That’s all for tonight. Thanks for reading.
Just to recap, peers put themselves on a collision course with the Commons after they defeated the government and voted to back the resurrection of the Leveson inquiry.
The major government defeat comes after MPs narrowly rejected a similar move by a mere nine votes last week.
Elsewhere, in Westminster Hall, MPs gave impassioned speeches on the Grenfell Tower inquiry following a petition that garnered more than 150,000 signatories which called on the prime minister to take action to build public trust.
Various members, from across the House, expressed their frustration and anger at the sluggish response to the tragedy – which has been defined by undelivered promises from Theresa May, Sajid Javid and Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of Kensington & Chelsea council.
Seventy-two households remain in hotels and the government was called on to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to rebuild trust with Grenfell survivors and the community at large.
We will leave you with our interactive portrait of all 71 people who died in Grenfell Tower which is based on exclusive, moving testimonies gathered over months from family and friends of the deceased.
Updated
On the Grenfell silent walk in west London, there are moving scenes as marchers embrace some of the firefighters who fought June’s blaze and have lined Cambridge Gardens for the occasion.
Very moving scenes as those taking part in the #Grenfell silent walk kiss and hug firefighters pic.twitter.com/v7lzfkab9N
— Kathryn Snowdon (@Kathryn_Snowdon) May 14, 2018
Updated
The Grenfell Tower inquiry debate reaches its conclusion
Paul Scully, the Conservative party vice chair for London, is now winding down this evening’s proceedings.
He pays tribute to the campaigners and notes how the contributions of four Cabinet ministers demonstrates the importance that the government has placed on solving the situation and bringing justice to the people most affected.
The debate ends upon his remarks as he stresses that “action is needed”.
Updated
The timetable for the inquiry
MPs are now discussing the sheer scale of the task at hand for the inquiry, which includes 547 core participants, including 519 individuals from the Grenfell community.
On 27 April, the inquiry published a timetable for its first hearings which will focus on the factual narratives of events on 14 June 2017.
Before then, evidentiary hearings begin on the 4 June and there will be two weeks of hearings beginning on 21 May, commemorating all those who lost their lives.
The counsel to the inquiry has said that: “By starting the public hearings in this way, we can ensure that however technical and scientific the issues may become, and they will. However dry, however legal, we will never lose sight of who our work is for and why we are doing it.”
The hearings will hear evidence from the inquiry’s expert witnesses and London fire brigade personnel, scheduled to last until the end of July.
There will be no hearings in August as the inquiry prepares to hear evidence from the bereaved, survivors and local residents, which will run throughout September before further expert evidence will be heard ahead of closing statements in late October.
An interim report will then be drawn up before the second phase of the inquiry.
Updated
This morning, our front page bore the names of a number of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The Guardian has been finding out about the lives of these Londoners. We have talked to as many families as were willing to speak, and asked friends and colleagues for anecdotes and their favourite memories.
Here are some of their stories.
Updated
Emma Dent-Coad has posted a video of her formidable speech from earlier this evening in case you missed it.
Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, has made made a powerful intervention to the debate in Westminster Hall, where he warned against mistakes of the past repeating themselves.
Far too often in this country politics seems to act as a dam, actually holding back justice rather than helping justice to flow. Hillsborough, Stephen Lawrence, Bloody Sunday – examples of when the state did not use its great powers to deliver truth and justice but instead blocked truth and justice for years and years.
In all of these instances, the state was accused of cover up by those affected, in all of these instances, distrust was sowed. We can’t allow Grenfell to join that list. Race and class and power is at the heart of this. Justice delayed is justice denied, so it’s essential that this enquiry gets it right first time.
Updated
Grenfell silent walk begins
Hundreds of people gathered for tonight’s silent walk for Grenfell which left from Notting Hill methodist church in Lancaster Road at 7pm.
There was also a sister protest in Oxford earlier, in solidarity with protesters on Parliament Square in Westminster.
Another march is planned for 16 June on the first anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Tonight’s #Grenfell silence begins @GrenfellUnited pic.twitter.com/CNq3Q3fvpQ
— Gregory_ldr (@ldr_gregory) May 14, 2018
Updated
The Grenfell rally is continuing on Parliament Square where survivors demanded the urgent removal of flammable cladding from hundreds of tower blocks across the country.
Rob Booth has the full story.
Earlier, Labour MP Richard Burgon said solicitors acting for bereaved families and survivors were “concerned that they have only had access to 0.5% of relevant documentation”.
That raises concerns about what they’re not seeing.”
Among the crowd was actor Michael Sheen, who said he wanted to see that “pressure is kept on” authorities and that “voices of residents are heard”.
The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, welcomed the expanded panel to include two experts in an effort to improve its diversity, but said it was “not enough”.
We need to know who they’re going to be. If they just have puppets on the panel that is not going to help anybody.”
Updated
Good evening all, we’re heading back to the debate on the Grenfell Tower inquiry in Westminster Hall.
Earlier, Emma Dent-Coad, the MP for Kensington, gave an impassioned speech which detailed the litany of undelivered reassurances that the government offered in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The former housing minister guaranteed that every household would be rehoused within the area - not delivered,” she said. “The PM promised three 3 weeks for everyone affected to be rehoused – commitment not delivered.”
Seventy-two households remain in hotels, 11 months on from the tragedy, despite various promises to the contrary.
David Lammy associated himself with her remarks and dedicated his speech to Khadija Saye and her mother, Mary Mendy, who died in the fire.
He explained how the state must regain the trust of Grenfell Tower survivors, given their dependence on the public sector to survive.
If you live on the 22nd floor of a tower block, the state literally has your life in their hands. It’s the state that has told you to stay put. It is the state who has failed to ensure there are working fire alarms.”
Other MPs, from across the house, have said how far too little has been done for those living in blocks like Grenfell.
Andy Slaughter called for action to ensure justice for Grenfell and to ensure the safety of people living in the dozens of cladded tower buildings across the country.
