Afternoon summary
That’s all from today’s politics live blog. Here’s a little summary of today’s developments.
- John McDonnell has said he will leave the shadow cabinet. “The new leader will come in place, appoint the shadow cabinet. I won’t be part of the shadow cabinet,” the shadow chancellor said. “I’ve done my bit.” He was seen by some as a possible interim leader, but, as a key figure in Labour’s shift towards supporting a second referendum, he has also faced criticism from those who think the party’s Brexit position was a key reason for its defeat.
- McDonnell said the current shadow cabinet would stay in place for the interim period, and would respond to the Queen’s speech on Thursday. The shadow chancellor also said that the NEC officers – a sub-group of senior members of Labour’s ruling body – would meet next week and decide the timetable for a leadership election in the new year. “It will be the usual time – a couple of months or something,” he said. Members of the wider NEC – who said that they had only been contacted by the party’s leadership to be told not to speak to the media about the election results – argued on Twitter that they would expect the leadership election timetable to be decided by a meeting of all of the committee’s members.
As a member of Labour’s NEC this is news to me. We’ve not been notified of a meeting. Any decisions on the future of the Party and the leadership must be made by the full NEC not the small officer’s group. https://t.co/UCxtyMFMuS
— James Asser (@JamesAsser) December 14, 2019
- Boris Johnson told an audience of supporters in the now Tory seat of Sedgefield, Country Durham, that the UK has “embarked on a wonderful adventure”. “We’re going to recover our national self-confidence, our mojo, our self-belief, and we’re going to do things differently and better as a country,” he said. He thanked voters across Labour’s former heartlands:
I can imagine people’s pencils hovering over the ballot paper and wavering, before coming down for us and the Conservatives. And I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us and I want the people of the north-east to know that we in the Conservative party, and I, will repay your trust.
Updated
Charities helping the most vulnerable in society have reported an increase in support after the Conservative victory in the general election, reports Georgina Hayes.
Shelter, Refuge, the Trussell Trust and the Biscuit Fund have all confirmed they have seen a sharp increase in donations and/or registered supporters as a result of the election outcome.
While unable to give exact numbers, the UK homelessness and housing charity Shelter said it had seen an increase in the number of people signing up as supporters since the result.
EU leaders would take the initiative and request an extension to the transition period, keeping the UK under Brussels regulations beyond 2020, under a plan mooted for dealing with Boris Johnson refusing to seek a delay – reports Brussels bureau chief, Daniel Boffey.
The move is being considered by EU officials as a way out of the problem posed by the short time available to negotiate a new relationship and the prime minister’s insistence that he will not seek an extension beyond 11 months.
With a majority of 80 secured by the prime minister, the UK is expected to leave the EU on 31 January – in fewer than 50 days. At the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK is set to exit the EU’s customs union and single market and enter newly-negotiated arrangements.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, said that negotiating a future relationship in such a timeframe would be very challenging.
Speaking on Friday at the end of a two-day leaders’ summit in Brussels, she said the negotiations would have to prioritise key EU issues, such as trade in goods and fisheries, and leave others for after 2020. Such a “sequencing” could leave arrangements for the UK’s financial services sector and the landing rights of British air carriers out of an initial deal, among other issues.
Read the full story here:
Updated
More concerns from NEC members that the timetable for selecting a new Labour leader will be taken out of their hands.
As a member of Labour’s NEC this is news to me. We’ve not been notified of a meeting. Any decisions on the future of the Party and the leadership must be made by the full NEC not the small officer’s group. https://t.co/UCxtyMFMuS
— James Asser (@JamesAsser) December 14, 2019
The Observer journalist Tim Adams has been in the former Labour safe seat (and Tony Blair’s old constituency) of Sedgefield today, where the prime minister gave a triumphant speech to activists this morning.
