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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Andrew Sparrow , Claire Phipps and Ben Quinn

Angela Eagle set for Labour leadership bid as Corbyn plans to 'carry on' – as it happened

Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, emerges from her home on Wednesday ahead of news that she is to challenge for Labour’s leadership
Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, emerges from her home on Wednesday ahead of news that she is to challenge for Labour’s leadership Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Closing Summary

• Angela Eagle is expected to launch a bid for the Labour leadership on Thursday as Jeremy Corbyn continues to resist intense pressure to resign, including from his deputy.
She is expected to pledge to reunify the fractured party, which has been locked in a vicious internal battle since the weekend, when Corbyn sacked his shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, for plotting against him.
“We’ve got the numbers, we’ve got the big hitters, it will probably be tomorrow afternoon,” said an ally of Eagle, the former shadow business secretary.

• In the first hint that European leaders may be willing to discuss changes to the EU’s existing freedom of movement rules as part of a new relationship with the UK, the French finance minister Michel Sapin has said everything will be on the table in the future talks with the UK, including freedom of movement.
His softer line contrasted with the tone emerging from European leaders at the summit, including French president François Hollande who stressed the UK could not expect to have access to the single market if it did not accept freedom of movement.

• The first candidates have declared their hands for the Conservative leadership, with Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox both confirming they hope to replace David Cameron.
Stephen Crabb’s campaign got off to a slightly rocky start at a launch event when he had to defend his previous opposition to gay marriage and past links to a controversial Christian group.
The work and pensions secretary made his first public pitch to become prime minister with the business secretary, Sajid Javid, by his side

• Nicola Sturgeon’s hopes of gaining support for her bid to keep Scotland in the European Union despite the UK’s vote to leave have been dealt a blow after the Spanish prime minister warned: “If the United Kingdom leaves … Scotland leaves.”
Speaking in Brussels, where the Scottish first minister held a series of meetings to lobby for Scotland, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, said that although he would gladly hear Sturgeon’s case, he was not in a position to enter into talks on Scotland’s future separately from the UK.

• The Brexit campaign’s biggest financial donor has said he is considering backing a new political party taking in members of Ukip, Labour and the Conservatives.
In a sign that the referendum aftershocks already rocking the Conservative and Labour parties could be spreading to Ukip, the insurance multi-millionaire and Ukip funder Arron Banks criticised the party’s growth and proposed harnessing Brexit support in a new party. When asked if Farage would be in charge, he said the Ukip leader “may have had enough”.

The Labour leader was in defiant form as he addressed core supporters on the steps of a London university this evening and made it clear that he is not for turning, reports Jessica Elgot, who has filed this dispatch:

Corbyn, arriving shortly after 8.30pm, was mobbed by a crowd of supporters as he stepped out of the car with his new shadow health secretary Diane Abbott. In his speech, which ranged from housing policy to climate change, he closed by making it clear he felt a duty to continue despite overwhelming opposition.

“I have done my best over this year to develop the policy changes we want and to reach out to people in the way we want and I recognise there are many people in the party who may not completely agree with the direction I want to take us, but I also recognise the mandate given by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people joining in a political process,” he said.

He called on the crowd to mobilise and said supports should “not be afraid of press barons who attack us”.

“It simply is immoral and wrong, the economic process that is being offered to us by the right within our society,” he said. “That is why we contested the leadership of this party a year ago that is why I am very proud to be carrying on with that work.”

Earlier in the speech, in mid-flow he was interrupted by a heckler from the crowd. “What about Brexit Jeremy? What about Europe? Where were you when we needed you?” a man shouted. The crowd booed loudly, with cries of “shut up”.

“It’s alright, let our friends speak,” Corbyn said. “Last week there was a vote to leave the European Union. It wasn’t my wish and it wasn’t the wish of a large number of people here. “We now have a difficult economic situation and I put a call out today to demand we gain protection for the workers rights that we’ve got, and protection for the social chapter.

“But what I am appalled by is the attacks and racist abuse that have happened in this country. Today I went to the Polish centre in Hammersmith to express my support and solidarity to them. And I recognise the vote last week was a vote of desperation.”

Updated

That statement earlier from Labour affiliated unions backing Corbyn is being digested now, but does it stop short of being backing of the full-throated variety?

The way the last section is phrased in particular is interesting:

His position cannot and should not be challenged except through the proper democratic procedures provided for in the Party’s constitution.

We urge all Labour MPs to abide by those procedures, and to respect the authority of the Party’s Leader.
While we have stated that we believe a Leadership election would be an unwelcome distraction at this time of crisis, if one nevertheless occurs through the proper procedures we would expect all parts of the Party to honour the result and pull together in the interests of the country, and working people in particular.

The only party that can win for working people is a strong and united Labour Party.

In effect, it’s a statement of commitment to the democratic process, possibly criticising tactics such the vote of no confidence which was tabled earlier this week.

However, it’s written ahead of what is expected to be a formal leadership challenge by Angela Eagle, a staunch trade unionist favoured by the party’s soft left.

Will there then be a change in the position of those same trade unions and their leaders, including Unite’s Len McCluskey, Unison’s Dave Prentis, and the GMB’s Tim Roache?

Here’s a flavour of the reaction to the union statement:

Updated

To applause, Corbyn concludes defiantly: “I am very proud to be carrying on with that work.”

Jeremy Corbyn addressing a Momentum rally in London
Jeremy Corbyn addressing a Momentum rally in London Photograph: Sky News

I have done my best over this year to develop policy changes and reach out, Corbyn says, although he adds that he recognises that there may be people who do not agree with the direction he has taken.

There are millions in Britain and many more across the world - he refers to Europe and the US - who are crying out for a new political direction rather than “economic orthodoxy”.

The Labour leader is heckled at one point by someone who shouts “What about Europe.. Where were you when we needed you?” but it’s an overwhelmingly supportive crowd.

Updated

It wasn’t his wish that Britain leaves the EU, Corbyn tells the crowd, adding that he is appalled by the rise in racism over the past few days

The vote last week was a vote of anger and desperation, he says. There’s applause when he links the vote to the destruction of heavy industries.

“A free market economy is not going to solve the problems of those areas. An interventionist one will.”

There’s no mention yet of the current Labour split, although he said earlier that his leadership had resulted in a large increase in membership.

Here’s a Periscope of Corbyn’s address

Jeremy Corby has arrived at the Momentum rally in central London, where the crowd has grown and may number up to 400 now, reports Jessica Elgot.

He tells the crowd that he entered the Labour leadership race to raise issues such as the redistribution of wealth.

Brexit campaign donor considers backing new party to replace Ukip

The Brexit campaign’s biggest financial donor has said he is considering backing a new political party taking in members of Ukip, Labour and the Conservatives.

In a sign that the referendum aftershocks already rocking the Conservative and Labour parties could be spreading to Ukip, the insurance multi-millionaire and Ukip funder Arron Banks criticised the party’s growth and proposed harnessing Brexit support in a new party.

When asked if Farage would be in charge, he said the Ukip leader “may have had enough”.

You can read that story from the Guardian’s Robert Booth, Alan Travis and Amelia Gentleman in full here.

Banks said:

I think we have a good shot at taking over from Labour as the opposition because Labour are imploding and Labour voters for the first time ever have defied their party, voting for leave.

Arron Banks, businessman and co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign, at a campaign call centre in Bristol.
Arron Banks, businessman and co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign, at a call centre in Bristol during the campaign, Photograph: Gareth Phillips for the Guardian

The Labour leader has received the backing of the 10 big affiliated labour unions, reports Michael Crick of Channel 4 News.

He reports that the unions said Corbyn’s position could not and should not be challenged except through proper and democratic procedures provided for in the party’s constitution.

Corbyn’s backers include the biggest civil service union, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS).

Its ruling body held an emergency meeting to discuss the political fallout from the EU referendum and the impact on its members’ jobs in the civil service and related agencies.

It noted Corbyn’s promise at the union’s annual conference last month to restore national pay negotiations in the civil service – something New Labour refused to do in 13 years – and to oppose further cuts to pay and redundancy terms, and repeal the Tories’ Trade Union Act.

Updated

John McDonnell has described a meeting of the Labour parliamentary party as “like a lynch mob without a rope,” reports the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot, who was listening to the shadow chancellor earlier as he addressed a London rally organised by Momentum, the grouping set up by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn.

McDonnell told the rally:

The parliamentary Labour party meeting was not a meeting to enjoy, it was like a lynch mob without a rope.

MP after MP urged Jeremy to resign on the basis that we could not win an election with him in office. The irony is we were welcoming the winner of the Tooting byelection who doubled her majority.

They used the referendum as a chance to mount a coup. What is happening is a very British coup going on.

But I’ve been trying to explain to some members of the parliamentary Labour party that there’s an extremely recent Greek invention called democracy. This is a battle for democracy.

Updated

Angela Eagle ally on leadership bid: 'We've got the numbers'

Heather Stewart has news of tomorrow’s Angela Eagle bid

Angela Eagle is expected to launch a bid for the Labour leadership on Thursday morning as Jeremy Corbyn continues to resist intense pressure to resign, including from his deputy.

She is expected to pledge to reunify the fractured party, which has been locked in a vicious internal battle since the weekend, when Corbyn sacked his shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, for criticising his leadership.

“We’ve got the numbers, we’ve got the big hitters, it will probably be tomorrow afternoon,” said an ally of Eagle, the former shadow business secretary.

A full story is here.

Updated

John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s closest ally in the Labour party, has been addressing an event in support of the Labour leader in central London this evening.

Jeremy Corbyn himself is said to be on the way to the rally.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn has been a “pretty awful” Labour leader but the state of the party is hardly his fault, writes the Guardian’s John Harris in a piece that makes for bleak but important reading for anyone who cares about Labour or even the broader British political left.

