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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Mattha Busby (now), Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

May to bring Brexit bill to parliament in week of 3 June, says No 10 – as it happened

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn met on Tuesday evening.
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn met on Tuesday evening. Photograph: Pool

Closing summary

  • A new withdrawal agreement bill will be introduced with or without Labour’s backing, after Jeremy Corbyn raised concerns about her ability to deliver on a cross-party deal and made clear the need for further compromise from May in the hour-long discussion. (see 9.04pm)
  • It remains unclear whether the Tories and Labour will reach a compromise, with the question of a permanent customs arrangement likely to remain a key sticking point between the two parties as talks continue.
  • The government’s deal is likely to be defeated yet again if an agreement with the opposition cannot be reached, such an event would make May’s prime ministership increasingly untenable.
  • Corbyn questioned whether the government could see through any potential commitments, “following statements by Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers seeking to replace the prime minister”. (See 9.38pm)
  • Earlier today, Theresa May’s divided cabinet agreed that Brexit talks with Labour should continue, but set a fresh deadline of the summer recess for parliament to pass the necessary legislation to take Britain out of the EU. (See 2.30pm)
  • John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said that the letter signed by Boris Johnson and others attacking the customs union plan (see 9.43am) made it harder for Labour to believe that any Brexit deal it agrees with May will stick. (See 3.14pm.)

That’s about it for today. Thanks for the comments, and good night.

Updated

Full story: Theresa May has pledged to give MPs another opportunity to vote on Brexit early next month, with or without Labour’s backing, after Jeremy Corbyn raised concerns about her ability to deliver on a cross-party deal.

Here’s what MP’s are saying these evening following the talks.

The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg has spoken to Labour sources.

Theresa May will bring her deal back to parliament for the fourth time in the week commencing 3 June, which could coincide with Donald Trump’s visit to the UK.

There has been no agreement struck with Labour to support the new withdrawal agreement bill, and Jeremy Corbyn said he made clear the need for further compromise from May in the hour-long discussion, with talks set to continue.

Labour has called for a permanent and comprehensive customs union with the EU while upholding workers’ rights and environmental protections after Brexit, among other demands.

There have been reports this evening that May is willing to make certain compromises but it remains unclear whether those concessions would be sufficient for Labour negotiators.

Without such an agreement between the two main parties, the government’s deal would likely be defeated yet again, in which case you wonder whether May could survive.

Updated

Labour: Corbyn raised doubts over the credibility of PM's commitments

A Labour party spokesperson said: “Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May met in Parliament this evening for an hour. The Labour leader set out the shadow cabinet’s concerns about the prime minister’s ability to deliver on any compromise agreement.

“In particular he raised doubts over the credibility of government commitments, following statements by Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers seeking to replace the prime minister.

“Jeremy Corbyn made clear the need for further movement from the government, including on entrenchment of any commitments. The prime minister’s team agreed to bring back documentation and further proposals tomorrow.”

It is understood that Corbyn rejected any suggestion that Labour would support the withdrawal agreement bill without a compromise agreement.

Updated

The introduction of the new Brexit legislation could coincide with Donald Trump’s visit to the UK and, with a byelection on the Thursday, it is set to be an interesting week in politics.

Updated

Some reaction:

Earlier today, cabinet set the summer parliamentary recess as the deadline for passing the legislation that would spell the end of Britain’s membership of the EU. However, there were no further details provided on how the as yet elusive majority for the government’s Brexit deal would be secured. (2:30pm).

The prime minister’s Brexit deal has been rejected three times by MPs and tonight’s statement does little to cast any light on what changes to the deal, if any, May and Corbyn may have agreed. But the talks will at least continue.

Updated

The No 10 statement in full:

This evening the prime minister met the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons to make clear our determination to bring the talks to a conclusion and deliver on the referendum result to leave the EU.

We will therefore be bringing forward the withdrawal agreement bill in the week beginning June 3. It is imperative we do so then if the UK is to leave the EU before the summer parliamentary recess.

Talks this evening between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition were both useful and constructive. Tomorrow, talks will continue at an official level as we seek the stable majority in parliament that will ensure the safe passage of the withdrawal agreement bill and the UK’s swift exit from the EU.

Updated

New Brexit withdrawal legislation to be introduced in early June

Downing Street has confirmed that the government will bring forward legislation to implement the Brexit withdrawal agreement in the week beginning 3 June.

