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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

EU Brexit chief suggests talks being held up because UK won't clarify its position - as it happened

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Afternoon summary

  • Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has suggested the Brexit talks are being held up by the UK’s refusal to clarify its position on some issues. He also refused to accept the UK’s demand for a more “flexible” approach that would bring forward the point at which both sides move on to discuss trade issues. (See 4.26pm.) His comments undermine Theresa May’s claim earlier today that it is Britain, rather than the EU, that has providing “clarity” about the future in the Brexit talks. (See 11.28am.)
  • A Conservative MP who serves as Boris Johnson’s parliamentary aide has claimed his Twitter account was hacked after a string of messages challenging Barnier on the UK’s exit bill from the EU were posted under his name. Conor Burns, who is parliamentary private secretary to the foreign secretary, appeared to send three messages to Barnier asking him to publish how the EU is calculating the so-called divorce bill. The tweets, since deleted, read: “MichelBarnier why don’t you publish how you are calculating UK bill based on law: ie Treaty obligations and directives? Hard facts help.” Another said: “MichelBarnier Britain pays her obligations. Why don’t you publish them based on law ie Treaty obligations and directives. Legal facts help.” The third read: “MichelBarnier UK pays her obligations. Why don’t you publish what you think they are based on law ie Treaty obligations and directives?” Burns then tweeted:

The legal commentator David Allen Green says the mystery hacker was remarkably well informed.

It is also worth noting that the whoever was doing trolling was using arguments very similar to those being made in private by the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU). Perhaps the culprit was David Davis?

  • May has rejected claims that she exaggerated the number of overstaying foreign students when she was home secretary. Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, has accused her of ignoring the facts. (See 11.28am and 3.43pm.)
  • William Hague, the former foreign secretary and former Conservative leader, has said the UK will pay more and get a worse Brexit deal because of the general election result. (See 12.16pm.)

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

EU refuses to budge on UK's demand for more 'flexible' approach to Brexit talks

The EU is refusing to budge on Britain’s calls for a more “flexible” approach to Brexit talks, amid growing signs of deadlock on the divorce bill.

In a sign of mounting frustration, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, tweeted the EU’s guidelines were designed for “serious and constructive negotiations”, meaning he thinks the UK must settle financial and legal questions on withdrawal, before moving to future trade talks.

“To be flexible you need two points, our point and their point,” Barnier told reporters on the sidelines of talks. “We need to know their position and then I can be flexible.”

The UK is not setting out what it sees as its debts to the EU, although the Brexit secretary David Davis has acknowledged there are “survivable obligations”.

Speaking to MEPs on Wednesday, Guy Verhofstadt, the parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, said the lack of clarity from the UK meant progress was slow.

That has to do with the fact naturally that we need from both sides the position papers on every issue, before you can really start the negotiation. If only one party around the table is putting a position and the other party is not responding then it is difficult to start a negotiation.

Verhofstadt said he saw signs of change in the UK, such as greater recognition that no deal is the worst possible outcome.

The British also showed greater understanding of the need for a transition period, he said, which he predicted would replicate the status quo.

Here is now more and more recognition of the need of such a transition period. What will be the substance of this transition deal? That has to be discussed I think that the more and more time we lose in the coming months, the more and more it is clear that the transition period can only be the prolongation of the existing situation, of the status quo.

The MEP said he had received thousands of letters from worried citizens, both British nationals on the continent and EU citizens in the UK. In some member states, citizens were already being made to feel as if they were foreigners, he said. The “most awful” example was the Home Office letter sent in error to 100 EU nationals telling them they would be deported from the UK.

On the subject of foreign students overstayers and the Home Office (see 3.43pm), it is worth flagging up these tweets from John McGee, who was working as a civil servant in the business department before the 2015 general election. He posted them last week, when the new figures came out.

Updated

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, has criticised Theresa May for refusing to accept that the figures the Home Office used when she was home secretary for the number of foreign students overstaying were wrong. (See 11.28am.) He said:

It’s now clear that the figures Theresa May used to justify her damaging crackdown on overseas students vastly overstated the number of overstayers.

