Afternoon summary
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The most senior civil servant in Northern Ireland has said a no deal Brexit could make trade impossible for some firms in Northern Ireland. As the Press Association reports, David Sterling, the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, told an event in Brussels that many local firms could be very badly affected in these circumstances. He said:
I cannot stray into political territory. However you will not be surprised to hear that we have deep concerns about the risk that no deal is agreed and there is chaotic exit from the EU.
Under such a scenario, costs for our businesses could significantly increase or create what might just [make it] impossible for many firms, particularly in our agri-food supply chains, to trade normally in this era of ‘just in time’ processing and manufacturing.
In the life cycle of many goods they have to cross the land border many times. Our research has shown that two-thirds of cross-border trade involves supply chain activity. How would this work if they had to make customs and VAT declarations each time?
- John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has urged Philip Hammond, the chancellor, to rule out a no deal Brexit. Speaking after the publication of today’s IMF report on the state of the economy, McDonnell said:
Today the IMF has underlined the warnings that we’ve already heard from trade unions and business organisations about the damage that a cliff edge Brexit would do to our economy.
Once again I call on the chancellor to show some leadership and make it clear to his colleagues that he will not accept a no deal Brexit and the damage it risks doing to jobs, wages and living standards in this country.
- Bex Bailey, the Labour activist who revealed she was raped at a party event in 2011, has criticised party leaders for refusing to publish a report that accuses them of having “accommodated” sexual harassment, the Independent reports. Bailey spoke out in an interview on the BBC’s PM programme broadcast just now.
That’s all from me for today.
Comments will close at 6pm.
Chequers: the video - A review
Here are some stills from Chequers - the video. Frankly, one feels for the poor soul in the Downing Street communications team tasked with the job of turning the government’s Brexit white paper (the document that sets out the Chequers plan) into a snazzy Facebook video suitable for social media sharing. In the circumstances he or she has done a pretty good job - except for the fact that, at 6 minutes and 43 seconds, it’s about 6 minutes too long. And it doesn’t have any cats.
They should have got Larry involved. But perhaps he wasn’t interested.
Still, here are some of the more interesting images from the production.
This one accompanies a passage where Theresa May (who provides the voice over) explains that, even though Chequers marks a compromise (or a “significant shift”, as she puts it, in the UK’s position), some red lines remain.
This one gives an indication as to the quality of the drawing involved. (On second thoughts, perhaps Larry was involved - he couldn’t have done much worse.)
And this one is worth noting because it shows how “taking back control of our own laws” (supposed to be one of the main benefits of Brexit) has now become (in May’s words) ending some EU legislation becoming law in the UK without parliament ever considering it. That’s because, under Chequers, the UK would remain bound by the EU’s rulebook for goods and would be expected to pass its own laws mirroring any new EU legislation in this area. (Parliament could, of course, refuse, but that would have trade or financial consequences.)
Updated
No 10 releases Facebook video to help sell Chequers plan
Downing Street has unveiled - Chequers, the video.
A lot has been said about the Chequers agreement, the White Paper and what it actually means for Brexit. I want to take a few minutes to explain what the government has agreed, and what this means for us leaving the EU. https://t.co/T96i09mUYx pic.twitter.com/rCswFBlHAc
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) September 17, 2018
Updated
Jaguar Land Rover has announced that more than 3,000 staff will move to a three-day week at its Castle Bromwich plant in the West Midlands, only hours after the carmaker was accused of “scaremongering” about the impact of Brexit by a Conservative MP, my colleague Rob Davies reports.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has been in Madrid today for a meeting with the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez. In a tweet he says there can be a Brexit deal provided the integrity of the single market is maintained - a condition that the EU has imposed from day one.
In Madrid today, cordial meeting with @sanchezcastejon to prepare for #Brexit #Salzburgsummit18. A deal with #UK is possible if integrity of Single Market is preserved. Full support for Spain in its negotiations w/ UK on #Gibraltar, which need to conclude asap. pic.twitter.com/lEhR65DSdK
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) September 17, 2018
Clegg says he can't be a British Macron
Nick Clegg told a fringe meeting at the Lib Dem conference that he could not be a British Macron. The former Lib Dem deputy prime minister said:
I’d love to think some sort of British Macron would come charging over the horizon and save us all from Brexit. But the secret to these breakthrough characters is precisely that they arrive relatively unencumbered by baggage.
