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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Labour's Brexit policy is 'evolving', says McDonnell ahead of key Corbyn speech next week - Politics live

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Afternoon summary

  • Theresa May has been chairing a meeting of the cabinet’s EU exit and trade (strategy and negotiations) sub committee at Chequers. The meeting is still going on and will be followed by dinner tonight, with ministers not expected to emerge until about 10pm. This is supposed to be the meeting that will finally resolve whether or not the UK will seek to retain close regulatory alignment with the EU after Brexit, although no detailed announcement is expected until May delivers a speech, possibly next Thursday.
  • John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said Labour’s policy on Brexit is “evolving”. Jeremy Corbyn is due to give a major speech on the subject early next week. (See 2.37pm.)
  • Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, has described the government’s plans for the Brexit transition as a “perversion of democracy”. (See 9.15am.)

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

The late Ian Aitken.
The late Ian Aitken. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Updated

Journalists and colleagues pay tribute to Ian Aitken

Journalists and colleagues have been paying tribute to Ian Aitken, the former Guardian political editor who has died. He was a huge figure in post-war political journalism, and also someone who was much admired and loved (the two don’t always go together).

He was well before my time, but I met him a few times and interviewed him for my history of the lobby and parliamentary journalism and found him charming and inspiring. Although quite what he would make of live blogging - it was probably best not to ask.

Here are some tweets, most of which include a link to David McKie’s excellent obituary.

From Patrick Wintour, another former Guardian political editor

From Alastair Campbell, the former Daily Mirror political editor and former communications director for Tony Blair

From the broadcaster Steve Richards

From Alan Travis, the Guardian’s home affairs editor

From the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

From Mark Seddon, the former Tribune editor

From Joshua Rozenberg, the legal commentator

From Colin Brown, the former Sunday Telegraph political editor

From Amy Hoggart, daughter of the late Guardian sketchwriter Simon Hoggart

From George Parker, the Financial Times’ political editor

Updated

Before going to Chequers Theresa May held a meeting with Tessa Jowell, the Labour peer and former culture secretary who is campaigning for cancer patients to have access to more innovative treatments. Jowell is seriously ill with brain cancer.

Nicola Sturgeon at first minister’s questions in Edinburgh this afternoon.
Nicola Sturgeon at first minister’s questions in Edinburgh this afternoon. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

McDonnell says council cuts have created 'window of opportunity' where voters could back land value tax

At the Resolution Foundation event this morning John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, also said council cuts mean the public might now be willing to support a land value tax. Labour tentatively floated the prospect of taxing land in its last manifesto. McDonnell said now there might be more support for the proposal. He said:

Up until now politicians have never been able to sell it properly in a way that has gained sufficient support for implementation.

But, I think because of the issues that we are facing at the moment, particularly around the funding of local services, there may well be a window of opportunity to have a rational debate about this.

And there may be an opportunity as well of piloting some aspects of this as well as you go into government.

It’s a tough one. I think we are at a stage where the decline in terms of funding to local government and the consequential effect on local services, many of them are in crisis, means I think that people are now willing to consider more radical solutions than they have in the past.

There is increasing support in policy making circles for a land value tax, with Tony Blair becoming one of the latest converts. His thinktank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, backed the idea in a policy paper published at the end of last year.

Here are government cars arriving at Chequers for this afternoon’s Brexit cabinet sub committee meeting.

Official government cars make their way through the grounds of Chequers.
Official government cars make their way through the grounds of Chequers. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

And here is David Davis, the Brexit secretary, in one of them.

David Davis arrives by car at Chequers.
David Davis arrives by car at Chequers. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

As Richard said earlier, John McDonnell’s words this morning suggest that Labour will back the amendment tabled by rebel Tory MPs saying the UK should stay in a customs union when it gets put to a vote in the coming weeks. But we may have to wait. Today, in the Times (paywall), Sam Coates says the key vote may be delayed for up to two months.

Confusingly, there are two bills going through the Commons at the moment attracting customs union amendments. One is the taxation (cross-border trade) bill, which is sometimes known as the customs bill, and the other is the trade bill.

Both bills have passed their committee stage and are awaiting report stage - the key moment, because at report all MPs in the Commons get to vote on amendments. But the government has not timetabled report stage debates for either bill.

