Afternoon summary
- The Muslim Council of Britain has described the Casey review as a “missed opportunity”. (See 3.49pm.)
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Paul Maynard, the rail minister, has accused union bosses of co-ordinating “politically motivated” strikes on the Southern Railway network. Speaking in the Commons in response to an urgent question Maynard said the government’s priority was to see “timely, reliable and predictable” services return and he attacked “needless” industrial action planned for December and beyond. He said:
Let me be clear: This strike action is politically motivated. It has affected passengers for far too long. Union leaders have even described this action as ‘carrying on Fidel’s work’. This will be of no comfort to passengers who just want to get to work.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion who tabled the urgent question, said Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the parent company of Southern, should lose its franchise because of the long-running problems with the service. She told MPs:
This situation is intolerable and the government can’t simply just wash its hands of involvement so will the minister roll up his sleeves and get stuck in to resolve the crisis? To end this stalemate, will your department take charge of this contract in the open, strip GTR of the franchise, bring it back in house? That at least would increase the transparency around what is going on here.
Maynard said the terms of a compensation package for season ticket holders would see them receive the equivalent of one free month of travel and that Southern was doing
“everything in its power” to improve services. He told Lucas she should speak to her “close friends” in the RMT and get them to call off their strike action starting this week.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, is speaking to Sky News about the article 50 case. He is doing the interview from Sleaford and North Hykeham where he has been campaigning ahead of Thursday’s byelection.
He is standing in front of a Ukip byelection banner. Unfortunately Ukip couldn’t spell Hykeham properly.
At Policy Exchange there is also an interesting blog on the Casey review from David Goodhart, its head of demography, immigration and integration and author of a controversial history of immigration. Goodhart says:
So after a year of investigation Louise Casey has come up with no real surprises or big ideas on integration—nor a phrase to match Ted Cantle’s popularisation of “parallel lives” 15 years ago—but in language and analysis this is by some distance the most serious and unblinking work on the subject to emanate from a quasi-official source.
Britain’s integration efforts in recent years have been “well meaning but grossly insufficient to cope with the scale of the challenge” and “nowhere near enough emphasis has been put on integration in communities to match the pace and scale of change in population.” This is not the usual nervous, hedged-about language of official integration-speak.
In terms of recommendations there is nothing very meaty but a sensible focus on data collection by local authorities, English language teaching and ethnic mixing in schools.
Ted Cantle, who carried out his own review into integration after the race riots in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham in 2001, has written a blog on the Casey review. He concludes:
Dame Louise has put forward a serious analysis of the problem and developed a broad range of measures to tackle it. In some areas, she has not gone as far as she might –and probably wanted to – but has hinted at ways they could be developed. But it remains to be seen if the Government will have the good sense to accept Casey’s recommendations, let alone extend them.
Muslim Council of Britain says Casey review is a 'missed opportunity'
And the Muslim Council of Britain has given the Casey review a mixed response. It has welcomed some of Dame Louise Casey’s proposals. But it says the report is being championed “by those who pursue a divisive agenda and a hostile attitude towards Muslims” and it says the report was a “missed opportunity”.
Harun Khan, the MCB’s secretary general, said:
Any initiative that facilitates better integration of all Britons should be welcomed, and we certainly endorse the few, fair and supportable suggestions proposed by the Casey review. This includes the promotion of the English language, sharing of best practice across the nation and a range of measures to tackle exclusion, inequality and segregation in school placements. And while we agree that forced marriages, female genital mutilation, honour-based killings and other practices have no place in modern Britain, we would argue that our faith tradition can be deployed to tackle what are essentially cultural practices.
I hope we can facilitate robust and active conversations in British Muslim communities where we are frank about the challenges facing us and creative enough to meet them head on.
Sadly, however, I fear that this report could be a missed opportunity. We need to improve integration, and it needs to involve the active participation of all Britons, not just Muslims. As former prime minister David Cameron has stated, ‘integration is a two-way street’. The report has little discussion on white flight, and could have delved deeper into the economic structural barriers to integration.
