Photograph: Mark Hawkins/Barcroft Images
Afternoon summary
- The government has dropped its claim that a no-deal Brexit is “unlikely”. (See 12.22pm and 12.35pm.)
- Andrea Leadsom has rebuked Amber Rudd after the work and pensions secretary broke ranks with the government by saying there was a “plausible argument” for a second referendum if MPs voted down the EU withdrawal bill. In an interview on the Today programme, Leadsom also argued that there was a case for a managed no-deal Brexit. (See 9.33am.) At the press conference with her Polish counterpart, Theresa May brushed aside suggestions that having cabinet ministers openly speculating like this about what should happen if her deal gets rejected showed collective cabinet responsibility was breaking down. She said:
Everybody is very clear that not only what government policy is but what we are all individually and collectively focused on is working to ensure that that deal is able to be agreed by and go through a meaningful vote in the House of Commons.
As my colleague Jessica Elgot points out, May’s comment did not fully address the question.
Theresa May says cabinet ministers are “very clear … what government policy is.” They might know what it is, but most show little sign of sticking to it... https://t.co/iuhOHgAgrf
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) December 20, 2018
- Leadsom has told MPs that the Commons debate on Brexit in the new year will start on Wednesday 9 January. (See 11.47pm.)
That’s all from me for today - and for the rest of 2018.
Happy Christmas and happy new year.
A European court of justice decision allowing the UK to unilaterally revoke Article 50 has been rubber-stamped by the highest court in Scotland. As the Press Association reports, the Luxembourg court ruled last week the UK can go back on its decision to start the Brexit process without the agreement of the other 27 EU member states. It referred the case back to the court of session in Edinburgh where a hearing before three judges took place today, which approved the decision. Judge Lord Carloway said: “This court will grant a declarator which mirrors the decision of the court of justice of the European Union.”
Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s constitutional relations secretary, has described the UK government’s approach to Brexit as “amateurish” because it ignored the realities of devolution. Speaking to MSPs, he said:
[The UK government] approached [the talks] in an amateurish, thoughtless way and it approached them also in a view, if you remember the prime minister’s words, that we entered the EU as one UK and would leave as one UK.
I’ve described that regularly as constitutional illiteracy - that simply is not the case. The constitution has changed since the UK joined the EU.
There is a different constitution and that should be recognised. Devolution has taken place since then. So what the UK should have done is gone into negotiations recognising the reality of devolution.
At a very early stage, [Theresa May] should have taken Jeremy Corbyn, Tim Farron, Nicola Sturgeon, Carwyn Jones, Martin McGuinness and Arlene Foster at that time, into a room and said, ‘How can we together get this to work?’.
At no time did that take place. At no time was there anything other than, ‘We do it my way and nobody else matters’.
That is at the heart and root of the problem that we presently have. And how then anybody can talk about bringing people together when their actions at the very beginning have forced people apart, I do not know.
Commenting on Ivan Lewis’s resignation (see 4.40pm), a Labour spokesperson said:
Jeremy Corbyn thanks Ivan for his service to the Labour party.
The Labour party takes all complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously, which are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and appropriate disciplinary action taken.
This case was referred to a full hearing of Labour’s national constitutional committee. The process is the same for everyone.
Party sources said that Lewis had recently been told that a date for his disciplinary hearing would be set in the new year and that, by resigning, Lewis was now denying his accusers a hearing. They also described the comments in Lewis’s resignation letter about Jeremy Corbyn’s views on Israel as “false and bizarre”, saying Corbyn was committed to a two-state solution.
Thousands of Britons living in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have had their rights guaranteed under a new Brexit agreement. As the Press Association reports, the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, has announced that around 57,000 UK nationals living in Efta countries will be protected whether or not the UK leaves the EU with a deal. The agreement will also protect around 14,000 Swiss nationals and 15,000 EU/Efta nationals living in the UK.
In a joint statement, the governments of the UK, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein said:
We are pleased to have reached this agreement. It will protect the rights of our citizens as the UK leaves the EU, and it will provide certainty to businesses.
