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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Peers defeat government on Brexit 'meaningful vote' with increased majority - as it happened

Viscount Hailsham speaking in the Lords debate on the EU withdrawal bill.
Viscount Hailsham speaking in the Lords debate on the EU withdrawal bill. Photograph: Parliament TV

We’re going to close down our live coverage for the evening. Thanks for reading.

If you would like to read more on tonight’s government defeat in the Lords, my colleague Jessica Elgot has the full story:

The House of Lords leader, Natalie Evans, urged peers to reject the amendment. “It is not right that your lordships’ house could have a veto on the deal simply by refusing to consider a motion,” she said, saying the alternative amendment by Hailsham contained “major flaws”.

Several former Tory cabinet ministers also spoke out against the amendment. The former leader, Michael Howard, said it “would be to confer upon parliament a negotiation power which has always resided in the hands of the executive in our country”.

Former chancellor Norman Lamont said the amendment was unnecessary because parliament would always have the power to act in the event of no deal. “Obviously it would come to parliament, obviously it would be a major event,” he said. “Do we really have to write it down with all these complicated provisions?”

“Wake up and smell the coffee”. That’s the message the Liberal Democrats have sent to Theresa May, via the medium of press release, after the government’s Lords defeat. The party’s leader in the House of Lords, Dick Newby, said:

Theresa May is making a mess of Brexit. It is time for her to wake up and smell the coffee. This latest defeat shows she can no longer avoid the issue of a meaningful vote.

Parliament must be given a meaningful vote on all possible outcomes of Brexit, and this must be guaranteed in writing, in the EU Withdrawal Bill.

If the Tories are still confident they can get a good Brexit deal, then they should be more than happy to give parliament this vote. Parliament must be able to decide amongst all the options – including giving the people a final say on the Brexit deal and a chance to exit from Brexit.

Matthew Pennycook, Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, responding to the House of Lords’ vote on the terms of parliament’s meaningful vote, has said:

The Lords have been forced to act to ensure Theresa May upholds the promise she made to Tory MPs.

Labour has always maintained that parliament should have the right to a genuinely meaningful vote on the terms of our exit from the EU. If the prime minister’s final Brexit deal is voted down, that cannot give her licence to crash the UK out of the EU without an agreement.

MPs now face a decisive vote on Wednesday to guarantee parliament has a proper role in the Brexit negotiations and to take the threat of no deal off the table once and for all.

The 22 Tory peers who rebelled and backed the meaningful vote amendment included Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten and Sayeeda Warsi.

Before voting, they heard Lord Hailsham say at issue was the deal Dominic Grieve, who originally devised the amendment, “believes was agreed with the government” when the bill was before the Commons.

Hailsham said Grieve was a man “of the upmost personal and professional integrity” and said he accepted his version of events “without reservation”.

Grieve believed he had struck a deal with the solicitor general, Robert Buckland, to give MPs more scope in directing ministers in the possible event of a likely no-deal Brexit. That, they hoped would avert a government defeat in the Commons by pro-EU Tories. Grieve said later he was double-crossed and the government went back on the agreement.

Hailsham told the Lords the government’s offer “not only fails to deliver a promised ‘meaningful vote’... but is far worse. It is seeking to make it impossible. It deliberately removes the possibility.”

Under the new amendment, ministers must update parliament by 21 January 2019 if there is no prospect of a deal with the EU and then have two weeks to return to the House of Commons with a statement on how the government plans to proceed. MPs would then be given a vote on whether to approve the action in statement.

Afternoon summary

  • Theresa May has suffered a big defeat in the Lords, with peers voting for a new version of the plan to give parliament a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit deal by a majority of 119. The issue will go back to the Commons on Wednesday where the prime minister is at real risk of a defeat that would take the prospect of a “no deal” Brexit off the table and raise the prospect of MPs, not the government, deciding Brexit priorities in the event of the withdrawal deal being voted down in the autumn. Peers have defeated the government on this issue before. But, unusually, the anti-government majority was significantly bigger than it was last time (normally it starts to shrink at this point) and that may embolden Tory rebels in the Commons. (See 6.16pm.)
  • The government has announced that it will introduce its own bill to ban upskirting after a backbench one was killed off by the Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope on Friday.
  • Labour has announced that it will seek a vote of no confidence in Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, tomorrow.

