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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

EU renegotiation talks reach 'crucial' climax - Politics live

The UK and EU flags outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Crucial talks on David Cameron’s EU renegotiation are taking place today
The UK and EU flags outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Crucial talks on David Cameron’s EU renegotiation are taking place today Photograph: Ye Pingfan/Xinhua Press/Corbis

Afternoon summary

  • The EU renegotiation talks are heading towards a climax. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, hopes to publish a draft agreement tomorrow, but at the afternoon lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman said he had no further information about when the talks would wrap up.
  • Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has said that disabled workers and those who want to work or start a business will be given more freedom to control the grants they receive from the government in a new trial scheme. Speaking in the Commons he said:

I can announce to the House today that we are trialling a new feature of the Access to Work scheme. From today we’ll be testing the use of personal budgets. These will allow disabled people who receive grants to choose exactly how and when the money is used to best support their individual needs. This will bring more choice and control over the support they receive to help them to stay in work and to start work, or even start a business.

Access to Work is paid to people who have a disability, health or mental health condition to help them either start working, stay in work, move into self-employment or start a business. As the Press Association reports, there is no set amount for the grant but it is capped at £40,800 per year.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, has been in Jordan today for talks ahead of the summit on Syria taking place in London on Thursday.

I’m off to the afternoon lobby briefing. I will post again after 4pm.

PCH is Portcullis House, one of the buildings on the parliamentary estate. And BSE is Britain Stronger in Europe.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP and a member of the Britain Stronger in Europe board, has criticised David Cameron’s renegotiation. In a statement she said:

These negotiations are simply an extension of Cameron’s endless pursuit of looking ‘tough’ for his euro-sceptic backbenchers.

Taking away in-work benefits to EU citizens from other countries is unfair and short sighted. We know that people from the rest of the EU who come here to work pay more in tax than they take out in public services. Indeed EU nationals who move here are less likely to claim benefits.

Cameron’s proposed change would penalise those who contribute hugely to our society, and it is likely to fail even on its own terms given that the government hasn’t produced any evidence to suggest that tax credits are a major draw for EU nationals who come to work here.

And here are some other comments from MPs and MEPs who have been speaking about the EU renegotiation today.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a Conservative, said she was not convinced to support British membership of the EU by David Cameron’s “emergency brake” plan.

The reality is that if you’re heading for a car crash, having a brake which you or someone else might be in charge of is all very well. But actually I’d like to be in charge of the steering wheel. And what this feels like is EU technocrats yet again controlling the decisions ...

I think [Cameron has] asked for very little in the first place. My frustration is he isn’t even getting what he’s asked for.

Nigel Evans, a Conservative, said he thought he would end up voting to leave the EU. He said the problem with the “emergency brake” was that it would require the support of other EU member states.

If the deal is that we are allowed to do it when we want, then yes, but if we have to phone a friend, indeed in this case 27 friends, to decide that we can put our foot on the brake, then no driver in their right mind would get into a car with those sorts of conditions ...

I suspect that when it comes down to it that I’m going to be voting to leave the European Union.

Mark Pritchard, a Conservative, said he would back Britain staying in the EU on security grounds. Pritchard, who is strongly Eurosceptic, had been expected to vote Out, but he announced at the weekend that he would back the In campaign. He said today.

I am still a Eurosceptic and I’m a reluctant ‘Inner’ if you like, and I think a lot of my parliamentary colleagues and eurosceptics out in associations and amongst voters in the country are reluctant Inners as well.

Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, said Britain could “stand tall and punch above our weight” as a member of the EU.

It’s through our membership of the European Union that we are able to stand tall and punch above our weight in the world. We are a country of around 65 million competing with the likes of China with its 1.3bn people, and India, the biggest democracy in the world with its 1.2bn people. We can be big; bigger than we are in population terms by working with this half a billion other people in the European Union. And that delivers tangible benefits for our people here.

Paul Nuttall, the Ukip deputy leader and MEP, said Cameron’s renegotiation was a charade.