Yet instead of admitting these previous estimates were wildly inaccurate, Theresa May is trying to claim that numbers have fallen as a result of her policies.

She is stubbornly sticking to her discredited and damaging approach in the face of all the evidence.

There is a clear consensus emerging, including in the Cabinet, that international students should no longer be counted in immigration figures.

Theresa May needs to finally accept that foreign students bring huge benefits to our economy and universities, and should be welcomed to Britain not driven away.

Last week the Home Office published a new report (pdf), using a new counting methodology (exit checks), suggesting that only around 5,000 foreign students overstay when their study visas have run out. Previously, when the Home Office used a different counting methodology (the International Passenger Survey), it put the figure at around 100,000.

Exit checks are much more reliable than the IPS and experts generally said last week’s figures showed the IPS data was flawed. But May is claiming that the number of overstayers has shrunk dramatically because of the success of her policies.

The Press Association has now typed out in full the May/Abe dinner menu. (See 2.04pm.) Here it is.

Assorted seasonal dishes: Corn tofu, sea urchin Octopus, gumbo, Japanese ginger Salted entrails of the sea cucumber, yam Soymilk skin, green soy beans, scallop Pike conger roe Abalone Simmered greens in soy sauce Fig, duck, sesame sauce

Pike conger, turnip, fried lotus root, kidney bean

Red rockfish, medium-fatty tuna, lobster, barracuda

Tilefish marinated with miso, ginkgo nut

Crab, fruit tomato, zucchini, wheat gluten, yolk vinegar

Eggplant, beef, sweet pepper, miso sauce

Prawn, sea bream, tuna, squid, horse mackerel, ginger

Tofu, fried tofu, Japanese ginger

Grapes, mango, watermelon, melon

This is from Stefan Rousseau, the Press Associations’ chief political photographer.

Theresa May is now on a high-speed train going from Kyoto to Tokyo.

Theresa May and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe wait at Kyoto railway station for a Shinkansen (Bullet train).
Theresa May and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe wait at Kyoto railway station for a Shinkansen (Bullet train). Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

My colleague Peter Walker is on it too.

According to the Mirror’s Ben Glaze, May and her Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, are discussing Brexit on the journey.

A Kezia Dugdale resignation reading list

Here is a Kezia Dugdale resignation reading list.

Whether through honest choice or jumping to avoid being pushed, Dugdale’s exit was a near-inevitable consequence of Jeremy Corbyn’s strengthened position after Labour’s forward advance across England, Scotland and Wales at the general election. Unlike her Welsh counterpart, Carwyn Jones, who remained neutral in the 2016 leadership race, Dugdale threw her weight behind Owen Smith’s attempt to replace Corbyn as Labour leader.

That, coupled with a surplus of heavyweights with pukka Corbynite credentials – Neil Findlay, a long term MSP, Alex Rowley, her deputy and Richard Leonard, formerly of the GMB – meant that a challenge to her position was likely in the extreme. A senior Corbynsceptic source described the announcement as a “victory for the hard left”.

It’s quite clear that the next Scottish Labour leader will have to be publicly at peace with Corbyn. The Labour leader’s support is building among Scottish party members and supporters, as last week’s tour showed. Corbyn’s message – against austerity, for public ownership – strikes a chord with many Scots who had abandoned the party in recent years.

The new Scottish leader will have to be in tune with that sentiment. But that does not mean that Dugdale’s successor is bound to be a card-carrying Corbynite. It’s worth recalling that the one place where Corbyn lost outright in 2016 to his challenger Owen Smith was not Smith’s home turf of Wales, but Scotland. Scottish party members preferred Smith to Corbyn by 18 points.

Scottish Labour membership has increased in the Corbyn period, but not by the phenomenal degree it has elsewhere in the UK. The scope for a Momentum-style surge in Scotland is limited. The left is a crowded marketplace in Scotland, with competition from the SNP but also the wider yes movement, including theRadical Independence Campaign, to say nothing of a Scottish Green party that can claim more MSPs than the Lib Dems.

Corbyn’s camp now recognise that Scotland is one of the keys to forming a future government. But so far, for all the June surprise of the Corbyn Scottish surge, there is little sign that Corbyn or Labour know what to do in Scotland. They have earned the right to be listened to and that is progress.

