Afternoon summary
- A bill designed to stop Boris Johnson taking the UK out of the EU on 31 October without a Brexit agreement has cleared the House of Lords, and it is set to become law on Monday when it is due to get royal assent. The bill, drafted over the summer by a cross-party alliance of MPs and tabled by Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, got through all its stages in the Lords in two days, without any amendments being passed. The bill is thought to be legally watertight, and it seems to have closed off the option of Johnson forcing a no-deal Brexit at the end of October - a threat he claims has to be on the table if the EU is to offer him the compromise he insists he can obtain. Johnson has said that he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than demand an article 50 extension and no one seems to know (including perhaps Johnson himself?) what will happen if he gets to 19 October - the Saturday after the October EU summit, and the deadline in the bill for sending a letter requesting a Brexit deal - and the law says he must request an extension. Johnson can only avoid this condition either by getting MPs to pass a withdrawal agreement, or by getting them to vote to agree to a no-deal Brexit. The latter will never happen, and the former (on the basis of what we know say far about the UK-EU renegotiation) seems a remote possibility. The bill means MPs will have recourse to the courts if Johnson were to refuse to request an extension, but quite how this might play out in practice is not clear.
- James Cleverly, the Conservative party chair, has been branded “childish” by one of his predecessors, Sayeeda Warsi, after he promoted a Tory advert branding Jeremy Corbyn a chicken for not agreeing to an early election.
This James is silly playground behaviour.
— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) September 6, 2019
We are in the middle of a national crisis and this is our response.🤦🏽♀️
How can grown men reduce themselves to this level of silliness. What has become of this great Party of ours😢 https://t.co/89aStqWjbq
- Boris Johnson called David Cameron a “girly swot” in unredacted government papers obtained by Sky News. In a note about proroguing parliament, Johnson said: “The whole September session is a rigmarole introduced by girly swot Cameron and show the public that MPs are earning their crust.”
Exclusive - Sky News reveal what Boris Johnson said about David Cameron in private cabinet papers after obtaining an unredacted copy of documents disclosed to court pic.twitter.com/fRfTZPwtjC
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) September 6, 2019
Labour’s Alison McGovern says Johnson’s language says something about his attitude to women.
'Big girl's blouse'
— Alison McGovern (@Alison_McGovern) September 6, 2019
'Girly swot'
What is it about big smart women Boris Johnson doesn't like 🤔 https://t.co/E17w0ALbQs
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
This is from Naomi Smith, chief executive of the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, commenting on the Benn bill passing the Lords.
The Lords have guided Britain further away from the no-deal cliff edge towards which the PM has been stumbling blindly.
Parliament has forced Boris Johnson into a corner and his reckless Brexit strategy is in tatters. He must now uphold democratic process and formally seek this extension or face the courts.
If you want to read the Hansard with today’s House of Lords debate on the Benn bill, it’s here.
Here is a House of Lords library note (pdf) explaining what the Benn bill actually does. And there is a shorter summary here.
Updated
And this is from the Lib Dem leader in the Lords, Dick Newby.
Despite cynical attempts from Tory backbenchers to filibuster, the article 50 extension bill has seen safe passage through the House of Lords. It seems that - unlike our suitcases - their threats of disruption were empty.
Liberal Democrats in both the Lords and the Commons have fought tirelessly against the attempts by the prime minister to force a disastrous no-deal Brexit, and this bill is an important step towards trying to sort out the mess the government has made.
This is from the Labour peers’ Twitter account.
BREAKING:
— LabourLordsUK (@LabourLordsUK) September 6, 2019
- No amendts to 3rd Reading of #BennBill, which completes its parliamentary scrutiny
- @JeffRookerj (sponsor) moves 'This Bill Do Now Pass' motion - "CONTENT"
- It will NOT return to MPs on Monday & Govt guarantees #RoyalAssent next week before #Prorogation
Job done!
Peers pass Benn bill blocking no-deal Brexit on 31 October, paving way for it to become law on Monday
The Benn bill, intended to prevent a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, has just been approved by the House of Lords. It passed the upper house without being amended, which means that it does not have to go back to the House of Commons. It will become law as soon as it gets royal assent, which should happen on Monday.