In 24 hours when, to no doubt great fanfare, Cameron returns with a “deal” with Brussels it looks like it’ll be nothing more than tinkering round the edges of our relationship with the European Union and will not go any way to dealing with the wholesale loss of sovereignty to the EU, the eye-watering cost of it, or indeed go any way to bring back genuine control of our borders from the EU.

Earlier I quoted from what Peter Lilley, the Conservative former social security secretary and veteran Eurosceptic, told the World at One about David Cameron’s “emergency brake” procedure.

Here are some more lines from the interview. I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.

  • Lilley said the “emergency brake” would not have a significant impact on EU migration levels.

I don’t think it would have a very significant effect and nor did the representative of the Office of Budget Responsibility when he appeared before Parliament and thought it would have a minor impact. It would, of course, save a bit of money and that’s a good thing but it wouldn’t substantially alter the volume of migration into this country from the rest of Europe.

  • He said the countries most opposed to the EU were those with “the longest tradition of democracy”.

We have to think which are the countries which find the European Union difficult. There are ourselves, Sweden, Denmark inside; Norway, Iceland and Switzerland outside. What do they all have in common? They all have the longest tradition of democracy; we’re all used to making our own laws.

  • He said Cameron could persuade him to back Britain remaining in the EU if he could demonstrate that Britain was taking back sovereignty from Brussels.

I’d be convinced [to vote for staying in the EU] in a way by less than he’s asking for if it was a step in the right direction. If we were to get back power to make our laws in one area or a number of small areas and thereby create the precedent that powers can return to member states, or at least to the UK, and that we’re not all moving in the same direction but at different speeds, then that would be a good precedent and we could build on it in future negotiations when future treaties come up – because the other countries are going to have to have a lot of treaties because they’re moving along an escalator towards creating a single state to prop up the euro.

Lunchtime summary

  • Downing Street has adopted a note of cautious optimism in relation to the talks about David Cameron’s EU renegotiation demands which are still ongoing. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, was originally hoping to publish draft proposals today, but after his dinner with Cameron last night he agreed to let officials spend another 24 thrashing out the text. Now it is expected, but not certain, that the document will appear tomorrow. At the Number 10 lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokeswoman said there had been a “breakthrough” on the issue of the “emergency brake” - the provision allowing the UK to stop EU migrants claiming in-work benefits because services are under extreme pressure - because the European Commission says the criteria for its application apply now. (See 1.24pm.)
  • Peter Lilley, the Conservative former social security and one of the cabinet ministers once branded “bastards” by John Major because of their Euroscepticism, has criticised Cameron’s “emergency brake” proposal. Speaking on the World at One, he said it did not sound well thought-through. He said:

I’m just very puzzled by it. Normally social security and welfare are not something within the purview of the European community so we can do what we like – unless it conflicts with the article in the treaty on free movement of people. If it conflicts with the article on free movement of people, we cannot do anything until the treaty is changed. So the suggestion that we might be able to introduce this emergency brake in the short term and change benefits: either we can do it now without any negotiations or we’ll have to wait for a treaty change.

The other thing that puzzles me is how it will work in practice. If we introduce the emergency brake and said, right, people coming to work here from the rest of the Europe would not be entitled to benefits for four years, and then the brake were lifted after two or three years and new people were allowed benefits immediately, what would happen to the people who had come here previously and told they couldn’t have them for four years? We’d have some disparity; we’d have cases before the European Court of unfairness; we’d have to rescind the requirement to wait for four years on those who’d come earlier.

If I’d asked my officials when I was responsible for this to introduce a measure like this, I’m sure they’d have told me to go away and think again.

  • Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has claimed that Scotland stands to lose billions of pounds over the next few years under Treasury proposals for devolving new powers. This afternoon John Swinney, the Scottish finance minister, and Greg Hands, chief secretary to the Treasury, will meet in London to discuss the so-called “fiscal framework” - the rules that will decide what Scotland gets from London in the years ahead once Holyrood gets new tax-raising powers. As the Press Association reports, Ahead of the talks, Sturgeon highlighted support for the Scottish Government’s position from Glasgow University principal Professor Anton Muscatelli. Writing in the Herald newspaper, Muscatelli said Swinney’s preferred option, a mechanism known as per capita indexed deduction, “provides a fair deal for both Scotland and the rest of the UK”. He warned that under an alternative method known as index deduction, Scotland could lose around £3.5bn from its block grant in the first 10 years of the new powers. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Sturgeon said:

This method ensures that the simple transfer of the new tax powers would not in itself lead to an increase or cut in Scotland’s budget. This is of crucial importance, as it retains the Barnett formula as the principal determinant of public spending in Scotland, something that was central to the Smith recommendations.

From what we’ve heard from the Treasury, both the original proposals and what has been tabled in the last few days would still reduce the Scottish budget by potentially billions of pounds over the next few years and wouldn’t live up to the principle that was at the heart of the Smith report, which is no detriment.

That means that if over the next few years Scotland matches the economic performance of the UK, if we don’t change tax rates, then we should be no better or worse off than if these powers had never been devolved.

Radek Sikorski, the former Polish foreign minister, told the World at One that the Polish government would pay “a high political price” if it did not block David Cameron’s plans for an “emergency brake”.

And here is more from Bruno Waterfield.

At a briefing in Brusssels this morning Margaritis Schinas, the European Commission’s chief spokesman, said that other EU member states have not seen the draft text on the “emergency brake” that Donald Tusk has been discussing with David Cameron.

This is from the Times’s Bruno Waterfield.

And this is from the Daily Mail’s John Stevens.

No 10 lobby briefing - Summary

Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing about the EU renegotiation.

  • Downing Street said that, although there had been “a breakthrough” on the issue of the “emergency brake”, there was “a lot still to do”. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said between now and the EU summit later this month “there will be a lot of hard work getting all the other member states signed up to what we need”. British officials are involved in talks with their counterparts from the European Council and the European Commission in Brussels today, and it is expected that Donald Tusk, president of the council, will publish a draft agreement tomorrow.
  • Number 10 said that David Cameron is trying to ensure that his EU renegotiation deal allows Britain to deal with the problem of “sham marriages”. In its statement last night Downing Street said that Cameron wanted “more substantive proposals including closing backdoor routes to Britain which have enabled non-EU illegal migrants to stay in Britain in recent years”. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said one of the issues this referred to was “sham marriages”, of which she said there were 4,000 in the UK every year. By marrying an EU citizen, someone from outside the EU can obtain free movement rights. She said another issue this referred to related to the rules around deporting criminals. And she said Britain wanted to address problems caused by “a number of unhelpful ECJ [European Court of Justice] judgments” affecting free movement, in particular the Metock ruling in 2008. This says that EU member states cannot stop the spouses of EU citizens coming to live in their country. It is surprising to see this issue come up now, because it has not been talked about much in recent weeks, but it did actually feature in Cameron’s letter to Tusk in November. In that letter Cameron wrote:

We also need to crack down on the abuse of free movement, an issue on which I have found wide support in my discussions with colleagues. This includes tougher and longer re-entry bans for fraudsters and people who collude in sham marriages.

  • The spokeswoman said that the European Commission now accepted the “current circumstances in Britain” would justify the application of the “emergency brake” - the measures that will allow Britain to deny EU migrants in-work benefits for four years. She also suggested that the debate was now not so much about the sanction that would apply once the brake was on (EU migrants not being allowed to claim benefits for four years) as how long the brake itself would apply (ie, how long before the UK had to renew it, or before it lapsed). She refused to comment on reports that Cameron wants the brake to apply for seven years.
  • The spokeswoman insisted that Britain was not seeking a veto over eurozone decisions. Responding to today’s reports in the Financial Times about French objections (see 10.31am), she said:

We are seeking to establish some clear principles that govern the relations between euro-ins and euro-outs. We are not seeking to stand in the way of further eurozone integration ... This is not about the UK being able to veto eurozone integration.