Here is Sarah Champion, the shadow minister for women and equalities, responding to the Casey report on behalf of Labour. Champion said:
Labour welcomes the Casey report as it provides an opportunity to address the big social challenges facing our country.
This report demonstrates that the government cannot continue to hollow out social infrastructure, local councils and public services that do so much to encourage integration, without paying a much higher price in the long term. Casey’s key recommendation is the importance of being able to speak English, without which isolation and subjugation are more easily able to take hold. Sadly, the government have scrapped mandatory ESOL classes and cut adult learning services to the bone. This must be urgently addressed.
It is now time that we recognise the problems and opportunities highlighted in the Casey report and address these in a realistic and mature way.
A Labour government will put forward a real plan for a socially and economically fairer Britain; tackling isolation, division and mistrust, and properly funding vital services which help bring communities together.
Donald Trump’s vow to heavily tax US companies moving operations abroad has not dented the Government’s optimism about attracting fresh investment to Northern Ireland, the secretary of state has said. As the Press Association reports:
James Brokenshire said he remained positive about the potential for growing NI/US economic ties under a Trump White House.
The president-elect took to Twitter over the weekend to warn US companies they would be making an “expensive mistake” if they cost domestic jobs by relocating operations overseas.
He suggested they would be subject to a 35% tax if they tried to sell products made abroad back into the US.
Around 125 US companies operate in Northern Ireland, employing 24,000 people.
Asked about Trump’s protectionist rhetoric, Brokenshire, who is in New York to meet with business representatives, said he would judge the incoming president on his actions.
“The US president-elect said during the campaign on equally doing a trading deal with the United Kingdom too,” he said.
“So I think we need to judge by the actions of the presidency.”
Sarah Olney, winner of the Richmond Park byelection, has been welcomed to Westminster by her new colleagues, Lib Dem MPs and peers.
Anna Soubry, the Conservative former business minister and leading pro-European, told the World at One that she would happily vote for the Labour motion being debated on Wednesday saying the government should publish a Brexit plan before triggering article 50. (See 1.52pm.) She told the programme.
I have read the motion and I have to say I can’t see anything in it I don’t approve of and could not support ... I can tell you now that the contents of that motion are eminently supportable.
Asked how many other Tory MPs would be willing to back the motion, Soubry pointed out that when there was an election for Conservative MPs to serve on the Commons Brexit committee, up to 80 Conservatives voted for her even though she failed to get elected. They were voting for her as a “fierce remainer”, she said, implying that up to 80 Tories might be tempted to support Labour.
But she also said she hoped that there would not be a vote. In October, when Labour tabled a motion calling for a debate before article 50 was invoked, the government tabled an amendment effectively giving Labour what it wanted and it was passed without opposition. Soubry said she hoped the same thing would happen again.
Hammond and Davis host Brexit meeting with bankers
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, have hosted a joint meeting with leading bankers to discuss Brexit. The session covered the “opportunities and challenges” that Brexit presents for the financial services industry, according to the government news release, and “the insights offered will be fed into the government’s ongoing analysis on the options for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU”.
The meeting was the first of its kind co-chaired by the Treasury and the department for exiting the EU and what may be the most significant thing about it is that it reinforces the impression that Hammond and Davis have recently formed a significant cabinet alliance and that together they are championing “Brexit pragmatism” (my phrase, not theirs).
Lunchtime summary
- Use of the royal prerogative by the government for executive action, such as triggering Brexit, is not an ancient relic of outdated laws but a crucial part of the modern state’s powers, the attorney general has told the supreme court. As Owen Bowcott reports, opening the government’s arguments in the pivotal constitutional case, Jeremy Wright QC said that the EU referendum had been conducted “with the universal expectation that the government would implement the result”. The high court, which rejected the government’s arguments, had been wrong to dismiss the way the referendum was organised as “legally irrelevant”, the attorney general said. Haroon Siddique has more on our article 50 live blog.