Updated

Hearing that tonight’s meeting did not start on time.

The Financial Times is reporting that Labour is planning to nationalise Britain’s energy networks at below market value, and would do so shortly after winning a general election.

A new Labour party paper said shareholders would be compensated, but not necessarily at market prices, and Corbyn will reportedly outline the plans on Thursday.

Deductions would be made to take account of “asset stripping since privatisation”, state subsidies since the 1980s and pension fund deficits, according to the FT.

Updated

BMG has released a new poll ahead of the EU elections which shows growing support for the Liberal Democrats.

Note: changes are drawn from comparisons with the 2014 results.

Updated

Some light relief from the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer John Crace as we wait for details from the meeting to emerge:

Updated

A Labour party source has told the BBC that tonight’s meeting is about “keeping in touch”, following cabinet and shadow cabinet discussions today.

The talks have been ongoing for weeks, with no sign of the deadlock being broken.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said earlier that there had been no “significant shift” in the government position, while the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said compromise was not impossible but negotiations could not continue “indefinitely”.

Updated

Our chief political correspondent Jessica Elgot has been told by cabinet sources that there will be no new withdrawal agreement bill until June.

Meanwhile, Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby says she has been told tonight’s meeting between May and Corbyn will be more catching up than decision-making.

Updated

Lobby journalists have been tweeting ahead of the meeting tonight.

Updated

Good evening, I’m Mattha Busby, taking over the blog from my colleague Andrew Sparrow.

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are set to meet at 7.15pm in the Houses of Parliament this evening for further Brexit talks.

Earlier today, the cabinet agreed that the talks should continue and set a new deadline of the summer recess to pass the legislation which would take Britain out of the EU.

It follows criticism from within the Conservative party this morning, after 13 former ministers or cabinet attendees – as well as Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee – urged Theresa May not to sign up to Labour’s plan for a customs union with the EU. (09:43)

Updated

Afternoon summary

  • John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that today’s letter signed by Boris Johnson and others attacking the customs union plan (see 9.43am) has made it harder for Labour to believe that any Brexit deal it agrees with May will stick. (See 3.14pm.)
  • Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has said that both main parties will be “crucified” by the voters if they do not implement Brexit. That is why he thought it was in both their interests to agree a deal, he said. He told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council:

There is potential because when you look at the fundamentals it is actually in both parties’ interests to resolve Brexit.

Because both of us will be crucified by our base if we went into a general election having promised that we would respect the referendum result, not having respected it.

And I think the lesson of the local elections is that the downside for Labour is as big as the downside for us.

I don’t think it’s impossible that there could be a deal there.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Jeremy Hunt says no-deal Brexit option should be back on table

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, was also speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in London. Judging by tweets from my colleague Rowena Mason, Bloomberg’s Robert Hutton, Sky’s Tom Rayner and LBC’s Theo Usherwood, it wasn’t one of his finest performances.

Jeremy Hunt speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event in London.
Jeremy Hunt speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event in London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

In her letter explaining why she has resigned from Labour, the former MP and minister Bridget Prentice says one of her objections to Jeremy Corbyn (there are quite a few) is that he has failed to live up to the promises he made when he was running for leader to run the party in a more democratic, less top-down way. (See 11.01am.) She explains:

The talk was of giving the party back to the membership. In fact it is run by a familial clique with the members’ views being wilfully ignored because they do not align with the blinkered view of those at the top of the organisation.

A major new book about the rise of Corbyn, Protest and Power: The Battle for the Labour Party by David Kogan, makes the same point. In his conclusion Kogan writes:

Although Tony Benn and Vladimir Derer both died in 2014, they would have recognised patterns in a lot of what has happened since from earlier years of the battle for the Labour party. New Labour’s control freakery on NEC membership and candidate selection has been at least equalled by the left since it has taken power. Just as attacks on the leadership by the left in the 1980s and 1990s were ruthlessly quashed, so attacks on the leadership by the centre and centre right of the Labour party in 2016 to 2019 have been condemned, usually as ‘Blairite plots’. In neither era could either side accept the need for unity; power has always meant domination. This has been exercised in exactly the same way by each generation through the leaders’ office, at conference and in the NEC.

Protest and Power is a very good book, probably the most even-handed of all the accounts of Corbyn’s rise to power (the paragraph I’ve just quoted is negative, but much of it isn’t), and definitely the book that best explains Corbyn in the context of the 40-year battle by the left in Labour to seize control of the party. William Davies reviewed it favourably for the Guardian here.