There were two votes earlier today, on Brexiter amendments intended to sabotage the bill, but they were easily defeated – by 268 votes to 47, and by 283 votes to 28.
Earlier in the week a group of Tory Brexiter peers tried to filibuster a motion designed to allow the bill to clear the Lords by the end of today. But they backed down after dragging out a debate past 1am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning after the opposition parties agreed not to use guillotine motions.
Updated
Some polling quoted in a Financial Times story (paywall) by Jim Pickard helps to explain why Labour might be keen to delay the election until November. If Johnson were to go to the polls after 31 October without having delivered Brexit, support for the Brexit party would double, the poll suggests. Pickard writes:
An ICM poll suggests that support for the Brexit party would double from 9 per cent to 18 per cent if an election takes place after Halloween.
The poll, commissioned by Represent Us — which is pushing for a second Brexit referendum — found the Conservatives’ lead over Labour would evaporate in those circumstances.
The ICM poll suggests the Tories would beat Labour by 37 per cent against 30 per cent in an October election, while the two parties would be neck and neck on 28 per cent in a November poll.
Updated
Boris Johnson claims UK-US trade deal could cover quality meat without allowing hormone-treated beef imports
We have already quoted extensively from what Boris Johnson said when he spoke to reporters at the farm in Aberdeen, but here are three more lines from him. They are from his interview with Sky News.
- Johnson claimed it would be possible to do a trade deal with the US that would cover beef without allowing American hormone-treated meat in to the UK. Talking about the opportunities available to the UK after Brexit, he said:
Look at fantastic Scottish beef, which I’ve just been looking at. Not a morsel of it currently goes to America. You could do a a free trade deal with America where you don’t import their hormone-treated beef, but you do a deal on high-quality products, you allow Scottish farmers to sell, to discover new markets around the world.
- He claimed Jeremy Corbyn was making a mistake in refusing to back an early election. He said:
I think it is the most sensational paradox. Never in history has there been an opposition party that has been given the chance to have an election and has turned it down. If I may say so, I think that they are making an extraordinary political mistake. But it’s their decision.
(Why Johnson would want an early election if it was also advantageous to Labour to have one was not explained.)
- He said the government was set to unveil a “golden age of infrastructure investment”. He said:
When global interest rates are so low, this is is the moment to have golden age of infrastructure investment. That’s what Sajid Javid set out in the spending review this week and in the budget this autumn you will be hearing a lot more about infrastructure, about improving our roads, our railways, doing fantastic things with full-fibre broadband across the whole country.
Updated
Boris Johnson says he will use 'powers of persuasion' to get Brexit deal from EU
Boris Johnson has said he will win a new Brexit deal at next month’s EU summit by using his “powers of persuasion”, and rejected calls for a further extension to article 50.
The prime minister said he had no plans to accept the new legislation which would require him to write to the EU asking for a “pointless” delay to Brexit, during a visit to Aberdeenshire on Friday.
“We’ve spent a long time trying to sort of fudge this thing and I think the British public really want us to get out. They don’t want more dither and delay,” he said after encountering a prize bull called Keene at a beef farm near Banchory.
Asked how he would deliver a new deal at the EU summit on 17 October, he said:
By powers of persuasion. Because there’s absolutely no doubt we should come out … It’s a pointless delay.
Updated
Scotland’s highest civil court will not give its judgement before Wednesday on a challenge to the planned prorogation of parliament, the Press Association reports. The lord president, Lord Carloway, rejected an application to make an interim order to halt the process, despite hearing from the applicants that prorogation could be started two days before that, on Monday. He said the court had some extremely complex issues to decide, which would take some time, and it hoped to be in a position to give its judgement on Wednesday.
Updated
Here is the ITV political editor Robert Peston’s take on the election timing story.
Opposition parties will again vote against general election on Monday. The debate between leaders of Labour, SNP, LibDems, Plaid and Greens is whether to vote for election a day or two after Queen’s Speech on Oct 14 or day or three after EU summit on 17-18 October. Either...
