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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

BMA backs referendum on final Brexit deal, saying leaving EU poses 'major threat' to health - Politics live

Campaigners demanding a vote on the final Brexit deal on a march in London on Saturday. Today the BMA, representing doctors, has backed calls for a “people’s vote”
Campaigners demanding a vote on the final Brexit deal on a march in London on Saturday. Today the BMA, representing doctors, has backed calls for a “people’s vote” Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

Afternoon summary

Anti-Muslim discrimination is wrong. There is no place for it in our society. That’s why, when I was home secretary, I required the police to specifically record anti-Muslim hate crime, so that we could understand better what was happening and better tackle the issue.

Within the party, we’ve introduced a new code of conduct. We investigate any allegations of Islamophobia that are made relating to members of the party. Those are investigated, action is taken, and in some cases members have been suspended or expelled from the party as a result.

  • Tony Blair, the former prime minister, has said the EU should change its migration policy to enable the UK to remain a member. (See 2.15pm.)
  • Britain’s bid for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to attribute blame for attacks in Syria has been backed by the international community. As the Press Association reports, the UK’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, who is also Britain’s permanent representative to the OPCW, said the measure was passed by an “overwhelming” majority of 82 to 24.
  • Damian Hinds, the education secretary, has said he will rely on grammar school bosses who choose to expand to be “true to their word” and admit more poor pupils. Giving evidence to the Commons education committee, he was asked to justify the government’s decision to earmark millions of pounds to allow selective schools in England to create more places. As the Press Association reports, grammars that bid for the cash - available in 2018/19 - will have to submit plans setting out the action they will take to boost the numbers of poorer pupils they admit. Asked what sanctions would be imposed on schools that did expand, but failed to take in more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, Hinds replied:

Generally speaking, I take at their word headteachers, school governors and so on and regard them as honest people who, when they say they will do something, plan to do it.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Gary Gibbon, the Channel 4 News political editor, has written a very good post on his blog about the government’s forthcoming Brexit white paper. Do read the whole thing, but here’s an excerpt.

Cabinet members who aren’t on the specialist sub-committee that’s supposed to be guiding Brexit negotiations got a sneak preview of the emerging Brexit policy yesterday just before full cabinet.

The UK official leading the Brexit negotiations, Olly Robbins, introduced some slides. Beside him were Gavin Barwell, the PM’s chief of staff and the UK representative to the EU, Tim Barrow. Ministers were told that after the European council next week and factoring in Brussels summer holidays, there are now only “six weeks left” of negotiating time before the October summit at which negotiations are meant to be concluded. Ministers at this briefing came away with a real sense that “time is running out,” one present told me.

They also came away with the impression that the document to be put in front of all ministers next week may well lay out “options” on how to deal with the issue of regulating British goods. But ministers are not necessarily being asked to choose between those options.

Olly Robbins, it seems, is attempting to get ministerial licence to pursue a series of approaches ranging from a Norway-style rule-taking approach to those with more sovereignty but less access to EU markets. There’s bound to be suspicion that only one of these approaches – the one outlining what is effectively a Norway style approach with the UK in the single market for manufactured goods and agricultural goods – is the one the EU27 would be most likely to engage with.

Former Nato chief says UK-EU security cooperation will suffer after Brexit

Security and intelligence co-operation between Britain and the EU will suffer as a result of Brexit, a former Nato secretary general has warned. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former Labour defence secretary, said both the UK and the remaining EU 27 would find themselves in a “disadvantageous” position following Britain’s withdrawal. Speaking to the Policy Exchange think tank in London, he said the UK was now paying the price in the Brexit negotiations for its past insistence on excluding European partners from its intelligence-sharing relationships with countries such as the United States. As a result, EU negotiators were now seeking to exclude Britain from programmes such as the Galileo communications satellite and the European arrest warrant, he said. He explained:

Now it is being turned against us. People are saying, ‘Hang on, you are out of the club, you’re therefore not going to share in that’.

So there is going to be a reduction in the effectiveness of the intelligence gathering that is being done at a European Union level and some of the institutions, like the European arrest warrant, that have proved to this country to be hugely valuable.

These are the realities, the chickens that are coming home to roost now. We are going to find ourselves in a disadvantageous position.

It is not necessarily a pretty picture for us, nor is it for some of our European allies. The institutions that we helped to create and protect in some ways, we are not going to be part of and that will be disadvantageous to our countries.

Elections to Labour’s national executive committee normally receive a modest amount of media coverage. But in years of covering politics, I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about elections to the Conservative party’s national conservative convention board, which is roughly equivalent, but less powerful.