Clegg said his own role in the coalition meant that he could not perform this role.
I can’t pretend that you can suddenly shed all that baggage and have a completely fresh start.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. New characters will emerge to lead that political renewal.
I plan to wrap up the blog at around 5pm. And we plan to close the comments at some point between around 6pm and 6.30pm.
Osborne says Home Office was 'unsympathetic' to plight of child refugees when May was in charge
In today’s Evening Standard, George Osborne, the editor and former Conservative chancellor, says that when Theresa May was home secretary, the Home Office was “unsympathetic” to the plight of child refugees. Osborne makes the point in an “editor’s reply” column to a letter from the Labour peer Alf Dubs praising Sajid Javid, the current home secretary, for his recent decision to allow children from the Calais refugee camp now living in the UK a new right to remain.
Osborne wrote:
Sajid Javid has, as you say, done a “good thing” for those children who have arrived since 2016. We should not underestimate the symbolism of this step by the home secretary. I know from my own experience of raising these issues in the cabinet how unsympathetic the Home Office was when it came to asking for help. Dismantling the “hostile environment” that was created during those years is going to take time.
By the standard of some of Osborne’s previous jibes at May (she sacked him when she became PM, of course), this is relatively mild, but it does undermine May’s attempts to depict herself (see PMQs last week) as a champion of of social justice.
Lunchtime summary
- Theresa May has insisted that the only alternative to her Chequers plan is crashing out of the European Union with no deal, prompting her critics on the right of the Tory party to say she risks a “car crash” if she sticks to her policy. She was speaking in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for a Panorama programme being broadcast tonight. See 10.29am for a full summary and analysis.
- Downing Street has mocked Boris Johnson for using his Telegraph column today to condemn an EU Irish backstop proposal that he endorsed when he was a member of the cabinet. Johnson has now put the full text of his column on his Facebook page.
- Anti-Brexit campaigners have claimed that, even if everyone who voted in the 2016 EU referendum were to vote the same way again, demographic changes mean that the UK population will have a remain majority by 29 March 2019, when the UK leaves. Peter Kellner, the former YouGov president, has done the analysis for the People’s Vote campaign, which wants a referendum on the final Brexit deal. His analysis involves looking at how the people voted in 2016 and then calculating how population changes - the death of mostly older voters, based on average death rates, and the fact that people who were too young to vote two years ago are now over 18 - will have altered the mix. It assumes people would vote as they did in 2016, and does not take into account evidence showing there has, separately, been a slight shift to remain. There is a very strong correlation between being older and voting leave, and previously Kellner calculated that the crossover point - the moment when remain would outnumber leave, assuming everyone still alive voted as they did two years ago - would come in November next year. But in the light of new polling showing that the “new voters” (people who are 18 or 19 now) are even more pro-remain than assumed has led him to conclude the the crossover point will come on 19 January next year. Kellner said:
YouGov’s latest figures tell us how those who were not yet 18 last time would vote now. Those who say they are certain to vote divide seven-to-one for remain. This matters statistically: for it helps to explain why demographic factors alone will cause the UK this winter to switch from a leave country to a remain country.
Because this cross-over point occurs before March 29, 2019 – when the UK is due to leave the EU – it means the British public’s view of Brexit will have changed even without anyone who voted two years changing their mind. Young people who were not eligible to vote in 2016 and can do so now make it much harder for anyone to claim that Brexit is still the ‘will of the people’.
Older voters are just as keen on leaving the EU as they were two years ago, younger voters are moving even more strongly into the remain camp – and the very youngest voters back continued membership of the EU by a remarkable margin. It is very rare for a significant demographic group to support one side so overwhelmingly on an issue that splits the nation down the middle.
What is more, young voters are the ones who will still be dealing with the long-term consequences of the current Brexit drama in ten or 20 years’ time, long after many leave voters have gone. Today’s young voters are making clear that they want a pro-European inheritance – and are ready to stand up and be counted, in a fresh public vote.
In response to Theresa May’s suggestion that MPs will face a binary choice between her Chequers plan and a no deal Brexit, Ukip says they should opt for no deal. This is from the Ukip leader Gerard Batten.
After a summer of dripping Project Fear 2.0 into the public’s ears, Mrs May has put down an in or out option.
