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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Theresa May holds press conference with Turkish president – as it happened

Theresa May with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan outside Number 10.
Theresa May with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan outside Number 10. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Sky News have cut their coverage of the press coverage, and there is no live feed.

I’ll post a summary of what we have in a moment.

Q: What will the UK do to help the fight against the PKK?

Erdogan says he has given a list of terrorist groups Turkey is fighting to May. If the UK does not help, then what is hurting Turkey now will hurt the UK tomorrow

He says Turkey has “neutralised” more than 3,000 Daesh terrorists in one city.

May says the UK is taking action where it has evidence of terrorist action.

Q: How can you justify locking up so many journalists?

Erdogan says the figures quoted by the journalist are wrong.

And it is important to distinguish between people who are journalists and people who are terrorists, he says.

Terrorists will not make good journalists, he says.

Q: You said you were not aware of Windrush migrants being deported. But now Sajid Javid said up to 63 could have been deported wrongly. How did you get that so wrong?

May confirms the figure used by Javid earlier.

She says the Home Office had to go through the papers to find out how many people were affected.

She summarises what the Home Office is now doing to help.

And she stresses that the Windrush migrants have a right to be in the UK.

What May said about Gaza

This is what May said about the killings in Gaza.

The loss of life we have seen is tragic and extremely concerning. Such violence is destructive to peace efforts and we call on all sides to show restraint.

There is an urgent need to establish the facts of what happened yesterday through an independent and transparent investigation, including why such a volume of live fire was used and what role Hamas played in events.

Palestinians have the right to protest, but these protests must be peaceful. We are concerned that extremist elements are seeking to hijack legitimate protests to further their own objectives.

While we do not question the right of Israel to defend its borders, the use of live fire and the resulting loss of life is deeply troubling. We urge Israel to show restraint.

It is in everyone’s interests for peace and stability to prevail in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is speaking now. He says it is a pleasure to be in the UK. And he is coming here ahead of the Turkish elections because of how much important he attaches to relations with the UK.

He thanks Britain for the support offered after the failed coup, he says.

He says today he has met the Queen and May.

He says Turkey welcomes the fact the UK and the EU have agreed a deal on the Brexit transition.

He says Turkey has been fighting the PKK, Daesh and other terrorist organisations for many decades. This is a priority, he says.

He says the Turkish and British governments have signed an agreement on security cooperation.

He offers his condolences to the families of those killed in Gaza. He condemns these actions, he says.

He says Palestine was settled on land now occupied by Israel. Israel kept taking more and more land. The Palestinians were confined to less and less space. Israel is the occupier. It claims that might is right.

He says the international community should mobilise to stop this once and for all.

At the UN more than 100 countries opposed the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. And only a handful of countries backed it.

He says Israel will not be forgiven.

He says people have to decide whether to side with those how are strong, or those who are right.

May says Turkey is an important security partner. Turkey and the UK are both members of Nato, she says.

And she says the trade relationship is important too. The two countries are looking at how trade can be extended, she says.

She says she and Erdogan discussed today the Rolls-Royce contract for the TF-X fighter, a Turkish jet.

She says they also discussed the need for Turkey to uphold democratic values.

Updated

Theresa May's press conference with Turkish president

Theresa May is holding a press conference in Number 10 with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

She starts by talking about Gaza. The deaths are disturbing, she says. There is an urgent need to discover what happened, and why live fire was used. She says the government accepts Israel’s right to self defence. But the use of live fire yesterday was “troubling”.

  • May says use of live fire by Israel against Palestinian protesters yesterday was “troubling” and calls for an inquiry into what happened.

Cabinet agrees to publish 'detailed' plan for Brexit before June EU summit

The government will set out a “detailed, ambitious and precise” explanation of the UK’s position on the future relationship with the EU ahead of the critical summit at the end of June.

It’s expected to include the plan for a customs relationship that avoids re-establishing a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, told cabinet this morning that it would be the “most significant” publication on the EU since the referendum.

Although EU negotiators will not see the proposals in advance, it will be based on previous negotiations.

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, has said he would be happy to visit the Irish border and listen to people’s views about Brexit.

In contrast to Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, who recently said he would have little to gain by a visit to the region, Farage has just returned from a weekend in Northern Ireland with the DUP.

The Guardian caught up with him after spotting him lunching in the Rotunda bar in the building which also houses the newspaper.

“The Good Friday agreement has nothing to do with it,” he said. “Leo Varadkar is not acting in the interests of Ireland but in the interests of the EU,” he said arguing that Theresa May had already “compromised” too much in December with the “backstop” arrangement for the border guaranteeing regulatory alignment on the island of Ireland. That allowed “the EU to hold us to ransom”, he said.

Farage argued that a hard border would now be inevitable in Ireland but that a compromise could be found.

Sadiq Khan says he is 'shocked' that up to 63 Windrush migrants may have been wrongly deported

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, says he is shocked by the revelation that up to 63 Windrush migrants could have been wrongly deported.

