Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Nicky Woolf (now), Claire Phipps, Andrew Sparrow and Matthew Weaver (earlier)

Brexit: Labour MPs to hold no-confidence vote in Jeremy Corbyn - as it happened

Jeremy Corbyn struggles through the crowd to deliver his speech outside the Houses of Parliament
Jeremy Corbyn struggles through the crowd to deliver his speech outside the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Here's where things stand at 1am GMT

The fourth day after Britain voted to exit the European Union has been a febrile one. Here’s where things stand:

  • Shockwaves from the vote have been reverberating around the world economy. A trillion dollars were wiped off world stock markets on Monday, adding to $2tn in losses on Friday, making this the largest two-day stock rout of all time.
  • The Sterling continued to lose value, dropping to just $1.32, its lowest point in more than 30 years.
  • Fitch became the third major ratings agency to downgrade the UK’s credit rating, following Standard & Poor’s earlier on Monday and Moody’s on Friday.
  • Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to stay on despite mass resignations from his shadow cabinet and a tense meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party during which Labour MPs agreed to hold a no-confidence vote in Corbyn’s leadership.
  • The Labour leader addressed a massed rally in Parliament Square after the meeting. He didn’t mention any leadership crisis.
  • The Conservative party’s own leadership contest continued to bubble, with chancellor George Osborne formally ruling himself out.
  • Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party, has reportedly begun exploring ways for Scotland - and Gibraltar, and possibly also Northern Ireland - to stay in the EU despite the vote.

“How do you make sure that the people who feel the world has passed them by come back into the system?” Blair asks. “If you feel the country should be unified, then the opportunities have to be universal as well, and not just for the people at the top.”

Even though I’m pro immigration, in order to deter prejudice, you have to have rules. You have to have order. And I think people feel like there are waves of immigration that they are powerless to stop.

I think the first thing we’ve got to recognise is the politics I grew up with has changed in a fundamental and significant way, and when you get a vote like that happened in the UK, you may disagree with it, you may even feel angry about it, but you have got to come to terms with it.”

As the conversation turns to the Middle East, Blair is interrupted by a heckler. “You are a liar! You are going to jail! You propped up the Saudi funding of 9/11,” the man shouts.

Blair stays silent until the man is ejected. “That’s one I haven’t heard before,” he says.

Over the next weeks and months people are going to get the chance to inspect the building,” Blair says. “Those of us who warned there would be an economic aftershock were accused of scaremongering, but we’ve had 2-3bn wiped off our stock market, a fall in the pound worse than any in 30 years - as I tried to explain, there is a difference between scaremongering and warning.”

Asked if there’s any hope for the UK to continue in the EU, he says “I think it’s possible, but I can’t be sure, and I think the leave campaign are very, very strong. But I think it’s possible that as people see the reality then they start to think it wasn’t such a good idea.”

He makes a comparison between the Brexit campaign and Donald Trump.

“There are two odd things. One is the desire to shake up the system, even if when you ask what shaking up the system means people aren’t clear; so there’s this populist tide left and right which says ‘the system is broken, and I’m gonna fix it’, and when you say how, they say ‘this country is gonna be so great’.”

There is a laugh in the room. “That is literally what the Brexit case was, by the way,” Blair adds.

Tony Blair is currently speaking to an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. He is in conversation with Rabbi Peter Rubinstein.

Rubinstein begins with levity by offering his condolences for England’s loss against Iceland. “It’s tragic,” Blair jokes. “It’s the sporting equivalent of Brexit.”

Then, to the meat.

Brexit is “the most important decision my country has taken since the 2nd World War,” the former Prime Minister says. “It ends just over 4 decades of membership of the EU, if it is proceeded with the way it is envisioned at the moment. It is a decision that is very indicative of the politics we are dealing with all over the world.”

He says “I got this result wrong. I thought we would stay.”

Updated

LabourList, the grassroots blog network, has joined the chorus of voices calling, if not for Corbyn’s departure, then at least for a new leadership election to quell the chaos within the party.

In an editorial released tonight, they say:

We cannot go on like this. It has been a devastating couple of days for the Labour Party in which it has lost a respected shadow Foreign Secretary, more than half the shadow Cabinet and some 34 shadow ministers in total. That was all before last night’s meeting of the PLP descended into a “brutal” row.

They continue:

Given that Corbyn has already pledged to stand in any leadership election, citing the “overwhelming mandate” he achieved last summer, it seems that a fresh poll would be the most straightforward – and perhaps the only – way to resolve this crisis.

Otherwise we are at an impasse. Several departing shadow Cabinet ministers have called on Corbyn to trigger a leadership election or, as Angela Eagle demanded, simply to “stand aside” because of a failure to “win the confidence” of voters and the public, but this will not happen anytime soon.

You can read the whole piece here.

Following England football team manager Roy Hodgson’s resignation after that 2-1 defeat against Iceland, Reuters’ senior correspondent in Italy sums up the situation:

Guardian columnist Owen Jones has shared his thoughts on the future of Labour in a post on Medium.

Responsibility for this calamity lies with the Conservative Party, not the Labour leadership. Jeremy Corbyn is being blamed for sins principally committed by others. It is remarkable, when you think about it. The left is accustomed to being savaged by the Conservatives for promoting policies that would cause economic chaos and threaten the future of the country. That’s what they claimed against the modest social democratic proposals of Ed Miliband at the last general election.

Look at what these people have now done to Britain. History may judge the Tory Brexiteers to be the architects of the most radical, and ruinous, proposition to be offered and (presumably) implemented in Britain since the war.

Launching a coup in the Labour Party at this moment has diverted attention away from those responsible for this national crisis — not least by staggering resignations to ensure Labour’s woes dominate the news cycle for as long as possible. The opposition has a crucial role right now in filling the vacuum and offering leadership and a plan for dealing with the coming turmoil. The nation’s crisis has been deepened as a consequence of this political paralysis.

It will now be harder to define the coming crisis as a Tory-created crisis. Choosing this moment to launch a coup — amidst all the grief and fear of the referendum result — will only accentuate the bitter divide that exists between the Labour grassroots and the Parliamentary Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn’s most passionate supporters see a uniquely decent and honourable politician who is now under siege. The unfolding civil war between the two sides now threatens the very future existence of the Labour Party.

A formal split is being mooted involving the MPs effectively declaring unilateral independence. Mutterings about a leadership election in which Jeremy Corbyn is kept off the ballot paper would also guarantee a split. As far as I can tell, the rebels as things stand don’t seem to have a plan about what happens next. I don’t buy this is properly coordinated: it’s a kneejerk response if anything.

Will Straw, the executive director of Britain Stronger in Europe - the official Remain campaign - has attempted to make light of the situation with a possibly-slightly-too-soon football joke.

Asked today by Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister how she was,on the first day of a two-day royal visit, the Queen replied “well, I’m still alive anyway.”

ITV News tweeted the video:

Fabian Picardo, the first minister of the territory of Gibraltar, is in talks with Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party about “various options” to keep at least parts of the UK in the EU, the BBC is reporting.

“I can imagine a situation where some parts of what is today the member state United Kingdom are stripped out and others remain,” Picardo told Newsnight.

Northern Ireland is also potentially involved in discussions, according to the BBC.

George Osborne formally rules himself out of leadership race

In an op-ed in the Times the chancellor of the exchequer says that he is “not the person to provide the unity my party needs at this time.”

Senior figures in the Scottish Labour party are investigating proposals for Scotland and Northern Ireland to have separate federated membership of the EU after last week’s Brexit vote, write Severin Carrell in Edinburgh and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels.

Senior party sources have told the Guardian that the former Labour lord chancellor and justice secretary Charlie Falconer is consulting constitutional lawyers on whether a new federal relationship would be a legally sound alternative route to a full divorce between the EU and all parts of the UK.

The initiative was launched on Friday, hours after it emerged that Scotland and Northern Ireland had voted comprehensively against leaving the EU, and was agreed with by Ian Murray, the then shadow Scottish secretary, and Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader.

Party sources said Lord Falconer’s work would focus on a possible federal deal where each devolved region could negotiate their own membership of the EU, while staying in the UK.

You can read the whole piece here.

A round-up of tomorrow’s front pages shows just how much happened today.

The Financial Times focuses on the market chaos caused by the Brexit vote:

The Telegraph focuses on Jeremy Hunt’s call for a second referendum:

The Express, the Times, and the i zero in on the competition to replace David Cameron as Conservative leader and Prime Minister:

The Mail, on the other hand, focuses on Labour’s woes:

And the International New York Times asks simply “When? How? Really?”

If Boris Johnson could, with a squint, be seen as Britain’s answer to Donald Trump, then Jeremy Corbyn – the opposition leader at heart of a post-Brexit revolt in the Labour party – is best explained in an American context by comparison to Bernie Sanders, writes the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts.

Bernie Sanders during a CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate
Bernie Sanders during a CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

To their supporters, both aging socialists represent the modern face of an anti-establishment uprising. With their focus on those forgotten by globalization, they may be drawing on the same resentment that fuels Trump and the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, but purport to offer hope, not anti-immigrant hatred, as a response.

To their critics, particularly among Democratic and Labour party leaders, Corbyn and Sanders also share a dangerous stubborn streak. By refusing to compromise their beliefs, these cantankerous old class-warriors risk are splitting the progressive majority at a time when it needs to be unified against the xenophobic populism of the right.

You can read the whole piece here.

Bitterness, black humour, and schadenfreude all present in this succinct tweet by Donald Tusk, a Polish politician and president of the European Council.

Updated

Be careful what you wish for. So explains the Brexiteer and Sun columnist Kelvin MacKenzie on why, four days on, he has buyer’s remorse over his vote to leave, write Karen McVeigh and Carmen Fishwick.

MacKenzie may be the one of highest-profile figures so far to publicly admit regret over his vote, but he is not alone.

Hashtags such as #Bregret #Bregretters and #Bregreter have sprung up on social media, while a poll by Survation for the Mail on Sunday found 7.1% of leave voters expressed regret over their decision, compared with 4.4% of remain voters.

MacKenzie, in his column on Monday, described the “surge” he felt when he voted leave, “as though for the first time in my life my vote did count. I had power.”

But he said on Monday: “Four days later, I don’t feel quite the same. I’ve buyer’s remorse. A sense of be careful what you wish for. To be truthful, I am fearful of what lies ahead.”

Karen and Carmen spoke to Adrian Cook, 46, a clinical researcher from Sheffield who voted leave as a protest vote, said he was now “so ashamed” of what he had done that he had issued an emotional apology to his wife and children.

Yes, I regret it. When I heard the result I should be elated but I immediately thought this is a massive cockup what have we done. I just thought my protest vote would give Cameron a kick up the trousers.

I voted early on Thursday not even thinking about it, I was that convinced. Me and my wife have had a series of heated debates. I’ve mostly been reiterating things I’d heard on the TV.

It was stupidity on my part. We’re told how badly off we are, how we need austerity and cutting local services and Brussels don’t do much for the man on the street.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Guardian’s front page for tomorrow: Battle lines drawn to replace PM

More detail from my colleague Sam Thielman in New York on the shock experienced by the US stock markets as the reverberations of Britain’s vote to leave the EU continue to echo.

Since the results became known on Thursday, the major US markets have suffered their biggest two-day fall in 10 months, Sam writes.

Monday’s dips came as the pound collapsed to its lowest point since 1985 and the UK lost its triple-A credit rating.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 260 points, or 1.5%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.8%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq ended the day 2.5% down as the sell-off sparked by the Brexit vote in the UK continued to reverberate through the American market.

While many Americans have had trouble wrapping their heads around Brexit, the term is now dominating headlines in the US as it is in the UK and the impact of the vote has been affecting US assets. US government-issued bonds and gold both continued to climb: the online gold sales website BullionVault said it had liquidated a quarter-ton of gold since the vote went through.

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday Photograph: Andrew Gombert/EPA

Sam spoke to Ryan Sweet of the ratings agency Moody’s, who said that trouble would likely not do lasting damage to the US economy, though he did say equities “are likely going to have a rough few days.”

You can read the whole piece here.

The situation with the UK’s national and local Young Labour societies is becoming more fraught. As many commenters have pointed out, the London Young Labour committee acted unilaterally in condemning Jeremy Corbyn in the statement they released earlier this evening.