That’s all for me for today.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

22 Tory peers rebel over 'meaningful vote' in Lords

Here are the voting figures showing how peers voted on the “meaningful vote” amendment.

Some 22 Tory peers rebelled. And the crossbenchers divided more than three to one in favour of the Hailsham amendment.

You can read the figures here.

How peers voted on Hailsham amendment
How peers voted on Hailsham amendment Photograph: House of Lords

Peers have still not finished debating the Commons amendments to the EU withdrawal bill. But no further votes are expected tonight.

The bill goes back to the Commons on Wednesday, when the goverment will try to vote down the Hailsham amendment, or “Grieve II”, as he called it.

Peers defeat government on Brexit 'meaningful vote' with increased majority

Peers have voted for the new “meaningful vote” amendment by 354 votes to 235 - a majority of 119.

Last time when peers defeated the government on the “meaningful vote” issue 335 peers backed Viscount Hailsham, while 244 didn’t, and the majority was 91. Now it is significantly bigger.

Updated

Two former diplomats are rowing about the EU withdrawal bill on Twitter.

This is from Lord Ricketts, former head of the Foreign Office.

And this is from Sir Christopher Meyer, former ambassador to Washington.

Updated

Viscount Hailsham is winding up now. He puts his amendment to a vote.

Peers are voting now.

Lord True is winding up now. He says it would be a mistake for the Lords to align itself with “a faction in the House of Commons with an axe to grind”.

Natalie Evans, the leader of the Lords, is winding up for the government now.

She says the Lords have a reputation for high quality scrutiny. But this amendment is a hastily drawn up amendment, she says.

She says Michael Howard was right to say MPs will debate the government amendment, and there could be amendments.

Lord Bilimoria, a crossbencher, intervenes. He says Evans has said the Hailsham amendment would undermine the government’s negotiating position. But the European parliament will have to approve the deal too, he says. He says no one is saying that will undermine the EU’s negotiating position.

Evans ignores his point. She concludes by saying peers should think very carefully before voting against the government on this.

Natalie Evans
Natalie Evans Photograph: Parliament TV

Hayter says that, if the government were to reject the Hailsham amendment, parliament would get less say over the withdrawal agreement than the European parliament.

She urges peers to pass the amendment. It will then be up to MPs to decide, she says.

There is a kefuffle in the Lords because more backbenchers want to speak. But lots of peers shout “front bench” (meaning they’ve had enough and want to move on to the fronbench wind-up speeches) and, after a bit of a stand-off, Lady Hayter, the Labour Brexit spokeswoman goes next.

(That is how they organise the schedule in the Lords. It’s a bit odd, but it seems to work.)

Hayter says peers should pass the Hailsham amendment so that MPs can consider the agreement Dominic Grieve thought he had reached with the government.

Lady Ludford, the Lib Dem Brexit spokeswoman, is speaking now. She says, if the Commons were to reject the withdrawal agreement, that would provoke a crisis. She says the Hailsham amendment will provide a guide as to what would happen next in those circumstances.

Like Hailsham, she says the attacks on Dominic Grieve in the Daily Mail last week were a disgrace. She goes on:

It shows the degradation of our political and media culture and discourse.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a former Ukip leader, is speaking now. He is opposing the Hailsham amendment, but peers don’t seem very keen to hear from him and the background rumbling suggests they are eager for him to finish. He wraps up quite quickly, having argued that blocking the referendum result would be undemocratic.

Lamont says it is objectionable to suggest that parliament should direct the government in the Brexit talks. And how would it direct the government?

He says parliament can already express its views.

He urges peers to reject the Hailsham amendment.

