Afternoon summary
- Downing Street has hit back at the EU over its claims that the UK is “chasing a fantasy” in the Brexit talks. (See 1.09pm.)
- Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, has suffered the indignity of having a live TV interview terminated because he repeatedly refused to answer a question. (See 3.27pm.)
- The Home Office has established contact with three people out of more than 60 who may have been wrongly removed from the UK as a result of the Windrush scandal. As the Press Association reports, officials have trawled through around 8,000 records dating back to 2002 following fears that residents who had been in the country lawfully for decades may have been forced to leave. It emerged earlier this month that 63 cases had been earmarked for detailed investigation. The number comprises Caribbean individuals who are aged over 45, have been removed from the UK, and may have entered the country before 1973 - meaning they might have been protected by the 1971 Immigration Act. Thirty-two of the cases are categorised as foreign national offenders, while 31 were people subject to “administrative” removals. In a letter to Home Affairs committee chair Yvette Cooper published today on the committee’s website, Sajid Javid, the home secretary, said those in the latter group are being “proactively contacted” through a specialist Windrush taskforce, “where we have contact details”. He added:
We have so far made contact with three and are asking high commissioners to assist where we do not have contact details. When we reach these individuals they will be invited to contact the taskforce.
In response Cooper said:
It remains a real concern that only three of the 63 potential wrongful deportations have been contacted so far, and that it will take a further six weeks for the Home Office to assess how many people may have been wrongfully detained.
But Cooper said she welcomed Javid’s declaration in the latter that all cases where highly-skilled immigrants were facing deportation because of potentially minor errors in their tax returns [under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Act] have been suspended pending a review.
- The EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, has urged the government to drop its “maximum facilitation” (or “max fac”) plans for post-Brexit customs. This is the option favoured by cabinet Brexiters like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. In a statement the EEF’s chief executive Stephen Phipson said:
Much of the debate on max fac is misguided. No one doubts the technology exists: it is in place in many locations around the world. The issue is whether it is good enough to provide a frictionless border and can be implemented quickly enough to be ready for December 2020. I think that the answer to this is an overwhelming no. It may have some long term benefits, but suggesting max fac is a solution to our immediate problems is a non-starter.
I have been to the US and Canada border and the reality is that most Canadian SME businesses can’t easily access the max fac arrangements. Whilst some do qualify for a streamlined process, the majority are still subject to the full customs check. The Canadian process is particularly efficient and well managed, but the reality is that this is time consuming and at busy times often has long delays. Apply that to Dover and the consequences are horrendous.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and the London assembly have jointly appointed Mary Harpley as chief officer at the Greater London Authority (GLA). Harpley, chief executive at the London borough of Hounslow, will be the first woman in the post, which makes her head of the GLA staff (or London’s cabinet secretary).
Congratulations to Mary Harpley on her appointment as the new Chief Officer of the Greater London Authority - the first woman to lead GLA staff. I look forward to working with her as we strive to create a city that leaves no Londoner behind https://t.co/GkRZSWEiUG
— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) May 29, 2018
Gavin Williamson's interview on Good Morning Britain - Transcript
The Press Association has helpfully written up a transcript of the Richard Madeley interview with Gavin Williamson. Here it is in full.
RM: You told Russia to ‘shut up and go away’. Do you regret that now? Do you think it was a bit too informal?
GW: I’d like to pay tribute to the health service personnel who did an amazing job...
RM: No sorry, could you answer the question? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m sure you do want to pay tribute to them. No, no, Mr Williamson. I asked you a straight question. We can talk about tributes to the health services in a minute. Do you regret using that kind of casual language? That’s the question. Could you answer that question, please?
GW: Well, what we saw is we saw an atrocious attack on British soil. You saw a British citizen and his daughter were targeted. And actually, how we responded to that is the world united behind Britain and we showed Russia we wouldn’t be divided...
RM: Yes. Do you regret telling Russia to shut up and go away’? Mr Williamson, please answer the question. Mr Williamson, you are just not answering the question. I’m asking the question not on my behalf but on behalf of our viewers, so on behalf of the viewers, would you please answer the question. Do you now regret telling a nation state to ‘shut up and go away’? Do you think that was too casual an expression? Could you please answer that question?