The official position of the national Young Labour organization is that they still support the Labour leader, according to their Facebook account, where the latest statement - from Sunday - reads:

The one certainty is that we as the Young Labour National Committee have full confidence in Jeremy Corbyn to continue to lead the Labour Party through these uncertainties. We are reassured by his decades of integrity and service, when it is obvious that so many do not trust politicians.

Lauren Gilmour, the Scotland rep for the organization, sent the Guardian a statement which she said had been passed by a majority of the national Young Labour committee. The statement says that “The calls for Corbyn to go have been vastly over-exaggerated by a hostile media, and by a minority within our party. Antagonism to Corbyn is largely concentrated within the PLP, who do not compose the entirety of our movement.”

The statement hits out at London Young Labour, saying:

It is highly disappointing that the media has given an undue focus on fringe petitions and statements, whilst choosing not to cover the statements of representative bodies of the youth movement.

The LYL statement had not even been discussed on a committee level, in comparison to our statement which was.

What this indicates is that the media, far from representing debate across all wings of the party, has chosen to propagate a certain political position: Jeremy must go. The elected Young Labour National Committee must and should have all Labour mediums available to them to communicate the views of young members: that is the only way we can fulfil our duty to represent and fight for young members.

The bulk of the Labour youth movement is fully behind Jeremy Corbyn and is willing to fight to ensure that the democratic mandate he has been given is respected. Those who would spit in the face of the democratic will of ordinary members should be prepared to be faced with ordinary Labour members’ opposition to their brazen shenanigans.

But London is not the only local Young Labour organization to go rogue. In an email shared with the Guardian, Chiltern Young Labour emailed Corbyn’s office just after 8:30pm GMT imploring him to resign:

For the good of the party, for the good of the nation, for the good of the people it is time for you to step aside and allow wounds to heal. A party leader that cannot command the respect of the Parliamentarians is one who lacks leadership.

For the members of Chiltern Young Labour I implore you to do the honourable thing and resign now.

The decision to leave the EU continues to cause economic shockwaves

Here’s a quick round-up of what has happened.

  • Sterling has crashed in value, dropping to just $1.32, its lowest in more than 30 years.
  • The London stock market continued to plummet, losing 156 points on Monday.
  • The three main ratings agencies have all downgraded the UK’s credit rating. Moody’s was the first, cutting its outlook on UK sovereign debt from “stable” to “negative” on Friday afternoon. Fitch and Standard & Poor’s followed suit on Monday after the London stock exchange closed.
  • Stock markets in the US were hit hard too. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Monday down 260 points, or 1.5%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.8%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq ended 2.5% down, their biggest two-day fall in 10 months.
  • Asian markets fared better, recovering some of the $2.1 trillion that was wiped from global markets Friday. Australia’s ASX200 closed up just under half a percent, while Japan’s Nikkei closed up 2.39 percent, recovering over a third of Friday’s 7.92 percent drop.

Full time, and England have lost 2-1 to Iceland in a match which has taken on symbolic significance after the EU referendum.

Over on our match live-blog, Barry Glendinning calls England’s play “absolutely pathetic”.

A picture of Corbyn speaking at the Momentum rally in Parliament Square.

Jeremy Corbyn speaks in Parliament Square
Jeremy Corbyn speaks in Parliament Square Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell tweeted that there were 10,000 people there, though others have disputed that figure.

Many are also pointing out that the crowd appeared to be composed more of Socialist Workers’ Party members than Labour members.

Nigel Farage, meanwhile, has just gone on Fox News to criticise president Barack Obama, who came out strongly in favour of the “remain” camp.

Fitch becomes the third ratings agency to downgrade UK credit

The agency just announced in a press release that it was downgrading the UK from an AA+ rating to an AA rating.

“The UK vote to leave the European Union in the referendum on 23 June will have a negative impact on the UK economy, public finances and political continuity,” the release said.

Fitch believes that uncertainty following the referendum outcome will induce an abrupt slowdown in short-term GDP growth, as businesses defer investment and consider changes to the legal and regulatory environment.

While recognising the uncertainty of the extent of the negative shock, Fitch has revised down its forecast for real GDP growth to 1.6% in 2016 (from 1.9%), 0.9% in 2017 and 0.9% in 2018 (both from 2.0% respectively), leaving the level of real GDP a cumulative 2.3% lower in 2018 than in its prior ‘Remain’ base case.

Part of the decision was that the EU referendum “makes a second referendum on Scottish independence more probable in the short to medium term,” the release said.

Politico has published an inside account of the PLP meeting this evening in which, they say, Corbyn “fought for his political life.”

In notes from an MP who was inside the meeting, they say that Alan Johnson MP said “I fought the [EU referendum] campaign and I take my responsibility, but you’ve got to take yours. Your office did not even turn up for the weekly meetings.”

Other MPs who took the floor in the meeting and told Corbyn he had to go, Politico says, include Margaret Hodge, Chris Bryant, Ian Murray, Helen Goodman, Ivan Lewis, Clive Efford and Bridget Phillipson.

You can read the whole piece here.

One of the most alarming effects of the EU referendum has been the rise in racially-charged attacks across the country over the weekend.

Figures on Monday suggested a 57% increase in hate crimes and abuse.

Suspected racist graffiti was found on the front entrance of the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in Hammersmith early on Sunday morning, and the Metropolitan Police is reportedly on high alert.

“In the past few days we have seen despicable graffiti daubed on a Polish community centre, we’ve seen verbal abuse hurled against individuals because they are members of ethnic minorities,” David Cameron said earlier today.

“Let’s remember these people have come here and made a wonderful contribution to our country. We will not stand for hate crime or these kinds of attacks, they must be stamped out.”

A police source told the Guardian that it was “no coincidence” that the increase came off the back of the EU vote.

Jeremy Corbyn has lost the support of London Youth Labour, perhaps fairly unsurprisingly given the events of the last week.

In a statement posted to their website and signed by the group’s executive committee, the organisation says:

Not only did Jeremy Corbyn fail to deliver passionate Labour messages about staying in the EU, he also refused to work with Britain Stronger In Europe, despite polls showing this would turn out Labour votes.

Warnings were ignored, meetings cancelled and a desperately needed Labour message was lost.

This result will have effects on everyone, but especially the poorest in our society- for decades to come. These are the people we seek to protect as the Labour party, and we have failed – Jeremy Corbyn has failed.

It is for these reasons that we express no confidence in the Leader of the Labour Party, and hope London Labour MPs will consider young members’ views.

You can read the whole statement here.

England is 2-1 down to Iceland right now, and the schadenfreude is nearly overwhelming.

S&P held back the downgrade until the London stock market had closed, so the City hasn’t had chance to react yet, Graeme reports on the Business Liveblog.

But over in New York, shares are falling deeper into the red on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average has now shed 306 points, a fall of 1.75% today, on top of the 611 points shed during Friday’s tumble.

The Sterling has also just taken another plunge against the dollar, reaching a new low of $1.32.

This is the view from the platform where Corbyn was speaking:

Corbyn has finished speaking.

He spoke defiantly in front of a rally by the pro-Corbyn organization Momentum in parliament square. He didn’t mention the no-confidence vote he’s facing from the Parliamentary Labour Party.

He left that to his shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who made clear that Corbyn would not be resigning his position, and would be a candidate in any future Labour leadership race.

Corbyn calls for “greater respect in the way we treat each other.”

I do not want to live in a country where there are people sleeping in the streets while the mansions are empty. I do not want to walk away from discussions on human rights ... because to me, human rights are universal, not national.

In the background as Corbyn speaks, Big Ben tolls the hour.

I don’t want to be somebody that says to young people, ‘sorry, you’re not going to have it as good as we did because the nation can’t afford it’ ... and we cascade poverty and debt down the generations.

Or are we going to say that the brilliance of science and engineering must be the opportunity for the redistribution of wealth, and that we develop an economy that excites a whole generation that have been told they can only look forward to a future of debt.

More Corbyn, speaking in the shadow of the Palace of Westminster:

We have a government that is giving tax breaks to the super rich. We have a government that is systematically privatising at least half of our NHS, and if you overlay the map of poverty in Britain, one of those heat maps, and then you overlaid it with where the biggest cuts are taking places, they would be exactly the same, because that is the priority of this govt.

John McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor has called this out and turned out party into an anti austerity party, and I thank John for all the work he’s done.

He thanks Diane Abbott, who is standing beside him, for her work as shadow secretary for international development.

“All these issues have to be linked together to economic inequality,” he says.

It’s the spirit of hope or the spirit of despair. Which are we?

No mention so far of the no-confidence vote among Labour MPs that he’s facing.

Jeremy Corbyn addresses his supporters in Parliament Square

“Friends. Straight after we won the leadership election last year we came to this very same spot to speak up for the rights of refugees to live in our society,” he begins.

And one of the horrible disfigurements of our society is racism, intolerance ... and sadly this has increased in the last few days. Can we agree we are going to unite as one society to oppose racism in any form.

And recognise that the grotesque exploitation of workers on zero hours contracts called out by Dennis Skinner in the house of commons shows that we don’t need the blame culture, we need the unite culture to work for the social justice to which we all aspire.

Here’s a video of the rally:

Pro-Corbyn rally

“We will not allow the democracy of our movement to be undermined by a handful of MPs who refuse to accept Jeremy’s mandate,” McDonnell continues defiantly.

We’re not going anywhere. We’re standing solid in solidarity together to ensure we maintain the democracy of our movement, and to ensure that Jeremy Corbyn remains the leader of the Labour Party.

“Solidarity!” he ends.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell addresses the pro-Corbyn rally in Parliament Square.

“Let me make this absolutely clear,” he says. “Jeremy Corbyn was elected only nine months ago with the biggest mandate any political leader has had from the rank and file of their party. The biggest. We call that democracy.”

What we have seen in the last few days is a small number of MPs seeking to undermine the democratic decisions of the labour party members and trade union movement

Let me make it absolutely clear. Jeremy Corbyn is not resigning. He’s staying on.

If there are MPs who disagree with Jeremy and his policies, it is open to them under our constitution to seek another election. But let me make it clear: if there is another election, Jeremy Corbyn will be standing again and I will be supporting him.

The no-confidence vote will be a secret ballot of the Parliamentary Labour Party. They would then have to collect 51 names in support of a leadership challenge.

According to Iain Watson, a BBC political reporter, on Twitter: “Jeremy Corbyn’s spokespeople say he will stay in post until there is a formal challenge and will be a candidate in any leadership contest.”

In Parliament square, where Corbyn is expected to speak imminently, his supporters are chanting “Jez we can”.

Drama outside the PLP as Corbyn’s spokesman reportedly has a shouting match with John Woodcock MP over briefing against Corbyn “every day” - a row they just had in front of more than 30 reporters.

“No-one on the leave side doesn’t want free trade with Europe,” prominent pro-leave MEP Daniel Hannan just said on BBC News.

As far as Europe goes, it should be possible to stay inside an arrangement with the EU with bilateral deals, which would allow for free movement, but what we will not have are foreign courts deciding who can come into the UK.

PLP decides to go ahead with no confidence vote

The PLP meeting has finished with MPs deciding to move forward with a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Outside the meeting, the Momentum rally in support of Corbyn continues to gain strength.

S&P’s two-notch downgrade comes hot on the heels of Moody’s, which downgraded the UK’s outlook to negative on Friday night, Graeme Wearden reports over on the business liveblog.

Losing the Triple-A credit rating might not have any immediate impact on Britain’s ability to borrow.

That’s because worried investors have been keen to buy UK government bonds since the Brexit crisis erupted, driving borrowing costs down to record lows.

But it’s a humiliating moment for the government, which put ‘repairing the public finances’ at the heart of its strategy (not always successfully).

Moody’s and Fitch both downgraded the UK in 2013. S&P maintained the AAA through the eurozone debt crisis, but has now lost the faith.

Updated

Standard & Poor's downgrades the UK's credit rating

Nicky Woolf here taking over from my colleague Andrew Sparrow on the fourth evening since the UK voted to leave the EU.

The UK has lost its AAA credit rating from S&P in the wake of the country’s decision to leave the EU.

The agency blamed the Brexit vote, saying it has weakened the UK’s “predictability, stability and effectiveness” of policymaking in the UK.

It also believes that growth will be ‘significantly lower’ between 2016 and 2019, averaging just 1.1% per year.

They also warned that foreign firms are less likely to invest in the UK and the sterling could also lose its role as a global reserve currency.

