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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

House of Commons backs third runway for Heathrow airport – as it happened

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary (left, and Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan, during a meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan today.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary (left, and Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan, during a meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan today. Photograph: Ministry of Foreign Affairs/PA

Evening summary

We’re going to close this live blog now. Thanks for sticking with us late into the evening. Here’s a summary of the most recent events:

MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow airport – backing the government. Eight Conservatives rebelled, defying a three-line whip, but the foreign secretary Boris Johnson, previously a staunch critic of the plan, was heavily criticised for going to Afghanistan, rather than following through and voting against the government.

Labour MPs were given a free vote, though the party’s position was opposed to the motion. Most of the parliamentary party backed the government, with about 116 voting aye and about 95 no, according to the party.

You can read the full story by my colleague, Pippa Crerar, here:

And here is a summary of the day’s earlier developments.

The chief executive of Heathrow itself, John Holland-Kaye, is – perhaps predictably – pleased MPs have backed the proposals.

Parliament has ended 50 years of debate by deciding that Heathrow expansion will go ahead. This vote will see us deliver more jobs, create a lasting legacy of skills for future generations and guarantee expansion is delivered responsibly.

We are grateful that MPs have made the right choice for Britain and today we start work to create the best-connected hub airport in the world.

And Mike Cherry, the national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, is another who is anxious to see construction start.

The debate is now over, it is time to build. Additional airport capacity is clearly in the long-term national interest of the UK economy and a long-awaited agreement on a new runway at Heathrow will go some way to invigorate British business.

The green light for this major infrastructure project is essential to increasing jobs, exports and prosperity across the UK.

An emphasis must now be placed on how best to use this new capacity to deliver on the promise to improve regional connectivity across the UK, as well as new global routes to growth economies, boosting freight exports and connecting our small businesses to potential new markets.

Updated

The regional secretary for the London branch of the trade union Unite, Peter Kavanagh, was happier with the result of the vote, saying the expansion would “secure tens of thousands of jobs and an economic boost not just for London and the south east [of England], but for the rest of the UK too”. He said:

This overwhelming vote in favour by MPs is a big step in making that a reality and ensuring Heathrow does not lose its competitive edge as a global hub to Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt.

Aviation is a central part of the UK economy, connecting us to the rest of the globe and sustaining the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people across our four nations.

Unite will be working to ensure that the UK remains a global leader in aviation and that Heathrow expansion is done in a sustainable way that meets the stringent environmental targets that have been set.

The government must now play its part and ensure there is no further delay by fast forwarding Heathrow expansion to free up the extra aviation capacity the UK has desperately needed for decades.

Updated

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, spoke against the motion in the Commons. After MPs voted to back it, he has said:

This result is disappointing yet predictable. But how is Heathrow is going to deliver the expansion? There are big questions over financing of both the company and the infrastructure to the extent that I suspect the expansion will never happen.

Residents under the flight path in my constituency will demand to know how Heathrow will deal with the problems of ‘noise sewers’ created by concentrating air traffic.

Updated

The division list showed eight Conservative MPs rebelled to vote against the Heathrow expansion. They were:

  • Adam Afriyie (Windsor)
  • Sir David Amess (Southend West)
  • Bob Blackman (Harrow East)
  • Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park)
  • Justine Greening (Putney)
  • Greg Hands (Chelsea and Fulham)
  • Matthew Offord (Hendon)
  • Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet)

Updated

The chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, Sir John Armitt, says he is pleased MPs backed the motion:

This country’s busiest airports have been stretched to their limits for years – action is long overdue to ensure we can get people from A to B easier and increase routes into new and emerging markets.

Today’s decision has been years in the making and so I hope ministers now move quickly to maintain the momentum now that this crucial hurdle has been cleared.

Karen Dee, the chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, offered similar backing:

Parliament has today recognised the importance of aviation connectivity and its approval of the Airports NPS for a north-west runway at Heathrow is an important step towards delivering that connectivity.

It is now vital that the government delivers an aviation strategy which sets out a clear and positive framework for aviation growth across the UK.

“Alongside the recently announced government support for all airports in their efforts to make best use of their existing runways, an ambitious strategy is urgently needed to ensure that all airports have the capacity and the surface transport links necessary to connect communities and businesses with domestic and international markets.

Better connectivity will drive inward investment, develop new trading opportunities, bring tourists to the UK and create jobs and economic growth in all parts of the UK as a result.

Updated

Labour MPs, who were given a free vote by the leadership, were split pretty much down the middle, the party says.

Its official position was opposed to the motion.

Updated

Some more reaction to the vote: Adam Marshall, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, says it is time for take off.

Business has been waiting years for decisive, cross-party action in the national interest – and decades for the expansion of our main gateway to the world.

Now that Heathrow expansion finally has a green light from parliament, it must now proceed at pace. The sooner we see diggers in the ground, the sooner this decision will boost business confidence, supply chain companies and trade links around the world.

Updated

Within minutes of the vote, Greenpeace has made clear its intention to bring a legal challenge. It says it is ready to join a cross-party group of London councils, as well as the mayor Sadiq Khan, in taking the government to court. Its executive director, John Sauven, said:

This Heathrow flight has failed all safety checks, yet ministers have boarded it anyway and persuaded a majority of MPs to go along with them. But we can’t just look the other way while the whole dashboard flashes red with warning lights.

The UK government won’t be able to tackle illegal levels of air pollution, never mind leaving a healthier environment to the next generation, if a new Heathrow runway is built. If ministers don’t want to uphold the laws protecting us from toxic fumes and climate change, we’re going to ask a court to do that.

Khan has confirmed the move on Twitter.

Updated

Justine Greening, the former government minister, raises a point of order: she wonders if the time allotted to the debate this evening was sufficient for such an important matter. Bercow says it is not a matter for him. But:

I have a sense that there will be a great many more debates on this matter.

He is then asked, quite mischievously by Labour’s Christian Matheson, if he has had “any indication from the foreign secretary” whether or not he will make it back to the Commons tomorrow for foreign office questions on Tuesday. Bercow replies:

Surprise, surprise, [Boris Johnson] has not communicated with me today and I feel sure he has other pressing matters on his agenda. I have received no notification that he will not be present and correct for foreign office questions and, therefore, I feel sure that he will be.

And I anticipate that [you] will look forward to those exchanges with eager anticipation and bated breath.

Johnson is likely to face questions over his decision to travel to Afghanistan, rather than attend the vote in the Commons, if he does appear on Tuesday.

Updated

MPs back Heathrow third runway

As expected, the government wins.

