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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

'Never has so much been lost by so many to satisfy so few' - Sturgeon uses Churchill to slam Brexit - Politics live

Watch live: Nicola Sturgeon’s speech at the SNP conference

Early evening summary

  • Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, has told MPs that the Canada-style Brexit favoured by Tory Brexiters would be “a shortcut to no deal”. He made the comment in the Commons as he gave a statement on developments in the Brexit talks. He also insisted that any backstop agreed to by the UK government would be time limited, and he ruled out what Labour MPs said might be a “blind” Brexit, saying the deal would have to include precise details of the future trade relationship.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

The Conservative party has got back to me with a response to what Hillary Clinton said about Tory MEPs voting against a move to censure Hungary in the European parliament. (See 12.09pm.) A party spokesperson said:

This was a decision made by MEPs because the parliamentary resolution was a highly ineffective way of dealing with the situation in Hungary.

Orban has a track record of responding to legal measures led by the commission, not political moves in the parliament. The parliamentary motion at this stage undermines any future legal action, while boosting Orban’s domestic support.

We will address concerns we have with the Hungarian government using the most effective routes.

Updated

Labour’s Lilian Greenwood asks why the government is prepared to contemplate leaving the EU with no deal, but not staying in the customs union.

Raab says staying in the customs union would not honour the result of the referendum.

Labour’s Stephen Timms says Michel Barnier told the Brexit committee why Chequers was unacceptable. The committee published the transcript. So why did Theresa May claim not to know about the objections?

Raab says, in a negotiation, if you work up plans, you don’t just abandon them at the first sign of objection.

Labour’s Clive Efford asks Raab to confirm that whatever is voted on will be based on Chequers.

Raab says the government will continue to chart a course based on its white paper proposals.

Marcus Fysh, a Conservative, asks when the government will publish its latest backstop plan.

Raab says the government has been clear about its policy.

  • Raab refuses to say when the government will publish its new backstop plan.

Andrew Bridgen says the UK and the Irish government will not enforce a hard border in Ireland, and neither will allow the EU to impose one.

Raab says Bridgen is right about the UK position. But the UK does want a deal to cover this issue, he says.

The Independent’s Shehab Khan has identified the key problem thrown up by this statement.

Raab says Canada-style Brexit would be 'shortcut to no deal'

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister and vice chair of the European Research Group, asks Raab to accept that there are non-backstop solutions to the Irish border problem.

Raab says Baker should know, because he was in government, that that would be unacceptable to the EU. So what Baker is proposing is “a shortcut to no deal”, he says.

  • Raab says the ERG plan for a Canada-style Brexit would be “a shortcut to no deal”.

Updated

Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dem MP, says MPs can choose Brexit, or choose prosperity, but not have both.

Raab says he disagrees.

Comments are going to have to close very soon, I’m afraid, at 6pm. That’s earlier than usual. I’m sorry about that.

Labour’s Stephen Kinnock asks how long the backstop will last.

Raab says he cannot give a date, but it will be time limited.

Raab claims government is ruling out 'blind' Brexit

Labour’s Chris Leslie says Raab’s answer to Kendall (see 5.51pm) seemed to rule out a blind Brexit. Will the “meaningful vote” motion include precise information about the future relationship?

Raab says the government wants to ensure that MPs have enough information to make a proper choice.

  • Raab claims government is ruling out a “blind” Brexit.

Updated

Labour’s Liz Kendall asks if No 10 was right to say yesterday that there would have to be a “precise” agreement on the future trade relationship for there to be a withdrawal agreement. Right or wrong?

Right, says Raab.

Nigel Dodds, the DUP leader at Westminster, says it is “rubbish” to say a backstop would be required to avoid the return of a hard border after Brexit. He says the DUP will not tolerate anything that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK in terms of customs or the single market.

Raab says the government will honour all the commitments it made in December. It will not do anything that would threaten the integrity of the UK.

Owen Paterson, the Tory Brexiter, asks what incentive the EU would have to end a backstop that kept the UK in a customs union effectively.

Raab says free movement would not apply. So the EU would have an incentive to end it, he says.

Labour’s Luciana Berger asks if “frictionless trade” will be a condition in the withdrawal agreement.

Raab says that is what the UK wants.

Amber Rudd, the Conservative former home secretary, says she is concerned about the “somewhat gung-ho” approach to security matters in a no deal Brexit that the government is adopting.

Can I ask the secretary of state what his plans are in the event of a no deal for security matters? I remain very concerned about the somewhat gung-ho approach to no deal given that the security matters are not yet in place to ensure that our country remains safe from terrorists, safe from organised crime, and that the EU has the same benefits.

Raab says the UK would have the chance to impose new border checks because it would no longer be bound by EU rules.

Updated

Politico Europe’s Charlie Cooper has decoded what Raab was referring to in his answer to Cooper.

Updated

Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, asks if the government is ruling out a common external tariff in the backstop.

Raab says the backstop needs to be time limited, and needs to avoid a border down the Irish Sea.

Someone mutters “no answer”.

Labour’s Hilary Benn, the chair of the Brexit committee, asks how the backstop could be limited to a time limit, given the uncertainties about when the future trade relationship will come into force.