S&P says:

“In our opinion, this outcome is a seminal event, and will lead to a less predictable, stable, and effective policy framework in the U.K. We have reassessed our view of the U.K.’s institutional assessment and now no longer consider it a strength in our assessment of the rating.”

More details available on our Business liveblog here.

And these are from my colleague Anushka Asthana.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Nicky Woolf is taking over now.

Here is more from the Momentum rally, from PA’s David Wilcock.

On Twitter some of those at the Momentum rally, or observing it, are complaining about the large number of Socialist Worker party baners.

This is from Progress’s Richard Angell.

This is from the New Statesman’s Helen Lewis.

This is from the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe.

Alan Johnson’s intervention at the PLP (see 6.46pm) came as emails leaked to the Guardian reveal that staff in both Corbyn and John McDonnell’s offices removed sentences from statements and speeches, which had been suggested by the remain campaign and workers in Labour’s headquarters.

In one chain of emails referring to the publication of a Treasury report, McDonnell was repeatedly pressed to make his statement more clearly about the EU referendum.

The final wording included a reference to the impact of a Tory Brexit, but removed - “Labour will continue to campaign for Britain to remain in Europe to protect jobs, growth, trade, investment and working people” - which had been suggested by the party’s central press office.

In a separate piece of correspondence, Corbyn’s team edited the sentence, “I am clear just like my shadow cabinet, the trade union movement and our members, that it is in the interests of the people of this country to remain in the European Union”, to take out any personal reference.

They also changed, “we have just nine days to go and I will be working night and day to convince Labour supporters to vote Remain” to “we have just nine days to convince Labour supporters to vote Remain”.

Alan Johnson attacks Corbyn for his performance in EU referendum campaign

Alan Johnson, chair of Labour In for Britain, has been attacking Jeremy Corbyn at the PLP meeting, according to reports.

This is from Politico’s Tom McTague.

And this is from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.

And this is from Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh.

For more on what Johnson thinks of Corbyn’s contribution to the referendum, see 2.19pm.

The journalist Paul Mason has been speaking at the Momentum rally outside parliament. He said Labour needed 100 potential new MPs, young people, women, ethnic minority people, gay people, and disabled people - people who have “suffered the hardship of working-class life”.

Jeremy Corbyn has used Twitter to announce an updated list of shadow cabinet appointments.

Here are the new appointments that were not announced earlier.

Barry Gardiner - shadow energy secretary

Richard Burgon - shadow justice secretary

Angela Rayner - shadow minister for women and equalities

Debbie Abrahams - shadow work and pension secretary

Chi Onwurah, who is currently a shadow culture minister, is going to replace Angela Eagle as shadow business secretary, according to a Labour source. But, in a sign of Corbyn’s relative weakness, Onwurah is only taking the job on the understanding that she does not have to endorse Corbyn in a future leadership contest.

Here are some pictures from the pro-Corbyn demonstration outside the House of Commons.

Even Jeremy Corbyn’s press aides cannot get in.

PLP debates no confidence motion in Jeremy Corbyn

The meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) has just started. The PLP meets every Monday at 6pm when the Commons is sitting, but tonight it is discussing the no confidence motion in Jeremy Corbyn, which will be put to a secret ballot tomorrow.

I was in the committee corridor a few minutes ago and MPs were saying they had never seen the room, committee room 14, so full. (The wifi was playing up, so I’m back in the Guardian’s Commons office.)

Police said there had been a 57% rise in hate crimes reported to a special website since Britain voted to leave last Friday. The national police chiefs council said at least 85 reports had been received through its online reporting site, and the overall figure may be higher.

There were 85 reports to the site called True Vision between Thursday 23 June and Sunday 26 June, compared with 54 reports in the corresponding four days four weeks ago, police said.

A spokesperson for the national police chiefs council said these figures should not be read as showing a 57% increase in hate crime, but an increase in reporting through one mechanism. Other hate crimes are reported directly to police forces, or to community groups like Tell Mama and Community Security.

Jack Dromey has resigned as shadow policing minister, Sky’s Katy Scholes reports.

The Welsh first minister is writing to police commissioners asking them to take action to tackle “hateful incidents” against non-British people and citizens from ethnic minority communities following the referendum result.

Carwyn Jones said the effects of an “ugly atmosphere” created by the Leave campaign was being felt on the streets of Wales and there had been concerning reports of abuse.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Jones said:

Members cited examples of hateful incidents directed against non-British people in their constituencies over the weekend, and equally distressingly, against people from ethnic minorities born here in Wales. Ministers resolved to issue a clear statement today that such racism is completely unacceptable in Welsh society.

Absolutely nothing has changed in the status of foreign nationals living and working in Wales. They remain welcome as they always have been - before devolution, before the EU. Wales has always been a welcoming country and we must not lose sight of that.

It is incumbent on all of us, no matter how we voted last week, to stand up to anybody who thinks they now have licence to abuse people of different races or nationalities. They have no such licence and should anyone suffer from this sort of abuse, they should report it to the police immediately. I am today writing to the four Welsh police and crime commissioners, asking for them to be alive to this changing situation, and to provide appropriate support to any affected communities.

Britain’s number 5 tennis player James Ward has made a surprising intervention into the Brexit debate on the opening day of Wimbledon, urging people to “stop panicking” and revealing that he had voted to leave and was happy with his decision.

In a press conference immediately after his straight sets defeat by the defending champion Novak Djokovic, Ward said: “Yeah, I voted out. I’m not fussed saying it. I don’t know others who are or not. But yeah, I voted out. I’m happy with my decision.”

Ward, the son of a London black cabbie who is being sponsored at the tournament by the Sun newspaper, added: “I think we’ll be all right. Everyone needs to stop panicking and we’ll be fine.”

He declined to give his reasons, and said he wasn’t overly worried that life on the tour would be more expensive following the collapse in the pound. “It’s still an expensive life out there anyway. I don’t think it’s going to change too much.”

James Ward at Wimbledon.
James Ward at Wimbledon. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Images

George Osborne’s efforts to calm the markets over Brexit proved fruitless as more than £40bn was wiped off the value of Britain’s biggest companies, the Press Association reports.

The FTSE 100 Index plunged back below the 6,000 mark, slipping 2.6% to 5,982.2, despite Mr Osborne offering his assurances that the UK is “about as strong as it could be to confront the challenge our country now faces”.

On the currency markets, sterling plunged to a fresh 31-year low of 1.3151 US dollars, before rallying back to a 3.4% fall to 1.321 US dollars. Yields on 10-year government bonds also slid below 1% for the first time.

Heavyweight financial stocks, housebuilders and travel firms bore the brunt of the sell-off on the London market, with low-cost carrier easyJet sitting at the top of the biggest fallers after warning over profits.

Shares in easyJet were down 22% after the firm said it will take a 28 million hit following two months of turbulence and warned that Brexit would have a negative impact on the airline.

There is more on this on our business live blog.

The Unite union is calling for cross-party action to tackle the growing abuse of migrants. Harish Patel, Unite’s national officer for equalities, said:

The numerous incidents of hate crime and racial abuse seen since the referendum result take our country back to more divided times. Those who brought poison and division to the EU referendum debate should not just hang their heads in shame but also make it abundantly clear that they condemn the racism and prejudice now showing its face. This poison must not be allowed to take root.

Labour’s Heidi Alexander asks Cameron what assurances the Brexit ministers have given him that, if when we leave the EU, there will be an extra £350m a week available for the NHS.

Cameron says he does not want to refight the campaign. He says there were different views as to the economic impact of Brexit.

In the chamber Labour’s Paula Sherriff asks Cameron to set up an all-party commission to consider the race hate crime that has been on the rise since the referendum. Cameron says he will consider this.

Boris Johnson has not been in the Commons chamber for David Cameron’s statement. Michael Gove was there, but some people did not see him because he was standing by the Speaker’s chair, not sitting on the front bench.

Earlier Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee, was asked on Sky News if he thought there should be an early election once a new party leader had been chosen. Brady said that the government had just been given a clear steer as to what voters wanted in the referendum, and that he thought it reasonable for the government to get on with the Brexit negotiations before calling an election.

Cameron says he will be appointing another European commissioner to replace Lord Hill, who resigned at the weekend. As a full paying member of the EU, the UK is entitled to a commissioner, he says.

We will get the result of the no confidence vote in Jeremy Corbyn tomorrow at 4pm, Sky reports.

My colleague Jessica Elgot says up to 70% of Labour MPs are expected to vote for Corbyn to go.

Cameron says collective responsibility has been reimposed on the government. The government is now of one view, he says.

Keir Starmer resigns as shadow immigration minister

Outside the chamber the Labour resignations continue. Keir Starmer has resigned as shadow immigration minister.

Asked about the prospect of a second referendum, Cameron says he is not planning one. We have to implement the referendum result, he says.

Simon Hoare, a Conservative, mentions a tweet sent to a black Londoner telling her to go home with the hashtag #wevotedleave. He says the racist attacks and insults since the referendum suggest a genie has been let out of the bottle. Will the government make it clear this is unacceptable? And do the police have the resources they need?

Cameron says people thought language of this kind had been banished. He says the police have the resources and laws they need to tackle this.

Updated

Cameron says he has spoken to Polish prime minister to promise to protect Poles

Cameron says he called the Polish prime minister earlier today to say that the government is taking anti-Polish attacks very seriously and that it is doing everything it can to protect Poles in the UK.

Updated

Back in the Commons, Labour’s Pat McFadden says Boris Johnson in his Telegraph article this morning said he wanted the UK to have full access to the single market. Is there any country with full access to the single market that does not allow free movement of labour?

Cameron says there is no country with full access to the single market that does not also pay a contribution and allow free movement.

Ireland’s foreign minister has described the surge in Irish passport applications from people living in post-Brexit UK as “unnecessary.”

Charlie Flanagan has appealed today for calm in relation to passport applications.

Ahead of a debate about Brexit’s implications for the Republic in the Dail (Irish parliament) Flanagan said:

An unnecessary surge in applications for Irish passports will place significant pressure on the system and on turnaround times and is likely to impact those with a genuine need for passports to facilitate imminent travel plans.

The increased interest clearly points to a sense of concern among some UK passport holders that the rights they enjoy as EU citizens are about to abruptly end. I want to state clearly that this is not the case. The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union but it has not yet left.

It will take some time for negotiations on a British exit to conclude; article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty envisages a two-year negotiation process once the article is triggered, while many speculate this could take longer. During this period, the UK remains a member of the European Union, its citizens continue to fully enjoy EU rights including free movement of people within the EU. At the same time, the referendum has not in any way changed the entitlement to an Irish passport which extends to those born on the island of Ireland and those claiming citizenship through parents or grandparents born in Ireland.

Chris Leslie, the Labour MP, says article 50 should not be triggered until the new year.

Cameron says this is a matter for the new prime minister.

Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, says at 9am this morning Boris Johnson said the pound was stable. At lunchtime it hit a 31-year low against the dollar. If you break it, you own it, he says. Who is responsible for this mess?

Cameron says it was the government’s decision to hold a referendum.

Updated

The Germans are now asking themselves whether they - or more specifically Angela Merkel - might not be to blame in part for Britons wanting to leave the EU.
Jan Fleischauer, writing in Der Spiegel, under the headline “Is Angela Merkel to Blame for Brexit?” suggests:

If we really want to take stock of the reasons for Brexit, we have to talk about refugee politics. You will never be able to prove what part Merkel’s policy of open borders had to play in the outcome of the referendum. But that the pictures of the refugees’ trek towards Bavaria scared the crap out of many Britons, is a given. If not even the disciplined Germans are willing or able to protect their borders, who else is capable of managing it?

Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, says the arrangements Cameron described for consulting MPs were too weak. He just said MPs could have a cosy chat with Oliver Letwin. Why won’t he set up a joint committee to consider these issues?

Cameron says he does want the Commons to be fully engaged.

Cameron says he is not planning a white paper on the Brexit negotiations.

Cameron accepts there may be a case for an early election

Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader, pays tribute to Cameron’s civility, good humour and his ability to see thing from other people’s point of view. Does Cameron agree that it is wrong that only members of the Conservative party should choose the next prime minister? Does he agree there should be an early general election?

Cameron says all parties have their rules for choosing leaders. And he says he and Clegg agreed a Fixed-term Parliaments Act. It will be for the new prime minister to decide whether or not to have an early election.

  • Cameron accepts there may be a case for an early election. He said it would be for the new prime minister to decide. But, despite passing a Fixed-term Parliaments Act in the last parliament, he declined an opportunity to say an early election would be a bad idea.