Until now. PoliticsHome’s Emilio Casalicchio has written a long read on this year’s contest and it sheds light on one of the more obscure elections in national politics. Here is an excerpt.

Voting for each of the five positions takes place online through a website based in eastern Europe. The irony of the Tories holding an online ballot when they refuse to allow trade unions to do the same over strikes is not lost.

Limiting the electorate to just association, area and regional chairs (plus the deputies of the latter two) might mean equal association representation across the country, but it means a very private contest takes place. There are somewhere between 700 and 1,000 eligible voters - depending on who you speak to. There are no websites or Facebook campaigns to appeal to wider membership, and candidates aren’t even allowed an email list. They get to upload their leaflet to the voting site, but if they really want it to be seen they send it out by post.

A parliamentary committee is to be asked to consider concerns over the refusal of the Vote Leave campaigns director, Dominic Cummings, to appear before MPs. As the Press Association reports, Cummings was ordered to commit to appearing before the culture committee by June 20, but has not done so. Addressing the Commons, Speaker John Bercow said there would be a motion to refer the refusal of Cummings to the committee of privileges. Bercow told MPs:

I wish to inform the House that I have received a letter from the Leader of the House seeking precedence to move a motion to refer to the committee of privileges the refusal of Mr Dominic Cummings to attend a meeting of the select committee on digital, culture, media and sport in defiance of the order of the House of 7th June.

I am happy to accede to that request and I will invite the leader to move such a motion as the first business tomorrow, Thursday 28th June, after any urgent questions or statements.

The committee is likely to find Cummings in contempt of parliament, and MPs may end up voting on a motion to this effect. But the House of Commons no longer has the power to punish people for contempt of parliament and so any vote would just amount to a verbal reprimand.

Blair says EU should change its migration policy to allow UK to 'stay in with dignity'

Here is the full text of the globalisation speech that Tony Blair delivered at lunchtime.

In his Q&A at the end, Blair said the Brexit vote was a response to “Europe-wide” problems and that the best option would be for the EU to come up with a new migration policy that would allow the UK to “stay in with dignity”. He said:

The sensible thing, maybe this is too rational a view, is for Europe to recognise Brexit represented a feeling that was not specific or exclusive to Britain. That is what all these elections have show in the past few months. This is a Europe-wide feeling, it is just Britain just had a referendum, so the sensible thing is for Europe to review its decisions and come to a view about reform in Europe, particularly over these issues of migration, and for Britain to be made an offer that allows us to to stay in with dignity.

Blair said the government had not even resolved what it wanted from Brexit.

What we cannot have is a situation in which Britain goes out of Europe at the end of March 2019 and does not know what it is getting. I think the government wants to do that, I am afraid, because they have no answer to the central dilemma of the negotiations as you can see from the cabinet. They do not seem to be bound by cabinet or Chatham House rules.

One lot wants to keep close to Europe and that would mean regulatory alignment, so the debate becomes “what is the point?” and the other one wants to go for a clean break Brexit in which case those warnings from Airbus become very real, and the debate becomes “what is the prize?” That division has not been resolved. They have not begun negotiating with Europe.

And he restated his call for a “meaningful vote” on the final agreement.

A meaningful vote should be meaningful in the sense that we know what this new relationship entails.

To go out of Europe without knowing what the future is would be a catastrophe for the country. You would be out of Europe without no bargaining power and these Brexit guys could take us in any direction, and we would have no power to retrieve the situation ...

The best the Brexiteers now say about Brexit is that it is not as bad as you guys say. You go round the world and there is nobody saying “that is a really sensible thing you have done”. There is no one.

Tony Blair arriving at Chatham House ahead of his speech
Tony Blair arriving at Chatham House ahead of his speech Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

A group of Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party MEPs have joined forces in a letter to business secretary Greg Clark urging to take heed of the warning by Airbus and others over industry leaders over Brexit.

They say they believe the scale of the difficulties for business could be worse than publicised because of non-disclosure agreements companies have been asked to sign in their discussions with government.

They also refer to the job losses from the move of the European Medicines Agency, that employs around 900 staff, and the European Banking Authority to Amsterdam and Paris. They say:

As cross party MEPs, this warning chimes with the narrative that multi-sector businesses have brought to us since the referendum.

Manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to any form of Brexit that sees the UK outside of the single market and customs union, which helps companies comply with rules of origin and brings regulatory equivalence and duty free zones.

