early start for today’s politics live blog, hot on the heels of the Wednesday night sacking of first secretary of state and key Theresa May ally Damian Green.
News that the prime minister had asked her de facto deputy to resign – known in non-political circles as firing him – broke shortly after 8.30pm, just hours after the two had appeared side by side at the final PMQs of the year. (Here’s John Crace’s take on how that May-Corbyn festive showdown shook down.)
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, as minister departs following allegations pornographic material was found on his Commons computer in 2008
Damian Green has been forced to resign as first secretary of state after admitting he lied about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer.
Damian Green Gone: big impact on balance of power in Cabinet. DD will be unsettled, BJ and MG emboldened.
More front pages on the news that Damian Green has been sacked as first secretary of state after admitting he lied about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer.
The government has survived a series of amendments, and the bill moves to the report stage.
It will be back in parliament on 16 January 2018.
House of Commons votes against Amendment 120 to the #EUWithdrawalBill by 319 to 23
This amendment was intended to ensure that before March 2019 (or the end of any extension to the two-year negotiation period) a referendum on the terms of the deal has to be held. http://pic.twitter.com/1g76gZIvbd
Commons votes against New Clause 54 to the #EUWithdrawalBill by 316 to 296 This would have ensured that objectives set by the PM in her Florence speech are given the force of law and, if no implementation and transition period is achieved exit day can’t be triggered by a Minister http://pic.twitter.com/D1HDf3PRJx
Commons votes against New Clause 44 to the #EUWithdrawalBill by 318 to 294
This New Clause would have required an independent evaluation of the impact of the Act upon the health and social care sector to be made after consultation with various Ministers and service providers. http://pic.twitter.com/t2MaWmfHWh
The front pages of national newspapers have started to appear. All of them lead with the Green sacking.
Theresa May knew she was going to fire Green during the liaison committee meeting earlier, according to the Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn.
PM knew she was going to fire Damian Green from 2pm today. She then sat through 2 hours of the Liaison Committee, poker-faced giving nothing away. Quite some feat.
2017 has been insane for Theresa May: Lancaster House, Article 50, calls snap election, GE2017 result, DUP deal, Florence, Tory conference disaster, coup attempt, Fallon quits, Patel quits, DUP veto Brexit deal, Tory rebels defeat, EU agrees to talk trade, Green resigns
UK govt source says Green’s departure unlikely to have impact on progress with devolved governments. UK side still hoping for agreement next month so they can change Withdrawal bill….
As the Damian Green drama develops, the chamber continues to vote on the EU withdrawal bill.
The government amendment which fixes the UK’s EU exit date as 11pm on 29 March 2019, unless ministers decide to change it, has passed.
Commons votes against New Clause 13 to the #EUWthdrawalBill by 114 to 320
This Clause would have ensured that provisions allowing the UK in the Customs Union, as set out in the European Communities Act but set to be repealed by this Act, will be enacted ahead of exit day http://pic.twitter.com/0GH14eoEAl
House of Commons votes against Amendment 349 to the #EUWithdrawalBill by 318 to 295
This Amendment would have prevented Ministers using delegated powers to create criminal offences which carry custodial sentences. http://pic.twitter.com/gbx9I4Jj8F
Kate Maltby’s parents, Colin and Victoria Maltby, have released a statement following Green’s sacking. Maltby accused the former minister of sexual harassment last month.
We are pleased that the Cabinet Office has concluded its enquiry into the conduct of Damian Green. We are not surprised to find that the inquiry found Mr Green to have been untruthful as a minister, not that they found our daughter to be a plausible witness. We have received many supportive messages from people near and far who appreciate Kate’s courage and the importance of speaking out about the abuse of authority. We join with them in admiring her fortitude and serenity throughout the length of the investigation and despite the attempted campaign in certain seconds of the media to denigrate and intimidate her and other witnesses. We are proud of her.
We have ourselves known of these incidents since they first occured and have fully supported Kate in the responsible manner in which she has reported them.
The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn says there will be no immediate reshuffle in the cabinet.
Damian Green latest: I am told he will not be immediately replaced by the PM – so no reshuffle until the New Year at the earliest.
Here is a timeline of the investigation into the Damian Green pornography scandal:
More reaction from political commentators to Green’s sacking:
Theresa May is clearly feeling strong enough to sack* her deputy. Damian Green didn’t want to go, he didn’t plan to go & many at top of govt thought he was safe. (*Officially he was “asked to resign” for issuing misleading statements)
Damian Green, Priti Patel, Michael Fallon – all have resigned in disgrace from this strong and stable government
Conservative MP Damian Green has resigned as first secretary of state amid allegations that pornographic material was found on his Commons computer in 2008.
Soubry warns Government not to try to ignore Amendmenr 7 – minister Steve Baker replies the Government has accepted Amendment 7 and derailed the series of votes involved
Tory MP Ken Clarke has just called on the government to say in the EU’s single market in the chamber.
It is said we have to leave the single market because it’s accompanied by freedom of movement of workers. Well, as we were running the most generous version of that in western Europe before the referendum, I think if that’s your problem – if that’s migration is what you’re really getting out of – let’s address that and not throw out the baby with the bathwater and leave the single market and similarly the customs union.
I hope we won’t have the extraordinary spectacle of fear of right wing Eurosceptics going to such lengths that the government’s putting a three-line whip on its ministers and all its backbenchers to cast a vote against the Florence speech so that some room is left for them to be able to negotiate further with either the environment minister or the foreign secretary or whoever it is wants to reopen it again.
The debate is getting a little heated in parliament. Moments ago in the House of Commons, pro-Brexit MP Kate Hoey was mocked by her Labour colleagues.
MPs are expected to vote on a series of amendments to the EU withdrawal bill at around 9pm. Votes on staying in the customs union and a second referendum are on the cards.
A side note: Ed Miliband might have won the prize for the best Christmas card in UK politics for 2017. It’s rather fantastic.
MPs are reacting to Theresa May’s evidence to the liaison committee. Alison McGovern MP, a leading supporter of anti-Brexit campaign group Open Britain, said:
The Prime Minister seems desperate to pretend that her humiliating defeat in the Commons over Amendment 7 didn’t happen.
The language of the amendment was crystal clear: Parliament must be given a real, meaningful vote on the terms of Brexit. That means by statute, not just a rubber-stamp of whatever the Government manages to negotiate.
With all her muddling and obfuscation it is quite clear that Theresa May is trying to worm her way out of a meaningful vote in Parliament on the Brexit deal. But the hard reality for Theresa May is that Parliament will not be denied a say and she will be held to account for her handling of negotiations.
