Afternoon summary
- Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has faced multiple, angry calls for his resignation from opposition MPs after he opened a Commons statement by again failing to admit that he made an error last week when speaking about a British woman detained in Iran. (See 4.59am.) The woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has asked to meet Johnson when he visits the country, as he intends to in the next few weeks.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Campaigners for EU citizens living in the UK have renewed their calls for the Home Office to be removed from the administration of their rights most Brexit.
Those living in the UK already will be eligible for a new “settled status” but the3million campaign group is opposing this because of the track record of the Home Office in relation to errors in the past year including a threat of deportation for around 100 EU citizens lawfully living in the country.
“The Home Office cannot be trusted to not make mistakes and unfortunately with mistakes that can mean deportation. Settled status is linked to the hostile environment policy and until they are unlinked we will continue to oppose it,” said Nicolas Hatton, co-founder of the3million.
He was responding to the publication of the Home Office’s latest update on the post-Brexit rights of EU citizens which was sent to the European Commission on Tuesday. (See 3.56pm.)
The prime minister’s official spokesman has refused to say when Theresa May was told about Priti Patel’s idea that British aid money could be spent on funding the Israeli army’s humanitarian activities in the Golan Heights.
Asked whether Patel had informed the prime minister of this proposal - which she raised in her department on her return - the spokesman said “she set out, as she did in her statement yesterday, the broad areas that were discussed in the different meetings.”
We knew that she’d discussed humanitarian support. In terms of aid to the Israeli army – that’s obviously a proposal which wasn’t taken far forward so I’m not aware that that specific point ever got as far as us – I don’t think it left FCO/DfID.
Pressed on whether the prime minister had been made aware of the plan, which appears to have emerged from conversations Patel had in Israel, the spokesman said:
As to whether or not we ever had a specific conversation about that particular aspect of foreign aid – it may well be that we didn’t. As Alistair Burt said, it was raised internally at the end of August and it never proceeded beyond that.
At the heart of DfID is compassion and trying to provide help and I’m sure that’s what the secretary of state had in mind
He repeatedly said that Patel, who is en route to Africa with trade secretary Liam Fox, had acknowledged she hadn’t followed the proper procedures.
Nobody is pretending that the secretary of state handled this situation well; that is why she apologised for it, and that is why the prime minister spoke to her yesterday, and the Secretary of State was clear that it won’t happen again in future.
Johnson's Commons statement - Summary and analysis
Here are the main points from Boris Johnson’s Commons statement.
- Johnson, the foreign secretary, faced multiple, angry calls for his resignation after he opened his Commons statement by again failing to admit that he made a mistake last week about a British woman detained in Iran. He told the Commons foreign affairs committee last week that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has joint British-Iranian nationality, was “simply teaching people journalism” when she was arrested. (See 9.47am.) Her family say that this is wrong and that Johnson’s comment has raised the possibility of her sentence being increased. The most outspoken attack on Johnson probably came from the Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who told him:
The foreign secretary had a week to correct the record and to apologise over Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and he has not done so. This is not the first time that the foreign secretary has said things which are inaccurate or which are damaging.
And he cannot keep shrugging them off as a lack of clarity or a careless choice of words. In this case there are fears that this could mean the extended incarceration of a British-Iranian woman. And he will know that the lives and the safety of British citizens across the globe depend on having a foreign secretary who does not bluster and who is not too careless or too lazy to consider his words. Will the foreign secretary now apologise? He cannot be trusted to do his job and he should resign.
Jo Swinson, the deputy Lib Dem leader, used a similar argument.
The casual disregard for the truth shown by [Johnson] in his campaign bus last year was bad enough. But his carelessness in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe last wee was unforgivable. Does the foreign secretary realise that in this role his words have a serious impact. This is not a game. If he won’t take his job seriously enough even to read his brief, he should step down and make way for one of his colleagues who will.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, also suggested that Johnson should quit. She asked:
How many more time does this need to happen? How many times does the foreign secretary have to insult our international partners, damage our diplomatic relations, and now imperil the interests of British nationals abroad? What will it take before the prime minister says enough is enough?
And the Labour former Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant said:
The honest truth is that I fear, if he can’t show some contrition today, then the honest truth is he shouldn’t be in his job because our people aren’t safe.
Johnson received only very limited support from Conservative MPs, and at least one of them, Anna Soubry, accused him of careerism.
- Johnson said that his comments to MPs last week about Zaghari-Ratcliffe “could have been clearer” and that, when he spoke about her teaching journalism, he was referring to what she was accused of doing, not what she was doing. At no point did he admit that what he said last week was factually wrong. In his opening statement he said:
The UK government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit.
My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity.
I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect and I’m glad to provide this clarification.
Later, after Chris Bryant said there was a difference between what Johnson said last week and what he was now claiming to have said, Johnson replied:
I was giving the foreign affairs committee an account of the allegations I’d personally heard in the course of my intercessions from the Iranians. I don’t for one minute believe that they are true. But that is what they say.
