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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Corbyn and Starmer have made Labour 'impotent' on Brexit, says Mandelson – Politics live

Lord Mandleson.
Lord Mandleson. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

Afternoon summary

  • Lord Mandelson, the Labour former business secretary, has accused Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Keir Starmer of making the party “impotent” on Brexit. (See 3.49pm.)
  • The Brexit department has said MPs are not expected to get a vote on leaving the EEA, correcting the message given by David Davis, the Brexit secretary, who told the Commons earlier that such a vote was likely. (See 4.04pm.)
  • Steve Rotheram, Labour’s candidate for Liverpool Metro mayor, has said that he wants to make Merseyside the high-tech capital of the Northern Powerhouse. Speaking at his manifesto launch he said:

We were pivotal to the first industrial revolution as the gateway to the New World.

Let’s ensure we are pivotal to the fourth industrial revolution - by being the digital gateway to the new economy.

Devolution gives us the opportunity to link Liverpool as the economic engine of the city region with our surrounding areas - creating both synergy and scale.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

The failure of the talks to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland has claimed another casualty - the move to create a low corporation tax regime in the region.

Top Stormont civil servants who are now in charge of running devolved government departments in Belfast have warned that the deadline for April 18 to introduce a 12.5% corporation tax “may slip” if local politicians do not reach a deal to re-establish devolved cross-community government.

One of the few things that united the two main parties - the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein - was the drive towards a low corporation tax rate similar to that in the Irish Republic which has created hundreds of thousands of jobs south of the border, mainly in the hi-tech multi-national sector.

The campaign by Invest Northern Ireland to encourage foreign direct investment has even involved Ballymena-born Holywood star Liam Neeson. Yet beyond the sprinkle of stardust the key selling point to multi-national hi-tech giants was meant to be a 12.5% corporation tax regime.

Liberty, the human rights pressure group, says the white paper on the “great repeal bill” suggests the bill “risks leaving UK residents with far fewer rights than they currently have”.

In a press notice it proposes various improvements, including putting a “non-retrogression clause” into the bill to prevent it and any secondary legislation deriving from it being used to weaken current protections, and including the EU’s charter of fundamental rights in UK law.

Gina Miller, who businesswoman who forced the government to pass legislation authorising the triggering of article 50 by taking it to court, has told Radio 5 Live that she could launch a fresh legal challenge over the “great repeal bill”. She said:

I would consider going to court to get a ruling to say whether or not the government can do this [use the great repeal bill] - as we did with the royal prerogative.

I am profoundly worried about the use [of so-called Henry VIII powers] because the government has already blotted its copy book by trying to bypass parliament and use the royal prerogative. So if there is any sniff that they are trying to use Henry VIII powers, that would be profoundly unparliamentary and democratic, and I would seek legal advice, because what you are doing is setting a precedent that government could bypass parliament.

It is not entirely clear on what grounds she would be able challenge the “great repeal bill”. Henry VIII powers are perfectly legal and have been around for centuries - they are not caused Henry VIII powers for nothing - and, if ministers get new powers, it will be because parliament has passed a new act.

Brexit department corrects David Davis and says MPs will not get vote on leaving EEA

In the Commons earlier David Davis, the Brexit secretary, said MPs would probably get a vote on leaving the EEA. (See 1.46pm.) That opened up the theoretical possibility of the House of Commons voting to keep Britain in the EEA (the “Norway option”) while leaving the EU.

That has now been ruled out. The Brexit department has issued a statement effectively correcting its secretary of state and saying a vote is now not expecting.

A spokesperson for the department said:

We will not be a member of the single market or the EEA. Once we leave the EU, the EEA agreement will no longer be relevant for the UK. It will have no practical effect.

We therefore do not envisage a vote. We are considering what steps, if any, might need to be taken to formally terminate the EEA agreement as a matter of international law.

That is what the secretary of state was referring to in the House and we will of course keep parliament fully updated.

Corbyn and Starmer have made Labour 'impotent' on Brexit, says Mandelson

Lord Mandelson, the Labour former business secretary, has written an article for the New Statesman about Brexit. Not surprisingly, he criticises Theresa May. (“She is desperate for the support of the right-wing press and the nationalist wing of her party. Where Cameron placated, she has actively empowered, regardless of cost.) And, not surprisingly, he also criticises Jeremy Corbyn.