At times Brexit just feels like a Tory family feud. Lord Lamont, the Conservative former chancellor, is speaking now. He says he is due to have Sunday lunch with Viscount Hailsham in the next few day, but he will be sitting at the far end of the table because Hailsham is so strident, he says.

This is from the ITV’s Robert Peston.

Michael Howard, the former Conservative leader, is speaking now.

He says Hailsham said he was proposing his amendment so the Commons would get the chance to vote on “Grieve II”. But the government has tabled its own amendment. That will be debated in the Commons, he says, and at that point someone can table a Grieve II-style amendment, he says.

Angela Smith, the Labour leader in the Lords, says Howard is wrong. The only amendments that would be allowed would be government ones.

Howard disagrees. But his Tory colleague Patrick Cormack intervenes to say Smith is right, and Howard is wrong. Howard says he disagrees. Lady Boothroyd, the former Commons speaker, becomes the third person to intervene to tell Howard is understanding of the rules is wrong.

Howard says that John Bercow, the current Commons speaker, is currently very keen to accept awkward amendments.

Updated

Lord True, a Conservative, is speaking now. He says the public are getting fed up with the parliamentary debates on this.

People outside this house and outside Parliament are getting a little bit tired of the parliamentary games and the archane language of these parliamentary discussions. They actually want to know when they are going to get Brexit, when it will be delivered and when it will be done.

He says Hailsham is acting as a representative for Dominic Grieve. Grieve has been consorting with people who want to block Brexit, he says. Grieve has been taking his orders from Alastair Campbell, he says. And he says yesterday in an interview Grieve talked about collapsing the government.

(That is a reference to Grieve telling the Sunday Politics: “We could collapse the government and I can assure you, I wake up at 2am in a cold sweat thinking about the problems that we have put on our shoulders.”)

True says, if Grieve is serious about not wanting to block Brexit, he should accept an amendment making that clear. (True is speaking because he has tabled his own amendment to Hailsham’s amendment saying any motion passed by the Commons in the event of a no deal scenario should not prevent or delay Brexit.)

True says the House of Lords must not block the wishes of the people. What people voted for in the referendum must be respected, he says.

He says peers must ask if they want to be party to further games that could “collapse the government”, or if they are willing to accept the compromise the government has already offered.

He says, if the Hailsham amendment were passed, that could weaken the government’s negotiating position for months and months ahead.

Updated

Hailsham says the government’s amendment on a “meaningful vote” said that, in the event of the Commons not agreeing a withdrawal agreement by February 15 next year, there must be a vote in the Commons on a motion “in neutral terms”.

But a motion “in neutral terms” cannot be amended. That means the Commons will not be able to propose an alternative course of action, he says.

He says Lord Callanan, the Brexit minister, said recently the government had never used the term “meaningful vote”. That was wrong, he says.

He says peers should pass his amendment so that MPs can get the chance to have their own vote on what Grieve thought he had agreed.

He asks if it is right that, in the absence of an agreement, parliament should take the risk of the UK crashing out of the EU on a take note notion in neutral terms. In those circumstances, the Commons should have the authority to intervene, he says.

He says Theresa May has promised a meaningful vote. That promised has not been honoured. But “Grieve II” would allow this to happen, he says.

Was it wise, was it prudent, was it responsible to start the article 50 negotiations without a firm collective agreement as to where we wanted to go or how we were to get there.

Was it perhaps a serious error of judgment to trigger the article 50 procedure without there being a firm policy on these matters.

Is it right that in the absence of a deal parliament should risk crashing out of the EU on the basis of a take-note motion cast in neutral terms and as a result of the unconstrained decisions of ministers.

Updated

Updated

Hailsham says he has known Dominic Grieve for years. Grieve is a man of integrity, he says.

Hailsham says the attacks on Grieve in the Daily Mail last week were “disgraceful”. The authors should be ashamed of themselves, he says.

Viscount Hailsham (better known as Douglas Hogg, the former Conservative MP) is speaking now.