This news from Airbus follows news that Jaguar Land Rover are reducing their operations in the UK, while Unilever have announced that they will move their HQ to Rotterdam. Moreover, there will be significant jobs losses with the moving of the European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority out of the UK.

You will also be aware that a number of companies appear to have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements in their discussions with government, and so we suspect the scale of the difficulties facing business and industry following the Brexit vote is much larger than is publicly acknowledged.

The letter was signed by 16 MEPs including Labour’s Seb Dance and Claude Moraes, Conservative’s Julie Girling and Charles Tannock, Catherine Beader, a Liberal Democrat and Keith Taylor and Molly Cato for the Greens. Plaid Cymru’s Jill Evans, who is concerned about Airbus plants in north and south Wales, and the SNP’s Alyn Smith are also signatories.

BMA backs referendum on final Brexit deal, saying leaving EU poses 'major threat' to health

Doctors have called for the public to have a final vote on the Brexit deal, warning Britain’s departure from the EU poses a “major threat” to health, the Press Association reports. The PA story goes on:

A motion calling for a “people’s vote” on the terms of any agreement was passed at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual meeting in Brighton.

Brexit could damage the NHS, patient care and will be “bad for Britain’s health”, delegates heard.

Dr Paul Williams, a GP and Labour MP, said support for the motion was “a sign of the growing momentum behind the People’s Vote campaign”.

The Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives have also recently supported calls for the public to have a final say on Brexit.

The motion called for the BMA “to oppose Brexit as a whole”, support the UK remaining in the single market, and publicly state concerns that Brexit “poses a major threat to the NHS and the nation’s health”.

It also said the BMA should “support the idea of the public having a final say on the Brexit deal, now that more is known regarding the potential impact of Brexit on the NHS and the nation’s health”.

Dr William Sapwell, who proposed the motion, said the BMA should use its reputation to inform public debate “for the good of the nation’s health”.

“The fact is that the government is woefully underprepared to ensure the United Kingdom’s health and well-being is secure in time for the self-imposed deadline of March 29 2019,” he told delegates.

“Brexit is bad for Britain’s health, let’s put that on the side of a big red bus and once we have made that clear, the public should vote on the deal.”

Dr John Chisholm, of the BMA’s medical ethics committee, branded Brexit “a disastrous act of national self-harm”.

The EU is better for “health, the NHS, public health, research, science, universities, access to pharmaceuticals and international co-operation in research”, he told delegates.

“We need to speak out about the damage Brexit will do to our patients and to healthcare professionals,” he added.

However Dr Robert Harwood, chairman of the BMA consultants committee, warned a “hard-edged” political opinion on Brexit could mean the organisation was isolated from the debate.

Responding to the vote, Dr Williams said: “Nobody voted to damage the NHS in 2016, but already Brexit is causing severe problems in staff recruitment and retention.

“Instead of the 350 million a week for the NHS we were promised by the Brexiters, we have had cuts and closures as the NHS loses staff and struggles with budgets that are limited by the Brexit economic squeeze.

“If Brexit actually happens, it seems certain it will only make things worse - with new drug treatments, investment in research and sustainable funding all under threat.

“The BMA, which represents 160,000 doctors in this country, knows all this better than anyone.”

PMQs - Verdict from Twitter commentariat

This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs on Twitter.

There is a bit more praise for Corbyn than for May, but that’s not saying much. Quite a few people seem to think we were in “nul points” territory.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From the Guardian’s Peter Walker

From the Yorkshire Post’s Arj Singh

From the Daily Mirror’s Jason Beattie

From the Guardian’s Heather Stewart

From Politico Europe’s Tom McTague

From the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh

From the Daily Record’s Torcuil Crichton

From the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

From the Guardian’s Claire Phipps

From ITV’s Alastair Stewart

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From the Independent’s John Rentoul

My colleague Dan Sabbagh has posted this from the post-PMQs lobby briefing.

In his contributions at PMQs Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, asked about Brexit. Here is the write-up from the PoliticsHome blog.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford says the government is failing to listen to business on Brexit. He wants to know why thousands of car manufacturing jobs are “disposable”.

The PM insists the government has been listening to business over Brexit. She notes points at which the government conceded to the business view on a number of points over Brexit. She hits out at the SNP for refusing to back the government on Heathrow.

Blackford accuses the PM of failing to answer the question. He turns to the SNP demand to stay in the single market. He wants to know if the PM has completed any economic analysis on the possibility of keeping the UK in the single market and customs union.