The pro-European Tories Anna Soubry and Ken Clarke have tabled an amendment to the taxation (cross-border trade) bill saying the UK should stay in the customs union. The amendment says:

It shall be a negotiating objective of Her Majesty’s government in negotiations on the matters specified in subsection (2) to maintain the United Kingdom’s participation in the EU customs union.

Many Labour MPs have also signed this amendment, but just one other Tory - Stephen Hammond.

Soubry and Clarke have also tabled an amendment to the trade bill. Although similar, this is more dangerous to the government because it commits the government to staying in a customs union - making it easier for the Labour party to support. It says:

It shall be the objective of an appropriate authority to take all necessary steps to implement an international trade agreement which enables the UK to participate after exit day in a customs union with the EU in the same terms as existed before exit day.

Unlike the first amendment, this one is attracting support from a clutch of Tories. It has been signed by Dominic Grieve, Stephen Hammond, Jeremy Lefroy, Antoinette Sandbach and Jonathan Djanogly.

McDonnell says Labour's Brexit policy has been 'evolving'

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said this morning that Labour’s Brexit policy has been “evolving” in recent weeks. Speaking at the Resolution Foundation, he also said that the Conservatives would need to rethink their opposition to staying in a customs union with the EU - a clear hint that Labour will back an amendment tabled by rebel Tories to the taxation (cross-border trade) bill proposing this when it gets put to a vote in the coming weeks. McDonnell said:

Our position is yes we want to see on the table ‘a’ customs union negotiation, not ‘the’ customs union. We think there could be a reform. ‘A’ customs union is a way forward, particularly in solving some of the issues around Northern Ireland. What we’re concerned about is that the government have ruled even that option off the table, I think they’re going to have to come back and readdress it.

We’re not supporting membership of ‘the’ customs union, but we are looking at ‘a’ customs union. The reason we’re saying ‘a’ customs union is because we don’t want the same asymmetric relationship that Turkey have got. What we would want is to negotiate around our ability to influence the trade negotiations that would take place on behalf of us all - both ourselves and European countries - in terms of trade via a customs union. That would be the discussion we would want to open up.

But he also said Labour was not ready to reopen the debate about staying in the single market. He said:

We respect the referendum result and many people who voted for leave and others may not feel that’s respecting the result itself, because we have to adopt all the four freedoms [if the UK stays in the single market]. We think we can develop a new relationship with Europe that overcomes many of those perceived disbenefits and that’s why we think we can get as close to single market as we can and gain the benefits from it.

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to deliver a major speech on Labour’s Brexit policy early next week.

John McDonnell.
John McDonnell. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Updated

More from Chequers.

Theresa May arrives at Chequers for key Brexit cabinet sub committee meeting

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

An armed police officer patrols the entrance to Chequers, the official country residence of the prime minister, where ministers this afternoon will be holding a key committee meeting on Brexit.
An armed police officer patrols the entrance to Chequers, the official country residence of the prime minister, where ministers this afternoon will be holding a key committee meeting on Brexit. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

Summary of the European scrutiny committee's Brexit hearing

Here are the main points from the European scrutiny committee hearing with Robin Walker, the Brexit minister, and Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s ambassador to the EU.

  • The UK could have to pay an extra £5bn to the EU if the transition period lasts beyond December 2020, as Theresa May wants, MPs were told. The government has publicly said that the amount it will pay the EU as it leaves is between £35bn and £39bn. But Sir Bill Cash, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said the committee had been told this figure was based on the assumption that the transition would conclude at the end of December 2020 (which is what the EU wants), not at the end of March 2021 (which is what the UK is proposing). Cash said:

It is our adviser’s view that under the arrangements in prospect, although the government and the EU reached agreement on the principle of the amount of money [to be paid by the UK], the agreement only covers the period up to the end of 2020. If the transition lasts beyond 2020, then this could require the UK to make payments into the EU budget for 2021 as well, and therefore from January 2021 we’d then be paying into the EU’s new long-term budget and the net result of this is that the additional costs could run into billions of pounds, and the estimate is between £4bn and £5bn.

Walked did not dispute this, and Barrow actually confirmed that the £39bn figure was based upon the assumption that the transition would end in 2020. But Barrow also claimed that there was not much difference between the EU and UK proposals for the transition.