We want to put in place new arrangements from the end of the implementation period to protect our historic relationships, including in the area of trade.
Ivan Lewis MP quits Labour party, criticising Corbyn's stance on antisemitism
Ivan Lewis, the Labour MP and former minister who is currently suspended from the party over sexual harassment allegations, has announced that he is resigning from the party.
In his resignation letter, he complains that the disciplinary process against him has been allowed to drag on for over a year and he criticises Jeremy Corbyn’s views on Israel and his stance on antisemitism.
I'm resigning from @UKLabour, but will continue to stand up for the people of Bury South as an Independent MP in the @HouseofCommons. Read my resignation letter to Jeremy Corbyn. pic.twitter.com/YNmqRVclvR
— Ivan Lewis (@IvanLewis_MP) December 20, 2018
Updated
Here are more pictures from the UK-Poland Inter-Governmental Consultations.
And here is the family photograph.
For the record, here is the line-up: Theresa May (6L) and Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (6R) pose with members of their respective cabinets, including Britain’s business secretary Greg Clark (L), Britain’s defence secretary Gavin Williamson (2L), Britain’s home secretary Sajid Javid (3L), Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond (4L), Britain’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt (5L), and Poland’s foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz (5R), Poland’s entrepreneurship and technology minister Jadwiga Emilewicz (4R), Poland’s interior and administration minister Joachim Brudzinski (3R) and defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak (2R), and Poland’s undersecretary of state for finance, Piotr Nowak (R) during the UK-Poland Inter-Governmental Consultations at Lancaster House.
David Miliband says Putin's support for Brexit plan boosts case for second referendum
David Miliband, the Labour former foreign secretary, has described Vladimir Putin’s comments about a second referendum as “an insult to the United Kingdom”. He also said that Putin’s support for the current Brexit deal strengthened the case for a rethink. In a comment released by the People’s Vote campaign, which is calling for a second referendum, Miliband said:
Vladimir Putin’s contempt for, or fear of, a people’s vote will not shock anybody. The overwhelming evidence of malign and multiple Russian interventions in western democratic processes, including the Brexit referendum, have been designed to destabilise democratic rule. It is an insult to the United Kingdom that he should be lecturing us on our democratic process.
The idea that democratic consent for Brexit policy should end on 23 June 2016 is dangerous. Theresa May’s plan satisfies no one and was not the basis of the leave campaign. It would be prudent reinforcement of democratic principles to revisit democratic support before it is implemented. Russian support for a bad deal alongside British government threats of no deal should be taken as strong evidence that a different option is needed.
I’ll be wrapping up the blog in about an hour so so. And then I’m not expecting to be blogging again until Monday 7 January, when the Commons returns after the Christmas recess.
A colleague may be running a blog tomorrow, although at this stage I’m not sure and it may depend on what’s around. But then over the holiday period we’ll be off air, unless a very big political story breaks.
Before I sign off, I’d like just to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. And, to those of you who comment BTL, regularly or occasionally, thank you. The comments are a big part of what makes this blog interesting and I’m particularly grateful for the support, suggestions and advice I pick up down there. I find the constructive questions really helpful. And the critical ones tend to be thought-provoking and helpful too (as long as they are not rude). Unfortunately I don’t think there is an award for best news website comments section, but if there were, you lot would win hands down.
Mordaunt says she has written to PM demanding end to sexism in honours system
Penny Mordaunt, who combines being minister for women and equalities with being international development secretary, told MPs this morning that she wants to abolish sexism in the honours system. She was responding to a question from Maria Miller, the Conservative chair of the women and equalities committee, who says the way the honours system treats spouses is unfair.
Miller was referring to the way wives get the courtesy title “lady” if their husbands are made a knight or a lord. But husbands and civil partners do not get recognised in the same way if their partners receive a damehood or a peerage.
Mordaunt told Miller that she was making “an incredibly important point”. She went on:
The Cabinet Office is doing great work to create more diversity in the honours list, but inequality is baked into the system, including in the use of courtesy titles. It is quite wrong that people are treated differently in this way, so I have written to the prime minister to ask that it is remedied.
