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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Presidents Club to close after gala sexual harassment claims prompt outrage - Politics live

Images of Marilyn Monroe adorn the Presidents Club brochure.
Images of Marilyn Monroe adorn the Presidents Club brochure. Photograph: Presidents Club

Afternoon summary

  • The Presidents Club, the organisation that organised the charity dinner where female staff were reportedly sexually harassed, has announced that it is closing down as a result of the scandal. (See 5.19pm.)
  • David Cameron, the former prime minister, has said Brexit is a “mistake, not a disaster”. (See 4.29pm.)

Davis was being questioned by Rees-Mogg at a Brexit committee hearing. My colleague Martin Belam has a good article listing 12 awkward moments for Davis from the session.

  • Tony Blair, the former prime minister, has said the government is heading for a “hotch-potch” Brexit deal amounting to “leaving without leaving” which will not be acceptable to voters. This could make it easier to argue for staying in the EU, he said. Speaking to Bloomberg TV, he said:

There is nothing that would make me change my mind in thinking that [Brexit] is a regressive move for the country. But I think the country would proceed with Brexit if the government succeeded in bringing forward a deal that retained the benefits of our single market membership without the obligations. It is just that I think that is an impossible thing to negotiate.

Will the public really shift in its position once it sees the deal the government is bringing forward? We don’t know.

But if the deal is the one I suspect, which will be a hotch-potch where the government tries to stay close to Europe and ‘leave without leaving’, I think it is going to be very difficult to persuade the British people that that is better than what we have now.

He also floated the idea that Labour could eventually end up opposing Brexit altogether.

The Labour party feels - for reasons I understand - that it’s got to say ‘We are still in favour of Brexit’. But when you see how the Labour party is moving, it is moving very much towards a ‘let’s keep the single market’ position.

It nuances that in what it says, but I think in the end there is a majority within the Labour party for keeping a close relationship with Europe.

I think the moment you get to that position, it’s a very short distance to the next position, which is to say ‘let’s not give up our seat at the decision-making table but still be the passive recipient of European rules’.

  • Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said the “NHS Brexit dividend” that Boris Johnson and other Brexiters refer to does not exist.
  • The government is to provide an additional £4m in funding for Greater Manchester to cover the costs of responding to last year’s terror attack on the Manchester Arena, the Press Association reports. Prime Minister Theresa May said the extra cash would cover all NHS acute care costs as well as the costs of the North West Ambulance Service. Downing Street said it brought total government support to more than £24m following the bombing last May at an Ariana Grande concert which left 22 dead.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Presidents Club being disbanded after charity dinner sexual harassment scandal

Here is the Presidents Club statement in full.

The trustees have decided that the Presidents Club will not host any further fundraising events. Remaining funds will be distributed in an efficient manner to children’s charities and it will then be closed

The Presidents Club is being disbanded, Sky’s Kay Burley reports.

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, thinks David Cameron’s comments about Brexit admit to an admission that he exaggerated the dangers. (At least, that’s how I interpret this tweet.)

But Politico Europe’s Jack Blanchard asks what else Cameron could have said.

The prime minister still has full confidence in Nadhim Zahawi, her junior education minister, we have been told. Asked at the regular media briefing if this was the case, May’s deputy spokesman replied simply: “Yes”.

Overall, it seems No10 are very keen to give the idea that the matter is closed and we should stop asking about the Presidents Club event.

May has not spoken to Zahawi about his attendance, the spokesman said, and was “not aware of any plans” for her to do so. Asked if any other ministers had been to earlier such events, he said, again, he was not aware of any.

It does seem, however, that May is not overly impressed with the general idea of male-only events. Asked about this the spokesman said: “The prime minister is uncomfortable about this event, including that element of it.”

David Cameron says Brexit is 'a mistake, not a disaster'

5News has released some footage of the former prime minister David Cameron talking about Brexit. He was talking to Lakshmi Mittal, the steel tycoon and he said.

It’s frustrating. As I keep saying, it’s a mistake, not a disaster. It’s turned out less badly than we first thought. But it’s still going to be difficult.

Cameron’s rather even-handed take on the biggest catastrophe of his career (he lost his job because of the vote to leave the EU) will probably annoy people on both sides of the Brexit argument. The Brexiters think people should accept their view that Brexit represents a splendid opportunity. And hardcore remainers think that Brexit will be a disaster and that, if it has so far turned out less badly than predicted, that is only because it has not actually happened yet.

Updated

The Bank of England has issued a statement about the Presidents Club story. According to the FT report, tea with the governor, Mark Carney, was one of the lots in the charity auction. The bank says Carney is “deeply dismayed” that a dinner of this kind took place and that it had not agreed to offer a prize. What seems to have happened is that a tour of the bank offered as a prize for the Lord Mayor’s appeal charity auction had been passed on without the bank’s permission.

This is from the BBC’s Mark Broad.

With the odds stacked against a deal soon that would lead to the restoration of the devolved parliament in Northern Ireland and the return of power sharing government, there has been an interesting development today in the local civil service. A senior civil servant within the Northern Ireland Office has been appointed apparently with task of seeing how gay marriage equality law can be introduced into the region.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where gay marriage is not legal. The Democratic Unionist party, which has an influential evangelical Christian base, has used a veto power aimed at protecting minority rights in the province to shoot down attempts to introduce gay marriage equality when the Stormont assembly was up and running.

Now that the regional parliament is in suspended animation, gay rights campaigners have challenged central government in London to impose LGBT marriage equality. Love Equality - the coalition of gay rights groups, human rights organisations and trade unions - has welcomed the appointment of the civil servant to oversee a possible change in policy.

