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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Boris Johnson avoids Tory revolt as he links HS2 go-ahead with boost for buses and local roads - as it happened

Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid visiting an HS2 construction site in Birmingham.
Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid visiting an HS2 construction site in Birmingham. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

Afternoon summary

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Boris Johnson has been visiting an HS2 construction site in Birmingham.

Boris Johnson visits HS2 construction site at Curzon Street railway station in Birmingham.
Boris Johnson visits HS2 construction site at Curzon Street railway station in Birmingham. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

Richard Burgon, a candidate for the Labour leadership, has suggested that Labour should produce its own newspaper to distribute free to commuters, PoliticsHome reports.

As PoliticsHome reports, Ian Murray, another candidate for the Labour deputy leadership, has criticised the proposal.

And here is some business reaction to the HS2 announcement.

From Jonathan Geldart, director general of the Institute of Directors

The HS2 saga has not been a good advert for the UK’s ability to build major infrastructure, but now the decision has been made, many businesses in the Midlands and North will just want to see the government get on and build it.

Splitting the project into more manageable chunks makes political sense, but it also has a degree of business-sense, provided the right controls are in place. We encourage the government to put strong governance frameworks in place to ensure management is properly scrutinised.

From Mike Cherry, chair of the Federation of Small Businesses

It is very welcome that at long last a clear decision has been made to proceed with HS2. The time for debate is over – let’s get the shovels out and put some high speed into the process of building it.

This is from Guy Verfhofstadt, who has been chair of the European parliament’s Brexit steering group.

Here is some reaction to the HS2 announcement from environmentalists.

From John Sauven, Greenpeace UK’s chief executive

We’re totally in favour of a transport revolution that cuts pollution and carbon emissions, but bulldozing through irreplaceable wildlife and nature sites is not the way to go about it.

From the Green party MP Caroline Lucas

Less than two weeks ago, the government launched its environment bill with great fanfare saying it would put the environment at the centre of policy-making. The ink is barely dry on that bill when it greenlights HS2 which will destroy or damage hundreds of important wildlife sites, areas of ancient woodland and local nature reserves.

Some of these sites are supposed to have legal protection, yet they are to be swept aside by the HS2 leviathan. It’s not only the promise of last month’s environment bill which is being betrayed, so is the government’s commitment to develop a Nature Recovery network to protect and restore wildlife.

From the protest group Extinction Rebellion

The government has choices to make about the ever present climate and ecological emergency over ‘business as usual.’

In giving the go-ahead for this vanity project that is so over-budget and environmentally destructive, the government has not listened to the people. The public are crying out for better local transport. In making this spending choice, the prime minister has approved a bottomless financial sinkhole that will destroy much of what little remains of Britain’s precious woodland, wipe out countless endangered and protected species, be a vast new source of carbon emissions, and poison a quarter of London’s water-supply. All at great cost to taxpayers.

HS2 would enable massive expansions of several regional airports. By contrast, yesterday we saw leadership from Bristol, the first city of the UK to declare a climate and ecological emergency, taking historic action saying no to the expansion of Bristol airport.

In the Commons earlier the Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards said that Scotland and Northern Ireland would receive money equivalent to their share of HS2 (known as Barnett consequentials) but that Wales will not. Boris Johnson justified this by saying that Wales would benefit from the line going through Crewe.

In a statement Edwards said this was an affront to Wales. He said:

Plaid Cymru has long said that HS2 is an affront to the Welsh taxpayer, and with spiralling costs it is only going to become worse.

While the Westminster government plans bridges to Northern Ireland and £100bn railways in England, Welsh commuters are stuck on cramped, delayed trains that are unfit for purpose.

There isn’t even a rail line within Wales that links the north and south of our country, never mind a high-speed line.

Wales is losing out on billions of pounds of funding that is rightfully ours – it is simply not tenable for the Westminster government to argue that this project is ‘England and Wales’ when not a single inch of track is in our country.

Updated

The Liberal Democrats have accused Dominic Cummings, the PM’s chief adviser, and his Tory colleagues of acting like “despots” with regard to their attacks on the courts. (See 12.07pm.) In a statement Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said:

Dominic Cummings seems to believe that he, Boris Johnson and Tory ministers are above the law. They are not.