Welsh government backs giving EU withdrawal bill legislative consent

The Welsh assembly is also voting on granting legislative consent to the EU withdrawal bill later this afternoon. According to the schedule, the debate has already taken place, but the assembly holds its votes at the end of the day. Unlike the SNP-led Scottish government, the Labour-led Welsh government does think the EU withdrawal bill should get legislative consent. Here is a legislative consent memorandum (pdf) from Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister, explaining why.

But Plaid Cymru is opposed.

Scottish parliament votes against giving consent to EU withdrawal bill

The Scottish parliament has voted against Theresa May’s Brexit legislation by a large margin, putting the UK on the brink of a major constitutional dispute, my colleague Severin Carrell reports. Holyrood rejected the UK government’s EU withdrawal bill by 93 votes to 30 on Tuesday after Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens backed Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to oppose proposals on post-Brexit power sharing set out in clause 11 of the bill. The vote is not legally binding but it will force the prime minister to make a high-risk decision to impose those power-sharing plans on Scotland or make further concessions to the Scottish government to avoid a crisis.

Here is the full story.

Updated

Satbir Singh, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, says Javid’s revelation that up to 63 Windrush migrants could have been wrongly deported strengthens the case for a public inquiry.

Q: Is 63 the maximum possible number of cases that could involve a Windrush migrant being deported wrongly?

Javid says officials have looked at around 8,000 deportation records going back to 2002 involving Caribbean migrants. From those checks, the 63 cases have emerged.

But Javid says he has asked officials to check these figures. That is why he cannot give a guarantee that those numbers will not change.

Glyn Williams says it has been narrowed down to 63.

Q: So that is a final number?

Williams says he is not saying that.

Javid tells MPs that he is planning to publish a white paper before the summer on how EU migrants will be able to apply for settled status so they can stay in the UK after Brexit.

He says there is likely to be a pilot scheme.

At the weekend a Politico Europe story said that Javid had decided to bring forward the white paper following an intervention from Theresa May.

In his letter to the committee (pdf), published on its website today, Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Office permanent secretary, also provided information about migrants who might have been wrongly deported. But he defines “wrongful deportation” as cases involving people who are deported and then subsequently returned to the UK because a mistake is deemed to have been made and his figures are much lower than the ones Javid gave to MPs orally. (See 4.20pm.)

Rutnam says:

The Department has identified 17 cases since 2015 in which a person was returned to the UK1 after being removed.

Of these 17:

(i) in 5 cases the Department or the Court found no legal basis for their remaining here; the Department has subsequently removed or is seeking to remove that person again from the UK;

(ii) in 9 cases, proceedings are ongoing;

and (iii) in 3 cases the Department or the Court has found those people to have a legal basis to remain in the UK. (It is not necessarily the case that the legal reason which led to those people being brought back to the UK is the same grounds on which they have acquired a legal basis to remain).

Updated

In his evidence Javid says he used to think he knew quite a lot about the laws relating to nationality. But he says it was not until he sat down with officials in his new job that he realised how complicated it was.

In his letter to the committee Javid also addressed a question raised by the committee when Amber Rudd gave evidence to it last month. The MPs wanted to know how the Home Office responded to concerns about the impact of migration rules on Windrush-era migrants that were raised by Caribbean governments with the Foreign Office in 2016.

Javid says in his letter (pdf):

You have also specifically asked about information received from the FCO in May 2016 which raised concerns of Caribbean Commonwealth High Commissioners. I believe this relates to a diplomatic telegram which provided a general report on the UK Caribbean Ministerial Forum in the Bahamas. It was distributed to a wide range of government officials, was not specifically addressed to the Home Office and only contains a brief reference to immigration matters.

Loughton asks Williams if there was a Home Office memo saying there were no removal targets.

Williams says he cannot prove something does not exist. He says a memo got leaked. But he was not copied in to that.

Loughton repeats the question. Was there a memo that said there were no removal targets?

Williams says he cannot say.

Tim Loughton, a Conservative, goes next.

Q: Are you sure that there are no Windrush migrants in detention?

Javid says he is not aware of any, but he cannot be certain.

Glyn Williams says his department has checked. They have not seen any.

Q: Why are you talking about creating a compliant environment not a hostile environment?

Javid says the word “hostile” just sounds negative. He prefers to talk about wanting to create an environment where people have to comply with the rules.

Javid says more than 500 Windrush migrants have now been given documents they need by Home Office

In his letter to the committee Sajid Javid says more than 500 Windrush migrants have already received documents guaranteeing their right to be in the UK after getting in touch with the helpline set up after the scandal first come to light. Here is the relevant extract from his letter.

To date, the helpline has taken over 11,500 calls, of which over 4,482 were identified as possible Windrush cases and referred to taskforce caseworkers. These caseworkers phoned the individuals back for an in-depth conversation and as a result over 1,482 appointments have been booked, resulting in 526 people receiving documents which confirm their status. The Home Office is not being prescriptive regarding the evidence of residency – either in respect of how many pieces of evidence are sufficient or what type of evidence should be provided. Instead I have ensured that the process is simple enough to prevent anyone applying needing legal advice, and this is kept under review.