Updated

In a speech last night that was widely interpreted as a contribution to his campaign for the Conservative party leadership, Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, called for defence spending to double over the next decade.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked if the prime minister agreed, Theresa May’s spokesman delivered what sounded like a mild rebuke to Hunt, saying that defence spending was already high by international standards. He said:

UK defence spending is the largest in Europe, we are one of only a handful of Nato countries currently spending 2% of GDP on defence.

We have a £39bn core defence budget which will rise to almost £40bn by 2020-21 and we will spend more than £186bn on equipment and support between 2018 and 2028.

Last year we allocated an extra £1.8bn for defence spending.

At the next defence and security review we will consider the spending level required to continue to meet the threats to our national security, as we did at the last one in 2015.

Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary

Here is a more detailed summary of what was said at the Downing Street lobby briefing about Brexit. I posted a snap summary at 2.30pm.

  • The prime minister’s spokesman said cabinet had set the summer recess as a deadline for passing the EU withdrawal agreement bill. But he also implied the cabinet has yet to identify a clear strategy for getting the legislation through parliament. (See 2.30pm.)
  • The spokesman implied ministers are becoming more resigned to the idea of having to try to pass the EU withdrawal agreement bill (WAB) without Labour support. He did not say the government would have to wait until it had Labour agreement before bringing the bill to the Commons (although obviously it would like this). Asked if it could try passing the bill without Labour agreement, he said:

I have spoken in the past about the need to secure a stable majority for the WAB. That’s obviously still important. At the same time I would emphasis the importance of sending a clear message to the public that parliament is getting on with delivering the results of the referendum.

  • The spokesman said the prospect of May resigning once the bill has been passed was not a feature of today’s discussion. Asked if getting the deal through by the summer recess would also make that May’s exit date, the spokesman said:

What she wants to do is get a deal through by the summer recess. She has at the same time said she would step aside once she has completed phase one. But the conversation at cabinet wasn’t about that.

  • The spokesman played down claims that the WAB might be brought to the Commons for a vote this Thursday. He said that this week’s Commons business had already been announced and that he was not aware of any changes to it.
  • The spokesman said the cabinet agreed to carry on the Brexit talks with Labour. But he said nothing to suggest ministers are confident that talks will result in an agreement being reached. (See 2.30pm.)
  • The spokesman implied there was some disagreement about whether the government should carry on cross-party talks with Labour. Asked if the agreement to continue the talks was unanimous, the spokesman just said it was an agreement by cabinet. And, when asked if the cabinet had been united, the spokesman just said there was “a very clear determination to find a way to resolve this”.
  • The spokesman said that Olly Robbins, the PM’s chief Brexit adviser, would not be discussing possible changes to the political declaration (the part of the Brexit deal covering the future trading relationship) in his talks with EU officials tomorrow. The discussion would be “not that specific”, the spokesman said. Instead, he said, the meeting was part of Robbins’ ongoing engagement with his EU counterparts.
10 Downing Street.
10 Downing Street. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

McDonnell says Labour more wary of compromise Brexit deal with May after Boris Johnson letter threatening to rip it up

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has been speaking this afternoon at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in London. Here are the main points he’s been making. The tweets are from my colleague Rowena Mason.

  • McDonnell said that the government had still not offered the “significant shift” needed to make the cross-party Brexit talks lead to an agreement. He said:

We have been at this five weeks, we haven’t seen the significant shift yet that we require to be able to support a deal ...

We are not near what we want.

  • He said today’s letter signed by Boris Johnson and others attacking the customs union plan (see 9.43am) had made it harder for Labour to agree a deal with the government. He explained:

Let’s be absolutely straight, today hasn’t helped ...

Our big problem now is, if we are going to march our troops in parliament to the top of the hill to vote for a deal and then that’s overturned within weeks, I think that would be a cataclysmic act of bad faith ...

We get a letter signed by a number of senior Conservatives, published this morning, by Boris Johnson ... who is certainly going to be in contention for the leadership. Very likely to be the next leader. Could well be prime minister in, literally, months, and in a situation where he in his letter today says he is not going to accept a customs union, and, actually, he will overturn the deal that we ... negotiate.

It gives us no security on that. And we expect a responsible government on that.

