No 10 has rejected Labour’s call for Boris Johnson to recall parliament to debate Brexit, as Jeremy Corbyn vowed to block a no-deal exit and called the prime minister “Britain’s Trump”.
The PM claimed he was “confident” that “our friends and partners” in the EU would change their stance on the backstop and come up with a negotiated deal.
It comes as Downing Street reacts with fury to the publication of the “Operation Yellowhammer” dossier setting out the negative impacts of a crash-out departure. The Home Office, meanwhile, plans to end the free movement of EU citizens on day one of no deal.
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The Home Office has drawn up plans to end the free movement of EU citizens on day one of a no-deal Brexit, The Independent as been told.
Here’s our deputy political editor Rob Merrick with all the details.
UK seeks to end freedom of movement for EU citizens on day one of Brexit
New home secretary wants border restrictions imposed immediately on 31 October – despite warnings of people trapped in legal limboLabour wants to see parliament reconvened “in the next few days” to work to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it is a good initiative by this group of MPs to say that we need to get back into Parliament. We are facing a critical issue here and should be debating it in parliament.”
McDonnell said he believes the Commons needs to be reconvened “in the next few days”.
He added: “There is a need now to bring MPs back together again because we need time now to really have a proper debate and discussion about this matter.”
McDonnell added: “I think the big issue now is how do we prevent it, and the no confidence motion is one mechanism.
“But, as Jeremy has said today, there’s other mechanisms people are looking at, other parliamentary mechanisms, and we want to have a proper discussion and dialogue on a cross-party basis on what those mechanisms are."
He said it is “annoying” that Michael Gove and Boris Johnson say there is “no risk”.
The shadow chancellor said: “They are wealthy people, they won’t be bearing the risk. I'm worried about, if there are food prices (rises), there are people out there, it's bad enough, they're just struggling to get through.”
Jeremy Corbyn is visiting the marginal Tory seat of Corby today and will say that a general election triggered by the Brexit crisis will provide a “once-in-a-generation chance” for a change of direction in politics on the scale of 1945 or 1979.
He is also expected to make his strongest his attack on the PM yet by claiming the Tories “have lurched to the hard right under Boris Johnson, Britain’s Trump, the fake populist and phoney outsider”.
Here’s Rob Merrick with more on his speech.
Corbyn to leave open support for alternative caretaker PM to do 'everything necessary' to stop no-deal Brexit
Labour leader still focused on getting numbers to put him in No 10 after no-confidence vote – but will not rule out different stopgapHere’s our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan with more on John McDonnell’s demand parliament reconvenes.
MPs should cut short summer break to tackle no-deal crisis, says Labour's John McDonnell
More than 100 MPs wrote to the PM at the weekend to demand recall of parliamentA No 10 source has responded to the release of the Operation Yellowhammer dossier by stating: “This document is from when ministers were blocking what needed to be done to get ready to leave and the funds were not available.
“It has been deliberately leaked by a former minister in an attempt to influence discussions with EU leaders.
“Those obstructing preparation are no longer in government, £2bn of extra funding (has been) already made available, and Whitehall has been stood up to actually do the work through the daily ministerial meetings.
“The entire posture of government has changed.”
It follows claims made by Michael Gove, the Cabinet minister responsible for no-deal planning, who insisted Yellowhammer represented a “worst-case scenario” and said “significant” steps have been taken in the last three weeks to accelerate Brexit planning.
More responses to Operation Yellowhammer. The grim forecast means avoiding no-deal should be the “number one priority” for the government, according to Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
“I think that what Yellowhammer does show is just how incredibly serious for our economy a no-deal outcome would be,” she told the Today programme.
“It is difficult to predict exactly what the outcome could be but in terms of our conversations with businesses over the years, these feel like plausible outcomes."
She added: “We would also totally agree with Michael Gove in terms of the importance of preparation. Business does have to prepare but I think, above all else, what this shows is that we must be trying to get a deal. And that must be the number-one priority of government.”