— Robert Peston (@Peston) September 6, 2019
way, it is all about making sure @BorisJohnson either goes to Brussels to beg for a Brexit delay or resigns to allow a temporary government of national unity AND means the general election would be in November (mid to late). How does Johnson escape this trap?
— Robert Peston (@Peston) September 6, 2019
Here is my colleague Heather Stewart’s story about what the opposition leaders at Westminster decided about an early election when they spoke this morning.
And this is how it starts.
Opposition parties have agreed to reject Boris Johnson’s attempt to trigger a snap election for a second time on Monday, making it increasingly unlikely a poll will be held before 31 October.
Opposition parties have agreed to rule out early election before November, say Lib Dems
Tom Brake, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, told the World at One that he believes the opposition parties have agreed not to support an early election until November. Labour did not explicitly say that in its readout of the meeting (see 12.52pm), but Brake was explicit. He said:
We [the opposition parties] are not going to give the prime minister the election he is so desperate for until an extension has been secured and the risk of crashing out of the EU without a deal is completely eliminated.
He said by ‘extension being secured’, he did not just mean the Hilary Benn bill, designed to rule out a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, becoming law. He meant Boris Johnson going to Brussels and securing that extension.
And if [Johnson] chooses to disobey the law, and not follow what parliament has required him to do, then we have agreed that we will take all necessary action to enforce that.
Asked if that meant there would be no election before 31 October, Brake said:
Any election before 31 October runs the risk of us crashing out of the European Union and that would be completely irresponsible ...
The opposition parties are very keen to have a general election. We just want it to be on 1 November or later than that. I’m not quite sure why delay of a couple of weeks is so important to the prime minister. He’s desperate for an election and presumably would be keen to have one after 31 October.
Tory former energy minister Claire Perry to stand down at next election
Another Conservative MP from the mainstream, one nation, remain-voting wing of the party has announced that she is standing down. Claire Perry, 55, was energy minister, with the right to attend cabinet, until she left the government when Boris Johnson became prime minister.
I say “mainstream”, but that adjective is probably misleading. MPs like Perry, Caroline Spelman, Nick Hurd, Alistair Burt and Nicholas Soames used to represent mainstream Conservatism. But the centre of gravity of the party has shifted dramatically since 2016, a process that has accelerated under Johnson’s leadership, and now hardline Brexiter is the mainstream.
Johnson would argue that it is possible to combine one nation Conservatism in relation to a domestic agenda with a firm commitment to Brexit, but the recent personnel changes in his party make that claim questionable.
The Evening Standard has a useful list of all the MPs who have said they are standing down at the election.
1/2: I have written today to my Constituency Chairman to say I will not be seeking reselection as our candidate at the next Election. It has been the privilege of my life to serve the people of the Devizes Constituency for 9 yrs and I am proud of what we have achieved together.
— Claire Perry O'Neill (@claireperrymp) September 6, 2019
2/2: I have also been clear that I remain in full support of our PM and his brave Brexit strategy as I can see no alternative if we want to honour the Referendum result. I look forward to working closely with him in my role as President of the UN Climate COP in 2020.
— Claire Perry O'Neill (@claireperrymp) September 6, 2019
Updated
There were further hints that Boris Johnson seems fatigued and drained by the crisis bedevilling his government, after his brother Jo’s resignation and the angry criticism of party grandees in the last 24 hours.
The prime offered a curiously-phrased answer to a question about his own future during a 12-minute long press conference with newspaper reporters in Aberdeenshire, lacking his normally self-confident bounce and bluster.
He was asked by the Guardian when he might resign, given he had won the Tory leadership with a pledge to unite the party and the country, yet had presided over deep splits in both. He answered:
What I said was that we had to deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn. And that’s what we’re going to do.
He was asked again: at what point do you think you might resign?
Er … Well … I think after those three objectives have been accomplished I will … At some point after those three objectives have been accomplished.