In American some newspapers have started to report as fact that President Trump has “lied” because no other explanation for his untruths seem credible. Johnson is close to being in the same territory here. As the transcript of his comment to the foreign affairs committee shows (see below), Johnson said simply that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “teaching people journalism”. There is nothing in what he said to make the MPs think he was referring to what she was alleged to have done. At best it could be argued that he is now referring to what he intended to say, rather than what he did say, but he did not explicitly make that argument himself in the chamber today and many observers will conclude that he was simply lying about what happened last week.
One of the most curious aspects of this is Johnson’s refusal to admit that he made a mistake. As Jack Straw argued earlier today (see 12.07pm), if a minister owns up to making an error, colleagues are normally quite supportive. So why didn’t Johnson simply say he misspoke? This is probably a question for the psychiatrists, although given that Johnson has now attracted a reputation for saying things which are not true (which he resents), and that his opponents blame him for the dishonest Vote Leave claim about the EU costing the UK £350m a week, he may feel that if he admits to getting this wrong, he will then come under renewed pressure to disown the £350m a week slogan, a key plank in the successful leave campaign.
Foreign Office now say it's "absolutely not true" that Boris Johnson said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching journalism. Here's the transcript. pic.twitter.com/uPHwfykdEy
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) November 7, 2017
- Johnson refused a request from the Labour MP Mike Gapes to write to the foreign affairs committee retracting the point he made about Zaghari-Ratcliffe last week.
- Johnson insisted that Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told him in their call earlier that “any recent developments” in the Zaghari-Ratcliffe case had no connection to what he said about her to the foreign affairs committee. In other words, he said his comment had not exacerbated Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s plight.
- Johnson said that he would be visiting Iran in the coming weeks.
- He said that he was sorry if the way his comments had been “misconstrued” had caused distress to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family. Towards the end of his statement, asked if he would apologise to her family, he replied:
I’m sorry if any words of mine have been so taken out of context and so misconstrued as to cause any kind of anxiety for the family of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, of course I am.
- He claimed that, by attacking him over Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Labour were deflecting attention from those in the Iranian regime who were to blame for her plight.
And I may say to [Thornberry] that she has a choice. She can choose to heap blame on to a British Foreign Office that is trying to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and in so doing she deflects blame, deflects accountability, from those who are truly responsible for holding that mother in jail.
- The Conservative MP Anna Soubry said after his statement that his lack of contrition was “shameful”. Earlier in the Commons she accused him of careerism, telling him:
Could [Johnson] now give us an undertaking that in future he will concentrate on the very important matters that he has within his brief as foreign secretary.
To that end, could he give an undertaking to support the prime minister in her efforts as in relation to the Florence speech, for example, and make sure that his own ambitions are put secondary to the wellbeing of all my constituents and indeed everybody else in this country, because that’s his job?
Updated
Tory MP Anna Soubry says Johnson's lack of contrition is 'shameful'
Here is the Conservative MP Anna Soubry on Boris Johnson.
The lack of contrition is as shameful as the original error. Boris Johnson doesn’t understand magnitude of the job & responsibility he holds https://t.co/lZkeoETlSp
— Anna Soubry MP (@Anna_Soubry) November 7, 2017
(She finds it easier to say these things about him on Twitter than she does in the chamber. See 2.55pm.)
The Home Office has provided more detail on the application process for EU nationals in Britain to apply for “settled status” ahead of the resumed Brexit negotiations.
The technical note sent to the European Commission this morning makes clear for the first time that caseworkers will have the discretion not to refuse applications on minor technical grounds and that those refused will have a statutory right of appeal through the British courts.
It is expected EU negotiators will again insist on a role for the European court of justice in guaranteeing EU citizens’ rights in Britain.
The home secretary, Amber Rudd, said the process will be low-cost and streamlined. She said:
We know that there is some anxiety among EU citizens about how the process of applying for settled status will work so I hope this document provides some further reassurance.
Updated
This is from James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation thinktank and a former colleague of Boris Johnson’s at the Daily Telegraph.
Exc. whips & ministers etc, only c9 Tory MPs in Commons for Boris on Iran. For any other minister, on any other day, that would be the end. pic.twitter.com/LjTRgLMAFI
— James Kirkup (@jameskirkup) November 7, 2017
This is from Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary.
The Foreign Sec repeatedly refuses to correct his mistake to help Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
— Barry Gardiner (@BarryGardiner) November 7, 2017
More concerned to save his face than to save her pic.twitter.com/x7tSwgBKdt
Here is the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Boris Johnson’s non-apologetic apology a few minutes ago. (See 3.20pm.)
Classic non-apology ... I m sorry ‘if’ - might have saved himself a lot of bother if he’d just said he made a mistake + promised to fix it https://t.co/oJB0RbQjUL
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) November 7, 2017
The statement is over. Labour’s Ian Murray raises a point of order. He says what Johnson said last week, and what he claims today to have said, are incompatible.
Eleanor Laing, the deputy speaker, says that is not something she can rule on.
I will post a summary soon.
Updated
Labour’s Anneliese Dodds challenges Johnson to say six words: “I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”
Johnson says the fault lies with the Iranian authorities.
