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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Brexit: Labour restates 2nd referendum 'option' policy despite pressure to shift from party remainers – as it happened

Steve Bray, the campaigner known as Mr “Stop Brexit”, outside Labour HQ where the party’s national executive committee is meeting to decide its second referendum policy.
Steve Bray, the campaigner known as Mr “Stop Brexit”, outside Labour HQ where the party’s national executive committee is meeting to decide its second referendum policy. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Afternoon summary

It was less shit than I thought it would be, but only mildly. I was surprised to hear a radical reflection on our economic paradigm from Michael Gove when he talked about how our model is extractive and destructive - and that we need to move to a circular model. And that similarly a debt based economy doesn’t do right by young people, that it is creating a huge debt for them and that it has to change.

Unfortunately what failed to emerge was an actual way forward. I’d like to remind him that we have a 1 percent chance of hitting 1.5 degrees - that urgency wasn’t in the room.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Change UK has also criticised Labour’s stance. This is from its foreign affairs spokesman, the former Labour MP Mike Gapes.

Whatever contortions or forms of words Labour may come up with today, it is clear that large, influential parts of the leadership will not oppose Brexit.

Every single one of our 70 Change UK candidates supports a people’s vote. Every single one of our Change UK candidates are enthusiastic supporters of the UK remaining in the EU. It’s time to change our country and end the divisions and damage of this Brexit disaster.

Labour second referendum decision 'risks demoralising activists', says People's Vote campaign

The People’s Vote campaign has released a statement from the Labour MP Bridget Phillipson, one of its supporters, describing the Labour NEC decision as “the bare minimum” required. She explained:

Today Labour has done the bare minimum needed and I can only hope it will be enough to secure the support of all those millions of our voters demanding the final say on Brexit.

There is no deal on the table other than the one negotiated by the government and there is no majority for it in parliament without a confirmatory referendum to show there is a majority for it the country too.

The decision of the NEC today reaffirms conference policy and means Labour will have little choice except to back a new public vote on the most likely outcome of this vexed process.

That’s because more and more of us are recognising it would be unfair to force this deal on the British people now that we know so much more about Brexit.

But the manifesto’s mealy-mouthed wording still maintains the fiction that there is a deal out there that can satisfy all the promises made three years ago, avoid real costs to jobs and living standards, or end the endless crisis around Brexit.

This means Labour risks demoralising activists, depressing turnout among supporters and decreasing the share of the vote for candidates who - like the overwhelming majority of our party - are fighting for a people’s vote on any Brexit deal.

Sarah Boyack, the former Scottish government minister, is to return to Holyrood to take up the seat left vacant after Kezia Dugdale resigned on Monday.

Currently head of public affairs at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and a Labour moderate, Boyack had previously been a transport minister who introduced free bus travel for the over 60s. She lost her seat at the 2016 Holyrood elections, after 17 years as an MSP.

Under the Scottish parliament’s additional member system, she inherits Dugdale’s seat as the next available Labour candidate on the Lothian region list; her return helps Labour maintain its high gender balance at Holyrood.

Boyack said she had enjoyed her two year stint at the SFHA but, in a reference to her long-standing involvement in environment campaigning in the labour movement, said:

However, there is unfinished business for me. In the last three years the case for concerted action on climate change and the need to redouble our efforts to tackle poverty has accelerated. In Edinburgh, the affordable, accessible housing people need has become harder and harder to secure. And then there’s the uncertainty and division caused by Brexit.

The next potential candidate for Dugdale’s vacant seat was Lesley Hinds, a veteran Labour councillor in Edinburgh who retired at the last local government election

And Mary Honeyball, who is standing down as a Labour MEP, thinks the NEC position does not go far enough.

But Gloria De Piero, one of the Labour MPs who is sceptical about a second referendum, and insistent on the importance of the referendum result being honoured, has also welcomed the NEC’s decision.

Rather than quibbling, pro-European Labour MPs who support a second referendum have welcomed the party’s decision today.

Even though Wes Streeting and Meg Hillier say Labour is the party for remain, the party’s actual statement says Labour “represents both people who supported leave and remain”. (See 5pm.)

This is from Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, claims the Labour statement (see 5pm) shows Labour is a pro-Brexit party.