Her failure to provide clear answers when questioned reveals just how much of a mess this government have got themselves in.
Brexit minister Steven Baker is answering questions from MPs on the EU withdrawal bill in the House of Commons. He confirmed there would be an amendment to the bill at a later stage so MPs would have to approve a change in the exit day.
Christmas cheer ensued.
It feels to me at this Christmas moment that not since the soldiers met on the fields of no man’s land singing Silent Night has peace broken out at such an opportune moment.
Delighted to have helped secure a sensible compromise on #BrexitDate, with the package of Amendments, which I’ll be supporting this eve, drafted by Oliver Letwin & Geoffrey Cox & @SteveBakerHW to guarantee *Parliament* will decide on Brexit date: http://pic.twitter.com/3xG6euyaJa
Here are the main points from Theresa May’s evidence to the liaison committee.
The reason I’m confident that we can do this within the time concerned is because we start off from a different point.
So we haven’t got a situation where country A is coming to negotiate with the EU not having had any arrangements with the EU before.
We are about to publish most of what you have given to us, and I think the public will see that there is no assessment of the impact of Brexit on the different sectors of the economy.
This is what Damian Green, the first secretary of state, told the Lords EU committee earlier about how the government is moving closer to agreement with the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales on the EU withdrawal bill. He said he hoped they would not refuse the bill legislative consent.
I am not just being hopeful. I have observed over the past three months the degree of of progress that we have made.
It is clearly not in the interests of people in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland for there not to be a working statute book.
Sarah Wollaston: “Please would you come back in front of us in 3 months time Prime Minister? The entire press lobby: “Oh Jesus, please no…”#LiaisonCommittee
Wollaston ends by saying the committee is unhappy that the national security adviser, Mark Sedwill, is refusing to give evidence to the defence committee.
May says the national security adviser has provided evidence to the committee in a joint session. He is an adviser to her and the national security committee, she says. She says ministers are accountable to parliament.
Maria Miller, the Conservative chair of the women and equalities committee, says more than half the women in the country suffer sexual harassment in silence. What can government do?
May says there are things government can do, but it is not just a government issue.
This is from the Press Association’s Richard Woodhouse.
The BBC has cut away from Theresa May at Liaison and is running a story about a flautist playing to seals http://pic.twitter.com/i8JFemSPzx
Wollaston echoes Field’s point. She says May should see committees as there to help get legislation over the line, particularly in a hung parliament.
May says it is not the case that the government is only focused on Brexit.
Labour’s Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions committee, goes next.
Q: For some time now governments have boosted the incomes of pensions, and cut the incomes of working-age people. Is it time to redress that?
Robert Halfon, the Conservative education committee chair, goes next.
Q: Why not rebook the social mobility commission, put it in Downing Street, and get it to check all government policy boosts social mobility. At the moment it is just a thinktank.
Labour’s Clive Betts, who chairs the communities committee, is asking questions now.
Q: There is a shortfall in social care funding, but no money to pay for it.
Nicky Morgan unimpressed with fellow liaison committee member Bill Cash claim on referendum vote now… http://pic.twitter.com/Jb5gysBf18
This is from Barney Pell Scholes, policy and press officer at Open Britain, on May’s exchanges with Cooper about the vote on the withdrawal agreement.
The language of Amendment 7 is very clear. It requires the terms of the UK’s withdrawal to be agreed by a STATUTE OF PARLIAMENT. It was passed by a democratic majority of MPs. And yet Theresa May at the Liaison committee is still trying to pretend it didn’t happen. Unacceptable.
That’s it on Brexit, Wollaston says. She turns to social care.
Q: Do you recognised that extra funding is needed for social care?
Even ITV’s Robert Peston is befuddled by the May/Cooper exchanges. (See 4.04pm.)
Having listened to the back and forth between @YvetteCooperMP and @theresa_may abut what kind of vote parliament will have on final Brexit deal, I now know considerably less than I thought I did.
Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chair of the public administration committee, goes next.
Q: How to you respond to Oliver Letwin’s proposal that you need a very senior cabinet minister to take charge of Brexit planning across Whitehall?
Cash urges May to be “very robust” in her response to the EU negotiating guidelines issued today. (See 10.55am.) They read like an ultimatum, he says.
May says these are the starting point of negotiations. The UK will be robust, she says.
Sir Bill Cash, the Conservative chair of the European scrutiny committee, goes next. He asks a technical question about the status of retained EU law after Brexit.
Even the PM, normally the Queen of detail, looks confused by Cash’s v long question
Q: Now that Dominic Grieve’s amendment has been passed, can you confirm there will be a vote on statute before a withdrawal agreement is ratified.
May says there has to be an agreement before there can be a withdrawal agreement bill.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, goes next.
Q: Do you want the UK to remain part of Eurapol and the European arrest warrant?
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs committee, is asking questions now. He refers to a report out today saying the navy has no ships deployed overseas.
May says the navy is engaged abroad.
Andrew Murrison, the Conservative chair of the Northern Ireland affairs committee, goes next.
He asks about the border. May repeats the point she made earlier to Hilary Benn. She says the “full alignment” proposal is only a fallback.
PM denies full alignment in Ireland is “default position”
“It’s the default default position”
Seriously…she actually said that
The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn is also unimpressed.
So far, this #LiaisonCommittee getting nowhere with PM. She’s bollocking most of them in her best headmistressy tone for daring to even ask many of their Qs.
Half an hour in and I haven’t heard the prime minister give a straight answer yet to the liaison committee on Brexit. Remind me again what is the point of showing up once a year to these things?
The SNP’s Angus Brendan MacNeil, chair of the international trade committee, goes next.
Q: After Brexit, how many countries will the UK have increased trade deals with?
Q: Will the UK stay in some EU agencies?
May says the UK has contributed to the expertise of the European aviation safety agency. It wants to maintain that high level of expertise.
Labour’s Rachel Reeves, chair of the business committee, goes next.
Q: What does regulatory alignment mean to you?
This is from my colleague Peter Walker.
Under some tough Brexit-based grilling at the Commons liaison committee, Theresa May has so far been positively Greg Clark-like in her ability to answer slightly different questions to those actually asked. High praise.
Nicky Morgan, the Conservative chair of the Treasury committee (who was sacked by May as education secretary), goes next.
May says the UK will not be paying the £39bn to the EU over the long term.
May on financial settlement: “I wouldn’t want you to go away with the impression that there’s a lengthy period of time over which we’re going to be paying money to the EU, that is not the case “
Q: The EU does not think you will be able to negotiate a trade deal before March 2019. They think all you will get is a scoping agreement. Why do you think you will be able to agree the deal before then?