Turning back to the Leveson phase two inquiry, which MPs rejected about an hour ago, Downing Street has welcomed the vote. The prime minister’s spokesman said:

We welcome the vote, MPs have now voted twice to reject a backward-looking, disproportionate and costly Leveson 2 inquiry. We would now urge the Lords to respect the wishes of the elected House.

Doughty also asks Glyn Williams, the Home Office official giving evidence alongside Javid, about what Williams told the committee when he gave evidence alongside Amber Rudd last month.

Williams said there were no published removal targets. But it subsequently turned out there were removal targets.

Williams says he told the truth “as I knew it”. He says at the time he did not know that the senior management team had produced targets for 2017/18.

Up to 63 Windrush migrants could have been deported wrongly, MPs told

Labour’s Stephen Doughty goes next.

Q: When you were appointed, you said you were not aware of any cases of wrongful deportation. Is that still the case?

Javid says he has some figures.

  • Javid says Home Office has found 63 cases where Caribbean individuals were removed who could have come to the UK before 1973 - which would meant they should have been allowed to stay.
  • He says 32 were foreign national offenders. And 31 were administrative removals, all but one of whom left voluntarily after being told they would have to go.

Q: Is that number likely to rise?

Javid says it is not a final number. It could go up.

Q: Do you think there have been wrongful removals in areas other than Windrush?

Javid says he cannot rule that out.

Yvette Cooper says, if the state has locked people up wrongly, we need to know.

Javid agrees. But he says he only has limited resources to deploy in the Home Office.

Javid says he still does not know how many Windrush-era migrants were wrongfully detained

Q: In your letter you talk about wrongful deportation. But you do not talk about wrongful detention. How many Windrush generation migrants have been wrongfully detained?

Javid says he does not know at this stage.

Q: We have asked about this repeatedly.

Javid says work is going on in the department. But his priority has been to look into wrongful deportations first.

  • Javid says he still does not know how many Windrush-era migrants were wrongfully detained.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, goes first.

Q: Is your work on this just about addressing the Windrush problems? Or are you trying to prevent similar problems occurring in future?

Both, says Javid.

Q: Do you have a sense as to why the Home Office did not spot this problem?

Javid says he will not pretend to know everything, but he has “a bit of a sense”.

He refers to letters sent to the committee. Letters to the committee from Javid (pdf) and from the permanent secretary (pdf) have gone up on its website this afternoon.

He says in many cases a common sense approach was not taken when immigration cases were considered.

He says the burden of proof should not lie with the applicant.

And the Home Office will take a more “flexible” approach to evidence.

Sajid Javid gives evidence to Commons home affairs committee

Sajid Javid, the new home secretary, is giving evidence for the first time to the Commons home affairs committee. The hearing is about the Windrush migrants.

Javid is giving evidence alongside Glyn Williams, director general for border, immigration and citizenship at the Home Office.

Javid starts with an opening statment.

He says his most urgent task is helping the Windrush generation.

He says what happened to those people is “completely unacceptable”. He takes it personally. He is a “proud second generation migrant”, he says, and he has “a lot in common with the Windrush generation”.

Labour to hold vote tomorrow on binding motion calling for cabinet papers on customs options to be published

Labour has announced that it will use its opposition day tomorrow to hold a vote on a binding motion that would, if passed, force the government to publish cabinet papers on its two customs options.

Here is an extract from its news release.

Labour will tomorrow (Wednesday) force a binding vote in the House of Commons requiring the government to publish cabinet papers on the two customs options being considered by ministers to help break the deadlock in the Brexit negotiations.

A motion to be debated by MPs will call on the government to release to parliament all papers prepared for the Brexit sub-committee on the proposed customs partnership and maximum facilitation model, including any economic analysis. Unlike typical opposition day debates, the motion will be binding on the government.

Government votes down call for new Leveson-style press inquiry by majority of 12

The government has won the vote. MPs have voted against a new Leveson-style inquiry by 301 votes to 289 - a majority of 12.

The government’s majority has gone by three from what it was on this issue last week.

Some Labour MPs are arguing, like Hacked Off (see 3.29pm), that the Hancock proposal for an inquiry into the “effectiveness of the media’s dispute resolution procedures” is a move towards state regulation.

This is from Liam Byrne, the shadow minister for digital.

And this is from Labour’s Ian Lucas.

Russia’s ambassador to Britain has blamed “UK security services” for the nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March, as part of an often colourful apearance before parliament’s all-party group on Russia.

Alexander Yakovenko, a vocal proponent of his country’s views in the UK, also reiterated the opinion that Russia carries no blame for the annexation of Crimea or the downing of the Malaysian airlines plane MH17 in 2014, and that the Ghouta presumed chemical weapons attack was staged by Syria’s White Helmet volunteers.

His most eye-catching comments came when Labour MP Chris Bryant, who chairs the group, asked Yakovenko if he maintained that the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury was the work of the US or UK.

“UK security services,” he replied, before arguing that it was staged so as to push public opinion in the UK and overseas against Russia. He said:

The people don’t like this kind of policy, and in order to get their support something extraordinary should be done in this country, in order to make people believe that this is the Russians who did this, who basically poisoned the Skripals.

And that’s exactly what happened. Today we’re just working with the fact, with the assumption, that without any evidence we are blamed.