  • Ayes: 415
  • Noes: 119.

We’re back and the tellers are arrayed before the speaker.

While they’re doing that, a Commons spokesperson has been in touch to say:

There was a brief protest in central lobby this evening involving 12 people, who have now voluntarily left.

Norman, with a joke at Boris Johnson’s expense, says: “Any failure to support” the government will have “detrimental effects”. That gets a laugh from the prime minister, Theresa May, who is now on the frontbench.

With that, he closes his speech and the speaker, John Bercow, sends MPs off to vote.

Updated

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is now in the Commons to hear Jesse Norman, a junior transport minister, attack his and the SNP’s frontbenches over their positions on the expansion issue.

He criticises the SNP for their “frankly risible” policy of abstaining, while claiming – to some consternation among MPs – that Labour’s position is murkier than “mud from the Thames”.

Updated

The Press Association reports that all the protesters have now left and the central lobby is no longer on lockdown.

Some protesters from the group Vote No Heathrow left parliament saying they had been told by police they were breaking the law, according to the Press Association. However, Scotland Yard says the issue is being dealt with by security, rather than police, and there have been no arrests.

One of the activists, Fliss Premru from north London, said she believed false promises had been made about the jobs that would be created. They want to divide and conquer,” she said. “We can’t tackle huge environmental issues in London and build a third runway.”

Updated

Anti-Heathrow protest as MPs prepare to vote

The central lobby in parliament has been locked down after 12 demonstrators staged a “lie in” in protest over Heathrow expansion plans.

Updated

The Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, asks Grayling for assurances on how the government will deal with the “noise sewage” problem caused by aircraft.

He also says he agrees with John McDonnell on the financing of the project. Echoing some of the concerns McDonnell had earlier raised, Cable tells MPs:

The position of Heathrow Ltd is ... this is an exceedingly dodgy company by any reckoning. Last year, its profits were just over £500m, it remitted in dividends over £700m, it is extracting rent in the form of monopoly rent from its existing holdings – particularly its monopoly control over car parks – it has got very little interest in development.

Its balance sheet position is terrible, it has run down its shareholder funds from about £500m to about £700m, it has doubled its debt.

This is a company with no interest in development, no competence in managing the kind of risky project that is now envisaged. And the only way in which the government is going to be able to cope with this is by underwriting the company.

Updated

McDonnell tells MPs the government will win the vote, but that he believes the project will be stopped by legal challenges and will become a totemic campaign for climate change groups.

He finished by referring to a constituent of his, who he says came to the UK during the second world war to fly for the RAF and has since died. The house in which his widow still lives, McDonnell says, is right where the proposed runway will be.

There are human costs to this decision that this house needs to recognise and contemplate before they vote tonight to worry and blight my community once again on a project that will never – pardon the pun – take off.

Updated

Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, in whose constituency Heathrow lies, is addressing the Commons from the backbenches. He is an ardent critic of the expansion plan.

He says that, under David Cameron, the Conservatives supported his position in a promise to his constituents that they did not make clear would be for one parliament only. He points out that the current prime minister, Theresa May, also formerly opposed the expansion plan.

McDonnell asks where the people whose homes will need to be knocked down to make way for the runway will go. He points out that the scheme will involve the loss of schools and community centres, as well as other important sites. The local authority, he says, is already struggling to house people and find places in its schools. Referring to the government’s compensation offer, he says:

There is no point offering them 125% compensation, you can’t compensate for the loss of your whole community.

McDonnell calls the plan the “biggest forcible movement of human beings since the Scottish Highland clearances”.

Updated

The prime minister, Theresa May, has been meeting the president of the European council, Donald Tusk, at Downing Street.

Tusk said the meeting would allow them to discuss the state of the Brexit negotiations before a gathering of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. He joked that after England’s World Cup match win on Sunday, the PM was in a “much better mood” than he was.

It is not my intention to spoil your mood. Unfortunately we are dealing with something much more difficult than the game against Panama.

He said he was “moved” by the march against Brexit on Saturday.

I know nothing has changed. We have to continue our work on the best possible Brexit deal, but I must tell you that I was very, very moved.

May said “good progress” had been made on Brexit, but there was “more that we want to do and need to do” on future trade and security relations.

The prime minister told Tusk that the white paper setting out what the UK wants in its future relations with the EU would follow this week’s meeting of the European council. A Downing Street spokesman said:

The prime minister said it would be an opportunity to discuss a number of important issues, including migration and security and defence ahead of the Nato summit.

On the Brexit negotiations, the prime minister looked forward to discussing the continuing progress we have made on issues relating to the UK’s withdrawal and work to build towards a deep future partnership.

The prime minister said the UK will be setting out more detail on the UK’s vision for the future relationship in a white paper after the June council.

Updated

Returning to Greg Hands’ Commons speech, there were shouts of “Where’s Boris?” from MPs as Hands urged colleagues to join him in opposing the Heathrow expansion project.

The foreign secretary had promised to lie down in front of the bulldozers, rather than see a third runway built at the west London airport.

However, with the government having ordered Tory MPs to back the project, Johnson has avoided the vote altogether. Instead of going to the Commons, he is visiting Afghanistan.

In a letter to Tory constituents, Johnson said resigning from the government so he could defy the three-line whip – as Hands has done – would “achieve absolutely nothing”. You can read more on that in our lunchtime summary.

Labour has allowed its MPs a free vote this evening, though the party officially opposes the plan.

Updated

The SNP has been setting out its reasons for abstaining on the Heathrow expansion vote. The party is accusing the Westminster government of failing to “provide sufficient guarantees over any benefits they claimed it would bring to Scotland”. Its transport spokesperson, Alan Brown MP, has said:

Any Heathrow expansion plan must provide significant benefits to our economy and connectivity, yet Grayling failed to provide any real assurances – or meet with me to give any guarantees.

The UK government’s decision to delay a report on Heathrow emissions is also cause for concern.

While the SNP has long worked with Heathrow on their plans for expansion and we will continue to work with them on the benefits that could be delivered, the UK government has let Scotland down. The Tories can’t be trusted to keep their own promises, never mind the promises they make to others.

With Airbus and airlines set to depart Brexit Britain, a third runway could well find itself in a ghost airport – the UK government should be turning their attention to getting the best possible deal when the UK leaves the EU, which includes staying in the customs union and single market.

Updated

My colleague Adam Vaughan has written a more detailed article on the government’s decision on the tidal lagoon, which you can read here:

Updated

Mark Shorrock, the founder and chief executive of Tidal Lagoon Power, the firm behind the Swansea project, has accused the government of a “vote of no interest in Wales, no confidence in British manufacturing and no care for the planet”.

