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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

May survives Tory Brexit rebellion with narrow Commons victory - as it happened

Theresa May in the Commons
Theresa May in the Commons earlier, where MPs are now voting on the customs bill. Photograph: PA

Evening summary

The government has survived a rebellion by Tory MPs over the Brexit Customs Bill – just.

We’re going to close down this live blog now, but you can read our full story on that here:

Here’s a summary of the evening’s events:

Two amendments proposed by the hard Brexit-backing European Research Group (ERG) of Tory backbenchers passed by only three votes. Three Labour MPs backed both of the amendments, while a suspended Labour MP backed one. Two others were approved by MPs on the nod.

The defence minister, Guto Bebb, resigned in order to rebel against the government.

Theresa May denied rolling over to the ERG, saying she was happy to listen to MPs on legislation. She also denied her acceptance of the group’s amendments meant her Chequers deal was dead.

The anti-Brexit Tory MP, Anna Soubry, launched a vicious Commons attack on opponents in her own party. But she declined to push her own amendments to a vote, saying she wanted to give May’s plan a chance.

You can read a summary of the day’s earlier events here.

The Lib Dems say the government was capable only of “bundling the Customs Bill through the House of Commons”. Its Brexit spokesperson, Tom Brake, said:

Today, we have seen the truly calamitous state of the Tory party as, once again, the prime minister is forced to concede ground to hold together her unholy alliance of MPs.

The precarious nature and weakness of this government means they have to try to ram through the Brexit process, whilst attempting to grant draconian powers to ministers to change laws without due process or scrutiny.

We’ve asked the party why its leader, Vince Cable, and its former leader, Tim Farron, didn’t vote against the government this evening, but there’s been no response.

For those who’ve asked me to clarify: New clause 37, which would make it unlawful for Northern Ireland to form a separate customs territory to Great Britain, passed on the nod.

The government had said it was in line with its policy.

The same three Labour MPs – Frank Field, Kate Hoey and Graham Stringer – sided with the government over amendment 73, which passed by three votes.

The suspended Labour MP, Kelvin Hopkins, voted against the government this time. He was joined by 11 Tory rebels – three fewer than at the previous ERG amendment vote. They were:

  1. Heidi Allen
  2. Ken Clarke
  3. Jonathan Djanogly
  4. Dominic Grieve
  5. Stephen Hammond
  6. Phillip Lee
  7. Nicky Morgan
  8. Robert Neill
  9. Antoinette Sandbach
  10. Anna Soubry
  11. Sarah Wollaston

Updated

MPs have voted by a majority of 33 to approve the Brexit Customs Bill – 318 voting for and 285 against. The government has survived.

The Eurosceptic Conservative MPs’ amendment 73, to stop the UK from joining the EU’s VAT regime, was approved by 303 votes to 300 – the same slim majority as the earlier ERG amendment vote.

In all, 14 Tories rebelled against the government’s adopted ERG amendment (new clause 36):

  1. Heidi Allen
  2. Guto Bebb
  3. Rochard Benyon
  4. Ken Clarke
  5. Jonathan Djanogly
  6. Domonic Grieve
  7. Stephen Hammond
  8. Phillip Lee
  9. Nicky Morgan
  10. Robert Neill
  11. Mark Pawsey
  12. Antoinette Sandbach
  13. Anna Soubry
  14. Sarah Wollaston

It’s worth noting that three Labour MPs, the exact margin by which Theresa May the vote, sided with the government:

  1. Frank Field
  2. Kate Hoey
  3. Graham Stringer

One suspended Labour MP, Kelvin Hopkins, also voted with the government.

Updated

Defence minister resigns – reports

Various political reporters are saying the defence minister, Guto Bebb, has resigned from the government over its acceptance of the ERG amendments.

The Labour MP, Chuka Umunna, had earlier said Bebb was among those MPs voting against the government, which – if true – made his resignation inevitable.

The government won the vote on the Labour dumping amendment by 317 votes to 283 - a majority of 34.

They are now voting on amendment 33, an SNP amendment. John Bercow says the government had indicated it would accept this amendment. But when he put it to a vote, some MPs shouted no.

He calls the vote again. This time it goes through on the nod.

Amendment 72, the ERG one saying joining a customs union would require primary legislation, goes through on the nod.

And now MPs are voting on amendment 73 - the ERG amendment saying the UK could not join the EU’s VAT regime.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson will be picking up the blog now.

This is from Labour’s Chuka Umunna.

MPs are now voting on another Labour amendment, on dumping (dumping in trade/pricing terms, not in waste terms.) It would create a presumption that, if dumping is found, action must be taken. It’s amendment 21.

Government majority cut to three as pro-European Tories protest about concession to Brexiters

The government have won by a majority of just three; there were 305 votes in favour of the ERG amendment (see 9.48pm), and 302 against.

Updated

Opinion is divided as to whether or not this amendment (see 9.48pm) contradicts the government’s Brexit white paper. The government says it does not; Labour MPs say it does.

Why the uncertainty? There is a relatively simple explanation; the white paper (pdf) proposes a measure of reciprocity, but not full reciprocity.

The government is proposing that, where UK and EU tariffs are the same, or where EU tariffs are higher, there will be reciprocity. It says:

The UK and the EU should agree a mechanism for the remittance of relevant tariff revenue. On the basis that this is likely to be the most robust approach, the UK proposes a tariff revenue formula, taking account of goods destined for the UK entering via the EU and goods destined for the EU entering via the UK.

But the government also says that, if the UK proposes a higher tariff than the EU for the same good (not something it plans), the EU would not be expected to pass on the revenue to the UK. It says:

However, the UK is not proposing that the EU applies the UK’s tariffs and trade policy at its border for goods intended for the UK.

So, whether or not you think the white paper proposes reciprocity depends on how much reciprocity you mean.

MPs vote on first ERG amendment

MPs are now having the first of two votes on European Research Group (ERG) amendments. It is on new clause 36, the “tariff reciprocity” one saying that the UK would only be able to collect tariffs on behalf of the EU if it collected them on behalf of the UK.