The party as it has been known may well be finished, he adds:

On one side is the current leader and a small band of leftist diehards, backed by an energetic, well-drilled movement but devoid of any coherent project and out of touch with the voters who have just defied the party in their droves.

On the other is a counter-revolution led by MPs who mostly failed to see this crisis coming, have very few worthwhile ideas themselves, and are a big part of the reason the Brexit revolt happened in the first place. As the activist Neal Lawson says, the choice is essentially between different captains of the Titanic, and therefore is no choice at all.

As with the centre-left parties across Europe in the same predicament, Labour is a 20th-century party adrift in a new reality. Its social foundations – the unions, heavy industry, the nonconformist church, a deference to the big state that has long evaporated – are either in deep retreat or have vanished completely. Its name embodies an attachment to the supposed glories of work that no longer chimes with insecure employment and insurgent automation.

John also says:

In a cruel twist of fate, the spectre of the sainted Tony Benn hangs over the whole grim drama: he was the guru of the leftwing anti-EU position we now call Lexit, but also the man who endlessly pushed the idea that activists should have the whip hand over parliamentarians.

Tony Benn canvassing in 1979
Tony Benn canvassing in 1979. Photograph: Nick Rogers/Rex

Updated

Angela Eagle to declare leadership bid on Thursday

Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, is going to launch her Labour leadership challenge tomorrow morning.

Updated

Here’s John Crace’s sketch of today’s prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons, which he describes as a match between “two dead men walking who would have rather been anywhere but in the House of Commons”:

One went down with some dignity. The other just went down.

Not even the 40 members of the parliamentary Labour party who apparently do still have confidence in Jeremy Corbyn could be bothered to raise a cheer when he stood at the dispatch box for prime minister’s questions.

He rose in almost total silence, his face twisted in anger: the dividing line between stubborn ambition and personal principle has become increasingly opaque.

Read on.

Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.
Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

A Guardian debate about the future of the UK is about to get under way at 7pm. Here’s a link to the livestream (Hashtag #guardianlive).

Taking part in the discussion will be the Guardian’s political editor Anushka Asthana, Guardian journalists John Harris and Gary Younge, writer and broadcaster Paul Mason, and our chair for the evening, the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland.

Updated

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has written to David Cameron seeking reassurance about the status of EU nationals currently studying at schools in the UK, reports the Guardian’s Richard Adams.

The open letter to the prime minister says:

School leaders are reporting to us that some of their young students are worrying about their future.

Pupils are worried about being forced to leave Britain. They are fearful of a potential rise in racism and community conflict. They are concerned about their prospects in an uncertain and isolated Britain.

It is not just the economic markets that need calming. Our young people need a statement from the government to address their fears.

NAHT strongly urges the government to give pupils from the EU better assurance that they will be able to complete their school education without interruption; that they and their families remain welcome and valued members of the communities they call home.

Updated

McDonnell: Number of Labour MPs "tearing the party apart"

John McDonnell has said Jeremy Corbyn is “not going anywhere” and has called on those opposing the Labour leader to “calm down”.

“Unfortunately a number of MPs are tearing the party apart,” the shadow chancellor said in a Sky News interview in the last half an hour, in which he named Tom Watson and Angela Eagle as likely challengers.

“I think what is happening, because it goes on minute by minute, is that we are likely to see a candidate come forward to challenge Jeremy. I don’t know who. There have been rumours that it is Angela Eagle or Tom Watson,” he said.

McDonnell also put his support for Corbyn on the record again and insisted that the Labour leader was in buoyant form: “They have all these rumours about one minute I am challenging Jeremy Corbyn and the next I am forcing him to be the leader.

“This is ludicrous. He is a good mate of mine. We go back 35 years. I’ll support him to continue as leader. If there is a contest I’ll support him.”

“All I am saying to everybody is ‘calm down’. We call ourselves comrades in the Labour party. Let’s do it in a comradely, friendly manner if there is to be this debate.”

Updated

Watson says he tried to tell Corbyn to resign, but Corbyn would not discuss it with him

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, told the BBC that he tried to tell Jeremy Corbyn to resign, but Corbyn would not discuss it with him.

I’m afraid Jeremy was not willing to discuss that with me. I’m assuming that he remains in office. That’s where the situation stands.

Watson also said he thought that Corbyn was trying to tough it out.

I just think he feels very strongly that he has that mandate from the members. He holds less weight on parliamentary politics, and that’s where he is. He’s obviously been told to stay by John McDonnell and his team, and they’ve decided they’re going to tough this out. It looks like the Labour party is heading for some kind of contested election.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Ben Quinn is taking over now.

Updated

The journalist Paul Mason says the EU leaders beefed up the draft of the communique they issued at the end of their “EU27” meeting today (the one Britain was not invited to) to make it clear they they will fight any attempt by David Cameron’s successor to try to get access to the single market while not allowing free movement.

Ken Livingstone has announced he has given up his seat on Labour’s national executive committee. He was not able attend because he was suspended, and he will be replaced by another Corbynite.

This could be significant if the NEC ends up having to rule on matters relating to the expected leadership contest, such was whether or not Jeremy Corbyn needs the backing of 50 MPs and MEPs to stand.

Updated

BBC2’s Newsnight has contacted 50 constituency Labour party chairs and secretaries who backed Jeremy Corbyn last year. Of those, 45 still support Corbyn. “Many we spoke to were nothing short of incensed at the antics of the party’s MPs,” Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall writes.

Updated

Tom Watson says he won't stand against Corbyn

These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Tom Watson is saying that he won’t stand against Jeremy Corbyn, but that there will be a contest. That means it will almost certainly be Corbyn v Angela Eagle (assuming Corbyn continues to refuse to resign).

Kezia Dugdale offers to be shadow Scottish secretary

The Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale told Jeremy Corbyn she would take on the vacant post as shadow Scottish secretary on Labour’s cabinet in a bid to fill the vacuum left by Ian Murray’s resignation on Sunday, party sources have told the Guardian.

With further announcements on Corbyn’s shadow cabinet thought to be imminent, the post is one of a handful which Corbyn has yet to fill. The disclosures from party sources shed further light on the cause of the delay replacing Murray – the only Labour MP left in Scotland.

Dugdale told Corbyn she would be extremely unhappy if the UK Labour leader appointed a non-Scottish MP or peer to the vacancy, during a series of text conversations and then a phone call on Monday.

An ally of Murray’s, Dugdale told Corbyn it would be “unacceptable” for Scottish Labour not to have direct representation in the shadow cabinet, despite there being no other MP available in Scotland.

Murray, an open critic of Corbyn’s leadership but Labour’s only MP in Scotland, was in the first wave of shadow cabinet resignations on Sunday, calling on Corbyn to resign as UK leader.

Party sources in Edinburgh admit that appointing Dugdale would be complicated: Corbyn would need to appoint a constitution or UK nations spokesman to speak in the Commons. They said Corbyn said the proposal was interesting, but no action has been taken.

Kezia Dugdale.
Kezia Dugdale. Photograph: John Linton/PA

Sarah Vine's leaked email - Analysis

Sarah Vine’s leaked email (see 4.41pm) is short, and there is very little detail or context in it, but nevertheless it is hugely revealing. Here is a paragraph-by-paragraph snap analysis.

Very important that we focus on the individual obstacles and thoroughly overcome them before moving to the next. I really think Michael needs to have a Henry or a Beth with him for this morning’s crucial meetings.

Analysis: That “we” is very telling. There is nothing unusual about a wife, or husband, offering their spouse support but that “we” suggests that the Gove/Vine operation is something of a duopoly. It is very House of Cards. Or, as Sky’s Kay Burley has said slightly less charitably, it makes Sarah Vine sound rather like Lady Macbeth.

The references to Henry and Beth are to Gove’s special advisers, Henry Cook, Henry Newman and Beth Armstrong. It is normal for cabinet ministers to take their advisers with them into meetings but there is a suggestion here that Gove needs to have someone sitting alongside him to strengthen his resolve. (This is surprising. Of the many complaints about Gove as a minister, lack of steel is not one. It is not spelt who the meetings are with, but they may well be Boris Johnson, and perhaps Gove finds it harder saying no to Johnson than he did to government colleagues.)

One simple message: You MUST have SPECIFIC assurances from Boris OTHERWISE you cannot guarantee your support. The details can be worked out later on, but without that you have no leverage.

Analysis: This is where Vine sets out the Gove/Vine negotiation red line. Sadly, the email does not say what those specific assurances are. A job? A policy commitment? Or perhaps both? But the key point is that Vine is describing this as a transaction. And she is also implying that Johnson cannot be trusted; the assurances have to be “specific” otherwise Johnson will not be bound by them. (Students of Boris Johnson would point out that even if Johnson has made a specific promise, that is no guarantee that he will keep it, but that’s another story.) And those capital letters are worth noting too. It is the epistolary equivalent of a rant. (At the risk of sounding like Kay Burley, Lady Macbeth would have typed her messages in caps if they had had email in 11th-century Scotland.)

Crucially, the membership will not have the necessary reassurance to back Boris, neither will Dacre/Murdoch, who instinctively dislike Boris but trust your ability enough to support a Boris Gove ticket.

Analysis: This reinforces the point about Johnson being untrustworthy. Vine’s claim that the party membership will need reassurance to back Johnson is surprising, because the regular ConservativeHome survey shows that members do support Johnson. But Vine is surely right when she talks about Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre (the editor of the Daily Mail). Vine used to work at the Times, and now works for the Mail, and therefore surely knows the internal politics of both media groups extremely well. Murdoch is known to be a strong supporter of Gove’s, and it is thought that Dacre rates him highly too (although the Mail may have its doubts about Gove’s liberal prisons agenda). The crucial claim is that Murdoch and Dacre “instinctively dislike” Johnson. If this is true, in Dacre’s case it may be because of Johnson’s womanising, and in Murdoch’s case it may be because of Johnson’s core liberalism. Vine says Gove’s key value to Johnson is his ability to win over Britain’s two most powerful press barons. Who said the power of the press was waning?