This is from Ben Bradshaw, the Labour former cabinet minister and one of the party’s leading pro-Europeans. He thinks the party will end up having to back a second referendum because the alternatives will fall away.

Pro-Europeans fail to shift Corbyn as Labour just restates policy saying second referendum last resort 'option'

Labour’s national executive committee has agreed what the party will say about a second referendum in its manifesto for the European elections. A party spokesperson said:

Labour’s European elections manifesto was agreed at the NEC today and it will be published soon.

Labour is the only party which represents both people who supported leave and remain. We are working to bring the country together after the chaos and crisis created by the Tories.

The NEC meeting was described as respectful, constructive and comradely. Afterwards a source said:

The NEC agreed the manifesto which will be fully in line with Labour’s existing policy; to support Labour’s alternative plan, and if we can’t get the necessary changes to the government’s deal, or a general election, to back the option of a public vote.

And here is what this means.

  • Labour pro-Europeans, led by the deputy leader Tom Watson, have failed in their bid to get the party to firm up its commitment to a second referendum on Brexit. The party’s national executive committee has rejected a call for the party to commit to putting any Brexit deal to a second referendum.
  • Labour has largely reaffirmed the policy agreed at last year’s conference, saying that it is committed to “the option of a public vote” if it cannot pass its own Brexit deal, or trigger a general election. But, arguably, this represents a retreat from positions the party has adopted earlier this year. (See 2.18pm for a full analysis.) Twice the party ordered its MPs to vote for a motion saying any Brexit deal passed this parliament should be subject to a confirmatory vote (although at the time it also said it did not fully agree with this position). And on 27 February, after Labour’s plan was defeated in the Commons, Corbyn released a statement saying:

We will back a public vote in order to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a disastrous no deal outcome.

We will also continue to push for the other available options to prevent those outcomes, including a close economic relationship based on our credible alternative plan or a general election.

This implies the party would definitely support a second referendum in the event of no-deal or a “damaging Tory Brexit”. Backing the “option of a public vote” makes this more conditional because if this is just an option, there is no absolute commitment to implementing it.

  • Labour says it is party for people who both supported leave and remain.

Updated

The Commons has risen for the day. These are from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.

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

This is from ITV’s Shehab Khan.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP and chair of the European Research Group, which is pushing for a harder Brexit, has issued a statement saying the ERG has cancelled its regular meeting tonight so that ERG members can do local elections campaigning instead. He said:

It would be grossly unfair for local Conservative councillors, who are doing a good job the length and breadth of the country, to suffer because of the national party’s reputation.

I am therefore urging all the ERG’s supporters to canvass on behalf of Conservative councillors.

Talking to ourselves, indeed, talking to Jeremy Corbyn should take a back seat to getting good local Conservatives elected.

Effectively he is admitting that the Tories are likely to do badly on Thursday.

This is from Sky’s Lewis Goodall.

A police force leader has criticised middle-class drug users who are more worried about the supply line of the coffee they drink than the cocaine they use. As the Press Association reports, David Lloyd, police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Hertfordshire, flagged up the issue as he gave evidence this morning to a House of Commons inquiry on serious violence. He told the home affairs committee:

One of the real issues we’ve got at the moment is around use of drugs.

Frankly, the middle classes who are really concerned about their fair trade coffee, and what the supply line of that is, don’t seem to have the same concern around the cocaine that they take.

Taking cocaine was “not victimless”, Lloyd said, adding: “Organised crime groups are using violence to enforce an unlawful market.”

These are from ITV’s Robert Peston.

This is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.

There is no sign of the meeting of Labour’s national executive committee winding up anytime soon, according to my colleague Heather Stewart and ITV’s Paul Brand.

The video games industry in the UK could be negatively impacted by post-Brexit immigration policy, it has been suggested. As the Press Association reports, the Commons culture committee travelled to Dundee, a world-leading city for games development, to evaluate what more the UK Government can do to support the industry. Concerns were raised that a proposal to introduce a £30,000 salary threshold for workers from outside of the UK could make it more difficult to recruit and retain staff.

Colin Anderson, Earthbound Games commercial director, told MPs that while the video games industry in the UK had been incredibly successful, it was not something it “inherently deserves” and was coveted by many other countries around the world. He said:

I’ve certainly had problems in the past with staff who were on lower salaries but performing what are integral parts of the operation.

