Afternoon summary
- François Hollande, the French president, has warned that Britain will face “consequences” if it votes to leave the EU, suggesting this could lead to France scrapping the border deal that contributes to migrants heading for the UK being held back at Calais. He made the comment at a joint press conference with David Cameron. See 3.49pm for a full summary.
- Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, has joined other Brexit campaigners in dismissing claims that the French might tear up the Calais border deal in the event of Britain voting to leave the EU. During a visit in south London he said:
I would say ‘Donnez-moi un break’. There’s absolutely no reason why that treaty should be changed. It was an inter-governmental treaty, it was the Le Touquet treaty. It was signed between the British government and the French government. It’s not in the French interests to want to do that and it’s just the usual flapping and scaremongering.
- Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, has said that Britain leaving the EU would damage the continent’s stability. Speaking at the BCC conference in London, he said Brexit would make Europe “less stable and more volatile”. Asked how Germany would feel if the UK voted to leave on June 23, he joked: “We would cry.”
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Jo Johnson, the science minister (and Boris Johnson’s brother), has said that science and technology firms could suffer in a “decade of uncertainty” if Britain left the EU. In a speech in Cambridge, which he described as “the most successful innovation cluster in Europe”, he said:
In this referendum campaign, it is vital that we have an evidence-based debate and properly informed choice. The facts matter. And few value evidence more than scientists. That’s why we should take seriously the surveys showing nine out of 10 agree EU membership benefits UK science and engineering. That’s why we should take seriously the fact that none of the 132 vice chancellors represented by Universities UK is advocating leaving.
My clear view is that a vote to leave would be a leap in the dark, and one that would put the Cambridge phenomenon and our status as a science superpower at risk. While many factors explain Cambridge’s success, it’s clear that our close ties with the European Union are a crucial part of this great national success story.
- The head of the Unite union, Len McCluskey, has accused a Labour MP of pursuing a “sinister agenda” and making a “disgraceful” allegation of bullying against one of his union members. As Rajeev Syal reports, the general secretary of Britain’s biggest trade union made his claims in a letter sent directly to former shadow minister Stephen Doughty. Doughty had compared the alleged behaviour of the union member to alleged bullying by Tory activists that led to the death of Elliott Johnson.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Grayling accuses France of giving 'mixed messages' over Calais
Chris Grayling, the leader of the Commons who is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, was on Sky New a few minutes ago responding to what President Hollande said about Calais. (See 3.49pm.) He accused the French of giving “mixed messages” on this topic and said that Hollande was part of a “Euro establishment” trying to influence the British referendum.
I think the comments we’ve heard today from France are all part of the noises coming from the Euro establishment trying to keep us in the European Union by sowing seeds of doubts in the minds of our people about what might happen. Now the truth is very different. It is only two weeks since we had the French interior minister, who is after all responsible for the border in Calais, saying that there is no way that the European Union, or indeed France, would want to back away from those arrangements.
And it is important to say that it is a treaty between Britain and France. It is not a treaty with the European Union.
It is clearly not in the interests of France to have chaos at Calais. And if they suddenly turned around and said the border is not there anymore, we are not going to suddenly let very large number of migrants come through the Channel Tunnel into Britain. But what it will do is attract large numbers more migrants to Calais, which is not what they want.
So we’re getting mixed message from French ministers. And it’s all because there’s a drive by the French government and other governments to try and influence over voters into staying in Europe.
Grayling was referring to Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister. Cazeneuve actually made his comments about Calais in October last year, but French government sources said last month that they still applied.
On the subject of unaccompanied child migrants at Calais, David Cameron said that if they had direct family in Britain and if they applied for asylum in France, under the Dublin Convention they could join their family in Britain. Those were the current arrangements, he said. But “we’ve talked today about how we can make sure they work better and more speedily”, he said.
Yvette Cooper, chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce, said the British and French governments both needed to get their act together on this issue.
Right now many lone child refugees aren’t being identified or protected by the French authorities, and Britain is dragging its feet rather than help those who have family here desperate to care for them. It is shameful that both governments are failing vulnerable children who are at terrible risk of exploitation and abuse. All of us would be traumatised if our own children were living in these conditions - we have a moral duty not to turn our backs on them now, especially when they have relatives ready to keep them safe.
It currently takes 9 months before France issues a ‘take charge’ request to the British Government for unaccompanied children, and the UK has rejected 2 of those applications in the last few weeks alone.
Charities estimate there are up to 150 children in Calais who have family here in the UK who could look after them while their asylum claim is processed.
The British and French Governments should tell us how many child refugees they believe there are in Calais, how many have applied for asylum, how many have applied to be transferred to Britain to be with family and why the British Government has failed to decide their cases.
If we are to prevent those children disappearing into the hands of people traffickers the French must put in place child protection measures immediately for all the unaccompanied children there and the UK and French must work together now to reunite them with family as soon as possible.
This is from James McGrory, head of communications for Britain Stronger in Europe.
Leavers rubbished PM when said border would move from Calais to Dover; slated Macron this am; what they going to do now Hollande confirmed?
— James McGrory (@JamesMcGrory) March 3, 2016
Cameron/Hollande press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from the press conference with David Cameron and Francois Hollande, the French president.
