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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Andrew Sparrow, Claire Phipps and Chris Johnston

Tory leadership election: Leadsom beats Gove to join Theresa May on shortlist - live

Theresa May: ‘The party can come together under my leadership’

Summary

That’s about all from our politics live blog today - thanks for reading. Claire Phipps and Jessica Elgot will be on deck on Friday for what might be a slightly less eventful day in Westminster.

Just to recap the day’s main points:

  • Some 155,000 Conservative Party members will decide on either Theresa May or Andrea Leadsom as their new leader and thus the new prime minister.
  • The home secretary won 199 votes from MPs, while the junior energy minister won 84.
  • Justice secretary Michael Gove was eliminated from the leadership contest after winning the backing of just 46 MPs.
  • A postal ballot of Tory members will be held over the summer, with the result announced on 9 September.
  • More details in our story here.

Guardian business reporter Sean Farrell tweets:

Updated

Andrea Leadsom leaves Millbank Studios after giving TV interviews on Thursday.
Andrea Leadsom leaves Millbank Studios after giving TV interviews on Thursday. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/EPA

Andrea Leadsom has done an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg and is asked about the controversy over her CV.

She says: “I’ve not changed my CV – I’ve had 25 years in finance... My CV is incredibly varied and it’s all absolutely true.”

We posted earlier on the interview given to Channel 4 News by her former Invesco colleague Robert Stephens.

Leadsom tells the BBC :“I was not a fund manager”, adding: “There’s nothing to regret.”

Watch the full interview here.

A new “pop-up” paper - the New European - is out tomorrow and here’s how its first front page looks:

And a tweet from its launch editor Matt Kelly:

Updated

Some male politicians have found it necessary to explain that they are quite happy to have a choice between two women, as long as they were on either side of the Brexit divide. For those still struggling, the men’s magazine GQ has helpfully framed the choice in the context of the two mummies: the one who makes you do your homework (May) and the one who’ll let you have ice cream for breakfast (Leadsom).

Read more from Anne here:

Updated

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg tweets:

Sky News senior political correspondent Beth Rigby wonders if this is the Leadsom leadership plan on a sheet of A4...

The Channel 4 News deputy editor, Shaminder Nahal, has tweeted a link to an interview with Robert Stephens, a former colleague of Andrea Leadsom at Invesco.

Stephens says he is irritated by Leadsom’s decision to project herself as “being somebody in a senior investment management role in a major organisation, when actually she wasn’t … She was a part-time assistant to the chief investment officer, working on special projects. She was sort of in charge of pay and rations, as one of my former colleagues put it. A very important job, but not one that entitles you to call yourself a banker or an investment manager.”

Updated

The Labour MP for Don Valley offers her party a suggestion:

Almost a quarter of German companies with operations in the UK are planning to cut jobs in Britain following the Brexit vote, a new survey finds.

The German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) poll of 5,600 companies - of which 13% had subsidiaries or branches in the UK - also found that 36% of those with operations in Britain planned to invest less in Britain.

The German companies said they had already experienced a “noticeable dent” in trade with the UK since the Brexit vote, which was expected to become larger in the medium term. Some 28% said they expected trade with the UK to be down over the next two years and 49% over a longer period.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, described the findings as deeply worrying: “The government urgently needs to come up with an action plan to reassure foreign investors and companies that Britain is still open for business. They need to fast-track spending on key infrastructure projects like high-speed rail and the third runway at Heathrow.”

Updated

Speaking of William Hill, the bookmaker has Theresa May as hot favourite to be elected Tory leader, with odds of 1/5, with Andrea Leadsom a 7/2 chance.

Coral, another bookmaker, has cuts the odds on May winning the contest to 1/5, with Leadsom at 7/2.

William Hill is offering odds of 5/2 on a general election being held this year, 5/1 in 2017, 20/1 in both 2018 and 2019, and 4/6 in 2020.

Updated

A Union Jack flies next to an EU flag in London
A Union Jack flies next to an EU flag in London Photograph: Chris Radcliffe/Getty Images

Although the bookies were a tiny bit wrong predicting the outcome of the EU referendum (they weren’t the only ones, to be fair), William Hill have cut their odds of the UK not leaving the EU before 2020 from 3/1 to 2/1.

They offer odds of 4/6 that the departure will come in 2019 and 4/1 for 2018. “Political punters are betting that the realisation of Brexit will happen later rather than sooner,” says William Hill spokesperson Graham Sharpe.

Updated

Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May
Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May Photograph: Niklas Halle'N and Chris Radcliffe/Getty Images

For old school Tories who struggle to conceal their chauvinism, the May-Leadsom contest has the makings of a “jolly catfight”. Those with a firmer grip on reality will keep in mind that this final ballot decides the identity of their new leader, the next prime minister, and the trajectory of party and country for years to come. All those jokes about kitten heels, hairdos and handbags already seem horribly out of date.

Read more from Matthew here:

The Spectator’s literary editor, Sam Leith, quips:

Updated

Delegates (some more alert than others) listen to a speech at last year’s Conservative party conference in Manchester in October.
Delegates (some more alert than others) listen to a speech at last year’s Conservative party conference in Manchester in October. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/Rex/Shutterstock

The choice of the next prime minister will be made by about 150,000 members of the Conservative party now that Tory MPs have selected Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom as the two names to go on the voting slip.

The winner, who needs more than 50% of valid votes cast, will be announced on 9 September, allowing her to answer prime minister’s questions in the Commons on 14 September and make her first major speech as Tory leader to the Conservative autumn conference in Birmingham on 5 October.

Timings for the postal ballot papers to be sent out and returned are yet to be determined. But those thinking they can join the Tories and influence the vote will be disappointed: the deadline for taking part in the election was three months before the close of voting – 9 June.

Updated

Thanks to Andrew for the day’s coverage. He’s also left us with a sterling snapshot of the six things we know about the race to be the next Tory party leader – and thus prime minister:

Updated

Senior Tories in Scotland are backing Theresa May. This is from Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader in Scotland.

Serious times call for serious people and Theresa is a proper grown up who will assess all the evidence before making a decision. I trust her in the tough negotiations ahead to be able to go eyeball to eyeball with [German chancellor] Angela Merkel, and not blink.

It is important that the new prime minister is alive to the threats to our union that the SNP will try to engineer. And it is no surprise that those in leadership positions in the Conservative party in Scotland – myself in Holyrood, Annabel Goldie in the House of Lords, David Mundell in the Commons and our MEP Ian Duncan – are all agreed that the person most able to protect Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom is Theresa May.

That’s all from me.

My colleague Chris Johnston is taking over now.

Updated

ConservativeHome, the independent website for Conservative members, is backing Theresa May for the Tory leadership. Here is an extract from an article by its editor, Paul Goodman:

May has said that “Brexit is Brexit”. In other words, there is no difference between the two candidates in terms of their aim. Some doubt that she means it. They point to the devoted remainers who have queued up to support her: Ken Clarke, Anna Soubry, Damian Green, and so on. It may just be that these critics are right; it’s far more likely that they are wrong. This is not only because May, though as capable of being tricksy as any other politician, is straighter than many of them, but because she will know the consequences of backsliding. With a majority of only a dozen or so, her government would fall.

But either way, the plain fact now is that only May the remainer can deliver Brexit through this Commons and parliament. Leadsom cannot do so on a base of 84 votes. A win for her in the second stage of the contest would be a Jeremy Corbyn victory – in other words, an empty one. She might command the support of party members; she would already have been rejected by MPs, twice as many of whom would have voted for her opponent. The British political system is ultimately a Westminster-based system. Leaders must command the support of those they work with every day. This matters even more in government than in opposition, because the stakes for voters are so much higher.