It has been tabled by Priti Patel, the Brexiter former international development secretary. Here it is in full.

New clause 36
New clause 36 Photograph: Parliament

The government won the third vote by 316 votes to 36 - a majority of 280.

This is from the SNP’s Joanna Cherry.

Labour says plan to start Commons summer recess early is sign government is 'weak and frightened'

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, says the government’s decision to propose sending MPs off on their summer recess early (see 8.48pm) is a sign that the government is “weak and frightened”.

MPs are now voting for the third time, on an SNP amendment saying the government would need the approval of the Scottish parliament to use certain powers in the bill. It is new clause 16.

You can read all the amendments tabled here (pdf).

The government won the second vote, on the Labour amendment on enhanced parliamentary procedures, by 316 votes to 291 - a majority of 25.

No Conservatives voted with Labour in the first division, on the customs union. (See 9.16pm.)

Damian McBride, who used to be Gordon Brown’s chief spin doctor and who now works for Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, claims the ERG amendment on tariff reciprocity accepted by the government today contradicts what David Lidington told Thornberry at PMQs on Wednesday. He has posted a thread on it starting here.

MPs are now voting on new clause 13 - a Labour amendment beefing up parliamentary scrutiny procedures when certain resolutions are passed using powers in the bill for secondary legislation.

Government wins first customs bill vote by majority of 27

The government has won the first vote. Labour’s call for the UK to stay in a customs union with the EU has been defeated by 316 votes to 289 - a majority of 27.

Until details of Theresa May’s Chequers plan were revealed, it was assumed that the vote on staying in a customs union for good after Brexit would be the most difficult one for the government all summer. That’s the vote MPs are having now (although on the Labour motion, not the Soubry one.)

Now it does not seem so crucial because it is assumed that pro-European Tories won’t rebel because the Chequers plan comes close to keeping the UK in a customs union anyway.

MPs start voting on customs bill

MPs are now voting on the customs bills.

Labour whips has a summary of the divisions.

Anna Soubry chooses not to put her customs union amendment to the vote, and so the first vote is on new clause 11, the Labour one saying the UK should stay in a customs union with the EU after Brexit.

Anna Soubry says amendment 73 and new clause 36 are not designed to help the white paper. They are designed to wreck it.

We’ve got seven votes coming up.

Stride says new clause 37 (the ERG one on Ireland) is in line with government policy.

Stride quotes from paragraph 17 of the white paper. The white paper says:

The UK and the EU should agree a mechanism for the remittance of relevant tariff revenue. On the basis that this is likely to be the most robust approach, the UK proposes a tariff revenue formula, taking account of goods destined for the UK entering via the EU and goods destined for the EU entering via the UK.

Stride says on this basis new clause 36 is compatible with the white paper.

Amber Rudd, the pro-European former home secretary, asks for an assurance that new clause 36 won’t affect the government’s negotiating strategy.

Stride says the government does want to negotiate reciprocity with the EU.

Labour’s Paul Farrelly asks Stride why the government thinks services are less important than goods.

Stride says that is not what the government thinks.

Ken Clarke, the Conservative pro-European, says the white paper says the UK does not expect the EU to collect tariffs on its behalf. But new clause 36 does require this. He says this shows the amendment is intended to undermine the white paper.

Stride says it is important to read paragraph 17 of the white paper (pdf), which deals with cooperation with the EU on tariffs, in its entirety.

Mel Stride, the Treasury minister, is winding up for the government now.

John Bercow, the speaker, starts by saying that Stride’s wife and two daughters are in the gallery to watch because it is his 13th wedding anniversary.

According to the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, MPs will be asked to vote on a motion tomorrow for the recess to start on Thursday, not Tuesday.

Back in the debate Dowd urges MPs to support Labour’s new clause 11, which would keep the UK in a customs union with the EU after Brexit.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, says Theresa May does not seem to know what she is doing.

Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, is winding up now for Labour.

Rather than focusing on the amendments, he starts with a broad-brush attack on the government covering all sorts of issues.

Blackman says, if the government accepts the ERG amendments, “then we have a severe problem”.

Referring to new clause 36, which would say the UK could only collect tariffs on behalf of the EU if there is reciprocity, she says this contradicts what was in the white paper last week. How can businesses plan on this basis, she asks.

Kirsty Blackman, the SNP’s economy spokesperson, is winding up for her party now. In a funny and clever speech (I will post quotes if I get the chance), she complains that the Commons is divided into too many factions and she mocks the government for accepting ERG amendments, but no one else’s, even though it does not really agree with them. She says there is a majority in the Commons for staying in the customs union but that it has not been able to express itself in votes.

UPDATE: Here’s an excerpt.

There are too many factions in this House. We have the UK government, the Conservative remainers, the European Research Group, the Democratic Unionist party, the Labour leavers, the Labour remainers and the Labour front bench. The UK government will not support things put forward by anybody who supports remain. The Labour front bench will not support anything put forward by the Conservative remainers. The members of the ERG will not support anything put forward by anybody except themselves. The Democratic Unionist party will support whatever the UK Government tells it to, on the basis that it is being paid to do so. Mr Speaker, it is a complete shambles.

Updated

Grieve says he will vote against 'malevolent' ERG amendments

Earlier Dominic Grieve, the Conservative pro-European, told the Commons that he would vote against two of the ERG amendments - amendment 73 and new clause 36. (See 3.30pm.) He described them as “entirely malevolent” and “directly designed to undermine the white paper”. He went on:

The government has accepted amendments which it knows cannot do what the intention is, and not only that, they’ve told my honourable and right honourable friends that and they’ve decided not to say, ‘Oh, then in those circumstances we withdraw the amendment’, to persist with it because it’s just an exercise in bullying.

It is not my job as a member of parliament to put on the statute book clauses in bills which are inadequate, incomprehensible and on top of that seek to undermine the government and that’s why I describe them as entirely malevolent and for that reason I shall be voting against both of them this evening.