  • He said the government might have to offer a referendum of some sort to get a deal through parliament. He said:

Because we are in negotiations, we have been saying to our Conservative colleagues that to get something through parliament you may well have to concede that there is a public vote of some sort ...

The point Keir Starmer made at the weekend ... is that there are a large number of MPs who will not sign up to anything unless there is a public vote.

If there were a referendum, the options should be the deal or remain, he said.

  • He said it was right for Labour to be considering a compromise with the government even though this stance was costing it votes.
  • He said Jeremy Corbyn was still a remainer at heart. McDonnell said: “Deep in my heart I’m still a remainer.” Asked if Corbyn was also still a remainer in his heart, the shadow chancellor said: “Yes.”
  • He said the rise of the Brexit party was symptomatic of the rise in alt-rise politics. he said:

I think behind the Brexit Party there is quite a dangerous politics that’s lurking.

I’m really worried about it.

I think it’s a rise of an alt-right politics that could damage our whole political system for the long term if we don’t deal with it.

  • He said he defined himself as a socialist.
John McDonnell speaking during at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) CEO Council event in London
John McDonnell speaking during at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) CEO Council event in London Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Updated

Cabinet sets summer recess as deadline for passing Brexit legislation - but without plan yet to get it through

I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing, and it sounds as if today’s longer-than-usual cabinet did not resolve a great deal.

This is how the prime minister’s spokesman summed up the cabinet discussion on Brexit.

Cabinet held an extensive discussion on the Brexit talks which are taking place with Labour and on the pressing need to get on with delivering the result of the referendum. Ministers involved in the negotiations set out details of the compromises which the government was prepared to consider in order to secure an agreement which would allow the UK to leave the EU with a deal as soon as possible.

Cabinet agreed to continue discussions with Labour to see what was possible. However, it was agreed that it is imperative to bring forward the withdrawal agreement bill in time for it to receive royal assent by the summer parliamentary recess.

And this is what it means.

  • Cabinet has set the summer recess as a deadline for passing the EU withdrawal agreement bill - without agreeing a strategy for getting it through parliament. The summer recess normally starts mid/late July, but the exact date has not been set yet. Arguably you could describe this as the deadline being set back again, because David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, said last week the government would like the legislation passed before the new European parliament meets for the first time on 2 July (although Lidington also said the summer recess would be the deadline if the 2 July one was not achievable.) In theory the Commons could sit through August, although the prime minister’s spokesman played down the prospect of MPs being asked to give up their holidays.
  • Cabinet has agreed to continue the talks with Labour - although nothing said at the briefing implied that ministers are confident an agreement will actually be reached. It also sounded as though ministers were divided about what compromises the government should be offering to the opposition.

I will post a more detailed summary soon.

Updated

Speaking at the Lib Dem election poster launch this morning (see 11.28am), Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem deputy leader, accused Labour of being “all over the place” on a second referendum. She said:

Labour are refusing to take the chances to stop Brexit. They’re in the room negotiating but negotiating to try to make Brexit happen.

A vote for Labour is a vote for Brexit in these elections. If you want to stop Brexit, the Liberal Democrats are the strongest, biggest, most consistent force for remain.

Labour have been all over the place on whether or not they support a people’s vote.

Some Labour MPs who I’ve worked with absolutely do, but unfortunately they haven’t convinced their leadership to come out unequivocally backing a people’s vote.

I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing about cabinet now. I will post again after 2pm.

Lib Dem MP Sir Ed Davey (pointing) with Jo Swinson
Lib Dem MP Sir Ed Davey (pointing) with Jo Swinson Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images

Labour party sources are suggesting that Bridget Prentice’s decision to resign from the party (see 11.01am) may have been influenced by the fact she was “aggrieved” that she was not re-nominated to serve as Labour’s representative to the Electoral Commission.

Former Liberal leader Lord Steel said he was “relieved” that an investigation launched after he gave evidence about child abuse allegations against former MP Sir Cyril Smith concluded there were “no grounds for action”. As the Press Association reports, Steel had been suspended by the Liberal Democrats while the probe - sparked by evidence he gave to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) - was carried out. The former Holyrood presiding officer said a conversation with Smith had left him “assuming” the allegations were correct, but that the party did not investigate them.

An internal party investigation was carried out by the executive of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Scottish party leader Willie Rennie said this had “determined, after careful consideration, that there are no grounds for action against David Steel”. As the Press Association reports, his suspension has now been lifted, with Lord Steel saying the party has “cleared my name”.