Scotland is unpredictable again and may yet prove to be one of the decisive electoral landscapes in the future of Britain. The road to Downing Street may turn out to run through East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmaghow, but Scottish Labour has yet to show it can stand on its own feet as an electoral machine and challenge the SNP and Tories.

Where does this end for Scottish Labour? Leader number nine is as unlikely as the previous eight to be able to mark out a strategy and turn around the party. Labour are away to begin their sixth leadership contest since it lost office to the SNP in 2007: a period which has seen the party diminished and demoralised and lose the sense of certainty which once defined it. Whether so-called moderates or a Corbynista-backed candidate emerge triumphant, the party still has to adapt to its third place status and become a voice which rails against establishment Scotland. Ten years into opposition it has barely begun this change.

The name emerging as the Corbynites’ likeliest champion is Richard Leonard, an MSP and well-respected former organiser for the GMB. “He’s something of an unknown quantity, but of all the potential candidates he most has the kind of qualities that a first minister needs,” says one senior party source. “He’s a thoughtful guy, even though he shares the wonky politics of that whole group. In his head, Richard still lives in a working-class Yorkshire mining village where people live happily ever after.”

Alex Rowley, the current deputy leader, who was one of the highest profile in Scottish Labour to credit Corbyn for the election gains, is also expected to stand. A long-time ally of Gordon Brown, it’s thought the former prime minister won’t be able to resist supporting his man. “Rowley will run,” says one insider, “even though he has ideas above his station. And Gordon will be in there, because he likes to have his people in high positions so he can pull strings.”

Labour’s most senior elected politicians are united by one thing: they are all men. The leader (Jeremy Corbyn), deputy leader (Tom Watson), the Mayor of London (Sadiq Khan), the Mayor of Greater Manchester (Andy Burnham), the Mayor of Liverpool (Steve Rotherham) and Welsh Labour leader (Carwyn Jones) are politically distinct but alike in their sex.

Until recently, Kezia Dugdale, as Scottish Labour leader, was the one exception. But her resignation (which has been welcomed by Corbyn allies) creates a male monopoly. The three favourites to succeed Dugdale (deputy leader Alex Rowley, Richard Leonard and Anas Sarwar) are all men. For the party that has championed gender equality, and boasts the highest number of female MPs, the disparity at the top is a point of shame.

The Scottish Labour leader had a place on the Labour party’s national executive committee, which has been finely balanced between left and right. Her place kept the balance in favour of the centrists. Her departure means that Alex Rowley, the MSP who is now the interim leader of the party, takes her NEC place just as conference season begins. Rowley is a Corbynite member of the left. This means that any battles over changes that Corbyn and his team want to make to the party’s structure, how the leader is elected in future and deselections of MPs and so on, now have a Corbynite majority supporting them on the NEC. Unite issued a statement today urging the party not to rush into a leadership contest because ‘under Alec Rowley’s interim leadership we are confident that the voices of Scotland’s working people will be heard loud and clear at Holyrood’. It’s unlikely that Unite would be welcoming an extended interim leadership from a Corbyn opponent.

A victory for any Corbyn-backed candidate will mean the balance on the NEC would probably be 18-17 in favour of the leader. All of a sudden, policies such as the mandatory re-selection of MPs and lowering the nomination threshold for leadership candidates – the so-called “McDonnell amendment – are in play.

Updated

Here is the menu for Theresa May’s meal tonight with the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. This is from Bloomberg’s Alex Morales.

And here is a summary from the Sun’s Harry Cole.

UPDATE: See 3.16pm for a text version of the menu.

Updated

The Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire says that, despite Alex Rowley being the Betfair favourite for next Scottish Labour leader (see 12.49pm), you might be better putting your money elsewhere.

One of the unusual things about Kezia Dugdale, who has resigned as Scottish Labour leader, is that she is in a relationship with an MSP from another party. Her partner is the SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth.

This is what Gilruth tweeted about the announcement last night.