Mordaunt did not explain how she would like to see the anomaly removed. Six years ago a Tory MP proposed a bill under the 10-minute rule that would allow husbands and civil partners to receive “equivalent honorary titles to those available to women”.
An alternative solution would be simply to abolish courtesy titles altogether, but that is unlikely to appeal to a Conservative prime minister. Many Tory backbenchers end up receiving knighthoods and for many, it is said, part of the appeal is that their wives become ladies.
Here is Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, commenting on her amendment to the finance bill intended to stop the government implementing a no-deal Brexit without MPs’ consent. (See 2.51m.) She said:
The risks to our economy and security from “no deal” are far too high and it would be irresponsible to allow it to happen. I do not believe parliament would support “no deal” and ministers should rule it out now. But if the government won’t rule it out, then parliament needs to find opportunities to stop the country reaching the cliff edge by accident - starting with the finance bill in the first week back, then looking at every other legislative opportunity too. That is why we have tabled this amendment with cross party support.
The House of Lords is holding one of its intermittent elections; while the vast majority of the upper house is appointed, the 92 hereditary peers who still work in it are voted in by other members.
This byelection is caused by the death in October of Roger Bootle-Wilbraham, the seventh Baron Skelmersdale, who served as a junior minister in the Thatcher government.
There are 16 hereditary peers seeking to replace him, with members of the Lords able to cast their votes (in the Queen’s robing) room on 22 January.
As usual, the candidates, or rather most of them, have submitted brief campaign pitches for the official election notice. Two – Lords Cadman and Southampton – have not done so while another, Lord Biddulph, wrote pithily if cryptically only: “Always willing to serve”.
Most of the others have experience much as you might expect, especially the Earl of Carnarvon, who talks up his “wide experience of small business, farming, tourism and countryside/heritage matters” - ie running a country estate, in this instance Highclere Castle, known to TV viewers as the set of Downton Abbey.
There are exceptions, however: the current Lord Hampton, whose 19th century ancestor had the title created after he served as secretary of state for war and first lord of the Admiralty, says he is a secondary school teacher in Hackney, east London, who also coaches cricket at a local club.
Updated
MPs launch bid to amend finance bill to rule out no-deal Brexit without Commons approval
A cross-party group of MPs, including select committee chairs, has tabled an amendment to the finance bill designed to stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal. It says clause 89 of the finance bill would only be allowed to come into force if there was either a Brexit deal, or a decision to extend article 50, or a vote in the Commons specifically approving a no deal Brexit.
Clause 89 of the bill would give the government the power to keep tax law working in the event of a no deal Brexit.
According to ITV’s Robert Peston, the amendment could be put to a vote on Tuesday 8 January, when MPs will debate the remaining stages of the finance bill.
The amendment has been tabled by Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, and also signed by: Nicky Morgan, the Conservative chair of the Treasury committee; Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Brexit committee; Oliver Letwin, the Conservative former minister; Rachel Reeves, the Labour chair of the business committee; Harriet Harman, the Labour chair of the joint committee on human rights; and Nick Boles, the Conservative who this week threatened to resign the party whip and vote against the government in a confidence motion if it tried to implement a no-deal Brexit.
Cross-party coalition of senior MPs, led by @YvetteCooperMP and @NickyMorgan01, is attempting to amend finance bill to prevent the government going for a no-deal Brexit without obtaining the consent of parliament. There should now be a big vote on 8 Jan. See attached pic.twitter.com/BNAHTnGBOA
— Robert Peston (@Peston) December 20, 2018
Updated
Q: What will be on the agenda for Polish-UK cooperation after Brexit? And what will bind the two countries together?
Morawiecki says he hopes a new trade agreement will be negotiated soon. The withdrawal agreement can lead to that, he says.
And that’s it.
As press conferences go, that was about as unilluminating as they come.
Updated
Q: What has been discussed about the rights of Poles living in the UK?