  • Walker said the government wanted more feedback from the EU about its Brexit plans. EU leaders routine complain that they have not heard enough from London about what Britain wants after Brexit. But Walker claimed the government had already provided quite a lot of information about what it wants, in papers published last summer, and he said it was frustrating how little feedback it had received from the EU. He said:

We have set out many of our positions on the future relationship already. We published a large number of papers over the last summer. I think it has been, to be frank - and I’ve said this to EU colleagues, who would not be surprised to hear me say it - it has been one of the frustrations of the sequential approach that they have asked us to take that we haven’t been able to get the feedback and engagement on all of those papers that we might have liked.

  • Walker claimed that the “full alignment” promised as a possible means of avoiding a hard border in Ireland would not involve Northern Ireland “taking EU rules across the board”. In the joint report (pdf) published in December, in paragraph 49, the UK proposed three alternative means of avoiding a hard border, that last of which would involve “full” regulatory alignment. But Walker insisted this did not mean wholesale adoption of EU regulations in Northern Ireland. He said:

Even option C is focused on those areas which underpin North-South cooperation and have already been agreed by devolved government in Northern Ireland as areas of North-South cooperation, or indeed are coming under the Good Friday/Belfast agreement. So I think this is very much where alignment needs to be maintained to maintain that existing relationship.

It is not talking about full alignment, or taking EU rules across the broad. It’s an important distinction to make. Also, as [David Davis] has pointed out, we can look at full alignment as outcomes-based, rather than necessarily based on rule-taking.

For the record, this is what paragraph 49 says:

The United Kingdom remains committed to protecting North-South cooperation and to its guarantee of avoiding a hard border. Any future arrangements must be compatible with these overarching requirements. The United Kingdom’s intention is to achieve these objectives through the overall EU-UK relationship. Should this not be possible, the United Kingdom will propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland. In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement.

  • Barrow suggested that the UK have to implement more EU law during the transition than previously assumed. David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has repeatedly played down the significance of the UK agreeing to implement new EU law during the transition on the grounds that it takes almost two years for new EU laws to be implemented anyway (meaning that the UK will have been consulted about new rules coming into force). Barrow said that this applied to secondary EU law (directives and regulations). He also said there would be no new primary EU law (new treaties). But, in response to a question from David Jones, the former Brexit minister, Barrow conceded that there would be new tertiary legislation coming into force affecting the UK. (Jones cited fisheries discard rules as an example.) Barrow said this was why the UK wanted a joint committee to be set up during the transition to allow the UK to be consulted on these measures.
Types of EU legislation
Types of EU legislation Photograph: UK Parliament
  • Barrow played down the prospect of the UK being able to block new EU legislation it does not like during the transition. Asked by Jones if the UK would be able to say no to new EU laws, Barrow said:

The provisions within the joint committee will be so that we can raise concerns and seek to resolve those concerns. That is what this is about.

  • Walker conceded that the EU has not yet agreed to allow the UK to sign trade deals during the transition. He said the UK wanted to be able to sign trade deals during the transition on the basis that it would not be able to implement them until after the transition is over. But it was put to him that this appears to conflict with a line in the EU’s transition position paper (pdf) saying during the transition “the UK may not become bound by international agreements entered into in its own capacity in the areas of exclusive competence of the union, unless authorised to do so by the union”. Walker said this issue had yet to be resolved. He said:

This is a point clearly for negotiation, when we are taking the position that we do want to be able to reach those agreements, we do want to be able to sign those agreements, but we won’t be bringing them into force in a way that conflates with our commitments under the implementation period. I think that is, in the negotiation to come, something that we should be able to secure.

No 10 rejects Stormzy's claim Theresa May has forgotten about Grenfell Tower victims

As my colleague Ben Beaumont-Thomas reports, at the Brit awards last night the south London MC Stormzy accused Theresa May of forgetting about the Grenfell Tower victims. “Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?” he asked.

This morning Downing Street hit back, insisting that the government was not holding back money from the Grenfell victims. The prime minister’s spokesman told journalists:

The prime minister has been clear that what happened at Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy which should never be allowed to happen again. She is determined the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell had been ignored for so many years.

In terms of support for people who were affected, £58.29m has been committed. That’s £28m as announced at the budget for ongoing mental health and emotional support for people affects, £15m has gone towards re-housing, £6m has gone to survivors through the discretionary fund, £7.7m for the Bellwin scheme for emergency services to compete them for the additional costs as a result of the disaster and £2.2m for local community projects.