What is a bit more interesting is that he singles out Sir Keir Starmer for attack too. Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary with leadership ambitions, is seen as Labour’s best hope by quite a few people on Mandelson’s wing of the party.

But Mandelson makes it clear that he holds Starmer jointly responsible for making Labour “impotent on the most important set of issues facing Britain in most peoples’ lifetime”. He says:

The party’s frontbench has effectively brushed aside the views and interests of the bulk of its own supporters who wanted to stay in the EU and now don’t want to jeopardise their jobs by leaving the single market and the customs union as well. They value migration and want to see it managed, not virtually ended.

By going along with hard Brexit now, Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer have torpedoed Labour’s ability to oppose the government’s approach when it fails later on. This is not acting in the national interest.

Nobody would claim that Brexit is easy to navigate politically, but Labour has rendered itself impotent on the most important set of issues facing Britain in most peoples’ lifetime. Setting a series of belated “tests” for the government will hardly reverse the damage.

Lord Mandelson.
Lord Mandelson. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

According to Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt, the “great repeal bill” won’t actually be called the great repeal bill.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, has criticised the white paper on the “great repeal bill” for not doing enough to protect workers’ rights. She said the bill should include specific clauses guaranteeing employment and equality laws, and that the government should also commit to ensuring UK employment legislation keeps up with new EU legislation. In a statement she said:

The government is taking wide-ranging powers that will allow ministers to scrap or water down rights like protections from excessive working hours, equal treatment for agency workers, and redundancy protections.

The prime minister needs to think again. She should carve out a specific exemption in the great repeal bill to stop holes being punched in the rights that working people in Britain currently have.

The prime minister must also make good on her promise to build on workers’ rights by putting them at the heart of the UK’s future trade deal with the EU. There must be a guarantee of a level playing field with our EU partners – not a race to the bottom on workplace rights. We don’t want hardworking Brits to miss out on new rights that workers in other European nations get.

Lunchtime summary

One possible alternative to Scotland leaving the EU “against its will” put forward by the Scottish Government is that Scotland may be able to secure a distinctive deal with different rules on immigration and free trade from the rest of the UK. The survey reveals that there is relatively little support for this: almost two-thirds (62%) of Scottish voters think that after Brexit the rules on trade and immigration should be the same in Scotland as they are in the rest of the UK.

John Curtice, the NatCen senior research fellow and the report’s author, said in an article for the Guardian.

It is, thus, perhaps not surprising that there is relatively little support for the Scottish government’s idea that Scotland might have a closer relationship with the EU even while still being part of the UK. As many as 62% say the rules on immigration into Scotland from the EU should be the same as those for immigration into England and Wales. Only 25% back the idea that it might be easier for someone from the EU to migrate to Scotland than to England or Wales. Equally, 62% say the rules on trade between Scotland and the EU should be the same as those in the rest of the UK, while just 34% think there should be a more liberal regime north of the border.

Between them, these findings raise severe doubts about the wisdom of the Scottish government’s decision to turn a disagreement about what Brexit should mean into the crux of an argument as to why Scotland should have a second opportunity to back leaving the UK. The level of commitment to the EU in Scotland may be broad but it is also seemingly too shallow for Brexit to be an issue that is likely to change many minds about the merits of independence. Even among those who were already in favour of leaving the UK in the first independence referendum, just over three in five would like to see an end to freedom of movement.

Updated

Plaid Cymru has branded the “great repeal bill” the “biggest power grab” since the annexation of Wales in 1536.

Far from welcoming the Brexit secretary’s declaration that the devolved administrations would have “a significant increase in the decision making powers”, it said it was concerned that this meant the repatriation of powers from the EU to Westminster and not to the three assemblies.

Plaid Cymru says it is very concerned as paragraph 4.2 states “explicitly that EU responsibilities in the fully devolved fields, agriculture, environment and transport, will be taken by Westminster”. Plaid MP Jonathan Edwards said:

The people of Wales voted to leave the European Union and to take back control – they did not vote to allow unelected Whitehall Britocrats to grab power for themselves. Wales also voted to make our own parliament responsible for the governance of our country in multiple devolution referenda – transferring responsibilities away from the bloated Westminster system and closer to the people of Wales.