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, says he has discussed this frequently with May.
He says the withdrawal agreement is the best deal available. He says he hopes it is adopted.
Q: If there is a no-deal Brexit, and chaos is unleashed, whose fault will it be?
May says she is working to get a deal. The way to avoid no deal is for parliament to approve her deal, she says.
She says EU nationals in the UK would have their rights respected if there is no deal. And the Polish PM has offered similar assurances to Britons living in Poland.
Q: What do you think about the fact that cabinet minsters are openly talking about what should happen if your deal gets voted down, including a second referendum?
May says she and other cabinet ministers have been clear that they want to get further assurances so that they can get their deal through the Commons. She says there will be further discussions with the EU.
Q: Is the UK unprepared for the use of drones at airports?
May says the government has already legislated to stop this. People can be sentenced to up to five years in jail for this. And the government is considering giving the police more powers, she says.
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, is speaking now.
He also stresses links between the two countries.
It is important to ensure Nato remains strong, he says.
On Brexit, he says he appreciates the efforts Theresa May has made. He says Poland always tried to support pragmatic solutions, to make sure the withdrawal agreement was as good as possible. He says it is the best deal available.
He says it would be beneficial for both sides for the agreement to come into force.
The UK is leaving the EU, he says. But it is not leaving Europe, he says.
He says the Polish diaspora living in the UK can feel secure now about their rights being respected. He says he is glad people have found a new home here. But he would like Poles to return home, he says.
UPDATE: MLex’s Matthew Holehouse has the quote.
Poland's Morawiecki in London: “We are happy that they have found a new home. However as our economy is blooming we’d like our citizens to consider returning to Poland, although we respect everyone’s personal choices.”
— Matthew Holehouse (@mattholehouse) December 20, 2018
Updated
May says she wants Poles living in UK to stay after Brexit
Theresa May is speaking at the press conference now.
She says the UK and Poland are key strategic allies. Their armed forces will work side by side on training exercises, and there will be increased cooperation in the Baltic Sea.
She says their security services will work together against organised crime.
Both countries want a peaceful Europe, and share the same concerns about threats. She says they are worried about Russia undermining the rules-based system.
The trade relationship is thriving, she says.
Both countries want a cleaner world, and today they have established a clean growth partnership.
She says the UK and Poland are two of the most innovative economies in Europe. She says she and Mateusz Morawiecki have discussed plans for tech cooperation.
She says protecting the rights of Poles and other EU nationals living in the UK after Brexit has been a priority.
Her message to Poles here has been clear, she says: “You can stay, and we want you to stay.”
She also repeats the line in Polish.
Updated
Earlier the Polish PM, Mateusz Morawiecki, posted this on Twitter about his talks with Theresa May.
Sytuacja Polaków w Wielkiej Brytanii to kluczowy aspekt rozmów z premier Theresą May. Naszym celem jest też utrzymanie swobody wymiany handlowej, tak istotnej dla polskich firm. Wierzę, że brytyjski parlament podejmie taką decyzję, która będzie korzystna dla wszystkich stron.
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) December 20, 2018
Tweetdeck translates that as:
The situation of Poles in the United Kingdom is a key aspect of the talks with the Prime Minister Theresą May. Our aim is also to maintain the freedom of trade, so important for Polish companies. I believe that the British Parliament will take such a decision, which is beneficial to all parties.
Theresa May's press conference
Theresa May is about to hold a press conference with her Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki.
Putin says holding second referendum on Brexit would be undemocratic
Good news for opponents of a second referendum; they have got an endorsement from one of the world’s most powerful men. As my colleague Andrew Roth reports, the Russian president Vladimir Putin has declared it would be a bad idea in his annual marathon press conference today.
Showing a concern for the sanctity of democracy which has not always been a hallmark of his career, Putin argued that the will of the people must be respected. He said:
Was it not a referendum? Someone disliked the result, so repeat it over and over? Is this democracy? What then would be the point of the referendum in the first place?
Here is Andrew’s story in full.