We are also supporting and monitoring the work of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to ensure victims receive the system they need in years to come.

The spokesman said these figures related to the amount of money committed, not the amount spent so far. He said May had already acknowledged that the initial official response to the tragedy was too slow, but he rejected the suggestion that the government was not taking the matter seriously.

The spokesman also said there were no plans to contact Stormzy to discuss this with him directly.

Stormzy at the Brit awards last night.
Stormzy at the Brit awards last night. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Sir Bill Cash goes next.

Q: Will there be a dispute resolution system that will resolve disputes between the UK and EU law?

Walker says the UK will be bound by EU law during the transition. But the prime minister has said that, if it can bring forward a dispute resolution mechanism as an alternative, it will do so.

Q: But under the EU withdrawal bill the European court of justice will cease to have effect?

Walker says the withdrawal agreement and implementation bill will ensure the role of the ECJ continues during the transition.

Q: So the EU withdrawal agreement and implementation bill will extend the jurisdiction of the ECJ?

Walker says he cannot speculate on what the bill will say. But the intention is to legislate to give the ECJ a role during the transition.

And that’s it. The hearing is over.

I will post a summary soon.

Marcus Fysh, a Conservative, goes next.

Q: The government wants to bring in a new security arrangement during the transition. But parliament has not even discussed this. When will it be told what is being planned?

Walker says he thinks parliament has discussed this. And he thinks there is cross-party support for what the government wants.

Q: What does the EU mean when it says the UK cannot be bound by new trade agreements during the transition?

Walker says the government’s view is that this means the government can sign agreements, as long as it does not implement them.

He says this has to be clarified during the negotiation. But the UK government thinks the EU will agree?

Kate Hoey asks if the government will stand firm on this. The UK normally seems to give in.

Walker says he does not accept this. He says on some points, like the size of the “Brexit bill”, the EU moved quite a lot during phase one.

Q: Will you be negotiating for the UK to leave the common fisheries policy after March 2019? That is really important.

Walker says the UK will leave the CFP when it leaves the EU. But there will be discussions about what applies during the transition.

Walker says the withdrawal agreement will cover Gibraltar. And the transition period will be part of that, so the UK’s view is that Gibraltar will be covered by that too.

But the Spanish government takes a different view, he says.

Walker says the UK does not see this as a forum for discussing sovereignty. And the Spanish government accepts this, he says.

Andrew Lewer, a Conservative, goes next.

Q: How will the government keep parliament informed about new EU legislation during the transition? Will it set up a formal mechanism for this?

Walker says there will be a chance to set up such a mechanism. But the government needs to agree the transition first.

Labour’s Geraint Davies goes next. He asks what will happen to the free trade deals the EU has with other countries.

Walker says the government expects those to carry over.

He says he has not seen any evidence that there are countries objecting to the principle of continuity. There is a lot of evidence that countries want that continuity, he says.

He says it is also the case that some of these countries want to deepen their trade relationship with the UK.

Q: When will the first sign up for the transitional period? None of them have signed up so far?

Barrow says he has had a series of meetings in Brussels with trading partners. They want the current approach to continue. He has not spoken to anyone saying the opposite.

David Jones is asking questions again.

Q: Could any new EU law coming into force during the transition have a major impact? Such as fisheries discard rules?

Walker says the government wants a mechanism that will allow them to raise concerns.

Barrow says there is primary, secondary and tertiary EU law.

Primary means new treaties. He does not expect any of those during the transition.

There is likely to be less “secondary” legislation because there will be a new commission. But he says Jones is right to say there will be “tertiary” legislation (regulations etc) coming into force.

Kate Hoey goes next.

Q: Why don’t we just say we won’t implement any new EU law during the transition?

Walker says much of the law that will come in will be law that the UK has already considered. It may be law the UK wants.

And the UK wants a safeguard mechanism, he says.

And he says Brexit will coincide with the arrival of a new European commission, and a new European parliament. So there will probably be less new EU law than there usually is, he says.

David Jones, the former Brexit minister, goes next.

Q: Is the government proposing any exemptions from EU law during the transition?

Walker says the UK will no longer be covered by the common fisheries policy.

It is also proposing a joint committee that would allow the UK to raise any concerns it has about new EU legislation.