May says there are different views as to how long a trade deal will take. She thinks it can be done differently because the EU and the UK start off with the same rules.
Q: Do you think you can negotiate a trade deal before December 2020, the deadline the EU wants for a transition?
May says that is what she is working to, and “that is what I believe we can do”.
Q: So does that mean you cannot say that the “full alignment” fallback would cover agriculture? If you cannot say that, what does it mean?
May says what she is saying is that there will be no hard border. The government has put forward ideas as to how that would be done.
May is giving evidence now.
They start with Brexit, with Hilary Benn, chair of the Brexit committee, asking the questions.
Theresa May is giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee. The liaison committee comprises the chairs of all the Commons select committees and it started holding regular sessions with the prime minister when Tony Blair was in office.
With sessions lasting 90 minutes more, they amount to about the most extensive public scrutiny to which a PM gets exposed. TV and radio interviews now almost never last more than half an hour. And although the prime minister takes questions in the Commons for up to two hours or more when they make a statement, MPs only get one question, with no follow-ups, which makes life easier.
These hearings will examine important areas of domestic policy. Given that this session follows such a significant EU council meeting and recent events in Parliament, on this occasion will start with a focus on Brexit negotiations and transitionary arrangements. The committee will also be asking about sustainable long term funding for health and social care and explore progress since the prime minister’s pledge on the steps of Downing Street to fight burning injustices. Whilst making sure that Parliament gets its own house in order when it comes to tackling sexual harassment, we must not lose sight of the impact of this in many different workplaces and we plan to raise this with the prime minister to ask about her plans.
Responding to the UK government’s announcement about giving consumers access to superfast broadband (see 9.43am), the SNP says the Scottish government’s offer is much better. This is from the SNP MP Drew Hendry.
The Tories ambitions for broadband delivery are deeply disappointing and their ambitions are far behind those of the Scottish government.
The ‘on demand’ proposition sounds like a cop-out and it is clear that families, business and communities in Scotland will be much better served. Meanwhile, the regulator Ofcom’s latest report has again confirmed that Scotland is currently rolling out superfast broadband at a faster rate than the rest of the UK.
Green says he hopes the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly will give legislative assent to the EU withdrawal bill. Progress has been made on the issues that concern them, he says. He says it is not in their interests for the UK not to have a functioning statute book after Brexit.
Back in the Lords committee Damian Green says the government is now considering how to best involved the devolved administrations in the trade negotiations with the EU. He wants to ensure “the whole of the UK is contribution to our negotiating process”, he says.
MI5 has recorded a surge in the number of “high risk” terror suspects, as security services confront the unprecedented threat facing Britain, it has emerged. As the Press Association reports, a parliamentary report has disclosed that the agency is devoting an increasing share of its activity to monitoring individuals who have received terrorist training or are plotting attacks, a parliamentary report disclosed. It also flagged up serious concerns about extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria and laid bare the extent of Islamic State’s murderous ambitions, with an arm of the group said to be plotting terrorism in the West “pretty much all day every day”. The disclosures are contained in the intelligence and security committee’s annual report for 2016-17 (pdf).
In a statement Dominic Grieve, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said:
The scale of the terrorist threat facing the UK is unprecedented in terms of the number of current investigations and the overall number of ‘individuals of interest’. MI5 have told us that it represents a pace which they have not experienced before.
Q: Could the different nations of the UK have different relations with the EU after Brexit?
Green says it was a UK-wide referendum. The government respects the results of both the EU referendum and the Scottish independence referendum, which involved Scotland deciding to stay in the UK. He says it is negotiating with the EU as the UK.
Q: How far further advanced are we as a result of this week’s cabinet meetings?
Green says the key reason for an advance was the agreement reached last week. But the cabinet has discussed the transition and the end state.
Damian Green, the first secretary of state, has just started giving evidence to the Lords EU committee. He is talking about Brexit and the devolved administrations, which is one of his responsibilities. You can watch the hearing here.
I will be monitoring it until the Theresa May committee hearing starts at 3.15pm.
More opposition politicians have joined a legal action to establish whether the UK can unilaterally stop the Brexit process if British voters decide the final deal is unacceptable.
The group now includes MPs, MEPs and MSPs from all four parties in Scotland, excluding the Conservatives. The first four signatories were Alyn Smith MEP from the SNP; Ross Greer MSP and Andy Wightman MSP from the Scottish Greens; and David Martin, a Scottish Labour MEP.
art 50 is based on the principle that withdrawing from the EU is a unilateral decision. Nobody can force a state to leave.nobody can prevent it to leave. The only condition is that it’s decision is taken in conformity with its constitutional requirements. At any moment may change
And here are some more lines from my colleague Lisa O’Carroll from the Michael Gove select committee hearing.
Gove promises to support sheep farmers after 2022 (when the transition period Britain hoping for ends. “Upland farmers…are people will need support for several years to come”. Q. Do you see support after 22? Gove: Yes
Chair of select committee tears into Michael Gove over lack of info on farming post Brexit Gove: “It would be wrong for govt to say this estimate more reliable than that” Neil Parish: I thought that was what you were doing entirely all through the referendum sec of state
“We’ve been going on now, what? a year? nearly two years since the referendum,? Surely it’s nearly time that information was available?” Parish to Gove (demanding govt analysis of Brexit impact on farming)
Gove: Britain proposing a “specific transition” period of “nine or 10 months” for fishing and that would be agreed under transition arrangements
Environment secretary Michael Gove has suggested Britain would block a post-Brexit trade deal with the US if it included the sale of chlorine-washed chickens, currently banned by the EU.
While he ducked the question of whether he would veto a trade deal in order to protect consumers, he said Britain would not waiver on animal welfare standards built up by the EU over decades.
In America they cannot guarantee the same high standards in terms of how chickens are reared that we insist on here.
The UK sees Michel Barnier’s statement that a Brexit transition deal should end on 31 December 2020 (see 11.57am) as a “negotiating position”, which could be changed, Downing Street has said.
Asked about the comment from the EU’s chief negotiator, May’s spokesman said a transition deal should be in place “just as long as is needed to get the arrangements in place”, and this was likely to be “around two years”. He said:
The commission is setting out their negotiating position. Those negotiations will get underway shortly.
We are currently looking at around two years, 24 months. The commission have said just over 21 months, but it’s a negotiation.
Theresa May is to challenge her Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, over his government’s controversial interference in the country’s judicial system during talks in Warsaw tomorrow, Downing Street has said.
May is travelling to Poland on Thursday, a day after the European commission began a process which could see the country stripped of its EU voting rights over plans by Morawiecki’s rightwing government which Brussels fears could undermine judicial independence. May’s spokesman said:
We place importance on respect for the rule of law and we expect all our partners to abide by international norms and standards.