Cabinet has only just finished, the BBC reports. That means it went on for around three hours , which is about an hour longer than usual.

Economic impact of Brexit will be more like 'slow puncture' than 'blow-out', says Cable

Here are the main points from Sir Vince Cable’s LBC phone-in this morning.

  • Cable, the Lib Dem leader, said the WTO system was “disintegrating”, which was why the WTO Brexit favoured by Nigel Farage was “a pathetic, weak option”. He said:

I think it’s important we confront the no-deal option, what Nigel Farage calls WTO rules. This has become a very glib phrase that people use without realising, I think, that the WTO system is actually disintegrating. The only two countries in the world that operate under WTO rules, major countries, are Russia and China. Russia is covered by economic sanctions. China is getting into a trade war with the United States. The World Trade Organisation no longer functions. It has no authority. It’s a bit like saying let’s get rid of our army and Nato and rely on the United Nations declarations to preserve our defence. It is a pathetic, weak option and it needs to be exposed.

  • Cable said the economic impact of Brexit would be more like a “slow puncture” than a “blow-out”. He explained:

I’ve always likened leaving the European Union - it’s a slow puncture, rather than a blow-out. Five or 10 years time, we would really feel the economic cost.

  • He criticised George Osborne, the former chancellor, for promoting scare stories about the impact of Brexit in the 2016 referendum. He said:

Unfortunately some of the remainers, and you have mentioned Mr Osborne, produced a cataclysmic view of the world that clearly wasn’t right. And Project Fear didn’t work. It was counter-productive, and I accept that.

  • Cable said that he disagreed with Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal group in the European parliament (the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) on many issues, even though they campaigned together last week. He said:

I welcomed [Verhofstad], and he does represent the wider liberal family in Europe. I don’t agree with him on a lot of issues, to be frank. He is a very strong believer in a more federal Europe, closer integration. I think the balance we have got at the moment, which keeps Britain out of the monetary union, and out of the deeper kinds of integration, it probably suits the British better than some of the other versions. So I do disagree with him about that. But he’s a good man, and he fights for liberal values and after these elections he will be leading a very powerful liberal force in the European parliament fighting the extremism and populism that we are getting across Europe.

Guy Verhofstadt (centre) with Sir Vince Cable at a Lib Dem campaign event at the end of last week.
Guy Verhofstadt (centre) with Sir Vince Cable at a Lib Dem campaign event at the end of last week. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
  • Cable said the Lib Dems would have to work together with Change UK and the Green party after the European elections. He said:

When the election is over, we are going to have to get together with the Change party, and the Greens, I would hope - we share a lot in common with them - and work constructively together. I think that’s what the electorate want.

Sir Vince Cable
Sir Vince Cable Photograph: LBC

The last time there was a division in the House of Commons was more than a month ago, on Wednesday 10 April, on a motion about the Trident nuclear deterrent. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is not impressed.

It is not quite true to say there have been no votes in the last month. There have been no divisions (ie, contested votes), but some government business has gone through on the nod (ie, without opposition), like the non-domestic rating (preparation for digital services bill) which got a second reading yesterday. However, anything passed in this way tends to be non-controversial and of low importance.

The Lib Dem MP Layla Moran will not be standing for the leadership when Sir Vince Cable stands down, which he has said he will do later this year, the Evening Standard reports. A new MP, she had been seen as a potential outside-chance, fresh face candidate. Her decision means that Jo Swinson, the current deputy, must be the clear favourite.

Here is the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on the current state of the cross-party Brexit talks.

EU says it will remain on 'Brexit break' until something changes in London

The European commission is not getting excited about the news that Olly Robbins, the prime minister’s chief Brexit spokesman, is heading to Brussels to renegotiate the political declaration.

Asked about this at his regular briefing, Margaritis Schinas, the European commission’s chief spokesman, said:

We continue on our Brexit break.

We will come out of the Brexit break if there is something happening in London.

We will listen to Olly Robbins tomorrow.

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas
European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson and Lib Dem MP Sir Ed Davey unveiling a poster for the European elections
The Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson and Lib Dem MP Sir Ed Davey unveiling a poster for the European elections Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images

Farage claims remainers as well as leavers will be voting for his Brexit party

Here are some of the main points from Nigel Farage’s LBC phone-in earlier.