UPDATE: This is from Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett.

Updated

Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, says the country will pay a bitter price for last week’s vote. The Brexit leaders have created an atmosphere where some people think it is open season on foreigners. Does Cameron agree that the government is to blame for problems with public services, not foreigners.

Cameron thanks Harman for appearing on cross-party platforms during the campaign. He says all MPs agree on the need to oppose intolerance.

Responding to the Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, Cameron says ensuring the UK retains access to the single market will be one of the biggest challenges for the renegotiation.

Cameron suggests UK should stay in the single market

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in Westminster, says that Scotland is part of Europe and that it will do everything it can to stay part of Europe. That could include having another independence referendum, he says.

He asks if there are any plans to raise interest rates.

And he says the government should not introduce further austerity measures.

Cameron says he wants the best deal for the UK, including Scotland.

Interest rates are a matter for the Bank of England, he says. And future budgets will be a matter for the new government.

But he says Scotland benefits from being in two single markets. It should try to remain in both, he says.

  • Cameron suggests UK should stay in the single market.

(During the campaign Vote Leave said explicitly that they did not think the UK should remain in the single market.)

Cameron says it is up to the new government to decide whether to join the EEA

Back in the Commons Kenneth Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, asks Cameron if he agrees that, when MPs vote on all the legislation Brexit requires, they should follow their judgment, not be guided by a plebiscite. He also asks Cameron if he supports joining the European Economic Area. The EEA suits countries like Norway and Iceland where politicians want to be in the EU, but they cannot persuade the public, Clarke says.

Cameron says he agrees that parliament is sovereign, but he says MPs must respect the result of the referendum.

He says it will be up to the new government to decide whether to join the EEA.

  • Cameron says it is up to the new government to decide whether to join the EEA.

Jeremy Corbyn plans to address a rally of grassroots supporters at the gates of parliament tonight after facing down his critics within the Parliamentary Labour party.

Labour’s leader will at first attend a crucial meeting of MPs where he is expected to face calls for his resignation including former members of his shadow cabinet.

But after calling for party unity, he plans to address a Momentum rally on Parliament Square, 20 yards from the parliamentary estate, sources said.

He may well be flanked at the rally by up to 20 MPs, who among those who remain loyal to Labour’s leader.

The address will offer a stark reminder to MPs that Corbyn’s support remains outside the Parliamentary party which has always been hostile towards him.

A source close to his office confirmed that he would address the rally following the PLP meeting.

Cameron is replying to Corbyn.

He says it is not right to fight the campaign again. All he knows, he says, is that he put everything into it.

He agrees with Corbyn about the importance of fighting intolerance.

He says the government remains committed to sound public finances.

In future, it will be up to the new government to decide who to react to economic circumstances.

Corbyn ends on a personal note.

He says he has many disagreements with Cameron. But Cameron delivered equal marriage, against the wishes of many of his MPs. He praises Cameron for his response to Bloody Sunday, and for his response to the murder of Jo Cox.

Corbyn urges Cameron to start exit negotiations now

Jeremy Corbyn is responding to Cameron.

He thanks people for voting. But he says the campaign was divisive and negative.

He says Labour accepts the result.

Many people feel disenfranchised and powerless, he says.

Communities have been let down - not by the EU, but by Tory governments.

He says half-truths and untruths during the campaign. Leave campaigners have now been distancing themselves from those, he says. For example, they have retreated from the claim that £350m per week will be available for the NHS>

He says there has been an increase in racist attacks. He urges the government to do all they can to stop them.

He says the country will not thank MPs for indulging in factional fighting.

He says neither wing of the Tory party has an exit plan. So Labour must be fully involved. It wants to protect social and employment rights, he says.

He says we cannot be in a state of paralysis for the next three months.

He says Cameron should begin negotiations when he goes to Brussels.

  • Corbyn urges Cameron to start exit negotiations now.

He asks Cameron to confirm that taxes will not go up.

Cameron says a new civil service unit has been set up to prepare for the withdrawal negotiations. It will be staffed by the brightest and best from Westminster. It will prepare options for the new prime minister.

He says Oliver Letwin is overseeing the process. Letwin will not play a part in the Tory leadership contest. He will consider proposals from MPs from all sides of the House.

Cameron says he has consulted the devolved administrations, and London, and they will be involved in the process.

He will go to a summit in Brussels tomorrow but he will not invoke article 50 immediately, he says.

He says that it is important to stress Britain is not turning its back on the world.

Security cooperation with the EU will continue, he says.

He winds up by saying Britain is in a strong position.

Cameron says the result is not the one he wanted. But he and the cabinet have agreed it must be respected.

He says hate crimes and attacks on foreigners must be stamped out. These people have come here and made a wonderful contribution, he says.

He says there will be no immediate changes to people’s rights.

The withdrawal negotiations will start under a new prime minister, he says.

He says the economy is well placed to face the challenges ahead.

David Cameron's Commons statement on the EU referendum

David Cameron is giving his Commons statement on the referendum.

He says MPs voted for a referendum by a margin of six to one.

He welcomes the new MP for Tooting, Rosena Allin-Khan, who has just been sworn in. He advises her to keep her mobile phone on. She could be in the shadow cabinet by the end of the day, he jokes.

And I thought I was having a bad day ...

Updated

The United States will retain its special relationship with the UK, US secretary of state John Kerry has said, but Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union would have consequences.

Speaking to the media in Brussels, the US’s most senior diplomat called for “sensitive, thoughtful, responsible and strategic” leadership, and said the US would do everything it could to make the transition “as sensible as possible”.

During the campaign, the US president Barack Obama made an heartfelt appeal for the UK to remain in the European Union, but now accepts the result.

“That’s democracy,” Kerry said. “We respect the rights of the voters, we respect the process, so it is now up to leaders to implement and do so in a way that is responsible, thoughtful, sensitive and strategic.”

But he stressed the rupture with the EU would have consequences. “Does that mean it doesn’t present difficulties? No there are challenges. Does that mean it is without any impact? No clearly that is not possible either, because there are consequences.”

The US secretary of state is heading to London to meet foreign secretary Philip Hammond. His main priority in Brussels was to stress enduring transatlantic ties with the EU.

“The United States cares about a strong EU,” Kerry said. “The interests and the values that brought is together are the same after that vote as they were before.”

He pleaded for leaders to avoid “scatterbrained or vengeful premises”.

John Kerry and Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs at a news conference in Brussels.
John Kerry and Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs at a news conference in Brussels. Photograph: Isopix/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Britain Stronger In Europe chief says Corbyn should resign

Will Straw, a Labour candidate in the 2015 general election and executive director of Britain Stronger in Europe, has written a blog for the BSE website saying that Jeremy Corbyn undermined the remain campaign and that he should resign. Here’s an extract.

Jeremy Corbyn should follow David Cameron’s lead. Under his leadership, Labour is further removed from its industrial heartlands than ever before with 29 per cent of its supporters threatening to go elsewhere. New research from the IPPR think tank shows that the poorest families will be hit twice as hard by new inflation caused by sterling’s slide as the richest—many living in areas that voted overwhelmingly to leave.

Rather than making a clear and passionate Labour case for EU membership, Corbyn took a week’s holiday in the middle of the campaign and removed pro-EU lines from his speeches.

Rather than finding imaginative ways for Labour to present a united front and get its message across to wavering supporters, Corbyn vetoed a planned event featuring all Labour’s formers leaders.

Rather than confronting concerns about immigration with Labour’s values of contribution and reciprocity, Corbyn distanced himself from the manifesto commitment to restrict in work benefits for new arrivals to this country and planned a trip to Turkey to talk about “open borders”.

The pound has hit a 31-year low against the dollar, my colleague Graeme Wearden reports on the business blog.

ITV’s Robert Peston points out that this does not quite square with what Boris Johnson was saying in his Telegraph article this morning.

Parliament needs to approve move to trigger article 50, lawyers claim

Any prime minister will need parliamentary approval to trigger article 50 of the Lisbon treaty and initiate the UK’s exit from the European Union, according to a report by constitutional lawyers.

In a legal opinion published on Monday, Nick Barber, a fellow at Trinity College, Oxford, Tom Hickman, a barrister at Blackstone Chambers and reader at University Collegge, London, and Jeff King, a senior law lecturer at UCL, declare that: “In our constitution, parliament gets to make this decision, not the prime minister.” They add:

The prime minister is unable to issue a declaration under article 50 of the Lisbon treaty – triggering our withdrawal from the European Union – without having been first authorised to do so by an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament. Were he to attempt to do so before such a statute was passed, the declaration would be legally ineffective as a matter of domestic law and it would also fail to comply with the requirements of article 50 itself.

Their argument is based on the fact article 50 states that any withdrawal from the EU must be made “in accordance with the state’s constitutional requirements”. Traditional constitutional arrangements involve parliamentary sovereignty.

“Parliament could conclude that it would be contrary to the national interest to invoke article 50 whilst it is in the dark about what the key essentials of the new relationship with the EU are going to be, and without knowing what terms the EU is going to offer,” the three authors suggest.
Handing parliament, where the majority of MPs are remain supporters, a veto on Brexit is not a legal interpretation that is going to be welcomed by leave voters.

Updated

According to the BBC, 57 candidates from the 2015 election have signed a letter saying Jeremy Corbyn should resign.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected this post, which earlier wrongly said MPs instead of candidates.

Updated

The secret ballot on a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn will take place tomorrow, my colleague Anushka Asthana reports.

Juncker assures Britons working for European commission their jobs are safe

The nearly 1,000 British nationals who work for the European commission have been assured their jobs are safe, the Associated Press reports.

Even though Britain has voted to leave the European Union, the EU commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, wrote in an internal memo that according to regulations, they are “union officials” and work for Europe.

He wrote: “You left your national ‘hats’ at the door when you joined this institution and that door is not closing on you now.”

The memo, distributed to commission personnel after the results of Thursday’s British referendum on EU membership became known, was obtained by AP on Monday.

Jean-Claude Juncker.
Jean-Claude Juncker. Photograph: ZUMA Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

As Germans try to come to terms with the impact Brexit will have on them, including necessitating a higher German contribution to the EU budget (with Britain no longer around to pay its dues) as well as an unclear trade relationship will remain uncertain for some time to come, one of the country’s leading economists, Prof Clemens Fuest, president of the leading ifo-Insitute, has tried to sum up the main points.

He told Deutschlandfunk a Brexit, even before it happens, will likely have a dampening effect on the German economy. “Economic growth is very solid in Germany and was heading towards a real upswing. Now there’ll certainly be a bit of a dampener on that, and the upswing will not continue as it has until now,” he said.

“That’s to do with the fact that with a view on the uncertainty many companies feel, they will wait before realising projects, before they decide to recruit new employees, before they carry out new investment projects. All the projects that have anything to do with Great Britain will be put on ice, or at least they will consider putting them on ice, or delaying them, and through that activity will drop putting a brake on (growth) .... This is unavoidable for us.”

Updated

According to Momentum, the pro-Labour group for Jeremy Corbyn supporters, 4,000 people are expected at a rally outside the House of Commons later to express support for Corbyn.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon is to ask for cross-party support in the Scottish parliament to pursue talks with the UK government, European Union leaders and other member states on “protecting Scotland’s place” in the union, short of full independence.

Before making a statement at Holyrood on Tuesday on the implications for Scotland of last week’s Brexit vote, where the UK overall opted to leave the EU while Scotland voted 62% to 38% to stay in, the first minister said she wanted its mandate to reinforce her hand in those talks.

With the first wave of post-EU referendum opinion polls showing only a modest rise in support for independence and ambivalence about a fresh referendum, Sturgeon is keen to investigate options for some form of “associate” status for Scotland in the EU while it remains in the UK, to preserve Scotland’s access to the single market and wider EU benefits.

“I am now determined to explore every avenue to retain Scotland’s EU status, and Tuesday’s parliamentary debate is a vital part of that process,” she said, adding: “It is now crucial that our national parliament speaks with as strong and united a voice as possible on this issue.”

Sturgeon is likely to win that support, with possible amendments from other parties. The Scottish National party has 63 seats, two short of an overall majority, but is likely to win backing from the Scottish Green party’s six MSPs and perhaps others too.

Updated

Luciana Berger resigns as shadow cabinet minister for mental health

Luciana Berger has resigned as shadow cabinet minister for mental health.