Do not concede any ground. Be your stubborn best.

Analysis: Or, as Lady M put it, “Screw your courage to the sticking place.” Kay Burley’s comparison seems more and more apt.

GOOD LUCK.

Analysis: Those caps seem to say: this matters. Gove himself may play down his personal ambition, but someone else in his household seems to be very ambitious on his behalf.

Updated

Gove's wife raised concerns about Boris Johnson's leadership in leaked email

Sky News has got a cracking story. It has got hold of an email that Sarah Vine, Michael Gove’s wife, sent to Gove, and copied to his aides, saying that he had to insist on getting assurances from Boris Johnson before committing to backing him.

Here is the story.

And here is the email.

Very important that we focus on the individual obstacles and thoroughly overcome them before moving to the next. I really think Michael needs to have a Henry or a Beth with him for this morning’s crucial meetings.

One simple message: You MUST have SPECIFIC assurances from Boris OTHERWISE you cannot guarantee your support. The details can be worked out later on, but without that you have no leverage.

Crucially, the membership will not have the necessary reassurance to back Boris, neither will Dacre/Murdoch, who instinctively dislike Boris but trust your ability enough to support a Boris Gove ticket.

Do not concede any ground. Be your stubborn best.

GOOD LUCK.

Michael Gove and Sarah Vine.
Michael Gove and Sarah Vine. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Ed Miliband has written a letter to Labour members in his constituency, which he has posted on Facebook, explaining why he is calling on Jeremy Corbyn to resign. Here’s an extract.

I understand my position will upset some party members. Some who support Jeremy and some who fear this is a distraction from the crisis the country faces. To supporters of Jeremy, my candid view is that a progressive, Left agenda is more likely to be taken forward in a united Labour party, not a wrecked, divided party. And to those who worry about distraction, we cannot function as an effective Opposition in the current circumstances.

Jeremy has had a profound and lasting influence on the debate about who we are as a party and the causes we need to fight for. I know he is someone who cares deeply about those causes, our party and our country. I hope he will reflect on how he can best serve this agenda at this critical moment for Britain and the Labour party.

Here is Nicola Sturgeon in Brussels saying Scotland is determined to stay in the EU.

Nicola Sturgeon: ‘Scotland is determined to stay in the EU’

The Lib Dems say more than 10,000 people have joined the party since the Brexit vote last week. The Lib Dems are the only main party committed to going into the next election calling for Britain to stay in the EU. The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said:

People can also see the Labour leadership did not put their back into the fight – when history called they did not step up to the mark.

As the other two parties fight among themselves, people are starting to recognise that only the Liberal Democrats are fighting for their European future.

Updated

This is from ITV’s Chris Ship.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Treasury committee, has said the government should not trigger article 50 (to start the two-year EU withdrawal process) until it has settled its negotiating position. He said:

The UK’s negotiating position has yet to be established. Article 50 should not be triggered until it has been.

A crucial task is to identify the maximum level of EU market access, consistent with the need for some control on migration. Work must also be done to identify not just the risks of leaving, some of which are becoming apparent, but also the opportunities. The committee’s first hearing [yesterday] took some evidence on both.

Tyrie’s committee is holding an inquiry looking into what the negotiation position should be.

Labour rebels keen to oust Jeremy Corbyn are investigating whether they would have a legal case for using the party’s name if they formed a breakaway group in parliament, and have set up a website to try to gain support of “moderate” members, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

Greek PM backs Corbyn

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister and leader of the radical Syriza party, has offered Jeremy Corbyn his support.

Tonight the Guardian is hosting a debate about Brexit, featuring the Guardian’s political editor Anushka Asthana, Guardian journalists John Harris and Gary Younge, and writer and broadcaster Paul Mason. It will be chaired by the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland.

There will be a live feed here.

Updated

Labour's economic advisers criticise Corbyn for not campaigning more strongly in EU referendum campaign

Following the resignation of the former Bank of England policy maker and US-based economics professor David Blanchflower from Labour’s economic advisory panel yesterday and the French economist Thomas Piketty’s today (see 10.05am), all the remaining members bar the US Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz have issued a statement to say they will be continuing to offer their services to the party, whichever leader is in post.

But they also criticise Jeremy Corbyn’s performance during the EU referendum.

Here’s the statement:

In September 2015, we were pleased to accept the invitation to serve on an Economic Advisory Council (EAC). We felt strongly that it represented an opportunity to develop a vision of a progressive economic policy for Britain that departed from the destructive austerity narrative. Our collective view is that the EAC, and its various policy review groups, has indeed had a positive influence on the development of Labour’s economic policy, and we hope it continues whatever the result of current divisions.

We have always seen this body as providing advice to the Labour party as a whole, and not as an endorsement of particular individuals within it. For example we all share the view that the EU referendum result is a major disaster for the UK, and we have felt unhappy that the Labour leadership has not campaigned more strongly to avoid this outcome. We believe it is now crucial to find a way to resolve the economic and political impasse with the EU in a way that brings the least damage possible to the UK economy and those of our neighbours. We will be honoured to advise the Labour party in the future, should our advice be sought once the current situation is resolved.

It is signed by: Diane Elson, Mariana Mazzucato, Anastasia Nesvetailova, Ann Pettifor and Simon Wren-Lewis.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn has been visiting the Polish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, where xenophobic graffiti was scrawled on the doors at the weekend. He recorded a clip for broadcasters denouncing racism but, when a reporter tried to ask him about the leadership, he refused to answer and an aide pulled him away.

Jeremy Corbyn at the Polish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.
Jeremy Corbyn at the Polish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Photograph: Sky News

This is from Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh.

Updated

This is from ITV’s Robert Peston.

Here is the latest from reporters following the Labour story minute by minute.

From the BBC’s Vicki Young

From ITV’s Chris Ship

From Sky’s Jon Craig

From the FT’s Jim Pickard

Trade unions leaders have been meeting this afternoon to discuss the Labour leadership situation. Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick says they will put out a statement but that it will be non-committal.

The big four unions are Unite, Unison, the GMB and the CWU.

Northern Ireland won't be able to have special relationship with EU after Brexit, says Villiers

The leading Brexiter and Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, warned today that the region won’t be able to attain special status with Brussels once the entire UK leaves the EU.

Ahead of a meeting with the Irish foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, later on Wednesday, Villiers dismissed suggestions that both Northern Ireland and Scotland – the two UK regions that voted in favour of remain – could have a different relationship to the EU compared with the rest of the UK.

Flanagan and Villiers are due to meet at Stormont later today with the nationalist parties Sinn Féin and the SDLP pressing the Irish government to help their region obtain a separate post-Brexit deal with the EU.

However, Villiers rejected the possibility of any separate arrangements between Brussels and both Scotland and Northern Ireland. She said:

The EU rules are very clear – membership is at member state level, it’s a national question. This decision has been made – the people of the UK have voted to leave the EU. That decision is going to be respected. That’s what the government will take forward.

Northern Ireland voted by 56% to 44% to stay in the EU with only one of the four Belfast constituencies voting for Brexit. The secretary of state’s insistence that there can be no side deals between Belfast and Brussels will further infuriate nationalists who unanimously backed staying in the EU.

Theresa Villiers speaking at Stormont House, Belfast, today.
Theresa Villiers speaking at Stormont House, Belfast, today. Photograph: David Young/PA

Updated

(Late) lunchtime summary

David Cameron tells Jeremy Corbyn: ‘For heaven’s sake man, go!’
  • Cameron has said that he is not able to promise EU nationals living in the UK that they will be able to remain after Brexit. Asked what would happen to them at PMQs, Cameron said:

Obviously we can say that all rights are guaranteed as we’re members of the European Union. In the future we will have to make sure, and I’ve heard members of the Leave campaign make this point, that people who are already here, people who are already studying, people who are working, must have their rights and their access guaranteed. But we can’t say that now, we have to say that as part of the negotiation that will shortly take place.

Labour MPs Yvette Cooper and Chris Bryant later told Cameron the government should pass emergency legislation now to ensure that EU nationals will not be sent home. But Cameron repeated the point about this being a matter for his successor to finalise.

  • Cameron has said that it will be hard for the UK to negotiate a deal with the EU allowing it access to the free market without accepting free movement. At PMQs Liam Fox, the Conservative former defence secretary and a likely leadership contender, said it would be a “betrayal” of voters if the government continued to accept free movement.

Do you also accept that such was the importance of free movement of people in the referendum that any future deal reached with our European partners that does include free movement would be regarded as a betrayal by millions of people who voted to leave?

Cameron said this was for his successor to decide, but that it would be a difficult issue.

I’m in no doubt that this is the difficult issue. Frankly, it’s a difficult issue inside the EU, where you’ve got all the negotiating ability to try and change things, and I think it will be in many ways even more difficult from outside if you want full access to the single market to secure changes.

  • Cameron has said that he detected no “great clamour” from fellow EU leaders at yesterday’s summit for the UK to start withdrawal negotiations “straight away”.
  • Cameron has said the government will publish a new action plan to deal with hate crime. Condemning the rise in hate attacks since the referendum, he told MPs:

These attacks are appalling and they need to stop and it’s right everyone in this house and everyone on all sides of the referendum debate utterly condemns them. That’s not what we do in Britain.

Let me say I reassured prime ministers of countries, such as Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic, who are concerned about this issue at the meeting we had last night.

So we do monitor these attacks and the home secretary gets regular reports.

But I can tell the house we will be publishing a new action plan on tackling hate crime shortly to step up our response.