Ukip has always said that no deal, which is really reverting to WTO terms, is better than a bad deal with the EU. Mrs May’s deal, whatever the particulars, will not be what the British people voted for on June 23rd, 2016, it will be Brexit in name only.
I call on all leave MPs to reject the flimsy agreement Mrs May is putting together and support a full unencumbered exit from the EU under World Trade Organisation rules.
According to a new poll, 64% of Scots think immigration policy should be devolved to the Scottish parliament, the Herald reports.
The main draw at LibDem conference today is Gina Miller, fresh from launching her “end the chaos!” initiative with a clifftop photo-shoot in Dover on Friday, who told party members she was “not addressing you as your leader-in-waiting”.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Miller expressed irritation that she is often portrayed as wanting to “stop Brexit”. She said:
I wish you would all stop saying this, you know it’s really not helpful: stop saying ‘stop Brexit’.
Miller also expressed doubts about the phrase “People’s Vote”, as a slogan for those campaigning, as she is, for the public to be given a say on the final Brexit deal.
“I don’t like the phrase,” she said, adding: “It’s not definite enough. It doesn’t have enough detail behind it.”
Miller would like a referendum to offer the public three choices: the government’s deal, (assuming Theresa May gets one); no deal; or remain. She insisted she had no plans to join the Lib Dems - or any other party - even if they were the only one calling for remain at a second referendum.
Number 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.
- Downing Street mocked Boris Johnson for using his Telegraph column today to condemn an EU Irish backstop proposal that he endorsed when he was a member of the cabinet. (See 11.47am.)
- The prime minister’s spokesman refused to endorse a warning from Philip Hammond, the chancellor, this morning about the seriousness of a no deal Brexit. (See 12.15am.)
- The spokesman played down the significance of Michael Gove, the environment secretary, suggesting yesterday that, after the UK leaves the EU, the Chequers settlement could be overturned. Asked about Gove’s comments, he said:
The secretary of state was simply setting out a matter of fact, which is that no parliament can bind the hands of its successor.
But the spokesman got more defensive when asked about Kit Malthouse, the housing minister, who made a similar point to Gove’s on the BBC’s Westminster Hour last night. Malthouse said that Chequers was “sufficient for the moment” and that it was not as if Chequers “is going to set things in stone”. Asked about these comments, the spokesman said:
We believe that Chequers does provide the basis for a stable relationship with the EU, and that is what the government is working to deliver.
- The spokesman refused to say that the UK would definitely be able to negotiate the 63 trade deals needed to duplicate the existing EU trade deals with other countries by March next year in the even of a no deal Brexit. At the press conference at the Treasury this morning Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, said that getting these deals signed in time in the event of a no deal Brexit would be a “heck of a lot of work”. When asked if the UK would be able to conclude all these deals in time, the spokesman said:
When we were discussing the no deal cabinet last week, we said that we were working and determined to ensure that we had everything in place in the unlikely event of a no deal scenario.
Asked if that meant the government would be able to sign all 63 trade deals by 29 March next, the spokesman replied.
We have said that we will be ready for exit day, including in a no deal scenario.
- The spokesman dismissed suggestions that what Theresa May said this morning about EU nationals not getting preferential immigration treatment after Brexit contradicted hints to the contrary in the white paper. When I asked about this at the briefing (see 10.29am), the spokesman replied:
The section of the white paper you refer to is talking about mobility frameworks, which are common to all trade deals. But that is something very separate from your immigration system, and bringing an end to free movement.
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The spokesman played down a report in today’s Times (paywall) saying the EU drawing up its own compromise plans for a frictionless Irish border.
The Times story (paywall) says:
The European Union is secretly preparing to accept a frictionless Irish border after Brexit in a move that raises the prospect of Theresa May striking a deal by the end of the year.
In a concession to British concerns, EU negotiators want to use technological solutions to minimise customs checks between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Under the EU plan, goods could be tracked using barcodes on shipping containers under “trusted-trader” schemes administered by registered companies. This would remove the need for new border infrastructure.
The spokesman would not comment on the detail of the story, but, when asked about it, he said:
This is an ongoing negotiation. I have read many things in recent days, quite a few of which are contradictory to one another.