The prime minister will raise her concerns with the prime minister when they meet tomorrow. We hope that Poland the the commission can resolve this through discussion.
We have a strong bilateral relationship with Poland, and we have shared interests going forward, in areas such as security in particular. They’re an important partner and we look forwards to continuing to work with them.
This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs.
Some are calling it for May, but others are generally unimpressed by either leader.
A mark of Theresa May’s reduced ambitions that she’s celebrating remaining PM – this time last she was hoping for landslide victory. #PMQs
No one winning this – May and Corbyn both trading stats and crossly disagreeing
Mother Theresa is back. “More”, shout Tory MPs. Corbyn took a proper end of term tonking from her, his Qs inexplicably weak #PMQs
“Mr Corbyn presents one set of statistics that look pretty bad. Mrs May presents a different set which look better, and so it goes on. You may find that illuminating, others may not” @afneil on #pmqs exchanges about the NHS http://pic.twitter.com/vZZ082XaLF
.@theresa_may is astonishingly resilient. She was assured at the last #PMQs of 2017, after her year from hell
Game set and match to Theresa May in the last #PMQs of the year.
Standard NHS PMQs in the sense that both leaders shouted about their own selective statistics.
Glum faces all round on the Labour benches as Tory MPs shout “more” at the end of the Corbyn/May ding-dong. The PM ends the year on a high. How the hell did that happen? #PMQs
.@jeremycorbyn delivers a huge tirade on NHS. Theresa May simply says funding gone up and diverts to Corbyn’s incorrect prediction she’d be out as PM by Christmas. He made serious point on NHS there, not dealt with. #pmqs
God, this is a rubbish #PMQs so far. Endless, fruitless, tedious exchanges of stats on the NHS and social care. Vital subjects but abject stuff.
As usual, the questions from Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, got missed earlier because I was posting the snap verdict. So here the are.
Blackford asked if the government was right to intervene in the departure of the boss of RBS. May said decisions were taken in the past. If Blackford was raising RBS branch closures, he would get the same answer as last week, she said.
It’s supposed to be PMQs, the prime minister is supposed to at least try and answer the question. If it was right in 2013 to intervene in the departure of the CEO then it’s of course quite right that the government takes its responsibility when the last 13 branches in town are going to be closed in Scotland.
Prime minister – show some leadership, stand up for our communities, bring Ross McEwan into Downing St and tell him you’re going to stand up for the national interest and stop these closures.
I have to say to him that’s a bit rich coming from an SNP which in government in Scotland is going to increase taxes for 1.2m Scots. The Conservative government is reducing tax for 2.4m Scots. There’s only one clear message to people in Scotland. Conservatives back you, the SNP tax you.
Andrew Selous, a Conservative, says he is glad May is taking personal charge of housebuilding. How will that happen at the scale and the speed necessary?
May says 217,000 new homes were built last year. That is the highest level for the last 30 years, excepting one other year.
John Baron, a Conservative, asks May to confirm that, if the power to delay Brexit under the Oliver Letwin amendment were used, it would only be for two months at most.
May says the UK is going to leave on 29 March 2019.
Julian Lewis, a Conservative, asks May to confirm that the Oliver Letwin amendment to the EU withdrawal bill, allowing the government to change the Brexit date, would only be used in exceptional circumstances.
May confirms that. The government would only use this power in exceptional circumstances for the shortest possible time.
May says 1.2m Scots earning more than £26,000 will pay more tax under the Scottish government’s plans to raise taxes. She says she accepts the claim that the Scottish government could raise the money by efficiency savings.
Labour’s Bill Esterson says the way RBS treated small businesses ruined lives. Will May set up an independent inquiry?
May says the government is looking into this. She recognises Esterson’s concerns.
Chris Green, a Conservative, asks May to consider a new funding plan for refuges.
May says the government wants to put the funding of refuges in the hands of local authorities, with oversight.
The Conservative Geoffrey Clifton-Brown asks about the City and Brexit, and Michel Barnier’s comments.
May says Barnier has made a number of comments. The government is sure it wants the City to maintain its position as a global centre of excellence.
We value the important role that the City of London plays, not just as a financial centre for Europe but actually a financial centre for the world. We want to retain that and maintain that.
Monsieur Barnier has made a number of comments recently about the opening negotiating position from the European Union. The Bank of England and the Treasury have been setting out today reassurance to ensure that banks will be able to continue to operate and will be able to continue to ensure that the City of London retains its global position.
May says more children will get access to free school meals under the government’s plans.
Labour’s Lucy Powell asks if May agrees with the criticisms of the government’s social mobility action plan made by her former chief of staff, Nick Timothy, in his Sun column this week.
May says the Sutton Trust have praised the plan. It is a good plan, she says.
The SNP’s Drew Hendry asks May if she agrees that is not fair to force terminally ill people to meet work coaches if they are claiming benefit.
May says the government has to deal with those cases with utmost sensitivity. She says conditions for people who are terminally ill who are claiming benefit have remained the same under successive benefits. People must be treated with sensitivity.
Suella Fernandes, a Conservatives, asks about a local college in her constituency.
May congratulates the college.
May says Labour thinks education is just about money. But what parents care about is the quality of the education provided, she says.
PMQs – Snap verdict: May left Tory MPs shouting “more, more, more”, and it was certainly one of her most confident performances in recent weeks, but it wasn’t a particularly illuminating exchange, or even a very decisive one, and we end the year where PMQs concludes much of the time, with what’s broadly a stalemate. Corbyn did not have any particularly memorable moments, but his questions were solid and robust, and his performance probably ended up in the “job done” category. Arguments about the NHS at PMQs often just become statistic-slinging sessions, and that’s what this felt like. Most of the figures (including the obligatory reference to Wales), sounded familiar, although May did have a new claim about the number of people now apparently alive who would not have been under previous cancer survival rates. It was moderately interesting, but did not clinch the argument. May, though, did beat Corbyn and in the quote swapping challenge towards the end (her Corbyn quote trumped his quote from a Tory council leader) and May’s final soundbite did what was required in the circumstances.
Corbyn says the Welsh government relies on a grant from London that has been cut. He asked about GPs. But there are 1,000 fewer GPs now than when May became prime minister. Many old people have unmet care needs. Does May regret not putting more money into social care in the budget.
May says the government put £2bn more into care in the spring budget. Corbyn raised Labour’s record on health. Its legacy was described as a mess, she says. Who described it as a mess? It was Corbyn himself, she says. When is is running for leader, he denounces Labour’s record. Now he is leader, he tries to defend it.