Johnson says he is sorry if his words have been misinterpreted
The Lib Dem MP Leyla Moran says she represents some of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s relatives. They have been worried sick by his conduct. Will he at least apologise to them?
Johnson says he is very sorry if his words have been misinterpreted in a way that have upset the family.
- Johnson says he is sorry if his words have been misinterpreted.
Boris Johnson: "I'm sorry if any words of mine have been taken out of context and misconstrued to cause anxiety to Nazanin's family"
— Esther Webber (@estwebber) November 7, 2017
Updated
Labour’s Wes Streeting says Britain cannot be proud of its foreign secretary. He does not have the care and attention necessary to do one of the most important jobs in government. Why is he still there?
Johnson says he has clarified what he said. The most important point is that nothing he said has had any impact on judicial proceedings in Tehran.
Labour’s Ian Murray says Johnson is ill-equipped to be foreign secretary and an international embarrassment. What Johnson is saying now is “completely contrary” to what he said last week. Will he correct the record now?
Johnson says Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanine’s husband, has welcomed his clarification.
Johnson refuses request to write to foreign affairs committee withdrawing what he said
Mike Gapes, the Labour MP, suggests Johnson write to the foreign affairs committee withdrawing his remarks, so they are no longer on the record.
Johnson says he has already dealt with this point.
- Johnson refuses request to write to foreign affairs committee withdrawing what he said.
Chris Bryant, a Labour former Foreign Office minister, says the first duty of the Foreign Office is to protect Britons abroad. He quotes what Boris Johnson told the foreign affairs committee last week. Even an eight-year-old could tell what he said. If Johnson cannot show some contrition, he should not be in his job, because our people are not safe.
Johnson does not accept that. He repeats the argument that he was trying to describe what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was thought to be doing, not what she was doing.
Here is the Telegraph’s Kate McCann on Boris Johnson.
Shocked by Boris Johnson's tone on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - unbelievably deaf to the outrage and upset his remarks have caused.
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) November 7, 2017
Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative, says Johnson has chosen his words carefully, and MPs should reserve their ire for the Iranian regime.
Nadhim Zahawi, a Consevative, says the Iranian revolutionary guard are to blame for the incarceration of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. He accuses Labour of playing politics with the issue.
Johnson agrees. He says if Emily Thornberry is blaming him for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s incarceration, she is living in “cloud cuckoo land”.
Labour’s George Howarth asks Johnson to accept that he should apologise for what he said last week.
Johnson says he has answered that in some detail already.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, welcomes Johnson’s clarification. He says Johnson’s “errors” in his choice of words are secondary or tertiary compared to the faults of Iran. He asks if Iran qualifies as a country with which the UK should have friendly relations.
Johnson says he is surprised by Tugendhat’s question. Not trying to have friendly relations with Iran would be a mistake, he says
Updated
Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP, asks Johnson to apologise.
Johnson says all MPs want to secure Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release. If he can meet her when he visits Tehran, he will.
Anna Soubry, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that Johnson will support Theresa May over Europe, and make sure that his own ambitions don’t take precedence.
Johnson says all ministers support May’s Florence speech.
By Soubry’s standards, that was quite mild. This is what she posted on Twitter this morning.
This is appalling. In "normal" times Boris Johnson wld have been sacked long ago. https://t.co/aHaIMIn6j3
— Anna Soubry MP (@Anna_Soubry) November 7, 2017
The Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson says Johnson’s casual disregard for the truth in the EU referendum campaign was bad enough. But this is unforgivable. If Johnson won’t read his brief, will he resign.
Johnson says he has already covered this.
Nusrat Ghani, a Conservative, asks a supportive question about Islamic State.
Yvette Cooper says Johnson should resign
Labour’s Yvette Cooper says Johnson has had a week to admit he made a mistake and to apologise. He has not done so. This is not the first time he has said things that are wrong. The lives of people across the globe depend on what the foreign secretary says. She says Johnson should resign.
Johnson says there was no impact from his remarks on the judicial process in Iran.
He says MPs should recognise the sensitivity of these negotiations. That is why he is going to Tehran .
UPDATE: Here is the video.
Boris Johnson challenged to apologise or resign by @YvetteCooperMP #Nazanin pic.twitter.com/xxUIFTguEf
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) November 7, 2017
Updated
The SNP’s Stephen Gethins says Johnson told MPs last week that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching people journalism. Will he be clear about what he said?
Johnson says the Iranians have alleged that she was teaching journalism. There is no substance behind those allegations, he says.
He says he will arrange a meeting with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband before he goes to Iran.
The statement is supposed to be about Syria. Julian Lewis, a Conservative, says Johnson should adopt a more realistic approach and accept that the Assad regime in Syria will survive.
Johnson says the UK still has leverage over the Assad regime.
Johnson says Labour’s attack on him is deflecting blame from those responsible for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s plight
Johnson is replying to Thornberry.
All MPs want to see Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe released. That is what the Foreign Office has been working for.
He says it is untrue to say there is any connection between what he said and Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s plight.