He pledged to work with the Welsh government to deliver a UK tidal lagoon industry centred in Wales and said: “Swansea Bay tidal lagoon remains key to our vision.” But he also warned greater emphasis would be put on projects elsewhere in the world, including in northern France.

Updated

Moving away from the Heathrow expansion debate for a time, the Lib Dem former energy minister, Ed Davey, has attacked the decision not to fund the £1.3bn Swansea Bay tidal lagoon as “wrong, wrong, wrong”.

Shortly before the Heathrow expansion debate, the business secretary, Greg Clark, told the Commons that the project in south Wales did not demonstrate value for money for consumers and the public purse. Addressing MPs, Davey said:

His statement is wrong, wrong, wrong. The evidence that the future price of future tidal lagoons will fall dramatically after the first lagoon at Swansea is overwhelming – that’s exactly what’s happened with other renewable technologies including offshore wind, as he has admitted.

Updated

Hands says Heathrow has failed to demonstrate where the new flight paths will be, meaning there are people living in London and the south-east who have no idea their homes could soon be flown over by aircraft.

Updated

Greg Hands, the former junior trade minister who resigned from the government last week to oppose the expansion, rises to address the Commons.

He says he was “surprised” at having had to resign because he had “always been led to believe that this would be a free vote”. Hands has brought along some of his own campaign literature from the 2017 general election that made clear his opposition.

So, this is not just, for me, a debate about Heathrow, important though that is. It’s also a debate about being true to your word and to your election pledges.

The reference has been interpreted as a thinly veiled criticism of Johnson.

Updated

Labour believes the plan will mean “yet more transport investment being sucked into the south-east of England”, McDonald tells MPs. He concludes his statement, saying the “price of a third runway is simply too high”.

McDonald adds that he respects the decision each MP will make on how to vote, but, in his view, the expansion “would be the wrong thing to do”.

Updated

McDonald moves on to benefits to other regions of the UK, pointing out there is significant wriggle room in the government’s claims.

He accuses the government of allowing an “uncosted subsidy” by allowing domestic routes to be exempt from air passenger duty without considering the “tax cut” in the business case.

It is simply incredible that the government would announce such a subsidy at the 11th hour.

Updated

McDonald sustains his attack on Grayling over the environmental aspect of the project, telling MPs:

It is utterly absurd for the government to ask this house to vote on expanding Heathrow without a plan for reducing carbon emissions in aviation.

McDonald accuses the government of lacking a plan on carbon emissions, saying the government’s own projections will cause it to miss its carbon emission limits. He says the government’s case for dealing with that is shaky at best.

McDonald sets out Labour’s opposition to the plan, saying it is too risky and may be illegal.

He says it is not clear whether or not the project can actually be completed, because of persistent uncertainty over the freedom to increase landing charges. McDonald adds that “40,000 people die prematurely because of poor air quality”. He accuses the government of having “dithered and delayed” on the issue.

Updated

McDonald goes for Grayling, saying he has “laid waste to the railways” and claiming that mismanagement of the Heathrow project would be much more harmful, should it occur. “He stands here today and expects the house to take his word for it, to take a leap of faith with him.”

Updated

McDonald quotes the prime minister, Theresa May, who said in 2009 that “nobody [would] take this government seriously on the environment again” if it had backed the expansion of Heathrow.

Updated

The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, accuses the government of not bing “direct and clear” with people who will lose their homes as a result of the Heathrow expansion. He says the government is “demanding they make sacrifices based on flawed information”.

McDonald says he respects the voices in industry and the trade union movement who back the Heathrow expansion. But he respectfully disagrees.

Updated

Grayling concludes his statement by telling MPs the project is in the strategic interests of the UK and will put the UK in a good position in the post-Brexit world. He repeats his contention that the programme has been delayed too long already and must be put on track.

The Heathrow expansion “can and will be privately financed at no cost to the taxpayer”, Grayling says, adding that it must be done in the interests of the consumer.

Updated

Grayling is outlining the compensation on offer.

There is a world-leading package of compensation, ensuring that home owners who lose their homes or who live closest to the expanded airport will be paid 125% of the full market value of their property.

It includes a comprehensive noise insulation programme for homes and schools and a community compensation fund of up to £50m per year ... And the government will consider how local authorities can benefit from a retention scheme for the additional business rates paid by an expanded Heathrow.

He adds that there will be a “six-and-a-half-hour ban on scheduled night flights, which could mean some communities will receive up to eight hours of noise relief at night”. He says this might be difficult for airlines, but it is the right thing to do.

These measures will be legally binding, Grayling confirms.

Updated

Zac Goldsmith, the Tory backbencher whose Richmond Park constituency lies near to Heathrow, insists that airports in other regions of the country have opposed the Heathrow expansion because any growth they see will be despite the project, not because of it, and it will be less marked.

Grayling says the key point is that they will see growth.

Updated

The former education secretary, Justine Greening, whose constituency is near to Heathrow, takes issue with the suggestion Manchester airport will benefit from the expansion of the London airport. Labour’s Lucy Powell, who represents Manchester Central, is also unimpressed.

Meanwhile, the Scottish National party has shown its hand:

Updated

Grayling is asked what assessments the government has made on the impact of the third runway on air quality in London.

The transport secretary says the runway “cannot open” if it does not meet air quality requirements and adds that the air quality issue is “much bigger than the airport itself”. He says the UK must move towards lower emissions from road vehicles.

Updated

Grayling says the UK has “delayed for much too long” and must “get on with” the job of expanding Heathrow.

Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Greens, asks if Grayling will look at the demand side via a possible levy, rather than simply concentrating on the supply side by increasing capacity. She makes a slightly flippant remark about Fabricant advocating concreting over the whole of the UK – drawing the Tory backbencher’s ire.

Grayling says the UK will stick to its climate change obligations and can do so even while expanding Heathrow.

Updated

Grayling says business is leaving the UK and going to various other airports in neighbouring countries because of a lack of investment.

The decision to invest in Heathrow specifically, however, is not at the expense of other UK airports, Grayling insists. He says other airports across the country will continue to see growth.

The deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing is giving MPs a bit of a ticking off for interventions she believes are too long, as Grayling delivers his statement. The transport secretary has rarely managed to get more than a few sentences out at a time before an MP asks him to give way.

He says he will take only a few more interventions.

Updated

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, is opening the Heathrow debate, acknowledging it is “divisive for many” but saying there is support for the third runway across the House of Commons.