Raab says the EU could not agree to an indefinite backstop because article 50 would not allow it.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative Brexiter and former cabinet minister, asks Raab to confirm that there is no need for an Irish backstop.

Raab says the UK has agreed that there should be one.

This is from ITV’s Robert Peston.

Politico Europe’s Charlie Cooper points out that the government’s current plans for an Irish backstop involve the UK effectively staying in the customs union beyond December 2020 for a period.

Raab rules out keeping UK in customs union

Raab is responding to Starmer.

He says PMs do not normally update MPs on informal EU summits. It did not happen under Labour.

He says there is “leeway” for the talks to slip into November.

It is not government policy to stay in the customs union, he says.

Raab says Labour has opened the door to a second referendum. That is a thinly-veiled ruse to block it altogether.

  • Raab rules out keeping the UK in the customs union.

Updated

Starmer says no government has the right to plunge the government into chaos as a result of its failure. It is not too late to change course, he says.

Starmer says it is being reported that the government will accept an indefinite customs union, although not called that, as the Irish backstop. Is that right?

There is growing concern the government is heading for no deal, he says.

And if it is not no deal, it will be a vague deal - “asking us to jump blindfold into the unknown”.

Labour will not support that, Starmer says. He challenges Raab to rule it out.

Starmer says the remaining bit of the negotiation is the hard bit.

He asks Raab to quash rumours he will not publish a backstop plan by next week.

With Tory MPs asking what he would do, Starmer says he would happily swap sides with Raab.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is responding now. He says the statement should have been delivered by Theresa May.

She pushed for Brexit to be on the agenda at the Salzburg summit. Even though it was an informal summit, she should be here explaining what went wrong.

While May was at Salzburg, Raab was writing gimmicky letters to Stamer (with questions about Labour’s policy).

Starmer says it is like Groundhog Day - Raab pretends everything will be okay.

He says Raab will probably read out pre-prepared attack lines about Labour. He should resist that temptation, and respond to the serious questions.

Raab used to say there would be a deal by the October summit. He did not say that today. So when will there be a deal?

Raab says the negotiations were always going to be tough in the final stretch.

But he says he remains confident they will get a deal this autumn.

He says the UK has brought forward serious proposals. It continues to work on understanding the EU’s concerns. But the EU must match the ambition and pragmatism shown by the UK.

The government is also preparing for a possible no deal, he says.

He says the UK has given a unilateral reassurance to EU nationals living in the UK that their rights will be protected in the event of a no deal Brexit. He says the EU should reciprocate.

  • Raab urges EU countries to guarantee that rights of Britons living on the continent will be protected in the event of a no deal Brexit.

Dominic Raab's Brexit statement

Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, is now making a statement to MPs about the Brexit process.

He says, on the withdrawal agreement, while there remain some disagreements, they are closing in on an agreement.

He says the EU “is engaging constructively” on the idea of linking this to the future relationship.

He says they have been discussing the backstop. But the UK government will not accept anything that affects the integrity of the UK. What the EU originally proposed, involving a border down the Irish Sea, was unacceptable.

He says, at the Salzburg summit, EU leaders expressed some concerns about the government’s white paper proposals. But the government continues to press its case, he says.

Sturgeon's speech - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

Here is some reaction to the Nicola Sturgeon speech from journalist and commentators on Twitter. It’s pretty favourable.

From the Herald’s Iain Macwhirter

From the Daily Record’s Torcuil Crichton

From the Spectator’s Alex Massie

From the Times’ Kenny Farquharson

From the New Statesman’s Chris Deerin

From the Guardian’s Severin Carrell

From the BBC’s Philip Sim

From the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh

Updated

This is from my colleague Lisa O’Carroll.

The Irish government has announced it is setting up a €2bn rainy day Brexit fund spending to protect small businesses and promoting growth.

Among the capital expenditures unveiled today, as part of the Irish government’s 2019 budget, are €10m for new revenue commissioners focused on Irish-British trade, €3m for food safety inspectors, €4n for sanitary and phytosanitary inspectors and an agriculture package of €80m.

Simon Coveney, deputy prime minister said the decision “to balance the country’s books, to establish our rainy day fund, and to invest in key domestic infrastructure, including our ports and airports, will help ensure Ireland is ready for whatever change Brexit brings.”

The information commissioner has backed Worcester University following a dispute with junior Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris about its stance on Brexit.

The commissioner’s judgement comes a year after Heaton-Harris, a member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Conservative MPs, wrote to vice-chancellors asking them to declare what they are teaching their students about Brexit and to provide a list of teachers’ names.

Leading academics accused the then Tory whip of McCarthyism. After Professor David Green, vice-chancellor of Worcester, told the Guardian that he was refusing to provide the then government whip with this information, the university received several similar FoI requests from the public, including one demanding “all emails within the account of the vice chancellor, or anyone who provides him with administrative support, which contain the word ‘Brexit’.”

In its judgement published today, the ICO ruled that requiring the university to publish this information risked inhibiting “a free and frank exchange of views”, and would be likely to make staff “much more cautious and risk averse [about expressing their views] in the future”.

Describing Heaton-Harris’s FoI request as “deeply dangerous”, Prof Green added:

Following this ruling, I trust that university leaders will ... stand up to such requests from national political sources, regardless of party affiliation.