- Hollande hinted that France could suspend the agreement that allows British border police to operate in Calais if the UK leaves the EU. Emmanuel Macron, the French finance minister, raised this prospect in an interview with the Financial Times this morning. Asked if Macron was right, Hollande said that there would be “consequences” if Britain left the EU. He did not explicitly confirm that France would tear up the 2003 Le Touquet agreement (which allows the British to carry out their border checks at Calais), but he said there would be “consequences” in many areas, including “in the way we handle [immigration]”. He said:
I don’t want to scare you. I just want to say the truth. There will be consequences if the United Kingdom is to leave the EU. There will be consequences in many areas, on the single market, on financial trade, on economic development ... I don’t want to give you a catastrophic scenario but there will be consequences, especially in terms of people as well.
Robert Harris, the author and former political journalist, says this is a gift to the Out campaign.
Nothing more likely to provoke a UK Leave vote than threats from foreign leaders. Hollande could be antis' best recruiter
— Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) March 3, 2016
- Cameron said the Brexit camaigners who have accused him of being engaged in a conspiracy to get the French, and others, to talk up the dangers of leaving the EU were falling for a “David Icke-style” conspiracy. The issue arose because some Eurosceptics have claimed Number 10 was involved in getting Macron to speak out to the FT. Asked about this, Cameron replied:
Of course you can say this is all some giant conspiracy, some sort of David Icke-style ... It’s just nonsense. The best thing to do is to listen to the arguments, to listen to what people are saying, and to understand some of the risks and some of the uncertainties about leaving the European Union ...
When lots of friends of the United Kingdom, lots of organisations involved in industry and business and commerce and farming, are giving these warnings and drawing attention to these uncertainties, I would say it’s worth listening to those, rather than trying to pretend it is part of some giant conspiracy, which I think is complete nonsense.
Cameron’s comment may have been aimed at David Davis, the Conservative MP who issued a statement earlier saying: “I am afraid that this looks like a stitch up between the British prime minister and the French president.” Or it could be aimed at the Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin who, commenting on the Macron interview, told the Today programme: “What we are having now is propaganda being produced by other European governments at the request of the prime minister to try to scare people (out of) voting Leave.”
- Cameron criticised those who want to leave the EU for not being able to answer questions about what the alternative to EU membership would look like. He said:
The people who could try and allay some of those risks are the people advising us to leave the EU. But they have not.
They have disagreed about whether they want one referendum or two. They have disagreed about what sort of exit they would like to have. They can’t tell us whether we should be part of the single market or have trading deal.
So I think there is in this debate a very big contrast coming out, from the certainty and clarity of staying in a reformed European Union, where we know what the arrangements are, we know our businesses can access that market, we know how our borders work, we know all the arrangements in place. There is that certainty set against the huge risk and uncertainty of the alternatives, made even more risky in my view by the fact that the people who are proposing them don’t seem to want to answer any questions about how those proposals would work.
- Cameron said that he and Hollande had agreed that unaccompanied child migrants at Calais with direct family in the UK could come to the UK. This was already allowed under the Dublin convention, he said. But he said the British and French would try to ensure this happened more quickly.
- He said Britain was giving £17m to help the French address the migrant problem at Calais.
- He said Britain and France were going to spend £1.5bn developing a new generation of drones. He described them as unmanned combat air systems and said they would be “the most advanced of its kind in Europe, securing high-end engineering jobs and expertise in both the UK and France”.
Updated
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
I’ll post a summary shortly.
Cameron says Britain does not want to wait before talking to the government in Libya.
It wants to avoid a further route opening up for migrants to come to Europe, he says.
He says Britain and France and working closely on this.
Hollande says Brexit would lead to 'consequences', hinting it could affect the Calais border cooperation deal
Q: What will happen to the Calais camp if Britain votes to leave the EU?
Hollande says if Britain votes to leave the EU “there will be consequences”, including relating to the Calais situation.
But he does not specify what those consequences would be.
- Hollande hinted that Britain leaving the EU could lead to the withdrawal of French/British border cooperation at Calais, saying “there will be consequences if the United Kingdom is to leave the EU”.
Updated
Cameron dismissed idea that he is colluding with France to warn about dangers of Brexit as 'nonsense'
Q: All these interventions seem convenient. Are they a stitch-up?
Cameron says lots of people around the world are making their views known. But when you have messages from countries like America and France, those are worth listening to. And when businesses express views, those are worth listening to.
You can say it’s some David Icke-style giant conspiracy. But that’s nonsense, he says.
He says the Out camp disagree on whether there should be one referendum or two.
And they cannot say what would happen if the UK left.
The alternatives are risky. And those risks are made even greater by the refusal of the Out camp to say what they want.
The idea of a conspiracy is complete nonsense, he says.
- Cameron dismissed idea that he is colluding with France to warn about dangers of Brexit as “nonsense”.
Q: What are you going to do about unaccompanied child migrants at Calais?
Cameron says the £17m he is announcing today is on top of money already pledged to help the French at Calais.
He says he applauds what the French are doing at Calais, and the action they have taken with the camps.
He says Hollande has his 100% backing over this.
As for unaccompanied children, he says it has always been the case that someone with direct family in Britain can apply for asylum in France and come to Britain. That is the rule under the Dublin convention. But he says this will be clarified.
Hollande says France has done its utmost to receive those who have the right to asylum.
There are some people who don’t want to stay in France, and others not allowed to stay in France.
Hollande says, with regard to the people who want to go to the UK, if the UK decides not to take them, access will be closed.
That is the message he is trying to get across, he says.
Hollande says France follows up unaccompanied children. If they have a family link to the UK, then they must go there, and they must go quickly and in an efficient fashion.
The two leaders are now taking questions.
Q: Brexit campaigners say you are scaremongering? And it’s hardly surprising that France is backing Britain over Calais. They want the UK to stay in the EU.