Londoners face 9% increase in mayor's share of council tax to fund police
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has published his draft budget for 2019/20. He is planning to increase the share of London council tax that he claims by 9% - the maximum increase allowed that does not require a referendum to approve it. For an average band D council tax payer in the capital, this will amount to an increase of £26.28 a year, or 50p a week - taking the overall contribution going to the mayor from £294.23 to £320.51.
Almost all the increase will go towards policing, which will get an extra £84.4m.
Explaining the move, Khan said:
My first responsibility is to keep Londoners safe. Over 70% of the Met’s funding is controlled by the government and ministers have repeatedly refused to reverse the cuts they have made since 2010. As a result the Met has already had to make cuts of some £850m and I am furious that this is set to continue.
I am concerned that the government is continuing to shift the burden of police funding from government grant to council tax – which is deeply regressive and hits the poorest the hardest.
However, the brutal reality of the rise in violent crime and government cuts means that I have little choice but to increase the policing element of the council tax by the maximum amount allowed by ministers.
Khan also announced that he is going to spend £6.8m on significantly expanding a new violence reduction unit. This will develop a public health approach to tackling violent crime. “Using data to form a strong evidence base, the unit will use this money to identify where and how to make early interventions in a young person’s life as part of a long-term strategy to prevent the spread of violence,” Khan’s office says.
The Brexit department has put out this statement about its decision to remove the claim in its no-deal planning notices that such an outcome is “unlikely”. (See 12.22pm.) A spokesperson said:
The language on gov.uk has been updated to reflect Tuesday’s cabinet decision to enact the remaining elements of our no deal preparations. We fully expect to get a deal and believe that is the most likely outcome - that is what we are focused on delivering.
Government drops claims that no-deal Brexit 'unlikely'
This is a terrific spot from Sky’s Faisal Islam.
No Deal no longer “unlikely” - Government
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) December 20, 2018
Government has in past 24 hours quietly edited every No Deal technical notice to take out word “unlikely” from the sentence “in the unlikely event of no deal...”
Now says “in the event of no deal”.
See before and after on medicines👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/KrWHCMGng9
You can find all the technical notices here. They were originally published in the summer. I’ve just been having a quick look through the ones we printed out an filed at the time. Many of them did not specifically use the word “unlikely” to refer to the prospect of a no-deal Brexit. But some of them did, and those ones do seem to have been edited, so that the word “unlikely” has been removed.
UPDATE: PoliticsHome have been in touch to say that they had this story yesterday.
Updated
Leadsom says Grieve amendment still stands
The SNP’s Pete Wishart asks if the Dominic Grieve amendment to the original business motion for the Brexit deal debate still stands. This is the one that effectively says, if MPs vote down the deal, the Commons should have the option on voting for an alternative ‘plan B’.
Leadsom says the Grieve amendment still stands.
Leadsom says government yet to decide whether MPs will debate new motion, or resume debate on old one
Labour’s Valerie Vaz, the shadow leader of the Commons, asks Leadsom when the Brexit debate will end.
And she asks for clarification on whether it will be a new debate, or a resumption of the old debate.
In response, Leadsom says the business for the week beginning Monday 14 January will be set out in the business of the House motion to be debated on Wednesday 9 January.
As for whether MPs will be debating a new motion, or just resuming their debate on the motion tabled earlier this month, she says that will depend on what Theresa May comes back with after her talks with the EU.
And as for whether MPs who have already spoken in the debate will be allowed to speak again, she says that will be a matter for the speaker.
- Leadsom refuses to name the day when the vote on the Brexit deal will be held.
- She says whether or not the government tables a new motion will depend on the outcome of May’s talks with the EU.
The Labour whips are criticising Leadsom for not saying when the actual vote will be held.