The new Tory MP in Sedgefield, Paul Howell, a retired accountant, is the unlikely latest heir to Blair. He had watched hope harden into expectation a week into the campaign. He had walked down a street in the former mining village of Cornforth, north of Trimdon, knocking on doors. He went through a dozen without finding a Labour voter; the 13th was an ex-Labour councillor who also pledged him a vote.
There were so many following winds here: but the Brexit factor and the Corbyn factor were the big ones, while Boris was seen as someone who can deliver. Personally, I think people only ever lend you their votes. It’s up to you to make them trust you again to give it again.
The talk in the air is of a new Thatcherism, but “without the tribal connotations”. Oliver Peeke, who works in admin for the council, admits he is one of those referred to by Johnson whose grandparents would be spinning in their grave to see him wearing a Tory rosette.
A lot of our family were Labour, but I’m desperate that this time it will stick. I don’t want to go back to the dark old days when people would just scream Thatcher at you when you walk up the drive with a Tory leaflet. There has to be more to politics that that.
The defeated Labour candidate, Phil Wilson, told the Observer that “if Johnson was going to park his tanks on any lawn this morning it was going to be here. He wants to say to the world that New Labour is history.”
Wilson puts his defeat squarely at the door of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. He is angry that his party has proved itself “unable to connect with people who are not in London”, and presented a manifesto “that was an essay about the past” with “nothing to say about the future”.
Updated
Members of Labour’s NEC saying on Twitter they haven’t been told about a possible meeting next week. (McDonnell said this morning that Labour’s ruling body would meet next week.)
I’m also on the Labour NEC and I agree with Alice https://t.co/P6LvCNMIHx
— Mark Ferguson (@Markfergusonuk) December 14, 2019
The Huffington Post’s Rachel Wearmouth reports that the shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, plans to run for the deputy leadership. The hashtag #backburgon was trending this morning, after what appeared to be a parody campaign page was created on Twitter called “Back Burgon”.
On the Richard Burgon rumours...
— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) December 14, 2019
A source close to the shadow justice secretary tells me he plans to run to be Labour’s deputy rather its leader.
Burgon will back Rebecca Long Bailey to be Labour’s first female leader. RLB is widely expected to stand but has not yet confirmed.
So this would make Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon, who is secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group, the left-wing slate.
— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) December 14, 2019
Updated
The editor of Labour List reports that NEC members are concerned the leader’s office is trying to “cling on to power”.
NEW: Labour NEC members are worried about the centralisation of crucial decision-making now. One tells me they’re “concerned the leader’s office are trying to cling onto power by refusing to let the full NEC meet until late January“. (THREAD 👇)
— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) December 14, 2019
Instead the small NEC officers group is going to decide the leadership election timetable, I’m told.
— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) December 14, 2019
Why is that important? Because several NEC members have left the ruling body after becoming MPs this week and the votes would be tighter now.
— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) December 14, 2019
The NEC officers group has also just become even smaller, without Tom Watson or Claudia Webbe. It is now just six people.
— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) December 14, 2019
This is from Sky News’s political correspondent Rob Powell:
MORE: John McDonnell says the NEC will meet next week and decide a timetable for a leadership election which will take a couple of months or so. The current team will remain in place until then to respond to the Queen's Speech and Budget.
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) December 14, 2019
Updated
Lunchtime summary
- Boris Johnson has told an audience of supporters in the now Tory seat of Sedgefield, Country Durham, that the UK has “embarked on a wonderful adventure”. “We’re going to recover our national self-confidence, our mojo, our self-belief, and we’re going to do things differently and better as a country,” he said. He thanked voters across Labour’s former heartlands:
I can imagine people’s pencils hovering over the ballot paper and wavering, before coming down for us and the Conservatives. And I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us and I want the people of the north-east to know that we in the Conservative party, and I, will repay your trust.
- The shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said he will leave the shadow cabinet. “The new leader will come in place, appoint the shadow cabinet. I won’t be part of the shadow cabinet,” he said. “I’ve done my bit.” He was seen by some as a possible interim leader, but, as a key figure in Labour’s shift towards supporting a second referendum, he has also faced criticism from those who think the party’s Brexit position was a key reason for its defeat.