Charlie Elphicke, who is currently sitting as an independent while suspended from the Conservatives, is speaking in the debate now. He says change takes courage. And MPs’ constituents have been braver than MPs who are resisting Brexit, he says.

This is from my colleague Jessica Elgot.

Political journalist are trying to get their heads around the possibility of the government being defeated on amendments that it never wanted to accept in the first place.

This is from ITV’s Robert Peston.

And this is from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.

Labour’s Chris Leslie intervenes. He says the government white paper propose “the application of common cross-border processes and procedures for VAT and excise”. So how can the VAT amendment be in line with government policy?

Rees-Mogg says VAT is not collected at the border. It is paid by importers.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the ERG, is speaking in the debate now. He says the four ERG-backed amendments are “broadly in line with government policy”, which is why the government is supporting them.

According to Sky’s Faisal Islam, there is now a chance that the government could now be defeated on the rebel ERG amendments that it is now supporting - because some of the Tory pro-Europeans will vote with the opposition parties against them.

Sir Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative Brexiter, says the four ERG amendments were intended to clarify government policy. He criticises his pro-European colleague Dominic Grieve, saying that it was not helpful for Grieve to describe the amendments as “useless” (see 5.51pm) and that Grieve’s Evening Standard article today (see 12.49pm) suggests he now wants to stay in the EU.

The DUP’s Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, is speaking in the debate now. He supports the ERG amendment new clause 37, which would make it unlawful for Northern Ireland to form a separate customs territory from Great Britain.

Turning away from Brexit for a moment, my colleague Jessica Elgot says Labour MPs have voted in favour of adopting the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

The party has faced strong criticism for proposing a definition of antisemitism that does not include some of the examples in the IHRA definition.

Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor, says Theresa May’s decision to accept the ERG amendments, will only make the EU even more determined to insist on a backstop plan for Ireland.

Tony Connelly, RTE’s Europe editor, says the ERG amendment new clause 37 (see 3.30pm) appears to invalidate the Irish backstop.

The Commons is meant to start its summer recess on Tuesday next week. But, as HuffPost reports, there are rumours at Westminster, which are not being denied by people in government, that the government will bring it forward so that the recess starts on Thursday. MPs do know how to use phones, but plotting is always much more intense when they are gathered together in person in the House of Commons and, from the whips’ point of view, the best way to keep them out of trouble is to send them on holiday.

Ken Clarke says he's in 'despair' at latest government concession to Brexiters

Ken Clarke, the Conservative pro-European, said in his speech that the ERG amendments would change government policy in a “quite ridiculous” way. He said he was in “despair” about the government’s decision to accept them, and implied he could not understand why the government did not whip against the ERG, who were only “a tiny handful of people. He told MPs:

If one week after the government has set out a policy which I’m prepared personally to give a fair wind to I find that they’re going to accept amendments like [amendment] 73 and new clause 36 which promptly change the policy in a quite ridiculous way, I shall despair.

The government has only got to vote against those new clauses and I’m absolutely certain the opposition parties will not be able to think of any sensible reason why they should help [Jacob Rees-Mogg] and others to get a majority in this House.

We can demonstrate they are a tiny handful of people and their arguments are most certainly not in the national interest.

'Complete madness' - Tory pro-Europeans react with fury as May gives in to Brexiter demands

Anna Soubry’s speech at the start of the debate was a belter. Here are some excerpts.

  • Soubry described the government’s decision to accept the European Research Group amendments as “complete madness”. She said:

Members on the frontbench and across this place should be shaking their heads with shame - this is the stuff of complete madness. And the only reason that the government has accepted these amendments is because it is frightened of somewhere in the region of 40 members of parliament - the hard, no deal Brexiteers, who should have been seen off a long time ago and should be seen off. These are people who do not want a responsible Brexit, they want their version of Brexit - they don’t even represent the people who actually voted Leave. The consequences of this are grave, not just for our country but also for this party.

  • She said the government was in danger of “losing the plot” over Brexit. She said:

This white paper faces up to the Brexit reality and that is what honourable and right honourable members on this side now must do. This government is in grave danger of not just losing the plot but losing a considerable amount of support from the people of this country unless we get Brexit right.

  • She said attacks on Theresa May in the Telegraph letters page as a “traitor” because of the white paper were “outrageous”. She said.

I’m getting a bit tired of being called a traitor. There are certain people sitting on these benches who actually support a newspaper that had the disgraceful temerity to suggest that the Prime Minister might in some way have committed treason by the production of this paper.

It’s outrageous and [Tory MPs] really need to have a bit of a reality check, not just on Brexit but on the way the party is conducting itself and who they choose to call their friends.

Davis has now finished. As he promised, he certainly did not deliver a classic, disruptive resignation speech.

Anyone looking for some damning comment from Davis on the white paper and the Chequers plan would do better reading his resignation letter or his article in the Sunday Times yesterday (paywall).

Here is the main allegation in his Sunday Times article, where he effectively accuses Number 10 of being “astonishingly dishonest”.

Now some are saying that those on the other side of the argument have no worked-out alternative. This is an astonishingly dishonest claim. For the past seven or eight weeks my erstwhile department had been working on a white paper based on the prime minister’s speeches. The individual chapters of the paper were being painstakingly agreed with individual departments of state before the whole paper was to be put to the cabinet — which, of course, it never was.

Davis says the government’s facilitated customs arrangement would deal with a problem that is less serious than people realise. And it would mean the UK throwing away the chance to make its own trade deals.

Davis says people keep saying how good the EU is at negotiating trade deals. But the fact it represents 28 countries means it comes up with “sub-optimal” trade deals all the time, he says.

The European Union is a slow and not very effective negotiator of free trade agreements, we keep hearing about their negotiating power, their size.

Actually the fact that they represent 28 different countries means they come up with sub-optimal outcomes all the time and actually we’re the country that does least well out of the EU free trade agreements.

Updated

Davis says the most complicated border issue is in Ireland. But no British government, and no Irish government, would install a hard border there.

And people forget there is an actual border there already, he says.