Updated

Here is Marina Hyde on the Conservative election result.

And here is an extract:

Even in the final hour, Gove was vainly trying to make the leap from character actor to leading man. A Spectator interview found him glossing the Boris knifing thus: “I compare it to a group of people standing outside a collapsing building, wondering who is going to rescue a child inside. I thought: well, I don’t think I’ve got either the strength or the speed for this, but as I looked around, I thought, God, I’m at least as strong and at least as fast as the others. I’ve got to try to save the child.” Spoken like the world’s creepiest arsonist.

Updated

This is from the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith.

Jon Ashworth, the shadow minister without portfolio, has issued a statement on the contest on behalf of the Labour party.

Bravely, in the light of what is going on in his own party, he is criticising the Tories for their “bitter infighting”. He said:

It would be churlish not to recognise the Tories are moving to elect a woman leader and now Britain’s second female prime minister. But let’s not forget both Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom are part of a government which has failed the British people for six years.

Whilst they continue their bitter infighting over whether they are qualified for the job or not, the only record the public should pay attention to is their record of failure.

They offer nothing new for working people, just more of the same.

Johnson says election result shows Tories 'the most progressive party in Britain'

Boris Johnson has issued a statement congratulating Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. He said:

For the second time in history the Conservatives will have a female prime minster, proving that we are the not just the greatest but the most progressive party in Britain.

I want to offer particular congratulations to Andrea Leadsom on her stunning achievement. She is now well placed to win and replace the absurd gloom in some quarters with a positive, confident and optimistic approach, not just to Europe, but to government all round.

Here is the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast, with Martin Kettle, Polly Toynbee, Rafael Behr and Tom Clark discussing Chilcot and the Tory leadership.

What the Tory leadership election result means

1 - The next prime minister will be a woman. Apologies for stating the obvious, but the new Conservative leader due to be announced on Friday 9 September will be only the second woman to serve as prime minister. The UK and Scottish governments will both have female leaders at the same time. And, if Hillary Clinton becomes US president, then three of the G7 leaders will be women – another first.

2 - And the next prime minister is likely to be Theresa May. May goes into the contest as the clear favourite. With 199 votes, May won the support of 60% of MPs. She is vastly more experienced than Andrea Leadsom and she is attracting significant support from Tories who voted leave, as well as those who, like her, voted remain. A YouGov poll of Conservative members earlier this week showed her well ahead of Leadsom.

YouGov poll of Tory members
YouGov poll of Tory members Photograph: YouGov

3 - But Andrea Leadsom has a real chance of winning. Over the last two days she has received quite a lot of hostile press coverage, including from rightwing papers like the Daily Mail and the Times, mostly about the fact that her City career does not seem to have been quite as high-powered as people assumed. But this does not seem to have cost her much support in the Commons. (I’m sad to report that Tory MPs obviously don’t take any notice of my blog.) Leadsom received 84 votes, 18 more than last time. More significantly, there is some evidence that her popularity is soaring among the grassroots. Although the YouGov figures show May well ahead of her among the membership, a ConservativeHome survey of party members this week showed her narrowly ahead of May.

ConservativeHome survey
ConservativeHome survey. Photograph: ConservativeHome/ConHome

This was a survey, not a poll, and therefore it is likely to be less reliable. Tory insiders believe it over-stated Leadsom’s support because activist Eurosceptics were probably more likely to participate than May-leaning armchair moderates. But they also believe that the trend it has identified – a surge towards Leadsom – is real.

4 - Leadsom has two big advantages - and May might have to end up having to attack Leadsom’s inexperience quite brutally to overcome them. Leadsom’s plus points are: 1) that she is the most anti-Europe candidate; and 2) that she is the most new. In most of the Tory leadership contests anyone can remember the winner tended to be the relative newcomer with the most Eurosceptic pitch. This is particularly true of the only two previous contests involving all party members having a vote: 2001, which saw Iain Duncan Smith beat Ken Clarke; and 2005, which saw David Cameron beat David Davis. (Cameron is not more Eurosceptic than Davis now, but at the time he committed to taking the Tories out of the federalist EPP group in the European parliament.) But this is the first all-member ballot to elect a prime minister, instead of an opposition leader, and therefore it will be surprising if May does not end up stressing the dangers of electing someone so inexperienced.

5 - Michael Gove has paid a heavy price for his treachery. It was a week ago today when he announced he was no longer supporting Boris Johnson and instead standing for leader on his own. Until that point the prospects of the Johnson/Gove ticket winning the leadership seemed very high indeed. But today all that’s left of that are Gove’s 46 votes – a mere 14% of the parliamentary party. Gove was clearly being punished for his disloyalty to his sometime friend. Interestingly, Gove’s vote actually went down by two since Tuesday – possibly because his ally Nick Boles was caught trying to hobble the Leadsom campaign aggressively.

6 - There will be intense interest now in discovering whether “insurgency fever” has gripped the Conservative membership. In the past they have picked novice anti-Europeans as leader. But this leadership election is taking place against the backdrop of a general election victory last year, not a general election defeat, and it is hard to detect an appetite for radical change in the party. Also, members will be electing a prime minister. But the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader last year showed just how easy it is now for a candidate backed by a grassroots insurgency to beat a stuffy establishment rival. There is a limit to how far one can push the Leadsom/Corbyn parallel – she is a minister with mainstream backing, Corbyn was a maverick backbencher until elected leader – but they are both change candidates, with enthusiastic backing from outside the party (Ukip and the Greens respectively). If the Tory membership has become Kipperish in recent year, May will be in trouble.

Updated

Michael Gove is speaking now.

He thanks his supporters. He had some of the brightest and the best supporting him.

He congratulates Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom.

He says he is pleased the next PM will be a female PM with formidable skills.

He says members must assess their skills. He hopes the party will have a debate that is civilised, inclusive and optimistic.

He has played his part by saying the party’s first concern should be standing up for the dispossessed and the voiceless.

Theresa May says she is delighted to have won support from all over the party.

This shows she can unite the party, she says.

She says she has always said there should be a contest. She will take her case to the country.

She wants a united party. And she wants a Britain that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

Updated

Theresa May is addressing the media outside parliament now.

Leadsom beats Gove to join May on shortlist for Conservative leadership ballot

Here are the results.

Theresa May - 199

Andrea Leadsom - 84

Michael Gove - 46

This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

This is from the BBC’s Peter Henley.

This is from Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett.

Updated

This is from the Times’s Frances Elliott.

This is from the Conservative MP Christopher Pincher.

If Andrea Leadsom does get onto the shortlist, she can expect a rough ride from the Daily Mail over the next two months. The paper is backing Theresa May and today the paper has a two-page spread about Leadsom under the headline: “Can we really trust her?” Here is an extract.

Voting closes in second Conservative leadership election ballot

Voting has just closed in the second round of the Conservative leadership election.

There are three candidates - Theresa May, Andrea Leadsom and Michael Gove - and we will get the result at about 4.30pm.

For reference, here are the results from the first round on Tuesday.

Theresa May - 165

Andrea Leadsom - 66

Michael Gove - 48

Stephen Crabb - 34

Liam Fox - 16

On Tuesday 329 Tory MPs voted. The only one who did not was David Cameron.

These are from Sky’s Beth Rigby.

This is from Sky’s Faisal Islam.

Here is some of the latest journo chatter about the Tory leadership contest.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From Newsnight’s Chris Cook

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From the FT’s Sebastian Payne

This is from Denis MacShane, the former Labour MP.