John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, said today:

The secretary of state [Karen Bradley] should now make clear her intentions to the Northern Ireland public, including the many same sex couples trying to plan their future.

The Love Equality campaign looks forward to an early meeting with the secretary of state to discuss how best to bring Northern Ireland into line with the other jurisdictions in these islands with the legal recognition the right of same sex couples to marry.

Ultimately, marriage equality must and will become a reality in Northern Ireland. In the absence of an assembly and executive, the responsibility for undoing marriage discrimination in Northern Ireland falls to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. We hope she will choose to be an ally to LGBT people, their friends, family members and the overwhelming majority of people here who wish to live in an equal society.

Here is my colleague Suzanne Moore on the Presidents Club scandal.

And here is an excerpt.

Nothing is going to stop these wealthy ferals behaving badly, but let this not be done in the name of charity. Let it not be done by our public representatives or by CEOs who boast of getting more women in the boardroom.

And if you want a good cause, here’s one: equality for women. Indeed one might have thought, post-Weinstein, that getting your penis out in front of a student at a fundraising dinner is not the wisest of moves. But the gentlemen’s agreement that it somehow is has been busted. The cover is blown, to reveal that the top of society looks like a bunch of lowlife men who reinforce each other’s scummy behaviour. This isn’t about a few men, though. An entire structure enables this – one that turns giving to charity into a circle jerk over the bodies of young women.

Disgust alone is not enough to dismantle this system. But it is sure as hell a good place to start. That and yes, strengthening our equalities legislation. These men celebrated as “winners” as they flash their cash look today like pathetic losers. Good. They cannot buy their way out of that.

Just caught up with Jess Phillips a few minutes after the conclusion of her urgent question on the “men only” Presidents Club dinner. The Labour MP said she was going to press for more disclosure from government and start asking parliamentary questions in an effort to establish which ministers have attended the controversial event in previous years. Nadhim Zahawi, the children’s minister, was present last night although he has said “I didn’t stay long”. But the Labour backbencher is determined to see if there is more to be disclosed.

Updated

Commons urgent question on charity dinner sexual harassment scandal - Summary

  • Opposition MPs have called for the resignation of Nadhim Zahawi, the children’s minister, after it emerged that he was present at the men-only Presidents Club charity dinner where female staff were allegedly sexually harassed. They spoke out during a Commons urgent question (UQ) on the event. Zahawi attended the event last week - “briefly”, according to Number 10. According to Newsnight last night, he also attended a previous Presidents Club dinner, but that was before he became an MP in 2010 and the event then was said to be very different. During the UQ Labour’s Sarah Jones said:

If it transpires that the minister did not report his concerns and that he was there on previous occasions it is absolutely surely obvious that he needs to resign - our women are too important, our young girls are too important to get this kind of message from our leaders and to think that it’s acceptable.

Labour’s Helen Goodman said:

Will [the minister] take away the message from this House that we do not have confidence in the minister for children and who is meant to be in charge of child protection?

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, did not go quite that far, but she did say Zahawi’s presence at the event should be investigated. She said:

His department is responsible for safeguarding millions of children and caring for thousands of victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and for tackling sexual harassment and violence in our schools, for colleges, for universities and for educating another generation of both girls and boys. Isn’t it time that they started leading by example?

Anne Milton, the education minister responding to the UQ, said Zahawi had “found the event extremely uncomfortable” and had left early. She said:

I have spoken to my fellow minister in the department, he didn’t stay at the event long and I know that he found the event extremely uncomfortable. He left and he was truly shocked by the reports that have emerged.

When it was put to her that Zahawi, who was not in the chamber for the UQ, had not reported what went on, Milton said he had reported it to her that morning (ie, after the story appeared in the FT.)

  • Zahawi has said he will never attend a men-only function ever again and that he considers what is reported to have happened at the event “truly shocking”. (See 1.49pm.)
  • Milton told MPs that David Meller, a joint chairman of the Presidents Club, had resigned as a director of the Department for Education and as chair of Apprenticeship Delivery Board in the light of the scandal. She said as a DfE board member he was expected to adhere to the code of conduct for board members of public bodies which required them to follow the seven principles of public life
  • Milton and MPs from all sides of the Commons described the behaviour exposed by the FT investigation as totally unacceptable. Milton said.

I thought things had changed and it is absolutely clear that it hasn’t changed. I think there is an association between rich, wealthy people and this sort of behaviour. We have to send a clear message that this is unacceptable.

And Jess Phillips, the Labour MP who tabled the UQ, said:

What happened is that women were bought as bait for men who were rich men, not a mile from where we stand, as if that is an acceptable behaviour - it is totally unacceptable.

Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said that reports of the Presidents Club event were “appalling” and that women clearly felt threatened there.

“It’s a gross example of sexual harassment under this organisation’s umbrella,” the spokesman said. He went on:

Clearly there were different parts of the evening but we need to know more about what took place there and if necessary that should be looked at by the Charity Commission. People who attended need to give an account of what they were present for and how they reacted.

Labour donor Lord Mendelsohn was present at the event as a representative of one of the charities, Labour said. “He was only present for part of the dinner and wasn’t aware of any of this behaviour, he completely condemns it,” Corbyn’s spokesman said.

Zahawi says he will never attend men-only functions again after 'shocking' charity dinner reports

Nadhim Zahawi, the education minister facing calls for his resignation over his attendance at the Presidents Club dinner, has used Twitter to say he is shocked by what he has read about what happened and that he will never attend a men-only function every again.

