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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Boris Johnson criticised after telling MPs why he is 'increasingly admiring' of Trump – as it happened

Afternoon summary

  • Greg Clark, the business secretary, has urged the prime minister to adopt a Brexit deal that replicates the advantages of the single market, not just for goods but for services too. As the Times (paywall) reports, speaking at the Times CEO summit, Clark said:

[The final Brexit deal] must apply to services as well as goods. We need a labour mobility framework which allows UK business and self-employed professionals to provide services across the EU to clients in person.

He also effectively accused Brexiters of putting ideology before evidence, telling the conference:

In my experience the business voice puts evidence first before ideology. Brings actual experience of trading whether with Europe or the rest of the world. Not a theoretical view of what the world will be like. Not a speculation on how they might operate.

The experience of employing millions of men and women and helping them earn a good living, not a theoretical exercise in which you take decisions about the lives of people in imagined circumstances in imagined worlds. So the business voice seems to me to be the foundation to a successful effective negotiation.

  • Jeremy Corbyn faced a double Commons rebellion and was warned against “flirting with anti-trade populism” after Labour abstained over two trade votes. As the Press Association reports, 18 Labour MPs ignored orders in two votes to have their say on parliamentary motions linked to the EU-Canada comprehensive economic and trade agreement (Ceta) and the EU-Japan economic partnership agreement. Fourteen supported the Canada motion and four voted against, while 17 voted for the Japan motion and one against. Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner told the Commons that Ceta did not offer enough protections. He said Labour wanted to see a “comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement with Canada” but argued Ceta was not it. But the Labour former minister Chris Leslie advised his party’s front bench against slipping into a “rut” over trade matters and said decisions needed to be viewed against how they could benefit public services, particularly if they wanted to be seen as a government in waiting. As the Press Association reports, Leslie said:

All I would say to my colleagues on the front bench is be very careful about slipping into an oppositionalist rut on these particular issues.

We do, if we want to be a government in waiting, have to sometimes weigh things in the balance and take a responsible view about the prosperity of our economy because from that prosperity comes the revenues we need for our public services - for our health service, for our schools, for all of those local council services.

I just think there is a danger in flirting with an anti-trade populism if we take against globalisation - yes, we have to harness globalisation, not resist entirely.

There is a sensible, mainstream - dare I say it - centre-ground approach to being rational and sensible about trade deals.

Yes, make your points about parliamentary scrutiny but at the end of the day we’ve got to take the long view, and the long view is that free and fair trade benefits us all.

  • The UK remained the top destination for inward investment in Europe last year, with nearly 76,000 jobs created across the country, according to figures released by the Department for International Trade. As the Press Association reports, the 75,968 jobs created in 2017/18 was 1% up on the 75,226 figure for the previous year, but the number of jobs safeguarded in the UK by inward investment was cut by more than 50% from 32,672 in 2016/17 to 15,063. And the total number of projects by investors was down 9% to 2,072 - the lowest figure since 2014/15.
  • Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, has told the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders conference that diesel vehicles still have a “valuable role” in the industry. He said:

Diesels can still play a valuable role in reducing CO2 emissions during the transition period to that lower emission future. They can and will continue to play an important role.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, speaking at a special session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague this afternoon.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, speaking at a special session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague this afternoon. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Cable calls for British Housing Company quango to buy land cheaply for housing

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, struggles to get much media attention these days, but there is one area in which he easily outshines the other main party leaders; if you are looking for a heavyweight speech on policy, Cable, a serious economist and an accomplished phrase-maker, is your man.

Earlier this year he gave an impressive speech on regulating tech giants (pdf). Earlier this month his theme was “capitalism in crisis” pdf. And today he gave a big speech on housing (pdf).

In the speech he identifies four reasons why housing is in crisis.

First, the market in land does not work properly resulting in unearned rewards for hoarding and restricting supply. The planning system is compounding these problems.

Second, the stability of the banking system is inextricably and increasingly bound up with cycles in the residential property market.

Third, much harm has been done by ideological dogmas about the respective roles of private versus social ownership and about the role of market intervention.