By attacking Johnson, Thornberry is deflecting blame from those truly responsible in the Iranian regime, he says.
- Johnson says Labour’s attack on him is deflecting blame from those responsible for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s plight.
From Labour’s Chris Bryant.
Very striking how few Tory MPs in chamber to defend Boris.
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) November 7, 2017
Labour says Johnson should apologise
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, is responding to Boris Johnson.
She tells Johnson it is important for the foreign secretary to engage his brain.
She says she appreciates Johnson’s clarification, welcomes his phone call to his counterpart and hopes no lasting damage has been done to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
But she says he should apologise of his “foolish words”.
How many more times does this have to happen? What will it take before the prime minister says enough is enough?
If Theresa May doesn’t have the strength to sack him, will Johnson accept that this job, where your words matter, is not the job for him.
Boris Johnson tells MPs his Iran remarks 'could have been clearer', but he refuses to admit he was wrong
Boris Johnson is making his Commons statement now.
He says he spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, today.
He says he told Zarif that the government’s view is that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was just in Iran on holiday.
He says that, when he spoke to the Commons foreign affairs committee last week, he was trying to make the point that, even if Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists, that would not have justified her detention.
He goes on:
I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect.
He says Zarif told him that recent judicial developments in Iran relating to Zaghari-Ratcliffe had nothing to do with his remarks.
And he says that he intends to visit Iran in the next few weeks.
- Johnson refused to say he was wrong about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe training journalists.
- He says his remarks “could have been clearer”. Effectively, he is still claiming that his remarks were misinterpreted, even though the transcript of what he said last week shows clearly that he did say Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran “teaching people journalism”. (See 12.37pm.)
- He says he has been told by his Iranian counterpart that his remarks have not exacerbated Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s plight.
The Evening Standard, which is edited, of course, by George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor, has a damning verdict on Boris Johnson. Here is an extract from today’s Standard editorial.
Mr Johnson made a stupid, careless mistake because he wasn’t on top of the detail — a mistake that her family believes could have “dangerous” consequences.
Rather than quickly apologise and correct his error, he got the Foreign Office to issue a ridiculous statement that he was, in a convoluted way, in fact trying to help.
Spare us, please. We imagine that consular cases are a frustration for our Foreign Secretary. He must feel that they get in the way of the “Great Game”.
But as a fan of classical allusions, Mr Johnson will remember what that impressive Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston promised more than 150 years ago: just as an ancient Roman would always have protection because they could say “civis Romanus sum” (“I am a citizen of Rome”), so our own citizens were entitled to the “watchful eye” and “strong arm” of Britain to protect them from “injustice and wrong”.
Tory backbenchers fail to rally behind Priti Patel
Four Conservative backbenchers have spoken during this urgent question. While none of them were explicitly critical of Priti Patel, none of them were particularly supportive either, and they all expressed reservations, to a varying extent, about what she did.
Crispin Blunt, a former chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said it was important for cabinet ministers to understand all both sides of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Implying that Patel did not fully understand the Palestinian perspective, he told Burt, an experience minister for the Middle East:
He is probably the most equipped of her ministers to take her very gently in hand, and I hope he does.
Sir Hugo Swire said the public wanted “transparency and accountability”. He also said that organisations that lobby ministers should open their books.
Bob Blackman said that there was a problem having two departments dealing with foreign affairs, the Foreign Office and the department for international development. He said it was important to clarify the responsibility of ministers when they went abroad.
Sir Desmond Swayne said that when he met the deputy Israeli prime minister, the deputy PM stormed out. Swayne made a joke about it, but he implied that he might have been rather more robust with the Israelis than Patel.
This is from the BBC’s Norman Smith.
Several Tory MPs deftly sticking the boot in to Priti Patel re ties with Israel. Not looking good for her.
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) November 7, 2017
And Bloomberg’s Robert Hutton has an example.
Crispin Blunt urges @AlistairBurtUK to explain the Middle East to Patel - Burt's boss - and "take her, very gently, in hand."
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) November 7, 2017
Burt says Patel told the Foreign Office about her meetings during the course of her visit.
Urgent question on Priti Patel
Alistair Burt, the international development minister, is now answering an urgent question from Labour about Priti Patel’s trip to Israel. He said he was answering because Patel was in the air, flying to Africa for a visit.
He said that Patel’s meetings were not “particularly secret”, he said.
The matter was now considered closed, he said.
If he had gone to Israel himself, he would have wanted a schedule like Patel’s, he said. But he would have told the embassy, he said.
He also confirmed that, on her return to the UK, Patel asked her department to look at the case for giving aid money to the Israeli army. But that would have been to help the Israeli army look after Syrian refugees, he said. He said in that respect Patel was just doing her job.
Steve Baker's Commons statement about Brext impact reports - Summary
Here are the main points from Steve Baker’s response to the urgent question about the Brexit impact reports.
- Baker, a Brexit minister, said the government would release the Brexit impact reports requested by the Commons in a binding vote last week within three weeks.