He says he is proposing F3, which he says he will describe as “Grieve II”.

A copy of it is here (pdf).

Hailsham says he wants to give peers the chance to vote on the proposal for the Commons to have a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit withdrawal agreement that Dominic Grieve thought he had negotiated as a compromise with Downing Street. Grieve entered talks after agreeing to pull his original amendment (“Grieve I”) during the debate on Tuesday last week. But at the last minute the government ditched Grieve II, and tabled an alternative “compromise” (which wasn’t really a compromise because Grieve said it was unacceptable).

In the House of Lords peers are now debating motion F, relating to the “meaningful vote” amendments.

Natalie Evans, the leader of the Lords, says it would be wrong to have parliament taking charge of the Brexit negotiations.

She says Dominic Grieve himself said in a TV interview yesterday that giving parliament the power to tell the government what it must do would be going too far.

She explains the new government amendment, set out here (pdf), amendment F.

Turning back to Theresa May’s health spending announcment, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has published a note by Carl Emmerson and Thomas Pope about what the government is planning. It includes this passage explaining why a “Brexit dividend” will not fund the increase.

First, and most importantly, according to the official forecasts (accepted by the government), Brexit worsens rather than improves the public finances. In November 2016, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR, the government’s official forecaster) estimated that, due to economic growth being forecast to be lower than it would otherwise have been, the Brexit vote reduced tax forecast tax revenues to the tune of £15 billion in 2020–21.[3] This outweighs the UK’s net contribution to the EU by a substantial margin, and means less, rather than more money for the NHS and other services.

Second, the OBR assesses that in the short- to medium-term the UK will continue to make large payments as a result of the ‘divorce settlement’. After taking this into account, the amount left over for spending elsewhere is relatively small (calculated to be £5.8 billion in 2022–23).[4]

Third, even this overstates the extra amount to spend on the NHS, because part of this may be used to replace EU spending that would otherwise no longer take place in the UK, with agriculture the largest single element of spending currently amounting to around £3 billion per year alone.

The IFS also says that freezing tax allowances - which is said to be the Treasury’s preferred option for raising money to fund this plan - would raise £3.5bn. But the government needs to raise £21bn to pay for what May has announced, the IFS says.

This note helps to explain today’s Times splash.

Here is an extract from Sam Coates’s story.

The deal was concluded late on Friday afternoon by Mrs May, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England. However, sources said that the meeting broke up without agreement on where significant chunks of cash would come from. “By the end of the meeting, some sources of funding had been more heavily pencilled in than others,” a ministerial source said.

Plans to raise money from freezing all personal allowance and national insurance thresholds at the end of the parliament, revealed in The Times last week, remain leading options and would raise nearly £4bn. Borrowing could account for £8bn to £10bn.

Plans put forward to defer corporation tax rate cuts, delivering £6bn, were not signed off. Ministers now hope that the Office for Budget Responsibility will upgrade growth in the budget, reducing the necessary borrowing and tax rises, but the plans remain underfunded by up to £11bn.

The UK government will this week unveil the first details of the “settled status” immigration scheme that will apply to Britain’s 3.4 million EU citizens if they want to stay in the country after Brexit, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports.

Brussels accuses UK of wanting “same rights” as EU states regarding policing after Brexit but “different constraints”

The European commission has published a paper (pdf) on its proposals for police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters after Brexit.

Here are three slides illustrating EU objections to the UK’s offer.

EU analysis of UK’s post-Brexit offer
EU analysis of UK’s post-Brexit offer Photograph: European commission
EU analysis of UK’s post-Brexit offer
EU analysis of UK’s post-Brexit offer Photograph: European commission
EU analysis of UK’s post-Brexit offer
EU analysis of UK’s post-Brexit offer Photograph: European commission

MS means member states.

The EU is accusing the UK of wanting the “same rights” as EU member states, but “different constraints” - or cherry picking, as the EU normally call it.