We want new steps to boost reporting of hate crime and supporting victims, new CPS guidance to prosecutors on racially aggravated crime, a new fund for protective security measures at potentially vulnerable institutions and additional funding to community organisations so they can tackle hate crime.

Whatever we can do we will do to drive these appalling hate crimes out of our country.

For those of you who don’t know much about me, I was born in Scotland, grew for a short time there but mainly in Wales; I had a fabulous education at a really good comprehensive school across the road from the council house where I lived; I had an amazing role model in a mother who overcame massive difficulties and worked incredibly hard for us; she took us to the public library every Saturday where I soaked up books and learning; I worked every week from the age of 12 – starting at the local corner shop, graduating to the Tesco shop floor, and paid my way through university working on building sites in various parts of the country.

Now I count myself very blessed to have had the upbringing I did. I was brought up to believe no-one was better than me and I was no better than anyone else. I was brought up to believe that no-one is a self-made man or woman – we are all shaped and formed by our families and communities. And I was brought up to understand that nothing gets handed to you on a plate. On the rainy rugby fields of West Wales I learnt that it’s not a question of just waiting for the ball to pop out from the back of the scrum. If you want it, you do what’s required.

That last comment is a pointed dig at Boris Johnson, the Etonian favourite in the leadership contest who once said he might go for the top job if the ball came loose from the scrum.

When asked about the fact he is relatively unknown, Crabb took another veiled swipe at Johnson.

Updated

In the Commons the SNP’s Pete Wishart has just used a point of order to say the SNP should now be treated as the official opposition because Jeremy Corbyn does not have the confidence of most Labour MPs. But John Bercow, the Speaker, said that Labour was still the official opposition.

This is from ITV’s Robert Peston.

But Sir Alan Duncan, the Conservative former international development minister, asked David Cameron at PMQs to “compare the undemonstrative competence and dignity of Angela Merkel with the theatrical and comical antics of Silvio Boris-coni”.

So we can put him down as a Theresa May supporter.

The Conservative MP David Davis, David Cameron’s main rival for the Tory leadership in 2005, has told the Daily Politics that he is backing Boris Johnson.

The biggest issue in front of us for the next several years is going to be managing Brexit, bringing about the improvement in our trade position, the control of our borders - all of those things. That needs vision, optimism, energy, drive - Boris has got them.

He also said he would be “amazed” if Johnson had not already got the support of more than 100 MPs.

Speaking ahead of his meeting with Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, later today, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, played down the prospect of Scotland being able to negotiate Brexit separately with the EU. He said:

I will listen carefully to what the first minister will tell me, but we don’t have the intention – neither Donald [Tusk] nor myself – to interfere in the British process. That is not our duty and not my job.

Updated

Corbyn says he will 'definitely' be on ballot paper for Labour leadership contest

Sky’s Jon Craig says Jeremy Corbyn has told him he will “definitely” be on the ballot paper for the forthcoming Labour leadership contest.

In other words, he is not resigning.

Ed Miliband on Jeremy Corbyn

This is what Ed Miliband told the World at One about why he thinks Jeremy Corbyn should now resign.

We in the Labour party need to think about the country. I’ve supported Jeremy Corbyn all the way along, from the moment he was elected. It was the right thing to do. I think a lot of what he stands for is very important for us going forward. But I’ve reluctantly reached a conclusion that his position is untenable …

The question, then, for him, is what’s the right thing for the country, and for the party, and for the causes he cares about? I’m not a Blairite. I’ve never been called a Blairite. I’m not a plotter. I’m somebody who cares deeply about this country, deeply about my party, and deeply about the causes that I think Jeremy and I care about.

I think the best thing on all of those criteria is that he stands down, painful though that will be for him and many of his supporters.

You can hear Miliband’s interview here.

Ed Miliband in conversation with Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s environment analyst, at Glastonbury at the weekend.
Ed Miliband in conversation with Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s environment analyst, at Glastonbury at the weekend. Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Updated

Here is a Guardian video of the Ukip MP Douglas Carswell being booed at PMQs.

MPs boo Ukip’s Douglas Carswell at PMQs – video

Updated

In the Commons Cameron is still answering questions.

Labour’s Chris Bryant says Cameron should “take control”. He says Cameron should pass emergency legislation to make it clear that EU nationals can stay in the UK, so that they don’t have to put up with people saying they will be sent home. And he says Cameron could set up a royal commission, to bring the country together and work out what the UK should be lobbying for.

Cameron says he does not think of setting up a royal commission as taking control. Royal commissions take minutes and last years, he says. He says it is the Labour party that needs to get a grip. He says that he personally has never had more support, even though he is standing down. And Jeremy Corbyn has never had less support, even though he is staying. It’s a topsy-turvy world, he says.

He then goes on to quotes the Smiths.

Updated

Cornwall has come in for criticism for calling for the level of funding it was due to receive from the EU to be maintained – though its people voted out.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership has just published a blog explaining itself and also pointing out that it has made plans up to 2030 based on funding it expected to receive from the EU.

We and Cornwall council have been criticised in some quarters for trying to safeguard our allocation of funding. Cornwall did, after all, vote to leave the EU by 56.5% to 43.5%, a majority of some 42,000 people. We’ve bitten the hand that feeds us, critics say. We can’t have our cake and eat it.

But we make no apology for fighting our corner. It has long been accepted that Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have a weak economy when compared to the rest of Europe and should therefore receive extra support. That’s why we have qualified for EU funding programmes since 1999 because Brussels and successive UK governments have recognised our very real economic needs.

We are still trying to put right the legacy of decades of underinvestment and it’s a job that must continue – not just in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly but in other economically challenged parts of the UK from the Yorkshire Dales to the Welsh Valleys.

Updated

Tusk says there will be 'no single market a la carte' for the UK

What might be described as the “EU27” summit (the meeting of all EU countries apart from Britain) has now concluded. Afterwards Donald Tusk, the European council president, said all 27 leaders had agreed that Britain would have to accept freedom of movement if it wanted to maintain access to the single market as a non-member.

Leaders made it crystal clear that access to the single market requires acceptance of all four freedoms – including freedom of movement. There will be no single market a la carte.

He also said there would be no negotiations with the UK on Brexit “of any kind” until the UK formally starts the withdrawal process.

Donald Tusk.
Donald Tusk. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

Updated

Gordon Brown says Corbyn will stand down

Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, has also now made it clear that he thinks Jeremy Corbyn should resign. He told Sky News: “I don’t think Corbyn’s going to stay, he’s going to go. He knows the parliamentary party have no faith in him.”

Earlier, at the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland event in Edinburgh, where he expanded on his Guardian essay on the Brexit vote and globalisation, Brown was a bit more guarded when asked about Corbyn. But he implied that Corbyn was unsuitable because he was not interested in power.

The real issue comes down to whether we decide we’re a party of power and not a party of protest and that means a party of power with principles, with leadership implementing in practice the biggest issue we have to face up to, the issues of how we manage and maintain globalisation in future.

But later Brown spoke to Sky.

Updated

Miliband condemns the rise in racism and hate crime since the Brexit vote. He condemns Nigel Farage for not treating the problem seriously, and says all politicians must unite to deal with this.

Ed Miliband says Corbyn should resign

On the World at One Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn’s predecessor, has said that he thinks Corbyn’s position is now untenable. Corbyn should resign, he says.

He says that no one can accuse him (Miliband) of being a Blairite.

He says he supports some of Corbyn’s policy ideas.

But Corbyn no longer has the support of MPs, he says.

Miliband says people have been urging him to speak out against Corbyn ever since last summer. He has not done so until now.

The country faces a crisis, he says. He says Labour needs to shape the response to Brexit. He says Corbyn’s aims will be best served if he steps down.

Updated

Cameron rejects Yvette Cooper’s call for emergency legislation guaranteeing EU nationals will be able to stay in UK

The Labour MP Yvette Cooper says that during PMQs, Cameron could not guarantee that EU nationals here now would be able to stay. She says in the light of the abuse that EU nationals are getting, and the fact that people are telling them they will have to go home, the Commons should pass legislation now guaranteeing that they will be able to stay.

Cameron says he was just trying to set out the position. He says there have been assurances that EU nationals will be able to stay, but the final decision will have to be taken by his successor.

  • Cameron rejects Yvette Cooper’s call for emergency legislation guaranteeing EU nationals will be able to stay in UK.

Updated

Crispin Blunt, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, asks if Cameron agrees with one of the proposals in a recent report from the committee. It suggested that the UK could have a World Trade Organisation-type relationship with the EU.

He says he did see that. He says he is not free yet to say what he thinks, but that a place in London near to Dagenham comes to mind (Barking).

Updated

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in Westminster, says Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is in Brussels today meeting key figures.

He says there is cross-party support for this at Holyrood. He says Sturgeon wants to protect Scotland’s relationship with the EU, and its place in the single market.

Did Cameron raise Scotland at the summit? Did he say Scotland wants to stay? And Gibraltar? When will we get leadership from Cameron on this? Or is Cameron only interested in England?

Cameron says he is glad Sturgeon is having these meetings. But the UK needs to negotiate as one, he says.

Sturgeon is meeting Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, later today, his spokesman says.

And here she is meeting Martin Shulz, president of the European parliament, earlier.

Martin Schulz meets Nicola Sturgeon in Brussels today.
Martin Schulz meets Nicola Sturgeon in Brussels today. Photograph: Isopix/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Cameron is responding to Corbyn.

He says he is glad there was a mature discussion last night.

He says he will do everything he can, as prime minister or as a backbench MP, to ensure the UK maintains a strong relationship with Europe.

(You could read that as a hint that he would not take a job in his successor’s cabinet. And also a hint that he will not stand down as an MP before the election, although during the 2015 election campaign he did say he would serve as an MP for the whole of this parliament.)