GW: Well, I think that what everyone saw is Russia’s actions against our citizens in a city here in the United Kingdom...
RM: Yes, you’re telling us what we know. We know what happened in Salisbury, we know how atrocious it was, we know how close these people came to death. The question is - I’ll try it one more time - do you regret using very casual Trump-esque language like ‘shut up and go away’? Please don’t tell me what happened, because we know what happened. Do you regret using that language? That is the question.
GW: What was right was actually that we came together with our allies and made it absolutely clear to Russia that they couldn’t act in that...
RM: Right, you’re not going to answer, are you? OK. All right, interview terminated because you won’t answer the question. It would be helpful if you answered a straight question with a straight answer.
And then afterwards Madeley told viewers:
What are they like? What are these politicians like, when you give them a straight question?
It would have been so easy to say, ‘No, I don’t, I think it was an appropriate expression’, or to say, ‘Yes, probably, on reflection, I should have perhaps been a little more formal’.
Updated
What’s the elephant got to do with it, you may wonder? (See 3.27pm.) Well, Gavin Williamson was meant to be on ITV promoting a Ministry of Defence project involving British soliders helping to tackle elephant poaching.
Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson has praised @BritishArmy personnel heading to Malawi to help park rangers tackle elephant and rhino poaching. #stopwildlifecrime #IWT #IvoryBan pic.twitter.com/DL2KloweRF
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 29, 2018
Defence Secretary, @GavinWilliamson speaking about the UK Governments commitment to tackling the the illegal wildlife trade. #stopwildlifecrime #IWT #IvoryBan pic.twitter.com/3zx06jXUIG
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 29, 2018
Gavin Williamson suffers TV humiliation after repeated question dodging leads to interview termination
Gavin Williamson was, by most accounts, a successful Conservative chief whip. He is also highly ambitious, and is running a fairly transparent longterm campaign for the Tory leadership. But in his seven months as defence secretary he has failed to excel, not least because he can be hopeless as a media performer.
There was an excruciating example this morning. Williamson was being interviewed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain by Richard Madeley (who is not normally seen as a rival to Andrew Neil for the title of most intimidating interviewer on TV) and Madeley asked him if he regretted saying a few weeks ago that Russia should “go away and shut up”. Williamson tried the old trick of ignoring the question and ploughing ahead with another point. To his credit, Madeley refused to let him get away with this and pressed the question repeatedly.
Eventually Madeley got so frustated that he terminated the interview. Effectively he told Williamson to “shut up and go away”.
Just to make the whole thing even more surreal, Williamson was recording the interview from a safari park with an elephant wandering around in the background.
PoliticsHome has a good write-up here. And here is the clip.
Updated
Women from Northern Ireland could be able to get abortions in Republic, says Varadkar
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, has said women in Northern Ireland who need an abortion may be able to go to the Republic of Ireland to get one following the vote in the south to liberalise the abortion laws. These are from the Business Post’s Hugh O’Connell.
Taoieach says government will examine allowing women in the North avail of new abortion services in the Republic.
— Hugh O'Connell (@oconnellhugh) May 29, 2018
Taoiseach adds that NI women already travel to Republic to avail of over healthcare services and says abortion will be like any other healthcare service
— Hugh O'Connell (@oconnellhugh) May 29, 2018
Javid to make first visit to US as home secretary
Sajid Javid will highlight the threats from international terrorism and Russia in his first meetings with senior figures in Donald Trump’s administration since his appointment as home secretary, the Press Association reports. The cabinet minister is flying to Washington to hold talks with a number of high-ranking US officials. He is expected to stress that the US and Britain have a joint interest in tackling a range of security and crime issues. Cementing the leading role both countries play in tackling international terrorism, serious and organised crime, and the threat posed by Russia will be at the top of the agenda, the Home Office said. In the wake of the Salisbury attack, Javid will seek a co-ordinated approach against the threat of “hostile state activity”, including targeting illicit finance and cyber attacks.
Javid will also use the two-day trip to brief his US counterparts on the government’s updated counter-terrorism strategy, which is expected to be published next week.