Is it unreasonable that we only use non-combustible cladding? We need buildings with more than one means of escape. We need sprinkler systems and we need to stop this farce of desktop studies.”
The debate then moved towards identifying who was to blame for the tragedy. Bill Grant, the Conservative MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, said:
It’s quite clear that a series of failings led to the needless deaths of 72 individuals last year. In November 2016, I understand the Grenfell Action Group raised concerns of poor fire safety standards at Grenfell and they predicted a catastrophe. It’s quite clear that no-one listened when they predicted catastrophe, and the question is, who didn’t listen.”
Updated
Early evening summary
- Peers have inflicted a fresh defeat on the government by voting to legislate for a new Leveson-style press inquiry by a majority of 39. This majority is 10 higher than the majority for a Leveson two inquiry in the Lords when peers first defeated the government on this in January, suggesting there is no evidence peers are minded to back down. If anything, they may have been encouraged by the fact that the government majority on this topic in the Commons when MPs debated it last week was just nine.
- EU ministers have been told by Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, that “no significant progress” has been made in the Brexit talks since March. (See 6.18pm.)
That’s all from me for tonight.
My colleague Mattha Busby is taking over now.
May defeated in Lords as peers back new Leveson-style press inquiry by majority of 39
The government has lost the vote by 252 votes to 213 - a majority of 39. That means have voted in favour a new Leveson-style press inquiry.
But the bill has to go back to the Commons, where the government is almost certain to try to take the amendment out. Last week in the Commons the government won a vote on this topic by a majority of nine.
My colleague Jennifer Rankin has more from what Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has been saying this afternoon.
Michel Barnier on Brexit state of play: with 10 months to go "negotiations on the future [relationship] with the UK have not started".
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) May 14, 2018
Sufficient progress was agreed in December.
"A close partnership" on defence and security "is in our mutual interest" says Michel Barnier, who says solidarity is not to be negotiated against trade.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) May 14, 2018
Barnier: "We will keep the door open for close cooperation" on security and foreign policy. Warm words for "ambitious" p/ship out of Theresa May phrasebook.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) May 14, 2018
Now the but. "The UK will not have the same rights as member states."
Michel Barnier says EU is not pushing UK out of Galileo: UK "decided unilaterally and autonomously to
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) May 14, 2018
withdraw from the EU", therefore need new basis for co-operation on programme.
How much progress on Brexit talks? "I would say a little, not very little," says Michel Barnier in reply to "the famous" @adamfleming Nobody should underestimate the "key rendezvous" of June.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) May 14, 2018
What the amendment calling for new Leveson-style inquiry says
You can read the text of the amendment here (pdf). It is amendment 62A (which would trigger amendment 62B).
And here is an extract.
Insert the following new Clause—
“Data protection breaches by national news publishers
(1) The Secretary of State must, within the period of three months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed, establish an inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 into allegations of data protection breaches committed by or on behalf of national news publishers and other media organisations ...
(3) The terms of reference for the inquiry must include requirements—
(a) to inquire into the extent of unlawful or improper conduct by or on behalf of national news publishers and other media organisations in respect of personal data;
(b) to inquire into the extent of corporate governance and management failures and the role, if any, of politicians, public servants and others in relation to failures to investigate wrongdoing at media organisations within the scope of the inquiry;
(c) to review the protections and provisions around media coverage of individuals subject to police inquiries, including the policy and practice of naming suspects of crime prior to any relevant charge or conviction;
(d) to investigate the dissemination of information and news, including false news stories, by social media organisations using personal data;
(e) to consider the adequacy of the current regulatory arrangements and the resources, powers and approach of the Information Commissioner and any other relevant authorities in relation to—
(i) the news publishing industry (except in relation to entities regulated by Ofcom) across all platforms and in the light of experience since 2012;
(ii) social media companies;
(f) to make such recommendations as appear to the inquiry to be appropriate for the purpose of ensuring that the privacy rights of individuals are balanced with the right to freedom of expression, while supporting the integrity and freedom of the press, and its independence (including independence from Government)
Lady Hollins, the crossbencher who has tabled the amendment calling for a new Leveson-style inquiry into the press, has just moved her amendment. She said she did not think the press had learnt enough lessons from what went wrong in the past.
Peers are voting now.
Lord Keen of Elie, the advocate general for Scotland and a Ministry of Justice spokesman in the Lords, wound up for the government in the Lords debate. He said the government ruled out a Leveson part two inquiry in the Conservative election manifesto. And he said the data protection bill was all about looking forward. An inquiry would be about looking to the past, he said.
'No significant progress' in Brexit talks since March, EU ministers told
Turning to Brexit for a moment, EU ministers were told today that “no significant progress” had been made in the Brexit talks since March. The comment came from Ekaterina Zaharieva, the foreign minister of Bulgaria (current holder of the EU’s six-month presidency) who was speaking after chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier briefed ministers from the remaining 27 member states at the general affairs council in Brussels.
Barnier said “no significant progress has been made on the three pillars that we are working on - withdrawal, future framework and Ireland” since March, Zaharieva said. She explained:
The council was confirmed that not much progress has been made since the European Council in March.
We look forward to a more intensive engagement by the UK Government in the coming weeks. October is only five months from now and still some key issues related to the withdrawal agreement need to be settled.
In June we need to see substantive progress on Ireland, on governance and all remaining separation issues.
Our citizens and our businesses on both sides of the Channel need more security and predictability for the future. As soon as possible they need clarity about what will happen when Brexit takes place.
Time is running ... There is still 25% of open questions, and as you can imagine those 25% are the most difficult ones to be achieved.
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, a Labour whip who is winding up for the opposition, says the arguments against a second Leveson inquiry are very thin. He says having an inquiry would reassure victims of press intrusion that their concerns were being addressed.
Here are some more quotes from the debate, from the Press Association wires.
Leading crossbench peer Lord Pannick said:
There have been a large number of civil actions brought by phone hacking victims of cases against the press. And those victims have not gone without remedy. They have received very, very substantial financial compensation, and rightly so.