On the fiscal rule, he says Corbyn sounds like “a stuck record”. He thinks, whatever the problem, the solution is more spending and more debt. He says you cannot have economic stability without sound finances. This has been proved the world over, including in some of Corbyn’s favourite countries, like Venezuela.

Corbyn is responding to Cameron now.

He says he is glad that Cameron adopted a more conciliatory approach than Nigel Farage did yesterday.

He says we are already seeing a negative effect on business. Does Cameron think that Britain can negotiate a deal giving access to the single market, but also allowing the UK to control EU immigration?

He asks when Cameron expects article 50 to be triggered.

He asks what conversations Cameron has had with the Scottish and Welsh governments. And what status do the Scottish negotiations with the EU have?

He says the government needs a clear plan for investment, not more austerity.

And he urges Cameron to abandon his fiscal rule.

Updated

Cameron's statement on the EU summit

Cameron is now making a statement on the EU summit.

He says the tone of the meeting was one of sadness and regret. But there was agreement that the decision of the British people must be respected.

He says EU leaders agreed that the UK was not turning its back on Europe.

He says MPs also have an obligation to bring the country together. He says he had to reassure EU leaders concerned about the hate crimes taking place.

He says the UK remains a full member of the EU until it leaves. Many EU countries said it was impossible to have all the benefits of single market membership without some of the costs. This is an issue that the next prime minister will have to think through carefully, he says.

He says that there was no clamour at the summit for the UK to trigger article 50 early.

  • Cameron says EU leaders not pushing for the UK to trigger article 50 early.

While the UK is leaving the EU, it must continue to work with EU partners for prosperity and security for years to come.

Updated

Bullying, intimidation, harassment and death threats have been “unleashed against MPs from the right to the left of the party”, according to Lisa Nandy, who stepped down as shadow energy secretary yesterday.

Writing in the Guardian she warned against her party being “smashed apart by a polarised, toxic, angry battle” that is silencing the sensible majority.

“This is the choice before the Labour party. To turn outwards and lead, or inwards to certain destruction. If we choose the latter path we will die and we will deserve to. It is not too late to change,” she writes.

Nandy, who is considered on the soft left of the party and is seen as a potential leadership contender in the future, struggled with her resignation and did not vote in the confidence ballot because she felt it was a side-show. She believes Corbyn must stand again and a choice given to the members.

Updated

James Berry, a Conservative, asks for a reassurance that EU citizens in the UK have a secure future here.

Cameron says the first thing to do is to tell them their contribution is welcomed. He says at the moment all their rights are guaranteed. We are still members of the EU. He says the leave campaigners said EU nationals would be entitled to stay. But the government is not in a position to offer a guarantee now, because the negotiations have not taken place.

  • Cameron says government is not in a position now to guarantee that EU nationals living in the EU will be unaffected after Brexit. But he said the leave campaign did promise this.

Updated

Labour’s Paul Blomfield says those leading the leave campaign gave promises that no region would leave out from leaving the EU. Will Cameron ensure those promises are kept?

Cameron says a future government will have to look at this. There will be challenges, he says.

Updated

Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative, asks Cameron to condemn Nigel Farage, and what he said in the European parliament yesterday.

Cameron says he has made his views about Farage clear. He says Farage’s “Breaking Point” poster was appalling. It was clear what Farage was trying to do with it, he says.

Cameron v Corbyn - Snap verdict

Cameron v Corbyn - Snap verdict: Ironically, that was one of Corbyn’s best PMQs performances for some time. There was some irony in hearing Corbyn ask about the economic damage caused by the Brexit vote - because during the campaign he suggested that George Osborne’s warnings about the economic impact of Brexit were exaggerated and implausible - but he asked direct, pertinent questions, and obtained relatively informative, interesting replies. It was only towards the end that Corbyn broadened it out, and asked two questions attacking Cameron’s record more generally. At this point Cameron’s real feelings started to show. He criticised Corbyn for not doing enough to campaign for a remain vote (echoing a point made by many in the Labour party) and then he let rip at the end with a soundbite with vague echoes of Leo Amery in the Norway debate (quoting Cromwell to the Rump Parliament): “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.” (That was Amery, of course; Cameron’s was a diluted version.) In the light of the fact that Corbyn was better than usual today, this pre-cooked barb was a little undeserved, but that won’t stop it sounding effective when he appears on the TV news.

David Cameron tells Jeremy Corbyn: ‘For heaven’s sake man, go!’

Updated

Cameron says Corbyn should resign

Corbyn says the vote last week was against the status quo. Cameron has two months left. Will he leave a one nation legacy?

Cameron says it is complete nonsense to pretend the vote was about the state of the economy. We all have to take responsibility for the vote, he says. He says Corbyn says he put his back into it. He would hate to see what it is like when Corbyn is not trying.

Corbyn says the number of children in poverty has increased by 200,000. Will Cameron apologise to them?

Cameron says relative income poverty is done. He says there are 300,000 fewer people in relative poverty than in 2010. And 500,000 fewer people in absolute poverty.

Cameron says it might be in the Conservative party’s interest for Corbyn to stay, but it is not in the national interest. He tells Corbyn to go.

I would say, for heaven’s sake man, go.

  • Cameron says Corbyn should resign.

Updated

Cameron rules out suspending fiscal surplus rule

Corbyn asks if Cameron will consider suspending the fiscal surplus rule which prevents investment taking place.

Cameron says he does not think that would be the right approach.

He says it is important to keep the public finances strong.

  • Cameron rules out suspending fiscal surplus rule.

He says the government will have to consider the options for a relationship with the EU. He says his successor will take a decision. He wants the closest possible relationship.

Corbyn says there is evidence of racist attacks increasing. What monitoring is in place? And what is being done to help the police?

Cameron says Corbyn is right to raise this. He says he reassured the Polish, Romanian and Czech prime ministers at the EU summit the government was dealing with this. A hate crime action plan will be published soon.

  • Cameron says new hate crime action plan being published.

Jeremy Corbyn also expresses support for the victims of the Turkish attack. And he says MPs should pay tribute to Lord Mayhew, who died at the weekend, for all he did during the peace process.

He says people are worried about insecurity. What meetings has the chancellor had with major companies to address the concerns generated by the Brexit vote?

Cameron says Mayhew was an excellent public servant, and a kind and goodly man.

He says the government is in a strong position to meet these challenges. Much of the deficit has been paid down. But the consequences will be difficult.

There are going to be some choppy waters ahead.

He says the business secretary has met firms already. Tomorrow Cameron is meeting his business advisory committee.

Corbyn says the credit rating agencies have downgraded the UK. What will this cost the UK and pension funds?

Cameron says Corbyn is right. The cost will depend on what happens to interest rates.

He says the head of the ECB said there would be difficulties. Cameron says there is no doubt these will be “difficult economic times”.

Updated

Cameron says at last night’s dinner the French president mentioned the Somme commemorations.

Updated

The Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael pays tribute to Cameron for his service to the country. Before he goes, though, will he reconstitute the Gibson inquiry into rendition by the security services.

Cameron says the CPS investigated recently, and decided there were no grounds for a prosecution. He says the right approach is for the intelligence and security committee to look into these matters.

  • Cameron rules out reconstituting the Gibson inquiry into rendition by the security services.

David Cameron starts by offering support to the victims of the Turkish airport attack.

He also says he will be taking part in a commemoration for the centenary of the Battle of The Somme.

Updated

Cameron and Corbyn at PMQs

PMQs is about to start.

This will be one of the most peculiar PMQs for years. Because of the binary nature of politics, when either the prime minister or leader of the opposition is struggling, the other one is generally on the up. To have both of them on the brink of departure is highly unusual.

Brown calls for all-party commission to investigate globalisation after Brexit vote

Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, has delivered a major speech on Brexit in Scotland this morning.

  • Brown called for an all-party commission to investigate globalisation, and how it can be made to work for everyone. This was vital because the “anti-establishment rebellion” was being fuelled by opposition to globalisation, he said.

To understand the causes of the anti-establishment rebellion we should set up an all-party commission that brings in people with much to contribute from all over the world and usher in a national conversation on all aspects of globalisation. The aim should be to make globalisation work for the British people in an inclusive and fair way, asking how we can take new measures – to raise skills, to compete in new areas, to help the low paid, to increase the supply of jobs, to relieve communities under pressure – and thus respond to the insecurities that globalisation can bring. This is the central economic issue of our times. Given that we are trying to address the concerns of people who feel left behind by global change we should encourage a national conversation on global change that includes that immigration brings great benefits but has to be managed.

  • He said the government should investigate options for a trade relationship with the EU. He favoured the Norway option, he said.

To narrow the areas of uncertainty on our trading relationships we must not only investigate all the main options for our continued relations with Europe while outside the EU – the Norway, Swiss and WTO options, and I believe we should favour the Norway option – that as part of the EEA we retain membership of the single market, but that we investigate the protocol and use of the EEA’s safeguard clause for managing immigration.

And this is from my colleague Severin Carrell, who was there.

Updated

And Emma Lewell-Buck has announced she is resigning as a shadow communities minister.

Harman says Corbyn should resign

Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, has joined those calling on Jeremy Corbyn to resign. These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuennsberg.

Pat Glass resigns after just 48 hours as shadow education secretary

In these peculiar times it would not be a normal day if we got to lunchtime and had not had a Labour resignation. Today’s has arrived. Pat Glass is resigning from her post as shadow education secretary – a job she only took up on Monday.

Updated

Q: Do you think you could seriously go to 2020 without having an election? You would need a mandate, wouldn’t you?

Crabb says the government got a mandate last year. The answer to instability is not more instability. There is plenty of work to be done to take the government through to the end of the parliament.

Q: Won’t people look at you and think you are too young and inexperienced?