David Walliams, the comedian who hosted the Presidents Club event, has tweeted about the story. He says he did not witness any of the sexual harassment that reportedly occurred.

Theresa May backed David Meller’s resignation (see 12.50am), Downing Street said. “Yes, he has been asked to step down and the prime minister thinks that is the right decision,” the prime minister’s spokesman said. He said:

The PM was uncomfortable at the reports she read this morning, I say reports because clearly this is an event to which she would not be invited.

Number 10 said Nadhim Zahawi “probably regrets his decision to go” to the Presidents Club event. The spokesman went on:

My understanding is that Mr Zahawi clearly did attend the event briefly and has himself said he felt uncomfortable at it at the point at which the hostesses were introduced by the host.

Number 10 said the prime minister did not have plans to speak to Zahawi directly. “I think it is probably safe to say Mr Zahawi will not be attending a similar event in future,” the spokesman said.

The UQ is over. But the Labour MP Gareth Snell asks Anne Milton was not able to answer questions directly about Nadhim Zahawi. How can MPs question him about what happened?

John Bercow, the Speaker, says Snell can table a question to the minister, or raise the issue in other ways.

The SNP’s Lisa Cameron says it is “incongruous” for Nadhim Zahawi to be a child protection minister when he attended an event like this.

Labour MP calls for Nadhim Zahawi to resign as education minister for not reporting what happened at dinner

Labour’s Sarah Jones says Nadhim Zahawi should resign if he did not report what was happening.

Milton ignores the point, and responds by talking about the importance of using appropriate language.

  • Labour MP calls for Nadhim Zahawi to resign as an education minister for not reporting what happened at the dinner.

Labour’s Melanie Onn asks why Nadhim Zahawi did not report his concerns about this event.

Milton says Zahawi submitted a report to her first thing this morning (ie, after the story appeared in the FT, not after the event took place on Thursday last week).

Milton says, although lunch with Boris Johnson was one of the lots in the charity auction, Johnson did not know about that. And he was not involved in the event at all, she says.

Milton says Nadhim Zahawi was attending the event in a private capacity.

Milton says she is robust and angry about this. But a little bit of her is extremely said about it too, she says.

Labour’s Paula Sheriff says it is not enough to say that the education minister Nadhim Zahawi only stayed at the dinner for a short period of time.

Milton says Sheriff will have to accept what she says. She saw Zahawi this morning and he was deeply shocked by what was happening at the event.

Labour’s Lucy Powell says this is not just a misjudgment; this was about sticking two fingers up to people concerned about sexual misconduct.

Milton says young people must be brought up to realise this behaviour is unacceptable. She says it is disappointing that young men attended this event and thought that behaviour was okay.

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem deputy leader, says some mean feel entitled to women. That a charity is prepared to tolerate “beggars belief”. She says the Charity Commission should investigate this.

Milton says Great Ormond Street hospital has said it will not take the money raised from the event set aside for it.

Labour’s Angela Eagle says the Fawcett Society published a report recently saying two thirds of women over 16 have suffered harassment. She says the women working at this event were expected to suffer harassment. That must be against the law, she says. Will that be investigated?

Milton says she does want to ensure that this gets looked at.

But she says she does not know anything about the Presidents Club.

If MPs have information relevant to an investigation, they should pass it on to her, she says.

Justine Greening, the Conservative former education secretary, says she is shocked too. But she welcomes the fact that business leaders at that event will now have to publish gender pay information.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, says the disclaimer issued by the President Club shows that the organisers knew what was going on. She says they should all resign.

Milton says this is really shocking. She is appalled as all MPs are, she says.

Milton says this behaviour does not fall far short of payment for sex. She says she is worried that women are encouraging other women to take part in events like this.

The SNP’s Carol Monaghan says this event was billed as the most un-PC event of the year. So the organisers did know what they were doing. She says the reference to women staff being called out of the toilets and taken back to the ballroom shows what was really going on. It was not just sexism, she says; it was slavery. She asks who can teachers fight sexism when the education department is appointing people like this to senior roles.

Milton says she is extremely robust on these issues.

She says this is not just an issue for government. This sort of behaviour happens everywhere, she says.

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, asks why the education minister Nadhim Zahawi was at the event.

Milton says Zahawi was at the dinner. He did not stay long and he felt uncomfortable about what was going on.

Nadine Dorries, a Conservative MP, says as the mother of daughters about the age of the waitressing staff at the event, she was appalled by what she read. She felt as protective as a lioness. She says there were not just Conservative politicians there.

Milton says the Commons must send out a message that this is unacceptable.

David Meller quits as DfE director after sexual harassment charity dinner scandal

Jess Phillips asks her question.

Anne Milton, an educatoin minister, is responding.

She says this is the first time she has heard of the Presidents Club.

She says there have been allegations of inappropriate and lewd behaviour at this dinner. It is extraordinary that allegations of this kind are still being made in the 21st century.

David Meller has been a director at the department, she says. She says he is stepping down as a director and as chair of the apprenticeships delivery board.

  • David Meller quits as director of Department for Education and chair of its Apprenticeship Delivery Board following revelations about sexual harassment at event he organised.

Urgent question on harassment at men-only charity gala

The Financial Times has an unusual (for the FT) splash today - the product of an investigation into sexual harassment of staff at a men-only charity gala dinner.

The Labour MP Jess Phillips has tabled an urgent question about David Meller, one of the joint chairmen of the Presidents Club Charity Dinner, the organisation that put on the event. Meller sits on the board of the education department, which has given Philips a peg for a question.