Here’s a Guardian video of Andrea Leadsom talking about why she did not like the equal marriage legislation.

Andrea Leadsom: I did not like gay marriage law – video

And here is her key quote.

Dugdale says Labour exploring 'federalist' option that could let Scotland stay in UK and EU

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, gave a speech today saying it would “categorically wrong” for the UK government to block a second independence referendum if it were called for by the Scottish people, my colleague Libby Brooks reports.

In the speech Dugdale also said Labour was exploring whether some federalist arrangement in the UK could lead to Scotland being able to remain in the UK and the EU. She said Lord Falconer, the Labour former justice secretary, was looking at this, “exploring some potential avenues around a federalist solution”. She went on:

There’s no question that the United Kingdom as one entity is going through a process for Brexit just now, but what I am arguing for is there may be a possibility that Scotland could retain its place both in the UK and in the EU through a potential - and I have to say this tentatively - a potential federalist solution which could see us achieve that.

It’s important I focus on that and I explore those options, because actually that’s what the vast majority of people in Scotland want - that’s been reflected in two referendum results.

People in this country voted to be part of the United Kingdom and they voted to be part of the European Union. And if you listen to that democratic mandate and the voice of the people of Scotland, it’s the duty upon us to try to find an avenue where that may be possible.

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

Priti Patel, the employment minister and a leading Vote Leave campaigner, has announced that she is backing Theresa May in the Tory leadership election.

She implied she would be voting for May in an article for the Telegraph on Tuesday, but was not explicit.

The security alert in parliament (see 2.22pm) is over. A House of Lords spokesman said there was a “security incident” earlier but everything was found to be safe and restrictions had been removed. The spokesman:

Peers car park and parts of the terrace were closed temporarily but have now been reopened. The closure was put in place while a package containing a white powder was investigated by specialist police units, which is standard procedure. The powder was found to be non-harmful.

UPDATE: This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Updated

Lunchtime summary

  • Andrea Leadsom, a Tory leadership candidate, has said that she did not like the gay marriage law. Conservative MPs are today voting on three candidates and the two who do best will go to a ballot of all party members with the winner, and next prime minister, announced on 9 September. Theresa May, the home secretary, is the favourite and almost certain to make the shortlist. Leadsom is currently in second place, but Michael Gove, who was third on Tuesday, has not given up hope of overtaking her when the results are announced soon after 4pm.
  • Leadsom has said that she was never a fund manager in the City - and never claimed to be one. But, as my colleague Rowena Mason points out, it is easy to see how people might have got the impression from what she said that she was.
  • Parts of parliament - including the House of Lords terrace - have been taped off by police because of an ongoing “chemical incident”. As Rowena Mason reports, amember of staff said police were looking at a possible suspicious substance sent to a peer. However, catering staff and peers appeared relatively unconcerned, with many continuing to eat their lunch regardless, although no one was allowed in or out of the terrace. The rest of parliament appeared to be operating as normal.
  • Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, has told MPs that the new structures put in place by David Cameron, such as the creation of a national security council, would reduce the chances of the Iraq mistakes identified in the Chilcot report being repeated. He said:

It is most unlikely that the same kind of failures could occur, given the structures we now have in place.

We are seeking time, we asking people to give us time. There’s no haste here, there’s no rush for anybody to declare. So, we are asking for people to give us a little bit of time to see what we can do.

A source close to Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, said she would challenge Corbyn’s leadership “when the time is right”. The source said:

Angela has made her position 100% clear but she will challenge when there is absolutely nothing left to fight for. There will be a challenge unless he goes.

  • Philip Hammond has said that Britain is not yet in a position to start negotiations on its exit from the EU. Giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee he said:

In terms of triggering article 50 [the process that starts the two-year withdrawal process], my judgment is it wouldn’t be in the best interests of the UK to trigger article 50 immediately. Article 50 sets a clock ticking and I don’t think at the moment, for various reasons - not least of which, we don’t have the new prime minister in post - for the moment we are not in a position to begin substantive negotiations immediately and therefore it would be unwise to start the process ticking by triggering article 50.

He said that, although EU officials were opposed to holding informal talks on withdrawal before article 50 is invoked, his fellow foreign ministers were “much more sympathetic to the political circumstances we are in”. And he said that countries currently undertaking “tortuous” negotiations with the EU on trade agreements may find that deals could be sealed more quickly and easily with Britain on its own. Some potential trading partners “may find it easier, if less fruitful in the long run, to make a bilateral agreement with the UK”, Hammond said. This is quite different from what pro-EU ministers were saying during the referendum campaign after President Obama said the UK would go “to the back of the queue” when the US was prioritising trade deals.

  • George Osborne has moved to try to calm post-Brexit jitters in London’s economically pivotal banking sector. As the Press Association reports, after meeting senior figures from Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the chancellor stressed the need to ensure the capital remained one of the globe’s key financial centres. A joint statement from Mr Osborne and the bankers said:

Britain’s decision to leave the EU clearly presents economic challenges which we are determined to work together to meet. We will also work together to identify the new opportunities that may now become available so that Britain remains one of the most attractive places in the world to do business. One of Britain’s key economic strengths is that it is a world-leading financial centre.

  • Fifteen secretive orders are in force allowing British spy agencies to collect large volumes of communications data, it has been revealed. The measures were issued by home and foreign Secretaries on behalf of MI5 and GCHQ using a little-known legal provision between 2001 and 2016, the Press Association reports. Under Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984, communications providers can be issued with directions which enable security and intelligence services to obtain communications data in bulk. The figures are released in a report from the interception of communications commissioner’s office.

George Galloway says that following the Chilcot report he should now be readmitted to the Labour party.

This is from the Times’s Sam Coates.

Q: Cameron says he is very proud of his record on same-sex marriage. You said you did a positive abstention on this. What did that mean?

Leadsom says she believes same-sex love is as valid as heterosexual love. But she was not happy with the way the legislation was framed, so she voted both for and against – effectively abstaining.

Updated

Q: You say EU nationals would be able to stay in the UK. But would that apply to people here from now, or up until the moment we leave?

Leadsom says the guarantee would not apply to people coming to the UK right up until the point of withdrawal. She says, after she became prime minister, she would offer a guarantee. But there would be a cut-off point.

Q: What if EU countries say they will not reciprocate?

Leadsom says that would be “shameful”. She does not think that would happen.

Q: When would you trigger article 50 if you were prime minister?

Leadsom says they would need to get on with it. It would have to be “as soon as possible”.

Q: You said in your speech this morning you want tariff-free trade with the EU. That means being in the single market, doesn’t it?

No, says Leadsom. She does not accept that.

Updated

Leadsom says the markets have been taken by surprise. They were expecting a remain vote. So that is why sterling has fallen.

But when sterling falls, that is good for exports, she says. It can be good for the economy.

Updated

Andrea Leadsom's World at One interview

Andrea Leadsom has given an interview to the World at One which is being broadcast now.

She says she will publish her tax details if she makes it on to the shortlist.

She says she has offered to show Tory MPs her tax returns before she publishes them. But as far as she knows no MP has taken her up on the offer.

Q: Your CV says you were managing director of De Putron Fund Management. But the records in Companies House say you were marketing director.

Leadsom says it was a start-up. So people had to fill more than one role, and some roles have to be filled.

Q: On the Andrew Marr Show you said you managed big teams when you were at Barclays.

Yes, says Leadsom. That’s right.

Q: How many people were in the team you were managing?

Leadsom says she cannot remember exactly. Around 40 or 50, she says.