Crabb says he has been an MP for 11 years, and a member of the government since 2010. He is running the largest spending department in government, although he admits he has only been doing it “for 10 minutes”.

Q: Do you regret backing remain in the referendum?

No, says Crabb.

Q: You are the underdog, and you come from a different background to the average Tory grandee, like Margaret Thatcher in 1975. Are there any lessons from her campaign?

Crabb says he was only two in 1975. But he thinks there is room for distinctive voices in this debate.

And that’s it. Crabb’s press conference is over.

Crabb's Q&A

Crabb is now taking questions.

Q: Would you trigger article 50 as soon as you became prime minister and hold an early general election?

Crabb says it is important to bring the country together first.

He would set up an advisory committee to consider the withdrawal strategy, with a majority of government ministers.

Q: And an early general election?

Crabb says the answer to instability is not more instability.

  • Crabb signals he is opposed to an early general election.

Q: How can you lead the party when you voted remain?

Crabb says he wants to confine the remain/leave labels to the past.

Q: You want close relations with the EU, but also controls on immigration. You can’t have both, can you?

Crabb says the referendum showed that what mattered most to people was getting back control of borders.

It will be “very challenging” to reconcile that with full access to the single market.

  • Crabb admits it will be “very challenging” to retain access to the single market while also controlling immigration.

Q: On social media a lot of people say you are prejudiced against gay people?

Absolutely not, says Crabb. He voted against gay marriage, but he accepts the result.

Crabb says the UK must always become the best country in the world at doing global trade.

He says there can be no continuity remain campaign to subvert the result of the referendum.

He says he is worried too many Conservatives do not understand the lives of people in Britain.

It should not matter where you come from in life, he says. He says he joined the Conservative party when John Major was leader because that is what it represented.

The Conservative party should be a one nation party, he says. This is the moment for “modern, compassionate, reforming Conservatives”.

Updated

Crabb says he is opposed to a second referendum

Crabb is now addressing what to do about Brexit.

He says he is opposed to a second referendum. The answer to uncertainty is not more uncertainty, he says.

  • Crabb says he is opposed to a second referendum.

He says it is vital to get control of immigration. This is a message that came through from the referendum.

He says he wants the UK to remain close to Europe.

But he also wants to end the supremacy of EU law.

Crabb says he is running with Sajid Javid, who would be his chancellor.

And he says Jeremy Wright, his attorney general, is his campaign manager.

Updated

Stephen Crabb's press conference

Stephen Crabb, the work and pensions secretary, is now announcing his leadership bid at a news conference.

He says he is standing because he wants to unite the country. He was struck by how much division the referendum revealed, he says.

The poorer areas are, the more likely they were to vote against Westminster, he says.

And he says he is also worried about the insults and the bad blood in the Conservative party. When you are a governing party, disunity has consequences, he says.

He says he cannot see anyone else who can unite the party.

He says he thinks he has the qualities to do this.

He was born in Scotland, but grew up in Wales. He was brought up in a council house and went to a comprehensive school. He was brought up by his mother, who was wonderful. From the age of 12 he worked every weekend, at first in a corner shop. He was blessed by his childhood. He was brought up to believe that no one was better than him, and that he was not better than others. He was not brought up to expect that anything would be handed to him on a plate. In north Wales you did not wait for the ball to come out of the back of the scrum, he says. If you wanted the ball, you had to go and get it.

(This is a reference to Boris Johnson’s comment, when asked if he wanted the leadership, that he would go for it if the ball came loose from the back of the scrum.)

Stephen Crabb.
Stephen Crabb. Photograph: Sky News

Updated

Eighty Labour party members in Scotland have signed an open letter criticising Ian Murray for resigning as shadow Scottish secretary. Murray is one of the numerous Labour MPs who has quit the frontbench because he no longer has confidence in Jeremy Corbyn.

The letter says:

We are absolutely astonished that you have chosen this moment to put factional party politics over getting the best outcome for the people of Scotland …

With the Conservative party in chaos this was the moment for Labour to grasp hold of the political agenda, and to reach out to those who voted for Brexit out of desperation, with a positive vision of an anti-austerity socialist government committed to solving the housing problem, reindustrialising, funding the NHS and supporting trade unions, migrants and the whole working class.

For these reasons in particular we are horrified by your disloyalty, do not support your decision, and wish you to make clear that you have acted without the support of us as Scottish Labour members.

The signatories include Elaine Smith MSP and the whole executive committee of Scottish Young Labour.

Updated

Stephen Crabb, the work and pensions secretary, is holding a press conference this morning – presumably to announce his leadership bid (although the op note sent out in advance did not say that.)

But he is running late, which is never a good start.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn is expecting a leadership challenge, but who the challenger will be remains unresolved.

These are from Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh.

And these are from the Observer’s Daniel Boffey.

And this is from Sky’s Darren McCaffrey.

On Monday Chi Onwurah was being tipped by Labour sources as the next shadow business secretary. She has now written a blog saying that she voted against Jeremy Corbyn in the no confidence ballot and explaining why.

Here’s an extract.

I am not going to set out a detailed critique of Jeremy’s leadership. Whilst Jeremy has some important qualities – honesty and integrity – I could not in good conscience say I had confidence in him as our leader. I therefore voted No to today’s motion.

Since Monday, 86 constituents (including members) have emailed me asking me to back Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership whilst 60 constituents have emailed me asking me to vote against a motion of confidence in his leadership. I have considered all their comments. Of the activists who worked the EU referendum – doorknocked, leafletted etc – who contacted me the majority did not back Jeremy. On the doorstep, the majority of constituents who mentioned Jeremy did so negatively. I nominated Jeremy to widen the leadership debate and have backed him since he became leader. I hope that constituents and party members alike in Newcastle recognise that I have always supported him in public and have undertaken to serve him in whatever capacity he asked of me.

But I hope they also recognise that I cannot serve my constituents – which is my primary purpose – without effective leadership at the top of the Labour party. Having worked in business and the public sector across three continents and many different cultures, I have experience of many types of effective leadership. Jeremy’s leadership is not effective. The lack of leadership following the Brexit vote was emblematic of this.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn may have lost the support of his parliamentary party but, according to a press notice from his supporters, he still holds Facebook and Twitter. As of last night, there had been 48,000 “likes” on his Facebook status, and a graphic supporting him had been shared by 26,000 people and viewed by 5 million. Marshajane Thompson, who helps to run the Jeremy Corbyn for PM social media operation (JC4PM), said:

The huge increase in activity on the accounts we run shows the breadth of support for Jeremy in Labour and in Britain. With messages of support flooding in, we’ve had enough engagement to win a leadership contest several times over. We know you can’t win an election with social media power alone, but you can’t win without it either, and our leader has it in spades.

Updated

On Facebook campaigners are organising a march against Brexit in London on Saturday.

Updated

Sarah Vine, the journalist who is married to Michael Gove, has used her column in the Daily Mail to write about what it was like in the Gove household as the result of the EU referendum came in.

She admits that she was shocked when David Cameron resigned. (She and her husband are – or, at least, were – close family friends of the Camerons.)

I felt as though I had fallen through a rabbit hole – lost in a strange land where nothing made sense any more. This was absolutely, categorically not meant to happen.

David Cameron was not supposed to go. This was not what this referendum was about; that was not why Michael backed leave.

This was a debate about Britain’s membership of the EU, not a vote for or against the prime minister.

More than ever before, I felt the agony of what the business of politics had done to the people at the heart of all of this: how old friends had been wrenched apart in the most brutal of ways.

Vine also writes about the hostility that leave supporters were now attracting.

Almost overnight, those of us on the winning side suddenly found ourselves re-cast as knuckle-dragging thugs, small-minded Little Englanders whose short-sighted bigotry had brought the nation to its knees, while making sweet Italian waitresses cry and stopping small Polish children from going to school.

Because of the immense power of the internet and social media, once a Twitterstorm reaches critical mass – which now happens at an alarming speed – it starts to become as real as thunder and lightning.

In a matter of hours, everything sunny about human nature seems to have been sucked out of the atmosphere and you are drenched in little 140-character balls of bitterness.

It’s hard to explain quite what it feels like, but imagine walking into a room in a lovely new dress and having every single person turn, point, throw back their heads with laughter and tell you it looks hideous.

You’d never wear it again, would you? In fact, chances are you’d rip it up and throw it straight in the bin. There have been moments over the past few days when I’ve felt like that dress.

I have seen it happen to others – celebrities, sportspeople, household names – but I’d never imagined it happening to me.

Such is the personal price of my husband standing up for his principles.

No doubt the Goves have received some unpleasant abuse on social media since Friday, but the self-pitying tone is rather odd. If you read the piece casually, you might get the impression that it was Gove who lost and was resigning, not Cameron.

Michael Gove and his wife Sarah Vine.
Michael Gove and his wife Sarah Vine. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Updated

Piketty resigns as a Labour adviser

According to Sky’s Ed Conway, Thomas Piketty, the superstar leftwing economist and author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, has quit as a Labour party adviser.

He was one of several heavyweight and renowned economists on the economic advisory committee set up by John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor. It seems that his decision was largely prompted by lack of time, but he has criticised Labour’s performance in the EU referendum.

Thomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty Photograph: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images

One of the biggest issues in British politics at the moment is when article 50 should be triggered. That is the process that starts the formal, two-year EU withdrawal process.

Here is a Guardian video explainer.

What is article 50?

On Sky News, Chloe Smith, the Conservative former Treasury minister, has declared that she is backing Stephen Crabb for the leadership. She says he is best placed to unite the country.

Updated

ConservativeHome survey of Tory members puts May narrowly ahead of Johnson for leadership

ConservativeHome has published its latest regular survey of party members about who they want to see as the next leader. And Theresa May, the home secretary, is ahead of Boris Johnson – but only be a tiny margin. More than 1,300 members participated.