He also reiterated Russia’s insistence that it be allowed access to Yulia Skripal – the Foreign Office says she has asked for this to not happen. Yakovenko said: “We want Britain to fulfil its international obligations – nothing else.”

The hour-long session saw Yakovenko smilingly bat back increasingly incredulous questions from assorted MPs and peers, not even taking apparent offence when he was compared to “Chemical Ali”, the much-mocked information minister at the start of the Iraq war.

But it’s also fair to say that the all-party members, while maintaining dialogue with Russia, didn’t learn anything new, and quite possibly left more confused than they arrived.

Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko
Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko Photograph: Kirsty O'Connor/PA

MPs are voting now on the motion to disagree with the Lords.

Hacked Off rejects government's concession on press regulation

Hacked Off, which is campaigning against press intrusion, has released a critique of the amendments proposed by Matt Hancock today. (See 1.59pm.) It makes two main points:

  • Hacked Off says the proposed review of how papers comply with data protection laws would only cover what they do with their own commercial information. It would not cover information obtained illegally by hacking, it says. It says the Information Commissioner’s Office never ruled against newspapers when hacking and blagging was being carried out.
  • Hacked Off says the proposed review into the “effectiveness of the media’s dispute resolution procedures” would hand powers to the state. It says:

1) It is a gross interference in freedom of speech for the government to be making these judgments – that is a job for the PRP [Press Recognition Panel] only because it is independent. Government should be nowhere near this. 2) How will the government reach its conclusions? No criteria are set out. 3)What is the consequence of failure to meet any criteria? At best the government will have to say this isn’t good enough, the press will promise to try harder, and that will be all – the same pattern which has perpetuated for decades.

Summing up, Hacked Off says:

In summary these reforms are not only pointless, but the latter is damaging to freedom of expression, and should be opposed.

Peter Bone, a Conservative, is speaking now. He was one of the five Tories who rebelled on this issue last week. He says he is still undecided how to vote.

He says he is struggling. For the first time today he has been reading the Conservative manifesto, he jokes (at least, it sounds like a vote.) He says the manifesto said the Tories would not go ahead with phase two of the Leveson inquiry.

Ken Clarke, another Tory rebel last week, says he never received a copy of the manifesto. He wonders who wrote it. It was never approved by the cabinet, he says.

Tom Watson intervenes. He says the manifesto also proposed a vote on fox hunting and the dementia tax. But both those ideas have been dropped. Bone should not feel bound by it, he says.

Bone ends his speech by saying he still has not decided what to do.

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, is speaking now.

He says Iain Duncan Smith asked what a Leveson two inquiry would achieve. It would achieve three things, he says.

First, it would establish who did what. The original inquiry could not do that because criminal investigations were pending.

We do not know who widespread hacking was at News International, and what other papers were involved, he says.

Second, he says, we do not know why this was allowed to happen. Did the police allow it to happen because of their close relationships with the press? And did politicians turn a blind eye too?

Third, we need to learn lessons for the future, he says.

He says a minority of the press still engage in “abusive, intrusive” conduct.

He says the National Union of Journalists says not having Leveson two will be bad for journalists and bad for the public.

In the Commons the SNP’s culture spokesman, Brendan O’Hara, says some sections of the press have not changed as much as some MPs think. It would be a mistake to think that culture has been completely transformed, he says. He says the SNP will be voting for the Leveson two amendment.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former work and pensions secretary, says he does not see what people think another Leveson inquiry would achieve.

Ken Clarke, his Tory colleague, intervenes. He says an inquiry would allow people to find out what went wrong and to take measures to ensure this does not happen again. Was Duncan Smith opposed to the Chilcot inquiry?

Duncan Smith says the first inquiry, and prosecutions, have established what went wrong.

He says freedom is not perfect. But he would prefer a situation where mistakes are made by a free press.

Updated

Labour’s Tom Watson referred to how the former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has been saying today Leveson phase two should go ahead. (See 2.53pm.) Watson was referring to these tweets.

Watson says Labour has dropped plan for punitive courts costs on papers not signed up to Leveson-approved regulator

Back in the Commons Tom Watson, the shadow culture secretary and deputy Labour leader, is speaking now.

He says phase two of the Leveson inquiry is that rare thing - “an inquiry into a national scandal that newspapers are not calling for”.

He says Hancock based much of his argument on the case that some of the Leveson proposals - in particular, the plan for newspapers that do not sign up to an approved regulator to have to face punitive costs - have been dropped.

  • Watson says Labour has dropped plan to impose punitive courts costs on newspapers not signed up to a Leveson-approved regulator.

But he says that plan has now been abandoned. Labour will not be proposing it, he says.

A Conservative, Mike Wood, intervenes. He quotes from a Guardian editorial about the call for phase two of the Leveson inquiry to go ahead. It said:

Leveson 2 would ultimately end up like a driver learning to steer by looking in the rear-view mirror at the road behind rather than the one ahead.

Hancock says the former Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, has said just today that he backs Leveson two going ahead.

Watson says it is wrong for the government to be introducing so many new proposals in the form of an manuscript amendment. (A manuscript amendment is one submitted at the last moment; it does not mean one written by hand.)