Davis says he used to do business across the US/Canada border.

He says that border operates effectively for business, even though there are tariffs.

Davis says those in favour of the white paper arrangements think staying in the single market for goods is worth it economically.

But the EU’s share of UK trade has been falling, by about 1% a year. The EU used to take 60% of UK trade. Soon it will be down to 40%.

Ken Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, intervenes. He says trade with the rest of the world is growing because these are emerging markets. It is not because of a failure on behalf of the EU.

Davis says Clarke is making the same point.

John Redwood, a Conservative Brexiter, says people misunderstand customs. They think there are people in boxes at ports taking the money. That is not how it works now.

Davis agrees.

He says the claim that trade is frictionless now is wrong. He cites delays at the Dover-Calais border, and the need for Operation Stack.

David Davis
David Davis Photograph: Parliament TV

David Davis's speech

David Davis, who resigned as Brexit secretary over the white paper last week, is speaking now.

He says, for the benefit of reporters, he wants to make the point that this is not a resignation speech. He is speaking as a backbencher, he says.

And he says he has read reports of some Brexiters wanting to vote against this bill and the trade bill. They should not, he says. He says these bills are vital for Brexit.

The taxation (cross-border trade) bill and its partner, the trade bill coming tomorrow, are vital pieces of legislation. In the newspapers at the weekend I read that some people were so cross with the white paper that they were proposing to vote against this.

Well, I don’t think they can be much more cross than me with the white paper, but I do urge them not to vote against them.

Updated

This is from the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope on what is happening in the debate so far.

And this is from the Telegraph’s Steven Swinford.

Rees-Mogg 'a major threat to future of our economy', MPs told

Labour’s Chris Leslie is speaking now. He agrees with Anna Soubry’s comments about the European Research Group (ERG) amendments. And he makes a strong attack on Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative chair of the ERG. Leslie says:

I think we’ve got the measure of [Rees-Mogg]. He used to be quite an entertaining curiosity in this place. No longer. He represents a major, present threat to the future of our economy and the jobs of our constituents. What he is trying to do here, he is trying to scupper and find ways of wrecking the smooth, frictionless that we have for businesses.

Tory pro-Europeans threaten to rebel as they express fury over May’s concession to Brexiters

Soubry renews her attack on the government for accepting the ERG amendments, which she describes as wrecking amendments.

Dominic Grieve, her fellow pro-European Conservative, intervenes. He says the ERG amendments won’t do what is claimed. They are “unnecessary” and “useless”, he says. That means:

The only intention behind their tabling was malevolent.

Soubry agrees.

She says the government only accepted them because it is “frightened” of the Tory Brexiters. Who is in charge, she asks - Theresa May or Jacob Rees-Mogg.

She says the Tory Brexiter are “hurtling to the extremes of British political life” and pushing Britain “over the Brexit cliff”.

  • Tory pro-Europeans threaten to rebel as they express fury over May’s concession to Brexiters.

Updated

Soubry says she is not pushing her amendments to a vote.

She says that is because she wants to give May’s Chequers plan a chance.

It is not because she is a coward, she says. She says three people are serving custodial sentences because of death threats issued to her.

And she says it is particularly disappointing that some Tory MPs support the Daily Telegraph, which last week published letters accusing May of “treason” because of her plans.

Earlier in her speech Anna Soubry praised Margaret Thatcher. Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative Brexiter, responded by saying he worked for Thatcher and (echoing Lloyd Bentsen) he said Soubry wasn’t Margaret Thatcher. Nicky Morgan then heckled Leigh, saying his intervention was “pathetic”.

Anna Soubry opens customs bill debate

MPs are now starting their debate on the customs bill, or the taxation (cross-border trade) bill, to give it its proper name.

The report stage debate should run until 9pm, when amendments may be put to a vote.

MPs will then vote to give the bill a third reading at 10pm.

Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, is opening the debate. She has tabled various amendments to the bill, including one that would keep the UK in the customs union.

Until quite recently this was the amendment that most worried Downing Street. The opposition parties are in favour of keeping the UK in the customs union and, with at least a dozen or so Tories also in favour, a government defeat seemed a real possibility.

But Theresa May’s Brexit white paper comes close to keeping the UK in the customs union, and that seems to have been enough to satisfy most pro-Europeans.

Instead we are likely to see pro-Europeans rebelling by voting against the ERG amendments, as Heidi Allen has already proposed. (See 4.56pm.)

Starting her speech, Soubry said she would vote against the ERG amendments 73 and NC36. (See 3.30pm.) She said it was “deeply regrettable” that the government had accepted them.

Anna Soubry
Anna Soubry Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister, left a meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, thinking the UK and the EU are “a long way from an agreement”, the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge reports. He has posted a Twitter thread which starts with these tweets.

There is a summary of Carwyn Jones’ own Brexit plan here.

Referring to amendment NC36 (new clause 36 - see 3.30pm), the most controversial of the European Research Group ones the government is accepting, a Downing Street source said:

We accept that is consistent with the position set out in the white paper. It [the white paper] says on reciprocity that the UK and the EU should agree a method for the remittance of relevant tariff revenues, on the basis this is likely to be the most robust approach.

Heidi Allen, a Conservative pro-European, says that even though the government is backing the four European Research Group amendments (see 3.30pm), she will vote against two of them, and abstain on two others.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

In the Commons Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is making a statement about how the government will consult parliament and other bodies when signing trade deals in the future.

Ken Clarke, the Conservative pro-European, says he thinks this non-urgent statement has been scheduled just to reduce the time available for the customs bill debate later. He says the government has accepted amendments that are incompatible with the Brexit white paper published last week.

Updated

These are from the ITV’s Robert Peston.

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, clearly does not accept Theresa May’s assurances. (See 4.34pm.) He claims Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, has destroyed May’s Chequers plan.

May rejects claim accepting ERG amendments means 'Chequers deal now dead'

Labour’s Stephen Kinnock also asked May about the government’s decision to accept the ERG amendments. He said:

Why then does she keep dancing to the tune of the European Research Group? And does she see that by capitulating to their proposals on the customs and trade bill she is accepting that the Chequers deal is now dead in the water?