He is due to hold discussions with homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, attorney general Jeff Sessions, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Centre Bill Evanina, and John F Clark, president and CEO of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, the Press Association reports.
Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary
Here are the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- Downing Street refused to explicitly back calls for the Northern Ireland abortion laws to be liberalised. (See 12.03pm.) The prime minister’s spokesman said that Theresa May considered this a devolved matter that should be decided by the power-sharing executive when it gets restored. He said:
The prime minister said on Sunday that the Irish referendum was an impressive show of democracy, which delivered a clear result, and she congratulated the Irish people on the decision.
But it’s important to recognise that the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to their own process, which is run by locally-elected politicians. Our focus is restoring a democratically-accountable devolved government in Northern Ireland so that locally-accountable politicians can make decisions on behalf of the public they represent.
The spokesman also refused to say how long the government was prepared to wait for power-sharing to be restored. “We’ve been working hard on this for a number of months now and continue to do so,” the spokesman said. He refused to say if there was a deadline after which the Westminster government would give up waiting and take action on its own.
- Number 10 hit back at the EU over its claims that the UK is “chasing a fantasy” in the Brexit talks. (See 12.17pm)
- The spokesman confirmed that the UK is likely to have some involvement in talks on drawing up the EU budget after Brexit. He played down a report (see 9.12am) implying that the UK would remain involved for a full seven years after Brexit. (The MMF, or multi-annual financial framework, is a seven-year EU budget.) But he accepted the UK would have some involvement. Asked about the story in today’s Times, he said:
Negotiations on the next MFF [multi-annual financial framework] are primarily a matter for the 27 remaining member states, but there are a number of areas where it will be in the UK and Europe’s mutual interest to have engagement, such as on issues relating to the design of the next framework and its programmes.
The PM has been clear that we will want to continue working together in ways that promote longterm economic development and the security of our continent, including participating in EU programmes where it is in our interests.
The phrase “the design of the next framework and its programmes” suggests that the UK involvement will go beyond just turning up to the odd meeting on Erasmus, but the spokesman refused to be drawn on this.
- The spokesman denied reports saying the UK is not prepared for a no deal Brexit. The Financial Times made this claim yesterday, in a story (paywall) saying preparations for a no deal Brexit have largely “ground to a halt”. It went on:
Whitehall officials are privately conceding that preparations for a “cliff edge” Brexit next March are nowhere near the level they need to be if a threat by Mrs May to walk away from the talks were to be credible.
“Our preparedness for no deal is virtually non-existent,” said one senior British official working on Brexit. “Our ability to deliver a ‘no deal’ outcome recedes with every week that passes.”
Other officials preparing for the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without a deal say they are being discouraged from taking on projects that might only be needed should there be no agreement on customs and regulatory co-operation by next March.
Asked at the briefing if Downing Street now accepted that a no deal Brexit was impossible because so little preparation had been done, the spokesman replied:
No. The prime minister has said many times, most recently in her Mansion House speech, “we take the issue seriously and as a responsible government we continue to plan for a range of scenarios.”
The spokesman also said that £3bn had been set aside in the budget for Brexit planning covering all scenarios. More than £1.5bn is being spent this year, he said.
- The spokesman dismissed reports that the Bank of England and the Treasury are at loggerheads over City regulation after Brexit. (This is another FT story - see 10.59am.) Asked about this, the spokesman said:
The Treasury have been clear on this, stating that they are the Bank of England are united in their aim to ensure the stability and prosperity of the economy and are working closely together to ensure the UK continues to remain a pre-eminent financial services centre and both agree that that the United Kingdom cannot be an automatic rule-taker.
- The spokesman suggested that having Israeli citizenship will not automatically give Roman Abramovich the right to work in the UK. Abramovich has taken out Israeli citizenship, only days after it emerged that his UK visa had not been renewed. Asked about his new travel rights in relation to the UK, the spokesman would not comment on Abramovich specifically. But, speaking in general terms, he said:
Those with Israeli passports are non-visa nationals, which means they do not need a visa to come to the UK as a visitor for a maximum period of six months. Israelis are required to obtain a visa if they want to live, work or study in the UK.