  • The spokeswoman played down reports that there was already agreement on a “red card” mechanism that would allow national parliaments to block EU legislation if 60% of them are opposed. “Discussions are ongoing,” the spokeswoman said. “Things are moving around.”
  • Downing Street dismissed claims that the Cameron and Tusk were involved in some form of choreographed row. Leave.EU and Vote Leave have both suggested that this morning. Asked about their claims, the spokeswoman said:

I do not accept that at all. Look at the amount of hard work, time and effort that the prime minister, other senior ministers and indeed some senior government officials have put into this.

And here is a line on one other issue.

  • Downing Street said no decisions had been taken about deploying British troops to Libya. Asked about the story in today’s Times (see 10.57am), the spokeswoman said: “No decisions have been made about the deployment of any British forces to Libya as part of an international coalition”. The Times story says that British troops could be sent for training purposes, but the spokeswoman sidestepped a question about whether British troops could be send to fight, or to train the Libyans. In reply, she said there were “ongoing discussions” amongst the international community about how it could come together and support the new government in Libya.
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

The Number 10 lobby briefing is over. It was a mammoth session, almost entirely devoted to the EU renegotiation, and reasonably informative, although mostly at a micro level (ie, for those following the process in huge detail). In terms of the big picture, it’s the same as it was earlier this morning: Number 10 and Tusk are inching closer to a deal, but they’re not there yet.

I will post a summary soon.

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

As for the rest of the papers, here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads, and here is the ConservativeHome round-up of today’s politics stories.

I have already posted links to the key EU renegotiation ones. (See 10.31am.) And here are two others I found particularly interesting.

Downing Street and the Pentagon are in talks to persuade Libya to take at least 1,000 British troops to bolster its forces in the battle with Isis, whose coastal stronghold is just 200 miles from Europe.

American and British military, diplomatic and special forces teams are making frequent trips to Libya to identify influential allies among the mix of the country’s rival militias and encourage them to focus on driving out the estimated 3,000 Isis militants.

That is despite the likelihood that an eruption of violence will lead to greater migration of refugees into Europe.

The preparations come as the French defence minister warned that the terror network was expanding in Libya and already controlled part of the country’s Mediterranean coast. “There is the risk that Isis fighters could make the crossing, mixing in with refugees,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said ...

Up to 1,000 British troops have been earmarked by Whitehall to join an Italian-led 6,000-man force to train the Libyans. But with a national government still not functioning, despite a pledge for a unified political alliance among the rival factions, British sources said there was no formal request for outside help to confront Isis. “The Libyans don’t welcome outsiders intruding on their territory,” Ash Carter, the US defence secretary, said.

Two thirds of England’s biggest councils are planning to increase taxes by around four per cent, it has emerged in changes that could leave people paying hundreds of pounds more a year.

Research seen by The Telegraph has revealed that local authority bosses are rushing to take advantage of new rules which allow for extra council tax rises to pay for social care.

On top of a two per cent increase already allowed, George Osborne announced last year that councils tax bills could be increased by another two per cent to help pay for care for the elderly.

Charities and experts at the time warned the change would create a “postcode lottery” that would leave people on the highest tax bands paying up to £320 more in the next five years.

I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing now. I will post again after 11.30am.

Paul Goodman, the former Conservative MP and editor of ConservativeHome, has written a powerful article for his website this morning list 10 EU renegotiation aims that he says David Cameron has abandoned. Number 10 would challenge the list, saying Goodman is including items that were never part of his four demands, but Goodman has sources for all 10 points showing that at some point they were goals that Cameron was hoping to achieve.

He concludes by saying that that any Tory MPs who though the renegotiation would lead to “substantial reform” should vote to leave the EU.

We now have a brake that will apply immediately – which Number Ten is trumpeting as a major win – but which will none the less remain in the hands of the EU institutions. In the words of The Times (£), “he will accept that other EU leaders and institutions retain control of the legal mechanism for implementing it”.