He had been up since before dawn, visiting Peterhead fish market soon after 6am after travelling to and from West Yorkshire yesterday. Prime ministers normally insist they have no intention of standing down, swatting aside any doubts about their future. He could claim to be tired.
Labour has issued a statement about talks Jeremy Cobyn held this morning with other opposition party leaders about stopping a no-deal Brexit and about the timing of an election. The SNP and Plaid Cyrmu have both been implying there was an agreement not to hold an early election until November (see 12.07pm and 12.24pm), but the Labour statement does not go that far. A spokesman said:
Jeremy Corbyn hosted a positive conference call with other opposition party leaders this morning. They discussed advancing efforts to prevent a damaging no deal brexit and hold a general election once that is secured.
Johnson drops 'would rather die in ditch' rhetoric when asked if he would seek Brexit extension
Boris Johnson gave a far less bullish response to questions about the Brexit crisis during a visit to a beef farm in Aberdeenshire on Friday morning, seeming more hesitant about seeking a delay to Brexit and the fate of his controversial adviser Dominic Cummings.
After a dawn visit to Peterhead’s fish market several hours earlier, Johnson seemed tired, making several attempts to answer questions and dropping the “die in a ditch” rhetoric he used on Thursday.
Asked to confirm that he would refuse to seek an extension to article 50 even if legally required to by the opposition bill now going through the Lords, he gave an ambiguous response in which he refused to explicitly confirm he would ignore the legislation.
He cut short a sentence in which he appeared to be about to say he would not request an extension. He said: “I will not ex … I don’t want a delay.”
Pressed on a challenge by Sir John Major on Thursday night to sack Cummings, Johnson first failed to answer a direct question from one reporter, then refused to give his chief adviser explicit support when asked a second time. He answered:
I … I … Look … Advisers, as I think someone said in the Commons the other day, advisers advise and ministers decide.
On Thursday evening, Major made an implicit reference to Cummings in a speech to the CBI Scotland annual dinner:
We have seen over-mighty advisers before. It is a familiar script. It always ends badly. I offer the prime minister some friendly advice: get rid of these advisers before they poison the political atmosphere beyond repair. And do it quickly.
There is no need for them to be led out of Downing Street by armed police, but go they should. And now.
Updated
Boris Johnson has been speaking to reporters in Scotland. My colleague Severin Carrell was there, and we will be covering everything he said shortly.
Johnson told reporters that he would get a Brexit deal.
But, as Severin points out, he also said at another point that part of him still “yearns” to believe that the Loch Ness monster exists – suggesting he has a weakness for believing in the impossible.
Asked whether he believes the Loch Ness monster exists, @BorisJohnson said: “There is part of my soul that still yearns to believe in it” Eel DNA in the loch is “not conclusive proof” #Nessie does not exist - quoth the UK’s prime minister
— Severin Carrell, Esq (@severincarrell) September 6, 2019
Updated
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, has just confirmed that in their conversation this morning the opposition party leaders agreed that guaranteeing an article 50 extension should take priority over calling an early election. (See 12.07pm.) She told BBC News:
We need to make sure we get past the 31 October and an extension to article 50. In that respect, we were in agreement that the prime minister is on the run. Boris is broken. We have an opportunity to bring down Boris, to break Boris, and to bring down Brexit. And we must take that.
Just as this week, the vote for a general election would play into Boris Johnson’s hands. It would allow him to ignore the legislation that is currently going through the House of Lords, likely to have royal assent today. It would allow him to ignore that. It would give him the opportunity to ignore the law.
Our duty, therefore, as parliamentarians who are intent on stopping no-deal Brexit is to be here in this place, to hold him to account, and to make sure that he abides by the law.
This suggests the opposition parties want parliament to be sitting around the time of 19 October, which is when Johnson would have to write to the EU requesting a Brexit extension if by then there was niether a deal nor a vote in parliament to approve a no-deal Brexit. That would mean an election would not take place until November at the earliest.