- Baker suggested Labour were being unpatriotic in demanding their publication. He said:
What I will say is that the public will look at the Labour party today, look at what they are asking for, look at the kind of narrative which members opposite are trying to create, and they will ask, ‘Who’s side are they on?”
- He said the reports did not feature “quantitative forecasts” of the impact of Brexit on various sectors of the economy.
- He said preparing the reports for publication would distract ministers and officials from the Brexit negotiations.
Updated
Death announced of Welsh government minister sacked over misconduct allegations
The Press Association has just snapped this.
Former Welsh government minister Carl Sargeant, who was sacked last week after allegations about his personal conduct, has died, a family spokesman said.
Jeremy Corbyn has just issued this statement.
This is terrible and deeply shocking news. My thoughts and profound sympathy are with Carl’s family, friends and colleagues.
Tory Brexiters join calls for government to speed up release of Brexit impact assessments
It is not just pro-Europeans who are demanding swifter publication of the Brexit impact assessments. Interestingly Christopher Chope, Sir Edward Leigh and Peter Bone, who are all hardline Brexiters, all said the government should go further. Chope said that, even if all the material was not ready for publication, some of it could be released now. Leigh said that holding back the information would cause more problems than releasing it. And Bone said that the government should simply hand over all the paperwork to the Brexit committee and let it decide what it publishes.
Labour’s Pat McFadden says this government has “the stench of death” about it. He condemns Steve Baker for questioning Labour’s patriotism.
Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, says the government’s refusal to disclose the Brexit impact assessments is a “gross contempt” of parliament.
Baker says it was Labour that first proposed publishing the reports in a redacted form in last week’s debate.
Labour’s Ben Bradshaw asks what the penalties are for a minister found to be in contempt of parliament.
Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, says the Commons voted to give the reports to his committee. They should be handed over in the form they exist now, he says. He says it is for his committee to decide what it publishes.
Baker says some of the information is commercially sensitive. He says the government will give the committee information that is timely and relevant.
Baker suggests Labour are being unpatriotic in demanding Brexit documents.
Responding to complaints from Labour’s Matthew Pennycook about the time being taken by the government to release its Brexit impact assessments, Baker says members of the public will look at Labour and ask themselves “Whose side are they on?’
- Baker suggests Labour are being unpatriotic in demanding Brexit documents.
Brexit impact assessments to be published within three weeks, Steve Baker tells MPs
Baker tells MPs that the 58 sectoral impact assessments do not exist in the form MPs assume.
It will take a while to prepare the information, he says. He says the Brexit department will release the information within three weeks.
Urgent question on Brexit impact assessments
Steve Baker, the Brexit minister, is responding to an urgent question from Labour about the Brexit impact assessements.
He says a Commons written statement has been laid today saying when they will be published. I can’t find it online yet (I will be here at some point), but Labour’s Seema Malhotra has tweeted it.
Written Statement by David Davis just out - apparently “it is not the case that 58 sectoral impact assessments exist”. #brexitshambles pic.twitter.com/CHrDRqBGuw
— Seema Malhotra (@SeemaMalhotra1) November 7, 2017
This is what the Foreign Office said about what Boris Johnson told his Iranian counterpart. (See 12.15pm.)
The foreign secretary made clear that the point he had been seeking to make in his evidence to the foreign affairs committee was that he condemned the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that he believed that Iranian allegations that Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity.
It is worth pointing out that is very hard to square this with what Johnson actually told the foreign affairs committee last week. As I reported earlier, Johnson said:
When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it.
What Boris Johnson said in his call to his Iranian counterpart
At lobby we were given a readout via the Foreign Office of the talk between Boris Johnnon and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, about the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The Foreign Office statement said:
[Johnson] reiterated his anxiety about the continued suffering of Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family, and hoped a solution would be reached soon.
The foreign secretary expressed concern at the suggestion from the Iranian judiciary high council for human rights that his remarks last week at the foreign affairs committee ‘shed new light’ on the case.
The foreign secretary said this was absolutely not true. It was clear, as it always had been, that Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in Iran on holiday when arrested.
The foreign secretary made clear that the point he had been seeking to make in his evidence to the foreign affairs committee was that he condemned the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that he believed that Iranian allegations that Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity.
The foreign secretary concluded by emphasising that his remarks could form no justifiable basis for further action in this case, and urged the Iranian authorities to release Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds.
Johnson told Zarif he hoped to visit Iran before the end of the year to discuss the case.
In return, we were told, Zarif said developments in the case over the weekend “were unrelated to the foreign secretary’s remarks and that he remained committed to working with the foreign secretary to finding a resolution to the case on humanitarian grounds.”
The spokesman added:
The foreign secretary accepts his remarks to the foreign affairs committee could have been clearer on this aspect.
Straw criticises Johnson for putting his own pride ahead of Zaghari-Ratcliffe's welfare
Here are the main points from Jack Straw’s interview on BBC News about Boris Johnson.