Misty the labrador takes part in the annual dog swim to mark the end of the season at Saltdean pool in Brighton#tomorrowspaperstoday @AllieHBNews #swimming pic.twitter.com/2EP1RND2J5
— The Times Pictures (@TimesPictures) September 16, 2018
Updated
No 10 refuses to endorse Hammond's warning about seriousness of no deal Brexit
At the lobby briefing Number 10 also refused to back the chancellor over the risk posed by a no deal Brexit.
This morning, at the press conference at the Treasury where the IMF report on the UK was published, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, said:
Despite the contingency actions we are taking, leaving without a deal would put at risk the substantial progress the British people have made over the last 10 years.
At the lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman was asked if Theresa May agreed with this assessment. The spokesman referred to what May told the BBC about the UK’s prospects under Brexit in the interview broadcast this morning. (See 10.29am.) He went on:
The PM said very clearly that she believes our best days are ahead of us and that we will have plans in place for us to succeed in all scenarios.
Updated
After her speech to the Lib Dem conference Gina Miller held a briefing with reporters. From what the Daily Mirror’s Dan Bloom is saying, it sounds as if it all got a bit awkward.
Gina Miller briefs the media backstage at Lib Dem conference: "Stop saying 'stop Brexit'! It's really not helpful."
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) September 17, 2018
She also doesn't like the phrase "People's Vote" (despite backing one). "It doesn't have enough detail behind it". pic.twitter.com/uhBCuWgqJi
Lib Dems back revoking article 50 if May fails to secure Brexit deal
The Lib Dems have backed a move to unilaterally revoke article 50 if the prime minister cannot secure an exit deal by March, to avoid a no deal scenario.
Party members have backed an activist’s amendment which could see the UK opting to stay in the EU without a second referendum or general election, though with some tacit backing from the leadership.
Sarah Brown, the Lib Dem activist who proposed the motion said it was time to “cut the crap and act now.” The new policy seeks to extend the article 50 period in a bid to secure a new referendum.
However, the policy states that if no deal has been reached and no referendum is in sight, the UK should “withdraw the article 50 notification” if the EU will not allow an extension.
The main draw on the conference floor on Monday was anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, tipped as a potential future leader of the party if reforms allowing non-MPs to stand are voted through.
However, the businesswoman, who led the legal fight for a parliamentary vote on Article 50, said she would not stand for leader or indeed join the party. She told the conference:
I am not addressing you as your leader-in-waiting. Truth be told, I am not a member of your party, or indeed any party now, but I want, all the same, to see the Liberal Democrats thrive, because in a healthy democracy we need a strong third party, every bit as much as we need a strong opposition, and, for that matter, a strong government and a strong prime minister.
No 10 mocks Boris Johnson for condemning EU backstop plan he originally endorsed
One of the regular features of the Monday morning Downing Street lobby briefing these days is hearing the prime minister’s spokesman slap down Boris Johnson for whatever he has said in his Monday Telegraph column. But the tone of the rebuttal varies. Two weeks ago the spokesman sounds grandly dismissive. Last week he spoke about Johnson with indifference and disdain. Today he plumped for outright mockery.
In his column today (paywall) Johnson says the EU’s plan for the Irish backstop would be “disastrous”. But the spokesman said that Johnson was happy to sign up to it at the time. Asked about Johnson’s arguments, he told journalists:
I think it is worth pointing out that Boris Johnson was a member of the cabinet which agreed to the December joint report, including the backstop. At the time he congratulated the prime minister for her determination in securing the deal.
He remained in government for a full seven months after the joint report was agreed. And he was also a member of the cabinet sub-committee which agreed the UK’s proposed customs backstop.
I will post more from the briefing soon.
The IMF has published its latest report on the UK economy today and Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, has been speaking at a press conference at the Treasury. My colleague Graeme Wearden has full coverage here on his business live blog.
As Graeme reports, Lagarde said a no deal Brexit would be very bad for the British economy. Asked to explain why, she said:
It would be a shock to supply, and would result in reduced growth, increased deficit, depreciation of the currency ... and in reasonable short order, it would mean a reduction in the size of the UK economy.
I’m just off to the Number 10 lobby briefing now. I will post again after 11.30am.
Theresa May's BBC interview on Brexit - Summary and analysis
Theresa May has faced a lot of criticism since her Chequers plan for Brexit was announced for the fact that she had done very little to try to sell the idea to the public. Apart from a dire Q&A at a factory in Newcastle in July, she has not really embarked on a public sales mission, of a kind that a prime minister like Tony Blair or David Cameron would have relished, and as a consequence she has allowed the critics of Chequers to have the field to themselves, perhaps contributing to the strategy being now even more unpopular with the public than the poll tax was.