Alan Johnson accuses Corbyn's office of 'working against the rest of the party' over EU referendum

ITV’s Robert Peston has seen an email that Alan Johnson, the chair of Labour In for Britain, has sent out about the result of the referendum. In it he accuses Jeremy Corbyn’s office of “working against the rest of the party” and suggests it had “conflicting objectives” to those of the rest of the party.

For more details of how Corbyn’s office obstructed the Labour In for Britain campaign, read:

Alan Johnson.
Alan Johnson. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Guardian/ICM poll gives Tories 4-point lead over Labour

A new Guardian/ICM online poll provides a snapshot of the shape of party politics after the referendum. The fieldwork was conducted over the weekend, so entirely after news of the leave vote was announced, and David Cameron announced his resignation.

It suggests a small Brexit boost for the Tories, who are on 36%, up two from the last ICM online survey reported in the Guardian a fortnight ago. Labour, meanwhile, also climbs two from 30% to 32%. Ukip drops four points, to 15%, while the pro-European Liberal Democrats slip back one to 7%. The SNP, which campaigned successfully for the strong remain vote in Scotland, climbs one to 5%. The Greens are also up one on 5%. Plaid Cymru is on 1%.

For the most part, the referendum was a bad night for the pollsters, with most of their final surveys suggesting remain was ahead. ICM did not publish a poll in the last few days, so it is hard to assess its performance in an environment where opinion seemed to be fluid. But its last two polls for the Guardian – one online, one over the phone – which we published 10 days before voting both suggested that leave was ahead, albeit by 53%-47%, slightly more than the final result of 52% to 48%.

UPDATE: We have amended the second paragraph. The figures we originally reported for the new poll were all correct, but we compared them with the last Guardian/ICM telephone poll from a fortnight ago, whereas the more appropriate comparison is with the parallel online poll which we reported at that time.

Updated

Nominations for Conservative leadership close on Thursday

According to the Sun’s Harry Cole, the Conservative backbench 1922 committee has decided that nominations for the party leadership will close on Thursday. And they want a new leader in place by 2 September.

Updated

A reader points out that, even if Jeremy Corbyn would not tell Chris Bryant how he voted in the referendum (see 11.19am), Corbyn did tell Twitter that he voted remain.

Nick Thomas-Symonds has just announced that he has resigned as a shadow employment minister.

Angela Eagle says Corbyn should examine his conscience and resign

Angela Eagle, who resigned earlier as shadow business secretary, is on the World at One now explaining her decision. She sounds close to tears.

She tried to make it work, she says. During the deputy leadership contest she said she would serve the new leader. But Jeremy Corbyn is not suited to the job, she says. During the EU referendum he could not communicate Labour’s message properly.

Q: But party members do have confidence in him?

Eagle says you cannot lead the party if you do not have the support of colleagues and if you cannot communicate party policy.

Q: You talk about the prospect of an early election. But Labour MPs would have to vote for that.

Eagle says the government could repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. And Labour supporters would not understand Labour MPs voting against a motion of no confidence.

Q: Andy Burnham says Labour MPs should not take part in a coup.

Eagle says she is not taking part in a coup either. She has examined her conscience. Corbyn should examine his conscience too.

Q: Would you like to be leader?

Eagle says she enjoyed standing in for Corbyn at PMQs. But today is not the day for discussing this. Today is about the decision Corbyn must take.

  • Angela Eagle says Corbyn should examine his conscience and resign.
  • She does not rule out standing for the leadership herself.

Updated

Lord King, the former governor of the Bank of England, has just given an interview to the World at One. He said that the EU referendum was “the most dispiriting” he could recall and that both sides were guilty of exaggeration.

These are from the BBC’s Mark Broad.

Lord Kings
Lord King Photograph: Reuters

Updated

Vote Leave wipes its homepage

Much like its political leaders Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the Vote Leave online campaign has gone rather quiet over the weekend. The Twitter and Facebook accounts have been silent since 23 June and the campaign website homepage has been wiped.

Although the campaign’s archive of pledges, briefings, speeches and op-eds written by senior campaign figures are still hosted on the site, they are no longer linked to from the homepage, making them much harder to find.

This is rather different from the Conservative party wipedown of 2013, in which the Tories removed a decade’s worth of speeches completely from their website and blocked archiving services such as the Wayback Machine from accessing them.

But anyone entering through the main www.voteleavetakecontrol.org link will see only a note thanking supporters and a photo of Johnson, Gove and Priti Patel campaigning in front of a battle bus emblazoned with a version of the controversial £350m claim, with no way to access any of the rest of the site.

You can still find the rest of the website’s content through this link.

Updated

Cameron setting up Brexit negotiations unit

The prime minister will set up a new team of civil servants inside the Cabinet Office, reporting to cabinet, to draw up options for Britain’s renegotiations with the rest of the EU, his spokesman has announced.

The unit, which will also include officials from the Foreign Office and the Treasury, will carry out preliminary work, which could be handed to an incoming prime minister when the Conservatives’ leadership race is complete.

“What the civil service is there to do is to make sure that we prepare, as much as the civil service can, for a new prime minister,” she said.

Cameron’s troubleshooter Oliver Letwin will also be given a new “facilitative role”, consulting across government and with experts about the options.

Updated

David Cameron condemned a spate of racist attacks since last week’s referendum, saying he would “not tolerate intolerance”, his official spokesperson has said.

Several MPs have reported that constituents have been harassed since the result of the vote emerged. But the spokeswoman said:

This government will not tolerate intolerance. We are absolutely clear on the need to reassure communities across Britain. We are a tolerant nation; that existed long before we were members of the European Union, and we should hold fast to that.

Updated

John Woodcock’s kind offer to stand in for Clive Lewis at defence questions has been turned down, I’m told. (See 12.56pm.) Emily Thornberry, the new shadow foreign secretary who was previously shadow defence secretary, will be speaking for the opposition instead.

Updated

Kate Green has resigned as shadow equalities minister.

This is from BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson.

If experience is any guide, you could argue there have already been some surprising announcements to the shadow cabinet. (See 8.32am.)

Updated

John Woodcock, the pro-Trident Labour MP who is a fierce critic of Jeremy Corbyn, has told the Labour leader that if Clive Lewis, the new shadow defence secretary, does not make it back from Glastonbury in time for today’s defence questions (see 11.28am), he will take over himself. Woodcock is chair of the backbench defence committee and Labour rules allow this, he says.

Updated

Maria Eagle resigns as shadow culture secretary

Maria Eagle has resigned as shadow culture secretary.

In her resignation letter she said that Labour needed “strong and effective leadership” and that she thought Jeremy Corbyn was not able to provide it.

Jeremy Corbyn is resigned to a leadership challenge taking place, my colleague Anushka Asthana reports.

Khan asks police to be extra vigilant for any rise in hate crime following EU referendum

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has asked Scotland Yard to be “extra vigilant” regarding hate crime after a number of incidents were reported in the capital and around Britain following the EU referendum. He said:

I take seriously my responsibility to defend London’s fantastic mix of diversity and tolerance. So it’s really important we stand guard against any rise in hate crimes or abuse by those who might use last week’s referendum as cover to seek to divide us.

I’ve asked our police to be extra vigilant for any rise in cases of hate crime, and I’m calling on all Londoners to pull together and rally behind this great city.

We will have a zero-tolerance approach to any attempt to hurt and divide our communities.

But he also urged people not to demonise Londoners who voted for Brexit.

It’s also crucial that we don’t demonise the 1.5m people in London who voted for Brexit.

While I and millions of others disagreed with their decision, they took it for a variety of reasons and this shouldn’t be used to accuse them of being xenophobic or racist.

We must respect their decision and work together now to get the best deal for London.

And here’s another Labour resignation - but not one involving the frontbench. Michael Cashman, a Labour peer, is resigning as the party’s global LGBT envoy.

Updated

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, has tweeted this morning to assure EU students studying in the UK that they will still receive funding.

Updated

Pound hits new 31-year low as shares keep sliding

Over in the City, Boris Johnson’s claim this morning that “the pound is stable, the markets are stable” is turning to dust.

Sterling has suffered fresh falls this morning, and hit a new low of $1.3192 vs the US dollar.

That’s its lowest point since 1985, down almost five cents (or 3.5%) today.

Pound vs dollar
The pound vs the US dollar since midmay Photograph: Thomson Reuters

The pound has also lost almost three eurocents against the European single currency, to €1.199. That means holidays on the continent are going to be more expensive – but might help UK exporters.

Shares are also in retreat again, despite George Osborne’s attempts reassure investors.

The FTSE 100 index was down 97 points, or 1.6%, at noon, in a rout led by financial companies and property firms.

Royal Bank of Scotland has slumped by 20% to a seven-year low, in a blow to taxpayers who still own around 73% of the bank.

Budget airline EasyJet and estate agent Foxtons both issued profit warnings this morning, and are both down around 20%.

The FTSE 250 index of smaller UK companies is down over 5%. It’s arguably a better guide to the British economy.

The crisis engulfing Westminster is causing major worries in the City, as investors wonder who will be leading Britain’s two major political parties in a few months time.

As Kallum Pickering of German bank Berenberg puts it:

UK politics has fallen into crisis following the vote for Brexit last Thursday.

The resulting uncertainty and market tensions could further dampen activity in the domestic economy in the near-term.

John Healey resigns as shadow housing minister

John Healey has resigned as shadow housing minister. According to the BBC, that means Jeremy Corbyn has lost half his shadow cabinet within the last day and a half.

Updated

Angela Eagle resigns as shadow business secretary and shadow first secretary of state

Angela Eagle has resigned as shadow business secretary and shadow first secretary of state.

Here is the key quote from her letter.

It is with the greatest of sadness that, after nine months of trying to make your leadership work and despite your considerable personal qualities, I have come to the conclusion you are not the right person to lead the party we both love.

And here is the letter.

Updated

As Brexit continues to dominate every front page in Europe, here are a few more snippets from some of the editorials today.

Nepszabadsag, from Hungary, says there is much confusion over how to view what has happened.

So which British decision should we now respect? The one resulting from the referendum? Or the fact that very many Britons are now shocked about the result and its effects and basically want to reverse everything?

Der Standard, Austria, believes there is still a chance the referendum result might not lead to a Brexit.

The British people’s decision is to be respected. But the referendum is not binding. It is still not clear whether the parliament in London will vote in favour of this monumentous decision with all the tragic economic and political consequences that will go with it. The EU partners should not force them...we should wait to see what the British decide to do.

Berlingske, Denmark, says the referendum result only underlines the conviction in America that most politicians are too far removed from the people.

The British ‘no’ to the EU will strengthen the Americans in one thing: they are not on their own with their fears and worry for the future. They are not alone with their feeling that politicans who are deciding on their lives are following their own interests and not those of their people. They are not alone when they demand that in the future politics should be decided much more closely with the people rather than by bureaucrats in distant Washington or just as distant Brussels.

Tages Anzeiger, Switzerland, says Merkel is now responsible for turning Europe round, but she lacks the necessary charisma.

Whatever direction the developments (in Europe) take, one thing is for sure, Germany will now get the task of reuniting Europe and to prepare it for the future. Angela Merkel, Europe’s dinosaur, is suited to this task, and at the same time unsuited for it. As a crisis manager she has proved numerous times that she is capable of leading with a calm hand and in so doing she thinks and behaves in a more European way than all the other heads of state and government in this continent ... but at the same time, she’s lacking the vision and passion. She knows that Europe will remain Germany’s horizon, and she’s a convinced European, but she has no success in trying to convince the citizens of the continent of the future of their Union.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is saying this morning that Jeremy Corbyn should not resign.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell: ‘Corbyn should not resign’

According to the Liverpool Echo, Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary, will resign shortly.

Labour sources have told the Echo the shadow business secretary and first secretary of state’s request for a meeting with the Labour leader “was ignored”.

Merkel ally says Germany should not rush to push UK out of EU

Angela Merkel’s chief of staff this morning said Europe should extend a helping hand to British pro-Europeans rather than rush to push the UK out of the European Union.

Peter Altmaier, who runs Merkel’s chancellory and is seen as her strongest ally in the German government, said:

Should we just be saying: we’re sad that the referendum has ended this way, but now you have to go? I am not sure that would be the right step. Because at this referendum something has happened that I never imagined.