- Jeremy Corbyn’s three sons have condemned the “despicable attacks” their father has faced hours after he said he would stand down following the party’s historic defeat. The Labour leader’s youngest son, Tommy, shared a statement on Twitter on Friday night lamenting the loss but adding that it was wrong to assume the “ideologies” their father stood for were outdated.
- Michael Heseltine, the Europhile Tory grandee who urged voters to back the Liberal Democrats in the election, has admitted that the remain position on European Union membership has lost and declared that he thinks the debate is over for at least a generation. “Well, we have lost,” he told the BBC. “Let’s not muck about with the language. We have lost. Brexit is going to happen and we have to live with it.”
Updated
The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has been doorstepped by the BBC, heading out to a constituency surgery. She is one of those tipped as a possible candidate for Labour leader.
Frankly there’s going to be an awful lot of work to do over the next five years given we’ve got this terrible Tory government coming. I fear that my surgery is going to be very full indeed with people who are getting their benefits cut.
Asked if she would run for Labour leader, she said: “I’m still in a period of mourning. We need to be able to have a chance to stop and think.”
Updated
PM says UK has 'embarked on a wonderful adventure'
Here’s a summary of Johnson’s speech in Sedgefield.
Speaking to activists and new MPs, he said:
Nobody wanted this election in the run-up to Christmas, but what an incredible thing you have done. You have changed the political landscape. You have changed the Conservative party for the better and you’ve changed the future of our country for the better. I want to thank all the people of Sedgefield, of Bishop Auckland, of Stockton South, of Darlington – where my ancestors come from, it turns out – north-west Durham, Blyth Valley and Redcar.
I want to thank all of you for the trust that you have placed in the Conservative party and in me. I know how difficult it was, and it can be, to make that kind of decision. And I can imagine people’s pencils hovering over the ballot paper and wavering, before coming down for us and the Conservatives. And I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us and I want the people of the north-east to know that we in the Conservative party, and I, will repay your trust.
He said the Tories had “gone over the timetable” and that it was definitely possible to get the withdrawal agreement through parliament before Christmas. He said that after that they would get on with delivering other manifesto commitments.
“How many more hospitals?” he asked the crowd, referring to the dubious manifesto pledge. “Forty,” they responded. “How many more nurses?” he asked (another controversial pledge), with the response “50,000”.
He said the new government was “going to do some fantastic things”. “Our country has now embarked on a wonderful adventure,” he said. “We’re going to recover our national self-confidence, our mojo, our self-belief, and we’re going to do things differently and better as a country.”
Updated
Johnson says its time for the UK to recover its “mojo”. “It’s going to be a wonderful, wonderful time in the country,” he says.
He says to new Tory MPs: “Remember, we are not the masters, we are the servants now.”
Boris Johnson is speaking to a crowd of supporters in Sedgefield, County Durham, Tony Blair’s former seat which fell to the Tories for the first time since the 1930s. You can watch the live stream at the top of the blog.
He says he will take the UK out of the EU by 31 January. He repeats his questionable pledge to deliver “50,000 more” nurses and says his new government will hire more police.
Updated
Some reaction to that McDonnell news (see last post). He was seen by some as a possible interim leader, but, as a key figure in Labour’s shift towards supporting a second referendum, he has also faced criticism as one of the masterminds behind the party’s election campaign.
A significant announcement from @johnmcdonnellMP. Some on the Left wanted him to be interim leader (some urged him to go for the leadership itself) so this speaks to the scale of the defeat but he will still be hugely influential in the forthcoming @UKLabour leadership contest https://t.co/qhuHPuSWxe
— iain watson (@iainjwatson) December 14, 2019
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John McDonnell to leave the shadow cabinet
John McDonnell has said he will not be returning to the shadow cabinet. The shadow chancellor denied that he had backed the wrong Labour leader, saying Corbyn was “one of the most principled, honest, sincere, committed, anti-racist politicians”.