The Commons voted for a two-part Leveson inquiry, he says. He says this may be MPs’s last chance to vote for it. They should do so, he says.

Tom Watson
Tom Watson Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Zuckerberg refuses to give evidence to Commons culture committee

Mark Zuckerberg is risking a formal summons from the House of Commons after he refused to appear in front of MPs to answer questions about Facebook’s activities.

Earlier this month the digital, culture, media and sport committee demanded the social media network boss appear in front of their committee to answer questions about fake news and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

But Facebook has now formally declined the invitation, raising the prospect that Zuckerberg could face a “formal summons” and be censured by parliament for ignoring its request.

“Mr Zuckerberg has no plans to meet with the committee or travel to the UK at the present time,” the company said in a letter to committee chairman Damian Collins.

Collins said this was unacceptable. He said:

If Mark Zuckerberg truly recognises the ‘seriousness’ of these issues as they say they do, we would expect that he would want to appear in front of the Committee and answer questions that are of concern not only to Parliament, but Facebook’s tens of millions of users in this country.

He also said MPs would be willing to accept evidence remotely:

Although Facebook says Mr Zuckerberg has no plans to travel to the UK, we would also be open to taking his evidence by video link, if that would be the only way to do this during the period of our inquiry.

Hancock says all MPs benefit from a free press. They should not sleepwalk into a situation where the press will be decimated, he says.

Hancock says he understands why MPs feel so strongly about the need for a new Leveson inquiry.

He voted for the Leveson inquiry originally, he says. And he says he has met the victims of press intrusion.

But he says the press environment has changed since the days of Leveson.

Again, he cites Ipso (the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s) recent decision to set up a compulsory low-cost arbitration scheme.

Labour’s Andy Slaughter says the Ipso arbitration scheme is inadequate. And he says the removal of no win, no fee litigation has left complainants with even fewer remedies than they had before.

Hancock does not accept that. He says Slaughter has not been following the developments at Ipso.

Ken Clarke, the Conservative backbencher, and one of the Tories who voted against the government on this last week, says it is important for regulation to be independent. He says the fact that a regulator is set up by statute does not stop it being independent.

Hancock says Ipso is now an effective regulator. And it has brought in low-cost arbitration, he says.

Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Hancock tells MPs his press regulation concessions would protect press freedom

And in the House of Commons Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, is opening the debate on press regulation.

He says the Commons plainly voted against a new Leveson-style press inquiry last week.

But the House of Lords voted last night for just such an inquiry.

He says he has gone out of his way to offer concessions to ensure press regulation is fair, including a review by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

He says he is proposing five further amendments. (See 1.59pm for details.)

First, he will propose powers to strengthen the ICO’s review.

Second, he will widen it.

Third, he will make it permanent. The review will not be a one-off, he says.

Fouth, to ensure Ipso does not go backwards on its move toward low-cost regulation, it will ensure that this is reviewed every three years.

And, fifth, he will introduce an amendment to ensure all these measures are introduced within two months.

He says these proposals would be better than a Leveson-style review.

Richard Drax, a Conservative, asks what would happen if the secretary of state were not happy with what he found when reviewing arbitration measures by press regulators.

Hancock says it would be up to the government.

Labour’s Ian Lucas says the whole point of Leveson was to stop the politicians having control of the press. Yet Hancock is proposing that. His review of dispute resolution would be under the control of the government.

Hancock says he does not accept that. He says his proposals would protect press freedom.

MSPs start debating withholding consent from EU withdrawal bill

In Edinburgh Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s Brexit minister, is opening the debate on the EU withdrawal bill, and the motion saying the Scottish parliament should not grant it legislative consent.

Here is the motion.

That the Parliament notes the legislative consent memorandums on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill lodged by the Scottish Government on 12 September 2017 and 26 April 2018, and the reports of the Finance and Constitution Committee of 9 January and 10 May 2018, and, because of clause 15 (formerly 11) and schedule 3, which constrain the legislative and executive competence of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government, does not consent to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.

Russell says MSPs hold the powers of the parliament in trust.

Over the past 19 years the Scottish parliament has been good for Scotland, he says.

Mike Russell
Mike Russell Photograph: Scottish Parliament

Updated

The British Ports Association, which represents the country’s key shipping hubs from Dover to Holyhead and Felixstowe has urged the government to back the customs partnership.

As Brexiters like Jacob Rees Mogg continues to cast cold water on the idea, chief executive Richard Ballantyne said it was not perfect, but would be part of a workable solution, particularly in Ireland. He said:

We have been somewhat surprised at the criticism levelled at the partnership proposal in recent weeks, even from some ministers.

The customs partnership model is not perfect and the challenges of tracing goods and digital paperwork still need to be worked out … There are some real attractions with this model.

The BPA pointed out that the clock is ticking fast and that customs interventions “cannot be viewed” as the sole solution as they are just one of 30 government agencies who work at the border.

Agriculture and plant checks will continue to be needed for public and animal health on both sides of the border in Ireland, for instance, a point that critics say is conveniently absent from the Brexiter side of the political debate.