On one hand, the sad result is that 52% said they wanted to leave. But on the other hand – and that’s something that I as a European find deeply moving – even in this country that we often thought of as deeply eurosceptic and not truly European, there has been an incredible turning towards Europe by millions of people ... As a European, I feel a responsibility towards those people.

Updated

My colleague Anushka Asthana has more on the meeting that Lisa Nandy, Owen Smith, John Healey, Nia Griffith and Kate Green had with Jeremy Corbyn this morning.

Nandy and Smith say Watson should take over as caretaker Labour leader

Lisa Nandy and Owen Smith have put out a joint statement announcing their resignation as shadow energy secretary and shadow work and pensions secretary respectively.

  • Nandy and Smith call for leadership contest.
  • Nandy and Smith say Watson should take over as caretaker leader while new leader elected.

Here is the statement in full.

Together with our colleagues from the centre left of the party - John Healey, Nia Griffith, and Kate Green – we just met with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss the future of our party. We had hoped to leave that meeting with the confidence to continue to support the leadership in bringing the Labour party together from within the shadow cabinet. During the course of the meeting it became clear that this would not be possible.

It is therefore with huge sadness that we have resigned from the shadow cabinet. We have both been deeply distressed that this week of all weeks Labour has descended into infighting instead of looking outwards to the country. We do not believe that this is a time for internal warfare. Following the referendum result we believe we in Labour have a unique responsibility to show collective leadership to help bring the country through these difficult times. It has become increasingly apparent in the last 48 hours that this is not a realistic prospect in the current circumstances.

The lack of confidence in the leadership goes beyond the small group of MPs who have consistently opposed Jeremy since his election. It has become clear that he is unable to form a broad, inclusive shadow cabinet that draws on the best of our movement’s left and right traditions. For that reason we have told Jeremy that whilst the party holds a leadership contest - which is now inevitable - we believe Tom Watson ought to take over as a caretaker leader to stabilise the party and to enable us to play a full part as the official opposition in one of the most difficult periods this country has ever faced.

Jess Phillips accuses Corbyn of selfishness, saying he is not interested in what's best for Labour

The Labour MP Jess Phillips has published her letter to Jeremy Corbyn announcing her resignation as a parliamentary private secretary in the shadow education team.

Of the many Labour resignation letters we’ve had in the last 24 hours, this is probably the spikiest and most colourful. Here are two of the key points. (I have added some punctuation in a few places.)

  • Phillips accused her Corbynista critics of hypocrisy. She also implied they were threatening her with deselection. She said:

Writing or saying anything against you risks my job, the livelihood of my family, the threats are already rolling in. Turns out when you stand up for what you believe in you are principled; when I do it, I am an opportunist, careerist, Blairite of even a Zionist plotter. Funny that. I am a socialist. I live my life as a socialist. I speak up regardless of the risk because I am considerably less important than the struggle.

  • She accused Corbyn of selfishness, saying he was only interested in himself, not what was best for the party.

The Labour party is not about you, it’s about us. Most of all it’s about them, the brilliant people in the UK, even the ones who don’t agree with us. We need action. We really needed it last week, the week before.

I am really worried that you cannot see that you have made this all about you and not about them. Be the socialist you say you are, do the right thing and let the Labour party be the opposition it needs to be now, when people need it most.

Jess Phillips.
Jess Phillips. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

According to the BBC, Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, and Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy secretary, are resigning.

It’s defence questions in the Commons this afternoon. And Clive Lewis is the new shadow defence secretary. But, according to Sky’s Darren McCaffrey, Lewis may not make it because he is on his way back from Glastonbury festival.

Updated

Germany says EU won't start Brexit talks before article 50 invoked

The German government is saying there will be no informal discussions between Britain and the European Union before the British government has invoked formal divorce proceedings by making a request under article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, a German government spokesman said this morning.

According to Reuters, Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Angela Merkel, told a briefing:

One thing is clear: before Britain has sent this request there will be no informal preliminary talks about the modalities of leaving.

Only when Britain has made the request according to article 50 will the European Council draw up guidelines in consensus for an exit agreement.

Bryant says Corbyn refused to tell him whether he voted to leave the EU

Chris Bryant, who resigned yesterday as shadow leader of the Commons, has told the BBC that he thinks Jeremy Corbyn may have voted to leave the EU. Corbyn refused to tell him how he voted, he said.

The New Statesman’s George Eaton says Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy secretary, will stand against Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership.

Grant Shapps, the former Conservative party co-chairman, says Lord Heseltine’s calls for a second EU referendum (see 8.52am) is “outrageous”.

This morning’s cabinet meeting, the first since the EU referendum, is over. Ministers are leaving No 10 now.

Updated

Roberta Blackman-Woods has resigned as a shadow housing minister.

The Labour MP Ruth Smeeth has resigned as a PPS (parliamentary private secretary).

The Labour MP Karin Smyth was parliamentary private secretary to Heidi Alexander, who resigned as shadow health secretary yesterday. In a letter to party members in her constituency Smyth says she will not serve in the shadow health team anymore and that Jeremy Corbyn should stand down as leader.

Here is the text of Diana Johnson’s letter to Jeremy Corbyn resigning as a shadow foreign office minister.

This is from the Daily Mirror’s Jason Beattie.

And this is from my colleague John Harris.

Updated

The executive of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee will meet at lunchtime to discuss the rules and the timetable for the party’s leadership contest, the Press Association reports.

They are expected to mirror the system used the last time there was a vacancy in 2005 and will be formally adopted by the party board at a meeting tomorrow.

Graham Brady, the 1922 chairman, said the timetable was a matter for discussion but that there was “a desire to get things moving” as soon as was reasonable.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which is not affiliated to Labour, has issued a message of support to Jeremy Corbyn. He said:

The most immediate and important thing we need is for Labour and the unions to lead a mass campaign against this racism and xenophobia to protect migrants, and to demand that housing, education, health and other public services are properly resourced.

I am appalled that instead of helping with this, some self-indulgent Labour MPs are looking inward, and turning on you and the party members and supporters who elected you in a landslide last September. I believe you are the best person to lead the Labour party through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult period and you have my full support.

The cabinet has been meeting this morning. Here are some of the ministers arriving.

Michael Gove arriving for cabinet.
Michael Gove arriving for cabinet. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
Theresa May arriving for cabinet.
Theresa May arriving for cabinet. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Priti Patel arriving for cabinet.
Priti Patel arriving for cabinet. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Elizabeth Truss (left) and Nicky Morgan arrive for cabinet.
Elizabeth Truss (left) and Nicky Morgan arrive for cabinet. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Wayne David has resigned as a shadow minister covering the Cabinet Office, Scotland and justice.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, has used Twitter to mock Boris Johnson’s claim this morning (see 9.56am) that Project Fear is over.

This morning’s market news (see 10.27am) also suggests that Johnson’s claim about the pound and the markets being stable was premature.

The pound is falling again this morning, and share prices are falling too. My colleague Graeme Wearden has more on his business blog.

As Sky’s Faisal Islam reports, trading in RBS shares was halted briefly this morning. This is something that happens when share prices are falling very quickly.

Watson tells Corbyn he has lost authority in PLP

Tom Watson has told his party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, that he has lost his authority in the parliamentary Labour party and that if there was a leadership election, then members would be voting with that knowledge

In critical talks at 9am this morning, the deputy leader set out how destabilising a wave of shadow cabinet and ministerial resignations had been for the party, but fell short of calling on Corbyn to resign.

Labour sources, including those close to the leader, are now admitting that a leadership election is looking increasingly likely, with Watson telling Corbyn he would do his best to hold the party together in that situation.

But Corbyn remains defiant, with his team reiterating his words last night: “Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate.”

The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has said his faith in the British people will be “broken forever” if Boris Johnson becomes prime minister. In a post on his Instagram account, alongside a video of a waving European Union flag, he said:

The divorce of our European marriage will be very costly and provoke a bitterness towards us as a trusted country in the world...However I do believe in democracy and Britain has spoken. In my own way I will now roll up my sleeves and work harder than ever to make this work. But I BEG YOU ONE THING GREAT BRITAIN ???? Give me Boris fucking Johnson as our Prime Minister and I’m done. I’m out. My faith in us will be broken forever.

Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, has met Jeremy Corbyn, but did not tell him to resign, my colleague Anushka Asthana reports.

Nia Griffith, the shadow Welsh secretary, is urging Jeremy Corbyn to stand down, the BBC reports.

Here is Jeremy Corbyn leaving his home this morning.

Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in North London as resignations from his shadow cabinet continue.
Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in North London as resignations from his shadow cabinet continue. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

According to the Telegraph’s Laura Hughes, Maria Eagle, the shadow culture secretary, will resign later.

Alex Cunningham has resigned as shadow minister for the natural environment.

Johnson says EU citizens living in UK will not have to leave

Boris Johnson, the leading leave campaigner and favourite to succeed David Cameron as prime minister, spoke to reporters outside his house this morning.

He welcomed George Osborne’s statement this morning.

I think it’s very good news that the chancellor has come out and said some reassuring things to the markets and it’s clear now that Project Fear is over, there’s not going to be an emergency budget, people’s pensions are safe, the pound is stable, the markets are stable and I think that’s all very good news.

He also insisted that EU citizens currently living in the UK would not be forced to leave.

The second point I want to make, because I’ve seen a lot of confusion over the weekend about the status of people living in this country; it’s absolutely clear that people from other European Union countries who are living here have their rights protected. All that people want to see is a system that’s fair, impartial and humane to all people coming from around the world. And also, obviously people from the UK living abroad, living in the rest of the EU, will also have their rights completely protected. I just worry there’s been a certain amount of confusion in the media over the last 24 hours.

Boris Johnson outside his home this morning.
Boris Johnson outside his home this morning. Photograph: BBC

Updated

Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, was on Good Morning Scotland this morning and he spent most of his interview praising Nicola Sturgeon for her “clarity, persuasiveness and certainty”.

He added that, despite the obvious implications yesterday, Sturgeon had not suggested that Holyrood had a legal veto over Westminster’s Brexit legislation but simply that the Scottish parliament could withhold its consent as a political gesture.

He also criticised Boris Johnson for appearing to change the grounds on which Brexit would happen. “We don’t even know where the Brexit camp is going to take the policy of the UK,” he said.

Scottish voters remain unconvinced about the case for a fresh independence referendum according to a new Survation poll, despite Nicola Sturgeon’s assertion on Friday that a second one was “highly likely” after Scotland opted heavily in favour of remaining in the EU.

Just under 45% of those Survation polled for the Daily Record over the weekend said Nicola Sturgeon should not hold a second vote, against 42% who said she should. Excluding don’t knows, that left 52% of Scots against a second referendum.

But asked how they would vote if one were held today, the yes vote had a clear six point lead, with 47% in favour of independence against 41% against; excluding 10% don’t knows and 2% who wouldn’t give a view, that gave a 54% yes vote and 46% against.

Those figures follow other polls over the weekend putting a yes vote as high as 59% - a marked jump since Friday’s Brexit vote. But these levels do not yet reach the consistent 60% threshold in favour of independence that the Scottish National party is looking for.

With the Record now openly supporting Sturgeon’s preparations for a second referendum, its poll also found that more SNP supporters voted leave than other parties: 29% of SNP voters backed Brexit, compared to 27% of Scottish Tories, and 17% Labour and 16% Lib Dem voter.

Darling says vacuum at top of politics could 'make a bad situation worse'

Labour’s last chancellor Alistair Darling says he is more worried about the economy now than he was at the time of the financial crash.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he urged the government to fill the “damaging” political vacuum left by the referendum to provide the markets and businesses with greater certainty. He said:

We have got no government. We have got no opposition. The people who got us into this mess have run away, they have gone to ground and we now have a four month gap before we are likely to get a new prime minister, during which things may be said which will make a bad situation worse. It is not a happy situation which is why I’m more worried now than I was in 2008 ...

I accept that the new negotiations can’t start until we have a new prime minister, but we cannot have a four-month period during which nothing happens.

Darling, one of the leading campaigners for staying in the EU, also criticised Boris Johnson’s claim in his Daily Telegraph column that the referendum was not about immigration. He said:

Free movement of people ... is such a pivotal issue. For Boris Johnson to say ‘oh we didn’t mean it about immigration’ and that somehow things can carry on, the entire Brexit campaign was based on scares about immigration and free movement, so we cannot wait for four months and not discuss these issues, because the rest of the world will look in amazement.

Boris Johnson seems to be taking this as a big game, where the last four months were just a jolly laugh, where it didn’t matter and nothing is going to change.