Cameron says, drawing on his experience as prime minister, he can see that Britain benefits from its membership of the EU.
When Britain wants to act to keep people safe, it gains from being able to act with other countries.
He quotes from today’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders survey, arguing that this shows why Britain is better off in the EU.
He is not making hyperbolic claims. He is talking about the reality that exists now.
It is not good enough for the Brexit campaigners to avoid the questions about what Britain would be like outside the EU.
- Cameron criticises Brexit campaigners for not answering questions about what Britain would be like outside the EU.
Britain to contribute £17m to help French deal with migrant problems at Calais
David Cameron is speaking now.
He says the summit was about how Britain and France stand together to keep their people safe.
He says the two countries have stood shoulder to shoulder and do so again today. That is particularly important after the Paris terror attacks, he says.
He says Britain and France have been attacking Daesh in Syria and Iraq. They are degrading its capabilities.
But there is a need for peace, he says. He says he, Hollande and Chancellor Merkel will speak to Putin, he says. He says Russia needs to stop its attacks on the Syrian opposition.
He says France and Britain have agreed to extend their counter-terrorism cooperation.
On defence collaboration, Britain and France have agreed to invest £1.5bn in drone technology.
He says Britain will contribute £17m to help the French deal with migrant problems at Calais.
- Britain to contribute £17m to help the French deal with migrant problems at Calais.
He thanks Cameron for his contribution to the climate change conference in Paris.
The UK was more than an ally, he says. It was a true partner.
He mentions the Hinckley Point nuclear power station project (an Anglo-French collaboration).
We are neighbouring countries and friends, he says. The entente is still cordiale.
Hollande says unaccompanied child refugees in Calais should be able to join relatives in the UK.
He says Calais and the surrounding areas, including Dunkirk, are suffering because of the refugee crisis.
The UK is not a member of Schengen. So France tells refugees they can have their rights recognised in France.
There are fewer migrants and refugees in Calais than there were a few weeks ago, he says.
Those who remain should be treated with dignity, he says.
Hollande says Cameron and he discussed the EU referendum.
Hollande and other EU leaders spent a long time negotiating a package for the UK.
He says he hopes the UK stays in Europe. That is in the interests of the UK, and of the EU. But the people are sovereign.
Hollande says there will be a discussion at the European Council on Monday on refugees.
Greece must be supported, he says. When resettlement is allowed, “we should play our part”, he says. This will be discussed on Monday. Europe should show solidarity.
Hollande says Britain and France are both pushing for peace in Syria. We need Russia’s participation, he says. But it needs to understand that there is an opposition in Syria that is not Daesh (Islamic State).
He says he and Cameron discussed Libya. This is another place where Britain and France are working together. They want a government to be installed.
Cameron's press conference
The press conference is starting.
Francois Hollande goes first. He speaks about his visit with David Cameron to the First World War cemetery earlier. (See 11.33am.)
Updated
We’re still waiting for the Cameron/Hollande press conference to start.
In the meantime, George Osborne, the chancellor, has been speaking at the BCC conference.
George Osborne: I want to see trade deals with US and Japan. There is more chance of that within the EU #BCCConf
— Kamal Ahmed (@bbckamal) March 3, 2016
Osborne on EU referendum: "What is the alternative? If you are a business you want to know what you are buying." #BCCConf
— Kamal Ahmed (@bbckamal) March 3, 2016
Osborne: confusion heaped on confusion about the alternatives to reformed EU membership - worst of all worlds
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 3, 2016
Osborne claims that if UK leaves the EU then over 50 trade deals would fall and need to be renegotiated by Britain #BCCConf
— Kamal Ahmed (@bbckamal) March 3, 2016
Osborne: "I would rather spend the next few years working out how to improve trade rather than spending years on a costly divorce." #EUref
— Kamal Ahmed (@bbckamal) March 3, 2016
Here are pictures from the UK/France summit.
Updated
Cameron's press conference at the UK/France summit
David Cameron and Francois Hollande, the French president, are about to hold a press conference at the UK/France summit in Amiens.
All set for David Cameron and Francois Hollande press conference #AmiensFGB #amiens #EUref #EUreferendum pic.twitter.com/Hsz05VvRih
— Ben Glaze (@benglaze) March 3, 2016
Waiting... pic.twitter.com/KuI7MCowFU
— Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) March 3, 2016
Lunchtime summary
- Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has claimed that Labour and business are “natural allies” in a wide-ranging speech to the British Chambers of Commerce conference. It was his first major speech to a business audience. (See 12.32pm.)
- France has been accused of “blackmail” after a senior French government minister has said his country could tear up an agreement allowing British border police to operate in Calais if the UK leaves the EU. David Davis, the Conservative MP and a spokemsan for Grassroots Out (GO), suggested that Downing Street was involved in getting Emmanuel Macron to speak out to the Financial Times. He also said that, if France allowed migrants to come to the UK illegally, Britain could just send them back. He said:
This is more like bluster than a real threat. The simple point is that if we leave the EU, we regain control of our borders and we decide who comes in and who doesn’t. If the French start putting illegal immigrants on a train or ferry and send them to Britain, we will send them straight back to France.
I am afraid that this looks like a stitch up between the British prime minister and the French president. Mr Cameron has already sought to alarm the country by saying the Calais migrant camp could move to Kent if we quit the EU. Now the French finance minister Emmanuel Macron looks like he is playing the same game. Project Fear has a new recruit.
The British people are unlikely to be impressed with this latest round of blackmail threats and even less impressed by the British government’s collusion.
Downing Street says it did not know about Macron’s interview with the FT in advance.