The BPA does not favour the “max fac” model as it would cause congestion at ports and require both huge investment in infrastructure by the government and a “major culture change” for hauliers.

Government concessions on data protection bill - Details

You can read the full text of the government’s manuscript amendments here (pdf).

According to the briefing I’ve received, this is what they would do.

  • There will be a review of the “effectiveness of the media’s dispute resolution procedures”.
  • The terms of reference of a separate review, to be carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office and looking at press compliance with data protection regulation, will be extended. This review was announced last week as an initial concession. It will now cover “good practice” in relation to personal data, not just compliance with the law.
  • Instead of being a one-off, the ICO review will be something that has to be carried out every five years.
  • The ICO will get extra powers to demand information for the purposes of this review.
  • The ICO review and the dispute resolution review will both start within two months of the data protection bill becoming law.

Government offers concessions on press regulation to help persuade MPs to vote down Leveson 2 inquiry

MPs will resume their debate on the data protection bill within the next few minutes. Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, will be asking them to vote down the amendment passed in the Lords last night saying there must be a new Leveson-style inquiry into the press.

The government only won by nine votes when this was last debated in the Commons and, in a bid to increase his chances of voting down the Lords amendment, Hancock has announced some new concessions. They are set out in these manuscript amendments.

Their main effect would be ensure that there will be a review of how media regulation operates and that a review by the Information Commissioner’s Office of press compliance with data protection rules will be beefed up.

I will post more on the amendments shortly.

The Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, is addressing a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on Russia in the Houses of Parliament this lunchtime. My colleague Peter Walker is watching.

In the Commons Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, has just taunted Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, over the government’s divisions over customs. She said:

Can I begin by thanking the foreign secretary for leading our cross-party efforts over the last two weeks to destroy the prime minister’s customs partnership proposal. I trust that he finished the job off earlier this morning [at cabinet]. But unfortunately this does leave us with his own crazy, Max Max proposal, max fac proposal.

She then asked if Johnson thought cameras counted as physical infrastructure (which the government has ruled out for the Irish border.)

Johnson ignored the question, but instead attacked Labour. He challenged Thornberry to explain what Labour’s policy on the customs union was. He went on:

I seem to remember them campaigning at the last general election on a platform to come out of the customs union. They now say they want to stay in a customs union, a customs partnership. Their policy is absolutely clouded in obscurity.

Thornberry then asked Johnson about the possibility of the Brexit transition period being extended. She asked him if it was right that the UK would have to stay in the customs union until 2023 to allow the arrangements for the proposed “max fac” customs system to be put in place.

Sidestepping the question, Johnson just said the government had made it absolutely clear that the UK was leaving the customs union.

Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry Photograph: Parliament TV

Cable urges Tories to revive plan for tax breaks for firms hiring disadvantaged workers

In a speech tonight Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, will urge the Conservative party to implement one of its manifesto promises. The Tories proposed giving a 12-month employer’s national insurance contribution exemption to firms who hired someone from a group that normally finds it difficult to find work. The groups referred to in the manifesto were: disabled people, people who have been in care, people with chronic mental health problems, former criminals and people who have been unemployed for more than a year.

Addressing the Asian Business Association’s Global Dinner tonight, Cable will say:

The government’s Brexit civil war has seen their domestic agenda all but abandoned. One of their manifesto’s many casualties was a plan to offer businesses who hire people from disadvantaged backgrounds a holiday from employer’s NI contributions of a full year.

This must be resurrected immediately to help groups that are increasingly marginalised. The groups who are helped should be broadened to also include refugees, helping those who want to rebuild their lives in the UK and contribute to their new society.

The department for business has published the results of an investigation into the safety of the Hotpoint fridge freezer model FF175B, which was identified as being involved in the Grenfell Tower fire. In a written ministerial statement the business minister Andrew Griffiths said:

The full investigation has now concluded. It confirmed the advice that was given to consumers in June, that there is no need for a product recall or for any other corrective action for this model, and that consumers can continue using the product as normal. The investigation concluded that the product met legal safety requirements and that the risk associated with the model is assessed as low.

The Commons authorities have announced plans today to eliminate the use of single-use plastics on the parliamentary estate by 2019. The measures being introduced include:

  • Banning the use of non-recyclable disposable cups in parliamentary cafes from this summer. Compostable cups will be used, but there will be a 25p discount for people using reusable cups.
  • Plastic bottles of mineral water will no longer be on sale in parliament from this summer. More water dispensers will be provided instead.
  • Plastic condiment sachets will be banned from parliamentary canteens.

The proposals were welcomed today by Mary Creagh, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons environmental audit committee. Her committee proposed a nationwide 25p “latte levy” for people using disposable coffee cups in a report in January. She said:

I am pleased to see parliament taking action to reduce the amount of single use plastics we use, in response to my committee’s reports. This is an important first step to creating the world’s first plastic-free parliament.

Parliament’s action stands in stark contrast to ministers who consult, announce and re-announce, but never seem to do anything to turn back the plastic tide.

Unite and Momentum backing rival candidates for Labour's Lewisham East nomination

Unite and Momentum are set to back rival candidates for the battle to become Lewisham East’s next Labour MP, the Guardian has learned.