Updated
These are from Sky’s Sam Coates
NEW Opposition parties spoke this morning. Liz Saville Roberts from Plaid on @SkyNews shortly. She says
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) September 6, 2019
- All rebel alliance to vote against or abstain on election in Mon
- No rebel party will put down no confidence motion on Monday under FTPA
- Pre Oct 31 now unlikely
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford just confirmed on @SkyNews that whatever happens, opposition alliance wants Parliament to be sitting around Oct 18/19/20 and would allow dissolution before then
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) September 6, 2019
They want Commons to sit to make sure PM obeys extension law
So no Oct election https://t.co/TClJBFnYXO
From the Financial Times’ Sebastian Payne
EXC: Boris Johnson has hired influential Conservative writer Tim Montgomerie (@montie) to be his social justice adviser.
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) September 6, 2019
He'll be working out of the Cabinet Office, reporting to the PM and chancellor. Starting imminently.
More on the FT's live blog https://t.co/QRTgwFFzBd
Police chief 'disappointed' officers used as backdrop for party political speech by PM
The chief constable of West Yorkshire police, John Robins, has said he was “disappointed” to see his officers used as a backdrop to a party political event staged by Boris Johnson yesterday, something that had not been agreed in advance. In a statement, Robins said:
I am pleased that we were chosen as the focal point of the national recruitment campaign launch, but the good news of extra officers was overshadowed by the media coverage of other events.
It was the understanding of West Yorkshire police that any involvement of our officers was solely about police officer recruitment. We had no prior knowledge that the speech would be broadened to other issues until it was delivered.
Minutes before the speech, we were told that [a planned visit to the National Police Air Service] and subsequent brief to a small media pool had been cancelled. I was therefore disappointed to see my police officers as a backdrop to the part of the speech that was not related to recruitment.
After the disastrous speech, Johnson gave his own explanation to the Yorkshire Post about what happened. These are from the Yorkshire Post’s Rob Parsons.
Boris Johnson came to the YP office after giving his speech at the police HQ in Wakefield - and gave us his version of events about the police trainee who was taken unwell because she was kept on her feet for so long. (Pic by Getty) pic.twitter.com/jcxGuql8DB
— Rob Parsons (@RobParsonsYP) September 5, 2019
"There was a wonderful audience of police officers and new recruits. I gave this torrential speech about improving public services and all that. Unfortunately I then thought I had better bore on about Brexit, which I didn't want to do."
— Rob Parsons (@RobParsonsYP) September 5, 2019
"This poor (officer) she folded. I saw her afterwards, Helen she is called. She was fine. She was wonderful. It was just being on her feet for so long, I felt very, very bad about it but she was as right as rain."
— Rob Parsons (@RobParsonsYP) September 5, 2019
Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Updated
Chuka Umunna, the former Labour MP who joined the Lib Dems this year, has announced that he plans to stand for his new party in The Cities of London & Westminster at the next election, Joe Murphy reveals in the Evening Standard. As Murphy writes, this is “a flagship [Conservative] seat that covers the City, Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street”.
The current MP, Mark Field, had a majority of 3,148 over Labour at the 2017 election. The Lib Dems were a poor third in that election, but in this year’s European election they came top in the constituency.
Umunna says he cannot stand again in his current constituency, Streatham, because the Lib Dems already have a candidate there. Standing for Labour in Streatham two years ago, Umunna had a majority of 26,285.
Updated
There were three local council byelections yesterday. Here is a preview by Andrew Teale. And here are the results.
Penrith South (Eden) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) September 5, 2019
CON: 46.3% (+20.7)
IND (Quinn): 39.4% (+39.4)
LAB: 9.6% (-1.9)
PCF: 4.8% (+4.8)
Conservative GAIN from (other) Independent.
Wainbody (Coventry) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) September 5, 2019
CON: 53.2% (+1.8)
LDEM: 21.6% (+16.0)
LAB: 18.6% (-16.4)
BREX: 6.6% (+6.6)
Conservative HOLD.
No Grn (-5.0) and UKIP (-3.0) as prev.
St Andrew's & Docklands (Kingston upon Hull) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) September 5, 2019
LAB: 45.6% (-20.1)
LDEM: 43.9% (+30.7)
CON: 10.5% (-4.0)
Labour HOLD.