The new leadership coming in, I think, will enable us to move forward on the key issues – getting a Brexit deal that works for all of us, tackling these grotesque levels of inequality. But the big one ... is climate change and my fear is five years of a fossil fuel-backed government under Boris Johnson means we will miss this five-year opportunity of saving our planet.
... I didn’t back the wrong person because Jeremy was the right leader. We could have won in 2017. Things moved on, Brexit dominated everything and that was the horns of a dilemma we were on.
The new leader will come in place, appoint the shadow cabinet. I won’t be part of the shadow cabinet. I’ve done my bit. We need to move on at that stage, with that new leader, and I think we will be in a position [to be] learning lessons, listening to people and constructing a broad coalition right the way across the country.
McDonnell said there needed to be a debate about how “someone – who I think is one of the most principled, honest, sincere, committed, anti-racist politicians – [was] demonised by a smear campaign”.
“I think we have a wider debate here about the role of social media and the media overall,” he said.
Updated
The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent Libby Brooks writes that there is an excellent inside story from the Herald’s political editor Tom Gordon, which explains how the SNP managed to exceed its own expectations thanks to high turnout.
While turnout was down in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it was up in Scotland, rising 1.6 points to 68.1%. Across the UK it fell 1.5 points to 67.7%. According to Gordon, SNP strategists believe this is what pushed their final tally to 48 MPs – actually 47 plus one suspended member who still appeared on the ballot as SNP.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph Scotland reports that Boris Johnson is planning a major charm offensive in Scotland after accepting that his personal unpopularity contributed to his party losing seven of their 13 seats. Apparently he has already spoken to senior Scottish Tories to pledge he will visit Scotland more often in the new year in the hope of winning over sceptical Scots with a one nation agenda.
Johnson and the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, have already clashed over the SNP’s insistence that the results are a mandate for a second independence referendum, with the prime minster immediately reiterating that he will not grant the necessary powers for Holyrood to hold one.
Updated
Corbyn's sons condemn attacks on their father
Jeremy Corbyn’s three sons have condemned the “despicable attacks” their father has faced hours after he said he would stand down following the party’s historic defeat.
The Labour leader’s youngest son, Tommy, shared a statement on Twitter on Friday night lamenting the loss but adding that it was wrong to assume the “ideologies” their dad stood for were outdated.
He described the manifesto his father produced as the “most wonderful this country has ever seen”.
His statement read: “Last night hurt, today hurts a bit more, tomorrow it will hurt even more.
“Jeremy has dedicated each day of his political life for the less fortunate amongst us. Unwaveringly, he has fought and campaigned for people who suffer and people in hardship.
“Being honest, humble and good natured in the poisonous world of politics has meant that he has endured the most despicable attacks filled with hatred for the duration of his 36 years in public life.”
It continued: “To say we are proud is a vast understatement. To assume the ideologies he stands for are now outdated is so wrong. In the coming years we will see that they are more important than ever.
“Thank you to every person who saw his vision and supported it and supported him. From the three proudest sons on the planet, please continue the fight.”
From the three proudest sons on the planet pic.twitter.com/0IVLmcw0kD
— Tommy Corbyn (@TommyCorbyn) December 13, 2019
Updated
The former Labour MP, Anna Turley, who lost her seat in Redcar, has written for the Independent, describing the election result for Labour as “a disgrace”. Her twitter bio now reads simply: “Free”.
To blame Brexit is to miss the point. There would be no Brexit if Labour had had credible leadership in the 2016 referendum, standing up for our party’s values of cooperation, internationalism and partnership. Instead, we had a guy who dressed up in a fur coat to go on The Last Leg and give the EU “seven and a half out of ten”. No one put forward an argument to working-class Labour communities about why the EU mattered to them, because the leader didn’t believe that it did. Ever since, instead of strong leadership and a clear position, we have had three years of U-turns, triangulation and dancing on pinheads. I have never been able to tell my constituents what Labour’s Brexit position truly was – only my own.