The risk is, the longer there is uncertainty, people will decide to put their investment and jobs elsewhere. What I’m really concerned about is this gap between now and October when we’ll have a new prime minister, where if we don’t do some serious thinking about what our options are, and if we don’t start engaging with the European Union itself, the risk is we make a bad situation worse. If you leave a vacuum in politics, where you have got all this constitutional, economic and political uncertainty, that is where the trouble starts.

Alistair Darling.
Alistair Darling. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Michael Fuchs, a senior figure in Angela Merkel’s CDU party, told the Today programme this morning that if the UK wanted to retain access to the single market once it left the EU, that would be possible, “but not for free”. According to the BBC, he went on:

You have to see with Norway, with Switzerland, you have to pay a certain fee. And the per capita fee of Norway is exactly the same as what Britain is now paying into the EU. So there won’t be any savings.

And here is the letter from Steve Reed announcing his resignation as a shadow local government minister.

And here is the letter from Toby Perkins announcing his resignation as a shadow defence minister.

Here is some Twitter comment on the latest shadow cabinet appointments and resignations.

From the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith

From BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson

From the Sunday Times’s James Lyons

From the Financial Times’s Robert Shrimsley

From Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett

Here is the letter from Yvonne Fovargue resigning as shadow consumer affairs minister.

Could international allegiances between cities be an answer to the current chaos?

Following the referendum result, London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, this morning issued a joint pledge for the two cities to work more closely together as a counterweight to nationalism. They said Paris and London were part of “just a handful of truly global cities” and argued that cities “can act as a powerful counterweight to the lethargy of nation states and to the influence of industrial lobbies”.

Paris’s Socialist mayor Hidalgo personally pushed for a gesture of solidarity and increased ties with London, which voted remain. This stands in contrast to Valérie Pécresse, the rightwing head of the wider Paris region, Île de France, who has said Paris could profit from London’s woes post-Brexit and vowed that the French capital would fight to win over financial firms and businesses fleeing London post-Brexit.

Updated

Labour peers expected to boycott Corbyn's shadow cabinet

The Labour party’s leaders in the House of Lords are set to refuse to attend meetings of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, the Press Association reports.

Lady Smith of Basildon, the Labour leader in the Lords, and Lord Bassam, the chief whip, are both in post because of elections within the ranks of the party’s peers – rather than being appointed by Corbyn.

A source said that they had taken “soundings” from the party’s peers and it was likely they would boycott shadow cabinet meetings while Corbyn remains as leader.

Updated

The Scottish secretary, David Mundell, on BBC Radio Scotland’s GMS, repeatedly sidestepped the question about the transfer of powers from Westminster to Holyrood necessary to hold a second independence referendum.

I believe that the arguments for Scotland being part of the UK are as compelling now as in 2014.

Mundell suggested that, despite Scotland voting unanimously to remain, the mandate to leave was UK-wide. He added that it was “unhelpful” that the first thing Nicola Sturgeon mentioned after the leave result was independence, warning that the Scottish people would not respond well to “opportunism”.

Updated

The Welsh government’s cabinet is meeting this morning to discuss the implications of the EU referendum vote for Wales.

Ahead of the meeting, the first minister and Labour leader in Wales, Carwyn Jones, said it was one of the most important since devolution. He said:

We will look at an initial evaluation of the potential consequences of this result for Wales, and agree how we will take the priorities forward in the national interest.

On Friday, I set out my priorities for action, including even closer working with Welsh business to protect jobs, renewed intergovernmental engagement and a commitment to protect and maintain EU funding for Wales for as long as possible.

The full implications of this vote are still far from clear and will not be so for some time. However, one thing is certain. We as the Welsh government are utterly determined to stay internationally engaged, outward-looking and pro-business in our approach. That is what will maintain business confidence, and that is what will help inward investors take the right decisions in this new, uncertain environment.

Let us not forget the steel crisis, that we are working so hard to resolve, remains ongoing. We will continue to work with Tata and support steelworkers as we look to meet the immense challenges thrown up by the referendum result.

Jones has made it clear that he has not considered resigning though Labour failed to get out its vote in traditional heartland areas like the south Wales valleys. Seventeen of the 22 local government areas in Wales voted to leave the EU.

Carwyn Jones.
Carwyn Jones. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Updated

Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, is due to meet Jeremy Corbyn for talks later today. Watson hinted yesterday that he will tell Corbyn it is time to go, but Corbyn’s allies are saying that the leader will say he is carrying on. This is from Sky’s Tamara Cohen.

Updated

Labour MP Jess Phillips has resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to the shadow education team.

Phillips was PPS to Lucy Powell. Given that Powell resigned as shadow education secretary yesterday, Phillips was probably out of a job anyway, but clearly she wants to make a point.

Updated

Heseltine calls for second referendum once EU renegotiation deal clear

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Claire and Matthew.

Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister, is on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme now. He says that before the referendum, Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said a close result could justify a second referendum. Farage was talking about a narrow remain win, but Heseltine says he thinks the same argument applies in the light of the narrow leave win. He says he will be signing the petition for a second referendum.

  • Heseltine calls for a second referendum.

Asked to clarify what he wants, Heseltine says that during the referendum it was not explained what life outside the EU would look like. Once we know the answer to those questions, the public are entitled to have another say.

He says the House of Commons is broadly supportive of staying in the EU. Before it voted to leave the EU, he says there would need to be a second referendum, or an election.

Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

Updated

Labour continues to haemorrhage frontbench spokesmen and women.

And there’s still a vacancy at the top for the shadow Scottish secretary, shadow lord chancellor and shadow attorney general.

Updated

We’re struggling to keep up with the resignations from the junior ranks of Labour’s team. At least two more parliamentary private secretaries resigned as Corbyn announced a new shadow cabinet.

It looks like Osborne has managed to calm the markets, a bit. The FTSE 100 is down just 20 points right now (-0.37%).

There’s more here on our business live blog.

New shadow cabinet

Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry Photograph: Finbarr Webster/REX/Shutterstock

Jeremy Corbyn has replaced 10 of the shadow ministers who resigned (or were sacked in Hilary Benn’s case).

The reshuffle involves moving Emily Thornberry from shadow defence minister to shadow foreign secretary, and replacing her with the new MP for Norwich South, Clive Lewis.

Diane Abbott is also promoted to shadow health secretary.

Here’s the full list:

  • Shadow foreign secretary - Emily Thornberry
  • Shadow health secretary – Diane Abbott
  • Shadow education secretary – Pat Glass
  • Shadow transport secretary – Andy McDonald
  • Shadow defence secretary – Clive Lewis
  • Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury – Rebecca Long-Bailey
  • Shadow international development secretary – Kate Osamor
  • Shadow environment food and rural affairs secretary – Rachel Maskell
  • Shadow voter engagement and youth affairs – Cat Smith
  • Shadow Northern Ireland secretary – Dave Anderson

Updated

Back to Osborne. Here’s the full text of his response to questions about whether there will an emergency Brexit budget as he had threatened.

There will have to be action to deal with the impact on the public finances, but of course it is perfectly sensible to wait until we have a new prime minister. Of course, the economy is going to adjust, and there will be an impact on the public finances, that’s what I said before the referendum, I don’t resile from anything I said before the referendum. And I said there would have to be action, actually as it happens in the autumn, to address that. I think it is perfectly sensible to wait until we have new prime minister before we address that.

And asked whether he could serve in a government committed to leaving the EU, Osborne said: “It is my country right or wrong. And intend to fulfil my responsibilities to the country.”

Updated

The shadow housing housing minister, Roberta Blackman-Woods, is threatening to resign if Corbyn doesn’t step down.

“It is time for another leadership election. It is time for him to go”, she told BBC Newcastle.

Updated

Ian Murray
Ian Murray Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

Ian Murray, until yesterday the shadow Scottish secretary, has been explaining his resignation from Jeremy Corbyn’s cabinet on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme.

Insisting that there was “no choreography” to Sunday’s slew of resignations – a delegation was planning to see Corbyn this morning but that was superseded by Hilary Benn’s sacking – Murray said that “I don’t think that Jeremy had his heart and soul in the campaign.

“We haven’t reached out to traditional Labour voters, we haven’t taken on some of the concerns that people had about immigration that were wrong, the campaign was lacklustre and the response since has not been robust enough.”

He asked Labour party members who supported Corbyn in the last leadership election to understand the current political crisis was “bigger than one person, bigger than the Labour party”.

“We’re talking to too narrow a group of people in a comfort zone that means we are not a credible party of government.”

Updated

Another few minutes goes by and Corbyn is hit by another resignation in his junior ranks. This time it’s Stephen Kinnock as parliamentary private secretary to Angela Eagle.

Updated

Corbyn hit by more resignations

There have further resignations in the junior levels of Labour’s frontbench team.

Toby Perkins has resigned as shadow armed forces minister, saying that the Labour party “needs a change at the top”.

Diana Johnson has resigned as a shadow foreign minister and Anna Turley as shadow minister for civil society.

Updated

Osborne closed his statement by signalling that he intends to play an “active part” in the debate about Britain’s role in Europe after the referendum. He also suggested he’ll make a statement on whether he plans to run for PM in the coming days.

He said:

The third and final challenge I spoke of, was that of ensuring, that Britain was able to agree a long-term economic relationship with the rest of the Europe, that provided the best possible terms of trade in goods and services. Together my colleagues in the government in the Conservative party and in parliament, will have to determine what those terms should be, and will have to negotiate with our European friends and allies to agree them. I intend to play an active part in that debate, for I want this great trading nation of ours to put in place the strongest possible economic links with our European neighbours ...

I do not want Britain to turn its back on Europe or on the rest of the world. We must bring unity of spirit and purpose and condemn hatred and division wherever we see it. Britain is an open and tolerant country and I will fight with everything have to keep it so. Today I am completely focused on the task in hand as chancellor of the exchequer to bring stability and reassurance. There have been questions about the future of the Conservative party and I will address my role within that in the coming days. The British people have given us their instructions, there is much to do to make it work. We start from a position of hard-won strength, and whatever the undoubted challenges my colleagues and I are determined to do the best for Britain.

George Osborne on Sky News
George Osborne on Sky News Photograph: Sky News

The general message from Osborne’s statement was that he warned there would be problems, but by playing for time we can cope.

Here’s a key passage from the statement:

As a result of Thursday’s decision, some firms are continuing to pause their decision to invest or to hire people. As I said before the referendum this will have an impact on the economy and the public finances, and there will need to be action to address that. Given the delay in triggering article 50 and the prime minister’s decision to hand over to a successor, it is sensible, that decisions on what that action should consist of, wait for the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] to assess the economy in the autumn, and for the new prime minister to be in place. But no one should doubt our resolve to maintain the fiscal stability we have delivered for this country. The British economy is fundamentally strong, we are highly competitive and we are open for business.

Updated

The pound has recovered some of its early losses following Osborne’s statement, but is still down against the US dollar. It is now trading around $1.345, a fall of 1.7% this morning.

Sterling had fallen to $1.339 before the chancellor spoke, down from $1.36 on Friday night.

Updated

Here’s some instant reaction to Osborne’s statement:

Osborne: the fundamentals are strong, we have dealt with the immediate impact because of the contingency plan. Britain is open for business. And with that he’s back off to work.

Updated

Osborne: I said there would have to be action to adjust, in the autumn as it happens.

Q: Are we at the start of a recession? I made predictions and warnings, but all will require adjustment. I will make very hard to mitigate the impact.

On his future. It is my country right and wrong and I intend to fulfil my duty to the country.

Q: An emergency budget?

I’ve got an important job to do. I respect the decision of the referendum. The result will have an impact on public finances, but we will have to wait until we have a new prime minister.

He dodges another question about whether he will resign.

Third challenge:

Long-term trading relationship with European neighbours: I am completely focused on bring stability and certainty. We start from a position of hard-won strength.

Updated

Second challenge:

Uncertainty: we should only trigger article 50 when a plan is in place. Some firms are pausing their decisions to invest and hire people. The delay in triggering article 50 will help.

“We are open for business”, Osborne said.

Updated

Osborne said there are three challenges:

Volatility: contingency plans have been put in place. “Swap lines” have been put in place. Mark Carney’s statement on Friday was part of the plan. The governor and I have been in regular touch or the weekend.

It will not be plain sailing in the days ahead, Osborne admits.