Updated
Harriet Harman, the Labour former deputy leader and the chair of the joint committee on human rights, has joked that so many moderate Tories are being driven out of the party that she is thinking of holding an inquiry.
When are we going to wake-up to what’s going on here? Caroline Spelman, elected, thoroughly decent, hard-working MP driven out of Parlt. We can’t stand by while MPs driven out or retreat behind security gates? @HumanRightsCtte report soon https://t.co/zzA9SrGrVn
— Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) September 6, 2019
Updated
Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks is legal, the high court in London has ruled, my colleague Owen Bowcott reports.
Here is a question from below the line. I’ll respond up here, because the answer might be of general interest.
Emily Thornberry was referring specifically to this story by Jack Doyle and Jason Groves in the Daily Mail yesterday. This is how it starts.
Boris Johnson’s controversial enforcer warned a former cabinet minister he would be ‘purged’ if he stepped out of line on Brexit, Tory sources said last night.
In an extraordinary phone rant, Dominic Cummings issued a direct threat to Greg Clark during a heated exchange ahead of Tuesday night’s crunch vote allowing MPs to seize control of Commons business.
A senior Tory source said Mr Cummings told former business secretary Mr Clark: ‘When are you f***ing MPs going to realise we are leaving on October 31? We are going to purge you.’
A second former minister confirmed the account, adding: ‘This is the most reckless and vindictive handling of colleagues I have seen in my 20-odd years in parliament. It’s a disaster – Cummings is out of control.’
And here is another paragraph.
Details of Mr Clark’s phone call to Mr Cummings, confirmed by several sources, suggested it was made to discuss a possible compromise following a fractious meeting between rebels and Mr Johnson on Tuesday morning. The prime minister told Mr Clark to ‘call Dom’ to discuss the idea. But when he rang Mr Cummings, the PM’s senior adviser is said to have opened the conversation with a brusque ‘What do you want?’ before launching into a rant and then hanging up.
SNP says it will not let Johnson determine timing of general election
Like Labour, the Scottish National party will refuse to support Boris Johnson’s proposed motion on Monday night calling for an early general election. Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminister, told Sky’s All Out Politics that his party wanted a general election, but did not trust Johnson to decide its timing. Blackford said:
Boris Johnson doesn’t have a majority in parliament so the idea that he is coming with a motion to try and force an election, having lost one this week, is insane. He is not going to compel parliamentarians to give him a mandate to determine the timing – we don’t trust him.
We’ll determine the timing of this, not Boris Johnson.
Like Emily Thornberry (see 9.01am), Blackford stressed the importance of ensuring the UK would not crash out of the EU on 31 October before allowing an election to take place. He said:
I want [the election] to happen as soon as is practically possible, but I want us to secure the safety of not crashing out. It’s balancing these things.
Asked when it would be a good time to hold an election, he dodged the question. He said:
As soon as is practically possible ... It’s going to happen over the course of the next few weeks. We will choose the timing of that because Boris Johnson has lost his majority in parliament. The opposition parties are now effectively in control. Boris Johnson is not going to bounce us into a situation of his choosing.
One option for the opposition parties would be to use a no confidence motion to try to bring down Johnson’s government. Blackford said he would like such a vote to go ahead but if it happened this week and was successful, the fact that parliament is being prorogued could stop the opposition parties being able to use the 14 days available under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act to form a new government. He explained:
I would like us to have a motion of no confidence as soon as is practically possible. The problem we’ve got is that we are going into prorogation next week. Even if we had a vote of no confidence, there is then a 14-day period when a government has to be put in place. Parliament is not sitting. So there are risks ...
I would like a vote of no confidence provided we could control the process. But because of the prorogation of parliament, it’s impossible to guarantee that. So we have to be careful that we don’t walk into a trap.