Those Eurosceptic Conservatives can honestly tell their constituents and Associations that for the sake of Party unity they will support the Prime Minister. They can argue that do not want to open the door to any Labour recovery, or disrupt the programme of Conservative reform. They can say that they have changed their minds about the EU altogether.

What they cannot say truthfully is that Cameron is delivering the major reforms which they themselves backed last May. From the highest Cabinet Minister to the lowliest backbencher, they have only one choice if this matters to them: to back Brexit.

In the comments RClayton has asked for a link to John McDonnell’s tax return.

It’s on his website.

Here is the tax return.

And here is his P60.

Here are some EU renegotiation stories from the other papers today.

One late obstacle to be cleared is Mr Cameron’s demand that Britain should be able to “escalate” to a higher level any dispute over eurozone attempts to hit Britain by insisting on discriminatory financial rules for the 28-member single market.

France has long voiced its unease over seven principles Mr Cameron wants enshrined in a protocol that prevents the eurozone ganging up against Britain and enables the EU single market to better co-exist with an integrated eurozone.

These groundrules would be guaranteed through a separate “emergency brake” allowing countries on the verge of being overruled on a related issue to delay a vote, triggering additional consultations at the level of EU leaders.

French officials last week circulated a secret paper to negotiators in Brussels and Berlin, laying down two red lines: no new rights to be created for non-euro countries, and no veto powers that prevent the eurozone from taking decisions to integrate or manage an emergency.

Extracts of the French paper seen by the FT state that UK reforms and the proposed brake-clause must respect EU treaties and “shall not give any member states more institutional powers, scrutiny or say or voting powers than currently provided and shall neither slow down nor impede any step ahead in the deepening of the [eurozone] and the strengthening of financial regulation”.

It is understood that the European Commission agreed to Mr Cameron’s demand that Britain would be allowed to trigger an “emergency brake” on in-work benefits immediately after a referendum. Brussels is digging in against a move to allow the brake to be applied for longer than four years. Mr Cameron is insisting that he wants it to last for at least seven years ...

On Friday Mr Cameron dismissed as not good enough an initial offer from Brussels of an emergency brake that would allow Britain to impose the ban for two years, with an option to renew for another two years, but then never again. Mr Cameron countered that he wanted a stop-gap ban that lasted seven years while a more permanent solution was found. However, eastern European countries are dismissing that option. “Even if this demand [for a seven-year brake period] is possible on paper then the British must also know that it will never be used. There are at least 12 countries that would veto using it after a British referendum,” one diplomat said.

Nearly 70 Conservative MPs have already decided they will vote to leave the European Union and 200 more could back a “Brexit” if David Cameron’s renegotiation is deemed unacceptable, a poll has found ...

The survey of Tory backbenchers, by pollsters Ipsos Mori for the UK in a Changing Europe initiative, found that 20 per cent of the party’s 330 MPs will vote to leave the EU in the upcoming in-out referendum regardless of the reforms Mr Cameron is able to get from Brussels.

Just over 60 per cent said that their vote will “depend on the terms of any renegotiations of our membership of the EU”.

Only 11 per cent – around 36 MPs – said they will vote to remain in the EU regardless of the result of Mr Cameron’s renegotiation.

The research shows that if Mr Cameron’s renegotiation is deemed a success, the majority of his party will back him.

For all this, though, there is widespread and perhaps surprising agreement on one thing among MPs on both sides of the House. Regardless of how they themselves are going to vote, clear majorities of both Conservative and Labour MPs think that the referendum will result in Britain remaining part of the EU.

Particularly on Planet Tory, that thinking could have big implications for the referendum itself. Many Conservative MPs, especially those in the 2010 and 2015 intakes (quite reasonably, given the favour Labour has done them in electing Jeremy Corbyn) are thinking about promotion. As a result, they are bound to wonder, whatever their real feelings, whether there’s much point campaigning for what so many of them evidently reckon is a lost cause.

This is what David Cameron tweeted after his meeting with Donald Tusk last night.