- Sajid Javid, the business secretary, has said that he remains a “Brussels basher” despite deciding to support remaining in the EU. Speaking at the BCC conference he said:
I have no time for closer political union and in many ways I am a Eurosceptic. I am still a Brussels basher and will remain so.
He also appeared to criticise Cameron’s EU renegotation deal, saying: “I wish there was more in the deal.”
- John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, has indicated that he is personally opposed to Britain remaining in the EU. Speaking to the BCC conference, he said the BCC would not campaign in the referendum “not least because the business community in the UK is divided on the issue of Europe”. He said it was “still possible that the prime minister may pull further rabbits from the hat” but that the choice in the referendum was between “staying in what is essentially an unreformed EU with the eurozone moving off in another direction and Britain sitting on the margins”, or leaving and facing “near-term uncertainty and disruption”. It was a “tough choice”, he said. Setting out his personal view, he said:
The very best place for the UK to be is in a reformed EU ... [but] I have come to the conclusion that the EU is incapable of meaningful reform, at least in the foreseeable future. It certainly does not appear capable of the sort of reform necessary to give the UK breathing space to fulfil its true potential.
- Cameron is to join fellow European leaders Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel in a conference call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to shore up the fragile Syrian ceasefire. As the Press Association reports, Downing Street said Friday’s call will offer an opportunity for the prime minister, the French president and the German chancellor to press home to Mr Putin the importance of maintaining the truce, so that peace talks can go ahead “properly” in Geneva next week.
- A former deputy leader of the Scottish National party has warned supporters of Scottish independence that a vote for Britain to remain in the EU would seriously damage their cause. As Severin Carrell reports, Jim Sillars, who has served as MP for both Labour and the SNP, urged pro-independence voters to ignore Nicola Sturgeon’s calls to support EU membership in June’s referendum, as he launched a campaign aimed at Eurosceptic SNP voters.In a pamphlet published on Thursday for the scotleave.eu campaign, he asserts that the only way to secure Scottish sovereignty is to vote against continued EU membership, since Brussels will otherwise remain an obstacle to independence.
David Lidington, the Europe minister, has signed into law the secondary legislation fixing June 23 as the referendum date, after it passed through the House of Lords on Wednesday evening, the Press Association reports.
My colleague Anushka Asthana says Number 10 did not know in advance about the Emmanuel Macron interview in the Financial Times. (See 9.11am.)
No 10 saying first David Cameron knew of French intervention was when it landed in the FT.
— Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) March 3, 2016
In a good blog for the Staggers, Stephen Bush says Jeremy Corbyn’s speech is the one that Ed Miliband always wanted to give.
Here’s an extract.
Team Corbyn is still lacking a first-class speechwriter, but buried in the text was an address that Ed Miliband always wanted to give.
It ran like this: the problem with the economy under New Labour was an underregulated financial services sector, which left Britain badly exposed during the financial crash. New Labour struck a Faustian pact with the City of London - low taxes and low oversight in exchange for booming revenues to build social democracy at home. What’s instead needed is a complete rebalancing of the economy - using state intervention and innovation to secure sustainable growth.
Bush also says Corbyn’s argument was very similar to the one Stewart Wood, Miliband’s key policy adviser, made in this article for Prospect just before the election.
Corbyn's BCC speech - Summary and analysis
This was Jeremy Corbyn’s first proper speech as Labour leader to a business audience (he declined an invitation to address the CBI last year) and doubtless much thought went into preparing for it in his office. As the Times columnist and arch-Blairite Philip Collins points out, a British Chambers of Commerce conference is not exactly Corbyn’s natural habitat.
The latest in a series of things Jeremy Corbyn never wanted to do: address the British Chambers of Commerce.
— Philip Collins (@PCollinsTimes) March 3, 2016
And yet he delivered a speech that ended with a line about Labour and business being “natural allies”. What was it like, and was it ultimately convincing?
Overall, it was pretty solid. It wasn’t an exciting or a flashy speech, and it not have anything new to say on policy, but it was coherent, serious and wide-ranging. Corbyn seems to have no affinity at all for big business, but his admiration for small business and start-ups seems genuine. (Interestingly, he finds it easier to get enthusiastic about business when discussing it through the prism of multiculturalism. There was a line in the speech, which wasn’t in the text made public, where he urged the audience to reflect “on the huge opportunities that many BME communities, black and minority ethnic communities, have only had because they were able to open a small business, innovate and develop”. The Labour MP Simon Danczuk noticed a similar trait when he had a private meeting with Corbyn last year, which he subsequently wrote up for the Mail on Sunday.)
There was also a political vision within the speech. Corbyn argued that the economic orthodoxy of the past had failed, and he made the case for a “strategic state”, with government intervention and investment being deployed to boost growth. In many respects this is similar to what Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are calling for in the last parliament, although Corbyn went further on the banks (Balls would never describe them as “an extractive industry”) and he also spoke up for collective bargaining, a cause that Miliband and Balls were more cautious about championing.
The extracts from the speech released overnight included specific criticism of “New Labour”. Surprisingly, Corbyn chose to tone this passage down a bit.
The other important thing to note is how little he had to say about Europe. The reference to supporting the case for Britain staying in the EU was so brief that one colleague in the audience actually missed it. This will reinforce suspicions that Corbyn personally has little enthusiasm for campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU, which is something that should worry David Cameron, given the fact that he needs Labour supporters to vote for In.
I posted a summary earlier with some key points. (See 10.22am.) Here are some to add.
- Corbyn said that Labour and business were “natural allies”.