The Tory backbencher Michael Fabricant, in a thinly veiled reference to the foreign secretary Boris Johnson, asks if Grayling can understand those who may be “called away” and thus not voting on an issue that will have a major effect on their constituencies.

Updated

Afternoon summary

  • Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has issued a statement explaining his surprise decision to visit Afghanistan today. “At this important moment when Afghan-led efforts towards peace and a political settlement have gained considerable impetus, I was proud and inspired to be in Kabul to see how the UK is working in support of the Afghan government to achieve this goal,” he said. His press release did not mention Heathrow. MPs will start debating the plan to build a third runway in the next few minutes. They will vote at 10pm, when they are expected to back the proposal by a large majority.
  • Greg Clark, the business secretary, has said that his cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt was wrong to criticise Airbus for speaking about the dangers of Brexit. (See 4.46pm.)
  • Clark has confirmed that the government will not back the £1.3bn Swansea Bay tidal lagoon proposal. He told MPs in a statement:

For £1.3bn a Swansea lagoon would support, according to the Hendry review, only 28 jobs directly associated with operating and maintaining the lagoon in the long term.

Officials were also asked to make an assessment of the potential for valuable innovation and cost reductions for later lagoons that might come from embarking on a programme of construction.

Independent advice concluded that the civil engineering used in Swansea Bay offers limited scope for innovation and capital cost reduction – estimated at 5% – in the construction of subsequent facilities.

I asked for an assessment of the export potential of embarking on a programme of implementing the technology, but the Hendry review concluded that it would take a ‘leap of faith to believe that the UK would be the main industrial beneficiary’ of any such programme.

In terms of energy reliability, the generation of electricity would be variable rather than constant, with a load factor of 19% compared to around 50% for offshore wind and 90% for nuclear.

The inescapable conclusion of an extensive analysis is that however novel and appealing the proposal that has been made is, even with these factors taken into account, the costs that would be incurred by consumers and taxpayers would be so much higher than alternative sources of low-carbon power that it would be irresponsible to enter into a contract with the provider.

This is from Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader.

And this is from Caroline Lucas, the Green MP and outgoing co-leader of the party.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over to cover the Heathrow debate.

Updated

According to Greenpeace, the government has left open the option of abandoning a road traffic target that was originally intended to be part of the Heathrow third runway proposal.

Here is a Greenpeace story explaining the apparent easing of the stance on controlling road traffic. The story was prompted by this paragraph in the small print of a government briefing about the Heathrow plans, published last week:

We support Heathrow Airport Ltd’s aspiration of not increasing the level of airport-related landside road traffic, which would be one approach to mitigating some of the impacts of expansion. However, we are concerned that there may be unintended consequences arising from this pledge, and it is only once the detailed assessments that will accompany any development consent application have been carried out that these can be fully assessed. Any decision on whether this pledge becomes a binding requirement would therefore be taken as part of the development consent process.

Updated

Clark says government won't back Swansea Bay tidal lagoon plan because it would be poor value for money

In the Commons, Greg Clark, the business secretary, has just told MPs that the government will not go ahead with the proposal to build a £1.3bn tidal-power lagoon in Swansea Bay. He said an analysis found that it would create only 28 long-term jobs and that, as a source of power, it would be variable. He said the project could not be justified because there were much cheaper sources of low-carbon energy.

Updated

Following the comments from Airbus, BMW has also warned that a Brexit outcome that disrupts supply lines could lead to the firm ceasing production in the UK. This afternoon, the Financial Times published a story (paywall) quoting BMW’s customs manager, Stephan Freismuth, as saying:

We always said we can do our best and prepare everything, but if at the end of the day the supply chain will have a stop at the border, then we cannot produce our products in the UK.

Updated

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary (centre left), and Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan (centre right), during a meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary (centre left), and Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan (centre right), during a meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan Photograph: Ministry of Foreign Affairs/PA

How Clark firmly rejected Hunt's argument about Airbus Brexit warnings

This is what Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday about the public warnings from Airbus on the impact of a hard Brexit. Hunt said:

It was completely inappropriate for businesses to be making these kinds of threats, for one simple reason. We are in a critical moment in the Brexit discussions. We need to get behind Theresa May to deliver the best possible Brexit, a clean Brexit.

And this is what Greg Clark, the business secretary, said in response to the urgent question this afternoon. He told MPs:

Airbus is a very important part of Britain’s success, employing 14,000 people across 25 sites, and 110,000 in the supply chain of 4,000 small, medium and large companies.

On Friday, Airbus published a risk assessment in which it stated to suppliers and to UK and EU member states that:

  • If an agreement between the EU and the UK was not reached by 29 March 2019, its production would be likely to be severely disrupted, with a significant impact on the company.
  • Any agreement that involved significant change to customs arrangements would take time to implement through Airbus’s supply chain.
  • Any agreement that involved new procedures, complexity or frictions would undermine the efficiency of the company’s operations.

This is completely consistent with what the industry collectively has been saying through the industry trade body, the ADS.

Any company and industry that made such a vital contribution to the livelihoods of so many working people in this country is entitled to be listened to with respect.

It is not unusual for cabinet ministers to disagree. And it is not unusual for their disagreements to become public (often through unattributable briefings). But normally, when they are speaking in public and on the record, they at least make some effort to conceal their differences. To hear Clark (generally seen as one of the more herbivore members of the cabinet) dismiss the views of a colleague so bluntly is quite something.

Greg Clark
Greg Clark Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Greg Clark is still answering questions in the Commons. Labour’s Luciana Berger asks him specifically if he agrees with what Jeremy Hunt said yesterday about it not being appropriate for Airbus to speak out about the dangers of Brexit.

Clark says, unusually, on this he does not agree with Hunt. He goes on:

Business have the right to speak out if they pay taxes and employ people.

The Foreign Office has now put out a news release about Boris Johnson’s visit to Afghanistan. This is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.

The DUP MP Sammy Wilson says that, because aerospace regulations are international, we should treat the warnings from Airbus “with a pinch of salt”. He says Airbus should be directing its concerns at the EU.

Updated

Cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood to temporarily step down while receiving treatment for cancer

Sir Jeremy Heywood is temporarily stepping down from his role as cabinet secretary (head of the civil service) to have cancer treatment and to deal with a related infection, Downing Street said at the lobby briefing this afternoon. Sir Mark Sedwill, the national security adviser, will take over, combining his current role with Heywood’s duties. Heywood is expected back at work in September.

John Manzoni, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office and chief executive of the civil service, will lead on issues related to the management of the civil service while Heywood is away.