The development is the latest in an interesting dynamic on the Labour left, first dragged into the open by the battle to become Labour’s next general secretary. Momentum founder Jon Lansman pitched himself against Jennie Formby from Unite, who was backed by the leaders’ office. Lansman eventually withdrew from the race and Formby was selected.

The Guardian understands Momentum’s national co-ordinating group is likely to back Lewisham councillor Sakina Sheikh, a former student campaigner who has close links with the grassroots group. Unite have already formally backed Islington councillor Claudia Webbe, a member of Labour’s national executive committee and a former advisor to Ken Livingstone.

Both candidates have been interviewed by Momentum chiefs to try to win the group’s backing. A Momentum source suggested they wanted to back a candidate with local credentials. “The local Momentum heavily backs Sakina and it feels like she will get the national backing, as they are keen to make sure it’s a local candidate with the endorsement of local members,” the source said.

Unite announced on Tuesday it was backing Webbe, the more experienced candidate, calling her “a lifelong socialist who tirelessly fights the corner of working people, and for justice for those let down by our political system.”

Two other candidates have also been shortlisted, councillor Brenda Dacres, who stood unsuccessfully to be Lewisham mayor earlier this year, and Janet Daby, Lewisham’s deputy mayor.

Lewisham East’s local party is controlled by party centrists, who are likely to organise for Daby or Dacres other candidates. A Momentum source said the seat could be “a real tough battle” for the left in the local party.

A Momentum activist
A Momentum activist Photograph: Fabio de Paola for the Guardian

Updated

This is from the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner.

Recently Gardner spoke out about the problems he has encountered at Heathrow, where his wheelchair has repeatedly been lost.

There will be an urgent question on the killing of 58 Palestinian protesters in Gaza yeserday at 12.30pm.

My colleague Matthew Weaver is covering events in Gaza, and global reaction, on a separate live blog.

A pro-remain campaign group has been fined £2,000 by the official elections watchdog for failing to declare donations totalling £30,000 in the EU referendum, the Press Association reports. The Electoral Commission said Best for Our Future Ltd failed to include a £20,000 donation from the GMB trade union and a further £10,000 from Unison in its spending return. The two unions were each fined £500 for not accurately reporting donations while Unison received a further penalty of £1,000 for late payment of an invoice.

Updated

Damian Collins, the committee chair, is now asking about the Electoral Commission investigation into Leave.EU which resulted in Leave.EU being fined £70,000.

Q: Do you think Liz Bilney, the chief executive of Leave.EU who now faces a police investigation, will be the only person investigated by the police?

Bassett says she cannot answer that. It is a matter for the police.

Electoral Commission chief tells MPs it needs to be able to impose larger fines

The Commons culture committee has just started taking evidence from the Electoral Commission as part of its “fake news” inquiry.

The witnesses are: Claire Bassett, chief executive of the Electoral Commission; Bob Posner, its director of political finance and regulation and legal counsel; and Louise Edwards, its head of regulations.

Bassett starts by saying the commission thinks electoral law is old and fragmented. But she would not go as far as to say it is not fit for purpose, she says.

She says the commission has made a whole series of recommendations for reforms. Some of them it has been pushing for for 15 years, she says.

She says the rules about the regulation of campaign spending need to be updated.

And she says the commission needs tougher powers. It can only impose a fine of £20,000. That is too low, she says. It has been described as the cost of doing business.

  • Electoral Commission chief says it needs to be able to impose larger fines.

And she says the commission needs tougher enforcement powers, for example in relation to being able to require third parties to disclose information.

Claire Bassett, chief executive of Electoral Commission
Claire Bassett, chief executive of Electoral Commission Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Boris Johnson says Israelis should exercise 'restraint' in use of live rounds

The Foreign Office has just tweeted this statement from Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, about the killing of 58 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces yesterday.

Updated

Leaving customs union properly is most popular post-Brexit customs option, poll suggests

We’ve got some new Guardian/ICM polling out today. And its good news (ish) for Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg

Customs union

First, we asked about the customs union. As the psephologist John Curtice explained in a recent blog for What UK Thinks, the existing polling on this topic is not very satisfactory. If you ask people if they are in favour of customs checks for people and goods coming from the EU, they tend to say yes. But if you ask people if they are in favour of staying in the customs union (which would remove the need for said checks), they also say yes. “One feature of the polling and survey evidence to date is that few pollsters and researchers have dared attempt to ask voters specifically about what customs arrangement the UK should have with the EU,” Curtice says.

Well, we had a go. We asked people which of these three statements on customs after Brexit they most agreed with. The results were:

It is very important to leave the customs union properly, so the UK can strike its own trade deals: 35%

It is very important to stay in the customs union, so firms can trade with the EU more easily: 24%

The best solution might involve some sort of compromise, perhaps along the lines of the customs partnership, because the alternative proposals are both flawed: 26%

We did not put names to the three options, but ‘leaving the customs union properly’ is the position associated with Tories like Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, or Jacob Rees-Mogg, head of the 60-strong European Research Group. Staying in the customs union is the Labour party position. And a compromise seems to be what Theresa May wants. She argues that the customs partnership, supposedly her favoured option, does involve leaving the customs union properly, but Brexiters don’t accept that, which is why we mentioned it in this context.