Corbyn says patients are being kept waiting. If the NHS had the resources it needed, it would be meeting its targets. Can May promise those targets will be met in 2018?
May says more money is going into the NHS. But is is not just extra money going into. It is about reforms too, she says. She says the NHS is delivering a world-class service.
Jeremy Corbyn also wishes MPs and Commons staff a happy Christmas. And NHS staff.
Does the NHS have the resources it needs this winter?
In response to question from the Tory Paul Beresford on the green belt, May says councils can only alter green belt boundaries in exceptional circumstances.
Labour’s Rosena Allin-Khan says the number of families relying on food banks continues to rise. When will the government stop this?
May says the government has lifted hundreds and thousands of children out of absolute poverty. She says Allin-Khan talked about 2,000 families in Wandsworth being homeless. That implies children are sleeping on the streets.
Theresa May starts by wishing all MPs a merry Christmas and a happy new year. And she offers Christmas greetings to members of the armed forces abroad.
PMQs is about to start.
Theresa May cheered as she arrived in Commons chamber for PMQs. Perhaps because she’s wearing “Thatcher blue”. No doubt makes Tory MPs all nostalgic!
Here are the main points from the Michel Barnier press conference and from the European commission negotiating guidelines released this morning.
What we say for the transition period is that all community policies will continue to apply. Mrs May said in her Florence speech [policies would apply on current terms]. So that would of course apply to a very important community policy such as the common fisheries policy.
But at the same time the UK has decided it will no longer be part of the [European] council. So when there are discussions, such as the discussions establishing the fish quotas, the lengthy night talks which take place, with the UK’s departure, for that period after the UK has left they will no longer be part of [those talks]. We’ll have to find a mechanism, a way of consulting with the UK specifically on this questions.
Specific procedural arrangements which are compliant with paragraphs 17 and 18 should also be found for the fixing and allocation of fishing opportunities (total allowable catches) during the transition period.
Legally speaking, the day after the UK has left the EU institutions, the UK will no longer be covered by our international agreements. They will be leaving approximately 750 agreements which we have signed as the European Union which cover today the UK. So 30 March 2019 they will no longer be covered by the bilateral agreements that the EU has concluded with third countries. We’ve got the Ceta [the Canada free trade agreement], for instance.
And there the UK needs to prepare as of now to be able to replicate those agreements. What that means as well is that they have to ensure that already now they have the administrative capacity to carry out those negotiations, to conclude those agreements.
Spain has effective veto on Gibraltar, Barnier confirms. “We have always worked with the view that there has to be consensus and unity.” A50 is QMV in theory.
Here is the press notice the European commission has issued alongside its new negotiating guidelines.
And here is an extract with the main points.
The draft negotiating directives, which supplement the negotiating directives from May 2017, set out additional details on possible transitional arrangements. These include, in particular, the following:
There should be no “cherry picking”: The United Kingdom will continue to participate in the customs union and the single market (with all four freedoms). The union acquis should continue to apply in full to and in the United Kingdom as if it were a member state. Any changes made to the acquis during this time should automatically apply to the United Kingdom.
Labour MPs are being told by the leadership not to support an amendment tabled by Nottingham East MP Chris Leslie, which he says would allow the UK to keep open the option of remaining in the customs union.
A briefing note sent to Labour MPs ahead of today’s debate on the EU withdrawal bill and seen by the Guardian says: “This amendment would not keep the UK in a customs union with the EU”. It says it is “not possible” to “unilaterally” remain in the customs union – or create a new customs union. It goes on:
This can only ever be party of negotiations. Labour will not therefore be supporting this amendment but do recognise the importance of ensuring our final negotiated relationship with the EU retains the benefits of the customs union.
Q: Will the UK be covered by the common fisheries policy during the transition?
Barnier says the document out today says all EU policies will apply during the transition. The CFP is an important policy. But the UK will not be part of EU discussions. So it will not be party to discussions on fishing quotas.
Q: Will the UK still benefit from EU free trade agreements during the transition? And will you have to update those agreements accordingly?
Barnier says that is a very serious question, and a complicated one. Legally speaking, the day after the UK leaves the EU, it will not be covered by these agreements. It will be leaving around 750 EU agreements. It will not be covered by agreements like Ceta, the Canada free trade agreement.
Barnier says he cannot say what form the political declaration covering trade, as part of the withdrawal agreement, will be. But he wants it to be precise, so everyone knows where they are going, he says.
He says time is going to be of the essence. Between October 2018 and the end of 2020, there will not be much time.
Q: Norway sometimes takes part in EU technical talks. Do you imagine this happening with the UK during the transition?
Barnier says he is familiar with the way the EU works. He regularly attends meetings with EEA members.
Q: Paragraph 24 on Gibraltar is in the section on the future relationship. Do you expect Spain to agree a transition covering Gibraltar.
Barnier says he has already covered this. He wants the agreement on transition to be made by consensus, with all 27 agreeing.
Barnier is now taking questions.
Q: Should the transition apply to Gibraltar in the same way as the rest of the UK?
There is a better feed of the Barnier press conference here. On this one, you can have it in English.
The European commission has issued two documents with its latest Brexit negotiating guidelines; they are here (pdf) and here (pdf).
I will summarise them soon.
Barnier says the duration of the transition should be short and specific.
The European commission wants the transition to end on 31 December 2020. That is also the end of the EU’s multiannual financial framework (its longterm budget).
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, is giving a press conference now.
The Commons Brexit committee is taking evidence from three academics and specialists this morning: Professor Michael Dougan, professor of European Law and Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law, University of Liverpool; Professor Anand Menon, director of UK in a Changing Europe; and Stephen Booth, director of policy and research at Open Europe.
Business Insider’s Adam Payne has some highlights.
EU expert Professor Michael Dougan, giving evidence to the Brexit Committee, says that although the phrase full alignment has “political resonance” he doesn’t understand what it would actually mean in practice
Professor Dougan on what the UK has proposed on Northern Ireland: “It’s a fudge… Kick it into the New Year without any clear resolution.”
Stephen Booth, Open Europe Policy and Research Director: “There is a risk of trying to analyse this rationally when in it’s just a political fudge and therefore it’s difficult to find much meaning in it.”
Professor Dougan: “We have irreconcilable promises to different sets of people and someone is going to be disappointed.”
Stephen Crabb: “What words would you include in the agreement to make sure you can deliver no physical checks [between NI and Ireland]?”
Professor Dougan: “I don’t think you can”
Now Professor @anandMenon1: “The difference between fudge and compromise is that compromise is judicially enforceable and can be implemented. Some of this agreement can be implemented, just about. But some of it — including the paragraph on NI — frankly cannot.”