When ministers act outside of the bounds of the law, people must be able to hold them to account in the courts.

These Tory attacks on our courts, judicial review and the Human Rights Act are all designed to weaken ordinary people and enable ministers to act with impunity. They are the actions of despots, not democrats.

The rule of law is fundamental to a functioning democracy, and Liberal Democrats will not stand by and watch as Johnson and Cummings try to undermine it.

Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill says police have warned that dissident republicans planning to attack her

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has said that she has been told by police the dissident republicans are planning to attack her and her Sinn Féin colleague Gerry Kelly. In a statement she said:

I have been told by police that dissident republicans are planning attacks on myself and my colleague Gerry Kelly. This comes in the same week as over 500,000 people have supported Sinn Féin’s agenda for change.

The debate on Irish unity is centre stage. It is against this backdrop that so-called republicans are planning attacks on Sinn Féin.

These people have no politics, no strategy and nothing to offer. They are at war with their community and are now threatening political representatives who serve the people.

These threats are coming a week after Gerry Kelly and I attended a PSNI recruitment event. I will not be deterred from carrying out my work as a representative of the people and as joint head of government.

Michelle O’Neill and Gerry Kelly.
Michelle O’Neill and Gerry Kelly. Photograph: Sinn Fein/PA

The government has now published its emergency terror legislation, the terrorist offenders (restriction of early release bill) and accompanying documents. They are all here. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, told the house earlier that all stages of the bill would be considered by MPs tomorrow.

Updated

Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, has given a qualified welcome to the PM’s HS2 announcement. In a statement Burnahm said:

The prime minister has today listened and gone a considerable distance towards the case I made at the weekend for a new, integrated east-west-north-south railway for the North of England. That is why I welcome what he has announced today.

However, there are a number of issues on which we are seeking further clarification.

First – Manchester Piccadilly. While we support HS2 in principle, it was designed as a north-south railway and consequently has never offered right solution for new, modern east-west links at Manchester Piccadilly. There is now an opportunity to get that right and we ask the government to work with us on a redesign of Manchester Piccadilly station, based on analysis commissioned by Sir Richard Leese and Manchester city council.

Second – timetable. The prime minister gave a firm timetable for HS2 from London to Birmingham. However, there was no such commitment for the North. We want to see the construction of Northern Powerhouse Rail fast-tracked.

Third – line of route for Northern Powerhouse Rail. While we were pleased to hear mention of high-speed rail to Liverpool we notice that prime minister did not mention Bradford.

Finally, big promises on future infrastructure must not distract from the need to urgently upgrade our creaking Victorian railway, which is ruining journeys on a daily basis. The creation of two new platforms at Piccadilly is a shovel-ready project that will benefit the whole North. The government needs to stop dragging its feet on this and get these platforms built.

Andy Burnham.
Andy Burnham. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Updated

In the light of Sinn Féin in Ireland exploring its prospects of forming a coalition government, Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, has restated her opposition to a border poll (ie, a poll on reunification). She posted this on Twitter.

Following her party’s success in the Irish general election, Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin president, has described reunification as “the direction of travel” for her country.

The former Tory minister Rory Stewart is offering to stay on Londoners’ sofas to learn more about the city as he tries to revive his attempt to become the capital’s next mayor, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

Boris Johnson's HS2 statement - Summary

Here are the main points from Boris Johnson’s HS2 announcement. The full text of his statement to MPs is here, and the government press release is here.

  • Johnson announced plans to go ahead with HS2 without triggering a Tory revolt. Despite reports recently that up to 60 Conservative backbenchers oppose the scheme, only a handful of backbenchers spoke out against the plan when Johnson made his statement to MPs. About the strongest criticism on the government side came from North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen who said that HS2 was “unloved, unwanted and has been grossly mismanaged” and that it could become “an albatross around this government and the country’s neck”. But even Bridgen adopted a tone of “more in sorrow than in anger”, and some of the Tory HS2-sceptics must have been at least partially appeased by Johnson’s decision to announce HS2 alongside a multi-billion package of more immediate, low-tech transport handouts. This is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.
  • Johnson said that work on phase 1 on HS2 (from London to Birmingham) would start in April. He said the government would legislate for phase 2a (from Birmingham to Crewe) as soon as possible so that preparation work can move forward. But he said that plans for phase 2b would be reviewed so that they could become part of one integrated plan for the north, which he described as “High Speed North”. Johnson insisted this did not mean the future of phase 2b was in any doubt. Referencing Hamlet, he told MPs:

So as we draw up this plan we are not asking whether phase 2B is not to be. That is not the question, Mr Speaker.