Theresa May and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe walk to a Japan-Britain dinner at the Kyoto State Guest House in Kyoto.
Theresa May and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe walk to a Japan-Britain dinner at the Kyoto State Guest House in Kyoto. Photograph: Jumpei Teraguchi/ Pool/EPA

Betway have released their odds on the next Scottish Labour leader. Alex Rowley, who was deputy leader until taking over as interim leader today following Kezia Dugdale’s resignation, is favourite.

Betway odds on next Scottish Labour leader
Betway odds on next Scottish Labour leader Photograph: Betway

Kezia Dugdale said in the statement announcing her resignation as Scottish Labour’s leader that the death of her friend Gordon Aikman earlier this year had encouraged her to re-evaluate what matters most in life. (See 9.18am.)

My colleague Owen Jones has been retweeting this morning a moving article he wrote about Aikman in 2014. In it, he describes how having a terminal illness encouraged Aikman to reassess his priorities. Here’s an extract.

Gordon will die of the disease, but he will make the lives of others easier. Equally moving, though, is his clarity, a radical reassessment of priorities that only an abrupt death sentence can provoke. “I certainly didn’t expect to be planning out my final months at 29 but it’s strangely liberating,” he says. “I feel more in control than ever before; from how, where and who I choose to spend each day, right down to what music will play at my funeral.”

Judt’s “iron suit” may seem like a nightmarish fate, but Gordon would “rather have it this way than a sudden death – where there’s no control, no goodbyes, no chance to do the things you had always dreamed of”. The last few months have been among his happiest. He spends more time with his friends and loved ones; his “relationships have taken on a new intensity”; he has travelled to places that had always appealed.

But to read the whole thing. It’s here.

Hague says UK will pay more and get worse Brexit deal because of election result

William Hague, the former Conservative leader (to those with long memories) and the former foreign secretary, has told Radio 5 Live that Britain will get a worse Brexit deal because of the general election result. In an interview with Emma Barnett, he explained:

They [the EU] know that the result of the British election weakened the British government’s negotiating position. It absolutely did. Of course [Theresa May is] not in anything like as strong a position as if she’d won a majority of 60 or 100 or whatever it might have been in the House of Commons.

So Britain will get a worse deal as a result of the election. I think there is no question about that.

Hague said the election result meant Brexit would be “softer than it might have been”. But Britain would end up having to pay more, he said (which seems to be what he meant when he talked about a “worse deal”). He said:

Is it going to be a difficult negotiation? Yes it is… There’s going to be big bust ups. Nobody should think there’s some smooth process by which you bring this about.

We’ll end up having to pay more. We’ll pay a bigger price for leaving, I think, because of the uncertainties of the election result.

Hague (perhaps not very convincingly) claimed that he did not think calling the election was a mistake. But he did accept that the campaign was “pretty poor”.

I don’t think calling the election was a mistake. I think the result was a mistake. Collectively, by the people of this country. And I think there was a pretty poor Conservative campaign.

Asked about the next Conservative leader, Hague said it would probably turn out to be someone unexpected.

A few months before I was elected, I was 66-1 against at the bookies. I was just not thought of, six months beforehand, as someone who might turn out to be the leader of the party.

The next leader of the Conservative party - whenever that happens - is probably somebody who today is 60-1 against at the bookies.

The most likely person hardly ever gets it. I don’t even know who the most likely person is really.

William Hague speaking at a campaign event during the general election.
William Hague speaking at a campaign event during the general election. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay has put out a statement saying he will not contest the leadership following Kezia Dugdale’s resignation. He said:

I will not be putting put my name forward in this election. I wish Kezia and those who may seek to succeed her the very best for the future and I look forward to parliament returning next week so I can work with my colleagues to hold the SNP to account for their appalling mishandling of our public services, expose the Tories for their shambolic handling of the Brexit process and work towards returning Labour governments at Holyrood and Westminster that work for the many not the few.

May rejects claims she exaggerated number of overstaying foreign students as home secretary

Theresa May has given interviews to both Sky News and BBC in Japan. She repeated the point she made when speaking to reporters on her plane about wanting China to play a bigger role in curbing North Korea. But she also took questions on several other issues. Here are the main points.