The German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel has told the German parliament that the UK will not be able to trade with the EU on terms as good as it does now when it leaves. He said:

It is clear that a partnership outside the European Union, as the United Kingdom is striving for, must necessarily be less than membership. A free trade agreement, however far-reaching and innovative it is, is inevitably less trade friendly than the barrier-free internal market.

On the World at One Ireland’s ambassador to the UK, Daniel Mulhall, also spoke out against Theresa May’s proposal to negotiate Britain’s withdrawal from the EU in parallel with the proposed UK-EU trade deal. He said:

I think normally, in any situation, you would first of all - if a country wants to leave an arrangement - you would discuss the departure first before you discuss what kind of relationship you might want to have in the future.

The great repeal bill sets out for the first time the definitive account of the numbers of laws that may need to be converted into domestic law - around 8,000 laws.

It says there are currently 12,000 EU regulations in force. In the UK, there are “7,900 statutory instruments which have implemented EU legislation” with 186 acts of parliament “incorporating a degree of EU influence”.

Here is the Green MP Caroline Lucas on the great repeal bill white paper.

Updated

This is what David Davis said to the Labour MP Kevin Brennan when Brennan asked if there would be a vote on leaving the EEA. (See 1.02pm.) Davis replied:

Depending on what the policy decision is, I would think it was quite likely to come before parliament.

The Labour MP Chris Leslie says this is significant.

Updated

Juncker says Brexit will make EU stronger

Brexit is not the end of the European Union, but will make it stronger and better, one of Europe’s most senior leaders has said, the day after Britain filed its notice to leave.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European commission, said Brexit must be seen as “a new beginning, something that is stronger, something that is better”. He was speaking at a gathering of centre-right leaders in Malta, where the hall rang with speeches extolling patriotism and Christianity.

Juncker also took aim at Donald Trump’s satisfaction over Brexit. He said:

The newly elected US president was happy that the Brexit was taking place and has asked other countries to do the same. If he goes on like that I am going to promote the independence of Ohio and Austin, Texas.

Another EU leader rejected the central tenet of the Brexit campaign, that leaving the EU allowed the UK to ‘take back control’. Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said it was “dangerous and foolish” to believe that leaving the EU would increase a country’s ability to influence the world.

He said Eurosceptics had presented the EU as a threat to national and state sovereignty.

This is a view, which is both foolish and dangerous. Our mission should be to make Europeans realise that it is exactly the opposite. That a strong EU capable of being sovereign in relation to the external world … is the best and perhaps the only guarantee of national and state sovereignty.

Sovereignty was at the centre of the successful leave campaign, from the slogan ‘take back control’, to declarations by the leading Brexiteer, Boris Johnson, that the referendum was Britain’s “independence day”.

Many EU figures are sceptical about this view, because they think the EU allows small countries to magnify their economic and diplomatic clout.

Tusk argued that words such as “security, sovereignty dignity and pride” needed to be reclaimed from populists and nationalists.

Values were a strong theme of the conference. Manfred Weber, the German Christian Democrat who leads centre-right in the European parliament, declared that Europe had to speak up about its Christian roots, in a speech where he repeated his long-standing view that Turkey should not join the EU.

Christianity is engaged in the DNA of our continent, Christianity is the soul of Europe.

He was joined in this call by Antonio Tajani, the recently-elected president of the European parliament. Tajani, an ally of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said: “We shouldn’t be ashamed of saying we are Christian.”

Donald Tusk (left) and Jean-Claude Juncker at the European People’s Party (EPP) congress in San Giljan, Malta.
Donald Tusk (left) and Jean-Claude Juncker at the European People’s Party (EPP) congress in San Giljan, Malta. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Mark Elliott, a law professor at Cambridge University and legal adviser to the House of Lords constitution committee, has been posting a commentary on the white paper on Twitter. The Lords committee recently published a report on the great repeal bill and delegated powers, which is quoted approvingly in the white paper.

Here are some of his tweets.

(With “music to Brexiters’ ears”, Elliott is being sarcastic, obviously.)

Updated

Davis says MPs will probably get a separate vote on leaving the EEA

Labour’s Kevin Brennan asks if there will be a separate vote on leaving the EEA (the European Economic Area).