- Downing Street has dismissed Boris Johnson’s suggestion that students should be excluded from net migration figures. Johnson, the foreign secretary, said that he was in favour of that approach in an interview on Peston on Sunday yesterday. Number 10 said this morning that Theresa May did not agree and that the government’s policy would not change. (See 12.38pm.)
- Number 10 has so far refused to back a proposal in Dame Louise Casey’s integration report for immigrants to have to take an “oath of integration with British values and society” on arrival in the UK. (See 12.38pm.)
- Up to 40 Tory MPs could back a Labour motion being debated on Wednesday saying the government should publish its plan for Brexit before invoking article 50, the World at One has reported. These are from the BBC’s Luke Jones.
Labour motion for Weds calling for more info from gov on #brexit. Former Tory minister tells #wato 'up to 40' Tory MPs could vote for it' pic.twitter.com/2P3XyQ7Mka
— Luke Jones (@Lukejones03) December 5, 2016
'If the government doesn't want us to vote for it, they should give us a reason' former Tory minister told #WATO
— Luke Jones (@Lukejones03) December 5, 2016
Ukip says many of its arguments have been vindicated by Casey report
Ukip is claiming that many of its arguments have been vindicated by the Casey report. This is from David Kurten, a member of the Welsh assembly and Ukip’s education spokesman.
Many of the report’s recommendations are things which Ukip has been saying for years. All schoolchildren should learn English, and have a proper understanding of British history and culture, whatever background they are from.
And this is from John Bickley, Ukip’s immigration spokesman.
Today, [Casey’s] damning report on integration has been released. It pulls no punches and is an excoriating critique of the Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrat parties’ support of mass immigration, multiculturalism and political correctness, which has led to whole towns having changed “out of all recognition” ...
For years Ukip has been the only political party willing to point out the failings of mass, uncontrolled immigration and multiculturalism. For this we have been accused of being racist by a cowardly Establishment. That won’t wash any longer. The main parties have singularly failed to address the impact of uncontrolled immigration on mainly working class communities and the British people have had enough.
Leaving the EU will be a major step in taking back control of our borders and immigration. However before that happens the government needs do the following with immediate effect: (i) significantly reduce immigration from non EU countries; (ii) ban the practising of sharia law (there is only one law and that is the law of the land); and (iii) force all public sector institutions to apply the law equally to all citizens and not give preferential treatment to ethnic minorities.
Number 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Here is a full summary of the Number 10 lobby briefing.
- Number 10 accused Labour and Lib Dem MPs planning to amend any bill giving the government the power to invoke article 50 of wanting to “frustrate the will” of the public. Asked about the fact that Labour and the Lib Dems have said they would want to amend any such bill, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said:
While others are seeming to make clear that they want to frustrate the will of the British people by slowing down the process of leaving and trying to tie the government’s hands in negotiation, the government is getting on with respecting what the British people decided and making a success of Brexit.
If you are backing the UK team, you want them to be able to go into the negotiation and get the best deal possible. It’s very important that we are able to get the best deal possible, and that means not having our hands tied in negotiation.
At the moment there is no article 50 bill, but the government will have to pass one if it loses the challenge in the supreme court. The spokeswoman said that most people wanted “certainty” over Brexit and that the government was providing certainty by saying that article 50 would be invoked by the end of March and that there would be “no going back” (ie, no second referendum).
- Downing Street rejected Boris Johnson’s call for students to be excluded from the official migration figures. Johnson, the foreign secretary, said yesterday he was in favour of excluding students from the headlines figures. But the spokeswoman said that Theresa May’s views on this were well known and that “students will continue to be part of the figures”. The spokeswoman suggested that this was standard procedure. And she said that the government had given a clear commitment to the British people about getting immigration numbers down.
- No 10 refused to back the proposal in the Casey report for immigrants to have to take an “oath of integration with British values and society” on arrival in the UK. The spokeswoman said said that the report was “very comprehensive” and that the government would need to study its findings closely. Asked specifically about the oath recommendation, she said that there were a wide range of issues in the report and that the government would take time to look at Casey’s ideas.