  • The post-Brexit customs policy championed by Brexiters like Boris Johnson is most popular with voters, the poll suggests. A third of voters want a customs policy that prioritises leaving the customs union properly, while only a quarter of voters want to stay in a customs union, while another quarter favour a compromise. But you could also read the figures as showing that 50% of voters are opposed to a clean break with the customs union. Some 15% of respondents said they did not know.
Customs union polling
Customs union polling

Extending the transition

The post-Brexit transition period is due to come to an end in December 2020 but there has been a lot of speculation that it will have to be extended. Damian Green, the former first secretary of state, became the latest person to float this idea at the weekend. Downing Street insists this will not happen, although there have been some hints that they could shift.

We told respondents there was talk of the transition being extended to allow new customs arrangements to be introduced and asked them if they would support or oppose this. Here are the results.

Polling on extending the transition
Polling on extending the transition.
  • Nearly half of voters oppose extending the Brexit transition, the poll suggests. Some 43% of people said they were against this idea, even when it was suggested this might be necessary to allow time for new customs arrangements to be introduced. But 38% of people said they were in favour. Another 19% said they did not know.

As ICM’s Alex Turk points out, opinion was polarised along political party and leave/remain lines.

While views are fairly evenly split, more of the British public oppose (43%) than support (38%) extending the Brexit transition period beyond 2020. These views are polarised along party and EU referendum lines: two-thirds (67%) of 2016 Leave voters and 3 in 5 (62%) of those intending to vote Conservative oppose extending the transition period, whereas three in five (59%) 2016 Remain voters and almost half (49%) of those intending to vote Labour support extending the transition period.

Voting intention

  • The Conservatives retain a 3-point lead over Labour, the poll suggests. This is unchanged from the 3-point the Tories had in the Guardian/ICM poll two weeks ago.
Voting intention
Voting intention

The tables will go up on the ICM website later today. I will post a link here when they are available.

ICM Unlimited interviewed a representative online sample of 2,050 adults aged 18+, between 11 and 13 May 2018. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

UPDATE: Here are the tables (pdf).

Updated

Unemployment at 4.2%, lowest rate since 1975

The number of people in work has reached a new record, while earnings have grown in line with inflation, new figures show, the Press Association reports. Employment increased by 197,000 in the quarter to March to 32.3m, the highest figure since records began in 1971, giving a record rate of 75.6%. Unemployment fell by 46,000 to 1.42m, giving a jobless rate of 4.2%, the lowest since 1975, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Average earnings increased by 2.6% in the year to March, down by 0.2% on the previous month, but 0.2% up on a year ago. The latest CPI inflation figure is 2.5%.

Senior ONS statistician Matt Hughes said:

With employment up again in the three months to March, the rate has hit a new record, with unemployment remaining at its lowest rate since 1975.

The growth in employment is still being driven by UK nationals, with a slight drop over the past year in the number of foreign workers. It’s important to remember, though, that this isn’t a measure of migration.

Growth in total pay remains in line with inflation, meaning real earnings are flat on the year.

My colleague Graeme Wearden has more on the business live blog.

May accused of subverting devolution as MSPs prepare to refuse consent to EU withdrawal bill

Theresa May’s Brexit difficulties show no signs of easing. She is chairing yet another meeting of the cabinet’s key Brexit sub committee this afternoon to discuss customs with, as my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg indicating that the Tories who want a harder form of Brexit have no intention of backing down.

And Scotland is also implacable. Today the Scottish parliament is set to vote for a motion refusing to grant legislative consent to the EU withdrawal bill. This is itself will not block the legislation - even though the Scotland Act 2016 says the UK government should not “normally” legislate on devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish parliament, the supreme court in the article 50 case said this was not legally enforceable - but it will show that the goodwill underpinning the devolution settlement is being eroded.

Speaking about the issue on the Today programme this morning Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s Brexit minister, said:

Devolution is the settled constitutional will not just of the Scottish people, of the whole of the UK. Westminster is trying to subvert that and to change that by the back door.

The parliament will vote to reject legislative consent for the withdrawal bill - not just the Scottish National party in government, I think all the parties save the Conservatives will actually vote for that.

More on that later, in what promises to be a busy day. Here is the agenda.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet.

9.30am: Unemployment figures are published.

10.30am: Electoral Commission executives give evidence to the Commons media committee inquiry into fake news.

11.30am: Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

1pm: May chairs a meeting of the cabinet’s key Brexit sub committee to discuss customs.

After 1pm: MPs debate the data protection bill. The government will seek to overturn last night’s Lords vote calling for a new Leveson-style inquiry into the press.

After 2pm: MSPs in Edinburgh begin a debate on a motion to refuse legislative consent to the EU Withdrawal bill. They are due to vote at 5pm.

3.45pm: Sajid Javid, the new home secretary, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about the Windrush migrants.

5.30pm: May holds a press conference with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after talks in Downing Street.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.

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

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

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

Updated

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