Davis says there will be votes on many things as part of the process, and that he thinks that is quite probable.

  • Davis says MPs will probably get a separate vote on leaving the EEA.

This is significant because this could become a flashpoint for those MPs who accept the need to leave the EU but who want the government to adopt “the Norway option”, EEA membership.

Nick Clegg slipped onto the Labour front bench for a chat with Sir Keir Starmer a few minutes ago. This is from Sky’s Mollie Goodfellow.

The SNP’s justice and home affairs spokeswoman, Joanna Cherry, asks Davis in the Commons if the GRB will require legislative consent motions from the Scottish parliament. Legislative consent motions are required when the UK parliament legislates on an area that is the responsibility of Edinburgh. The Scottish parliament uses a legislative consent motion to show that it is happy to have London trespassing on its turf.

Davis says at this point he does not know.

Updated

The Conservative MP Grant Shapps says he is going to try to impose 10-year sunset clauses on the EU laws being imported into domestic law, apart from employment and environmental protection laws. This means they would lapse after 10 years. Shapps says this would ensure that parliament does look at these, and considers whether or not there is a case for renewing or reforming them.

What the white paper says about the 'Henry VIII' power ministers are getting to change laws

This is what the white paper (pdf) says about the new Henry VIII power that the great repeal bill will give to ministers to allow them to use secondary legislation to change primary legislation as EU law is imported into UK law. (The white paper does not use the term Henry VIII power, which is generally seen a pejorative. But this is what is is talking about.)

To overcome the challenge set out above, the great repeal bill will provide a power to correct the statute book, where necessary, to rectify problems occurring as a consequence of leaving the EU. This will be done using secondary legislation, and will help make sure we have put in place the necessary corrections before the day we exit the EU ...

It is crucial that the government is equipped to make all the necessary corrections to the statute book before we leave the EU to ensure a smooth and orderly withdrawal. To achieve this, the power to enable this correction will need to allow changes to be made to the full body of EU-derived law. This will necessarily include existing primary as well as secondary legislation which implements our EU obligations, as well as directly applicable EU law which will be converted into domestic law once we leave. It will also include the power to transfer to UK bodies or ministers powers that are contained in EU-derived law and which are currently exercised by EU bodies. This does mean that the power will be wide in terms of the legislation to which it can be used to make changes.

Therefore, it is important that the purposes for which the power can be used are limited. Crucially, we will ensure that the power will not be available where government wishes to make a policy change which is not designed to deal with deficiencies in preserved EU-derived law arising out of our exit from the EU. Additionally, we will consider the constraints placed on the delegated power in section 2 of the ECA [European Communities Act] to assess whether similar constraints may be suitable for the new power, for example preventing the power from being used to make retrospective provision or impose taxation.

Updated

In the Commons the Tory MP Christopher Chope asks Davis to confirm that the bill will give parliament the power to get rid of “ghastly” EU legislation.

Davis says it will be for parliament to decide what it wants to do.

Updated

Davis says the government will not be publishing a draft great repeal bill. But it will take onboard points made during the white paper consultation.

Updated

In the Commons Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader, has just praised David Davis for ignoring the views of some of his anti-European colleagues and preserving items of EU law they hate. Davis jokes that, after a commendation like that, his career is over.

The white paper is now online here (pdf), on the Brexit department’s website.

Here is my colleague Heather Stewart’s story on David Davis’s announcement.

Updated

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is responding now.

He says the new powers in the GRB are sweeping, but questions whether there are sufficient safeguards.

He urges Davis to assure MPs that he will face down attempts to water down existing rights under EU law.

Davis says UK courts will continue to take account of ECJ case law after Brexit

Davis says the European court of justice will not have a role after the GRB has been passed.

But he says the UK courts will continue to use EJC case law when making their judgments, because they will be implementing law that came from the EU.

He says ECJ case law will have the same status as UK case law.

  • Davis says UK courts will continue to take account of ECJ case law after Brexit.

This is from my colleague Dan Roberts.

Davis says there are three elements to the great repeal bill (GRB):

  • It will repeal the European Communities Act.
  • It will convert EU law into UK law, he says.
  • And it will create powers allowing ministers to correct the laws that do not operate appropriately.

He says the the GRB will create a power to correct the statute bill when problems resolve. This will be done by secondary legislation, he says.