It is simply not the case that victims of phone hacking lack and have lacked legal remedies. Newspapers have rightly been ordered to pay very substantial sums by way of compensation.
Tory peer Lord Cormack said peers would be “over emphasising our constitutional legitimacy” if the Lords rejected the vote by MPs. He added:
The other place [the Commons] has thought again. This is not the moment to introduce new amendments, to protract ping pong by bringing in a new ball.
Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice, a journalist and Downing Street policy adviser under David Cameron, opposed the Leveson two amendment, warned about the impact on investigative journalism and cautioned peers against exacting “revenge”. She said a great deal had changed over controls of the press and the “landscape” was now very different with a tougher regulator. Yet another public inquiry would reopen the door to “people who are very keen indeed to impose enormous costs on the major newspaper groups” to pay “malicious damages” for groundless claims, she said.
Tory Lord Black of Brentwood, deputy chairman of the Telegraph Media Group, also spoke out strongly against the move, insisting there had been wholesale change in press regulation since Leveson reported. He said all publishers were under “huge and sustained commercial pressure,” adding:
It is a struggle for survival on a day-to-day basis which will be made all the more complicated by having to wind the clock back 10 to 15 years to rake over a world which no longer exists.
Leading lawyer and Labour peer Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws backed calls for a further inquiry, arguing the police had “got off rather lightly” in relation to inquiries into “media misbehaviour”. She was aware of leaking by the police to the media in exchange for “bungs”. She added:
I am concerned that the police still haven’t been looked at adequately for the role that they played in some of this particularly iniquitous conduct.
Liberal Democrat peer Lord Paddick, a former senior police officer and a victim of phone hacking, said:
We need to consider the enormous burdens placed on innocent victims of the media.
Lord McNally is winding up now for the Lib Dems. He says he objects to the claim from peers opposed to a Leveson two inquiry that it is only people on their side who care about press freedom. He says peers who want to see a press that is respected and trusted are the ones who respect press freedom.
Lord Hunt of Wirral, the former Conservative cabinet minister and former chair of the Press Complaints Commission, says the new regulator, Ipso, has become more and more compliant with the Leveson requirements.
He says the media is facing a series of challenges. He does not think a new Leveson inquiry would address these problems.
A new inquiry would be “an analogue inquiry in a digital age”.
And it would be seen as a fresh attempt to muzzle the press, he says.
Lord Grade of Yarmouth, a former chairman of both the BBC and ITV, is speaking in the Lords debate now. He says the call for a Leveson phase two inquiry takes no account of how much better Ipso (the Independent Press Standards Organisation) is as a regulator than the Press Complaints Commission, the body it replaced. He says there would be no public interest in having a new inquiry.
Media treatment of victims after Manchester Arena 'completely unacceptable', peers told
Lord Kerslake, the crossbencher and former head of the civil service, also spoke in favour of a fresh inquiry into press conduct in the House of Lords debate. Kerslake said he was influence by what he learnt when chairing an inquiry into the Manchester Arena terror attack (pdf).
Kerslake said most of the participants who commented on their experiences of the media in the aftermath of the attack were negative.
People talked about being hounded and bombarded, and having to force their way through scrums of reporters at hospitals who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Specific mention was made of photos being sneakily taken through the glass windows at the stadium when the families were being given the news of their bereavement. Several people told of the physical presence of crews outside their homes. One mentioned the forceful attempt by a reporter to gain entrance through their front door by ramming a foot in the door. There were at least two examples of impersonation.
Kerslake said some families spoke in praise of sympathetic reporting by the Manchester Evening News and other local papers.
But overall the panel was shocked and dismayed by these accounts. To have experienced such intrusive and overbearing behaviour at a time of such enormous vulnerability seemed to us to be completely unacceptable. By any measure these actions fell well below the standards set out in the editors’ code.
Prescott attacks Sunday Times in Lords debate on press standards
In the Lords debate Lord Prescott, the Labour former deputy prime minister, said he had to go to court to establish that his phone was hacked.
Prescott said that, since then, new evidence had come to light about the Sunday Times using a private investigator to hack bank accounts.
Everybody now tells me, things have changed, you don’t have to worry, we can now just get on with the business and not have a second inquiry. But then comes along the Sunday Times, Mr Witherow, the editor, who in fact now we know - the announcement is only quite recent, and court cases are going on - that a man called John Ford was hired to commit criminal acts against individuals, including me and including the prime minister, at that time Gordon Brown. It is quite clear by his statements, his bank accounts, his personal effects, the solicitors were all hacked and intervened in criminal acts by this Mr John Ford who’s made it absolutely clear everywhere he was employed by Mr Witherow. Now, of course you might play around with the word “employed”, but he was paying him for 20 years. He might have been a separate investigator, but he was committing criminal acts, breaching the human rights of everyone involved.
Prescott claimed that the Sunday Times had denied these claims when asked about them at the Leveson inquiry. He went on:
Hello Mr Witherow, you appear to be a liar. I know there are strong words here, but you didn’t tell the truth, and you did pay the money and you did commit criminal acts against people, breaching their human rights. That surely, in any democracy, is wrong.
Prescott was echoing an allegation against Witherow made by Brown when the new Ford allegations came out in March and Brown called for a police investigation. At the time the Sunday Times said these matters had been dealt with in the Leveson inquiry in 2012 and that it had nothing further to add.
Scully says the petitioners are worried that, if the new panel members only join for phase two of the Grenfell Tower inquiry, they might not be able to reach conclusions because they were not involved for part one.
He also says some petitioners think the policy inquiry will be the most important one.
MPs debate Grenfell Tower inquiry
In Westminster Hall, the mini chamber set aside for general debates, MPs have just started debating the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
The debate was triggered by this e-petition urging Theresa May to appoint additional panel members to the inquiry “to ensure those affected have confidence in and are willing to fully participate in the inquiry”. The petition has received 156,660 signatories.
The Conservative MP Paul Scully, who represents Sutton and Cheam and who is a Conservative party vice chair for London, says Theresa May’s announcement on Friday that extra panel members would be appointed was welcome.