  • Johnson explained why he thought good transport links were so important for prosperity. He opened his statement by saying:

Mr Speaker, there are all sorts of reasons why the city in which we now sit is the most productive region in the whole of Europe – the time zone, the language, the agglomeration of talents – and above all we have the mass transit system that every day conveys millions of people efficiently and affordably with tubes and trains and 8,600 buses into the central activities zone in the morning and out in the evening like the respiration of some vast undersea coelenterate.

And as that public transport network has expanded in the last 150 years, it has brought hope and opportunity and job prospects to people growing up in every part of the city and beyond. And it is the ambition of this government to employ that same utensil – fantastic transport infrastructure – to unite and level up across the whole country.

  • Johnson said that HS2 would have its role curtailed. It would continue to be in charge of phases 1 and 2a, he said. But it would lose responsibility for the Euston station overhaul and the design and construction of phase 2b, he said.
  • He said that he would appoint a minister to oversee HS2 full-time.

Cutting congestion and boosting the local road network across the country by accelerating local schemes to the next stage of development, from Hartlepool and Cheadle in the north to Melksham to Salisbury in the south-west.

Upgrading Bristol East Junction station to tackle a major pinch point in the South West rail network, so that passengers can travel in and out of Bristol more easily.

Taking forward work to improve the A1 north of Newcastle, strengthening the link to the Scottish Border.

  • He cast doubt over the future of the Heathrow third runway. MPs approved the third runway in the last parliament in a vote that Johnson, a long-term opponent of the scheme, was allowed to miss. During the Tory leadership election, and the general election, when asked if he would continue to allow the scheme to proceed, Johnson always dodged the question by saying that it was subject to multiple legal challenges anyway. In the Commons the Lib Dem MP for Twickenham, Munira Wilson, asked if Johnson would “make good his promise of lying down in front of the bulldozers or far more simply, just cancel the third runway”. Johnson replied:

Mr Speaker, I see no bulldozers at present nor no immediate prospect of them arriving.

Wilson said later that that answer could be significant.

  • Johnson said that £350m of the £5bn announced overnight would be allocated for cycling. My colleague Peter Walker, a cycling specialist, was unimpressed.

But Johnson also said this was “just the beginning”. (See 1.43pm.) He also claimed the money would lead to “Mini Holland cycling schemes “blooming like so many tulips in towns and cities right across the country”. This government briefing explains what a Mini Holland is.

Updated

The Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse says having just 250 miles of new cycleways is a “complete joke”. She says this amounts to just a few miles per local authority.

Johnson says this is “just the beginning”.

The Johnson statement is over now. I will post a summary soon.

The SNP’s Alison Thewliss asks Johnson to drop his plan for a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland and to give the money to the Scottish government and the Northern Ireland executive instead.

Johnson says the government will be bringing forward plans in due course.

Updated

Summary

Here is my colleague Rowena Mason’s story about the PM’s HS2 announcement.

Johnson says the investment the government is making is “absolutely colossal”.

Johnson says he wants to clarify that the government will be “going forward with the whole programme”. (Some reports this morning suggested that phase two of HS2 would be conditional, which explains why Jeremy Corbyn said as much in his response to Johnson - see 12.50pm.) But he says the government does want to review the details of phase two.

Labour’s Judith Cummins asks if Northern Powerhouse Rail must include a stop in Bradford.

Johnson said this issue will be considered.

Labour’s Mike Kane says HS2 will be good for Manchester, despite it going under his house. Why won’t the government start building from the north?

Johnson says the northern end of the project is not in a “state of readiness” to start.

The Democratic Unionist party’s Sammy Wilson asks if Northern Ireland will benefit from procurement opportunities, and if Johnson will go ahead with his bridge plan.

Johnson does not answer the question about the bridge, but he commends Wilson for his positive approach.