Updated
Michael Fallon to stand down at next election
Sir Michael Fallon, the former defence secretary, has joined the longish list of Tories who have decided to stand down at the next election. Fallon, 67, told the Today programme this morning that he was planning to stand down at the end of this parliament anyway, but he did express concerns about Boris Johnson’s decision to purge the 21 Conservatives who rebelled against the government on Tuesday. He said he hoped they might have the whip restored.
I would hope there would be some kind of appeal mechanism that they can find now so they get the chance to state their case.
He also said the move sent out the wrong message to voters.
I also worry that it sends the wrong message to remainers – particularly in my party.
I think, by definition, some 5 million Conservatives must have voted remain and we have got to be very careful not to drive them into the hands of remainer parties like the Liberal Democrats in England or the Scottish nationalists in Scotland.
Updated
Boris Johnson has been visiting Peterhead fish market in Scotland this morning. On the way out, he was doorstepped by Sky News, and asked if he accepted that Brexit might not happen. “No, I don’t,” he replied. “We’re going to get out,” he said, complaining about more “pointless delay”.
Those are the only words we’ve got so far, but Sky did broadcast some pictures.
Sadly, he does not seem to be wearing the coat bearing the label “prime minister” that saw its first outing on his last visit to Scotland. Perhaps it’s been allocated instead to Dominic Cummings?
Updated
Labour confirms it will not vote on Monday night for early election
On Wednesday, when MPs debated Boris Johnson’s motion calling for an early election, Jeremy Corbyn said that Labour would be willing to vote for an election after the Hilary Benn bill intended to stop a no-deal Brexit on 31 October becomes law (which is due to happen by Monday). Corbyn said:
I repeat what I said last night. Let this bill pass and gain royal assent, and then we will back an election—so we do not crash out of the European Union with a no-deal exit.
But, as we reported yesterday (eg see here and here), Corbyn has been coming under intense pressure from Labour MPs to delay the date of a possible early general election and this morning Emily Thornberry confirmed on the Today programme that, if Johnson goes ahead as planned with a second vote on an early election on Monday night, after the Benn bill has royal assent, Labour will still refuse to support the move. Asked if there would be a “no” from Labour on Monday, she replied: “Yes.” She explained:
The problem that we have is that the motion that the government has put before, and it looks like will put again, is a motion under the Fixed-term Parliament Act under clauses 2 (7) and 3 of the Fixed-term Parliament Act, if we vote to have a general election, then no matter what it is that Boris Johnson promises, it is up to him to advise the Queen when the general election should be. And given that he has shown himself to be a manifest liar, and someone who has said that he will die in a ditch rather than stop no deal, and indeed his adviser, [Dominic] Cummings, has been swearing and shouting at MPs saying they are leaving on 31 [October] no matter what, our first priority has to be that we must stop no deal and we must make sure that that is going to happen.
In Labour there are different views on exactly when an early election should take place, and there is as yet no settled view. Yesterday John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, hinted that his preference was to “go long”. Asked if she thought Labour should wait until after the EU summit in mid October, and until after an article 50 extension has been agreed, Thornberry replied:
I’m not going to go into details. But my instinct on this is the same as John’s.
Labour’s position is crucial because, under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, a vote for an early election only gets implemented if two thirds of MPs in the House of Commons (434) vote for it. Following the rebellion on Tuesday, which led to 21 Tories losing the whip, Johnson now only has 289 seats in the Commons.
We should be getting reaction from Boris Johnson later this morning.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Around 9am: Boris Johnson visits a farm in Scotland where he will announce extra funding for Scottish farmers.
10am: Jeremy Corbyn is due to hold a conference call with other opposition party leaders to discuss tactics on avoiding a no-deal Brexit and on the timing of a general election.
10am: Judges at the high court may announce their decision in the legal challenge against the government’s decision to prorogue parliament.
10am: Peers resume their debate on the Benn bill, intended to stop a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. It is due to finish all its stages in the Lords by 5pm.
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 publish 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
Andrew, any more detail on Emily Thornberry's accusation that "Cummings has been swearing and shouting at MPs saying they are leaving on 31 [October] no matter what "? Is this a specific incident she's referring to, or just Classic Dom (as John Crace would say)?