But he says the minister will have to clarify whether only two extra panel members are being appointed, or whether there could be more.
You can watch the hearing here.
Updated
In the Lords peers have just started debating amendment 62A to the data protection bill, the one that would effectively order a Leveson phase two inquiry to go ahead. It was moved by Lady Hollins, a crossbencher. Earl Attlee, a Conservative peer and grandson of the great postwar Labour prime minister is speaking now and he says he will be backing the amendment if it gets put to a vote.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is winding up.
He says some people will wonder why a Conservative government is so keen to mark the legacy of a Labour cabinet minister. But those how knew Jowell will know the answer. It is because she had an incredible gift for bringing people together.
He says she achieved this with the Olympics.
And she did it again when, in her last few months, she persuaded the government to tear up its brain cancer strategy and start again. The government is doing that, he says. It is another example of the “Tessa magic”.
And that’s it. The tributes to Jowell are over.
Labour’s Liam Byrne says Jowell was one of the greatest entrepreneurs we have seen in public life for decades. She was interested in ideas, but she wanted to turn them into achievements.
She had one of the best political sat navs in the business, he says. She thought, if you hit a problem, you had to find a way around it, he says.
He says he was told there are two sorts of politicians; those who divide and those who unite. Bringing the Olympics to London she brought the world together. He says people on the Labour benches often wonder how change happens; Jowell showed them how, he says.
Labour’s Seema Malhotra says Jowell was “funny, kind, strong, warm, generous and brilliant”. She was particularly helpful to people like Malhotra when they first became MPs.
Labour’s Pat McFadden says there were many people who found Tessa Jowell was there for them when they were at a low ebb.
He says, at a time when there is so much that divides the country, we should remember that Jowell represented the opposite.
Labour’s Mary Creagh says, in an era of fast media and fast food and fast politics, Tessa Jowell was a slow politician. She means that in the best possible sense, Creagh says. Every word was measured for its kindness.
Labour’s Barry Sheerman says Jowell was one of those special MPs who could lighten spirits. Mo Mowlam was one, Jowell was another. She brought joy into the Commons, he says.
Picking up on Cooper’s story (see 4.06pm), Labour’s Caroline Flint says: “Once a public health minister, always a public health minister.” (Flint was a public health minister too.)
Dame Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP, says Jowell was a feminist, but she was also feminine. She was always a good source of style advice, and her home was filled with flowers.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper says Jowell was the mother of Sure Start. She did some amazing things, Cooper says.
She says, when people talk about Jowell and the Olympics, they think of her determination to ensure they happened. But Cooper says she remembers a briefing where Jowell spoke about ensure there were plenty of condoms available because she knew that, after the Games, all these super-fit athletes would be wanting to have sex. She says that was typical of Jowell - very down-to-earth, and practical.
The Labour MP Sarah Jones, who secured a debate on cancer treatment in Jowell’s honour last month, says that as a friend of Jowell’s she got to recognise the velvet and the steel. She says when the debate was held last month Jowell insisted it was not about her. So, in that spirit, Jones says she wants to welcome the new funding announced for brain cancer research.
The Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael says Tessa Jowell was not just kind and generous to fellow MPs; she was like that with all staff in the House of Commons, and with civil servants, he says.
Carmichael says Jowell was brought up and educated in the north east of Scotland. She studied at the University of Aberdeen. Aberdeen graduates have never been over-represented in the Commons. But, as a fellow graduate, he likes to think they have made up in quality what they lack in quantity, and Jowell exemplifies that, he says.
He says death is the last taboo in our society. But, thanks to Jowell’s example, that taboo is weaker than it was.
Helen Hayes, Jowell’s success as Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, says Jowell has left a legacy locally and nationally. Sure Start centres have transformed the lives of many families, she says.
And Jowell was determined to ensure the Olympics helped to transform London.
Her family will take consolation from the knowledge that Jowell leaves the world “a far better place than she found it,” Hayes says.
Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, says Jowell was the embodiment of the women’s movement phrase that the personal is political. Her commitment to Sure Start came out of her experience as a mother and a step-mother.
Harman says Jowell was always courteous. But she was tough and steely too, and if she felt people were letting down her constituents, she could be as tough as anyone, Harman says.
She says people who knew her will be intensely proud of that fact.
The SNP’s Pete Wishart pays tribute to the way Tessa Jowell went around the country trying to ensure that all parts of the country backed the Olympics bid. She even managed to persuade people in Scotland who were originally sceptical, he says.
Sir Hugo Swire, a Conservative, says as an MP he has learnt to tell the difference between when MPs pay tribute to a late colleague because they feel they have to, and when they do it because they feel they want to. He says in this case it is the latter.
He says what was special about her was that she was unpartisan. He says, as a shadow minister, it was his job to oppose her over the Olympics bid and other matter. But she never held it against him.
Jeremy Corbyn thanks Bercow for arranging the Commons tribute.
He says people were devasted to hear of her death. The media coverage of Jowell’s death goes far what is normal for a politician.
He says he first met Jowell when he was a union organiser in the 1970s, and Jowell was a councillor. He says he campaigned in her byelection.
In government she was determined to bring about Sure Start, he says.
He says her pivotal moment was helping to win the Olympics for London.
He says her family can be very proud of the legacy she left behind.
Her children and family are obviously totally devastated but I think they can be very proud of the legacy she left behind, and I think it’s wonderful we now have the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Research Fund.
I hope we will all support that fund so that others don’t suffer in the awful way that she suffered.
She taught us how to live and I think she also taught us how to die.
Updated
Theresa May says Jowell was defined by her devotion to public service.
In parliament she would always reach out to any MP who was going through a tough time, May says. She says Jowell was always a person first, and a politician second.
Jowell was someone who refused to take no for an answer. She persuaded Tony Blair, the government and the country to back the Olympic bid. May says the summer of 2012 would never have happened without Jowell.
Her advocacy was so compelling because Dame Tessa was never one to take no for an answer, something I believe she put down to her Scottish roots.