Updated

Labour’s Stephen Kinnock says this announcement shows that the government holds the people of Wales in contempt. He says the line to Swansea could be electrified for less than 1% of the cost of HS2.

Johnson says north Wales will benefit from HS2. He says Kinnock should complain to the Welsh government, who he accuses of wasting money on transport schemes.

Jeremy Wright, a Conservative, says HS2 Ltd needs to pay compensation more quickly, and communicate with local people more effectively.

Johnson agrees. He says HS2 Ltd’s record at communicating with residents has been “woeful”.

Updated

Johnson apologises to people affected by the uncertainty around HS2.

As the FT’s Jim Pickard points out, the Oakervee review of HS2 has now been published.

Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative, says HS2 is unloved and unwanted. It could turn into an albatross, he says.

Johnson says every infrastructure project faces opposition at the start.

Labour’s Hilary Benn asks when the HS2 station at Leeds will open.

Johnson says he wants to get it going as soon as possible.

Sir Bill Cash, a Conservative, says his constituents in Staffordshire will be “bitterly disappointed” by the decision. Stoke and Stafford must be properly serviced, he says.

Asked if Old Oak Common should be renamed after Margaret Thatcher, Johnson says that is a brilliant idea, but they should see if Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, will agree.

The Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson asks if Johnson will cancel the Heathrow third runway.

Johnson says he sees no imminent prospect of work on the third runway starting.

UPDATE: Here is the quote.

Updated

Sir Graham Brady, a Conservative, asks for an urgent review of parts of the route for phase 2b of HS2. He says the Manchester airport station won’t be at Manchester airport.

Johnson says the government will look at this.

Labour’s Lilian Greenwood asks for an assurance that the bill authorising phase two of HS2 will be passed in this parliament.

Johnson does not give that commitment. He says phase two must go ahead, but that it must be done properly.

Michael Fabricant, a Conservative, says he is sceptical about HS2. Does Johnson agree that those affected must get proper compensation.

“Of course”, says Johnson.

Andrew Mitchell, a Conservative, says the HS2 announcement will be welcomed across the West Midlands.

Johnson pays tribute to the West Midlands Tory mayor, Andy Street, for pushing for HS2.

Updated

Johnson mocks Blackford for talking about a North Sea bridge. Blackford needs to study his geography, he says.

Ian Blackford, the Scottish National party’s leader at Westminster, say no number of “prime ministerial vanity projects” will ever heal the economic damage and the damage to connectivity that Brexit will inflict.

But he says he welcomes the HS2 announcement. However, it remains to be seen if Johnson can get it past his backbenchers and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, Blackford says.

On buses, Blackford says Johnson is following the SNP, who have announced their own bus investment in Scotland.

Blackford says Johnson could not even build a bridge across the Thames. So people will not believe he could build one over the 20-mile expanse of the North Sea, says Blackford. He meant the Irish Sea.

Updated

Johnson is responding to Corbyn.

He says that Corbyn’s response disguised the fact that Labour essentially supports the announcement.

He says, by increasing capacity, HS2 should drive down prices.

He says Corbyn made “a heroic attempt to cavil and disagree”. But Corbyn basically backs the agreement, he says, and he welcomes that.

Corbyn mocks the PM’s plan for a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Why not make it a garden bridge, he says. And connect it to an airport in the sea? Or he could turn it into a cable car, or a zip wire, he jokes.

Corbyn turns to buses.

I remember when I first raised buses at prime minister’s questions and was ridiculed in some quarters of the press. From the look of the front pages today those same quarters now regard the focus on buses as a political masterstroke.

But in reality, what the government has said today about bus services is woeful. They’ve cherry-picked policies from the Labour manifesto but underfunded them.

Corbyn says funding for bus services has been cut by £645m in real terms since 2010.

He says the government should be giving councils the power to improve local bus services, and the option of public ownership.

Updated

Corbyn says he is concerned that the links to Manchester and Leeds are reportedly under review.

And he says fares on HS2 must be affordable.

And now he is making a general point about rail fares.

We believe the case is now unanswerable that our railways should be publicly owned and run to improve the service and cut fares by 33%. Does the prime minister recognise that too many people are priced off the railways?