Here are the figures.

ConservativeHome survey of members on party leadership
ConservativeHome survey of members on party leadership. Photograph: ConservativeHome

And here is an extract from Paul Goodman, the ConservativeHome editor’s, account of the findings.

There is no doubt on the basis of this survey which two candidates party members currently want to see put before them ...

Over half of those respondents favour either Boris Johnson or Theresa May. It’s neck and neck between them. Out of 1,315 replies from them, the home secretary leads the former mayor by a mere 10 votes. This isn’t a scientific poll, but the result is suggestive.

ConservativeHome readers are sometimes viewed as being well to the right of party members – and Brexit diehards to boot. As I point out from time to time, this may be true of comments below the line, but not of our readers as a whole. Today, we have another bit of evidence: they actually put May the remainer a sliver ahead of Boris the leaver.

Yesterday, a YouGov poll showed that May also had a tiny lead over Johnson among members of the public when they were asked who the next prime minister should be. But May had a more substantial lead among Conservative voters. (Johnson, though, is well ahead with Ukip voters.)

YouGov poll
YouGov poll. Photograph: YouGov

The ConservativeHome survey is more significant because it measures the opinion of party members, and of course they are the ones who get a vote in the contest.

Updated

McDonnell accepts Corbyn will face a leadership challenge

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor and Jeremy Corbyn’s closest ally, told reporters as he left his home this morning that he accepted there would be a leadership challenge:

It looks as though we will have a leadership election now. I hear in the press this morning that most probably a candidate will come forward. All we are saying to Labour MPs is play by the rules, play by the rules of our party, and if there is to be a democratic election, respect the wishes of our members.

But he also urged Labour MPs to “calm down”.

Our country is facing some real, serious risks at the moment. And we have got a job as MPs to come together to try and protect the people who might be affected by that.

Anyone wanting to challenge Jeremy Corbyn – and Angela Eagle is currently thought to be the candidate most likely to be put forward – would need to be nominated by 50 MPs or MEPs (at least 20% of the total number of MPs or MEPs).

Whether or not Jeremy Corbyn also needs the backing of 50 MPs or MEPs to get on the ballot paper is a moot point. His supporters have legal advice saying that, as a sitting leader, he would automatically be on the ballot, but his opponents have legal advice saying the opposite. Labour’s national executive committee would have to rule on this.

McDonnell defends Corbyn against Labour ‘nastiness’

Updated

More than 230,000 people have signed a 38 Degrees online petition expressing confidence in Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour MP Chris Williamson points out.

Updated

Dame Tessa Jowell, the former Labour culture secretary, has appealed to Jeremy Corbyn to resign. This is what she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Jeremy, you love the Labour party like I do and the Labour party has given you every opportunity that you have been able to exercise to make life for your constituents better.

You and I are in the same position in relation to that but it is absolutely clear that your continued leadership is putting the Labour party’s future in jeopardy and denying millions of people in our country who so desperately need representation by a Labour government the chance of that Labour government.

So I ask you to follow the strongest possible view of the parliamentary party and stand down.

Q: You are part of a government that has failed to control immigration.

Morgan says we have ended up with a bit of a soundbite political era. She says it is important for politicians to level with people.

Nicky Morgan confirms she is considering running for Conservative leadership

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

Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, is on the Today programme now. She say she is actively considering running for the party leadership.

  • Morgan confirms she is considering standing for Conservative leadership.

Q: On what basis would you run?

Morgan says the Tories cannot just be defined by Europe. She won a marginal seat, she says, and she understands the need to appeal to the centre.

Q: What would be the best deal in Europe look like?

Morgan says there would have to be access to the single market. And she says we need a much better debate on immigration. Immigrants make a contribution.

Q: But if someone wanted an end to free movement, you would not be their candidate?

Morgan says she thinks there has not been a proper debate on this.

She represents a diverse constituency.

Q: So are you saying we would have to accept we cannot end free movement.

Morgan says she thinks what people want is control over immigration.

But the Conservatives cannot only be about the EU.

Last wee’s results showed a divided nation, she says.

She says intergenerational unfairness is an issue. She says they should consider letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote. That is an issue raised with her in schools often, she says.

  • Morgan suggests letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote.
Nicky Morgan.
Nicky Morgan. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Updated

As 27 EU members – minus the UK – begin the second day of the Brussels summit, I’m handing over the live blog to Andrew Sparrow. Thanks for reading and stay with us.

Stephen Crabb, who is planting his name firmly on the nominations list to be the next Tory leader and prime minister this morning, sets out in the Telegraph what he wants to do with “the government I intend to lead”:

First, we must unite. Just over a year ago, every Conservative MP was elected on a manifesto that committed us to holding a referendum. The campaign is now over.

We cannot allow this leadership election to be defined by divisive labels like remainer and Brexiteer. The quicker we can focus on the future, the better chance we have to unite our party and the country.

Second, we will enact the British people’s wishes on the EU. The verdict was clear: there is no going back. A second referendum is out of the question. What the country needs now is a clear direction, not further instability.

I want to lead a government that delivers on the expectations of the 17 million people who voted for Britain to leave the EU. One of the overwhelming messages from that vote was the need to take back control of immigration policy in the UK. So for me, freedom of movement is a red line.

Updated

Sajid Javid: 'We're all Brexiteers now'

Sajid Javid – the business secretary who’s backing Stephen Crabb for Tory leader in a joint ticket that would see him in the Treasury – has been speaking to the Today programme.

Batting away the fact that both he and Crabb were pro-remainers hoping to lead the country through its exit from the UK, Javid said:

There’s no distinction any more … In some ways we’re all Brexiteers now … It is really all about how we get on with it.

Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Describing the months ahead as “the most difficult period in a generation”, Javid said Crabb, the work and pensions secretary, would as leader put together a team from “all sides of the campaign”.

But Javid confirmed – for this leadership ticket, at least:

There’ll be no going back on the decision; there’ll be no second referendum.

He set out what sounded remarkably similar to the proposal floated by Boris Johnson, another leadership candidate: access to the single market but without unrestricted freedom of movement. On immigration, Javid said:

The British people want to know it is a policy in full control of the UK.

But on why Tory MPs and party member should then back the Crabb-Javid ticket over Johnson, he said:

It’s all about delivery now … No one knows yet what kind of deal we’re going to get with the EU. We need people who can do the negotiations.

Updated

SNP will ask to be official opposition in Commons

As I mentioned in the morning briefing, the SNP in Westminster will apparently today ask the Speaker to recognise that party – rather than Labour – as Her Majesty’s Opposition.

The SNP’s leader in Westminster, Angus Robertson, does now technically command the support of 14 more MPs than the Labour leader, following the no-confidence vote in Jeremy Corbyn. That vote saw just 40 MPs back Corbyn, with 172 against.

The SNP’s shadow leader of the house, Pete Wishart, says the party has “shadows in every department and ministry” and would be “prepared to assume office” – the requirement placed on the official opposition. Wishart says the rules allowing the SNP to make the request are set out in Erskine May, which details parliamentary practice.

And if that’s not enough constitutional confusion for you, here’s another oddity:

Updated

It’s a question a lot of people are asking: is there a way back from a Brexit vote? (Can I be the first to call it an EU-turn?)

Angela Merkel last night said no:

I see no possibility to reverse this. We would do well to accept this reality.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, when asked if the decision could be “walked back”, said:

I think there are a number of ways.

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, looks at whether there are ways and what they might be:

The short answer is yes, just about, but many forces would have to align.

Read more here: I’d pick some out, but as you might imagine – it’s complicated.

Updated

Margaret Beckett: some would rather see Labour split than Corbyn go

Margaret Beckett – formerly an acting leader of the Labour party – is in tears on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as she explains why she thinks Jeremy Corbyn needs to stand down.

She praises his integrity and principles – “but they don’t of themselves make you a leader”.

He has no experience at all of the problems of leadership … the hassle, the scrutiny, the compromises you have to make to get to the best common ground.

She says people were willing to try to support him to get to where he needed to be, including many of those Corbyn brought into his original shadow cabinet.

Jeremy has brought on a whole new raft of talent … and they have gone because they felt they could no longer deal with the situation in which they found themselves.

Beckett says much of the fault lies with those close to Corbyn:

I’m afraid the people in the leader’s office act like a separate unit from the Labour party … There are people around Jeremy who are prepared to see the Labour party split rather than for him to go. The Labour party has to survive … because we need an alternative government.

Margaret Beckett
Margaret Beckett. Photograph: Euan Cherry/UPPA

Updated

The Guardian’s front page today documents those scenes in the European parliament yesterday, as Nigel Farage was met with boos by most MEPs – but praise from the Front National president, Marine Le Pen:

Updated

Morning briefing

Another day, another Brexit live blog: welcome.

Here’s the morning briefing to run you through the key developments and what we expect to happen today (as far as anyone can predict this stuff any more). Do come and chat in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.

David Cameron leaves Europe

Not for ever – yet. After his one-day trip to the two-day Brussels summit, David Cameron is back in London today so the 27 EU leaders can spare his blushes and discuss Brexit openly without having to pretend he’s not in the room.

The prime minister rounded off a working dinner with his soon-to-be-former European colleagues on Tuesday night with a press conference in which he revealed he had told them that immigration must be addressed:

I think [British] people recognised the strength of the economic case for staying, but there was a very great concern about the movement of people and immigration, and I think that is coupled with a concern about the issues of sovereignty and the absence of control there has been.

I think we need to think about that, Europe needs to think about that and I think that is going to be one of the major tests for the next prime minister.