Updated

May accuses Leadsom of being willing to let foreign criminals stay in the UK

Theresa May, the home secretary and favourite in the Tory leadership contest, has accused her rival Andrea Leadsom of being willing to let foreign criminals stay in the UK. Picking up on Leadsom’s declaration in her speech that she would let EU nationals who are in the UK legally remain after Brexit (see 9.49am), a spokesman for the May campaign said:

Andrea Leadsom’s commitment to give permanent residence to foreign criminals is concerning and is exactly the kind of misjudgment that her inexperience can cause. That’s why we need strong, proven leadership – something only Theresa can offer.

Theresa May.
Theresa May. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Updated

Leadsom says she did not like gay marriage law

Andrea Leadsom has given interviews to the BBC, Sky and ITV this morning. Here are the main points:

  • Leadsom said she did not like the gay marriage law. She would prefer to offer equality by letting heterosexual people have civil partnerships, she said.
  • She said that she would review HS2. And she had an open mind on the proposed Heathrow third runway.
  • She said she would like to give MPs a vote on legalising foxhunting.
  • She said she had never been a fund manager and never claimed to have been one. But Leadsom had managed “huge teams of people and large budgets” in her City career, she said.

I was always very clear; I was senior investment officer working very closely with the chief investment officer. I have been very clear; I’m not a funds manager. I was, in Barclays and BZW, managing huge teams of people and large budgets and responsible for the trading relationships. To be very careful not to mislead, Barclays is a very big player in the large corporate and institutional banking world, and so the trading relationships are enormous – billions and billions and billions of pounds. So, when I was there as the financial institutions director responsible for UK banking relationship, the responsibility was for billions of pounds of trading lines and facilities to those companies … I’ve never said I was a fund manager and I’ve never been a fund manager.

  • She said she had not yet published her tax details because she wanted to stop MPs coming under pressure to release private information.

I want to defend my colleagues from the constant pressure to hand out every detail of their private lives.

But she would publish her tax details if she made it onto the shortlist for the Conservative leadership contest, she said. They were “very boring”, Leadsom said.

Updated

Here’s a Guardian video with an excerpt from Andrea Leadsom’s speech this morning.

Andrea Leadsom: Nobody needs to fear UK’s decision to leave EU

And here is some more reaction to it from journalists.

From the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe:

From the Times’s Patrick Kidd:

From the Guardian’s Marina Hyde:

From BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson:

From the Telegraph’s Asa Bennett:

From Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh:

Updated

Joe Murphy and Joseph Watts in the Evening Standard have got a great anecdote from what went on at the behind-closed-doors Tory leadership hustings last night.

The justice secretary [Michael Gove] made an emotional speech about how being adopted had affected his life. But when he told the meeting, “my name is not really Michael,” an MP heckled: “no, it’s Brutus!” Later he was attacked by Graham Stuart, a May backer, who said: “Michael, you promised your support for the leadership and then betrayed him.

“You have just claimed to represent the best traditions of the Tory party and said we should vote for whoever we think would make the best prime minister, yet you and your supporters have spent the day doing the opposite.”

Gove was referring to the fact that his birth mother called him Graham before he was put up for adoption as a baby.

Updated

Leadsom says she was never a fund manager

Andrea Leadsom has been talking about her CV, and the allegations that her City career was not quite as high powered as people have assumed.

She says she was never a fund manager, even though a CV released by her office yesterday said that for 10 years she was “senior investment officer and head of corporate governance” at Invesco Perpetual, implying she was a fund manager.

But she says she did manage large teams and very large budgets.

Updated

Hammond says he hopes UK can resolve issue of EU nationals' rights early in withdrawal talks

Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, is giving evidence to the foreign affairs committee. My colleague Patrick Wintour has been monitoring.

Owen Smith says talks aimed at resolving Labour's leadership crisis should be given more time

Turning to Labour, Owen Smith, the former shadow work and pension secretary, has put out a statement this morning about his leadership intentions.

Over the last week, I have been contacted by hundreds of Labour members and MPs deeply worried that the Labour party is truly in danger of splitting apart. I share those fears and call on everyone in our movement to do all we can to avert such a disastrous outcome.

I stand ready to do anything I can to save and serve the party. Yesterday, I spoke directly with Len McCluskey of Unite and met with our leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to explore what I can do to try and heal the rifts that have opened up in our movement. On behalf of the trades unions, Len has reassured me that the talks he has opened up between Jeremy and Tom Watson have been productive and has asked that they are given more time this weekend to see what further progress can be made towards a resolution.

Jeremy has also reassured me that he is engaging in talks with an open mind. I believe that all of us whose priority is to restore unity in the Labour movement and give us a chance to defeat our only true enemy, the Tories, should give these talks every chance to succeed. That is what I intend to do and I urge all my colleagues to do likewise.

Smith and Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary, have both been canvassing support to mount a leadership challenge against Jeremy Corbyn, but so far it has yet to materialise. That is partly because there is consensus that only one person should challenge Corbyn, and Smith and Eagle cannot agree who it should be, but also because Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, is involved in talks with union leaders to try to find a less divisive resolution to the conflict.

  • Owen Smith says says talks aimed at resolving Labour’s leadership crisis should be given more time.
  • He says talks have been “productive”.
  • He says Jeremy Corbyn engaging in compromise talks with “an open mind”.
Owen Smith.
Owen Smith. Photograph: Andrew MacColl/REX/Shutterstock

The Chilcot report into Britain’s decision to go to war in Iraq exposes Downing Street’s “blind” support for the United States and the dangers of western hegemony, China’s official news agency has claimed.

China opposed the 2003 invasion and in an English language editorial published on Thursday morning, Xinhua accuses the US of sparing “no effort to intervene in other countries under the cover of democracy”.

“Some western countries, in particular the United States, have always tried to force their values on other countries without any respect for their own development paths,” the Communist party run news agency says. “To protect their interests and maintain their dominance in the world, they can easily wage a war by fabricating an excuse in defiance of the United Nations’ (UN) authority.”

Tony Blair’s decision to join the US-led war was a “blind action” in support of a country which “regards military force as a permissible means to topple regimes that are not submissive, even at the cost of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and a country’s destiny,” Xinhua claims.

“Looking around, the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups such as the Islamic State group should be blamed on the hegemonism and interventionism perpetrated by the United States and its western allies,” the news agency concludes.

Updated

This screengrab from the front page of the Guardian’s website is quite telling.

Guardian website front page.
Guardian website front page. Photograph: Guardian website front page/Guardian website

Andrea Leadsom has been speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. She denied changing her CV or engaging in tax avoidance.

Here is some footage of the “march” in support of Andrea Leadsom.

‘What do we want? Leadsom for leader!’ Supporters march on parliament

Updated

Andrea Leadsom's speech - Summary

Andrea Leadsom has set out her pitch to be a positive and optimistic Conservative prime minister, promising to the goal would be “prosperity, not austerity”.

In a speech in Westminster, Leadsom, the leading pro-Brexit candidate, appeared to ditch the economic strategy of her former boss George Osborne and sought to reassure the financial markets that Britain could cope with leaving the EU.

She said the lower pound would be good for exports and claimed the stock market had already recovered.

To cheers from supporters, Leadsom said she wanted to “banish the pessimists” in a speech that blended patriotism with aspirational values.

“Together we will write another great chapter of prosperity and tolerance and hope,” she said.

Leadsom did not take questions after the short speech as she rushed out to a waiting car. But a group of her supporters marched from Millbank to parliament, some chanting: “What do we want? Leadsom. When do we want it? Now.”