Here is the Guardian version of the FT story.

Nicky Morgan, the Conservative chair of the Treasury committee, asks if the government will publish details of its plans for financial services after Brexit.

May says the government wants financial services to have a bright future after Brexit.

The SNP’s Deidre Brock asks if the government will publish details of benefit claimants who have taken their lives after having their benefits cut.

May says the government does not give details of individual benefit claimants.

Labour’s Tracy Brabin asks about a constituent who is a teacher who is having to wait six weeks for a universal credit payment. She is having to rely on food banks.

May says changes have been made, availability of advance payments has increased, and the size of them has increased too.

David Evennett, a Conservative, asks May to congratulate his local rugby on his anniversary.

May says sport is very valuable. She does congratulate the club.

Labour’s Julie Elliott asks about a constituent who was repeatedly denied a smear test. Will the government change the law so women under 25 can get a smear test when they are symptomatic. It could be called Amber’s law, after her constituent.

May says too many women do not take up smear test. She knows they are not comfortable, she says. But she wants to encourage women to have them.

As for the availability for under-25s, she will look into this, she says.

John Hayes, a Conservative, asks May to back reducing the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals.

May says the maximum stake will be cut. The government consultation on this has just closed. She says the government also wants to stop children being drawn into gambling.

Labour’s Sarah Jones talks about Tessa Jowell’s interview on the Today programme this morning about her cancer. Will May agree to meet Jowell to discuss her call for cancer patients to get access to better treatments?

May says everyone will send her the best wishes. The government does want to ensure the best treatments are provided. Jeremy Hunt will be happy to meet Jones and May.

John Bercow, the Speaker, says in his 20 years as an MP he has never met a more courteous or gracious MP than Jowell.

PMQs - Snap verdict

PMQs - Snap verdict: One reason why Number 10 has reportedly been resistant to Boris Johnson’s call for an announcement about more money for the NHS is that Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s chief of staff, thinks the Tories can never win on health, and these exchanges seemed to confirm that. Jeremy Corbyn started with two excellent questions - classic unanswerable zingers. He might have been better to stick with these lines of attack (unsurprisingly, May just sidestepped them), because his later questions did not have quite the same potency, but they still amounted to a solid and persuasive case for higher NHS funding that May couldn’t answer very effectively. May came off worst, as she normally does on the NHS, but in some respects these changes were different. She did not try to pivot into an argument about the economy, as she usually does, perhaps sensing that attacking Labour’s tax policy doesn’t help much in a debate about the NHS. Instead she tried to make an argument about how the NHS needs not just money, but best practice. That may be true, but in the face of the extensive evidence cited by Corbyn about NHS failings, it sounded a tad irrelevant. You could tell May was in difficulty because by question three she was going on about Wales. Normally Corbyn just brushes aside the complaints about the NHS in “Labour Wales”, but this time he made a decent stab at blaming it on Westminster under-funding, and that helped him too.

Corbyn says Labour would not be under-funding the NHS. As many as 80 patients were harmed or died as a result of ambulance delays this winter, according to a whistleblower. What investigation is being carried out?

May says these reports are alarming. They will be properly investigated. If there are lessons to be learnt, they will be learnt, The government is backing the NHS with more funding. Survival rates for cancer are better than ever before. And waste in the NHS is being reduced. That’s a plan for the NHS, but one that puts patients first.

Corbyn says May must be aware of ambulances having to wait at A&E, because there is no room for patients. It has been reported someone froze to death waiting 16 hours for an ambulance. These are not isolated cases. The NHs needs extra money, and it needs it now. People can see the NHS has been starved of resources. People are dying. GPs numbers are down. The NHS is in crisis. When will May face up to reality, and save the NHS from death by a thousand cuts.

May says there is only one part of the NHS that has seen a cut in funding - the NHS in Wales. This is a government that recognises the priorities of the British people. They want the NHS to remain the best healthcare system in the world. Britain should be a country where people look to the future with optimism and hope.

Corbyn says the Kings Fund and the Nuffield Trust agree the NHS needs an extra £4bn. Now it has emerged that waiting figures may be even worse than stated because the figures have been fiddled. When will figures be published that are comparable with previous years.

May quotes waiting figures for Wales, where Labour is in power.

Corbyn says May is responsible for under-funding Wales. Despite that, the Welsh health budget has gone up. May is to blame for under-funding Wales. How many more patients will face life-threatening waits this winter.

May says the only answer Corbyn ever comes up with is money. Why do some hospitals have no patients waiting more than 30 minutes, while others do have people waiting? She quotes the IFS saying at the last election Labour and the Tories were promising about the same on the NHS.

Jeremy Corbyn backs what May said about Holocaust Memorial day.

Does May agree with Boris Johnson that the NHS needs an extra £5bn?

May says Corbyn was here at the budget when an extra £6bn was announced.

Corbyn says it was £2.8bn, spread like thin gruel over several years. A&E doctors have written to May saying patients are at risk. Yet she says the NHS is better prepared than before. Who should May believe?

May says the NHS was better prepared than every before. She lists various changes made to the service. Some 2.8m more people visited A&E last year than in 2010. The NHS is providing for patients. The government will ensure it gets more funding.

Stephen Metcalfe, a Conservative, asks about getting more women into engineering.

May says she has been promoting this for some time. The year of engineering allows people to promote careers in engineering, she says.

PMQs

Theresa May starts by saying MPs will want to remember Holocaust Memorial day on Saturday.