Fourth, the dysfunction in the housing market is both a cause and effect of wealth inequality.

My colleague Peter Walker wrote a preview story about the main proposal in the speech, for a British Housing Company quango to acquire land for house building on a non-profit basis. Now the full text of the speech is available, here is what Cable says about the plan in detail.

What is required is a dedicated, arm’s length, agency – non government and non profit – to take a key role in acquiring land at low cost at current use value. The new body – let us call it the British Housing Company – would be empowered by law to acquire land of low amenity and market value through compulsory acquisition.

The aim would be to acquire sites at a price as low as 40% of land acquired in the open market without paying the ‘hope value’ which attaches to those sites currently earmarked as having development potential.

With the land acquired cheaply this public company would provide, initially, five year rentals which could be converted into freehold acquisitions with a mortgage.

In due course the owners would sell into a pool, retaining any housing market inflation but not the discount to market value which would be recycled to provide affordable housing for the next generation of occupants. The model is one which would be attractive to long term investors without government subsidy or underwriting.

To make this work well, there should be amendments to the 1961 Land Compensation Act, permitting the use of CPOs [compulsory purchase orders]in these strategic developments. By eliminating the 60% or more of homes absorbed in prohibitive land costs and developers’ profits it also becomes easier to ensure that homes are of adequate quality, safety and insulation standards.

Sir Vince Cable giving a speech on housing.
Sir Vince Cable giving a speech on housing. Photograph: Matthew Chattle/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Here is some more on the Scottish government reshuffle, from ITV Border’s Peter MacMahon and from Philip Sim and Andrew Kerr, who both work for the BBC.

Only 19% believe May's claim 'Brexit dividend' will largely fund extra £20bn for NHS, poll suggests

We’ve got some new Guardian/ICM polling out today, covering Brexit and voting intention. On Brexit in particular, there is good news and bad news for both sides.

Brexit dividend

Just over a week ago Theresa May announced an extra £20bn for the NHS, implying that much of the money would come from a “Brexit dividend”. This generated a ferocious row, with critics saying that May was being at best misleading, and at worst outright dishonest, on the grounds the “Brexit dividend” doesn’t exist.

For those who have followed this argument closely, the facts are familiar. (As a net contributor to the EU, the UK will eventually gain from not having to make annual payments, but the sum won’t be as big as Vote Leave claimed, it won’t be available for some time because of the transition, and economists are confident that any notional gain will be more than wiped out by the larger loss to the exchequer from lower tax receipts after Brexit slows growth.) But what do the public at large think? We asked people which of four statements they most agreed with, and here are the results.

There will be Bexit dividend, which is likely to be worth at least as much as the PM has suggested: 19%

There will be Brexit dividend, but it is not likely to as much as the PM has suggested: 31%

There won’t be Brexit dividend, and so any extra money for NHS money will have to come from elsewhere: 30%

Don’t know: 20%

You can slice these results in various ways.

For remainers, the good news is:

  • Only around one person in five believes Theresa May’s claim that she will be able to fund her extra £20bn for the NHS largely from a “Brexit dividend”, the poll suggests.

But for leavers there is good news too.

  • Half of voters believe there will be a “Brexit dividend” that could contribute at least something towards an NHS funding boost, the poll suggests.
  • Only around a third of voters believe the “Brexit dividend” does not exist, the poll suggests. This is despite the fact that many remainers take it as gospel that the “Brexit dividend” is a fiction. (The sceptics are right to be sceptical, and the gap between the two positions may be partly explained by ignorance about the way public finances work. But it probably has more to do with rival interpretations of the word “dividend” - the narrow version, akin to a “gross” version, that just refers to EU payments, or the wider, “net” one taking into account growth and tax revenues.)
Polling on Brexit dividend
Polling on Brexit dividend

No deal Brexit

In October last year we asked people how they would feel if we got to March next year and the UK were leaving the EU without a deal, in a so-called hard Brexit. People were asked to choose two responses. Here are the results.

Polling on a no deal Brexit
Polling on a no deal Brexit
  • Voters are much more likely to say they have negative feelings about the prospect of a no deal Brexit than positive feelings, although they are less negative than they were eight months ago, the poll suggests.