And she certainly refused to take no for an answer when many said London should not even bid for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.
As secretary of state at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, she persuaded Tony Blair and the Cabinet, the civil service and ultimately the whole country to get behind the bid.
And that historic summer of 2012, which brought us together so powerfully as a nation, simply would not have happened without her.
May says there will be an annual Tessa Jowell symposium to bring together the best research on brain cancer.
May says the way Jowell approached her death was typical of her life. She inspired everyone, and her legacy will live on, she says.
Updated
MPs pay tribute to Tessa Jowell
Theresa May has arrived in the Commons chamber where MPs are now paying tribute to Tessa Jowell, the former Labour minister who died at the weekend.
May probably expected to lead the tributes herself. But John Bercow, the speaker, goes first. He describes Jowell as the “embodiment of empathy, a stellar progressive changemaker and a well of practical compassion without rivalry”.
The embodiment of empathy, a stellar progressive changemaker and a well of practical compassion without rival: Tessa Jowell was the best of us.
I rue her tragic and untimely passing which leaves all of us in this place - and countless others beyond it - infinitely and permanently poorer.
May Tessa rest in peace.
Updated
In the House of Lords peers have just started debating the data protection bill, and specifically the amendments passed in the Commons. At some point we are expecting a vote on an amendment calling for a new Leveson-style inquiry into the press - seen as the Leveson phase two inquiry that was originally promised by David Cameron’s government but dropped by Theresa May’s government.
Sir Jeremy Heywood, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, has posted a link to the full text of today’s speech on security from MI5 boss Andrew Parker.
"In today's uncertain world we need that shared strength more than ever”. Director General MI5, in first public speech outside the UK, praises the international response to Salisbury & says European intelligence partnerships have never been more crucial https://t.co/sdYBwpJu5M
— Sir Jeremy Heywood (@HeadUKCivServ) May 14, 2018
The Labour frontbencher Preet Gill has “clarified” what she meant when she posted a tweet saying she backed a “people’s vote” on the final Brexit deal. (See 1.35pm.) She is using “clarify” in its political sense where a more appropriate word might be - “retract”.
Just to clarify my position - a meaningful vote on the deal by Parliament is a must which will be informed by the people we represent. https://t.co/X6qrkSlqoD
— Preet Kaur Gill MP (@PreetKGillMP) May 14, 2018
Lunchtime summary
- A leader Conservative Brexiter, the MEP Daniel Hannan, has said that if MPs vote to keep the UK in the customs union, he would back a second Brexit referendum or a general election, to allow the public to have the final say. (See 1.16pm.) Generally Brexiters oppose a second referendum, and pressure for one is coming almost entirely from the remain camp, but Hannan’s words could be a sign that this may be starting to change.
- David Miliband, the Labour former foreign secretary, has said Jeremy Corbyn will be the “midwife of hard Brexit” unless Labour backs staying in the single market. (See 9.10am.) He was speaking before he joined Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem former deputy prime minister, and Nicky Morgan, the Conservative former education secretary, at an event where they urged MPs to back staying in the single market and the customs union after Brexit. At the event Morgan revealed that she will give evidence in a court case in June after she received an alleged death threat over her position on Brexit. As Sky’s Faisal Islam reports, Miliband was also fiercely critical of the government.
David Miliband gives his take on the Government’s position:
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 14, 2018
“We have no negotiating position on customs.
We have no negotiations position on regulatory oversight
We have no negotiating position on nuclear safeguards”
& 2 contradictory positions on Ireland pic.twitter.com/ts5Lo7N5G2
- The High Court in Belfast has ruled that a senior civil servant had no power to approve a huge new incinerator project in a ruling that could hinder the ability of officials to administer government in Northern Ireland in the absence of a power-sharing executive. Sam McBride, political editor of the Belfast News Letter, has more in a Twitter thread starting here.
Hugely significant decision: Belfast High Court has ruled senior civil servant Peter May had no power to approve ARC21's planning application for huge incinerator at Hightown in Mallusk. The courts are putting a stop to officials taking big policy decisions in a democratic vacuum
— Sam McBride (@SJAMcBride) May 14, 2018
Sturgeon says 'obvious democratic compromise' is for UK to stay in single market and customs union
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that the cabinet argument about post-Brexit customs models is absurd. Speaking News UK’s Scotland Means Business event in London, she said:
I deeply regret the UK’s decision to leave the EU and I believe the absurdity - and I believe that is the appropriate word - of the ongoing UK cabinet discussions and disputes over the post-Brexit customs arrangements strengthens one of the basic arguments that the Scottish government together with many businesses has been making. That argument is that in our view the approach if the UK is determined to leave the EU is to remain within the single market and within a customs union.
It is the obvious democratic compromise in a UK where 48% of voters and indeed two out of the four nations in the UK chose to remain in the EU. It is also the least damaging solution economically.
In the comments this morning Fishgirl23 suggested we should allow readers to post tributes to Tessa Jowell on a special page. Good idea. And that’s what we’re doing.
You can post them on the form here.
Labour frontbencher backs second Brexit referendum
While we’re on the subject of a second referendum, PoliticsHome has revealed that Preet Gill, a shadow international development minister, backed a second Brexit referendum in a tweet - only to delete it when PoliticsHome publicised what she said. Labour does not back a second referendum, and Owen Smith got sacked from the shadow cabinet for proposing one.
These are from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.
Wow. Labour frontbencher Preet Gill comes out in support of a fresh Brexit referendum. Owen Smith got sacked for saying the same thing. Great scoop by @wizbateshttps://t.co/NnJcfXBHq9
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) May 14, 2018
Within seconds of our scoop, Preet Gill has deleted her tweet backing a fresh EU referendum. But thanks to the wonder of computers, it is captured for posterity. https://t.co/NnJcfXTiOJ pic.twitter.com/GCQJx23Xlt
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) May 14, 2018
In November last year the Guardian revealed that Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, had written to two constituents saying she favoured giving the public a vote on the final Brexit deal, although Abbott subsequently claimed that backed party policy and that her letters had just been poorly worded.