And so to this disgrace. Despite 10 years of Tory austerity that has led to Dickensian levels of poverty, and the end of 175 years of steel-making in my constituency, people didn’t believe Labour would be any better. This is a failure on an epic scale, and a betrayal of those communities that need Labour most.
This is a failure on an epic scale, and a betrayal of those communities that need Labour most.
— Anna Turley (@annaturley) December 13, 2019
Some thoughts from me:
https://t.co/Jae291u1cX
(Ps I don’t write the headline)
Updated
The BBC’s director general has expressed his exasperation with “conspiracy theories” about the broadcaster’s election news coverage, although some of its journalists privately fear that errors during the campaign may have hit public trust in the corporation.
The Guardian’s media editor, Jim Waterson, reports that Tony Hall emailed staff on Friday to thank them for their work on the BBC’s coverage, which came under intense online scrutiny.
This followed criticism of the editing out of laughter aimed at Boris Johnson in a news bulletin, reporters uncritically repeating Conservative sources, such as when a Labour activist was erroneously accused of punching a Tory aide, and the prime minister escaping scrutiny after dodging a one-on-one interview with Andrew Neil.
Hall said the BBC’s critics were often seeing bias in what were genuine human errors: “In a frenetic campaign where we’ve produced hundreds of hours of output, of course we’ve made the odd mistake and we’ve held up our hands to them. Editors are making tough calls every minute of the day. But I don’t accept the view of those critics who jump on a handful of examples to suggest we’re somehow biased one way or the other.”
You can read the full story here:
Updated
Former Labour MPs who lost their seats in Thursday’s election have been speaking to the BBC. They blamed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and the party’s alienation of its northern voters for the loss, PA Media reports.
The former Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “the biggest factor was obviously the unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn as the leader”.
The fact of the matter is that Jeremy Corbyn failed as a communicator, whatever his good personal qualities, and he undoubtedly has good personal qualities, he failed as a communicator.
The ex-shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman, who lost her seat in Darlington, said:
You can’t run a political party that wants to be a party of government but only really appeals to about a third of the electorate and those are people that live in cities who are fairly well-off people.
The real question we have to ask ourselves now is do we want the Tories, do we want to give them another five years or another 15 years, because if we get this wrong now as a party, this could very well be the end of the Labour movement.
The former Labour MP Anna Turley, who lost her seat in Redcar, said:
I think it’s quite overwhelming. You have to listen to the people, that’s the first thing that we have to do. And for me, when you’re getting four doors in a row of lifelong Labour voters saying: ‘I’m sorry Anna, I’m a lifelong Labour voter, I like what you’ve done, but I just can’t vote for that man to be prime minister’, I’m afraid that’s a fundamental barrier that we just couldn’t get across.
Turley said Corbyn was more of a reason than Brexit for her constituents voting for another party.
In my constituency, even though it was a 67% leave constituency, it was four-to-one the leadership over Brexit. I mean obviously the issues run deeper than that, the Labour party is bigger than just one person, but the reality is there were issues around our perception around competence.
The Labour MP for York Central, Rachael Maskell, who retained her seat, insisted it wasn’t just Corbyn who should take responsibility for Labour’s defeat.
We’ve all got to take responsibility but I don’t think apportioning blame to a complex situation in a simplistic way is really the way to approach this, we’ve got to understand what is really happening across our political system.
Updated
The Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a little earlier. He said that whether or not the Tories can achieve a political declaration with zero tariffs on goods between the UK and the EU “depends on whether the Tory party is, again, able to face up to its own contradictions”.
They want the deepest possible access to the European single market, yet they want to undercut significantly EU legislation, and you can’t have both.
So either you want total regulatory freedom and you do whatever you like – and if you want to undercut EU legislation then you do it, but then you lose access. Or you want access and you have basically to remain aligned with EU legislation. That will be the decision that Boris Johnson will need to make.