ICM’s Alex Turk says:

A lot of measures are broadly consistent with last year (those saying they would feel excited, terrified, or pleased). Yet there are big declines in those saying they would feel worried (down from 50% to 38%) or confused (29% to 15%) if Brexit negotiations failed to reach agreement by the end of March next year. Maybe this could in part be explained by a perception of reduced uncertainty around Brexit and transition periods as we near the article 50 deadline – but it’s also true that we see declines in the those saying they would feel either proud (11% to 7%) or furious (24% to 17%) if this were to happen.

Overall we see a small decline in the proportion of the British public expressing at least one negative emotion in answer to this question (down from 62% to 59%), with a very small increase in those expressing positive emotions (20% to 22%).

Voting intention

Finally, here are the voting intention figures, with the new results compared with the number from our last poll two weeks ago.

  • Conservative lead over Labour reduced to one point, our poll suggests.
Voting intention
Voting intention

ICM Unlimited interviewed a representative online sample of 2,013 adults aged 18+, between 22 and 24 June 2018. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

I will post a link to the full tables here when they go up on the ICM website.

UPDATE: Here is the ICM write-up. And here are the tables (pdf).

Updated

Government to publish LGBT action plan next week

The government will next week publish an action plan on advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the UK, the Press Association reports. It comes after the largest survey anywhere in the world of their experiences was carried out. Theresa May told cabinet that the findings of the survey, in which more than 108,000 LGBT people participated, showed that there was “more to do” to ensure the UK is a country where “no-one feels the need to hide who they are”.

Nicola Sturgeon’s reshuffle continue. The Scottish government has announced that five ministers are stepping down:

Shona Robison, who was cabinet secretary for health and sport

Angela Constance, who was cabinet secretary for communities, social security and equalities

Alasdair Allan, who was international development and Europe minister

Annabelle Ewing, who was community safety and legal affairs minister

Maureen Watt, who was minister for mental health.

The suggestion that, when Boris Johnson said “fuck business” at a private Foreign Office, he was actually referring to lobbyists (see 12.37pm) has not gone down well with lobbyists. As fripouille points out BTL, Francis Ingham, head of the Public Relations and Communications Association, told Total Politics yesterday:

[If Johnson was referring to lobbyists] that would mean that one of the most senior people in the government said ‘fuck lobbyists’ – in itself an insulting and outrageous sentiment. Lobbying plays a vital role in our democracy.

So that’s another addition to the long list of groups that Johnson has, at one time or another, offended ...

Updated

At the Times CEO summit Greg Clark, the business secretary, was also speaking. According to Sky’s Ed Conway, he said businesses “look with dismay” when government ministers disagree.

Given that this government seems to be setting new standards for ferrets-in-a-sack infighting (most obviously over Brexit, of course, but also over Tory leadership matters - eg, Gavin “I can break her” Williamson and Boris Johnson, perpetually), this was an unusually candid admission - particularly since Clark himself was openly contradicting a cabinet colleague in the Commons only yesterday.

Greg Clark arriving for cabinet this morning.
Greg Clark arriving for cabinet this morning. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Lunchtime summary

  • Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has been criticised by opposition MPs after speaking about his admiration for President Trump. During Foreign Office questions he was asked to justify the comment he made at a private Tory dinner, which was recorded and leaked, about how he was “increasingly admiring” of the American president. Johnson did not resile from the remark and he named three Trump policies he admired: Trump’s military response to the use of chemical weapons by Assad in Syria; his attempt to make peace with North Korea; and his attempt to get Nato countries to spend more on defence. But Labour, SNP and Lib Dem MPs criticised Johnson for defending Trump, focusing in particular on Trump’s policy of separating suspect illegal immigrants from their children. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said:

Even he knows, surely, in the depths of his soul that when we have a president like Donald Trump who bans Muslims and supports Nazis, who stokes conflict and fuels climate change, who abuses women and cages children, that is not a record to be admired. That is a record to be abhorred.

And Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman, asked:

The foreign secretary said that he is “increasingly admiring” of President Trump. Is that increasingly admiring of his policy of tariffs or increasingly admiring of separating children from their parents.