Confirmation the Govt haven’t set or announced a date for the meaningful vote & we’re unlikely to know until 2019. The Govt can’t even say whether we’ll be voting on the exact same legal text of the deal as we were meant to on 11 Dec or not #BrexitShambles #InOfficeButNotInPower pic.twitter.com/PZDh4yO7mH
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) December 20, 2018
Updated
Leadsom says Commons debate on Brexit deal to start on Wednesday 9 January
Andrea Leadsom, the Commons leader, has just told MPs that the new debate on Theresa May’s Brexit deal will start on Wednesday 9 January. She said she expected MPs to debate it on Thursday and Friday that week as well.
She did not say when the vote would be, but if it is a five-day debate again, the vote would probably be on Tuesday 15 January.
Updated
London mayor to pay 'settled status' fees for EU GLA staff after Brexit
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has announced that the Greater London Authority will reimburse its EU employees who have to pay £65 to acquire “settled status” after Brexit. He said it would be better if the government abolished this fee for all EU citizens staying in the UK, but if it does not, the GLA will cover the cost for its staff. This will benefit EU nationals working for bodies like the Metropolitan police, the London fire brigade or Transport for London.
In a statement Khan said:
London is a truly global city where we see our incredible diversity as a strength, not a weakness. Our EU staff are Londoners, they are critical to the work of City Hall and across the GLA, they belong here and they will always be welcome and valued. I urge the government to scrap the ‘settled status’ application fee – no one should be forced to pay to stay because their immigration status was changed through no fault of their own. However, until ministers do this, I can confirm that we will help our EU staff apply for ‘settled status’ as quickly and painlessly as possible.
I urge other London businesses to follow our lead and offer all support possible to the one million European Londoners, ensuring that those who have come to our city remain able to contribute to every aspect of life here, and continue to make London a vibrant, dynamic and prosperous city.
The Scottish government is going to do the same for EU nationals working in the public services in Scotland, although Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, recently complained that the UK government will not let the Scottish government pay the fees upfront. Instead, it will reimburse individuals after they have paid themselves.
Labour says rise in number of homeless people dying 'utterly shameful'
And Labour has released this statement on the figures from the shadow housing minister Melanie Onn. She said:
These figures are utterly shameful and reflect a complete failure of Conservative policy on housing, which has seen rough sleeping skyrocket since 2010.
We are one of the richest countries in the world and there is no excuse for people dying on our streets.
Labour will provide £100m to ensure that everyone has shelter when it becomes dangerously cold. We will end rough sleeping within five years to ensure that everyone has a place to call home.
James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, has released a statement about the figures about the rise in the number of deaths of homeless people. (See 9.49am.) He said:
No one is meant to spend their lives on the streets, or without a home to call their own. Every death on our streets is too many and it is simply unacceptable to see lives cut short this way.
That’s why we are investing £1.2bn to tackle homelessness and have bold plans backed by £100m to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027.
I am also committed to ensuring independent reviews into the deaths of rough sleepers are conducted, where appropriate, so that important lessons are learned – and I will be holding local authorities to account in doing just that.
And to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place, we’ve changed the law to require councils to provide early support for those at risk of being left with nowhere left to go, are boosting access to affordable housing, and making renting more secure.
These figures will support us in our mission to end rough sleeping for good, ensuring we have as much detailed information as possible so we can target support in the right way.
Tate is acquiring four watercolours by the late women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, the Press Association reports. The paintings, from 1907, depict women working in mills and potteries. They are being acquired by Tate, with funds provided by the Denise Coates Foundation, from the artist’s grandchildren, Helen Pankhurst and Alula Pankhurst. Helen Pankhurst said:
The family are delighted that some of Sylvia’s paintings are being acquired by Tate. Sylvia was an artist as well as a champion of working women’s rights, her first passion not as well known as her second. In these beautiful pieces these interests are powerfully combined.
Abbott accuses Today programme of devoted interview to 'attacks on Corbyn'
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, was interviewed on the Today programme this morning. She has criticised the programme for devoting much of the interview to the row about whether Jeremy Corbyn did or did not call Theresa May a “stupid woman” in the Commons yesterday. Corbyn insists he did not.
Strange experience but not unique. Invited by @BBCr4today to speak on immigration policy, yet only 1 question, repeated 3 times. Main questions simply a string of attacks on Jeremy Corbyn. This is not public service broadcasting.