Fairbairn said that, while the UK has made some preparations, there are things “we can’t be prepared for” if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
She said: “I think we have become more prepared for the short-run disruption, not fully prepared, I don't think that can be done, you know. If you have any delays at borders that will be significant. I think what we can’t be prepared for, though, is the long-run impact of a fundamental change in our competitiveness.”
More than 100 MPs from all sides of the House of the Commons have written to Boris Johnson urging him to recall parliament immediately.
The signatories – including some Tory rebels – also warned the prime minister about his “creeping and disturbing populism”.
Zamira Rahim has the details.
More than 100 MPs demand Boris Johnson recalls parliament amid ‘national emergency’
‘You have used the language of fascism and authoritarianism,’ cross-party group says to PM
Caroline Lucas, one of the signatories of that letter to the Boris Johnson, has said parliament needed to hold an “increasingly reckless” PM to account as soon as possible.
“I think there is ever more evidence of the, frankly, impending national emergency that we are facing. MPs should be in parliament holding an increasingly reckless prime minister to account,” the Green MP told the Today programme.
“Since his election as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has been subject to, I think, about three hours of scrutiny, and yet he is putting his foot on the accelerator, driving the country off the cliff-edge as if he had a huge mandate and overwhelming support. Well he has no mandate for this. The government has a majority of precisely one.”
She added: “I think at a time of such emergency, the public are rightly saying ‘Where are MPs? Where are they when it comes to holding this prime minister to account?’.”
“MPs need to reaffirm the principle of democracy in which the legislature can and must reign in an executive that is, quite frankly, lurching out of control.”
She said the problems the UK could face as a result of a no-deal Brexit are more than just “bumps in the road”, and are more like “cavernous sink holes”.
She added: “Unless MPs get back into parliament and hold this prime minister to account, we are going to go into those sink holes and it's going to spell a disaster for this country.”
Everton FC legend Peter Reid thinks a no-deal Brexit would amount to a class war.
“We have to get back our democracy and demand a people’s vote,” he writes in his piece for our Voices section.
Peter Reid: No-deal Brexit is class war. It’s time to take back control and defeat Johnson and Rees-Mogg
I do not hate the people who voted Leave in 2016. Many are working-class, many donate to food banks, many are carers in our communities. No – the enemy are those who have turned good people against each otherThe government has been criticised for spending more than £10m on an advertising campaign to prepare the country for Brexit.
Figures released under Freedom of Information laws show spent £10,842,063 has been spent over eight months on the “Prepare For EU Exit” adverts.
The Cabinet Office spent £2.7m on print, £2.4m on radio, £1.2m on TV and more than £1m on social media advertising, and a further £3m on other platforms, according to the data.
The figures also revealed that the page advising people living in the UK on how to prepare received 1.2 million views by the end of May, while the EU citizens preparedness tool had 930,000 views.
Labour MP Wes Streeting said: “Every single penny spent on this advertising campaign to prepare for the self-inflicted damage that is Brexit would have been better spent on policing, schools and the NHS. Brexit is already costing us dearly and we haven't even left yet.”
Independent MP Heidi Allen said: “No matter how much public money Boris Johnson squanders, he will not be able to hide the damage of a no-deal from the businesses, public services and communities that will be hit hardest by it.
“This woeful waste of public money is another reason why it is essential for voters to give their consent in a final say vote.”
Plenty of reaction to our story on Home Office plans to end freedom of movement on the very first day of a no-deal Brexit.
Labour MP David Lammy says the PM should be “ashamed of himself” for forcing more than three million EU citizens in the UK to live with such uncertainty.
Britain has lost its “measles-free” status three years after the virus was eliminated – leading Boris Johnson to launch a new campaign to stop the spread of misleading anti-vaccine information.
Here’s Eleanor Busby with all the details.