David Cameron
David Cameron: bonjour tristesse. Photograph: Julien Warnand/EPA

Regrets, he’s had a few:

It’s a sad night for me – I didn’t want to be in this position. I wanted Britain to stay in a reformed European Union … I fought very hard for what I believed in. I didn’t stand back. I threw myself in head, heart and soul to keep Britain in the European Union and I didn’t succeed.

And how are the other leaders taking the breakup? Not so well, as it happens. Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg, said Britain couldn’t simply switch its Facebook status to “it’s complicated” – it’s “marriage or divorce, but not something in between”.

The divorce settlement mustn’t be allowed to drag on and on and on, EU leaders said. The European council president, Donald Tusk, said they all wanted the plan “to be specified as soon as possible”.

If only someone had mentioned before that we needed a plan, or indeed someone prepared to come up with one. George Osborne said on Tuesday that job fell to … somebody else:

It was not the responsibility of those who wanted to remain in the EU to explain what plan we would follow if we voted to quit the EU.

Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel: you’re with us or you’re not. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is adamant there will be no cherry-picking of the best bits of Europe (and she doesn’t just mean the cheese, the wine, the salami …):

There must be, and there will be, a palpable difference between those countries who want to be members of the European family and those who don’t … If you wish to have free access to the single market then you have to accept the fundamental European rights as well as obligations that come from it. This is as true for Great Britain as for anybody else.

On Cameron’s decision not to trigger article 50 – which sets the clock ticking on a two-year deadline to exit – until his successor is in place, and with some voices wondering if it will ever be triggered, Merkel said:

We did not discuss the possibility that the UK will not invoke article 50, and I consider this an impossibility.

Leaders reiterated the view that the UK couldn’t start the process with informal chats or with one eye on a potential EU-turn. Merkel told reporters:

I see no possibility to reverse this. We would do well to accept this reality.

… as Nicola Sturgeon flies in

Scotland’s first minister drops in on Brussels today. Sturgeon won’t meet Tusk, whose spokesman said “he feels it is not appropriate” at this point, but a spokeswoman for Jean-Claude Juncker said the European commission president would hold talks with her this afternoon.

Sturgeon will also have a meeting with the European parliament president, Martin Schulz, and other officials on how Scotland – which voted to remain – might be able to salvage a relationship with the EU. She’s likely to find some sympathetic ears, if the standing ovation given to SNP MEP Alyn Smith yesterday is any indication of Europe’s enduring fondness for at least part of the UK.

MSPs on Tuesday voted to give Sturgeon a mandate for discussions with the EU, as she told them:

Everything must be on the table to protect Scotland’s place in Europe.

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon, first minister and @guardian follower, checks her Twitter feed during a break in the debate on the referendum result at the Scottish parliament. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

Conservative leadership nominations open

It’s mere days since Cameron announced he’d be off and now the whispers and the toyings and the “seriously considerings” are going to have to actually turn into names on paper. Or perhaps via email or a WhatsApp group. I’m not sure of the rules on that one.

What we do know is that the new leader/PM will be in place by 9 September, the timetable pushed back a week because hey, what’s the rush? Candidates need only two MPs to back them to get on the list so it could be a crowded one, topped by Boris Johnson and Theresa May, but also finding room for Stephen Crabb (teaming up with Sajid Javid on a “dream ticket”; please come forward and identify yourself if you have had this dream), and potentially Nicky Morgan, Liam Fox and Jeremy Hunt. Andrea Leadsom might have a pop, say some.

Crabb announces his bid in a Telegraph column today on “the government I intend to lead”; while the environment secretary, Liz Truss, says she is backing Johnson as leader (and Michael Gove and Nick Boles, though it’s not clear as what).

Theresa May
Theresa May: standing between Boris Johnson and No 10. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

The Guardian also reports today that Johnson is attempting to win the backing of Amber Rudd, the energy secretary and pro-remain campaigner, who memorably mocked him during a referendum debate by saying:

He isn’t the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening!

Still, a week and an enormous constitutional rupture is a long time in politics.

So then what? Nominations close at midday tomorrow. Then we’re treated to twice-weekly votes until the list is ground down to a final two, before party members have their say.

Jeremy Corbyn v Labour MPs

Just 40 Labour MPs backed the Labour leader in Tuesday’s confidence vote – and one of them, Liz McInnes, resigned last night as shadow local government minister after the overwhelming majority of her colleagues (172 of them) voted against him.

The no confidence vote results.
The no confidence vote results.

And so we ask again: what happens next? As with Brexit, some urge speed and decisiveness, while others want to take their time, think it over, maybe cross their fingers that it didn’t really happen.

Jeremy Corbyn, at any rate, knows what he’s doing: exactly what he was doing before.

I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy.

The no-confidence vote, thumping as it was, doesn’t oblige him to step aside. Instead Labour MPs need to decide whether and when to launch a leadership contest, and who the anyone-but-Corbyn candidate would be. Angela Eagle and Tom Watson remain the likely runners.

Video grab taken from Sky News showing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during a shadow cabinet meeting in London where he raise objections to being filmed. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Tuesday June 28, 2016. See PA story POLITICS Labour TV. Photo credit should read: Sky News/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout screengrab may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t convinced that letting Sky News film his first all-new shadow cabinet meeting was a great idea. Tom Watson was also less than thrilled. Photograph: Sky News/PA

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll conducted for the party revealed that 27% of people who voted for Labour at the last general election said they were less likely to do so again following the referendum campaign, with 11% saying they were more likely to do so.

You should also know:

Audacious claim of the day

The SNP in Westminster is reportedly set to demand that it be recognised as Her Majesty’s Opposition now that Angus Robertson technically commands the support of 14 more MPs than the Labour leader, following his no-confidence vote. The SNP’s shadow leader of the house, Pete Wishart, says the party has “shadows in every department and ministry”.

(Erskine May sets out parliamentary practice. Constitutional experts: expect to be in demand today. In fact, maybe set aside a few months.)

Diary

  • Nominations for the Conservative party leadership (with a job as prime minister thrown in) open this morning.
  • At noon, it’s one of the strangest PMQs we’re likely to see as a prime minister who has resigned takes questions from a leader of the opposition whose main opposition comes from the people sitting behind him.
  • The European council summit continues without David Cameron.
  • Nicola Sturgeon is in Brussels for talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Schulz and others about Scotland’s future with the EU.
  • Gordon Brown is due to make a post-Brexit speech in Edinburgh.
  • At 3.15pm MPs will hear evidence on xenophobia and racism following the EU referendum.

Read these

Richard Dawkins, writing in Prospect, says there ought to be a second referendum – and there’s only one politician who can make it happen:

If Brexit really is the will of the people, a second referendum will confirm it … What possible prime minister would have the courage, the chutzpah, to call a second referendum? Certainly not Damaged Goods Cameron. Not any ‘safe pair of hands ship-steadier’ from either party. It would have to be a leading Brexiteer. Only such a one could carry the country with him, and get away with such a bold decision. I can think of only one British politician with the sheer bottle, the idiosyncratic contrariness, the endearingly impudent bloody cheek, to get away with it. Boris Johnson, of course …

Johnson is probably the only British politician who is in a position to remove the poison from the chalice, and who has the ability to do so. And the way he could do it is by calling a second referendum.

Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson: nominations for the Conservative party leadership open today. Perhaps he’ll give it a whirl? Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Isabel Hardman in the Spectator offers a rundown of the latest Tory leadership jostling:

The Conservatives decided to move back the date by which their leader must be confirmed to 9 September, which will come as a relief to those Tories who were grumbling about being hauled back from the Mediterranean a week early. The consensus in the party is that the two frontrunners in the leadership contest are Boris Johnson and Theresa May. Both have significant operations around them. May has supporters in the whips’ office, while Boris has Lynton Crosby signed up to advise him, and Michael Gove working on his behalf to charm MPs from across the party …

Some Tories claim that there is resentment building against Boris from members who feel that he wasn’t really sincerely in favour of Brexit, but has caused a colossal mess, though his supporters point out that the Uxbridge MP at least put his heart and soul into the Leave campaign, whereas the home secretary practically went into hiding after declaring for Remain.

In the New Statesman, Michael Chessum writes in defence of Jeremy Corbyn’s referendum campaign – and leadership:

The only argument that could have stopped Brexit was that austerity and neo-liberalism caused the housing crisis, falling wages and stretched public services – not Romanians and Bulgarians …

Corbyn’s main mistake was not to take tighter control of Labour’s campaign from the outset – although, of course, had he done so he would have been roundly denounced. Like so many quandaries of the Corbyn leadership, the referendum campaign was characterised by a need for footwork and firefighting within the parliamentary Labour party rather than a strategic focus on winning the vote. The Labour right created an impossible situation and are now attempting to exploit the aftermath. If it wasn’t so desperate and irresponsible, it could be described as shrewd.

And do please read this by Marina Hyde on Nigel Farage at the European parliament yesterday: “There is soft power, and then there is politics as erectile dysfunction.”

Extraordinary sitting of European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium - 28 Jun 2016Mandatory Credit: Photo by Isopix/REX/Shutterstock (5737782w) Jean-Claude Juncker, Nigel Farage Extraordinary sitting of European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium - 28 Jun 2016
Nigel Farage: ‘The political leader who’s had more farewell tours than Barbra Streisand.’ Photograph: Isopix/REX/Shutterstock

Celebrity endorsement of the day

Rupert Murdoch thinks the Brexit vote was “wonderful”, likening it to a “prison break … we’re out”. There was also a warning of sorts for the man who chiselled the bricks out of the cell wall:

Murdoch’s UK newspapers had both outcomes covered, of course, with the Sun urging a vote for leave, and the Times backing remain. Sun columnist Kelvin MacKenzie has already expressed “buyer’s remorse” over his out vote.

The day in a tweet

If today were a Beatles song ...

It would be Hello Goodbye. I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello. You say why and I say I don’t know.

And another thing

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Updated

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