Daniel Hannan says he would back 2nd Brexit referendum if MPs voted to stay in customs union
On the BBC’s Daily Politics Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP and one of the leading leave campaigners in the EU referendum, said that if MPs voted to keep the UK in the customs union, he would back a second Brexit referendum or a general election, to allow the public to have the final say. He told the programme.
Ultimately, if parliament insists on staying in the customs union, then we are plainly worse off than we are now - leaving the EU, but staying in the customs union, in other words putting Brussels in charge of 100% of our trade policy, with 0% input. That would be worse than we are now. In that situation, I think you would need to have a new mandate, either in the form of a general election or another referendum.
This is significant because, until now, almost all the pressure for a second referendum has come from people who were in the remain camp at the referendum.
Last week, in an article for ConservativeHome, Hannan admitted that Brexit was not working out quite as he expected - although he subsequently claimed that reports of what he had said glossed over who he thought was to blame.
Six newspapers have reported this piece as “Daniel Hannan says Brexit isn’t working out”. Unsurprisingly, not one has added “because of the behaviour of the peers and MPs who are mischievously trying to keep us in the customs union”.
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) May 12, 2018
Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.
- Theresa May hopes to speak in the Commons this afternoon in a session being set aside for tributes to Tessa Jowell, the prime minister’ spokesman said.
- The spokesman declined to endorse the language used by Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, to implicitly criticise Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, for describing one of the government’s post-Brexit customs options as “crazy”. On the Today programme this morning Hunt said: “I do think that it’s important that we have these debates in private, not just because of collective responsibility – which is what democracy depends on – but also because this is a negotiation.” Asked if the prime minister agreed with Hunt’s words, the prime minister’s spokesman said Hunt had said it was important for the government to work together as a team, but - in line with the approach he took last week - he declined to endorse the specifics of what Hunt said.
- The spokesman refused to say whether Theresa May had a preference between the “customs partnership” proposal and the “maximum facilitation” proposal. It has been widely reported that the partnership model is the one she likes best, but Downing Street has never confirmed this.
- The spokesman said there was no timeframe for when the two cabinet working groups set up to look at the two customs options are due to present their findings.
- The spokesman said there were “no plans” to extend the Brexit transition. Asked about this, the spokesman said:
The implementation period, both ourselves and the European Union are clear, ends in December 2020. There are no plans for an extension to that.
The government has repeatedly ruled out extending the transition, even though many commentators think an extension will prove necessary because new customs arrangements are very unlikely to be ready in time. But “no plans” is not the same as a denial, and this could be a hint that No 10 is starting to finesse its language ahead of an eventual climbdown. (I haven’t heard Downing Street use “no plans” in this context before, but I don’t attend all the briefings and so I may have missed it. But in the past the spokesman has just said the transition will end in December 2020, as he did last week.)
The question was prompted by Damian Green, the former first secretary of state, telling the Westminster Hour last night that he thought an extension - or a transition period after the transition, as he put it - would prove necessary. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said yesterday that he was supposed to extending the transition - although people forget that, on the subject of farming subsidies, Gove wants the transition to last potentially up to 2024.
- The spokesman was unable to explain what Theresa May meant when she asked for the “help” of the public in delivering Brexit in a Sunday Times article yesterday (paywall). In her article May said:
The path I am setting out is the path to deliver the Brexit people voted for. Of course, the details are incredibly complex and, as in any negotiation, there will have to be compromises. But if we stick to the task we will seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a stronger, fairer Britain that is respected around the world and confident and united at home.
I will need your help and support to get there. And in return, my pledge to you is simple: I will not let you down.
Asked what she meant by saying she needed people’s “help”, the spokesman just said that she wrote the article to set out her commitment to delivering Brexit. He brushed aside a suggestion that she could have been asking people to send it viable ideas for a post-Brexit customs model. But he did dismiss one idea. Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, said May might be hinting at the need for another election in her article.
Theresa May is hinting at another election. Would you support her? #FarageOnLBC https://t.co/uAHrE7feFo
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 13, 2018
Asked whether May was floating the need for another election, the spokesman said:
I don’t believe that’s the case.
Updated
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has been tweeting from the Miliband/Clegg/Morgan event in Essex. Here are some of her posts.
At Tilda Rice in Rainham. Huge plant that is at risk because of Brexit. Nicky Morgan, Nick Clegg, and David Milliband will be here shortly. Milliband earlier said Brexiteers were holding country to ransom. pic.twitter.com/tAxjO9N9mP
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
Ahead of Nicky Morgan speech, Alex Waugh, head of Rice Association says £1bn flour and rice exports to EU under threat could lead to business moving out of UK and job loses.
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
Nicky Morgan: "the UK has been asked to experiment on other peoples whims with a new trade policy when they have no idea what the cost will be for business and people in this country. "
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
David Miliband warns Brexit will "impoverish" Britain if it leaves the customs union and single market. No reason why UK cannot leave EU and stay in these arrangements.
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
ITV to Milband: Is this the beginning of a return to British politics?
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
Miliband: "It’s not the beginning middle or end of anything, it’s a contribution to the debate that I think is important".
Clegg, Morgan, say the answer to Brexiters is not a new political party. "right that politicians should work on a cross party basis to make those points more clearly," says Morgan
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
Miliband says he is "baffled" by Labour's opposition to EEA. "I am absolutely baffled why the Labour leadership is so worried about supporting the EEA I fear the position makes Jeremy Corbyn the midwife of a hard Brexit"
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) May 14, 2018
Tilda Rice deserve some sort of award for best product placement at a political event.
At least Labour’s Tom Hamilton finds it funny.
More evidence that the Leave vote was motivated by ricism. pic.twitter.com/X0Wlj6okXw
— Tom Hamilton (@thhamilton) May 14, 2018
While the Times’s Patrick Kidd reckons the notional leader of the remain-voting liberal metropolitan elite doesn’t know his classics ...