- Downing Street said that an inquiry was being held into the leak of a letter from Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, warning of a new, tough approach being taken to stop ministers and civil servants leaking government secrets. The letter was leaked to the Mail on Sunday. The spokeswoman said the issue was being taken “extremely seriously”.
- Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has announced today that the government is beginning the process of setting out its terms for independent membership of the World Trade Organisation. Fox has made the announcement in a written statement in which he said:
The UK’s WTO commitments currently form part of the European Union’s schedules. When we leave the EU we will need UK-specific schedules. In order to minimise disruption to global trade as we leave the EU, over the coming period the government will prepare the necessary draft schedules which replicate as far as possible our current obligations. The government will undertake this process in dialogue with the WTO membership.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said that this was “prudent, preparatory work” and that this work “does not in any way prejudge the position that we will take in our negotiations or the outcome of any of our negotiations”.
- Downing Street played down claims that the government is considering forcing supreme court judges to reveal more information about the political interests of themselves and their families members. The Telegraph is reporting that the government is considering this. Asked about this, the spokeswoman said the government was focusing on the article 50 review.
Updated
No 10 accuses Labour and Lib Dems of wanting to 'frustrate the will' of the public over article 50
The Number 10 lobby briefing went on a bit longer than usual. These were probably the two best lines.
- Number 10 accused Labour and Lib Dem MPs planning to amend any bill giving the government the power to invoke article 50 of wanting to “frustrate the will” of the public.
- Downing Street rejected Boris Johnson’s call for students to be excluded from the official migration figures.
I will post a full summary shortly.
UPDATE: There is a full summary now at 12.38pm.
Updated
UK services sector at 10-year high
Services sector activity jumped to a ten-month high last month as the UK economy showed further signs of resilience in the face of Brexit uncertainty, the Press Association reports.
The closely watched Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reached a surprise 55.2 in November, up from 54.5 in October and above economists’ forecasts of 54.
A reading above 50 indicates growth.
The PMI report said the strong performance from Britain’s powerhouse services sector, coupled with last month’s robust results from the construction and manufacturing industry, puts the UK economy on course to grow by 0.5% in the fourth quarter.
It comes after the services industry, which accounts for around 75% of UK economic growth, saw its strongest rate of expansion since January, fuelled by a “solid increase” in new work.
While the Brexit-hit pound caused input price inflation to grow sharply in November, growth eased for the first time in six months.
I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing now. I will post again after 11.30am.
My colleague Gideon Goldberg has done a wordle of the Casey report. He says the term Muslim gets mentioned 249 times, Christian 35 times, Hindu 23 times, Jewish 18 times, Sikh 11 times and Buddhist five times.
Bright Blue, the thinktank championing liberal Conservatism, has welcomed the Casey report. This is from its director, Ryan Shorthouse.
The Casey review is right: we need to do much more to ensure people from different social and ethnic backgrounds are mixing - in schools, the workplace and in neighbourhoods. Such integration is not only vital for individuals - building their networks and improving their life chances - but for society generally, improving understanding and trust.
To be truly integrated in our country, people need to be able to understand and speak English. Having competence in English language is the passport to being economically and socially active in Britain.
That’s why the government now needs to be bold and launch a national mission to ensure everyone in this country can read, write and speak English, at least to a basic level, by the end of this parliament.
Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem’s home affairs spokesman, has said the Casey review shows the need for “urgent action”.
The findings from the Casey review are troubling in relation to the tiny proportion of the UK population to which it applies. Britain is open, tolerant and multicultural but this requires nurturing and support to ensure that no one is left behind.
Cuts by this government to English language teaching and harmful programmes like the Prevent strategy undermine integration and allow isolation and segregation to grow.
If this Conservative government are truly committed to building a Britain that works for everyone then urgent action is needed to address this issue.
Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general, was on the Today programme this morning talking about the article 50 case. But she was also asked about the report from the Commons home affairs committee two months ago criticising her inquiry into antisemitism in the Labour party. She claimed the report was “over-politicised”. She told the programme:
I disagree with that committee, and of course it’s a political committee ultimately. I believe that that report was overly politicised and I regret the fact that I was not allowed to give evidence to it. But that, if you like, is the heat and the noise of party politics.
(The committee has a Conservative majority, but it is a cross-party committee with Labour members and its report was agreed unanimously.)
My colleague Haroon Siddique is writing the supreme court article 50 hearing live blog. You can read it here.
Here is some comment on the Casey report from journalists
From Alan Travis, the Guardian’s home affairs editor
Can't help feeling pace of immigration has overtaken Louise Casey's integration study. Loyalty oath for Polish/Romanians working in UK?
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) December 5, 2016
Only 138,000 migrants, fewer than 0.3% of population, speak no English. Many an older generation who had come as grandparents. Census 2011.
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) December 5, 2016
When David Cameron made his Munich speech in 2011 declaring 'end of multiculturalism' deep cuts in adult English language teaching followed. https://t.co/LxipMKcIua
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) December 5, 2016
From John McDermott, the Economist’s global public policy editor
Re: Casey review, it's entirely consistent to say that overall residential segregation by ethnicity decreasing and that (a) there are areas
— John McDermott (@johnpmcdermott) December 5, 2016
where that isn't true; and (b) so what?
— John McDermott (@johnpmcdermott) December 5, 2016
This is a serious piece of work and those who instinctively disagree should read its findings carefully.
— John McDermott (@johnpmcdermott) December 5, 2016
From Michael White, the former Guardian political editor
Will Louise Casey's proposed "integration oath" include rich, tax dodging foreigners & other freeloaders? Or just the poor? Daft idea
— MichaelWhite (@michaelwhite) December 5, 2016
From Newsweek’s Josh Lowe
Basic q: how can you believe it is worrying when areas are mostly Asian but not believe it is worrying that other areas are mostly white
— Josh Lowe (@JeyyLowe) December 4, 2016
Where's the pressure on the residents of the home counties to break out of their cultural bubble and integrate?
— Josh Lowe (@JeyyLowe) December 4, 2016
I have observed communities not far from London where they all worship a white ethno-secular prophet called Jeremy Clarkson
— Josh Lowe (@JeyyLowe) December 4, 2016
Louise Casey asked on BBC breakfast if she has any idea of wording for her "integration oath." "No. Course not." Well quite.
— Josh Lowe (@JeyyLowe) December 5, 2016
Sunder Katwala, head of British Futures, the identity and integration thinktank, has written an interesting analysis of the Casey review. Here is an excerpt.
Casey’s review does take a distinct approach from those many predecessor reports. She feels that previous reviews, seeking to offer a balanced picture of both successes and challenges, risked emphasising the full half of the glass and ducking the most difficult issues. So her report chooses to focus relentlessly on the areas where she sees the most serious dangers of social harm – and is absolutely persuasive in identifying several areas where a more robust approach to protecting fundamental rights across British society is essential, particularly for women and the safeguarding of children. The use of home-schooling for example, which presently does not need to be registered, may be being abused to place children in unregistered, illegal schools. The prevalence of unregistered marriages – the norm rather than the exception – leaves women at considerable risk of exploitation, unaware of their rights and unprotected. The proposal that all marriages should be registered, across all faiths, is persuasive.
The Review does focus heavily on British Muslim communities. This is doubtless the area of greatest political and public concern. Given that the prime ministerial remit was “how to boost opportunity and integration in our most isolated and deprived communities” then the review team could say that this was where the evidence took them. But a focus on those most at risk of marginalisation makes it harder to articulate the need for integration to be an issue for everybody.
Casey sees the need for a ‘reset’ of how the government engages across Muslim communities, stating that “a new approach to engagement between Mosques, Government, local authorities and communities is needed urgently” – but without setting out the new approach. And the intensity of the review’s focus on the challenges of Muslim integration can offer a narrower picture of integration than we need. Majority discomfort with the pace of change shows how an approach to integration as a minorities issue was always too narrow. If identity and integration matter to minorities, they will matter to majorities too.