Barrow says, on defence and security, the government has said it wants to be able to move forward to future arrangements during the transition, not after it is over.

Q: So, with minor exceptions, there will be complete acceptance of EU law during the transition?

Walker says that is what the prime minister set out in her Florence speech.

Q: Will parliament be advised if any new EU law is introduced during the transition?

Yes, says Walker. The government would want parliament to carry on playing a scrutiny role.

Sir Bill Cash, the committee chair, says the “scrutiny reserve” (the power that allows parliament to stop ministers agreeing to new EU measures until they have been considered by MPs and peers) will not apply after Brexit.

Walker says that is a consequence of the UK leaving the EU.

Q: Has the Irish government abandoned its aggressive demand that there must be “full alignment” as a backstop if there is not a solution?

Barrow says the joint report published in December included this as one option. But it was not preferred one, and the other options are being explored too.

Q: Would “full alignment” be consistent with leaving the EU?

Barrow says the UK is leaving the EU, and will decide what it wants for the future.

Walker says the reference to “alignment” in the December report refers to alignment on issues devolved to Northern Ireland. It does not refer to alignment “across the board”, he says.

He also says the government is referring to “outcomes-based” alignment.

Q: Do you accept that Ireland is not the big problem everyone says it is?

Walker says all sides want the same solution. He says the thinks they can find one. Communities on both sides just want to carry on doing business.

Having a power-sharing executive restored in Northern Ireland would help, he says.

Q: Do you think there might have to be ‘light touch’ checks at the border with Ireland?

Barrow says the government does not want to introduce elements of a border.

Hoey says some people think the UK is giving the EU too much respect, and that it is getting too little back.

Labour’s Kate Hoey says she also thinks the government should be doing more to say what it wants.

Q: If the transition is extended, will there be a vote in parliament?

Walker says there will be a vote on the overall deal.

But he stresses that the government does want to agree a date for the end of the transition.

Q: Will the bill promise parliament a vote if the transition is extended?

Walker says there is no intention to extend the transition.

So that’s a no, says Darren Jones, the Labour MP who asked the question.

Walker says UK government would like more feedback from EU on its Brexit plans

Q: Why are we waiting for the EU to set out its position before we submit our our plans for a free trade agreement?

Walker says the government has set out many of its positions.

He says one of the “frustrations” from the sequential way the EU has conducted the negotiation (phase one, followed by phase two opening this year) is that the UK has not had as much feedback from what it published last year as it would like.

  • Walker says UK government would like more feedback from the EU on its Brexit plans.

Q: Is it likely that the EU would agree to extend the transition?

Walker says he cannot speak for the EU.

Q: If you are not suggesting a fixed date for the end of the transition, that suggests it will be open-ended.

Walker says the government does not want it to be open-ended. It wants the deal to include an end date.

Q: If the transition period is based on continuing to obey EU law and to pay money to the EU, an extension would be on the same basis?

Walker says it would be on the same legal basis.

But he repeats the point about the gap between when the EU want the transition to end, and when the UK want it to end, is not big.

Q: Will the transition deal be mutually understandable?

Walker says it has not been finalised, but his understanding is that it will include a clear statement as to when it will end.

Cash says Philip Hammond, the chancellor, will be giving evidence to the European scrutiny committee on this issue. That hearing will be on 5 March, he says.

UK may have to an extra £5bn if Brexit transition goes beyond December 2020, MPs told

The European scrutiny committee hearing is just started.

Sir Bill Cash, the Tory chair, opens by saying the committee has been told that the government’s estimate that it will have to pay between £35bn and £39bn as it leaves the EU assumes it will leave by the end of 2020 (the EU’s preferred date for the end of the transition).

But if the transition lasts longer, the bill could be £4bn or £5bn higher, he says.

  • UK could have to pay an extra £5bn ‘Brexit bill’ if the transition lasts as long as Theresa May wants, European scrutiny committee says.

Robin Walker, the Brexit minister, tells Cash that the duration of the transition is still being negotiated.

Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s ambassador to the EU, says the current figures are based on the transition ending at the end of 2020. But he says that is similar to what the UK is demanding.

Cash says there is a suggestion the transition could last “as long as a piece of string”.

Robin Walker giving evidence to European scrutiny committee.
Robin Walker giving evidence to European scrutiny committee. Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Data on the Labour market status of disabled people, which is usually produced by the Office for National Statistics on a quarterly basis, has not been published since August, raising alarm among charities.