Updated

Like Leave.EU (see 9.19am), Robert Oxley, head of media at Vote Leave, thinks there is something cosmetic about that disagreements between Cameron and Tusk over the renegotiation.

The Craig is he referring to is Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s political and communications director, to give him his full title.

Here is the Conservative MEP and ultra-Eurosceptic Daniel Hannan on the EU talks.

This is from Sky’s Darren McCaffrey.

Leave.EU, one of the groups campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, has put out a statement dismissing Donald Tusk’s talk of “intensive work” (see 8.48am) as a charade. This is from its chief executive, Liz Bilney.

Donald Tusk, widely despised in his own country for taking the Brussels shilling, doesn’t actually have the power to conclude a deal.

This embarrassing spectacle is for publicity purposes only; a blatantly staged row over the trivial question of how long someone has to be in the country before they can claim in-work benefits to distract the public from the fact that we are not even asking for an end to the supremacy of EU law over national law, genuine control over migration or independent representation on global bodies and the power to make our own trade deals.

No 10 statement after Cameron's talks with Tusk

This is what Number 10 said about the Cameron/Tusk talks in the “readout” it sent to journalists shortly before 10pm. Often these press statements so bland or opaque as to be unreportable, but this one was informative.

Here it is in full. It is from a Number 10 spokesperson.

The prime minister and president of the European Council Donald Tusk had a productive working dinner tonight, going through the draft proposals for reform in each of the four areas set out by the prime minister.

Much progress has been made, particularly in the last 48 hours since the prime minister’s meeting with president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday, but there is still more hard work required.

On welfare, the commission have tabled a text making clear that the UK’s current circumstances meet the criteria for triggering the emergency brake. This is a significant breakthrough, meaning the prime minister can deliver on his commitment to restrict in work benefits to EU migrants for four years.

But there are still areas where there is more to do and both agreed it was therefore worth taking the extra time to make further progress.

One such area is economic governance where we want to ensure the enforcement mechanism is watertight, recognising that there must be ways to escalate an issue where we have concerns. Another is abuse of free movement, where we want to see more substantive proposals including closing backdoor routes to Britain which have enabled non-EU illegal migrants to stay in Britain in recent years.

Sherpas will meet early in Brussels tomorrow and work through the day to resolve the outstanding issues.

In the spirit of a constructive meeting, Tusk signalled that he plans to circulate a draft text to all member states on Tuesday.

For reference, here is a guide to the four areas where David Cameron is demanding changes in Britain’s relationship with the EU. He set them out in a letter to Tusk in November.

The “emergency brake” referred to in paragraph three would be a mechanism allowing the UK to stop paying in-work benefits to EU migrants.

And “sherpas” are the senior official charged with negotiating the outline of a deal before leaders meet at a summit to sign it off face to face.

Donald Tusk (left) and David Cameron in Number 10 last night.
Donald Tusk (left) and David Cameron in Number 10 last night. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

It is just over three years since David Cameron delivered the Bloomberg speech that unveiled his plan for a renegotiation of Britain’s terms of membership of the EU, followed by a referendum, and now we are into the endgame. Crucial details of what Britain gets offered could be settled in the next 24 hours.

Last night Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, met David Cameron for talks in Number 10. An EU summit is planned for later this month and Tusk wants to circulate a draft agreement for leaders to study in advance tomorrow, but over dinner last night he and Cameron failed to reach an agreement. This is what he tweeted after the dinner.

As Sky’s Jon Craig, who was the only reporter outside Number 10 to watch Tusk go in and come out, writes on his blog, “Mr Tusk’s tone before and after his dinner couldn’t have been more different”. And, as Rajeev Syal reports in his overnight Guardian story, last night there was no certainty of a deal.

But, equally, Downing Street have been talking about a significant breakthrough. Progress has been made.

Quite how much we are going to learn about developments today is not clear, because the crucial talks will be happening behind closed doors and on the phone, but I will be covering all the news that comes out.

Otherwise, it is relatively quiet. Here is the agenda for the day.

11am: Number 10 lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

As well as focusing on the EU talks, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I 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.

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