Nicola Sturgeon's speech - Summary

Here are the key lines from Nicola Sturgeon’s speech to the SNP conference. The full text is here.

  • Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, delivered a damning verdict on the UK government’s handling of Brexit, saying it had strengthened the case for Scottish independence. As well as adapting one of Churchill’s most famous quotes and using it against Theresa May (see 4.07pm), she said:

This UK government’s handling of these negotiations has been shambolic, chaotic, and utterly incompetent.

838 days since the Brexit referendum happened.

Just 171 days until exit.

And yet no one has any idea what the UK’s future relationship with the EU will be.

That is a disgraceful failure of leadership.

And this is what she said about how Brexit had strengthened the case for Scottish independence.

These negotiations have also brought into sharp focus the difference in status between Scotland and independent members of the EU.

Independent Ireland has received nothing but solidarity from its European partners.

Westminster has shown Scotland nothing but contempt ...

You know, it seems to me that one of the lasting casualties of Brexit is the notion that the UK is in any sense a partnership of equals.

Our vote to remain in the EU ignored.

The Scottish government’s compromise plan to stay in the single market dismissed.

Our request for a role in the negotiations cast aside.

A raid on our parliament’s powers.

And when the Scottish Parliament said no to that raid, the UK Government could and should have respected that decision.

Instead they took us to court.

That’s not partnership. That is Westminster control.

  • She said she was “more confident than ever” that Scotland would be independent but refused to say any more about her thinking with regard to the timing of a second referendum. In March last year, when she came out in favour of a second independence referendum, she said it should be held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019. Since then Sturgeon has been procrastinating on this issue, and today she further postponed a decision about a future referendum, saying she had to await the outcome of the Brexit talks. She said:

We have a duty to answer questions as fully as we can.

We owe the people of Scotland no less.

The future relationship between the UK and the EU will determine the context in which Scotland would become independent.

And so the detail of that will shape some of the answers that people want.

But as we wait - impatiently, at times, I know - for this phase of negotiations to conclude and for the fog of Brexit to clear, be in no doubt about this.

The last two years have shown why Scotland needs to be independent.

And I am more confident than ever that Scotland will be independent.

She also said the goal of independence was now “clearly in sight”.

  • She said the SNP would be extending “fair work conditions” to all government grants. (See 10.42am.)
  • She said the SNP would consider the feasibility of a government-owned national infrastructure company.
  • She said the SNP would increase the value of the student nurse bursary in Scotland, rising to £10,000 a year in 2020.
  • She said any political system that could throw up Jacob Rees-Mogg or Boris Johnson as future prime ministers “has clearly gone very badly wrong”. (See 3.52pm.)
  • She described the Labour conference as “an SNP policy tribute act”.

So here’s an offer, Jeremy.

You say you want to bring water into public ownership.

The next time you’re in Scotland, I’ll show you how to run a public water company.

And while you’re here...

I’ll show you how to abolish prescription charges.

I’ll show you how to get rid of tuition fees.

I’ll take you to Dalzell steelworks or the Fort William smelter to show you how to deliver an active industrial policy.

And while you talk about a fairer tax system, I’ll show you how the SNP has already delivered a fairer tax system.

  • She said the Scottish government’s record made it admired throughout the world.

The groundbreaking work already being done here in Scotland is recognised across the UK and around the world.

Our actions to tackle climate change have been called ‘exemplary’ by the United Nations.

And they will make Scotland one of the first carbon neutral countries anywhere in the world.

The work of the Violence Reduction Unit has won plaudits from the World Economic Forum and is now being replicated by the Mayor of London

Even the UK Tories praise our approach to community sentencing and reducing re-offending.

It’s just a pity that the shameless opportunists in their Scottish wing continue to oppose it at every turn.

Our work to tackle period poverty has drawn praise from the United States.

“Awesome and important. Thank you, Scotland, for leading the way.”

That was Chelsea Clinton.

And just two weeks ago, Bernie Sanders praised our actions on fair work.

  • She said that the SNP had never applied a borrowing cap to councils and that in the last five years more council homes had been built in Scotland than in the whole of England.
  • She said she thought of Scotland, not as a small country, but as a big family.

I don’t really think of Scotland as a small country.

I think of it as a big family.

And, yes, that does mean the occasional disagreement.

But throughout it all, we care for one another.

We fight each other’s corner.

We’ve got big hearts.

And we’re not afraid to show love.

And there is so much about Scotland to love.

The majesty of our landscape, the humour and ingenuity of our people and the huge contribution we’ve made and continue to make across the globe.

Nicola Sturgeon speaking to the SNP conference in Glasgow.
Nicola Sturgeon speaking to the SNP conference in Glasgow. Photograph: Ken Jack - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon has told Scottish National party activists they need to intensify their efforts to persuade voters to embrace independence, in her keynote speech at the party’s conference, my colleague Severin Carrell reports.

'Never has so much been lost by so many to satisfy so few' - Sturgeon uses Churchill to slam Brexit

Sturgeon delivered a damning verdict on the government’s handling of Brexit in her speech. She told delegates:

In 2014, we were told we had to reject independence to protect our place in Europe.