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) December 20, 2018
In her interview Abbott claimed that Conservative MPs who were professing to be outraged in the Commons yesterday “put on a display which Hackney primary school children would have been ashamed of”. She went on:
Nobody really knows what [Corbyn] said, certainly they [MPs] did not know what he said at the time.
To me it was contrived, staged behaviour and the British people might wonder why the Tories will stage a mini-riot in parliament over that but are not staging a mini-riot over the tens of thousands of people who are newly on universal credit and are facing Christmas with no money.
Updated
Brokenshire is now responding to Onn.
He accuses her of misrepresenting what he said in his Guardian interview. He was making a point about how drug use has increasingly become a factor in homelessness, he says.
For the record, here is an extract from Robert Booth’s story.
The number of people sleeping rough has more than doubled since 2010 to 4,751 according to the government’s own figures. The homelessness charity Crisis believes that this is a fivefold underestimate and that 24,000 people will be sleep on the streets, in cars and in tents. Sofa-surfers make up a further 68,000, according to Crisis.
But Brokenshire insisted the growing problem is not a political failure, even though charities which run hostels and advice lines believe that caps on housing benefit and welfare sanctions introduced as part of austerity policies have been key factors driving rises in homelessness every year since the Conservatives took office in 2010.
“I don’t see it in those terms,” Brokenshire said. “I see it as a combination of concerning elements in terms of addiction, family breakdown issues. The thing that struck me over recent months in speaking to some of the LGBT charities in terms of young people, because of their sexuality, being thrown out of home.”
Melanie Onn, the shadow communities minister, who tabled the urgent question, offers her condolences to the relatives of the homeless man who died at Westminster. But he was not the first homeless person to die near the Houses of Parliament this year, she says.
She criticises Brokenshire for blaming homeless people for their own misfortune in comments in the Guardian this week.
Homelessness should be seen as a public health issue, not just a housing issue, she says.
And she says it should not take the government nine years to eliminate rough sleeping. She says the last Labour government showed how this problem could be addressed.
Brokenshire's statement on deaths of homeless people
James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, is now responding to the urgent question on the deaths of homeless people.
He says how sorry he was to hear about the homeless man who died outside the House of Commons this week. He says one death is too many.
He says only this week he announced the location of 11 rough sleeping hubs.
Today’s figures stress the need to stop people becoming homeless in the first place. He says the government is focusing on this.
He says winter is a particularly difficult time. He launched a £5m cold weather fund in the autumn.
If the government needs to do more, it will.
Commenting on the ONS figures for deaths of homeless people, the Local Government Association says councils need more money to address this problem. Martin Tett, the LGA’s housing spokesman, said:
Every death of a homeless person is preventable. We must make this everybody’s business to work together to stop this tragic loss of life and stop homelessness from happening in the first place.
Councils are determined to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping from happening in the first place and support families affected. This is becoming increasingly difficult with homelessness services facing a funding gap of more than £100 million in 2019/20.
Blimey. Unbeknownst to me, I seem to be writing Best for Britain press notices. The anti-Brexit group has just sent out a press notice about the Amber Rudd/Andrea Leadsom interviews with a quote from the Lib Dem MP Layla Moran. It starts:
Collective cabinet responsibility is crumbling before our very eyes.
In normal circumstances cabinet ministers at least make an effort to say the same thing in public. Now, Andrea Leadsom is making the case for the unicorn Brexit where in ‘Leadsom world’ a no deal Brexit won’t be the economic Armageddon that everyone else thinks, but a land of milk and honey.
That sounds like a straight lift from my opening post. See 9.33am. Perhaps I should send them an invoice ...
And here are the four key charts from the ONS report.
This shows how the number of deaths of homeless people increased between 2013 and 2017.
Here is the age profile of homeless people who died in 2017.
Here are the causes of deaths of homeless people in 2017.
And this shows where those deaths occurred.