The International Monetary Fund has welcomed progress on Brexit talks but warned the timeframe is ambitious because of the long list of tasks to address, my colleague Angela Monaghan reports on the business live blog. She has more here.
The White House has said that it expects to announce details of President Trump’s visit to the UK “soon”. Asked whether the possibility of a visit to the UK was discussed when Trump spoke to Theresa May yesterday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a Washington press conference:
That invitation has been extended and accepted. And we’re working with them to finalise the details, which we expect to announce soon. And we’ll keep you guys posted on that once that’s finalised.
The government has confirmed this morning that it will go ahead with plans to give consumers a legal right to high speed broadband by 2020. As the BBC reports, it has rejected a proposal from BT for the legal obligation to be dropped in return for BT instead adopting a voluntary approach to high speed broadband rollout.
In a press notice the department for digital, culture, media and sport said:
The government has confirmed that universal high speed broadband will be delivered by a regulatory universal service obligation (USO), giving everyone in the UK access to speeds of at least 10 Mbps by 2020.
This is the speed that Ofcom, the independent regulator, says is needed to meet the requirements of an average family. After careful consideration the government has decided that regulation is the best way of making sure everyone in the UK can get a decent broadband connection of at least 10 Mbps as soon as possible.
The House of Commons is sitting tomorrow before it adjourns for Christmas, but there is not much on the agenda for Thursday and today is the last day with a full parliamentary agenda. We’ve got the last PMQs of 2017. Providing (hopefully) a less theatrical but more illuminating means of holding her to account, we’ve also got May giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee about Brexit and other matters in the afternoon. And we’ve got the last day of the EU withdrawal bill’s committee stage debate.
Ministers were worried the bill would get mauled in committee. The government lost a significant vote last week, but it has won all 35 other votes. At the start of the committee stage it took the surprise decision to table an amendment to the bill fixing 29 March 2019 as the date for Brexit. There was no especial need for this amendment (critics claimed that it was just a ploy to win some positive headlines in the rightwing press, and to mollify Tory Brexiters unhappy at the compromises being made at the same time over the Brexit “divorce bill”), and it soon became clear the move was a mistake, because a significant number of Tories were planning to vote against on the grounds that it would reduce the government’s room for manoeuvre if the Brexit talks overran. The amendment is due to be put to a vote today, and until Friday it looked like another defeat was looming.
As far as I can make out all will be well. All the indications I’m getting are that the government is likely to accept it.
The current statutory guidance for teaching relationships and sex education was last set in 2000. It needs updating to reflect today’s world as it does not address risks to children that have emerged over the last 17 years, including cyber bullying, ‘sexting’ and staying safe online.
On the day the cabinet had its first proper discussion about the Brexit outcome, the Treasury minister Mel Stride has used a written ministerial statement to announce that the UK has decided to opt in to some EU regulations on cash controls. Under an opt out available to the UK, the government can decide whether or not to participate in certain EU justice and home affairs measures. Stride said:
The government decided that it is in the UK’s interest to opt in to the justice and home affairs obligations within this regulation as the provisions strengthen the existing regulations, and will enhance border security without imposing disproportionate burdens on business. The proposed new regulation will reinforce the existing controls of cash moving across EU borders, bringing these controls in line with international norms and best practices for addressing evolving forms of criminality.
Theresa May was expected to raise Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in a Tuesday afternoon phone call, her official spokesman said. As the Press Association reports, the prime minister was speaking with the United States president from Downing Street and was expected to restate her disagreement with his decision to move the US embassy to the holy city. It comes after Britain joined 13 other members of the United Nations Security Council in backing a resolution, vetoed by the US, which rejected the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Repairs to a leaking HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK’s new £3.1bn aircraft carrier, will not cost the British taxpayer a penny, Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary has insisted. As the Press Association reports, the warship, the biggest and most powerful ever built by the UK, was only accepted into the Royal Navy fleet by the Queen earlier this month. Pressed on suggestions that repairs could cost millions, Gavin Williamson told the Press Association the money would come “from the contractors who built her”. He said:
This isn’t going to cost the British taxpayer a penny …
This is the reason why we have the sea trials, to make sure that everything is working absolutely perfectly.
Theresa May is speaking to President Trump, the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn reports.
Theresa May is currently on the phone to Donald Trump. It has taken her 13 days to persuade him to call her back after Jerusalem / Britain First spat.
Here is some reaction to the police funding settlement. (See 3.26pm.)
From Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary
The truth is that today’s announcement means a real terms cut to the police grant. Since 2010 the Tories have made huge cuts to the police, 20,000 police officers have been lost and an increasing number of overstretched forces say they cannot respond to certain crimes.
Ministers have chosen to hammer the local taxpayer but the communities secretary admitted this will raise little under half of the real-terms cuts facing local forces. Further cuts in police officer numbers are now inevitable.
Londoners should ignore the Government spin today – this is yet another year of real-terms cuts to the funding the Government provide to the Met.
We will have to look carefully at the details and consult with Londoners, but the brutal reality of repeated Government cuts means that we will probably have no choice but to increase the policing element of council tax by the maximum amount allowed by ministers.
With crime rising even faster than inflation, the home secretary should have increased police budgets in real terms.
By refusing to listen to senior police officers’ calls for investment, Conservative Ministers are failing to keep our streets safe.
Here is the SNP MSP George Adam on the Scottish Labour reshuffle. (See 3.49pm.) Adam said:
Those anticipating ‘real change’ under Richard Leonard will be puzzled. It seems he’s more a peacekeeper than a radical – appointing the same old Labour faces on his front bench with just some minor tweaks round the fringes.
And at this crucial juncture in the Brexit process, with the Tories threatening thousands of Scottish jobs by hauling us out of the single market against our will, Labour’s appointment of a rampant Eurosceptic as their Brexit spokesperson shows they remain incapable of standing up for Scotland’s interests.
One of Scottish Labour’s most prominent left-wingers, Neil Findlay, who backs Jeremy Corbyn’s orthodox stance on Brexit, has been appointed shadow Brexit minister at Holyrood in a reshuffle by the party’s new Scottish leader, Richard Leonard.
A combative supporter of Leonard’s leadership bid, Findlay voted remain in the 2016 referendum but, like Leonard, has voted against Holyrood motions in favour of continued single market membership for Scotland or special post Brexit privileges. He will now shadow the equally-combative Scottish Brexit minister Mike Russell in the Scottish parliament.
This team is a blend of energy, talent and experience, ready to hold this government to account put forward the positive difference a Scottish Labour government would make.
My colleague Alan Travis has been looking at the small print.