She says later today she will go to Switzerland for Davos. She may even bump into John McDonnell, she says.

David Davis's evidence to the Commons Brexit committee - Summary

Here are the main points from the David Davis hearing.

  • Davis, the Brexit secretary, was accused of proposing to turn the UK into a “vassal state” during the transition after he spoke frankly about how much control the EU will continue to have over the UK during this period. The accusation was made by the Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, a member of the committee and now chair of the European Research Group, a group of Conservative MPs committed to a hard Brexit. In the past minister have insisted the the UK will leave the single market and the customs union during the transition, although this has been widely dismissed as semantics because they have also signalled that in practical terms the UK is likely to remain signed up to single market and customs union rules during this period. Davis confirmed this today, using slightly more direct language than ministers have used in the past. That prompted Rees-Mogg to ask him.

If on the 30 March 2019 the UK is subject to the European court of justice, takes new rules relating to the single market, is paying into the European budget, are we not a vassal state?

Rees-Mogg also picked up on the fact that Davis was talking about a “transition” at some points, rather than using the preferred Downing Street phase “implementation period”. Rees-Mogg said this was significant.

Transition is different, because transition means that we are de facto inside the European Union for that period. We are only actually out at the end of the transition. That is a big shift in government policy, and a big move away from the vote in June 2016.

Responding to the question about the UK being a “vassal state” during the transition, Davis said:

If that were going to be the case in perpetuity, my answer would probably be yes. But the answer, for a short time, no.

  • Davis did not rule out the UK agreeing to accept new EU rules coming into force during the transition. When Rees-Mogg asked him if this would happen, Davis said that on average it takes 22 months for new EU laws to come into force, and that the EU is proposing a 21 month transition. He went on:

What happens if that is not exactly right, if it does not work out quite that way, we’ll see when we come to it.

Rees-Mogg said that was a “really rather weak answer”.

  • Davis confirmed that the UK would be happy to accept European court of justice jurisdiction during the transition. Responding to a question from the Labour MP Stephen Timms about the transition, Davis said:

I don’t really care what the outcome is, so long as 1) it does not require us to meet some of the other treaty duties. We are happy to accept ECJ oversight for that period. There will be questions about what happens about subsequent laws. So it will be bespoke.

He also said he would not rule out the UK being “participants” in the single market and the customs union during the transition, provided the UK was not being sucked into a situation where membership would be permanent.

  • Davis said he was “relaxed” about what happened during the transition because what mattered was the final outcome.

That is what matters, that is what people will think about and judge us on in 10, 20, 30 years’ time.

  • He said he expected the transition to end some time between the end of December 2020 (the EU’s preferred option) and the end of March 2021 (the UK’s preferred option.)
  • He said he expected the substance of the UK’s new trade deal with the EU to be agreed before the transition period starts. Asked about this, he said:

It would be unwise to get sucked into a negotiation during the transition period itself which is substantive, major. Why? Because the balance of power in the negotiation alters. The aim then on the part of the commission would be to spin out the negotiation.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has said the opposite. He said recently: “The actual negotiations on the future relationship will only begin once the UK leaves the EU.”

  • Davis claimed he had not talked about “red lines” in relation to Brexit. He said.

I never used the phrase ‘red line’ at all ... Any idiot who goes into a commercial negotiation with the phrase ‘red line’ determines one thing. He does not determine he will hit his red line. He determines he will hit no more than his red line.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon has issued a furious rebuttal of claims in the Daily Telegraph and Scottish Daily Mail that she has banned all Scottish government buildings from flying the union jack, save for Remembrance Day and armed forces day.

Alongside a dispute on Twitter with the radio journalist Iain Dale, the first minister issued a detailed and categorical denial of the claims, insisting a decision to use the lion rampant rather than the union jack on royal occasions was taken eight years ago, and she had no part in it. In Scotland, the lion rampant is used as an alternative royal standard.

The papers reported that the union flag would no longer be flown on 14 of the 15 royal and ceremonial dates it had previously be used for. Sturgeon’s officials said this had only been spotted this month because civil servants very belatedly updated the Scottish government’s website to reflect a policy change from 2010.

The Telegraph quoted Iain Duncan Smith asserting it was an “outrageous” decision: “It is insulting to Scottish people to pretend somehow Scotland is not within the UK … [it] is a tawdry attempt to sow more division” between nationalists and unionists,” he said.

Sturgeon was backed up by her predecessor Alex Salmond, who described the claims about her as “a load of complete piffle” on his website. He also insisted it had royal approval:

I changed the policy on flag flying back in 2010 after an audience with Her Majesty the Queen at Balmoral the previous year...

[I] remember the occasion very well. Her Majesty asked me if the lion rampant was a popular flag in Scotland. I was able to assure her that it was and indeed much beloved of Scottish football and rugby fans. Thus I brought the new policy into effect and left the union flag flying as appropriate, at armed forces day and Remembrance Sunday...

[And] since this change of policy was good enough for the Her Majesty the Queen then why is it being questioned by these ridiculous newspapers and political ignoramuses?

Talks resume in Northern Ireland in bid to end deadlock over power-sharing

Talks begin today in Northern Ireland aimed at ending over a year of political deadlock in the region and restoring power sharing government at Stormont.

But while the two main political parties in the currently suspended Northern Ireland assembly vowed on Wednesday to seek a positive outcome to the discussions, sources in two of the smaller parties were less optimistic.