Andrea Leadsom's speech - Analysis

Buy shares in Michael Gove. On Tuesday night, after the results of the first round of the Conservative leadership election came out, it looked as if Andrea Leadsom was the overwhelming favourite to come second today - meaning that Gove would drop out, and Leadsom and Theresa May would be on the shortlist of two in the ballot of party members. It was very hard to see where Gove would find the votes to catch her up. But after that speech I’m not so sure - because that speech was so dire that it would be surprising if some of her MP supporters who watched did not start to have second thoughts.

Yesterday afternoon her team sent out an operational note to journalists saying she would be making “a major speech on the economy”. In the event, we got nothing of the sort. The problem was not that it was short, because it is not difficult to say something interesting and meaningful in a few hundred words. What was so awful was that it was trite - little more than a catalogue of slogans about optimism and Britain having a bright future. People who put themselves forward as a future prime minister normally have clear ideas of what they want to do. Leadsom had an opportunity to reveal her own ideas today, but the cupboard seemed empty.

It is not just me saying this. This is from ITV’s Chris Ship.

And this is from BBC’s Norman Smith.

Leadsom’s supporters are now holding a rally. I will post on that in a moment.

Does this mean Gove will really beat Leadsom in the ballot tonight? Who knows? We get the results shortly after 4pm. Leadsom got 66 votes on Tuesday, and Gove got 48. There are 34 Stephen Crabb votes up for grabs, but it is thought that almost all of those will go to Theresa May. There are also 16 Liam Fox votes available, but even if all of those went to fellow hawkish leaver Gove (and they won’t, because Fox is voting for May), on their own they would not allow Gove to overtake Leadsom. But the doubts about Leadsom’s CV, which first emerged after Tuesday night, will have damaged her, and today’s speech raises serious doubts about her credibility as a future PM.

In one sense, though, she might benefit. There has been speculation about Theresa May supporters voting tactically for Michael Gove, in the belief that May would find it easier in a membership ballot to beat Gove (assassin of the Tory grassroots idol Boris Johnson) than Leadsom (Thatcher-wannabe Brexiteer). But Gove, for all his faults, is a proper political heavyweight. Maybe some of May’s supporters will look at Leadsom’s speech today and conclude that in a two-month leadership contest she would crumble.

Andrea Leadsom delivering her speech today.
Andrea Leadsom delivering her speech today. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

The Leadsom speech is now over. She is not taking questions.

I will post a summary shortly.

Leadsom says the UK has a great deal to offer. It gave the world the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, the right to own property and the free market.

We are a remarkable people, and we have so much more to give, she says.

We will write another great chapter, she says - one of tolerance, prosperity and hope.

Leadsom says she will work tirelessly to ensure investors the UK is open for business.

She says she expects to see continued growth. And she expects to see people getting pay rises.

Hers will be a realistic but an optimistic voice.

I believe we have a great future ahead of us, she says (again).

Leadsom says she wants fair rules on immigration.

  • Leadsom says she will not use EU nationals as “bargaining chips” in negotiations with Brussels. All who are legally here will be able to stay.

She says she wants to ensure farmers get the same level of subsidies, although they would be targeted in a different way.

And she wants to ensure people can still travel freely in the EU.

Andrea Leadsom.
Andrea Leadsom. Photograph: BBC

Leadsom says she wants to spread prosperity.

We need to heed those citizens who think the country’s leaders are not worrying about them enough, she says.

She says people feel that big business bosses get salaries that bear no relation to their performance. She agrees, she says.

She says she wants to see better training and higher pay.

Let’s banish the pessimists, she says.

She quotes Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, saying the UK can handle change. The question is how we adjust, she says.

She says she wants to speak to the markets. No one need fear our decision to leave the EU, she says. We will leave it carefully.

Trade will be the top priority. She wants to continue tariff-free trade with the EU.

And she wants free trade agreements with fast-growing economies around the world.

Updated

Andrea Leadsom's economy speech

Turning to the Tory leadership contest, Andrea Leadsom is just starting what is being billed as “a major speech on the economy”.

She starts by saying Tory MPs are about to take an incredibly important decision. The next prime minister will face enormous challenges, she says.

She says she is an optimist. She thinks we can be the greatest nation on earth.

Updated

Sarah O’Connor, whose brother Sgt Bob O’Connor was killed in Iraq in 2005 and who yesterday described Tony Blair as “the world’s worst terrorist”, challenged Blair this morning to meet the relatives of service personnel killed in the conflict. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said:

There is one final thing I would like to say to Mr Blair. He said yesterday that while he takes responsibility he can look the families in the eye. Well, looking down the lens of a camera is not looking us in the eye.

So, Mr Blair, challenge accepted. I’ve thrown down the gauntlet. Come and look me in the eye ... Come meet us. Do it in a TV studio. Do it where you choose. But do it.

Sarah O’Connor (centre), whose brother Sergeant Bob O’Connor was killed in Iraq.
Sarah O’Connor (centre), whose brother Sergeant Bob O’Connor was killed in Iraq. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Here is a Guardian video recalling some of the things Tony Blair has said about Iraq over the last 15 years.

‘It isn’t about a lie’: Tony Blair on Iraq from 2001 to 2016

Tony Blair's Today interview - Summary

In his Today interview Tony Blair repeated many of the points he made in his two-hour press conference yesterday afternoon. But here are the new, or newish, points that emerged.

  • Blair said that he regretted not challenging the intelligence assessments he was given about Iraq’s WMD more vigorously. He said he relied on the intelligence he was given. “It would have been far better to have challenged them more clearly,” he said. He also insisted that he did believe what he was being told.

When you look at what we were presented with … It wasn’t that I wanted to believe it, I did believe it.

  • He claimed that the “I will be with you, whatever” memo he sent to President Bush in July 2002 did not mean that he was irrevocably committing the UK to war. The next word in the memo was “but”, he said. He said it meant that no political issue would get in the way of his support. But he was also trying to persuade Bush to go through the UN route, and that this meant there was a prospect of a peaceful solution. (If you want to read the memo in full, it is available here.)
  • He dismissed claims that he did not give the military the equipment they needed, saying he could not recall a single occasion when he refused a request for equipment.
  • He said the world would be in a worse position if Saddam Hussein had not been deposed.

I can regret the mistakes and I can regret many things about it but I genuinely believe, not just that we acted out of good motives, and I did what I did out of good faith, but I sincerely believe that we would be in a worse position if we hadn’t acted that way. I may be completely wrong about that.

  • He urged people to accept he acted in good faith.

I understand that people still disagree but at least do me the respect - as I respect your position - of reading my argument. If all of these debates are conducted around character and good faith, if you are not careful you end up a casualty of a debate that is all about that type of invective, you are then unable to have a proper debate about the difficulty of dealing with this issue.

Tony Blair defends military action against Saddam Hussein

Updated

Tony Blair's interview - verdict from the Twitter commentariat

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Claire.

I will post a summary of Tony Blair’s interview shortly. But this is what some political journalists and commentators are saying about Blair’s performance.

From Channel 4 News’ Krishnan Guru-Murthy

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From the BBC’s Norman Smith

From the Observer’s Tracy McVeigh

From the BBC’s Mishal Husain

From the Guardian’s Tom Clark

Or, to make another point about the “with you, whatever” memo, it is very similar to what Blair was said publicly to America in his speech to the Labour party conference in October 2001, after 9/11. Referring to the US, he said: “We were with you at the first, we will stay with you to the last.”