Some mixed classical messaging in Rainham this morning. Nicky Morgan says "we will not give in to Siren voices" but David Miliband criticises May for "lashing herself to the mast". But surely lashing self to a mast is how you beat the Sirens. Did none of them read The Odyssey?
— Patrick Kidd (@patrick_kidd) May 14, 2018
We did, however, find out at the lobby briefing that Theresa May has a series of meetings in the diary today with Conservative MPs - but only because a colleague raised the topic in a question.
The BBC’s Norman Smith has more details.
Around ten senior pro Brexit and pro Remain backbench Tories called to see PM this morning re customs deadlock.
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) May 14, 2018
Tory MPs told at meeting with PM on customs options - “both models won’t work in the current form.”
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) May 14, 2018
It’s understood no breakthrough on customs options expected at Brexit sub committee tomorrow
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) May 14, 2018
I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing and, on Brexit at least, it was a Groundhog Day experience. The prime minister’s spokesman succeeded triumphantly at managing to avoid saying anything much new. For what it’s worth, I’ll post a summary shortly.
Labour’s national executive committee is interviewing candidates today for the Lewisham East by-election. However, local activists who are angry about the speed of the shortlisting process met overnight to draw up their own final shortlist - to try and steal a march on the NEC’s decision.
The constituency Labour party chair Ian McKenzie told the Guardian that local party members wanted there to be a shortlist of four candidates - former Bexley Labour councillor Abena Appong-Asare, Lewisham deputy mayor Janet Daby, and councillors Brenda Dacres, and Rachel Onikosi. All four candidates are understood to have interviews with the NEC today.
The Labour leadership and the left-wing grassroots group Momentum were widely reported to have preferred three different candidates - Claudia Webbe, Sakina Sheikh and Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, who unexpectedly dropped out of the race on Sunday. Sheikh and Webbe are also being interviewed by the NEC panel today.
Left-wing figures in the party are also thought to be cautious about selecting Webbe, the former chair of Operation Trident, because she is a member of Labour’s NEC. Were she to resign from the finely balanced committee, her place would go to a more Corbyn-sceptic replacement, Johanna Baxter.
After careful deliberation, Lewisham East CLP Executive decided, if asked, our shortlist for our MP candidate would have been: @abenaopp @brenda_dacres @JanetDaby @rachelonikosi We hope @Yasmine_Dar @kateosamor and @SarahOwen_ listens to local members. #memberleddemocracy
— (((Ian McKenzie))) (@iMcKenzied) May 14, 2018
Updated
The EU is threatening to exclude the UK from the military aspects of Galileo, its new satellite navigation system, after Brexit. In an interview with the Today programme this morning Sam Gyimah, the science minister, accused the EU of “playing hard ball” and said that, if the UK were excluded, EU countries could end up paying billions more for it. He said:
The EU is playing hard ball with us.
We have helped to develop the Galileo system. We want to be part of the secure elements of the system and we want UK industry to be able to bid for contracts on a fair basis. It is only on those terms that it makes sense for the UK to be involved in the project.
This is a project that is of mutual benefit to the UK and the EU and if the UK is not part of the programme, it would cost EU members billions of pounds more to develop.
Gyimah also confirmed that, if the UK were excluded from the programme for military purposes, it would consider developing its own alternative.
Because of the implications for us in terms of defence and our national security, were we not to participate in Galileo we would look at alternative options and we will leave nothing off the table. That includes developing a British satellite navigation system.
In a Times story (paywall) at the weekend Oliver Moody explained why Galileo is so important to the UK. Here’s an extract.
Since January ministers have been fighting to prevent the UK from being frozen out of the heavily encrypted Public Regulated Service (PRS) arm of the EU’s Galileo project, expected to be the world’s most secure and precise global positioning technology ...
Cracks are already appearing in the “M-code”, the [American] GPS system Britain’s armed forces depend on at present, as Russia, China and other strategic rivals develop increasingly sophisticated electronic warfare devices. Russia is thought to have been jamming American drones over Syria since March. In 2014 a similar technology is thought to have grounded UN surveillance drones in Ukraine. Some experts believe GPS spoofing was used to bring down a US drone in Iranian airspace in 2011 ...
Unlike the GPS M-code, the EU’s PRS system is said to be highly resistant to interference. “PRS is on two frequencies, has a wider band signal and the signals are encrypted,” John Pottle,of the Royal Institute of Navigation, said. “You need a much more sophisticated jammer to deny positioning and it ensures that spoofing is practically impossible.”
Britain faces two headaches. One is winning permission to use the PRS signal at all, the other is getting a seat at the table to determine how it is used in future. Without an active role in the talks over PRS, the UK would struggle to make it compatible with its military hardware and might be kept in the dark over the technology’s vulnerabilities.
In a UK paper on the security partnership with the EU after Brexit published last week (pdf), the government said: “PRS access limited only to user status would not meet UK strategic security requirements and would not provide the basis for continued UK collaboration in Galileo.”
I’m off to the lobby briefing now. I will post again after 11.30am.
In his LBC phone-in Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative Brexiter, claimed that Brexit offered particularly good opportunities for young people. He said:
I think in terms of the Brexit debate that the great opportunities for everybody, but particularly the younger generation, are in leaving and looking to the broader horizon of the rest of the world rather than the narrow closed protectionist European field. For younger people, leaving is the best opportunity that they could have.
Of course, younger people don’t seem to see it quite that way. As this YouGov analysis of how people voted in the EU referendum shows, under-50s voted remain, and under-25s did so by a massive margin.
On the Today programme Theresa Villiers, the leave-voting former Northern Ireland secretary, accused David Miliband of wanting to frustrate Brexit. She said:
He wants to frustrate the result of the referendum and stop it being implemented because he wants us to say stay in a Norway-style arrangement that leaves us accepting unfettered and unreformed free movement, all the rules of the single market without the chance to vote on them, and that is just not respecting the result of the referendum.