-
Straw, the former Labour foreign secretary, said that Johnson had made a “grave error” and that he should correct it in the Commons as soon as possible. Straw said Johnson should give a full Commons statement to MPs about the matter. He accused Johnson of putting his own pride ahead of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s welfare. He said:
By all accounts this was a grave error, that Mrs Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on holiday and she was not doing what Mr Johnson said she was doing. In those circumstances he should have taken rather less than six days to make that clear. Rule one, if you are a British foreign secretary, is to remember that careless talk can cost lives, in the case of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe may cost her literally an extra five years in prison.
All of us in these high offices sometimes make a mistake, and if you do make a mistake, you need to go to the House of Commons as quickly as possible and say, ‘I’m very sorry, I got that wrong.’ And people normally will take that in good faith if you say that very clearly.
I’m amazed that Mr Johnson has decided to make a statement about IS. That’s very important, but he could easily make two statements - I did if often enough - and say, ‘This is the situation, I’m very sorry, I got it wrong.’ I don’t understand why he is, if you like, putting his sense of himself, his amour propre, above the security and safety of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
- Straw said that, if Johnson continued to make errors like this, he might have to resign as foreign secretary. Asked if he was fit to be foreign secretary, Straw said in many ways he was, because he was very bright, understood history and had a good turn of phrase. But Straw went on:
But if he goes on like this, than I think his own side are going to say, ‘Look Boris, I think you need to find something else to do.’ And I note that the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has said he should consider his position. Let’s see what he says this afternoon. But this is really serious for him.
- Straw said there was a limit to what could be achieved by talking to the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, (as Johnson did this morning) because in Iran the civilian government would not determine Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s fate. Straw said Zarif was a “very decent, responsible man, who would never have done this.” But Straw explained:
The truth is the elected government in Iran, although it’s quite powerful in the areas that it deals with, does not have control over security and [the] judicial apparatus. That’s in the hand, directly, of the supreme leader and the Iranian corps of revolutionary guards. And it is they who are leading this and who would have regarded Mr Johnson’s error, for that’s what it was last Wednesday, as manna from heaven.
Part of the Iranian society, lots of them, are pleased about the relationship with the UK. But there are others who are highly suspicious of the UK [and] regard us as the clever satan. Anything like this just confirms their suspicion that many Brits in Iran, although they are doing entirely straightforward things, are there to spy on their country.
Straw also said that Johnson’s comment about Zaghari-Ratcliffe being in Iran to train journalists would have given the revolutionary guards the excuse they needed to resist calls from people like Zarif to show leniency in this case.
Boris Johnson accepts he 'could have been clearer' in comments about Briton jailed in Iran
The Foreign Office has started to brief on Boris Johnson’s call with his Iranian counterpart. The Press Association has snapped these.
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson told his Iranian counterpart in a phone call that his comments to a Commons committee provide “no justifiable basis” for further legal action against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Johnson now accepts that he “could have been clearer” when he told the foreign affairs committee that the British woman had been training journalists in Iran at the time of her arrest, a Foreign Office spokesman said.
This is from Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick.
Senior Conservative MP: "Boris is an f****** disgrace & if he had an ounce of integrity - which he doesn't - he'd have walked immediately."
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) November 7, 2017
The speaker has granted three urgent questions, Labour whips say.
3 UQs 12.30: 1. @mtpennycook on Brexit Impact Assessments 2. @KateOsamor on Patel & visit to Israel 3. @StephenTwigg Saudi blockade of Yemen
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) November 7, 2017
That means the rough timings for events in the Commons are as follows.
11.30am: Business questions.
12.30pm: UQ on Brexit impact assessments.
Around 1.15pm: UQ on Priti Patel.
Around 2pm: UQ on Yemen.
Around 2.30pm: Boris Johnson statement.
This is from my colleague Heather Stewart.
Am told government has signalled to Speaker that Johnson will say few words about Zaghari-Ratcliffe case before his Daesh statement.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) November 7, 2017
Presumably that means it will be open house for Labour MPs to pile in on the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe case, even if the statement is supposed to be about Islamic State.
On the BBC News just now Jack Straw, the Labour former foreign secretary, is being interviewed. He says he does not understand why Boris Johnson is not prepared to admit he made a mistake. Johnson is putting his amour propre first, he says.
Straw says the Iranian revolutionary guards are in charge of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detention. They welcomed Johnson’s comments, Straw says.
The Boris Johnson Commons statement should come at about 12.30pm.
One Government oral statement today:
— Leader's Office (@CommonsLeader) November 7, 2017
Boris Johnson - Counter Daesh Update
In theory, if Johnson is supposed to be speaking about Islamic State, questions about Iran and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should be out of order (which may be one reason why Johnson volunteered the statement). But the speaker sometimes adopts an elastic interpretation of the rules when he thinks the public interest is engaged.
This is what Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, tweeted about Boris Johnson’s Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe error last night.
Hard to find words for how appalling this is. For him it's just another lazy, arrogant failure to check facts. For her it's incarceration https://t.co/HrNWMsK6Vw
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) November 6, 2017
Boris Johnson speaks to Iranian counterpart about British woman held in jail
Boris Johnson has spoken to his Iranian counterpart about the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Foreign Office has confirmed. A formal statement is due soon.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, will be making a Commons statement - about about Islamic State, not Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the BBC’s Norman Smith reports.