From the Daily Mirror’s Jason Beattie

From the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges

From the Sun’s Steve Hawkes

From BuzzFeed’s Siraj Datoo

Updated

Does he ask God for forgiveness, Humphrys asks him. Does he pray?

Blair doesn’t answer this. He talks about his work in the wider Middle East.

I don’t think that this struggle was in vain in the end … I know that this debate can’t just be conducted in terms of whether my decision in Iraq was taken on right or wrong grounds, in good or bad faith. We’ve got to have a really deep debate about how we deal with these issues.

That’s the end of the interview.

Updated

Blair says he regrets that he did not interrogate the intelligence more thoroughly and accepts the mistakes in planning.

I think about it every day … It was the most difficult decision I ever took.

I feel, until I actually say to people I wish we’d never joined the American coalition, I wish we’d never got rid of Saddam, people won’t believe my regret.

He can’t say that, he adds.

He rejects the accusation that he is deluded, insisting “there is an argument there”, which people are free to disagree with.

It’s not possible to have a proper debate about the difficulty of the issue, he says, because of the invective around it.

Blair says he does not “recall a single occasion” when the government was asked for more equipment for troops and did not say yes.

There is no resource limitation. if you tell us what you need, you will have the resources.

He says the first part of the operations was “a brilliant military success”.

“Of course everything is my responsibility,” Blair says – but he insists he did not limit or delay the equipment available to the military.

There was never anything other than full support from the political side for requests from the military for equipment and resources, Blair adds.

Updated

Blair says he accepts responsibility for the aftermath of the invasion. But he believes military action had to be taken to depose Saddam.

When you judge the wisdom of those decisions … it is important to ask ourselves what would have happened if we had taken the other decision.

He says before the intervention, he was advised on the possibility of humanitarian disaster.

“I accept many of the criticisms on planning,” Blair says, though he insists there were “ad hoc committees” to think about the aftermath.

Updated

Ultimately, getting rid of Saddam Hussein was worth it, Blair says:

Whatever the difficulties of process and planning, it was still the right thing to do.

I agree the events in Iraq did not turn out as we wanted … But it is also true that in 2010 Iraq was essentially a peaceful country.

But after how many deaths, Humphrys asks. Blair replies:

How many people were murdered before Saddam was deposed?

If he’d been left in power, he’d have gone back to his programs again … I agree you can’t say for sure. You can’t say what would have happened once you’ve taken a particular course of action.

He says he believes if Saddam had been allowed to stay he would be behaving as Assad is in Syria.

Chilcot found that Blair did not consult with his cabinet, with ministers not given the information needed to challenge the decision to go to war, John Humphrys tells Blair.

Blair says he did not “keep back” information from colleagues.

There wasn’t really a doubt in most people’s minds … that Saddam had this capability.

Blair said ultimately he had to decide:

Were we with America or not with America? … I genuinely thought it was the right thing to do.

Blair says Lord Goldsmith did not need to give written legal advice because he was in cabinet meetings and could give his reasons orally and answer questions in person.

I accept the process was far from satisfactory … It would have been better if he’d provided written evidence … [but] I don’t know what difference it would have made. He was there at the table.

It would have made absolutely no difference at all if he’d provided written advice.

Blair says that in fact cabinet members did not question Goldsmith, but they could have.

Updated

On the flawed intelligence, Blair says he believed what he was shown:

I relied on the assessments that were given to me … It would have been far better to have challenged them more clearly.

When you look at what we were presented with … It wasn’t that I wanted to believe it, I did believe it.

Anyone can see the documents online, he says.

Let’s suppose we hadn’t taken action, Blair says.

He acknowledges that the UN weapons inspector Hans Blix does not agree with the actions taken, but says others involved backed it. Saddam Hussein was not complying, Blair insists.

Updated

Blair says the UK was America’s key ally “and it’s true that I sought to make it so”.

The whole purpose of going back to the UN “was to try to deal with this differently” – that is, not with military action – Blair says.

He says the memo was written less than a year after the 9/11 attacks.

Blair says he was very clear that there should be a coalition on action in Iraq as there had been for Afghanistan.

I wanted America to not feel alone, to not feel it had to go it alone.

He says he wanted the UK to be America’s “partner of choice”.

Updated

Blair goes on:

We had to be right alongside the US … I still believe that was the right place to be.

He says the memo meant that:

No political issue would get in the way of my support.

Blair says there was a “but” in the memo. He says it was written in the context of trying to persuade the US to go back to the UN “and resolve this peacefully”.

I can assure you what I meant was very, very clear and was clear to the Americans … let’s do it but do it the right way.

Tony Blair on the Today programme

The former prime minister Tony Blair – after his marathon speech and Q&A with the media yesterday – is on Radio 4 for a further interview in the wake of the Chilcot report that savaged his role in taking Britain to war with Iraq in 2003.

Blair is asked about his 2002 memo to George Bush pledging:

I will be with you, whatever.

There could have been a point of return after that, Blair now says. He wanted the US to pursue the UN route.

It’s absolutely true, I took a decision and I stand by that decision, that we should stand by America.

But he says it’s not true that the memo shows an “irrevocable decision” had been made to go to war.

The memo was written in July “and we went to the United Nations in November”, Blair points out.

When people say we were irrevocably committed in July, we weren’t, of course.

Updated

Here is that text from Gove’s campaign manager, Nick Boles, encouraging May supporters to help “stop AL”:

Michael Howard backs Andrea Leadsom for leader

Michael Howard – now Lord Howard – is on the Today programme and says he is backing Leadsom for leader.

It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t served in the cabinet, he says:

I don’t think experience is hugely important.

She’s been in government, she’s in tune with the maj of ppl in this country … I think she would be an extremely good prime minister.

She understands our relationship with the European Union very well.

Howard says he is “dismayed” by fact that Theresa May has not pledged to guarantee the rights EU citizens living in the UK and is using them “as bargaining chips”.

Asked whether he would have backed Gove, Howard acknowledges that the about-turn with Boris Johnson and the anti-Leadsom texts from Gove’s campaign manager have played a part in his decision to support Leadsom:

I would have found it a much more difficult decision had those events not happened.

Updated

As well as questions over her CV and her tax affairs, Andrea Leadsom now also faces some queries about her Wikipedia entry.

As my colleague David Pegg reports:

Andrea Leadsom faces questions over her Wikipedia entry after it emerged that embarrassing media stories had been removed from the page. The changes appear to have been made from Towcester, where the Conservative leadership contender’s constituency office is located.

In 2015, references to media reports about the Leadsom family’s use of trusts to own a buy-to-let company and details of financial donations from Leadsom’s brother-in-law, Peter de Putron, were deleted from Leadsom’s profile on the website.

Asked to comment on whether or not she or her team had deleted the passage in question, a spokesperson for Leadsom did not respond.

And you can read more about Peter de Putron here.

Updated

The City of London’s Dinner to Her Majesty’s JudgesLord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Michael Gove during the Dinner to Her Majesty’s Judges hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Jeffrey Mountevans, at the Mansion House in central London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday July 6, 2016. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Michael Gove spent Wednesday evening – leadership hustings aside – at the City of London’s Dinner to Her Majesty’s Judges at the Mansion House. Amid the prime ministerial campaigning and the Brexit campaigning, Gove is still the justice secretary and Lord Chancellor.

Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg was among those present and said Gove joked with fellow diners that he had almost skipped the event to watch Wales v Portugal.

Less joshingly, Gove also, Rozenberg tweeted, described prison conditions in the UK as:

squalid, inadequate, wicked.