All these economic problems are connected. Lack of access to finance constrains export growth. A failure to invest in our digital economy stifles productivity growth. A dearth of skills holds back innovation.
In the twenty-first century the role of government is to understand these connections and make policy to fit.
You may not like everything we say or do. But when it comes to the big decisions on the economy, infrastructure, skills and investment, we are natural allies. Labour is committed to what is needed for business to expand and succeed.
- He toned down criticism of New Labour for contributing to the financial crash by not regulating the banks firmly enough. In extracts from the speech released overnight he said:
It wasn’t government that was the problem in 2007 and 2008, when the banking sector nearly drove the entire economy to the point of collapse.
The New Labour approach was to opt for ‘light touch regulation’ of finance - and then sit back and collect the tax revenues.
But you cannot base a decent social policy on an unsustainable economic policy. And we cannot outsource economic policy to the City of London. That has not served our economy well, and it has not served business well.
But when he delivered the speech he said:
But it wasn’t government that was the problem in 2008, when the banking sector drove the economy to the point of collapse.
The political consensus at that time was to opt for ‘light touch regulation’ of finance – and sit back and collect the tax revenues.
But you cannot base a decent social policy on an unsustainable economic policy. And we cannot outsource economic policy to the City of London. That has not served our economy well, and it has not served business well.
- He offered only lukewarm support for Britain remaining in the EU. There was only a cursory reference to Labour’s support for Britain’s membership of the EU in the speech, which was surprising because the EU referendum has been the dominant issue in British politics for the last fortnight, and it is one of particular interest to a business audience. Corbyn said:
We should be laying the foundations for a modern economy now.
That applies not only within states but between states too; climate change, the refugee crisis, raising standards for workers and consumers and dealing with the minority of companies that seek to avoid their taxes
These are all issues that can only be resolved by working with our partners in Europe, not ditching them.
This is why we are campaigning to remain in the EU because we believe, like 60 per cent of businesses the BCC surveyed, that the EU is the best framework for trade and cooperation in the 21st century.
Updated
David Cameron and Francois Hollande, the French president, have paid tribute to those killed in the battle of the Somme at the start of today’s summit in France. This is from the Press Association.
David Cameron and French president Francois Hollande have paid tribute to the dead of the Somme 100 years after the battle in which more than 100,000 British servicemen lost their lives.
The two leaders laid a wreath at the Pozieres Cemetery near the town of Amiens where almost 3,000 Commonwealth personnel are buried.
The ceremony marked the start of a one-day UK-France summit focused on the security and international issues including the migration crisis and the conflicts in Syria and Libya.
Amiens and the Somme region were deliberately chosen to host the talks to commemorate the centenary of the First World War battle and the enduring relationship between Britain and France.
Altogether some 400,000 British and 200,000 French soldiers were killed or injured at the Somme.
Here is some Twitter reaction to Jeremy Corbyn’s speech.
(Luckily for Corbyn, David Cameron’s mother isn’t on Twitter. She would have had a problem with that tie.)
From Sky News’s Faisal Islam
Here full @jeremycorbyn #bcc speech: basically an argument for a "strategic state" a la @MazzucatoM https://t.co/Y9ZoBLfp1r
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 3, 2016
Islam is referring to Mariana Mazzucato, the economist and author of The Entrepreneurial State and a member of Labour’s economic advisory committee.
From Richard Murphy, the tax campaigner who spoke at Corbyn rallies during the Labour leadership campaign
Corbyn speech to British Chamber of Commerce best on economics yet - very good. But I wish he did his tie up
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) March 3, 2016
From Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick
Jeremy Corbyn speech to #BCC does mention EU Referendum, but for about 15-20 seconds. About as lukewarm as Sajid Javid
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) March 3, 2016
From Jolyon Maugham, the Labour-supporting tax barrister and blogger
Corbyn giving the impression of a man familiarising himself with his speech for the first time - without the benefit of reading glasses.
— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) March 3, 2016
According to PoliticsHome’s John Ashmore, Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick has been trying to get Jeremy Corbyn to answer a question.
Michael Crick tries to get Jeremy Corbyn to answer some questions while he's standing in a lift...perhaps hoping for that 'elevator pitch'
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) March 3, 2016
Q: Is there room for big corporations in your vision for the future?
Yes, there has to be, says Corbyn.
He says he is clear about the role of government. He would seek to have a day-to-day working relationship with all sectors of the economy.
If you don’t work together, we all lose out, he says.
And that’s it.
Both questions were the BCC figure chairing the session. There was no time for more, and so Corbyn did not take questions from the audience or from journalists.
I’ll post a summary soon.
Corbyn's Q&A
Corbyn is now taking questions.
Q: What would your “elevator pitch” be to business people today?
Corbyn says you need to have a government serious about investment in skills and investment in infrastruture.
Colin Chapman founded Lotus Cars in a lock-up garage in Hornsey. He turned out to be a brilliant designer. If he were trying to find a lock-up garage to do that now, would anyone lend him the money.
Corbyn says Labour and business are 'natural allies'
Corbyn is winding up now.
All these economic problems are connected. Lack of access to finance constrains export growth. A failure to invest in our digital economy stifles productivity growth. A dearth of skills holds back innovation.
In the twenty-first century the role of Government is to understand these connections and make policy to fit.
You may not like everything we say or do. But when it comes to the big decisions on the economy, infrastructure, skills and investment, we are natural allies. Labour is committed to what is needed for business to expand and succeed.
He says many companies start small. To thrive, they need support. Government should be there to help them succeed, he says.