Sedwill will attend cabinet meetings, as Heywood did. Olly Robbins, the prime minister’s lead Brexit adviser, and other top civil servants will now report to him.

Sir Jeremy Heywood
Sir Jeremy Heywood Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Updated

Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative Brexiter, says there are no tariffs on aerospace components.

Clark says some aerospace components do attract tariffs.

Anna Soubry, a pro-EU Tory, asks for assurance that the Conservatives remain the party of business, and that businesses remain free to speak out without being criticised.

Clark says the answers to Soubry’s questions are “yes and yes”.

Updated

Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, says a growing number of businesses despair at the government’s inability to get a grip on Brexit. He says it should not be necessary for a minister to have to come to the Commons to say it is legitimate for a firm like Airbus to speak out.

John Redwood, the Conservative Brexiter, says a company can run a supply chain perfectly well from outside the EU.

Clark says he wants the UK to be the best place for manufacturing. He says it is best to minimise friction at the border.

The SNP’s Drew Hendry says the Airbus risk assessment is “sobering news” for those drunk on illusions about Brexit.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative Brexiter, says Airbus moved production to China. But China has never been in the EU, he says.

Chi Onwurah, the shadow industrial strategy minister, says Airbus is not alone. Other big firms have also spoken out. But ministers are refusing to listen. She cites not just Jeremy Hunt, but also Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary.

Clark says this government does listen to business. Business asked for a transition period and the government has agreed one, he says.

He accuses Labour of “shapeshifting”. It is just taking positions for party advantage, he says.

Updated

Ken Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, asks Clark if he will explain to his cabinet colleagues that it won’t be possible to get the advantages of the single market without accepting the obligations that go with that. And he says if the UK erects barriers to trade, investment will go elsewhere.

Clark says he is more optimistic than his namesake. He says he thinks it is in the interests of both sides for the EU and the UK to reach an agreement.

Clark implicitly criticises Hunt for attacking Airbus for speaking out about risks of Brexit

The Labour MP Mark Tami asks for an urgent statement on the Airbus comments.

Greg Clark, the business secretary, says the aerospace sector is one of the big successes of the UK economy. People working in it have an average salary of £41,000, he says – 43% above the national average.

He summarises the Brexit risk assessment issued by Airbus at the end of last week.

He says what Airbus said is “completely consistent” with what every part of the industry has been saying.

He says any industry that supports so many people’s livelihoods in this country “is entitled to be listened to with respect”.

  • Clark implicitly criticises his cabinet colleague, Jeremy Hunt, for criticising Airbus for speaking out about the risks of Brexit.

Updated

Urgent question on Airbus

We are about to get an urgent question on Airbus.

Here is the statement the firm issued last week about the impact of various Brexit scenarios on the firm.

Here is the Airbus Brexit risk assessment (pdf).

And here is our story about Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, telling Andrew Marr yesterday that Airbus was being “completely inappropriate” in making these comments.

Updated

Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, has joined those criticising Boris Johnson for not being in the Commons tonight to vote against Heathrow expansion. She said:

The fact that Boris Johnson is set to miss the vote truly underlines his utter spinelessness. He stood against Heathrow as a point of principle and has now fled the country to save his job, and maintain his disastrous political career. Boris Johnson said he’d lie down in front of the bulldozers at Heathrow, but instead he’s now bowing out of politics for the day and bulldozing what is left of his own reputation.

Updated

Lunchtime summary

  • Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has surfaced in Afghanistan hours before MPs vote on plans to build a third runway at Heathrow. His trip gives him an excuse for not being in the Commons tonight, where he would face the choice of either obeying the government whip or resigning from the government to maintain his long-standing opposition to the project. He famously said he was so opposed to a third runway that he would lie down in front of the bulldozers – although, unlike Greg Hands (who resigned as a minister last week over the same issue), he seems to have avoided making a specific promise to actively vote against the measure in the Commons. Downing Street has approved Johnson’s contrived abstention, and Johnson himself has defended it in a letter to Tories in his constituency, telling them that resigning would have achieved “absolutely nothing”. (See 11.49am and 12.12pm.) But the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said Johnson should be willing to resign over the issue. He said:

I would have thought, if nothing else, as a constituency MP [Johnson] would want to be in the Commons because, after all, his constituency is very, very near to Heathrow, and he has in the past made very strong statements against Heathrow, and, indeed, once he promised to lie down in front of a bulldozer on it.

If he is unable to be present, then we have to ask the question: what on earth is he doing and who is he representing? And his chaos and confusion surrounding the EU negotiations and constant differences of opinion with the government – you really ask the question, why is he still there?

Tories have also said Johnson should be willing to resign over this. The backbencher Sarah Wollaston said last night Johnson should “put his money where his mouth is”. And Stephen Crabb, the former work and pensions secretary, said:

[Johnson has] obviously made certain commitments and comments around Heathrow. He’ll need to look his constituents in the eye and explain where he was on the night of the Heathrow vote. Whatever arrangements he’s made with the prime minister we’re not privy to. But I think Greg [Hands] behaved very honourably.

  • Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has been warned by the Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg that he faces a backlash from MPs if he tries to raise taxes to pay for the government’s promised cash boost for the NHS. (See 10.50am.)
  • Labour has reaffirmed its commitment to bringing rail companies into public ownership in a #RailMayhem day of campaigning. As the Press Association reports, commuters across the country are being targeted by activists on the first working day that the East Coast mainline comes back under public control. Labour said it staged 230 events, with every shadow cabinet minister, at a rail station in a marginal seat. Speaking after handing out leaflets at London’s King’s Cross station, Corbyn said the rail system needed change. He said:

We need it publicly owned and under public control, and we need it as quickly as possible. It really is time that we, the public, owned and ran the railways. We pay for the infrastructure, we do the investment, we own an awful lot of it, we should own the whole lot.

  • John Bercow, the Commons speaker, has insisted he is not standing down this summer. When he was elected speaker on 22 June 2009, he said he would serve nine years. But he has since made it clear he no longer feels bound by that promise. Speaking at an event today in Speaker’s House, he said:

Notwithstanding occasional rumours to the contrary, I have got absolutely no intention of going anywhere.

Updated

This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.

Boris Johnson surfaces in Afghanistan

So, Boris Johnson is in Afghanistan. This is from the Afghan foreign ministry.

Greg Hands, who resigned as an international trade minister last week so he could vote against a third runway at Heathrow, told Radio 4’s World at One that he chose to resign, instead of doing what Boris Johnson is doing and finding an excuse to be away, because he made an explicit promise to his constituents at the election that he would vote against the plan.