Johnson said that Theresa May had condemned Trump’s immigration policy and he even suggested that she had helped persuade the president to change it. He said:

No sooner had she spoken than the president of the United States repealed the policy, thus demonstrating, I venture to suggest, the considerable and growing influence of the United Kingdom.

Johnson was also on the receiving end of multiple jibs about his decision to fly to Afghanistan yesterday to miss the Heathrow extension vote. Thornberry said:

May I first sympathise with the foreign secretary that due to his emergency duties abroad he was unable to join last night’s fight against Heathrow expansion. Four years ago he was asked the biggest lesson that he had learned from his supposed hero Winston Churchill and his answer was I quote ‘never give in, never give in, never give in’. For some reason Churchill didn’t add ‘unless you can catch a plane to Kabul’.

  • Johnson refused to deny saying “fuck business” to EU diplomats at a private Foreign Office reception, but he suggested he was referring to lobbyists. Asked about the incident by the Labour MP Owen Smith, Johnson said:

I don’t think anybody can doubt the passionate support of this government for business. It may be that I have from time to time expressed scepticism about some of those who profess to speak up for business.

Speaking at the Times CEO summit Theresa May also distanced herself from what Johnson said, and claimed that her government was committed to listening to business. (See 12.20pm.)

  • Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has announced that Scotland’s economy secretary Keith Brown is leaving the Scottish government to focus on his new role as the SNP deputy leader. She said:

Keith has done an excellent job as a government minister over many years and has many achievements that he can be very proud of, including overseeing the construction of the magnificent new Queensferry Crossing. However, he and I have decided that the time is right to ensure that the energies of the SNP leader and depute [Scots for deputy - the SNP’s preferred terminology] leader team are focused not just on delivering a strong SNP government, but also a party operation that is from top to bottom, fit and ready for the opportunities that lie ahead.

Brown’s move marks the beginning of a Scottish government reshuffle. Further changes will be announced today and tomorrow.

  • Julian Assange is in “deteriorating” health, MPs have been told. In response to a question about Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who has been sheltering in the Ecuadorian embassy for almost six years to avoid arrest, Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, told MPs:

We are, however, increasingly concerned about [Assange’s] health. And it is our wish that this can be brought to an end. And we would like to make the assurance that, if he were to step out of the embassy, he would be treated humanly and properly and that the first priority would be to look after his health, which we think is deteriorating.

Updated

Sadiq Khan says government's Brexit deal should not ignore needs of services

Sadiq Khan has warned that the government is ignoring service industries in the Brexit negotiations and risking significant job losses across the United Kingdom.

Speaking to the public administration and constitutional affairs committee today, the Mayor of London said that the government was wrong to only prioritise a deal on goods rather than a deal on services.

It comes amid a debate within the cabinet and Whitehall over the possibility of striking a deal over the “free movement of goods” as the UK moves towards leaving the EU next year.

The government’s recent proposals for a Brexit backstop agreement, to be used if the new UK/EU trading regime is not in place in time, focus solely on goods and make no allowances to protect the UK’s services’ exports.

Khan told MPs that while the prime minister, Theresa May, has recently outlined her commitment to a single market for goods, excluding services from this is evidence that the government has its priorities all wrong. He said:

Forty per cent of UK exports to the EU are in the service industry. Ninety per cent of the economy in London is in the service sector. I welcome the government announcing there should be a backstop agreement in relation to frictionless trade for goods but it needs to be extended for services as well.

The City of London who are not bellicose says they are worried about 10,000 jobs being lost. I think that is a conservative estimate. We can’t afford falling off a cliff edge in relation to trade in services.

During the meeting Khan also disclosed that he is meeting the Brexit minister David Davis once every two months to discuss negotiations - more often than Davis meets representatives from devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Khan said:

My officials meet with his officials last week and will meet him in another six weeks.

Ronnie Cowan, an SNP committee member, replied: “That’s more than Nicola Sturgeon.”

The UK’s backstop proposal is for the whole of the UK to remain in the customs union for a limited period after the end of the transition period – so it would leave the EU in March 2019 and the single market in December 2020, but stay in the customs union for longer.