Today, we face warnings of medicines shortages, grounded aeroplanes, gridlock at ports and a haemorrhaging of investment.

They’ve even appointed a Minister for Food Supplies, for goodness sake.

We haven’t had one of those since Winston Churchill was Prime Minister.

Conference

It brings to mind those immortal Churchill words about the sacrifices of the RAF in World War 2 -

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Well when the history books tell the story of this Tory government, selfishly driving the UK towards a hard Brexit just to appease its own ideologues, the verdict will be damning.

Never has so much been lost by so many to satisfy so few.

Nicola Sturgeon delivering her speech to the SNP conference in Glasgow.
Nicola Sturgeon delivering her speech to the SNP conference in Glasgow. Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters

This is what Nicola Sturgeon said about the Tories in her speech.

Governments have a duty to plan for the long term.

The Scottish government is living up to that responsibility.

By contrast, the Westminster government stumbles from disaster to disaster.

It is a shambles.

It’s hard to watch that unfolding calamity with anything other than horror.

Let’s be frank - a political system that throws up Jacob Rees-Mogg or Boris Johnson as contenders for Prime Minister has clearly gone very badly wrong.

Full summary of the speech coming soon.

The Corbynite MP Chris Williamson does not seem to be bothered by the news that he may be facing a deselection challenge. He has posted this response on Twitter.

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland, says the DUP do not speak for the majority of people in the region on Brexit. In a statement released after the DUP’s meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in Brussels, O’Neill said:

The DUP do not speak for the majority of people here on Brexit, just as they do not on a range of social issues, including the rights of women, Irish speakers, victims and the LGBT community.

I also believe that Arlene Foster’s so-called blood red lines are out of step with many in the unionist community who are growing increasingly concerned at the DUP’s willingness to endanger our economy in order to avoid an imaginary line on the Irish Sea.

Last week I, along with the leaders of the SDLP, Alliance and Green Party, met with Michel Barnier. We did so as the majority voice of the people here. All those parties made it clear made it clear that, in terms of Brexit, the DUP should not have a veto.

We also re-iterated our common position that the “backstop” as already agreed must be maintained and is the absolute bottom line for Sinn Féin, SDLP, Alliance and Green party as we enter the endgame of the Brexit negotiations.

Michel Barnier (left), Michelle O’Neill (right) and the SDLP’s Colum Eastwood (2nd right) at a meeting in Brussels on Friday last week.
Michel Barnier (left), Michelle O’Neill (right) and the SDLP’s Colum Eastwood (2nd right) at a meeting in Brussels on Friday last week. Photograph: Francois Walschaerts/AFP/Getty Images

Thousands of vulnerable people facing homelessness could qualify for extra help to pay their deposit or rent under a £20m scheme to get them into private rented homes.

The fund, part of the government’s rough sleeping strategy, aims to support up to 9,000 people through locally-led schemes which it claims will match the needs of residents and landlords.

Programmes will range from town halls providing financial support to cover rent payments to local authorities managing a property on the landlord’s behalf.

Communities secretary James Brokenshire said:

It is vital we give people facing homelessness a route out of it and a chance to rebuild their lives. The private rented sector has an important role in this.

The scheme is based on a successful one run by Crisis, the homelessness charity, which created 8,000 tenancies over four years, 90% of which lasted beyond six months.

It comes after an investigation on Monday found that more than 440 homeless people, including a former soldier, an astrophysicist and a Big Issue seller, have died on the streets or in temporary accommodation.

Charities have called the deaths a national disgrace and have blamed soaring homelessness on austerity, expensive private rents and a lack of social housing.

Jennie Formby has responded to the publication of an anonymous article about conditions in a Labour party call centre by saying that, when she became general secretary in April, she increased the wages of call centre staff.

Nicola Sturgeon has just started her leader’s speech at the SNP conference. She started with a joke about dancing - and why should would not be dancing because, with her heels, she could barely walk.

I’ll post a summary after I’ve seen the text of the speech.

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon Photograph: Sky News

One on the panel at this lunchtime’s SNP Socialists fringe meeting felt the need to emphasise that it shouldn’t be a surprise to find socialists within a nationalist party. As organiser Graham Campbell told me afterwards, a meeting like this is simply proof of the broad church that the party became after the 2014 referendum, when independence-minded lefties decided to berth with the SNP.

A show of hands at the start of the packed meeting was interesting: the majority agreed that campaigning for a People’s Vote on Brexit need not detract from independence, though there were questions from the floor later raising concerns about watering down the push for independence by tying it to Brexit, as well as whether SNP supporters should not be hurrying Brexit along if it’s inevitable conclusion is a majority of Scots in favour of independence, as many argue.

It’s perhaps evidence of a growing confidence amongst SNP activists, in particular those new recruits who have joined the party in the past 4 years, that fringe events in general are much sparkier and less consensual than they have been in previous years.

Tory MEPs say they voted against flawed resolution, not to support Hungarian government

Daniel Dalton MEP, the Conservative home affairs spokesman in the European parliament, has issued a response to Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the Tories for voting against censuring the Hungarian government last month. He said:

I can reassure Hilary Clinton that Conservative MEPs have not voted in support of the Hungarian government.

We opposed the European parliament resolution because it went way beyond the parliament’s competency and will never be applied because Poland has already pledged to veto it in the European council.