Tonight’s BBC Panorama programme and interview seems to mark the moment when May has decided to fight back. It is a bit late, and it could still be a lost cause, but judging by the clips used on the BBC news last night, which showed May may looking calm and serious, No 10 will probably be quite pleased with the way it has come out. (At the very least, she came over as more convincing than she often does on TV - a low bar.)
In terms of her message, May is not saying anything radically new. But in the interview excerpt broadcast on Today she sounded a little bit more engaged on this than she has in the past. She was willing to take a proper swipe at the ERG plan for the Irish border. And she almost sounded passionate when explaining why she is opposed to the ERG/Boris Johnson plan for Brexit, because she thinks it could lead to “business leaving this country”.
May ended up opting for Chequers, which would de facto keep the UK in the single market for goods, because she decided she did not want to be the PM who closed down the British car industry (the possible long-term consequence of eliminating a friction-free border.) One of her problems up to now is that she has not been willing to make that case firmly and aggressively, for fear of provoking Tory Brexiters. Today she did not quite take the gloves off, but she did sound marginally more combative on this point than in the past.
Here are the main points.
- May said there were just two options for MPs - a withdrawal agreement based on her Cheques plan, or a no deal Brexit. Speaking about what would happen in the autumn, she said:
I believe we will get a good deal. We will bring that back from the EU negotiations and put that to parliament. I think the alternative to that would be not having a deal because, a) I don’t think the negotiations would have that deal, and b), we’re leaving on the 29 March.
This is clearly now an important Downing Street message. Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, said much the same in his Today interview on Thursday last week.
- May rejected suggestions that the EU would be willing to re-open the Brexit talks if parliament rejected the deal expected to be agreed in November. She said:
Do we really think that the European Union, if we’ve been through this negotiation, we get to the point where we’ve agreed a deal, that if parliament was to say ‘No, go back, get a better one’, do you really think the European Union is going to give a better deal at that point?
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem former deputy prime minister and a former EU trade negotiator, used a subsequent interview with Today to say that May was wrong. Extending negotiations was standard EU practice, he said. (See 8.36am.)
- May appeared to rule out giving EU nationals preferential immigration status after Brexit. This has been a highly contentious issue within the Conservative party and, although May was not 100% clear, she did seem to shift the policy. In an interview with the BBC just after the Chequers meeting where the Chequers plan was formulate, May refused to rule out giving EU nationals preferential treatment after Brexit. Two days later Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons and (unlike May) a leave voter, said EU nationals would not get preferential treatment. Leadsom was arguing that, although EU nationals would not get a special status giving them better access to the UK than all other foreigners, they could get preferential treatment of a kind available to nationals from other countries with with trade deals with the UK. The white paper, published shortly after Leadsom’s interview, said as much. It said:
Given the depth of the relationship and close ties between the peoples of the UK and the EU, the UK will make a sovereign choice in a defined number of areas to seek reciprocal mobility arrangements with the EU, building on current WTO GATS commitments. The UK has already proposed that this should be achieved in an appropriate framework for mobility, in line with arrangements that the UK might want to offer to other close trading partners in the future, where they support new and deep trade deals.
This wording suggests that, immediately after Brexit, EU nationals could still be better off than nationals from other countries, but that in due course other countries could catch up. But today May implied otherwise. Asked if there would be a preferential immigration deal for EU nationals, at first she ducked the question, saying immigration plans would be published this autumn. Then, when pushed, she replied:
As I look at this, what I’m very clear about is the message from the British people was very simple. It was they didn’t want a situation where they could see people coming from the European Union having those automatic rights in terms of coming here to the United Kingdom, and a set of rules for people outside the European Union. What we will be doing is putting forward a set of rules for people from the European Union and people from outside the European Union.
This answer may reflect the influence of Sajid Javid, the home secretary. His predecessor, Amber Rudd, was reportedly keen to offer EU nationals preferential treatment, but it is said that Javid is much more insistent that they get treated in the same way as nationals from other trading partners.