Brussels has insisted the UK sign up to a legally binding backstop clause, or fallback option, to ensure there is no hard border.

Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Sir Alan Duncan, the foreign office minister, says the UK government is increasingly concerned about the health of Julian Assange, who has been in the Ecuadorian embassy evading arrest for almost six years. If Assange were to leave, he would be treated humanely, Duncan says.

Johnson does not deny saying 'fuck business', but implies he was referring to lobbyists

Labour’s Owen Smith asks Johnson if he really did say “fuck business”.

Johnson says it may be that, from time to time, he has expressed scepticism “about some of those who profess to speak up for business”.

His allies have been briefing people that Johnson was referring to lobbyists, not businesses directly, in the remark first reported by the Telegraph (paywall).

Updated

Simon Usherwood, deputy director of the UK in a Changing Europe project, has posted a good thread on the significance of the UK Withdrawal Act getting royal assent. See 11.35am. (Royal assent is the moment when a bill becomes law.) It starts here.

May distances herself from Boris Johnson's reported 'fuck business' declaration

Theresa May has been speaking at the Times CEO summit. Since it is a Times event, access for journalists is limited, but Times and News UK journalists are there. Here are some of the highlights so far. These are from Richard Fletcher and Matt Chorley, who both work for the Times.

That is a reference to this story.

See here for more on the Greg Clark/Jeremy Hunt disagreement about the Airbus Brexit intervention.

Updated

Johnson says the illegal wildlife trade is not only odious in itself; it is also associated with other forms of criminality.

Boris Johnson is responding to his second question at Foreign Office questions. Junior ministers have been handling the others.

On the subject of “global Britain”, he says he is increasing the number of diplomats posted abroad.

Labour’s Chris Bryant says Russia has been bullying small countries for years through their energy policy. He is referring to the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Johnson says the UK continues to support countries threatened by Russia’s energy politics.

Asked what lessons he learnt from Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan, Johnson says the national security council is about to consider plans for a “substantial uplift” in the number of British troops in the country (on a training mission).

He says Britain has contributed hugely to the country. He says since Britain first got involved in 2001, male life expectancy has gone up by 10 years, he says. And the proportion of girls in education has risen from 3% to 47%.

Here is the SNP MP Drew Hendry on what Boris Johnson said about Trump in the first exchanges at Foreign Office questions.

Boris Johnson tells MPs why he said he was 'increasingly admiring' of Trump

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, says four years ago Johnson was asked what was the biggest lesson he learnt from his hero, Winston Churchill. He replied: “Never give in.” He did not add “unless you can catch a flight to Kabul”. Now he admires Trump. Can he name three things he admires about him?

Johnson says he admires the way Trump responded to the use of chemical weapons by Assad, he admires what he did with North Korea, and he admires what he is doing to try to get Nato countries to spend more on defence.

Thornberry says Trump’s record is “to be abhorred”. Why does Johnson think Trump should be invited to the UK to go to Chequers and shake hands with the Queen.

Johnson says Thornberry herself said in the past that it was right for the UK to welcome the head of state of its most important ally to the country.

  • Johnson tells MPs why he said he was “increasingly admiring” of Trump.

Asked by the SNP’s Stephen Gethins why he said he was “increasingly admiring” of President Trump, Johnson says he was referring to what Trump did with North Korea. Trump has changed the atmospherics, he says.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, says since the government has chosen to “appease” President Trump, what success has the government had in getting Trump to agree to a rules-based international system.

Johnson says the UK has criticised the decision by the US to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminium. But he says he accepts that the dumping of low-price steel on the global market is a problem.

Boris Johnson says the UK’s relationship with the US is exceptionally close. But that does not mean the UK is afraid to speak out when it thinks the US has got something wrong, as the prime minister did when she spoke out against the American policy of separating supsect illegal immigrants from their children.

Labour’s Paul Sweeney asks Johnson to go further and condemn this “obscene” policy.

Johnson says Theresa May did speak out. After she did, President Trump changed the policy, he says.