Equally importantly, it could make any subsequent legal moves against Hungary more difficult by enabling Viktor Orban to claim they were politically motivated.

We take very seriously the direction the Hungarian government is taking, particularly in its rhetoric surrounding migrants and ethnic and religious minorities, and the rule of law and freedom of the press.

That makes it even more important that any action has a sound legal base and is able to make a difference in Hungary. Political gestures by MEPs only serve to bolster Orban’s domestic support and are not the answer.

This is from the Financial Times’ Mehreen Khan.

Tories risk 'dire' election defeat if May sticks with Chequers Brexit plan, says Davis

David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, has written to Tory MPs restating his call for the party to back a Canada-style trade relationship with the EU after Brexit. The argument is one he has made before, but he has added a warning that, if Theresa May ignores this and ploughs ahead with Chequers, “the electoral consequences could be dire”. He says:

If we stay on our current trajectory we will go into the next election with the government having delivered none of the benefits of Brexit, with the country reduced to being a rule-taker from Brussels, and having failed to deliver on a number of promises in the manifesto and in the Lancaster House speech. This will not be a technicality, it will be very obvious to the electorate. The electoral consequences could be dire.

Here is a tweet with the text of the full letter.

Updated

Don't try to 'bounce' us into agreeing a backstop, DUP tells May

In an interview on the BBCs World at One Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s Brexit spokesman, warned that Theresa May should not try to bounce his party into accepting a new proposal for the Irish backstop (the bit of the Brexit withdrawal agreement guaranteeing there will be no hard border in Ireland, if other aspects of the deal cannot deliver that). Asked if his party had seen the draft of the new backstop plan the British government is promising, he replied:

What we have made very clear to the government is if they don’t want a repeat of December of last year, when they tried to bounce us into accepting arrangements that we had not seen, then we’ve have got to see the text, we’ve got to be happy with the text.

Asked how long in advance the DUP would need to consider it, he replied:

As long as it takes to fully appreciate what the text means, what the implications of it are, and to discuss those with the government.

He also said that previous deadlines in this process had slipped and he suspected next week’s deadline would probably pass as well.

(The EU has not set next week as an ultimate deadline, but it has said that if there is not progress next week on the backstop, it will not schedule the emergency November summit where the deal is due to be finalised.)

Sammy Wilson
Sammy Wilson Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Archive/PA Images

This is from the BBC’s Brussels reporter Adam Fleming.

At the Conservative conference last week David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, said the government would come forward with a new backstop plan “very soon”.

My colleague Owen Jones isn’t impressed by Hillary Clinton’s comment about the Tories.

Lunchtime summary

  • Chris Williamson, an arch-Corbynite MP who has pushed for the deselection of Labour colleagues disloyal to the party leader, is facing his own battle for reselection, HuffPost reports.

SNP says government should consider banning salary questions at job interviews for public bodies

SNP delegates this morning backed a motion asking the Scottish government to consider the option of banning public bodies from asking for salary history when recruiting staff as a means of tackling the gender pay gap. Explaining the proposal, Chris Stephens MP, the party’s fair work and employment spokesman at Westminster, said:

Whilst the full-time gender pay gap in Scotland is lower than the UK as a whole, showing the proactive approach that the SNP at Holyrood have taken, we are well aware that there is more work to do to address this.

For too long, employers have been able to get away with underpaying women by asking for their salary history. This is a systemic problem that perpetuates the issue of the gender pay gap.

The SNP conference in Glasgow.
The SNP conference in Glasgow. Photograph: Ken Jack - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Scotland’s justice secretary said Labour is seen as “working against ethnic minorities”. As the Press Association reports, Humza Yousaf said his rival party was historically seen as standing up for ethnic minorities but this has changed and raised questions over structural racism. He highlighted two Labour councillors who were suspended for alleged racism and a row over the internal party selection process in areas Glasgow.

Speaking at a fringe event at the SNP conference in Glasgow, Yousaf said:

My point is you add all these things together and there is a question around, and I use purposely the term, structural racism.

Yousaf said police, government, all political parties and companies have to look at whether they have structural biases in their institutions, arguing “the world isn’t colourblind” and saying he faces racism daily, which can be structural. He added:

My point in all of this, is to question Labour, you used to be the party that stood up for minorities. You are now the party that is seen - rightly or wrongly so I just ask the question - to be working against ethnic minorities.

Humza Yousaf
Humza Yousaf Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

There are three urgent questions in the Commons this afternoon.

That means the Dominic Raab statement on Brexit probably won’t start until around 5.30pm.

Last month the Conservative MEP Daniel Dalton, the party’s home affairs spokesman in the European parliament, wrote a lengthy blog explaining why he and his colleagues did not support the censure motion against Hungary. Here’s an extract.

Contrary to what our political opponents and some in the media are trying to portray, this in no way signalled approval or support for any of the policies of the Hungarian government

We opposed it on the broad grounds that the resolution went way beyond the parliament’s competency and that the remedy it sought - article 7 can lead to a member state’s voting rights being withdrawn - was disproportionate and will never be applied because Poland has already pledged to veto it in the European council.