This power will be time-limited.

And he says parliament will need to be satisfied that these procedures are appropriate.

He says he is not proposing a new form of government executive order. He is referring to a legislative process of long standing (ie, Henry VIII powers).

He says there will have to be a discussion between government and parliament about how this works.

Updated

David Davis's statement on great repeal bill

David Davis is making his Commons statement now.

He says the government wants a smooth and orderly Brexit. The great repeal bill will be essential to that.

This will end the supremacy of EU law, he says.

He says some people say parliament will not have enough of a role in the Brexit process. This shows “just how wrong” that view is.

  • Davis said great repeal bill shows parliament will be fully involved in Brexit. There will be debates and votes on a series of bills, he says, and many statutory instruments to consider.

Updated

May signed second article 50 letter, No 10 reveals

Downing Street has revealed that Theresa May signed two article 50 letters.

“The purpose of the second letter was that it was date-stamped by the European council,” the prime minister’s spokesman said.

“That letter returned by Eurostar and the letter will now be kept by Number 10.”

The letters were signed personally and identical, he said.

The returned copy is not on display, but is kept in Downing Street as a record.

“It’s purely procedural, that’s what normally happens, I just didn’t want it being revealed at a later date,” the PM’s spokesman said.

Updated

'Great repeal bill' will lead to parliament passing 1,000 new orders, Brexit department says

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, was due to make his statement on the great repeal bill at 11.30am, but proceedings in the Commons are running late, and it looks at it will be closer to 12pm before it starts.

Overnight, the Brexit department (or DExEU, as it is officially known – the Department for Exiting the European Union) – issued a briefing saying that up to 1,000 new orders would have to be passed to enable the government to transfer EU legislation into UK law. It is referring to statutory instruments, a form of secondary legislation. Here is an excerpt.

The white paper, entitled Legislating for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, will set out how the government plans to correct a significant proportion of EU law that will cease to work appropriately when converted into UK legislation. The use of secondary legislation will not be available to make policy changes that are not designed to deal with deficiencies in EU-derived law.

Secondary legislation is a process of longstanding. In the previous two parliaments, an average of 1,338 (2005-10) and 1,071 (2010-15) statutory instruments were made per year.

The corrections to EU law now required are estimated to need between 800 and 1,000 statutory instruments.

These will largely effect mechanical changes that ensure laws function properly after EU exit, and will be in addition to those necessary for other purposes than leaving the EU.

Statutory instruments have been used to implement much of the EU law already on the statute book, with almost 8,000 having been passed to do so.

The reform will be essential to make corrections to law that does not operate appropriately, with appropriate scrutiny for secondary legislation, to allow parliament sufficient time to fully scrutinise substantive policy changes that will need primary legislation — such as new immigration and customs bills.

Devolved administrations are expected to be given equivalent means to correct EU law that has been implemented at a devolved level, and a broader commitment to devolve more power to them as part of the process of bringing control of laws back to the UK.

Updated

French president rejects May's proposal to negotiate UK's withdrawal and new trade deal in parallel

François Hollande, the French president, told Theresa May in a telephone call this morning that he was opposed to negotiating the UK-EU trade deal at the same time as withdrawal from the EU. The exit terms had to be settled first, Reuters reports.

The outgoing French president told May in a telephone call that the negotiations must be held in a “clear and constructive manner, so as to lift uncertainties and to fully respect the rules and interests of the 27-member European Union”.

A statement from Hollande’s Élysée office said:

The president indicated that the talks must at first be about the terms of withdrawal, dealing especially with citizens’ rights and obligations resulting from the commitments made by the United Kingdom.

On the basis of the progress made, we could open discussions on the framework of future relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Yesterday, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, also said that she was opposed to EU withdrawal and the new trade deal being negotiated in parallel. This morning, David Davis admitted there would be an argument about this. (See 9.38am.)

François Hollande.
François Hollande. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

In light of the Nick Robinson tweets I flagged up earlier (see 8.58am), it is worth highlighting this story in the Times (paywall). Sam Coates and Lucy Fisher say that Boris Johnson was not involved in drafting the article 50 letter and that he only saw it shortly before it was sent.

Boris Johnson was not involved in drafting Theresa May’s article 50 letter and was shown it only on Tuesday, hours before it was sent to Brussels, The Times has learnt.