Thank goodness we fixed the roof, while we could, Osborne said. Leaving the EU was not the outcome that I wanted or campaigned for, but now that democracy has spoken we must act on that result. I will fully respect that result.

The economy will have to adjust.

Updated

“Britain is ready to confront whatever the future holds for us,” Osborne insists.

George Osborne's breaks his silence with attempt to reassure the markets

The chancellor is about to stand up at the Treasury in London in his attempt to reassure the markets.

Updated

Japan’s stock market put on a show of resilience, writes Justin McCurry from Tokyo:

The Nikkei 225 rose more than 2% by early afternoon as prime minister Shinzo Abe held an emergency meeting early on Monday and instructed the Bank of Japan to do all it could to stabilise financial markets.

“Uncertainty and risk concerns remain in financial markets. It is important to continue to try to stabilise markets,” Kyodo News quoted Abe as saying at the meeting, held just before the Nikkei opened.

China – whose markets largely rode out the start to the week – warned that its companies might want to “wait and see” what the impact is of the Brexit vote before they invest in the country.

The pound, which suffered record falls against the dollar in the aftermath of the EU referendum result, continued to drop on Monday. Sterling fell 2.4% to US$1.3388, still some distance from the 31-year low of $US1.3228 it reached on Friday.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 had risen more than 2% – or more than 300 points – by early afternoon, rebounding at least temporarily from Friday’s 7.9% loss, its biggest since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to reach 2,870.92 in early morning trading, and Sydney’s S&P ASX200 added 0.5% to 5,136.80.

Other markets in the region fell, however, days after a worldwide plunge wiped out $2.1tn of value from global markets.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.7% to 20,112.35 and Seoul’s Kospi lost 0.1% to 1,923.13. Benchmarks in Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia also fell.

You can follow George Osborne’s speech – due to start in about 15 minutes’ time – here, of course, but also keep an eye on tweets from our political editor, Heather Stewart, who’s at the Treasury this morning:

Updated

Morning briefing

Happy Monday and with the aftermath of last week’s vote to leave the EU showing no signs of tiring, welcome to another day of Brexit liveblogging.

The morning briefing rounds up what you need to know to start the day, before the live blog takes you through it all happening, along with all the extras we didn’t expect. Do come and chat in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.

The big picture

It’s an early morning for the chancellor, George Osborne, who breaks his post-vote (mostly) silence to issue a dawn statement intended to calm the markets and set out his plans to stabilise the economy and the surrounding jitters. Don’t bank on hearing mention of that £30bn black hole budget this morning. Instead, a Treasury spokesman said:

The chancellor will make a statement to provide reassurance about financial and economic stability in light of the referendum result and the actions that he and the rest of the government will be taking to protect the national interest over the coming period.

The City might be hoping for a large dollop of reassurance on its breakfast muesli, with news that some firms are preparing to leave the UK amid uncertainty over the post-Brexit financial landscape. The Guardian reports this morning:

A survey by the Institute of Directors (IoD), which found that the majority of businesses believed Brexit was bad for them, comes amid fears that investors will wipe billions more pounds off share values on Monday morning, and signs that the pound, which hit a 30-year low on Friday, was coming under further pressure from trading in Asia. Sterling was down more than 1% as the Asian markets opened late on Sunday.

The IoD said a quarter of the members polled in a survey were putting hiring plans on hold, while 5% said they were set to make workers redundant. Nearly two-thirds of those polled said the outcome of the referendum was negative for their business. One in five respondents, out of a poll of more than 1,000 business leaders, were considering moving some of their operations outside of the UK.

The European Central Bank’s annual summit begins in Portugal today, but it’s now thought the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, might skip it, due to worries about expected turmoil in the markets today.

Officials in Japan and China have already issued warnings today as the pound continued to fall and Asian markets struggled to recoup heavy losses.

Ahead of the start of a two-day Brussels summit tomorrow – to which David Cameron is still invited but which he will leave early to allow the 27 other leaders to talk about him without him having to pretend he can’t hear them – the European council president, Donald Tusk, today meets Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Matteo Renzi, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, heads Europe-wards too. The likely agenda? Can EU leaders push Britain into the process of negotiating its exit by refusing informal talks ahead of the official triggering of article 50? What if the UK never gets round to triggering article 50? Will Iceland boot England out of Europe quicker than expected?

England’s Raheem Sterling in training REUTERS/Lee Smith
Sterling crisis? What Sterling crisis? Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters

The Times front page today reports that Osborne’s purdah has also been spent mulling whether to back Boris Johnson to succeed Cameron as prime minister, as the Vote Leave frontman – and home secretary Theresa May – look set to launch bids for the keys to No 10 this week.

But an ally of the chancellor told the Guardian:

No he hasn’t made any decisions at all – he has been totally focused over the last 72 hours on talking to counterparts and investors across the world to try to ensure a period of stability.

Johnson, it seems, has spent at least some of those 72 hours penning what is presumably his first draft at a prime ministerial manifesto for his regular Telegraph column (so handy and time-saving to be able to multitask!). Those who voted to remain aren’t a bad lot, he declares:

They are our neighbours, brothers and sisters who did what they passionately believe was right … We who are part of this narrow majority must do everything we can to reassure the remainers. We must reach out, we must heal, we must build bridges – because it is clear that some have feelings of dismay, and of loss, and confusion.

Dismay, loss and confusion: not a bad summing-up of where Labour finds itself on Monday morning, reeling from 11 shadow cabinet resignations – and one sacking – over the weekend, and with the threat of more to follow today. Here’s the latest standings on who’s in and who’s out. Make sure your F5 button is working today.

Some of those who quit the shadow cabinet on Sunday: (top row, left to right) Ian Murray, Gloria De Piero, Kerry McCarthy, Heidi Alexander, Lord Falconer; (bottom row, left to right) Lucy Powell, Lilian Greenwood, Seema Malhotra, Vernon Coaker, Karl Turner. Chris Bryant also resigned late on Sunday.
Some of those who quit the shadow cabinet on Sunday: (top row, left to right) Ian Murray, Gloria De Piero, Kerry McCarthy, Heidi Alexander, Lord Falconer; (bottom row, left to right) Lucy Powell, Lilian Greenwood, Seema Malhotra, Vernon Coaker, Karl Turner. Chris Bryant also resigned late on Sunday. Photograph: PA

An embattled Jeremy Corbyn will hold talks today with Tom Watson – still scraping the mud off his Glastonbury wellies – after the deputy leader pointedly omitted to back Corbyn yesterday. Watson issued a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed” by the sacking of Hilary Benn and “equally saddened” by the resignations that followed:

The nation needs an effective opposition, particularly as the current leadership of the country is so lamentable. It’s very clear to me that we are heading for an early general election and the Labour party must be ready to form a government. There’s much work to do.

Pressure on the Labour leader has grown, with the latest voice to chime in belonging to Phil Wilson, who chaired the Labour In For Britain parliamentary group. Writing in the Guardian, Wilson says:

It was clear last summer that Jeremy was only ever partially interested in keeping Britain in Europe and an honourable leader would bear the responsibility for the failure to persuade Labour voters to vote remain.

Corbyn has made it clear that there will be no Jexit for him (sorry, I didn’t start that one):

I was elected by hundreds of thousands of Labour party members and supporters with an overwhelming mandate for a different kind of politics.

I regret there have been resignations today from my shadow cabinet. But I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me – or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them. Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate.

Corbyn said he would announce a new top team “over the next 24 hours” – but many observers expect more resignation letters to come fluttering on to his mat before then. He also has a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party to look forward to at 6pm.

Confusion is abounding elsewhere too. For example, here’s prominent Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan Smith in front of a Vote Leave bus linking the £350m in EU “savings” to more money for the NHS:

IDS on the money for the NHS: “I never said that.” taken from @RobDotHutton’s twitter feed
Iain Duncan Smith and a bus slogan that perhaps he didn’t see. Photograph: @RobDotHutton

And yet here too is Iain Duncan Smith telling the BBC on Sunday:

I never said that during the course of the election … What we actually said was a significant amount of it would go to the NHS. It’s essentially down to the government, but I believe that is what was pledged and that’s what should happen. There was talk about it going to the NHS, but there are other bits and pieces like agriculture, which is part of the process. That is the divide up. It was never the total.

It’s not the only pledge that leave campaigners have inched back from since Thursday. Perhaps some things really are politics as usual.

You should also know:

Diary

  • George Osborne makes his speech at 7am.
  • The US secretary of state, John Kerry, flies to Brussels and London for urgent talks.
  • The European council president Donald Tusk meets with French president François Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.
  • Wales’ first minister Carwyn Jones has called an urgent meeting of the Welsh government cabinet to discuss the implications of the Brexit vote.
  • Parliament at Westminster is back today too.
  • At 6pm there’s a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party; grassroots group Momentum has called for supporters to rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn as it happens.
A pro-Corbyn protest in London on Sunday.
A pro-Corbyn protest in London on Sunday. Photograph: Natasha Quarmby/REX/Shutterstock

Read these

Bagehot in the Economist says “a vacuum yawns wide” at the top of British politics:

Mr Cameron has said nothing since Friday morning. George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, has been silent … The prime minister’s loyalist allies in Westminster and in the media are largely mute.

Apart from ashen-faced, mumbled statements from the Vote Leave headquarters on Friday, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have also ducked the limelight … Neither seems to have the foggiest as to what should happen next. Today Mr Gove’s wife committed to Facebook the hope that ‘clever people’ might offer to ‘lend their advice and expertise’. And Mr Johnson’s sister, Rachel, tweeted: ‘Everyone keeps saying “we are where we are” but nobody seems to have the slightest clue where that is.’

In Politico, Tom McTague and Alex Spence rate the chances of the six different ways Britain might just stay in the EU:

Could the UK negotiate ‘associate status’, outside the EU but with devolved powers for Scotland to maintain free movement and other EU benefits? … The ‘associate’ option, which would be decried as a sell out by hardline Brexiters, would see the future prime minister try to keep Britain in the EU single market, accepting large tracts of EU law, but with autonomy over agriculture, fishing and trade deals …

[Nicola] Sturgeon is key to making this happen. If she can go back to Edinburgh claiming victory – protecting Scotland’s access to the single market and getting back fishing rights – the UK could be saved. But the UK as a whole would lose its seat at the EU table and be firmly more Out than In. It would be powerless, but sovereign. It is a hard sell in the long term.

And Zoe Williams – a Corbyn supporter – writes in the Guardian that it is time for Labour to move on:

I don’t agree that his time as leader has been a disaster – leave would have won the referendum regardless. It would always have turned the debate into a conversation about immigration and hammered out its racist cant, whoever opposed it. A more centrist Labour leader would have made more concessions – offered bogus and unworkable migrant caps – but the more strident voice would still have won.

Corbyn has been a one-man Occupy movement, squatting in the office of Labour leader on behalf of the people (of whom I was one) who felt the party’s high command was lifeless and intellectually spent. The point has been made, and the apparatus now has to be put to better use.

Baffling claim of the day

I think we’ve gone past baffling, really, so suggestions for a new title are very welcome. Anyway, here’s Sky News political editor Faisal Islam revealing that a prominent leave campaigner had told him there was no post-Brexit plan.

If today were a board game...

It would be Guess Who? If you’ve got blue eyes and are wearing a hat, you could be in the shadow cabinet by tea-time.

And another thing

Would you like to wake up to this briefing in your inbox? Sign up here.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
William, Prince of Wales, is a 'big fan' of American Pie
William, Prince of Wales, told American Pie star Eugene Levy in an episode of the actor's Apple TV+ The Reluctant Traveler series that he is a "big fan" of the raunchy sex comedy films.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Priscilla Presley: 'I felt that Michael Jackson was using Lisa Marie'
Priscilla Presley feared Michael Jackson was “using” her daughter Lisa Marie Presley when they got married in 1994.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Why do I use LOL so much in my texts?
My personal texts and work chats were littered with LOLs. I asked experts for advice on avoiding its ‘more insidious’ uses
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
There's one detail on coffee bags that tells you if it's worth buying — and most shoppers miss it
Discover how to identify fresh coffee and understand the optimal window for brewing quality coffee at home.
Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
‘Porch light will be off this year’: Parents are giving up as Trump tariffs just made Halloween unbelievably expensive
Halloween became so expensive.
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
I Only Wear Abercrombie & Fitch Jeans—These Are My Absolute Favorites
The six pairs I will never stop buying.
Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play