Boris Johnson launches fight against anti-vaxxers in bid to counter scaremongering
‘We need decisive action to make sure communities are properly immunised,’ PM saysHealth minister Jo Churchill has been talking about the availability of medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and the fight against “misinformation” on vaccines following a spike in measles cases.
She said the government is working to make sure there are no shortages of drugs, including measles vaccines if Britain crashes out without a deal on 31 October.
“On the measles vaccine, there are buffer stocks in place and I don't see any issue with supply.
“We also saw last week the secretary of state procuring an express freight service with the aim to secure transport for medical supplies within 24 hours.”
Asked about the availability of other drugs, including insulin, Churchill said: “Making sure that people feel safe when they need their supplies of insulin or other drugs, many of us take drugs to help us stay fit and healthy, that they can be sure that those supplies are there.”
“People are already dealing with their own particular set of circumstances around the disease, and making sure that we don’t give them anything else to worry about is what we are focusing on every day.”
She also said the NHS and the government need to work with social media companies so that ”misinformation is also taken down, and that we give people the correct information that they can help keep their children safe”.
Did you know an anagram of Yellowhammer is “Orwell mayhem”? Spooky.
Let our political columnist Matthew Norman guide you through the madness, as top government officials try to completely dismiss a planning dossier put together by top government officials.
Opinion: The government admits no-deal Brexit will be a catastrophe – yet it carries on
In this hellscape we find ourselves in, there appears to be no review system to correct what is known in VAR parlance as ‘a clear and obvious error’Returning to John McDonnell’s interview this morning, the shadow chancellor claimed said there were still a “range of options” for Labour consider on Brexit. And he refused to rule of the possibility the party could be neutral on the options in a second Brexit referendum.
McDonnell said there is a “gaining majority” in parliament for another public vote. “The most important thing now is (to) block no-deal,” he said.
“I think the opposition parties and reaching across to Conservative MPs as well, I think there is still a majority in parliament to say to Boris Johnson that we will not accept a no-deal.
“I think there is a gaining majority now to say we have to go back to the people in some form of public vote and that is, in my view, a referendum, that’s the Labour party policy now, and therefore we are narrowing down the discussion into what then goes on the ballot paper.”
McDonnell said he would campaign for remain, but said it was a personal view and explained it would still for the party its position if there was a Final Say vote.
“That’s one of the issues we’ve got to debate in the party. You know our democratic processes. I know people get frustrated with this ... but we’re a democratic party.”
Debate is raging over whether Operation Yellowhammer constitutes the “worst-case” scenario in the event of a no-deal Brexit. There’s also a battle about what constitutes “old” when it comes to the leaked civil service assessment of the possible negative impacts.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen has dismissed the dossier as “an old report”.
When told on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that it was put before Michael Gove only earlier this month, he responded: “Yeah, it was written up a long time ago.”
The staunch Brexiteer said “I think the EU are going to renegotiate when we get to the compression point about three weeks out from us leaving.”
“The forces who do not wish us to leave the European Union – they’re going to make hay out of this.”
Jeremy Corbyn has started his speech in Corby. He has vowed to bring “rail, mail and the national grid into public ownership”.
He has also pledged to introduce a real living wage of £10 an hour and promised a Labour government “will not make people work until they’re 75” – as suggested by Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice think tank.
The Labour leader said Boris Johnson’s recent spending pledges “insults voters’ intelligence … with no confidence that it will actually be delivered”.
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he will call a no-confidence vote in parliament to “vote down this reckless government”.
Jeremy Corbyn says the Operation Yellowhammer dossier makes “crystal clear” the damage a no-deal Brexit will do, and called the prime minister “Britain’s Trump”.
“The Tories have lurched to the hard right. Boris Johnson is Britain’s Trump, as the US President himself declared, so it must be true. It cannot be said to be fake news.
“Fake populism and phoney outsiders funded by hedge funds and bankers committed to protecting the vested interests of the richest and the elites whilst at the same time, bizarrely, posing as some kind of anti-establishment movement.”
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