- She dismissed the European Research Group’s plan for the Irish border published last week, saying “you don’t solve the issue of no hard border by having a hard border 20 kilometres inside Northern Ireland”. Asked about the ERG document, she said:
What many of these other plans are based on is moving the border. You don’t solve the issue of no hard border by having a hard border 20 kilometres inside Northern Ireland or 20 kilometres inside Ireland. It’s still a hard border.
- She said that alternative Brexit plans being pushed by other Tories could lead to firms leaving the UK. She said:
The plans that I’ve seen at the moment are ones that don’t deliver on the Northern Ireland border, don’t deliver on a seemless border with the rest of the European Union. If you are one of those small businesses, over 100,000 small businesses in the UK that only trades with the European Union, your business will change. You will have extra burdens. I don’t want those businesses to have those extra burdens. I don’t want manufacturers to feel that they’ve got to operate under all sets of different rules because that complicates life for them. And that potentially means business leaving this country.
This was a reference to calls for the UK to have a Canada-style trade relationship with the EU, something favoured by Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, and the ERG. These proposals would involve exporters being subject to customs and regulatory controls when selling goods into the EU, something that car manufacturers, for example, claim could led to factories in the UK eventually relocating.
- She refused to admit that her Chequers plan amounted to a compromise. When Nick Robinson pressed her on this (see 8.14am), she dodged the question. This was odd because, in the Number 10 statement issued after the Chequers meeting, the government said itself that the old position “needed to evolve” (code for ‘we had to give a bit’) and in her forward to the white paper May said there was a need for “pragmatism and compromise” on both sides. But May probably did not want to admit this today because ...
- She claimed that the Chequers plan showed she was standing up to the EU. She said:
Both of those were unacceptable to the UK, unacceptable to me, unacceptable to the government, and I think unacceptable to the British public. And that’s why we had to stand up to the EU and say no, we won’t accept what you’ve put forward, we’re going to put our own proposal forward. And that’s what Chequers was about.
Leaders always like to sound tough in negotiations, and so you can see why this spin appeals. It is true to say that May is standing up to the EU in that she is not acquiescing in their demands. But in other respects she has compromised, and Chequers is “softer” than the Brexit she was promising Tories last year.
- May played down reports that the Bank of England forecasts house prices falling by a third in the event of a worst-case no deal Brexit scenario. Asked about this, she said:
All the forecasts that are out there that look at no deal or look at other aspects - they are not a prediction. What is important is how the government responds.
Under no deal there would be some short-term disruption. It is our job as a government to make sure that we make a success of no deal, just as we make a success of getting a good deal.
- She declined to say that Brexit would make the UK better off. But it could make the UK better off, she suggested. May voted remain and, even though she is implementing Brexit, she has always declined to say she thinks it will make the UK better off, or even that she would vote for it if given the chance now. Robinson asked her if she could complete the sentence: “Brexit is a good idea because ...” May replied:
It gives the United Kingdom opportunities as an independent and sovereign state to build a better future for all our people.
Then, when Robinson asked if she believed in it, she replied:
I believe that our best days are ahead of us.
That, of course, is a non-answer. Politicians in all countries always feel the need to say the best days are ahead, even though history often suggests they aren’t.
Updated
Rees-Mogg rejects May’s claim MPs face binary choice between Chequers and no deal Brexit
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP who chairs the European Research Group, which is campaigning for a harder Brexit, is conducting is LBC phone-in now. He has just said that Theresa May was wrong to argue that the only options available to parliament this autumn would be accepting Chequers or leaving without a deal (or leaving on WTO terms, as he put it.)
The prime minister’s argument on the radio this morning [was] that it was either her plan or WTO terms, in which case WTO terms would be much better. The only reason we have got the Chequers plan is because she didn’t put forward a better one. It’s not this simple either/or case.
- Rees-Mogg rejects May’s claim that parliament faces a binary choice between Chequers and a no deal Brexit.
The ERG want a Canada-style free trade deal, with arrangements in place in Ireland that they claim (despite EU objections) would obviate the need for hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Updated
Q: You have been going around speaking to EU leaders. What do you think they will offer?
Clegg says he is trying to ensure the UK has more choices. There are always more choices. he says.
And that’s it. The interview is over.
Here is Patrick Wintour’s story from Friday about Clegg’s diplomatic efforts.
Q: What exactly are you proposing? If the Commons votes for the withdrawal agreement, we will leave?