Generally, it’s the people who are in the operational parts so it’s the people who are running the office, it’s people who are running the infrastructure around game development.

Those salaries can be below those thresholds that have been set and that can certainly cause issues ...

It’s a political decision that has to be taken and we have to run with whatever is decided and obviously we would do that but given the choice, we would like to be able to choose from the widest talent pool, with the least friction possible, which is what we believe we have now.

Attendees at Labour’s national executive committee do seem to have regained access to their phones, because Tom Watson has posted a tweet, responding to a joke my colleague Heather Stewart made about this:

The joke is inspired by the fact that the Mirror has illustrated its article with an old picture of Watson, taken before his remarkably successful recent diet.

At the Change UK rally at lunchtime, Chuka Umunna, the former Labour MP, urged Labour members to vote for his new party because that might encourage Jeremy Corbyn to endorse remain. Accusing Labour of prevarication over Brexit, he said:

Don’t endorse that prevarication. Vote for Change UK.

Or at the very least, if you haven’t made up your mind what you will do at the next general election, lend us your vote in these European elections.

The better we do, the more likely you are to see the Labour leadership adopt a people’s vote and remain position.

Chuka Umunna at the Change UK rally
Chuka Umunna at the Change UK rally Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

But Change UK clearly did not coordinate their message very effectively because Mike Gapes, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman and another former Labour MP, said his old party would never back remain. He explained:

Jeremy Corbyn and those he has appointed around him like [strategy and communications director Seumas Milne have never wanted to stop Brexit.

Corbyn whipped Labour MPs to vote for article 50, he whipped Labour MPs not to support a people’s vote.

Whatever contortions and forms of words they come up with today, it is clear that large, influential parts of the Labour leadership will not oppose Brexit.

Mike Gapes at the Change UK rally
Mike Gapes at the Change UK rally Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

From my colleague Heather Stewart

Hunt's comments on customs union make it harder for Labour to trust May on Brexit, says McDonnell

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that Jeremy Hunt’s comment this morning about Tory MPs not accepting a customs union (see 9.21am) makes it harder for Labour to have confidence in the cross-party talks process.

It is hard to know how much to read into this, but it is the sort of argument that you would expect one side to start making if they were looking for an excuse to wind up cross-party talks.

How Labour's policy on second referendum has evolved

With the Labour party due to issue a new statement about its position on Brexit and a second referendum, it is worth summarising how this policy has evolved over the last two years.

This is not as straightforward as it sounds. It is not unusual for political parties to resort to fudge when articulating policy so as to ensure that, on issues where opinion is divided, people can unite behind a compromise. A compromise does not have to be a fudge, but it does get fudgy if it involves key issues being left unresolved.

An extreme version of this is “constructive ambiguity” (a term used by the Blairites to describe some of the ploys required during the Northern Ireland peace process, but a phrase originally attributed to Henry Kissinger). Labour’s second referendum policy has, at times, been a textbook example of this, although more recently it has started to shift down the ambiguity/clarity axis towards something more specific.

Here are the key three phases the policy has been through.

1) From the referendum until the 2017 election and beyond: Accepting the result

Jeremy Corbyn made it clear as soon as the referendum result was announced that Labour would accept it (which is partly why he made the much-criticised comment the morning after calling for article 50 to be triggered) and this was the party’s position in its 2017 manifesto (pdf). “Labour accepts the referendum result and a Labour government will put the national interest first,” the manifesto said. The only vague nudge in the direction of a second referendum was a call for parliament to get “a truly meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal”.

2) Labour conference 2018: “All options on the table, including a public vote”

At the Labour conference in Liverpool the party overwhelmingly backed a long composite motion on Brexit agreed at an evening meeting where delegates representing different factions from the party contested the text for hours. The full motion is here, but this is the key paragraph.

If we cannot get a general election Labour must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote. If the government is confident in negotiating a deal that working people, our economy and communities will benefit from they should not be afraid to put that deal to the public.

For supporters of a second referendum, this was an important advance; Labour was now accepting a public vote (ie, a referendum) as an option.