So..seems no Boris Johnson statement on #nazarin ...but he will be making Commons statement on IS
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) November 7, 2017
Sounds like Boris Johnson wants to avoid formal apology/correction over #nazarin but cd clarify his remarks in IS statement
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) November 7, 2017
Anna Turley, the Labour MP for Redcar, has given a statement to her local paper explaining that she will away from parliament until Christmas because she is recovering from major surgery. But her office will still be functioning, she says, and her absence will not affect any votes because she will be paired.
Why I won’t be around as much for the next couple of months... 🤒 https://t.co/UoFOY8bwSH
— Anna Turley MP (@annaturley) November 6, 2017
On the Today programme this morning Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, also defended Priti Patel’s decision to hold a range of work-related meetings while on holiday in Israel. Patel was reprimanded yesterday because she did not warn the Foreign Office or Downing Street in advance about what she was up to.
Asked about this, Fox said:
I find it utterly unsurprising that the international aid secretary would want to talk to charities while she is on holiday in a particular area about whether or not we can use the British aid budget to diminish the humanitarian problems of people in that area.
Asked about Patel meeting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Fox said:
It’s not in any way forbidden to do that.
But he played down the idea that he would do the same thing himself. He told the programme:
When I’m on holiday I doubt my wife would give me time off to do anything other than have a holiday.
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has responded to Liam Fox’s attempt to play down the significance of Boris Johnson’s error about Zaghari-Ratcliffe this morning. (See 9.36am.) Ratcliffe told the Press Association:
It is a misstep, and time will tell how big a deal it is. It clearly is a gaffe, it clearly looks like it has had serious consequences, and we will see how serious they are.
But it is also welcome that a government minister is acknowledging that Nazanin is being held as a bargaining chip.
Here is the picture of Theresa May meeting with other party leaders late yesterday afternoon to discuss the Westminster sexual harassment scandal.
Here is our story about the meeting.
As my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, Liam Fox also said in his Today interview that the British public will not accept the diluting of animal welfare standards, a day after Donald Trump’s most senior trade adviser said a US-UK trade deal hinged on scrapping EU food standards regulations, including on chlorinated chicken.
For the record, this is what Boris Johnson told the Commons foreign affairs committee about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe last week.
When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it. [Neither] Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe nor her family has been informed about what crime she has actually committed. And that I find extraordinary, incredible.
This is what the Iranian judiciary’s high council for human rights said at the weekend.
[Johnson’s] statement shows that Nazanin had visited the country for anything but a holiday. For months it was claimed that Nazanin is a British-Iranian charity worker who went to see her family when she was arrested ... Mr Johnson’s statement has shed new light on the realities about Nazanin.
And this is what the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Zaghari-Ratcliffe, said in a statement (pdf) yesterday. This is from Monique Villa, the foundation’s CEO.
On 1 November [Johnson] said that Nazanin ‘was training journalists’ in Iran. I have immediately clarified that this is not right as she is not a journalist and has never trained journalists at the Thomson Reuters Foundation where she is project manager in my media development team.
She was in Iran on holiday to show her daughter Gabriella to her grandparents when she was arrested at Tehran Airport on 3 April 2016. Like Richard Ratcliffe, her husband, I see a direct correlation between this statement by Boris Johnson, who rightly condemned the treatment that Nazanin has received in Iran, and the fact that Nazanin was brought once again into Court on Saturday 4 November and accused of ‘spreading propaganda against the regime.’
Updated
Boris Johnson's error about Briton in Iranian jail not serious, says Liam Fox
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, did a round of interviews this morning to promote the new trade bill being laid in parliament today. But he spent much of his time having to defend his fellow cabinet Brexiter, Boris Johnson.
Here are some of the key points he made about Johnson.
-
Fox said that Johnson had just made a slip of the tongue. “We all make slips of the tongue,” he said, referring to Johnson’s comment about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. See 8.51am. (This may be true but Johnson himself has not admitted making an error; he is just insisting his comments were misinterpreted.)
- Fox said Johnson’s error was not serious. “We have got to be very careful that we are not overreacting to this,” he told Today. And he told Sky News: “I don’t believe that it is a serious gaffe.”
- He said Johnson’s critics were using the story to discredit him, without regard to the consequences. Fox told Sky News:
I think people in the Iranian regime, which is a very brutal regime, are using this as an excuse to hold a UK citizen in the most tenuous of circumstances.
I think what we are seeing here is an attempt to discredit the foreign secretary without thinking first of all what the impact may be and what excuses it may give to the Iranian regime to act improperly.
And Fox told BBC Breakfast:
This is a regime that is acting in an absolutely appalling way and we’ve got to be very careful that in attempting to have a legitimate political debate or even point scoring in the United Kingdom that we make life more difficult for someone who’s being held abroad in one of the most spurious and unacceptable grounds.
- Fox said Johnson did not say anything that might justify Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sentence being extended. He said:
There’s nothing that the foreign secretary has said that would give the Iranian regime any justification for increasing the length of sentence here.