The PM says foreign investment remained good last year, and she urges Blackford to listen to calls from Scottish business to keep Scotland in the UK.

Tim Loughton, a Conservative, asks if the government will back an amendment to his private member’s bill to extend civil partnerships to everyone to implement the judgment of the supreme court this morning.

May says the government is reviewing civil partnerships and backs Loughton’s bill.

Updated

Labour’s Ian Austin asks what the government is doing to tackle the CO2 shortage. A brewery in his constituency has had to stop making beer.

May says this is mainly an issue for the industry, but the government has been in touch to see what it can do.

Marcus Fysh, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that the welcome allocation of more money for the NHS will not crowd out money for other departments.

May says all these issues will be considered in the spending review.

May says, not only will she fly the England flag at Downing Street every time the team is playing during this World Cup, she will do the same when the women’s team are playing next year.

Johnny Mercer, a Conservative, asks May if she is committed to the UK remaining a tier one military nation.

May says she is absolutely committed to ensuring the UK remains “a leading military power”. But the government will look at what it needs to do to respond to changing threats.

PMQs - Snap verdict

PMQs - Snap verdict: Often at PMQs, as David Cameron explains well in a recent book, the open goals turn out to be the hardest ones. Corbyn arrived in the chamber with headlines about government disarray abounding. But, despite some perfectly good questions, he never really threw May off her stride and it felt very much like an uninspiring draw. As usual, Corbyn’s problem was his failure to be able to come back with a good follow-up. It was obvious that May would respond to his first question by saying that she backed business, but instead of coming back with evidence to rubbish this, he moved on another (in itself, perfectly sound) question, about a no deal Brexit. She sidestepped that question completely, but Corbyn did not pursue the topic. He had a good line on no deal at the end - no deal is a bad deal - but at no point did his line of questioning ever particularly discomfort May. (Labour’s Mary Creagh has just given a good example of how it can be done, telling May that Johnson’s comment - the “fuck” one, although she did not need to say it herself - expressed very pithily what Brexit would do for business). May was hardly impressive, and eager to change the subject at every opportunity (and her claim that Labour is doing everything it can in the Commons to frustrate Brexit will be a mystery to some who have followed the votes), but she stumbled through it all with the usual stolid fortitude. It was all very forgettable.

UPDATE:

Updated

Corbyn says Labour’s priority is protecting jobs. He quotes a Honda employee saying May will be responsible if his job is at risk. Did Andrea Leadsom speak for the government when she said the customs partnership plan was unwieldy?

May says the government is looking at both options. Corbyn says Labour’s priority is delivering jobs. So why does every Labour government leave office with higher unemployment?

Corbyn says that is rich from someone with 1m people on zero-hours contracts. He says the only customs option acceptable to the goverment is a no deal one. Ministers have been invited to a pyjama party at Chequers. He says May continues to promote the fallacy that no deal is better than a bad deal. But no deal is a bad deal. He says the real risk to jobs is a prime minister who is having to negotiate with her cabinet to stop it falling apart, instead of negotiating for jobs.

May says she can summarise what the government is achieving, and she rattles off a list of what she is achieving. Britain will leave the EU on 29 March 2019, she says.

Corbyn says Johnson did not back Heathrow either. But he did his bit for the air indusry by spending 14 hours in a plane for a 10-minute meeting.

He quotes the head of BMW, employing 8,000 people in this country, needs to know the government’s plans for customs. Without clarity, they will have to implement contingency plans. He asks May how many more firms are telling May in private what Airbus and BMW are saying publicly?

May says she is meeting business. She wants to ensure that trade with the EU is as frictionless as possible, while the UK can trade freely too. She says Labour would not back business; it would raise corporation tax by 7%.

Corbyn says Jacob Rees-Mogg is relocating his hedge fund to Dublin. John Redwood is advising people not to invest in the UK. Will May ignore Johnson, listen to workers, and get an agreement that safeguards jobs.

May says she is putting jobs at the heart of what she is doing. She says Corbyn was a Brexiteer himself through most of his career. So why he is trying to frustrate Brexit in this House?

Jeremy Corbyn says he joins May is paying tribute to the armed forces. And we need to do more for veterans.

On Brexit, he says Greg Clark thinks business is entitled to be listened to with respect. Boris Johnson takes a different view, using an Anglo-Saxon term. What is May’s view?

May says this government and party has always been one that backs business. They are the backbone of our prosperity. If Corbyn wants to defend business, he must back business or overthrow capitalism; he can’t do both.