Updated
No 10 hits backs at EU over claims it is 'chasing a fantasy' in Brexit talks
At the lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman was also asked about the comments from a “senior EU official” at the end of last week saying the UK was “chasing a fantasy” in the Brexit talks. We wrote those comments up here.
The Guardian, and other papers that wrote up the same comments, did not identify the source. But anyone curious as to where the remarks came from may find it interesting to note that Daniel Ferrie, the European commission’s press officer, posted this message on Twitter earlier in the day.
There will be an off-the-record technical briefing today at 17:30 CET in the @EU_Commission’s press room on this week’s #Brexit talks, for accredited journalists only. pic.twitter.com/A4pxQLxoqI
— Daniel Ferrie (@DanielFerrie) May 24, 2018
Asked if the government accepted it was peddling a fantasy, the prime minister’s spokesman told journalists:
As the Brexit secretary said last week, we need to approach these discussions with the interests of our citizens at heart. That means focusing on holding constructive talks inside the negotiation room. We also need to be constructive outside of the room, which means looking beyond soundbites and negative anonymous briefings.
We have made good progress so far, achieving sufficient progress in December and reaching agreement on the financial settlement for example. However, it is also important to remember that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
It is imperative that we keep these talks constructive and continue to make more progress towards the deep and special future partnership that is in the interests of both the UK and the European Union.
- Downing Street criticises EU for resorting to “negative anonymous briefings”.
I will post a full summary of the Downing Street lobby briefing soon.
No 10 refuses to back calls for abortion law liberalisation in Northern Ireland, saying it's devolved matter
I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefings.
Much of the session was taken up with questions about liberalising the abortion rules in Northern Ireland. At the weekend Number 10 signalled that Theresa May was opposed to giving MPs a vote on this, or even letting them vote to initiate a referendum on the subject in Northern Ireland, on the grounds that this is a matter for the Northern Ireland assembly and the power-sharing executive. But the executive has been suspended for 16 months and there is no sign that it is going to be restored in the foreseeable future.
Today the prime minister’s spokesman effectively just reiterated what Downing Street sources were saying at the weekend. But what was striking was how defensive he was about this. Asked if the PM had a message for the women of Northern Ireland, or if she could explain why they should have fewer rights than women in the rest of the UK, the spokesman basically just stuck to the line that this was a devolved matter. Reporters repeatedly tried to get the spokesman to say May thought the law should be changed in Northern Ireland, but about the closest he would come to this was referring us to the tweet she posted on Sunday, saying “I congratulate the Irish people on their decision.”
“The Irish Referendum yesterday was an impressive show of democracy which delivered a clear and unambiguous result. I congratulate the Irish people on their decision and all of #Together4Yes on their successful campaign.” – PM @theresa_may #repealedthe8th
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 27, 2018
The spokesman would not even confirm that, if Labour do force a Commons vote on this issue, government MPs would get a free vote. He said abortion was normally a free vote matter. But, since the government thinks the UK parliament should not be legislating on this matter on its own (because of devolution), the government could conceivably tells its MPs to vote against an amendment for liberalisation, or for a referendum. The spokesman did not rule this out. He just said he would not comment on a hypothetical question.
- No 10 refuses to back call for Northern Ireland’s abortion law to be liberalised, saying it is a devolved matter.
There was also some good Brexit material. I will post that in a moment.
Updated
I’ve already mentioned today’s Times story about the proposal from EU member states for the UK to continue attending EU budget meetings after Brexit. (See 9.12am.)
There is also a story in the Financial Times (paywall) saying the Bank of England and the Treasury are at loggerheads over Brexit and City regulation. Here is the Guardian’s version of the story. And here is an excerpt from the FT’s story.
A number of officials have confirmed that Jon Cunliffe, the BoE’s deputy governor for financial stability, has fallen out with the Treasury on the matter.
One BoE official said: “The fear is that the Treasury is going to give it all away.”
Another said: “It is very, very bad. The bank wants to have as much control as possible and doesn’t want to be a rule taker.” Another official close to the Brexit negotiations said: “It’s terrible. Relations between the BoE and the Treasury on this are at new lows.”