Corbyn says Labour is campaign for Britain to stay in the EU because “we believe, like 60 per cent of businesses the BCC surveyed, that the EU is the best framework for trade and cooperation in the 21st century”.
And he says the government should be doing more to promote renewable energy.
The transition to a carbon-free economy is essential because of the climate crisis … but it’s also a massive opportunity for investment and growth …
Yet Britain sits on the sidelines … with some of the lowest production and use of renewables in the G7.
Corbyn calls for more investment in broadband.
The evidence is clear that only the public sector and public investment… can guarantee the super-fast broadband network in every part of Britain…. the essential low-cost connections people and businesses need in a 21st century economy.
As it is, government foot-dragging and ideological dithering is holding digital Britain back.
And he criticises the government’s record on infrastructure too.
Then there is the problem of infrastructure. Think about the creaking, underfunded infrastructure our country relies on.
In a recent survey the CBI found that two-thirds of businesses are concerned about the slow pace of infrastructure delivery.
The Centre for Economics and Business ranks the UK thirteenth on the value of its infrastructure, behind every other G7 country bar Canada.
Corbyn criticises the government’s record on apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships have a crucial role to play and we must do more invest in vocational education and training.
But some apprenticeships are clearly too low quality and look rather more like attempts to avoid paying the minimum wage;
Secondly, the Government’s apprenticeship levy, hasn’t been properly thought through. The policy risks being simply, an additional tax on businesses, so that the Government can meet its arbitrary target.
Corbyn criticises the government for cutting the adult education budget.
The education and skills training gap goes far wider.
Across the country, this is the one issue local business people most often raise with me.
Yet this government has cut college funding and slashed the adult education budget.
On the one hand; there are university graduates unable to find a graduate-level job. While large numbers of unemployed workers are unable to acquire the skills they need to work.
Corbyn says the NHS is 'in crisis'
Corbyn turns to the NHS.
The NHS is in crisis - there are record deficits in NHS trusts, and they come from two key mistakes by government.
First, there is the legacy of PFI debt - an inefficient way of delivering necessary investment.
The last Labour government lacked the confidence to make the argument to borrow to invest, and so it did what banks thought they could get away with before the crash, an off-the-books accountancy wheeze.
In both cases, putting debt off the books did not work it came right back onto the books and helped trigger crisis.
Secondly, we have not trained enough nurses and doctors - and the problem is becoming more acute.
It means the NHS is spending £4 billion on agency staff to fill gaps.
It also means we are reliant on importing nurses and doctors from abroad.
And he criticises the banks for acting like an “extractive industry”.
Corbyn uses the line, briefed in advance, about how New Labour’s “light touch” banking regulation contributed to the crash. (See 10.22am.)
Corbyn says wealth creation is a collective process.
Wealth creation is a collective process between workers, public investment and services, and creative individuals and businesses.
It cannot be based on a race to the bottom in pay and job insecurity, or the subsidy of low wages with in-work benefits. That’s why we’re in favour of a real living wage and stronger trade unions.
Corbyn says he wants to distribute the rewards of growth more fairly.
We want to see a genuinely mixed economy of public and social enterprise along with long-term private business commitment that will provide the decent pay, jobs, housing, schools, health and social care of the future.
An economy based on a new settlement with the corporate sector that, yes, involves both rights and responsibilities.
Labour will always seek to distribute the rewards of growth more fairly. But, to deliver that growth demands real change in the way the economy is run.
Corbyn says he wants to consult much more widely when making policy, in particular by listening to “the growing army of the self-employed, often struggling to make ends meet, and falling through the cracks in our social security system”.
He urges BCC members to come along to the policy events taking place around the country that John McDonnell is organising.
Corbyn says Labour will put investment first.
Labour’s alternative will put investment first. We will only borrow to invest over the business cycle.
We will put public investment in science, technology and the green industries of the future front and center stage.
Only by driving up investment will we achieve the higher productivity we need to guarantee rising living standards for all.
We want to see the reindustrialization of Britain for the digital age driven by a national investment bank as a motor of economic modernization based on investment in infrastructure, transport, housing and technology. That provides a solid return.
Corbyn says recovery is 'built on sand'
Corbyn say the recovery is “built on sand”.
Osborne’s recovery is a house built on sand. But what Labour now stands for is far more than stopping the damage being done by this government.
We want to see a break with the failed economic orthodoxy that has gripped policy makers for a generation.
The idea that speculative finance would deliver for all that manufacturing could be run down and our strategic assets sold off that the 1980s catechism of deregulation, privatisation and low taxes on the well-off would produce balanced, high investment and productivity growth has been shown to be for the birds.
That model of how to run an economy is broken crashed and burned in 2008 and not just in Britain.
Corbyn says John McDonnell has laid out the framework for this.
As John has said many times, an economy that allows people to flourish and prosper in the 21stcentury will be a very different kind of economy from that of the 1990s, let alone the economy of the 1940s or 1960s.
What’s clear is that this government is not creating the economy of the future we need. Six years ago George Osborne said austerity would wipe out the deficit and cut the debt.
That didn’t happen. Instead, recovery only got going once the chancellor took the brakes off and pumped up housing credit to get through the general election.
Corbyn says we need to work together to shape a new economy.
To shape that new economy we need to work together. It is only through effective co-operation between government and business, state and markets, public and private, education and enterprise. That we can build an economy for the future that delivers for all.
Corbyn says he believes in the need for a new economic approach.
And he also wants a new relationship with the rest of the world, based on trade, human rights and conflict resolution, he says.
Corbyn says he published a paper on small business during his leadership campaign.