When pressed, Johnson says May did “condemn” the policy.

Asked about Trump’s visit to the UK, Johnson defends it, saying the US is the UK’s most important ally.

Updated

EU Withdrawal Act gets royal assent

John Bercow, the Commons speaker, has just told MPs that the EU Withdrawal Act has now had royal assent.

Updated

Boris Johnson takes questions in the Commons

Boris Johnson is just about to take Foreign Office questions in the Commons.

Earlier I said that Theresa May could find it hard reassuring business leaders about her government’s pro-business credentials when she speaks at the Times CEO summit later. (See 9.17am.) In her Times column (paywall) Rachel Sylvester explains the problem with some striking quotes. Here’s an extract.

The Conservatives, the party of enterprise, are turning on their own. Sir Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s director of communications, tweeted on Sunday that the Tories saying “f*** business” is like Labour declaring “f*** the NHS” or the Greens shouting “f*** the environment”. Conservative MPs don’t know whether to be angry or depressed. “It’s a nightmare. Corporate madness has descended on us,” says one former cabinet minister ...

The mistrust between business and the government is deep and mutual. One senior figure in the City suggests that Mrs May, who will address The Times CEO Summit today, has so little interest in or understanding of business that she should remove the words “First Lord of the Treasury” from the letterbox at No 10 because she has given up on the job of promoting economic prosperity. The cabinet, he says, is held in contempt in many boardrooms because of the lack of seriousness at the top. “There’s a sense that it’s a bunch of amateurs in charge, that the government is run by teenagers obsessed with their own narcissistic ambitions who have no capacity to understand the world as it is rather than how they imagine it to be.”

In contrast to Labour, who with John McDonnell as shadow chancellor are “deadly serious” about shaking up the economy, the Tories are seen as “frivolous”, with no answers to the big challenges facing the country. “People are constantly amazed by just how s*** ministers are,” says this corporate source.

Welsh assembly to debate motion of no confidence in Welsh secretary Alun Cairns

The Welsh assembly is expected to debate a motion of no confidence in Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary, tomorrow. The motion has been tabled by Plaid Cymru, and it follows the government’s decision to pull the plug on the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon plan.

Explaining the move, Plaid’s energy spokesman in the assembly, Simon Thomas, said:

The fact that this motion of no confidence has been accepted is an important step.

Over recent months, the secretary of state has delivered nothing but disappointment after disappointment for Wales.

First, the cancellation of rail electrification and now, pulling the plug on the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon.

The secretary of state is nothing more than Westminster’s voice in Wales and his role is now redundant. That is why Plaid Cymru’s motion calls for the position to be scrapped and replaced by a more equal and representative council of ministers.

Alun Cairns
Alun Cairns Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Rory Stewart, the justice minister, has been giving evidence to the Commons justice committee this morning about prisons. As the BBCs Danny Shaw reports, it’s been an interesting hearing.

Expect more warnings about Brexit for car industry leaders through the day with a succession of concerned speakers lined up at the annual Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) in London. Speakers include the Japanese and Chinese ambassadors to the UK and Ford, which has not said anything publicly on Brexit yet.

The Japanese ambassador caught Downing Street off guard in February when he went straight to cameras after a meeting with Theresa May at No 10 warning of the “high stakes” in Brexit. Expect questions, if not answers, on Nissan.

The chief executive of luxury and Formula One car manufacturer McLaren said that for companies that came to Britain to assemble cars, the impact of Brexit could be “devastating”. Mike Flewitt said what the industry needed most was a decision to direction of travel post Brexit. He said:

The thing we plea for most is time. Give us time [and we will adapt].

If we don’t know what’s coming we’re just running against a brick wall.

In the comments reedy1979 asked about the division lists for last night’s Heathrow vote.

Here is the page showing how many MPs voted on each side by party. If you click on the relevant tab, you’ll see all the names (ie, the 119 Labour MPs who voted in favour.)

At the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) conference its chief executive, Mike Hawes, has been restating his call for a Brexit deal that retains the benefits of the single market and the customs union. He told reporters:

Our position is simple: until the government can demonstrate exactly how the new model for customs and trade with the EU and those other markets can replicate the benefits we currently enjoy, don’t change it. The truth is, for our sector there is no Brexit dividend.