Corbyn says he takes that as May rejecting Johnson’s approach. Airbus supports 110,000 jobs in the UK supply chain, many well paid and unionised. No deal would make the company reconsider its investments. Will May take the phoney threat of no deal off the table?

May says, if Corbyn is that bothered about the aerospace industry, he should have backed Heathrow expansion. She says she does not normally agree with Len McCluskey, but on this she does; he says backing Heathrow expansion will ensure the UK remains a world leader in aerospace.

May says she is looking at a number of issues relating to Northern Ireland. She hopes to visit in the next few weeks.

Labour’s Helen Goodman says we all celebrate the contribution of the armed forces.

She says last year May said no school would face a cut in budget. But schools in her constituency are having their budgets cut, she says.

May says she is putting more money into schools. The fairer funding formula will help the schools that have lost out the most.

Theresa May starts by saying it is armed forces week. And on Saturday MPs will be marking armed forces day. And today is reserves’ day. She pays tribute to reservists, including MPs who do that role.

This is from the Mirror’s Ben Glaze.

This is from the Press Association’s Richard Wheeler.

It is 11 years to the day since Tony Blair did his last ever PMQs, says Tom Hamilton, co-author of a good new book about PMQs.

PMQs

PMQs is starting soon.

Here is the running order.

Here is a statement from Theresa May on the resignation of Andrew RT Davies. She said:

Under Andrew’s leadership, the Welsh Conservatives have provided a strong opposition to Labour in Cardiff Bay and a strong voice for the people of Wales, both at home and in Westminster.

It was a pleasure to join Andrew and the rest of the team at the Welsh Conservative conference last month. I know he will continue to be a passionate champion for the people of South Wales Central in the Assembly, as he has been for more than a decade – and will continue to speak up for the best interests of Wales as we leave the European Union and forge a new role for the whole United Kingdom on the world stage.

In a written ministerial statement Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, has announced that the government is partially relaxing its ban on arms sales to Argentina. He explains:

Under [extra restrictions imposed in 2012] it has been the British government’s policy not to grant an export licence for any military or dual-use goods and technology being supplied to military end-users in Argentina, except in exceptional circumstances.

Our general position now will be to continue to refuse licences for export and trade of goods judged to enhance Argentine military capability. However, where like-for-like equipment is no longer available, we may grant licences where we judge they are not detrimental to the UK’s defence and security interests.

In a speech yesterday Greg Clark, the business secretary, urged businesses to make the case for a soft Brexit. He even suggested he would like services to remain in some form of the single market.

The Daily Telegraph and the Times have both given Clark’s comments front page treatment - in the Telegraph’s case, with some critical spin.

Steve Baker, a Brexit minister, may have had Clark in mind when he posted this on Twitter this morning.

Service industries urge UK and EU to consider extending Brexit transition

As the Telegraph’s Peter Foster reports, the European Services Forum, a group representing European service industries, has written to Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, saying that a 21-month transition period probably won’t be long enough and that arrangements should be put in place to extend it.

Here is the key extract from the letter.

Based on our experience of trade negotiations, we are concerned that - even with the strongest political will from both sides - a period of 21 months is unlikely to be sufficient to cover all the stages needed to put in place the future relationship (completion of negotiations, agreement in principle, legal scrub of agreed texts, signature, ratification and implementation). We therefore call on negotiators to provide clarity as soon as possible on the withdrawal agreement and to allow for some flexibility in the management and duration of the transition period included therein.

The letter also says that, while the Brexit talks have recently focused on trade issues relating to goods (ie, customs), services are essential, representing 74% of EU GDP and 80% of UK GDP. And it also says that goods and services are more closely linked than people often assume; according to the Trade in Value Added (TiVA) database, 37% of the value of UK total export of goods is in fact derived from “goods-related services”.

And here is the formal letter from Andrew RT Davies announcing his resignation as leader of the Conservative group in the Welsh assembly.

More on the Andrew RT Davies resignation.

Carwyn Jones, the Labour Welsh first minister, has described Andrew RT Davies as a “decent and honest politician” in a tribute to him. This is from ITV Cymru’s Adrian Masters.

And here is a tribute from Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary.

Here is our latest story, from my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar, on cabinet feuding.

The BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has written a good blog on the state of play within the Conservative party. Here’s an excerpt.

One minister told me it’s like a bad 45 year marriage: “We’ve stayed together for the sake of the kids, given birth to Brexit which is now ready to leave home and we’re fighting now over who gets what.”