There is a “magic circle” of advice that seeps into government thinking, he says.
But he believes it is important to open up the policy-making process, so that a wider group of people contribute.
Corbyn starts by praising his local cafe, which now employs six people after being set up a year ago.
He understands the importance of enterprise, he says.
Jeremy Corbyn is taking the stage at the BCC conference.
The BCC figure introducing him says it is Corbyn’s first major speech to a business audience.
Updated
Corbyn's speech to the BCC conference
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, will be giving his speech to the BBC conference at about 10.30am.
Some excerpts have been released in advance. Here are some key points.
- Corbyn says Labour rejects “the failed economic orthodoxy” that has prevailed for a generaton.
What Labour now stands for is far more than stopping the damage being done by this government and its threat to our long-term economic future.
We want to see a break with the failed economic orthodoxy that has gripped the establishment in this country for a generation.
We will put public investment in science, technology and the green industries of the future front and centre stage. Only by driving up the rate of investment will we achieve the higher productivity we need for rising living standards for all.
- He calls for a “new settlement with the corporate sector”.
Only an economy that is run for the wealth creators - the technicians, entrepreneurs, designers, shopfloor workers, and the self-employed - and puts them in the driving seat ... is going to deliver prosperity for all.
- He suggests that New Labour’s light approach to regulation contributed to the financial crash.
It wasn’t government that was the problem in 2007 and 2008, when the banking sector nearly drove the entire economy to the point of collapse.
The New Labour approach was to opt for ‘light touch regulation’ of finance - and then sit back and collect the tax revenues.
But you cannot base a decent social policy on an unsustainable economic policy. And we cannot outsource economic policy to the City of London. That has not served our economy well, and it has not served business well.
- He says that banking needs to be reformed, and that it should stop acting as “an extractive industry” treating customers “as a cash cow”.
The banking sector has to be reformed. Finance must support the economy, not be an end in itself, and certainly not an extractive industry that looks at consumers, entrepreneurs and small businesses as a cash cow.
We need a new ecology of finance. That means encouraging credit unions and better small business support.
We need a national investment bank to target fund investment on what is in the public wage and wider economic interest, not just in the interests of quick returns.
And we need to reform the major banks so that they serve the economy not just themselves. That includes using the public stakes in banks such as RBS to drive lending and investment in infrastructure, rebuilding supply chains and the industries of the future.
- He calls for more investment in superfast broadband.
The evidence is clear that only the public sector and public investment can guarantee the super-fast broadband network in every part of Britain the essential low-cost connections people and businesses need in a 21st century economy,” he will say.
As it is, government foot-dragging and ideological dithering is holding digital Britain back.
Javid says he's still a 'Brussels basher'
Sajid Javid, the business secretary, is deeply Eurosceptic and some thought he might decide to back Brexit. But, much to the relief of Number 10 (which was very worried about how it could argue leaving the EU would be bad for business if the business secretary was in favour) Javid decided to back Britain staying in.
Taking questions at the BCC conference, he admitted that this had been a difficult decision, and that he said he was still “a Brussels basher”.
Sajid Javid - in many ways I am eurosceptic, am a Brussels basher. I could have gone with my heart. But uncertainty is enemy of jobs/growth
— Kamal Ahmed (@bbckamal) March 3, 2016
Javid says he's still a Brussels-basher + career prospects could have been boosted by backing Brexit but had to accept huge risks of leaving
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) March 3, 2016
Javid says it "a very difficult decision" to support In. "In many ways I'm still a eurosceptic + a Brussels-basher."
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) March 3, 2016
Sajid Javid admits "I wish there was more in the deal" that David Cameron got from Brussels
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) March 3, 2016
Varoufakis says Osborne's joke about him 'reinforced the case for Brexit'
In the Commons on Tuesday George Osborne, the chancellor, used a joke to criticise Labour for taking advice from Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister. He told MPs:
Frankly, the fact that the Labour Party is now getting its advice from Yanis Varoufakis and the revolutionary Marxist broadcaster Paul Mason does not suggest to me that they have got an answer to economic security. Presumably they chose those two because Chairman Mao was dead and Mickey Mouse was busy.
Yaroufakis has now hit back. In an article for Newsweek, he includes a short open letter to Osborne.
Dear George,
Michael Gove, Michael Howard and Boris Johnson are arguing, against you, for Brexit on solid intellectual grounds concerning the EU’s curtailment of your Parliament’s democratic sovereignty. Even though our democracy was indeed crushed last summer by the EU, I happen to disagree with them.
However, I am intrigued that you seem not to realize that by mocking me in that same Parliament you reinforced their already strong case for Brexit. My failure as finance minister was due to the ironclad determination of an authoritarian EU to continue with its failed Greek economic program. My ministry’s Policy Program for Greece, which Brussels pushed aside, I had put together with input from economic experts including Lord Lamont and [American economist] Jeff Sachs. I trust that, with hindsight, you would not have taken that cheap shot. It was one that the “Stay” campaign can ill afford.
Patel says CBI has 'consistently got the big decisions on Europe wrong'
Priti Patel, the employment minister who is campaigning for Brexit, has used an article in the Times (paywall) to launch a strong attack on the CBI, claiming it has been consistently wrong about Europe. Here’s an excerpt.
The CBI has consistently got the big decisions on Europe wrong. It called for UK membership of the European exchange rate mechanism. Unfortunately, the government listened. The result was interest rates at 15 per cent, millions losing their homes, and one of our worst ever recessions. The CBI then campaigned to join the euro. Again it was wrong. In these debates, it relied on flawed polls and admitted it was ignoring the views of small businesses.