Philip Hammond saw the full letter earlier than the foreign secretary, in a sign of the prime minister’s enthusiasm to involve her chancellor in the Brexit process despite the recent controversy over his first budget.

Mr Johnson and Mr Hammond are increasingly seen as being at odds by Tory MPs, and both are battling for influence over Brexit. Neither cabinet minister thinks highly of the other.

Boris Johnson arriving at Number 10 for cabinet yesterday.
Boris Johnson arriving at Number 10 for cabinet yesterday. Photograph: Steve Back/Barcroft Images

Updated

Paul Waugh has a good line on David Davis in his Huffington Post Waugh Room briefing.

On the Today programme this morning, Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador to the UK, said there could be no “trade-off” between trade and security in the Brexit talks. She said:

We are all facing the same security challenges and we all need security. So it can’t be a trade-off between an FTA, an economic agreement, and security.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s lead Brexit negotiator, made the same point on Good Morning Britain.

What I think is not possible is to say to the European Union ‘well look we will only cooperate on security if you give us a good trade deal or a good economic package’, that is not done.

The security of the citizens is so important, the fight against terrorism is so crucial, that you cannot negotiate with something else.

What we propose is to make an association agreement between the UK and the EU with two consistent pillars, one on security, the fight against terrorism, external and internal; and at the other hand a good trade deal, a fair trade deal, where it is clear, naturally, that outside the European Union, you can never have a status that is [as favourable as EU membership].

Updated

My colleague Jon Henley has a good round-up of what continental papers are saying about the article 50 letter.

Here is how it starts.

European newspapers greeted the formal start of Britain’s exit from the EU with a mixture of pain, puzzlement and predictions that the coming two years of negotiations could get nasty – especially if the UK resorts to ‘blackmail’ over security cooperation.

Updated

Theresa May has again refused to resolve the question of whether the UK government will eventually agree to allow a Scottish independence referendum, once the Brexit process is complete.

The prime minister was asked four times by Andrew Neil in her BBC1 interview on Brexit on Wednesday night whether she would accept it and four times May refused to say. She did imply the answer was no, or at least until it was unavoidable.

Neil asked twice whether she was opposed to it in principle, and May indicated the Tories were resisting it because they believe Nicola Sturgeon’s demands for a referendum are less popular than the Scottish National party would like to admit.

In the final question, Neil asked: “Do you rule it out in principle?” May replied: “I think it’s important that we recognise, I think, Andrew, the question isn’t whether there could be a second independence referendum, it’s whether there should be.”

Theresa May being interview by Andrew Neil on the BBC last night.
Theresa May being interview by Andrew Neil on the BBC last night. Photograph: BBC/AP

Updated

David Davis's morning interviews - Summary

Here are the main points from David Davis’s morning interviews.

  • Davis rejected claims that Theresa May’s article 50 letter contained an implicit “blackmail” threat in relation to security. The letter did not amount to blackmail, he said.

We want a deal. That’s the point. We want a deal. And [Theresa May] was making the point that it is bad for both of us if we don’t have a deal. That, I think, is a perfectly reasonable point to make and not in any sense a threat.

  • He said EU leaders found the tone of the letter “very positive”.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon on the telephone talking to my opposite numbers in the parliament, in the commission, around all the member states. Virtually all of them said spontaneously, it’s a very positive letter, the tone was good, and so on.

  • He admitted that there would be an “argument” about the structure of the talks. The UK wants the talks covering departure and the talks covering a new trade deal to take place at the same time, while the European commission wants them to happen one after the other.

There is an area of argument over this. Which is fine. And that will go on.

Davis explained why the UK government wanted the negotiations to take place in parallel.

The reason we want to see it done in parallel is we think the best way to get a deal is to look at the whole package together.

And he said the text of article 50 itself backs the government’s case, because it says the departure talks must take into account the future relationship. The key sentence says: The union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that state [the one leaving], setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the union.

  • He admitted it would “take time” to bring immigration down. The government wanted to do this “in a smooth and orderly way”, he said. Asked how long this would take, he initially said it was a matter for the home secretary. Then he said:

Not a very long time. But it will take time.