Mark Atkinson, the chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said the lack of accurate data made it much harder for ministers to achieve their commitment to get more disabled people into work. Speaking before a backbench debate on disabled people in work in the Commons this afternoon Atkinson said:

The government has pledged to get one million more disabled people into employment over the next 10 years, but it cannot possibly know whether it’s on track to meet this promise without accurate figures.

We need to see urgent action to fix whatever issue is preventing publication.

The ONS normally publish the information as table A08 in its three monthly employment data. Scope was expecting the latest batch this week but it did not arrive.

An ONS spokesman admitted there was an issue with the quality of the data they were trying to fix:

ONS has suspended publication of the labour market estimates for disabled people for the third and fourth quarters of 2017 due to an apparent discontinuity between the second and third quarter.

We are investigating this issue and the dataset will be reinstated as soon as possible. We recognise the importance that users place on these figures, but our top priority has to be to ensure the accuracy of our data.

Hilary Benn says 'urgent need' for government to clarify what it wants from Brexit

Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, has written an open letter (pdf) to David Davis, the Brexit secretary, saying there is an “urgent need” for the government to now clarify what it wants from Brexit. Here is an extract.

It is now 19 months since the EU referendum and just over one month until the European council is due to consider its negotiating mandate on the future relationship. I hope you will recognise, therefore, the urgent need now to provide more detail on the government’s plans so that parliament, UK business and the EU27 can all see exactly what kind of future relationship the UK will be seeking. If this does not happen, then there is a risk that either the start of negotiations on the future relationship will be delayed, or that the EU’s negotiating guidelines may close off options.

Hilary Benn
Hilary Benn Photograph: David Tett/REX/Shutterstock

UK growth revised down

Newsflash: Britain’s economy grew slower than first thought in the final three months of 2017.

Uk growth in the fourth quarter of last year has been revised down to 0.4%, from an initial estimate of 0.5%.

That’s because the Office for National Statistics has revised downwards its estimated output of the production industries.

Annual growth for 2017 as a whole has also been revised down a little, from 1.8% to 1.7%.

There is full coverage on the business live blog.

Overall net long-term migration - the balance between the number of people arriving and leaving - was estimated at 244,000 in the year to September, the Press Association reports. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the measure was now at a similar level to early 2014 and follows record levels of net migration during 2015 and early 2016. EU net migration has fallen over the last year, as fewer EU citizens are coming to the UK and the number leaving the UK increased, according to the ONS. However, there are still more EU nationals coming to the UK than leaving, statisticians added.

Net migration figures
Net migration figures Photograph: ONS

At some point at international trade questions we may get a question on a story in today’s Times saying Crawford Falconer, the government’s chief trade negotiator, is thought to be considering resigning. In his story (paywall) Sam Coates says:

Crawford Falconer, a New Zealander who was appointed in June, has made his unhappiness clear inside and outside of government, three sources have said.

He is demanding a central role in preparing Britain’s negotiating strategy and a seat at the table when trade talks start with the EU this year. He is strongly backed by Brexit-supporting Conservatives, who included a similar demand in a letter to the prime minister last week signed by 62 MPs ...

One source suggested that Mr Falconer was increasingly frustrated at being excluded from all aspects of the EU-UK trade talks. “The big problem we have — and the cause of the ruction — is that we have two sets of negotiators. Those people who are negotiating the EU-UK trade agreement and the rest of the world. No country on earth has two sets of trade negotiators. It is a fundamentally flawed approach.”

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry says the Norwegians have a saying, “Nothing is in as much as a hurry as a dead fish on the back of a lorry.” That is why Norway is in the single market. What impact will leaving the single market have on the Scottish fishing industry.

Fox says most of Scotland’s exports go to the rest of the UK. He says the IMF says 90% of global growth in the future will be outside Europe.

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is taking questions in the Commons.

He says the government hopes to carry over the benefits of EU free trade deals when the UK leaves the EU.

Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, asks Fox to confirm that the UK does not need trade agreements to trade. “No,” replies Fox.

EU rejects UK's proposed 'three basket' approach to regulatory alignment after Brexit

Yesterday journalists in the UK interested in Brexit spend the day waiting for the government to publish its paper on the transition. But the EU also published some important information - three sets of slides from presentations, setting out issues that will come up in the UK-EU trade talks - and they are significant because they suggest the EU has already ruled out the mixed approach to post-Brexit regulatory alignment favoured by London.