Two senior figures in the both the nationalist SDLP and cross community Alliance party told The Guardian last night that they hold out little hope of a deal being secured between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein. These sources believe the DUP and Sinn Fein are now so far apart on issues such as the latter’s demand for an Irish Language Act that the gap cannot be bridged ... at least in the three week deadline imposed by Secretary of State Karen Bradley.

One source in the SDLP said Sinn Fein was now more focussed on building its national profile and promoting its new leader in waiting, Mary Lou McDonald, in the Irish Republic where the party is preparing for a possible general election later in 2018.

Conversely, an Alliance source said most of the parties who will be involved in the talks at Stormont today are already on “an election footing” as they expect the negotiations to fail, and subsequently Karen Bradley will legislate for a new election to a fresh Assembly.

In an under-reported part of her speech last week alongside Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney outside Stormont Castle, Bradley had mentioned the possible of a new assembly election should the talks not produce a breakthrough.

And in one clear signal that the discussions may break on issues like Sinn Fein’s insistence on an Irish Language Act, Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, made reference to this earlier today. Foster said:

We do not see the need for stand-alone legislation which is exclusive to the Irish language. There are multiple languages and cultures in Northern Ireland, we should seek to embrace and support that diversity.

A microphone set up at the great hall in Parliament Buildings at Stormont today, ready for politicians making statements about the talks.
A microphone set up at the great hall in Parliament Buildings at Stormont today, ready for politicians making statements about the talks. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Hilary Benn concludes by thanking Davis for coming. If he were to come more often, the hearings would be shorter, he says.

And that’s it.

I will post a summary soon.

Davis says he has got another meeting at 11am.

The Conservative Craig Mackinlay is allowed one question.

Q: We have to pay the EU as we leave because we are a net contributor. Does that means a net beneficiary would get a pay-out if it tried to leave the EU?

Davis says he did try to use that argument. “It did not fly,” he says.

Here is the Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, a member of the committee, on the Davis/Rees-Mogg exchanges.

Davis says a no deal Brexit is now “highly improbable”.

Labour’s Seema Malhotra goes next.

Q: There is a high turnover of staff in your department. Are you concerned about that?

No, says Davis. He says that reflects the fact that it is a new department. There are a lot of staff on secondment. And it has attracted a lot of young, ambitious civil servants.

Davis told Rees-Mogg earlier only an “idiot” would go into a commercial negotiation with red lines, because if you do that, the red lines are all you will get.

That prompted HuffPost Ned Simons to dig out this.

Updated

Q: Will we continue to pay money to the EU during the transition?

Davis says he expects the UK to pay during the course of the transition.

That is one reason he wants the substance of the new trade deal to be agreed before the transition starts.

It will be a mixed agreement, he says (meaning European parliaments have to approve it). It will take some time to approve.

Q: Why don’t we just extend article 50?

Davis says there is a big difference. Having a transition will allow the UK to conclude international trade deals. They will come into effect soon after the transition ends in 2021.

Q: Who is going to punish us if we get on and negotiate these now?

Davis says the UK is acting as a law-abiding country. He is surprised Rees-Mogg wants the UK to break the law.

Q: Will the UK accept new EU rules during the transition?

Davis says it takes two years for new EU rules to come into force. But the EU is talking about a 21-month transition. So any new rules coming into force would have been formulated while the UK was a member.

Q: But the EU would have an incentive to speed up regulation, perhaps affecting financial services.

Davis says he does not think this will be an issue. If it is, he will address it nearer the time, he says.

Rees-Mogg says transition proposed by Davis will make UK a 'vassal state'

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, goes next.

Q: If after Brexit the UK is paying into the EU budget, and subject to its laws, won’t the UK be a vassal state?

Davis laughs. He says if that was the case for perpetuity, the answer would be yes. But it is just for the transition, so the answer is no.

Q: But is there any precedent for a country being subject to a foreign court?

Davis says the details of the transition have been agreed?

Q: But you said earlier the UK would accept the jurisdiction of the ECJ?

Davis says he does not accept the term “vassal state”.

  • Jacob Rees-Mogg says transition proposed by Davis will make UK a “vassal state”.

Davis says he wants 'substantive' talks on future trade deal to conclude before UK leaves EU

Here is the start of the Press Association’s story about the opening of the hearing.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has said that he wants “substantive” negotiations on Britain’s future relationship with the EU to be concluded by the time it leaves the bloc in March 2019.

Giving evidence to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee, Davis said it would be a mistake to allow negotiations to carry on into the proposed transition period following Brexit.

“It would be unwise to get sucked into a negotiation during the transition period itself which is substantive, major,” he said.

“Why? Because the balance of power in the negotiation alters. The aim then on the part of the commission would be to spin out the negotiation.”

Davis said he expected a clash with the European Union over whether the UK will be able to seek its own trade deals during the transition period.

He insisted that the transition period was not a “deferral” of Brexit, even though the UK will follow Brussels’ rules.

“Firstly we will not be members of the union, we will be replicating to a very large extent the operations of the single market and customs union in order to make sure there is a single change, from the point of view of businesses in particular,” he said.

“We will not be subject to the duty of sincere co-operation, which is what stops us arriving at trade deals now, negotiating and signing trade deals now, so that freedom will exist.”

But he added: “There may be an argument over the issue of doing outside negotiations, there may well be an argument over that.”

The UK’s approach was one that “visibly does no harm to the European Union” but “there are people within the union who want to restrict any advantage for us,” he added.

This is from the Economist’s John Peet.

Davis says he “suspects” the government will publish a paper on financial services after Brexit, but it has “no explict plan” to do so.

Yesterday the Financial Times reported that this paper had been shelved.