But for opponents of a second referendum, nothing of substance had been conceded. The motion did not even mention a referendum (at one point “public vote” was taken in this debate to include a possible general election, although in the context of the motion it means referendum, because it refers to what might happen if a general election does not happen). And keeping “all options on the table” effectively means not having any actual policy at all - although the phrase had the advantage of sounding plausible when deployed in interviews.

The full extent of the ambiguity in play became apparent at the conference when different Labour figures gave different versions of what a “public vote” might involve. Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, received wild applause during his speech when he ad-libbed a line not cleared by Corbyn’s office saying: “Nobody is ruling out remain as an option.”

But that was not true. Two days earlier Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, said that if there were to be a second referendum, remain should not be an option. After conference some Corbynites occasionally argued that this would be a plausible reading of the “public vote” pledge, but the Starmer interpretation was more widely accepted.

3) Early 2019: Qualified support for second referendum

Since January there have been more than a dozen Commons votes on either Theresa May’s deal, or on motions relating to the Brexit process. As these debates have progressed, Labour has firmed up its support for a second referendum, although with considerable qualifications.

Broadly the party has arrived at a position where it backs a second referendum, but only to avoid a “damaging” Tory Brexit or no-deal, although sometimes it has voted for motions that go beyond this.

The first big shift came on 29 January when Labour tabled a motion saying the government should allow MPs to vote on Brexit options, and that those options should include “legislating to hold a public vote on a deal or a proposition that has commanded the support of the majority of the House of Commons.” The party did not specifically say it would support such a public vote, although this was implied.

A further shift came in February when the party said, if MPs voted down Labour’s Brexit plan, the party would default to backing a second referendum. On 27 February Labour’s plan was rejected by MPs, and Corbyn then responded by saying:

We will back a public vote in order to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a disastrous no deal outcome.

Then, at the end of March, came the first of two indicative votes debates that saw MPs voting on motions tabled by Dame Margaret Beckett and Peter Kyle saying any Brexit deal passed during this parliament should be subject to a confirmatory referendum. The motions were identical, and they said:

That this House will not allow in this parliament the implementation and ratification of any withdrawal agreement and any framework for the future relationship unless and until they have been approved by the people of the United Kingdom in a confirmatory public vote.

Labour whipped its MPs to support them both. But, before the first vote, Corbyn sent a letter to MPs saying the party was supporting the motion even though it did not fully support it. He said:

Our conference agreed that if we cannot get a general election we would support all options remaining on the table, including a public vote. Labour is supporting the Beckett-Kyle-Wilson amendment (even where it can be read as going beyond our policy) to keep the option of a public vote on the table in order to stop a disastrous no deal or May’s unacceptable deal.

Labour’s priority is to deliver our credible Brexit plan which respects our commitment to accept the result of the referendum. Today we are are supporting all options that enable us to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or no-deal being forced on the country.

Today’s NEC meeting is expected to agree a new version of this.

But, as Tom Watson’s intervention earlier made clear, Corbyn is under pressure to expand the commitment. The main demand is for the party to commit to putting any Brexit deal to a referendum, not just a “damaging” Tory one, or no-deal. But implicit in this is also a demand for the party to agree that, even after a general election, it would remain committed to a second referendum. The Beckett/Kyle amendment just covers “this parliament”, ie before a general election.

Updated

Extinction Rebellion says Labour needs to be more ambitious in its climate change policy

Extinction Rebellion has released a statement following its meeting with John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, this morning. Sue Hayman, the shadow environment secretary, was also there, and the XR team also briefly met Jeremy Corbyn. Tomorrow Labour is using one of its opposition days to call for climate change to be declared a national emergency.

In it statement XR said:

Crucially, [the Labour politicians] acknowledged the failure of previous Labour party policies to meeting the challenges we face, and have committed to the following:

John McDonnell will request that Extinction Rebellion present its case to the entire shadow cabinet on the climate and ecological emergency. He has also committed to presentations from us to the shadow environment committee and the shadow Treasury team.

However, John McDonnell did not commit to changing the proposed date in the Labour party motion which currently aims to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, although he said will consider a new target of 2030. We also raised this with Jeremy Corbyn ahead of the debate tomorrow in the House of Commons.

We’re glad that John McDonnell listened to the urgency of our demands but we need our politicians to be more ambitious. Our children’s future is on the line. The international rebellion will continue until politicians prove they are willing to act on all three of our demands.