  • He said the government was serious about wanting to conclude a trade deal with the EU within two years. “It is absolutely not a joke,” he said, in response to claims this timetable is wholly unrealistic. Davis explained why he thought this was possible.

It is the only free trade deal in the history of the world in which the country involved is already in a free trade arrangement with the other countries and has got identical product standards. One of the things that takes all the time [in trade deals] - not all the time, lots of time - is actually getting the standards harmonised. We are going to be in exactly the same place.

  • He admitted that, over time, the government would want to change the EU rules that apply to the UK. The great repeal bill will introduce all EU law into UK law, so that at the point of Brexit there is continuity, he said. But he said after that the government and parliament would be free to change these laws, taking as long as they wanted. Many EU laws were good and would be kept, he said. But he said there were some people would want to change. Newnight’s Chris Cook points out an obvious contradiction between this point, and the point Davis was making about why a trade deal could quickly be negotiated.
  • Davis said he would sum up his mood yesterday as “excited for the future of my country”.
David Davis leaving Number 10 after cabinet yesterday.
David Davis leaving Number 10 after cabinet yesterday. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

Updated

Davis says there is “not a bad mood” on the continent about Brexit.

Other EU countries wish we were not leaving, he says.

Q: Did you shudder when Jeremy Corbyn said he would hold you to account?

Davis laughs. Then he says that is Corbyn’s job.

Davis ends by saying, although the UK is leaving the EU, it is not leaving Europe, and that certainly applies to wine. He had a glass of French red last night, he says.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary of all his interviews shortly.

Q: Was the article 50 letter a little too aggressive?

No, says Davis. He repeats the point about how EU leaders found the letter positive.

Theresa May was the longest-serving and arguably most successful home secretary of modern times, he says. He says she takes this very seriously.

She was making the point that the UK wants a deal on security. (See 8.33am.) It wants “the equivalent” of what we have now.

Updated

David Davis's LBC interview

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, is now being interviewed on LBC.

Q: Are we paying a big divorce bill to the EU?

Davis says we will not be paying enormous sums to the EU anymore. Beyond that, this is a matter for the negotiation, he says.

Yesterday Philip Hammond, the chancellor, had the 8.10am slot on the Today programme. Other ministers doing media yesterday included Amber Rudd, who was on Sky in the afternoon, Theresa May, who was interviewed by Andrew Neil on the BBC at 7pm, and Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, who was on Newsnight.

With Britain triggering the biggest change in foreign policy for half a century, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has been mysteriously silent. The BBC’s Nick Robinson has the obvious explanation.

Updated

David Davis rejects claims article 50 letter contained 'blackmail' threat

Theresa May sent her article 50 letter to Brussels yesterday and, intentionally or not - it is still not entirely clear to what extent this was deliberate - she has been accused of issuing the EU with a threat to weaken security cooperation if the UK does not get a trade deal. Or blackmail, as some are putting it, as the Guardian splash reports.

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has been giving interviews this morning. On the Today programme a few minutes ago John Humphrys asked him about this, quoting the Sun’s splash headline.

Asked if the letter amounted to “blackmail”, Davis replied:

No, it didn’t.

He said the prime minister was just setting out the facts.

What the prime minister was saying was, if we have no deal - remember, what we want is a deal - it is bad for both of us ... if we don’t have a deal, one of the things we are going to lose is the current arrangements on justice and home affairs ...

We want a deal. That’s the point. We want a deal. And [Theresa May] was making the point that it is bad for both of us if we don’t have a deal. That, I think, is a perfectly reasonable point to make and not in any sense a threat.

He also said this morning that EU leaders were not interpreting the letter in the way the British papers were.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon on the telephone talking to my opposite numbers in the parliament, in the commission, around all the member states. Virtually all of them said spontaneously, it’s a very positive letter, the tone was good, and so on.

I will post a full summary of his interviews soon.

Then, later, he is publishing the white paper on the “great repeal bill”. I will be covering that in detail.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.45am: Justine Greening, the education secretary, gives a speech to a social mobility conference.

10.30am: Ken Livingstone faces a Labour misconduct panel over his comments about Hitler and Zionism.

11am: Steve Rotheram, Labour’s candidate for Liverpool Metro mayor, publishes his manifesto.

Around 11.30am: David Davis, the Brexit secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the great repeal bill white paper.

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

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

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

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

Updated

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