This is from Open Britain’s Francis Grove-White.

Davis says UK could accept ECJ jurisdiction and stay in customs union and single market during transition

Labour’s Stephen Timms goes next.

Davis says the UK will be happy to accept the jurisdiction of the ECJ during the transition.

  • Davis says UK happy to accept ECJ jurisdiction during transition.

Q: Would you rule out being participants in the customs union and the single market during the transition?

No, says Davis. His only concern is to ensure that the UK does not get sucked into them for good.

  • Davis says UK could stay in customs union and single market during transition.

Open Britain, which is campaigning for a soft Brexit, has put out this in response to Davis’s admission that he has changed his mind about the UK staying in the customs union after Brexit. (See 9.31am.)

The DUP MP Sammy Wilson goes next.

Q: One of the aims of the December deal was to protect “this mythical all-island economy”. What do you understand by that?

Davis says that refers to things like the common electricity market on the island of Ireland.

Q: What lessons have you learnt from the US-Canada border about possible border arrangements with the EU for after Brexit.

Davis says he has looked at various borders. But he knows that border well; he used to sell across it.

He says the techniques there were devised 15 years ago. That means the UK can improve on them. For instance, they have bolts showing that lorries have been sealed. He may bring one to a hearing in future, he says.

David says, with goodwill, new arrangements can be made to work. And the UK does not just have goodwill; there is massive mutual interest too, he says.

Labour’s Emma Reynolds has tweeted about the Davis speech mentioned earlier in which Davis some years ago backed staying in the customs union.

This is from my colleague John Crace, the Guardian’s sketchwriter, who is watching the hearing.

Q: Why are you setting up a new unit to deal with EU nationals after Brexit, and not leaving it with the Home Office?

Davis says this was a means of showing how serious the government is about protecting their rights.

Davis says, even if there is no Brexit deal, EU nationals in UK will not be deported

Richard Graham, a Conservative, goes next. He asks about the rights of EU nationals.

Davis says the EU may be holding back a concession about allowing British nationals living in one EU country to move freely to live in another after Brexit as a “bargaining chip” for a later stage of the negotiation, he says.

  • Davis says EU may be willing to make a further concession of the rights of British nationals living on the continent.

Q: If there were no deal, would the agreement on citizens’ rights still apply?

Davis says the PM has made it clear that this is a moral responsibility. There is never going to be a circumstance where the UK will be deporting people. “So we will find another way around this if we have to,” he says.

  • Davis says, even if there is no Brexit deal, EU nationals in UK will not be deported.

Davis says the UK will not pay “danegeld” to the EU to get access to the single market.

Q: What about spending the Brexit dividend on health?

Davis says he used to be a director of a public company. He says in that job you were not allowed to talk about spending a dividend until you had it.

  • Davis distances himself from Boris Johnson’s call for the government to commit now to spending a Brexit dividend on health.

Stephen Crabb, the Conservative former work and pensions secretary, goes next.

Q: Do you expect the UK to remain part of the EU’s excise movement and control system during the transition?

Davis says that is what he expects.

Q: What will happen about the European court of justice during the transition?

Davis says there was a big argument about the ECJ during phase one. People think the EU did not concede anything. But originally the EU wanted the ECJ to retain full jurisdiction over the rights of EU nationals.

He says the EU are getting a better understanding of how important this is to the UK.

Q: And cash payments?

Davis says the UK may be making a contribution to some programmes, like Erasmus, after Brexit. But he does not see the UK paying the EU for access to the single market.

He says the UK is not asking the EU to pay for access to its market.

Q: And defence cooperation?

Davis says this is a matter of mutual interest.

Labour’s Emma Reynolds is asking the questions now.

Davis is talking about a trip he made recently to the US-Canada border. When a trusted trader scheme was introduced, customs takings went up $1m a month, he says.

Earlier Davis mocked the Bank of England’s forecasts about what might happen after the vote to leave the EU.

The Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, a member of the committee, thinks Davis should have gone further.

Davis suggests government Brexit red lines won’t apply during the transition

John Whittingdale, the Conservative former culture secretary, goes next.

Q: What is the difference between a transition period and a deferral of Brexit?

Davis says the UK will not be a member of the EU. It will not be subject to the duty of sincere cooperation. So it can make trade deals with other countries.

And EU nationals coming to the UK will have to register, he says.

Q: You have seen the EU’s guidelines for a transition. Can you say which ones you will not accept?

Davis says he has avoided commenting on the draft. He takes these things as opening negotiation bids.

Q: Where will there be arguments?

Davis says there may be an argument about whether the UK can negotiate trade deals during the transition.

Q: Do red lines apply during the transition?

Davis says he is relaxed about the transition. What matters is the future relationship. In 20 years’ time people will not be complaining about the transition.

  • Davis suggests government Brexit red lines won’t apply during the transition.

Q: So how quickly will we get a transition deal.

Davis says he would expect it before the end of March. That was implied in what the EU said in December.

  • Davis says transition deal likely to be agreed before end of March.

Q: So how many meetings have you had on it?

None, says Davis. He says Brexit department staff have been in Brussels holding technical meetings.

Q: And how long will it last? Until the end of 2020?

Davis says about two years. That was not plucked out of the air. It was partly about bank regulatory expectations. And partly because of the time taken to sort out things like new border arrangements. And it is what he thought other countries would use.

Davis says, after two years, other countries would start to see this as not a transition, but a new trade deal. And that would count as a “mixed agreement” - meaning all EU parliaments would have to agree it.