More specifically, and just as importantly, we voted against the resolution because it will not work. Worse, it could make any subsequent legal moves against Hungary more difficult.

We have always believed that if article 7 action is to be considered against a member state, it must be done in a legally sound way that specifically addresses legal incompatibility with EU law. That is a job for the European commission, as guardians of the treaty, following the correct legal process, not a resolution drafted by the Green group in the European parliament.

This legal route has had proven success in the past, with the Hungarian government quietly changing several laws after the commission took action against it through the European court of justice. In contrast, there is no record of the Orban government backing down in the face of political pressure.

The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban whose increasingly illiberal policies led to MEPs voting last month to initiate disciplinary proceedings against his government.
The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban whose increasingly illiberal policies led to MEPs voting last month to initiate disciplinary proceedings against his government. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Former Tory chief whip says only Canada-style deal has 'realistic' chance of getting through Commons

In an article for the Daily Telegraph (paywall) Mark Harper, a former Conservative chief whip, says that Theresa May should push for a Canada-style free trade deal with the EU, because that is the only option she will be able to get through the Commons. He says:

It is now very clear that the only realistic chance of getting a good Brexit deal through parliament is for it to have the support of Conservative and DUP MPs. The only option with a realistic chance of uniting those MPs, giving a chance of parliamentary approval, is a Canada-style free trade agreement (FTA).

Harper’s intervention is interesting because he voted remain and, until now, he has not been seen as a potential Brexit rebel.

May argues that a Canada free trade deal is unacceptable because it would not deliver full frictionless trade with the EU (meaning manufacturers dependent on just-in-time supply lines would suffer) and because it would create a hard border in Northern Ireland (meaning the EU backstop, creating a border in the Irish Sea, might have to come into force.) In his article Harper does not particularly address the frictionless trade point, but he writes at length about the Irish border, and argues that customs rules could be applied in Irleand without the need for extra border infrastructure.

Although Tory Brexiters would vote for a Canada-style deal, there is no guarantee it would get through the Commons. Labour would oppose it, because it would not offer the same benefits as staying in the customs union and the single market, and the former home secretary Amber Rudd said recently that around 40 pro-European Tories would also refuse to back it.

Mark Harper
Mark Harper Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

I’ve called Conservative HQ to ask for a response to the Hillary Clinton comments. (See 12.09am.) They say they’ll get back to me. We’ll see ...

After the vote in the European parliament last month the party in London was slow to comment on the row, but it did eventually put out a statement defending the way its MEPs voted. It said:

Victor Orban has a track record of responding to legal moves not political threats. Politicising the issue at this early stage simply undermines any future legal action, while boosting Orban’s domestic support.

'Long way from party of Churchill and Thatcher' - Hillary Clinton condemns Tories for backing Orbán

Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, has condemned the Conservative party for voting in the European parliament against measures to censure the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán for his increasingly repressive policies. Speaking in Oxford this morning, she said:

I hope the European Union, and the people of Europe, will resist the backsliding [on human rights] we are seeing in the east. It’s disheartening to watch Conservatives in Brussels vote to shield Viktor Orbán from censure – including British Tories. They’ve come a long way from the party of Churchill and Thatcher.

The slide towards autocracy is at least as graver threat to the European project as the financial crisis or Brexit. It is also a threat to Nato.

UPDATE: Here is video of her comment.

Updated

And here is the BBC’s Gareth Gordon on the DUP press conference.

This is what Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, tweeted about his meeting with the DUP.

And this is what the DUP leader Arlene Foster tweeted about the meeting.

Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, has just posted this on Twitter. Is this a coded message about how she thinks the inhabitant of No 10 should refuse to budge?

Scottish government minister tells SNP delegates they may have to wait for independence

Mike Russell, Scotland’s constitutional relations secretary, has urged Scottish National party activists to bide their time on staging a new independence referendum, warning them that independence “isn’t just about grabbing a lifeboat in choppy and dangerous seas.”

In an explicit and candid demand to remain patient about the timing of a new vote, Russell also hinted strongly there could be a long delay before Nicola Sturgeon decided on the optimum opportunity to stage that vote.

He told delegates on the final day of the SNP’s annual conference in Glasgow the party needed to get the timing of the referendum and its arguments for leaving the UK perfectly framed. He said:

Deciding the when can only come after agreeing on the why.

Because the why isn’t just about grabbing a lifeboat in choppy and dangerous seas.

At the weekend, about 20,000 hardline independence activists marched through Edinburgh, staging a rally on Holyrood park near the Scottish parliament despite a ban on the event by the conservation quango Historic Environment Scotland which runs the park.

But Sturgeon is wrestling with a dilemma on whether to prioritise the SNP’s battle over Brexit or independence: she has made clear she needs to wait until the outcome of the Westminster vote on Brexit before deciding, and may even need to wait until the details of Brexit are finalised over the next two years.

The latest spate of opinion polls shows support for independence remains stubbornly fixed at about 46 or 47% of voters, excluding don’t knows, although there are signs that a hard Brexit could push the yes vote to 52% - a figure still too low for comfort.

Russell, who is one of the most experienced SNP ministers in her team and has led Scottish government talks on Brexit with UK ministers, underscored that in his conference speech in Glasgow today. He said:

I chose independence when I joined the SNP some 44 years ago and I intend to see it happen. I am still full of hope, and the more so when I look at how this party has changed and grown over all those years – and goes on growing.