She also said that the amendment to the EU withdrawal bill passed by the Lords, and likely to be backed by pro-Europeans in the Commons, intended to strengthen parliament’s hand when it gets to vote on the final withdrawal deal could be “Brexit-wrecking amendment”. She explained:
Attempts by MPs to constrain the government’s negotiating discretion is potentially a Brexit-wrecking amendment, because it cuts the prime minister off at the knees.
Reaction to David Miliband’s interview is highly polarised. The Labour MP Wes Streeting, who is in the centrist, pro-European camp in the party, liked it.
Excellent interview with @DMiliband about the risks of a Hard Brexit and the responsibility of Parliament to act. #BBCR4Today
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) May 14, 2018
As did the former Labour Europe minister Denis MacShane.
on @BBCr4today @davidmiliband really good and clear. In contrast to other previous PMs, party leaders with so much baggage he brings new clarity of expression. Like concept of "safe harbour" where UK can moor post-Brexit. Wish he was back @emmarossthomas @GeorgeWParker
— Denis MacShane (@DenisMacShane) May 14, 2018
But Steve Howell, who was Jeremy Corbyn’s deputy director of communications until the general election, says it will have been counter-productive.
Hard to imagine anything LESS likely to win over Brexit supporters than someone perceived as epitomising the metropolitan liberal elite flying in from New York to tell them the error of their ways. David Miliband's lack of self awareness is staggering. https://t.co/aqxuukfS9G
— Steve Howell (@FromSteveHowell) May 14, 2018
And the commentator Ian Birrell agrees.
I agree with much of what David Miliband says on Brexit. But sadly his ego & ambition stops him seeing that he symbolises so many of the things that drove people to back withdrawal & still corrode politics
— Ian Birrell (@ianbirrell) May 14, 2018
Norwegian PM backs UK staying in EEA after Brexit
In his Today interview David Miliband, who confirmed that he was still a member of the Labour party, dismissed claims that, if MPs were to vote for the UK staying in the EEA, that would undermine Theresa May’s position in the Brexit negotiations. The opposite was true, he claimed. He said:
There will be an enormous sigh of relief in Europe if the prime minister goes to the negotiations and says there are 400 plus members of parliament who believe [in a soft Brexit] ... They don’t want a weak Britain, because they think that will weaken Europe. They know there’s trade both ways. And, at the moment, they are sitting there, strumming their fingers on the table, waiting for the government to come with a negotiating position.
Miliband also said it was “significant” that Erna Soldberg, the Norwegian prime minister, has told the Financial Times in an interview (paywall) that Norway would be open to the UK remaining in the EEA after Brexit - joining Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein as the only countries in the EEA but not in the EU. Soldberg told the FT:
I think we will cope very well if the Brits come in. It will give bargaining power on our side too. And it would ease Norway’s access to the UK.
In the past Norway has been quite negative about the prospect of the UK staying in the EEA after Brexit because of its disruptive impact. Explaining the potential problem, the FT quotes the unnamed boss of a Norwegian company as saying: “We would go from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in still a pretty small pond.”
In the Lords vote last week Labour peers were ordered to abstain on the motion saying the UK should remain in the EEA after Brexit. For reference, this is what Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said about the party’s stance on this at a briefing on Wednesday last week. This is from the Telegraph’s Jack Maidment.
Here's the key exchange with Jeremy Corbyn's spokesman on the EEA membership amendment. Seems pretty clear that Labour MPs will be told to abstain if Govt tries to overturn it. What do you make of this @OwenSmith_MP @ChrisLeslieMP? pic.twitter.com/GIwLTTwpMS
— Jack Maidment (@jrmaidment) May 9, 2018
Corbyn will be 'midwife of hard Brexit' unless Labour backs staying in EEA, says David Miliband
There has been quite a lot of chatter at Westminster in recent months about the possibility of a new centrist party being set up. The consensus is that it will probably never happen - first past the post has a crippling impact on new entrants into the political party marketplace (in commerce, the competition authorities would probably ban it as a restraint on trade) - but this morning we are going to get a glimpse of what such a creature might look like when David Miliband, the Labour former foreign secretary, Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem former deputy prime minister, and Nicky Morgan, the Conservative former education secretary, take the stage together to urge MPs to reject a hard Brexit.
The involvement of Miliband is particularly intriguing because, in a classic kite-flying operation, some journalists have been talking up the prospect of Miliband returning from America, where he runs an aid organisation, to take charge of this putative new venture. Judging by the reaction I read, the kite swiftly crashed into the ground, but that does not seem to have deterred Miliband and this morning he was on the Today programme with a warning for Jeremy Corbyn. If Labour does not back staying in the European Economic Area (ie, the “Norway option” - staying in the single market), Corbyn will be “the midwife of hard Brexit”, he said. Miliband was so keen on the phrase he repeated it. He told the programme:
[Corbyn] has also made clear that he doesn’t believe that we should remain in the single market. And I think there is a warning for Jeremy Corbyn here. Because Jeremy Corbyn has got to be very careful not to be the midwife of hard Brexit.
Remember, last week in the House of Lords, a very significant amendment was passed. It was passed with cross-party support, 80 Labour peers supported it, and that was that Britain should remain a member of the European Economic Area, in other words keeping the negotiated single market links that countries like Norway have.
Now, the Labour position was not to support that. And the warning for Jeremy Corbyn, he will be the midwife of a hard Brexit that threatens the living standards of the very people that he says he wants to stand up to represent.
I will post more from his interview, and reaction, shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative backbenchers, hosts his LBC phone-in.
10.30am: David Miliband, Nick Clegg, and Nicky Morgan, the Conservative former education secretary, hold a joint Open Reason event at the Tilda Rice plant in Essex urging MPs to reject a hard Brexit.
11am: Downing Street lobby briefing
2.30pm: Damian Hinds, the education secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3pm: Peers debate the date protection bill. As Jim Waterson reports, they are expected to defy the Commons and vote for what would effectively phase two of the Leveson inquiry into the press to go ahead.
And at some point today in Brussels Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, will give a speech on security policy after Brexit.
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 in the afternoon.
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’ 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.
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