A former senior minister said, “it’s just broken”, suggesting that the Cabinet does not understand how bad the situation really is. “They are completely out of touch.” they said, blaming the prime minister’s desire to keep everyone on side on Brexit for the boiling tensions,

“Everyone leaves the room thinking she has agreed with them. It’s corrosive. You can argue it out to come to a position but she just won’t.”

Her deputy, John Pienaar, was even more outspoken when discussing this on the Today programme this morning.

This is a long, long, long way from strong and stable [leadership] ... This is so far from strong and stable government that it is much more like a pub in rough neighbourhood at closing time.

Pienaar also said that a minister told him recently that, if Theresa May tried to resign, they would “nail her into her office” because there was nobody else who could hold the party together.

This is from Mark Reckless, the former Conservative MP who defected to Ukip, was elected to the Welsh assembly as a Ukip AM after losing his Westminster seat and who subsequently left Ukip and joined the Conservative group in the assembly.

Here is Andrew RT Davies’s resignation statement.

Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies resigns after row over his anti-Airbus comments

The leader of the Welsh Conservative, Andrew RT Davies, has resigned, the BBC reports.

Davies, who is strongly pro-Brexit, was widely criticised in the party after he accused Airbus, which employs more than 6,000 people in Wales, of exaggerating the threat posed by Brexit. Guto Bebb, the defence minister and MP for Aberconwy, said Davies’s comments were “inflammatory”.

Gauke says Boris Johnson's anti-business jibe was 'probably not wise'

David Gauke, the justice secretary, was also on the Today programme this morning. Asked about Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, declaring “fuck business” at a private Foreign Office event, Gauke said:

The point I would make is that business drives wealth and prosperity in this country, so I think we should listen to what business has to say and engage with business. Business is hugely important to us, and I certainly don’t think anyone should be dismissive.

This was, as I understand it, a throwaway remark at a drinks reception, and probably not wise, but I wouldn’t read any more into it than that.

David Gauke
David Gauke Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock

On the Today programme this morning Ed Vaizey, the Conservative former minister, described Liz Truss’s comments about Michael Gove in her speech last night as a “full frontal assault”. He said:

It was, although light-hearted, a pretty full frontal assault. I think Liz Truss has achieved what she wanted to achieve, which is re-positioning herself and getting herself much more noticed than perhaps she has been in the past.

Leaving EU will cost £10bn more than government claims, say MPs

It’s PMQs today and, with so much evidence of cabinet disunity in the news, Jeremy Corbyn is probably at this very moment having a tough job trying to work out how to cover it all in just six questions. The BBC has been almost leading this morning on the news that Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told a pointed joke about Michael Gove, the environment secretary. Given all the other blue-on-blue target practice taking place at the moment, this is about the least serious example, although the fact that Truss, a relative lightweight who only has “attending cabinet” status feels free to get in on the act perhaps says something about how completely discipline has broken down. Politico Europe’s Jack Blanchard has a good round-up of all the intra-cabinet feuding on his morning email.

More on that later. First, though, Brexit, and there is a report (pdf) out this morning from the Commons public accounts committee on the cost of leaving the EU. Remember the government said the cost of leaving would be up to £39bn? The committee says the full cost will be at least £10bn higher.

Here is the key paragraph,

The Treasury’s estimate of the cost of the financial settlement does not include at least £10bn of costs to the government associated with the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The Treasury has not included nearly £3bn of payments the UK will make to the European Development Fund, the EU’s main way of providing overseas development aid, after withdrawal. It also excludes an estimated £7.2bn of EU funding that will go directly to UK private sector bodies, which the Treasury has deducted from its estimate of the settlement. Its estimate also does not include parts of the withdrawal agreement that are still to be negotiated which could have associated costs, such as how to deal with the taxation of goods dispatched from the UK during the transition period but do not arrive in the EU until after 2020. The Treasury believe any such costs will be small.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Damian Hinds, the education secretary, gives evidence to the Commons education committee.

9.30am: George Hamilton, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, gives evidence to the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee.

12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

12pm: Tony Blair, the former prime minister, gives a speech on globalisation. As Patrick Wintour reports, he will say a return to the dark politics of the 1930s is no longer far-fetched today because of rampant nationalist populism and the widespread rejection of multilateral alliances.

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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A woman has sparked discussion online after she called out her tattoo artist for his inappropriate behavior once he learned she was recently single.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Forget birdwatching, I’m into moth-watching: they’re fascinating and misunderstood insects
According to new research, distinguishing between the UK’s 2,500 species could halt cognitive decline – so my brain could not be happier, or healthier, says science writer Helen Pilcher
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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