Ann Widdecombe, the Conservative former minister, was on ITV’s Good Morning Britain talking about the Westminster sexual harassment scandal. Declaring that she had never been sexually harassed herself when she was an MP - “I think for the very obvious reason that nobody would have expected to make very much progress if they tried” - she told the programme that much of what was being said was “a lot of nonsense”.
I don’t have a problem with Westminster tidying up its grievance procedures.
My problem has been with the whole of this chaotic scandal which has engulfed Westminster. Now there are serious complaints and those I take very seriously indeed. But most of this has been a lot of nonsense.
I do not consider a mildly flirtatious remark sexual harassment. And actually, I don’t think that the vast majority of the nation do. Everywhere I’ve gone, people have said ‘what’s going on?’. Sense of proportionality has just deserted the whole thing. People putting in complaints 15 years later that they may have been lightly touched. It is ridiculous.
Number 10 are saying the fact that there would not be a cabinet this morning did come up at one of the lobby briefings yesterday. No cabinet meeting was scheduled for today because it is not a full parliamentary week. A mini recess starts tonight, with MPs back in the Commons on Monday.
According to BuzzFeed’s Emily Ashton, No 10 are saying there was no cabinet scheduled for this morning anyway.
Downing St insist that cabinet not cancelled but was never going to happen today due to mini recess starting this eve
— Emily Ashton (@elashton) November 7, 2017
In his morning London Playbook email, Politico Europe’s Jack Blanchard explains why Theresa May may have decided that the prospect of going ahead with this morning’s cabinet is just too ghastly.
Theresa May will chair a meeting of her Cabinet this morning. It may not be the happiest of gatherings. Sitting around the table will be:
— Her first secretary of state, Damian Green, who is under investigation by the Cabinet Office over allegations, which he denies, that he made unwanted advances towards a young Tory activist and had “extreme” pornography on an office computer.
— Her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, whose latest verbal blunder could see a British citizen spend a further five years in jail in Iran.
— Her chancellor, Philip Hammond, who she planned to sack five months ago and with whom she reportedly can hardly bear to share a room.
— Her new defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, whose promotion from chief whip last week following the resignation of her disgraced ally Michael Fallon sparked more fury among her parliamentary party than any Cabinet appointment in recent memory.
— Her Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, who is accused in today’s Mail and Telegraph of failing to act on a rape claim by a Tory aide, and by some of her own colleagues of ending Fallon’s career in order to save her own. She too denies all the charges.
— Her international development secretary, Priti Patel, who went behind her back to hold secret talks with a string of senior Israeli politicians and a Tory donor — and then tried to mislead the press when she got found out.
— Her party chairman, Patrick McLoughlin, whom most of her party want fired for his handling of both the disastrous general election and last month’s conference security fiasco.
The Daily Mail’s Jason Groves is reporting that this morning’s cabinet meeting has been cancelled that.
Cabinet cancelled this morning. Probably for the best in the circs where 2 ministers facing calls to resign + a third is under investigation
— Jason Groves (@JasonGroves1) November 7, 2017
Number 10 have not confirmed that yet. But they won’t confirm that the cabinet meeting - due to start at 9.30am - is going ahead either. I’m promised some clarification soon.
Boris Johnson under fresh pressure to retract his error about Briton jailed in Iran
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is under increasing pressure to admit that he made a mistake last week when he said that a British-Iranian woman was “teaching people journalism” when she was arrested in Iran. Her family and her employer insist Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was just in the country on holiday, but Johnson’s comments have raised the possibility of her jail sentence being extended. Here is our overnight story.
And this is what Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, told the Today programme this morning.
I would like [Boris Johnson] to retract in Parliament, in parliament rather than in a phone call to his counterpart, what he said, and say clearly that Nazanin wasn’t training journalists and that she was just there on holiday.
Given John Bercow, the speaker’s, enthusiasm for granting urgent questions, it is highly likely that this matter will be raised in the Commons before MPs start their mini autum recess this evening.
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, was asked about this on the Today programme. He said Johnson has just made a slip of the tongue.
Liam Fox on Boris Johnson: “We all make slips of the tongue.” A British citizen is facing 5 more years in an Iranian jail. #r4today
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) November 7, 2017
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Lord Hall, the BBC director general, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.
10.30am: Oral hearings start in Belfast in the public inquiry into the renewable heat incentive, the “cash for ash” energy scandal.
4pm: Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
A trade bill is also being presented to parliament today. And we may get a statement from a Brexit minister about the impact assessments that are required to be published following a Commons vote last week. The Brexit department is making a written statement on the subject, but Bercow said yesterday that the documents should be published “very promptly” and he said that, if they weren’t, he would summon a minister to the Commons to explain why not.
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’s Playbook. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Comments will be open today, but with the Westminster sexual harassment scandal in the news, I’ll repeat the appeal I made yesterday and ask readers to be responsible. Contrary to what some people think, the Guadian is legally liable if people post libellous comments BTL and if that becomes a problem, comments will get closed. If you are commenting on the scandal, feel free to make general comments, but please don’t make allegations against individuals.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
Updated