May replied:

Can I saw to [Kinnock] he is absolutely wrong in his reference to the agreement that was reached at Chequers. I would not have gone through all the work I did to ensure that we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these bills. They do not change that Chequers agreement. And the minister from the despatch box later today will be making that clear.

No 10 confirms government accepting all 4 ERG amendments to customs bill

Downing Street has confirmed that the government is now accepting all four ERG amendments (see 3.30pm). They are all consistent with the government’s Brexit white paper, Number 10 says.

(See 3.52pm for an explanation as to why, or at least why this is arguable.)

Updated

May says she is 'happy to hear concerns from colleagues' in response to claims she rolled over to ERG

In the Commons Labour’s Chris Leslie said May seemed “always happy to roll over” to the European Research Group (ERG) when they made demands. May rejected this, telling Leslie:

I’m happy to sit down and hear concerns from my colleagues. We did that on the EU withdrawal bill and we continue to do that on other bills.

May's Brexit climbdown shows Rees-Mogg deciding government policy, says Labour

Here is some reaction from opposition parties to the government’s customs bill climdown in the face of Brexiter demands.

From the Labour MP Gareth Thomas, in a statement issued by the People’s Vote campaign

Accepting the ERG amendments means sticking two fingers up to the EU’s negotiators and that Dominic Raab has effectively been replaced as Britain’s chief negotiator by Jacob Rees-Mogg, because he’s the one pulling all the strings and determining government strategy. The EU27 may remain polite but they can read the signals just as well as the rest of us: the Brextremists are now in charge.

We have just taken a step closer to the catastrophe of a no deal Brexit being forced on us by a combination of government paralysis and parliamentary confusion.

A people’s vote on the final Brexit deal remains the best, and the only, way out of the Westminster grid lock.

From the Labour MP David Lammy

From the Labour MP Chris Bryant

From Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for government business and constitutional affairs

Updated

Here is our latest story about the government’s customs bill climbdown.

Turning back to the customs bill, this is from Sky’s Faisal Islam.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper asks May if she complained to Trump about his comments about Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London. She suggests Trump has attacked him partly because he is Muslim.

May says she does not agree with Trump on these matters (his views on Islam, she implies, but she is not specific) and she says she has told him so on a number of occasions.

She says she does not agree with Khan on everything. He should be building more homes, she says. But she says, in the fight against terror, the government and the mayor work together.

Updated

Labour’s Hilary Benn asks May if she agrees with the German foreign minister who said at the weekend that Europe can no longer completely rely on the White House.

May says Nato showed its unity at the summit. She says she reminded Trump at the summit that the only time article 5 have been invoked has been in support of the United States.

Updated

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, starts by thanking those Scots who protests against President Trump at the weekend. He condemns Trump’s behaviour at the summit and when he came to the UK, and asks if May intends to take his advice and sue the EU. May can be seen laughing at this point.

In her reply May says, again, the UK agrees with Trump on the need for Nato members to spend more on defence.

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Research, says the government could accept new clause 36 (see 3.30pm) without having to rip up the plans in the Brexit white paper.

May is replying to Corbyn.

She says Trump did make a difference at the summit. She says the UK shares his view that Nato countries should hit the 2% spending target. It was a target reaffirmed at the Nato summit in Wales.

She says Germany was one of the many countries around the world that stood shoulder to shoulder with the UK after the Salisbury attack.

She says Corbyn has changed his mind on Nato. It is not so long ago he said he would prefer it if the UK was not in it, she says.

Jeremy Corbyn is responding now. He says government policy should be addressing the drivers of security threats. Last week’s summit was a chance for Nato to reset its approach to the problems it faces. Yet this was another summit dominated by the “erratic” behaviour of President Trump.

Did Trump say Nato countries should spend 4% of GDP on defence?

Does May condemn his comment that Germany is a “captive” of Russia?

Was she happy with Trump expressing a preference for Boris Johnson as her successor?

Corbyn says the “bomb first, talk later” approach to security has failed.

Nato wants to work more with the United Nations. But it needs to treat the UN with more respect, and end double standards, he says.

May has now finished her statement. I may have missed it, but I think she managed to get through her statement without mentioning President Trump.

UPDATE: A reader thinks Trump did get a mention.

FURTHER UPDATE: He is right. This is from the text of May’s statement.

As the UK plays this leading role in the security of the whole continent, so it is right that we work to even burden sharing across the alliance and that other allies step up and contribute more to our shared defence.

This summit included an additional session in response to the challenge posed by President Trump on exactly this point.

Updated

Turning back to the customs bill, this is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

This is from the Labour MP Stephen Doughty.

Theresa May's statement on Nato summit

Theresa May is making a Commons statement now on the Nato summit.

She says the UK has the second largest defence budget in Nato, and the largest in Europe.

She says all Nato leaders agreed that they were committed to a fairer form of burden sharing and that there should be more urgency in moving towards this.

Labour has been told the government will accept all four ERG amendments, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

The 4 ERG amendments

The full list of amendments to the customs bill - or the taxation (cross-border trade) bill, to give it its proper title - is here (pdf). It runs to 64 pages.

There are four amendments backed by the European Research Group, the 56/60-strong Tory faction pushing for a hard Brexit.

The most important is new clause 36, which would make it unlawful for HM Revenue and Customs to collect VAT or excise duty on behalf of the EU without the EU reciprocating. This would effectively block the facilitated customs arrangement plan in Theresa May’s Brexit white paper, and would be amount to a very significant U-turn if the government does accept it.

The others are: new clause 37, which would make it unlawful for Northern Ireland to form a separate customs territory to Great Britain; amendment 72, which would require any customs union with the EU to be established by primary legislation; and amendment 73, which would stop the UK joining the EU’s VAT regime.

This is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

Michael Gove has admitted that the official leave campaign should not have stoked fears about Turkish immigration during the 2016 Brexit referendum, my colleague Dan Sabbagh reports.