We wait to see if the Labour party will act with the courage and determination needed in this moment.

Savannah Lovelock, from Extinction Rebellion, poses with shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman after their meeting at the Houses of Parliament this morning.
Savannah Lovelock, from Extinction Rebellion, poses with shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman after their meeting at the Houses of Parliament this morning. Photograph: Luke Dray/Getty Images

The Conservatives are heading for fourth place in the European elections in London, a poll for the Evening Standard suggests. In their story Joe Murphy and Nicholas Cecil report:

A shock YouGov poll found Theresa May’s party limping on just 11% in the capital — half of the 22% share they enjoyed in 2014 when they came a respectable second.

Embarrassingly, they are six points behind Change UK, which is on 17% despite only being launched as a party a few weeks ago. And Mr Farage’s newly formed anti-EU party is further ahead on 19.

A drubbing on that scale would increase the likelihood that Tories will try to oust Mrs May after the results of the election on May 23 ...

Labour is in first place in London, but its 28% share is drastically down from the 36.6% they took in 2014.

May wants cross-party Brexit talks to conclude before end of next week, government sources suggest

The prime minister’s spokesman gave Downing Street’s latest assessment of progress in the cross-party Brexit talks at today’s morning lobby briefing. He said:

Cabinet received an update on the Brexit talks with the opposition, including the negotiations last night, which were serious and constructive. Further talks will now be scheduled in order to bring the process toward a conclusion.

Cabinet also discussed the need to secure safe passage for the withdrawal agreement bill, or WAB, as soon as possible, in order to deliver upon the result of the referendum.

David Lidington gave an update on the talks; while the chief whip, Julian Smith, talked about the prospects for the WAB.

Several members of the cabinet are known to be sceptical about the value of discussions with Labour, and government sources are now making clear that they will make a judgement by the middle of next week about whether the process is worth continuing with.

Any cross-party deal would be aimed at securing a majority for the WAB. If that fails, alternatives include seeking agreement on some parliamentary process that could yield a decisive outcome - unlike the two rounds of indicative votes already held.

This is from my colleague Heather Stewart, who has just come out of the Downing Street lobby briefing.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn is at the meeting of Labour’s NEC. But, according to the Press Association, he did not enter the building through the main entrance where media and demonstrators had gathered, and so he was not photographed going in.

Watson renews call for referendum on any Brexit deal as Labour's NEC debates its Euro elections manifest

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, renewed his call for the party to back a referendum on any Brexit deal as he arrived at the Labour national executive committee meeting. He said:

In the last few days most of my colleagues on the NEC have been inundated with thousands of emails from Labour members who are saying that Labour voters recognise the parliamentary failure and they think that the only way to break this impasse is a people’s vote on any deal that parliament can agree. We have to listen to members, we have to listen to our European parliamentary candidates who support this, but there will be a debate at the shadow cabinet and the NEC - we’ll see what comes out of it.

More from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh on Labour’s NEC meeting.

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has denied “storming out” of shadow cabinet this morning after hearing that shadow ministers would not be given the text of the party’s European elections manifesto. (See 10.57am.) But he does not deny being disappointed about not seeing the document and leaving the meeting early.

Labour is opposed to what it describes as a damaging Tory Brexit. But it is not opposed to Brexit in principle, and it would vote for its own version of Brexit (“good Brexit”, as opposed to “bad Brexit, you could call it.) Jeremy Corbyn is under pressure because many in his party are unhappy with this, and want Labour to oppose Brexit in principle.

But, according to some YouGov polling out today, members of the public are much more likely to describe Labour as anti-Brexit than pro-Brexit, by a margin of three to one.

Polling on whether parties are seen as pro or anti-Brexit
Polling on whether parties are seen as pro or anti-Brexit Photograph: YouGov

The polling is quite a useful reminder that there is an enormous gulf between the way politicians and parties are perceived by those who follow it all closely (ie, you and me) and those who perhaps have better things to do with their lives. Even though at Westminster the Conservative party is seen as being under the control of hardline Brexiters, 24% of people describe it as an anti-Brexit party - and only 37% see it as pro-Brexit.

These are from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.

While we’re on the NEC, this is from the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar.

And the BBC’s Norman Smith has some footage of Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, arriving at the meeting - although the chanting from protestors in the background is so loud that you cannot hear what he is saying.