But there’s no escaping the Brexit after-effects:

Updated

Former Tory party chairman Grant Shapps has written a letter – reportedly backed by around 30 fellow Conservative MPs – arguing that the leadership process ought to be chivvied along to take weeks rather than months.

The present timetable would see a new leader – and prime minister – installed on 9 September after party members vote on the two-person shortlist determined by the MPs’ vote today.

But Shapps says in the letter:

Given the exceptional post-Brexit times in which we are living, I firmly believe it is now wrong to wait for a final decision to emerge next autumn.

Ongoing instability on the markets now risks uncertainty with investment decisions being delayed. This in turn will have real-life consequences for jobs, livelihoods and the security of families across Britain.

We are living through unprecedented times and, unusually, this leadership election is occurring whilst we are in office; meaning that we are electing a prime minister.

The country desperately needs post-Brexit direction in order to avoid a political vacuum bearing serious consequences for all those we represent.

He says a three-week period for voting would be long enough for candidates to make their cases to party members – but denied that this would benefit Theresa May (who, coincidentally, he backs in the race) to the detriment of the less well-known Andrea Leadsom:

This is not some clever plot or wheeze but we have a responsibility to our constituents to give some direction to the party and get a prime minister in place.

Updated

Chilcot briefing

US ‘pushed UK into war too early’, says ambassador

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK’s ambassador to the UN in 2003, has told the BBC that pressure from the US propelled Britain into military action before Tony Blair had wanted to:

I felt that at the time, the British felt it at the time, I think the prime minister felt it at the time, that the Americans pushed us into going into military action too early.

Greenstock said senior figures in the US thought a further UN resolution was a “waste of time”:

The Americans weren’t genuine about it – but the prime minister was genuine about it because he thought there was a chance that Saddam could be made to back down before we had to use military force.

And George Bush for a while agreed with him. But other people behind George Bush didn’t agree with him and thought it was a waste of time.

Chilcot: the front pages

No doubt at all about the key conclusions from yesterday: Chilcot’s damning assertion that “the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted” and Blair’s response:

I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you can ever know or believe …

I believe we made the right decision and the world is better and safer.

What to read: the report

With a report so vast, conclusions so wide-ranging, and reaction so expansive, I won’t try to recap it all here, but will instead point you in the direction of the key distillations of what we learned from Chilcot on Wednesday.

Soldiers’ families on Chilcot report: ‘My son died in vain’

What to read: analysis

What to read: comment

The defining sting was conveyed in just six words penned by Tony Blair himself, in a letter to Mr Bush in July 2002 – ‘I will be with you, whatever’.

Here, in essence, we have the private promise from which every abuse of public process would flow, as well as that pervasive, poisonous sense that the government was not playing it straight. The prime minister was not bone-headed, his letters to the president warned of deep doubts on the part of both MPs and the public, and shrewdly anticipated great difficulty in whipping Europe into line. But he negated the value of all this insight, and fatally compromised his own preference for constructing a UN-blessed route to war, by preceding it all with the bald vow that Washington could count on him.

‘It isn’t about a lie’: Tony Blair on Iraq from 2001 to 2016

Some will say that none of this is really new, that Chilcot simply repeated everything the critics had said about this war from the beginning. But that means a lot. This was the voice of the establishment, not a placard at a demo or a trenchant Guardian column. The Chilcot report is the official judgment on the 2003 invasion. For those who stood against the war, including the families of those who lost their lives, that represents belated vindication. For Blair it means a verdict that damns him for the ages.

Blair and other leaders misrepresented reality, urging a war over the faulty picture they had created. I do not see evidence of bad faith, but I do see a disastrous failure of judgment.

Chilcot was not a court of law and it was not in his remit to look at the legality of the Iraq war. But as far as I am concerned this inquiry was judge and jury. Tony Blair, the man who misled parliament and manufactured and massaged the intelligence underpinning the decision to send our troops to war, stands morally convicted. He is guilty as charged. For me, that will do.

Jeremy Corbyn apologises for Iraq war on behalf of the Labour party

Since 2003 more secrets of this evil and despotic regime have been revealed – I have stood on a huge mound in Hilla, near Babylon, where about 10,000 bodies in a mass grave were being disinterred, mostly Shia Muslims. On one of my more than 20 visits to Iraq as special envoy on human rights, I opened in Kurdistan the first genocide museum in Iraq. It was snowing, the sky was black, and people crammed into the building. Their relatives had been tortured – many to death – there. There were photos of skulls and shreds of clothing. Former detainees had written messages on the cell walls. Sometimes the writing was in blood …

No one will ever be able to convince me that the world is not better off without Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime in power.

The global response

Martin Chulov in Baghdad reports that the report’s findings bring little solace to Iraqis still reeling from one of the worst atrocities in postwar Iraq, in which 250 people died in an Isis bombing on Saturday:

Bystanders in the central Baghdad neighbourhood of Karrada seemed oblivious to the release of the Chilcot report, which roundly condemned Tony Blair’s decision to commit Britain to the war, but which was little more than a footnote to most of the crowd. For the mix of mourners staring into the middle distance, desperate relatives wailing for help, forensic officers crouched near puddles and others who stood bewildered by the scale of destruction, it would merely tell them what they already knew: that the war and its aftermath were both grave mistakes.

The few who had seen brief reports from London on Iraqi television shrugged and pointed at the damage, when asked what they made of what was effectively Britain’s mea culpa. ‘This is the reason for all this chaos,’ said Bassam Jaber Abayati, a Karrada local. ‘They should have known better. They should have done this [apologised] earlier. The west should be accountable for all this misery.’

Sawsan Adil lights candles for her brother who was killed in the bomb attack in Baghdad.
Sawsan Adil lights candles for her brother who was killed in the bomb attack in Baghdad. Photograph: Hadi Mizban/AP

In the US, a spokesperson for George Bush said:

President Bush continues to believe the whole world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power … There was no stronger ally than the United Kingdom under the leadership of prime minister Tony Blair.

Paul Bremer, the US diplomat who headed of the coalition provisional authority in Iraq post-invasion, backed the report’s findings, but others disagreed.

And a former head of Australia’s defence department says the country needs its own version of the Chilcot inquiry to probe why then prime minister John Howard decided to commit Australian troops to the war in Iraq.

Updated

Morning briefing

Welcome back to the daily politics live blog.

With the dust far from settling after Sir John Chilcot’s devastating critique of Britain’s role in the war in Iraq – and Tony Blair’s emotional but defiant response – I’m once again dividing the morning briefing in two.

Here’s the regular briefing covering all things politics; shortly I’ll post separately the latest Chilcot news and fallout.

Andrew Sparrow will also be on the live blog later, so do come and chat in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.

The big picture

The two finalists in the competition to be prime minister will be revealed this evening, after one more knock-out round in which two of the candidates seem to be vying to be the first to knock themselves out.

In the “I voted leave plus know how to do governmenty things” corner is Michael Gove, whose campaign manager Nick Boles has been forced to apologise after texting MPs to tell them he was “seriously frightened” that Andrea Leadsom, and not Gove, might make it on to the final ballot. Why so scary?

What if Theresa [May] stumbles? Are we really confident that the membership won’t vote for a fresh face who shares their attitudes about much of modern life? Like they did with IDS.

We don’t yet know what the Tory party membership and their “attitudes” make of it all, but the slighted Iain Duncan Smith (a Leadsom supporter) was roused from his quietude:

People with knives will end up stabbing themselves … I do think emails and texts like that are failing to smell the coffee.

(I know there are apps that can order coffee, but a text that can smell it would be even better.)

