Boris Johnson refused to rule out holding a general election after 31 October to force through a no-deal Brexit if he loses a no-confidence vote in the Commons.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he “would be sending Jeremy Corbyn in a cab to Buckingham Palace to say ‘we’re taking over’”, if the prime minister ignores a vote of no confidence.
MPs opposed to no deal are reportedly considering a move to have parliament sit during conference season in a bid to pass legislation to extend Article 50.
In a Facebook live video broadcast from his office at Number 10, the prime minister announced the government would make changes to immigration rules to attract more scientists from around the world.
His comments came after he visited the Centre for Fusion Energy in Culham, where he was told they were "only a few years away from being able to provide UK-made fusion reactors".
And Scottish Labour sent a warning to Jeremy Corbyn expressing "serious concerns" over deepening splits on the party's stance on independence.
Please allow a moment for the liveblog below to load:
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he “would be sending Jeremy Corbyn” to Buckingham Palace if Boris Johnson ignores a no-confidence vote in the Commons.
Here’s Chiara Giordano with more on John McDonnell’s latest comments at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
McDonnell says Corbyn will tell Queen ‘we're taking over’ if Johnson loses no-confidence vote
Shadow chancellor threatens to send Labour leader ‘in a cab to Buckingham Palace’Boris Johnson’s senior advisor Dominic Cummings is very keen to clamp down on leaks from Downing Street. So he won’t be happy about the latest gossip coming out of No 10, with one Conservative insider telling The Guardian he is running at “reign of terror”, with staff said be panicking about losing their jobs if they aren’t seen to be working “flat out” to deliver a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.
“The level of terror is greater than Priti Patel would like to exert on the criminal classes,” the source told the newspaper. “It is far, far scarier than under Nick Timothy. He is two Fionas plus a Nick rolled into one. It’s the worst of both worlds in one person.”
Here’s our sketch writer Tom Peck’s must-read on No 10’s new prince of darkness.
Sketch: Dominic Cummings is the most deluded ‘genius’ of them all
What is the Conservative Party for, after all, what is Conservatism, if it’s not to smash everything to bits and rebuild it in accordance with the blog posts of some wide-eyed zealot?It may recess, but our elected representatives are keeping busy. MPs opposed to a no-deal Brexit are working on a motion to have parliament sit during September’s traditional conference season break, according to The Guardian.
The move is aimed at giving them more time to come up with (and pass) legislation forcing the government to extend Article 50.
“Of course we can decide to sit through recess. Of course we can decide to amend precedent,” said Labour MP Peter Kyle. “If government acts unconventionally and flouts the sovereign power of parliament, parliament will rise to the challenge and if they break the rules, we will make new rules.”
Sir Malcolm Rifkind – the Tory grandee who has warned the PM he is following a course set by Charles I – has been talking about the need for a general election to resolve the Brexit crisis.
“If Boris Johnson wants to go ahead with no deal he has to call an election so the electorate can decide,” he told talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer in an angry exchange.
“If he still wishes to go ahead with no deal then he can’t just ignore parliament,” Sir Malcolm said.
“He has to do what we have all understood for one hundred, two hundred years, he has to call a general election so that the electorate, the rest of us can take that decision.”
He added: “The electorate were never asked to fight a general election on the basis we are going to leave with no deal.”
If you’re still catching up with the slightly confusing row over John McDonnell and Labour’s policy towards not blocking a second independence referendum in Scotland, here’s Ashley Cowburn with all the details.
John McDonnell refuses to back down from Scottish referendum claim despite growing Labour backlash
‘I don’t want to use parliamentary devices to block it,’ shadow chancellor saysAnd our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan has prepared a handy explainer on how Scottish nationalists could secure their much-desired indyref2.
How could Scotland secure a second independence referendum?
Politics Explained: Row reflects growing threat to the union from a no-deal BrexitMore from Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s interview on talkRADIO. The Tory grandee said it would be “ludicrous and totally ridiculous” to hold a general election after crashing out of the EU on 31 October.
“That is the suggestion that was being put forward by Mr [Dominic] Cummings, who is an unelected staffer with Boris Johnson.”
Curious to know more about man of the moment Dominic Cummings? Andrew Adonis – a leading figure in the campaign for a second Brexit referendum – has been sifting through the PM’s senior adviser’s old blog posts for The Independent.