It looks as if Labour’s national executive committee will have to debate the manifesto for the European elections with Steve Bray, aka Mr Stop Brexit, bellowing outside the window, according to the BBC’s Norman Smith.

Social mobility 'virtually stagnant' since 2014, says commission

The Social Mobility Commission has just published its annual state of the nation report.

Here is the Press Association write-up.

Presumably the full report will go up on the commission’s website soon, but it is not there yet.

Updated

UK needs to be on 'war footing' to deal with climate emergency, says Ed Miliband

Today the IPPR thinktank is launching an environmental justice commission to investigate how the UK can transition to a zero-carbon economies. It is jointly chaired by Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, Caroline Lucas, the former Green party co-leader, and Laura Sandys, a former Conservative MP.

In a statement marking the launch, Miliband said the UK needed to be put on a “war footing” to address the problem of climate change. He said:

We face a climate emergency. Climate change is the biggest threat to our economic and social wellbeing, and to our national security. Politics needs to be on a war footing to deal with this enemy but too often it sends the message that business as usual will do.

“We need a revolution in political leadership; the problem we face is not just climate denial but climate appeasement. This commission brings together people from all walks of life, generations and political parties to bring about the solutions we need.

“It is time to put economic and social justice at the heart of the environmental cause. Our work will show how we should deploy all the resources of government to deliver a Green New Deal for the UK, putting our country to work on tackling this threat.

Miliband, Lucas and Sandys have also written a joint article for the Guardian about the initiative. Here is the article.

And here is an extract.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned of the serious consequences if global average temperatures rise by more than 1.5C. We now have only 11 years to take decisive action. We already see 1C of warming and accompanying extreme weather events, including heatwaves and droughts, while sea levels rise. Later this week, the Committee on Climate Change will publish its advice on when we need to meet net-zero emissions. It is imperative to meet our international responsibilities for implementing the Paris agreement on climate change and pursue an accelerated path to limit warming to no more than 1.5C.

Doing so will require a commitment, and a plan. We need to mobilise a carbon army of workers to retrofit and insulate homes, cutting bills, reducing emissions and making people’s lives better. We need to move to sustainable forms of transport and zero-carbon vehicles as quickly as possible, saving thousands of lives from air pollution. We need to end the opposition to onshore wind power and position ourselves as a global centre of excellence for renewable manufacturing. And we need to protect and restore threatened habitats, and to secure major transitions in agriculture and diets that are essential if we are to meet our obligations. Just in these areas of policy we already see an answer to the immediate economic concerns people have: jobs and hope. Green jobs must be secure and decently paid, with a central role for trade unions in a just transition for all workers and communities affected.

According to IPPR, the new commission will use “deliberative democracy” (ie, citizens’ assembly-type initiatives) to investigate solutions. And it says the commission will focus on four issues.

1) How in practice the UK can deliver its contribution to limiting global warming and cutting emissions to net zero in an economically and socially just way.

2) Ensuring a rapid and just transition for all through what is being called a Green New Deal – a green transformation of the entire economy, creating hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs and giving people real ownership of their futures in the process.

3) It will consider the economic and social injustices associated with the issue including the disproportionate impact by, for example, gender, class and ethnicity.

4) It will also examine the UK’s international responsibilities in tackling the accelerating climate crisis.

Miliband was also on the Today programme this morning explaining the need for the commission.

An additional 12 Labour MEP candidates have signed up to a pledge to campaign for a second Brexit referendum and to campaign for Remain if a public vote is called, the Press Association reports. They bring the total number of signatories to 34 out of the party’s 70 candidates across Britain.

The new signatories are: Claude Moraes MEP (London), Alvin Shum (East of England), Clare Penny-Evans (North East), Erica Lewis (North West), Claire Cozler (North West), Emma Turnball (South East), Lubna Arshad (South East), Simon Burgess (South East), Rachael Ward (South East), Eloise Todd (Yorkshire & the Humber), Martin Mayer (Yorkshire & the Humber) and Alison Hume (Yorkshire & the Humber).

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, was speaking to the Today programme from Africa, where he is currently on a five-day, five-nation tour. This is what he said about his main goal.