The average commuter is now paying £3,067 for their season ticket – £873 more than when the Conservatives came to power in 2010. Why won’t the prime minister cut the cost of travelling? Why should people in Britain have to put up with so much more expensive fares than any other comparable country?

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn is responding now.

He says Johnson is taking ideas from Labour, adopting its language, but falling far short of Labour’s ambition.

The government is incapable of handling infrastructure projects properly, he says.

He says the piecemeal plans announced today do not come close to addressing the problem.

It is the Tories who have been starving the country of investment, he says.

He says people in the Midlands and the north will be disappointed when they see what will actually happen.

Labour supports HS2, he says. But he says he does not see why the government should get a “slap on the back” for going ahead with it. It is only because costs overran under the Tories that its future was in doubt.

Updated

Johnson says our ancestors looked to the future, and replaced the horse with rail. The same ambition is needed today, he says.

He says he looks forward to an era where people cycle to work “in tree-dappled sunlight” on dedicated cycle paths.

He says the government must show it still has the courage “to dream big dreams”.

Johnson says some have suggested delaying HS2 to focus on Northern Powerhouse Rail.

But this is not an either/or proposition, he says. Both are needed.

He says, working with northern leaders, the government will explore getting a new delivery vehicle for Northern Powerhouse Rail. There is a need for a “High Speed North”, he says.

He says it is not enough just to wait until HS2 reaches the north. That way it would have to wait 20 years, he says.

Johnson says he will appoint minister to take charge of HS2 full-time

But, Johnson says, there will be changes to the plan.

  • Johnson says he will appoint a minister to take charge of HS2 full-time.

He says there will be new delivery arrangements for the Euston terminus, and phase 2b of the project.

Johnson says defending HS2 has not been made easy by the conduct of HS2 Ltd.

He says it has not handled the impact on residents affected very well.

But the Oakervee review makes the case for HS2, he says.

He says HS2 will lead to notably faster journey times.

It will not just to go Birmingham, he says. He says it will go beyond that, and that none of the improvements to rail in the north of England make sense without HS2.

He says the HS2 plans have been improved by contributions from MPs.

He says today the cabinet has given the plan its approval. And he says the first section could be complete by the end of the decade.

Johnson says the transport revolution is local, because it must be local. The government will unite and level up the country with local improvements.

It will also make places more attractive to live in, he says.

But he says the government cannot address these problems in isolation. It must fix “the spine”, as well as the joints, he says.

And that is why it must take a decision on HS2, he says. He says the government has “the guts” to take this decision.

HS2 will take 50 minutes off the time to Glasgow, he says.

Johnson says he is embarking on a massive programme of investment in local transport, including spending £5bn on buses and bicycles.

There will be more than 4,000 new zero-carbon buses, he says. And there will be more services in the evenings and at the weekend, as well as simpler ticketing.

And he says cyclists will enjoy hundreds of miles of dedicated cycling lines, creating “mini Hollands” around the country.

Johnson says there will be more details in the budget. But he announces some plans getting the go-ahead today.

Updated

Johnson says 'inadequate' transport infrastructure is holding UK back

Boris Johnson is starting now.

He says there are many reasons why London is so productive, but one is London’s effective transport system. As it has expanded, the transport system has brought hope and jobs to people in London and beyond.

He says his government will take this approach and apply it across the whole country.

He says people know “this country is being held back by its inadequate infrastructure”.

Boris Johnson's statement on HS2 and infrastructure

Boris Johnson will shortly be making his statement about HS2 and infrastructure.

Here is my colleague Kate Proctor’s preview story.

And this is from Jack Blanchard’s London Playbook briefing, which provides some useful context.

History lesson: I’m not saying Britain is slow at this stuff, but HS2 was first announced by Labour’s last Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis way back in 2009. (Here he is telling the Guardian how the first section would reach Birmingham by 2020 and cost £7 billion.) The project then received a “green light” in the coalition agreement of 2010 … A “green light” from Adonis’ successor Justine Greening in 2011 … A “green light” from David Cameron’s cabinet in 2012 … A “green light” from the queen in 2013 … A “green light” for its Northern section in 2016 … A “green light” from parliament in February 2017 … A “green light” as contracts were signed in August 2017 … And now a “green light” from Boris Johnson in 2020. Presumably we can look forward to further green light action when debate about the second phase of the project reignites in the months ahead.