Slide from ‘regulatory issues’ presentation
Slide from ‘regulatory issues’ presentation Photograph: EU

The “three basket” approach refers to the suggestion that the UK will accept current EU regulations in some areas, accept EU regulatory aims in some areas but pursue them through different means, and diverge fully from EU regulations in a third area. Laura Kuenssberg explains this in her blog, and there is a more detailed report in the Institute for Government’s Trade after Brexit report (pdf), especially on page 37.

Sky’s Faisal Islam has a short thread on this starting here.

Steve Peers, an EU law professor, has also posted an extended discussion of the papers in a Twitter thread starting here.

Rees-Mogg calls May's Brexit transition plan 'perversion of democracy'

Last week 62 Conservative MPs who support the European Research Group, the caucus pushing for a hard Brexit, wrote to the prime minister proposing some negotiation red lines. The tone was superficially supportive, and in their letter they told Theresa May they wanted to “underline our support for both your Brexit leadership, and for the vision of your speech at Lancaster House a year ago”.

But there is a difference between being polite and being honest, and in an article for the Telegraph last night (paywall) Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ERG chair, gave a rather more candid insight into what he and his colleagues really feel about May’s strategy. He described the government plan for the Brexit transition published last night as a “perversion of democracy”. Here is an extract.

Returning to the mainland and the government’s leaked transition document this appears to be a poor piece of work.

It has been disowned by ministers as not representing government policy. Transition must be time limited, the European Union itself has suggested twenty-one months to the end of the multiannual financial framework.

It is, therefore, peculiar that the leak reveals Whitehall proposing the exact opposite. It reads: ‘the period’s duration should be determined simply by how long it will take to prepare and implement the new processes’: this translates from bureaucratese into English: ‘we must remain’.

Additionally, there is no mention of our having the ability to apply immigration controls. Concern over lost control over migration was a significant issue in the referendum. Whoever compiled this document proposes no changes to it for an indefinite period and would thereby let down millions of voters for whom this was an important issue.

To avoid the perversion of democracy that BRINO [Brexit in name only] would be it is essential that we are able to sign trade deals in the fixed transition period even if they are implemented when it is over. Anyone can negotiate but for deals to be real they must be capable of being signed.

Rees-Mogg seems to have drafted his article before 6pm yesterday, after Bloomberg published a leak of the document but before the real thing was published. But the official version was the same as the one that was leaked.

All of this helps to explain why May will find it hard getting ministers to agree when her key Brexit cabinet sub committee meets at Chequers this afternoon to discuss what the UK wants when it leaves the EU. Not for the first time, this meeting is being described as the crunch one where, after months of prevarication, a decision will have to be taken. Here is our overnight preview.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has written a good blog about the meeting. She says: “One former minister described the situation as this: ‘If everyone is happy it’s a fudge. If anything’s genuinely decided someone has to be unhappy. Either Philip Hammond has to agree that he is signed up to divergence, or Boris Johnson has to agree that he can accept alignment, or, someone resigns.’”

The Chequers meeting will include dinner and it is not expected to wrap up until around 10pm. We are not expecting May or anyone else to come out and give a proper account of what has been decided. Government sources have suggested that, if there is agreement, the most we will get is an announcement confirming when May is due to give the big speech setting out her position. Thursday next week is the date pencilled in at the moment.

Lovely as it would be to blog the meeting, that won’t be possible. But two of the people who are attending are speaking in public this morning: Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s ambassador to the EU. I will be covering their remarks in detail.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

9.30am: John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, gives a speech at the Resolution Foundation.

10.15am: KPMG, the Carillion auditors, give evidence to the Commons business and work and pensions committees.

Morning: David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, hosts a meeting of the joint ministerial committee, the body comprising UK ministers and ministers from the devolved administrations, to discuss Brexit.

10.30am: Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s ambassador to the EU, and Robin Walker, a Brexit minister, give evidence to the Commons European scrutiny committee.

2pm: Theresa May chairs a meeting of the cabinet’s key Brexit sub committee, the EU exit and trade (strategy and negotiations) sub committee, at Chequers.

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.

Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Jacob Rees-Mogg. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Updated

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