Dan Poulter, a Conservative former health minister who has supported the Caldwell family, just told me:

Given the strong evidence supporting the medicinal use of cannabis, there is no reason why it should not be available for doctors to prescribe, as may be appropriate to our patients. Children like Billy Caldwell have suffered long enough and the only humane thing to do is recognise that property prescribed medicinal cannabis is a medicine just like any other.

Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, has written an open letter to Sajid Javid, the home secretary, saying he lost a son to intractable epilepsy and that he thinks doctors should be able to prescribe cannabis oil for use by patients with this condition.

Labour would allow cannabis oil to be prescribed for medical purposes, says Abbott

In the Commons Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, says the current rules on medicinal cannabis are “not fit for purpose”.

Earlier she released a statement saying:

A number of recent heart breaking cases have highlighted a failure of government policy. Children have been put at risk and experienced extraordinary suffering because this government drags its heels and refuses to grant cannabis oil licences.

This must not continue. Labour in government will allow the legal prescription of cannabis oil for medical purposes. We will also review drugs policy to address all issues of public health. The government should stop being so heavy-handed and bureaucratic and put the welfare of children first.

In response Hurd said that when Labour was in office it did “the square root of very little” on this issue.

Chris Leslie sets out centrist values he thinks Labour should adopt

Chris Leslie said he had “not given up on the Labour party” as he spoke at the lunchtime launch of his pamphlet Common Ground at a Social Market Foundation event also attended by Chuka Umunna and Liz Kendall.

The former shadow chancellor and Corbyn critic said that he was spelling out the “values that the Labour party needs to adopt if it wants to get back into government” in a 25,000 word document that was clearly ranged against the party’s leadership.

But Leslie denied that he was prepared to quit Labour or start organising for a new party. “There is no point pretending that things are not difficult in the Labour party at the moment,” the Nottingham East MP said, but added: “This is not a manifesto for a new group.”

The MP highlighted six centrist values that he said were “characteristic of British mainstream opinion”. They ranged from fair play, including a crack down on “anti-social corporate behaviour”; an emphasis on acting with responsibility both within the UK and internationally; plus a call to act on “evidence not ideology” because “experts matter”.

Others on his list of pledges included an emphasis on representative democracy in which MPs act as “deliberative representatives” who use their judgement to take decisions rather than act as mere delegates in a response to the Brexit debate, coupled with a related attack on populism in which he suggested that anonymity in social media should be banned.

Leslie concluded with a plea to focus “on 21st century challenges” by, for example, offering every working person a six month mid-career sabbatical to retrain as needed.

Chris Leslie.
Chris Leslie. Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris/Frantzesco Kangaris for The Guardian

Home Office setting up expert panel to advise when medicinal cannabis products should be allowed, MPs told

In the Commons the Home Office minister Nick Hurd is answering an urgent question about medical cannabis and the Billy Caldwell case.

He has just announced the establishment of an expert panel to advise ministers on when medicinal cannabis products should be allowed.

  • Home Office setting up expert panel to advise when medicinal cannabis products should be allowed, MPs told.

Updated

In the Commons Janet Daby, the new Labour MP for Lewisham East, has just taken her seat.

Peers debate EU withdrawal bill

Peers have just started their debate on the EU withdrawal bill. They are debating the Commons amendments to the bill passed last week.

You can read all the latest amendments here (pdf). And the last-minute meaningful vote one tabled by Viscount Hailsham (see 11.17am), known as “Grieve II”, is here (pdf).

Lord Callanan, the Brexit minister, opened the debate by urging peers to accept all the government amendments passed in the Commons.

Angela Smith, the Labour leader in the Lords, is speaking now. She says the Lords should not embark on “ping pong” (sending a bill back to the Commons with changes, after the Commons has already rejected those changes) lightly. But it should be willing to send a bill back where the position in the Commons is unresolved (ie, on the “meaningful vote” issue).

The first debate is on amendment A (which relates to the customs union). Smith says she does not think peers should send their version of this back to the Commons.