Updated

According to a blog by ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, at a meeting at No 10 this morning Dominic Cummings said the court of appeal’s decision last night to halt the deportation of some foreign offenders to Jamaica was “a perfect symbol of the British state’s dysfunction”.

Cummings is still seen as a very powerful figure in No 10, despite reports saying that he is increasingly losing battles over policy and despite the fact that he gave a good impression of being a lunatic when he gave an interview to TV reporters this morning. (See 10.54am.)

Peston writes:

Cummings said to officials that the support for the court ruling among MPs and hacks “shows they still haven’t understood what the last few years has been about, the country outside London is horrified but rich London is cheering the lawyers”.

Updated

The prime minister’s press secretary told journalists that “the Westminster bubble” view of judicial review (JR) as a means to halt deportation flights showed there is a need to explore the issue. He said:

The Westminster bubble’s view of people trying to halt this flight with JRs makes the case perfectly to the public about why such a review is needed and why certain parts of Westminster still haven’t learnt the lessons from the 2019 election.

No 10 condemns court of appeal over decision to halt deportation of 25 offenders to Jamaica

The government said it “bitterly regrets” the decision of the court of appeal judges to stop the deportation of 25 offenders to Jamaica.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing, the prime minister’s official spokesman said the offences which this group of people were responsible for include one case of manslaughter, one firearms offence, seven violent offences, two which are in the category of rape and sexual offences and 14 drugs offences. They have been kept in detention centres though they are now able to appeal their immigration detention and make applications for bail. The spokesman said:

We bitterly regret this decision which prevents the removal from our country of foreign criminals convicted or rape, manslaughter, sexual attacks and violence and drug crimes which spread misery across our communities. The legal process for removing these offenders, which included repeated appeals and judicial reviews, has already cost the British public tens of thousands of pounds. The taxpayer will now be left with an even bigger bill and the prospect of convicts who are considered to pose a threat to the UK being granted bail while this matter is resolved.

We make no apology whatsoever for seeking to remove foreign national offenders and we will be urgently appealing.

The court of appeal ruled overnight that temporary loss of a mobile phone signal between January 13 and 16 meant that the deportations should be halted because the offenders had been limited access to legal support. The government said all of the people had access to other communications, including landlines, alternative mobile sim cards, and the internet, during the mobile network outages.

The PM’s spokesman said the government successfully defended this judicial review twice already in the high court and it was “disappointing” the court of appeal came to a different view.

Altogether 17 were deported on the flight to Jamaica, with no details given on whether any of that number had come to the UK as a child.

At the general election in December 2019 the Tories promised to look into the relationship between government, parliament and the courts and update the Human Rights Act.

A review into judicial reviews is still expected to go ahead. In the last few days twelve JR’s were launched in relation to this deportation flight.

Dominic Cummings, the PM’s chief adviser, was not the only government figure behaving in a peculiar way when doorstepped by a TV crew this morning. (See 10.54am.) Here is Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, responding to a question about HS2.

My colleague Peter Walker heard Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, speak at the Green Alliance conference on the COP 26 climate change summit this morning. He said it sounded as if Gove were making a job application.

The HS2 announcement coming later is a setback for Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, who reportedly described it as a “disaster zone” last year. When doorstepped this morning by the BBC, Cummings responded to a question about his apparent lack of influence by spouting doggerel and subsequently suggesting that PJ Masks (cartoon superheroes) would do a better job than the cabinet.

Updated

Michel Barnier and Ursula von der Leyen's speeches to MEPs - Summary

The full text of Ursula von der Leyen’s speech to the European parliament is available here. Michel Barnier’s may appear online later. But here are the main points from what they both said.

  • Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said Brussels would reject UK demands for British banks to have get “permanent” equivalence recognition guaranteeing them access to EU markets. (See 10.18am.)
  • He said the British government had yet to explain whether or not it wanted to abandon the European economic and social model. He said:

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, whom we respect, said that in leaving the European Union the UK was not leaving Europe. We welcome that resolve. The question that arises, for which we have no reply up until now, is this; it’s a fairly simple, but a rather serious question: the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, the single market and the customs union - does it also wish to leave, or move away, from our economic and social model, from the European regulatory model it’s very familiar with because we got it up with the United Kingdom over a period of 47 years? That is the question on which we are awaiting a reply.