  • May said she had confidence in Boris Johnson and insisted he was doing “an excellent job”. Asked about allegations that Johnson is not seen as a credible foreign secretary, and whether she had confidence in him, May replied:

Yes, absolutely. Boris has been doing an excellent job. A lot of people focus on Brexit. But, remember, there are a lot of other issues that the foreign secretary is dealing with around the world, including for example his recent trip to Libya ... He is dealing with some really critical issues that are facing the world and ensuring that the United Kingdom is playing its part in trying to resolve those issues.

Sky’s Jason Farrell said that one of the people who has criticised Johnson recently is Lord Kerr, the former head of the Foreign Office, who used a column in the Evening Standard recently to argue that Johnson was being ineffective. But there was a much more damning critique in Rachel Sylvester’s column in the Times yesterday, which quoted various anonymous source describing Johnson as a joke and a liability. I posted a long extract from the column on the blog yesterday.

No. The figures that we have looked at in the past are the ONS figures. But what is clear that it is action that we have taken as a government that has had an impact on students. We now see more students leaving the United Kingdom after they have completed their degree. Previously we saw significant numbers staying. We have taken action to root out abuse in the system. That is why we see great numbers of students complying with our regulations.

  • She appeared to rule out the UK staying in the EU single market or the customs union during the post-Brexit transition period. Labour is now saying that, during this period, the UK should remain in both the single market and the customs union. But, when asked if she would consider this, May said:

What I set out in my Lancaster House speech is that you can’t be a member of the single market without being a member of the European Union, and we’re leaving the European Union.

When it was put to her that the UK could leave the EU but remain in the single market as a member of the European Economic Area, like Norway, she replied:

What we want to do is to ensure that we deliver on the vote of the British people to leave the European Union.

  • She claimed it was the UK that was providing “clarity” about the future in the Brexit negotiations.

We have been publishing a series of papers over the summer. There will be more papers to come, where we are setting out the key issues that both sides need to address and the ideas we have of how to deal with those. It is the United Kingdom that has been coming forward with the ideas and with the clarity about the future.

Theresa May speaking to Sky News in Japan.
Theresa May speaking to Sky News in Japan. Photograph: Sky News

Here are more pictures of Theresa May in Japan, where she has been taking part in a tea ceremony.

Theresa May, flanked by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is welcomed by Master of Tea Ceremony Sen Sosa upon her arrival for a tea ceremony at Omotesenke Fushin’an in Kyoto.
Theresa May, flanked by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is welcomed by Master of Tea Ceremony Sen Sosa upon her arrival for a tea ceremony at Omotesenke Fushin’an in Kyoto. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
May takes part in a tea ceremony.
May takes part in a tea ceremony. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
May with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister.
May with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister. Photograph: Laurent Fievet/AFP/Getty Images

The Scottish Labour party has put out a statement confirming that Alex Rowley, the deputy leader, will become interim leader following Kezia Dugdale’s resignation. And it says the Scottish executive will meet on Saturday 9 September to discuss the process and timetable for the leadership election.

Dugdale denies resigning to avoid being forced out by Corbynites

Kezia Dugdale has given an interview to the BBC’s Brian Taylor about her resignation. Here are the key points.

  • Dugdale rejected the suggestion that she was resigning because she feared being forced out by Corbynites. Asked if she was going before she was pushed, Dugdale replied:

I refute that absolutely. What I’m trying to do is something that politicians rarely do, which is to leave with my head held high, without any sort of crisis.

  • She said that, although she spoke out against Jeremy Corbyn at the time of the 2016 leadership contest, she has not criticised him since. They got on well on a personal level, she said, and she said she she would be campaigning for him to be the next prime minister.
  • She said she felt “frustrated” about being portrayed as a rightwinger in Labour party terms.

One of the things that has frustrated me is how I am perceived by people on that left/right spectrum. I have been arguing for 18 months, if not longer, about progressive taxes, asking the richest people in society to pay their fair share, to stop austerity. On that Jeremy Corbyn and I have never anything but 100% united.

  • She said that, although two years seemed a short time to be leader, a huge amount had happened in that period. The intense workload over the last two years had taken its toll on her, she said.