He says the EU want to wrap up the transition at the end of 2020 because that is the end of their budget period. There are arguments for that.

But ending it in March 2020 would suit the UK because that would be the end of the grace period for EU nationals wanting to stay in the UK.

Q: And do you imagine trade talks going on beyond that?

Davis says he expects the “substance” of the new trade deal to be decided before the transition starts.

  • Davis says he expects to agree the “substance” of a trade deal with the EU before the UK leaves in March 2019.

Updated

Q: Last week this committee was told that a Ceta-type deal (Ceta is the EU-Canada free trade deal) was not compatible with keeping the border open in Ireland.

Davis asks why.

Q: Our witness said there would have to be checks at the border.

Did he accept that there are different tax regimes in Northern Ireland and in the Republic now, Davis asks. And is he an expert in authorised trader arrangements, Davis asks.

Q: Are you saying a Ceta-plus ...

You’ve knocked two words off, says Davis. (He said recently he wanted a Canada plus, plus, plus deal.

Q: Are you saying a Ceta-plus deal will be compatible with an open border in Ireland?

It depends what the pluses are, says Davis.

He says he sees Ceta as a a floor, not a ceiling.

He says the EU will want to avoid a race to the bottom on standards.

The government will not adopt every aspect of Ceta. But it would provide a floor, he says.

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry is asking the questions now. She asks about the UK-EU deal at the end of phase one of the Brexit talks.

She asks about the UK internal market. The UK is assuming, in the deal it struck in December, that Westminster will have the power to regulate over matters that are devolved.

Davis says he does not accept this. But the government wants to ensure people have the ability to sell across the UK, he says.

He says the government is discussing clause 11 of the EU withdrawal bill with the Scottish government. The UK government will amend it to address Scottish concerns, he says.

Cherry says the government was expected to produce its clause 11 amendments before the bill went to the Lords. But it did not. Was that because the government realised that, if it amended clause 11, it would not retain the power it needed under the December deal to regulate for matters that are devolved.

Q: So why were the amendments were not produced on time?

Because the agreement was not concluded, says Davis.

Q: So discussions with the Scottish government had not concluded.

Davis says that is part of it. And the amendments were not ready.

Here is the Economist’s Brexit editor John Peet on Davis’s trade claims.

This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.

And this is from the BBC’s Adam Fleming.

This is not what Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, says. He told Prospect magazine recently: “The actual negotiations on the future relationship will only begin once the UK leaves the EU.”

Updated

Q: You have just given a quantitative assessment of how much trade could increase. But at the last hearing you said you had not done an quantitative Brexit impact assessments.

Davis says the government has done sectoral analyses.

But he says he is not impressed by forecasts. Forecasts have been proved wrong, he says.

Davis says free trade agreements can generate trade growth of up to 40%

Q: A few years ago you wrote a speech saying the UK should stay in the customs union after Brexit?

Davis says he has changed his mind.

At that point he had not analysed where he thought world trade growth would come from.

And he had not considered what trade deals could achieve.

If they are well crafted, they can generate trade growth of up to 40%, he says.

  • Davis says free trade agreements can generate trade growth of up to 40%.

Davis says that does not apply if free trade agreements are not very good. The deals that are not good are those made on behalf of large blocs, he says.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the Davis speech.

And here is an extract.

Updated

Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the committee, is asking the questions.

Q: You wrote an article before you became a minister saying you expected trade deals to be negotiated within two years.

Davis says that was before he was a minister.

That was then; this is now.

  • Davis confirms that he has abandoned the claims he made about how trade deals could be negotiated within two years in a ConservativeHome article he wrote just before he became a minister.

The hearing has started. You can watch a live feed here.

The feed was not working for the first few minutes, but it seems to be okay now.

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, is giving evidence to the Commons Brexit committee this morning. He is there as part of its inquiry into the progress of the withdrawal negotiations.

These sessions tend to be wide-ranging and informative - Davis is more prone to actually engaging with the questions he is asked than many of his colleagues in government - but last night the former Number 10 spin doctor Matthew O’Toole (who worked on the EU referendum campaign when David Cameron was prime minister) took to Twitter to give Davis some PR advice.

The government has already said that it expects conditions during the transition to be much the same as under EU membership and the EU has said in its guidelines that, if it wants full access to the single market during the transition, it will have to accept EU rules in their entirety. So, if Davis were to follow O’Toole’s advice, he would not be saying anything very surprising. Yesterday the Independent ran a story claiming that the government had already agreed in principle to have a Norway-style arrangement during the transition. Number 10 denied the story, saying that the transition guidelines had not been agreed yet, but in evidence to the Commons home affairs committee yesterday the policing minister Nick Hurd said the government was willing to accept the jurisdiction of the European court of justice during the transition. Asked by the committee chair Yvette Cooper whether Yvette Cooper if “direct jurisdiction by the ECJ ensuring the transition period so that we can maintain full membership of Europol and the databases and the European arrest warrant is an acceptable outcome for the transition arrangements”, Hurd replied: “Until such time as we’ve agreed an alternative.”

The Brexit committee may also want to ask Davis when the transition period will actually been agreed. Business groups have been saying it has to be by the end of March at the latest. But yesterday Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said that deadline might slip.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: David Davis, the Brexit secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Brexit committee.

10.30am: Alok Sharma, the employment minister, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee about universal credit.

11am: Rory Stewart, the justice minister, gives evidence to the justice committee about Liverpool prison.

12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

2.15pm: Tom Scholar, permanent secretary at the Treasury, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the Treasury’s annual report.

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

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