IAIN DUNCAN SMITH SUPPORTERS TAKING A COFFEE BREAK AT THE CONSERVATIVE FUTURE NATIONAL WEEKEND AT UMIST, MANCHESTER. SEE ANGELIQUE CHRISAFIS COPY.
2001, and Iain Duncan Smith is voted Tory leader. No coffee to smell there. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Boles has apologised, saying Gove was unaware of the courting campaign:

He did not know about it let alone authorise it. And it does not reflect his views.

But at a leadership hustings in Westminster yesterday evening, Gove is reported to have “giggled” when asked about the texts.

No giggling from frontrunner Theresa May, who issued a statement saying she did not encourage tactical voting:

I have been clear from the start: the party and the country deserve an open, honest, robust debate – and the next leader needs to have won a mandate to lead. So there should be no deals, no tactical voting and no coronation.

You can read the full Boles text here, courtesy of the Times’ Sam Coates, but here’s its unsetting conclusion:

Michael doesn’t mind spending two months taking a good thrashing from Theresa but in the party’s interest and the national interest surely we must work together to stop AL?

Andrea Leadsom: this could all be hers, worries Nick Boles.
Andrea Leadsom: this could all be hers, worries Nick Boles. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

And what might stop AL, over in the “I voted leave plus used to be a banker but not the kind nobody likes” corner? That banking experience for a start.

More creases have appeared in Leadsom’s CV, which her team published yesterday after what supporter Penny Mordaunt called “a concerted effort to rubbish a stellar career”. As Guardian colleagues report:

Leadsom’s CV has raised a number of further questions because it omits some company directorships, alters existing claims and fails to clear up question marks over sections of her City career.

See here for those questions in full. Also missing is Leadsom’s tax return – May and Gove have published theirs – which she says she will share only if she makes the final two. Don’t read anything into that, mind. Leadsom told the hustings her tax affairs were “very boring”. Perhaps she’s simply sparing us all the tedium of reading it.

Andrea Leadsom’s CV.
Andrea Leadsom’s CV. Photograph: Handout

There’s a Labour leadership scuffle going on too, right? Maybe not, for now. The Telegraph reports today that the resigning rebels are “in retreat”. At a Momentum rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn yesterday, Jon Trickett, a close ally of the Labour leader, told the crowd:

Our party must never again be led by someone who is unrepentant in their record supporting war.

Angela Eagle, widely considered the most likely candidate to try to topple Corbyn, voted for the war in Iraq in 2003.

Corbyn yesterday apologised on behalf of the Labour party for “the disastrous decision” to go to war. And he later won a (little) vote of (mostly) confidence in his own Islington North constituency, where the members in St George’s ward backed him by 36 votes to 27.

Jeremy Corbyn apologises for Iraq war on behalf of the Labour party

Does anyone have a Brexit plan yet?

MPs in the Commons yesterday voted to “commit today that EU nationals currently living in the UK shall have the right to remain”. The government – which isn’t compelled to take any notice – abstained, but others voted 245-2 in favour of the guarantee. Boris Johnson (still an MP, remember) spoke in support of the motion, saying Vote Leave had obviously intended all along that EU nationals should feel totally relaxed about their future in the UK.

Not feeling relaxed are property funds, with three more suspended yesterday after a rush on withdrawals. And France said it would lure banking firms from London to Paris, with prime minister Manuel Valls saying:

We want to build the financial capital of the future. In a word, now is the time to come to France.

(Which is not “a word”, even in French, so how good is he with numbers, really?)

The stories you might have missed yesterday

John Chilcot might have been releasing his mammoth, attention-consuming report, but there were some decisions the government just had to make on Wednesday.

You should also know:

Poll position

Survation polling of voters (before Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb retired from the running) gives quite a boost to Theresa May and quite the kicking to Michael Gove.

Among Conservative party members only, Survation adds, May’s approval rating leaps to +69, “where Michael Gove’s in particular was as low as -50”. Still, the only way is up. Or actually, no. It could go to -100? Statisticians, please advise.

Diary

  • The second – and for MPs, final – round of voting in the Tory leadership contest starts, with a result due around 5pm.
  • At 9.30am Andrea Leadsom makes a speech on the economy.
  • At the same time, the ONS annual figures on the personal wellbeing of UK citizens, including levels of happiness and anxiety, are released. Smile, everyone.
  • At 10.45am, foreign secretary Philip Hammond appears before MPs on the foreign affairs select committee.
  • At 4pm there’s a one-hour debate in the Lords on options for a second EU referendum, led by Oona King.
Oona King wants the Lords to consider whether the UK should vote on EU membership all over again.
Oona King wants the Lords to consider whether the UK should vote on EU membership all over again. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Read these

Jacob Rees-Mogg, writing in the Telegraph, thinks Michael Gove could be the new Winston Churchill. Or perhaps a new Margaret Thatcher:

Churchill had an indomitable belief in the country and Margaret Thatcher was similarly willing to take political risks to do what she saw as right. A comparable figure is needed today not because leaving the European Union is risky but because it opens up a golden chance for our nation …

Michael Gove has shown all these qualities … He put his country before the easy life of Notting Hill friendship and when he believes he is wrong he has the courage to change his mind. These are the qualities needed at this most exciting of times.

Jacob Rees Mogg
Jacob Rees Mogg: excited. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

Lord Young, in the Times, however, thinks it’s Theresa May who could grab the Thatcher mantle:

Just as Margaret was the leader for her time, so I believe that Theresa is for ours.

No word on whether she can also do a passable Churchill.

Suzanne Moore in the Guardian thinks both May and Andrea Leadsom are Thatcher MK II:

Neither of these women is liberal, despite May’s late conversion to gay marriage and Leadsom’s concerns about mother/baby bonding. They are extremely rightwing and May has repeatedly used fear of immigration to ramp up her own leadership bid. The fact remains that Leadsom, with her overdeveloped CV, reluctance to publish her tax returns, the backing of Arron Banks and previous remarks on the total deregulation of small businesses so that workers might lose many of their rights, including maternity leave, is even worse.

Back in the more recent past, a vote was won for Britain to leave the EU. In the New Statesman, Ipsos Mori’s Aalia Khan assesses why immigration was key:

Ipsos Mori’s longitudinal study on attitudes to immigration revealed that there is huge amount of churn in the people who are more positive about immigration and want to see it increase. Contrary to expectations of this group of people being a stable core of liberals, their views are more likely to change than those who want immigration to decrease.

Only four in 10 of those who said they would like to see the number of immigrants coming to Britain increased in February of this year held the same position in June. Over a third changed their minds to say that they wanted the numbers reduced.

Zinger of the day

Theresa May is getting this printed on a T-shirt:

Ken Clarke might have found me to be a ‘bloody difficult woman’. The next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker.

‘Peston on Sunday’ TV show, London, UK - 03 Jul 2016EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO MERCHANDISING Mandatory Credit: Photo by Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock (5744546ak) Theresa May ‘Peston on Sunday’ TV show, London, UK - 03 Jul 2016
Theresa May: bloody difficult. Do you have a problem with that? Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock

Baffling claim of the day

The Paris Ritz hotel has reopened, and Lady Amanda Harlech – described as a “writer, creative consultant and muse of the Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld” – told the New York Times how dreadful the period of closure (since 2012) had been:

There was a sense of devastation and loss – not unlike Brexit – a sort of grief.

The day in a tweet

If today were a song

It would be Back Stabbers by The O’Jays. “What they do/They smile in your face/All the time they want to take your place.” And compare you to Iain Duncan Smith.

And another thing

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