When you look at the immensity of what has happened in Scottish politics over that [period], from the independence referendum, to two general elections, a Scottish parliament election, a local government election, a referendum on Europe - the immensity of that is huge. It has had its toll on many people, not least myself.

  • She admitted that the death of Gordon Aikman (see 9.18am) did make her think what else she might do apart from politics. Asked if it made her think there were other things she could do with her life, she replied: “A little bit, yes, not that I in any way regret what I’ve done in this job.”
  • She said she did not anticipate staying in the Scottish parliament for the rest of her life.

I have a lot to offer public life. I won’t always do that from within the Scottish parliament. There are other things for me yet.

Kezia Dugdale.
Kezia Dugdale. Photograph: BBC

The Unite union has issued a statement urging Scottish Labour not to rush into a leadership election. This is from Unite’s Scottish secretary, Pat Rafferty.

We urge the party to reflect upon this turn in fortunes and consolidate, not to act in undue haste on any succession plan.

There is no need to rush to a leadership election. Under Alec Rowley’s interim leadership we are confident that the voices of Scotland’s working people will be heard loud and clear at Holyrood.

This is not about the next four weeks. It is about the next four years. This is an opportunity to reflect upon what the Scottish Labour Party stands for. Let’s seize it and build for the future.

Full text of Kezia Dugdale's resignation letter

Here is the full text of the resignation letter that Kezia Dugdale sent to the Scottish Labour executive. It was addressed to Linda Stewart, the Scottish executive chair.

As chair of the party, I am writing to you today to resign as leader of the Scottish Labour party.

It has been an honour and a privilege to have served this party in a leadership position for the last two and a half years, covering four national elections and one referendum.

I have worked with many great people, not least the staff in our HQ led by Brian Roy and those in the Scottish Parliament, whose boundless energy, expertise and good humour has guided our party through some dark hours and difficult times.

I’d like to thank my shadow cabinet for their efforts, and in particular Iain Gray for his unflinching love and support and James Kelly for the thankless but crucial job he does so well as our business manager.

Earlier this year I lost a dear friend who taught me a lot about how to live. His terminal illness forced him to identify what he really wanted from life, how to make the most of it and how to make a difference. He taught me how precious and short life was and never to waste a moment.

Being leader has always been a difficult but fulfilling challenge. One that until now I have enjoyed, driven by a clear guiding purpose and goals, many of which I have achieved.

I am proud of the fact that I’ve demonstrated how the parliament’s powers can be used to stop austerity with progressive taxes and the creation of new benefits. Proud to have advanced the call for federalism across the UK. Proud to have delivered real autonomy for the Scottish Labour party and a guaranteed voice for Scotland and Wales on the NEC.

Educational inequality is the number one issue in Scottish politics after the constitution because Scottish Labour under my leadership put it there.

I am proud to have delivered 50/50 slates of amazing and diverse candidates in both the Scottish and U.K. Elections and equally proud to have invested in the next generation of labour activists and parliamentarians with leadership programmes. These have already furnished us with two of our magnificent seven MPs. With that re-established Scottish Labour group at Westminster, and a talented and effective group in Holyrood, Scottish Labour has a bright future.

A marker of success for me was to leave as leader with the party in better shape than I found it and I have done that.

Emerging from the challenging times following the 2014 referendum, and the 2015 UK election, we now have a solid platform on which to build towards success, and government.

I have given the task of achieving this all that I have. But with nearly four years now until the next Scottish parliament elections, I am convinced that the party needs a new leader with fresh energy, drive and a new mandate to take the party into that contest.

I will continue as a Labour MSP for the Lothians and am already looking forward to spending more time with constituents and on constituency issues.

Too often our leaders leave in a crisis, with scores to settle. I love this party too much for that to be my way. There will be no press conference and no off the record briefing in my name. I choose to stand down because I believe it is best for me and best for Scottish Labour, at a time when we can be positive and optimistic about our future.

I remain in awe of all those party activists who devote their time to this movement without pay or reward. I thank them for their belief in me.