Cummings is obsessed with Bismarck, apparently. Read what else Lord Adonis discovered here.
Opinion: I read Dominic Cummings' blogs so you don't have to – and they reveal a worldview that should worry us all
In this world of shoot or be shot, there is little role for institutions based on deliberation, cooperation and conciliation, nationally or internationallyThursday is set to be a busy day. Boris Johnson, keen to show he cares about the health service, is travelling to Oxfordshire this morning for a visit related to the use of Artificial Intelligence in the NHS.
His foreign secretary Dominic Raab is in Mexico City for a meeting with Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard. A new partnership with Mexico could be a “win-win relationship” for the UK, Raab has claimed, saying he is “determined to seize the global opportunities beyond Europe” after Brexit.
International trade secretary Liz Truss, meanwhile, will make a speech on the benefits of a closer UK-US trade relationship to the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington DC.
Labour continued to raise the most income and spend the most funds in 2018, according to the financial accounts of political parties.
The Electoral Commission published details from 11 parties in Great Britain, with Labour’s income amounting to £45.6m and expenditure £46.3m.
The Conservatives were second, with income of £34.2m and expenditure of £36.3m, while the Liberal Democrats received £6.2m and spent £6.5m.
The SNP reported income of £4.7m and expenditure of £3.6m.
Income and expenditure for the major parties in 2018 decreased compared to 2017, which featured a snap general election.
Dairy industry figures have warned that higher tariffs applied to milk in the event of a no-deal Brexit could result in a “major cull of cattle” in Northern Ireland. Around 45,000 cows could be culled. One industry insider told Newsnight there had been a “metaphorical shrug of the shoulders from ministers”.
In other worrying news, the former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King says only about 10 days’ worth of food has been stockpiled and we could see gaps on the supermarket shelves within one week of crashing out of the EU on 31 October.
Here’s our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn with more on plans by anti-no deal MPs to cancel the conference-season September recess. The parliamentarians want more time to block a crash-out Brexit.
MPs considering bid to 'cancel autumn recess' to stop October no-deal Brexit
Extra parliamentary time would allow for more constitutional battles in the CommonsA group of young people who have experienced the impact of violence first-hand have called on Boris Johnson to take urgent action to tackle the knife crime crisis and make it a “top priority”.
Delivering a letter to Downing Street on Thursday, signed by more than 100 young people, the six campaigners also offered a 12-point manifesto on making the streets safer. The group has worked with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime, as well as youth charities Barnardo’s and Redthread on the campaign.
The manifesto includes calls to tackle the underlying causes of violent crime, such as lack of housing, youth services and jobs, as well as a bid for more community police officers to build relationships in neighbourhoods.
Campaigner Zak Hall, from Redbridge in east London, said urgent action was needed to tackle the “vile culture” of knife crime that is “creeping in”.
The 24-year-old told how both his brothers were victims of knife crime and one of his friends was murdered last year. “Some just feel it’s the new reality. But it needs to stop, it’s so dangerous. It’s really scary, it’s horrible.”
Labour MP Sarah Jones, chairman of the parliamentary group, said: “Our new prime minister must take responsibility for solving the epidemic of serious violence facing our country. He needs to be clear this will be both a national and personal priority.”
The pound is predicted to continue to its remarkable fall as the risk of a no-deal Brexit increases. Our business reporter Ben Chapman is up to speed with the latest.
John McDonnell has just deleted a very strange tweet. It features a rainbow and a snowman and some letters that don’t make sense.
According to The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson the talk in Whitehall is about a plan for a 1 November general election – the day after we would come crashing out of the EU on 31 October.
The director of the British Future think tank Sunder Katwala is not convinced that makes any sense at all.
Labour lost almost 46,000 members last year, official figures show.
The party continued to have by far the largest membership of the British political parties, reporting 518,659 individual members at the end of last year – a decrease from 564,443 in 2017.
A treasurers’ report from Jennie Formby and Diana Holland said the fall in member numbers was “in line with previous experience”, while noting there was an increase in membership income almost £800,000 to £16.9 million.
Concerns over the leadership’s approach to Brexit, plus the row over the handling of anti-Semitism allegations, were ongoing issues in the period.
Labour also raised the most income and spent the most funds in 2018, according to the financial accounts of political parties.