Home Office announce extra £450m for the police – but most of it, £270m – to be raised by local council taxpayers at rate of £12 extra per household. Includes £130m national police funding for firearms, digital and £50m for counter-terrorism.
Police minister, Nick Hurd, says £450m increase in police funding moves from a ‘flat cash’ to a ‘flat real’ increase for 43 police forces in England and Wales. Labour says this represents real terms cut in Home Office funding as £270m of increase to come from council tax payers.
London mayor, @SadiqKhan says police settlement is real terms cut: “We will probably have no choice but to increase the policing element of council tax by the maximum amount allowed by ministers. Pushing police funding from general taxation onto council taxpayers is regressive.”
West Midlands police and crime commissioner says police funding settlement is “long way short” of the £22m they need. They will get £9.5m extra mostly from council taxpayer.
Here is some reaction to the local government financial settlement.
From Lord Porter, the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association
Greater flexibility for local authorities in setting council tax levels will give some councils the option of raising extra money to offset some of the financial pressures they face next year. With no other national tax subject to referenda, the council tax referendum limit needs to be abolished so councils and their communities can decide how under-pressure local services are paid for, with residents able to democratically hold their council to account through the ballot box.
Years of unprecedented central government funding cuts have left many councils beyond the point where council tax income can be expected to plug the growing funding gaps they face. Local government faces an overall funding gap of £5.8bn by 2020. Children’s services, adult social care and homelessness services are at a tipping point as a result of funding gaps and rising demand and increasingly little is left to fund other services, like cleaning streets, running leisure centres and libraries, and fixing potholes. While some councils will receive extra funding next year, the government needs to provide new funding for all councils over the next few years so they can protect vital local services from further cutbacks.
Local government is under enormous pressure because of politically motivated Tory cuts that have hit the poorest areas hardest since 2010. Local councils have seen their budgets slashed by 40 per cent since the Tories came to power.
The council tax precept has already proven to be an inadequate and short-term sticking plaster for a problem which needs long-term answers. Shifting the burden on to council tax payers creates a postcode lottery in services with the most deprived authorities suffering most.
Here is the Local Government Chronicle’s Sarah Calkin on the Javid announcement.
Javid confirms fair funding consultation consultation will be published today and implemented in 2021. Aim is for LAs to retain 75% of BR from 2021, through incorporating existing grants #lgfs2018
So just under half of bids to pilot 100% business rates retention will be taken forward in 2018-19, including Surrey CC #lgfs2018
By my v.quick and dirty calculation an extra 1% on council tax could raise up to £276m next year #lgfs2018 (Caveat that not seen any details yet on how it must be applied)
Can directly elected mayors now set unlimited council tax precepts? @sajidjavid: Dir-elected mayors will decide required level of precept for agreement with combined auths. I’m sure voters will be watching closely to make sure this freedom isn’t abused, as I will. #lgfs2018
So if CA mayors can set unlimited council tax precept, presumably = significant money in areas with high property prices. Cambridgeshire & Peterborough benefits; little boost to Liverpool or Tees V. Shows unfairness of reliance on council tax
Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, has given a statement to MPs about the local government financial settlement for 2018 to 2019. The text of the statement is here, but the communities department has not yet issued a press release.
Here are some of the key points.
While we all want to ease growing pressure on local government services, I’m sure none of us want to see hard-working taxpayers saddled with ever-higher bills.
This settlement strikes a balance between those two aims, giving councils the ability to increase their core council tax requirement by an additional 1% without a local referendum – bringing the core principle in line with inflation.
We’ve put billions of pounds of extra funding into the sector and that’s why the Department for Education are spending more than £200m on innovation and improvement in children’s social care.
At the spring budget, an additional £2bn was announced for adult social care over the next two years, with the freedom to raise more money, more quickly through the use of the social care precept.
Here is the Labour MP Chuka Umunna on today’s Brexit cabinet meeting, in a statement issued by Open Britain, which is campaigning for a soft Brexit. He said:
It is disgraceful and a dereliction of duty that the cabinet has only today – eighteen months after the referendum – had an opening full discussion about what our future relationship with Europe should look like.
The problem is clear. The cabinet cannot agree among themselves about what Brexit outcome they want beyond an unrealistic ambition to have cake and eat it. Going into the most complex negotiations in modern British history without a clear plan of action is irresponsible and very unlikely to deliver what the government promised – a deal that gives us the ‘exact same benefits’ as we enjoy now.
By ruling out membership of the single market, Theresa May is threatening thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of tax revenue …
It is families across the country, not Conservative ministers, who will pay the price for this botched Brexit.
Downing Street has now release the full text of the official readout from today’s cabinet. Here it is. It is what the prime minister’s spokesman read out at the start of today’s lobby briefing before taking questions.
The prime minister led a discussion in cabinet on the future economic partnership the UK will be seeking with the EU.
The PM said the starting points for the discussion were the speeches at Lancaster House and at Florence, which set the framework for the overall relationship that we should seek with the EU.
At the Number 10 lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman also said the outcome of the Cabinet Office investigation into Damian Green was not expected to be announced today.
I’m back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. For the first time today the cabinet had a proper discussion about what trade relationship with the EU Britain wants after Brexit. And, not surprisingly, there weren’t any last minute calls for Brexit to be abandoned on the grounds that it was all a terrible idea.
According to the briefing, it all seems to have gone quite smoothly and the cabinet was broadly united about what it wanted – although journalists were not really left any wiser about where it will all end up.
This is the beginning of the phase two negotiations. You would expect the commission to be setting out their position. I would imagine you will hear a lot more from them before you hear less.
The prime minister said it provides us with an opportunity. We want to be able to strike those ambitious trade deals with other countries. And she believes that there is an opportunity here, if grasped, to make us a more prosperous, more secure country.
As we have said throughout, we are confident of negotiating a deep and special economic partnership that will include a good deal for financial services. As we have always been clear, that will be in the EU’s best interests as well as ours.
Here is another quote from the home affairs committee hearing. This is from the Conservative MP Tim Loughton, a committee member. Referring to Twitter, he said:
This is not about taking away somebody’s rights to criticise somebody whose politics they don’t agree with.
It’s about not providing a platform – whatever the ills of society you want to blame it on – for placing stuff that incites people to kill, harm, maim, incite violence against people because of their political beliefs in this case.
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has objected to the way the Daily Telegraph reported what happened at yesterday’s meeting of the cabinet sub committee leading on Brexit strategy. (See 10.06pm.) But he has not objected to other reports. Here’s the Guardian’s.
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Amber Rudd, the home secretary, suggested that it was for those seeking to diverge from EU rules to prove that the benefits would outweigh the costs case by case. “It’s about choosing the ground and the time on which we fight,” an ally said.