  • Barnier and Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, both stressed that the extent of the UK’s access to the single market under the trade deal would depend on its willingness to remain aligned to EU rules.
  • Von der Leyen gently mocked Boris Johnson’s suggestion that an Australian trade arrangement would be an acceptable outcome for the UK. (See 9.03am.)
  • She said she welcomed Johnson’s commitment to free trade in his Brexit speech last week - because she say free trade as a means of raising standards. She explained:

Prime Minister Johnson said in Greenwich, earlier this month, that the United Kingdom will be ‘a global champion of free trade’. Frankly, this is music to our ears. Because in a moment when the rules-based trade system is so challenged, we need our partners to join us in making the system fairer and stronger.

And this is what we Europeans have always fought for over the years. A trade system that is open on one side and that is fair on the other side. Because what do free trade agreements do? Free trade agreements must replace uncertainty with a sound set of rules. They create new markets for small and medium enterprises. Free trade agreements must benefit the people. And this is the rationale that is behind our trade agreements, for instance with Canada and Japan.

They are not just increasing our bilateral exchanges of goods, services, people and ideas. They do that too, but not only. They also raise standards on a broad range of issues, from labour rights to the environment. This is what makes us proud of them. Ask our Japanese friends or ask our Canadian friends. They are glad that we have joined forces to put fairness into our globalised economic system.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European commission, with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in the European parliament this morning.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European commission, with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in the European parliament this morning. Photograph: Patrick Seeger/EPA

Updated

Brussels will reject UK demand for deal guaranteeing City long-term access to EU market, says Barnier

This is what Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said in his speech about the EU not being willing to give the UK a permanent equivalence recognition in financial services.

Wherever possible we will grant equivalence on particular sectors of the financial industry. That is what we did with Canada, that’s what we do with the United States and Japan, and it works. So I don’t see why it shouldn’t work with the United Kingdom.

And I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear to certain people in the United Kingdom ... that they should not kid themselves about this. There will not be general, open-ended, ongoing equivalence in financial services ... We will keep control of these tools and we will retain a free hand to take our decisions.

Yesterday a Downing Street photographer took a picture of a briefing document being taken into No 11 showing that the UK would be asking for “permanent equivalence” for financial services. In an article for City AM this morning Sajid Javid, the chancellor, has confirmed that the UK wants an equivalence regime that would offer long-term stability (normally the EU can unilaterally revoke equivalence agreements at short notice, sometimes after just 30 days), but he does not use the word “permanent”. Javid says:

We hope to agree a chapter on financial services in the UK-EU free trade agreement that establishes a baseline for the trading relationship. This should establish regulatory cooperation arrangements with the EU that facilitate dialogue and reflect the degree of access between both markets.

If the EU, like us, wants a durable relationship, we should also include measures to directly address the long-term needs of industry for a reliable equivalence process. This would provide the certainty on which internationally mobile businesses can depend.

UPDATE: The Telegraph’s James Crisp points out that “should not kid themselves” was a translation.

Updated

Barnier says the EU will grant equivalence to particular sectors of its financial services industry.

But he says there will not be “general, open-ended” equivalence in financial services.

The EU will retain control, he says.

  • Barnier says EU will not give the UK “open-ended” equivalence recognition for financial services. That means one of the UK government’s demands (see today’s Financial Times’ splash) has been shot down immediately.

Updated

Barnier says the UK will be welcome to carry on participating in various EU programmes, like Erasmus, if it wants to. But the legal and financial framework will be different, he says.

Barnier says the EU does want cooperation with the UK on energy issues. But that cooperation will be limited, he says.

Updated

Barnier says in other trade talks, if agreement cannot be reached, they take more time. The Canada deal took seven years. In the meantime, the status quo was retained.

But in this talks, if there is no deal, the status quo will not be maintained.

At the end of 2020 the UK will leave the single market and customs union and revert to WTO terms, he says.

He says the EU will have to impose checks, and quotas and tariffs on British produce. That is what will happen if both sides fail to meet the time constraints imposed by the British PM.

He says he does not forget Europe’s debt to the UK, particularly in the dark hours of the last century.