Downing Street says the government is still talking to the European Research Group Brexiters about whether or not to accept the ERG amendments, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

Government 'to accept all four ERG amendments to customs bill', reports say

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg is reporting that the government has accepted all four of the European Research Group amendments to the customs bill.

This is surprising because, although three of the amendments are not especially difficult for the government, one of them would make it illegal for HMRC to collect duties for the European Union without reciprocal arrangements, which could make Theresa May’s customs plan (the facilitiated customs arrangement) impossible to implement.

On the World at One Suella Braverman, the Brexit minister who used to chair the pro-Brexit European Research Group, rejected suggestions that Brexit was tearing the Conservative party apart. She said:

I don’t think it’s yet tearing the Conservative party apart. We have got a plan, it’s been approved by the cabinet, it’s now the policy and it’s a starting point for the negotiations with the EU.

It’s a generous offer, it places the ball firmly in the EU’s court and it’s now incumbent on them to respond generously, pragmatically and favourably and we have to move forward with these negotiations.

Asked if the government would accept the European Research Group amendments to the customs bill being debated later today, Braverman said she did not know what discussions on this were going on. But she said that some of the proposed amendments “were not necessarily at odds with government policy”.

Theresa May speaks with European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake at the Farnborough Airshow.
Theresa May speaks with European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake at the Farnborough Airshow. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Lunchtime summary

  • Scott Mann has resigned a Conservative PPS (parliamentary private secretary) over May’s Brexit plan, taking to nine the number of Tories who have resigned from government or party posts because they think it does not honour the referendum result. (See 10.42am and 11.08am.)
A man makes final checks prior to the unveiling of a model of a new fighter jet, a part of Team Tempest, by Britain’s defence secretary Gavin Williamson at the Farnborough Airshow
A man makes final checks prior to the unveiling of a model of a new fighter jet, a part of Team Tempest, by Britain’s defence secretary Gavin Williamson at the Farnborough Airshow Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

The People’s Vote, which is campaigning for a second Brexit referendum, has welcomed this endorsement from Gary Lineker.

Theresa May did not ask Donald Trump to raise the Salisbury poisonings with Vladimir Putin in their meeting in Helsinki, Downing Street has said at the morning lobby briefing. As the Press Association reports, May’s spokesman said that the US president had already made clear, not least through his expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats, that he shares the PM’s judgment that Moscow was responsible for the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal that last week claimed the life of Dawn Sturgess.

The Evening Standard’s diary has picked out this quote, from the Tory Brexiter MP Andrea Jenkyns, as its quote of the day. It is from an interview with Jenkyns in today’s Daily Telegraph (paywall). It’s remarkable because many people would assume that, for a Conservative MP, having a prime minister concerned with ensuring policy is “workable” would be seen as a positive, or rather a prerequisite, not a drawback.

The quote arrived too late for inclusion in this week’s Bagehot column in the Economist (paywall), but it would have fitted perfectly because Bagehot (Adrian Wooldridge) writes about the Conservative party, arguing “the party of government is busy rendering Britain ungovernable.” The column is headlined “The Conservative party has trashed the basic principles of conservatism” and it is worth reading in full. Here is an excerpt:

There are lots of reasons why the party of government has become the party of anarchy ... But one thing above all others explains the current mess: the Conservative party, or large chunks of it, has forgotten the basic principles of conservatism. It has ceased to think like a conservative party, and it won’t recover its governing ability until it relearns that difficult art.

The first principle of conservatism is to be sceptical of pie-in-the-sky schemes. John Stuart Mill liked to mock Tories as “the stupid party”. Walter Bagehot replied that stupidity was a virtue rather than a vice — the Tories succeeded precisely because they preferred common sense to “remote ideas”, and pragmatic compromise to ideological principles. Butler summed up the Conservative approach to politics when he described politics as “the art of the possible”. Michael Oakeshott, a philosopher, said that to be conservative “is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to Utopian bliss.”

The Brexit wing of the Conservative party is the party of pie in the sky. It has reversed every one of Oakeshott’s phrases. Britain has been a member of the European Union for 45 years and was the leading architect of the single market. But the Brexiteers have decided to dump half a century of history, bought at the cost of hard negotiation and compromise, in favour of airy talk of “sovereignty” and “control”. They sold Brexit to the British people without specifying what it might mean, making Utopian promises about having cake and eating it while making effortless trade deals hither and yon.

Bernard Jenkins’ comment about business earlier (see 9.47am) also fits the Wooldridge thesis.

Former minister suggests, if May's Brexit plan fails, UK may have to stay in EU

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative pro-European and former attorney general, has written an article for today’s Evening Standard backing Theresa May’s Brexit plan but suggesting that, if parliament won’t back it, the UK might be better of staying in the EU. He says:

[May] is doing her best to minimise the damage that flows from the decision to leave the European Union. Every option is unfortunately worse than staying in the EU. But the current government policy is a lot better than the alternative being promoted.

In a deeply divided country we must either work together to get the best deal we can — and this needs compromise — or accept that Brexit cannot be implemented and think again about what we are doing.

Dominic Grieve
Dominic Grieve Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

Blair backs second Brexit referendum with three options

Yesterday Tony Blair, the former prime minister, published his assessment of Theresa May’s Brexit plan. His analysis is unusually clear-headed, and in parts chimes with what the Tory Brexiters are saying. The whole thing is worth reading in full, but here are the key points.

  • Blair backs a three-option, second Brexit referendum, of the kind also proposed by Justine Greening. (See 9.18am.) Blair says:

In any rational world, and I understand that is a big caveat in today’s politics, this would go back to the people for resolution.

It would not be a re-run of the 2016 referendum. Two major things have changed since then. Our quantum of knowledge about the issue and particularly about the consequences of leaving the single market and customs union is vastly enlarged. And there is fundamental disagreement about what Brexit means between supporters of Brexit.

The question may be complicated because it really involves three choices: clean break, ‘soft’ or stay. But the complexity is not insuperable.