Mr Hammond, scarred by accusations that he was seeking to thwart Brexit, took care to appear positive about the chances of securing a beneficial deal with the EU. “He was notably upbeat about the range of scenarios that would work and the chances of getting one of them,” according to one of the ten members of the Brexit strategy and negotiations sub-committee.
Theresa May is to seek what foreign secretary Boris Johnson once called a “have our cake and eat it” Brexit, after senior cabinet ministers backed her plan to push for an ambitious trade deal with the EU coupled with regulatory divergence from the bloc.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is among the cabinet members backing the prime minister in her plan to explore the possibility of combining the best of both worlds outside the EU, despite warnings from Brussels against wishful thinking …
In her overnight story, based on an interview with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, my colleague Jennifer Rankin said that Barnier showed EU leaders a paper last week illustrating how the UK’s Brexit red lines meant a Canada-style trade deal was the only option.
Jennifer has now tweeted a picture of the Barnier chart.
Michel Barnier showed this slide to EU leaders last week. For EU shows how UK red lines leave FTA as only option. http://pic.twitter.com/1QadsCe1tY
At the home affairs committee hearing this morning Twitter was criticised for repeatedly failing to remove antisemitic and abusive tweets which were flagged by MPs. Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said it was hard to believe that enough was being done to tackle hate crime, with posts reported months ago still remaining on the platform.
As the Press Association reports, Cooper said no action had been taken against anti-Semitic tweets shown to representatives of Twitter at a previous hearing. They included abuse directed at Labour MP Luciana Berger, who has been a high-profile target of online trolling, which has already been flagged to the platform twice.
I’m kind of wondering what we have to do. We sat in this committee in a public hearing and raised a clearly vile antisemitic tweet with your organisation.
It was discussed and it is still there, and everybody accepted, you’ve accepted, your predecessor accepted, that it was unacceptable. But it is still there on the platform.
The problem is, that is just not people’s experience at all. Instead people’s experience is reporting a whole series of things and just getting no response at all, and including victims of serious abuse and hate crime, also reporting them and getting no response at all.
David Lidington, the justice secretary, has now published a written ministerial statement about the government’s response to David Lammy’s report on racial discrimination in the justice system. The full response is here (pdf). As the Guardian reported overnight, most of the recommendations are being accepted and the government will consider one of the most radical proposals, for deferred prosecutions schemes under which suspects can enter rehabilitation programmes without having to admit guilt.
But the government has not adopted Lammy’s plan for diversity targets for a representative judiciary and magistracy by 2025.
I certainly believe that we need to see a more diverse judiciary. That view is shared by the leadership of the judges themselves.
When you look at the judges, you have got a group of people who have been practising in the law perhaps for 20 years before they become judges.
There are two Commons statements later.
Two Government oral statements in the @HouseofCommons this afternoon:
Sajid Javid – Local Government Finance Settlement Nick Hurd – Policing
The Liberal Democrats have been fined £18,000 for breaching campaign spending rules during last year’s Brexit referendum, the elections watchdog announced. As the Press Association reports, the majority of the fine was for failing to provide acceptable invoices or receipts for 80 payments worth more than £80,000, the Electoral Commission said. The Britain Stronger in Europe official campaign to Remain in the EU, which has become Open Britain, was also fined £1,250 for failing to deliver a complete and accurate spending return.
Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission director of political finance and regulation, said:
The reporting requirements for parties and campaigners at referendums and elections are clear, that’s why it is disappointing that the Liberal Democrats didn’t follow them correctly.
The major political parties must ensure their internal governance is sufficiently invested in and resourced so they can be sure of meeting their legal obligations.
Maugham said Barnier’s was the orthodox position held by the EU’s institutions, but it has never been tested in court. He said:
What Barnier says – that we can withdraw our notification and remain in the EU, if the other 27 agree – has long been the EU’s position. But that doesn’t mean it’s right. Our negotiating position would be stronger if we didn’t need permission. And that’s why it’s important that we test the point in the court of justice.
Philip Hammond, the chancellor and the cabinet minister seen as pushing for the softest version of Brexit on the agenda (ie, one with the most regulatory alignment), is not a great user of Twitter. But this morning he has taken the rare step of taking to the platform to dismiss a story in today’s Daily Telegraph claiming he is losing the cabinet argument on Brexit.
The story is about yesterday’s meeting of the so-called “Brexit war cabinet”, the EU exit and trade (strategy and negotiations) sub committee. The Telegraph claims that Hammond and Amber Rudd, the home secretary, were “left isolated as the only senior cabinet ministers holding out against diverging from Europe after Brexit”.
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove rallied other ministers around their vision of Britain gradually breaking from EU rules and regulations so it can take advantage of future business opportunities, rather than being shackled to a slow-moving, protectionist EU …
Mr Johnson and Mr Gove emerged from the meeting smiling, and believe they have won the battle for a “divergent” withdrawal from the EU. They were joined by Liam Fox and Gavin Williamson in calling for Britain to retain the right to diverge from EU rules.
Yesterday’s cabinet meeting very constructive, looking forward to today’s in same spirit. Telegraph reports wide of the mark.
The cabinet will today finally have a proper discussion on the final trade relationship it wants with the EU after Brexit. And the meeting coincides with the publication of new research suggesting that the UK’s negotiating position in the trade talks starting next year may be weaker than some people assume.
Brexiters regularly argue that the EU will end up giving the UK a good trade deal because it is in their economic interests (remember the German BMW manufacturers and Italian prosecco producers Boris Johnson was fond of quoting?). But a study produced by researchers at the University of Birmingham, entitled “The continental divide? Economic exposure to Brexit in regions and countries on both sides of The Channel”, casts doubt on these claims. Using trade data, it looks at how different parts of Europe could lose out economically under Brexit because of disrupted trade (could lose out, not how they will lose out – the report is looking at exposure to risk, not making predictions). And, although it shows that Germany is a country vulnerable to Brexit, it suggests the EU-wide impact may not be enough to help the UK in trade talks.
The UK regions are far more exposed than anywhere else in Europe, with regions in Ireland closely behind
First, the UK and its regions are far more vulnerable to trade-related risks of Brexit than other EU member states and their regions. Our results also mirror the broad thrust of the arguments of other analyses (Dhingra et al., 2017). As such, the UK is far more dependent on a relatively seamless and comprehensive free trade deal than the other EU member states. Mercantilist arguments popular in the UK media, which posit that the UK trade deficit with the rest of Europe implies that on economic grounds other EU member states will be eager to agree a free trade deal with the UK, are not correct.
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