Raoul Ruparel, who was Theresa May’s special adviser on Europe during her time as prime minister, told the programme it would be possible to reach a deal with the EU next year but “the short time frame does limit the level of ambition”.
I think it is possible to get a free trade agreement in place that looks at quite standard provisions on level playing fields, such as the type that the EU have done with other countries, and also offers zero tariffs.
But I think what it’s harder to do, is what Philippe Lamberts was alluding to, is removing the regulatory barriers and the checks behind the border which would require some level of alignment of rules.
And I think at the moment, despite his large majority, I don’t think that’s the sort of deal that Boris Johnson envisages, and it’s something that he’s consistently fought against.
On the possibility of a no-deal Brexit if the UK fails to reach an agreement by the end of next year, he said:
I think it is possible to get something done in the next year but I think the short time frame does limit the level of ambition potentially, because you would be looking at a narrower and shallower deal than you might have otherwise envisaged given the speed needed.
Here is what the European papers had to say yesterday about the election result:
Updated
Michael Heseltine: we have lost
Michael Heseltine, the Europhile Tory grandee who urged voters to back the Liberal Democrats in the election, has admitted that the remain position on European Union membership has lost and declared that he thinks the debate is over for at least a generation.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the remain cause was over, Lord Heseltine answered:
Well, we have lost. Let’s not muck about with the language. We have lost. Brexit is going to happen and we have to live with it. I’ve made my views pretty clear and there will now be a long period of uncertainty, but you can’t escape from that so we must do the best we can.
Asked if he would ever campaign for the UK to rejoin the EU, Heseltine said no.
I don’t think that battle has gone, but it won’t be my generation, it will be 20 years or something before the thing is once again raised as an issue. And, of course, you can’t escape the devastating results on Scotland and Northern Ireland, so the agenda is not going away.
Updated
The Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, has written in today’s Telegraph, saying he will “not [be] too far away from the action”, after his party failed to win any seats in the general election.
He said the Conservative party’s 80-seat majority was an “overwhelming mandate ... to get Brexit done”, and that he was now concerned with the form of Britain’s departure from the bloc, rather than whether it would happen at all.
The truth is that the threat from the Brexit party, together with the influence of the European Research Group in parliament, has disappeared for the time being. Questions over the future shape of Brexit and Britain’s place in the world are now entirely in the hands of Johnson.
With half of his cabinet having voted remain, and substantial global pressures on him, it will be tempting for him to pursue the easy option of a soft Brexit.
The Brexit party contested 273 seats in this election. They took 2% of votes but won no seats. Farage continued:
Having endured three elections in the last 30 months, let us hope the country can look forward to a prolonged period of political stability and certainty. Whatever happens over the coming months, I will make sure I am not too far away from the action. The fact is that if Brexit does not ‘get done’, as Johnson has promised repeatedly over the last six weeks, pressure will have to be reapplied.
Updated
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s politics live blog. I’m Frances Perraudin and I’ll be bringing you all of the day’s political news in the wake of yesterday’s general election result.
Boris Johnson is set to embark on a whirlwind tour of northern seats taken by the Conservatives in the election, in which he secured an 80-seat majority. It’s been reported that he could visit Tony Blair’s former seat of Sedgefield in the north-east, which had been held by Labour since 1935 prior to the poll.
In a speech outside No 10 on Friday, Johnson said he would “work round the clock” to repay the trust of those who voted Conservative for the first time, including those whose “pencils may have wavered over the ballot and who heard the voices of their parents and their grandparents whispering anxiously in their ears”.
Appearing on the BBC’s Newsnight last night, the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the government would look to redirect investment towards those communities that felt they were not being heard.
We are very grateful to these traditional Labour voters, in many cases, for lending us their support on this occasion, perhaps because of Brexit. We need to earn that trust now and hopefully we will have five years ahead of us to do that.
Updated