Both stories are likely to come up at the Number 10 lobby briefing. I’m off there now. I will post again after 11.30am.
Every citizen should be able to set up a single digital government account “where they can see which agencies have access to their data and opt in or out of new digital services”, the thinktank Policy Exchange says in a report today. Explaining its proposals, Rupert Reid, Policy Exchange’s director of research, said:
Imagine a government that was as efficient as an Amazon, as innovative as a Google and as well designed as an iPhone. Digital technology offers the potential for a new kind of government in which the citizen is as an active and responsible user, directly in control of their public services, rather than a passive recipient of decisions mandated from the top. This in turn will allow us to create a more flexible, responsive and agile state. The technology exists to make this a reality and the first step should be a single digital account for every citizen to help them navigate and put them in control of their public services.
A true smart state should be responsive, intelligent and joined up. The UK is already a world leader in the field – but we can and should go further. The amount of data held by the UK public sector can be a huge advantage if we can use it better. Joining up government data and services needs to be a priority for every relevant department.
Take gov.uk as an example. It was a big success when it was created in 2014, but since then has stood still – it isn’t customised for individual users, and gives you far less transparency over how your data is being used than many private sector websites or apps. Wherever possible, the user should be in control – not Whitehall.
Today’s Guardian has a story saying that analysis by the pro-remain group Best for Britain purports to show that the number of Labour leave voters in Labour constituencies is lower than generally assumed.
John Mann, the Labour MP who voted leave, is unimpressed. In a comment on a tweet linking to the story, he posted this:
Total nonsense, from all our repeated polling for 15 years and from our continuous canvassing returns. https://t.co/Fe9KVsVQv6
— John Mann (@JohnMannMP) May 29, 2018
They end up talking about Marks & Spencer. Rees-Mogg says it is not the main place where he buys his clothes, although he may get his socks there, he says.
And that’s it. The phone-in is over.
Ferrari returns to the John Bercow question.
Q: Are you saying there should not be an inquiry into his conduct?
Rees-Mogg says he is opposed to an inquiry.
He says Bercow is a very good speaker, but he does sometimes lose his temper.
Q: You say you do not want to be prime minister. But what would you do if your colleagues proposed you?
Rees-Mogg says that reminds him of a Yes Minister scene. He says he is a backbencher. The Conservative party in government always chooses a cabinet minister as leader, he says.
Ferrari pushes Rees-Mogg. What would you do if MPs said they wanted to you.
Rees-Mogg says he would have to throw his hat into the ring. If he did, it would be thrown back, he says.
Q: Do you think the Met police should be telling YouTube to remove drill videos, on the grounds the lyrics incite violence.
Ferrari plays a drill clip. Rees-Mogg admits it is not his type of music.
Rees-Mogg says tackling crime is more important.
Q: Do you agree with Norman Fowler, the Lord speaker, that there should be an inquiry into John Bercow’s conduct?
Rees-Mogg says he thinks Fowler’s comments have been over-interpreted. As Lord speaker, Fowler knows that the two houses of parliament are independent of each other, and regulate themselves independently.
But he says he is a great admirer of John Bercow’s. He says Bercow may have a temper, but he is not a bully.
Q: What about having a referendum in Northern Ireland?
Rees-Mogg says he is in favour of referendums. They are a good way of settling these issues, he says.
Q: Do you think abortion should be liberalised in Northern Ireland?
Rees-Mogg says his anti-abortion views are well know. He was struck Jim Shannon, the DUP MP, making the argument yesterday that 100,000 people are alive in Northern Ireland would not otherwise be alive if it were not for Northern Ireland’s abortion laws.
But there is a second point, he says. This is a devolved matter. It is for Northern Ireland to decide.
Q: If it became clear that Brexit was harming the economy, and weakening the UK’s status, and that people were changing their minds, would you respect that?
Rees-Mogg says the people voted in the referendum. This comes down to a matter of whether you respect democracy.
In Italy democracy is not being respected, he says. That is the case even though the EU has been “disastrous” for Italy. Look at the youth unemployment figures.