He also said that until recently he thought government MPs would be given a free vote, which may help to explain why he was so specific in the promise he made to his constituents.

Updated

Justine Greening, the former cabinet minister and MP for Putney who is opposed to Heathrow expansion (her constituents live directly under the Heathrow flight path), has posted a tweet implicitly criticising Boris Johnson’s decision to miss tonight’s vote. She was responding to a tweet from Greg Hands, who resigned as a minister last week so he could join her in voting against the third runway tonight.

Updated

The Heathrow debate won’t now start until 5.30pm at the earliest, because there are two UQs and a statement.

Downing Street lobby briefing – summary

Here are the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.

  • Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson’s decision to miss tonight’s Heathrow vote. Asked about this, the prime minister’s spokesman refused to say where the foreign secretary would be this evening. But he implied that Theresa May was happy for Johnson to be away, referring journalists to what she said about this on Thursday. Asked if May regarded Johnson as an honourable man, and a man who kept his promises, in the light of the fact that he always said he would oppose Heathrow extension, the spokesman replied:

You ask me the question, is the foreign secretary an honourable man, and the answer is yes.

  • The spokesman refused to say when and why May had changed her mind about expanding Heathrow. The plan will affect her constituents in Maidenhead and before the 2010 general election May spoke out against it, as Business Insider’s Adam Bienkov points out.

In response to questions about this, the spokesman said May had said many times why she was now in favour of the proposal. (To be fair to May, the Conservative party as a whole was opposed to a third runway in the early, husky-hugging days of David Cameron’s leadership, and the 2010 manifesto said the party would “stop the third runway and instead link Heathrow directly to our high speed rail network, providing an alternative to thousands of flights”.)

  • Downing Street refused to back Andrea Leadsom’s claim that the proposed new customs partnership (NCP) would be “bureaucratic and unwieldy”. The leader of the Commons made the comment in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. At one point, of the two post-Brexit customs plans being considered by the government, the NCP was the one May favoured the most. The spokesman did not criticise Leadsom for her comment. But he did not endorse what she said either. Instead he just said May had been clear that “more work needs to be done” in relation to the NCP plan. But more work needed to be done on the other option (“max fac”) too, he said.
  • The spokesman brushed aside a long-read report in the Financial Times (well worth reading) suggesting May is pushing for a soft Brexit. Asked about the report’s conclusions, he said May had been clear about what she wanted to achieve: a smooth and orderly process allowing the UK to take back control of its laws, borders and money. In his report (paywall), the FT’s George Parker said:

The outline of Mrs May’s strategy can already be discerned: it is hidden in plain sight, but gradually becoming clearer to those who are connecting the clues contained in various speeches and policy papers.

The evidence suggests Mrs May wants to keep Britain in a tight customs relationship with the EU and something that looks suspiciously like a single market for industrial goods; services and financial services would be covered by looser agreements. Some fear this will end up with European Court of Justice rulings over the goods sector — crossing one of Mrs May’s red lines — and possible payments to the EU budget ...

The prime minister is edging towards something that looks much like a single market in industrial goods, to counter the need for regulatory checks at the Irish border — or any of Britain’s ports — after Brexit. “It is a proposal under current consideration,” says Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. He wonders whether Mr Johnson and fellow Eurosceptics might quit rather than swallow it.

The clues are everywhere. Britain wants to stay part of EU regulatory agencies and this month Greg Clark, the business secretary, made a little-noticed announcement that Britain would seek to remain part of the European standards system, rejecting suggestions from Liam Fox, the pro-Brexit trade secretary, that the UK might be better off aligning with the US.

Meanwhile Mrs May, in her Mansion House speech in March, noted that as part of a “comprehensive system of mutual recognition” parliament might choose to pass identical laws in the goods field to the ones adopted by the EU. Although she insisted Britain was leaving the single market and that any mutual recognition deal would have to be policed by an independent body, Eurosceptics fear that some of these caveats would be lost in future negotiations on trade with Brussels.

  • The spokesman refused to back Jeremy Hunt’s claim that it was “inappropriate” for the manufacturing firm Airbus to speak out about the dangers of a hard Brexit. Hunt, the health secretary, made this comment in an interview yesterday. Asked about this, the spokesman just said that the government had a long-standing engagement with business about Brexit.

I think the fact that we have had 2,500 meetings [with businesses] would suggest to you that we are engaging closely with business.

On the Daily Politics programme earlier today, Robert Halfon, the Conservative former minister, said his understanding was that Johnson’s “fuck business” comment referred to lobbyists, not businesses (although that is not much of an excuse, because lobbyists work for businesses).

  • The spokesman said May had full confidence in Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary. Asked about the Mail on Sunday story saying Williamson had threatened in private to bring May down if she did not agree to increase the defence budget, the spokesman said he would not comment on alleged remarks from an anonymous source.
  • Greg Clark, the business secretary, is giving a Commons statement this afternoon on the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon proposal. According to WalesOnline, the government will shelve the plan. As the Sun’s Steve Hawkes points out, that means the government would be taking two decisions that will infuriate environmentalists on the same day.
  • The spokesman said the UK looked forward to continuing to work with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after his election victory yesterday. Asked about the result, the spokesman said:

The United Kingdom looks forward to continuing its close association with Turkey following the result of the elections yesterday. Turkey and the UK have a wide range of shared interests, including regional security, counter-terrorism and bilateral trade and investment. We will work with President Erdogan and his government to develop this important bilateral relationship.

  • Downing Street refused to comment on the Bloomberg report (again, well worth reading) saying hedge funds made millions on the night of the EU referendum because private polling gave them early information about what the result would be. The spokesman said he had not read the report but that, if there was evidence of misconduct, that was a matter for the regulatory authorities.
10 Downing Street.
10 Downing Street. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Updated

Johnson suggests Heathrow third runway may never be built

Here is the Evening Standard story about Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, saying resigning over Heathrow expansion would achieve “absolutely nothing”. And here is an extract from the letter, quoted in the story, which Johnson has sent to councillors in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency explaining his decision.

In the letter, Johnson says he expects the government to win tonight’s vote easily. But he also suggests that, in the end, the third runway may never be built – implying that he is not confident the government (of which he is a senior member) will actual deliver on its single most important transport infrastructure policy. He says:

I have long been an opponent of a third runway at Heathrow and that is why I am not voting for it tonight.

I have made clear my opposition since joining the government, and I will continue to lobby colleagues from within government. Some of my critics have suggested that I should resign over the issue. No doubt they have my best interests at heart.

But it is clear from what is likely to be a large majority of MPs who are in favour of a third runway that my resignation would have achieved absolutely nothing.