Now it is campaigning for the EU. It claims that “eight out of ten firms say the UK must stay in the EU”. This poll was described as “dodgy” by the British Polling Council.
The CBI is again ignoring the views of small businesses and entrepreneurs. It has welcomed almost every expansion of the EU’s powers. The CBI does not speak for British business.
Patel concedes that multinational businesses are generally in favour of Britain staying in the EU, but she says “smaller businesses and entrepreneurs are more hostile.”
As the Sunday Times’s David Smith points out, Patel is wrong about 15% interest rates.
Priti Patel @patel4witham has got her history a bit wrong in The Times. ERM membership did not result in 15% interest rates.
— David Smith (@dsmitheconomics) March 3, 2016
On Black Wednesday, as the value of the pound collapsed, the government announced that it would raise interest rates to 15%. But that rise never went ahead because Britain came out of the exchange rate mechanism (the ERM) instead.
Sajid Javid, the business secretary, is speaking at the British Chamber of Commerce conference now. Bloomberg have a live feed.
Leave.EU says migrant camp was in Calais before France signed Le Touquet treaty in 2003
Leave.EU has jointed Bernard Jenkin (see 9.11am) in accusing the French finance minister, Emmanuel Macron, of scaremongering in relation to the migrant camp at Calais. Its spokesoman Jack Montgomery has put out this statement.
Just last month, the French government reiterated its sensible position that ‘calling for the border with the English to be opened is not a responsible solution.’
‘It would send a signal to people-smugglers and would lead migrants to flow to Calais in far greater numbers’, the interior minister said. ‘A humanitarian disaster would ensue. It is a foolhardy path, and one France will not pursue.’
Absolutely nothing has changed, besides the need to scare British voters.
To be clear, the Le Touquet treaty has only been in force since 2004. The migrant camps were in Sangatte before that time, not Kent, because France and the UK are separated by the English Channel.
In fact, it was the French who wanted British money and personnel to assist in Calais, and the current arrangements were put in place at their request. I must stress that it’s a bilateral, government-to-government treaty, which has no more to do with our mutual membership of the EU than with our mutual membership of NATO.
The real threat to our borders and our security are the European Court of Justice, which frequently prevents us from deporting foreign criminals and bogus asylum seekers, and EU threats to end the Dublin Regulation which allows us to send away migrants who have come to the UK through a safe country.
Leave.EU is quoting Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, but Cazeneuve’s comments are from October last year, not last month (although French government sources said last month they still applied).
Updated
David Cameron is in France today for a summit with the French president, Francois Hollande, and it will be another day dominated by news related to the EU referendum campaign. Here are the main overnight/morning developments.
- Emmanuel Macron, the French finance minister, has said that if Britain votes to leave the EU, the migrant camp at Calais could be moved to the UK. He also said the French would roll out “a red carpet” to welcome bankers fleeing London. He made his comments in an interview with the Financial Times. The paper reports:
In an interview with the Financial Times, [Macron] also said he expected financial services workers in London to relocate to France once their institutions lost the “passport” rights that allow them to operate across the EU.
“The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais and the financial passport would work less well,” Mr Macron said.
Echoing David Cameron’s invitation to French companies to relocate across the Channel when France raised taxes in 2012, Mr Macron said: “If I were to reason like those who roll out red carpets, I would say we might have some repatriations from the City of London.”
The Guardian’s version of the story is here.
- Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP and Vote Leave board member, has dismissed Macron’s comments as “propaganda”. In an interview with the Today programme Jenkin said Macron’s claim contradicted recent comments from French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who said that opening the borders with the UK was a “foolhardy” option which the Paris government would not pursue. Jenkin said:
That is the genuine line to take from the French government. What we are having now is propaganda being produced by other European governments at the request of the prime minister to try to scare people (out of) voting Leave.
I don’t think responsible European governments are going to cut off their noses to spite their faces just because we vote to leave. It is obviously the safer thing for the UK to take back control over our borders, over our laws, over the money we send to the EU because then we can control our relations with our European partners.
- Boris Johnson has used an article in the Sun to accuse David Cameron of scaremongering about the risks of leaving the EU. He accused Cameron of “clutching the skirts of Brussels”. He also criticised Lord Mandelson, accusing him of acting like “some deranged Old Testament prophet” with his warnings about the consequences of Brexit.
It will be an economic disaster, [Mandelson] says. We will lose trade, lose jobs, lose influence in Brussels. Well, he would have more credibility, frankly, if he had not said exactly the same thing 13 years ago. It is hard to think of a politician who has got it so spectacularly wrong. It would be comical, if it were not so sad.
- The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said that 77% of companies involved in the UK motor industry believe a vote to remain in Europe would be best for their business.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.20am: The British Chamber of Commerce conference opens. Jeremy Corbyn and Sajid Javid, the business secretary, are speaking in the morning.
9.30am: Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, gives a speech on full employment at the Resolution Foundation.
1pm: Jo Johnson, the science minister, gives a speech on science and the case for staying in the EU.
Early afternoon: David Cameron and the French president Francois Hollande are expected to give a press conference at their summit in Amiens.
2pm: George Osborne, the chancellor, and Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, speak at the BCC conference.
Today I will be focusing in particular on the Corbyn speech and the Cameron press conference. But I will be also covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
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. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
If you think there are any voices that I’m leaving out, particularly political figures or organisations giving alternative views of the stories I’m covering, do please flag them up below the line (include “Andrew” in the post). I can’t promise to include everything, but I do try to be open to as wide a range of perspectives as possible.
Updated