But it can only happen when we find the right moment and the right arguments to make it happen.

Our job as a party and as a government is to both make sure that Scotland flourishes, no matter the circumstances but also to ensure that – at the right moment – the choice of independence can be made.

The right moment – not the most comfortable moment nor the moment that best relieves our natural impatience. The moment at which our country is persuaded, ready and determined to win.

Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s constitutional relations secretary.
Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s constitutional relations secretary. Photograph: Ken Jack - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

The press conference still seems to be going on, but TV coverage has ended and I can’t find a live feed.

Adam Boulton, who is presenting Sky’s All Out Politics, says that by the standards of the DUP, Arlene Foster sounded pretty conciliatory.

What he means is that she did not come out with a straight no.

Dodds says it has been agreed that the common travel area will continue. So there will be no border for people, she says.

Q: How would a no deal Brexit be good for Northern Ireland?

Foster says the questioner is assuming that it would just be the DUP opposing this deal. That would not be the case, she says.

Q: If you block a deal, there will be checks on the land border. How would that be good for the people of Northern Ireland?

Foster says the DUP is trying to find a solution that works.

Foster says she believes in all four elements of the UK. The day after the UK leaves the EU, Northern Ireland will be aligned with the rest of the UK. But what happens five years down the line? That is the issue.

She says she needs to see the text.

When the government comes forward with a text, she will assess it, she says.

Q: Will you accept any compromise? Or would you veto a deal and bring in a no deal Brexit?

Foster says she needs to see what the text says.

The DUP will have to be satisifed the outcome does not damage the UK.

The Scottish government is watching this closely too, she says.

Q: Are you willing to veto a deal and bring in a no deal Brexit?

We need to see the text, says Foster.

Q: But are you prepared to veto a deal?

Foster says they have always said there is only one red line - bringing in new checks within the UK.

Foster says the PM understands the DUP’s position, and she expects May to respect the DUP’s position.

She takes exception to the suggestion the DUP is “propping up” the government.

Q: Barnier wants to de-dramatise this issue. He has been talking about light-tough checks. Do you accept that?

Foster says she does not seen to see why there should have to be any new checks if Northern Ireland is an integral part of the UK.

Dodds says putting up barriers, including non-tariff barriers, between Northern Ireland and Britain would be disastrous.

DUP press conference

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, is holding a press conference in Brussels now following her meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. She is appearing with the DUP MEP Diane Dodds.

Foster says this is a seminal moment for the four constituent parts of the UK.

The DUP want to see an agreed outcome, she says.

She says the result of the referendum must be respected.

The EU must understand the sensitivities in Ireland, she says.

She says erecting barriers to trade within the EU would be unacceptable, as the joint report agreed by the UK and the EU in December said, she says.

She says today’s meeting with Barnier was “useful”.

SNP to extend 'fair work first' conditions to government grants, Sturgeon says

The SNP released some excerpts from Nicola Sturgeon’s speech to the party conference overnight. In it the Scottish first minister will say that the UK government is stumbling from “disaster to disaster”. She will tell delegates:

The Westminster government stumbles from day to day and disaster to disaster. It’s hard to watch that unfolding calamity and feel anything other than despair.

So it is up to us - now more than ever - to offer optimism and hope.

Just think how much more hope will be possible when we take Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands and become an independent country.

An independent Scotland, just as Scotland is now, will be a beacon for progressive values - equality, opportunity, diversity and fairness. Indeed those values feel more important today than ever before in my lifetime.

She will also say the Scottish government will insist on a “fair work first” approach (conditions on paying the living wage etc) when awarding government grants generally. She will say:

We’ve made payment of the real living wage part of our procurement process, we’ve extended it to adult social care workers and we will soon do the same for early years workers.

As a result of all of that, Scotland now has the highest proportion of employees paid the living wage of any UK nation.

But we must do more. Last month, we said business support grants from Scottish Enterprise would have living wage, zero hours contracts and gender pay criteria attached.

I can announce today that, working with unions, business and the public sector, we will extend that approach.

We will adopt a new default position. Fair work first.

By the end of this parliament, we will extend fair work criteria to as many funding streams and business support grants as we can. And, we will extend the range of Scottish government and public sector contracts that fair work criteria apply to.

Fair work first means investment in skills and training, no exploitative zero hours contracts, action on gender pay, and genuine workforce engagement, including with trade unions. And, of course, payment of the living wage.

We may not yet have the constitutional power to make fair work a legal requirement - but we do have the financial power of government to make it a practical reality.

And we will make that count.

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon Photograph: Duncan McGlynn/Getty Images

As my colleague Richard Partington reports in the business live blog, the Bank of England is saying the EU should do more to prepare for the possible impact a no deal Brexit would have on the financial sector, and in particular on the market for financial derivatives.

The Bank is making its comments in its financial policy committee (FPC) statement (pdf) out this morning. That statement also says the FPC thinks the UK banking system could survive a no deal Brexit, although the outcomes the Bank has stress-tested are rather hair-raising. It says:

The FPC continues to judge that the 2017 stress test encompassed an appropriately wide range of UK macroeconomic outcomes that could be associated with Brexit. As it has set out previously, the FPC judges that Brexit risks, including those of a disorderly, cliff-edge Brexit in which there was no agreement or implementation period, do not warrant additional capital buffers for banks.