Hillingdon council have been emphatic that they would rather have me in the cabinet and fighting for their cause on this and other issues.

On election night I promised with John McDonnell, the Labour MP, to lie in front of the bulldozers. In view of the very considerable difficulties that still face the third runway — its cost and the appalling air and noise pollution entailed by the project — I believe it will be a very long time before we have to make good on that pledge; if indeed a 3rd runway ever comes about.

  • Johnson suggests Heathrow third runway may never be built, even though he expects government to win tonight’s vote.
Boris Johnson on the night he was first elected as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in 2015.
Boris Johnson on the night he was first elected as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in 2015. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Updated

Boris Johnson says resigning over Heathrow would have achieved 'absolutely nothing'

I’m just back from the No 10 lobby briefing. It was one that conformed to the rule that the length of a briefing is in inverse proportion to its news value: lots of tough questions, met by bland and defensive answers. We did not even get to find out where Boris Johnson will be tonight – although, when pressed, the prime minister’s spokesman did say that Theresa May considered him to be an “honourable man”.

While we were there the Evening Standard published its first edition, with a story quoting Johnson as saying: “My resignation would have achieved absolutely nothing.”

Updated

The Conservative MP George Freeman, chair of the party’s policy forum, posted this on Twitter last night, in response to a tweet about Labour overtaking the Tories in a poll.

I’m off to the No 10 lobby briefing. I’ll post again after 11.30am.

Updated

A diary clash, 'the last refuge of a ministerial scoundrel' - Patrick Wintour on Boris Johnson

It’s known he will not be in the Commons to vote at 10pm tonight against the expansion of Heathrow. It’s known, too, he will not be among the first to be preparing to lie down in front of the bulldozers flattening the land for the third runway. What is not known is the whereabouts of the foreign secretary. Urgent business – a commodity on which Johnson has strong views – has taken him abroad, making it impossible for him on this occasion to exercise his conscience. The promise to his Uxbridge constituents to prevent the sound of extra aircraft ruining their lives lies fallow. The Commons will be deprived of a cabinet-level resignation on principle. The metaphors, the Greek references, the relentless optimism, will also be missing from the chamber.

Instead Johnson has emerged as the victim of a diary clash, the last refuge of the ministerial scoundrel. Just as Jeremy Corbyn decided last weekend was the moment to visit a Jordanian refugee camp, rather than be available to attend the big Brexit demonstration, so Johnson felt an urge to jump on a plane. The foreign secretary need not vote against the party whip, and yet he will not quite break his promise to his constituents.

But the Foreign Office, for days citing standing security protocol, has refused to disclose Johnson’s destination.

One possibility, the monthly Monday meeting of the European Union foreign affairs committee, has been ruled out. Sir Alan Duncan, the Europe minister, will represent the UK on a crowded agenda ranging across Iran and Libya. It may also be a consideration that the agenda was not so crowded that a British minister would be unable to return to Westminster in time to vote.

A visit to congratulate a re-elected Turkish president seems premature, and again the flight times might be too short. The Foreign Office is running a big push in The Hague on Tuesday on impunity over chemical weapons, and Johnson could be doing some lobbying on this, but he needs to be in the Commons for Foreign Office questions on Tuesday morning.

Africa appears to be the chosen destination. Johnson has been making many speeches on girls’ education, something he describes as the Swiss Army knife for development. But whether a visit to the Sahel fits the urgency threshold is debatable. Libya would be another possibility, but Johnson would be jostling for attention with the populist Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini – a man who does not mind advertising his travel plans.

Arguably, the mystery surrounding Johnson’s destination only adds to the media interest in the way in which the foreign secretary is wrestling with his conscience, and losing. But Johnson would not like chaotic media pictures as broadcasters shout about why he is not resigning.

The difficulty is that the episode may tell a wider story about his modus operandi. When confronted by a difficult problem, he runs away and does not address it. He could have said that what he said as London mayor no longer applies, or that the facts have changed, or that this is no time for a foreign secretary to resign.

Or is it simply that this is not the right resignation at the right time for someone who still harbours ambitions to lead the Conservative party?

Updated

Tory MPs may refuse to vote for tax increases for the NHS, Rees-Mogg suggests

Jacob Rees-Mogg had quite a few other interesting things to say in his LBC phone-in. He is only a backbencher, but he is chair of the European Research Group, which represents about 60 Brexiter Tories. It is a powerful faction and if they were an independent party, they would be the third largest in the Commons, with Rees-Mogg getting two questions every PMQs.

Here is a summary.

  • Rees-Mogg suggested Tory MPs might refuse to vote for tax rises to fund the NHS. Asked about the government’s plans to use tax increases to fund the extra £20bn announced by Theresa May, he said:

I’m against tax rises. I don’t think the Conservative party is here to increase taxes. Philip Hammond [the chancellor] seems to think otherwise. But he hasn’t yet presented a budget and he may find there’s not a lot of support for tax rises.

He did try before. He tried to increase national insurance and had to back down, which was a clear attack on the self-employed and a great mistake.

  • Rees-Mogg claimed the government could raise more money for the NHS by cutting taxes.

I think you make money available for the NHS by growing the economy. I think you grow the economy by lower tax rates. I think you stifle the economy by higher tax rates.

He said he would like to bring corporation tax down from 17% to 15%.

  • He said the Ministry of Defence had to prove that any extra funding it received would not be wasted. It probably did need more, he said, but it was not spending money efficiently.

I think defence probably does need some more money, though we need to be careful about that. We’ve just had another story [about] these ships with engines that don’t work when it’s hot. And we’ve got an aircraft carrier that does not have any aircraft ... You begin to wonder whether the money that is being spent currently is being spent perfectly. The MoD needs to make a case that it has got its current budget under control, and then it’s got to set out what its requirements are.

Asked about reports that Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, had privately threatened to bring down May if he did not get more money for defence, Rees-Mogg said he was “surprised” by the reports and that this sounded like “a very unlikely thing for the defence secretary to have said”.

  • Rees-Mogg insisted that the Brexit dividend was real. He said:

The Brexit dividend is real. We have cut our expenditure, or will once we’ve left, by about £10bn a year net. And that will feed into the increased expenditure to the NHS.

When it was put to him that expert bodies like the Office for Budget Responsibility or the Institute for Fiscal Studies said any gain from not having to contribute to the EU budget would be wiped out by the reduced tax revenue caused by Brexit slowing growth, Rees-Mogg said an article in today’s Daily Mail showed the experts were always wrong. He went on:

Economic forecasts have been consistently wrong ... The OBR is impeccably independent and all its forecasts have been wrong. The IFS is, I think, now a relatively politically involved operation and it receives a lot of money from the government and from the EU, and therefore is not as independent as it used to be.