Updated
Here is Ben Humberstone, head of health and life events at the ONS, on the figures out today for the number of deaths of homelessness people in England and Wales. This is the first time the ONS has produced figures for these deaths. Humberstone said:
Every year hundreds of people die while homeless. These are some of the most vulnerable members of our society so it was vital that we produced estimates of sufficient quality to properly shine a light on this critical issue. Today we have been able to do just that. We estimate that in 2017 there were 597 deaths of homeless people in England and Wales, a rise of 24% since 2013.
Our findings show a pattern of deaths among homeless people that is strikingly different from the general population. For example, homeless people tend to die younger and from different causes. The average age of death last year was 44 years, with 84% of all deaths being men. More than half were related to drug poisoning, suicide, or alcohol, causes that made up only 3% of overall deaths last year.
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Deaths of homelessness people have increased by 24% over last five years, says ONS
Here are the main points from the Office for National Statistics release about the deaths of homeless people in England and Wales.
There were an estimated 597 deaths of homeless people in England and Wales in 2017, a figure that has increased by 24% over the last five years.
Men made up 84% of deaths of homeless people in 2017.
The mean age at death of homeless people was 44 years for men, 42 years for women and 44 years for all persons between 2013 and 2017; in comparison, in the general population of England and Wales in 2017, the mean age at death was 76 years for men and 81 years for women.
Over half of all deaths of homeless people in 2017 were due to drug poisoning, liver disease or suicide; drug poisoning alone made up 32% of the total.
London and the North West of England had the highest mortality of homeless people, both in numbers of deaths and per million population of the region.
This is a particularly sensitive issue for MPs at the moment because this week a homeless man died only yards from the entrance to the parliamentary estate. My colleague Patrick Greenfield has more on that story here.
Brexit: Andrea Leadsom makes case for 'managed no deal'
Collective cabinet responsibility is crumbling. In normal circumstances cabinet ministers at least make an effort to say the same thing in public. But now, with Theresa May’s Brexit deal widely expected to be defeated in January, ministerial lobbying as to what should happen next, which in the past used to take place in private, is now happening in public, in the TV studios.
Last night, on ITV’s Peston, Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, floated the idea of holding a second referendum (even though May has repeatedly ruled out the idea). Rudd, who voted remain, said:
I have said that I don’t want a people’s vote or a referendum in general, but if parliament absolutely failed to reach a consensus l could see there would be a plausible argument for it.
This morning Andrea Leadsom, the Brexiter leader of the Commons, shot the idea down. Asked about a second referendum on Today, she said:
It’s not government policy. I myself think it would undermine the biggest democratic exercise ever, where we had a clear majority to leave the European Union.
To have a second referendum would unfortunately be going back to people and telling them they have got it wrong and they needed to try again. I think it would be unacceptable.
My colleague Matthew Weaver has more details here.
What was just as interesting was what Leadsom said about the possibility of a “managed no deal” Brexit. Some of her cabinet colleagues have dismissed this as a fantasy (or a “unicorn”, to use David Gauke’s term). But Leadsom insisted it was a plausible option. She said:
No-deal’ implies that we leave in March and there are absolutely no agreements whatsoever.
But what we already saw yesterday, in the EU’s preparations which they have very belatedly started to make for no deal, is that there are going to be agreements on things like aviation, on things like haulage, on things like tourist travellers and so on.
A managed no-deal does not necessarily mean there is no withdrawal agreement at all.
This is all speculation, but what I am looking at is trying to find an alternative that, in the event we cannot agree to this deal, that there could be a further deal that looks at a more minimalist approach that allows us to leave with some kind of deal and some kind of implementation period that avoids a cliff edge, that avoids uncertainty for businesses and travellers and so on.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
9.30am: The ONS publishes figures on the deaths of homeless people in England and Wales.
10.30am: Commons urgent question on the deaths of homeless people.
After 11am: Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, takes business questions.
Around 2pm: Theresa May holds a press conference with her Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, as part of the UK-Poland Inter-Governmental Consultations.
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 when I wrap up, at around 5pm.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
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