If we cannot cut through this current fog of uncertainty there will start to be real casualties. Our importance to the British economy cannot be overstated. But we’ll only be able to invest and grow and safeguard the jobs we currently have if the UK abandons some of these red lines.

Former head of armed forces says UK"s defence plans 'wholly unaffordable' on current budget

On the Today programme this morning Lord Houghton, who was head of the armed forces until 2016, said Britain’s current defence plans, as set out in David Cameron’s 2015 strategic defence and security review, were “wholly unaffordable”. He also said the public had been “deluded” into thinking that Britain was set to gain major new military capabilities when the funding was not there to pay for them.

He said Britain was “at a strategic crossroads” and that it had to decide whether or not it wanted to remain a major military power. He told the programme:

We are to an extent living a lie. We stand at a strategic crossroads. We have got to come off the fence one way or another.

It might be, and it is a wholly worthy opinion, that the United Kingdom should cease to be a world military power.

We stand in a period where, to be honest, our sense of national identity and credibility is wobbling.

We need to have a strategic decision that flows from government about what sort of a place and a country the UK wants to be going forward.

To me that is best served as a global Britain, as a strong military power, as a good alliance member, as a country that will help secure the stability of the world.

Houghton also said he backed the recommendation from the Commons defence committee which is today calling for defence spending to rise from 2% of GDP to 3%. The world was “a more dangerous place”, he said, the threats facing the UK were “more diverse” and the UK needed to “reassert itself as a global player”.

Lord Houghton
Lord Houghton Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Yesterday the Financial Times ran a story (paywall) headed: “BMW warns Brexit could force UK plant closures.”

Today BMW has sought to clarify its intentions. Ian Robertson, head of BMW UK, was asked by reporters if the firm would consider moving investment out of Britain if the country left the customs union and the single market. He replied:

We are not considering that as an option. We are considering what we would need to have in place to overcome such impediments to border fluidity. That’s where we are focused right now.

It would be foolhardy of any company not to have these contingency ideas under way because we are racing towards March 29 next year.

We have a group of people working on the customs aspect. We have a group of people working on the logistics aspect.

We have people investigating the scenarios of how we would handle a situation outside of the customs union, outside of the single market and potentially with a different regulatory framework.

These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Sky’s Faisal Islam has just just tweeted the investment figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ report.

Brexit uncertainty has already hit investment in car industry, report says

Theresa May is speaking at a summit for CEOs today. Given what her cabinet ministers have been saying about business recently - Boris Johnson reportedly saying “fuck business” when told about industrialists’ worries about Brexit, Jeremy Hunt suggesting Airbus has no right to speak out in public about the implications of leaving the single market - she may find it a struggle persuading her audience that the government is really on their side.

And today car manufacturers have also been speaking out. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is holding its annual summit today and it is urging May to rethink her Brexit red lines, saying that if the UK were to lose the benefits of being in the single market and the customs union, the implications for the car industry would be disastrous. My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has written this up here.

But the SMMT is not just saying what might happen in the future if May opts for a harder Brexit. In a report on the state of the industry (pdf), it says uncertainty generated by Brexit has already led to investments being postponed.

2017 was a challenging year for the automotive supply chain with the entire industry beginning to feel the effects of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Without a clear picture of what a post-Brexit landscape will look like, the automotive industry has postponed key investment decisions.

On the Brexit front we will also be hearing from Boris Johnson, the foriegn secretary, today. He is taking questions in the Commons before leaving to attend a meeting at The Hague.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, gives a speech on housing policy.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet.

9.30am: The Department for Business publishes a report on fuel poverty.

9.45am: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, gives evidence to the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee about Brexit and devolution.

11.30am: Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Lunchtime: May gives a speech on industrial strategy at the Times CEO summit.

12.30pm: The Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston and the former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake, speak at the launch of an Institute for Government report on health and social care funding.

4.10pm: Guto Bebb, the defence minister, gives evidence to the science committee about Galileo.

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

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

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

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

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

Updated

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