  • Farage claimed that some remainers as well as leavers would be voting for his new Brexit party. During his phone-in with the LBC presenter Nick Ferrari, he referred to his own experience hosting a phone-in programme on the station. He said:

One of the things I learnt sitting in that chair doing a show for LBC is, you get outside the central London boroughs, and there is huge anger in this country, and it is not just coming from leave voters. A lot of it is coming from remain voters as well ...

There will be remain voters who will vote for the Brexit party. Indeed, we have even got a candidate standing for us in eastern England who voted remain in the referendum.

For us to be a credible nation, the bedrock on which it is founded is our democratic system, because that is the bond of trust that needs to exist between people and those that govern them. And that at the moment is fundamentally breaking down.

  • He claimed the Brexit party would become “the most open political party” in Britain, with supporters directly deciding policy. As the Guardian has reported, Farage set up the party as a private company, with registered supporters rather than members. It is not publishing policies before next week’s European elections. Farage said he had chosen this structure because he had to set it up quickly, but he said that this would “evolve over time” and that he wanted supporters to decide policy directly. He explained:

This is going to be the most open political party that you have ever seen in Britain. We are getting rid of those delegated layers that political parties have, like national executive committees, where everything tends to get lost and tied up ... We are going to directly liaise and have votes amongst our registered supporters to shape policy and shape our future direction. I want this to be a really, really engaged group of people. And we will produce policy on the basis of of what our supporters think. And that, I think, is quite a radical departure.

This is how Italy’s Five Star Movement (M5S) operates although, as a Guardian report earlier this year explains, there are doubts about how democratic such processes really are.

  • Farage said his party now had nearly 100,000 registered supporters, each paying £25.
Nick Ferrari and Nigel Farage (right)
Nick Ferrari and Nigel Farage (right) Photograph: LBC

Former Labour MP Bridget Prentice quits party, dismissing Corbyn's EU stance as 'wrong and pathetic'

Bridget Prentice, a former Labour MP who served as a minister in the last Labour government, has announced that she is leaving the party. She has explained why in an open letter to Karie Murphy, the acting general secretary, that she has posted on Twitter.

Prentice, who was MP for Lewisham East for 18 years, left parliament in 2010 and she is not exactly a huge figure in the party. But she is not a maverick or an extremist or a natural troublemaker either, and her letter will probably strike a chord with others in the party who are unhappy about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

In her long letter, she says she is leaving the party because in various areas the leadership has “fallen short”. She cites: Corbyn’s response to the antisemitism complaints; his approach to Europe; the way support for Corbyn has supposedly been turned into a “cult”, with opponents condemned as Blairites; and the way the views of the members are supposedly ignored if they do not align with the views of the leadership.

With the European elections coming next week, Prentice’s claims about Corbyn’s stance on the EU are particularly damning. Here is an extract.

I have come to the conclusion that [Corbyn] not only did not campaign vigorously for the Labour party’s position on remain, but where he could, he undermined it ... The recent comments about the local elections telling the major parties to deliver Brexit would be laughable if it were not so palpably wrong and pathetic. The damage to this country and most importantly to the poorest, the most vulnerable, the dispossessed, the underclass - all those that the Labour party was born to protect - will be devastating. That Jeremy and those of you around him either cannot see that, or feel justified in disregarding it because of a narrow ideological pursuit, flies in the face of the moral right to lead a party which wants to transform the lives of those most in need.

In an interview on the Today programme this morning the Brexiter Sir Michael Fallon, another of the former ministers who signed the letter to Theresa May (see 9.43am), said that staying in the customs union was such a bad option that he would prefer to remain in the EU. He said:

If they are going to include permanent membership of a customs union then, frankly, we would be better off staying in the European Union because at least then we would have a voice in the trade arrangements that are being negotiated.

Fallon, a former defence secretary, also used the interview to say that it would be “very dangerous” to let the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei have a role in constructing the UK’s 5G infrastructure. He said:

Britain is a democracy and our governments are accountable to parliament. China isn’t, it’s an autocracy, there aren’t the same safeguards there and Chinese companies are, to some extent, always an arm of the state.

So I think it’s right that we should take account of American warnings here and I think it would be very dangerous to let Huawei particularly into the infrastructure of the next generation of telecommunications.

Sir Michael Fallon
Sir Michael Fallon Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA

Nick Boles, who left the Conservative party and now sits as an independent MP because he was angry at the failure of his colleagues to compromise and back a softer Brexit, posted a message on Twitter this morning criticising the 14 Tories who signed the letter to the PM opposing a customs union for apparently describing themselves as the “loyal middle” of the party. (See 9.43am.)