Rees-Mogg says he is not an expert on Italy, but he he thinks that if there is another election there, the League and the Five Star Movement will do even better.
Q: But would you respect it if people changed their mind?
Rees-Mogg says we have had a vote. That must be respected. If in 30 years’ time people were to change their minds, but that would be different. But if the referendum is not implemented, democracy in the UK will be held in contempt.
UPDATE: Here’s the key quote.
We had the biggest democratic exercise in our nation’s history - 17.4m people voted to leave and of course that should be implemented.
If, in 30 years’ time, the UK wants to rejoin, that would be a matter for the electorate then.
But this result must be respected and it must be implemented, otherwise we would find our democracy held in as much contempt as that in Greece and Italy by the EU.
Updated
Rees-Mogg's LBC phone-in
The LBC presenter Nick Ferrari starts by asking about a story on the front of today’s Times.
THE TIMES: UN knew of sex-for-food scandal at top charities #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/gaLt6Yn3xF
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 28, 2018
Here is the story (paywall) and here is how it starts.
Britain will help to determine the EU’s £1 trillion budget up to 2027 after European countries defied Brussels and invited UK officials to take part in negotiations.
The invitation, which has been accepted, was made because EU officials believe that Britain will keep paying billions of euros to Brussels for years after Brexit.
The European Commission is furious at the plan, which was devised by the EU council representing individual member states. The commission claims that Britain will use budget discussions to change the rules to make it easier for the country to join science, research and other spending programmes after leaving the EU.
Eurosceptic Tories are also dismayed as they fear that it raises the chance of Britain continuing to pay big sums to the EU.
Jacob Rees-Mogg says he has seen the story.
Referring to the headline, he says newspapers often say politicians are angry, when in fact they are concerned, he says.
He says the UK should be careful about remaining involved in EU budget discussions after Brexit. If the UK is involved, it may have to take responsibility - and may be asked for a contribution, he says.
I think we need to be very careful about being in the budget discussions. If you are in the discussions, is there a risk that you begin to take responsibility for decisions and then you find that you get a bill at the end of it?
People want a clean Brexit - once we’ve left, we’ve left the European Union. We may be involved in the Erasmus programme or something like that, but that will be a stand-alone issue to which we will contribute a set amount of money.
But we are not interested in, and we have no standing with regard to, the EU’s total budget.
That’s a matter for them and we would no more want to discuss that with them than we would expect them to go to the chancellor of the exchequer and say ‘Before you draw up your Budget, would you bear this in mind?”
Asked about the HMRC claim last week that the “maximum facilitation” customs proposal could cost British business up to £20bn a year, he says that would amount to a 5% transaction fee. That figures “looks inflated”, he says.
Updated
Failing to prepare for 'no deal' Brexit would be 'incompetent and weak', says Rees-Mogg
There are about 60 Conservative MPs who support the European Research Group, the internal Tory group pushing for a harder version of Brexit. If they were a separate political party they would be the third largest in the House of Commons, and their leader would get questions every week at PMQs. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ERG chair, would be asking them.
This morning he is hosting his regular LBC phone-in. But he has already been sounding off in the Sun, criticising the government for not doing enough to prepare for a no deal Brexit. He told the paper:
Planning for no deal ought to be an essential part of the negotiations strategy. To show we could easily walk away would worry the EU, strengthening our position and failing to do so would be both incompetent and weak.
Rees-Mogg was responding to a report in the Financial Times (paywall) saying the government’s “preparations for a ‘no deal’ Brexit in March 2019 have largely ground to a halt, making it almost impossible for Theresa May to walk out of negotiations with the EU in the next 10 months, according to people with close knowledge of the situation.”
The Commons is in recess, and it is a quiet day at Westminster, and so I will be covering the phone-in in some detail. Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP who chairs the pro-Brexit European Research Group, hosts his LBC phone-in.
11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.
11am: Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, delivers a speech at the Rusi thinktank. As my colleague Patrick Wintour reports, Tugendhat will argue that Boris Johnson has been “hobbled” as foreign secretary partly by a Whitehall refusal to make the Foreign Office a strategic department spanning diplomacy, trade and overseas development.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at the end of the day.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
Updated