Yours in solidarity,

Kez Dugdale

Here is a picture of Theresa May arriving at Kyoto in Japan earlier today.

Theresa May is greeted by dignitaries as she arrives in Japan.
Theresa May is greeted by dignitaries as she arrives in Japan. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

As my colleague Peter Walker reports, speaking to reporters on the plane, May said she wanted China to intervene more vigorously in curbing North Korea’s missile ambitions, calling Beijing “the key” to defusing tensions as she arrived in Japan for a three-day visit.

Dugdale says friend's death made her reassess life as she quits as Scottish Labour leader

Late last night the Labour party was hit by a surprise resignation. Kezia Dugdale, who has led the party in Scotland for the last two years, announced that she had had enough and that it was “time to pass the batton on”. Here is our overnight story from the Guardian’s Scotland editor, Severin Carrell.

The resignation of Labour’s leader in Scotland is not as big as story as it would once have been. Although the party used to be pre-eminent in Scotland, and supplied its first three first ministers, now it is firmly in third place, in Holyrood elections and Westminster elections, behind the SNP and the Conservatives.

As Severin explains in his story, Dugdale can legitimately claim to have strengthened her party during her leadership. Scottish Labour gained six seats at the general election, taking its total to seven. It also has a guaranteed seat on the party’s UK national executive, autonomy over policy making and control over candidate selection in Scotland. But Dugdale opposed Jeremy Corbyn in both his bids for the Labour leadership and for some in the party in Scotland this was an issue. This may have been a factor in her decision to go.

But, in the statement she issued last night, Dugdale also suggested that personal reasons played a part. A recent bereavement had taught her that there was more to life than politics, she suggested.

Here are extracts from her statement to Labour’s Scottish executive.

As chair of the party, I am writing to you today to resign as leader of the Scottish Labour party.

It has been an honour and a privilege to have served this party in a leadership position for the last two and a half years, covering four national elections and one referendum ...

Earlier this year I lost a dear friend who taught me a lot about how to live. His terminal illness forced him to identify what he really wanted from life, how to make the most of it and how to make a difference. He taught me how precious and short life was and never to waste a moment.

Being leader has always been a difficult but fulfilling challenge. One that until now I have enjoyed, driven by a clear guiding purpose and goals, many of which I have achieved ...

Emerging from the challenging times following the 2014 referendum, and the 2015 UK election, we now have a solid platform on which to build towards success, and government ...

Too often our leaders leave in a crisis, with scores to settle. I love this party too much for that to be my way. There will be no press conference and no off the record briefing in my name.

I choose to stand down because I believe it is best for me and best for Scottish Labour, at a time when we can be positive and optimistic about our future.

I remain in awe of all those party activists who devote their time to this movement without pay or reward. I thank them for their belief in me.

The friend Dugdale was referring to was Gordon Aikman, a Labour and Better Together activist and motor neuron disease campaigner who died in February aged 31.

I will post more on this story as the day goes on.

Otherwise, it is relatively quiet at Westminster. But Theresa May is in Japan, and I will be covering what she has been doing there too. 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 publish a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

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

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.

Kezia Dugdale.
Kezia Dugdale. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Updated

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PM says antisemitism is ‘abhorrent’ after booking of West, who has song called Heil Hitler and last year advertised swastika T-shirt
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Watches like this $455,000 timepiece can't be made by a machine—and that's exactly why they're the ultimate flex amid the analog revival
Watches with maximum 'complications' are the stars of the $60 billion luxury watch boom.
Fortune
Fortune
Phone-free bars and restaurants on the rise across the U.S.
A "societal shift" to disconnect is under way, experts say.
Axios
Axios
Fact check: Are FaZe Banks and Kendall Jenner dating? viral photo sparks buzz after alleged sighting
A viral claim about FaZe Banks and Kendall Jenner dating is false. The image that started the rumor was edited using AI, as confirmed by the original X post. There is no real proof linking them. Both have separate dating histories, but currently, no verified information suggests any relationship between…
The Times of India
The Times of India
Hey, Netflix, Stop Suggesting Movies To Me I Can't Watch With My Plan (You're Not Amazon!)
Hoo boy, this set me off.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
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