The 2017 stress test scenario included the UK unemployment rate rising to 9.5%, UK residential property prices falling by 33% and UK commercial real estate prices falling by 40%. It also included a sudden loss of overseas investor appetite for UK assets, a 27% fall in the sterling exchange rate index and Bank Rate rising to 4%.

These are the possible outcomes Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, discussed at a cabinet meeting devoted to no deal planning in September, leading to reports he had told them house prices could fall by a third in a no deal scenario.

The Bank of England
The Bank of England Photograph: Kirsty O'Connor/PA

The Press Association has now filed what Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, said this morning when asked if she supported Theresa May’s Chequers plan. (See 9.11am.) Mordaunt said:

The prime minister can count on my support. But what I would say is that we don’t know where this is going to end up. We are at a critical moment now. The ball is firmly back in the EU’s court; we are waiting for them to respond.

I think that what we need to do is just support both the PM but also Dominic Raab and the negotiating team. They are trying to get the best deal for our country and, until we know what that is, I think that is the best way we can help.

When pressed on this, Mordaunt added:

The prime minister has my full support. I think she is working absolutely flat out to get our country the best deal possible,” she said following a speech in London on future British aid following Brexit.

I don’t doubt her motives, I don’t doubt her commitment and I don’t doubt for one moment her understanding that we have to deliver a good Brexit, we have to honour that result. So she has my support and I am not in any way expecting that situation to change.

Penny Mordaunt arriving at Number 10 for cabinet this morning.
Penny Mordaunt arriving at Number 10 for cabinet this morning. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters

No 10 winning over some Tories who were planning to rebel over Chequers, leading Brexiter admits

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister and vice chair of the European Research Group, the Tory caucus pushing for a harder Brexit, was on the Today programme this morning and he had what theoretically amounts to some good news for Number 10; at least 40 Tories will vote against her Brexit plan.

That does not sound particularly encouraging for Theresa May, but Baker used to say there were 80 or so Tories willing to rebel over the Chequers. Effectively he was admitting that Number 10 is winning over some of the Tory Brexiters who threatened to rebel.

In a speech in the Commons in July Baker cryptically suggested that there were at least 80 potential rebels. (The figure 40 was out by a factor, not a fraction, he said.) In September he told the Press Association explicitly that at least 80 Tories were willing to rebel. And he repeated that figure at a meeting in the House of Commons.

This morning he told Today:

I’ve put on the record that almost 80 colleagues were prepared to protest vote against Chequers on some amendments, and that is an accurate number ... We are in a position where, as we roll forward, colleagues will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit.

Note that “were”.

When pressed as to whether he was sticking to that prediction, he praised the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, for making the point in her introduction that this was a previous indication. He went on:

I did a concrete canvas of colleagues when [MPs were considering whether they would back rebel amendments to legislation], and came up with the number nearly 80.

Of course the government are going to whip this vote extremely hard. But what I would say is the whips would be doing incredibly well if they were to halve the numbers, and my estimate is that there are at least, at least 40 colleagues who are not going to accept a half-in, half-out Chequers deal, or indeed a backstop that leaves us in the internal market and the customs union come what may.

Steve Baker (centre) a week ago today at the Conservative conference, listening to the Boris Johnson speech alongside Rachel Johnson and David Davis.
Steve Baker (centre) a week ago today at the Conservative conference, listening to the Boris Johnson speech alongside Rachel Johnson and David Davis.
 Photograph: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

International aid secretary Penny Mordaunt refuses to explicitly back May's Chequers plan

MPs return to the Commons today after the party conference recess and, of course, there will be a big focus on Brexit, with Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, due to make a statement. But already we’ve had an interesting intervention from Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary and one of the leading figures in the Vote Leave campaign. She was giving a speech at 8am on aid policy and, according to a report in the Sunday Times (paywall), she was banned by Number 10 from briefing the Brexit extracts in advance. Until this morning she had not commented on Theresa May’s Chequers plan and journalists arrived eager to see whether she would or would not give May her full support.

The Department for International Development carried the speech live on its Facebook page but the live coverage cut off as the Q&A started. However Twitter is there to help me out, and colleagues report that Mordaunt refused to say she backed the Chequers plan. These are from ITV’s Carl Dinnen, the Daily Mail’s John Stevens and the Times’ Henry Zeffman.

But Mordaunt did give her backing to the prime minister. These are from my colleague Pippa Crerar and the Sun’s Matt Dathan.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet.

9.30am: Ben Wallace, the security minister, speaks at the Dods national security summit.

10.30am: Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s constitutional relations secretary, speaks at the SNP conference. Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance secretary, speaks at 11.25am, and Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, closes the conference with a speech at 3.15pm.

10.45am: Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, is due to hold a press conference in Brussels about her meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.

2pm: Professor Alan Manning, chairman of the migration advisory committee, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.

After 3.30pm: Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, gives a statement to MPs about the Brexit talks.

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 at lunchtime and another when I wrap up, probably at about 6pm.

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.

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.

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

Updated

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