Misogyyny and patriarchy in some communities widening inequality, says Casey
Dame Louise Casey was on the Today programme this morning talking about her report and its conclusions. She said that some parts of the report would be “hard to read”, particularly for Muslim communities, but she said the country had to face up to “uncomfortable” problems. “Misogyny and patriarchy” in some communities was widening inequality, she said.
I, only last Thursday, was in a community where women who have lived here for years are not allowed out of their house without their men’s permission ... Inequality within certain communities in these highly segregated areas is getting worse, not better ...
At the end of the day it is not the women in those communities that I have a problem with, it is the men in those communities. It is the misogyny and the patriarchy that has to come to an end. Leaders that are not Muslim and are Muslim need to unite around unity in this country. No matter who you are, no matter what creed or colour you are, equality rules.
The Labour MP Chuka Umunna chairs the all-party parliamentary group on social integration. Welcoming the Casey report he said:
The fact people live parallel lives in modern Britain has been swept under the carpet for far too long and deemed too difficult to deal with, which has left a vacuum for extremists and peddlers of hate on all sides to exploit. So I welcome this very important report which highlights how a lack of integration adversely impacts on us all, whatever your background.
A lack of integration deprives people of jobs and opportunities, increases isolation, ill health and anxiety. Above all, it is sapping our communities of trust at a time when, in an uncertain and changing world, it is all too easy to blame ‘the other’ for all our problems.
Tackling segregation and increasing integration is not about attributing blame and attacking immigrants, be they recent arrivals or those who arrived decades ago. Too often efforts to achieve greater integration are immediately attacked, wrongly, as a rejection of multicultural Britain when breaking down the barriers between communities is the best defence of the diverse country we have become.
Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, says on Twitter he will respond properly to the Casey report in the new year.
The Casey Review is published today. I will be studying her findings closely and reporting back in the New Year https://t.co/uNNShfWoeJ
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) December 5, 2016
The long-awaited report from Dame Louise Casey into integration is out this morning and it makes awkward reading for politicians from all main parties.
Here is the 18-page executive summary (pdf).
Here is the full 199-page report (pdf).
Here is the Guardian’s story about it by Anushka Asthana.
And here is how it starts.
Governments have failed for more than a decade to ensure that social integration in the UK has kept up with the “unprecedented pace and scale of immigration” and have allowed some local communities to become increasingly divided, a major review has found.
At the end of a year-long study of community cohesion in Britain, Dame Louise Casey has branded ministerial attempts to boost integration of ethnic minorities as amounting to little more than “saris, samosas and steel drums for the already well-intentioned”.
Accusing the government of serious failings in its approach to social cohesion, the government’s integration tsar said efforts had been squeezed since 2010, with leaders “falling well below the stated ambition to ‘do more than any other government before us to promote integration’”.
“The problem has not been a lack of knowledge but a failure of collective, consistent and persistent will to do something about it or give it the priority it deserves at both a national and local level,” Casey concluded, who said there had been failures in each administration.
Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, has responded on behalf of the government. He said it was a “valuable contribution” - which often in these circumstances is a euphemism for “unwelcome contribution”. Javid went on:
This government is building a democracy for everyone and our country has long been home to lots of different cultures and communities, but all of us have to be part of one society - British society.
So while it’s right that we celebrate the positive contribution that diverse groups make to British life, we also need to continue making sure that nobody is excluded from it or left behind.
I will be covering reaction to the report.
Today, of course, we’ve also got the start of the four-day supreme court hearing for the article 50 appeal. We will be covering that on a separate blog, so coverage of it here will be minimal.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: The supreme court hearing starts.
11am: Number 10 lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Amber Rudd, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
5pm: Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, gives a speech at Liverpool John Moores University.
As usual, I will also be covering the 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 lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