He says he has listened to what is being said by some politicians in the UK, of the use that could be made of the right to diverge.

He says he expects the new negotiating mandate to be agreed on 25 February.

He says he wants, “calmly but firmly”, to stress that the opening of EU markets, data access, equivalences for financial services, will be proportionate to the commitments entered into for a true level playing field.

Updated

Michel Barnier's speech to MEPs

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, is speaking now at the end of the debate in the European parliament.

He says he is grateful to the MEPs for their resolution.

He says, as the EU’s negotiator, he will need “decisiveness and resolution” to help him in the negotiations.

He says the transition period in the withdrawal agreement can be extended by one year or two years. But if it is not extended, as the UK says it won’t be, the UK will leave EU arrangements at the end of the year. That is the UK’s choice, he says. There will be consequences.

He stresses, again, that “these time constraints are not from our side”.

Updated

UK economy failed to grow in final quarter of 2019

The UK economy stagnated in the final quarter of 2019, with no growth at all, my colleague Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog. The full details are here.


A planned deportation flight to Jamaica has taken off but with only around half of those due to have been onboard after a court last night upheld a legal challenge, my colleague Ben Quinn reports.

Updated

Here are some more lines from the debate in the European parliament on the UK-EU trade talks, from journalists who have been monitoring it.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president

David McAllister, the German MEP who chairs the parliament’s new UK coordination group (ie, its Brexit group)

Philippe Lamberts, co-leader of the Greens in the parliament and a member of the Brexit group

Iratxe García Pérez, the leader of the socialist group in the parliament

Christophe Hansen, an MEP from Luxembourg

Antonia Tajani, former president of the European parliament

Luis Garicano, a Spanish liberal MEP

Updated

EU chief gently mocks Johnson's backing for possible 'Australian' trade model

This morning MEPs are debating the European commission’s draft negotiating mandate for the UK-EU trade talks and Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, used her speech to gently mock Boris Johnson’s suggestion that the UK would be happy with an Australian-style trade arrangement with the EU. This is now the UK government’s preferred way of describing what the rest of us call “no deal” – the UK exiting the transition period at the end of 2020 without a trade deal with the EU to smooth trading arrangements. As my colleague Patrick Wintour reported last week, British officials have been ordered not to talk about “no deal” anymore, and Johnson confirmed the new linguistic approach (which also reflects a policy shift – a growing willingness to accept no deal) in his Brexit speech in Greenwich last week, where he said:

The question is whether we agree a trading relationship with the EU comparable to Canada’s – or more like Australia’s.

This morning Von der Leyen praised Johnson for celebrating the importance of free trade in his speech. (The EU’s single market is all about facilitating free trade.) But she also said this about the UK’s new found enthusiasm for an Australian-style trade deal.

Honestly, I was a little bit surprised to hear the prime minister of the United Kingdom speak about the Australian model. Australia, without any doubt, is a strong and like-minded partner. But the European Union does not have a trade agreement with Australia. We are currently trading on WTO terms. And if this is the British choice, well, we are fine with that, without any question. But in fact we just are in the moment where we are agreeing with Australia that that we must end this situation and we work on a trade deal with them.

In other words, the Australian-style arrangement is so unsatisfactory that even the Australians don’t want it; they are trying for a free trade deal with the EU instead.

I will post more from the debate soon. As my colleague Jennifer Rankin reported last week, MEPs are debating a resolution saying that any future British government should be required to upgrade key employment, environment and competition laws to maintain free trade with the European Union. You can read the text of the resolution here.

Later, of course, we have a major statement from Johnson in the Commons on HS2. Here is the agenda for the day.

8am: The European parliament debates the European commission’s draft negotiating guidelines for the UK-EU trade talks.

10am: Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, addresses a Green Alliance conference on the COP 26 climate change summit. At 3.15pm Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, will also address the conference.

10.45am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.

After 12.45pm: Johnson is due to make a statement to MPs about the government’s plans for HS2 and for an investment in buses and cycle networks.

3.35pm: Mark Carney, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, gives evidence to a Lords committee.

And at some point today the Home Office will publish the text of its emergency anti-terror legislation, the terrorist offenders (restriction of early release) bill.

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 when I wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

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

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is 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 questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

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

Updated

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