(At the weekend the Centre for European Reform published a report saying the UK economy was 2.1% smaller than it otherwise would have been because of Brexit, costing the public finances around £23bn a year.)

Updated

The Scottish National party is considering ending its long-standing support for a third runway at Heathrow, according to a BBC Scotland political correspondent, and could abstain or vote against it later on Monday.

The basis of this reversal is not clearly set out by BBC Scotland, even though such a change in policy contradicts all the SNP’s recent statements and actions, both in Westminster and in government in Edinburgh.

Nicola Sturgeon’s government in Edinburgh unambiguously supports the extra runway, going so far as to sign a memorandum of understanding with Heathrow in favour of its expansion in October 2016. Heathrow has recently paid heavily for top level sponsorship of SNP conferences.

Her government is also still intent, it says, on scrapping air passenger duty (APD) from all Scottish airports, although that policy has been suspended due to legal issues with EU rules. Like a third runway, this policy is backed by Scottish airports and business leaders.

A party source cited by the BBC said its MPs were concerned about a lack of detail about the third runway’s benefits. Last October, Drew Hendry, the SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, and former Highlands council leader, issued a joint press release with Highlands and Islands Aiports, a state-owned operator of 11 regional airports in Scotland, backing Heathrow and its expansion.

The Department for Transport said last week there would be an extra 100 flights a week from Scotland to Heathrow if the new runway were built. The DfT added it would impose a public service obligation to protect Scottish landing slots if necessary, exampting them from APD.

Objecting to Heathrow or abstaining will fuel suspicions this switch in stance is actually more about SNP’s plans to thwart or obstruct UK government policy in retaliation for its hostility to Sturgeon’s demands for full devolution of EU powers after Brexit. Or perhaps the SNP at Westminster has decided voting in the same lobby today as Scottish Tory MPs is now a vote too far.

IMF boss says Europe should prepare for influx of financial firms from UK after Brexit

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, is in Dublin today. Speaking at an event to mark 20 years since the adoption of the euro, she said Europe should prepare for an influx of financial firms after Brexit.

In the near-term, it is critical to ensure that regulatory and supervisory capacities are prepared for the influx of financial firms that will move to continental Europe – and Ireland – as a result of Brexit.

Christine Lagarde
Christine Lagarde Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Updated

And here are two opposition MPs on Boris Johnson.

From Labour’s Jess Phillips

From the Lib Dems’ Tom Brake

Updated

On Twitter, commentators are being quite merciless about Boris Johnson. Here is a small selection of comments.

From the FT’s Henry Mance

From the Times’s Matt Chorley

From Sky’s Darren McCaffrey

From the FT’s Stefan Stern

From the Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff

Updated

As my colleague Peter Walker reports, Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, told the Today programme this morning he was “cautiously optimistic” about winning tonight’s vote.

Grayling also said he had “no idea” where Johnson would be this evening.

Rees-Mogg defends Johnson's decision to miss Heathrow vote

On his LBC radio phone-in, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative backbencher, has defended his fellow Brexiter Boris Johnson over not voting against Heathrow expansion this evening. Rees-Mogg said he did not know where Johnson would be tonight. When the presenter, Nick Ferrari, put it to him that Johnson should be voting against in view of his promise to lie down in front of the bulldozers to oppose the project, Rees-Mogg replied:

[Johnson] said that as mayor of London. He is no longer mayor of London.

When it was put to Rees-Mogg that that distinction did not matter, he went on:

He stood on the Conservative manifesto last year that said that Heathrow was the preferred choice.

Rees-Mogg went on to say that, when MPs had strong constituency reasons for voting against something that might be in the national interest, abstaining was a reasonable decision. He explained:

I think there’s a very strong national interest in expanding airport capacity, and that means Heathrow. But sometimes the constituency issue is so great that you feel you don’t want to go along with the national interest. I think abstaining in such circumstances is part of that balance. I don’t think it’s unreasonable. And I think Mr Johnson being away is part of that reasonableness.

Johnson is MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London. But Johnson started opposing the third-runway plan long before he became MP for the constituency, and so it can’t be said that his primary motive is a constituency one.

(There are also claims that many people in Uxbridge actually support Heathrow extension, because it will create employment, but I can’t find polling evidence to back that up.)

Jacob Rees-Mogg
Jacob Rees-Mogg Photograph: Jacob Rees-Mogg/LBC

Updated

Boris Johnson should honour promise to oppose Heathrow extension and resign, says senior Tory

Tonight, more than nine years after Gordon Brown’s government announced that it was going ahead with plans to build a third runway at Heathrow (Geoff Hoon was transport secretary at the time - remember him?), MPs will vote on whether the project should go ahead. The government is expected to win comfortably.

But one MP won’t be voting. Boris Johnson was a fierce opponent of the plan when he was London mayor, famously pledging to lie down in front of the bulldozers if necessary to block the project. But, like some other Johnson promises, this one has proved worthless. The foreign secretary won’t be following the government whip and voting for Heathrow expansion. But he won’t be voting against it either; he is taking advantage of a limited exemption from the whip granted to ministers with longstanding objections to the plan, and he will abstain by being conveniently away on some mystery foreign trip (we don’t know where yet).

Last night, his Conservative colleague Sarah Wollaston told Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour that Johnson should do the honourable thing, resign, and vote against the third runway. Wollaston, who chairs the Commons health committee and the Commons liaison committee, told the programme:

I think this would be an opportunity for a colleague like Boris Johnson to actually put his money where his mouth is.

Referring to Johnson’s promise in 2015 to “lie down in front of those bulldozers” to stop the construction of a third runway, she went on:

No one would expect him to do that, but they might expect him to use this as an opportunity and to resign on a point of principle in order to fulfil that election promise ... We’ve seen a series of gaffes from Boris Johnson. I think many of us are wondering why in fact he has been allowed to stay so long.

Greg Hands, who resigned last week as an international trade minister so that he could honour a promise he made to his constituents at the election to vote against a third runway, seems to think the same. He posted this on Twitter yesterday.

There will be a lot more on this as the day goes on. The debate starts after 3.30pm.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP and chair of the strongly pro-Brexit European Research Group, hosts his LBC phone-in.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing

11am: Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, gives a speech at the Rusi thinktank.

11.30am: David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, gives a speech on public service reform to the Reform thinktank.

After 3.30pm: MPs begin their debate on Heathrow.

As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another at the end of the day.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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