The key vote will come when we get to amendment F, which is where the Hailsham amendment has been listed.

Stephen Pound, the shadow Northern Ireland minister, filmed a message at the weekend backing a “people’s vote” Brexit. This is taken as referring to a second referendum, which is what the People’s Vote campaign is calling for. But Labour does not favour a second referendum and, as PoliticsHome reports, Pound has now issued a clarification, saying what he actually wants is a “meaningful vote” in parliament.

Last month Preet Gill, a shadow international development minister, experienced a similar rethink after speaking out in favour of a second referendum.

Updated

Labour says May just offering NHS 'standstill in funding'

And this is from Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary,

The money announced today by the prime minister is not enough to save our NHS after eight years of Conservative austerity.

Although she confirmed the current situation is not sustainable, today’s figures represent little more than a standstill in funding, according to experts.

People are waiting longer and in pain because of Tory cuts to the NHS. The prime minister couldn’t say today when this will improve and waiting lists will come down.

She also confirmed that social care, capital spending and public health will not see any increase as a result of today’s announcement.

If the Conservatives do manage to publish the detail of their insufficient 3.4% increase, then Labour’s fully costed plans to raise taxes for the top 5% and big business will top up NHS spending growth to around the 5% which is needed.

This is from my colleague Heather Stewart, who was in the audience where Theresa May was delivering her speech.

In the comments Stanley Caleb asked about how Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could benefit from Theresa May’s NHS announcement. May was talking about plans for NHS England.

She addressed this in her speech. She said:

I have focused today on the NHS in England because that is the responsibility of the UK government. It is the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales – and when sitting again, Northern Ireland – which have responsibility for the NHS in their parts of the UK.

But because the UK government is increasing NHS spending in England, extra money will go to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under the Barnett formula, which ensures every part of the UK gets a fair share of public spending.

While it is up to the devolved administrations to spend the money as they see fit, I believe everyone in the UK should benefit from this extra funding for the NHS. So I urge the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to use this money to improve the NHS – and to develop their own long-term plans for NHS Scotland and NHS Wales.

May refuses to back health secretary in saying medicinal cannabis laws must change

Here are the main points from Theresa May’s Q&A.

  • Theresa May defended the current restrictions on the use of medicinal cannabis and played down suggestions that a wide-ranging review of legislation in this area is underway. Asked if she favoured changing the law, she replied:

It is possible for medicinal cannabis to be used. But what we need to ensure is that we’re listening to clinicians, we are listening to people as we do that. Do we need to look at these cases and consider what we’ve got in place? Yes. But I think what needs to drive us in all of these cases is actually what clinicians are saying about these issues.

Of course, there’s a very good reason why we’ve got a set of rules around drugs, and around cannabis and other drugs - because of the impact of that they have on people’s lives. And we must never forget that. But we already have an ability for licences to be granted in relation to medicinal cannabis. Do we need to make sure that’s right and able to be dealing with cases when we need to? Yes we do.

And, when pressed as to whether a review was actually underway, she replied:

We are looking at whether we have the right process for ensuring that we can licence these drugs when clinicians feel that they should be licensed.

May’s comments put her at odds with Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, who told the Today programme this morning that the current restrictions could not be justified. (See 10.26am.) Hunt said:

I don’t think anyone who followed that story [the Billy Caldwell story] could sensibly say that we are getting the law on this kind of thing right.

May was arguing that the current laws are acceptable and implying that any fresh look at how they work (she would not use the term “review”) would lead to little or no change.

  • May rejected claims that the “Brexit dividend” does not exist. When asked about this, she said:

On the “Brexit dividend”, look, it’s very simple. We are not going to be sending the vast amount of money every year to the EU that we spend at the moment on the EU as a member of the European Union. That money will be coming back, and we will be spending it on our priorities, and the NHS is our number one priority.

  • She confirmed that people would have to pay more tax to fund the extra money for the NHS. But the government wanted go “listen” to people about what form the tax rise might take, she said.