Greg Hands, one of the MPs who signed the letter, says Boles has misread it.

Unemployment has hit a new 44-year low, my colleague Graeme Wearden reports. He has all the details on his business live blog.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, is holding his LBC phone-in now. Asked to defend the Lib Dem decision to use “Bollocks to Brexit” as a slogan in the European elections, he said this was “acceptable vulgarity”.

Vince Cable with Lib Dem election leaflets.
Vince Cable with Lib Dem election leaflets. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

The government needs to “deliver Brexit urgently”, Andrea Leadsom, the Brexiter leader of the Commons, told journalists before she went into Number 10 for cabinet, the BBC’s Nick Eardley reports.

Olly Robbins, the PM’s chief Brexit adviser, is not meeting any EU officials in Brussels today, the BBC’s Norman Smith reports.

Tory leadership favourite Boris Johnson says he would not be bound by any customs union deal with Labour

Here is the text of the letter that 13 former ministers or cabinet attendees, as well as Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, urging Theresa May not to sign up to Labour’s plan for a customs union with the EU.

The 13 former ministers included four cabinet ministers who resigned from Theresa May’s cabinet because of their opposition to her Brexit plans. They are: David Davis, Boris Johnson, Esther McVey, and Dominic Raab.

The other former ministers are: Iain Duncan Smith, Sir Michael Fallon, Robert Halfon, Greg Hands, Mark Harper, Maria Miller, Grant Shapps, John Whittingdale and Gavin Williamson.

Most of the letter is devoted to policy arguments against staying in a customs union with the EU, and some ministers still in the cabinet would almost certainly agree with these points. In fact the second paragraph, which says access to UK markets would end up being “traded” if the UK were in the customs union, sounds almost word-for-word like an argument that Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, was making last week.

But the authors also argue a deal with Labour on a customs union would be pointless anyway because a future Tory leader would rip it up. They say:

No leader can bind his or her successor , so the deal would likely be at best temporary, at worse illusory.

Given that Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary who has signed the letter, is the current favourite to replace Theresa May, his warning that he would not be bound by any deal with Labour agreed by May is particularly significant.

Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

On his LBC phone-in Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, has just claimed that remain voters will be among those voting for his party. One of his candidates even voted remain, he said. He said that was because people were supporting the party because they supported the principle that the referendum result should be honoured.

Conservatives should form electoral pact with Brexit party at next general election, says senior Tory

Theresa May is chairing cabinet today and ministers will discuss whether they want to continue with the cross-party talks with Labour, which are widely viewed at Westminster as doomed to fail. As my colleagues Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason report in their overnight story, Jeremy Corbyn is also facing pressure from MPs on his own side who want Labour to adopt a clearer anti-Brexit stance.

With a poll yesterday suggesting the Brexit party is on course to get more than three times as many votes in next week’s European elections as the Conservatives, one senior Tory has called for the two parties to form a pact at the next general election. This is what Crispin Blunt, a former chair of the foreign affairs committee, told Newsnight last night.

In my judgment, we are going to have to come to an accommodation with the Brexit party. The Conservatives, as a Brexit party again, being very clear about their objectives, are almost certainly going to have to go into some kind of electoral arrangement with the Brexit party, otherwise Brexit doesn’t happen.

Blunt said his preference would be for a pact involving the Tories standing in the seats they hold, and the Brexit party standing in all the other seats. He claimed that, if they united, the two parties could win handsomely.

Listen to what Nigel Farage said; he would “do a deal with the devil” to get Brexit over the line. The Conservative party is very far from being the devil in this. Eighty per cent of the membership of the Conservative party are very keen to make sure that Brexit happens, will be in a position to enthusiastically support leaving the European Union with no deal. If we are then able to agree a position to put to the country, I think we would hit the ball out of the park.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, takes part in an LBC phone-in.

9am: John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is among the speakers at a Wall Street Journal CEO conference. A senior cabinet minister is also due to speak.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet.

9.30am: Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, takes part in an LBC phone-in.

9.30am: Unemployment figures are published.

10.30am: Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem deputy leader, and Lib Dem MP Sir Ed Davey launch an election poster.

11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.

Also, Olly Robbins, the PM’s chief Brexit adviser, is due to travel to Brussels for talks on how the political declaration could be changed.

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 below the line (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 above the line (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.

Updated

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