There is a central purpose [to the visit] which is to change the motor of our relationship with African countries from one based on aid to one based on enterprise and prosperity. I’m a big supporter of the 0.7% [aid] target and there are many African countries where that is desperately needed, like the DRC with its Ebola outbreak. But there are other countries, like Senegal, where I was yesterday, where the UK is about to overtake France and become the biggest international investor, Ghana, where I am today, where they have a national strategy which they call the “Beyond aid” strategy. And I think sometimes China, with its big infrastructure projects, is better in the eyes of African countries, in tapping into the future, and their excitement about the opportunities of the future.

It is worth registering Hunt’s comment about being a “big supporter” of the 0.7% aid target (spending 0.7% of gross national income on aid). This is government policy, but it is not popular with Conservative party members and in the forthcoming Tory leadership contest it would be surprising if some candidates don’t float the idea of shelving it, or at least expanding the government’s definition of aid. (Using this money to fund some military spending is a popular idea in Tory circles.)

Tory MPs won't accept cross-party compromise involving customs union, says Hunt

Yesterday, after the latest Labour/government talks on a possible Brexit compromise, the participants emerged more optimistic than they have been in the past about the chances of a deal being struck. But Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, this morning injected a strong dose of realism into the process by telling the Today programme that, if Theresa May were to agree to the UK remaining in a customs union (Labour’s key demand), her party would not accept that.

Here are the main Brexit points from his interview.

  • Hunt says Conservative MPs would not accept a cross-party Brexit compromise involving the UK staying in the customs union. He said:

If we were proposing, which I very much hope we don’t, to sign up to the customs union, then I think there is a risk that you would lose more Conservative MPs than you would gain Labour MPs.

If, on the other hand, it was something different, then the result could be different as well.

  • He said he favoured a “positive, outward-looking, optimistic Brexit”. He said:

The central argument is do we resolve this issue by having a rerun, as some in the Labour party, like Keir Starmer would like, which I happen to think would be disastrous. I don’t think it would settle it to have another referendum ...

Or do we resolve this by delivering Brexit, and then bringing the country together by showing the 48% who voted remain that this is not the Brexit of their worst nightmares, this is actually a Brexit where we don’t pull up the drawbridge, pull down the shutters, say ‘Foreigners not welcome’, this is a positive, outward-looking, optimistic Brexit.

Hunt said he thought a deal would be passed in the end because only a “very small number of MPs” actually wanted to reverse Brexit.

  • He said the Conservatives should pass a Brexit deal before electing a new leader. Hunt, of course, is one of the leading candidates to succeed May. But when it was put to him that the decision to hold an extraordinary meeting of Conservative activists, probably in early June, to consider calls for May to resign meant she would have to go in the early summer, Hunt replied:

The difficulty that Theresa May has is far more a function of the fact that it is a hung parliament than any decisions that she has taken.

And because of that, just changing the leader doesn’t actually change the parliamentary arithmetic. What it would do is create delay in the process and mean that we will have another period of time through which we have Brexit paralysis.

So I think much the best outcome is to try and find a way to resolve this so that we can leave, leave cleanly and leave quickly.

Here is Sky’s Lewis Goodall’s take on the interview.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet.

10am: The Commons home affairs committee takes evidence on serious violence from the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Mark Burns-Williamson, the former government troubled families adviser Dame Louise Casey, and the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield.

10.30am: The Social Mobility Commission publishes its annual state of the nation report.

11am: Labour’s national executive committee meets to decide the party’s manifesto pledge for the European elections on a second referendum. As my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Rajeev Syal report, it is likely to agree a compromise option where it would support a referendum in order to prevent Theresa May’s Brexit deal or leaving without a deal, describing that wording as “the path of least resistance”.

11.30am: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, gives a speech to GPs and digital leaders.

11.30am: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is meeting activists from Extinction Rebellion. XR was also due to meet John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, at 8.45am, and it is holding a protest at the Treasury at 4.30pm.

1pm: Heidi Allen, the Change UK interim leader, Mike Gapes, its foreign affairs spokesperson, and Gavin Esler, one of its MEP candidates for London, speak at a European elections rally.

3.35pm: Hancock gives evidence to the Lords economic affairs committee on social care funding.

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 when I wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. 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.

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

I try to monitor the comments BTL but it is 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 questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply ATL, although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

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

Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Hunt Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

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