Clegg says a country as big as the UK should not negotiate to leave a club without any guarantees about what would happen next. There is no precedent for a country doing this in the modern world. It is like leaving your home, throwing away the keys and not knowing where you will live next.
Nick Clegg says May wrong to say UK only has two options, Chequers or no deal
Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader and former deputy prime minister, is being interviewed on Today now.
He says it is “simply not true” to say that the only options available to the UK are Chequers or a no deal Brexit.
- Clegg rejects May’s claim that the UK will have to choose between Chequers and leaving the EU with no deal.
Of all the con tricks we have been subject to in this whole sorry Brexit saga - from the lies in the referendum to the so-called virtues of what is nothing more than an inelegant fudge in Chequers - I think the worst is now to come.
We’re now going to be told: ‘It’s my way or no way’ - it’s either the Chequers fudge or a sort of cataclysmic cliff edge. The idea that the only thing this country should accept is a fudge or the abyss is not only, I think, an insult to the intelligence of British voters, but it’s simply not true.
Clegg says when he worked as an EU trade negotiator he never knew a negotiation end on time. It would be possible to extend the negotiations, he says.
The clock is ticking, but the clock can definitely be changed. One thing that is very elastic in Brussels is time. They’ve got a name for it. It’s called ‘stop the clock’ and it is provided for in the EU treaties.
- Clegg says EU would be willing to extend EU negotiations.
Updated
Q: What is wrong with the alternative plans?
May says they do not deliver on the Irish border, and they do not create friction-free trade with the EU. She does not want traders to have to have extra burdens when they trade with the EU.
Q: How did you feel when you heard the governor of the Bank of England say house prices could fall by a third under a no deal Brexit.
May says the government is preparing for a no deal.
Q: Can you complete the sentence “Brexit is a good idea because ...”
It will give the UK new opportunities, she says.
And that’s it.
I will post a summary soon.
Q: Boris Johnson says you have settled for two thirds of diddly squat. He says he would get a better deal.
May restates what she sees as the advantages of her plan.
Q: What happens if MPs reject your plans?
May asks if people really think that the EU would reopen negotiations if parliament rejected the deal.
Q: So is it my deal or now deal?
May say she is going to put her deal to parliament. The alternative will be no deal.
Q: Would you offer preferential immigration access to EU nationals?
May says the government will put forward its immigration plans in the autumn.
She says the British people did not want one set of rules for EU nationals, and one set for others. She will put forward a set of rules that apply to both.
- May plays down the prospect of EU nationals getting special immigration status after Brexit.
May rejects claims that she has allowed the EU to use the Irish border issue to effectively keep Northern Ireland in the single market.
May rejects this.
Q: Boris Johnson said it was like a suicide vest.
May rejects this, in comments released at the weekend.
Theresa May's BBC interview
Today are broadcasting the interview.
Theresa May sets out the advantages of her Chequers plan. She says it is “giving people back control”. But it would also protect jobs, as well as allowing the UK to benefit from leaving the EU.
Q: Some of your cabinet disagreed.
May says she wants to explain why she went for Chequers. The EU put forward two options (Norway and Canada, although she does not call them that). Both were unacceptable. She had to “stand up to the EU” and tell them these ideas were unacceptable. She put forward another idea instead.
Q: Are people wrong to say that you budged?
May says she had to put forward an alternative to what the EU wanted.
Q: But you put forward a different plan to unblock the negotiations.
May says her plan did unblock the negotiations.
Theresa May says UK will leave with no deal if MPs reject Chequers plan
Theresa May has given a substantial interview to the BBC’s Nick Robinson for a Panorama programme being broadcast tonight. The Today programme is going to play it at 8.10am, and I will cover it as live, but here are the two lines that the BBC has been running on its new bulletins.
- May criticised the ERG plan for the Irish border published last week, saying it would it create a hard border within Ireland. Asked about the plan, she said you could not “solve the issue of no hard border by having a hard border 20km inside Ireland”.
I want to ensure that as we go forward we have that strong union ... Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. They don’t want a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
The only proposal that’s been put forward that delivers on them not having a hard border and ensures that we don’t carve up the United Kingdom, is the Chequers plan.
Here is the agenda for the day. The Commons is in recess.
9am: The Conservative Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg hosts his LBC phone-in.
9am: The Lib Dem conference resumes. Among the highlights today will be a speech by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller at 11am.
11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.
As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another when I wrap up, probably at around 5pm.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
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