  • He says the May’s Brexit plan is “the first serious attempt” to choose between the two Brexit choices facing the UK.

The dilemma is simply expressed: either we stay close to Europe after Brexit to minimise the economic cost, in which case we will be obliged to continue to abide by Europe’s rules; or we do a clean break Brexit in which case we will suffer substantial economic pain.

The first is a Brexit which leads to the question: what’s the point, since we will abide by rules over which we have lost our say, a somewhat weird way of ‘taking back control’.

The second is a Brexit which leads to the question: what’s the price?

For two years the government has tried to pretend that we could have our cake and eat it: that Europe would somehow change the rules of the single market, which we helped shape, and allow us frictionless trade with freedom to diverge where we want to.

This is and always was a non-starter.

The Chequers cabinet summit and the white paper were the first serious attempt to choose and resolve the dilemma.

  • But he describes the plan as “mush” and “the worst of both worlds”.

A genuine ‘soft’ Brexit would obviously be less damaging than a hard Brexit, though it would highlight the ‘what’s the point’ nature of this choice. But this Brexit is just mush.

It is not making the best of a bad job. It is the worst of both worlds. This is where True remainers and true leavers make common cause.

  • He says the plan would not “honour” the Brexit vote.
  • He says it could cause “possibly irreparable” damage to the services sector.

By excluding services, the government is prepared to do significant and possibly irreparable damage to the UK service sector which is the bulk of our economy, and where unlike the goods sector, we presently have a large surplus in European trade. Particularly for the financial service and tech sectors, where Britain is dominant in Europe, we now know from those active in those sectors that exclusion from the Single Market is going to result in job losses and economic cost which will impact output and revenue considerably.

  • He accepts that Brexiters have a long-term vision for Britain, but he says it only makes sense if the UK can market itself as “not Europe”.

The Brexiteers have a long term vision for Britain which may be heavily contested but is nonetheless a genuine new direction for the country. It involves Britain leaving Europe altogether, striking a new economic and political path and is a vision which only makes sense if we market ourselves as ‘not Europe’.

  • He says that the Brexiters’ plan is not necessarily unworkable, but that it is not what people were offered in the referendum.

[The Brexiters’] ‘clean break’ Brexit means not only a new relationship between Britain and Europe but a new relationship between Britain and itself.

It is not anti globalisation or anti immigration. On the contrary, it sees Britain as a global player, but free to make its own decisions without the constraints of the single market and customs union.

Unlike others, I don’t regard this vision as dystopian, cruel or necessarily unworkable. If Britain were prepared to follow the logic of it through to its ultimate realisation, it is at least a version of our future worth debating, though one I would profoundly disagree with as, I suspect, would the majority of British people.

The problem is this vision was sold, in the context of Brexit, as short term painless and with substantial immediate gains like extra money for the NHS, and the most appealing element for many of the Brexit voters especially in the north of England was that Brexit would slash immigration and put a brake on globalisation.

What has now become apparent is that, for sure, short term and this may mean a period of several years, this was a false prospectus. In the near future a ‘clean break Brexit’ involves economic disruption, the immediate result is a £40bn bill not a £350m a week NHS boost, we need most of the European migrants, and a hard border in Ireland poses risks both to the UK and the peace process.

Tony Blair
Tony Blair Photograph: Kirsty O'Connor/PA

According to Political Pictures, a Twitter account run by a photographer specialising in pictures from Downing Street, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, has just finished a lengthy meeting with whips.

That will fuel speculation that the government is planning some sort of compromise offer to avert the rebellion threatened by Brexiters. The BBC’s Norman Smith tweeted this earlier.

Simon Usherwood, deputy director of the academic UK in a Changing EU project, has joined those expressing doubts about the feasibility of having a second Brexit referendum. He has posted a Twitter thread that starts here.

No 10 rules out second Brexit referendum 'under any circumstances'

Downing Street has ruled out a second referendum “under any circumstances”, Sky’s Beth Rigby reports from the Number 10 lobby briefing.

This is stronger than the language that Number 10 have used on this topic in the past. Downing Street has always been opposed to a second referendum, but it has not ruled it out before quite so categorically.

Updated

Theresa May, speaks with Airbus CEO Tom Enders, right, from Germany, backdropped by an Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft at the Farnborough Airshow.
Theresa May, speaks with Airbus CEO Tom Enders, right, from Germany, backdropped by an Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft at the Farnborough Airshow. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

In a speech at the Farnborough International Airshow this morning, Theresa May said her Brexit plan would benefit the aerospace industry because it would maintain frictionless trade with the EU for goods. She said:

We can all feel incredibly proud of our position as a leading aerospace nation. By working closely together, government and industry have ensured we remain at the forefront of civil aviation and that our air power is second to none. Today I want us to build on that, and ensure not only that we retain our prominence, but that in an increasingly competitive industry we make the most of the opportunities that lie ahead.

As the Press Association reports, she also toured two Airbus planes at the opening of show and met Airbus chief executive Tom Enders, who took her on board an A220-300 jet which has its wings manufactured in Belfast. The single-aisle aircraft was rebranded from the Bombardier C Series last week after Airbus took a majority stake in the business.

May watched a flypast of Spitfires and the Red Arrows to officially open the show, before entering an exhibition hall where she spoke to British astronaut Tim Peake.

The Red Arrows fly in formation around a spitfire as Theresa May officially opens the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire.
The Red Arrows fly in formation around a spitfire as Theresa May officially opens the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire. Photograph: Matt Cardy/PA

Full list of Tory resignations over Theresa May's Brexit plan

By my count Scott Mann’s resignation (see 10.42am) takes the total number of Conservative resignations over Theresa May’s Brexit plan to nine. They are all from MPs who believe that it is too “soft” and that it does not honour the referendum result.

Only three are ministerial resignations. The rest are very minor, and would not matter on their own, although collectively they are significant. Parliamentary private secretaries are unpaid ministerial bag-carriers, who are bound by collective responsibility (they have to vote with the party whip or resign) but who are not members of the government. And Conservative vice chairmanships are low-level posts given out to backbenchers. There is only one Conservative deputy chair (generally seen as a proper job), but there around a dozen vice chairs.

Here is a full list of all the resignations we’ve had so far over Theresa May’s Brexit plan.

Cabinet resignations

David Davis - Brexit secretary

Boris Johnson - Foreign secretary

Other ministerial resignations

Steve Barker - Brexit minister

Parliamentary private secretary (PPS) resignations

Conor Burns, who was PPS to Boris Johnson, which means his job would have gone anyway, but who made it clear that he had no wish to stay on as PPS to another minister

Chris Green, who resigned as a transport department PPS

Robert Courts, who resigned as a Foreign Office PPS yesterday

Scott Mann, who resigned as a Treasury PPS this morning (see 10.42am)

Conservative party vice chair resignations

Maria Caulfield MP, who was vice chair for women

Ben Bradley MP, who was vice chair for young people

Updated

Scott Mann resigns at Tory PPS over May's Brexit plan

Another Conservative has resigned as a parliamentary private secretary over Theresa May’s Brexit plan. Scott Mann, MP for North Cornwall, who was a PPS to the Treasury team, says he is not prepared to accept a “watered down Brexit”.

David Henig, a trade expert who is head of the UK Trade Policy Project, has also written a good Twitter thread on the second referendum issue. He is not convinced that it would solve the Brexit problem because he thinks people have still not faced up to what the choices are. His thread starts here.

David Allen Green, a legal commentator for the Financial Times, has written a good Twitter thread explaining why he does not think trying to hold a second referendum is realistic. (Basically, he agrees with Bernard Jenkin - see 9.47am.) It starts here.

The Press Association has snapped this from today’s ONS report with the latest immigration figures.

Estimated net long-term migration to the UK from the EU was 101,000 in 2017 - the lowest level since the year ending March 2013, official figures show.

Sir Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative Brexiter, told the Today programme this morning that he did not think Justine Greening’s call for a second referendum was realistic. He said:

It’s a little ill-thought out, I’m afraid. If you had wanted to extend the uncertainty another long period, this is one way of doing it.

There would have to be a whole act of parlament. And once the act of parliament is in place, it would probably take a year to get to the actual referendum. That’s the experience we had before.

Jenkin said the main problem was that the House of Commons was refusing to implement the wishes expressed by the people in the referendum. He also said that he thought leaving the EU on WTO terms was “much more attractive than people think”.

When it was put to him that business did not think so, he replied:

Business is lobbying for their bottom lines and their profits. There are a lot of very successful countries that trade across customs frontiers perfectly happily.

UPDATE: This is from Bloomberg’s Robert Hutton.

Updated

Sir Simon Fraser, a former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, says he agrees with Justine Greening’s call for a second referendum.

Greg Clark, the business secretary, was also on the Today programme this morning. He defended Theresa May’s Brexit plan and insisted it was still viable. He said:

This is a white paper that is now the basis of our negotiation. What I hope is that the EU should now respond positively to that.

If, as I expect, that happens and we have a comprehensive deal that can be put before parliament - and there had been a commitment to have a meaningful vote - what comes with that is the certainty for working people right across the country that will be able to invest with confidence, will be able to create new jobs, that implementation period will be available.

All of that hinges on that being agreed this autumn and, I think, when it comes to parliament, I hope and expect that it will be persuasive that what is on offer will be good for the UK and good for every part of the UK.

Greg Clark, the business secretary (right)
Greg Clark, the business secretary (right) Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

May's Brexit plan 'dead', say Tory remainers and leavers jointly ahead of key votes

Justine Greening, the Conservative former cabinet minister, has become the most senior figure in her party to back a second referendum on Brexit. In an article in the Times (paywall), she proposes a three-option question - a no deal Brexit, Theresa May’s plan, or staying in the EU - with a preferential voting system, so that if no option gets more than 50% on first preferences, second preferences get taken into account. Her intervention must make the chance of some sort of second referendum taking place a bit more likely, although opposition to such a plan remains considerable and the obstacles in its way are formidable.

Here is our story about Greening’s intervention, which was strongly criticised this morning on the Today programme by the Conservative Brexiter Sir Bernard Jenkin.

What is also significant is that, between them, Greening, a remainer (not just in the sense of someone who voted remain in 2016, but someone who would vote to remain now - that’s what she told Today), and Jenkin, a passionate leave, have jointly performed the last rites over May’s Brexit plan, which was only published in white paper form four days ago.

This is what Greening said about it on the Today programme.

In practice is suits no one, and whether you’re a remainer who looks at it and thinks, actually, we’re signing up to all the rules but now we won’t be around the table to influence them, or indeed you’re a leaver, who says this doesn’t give us the clean break we want, it doesn’t keep anyone happy. The reality is that parliament is now stalemated. Whatever the proposal on the table, there will be MPs who vote it down.

When asked if she thought the plan was “dead”, she replied:

Well, I don’t think it can work. I think it was a genuine, clever attempt at a compromise that could work, but in practice, having looked through the detail now, it just won’t.

And this is what Jenkin told the same programme about May’s plan.

I suspect the Chequers deal is in fact dead. I’m afraid it is neither beloved by remainers or leavers, and Justine’s article rather underlines that. It is also quite likely to be either rejected by the European Union, or more demands will be made upon it, so it will be even less acceptable.

With MPs debating and voting on the customs bill later, May faces more Brexit trouble later. As my colleague Dan Sabbagh reports, May is facing a rebellion from Tories who favour a hard Brexit in votes due this evening.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The Office for National Statistics publishes net migration figures.

Morning: Theresa May gives a speech at the Farnborough Airshow.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing

After 3.30pm: May is expected to make a Commons statement on the Nato summit.

After 4.30pm: MPs start debating the final stages of the customs bill, officially known as the taxation (cross-border trade) bill. Votes are due at 9pm and 10pm.

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

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’s top 10 must-reads.

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

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

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

Updated

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