I said as a country we will need to contribute a bit more. Taxpayers will need to contribute a bit more. But we will do that in a fair and balanced way. And we want to listen to people about who we do that.

Theresa May (left) and Jeremy Hunt meet nursing staff during their visit to the Royal Free Hospital in London this morning.
Theresa May (left) and Jeremy Hunt meet nursing staff during their visit to the Royal Free Hospital in London this morning. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Q: When can patients expect to see an improvement as a result of this new money?

May says A&E was under significant pressure this winter. The government wants to see improvements here, and in other areas too.

She says this plan will be led by the NHS, not just by politicians.

And that’s it. The speech and Q&A are over.

I will post a summary soon.

According to the Spectator’s James Forsyth, Theresa May blocked a discussion on changing the rules on medicinal cannabis at this morning’s cabinet meeting.

Q: [From the Daily Mail] Will you scrap NHS car parking charges?

May says guidance has been issued to hospitals relating to car parking charges.

Q: You believe in politicians keeping their promises. Should John Bercow keep the promise he made when elected as speaker to stand down this summer?

May says what Bercow does is a matter for Bercow.

Q: Is there a review into the law on medicinal cannabis? And do you back changing the law?

May says it is currently possible for medicinal cannabis to be used. Do we need to look at these cases? Yes. But what should drive government is what clinicians are saying, she says. She says there are good reasons why there are laws around drugs, because of the impact they have on people’s lives.

May says the chancellor will set out all the details of how the increase will be funded in due course.

On the EU withdrawal bill, she says she hopes “everybody” will see that, as the government keeps faith with people who voted to leave the EU, it is important to ensure parliament cannot tie the hands of the government in negotiation and overturn the referendum.

May's Q&A

Q: Are you telling people to pay more tax? And do you accept it is misleading to speak of a Brexit dividend when experts say there will be less money around?

May says taxpayers will have to contribute a bit more. She said that in the speech, she says.

On the Brexit dividend, she says it is simple: the UK will not be sending vast amounts to the EU every year, so it can be spend on UK priorities, and those priorities are the NHS.

These are from my colleague Heather Stewart.

And this is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

Updated

May is still speaking. She says the long-term plan for the NHS must include plans for mental health, which she says is a personal priority for her.

Blair mocks May's 'mystery tax increases and mythical Brexit dividend' and says she does not understand NHS

In her speech May repeated a claim she made yesterday, about how much of the Labour extra spending on health allegedly did not benefit patients. (See 12.57pm.)

Tony Blair has responded with a lengthy statement saying that May’s claim shows she does not know who the NHS works. He said:

The prime minister said today that nearly half of Labour’s record increase in investment in the NHS during the last Labour government was not spent on patients. I simply don’t know what she means by that. But if the implication is that, because significant investment went on increased numbers of staff, including nurses and doctors, better pay and a huge uplift in hospital building and NHS facilities, this is not money spent on patients, it shows how little this government understands the NHS and its challenges.

This investment was absolutely necessary to deliver the significant cuts we saw in waiting lists and waiting times and the dramatically improved results in cancer and cardiac care the new Labour government oversaw, resulting in some of the highest patient satisfaction levels ever seen. All of which, of course, have slid into reverse under this Conservative government.

This programme of investment and reform was supported by a clear and specific increase in national insurance – unlike the plans announced today which appear to be dependent on mystery tax increases and a mythical Brexit dividend the IFS confirms cannot fund the extra spending.

May says she wants to the UK to be at the forefront of the revolution on how AI (artificial intelligence) can transform healthcare.

She has set a target for increasing the number of people diagnosed with cancer by AI.

May says the 10-year plan for the NHS must involve a comprehensive plan for the workforce.

The workforce needs to be more flexible, she says.

She says the government will increase the number of staff in areas where there are most pressures. It will see what can be done to encourage people back into frontline jobs. And the tier 2 rules restricting the hiring of foreign doctors are being abandoned with immediate effect.

But she says the NHS also has to reduce its reliance on doctors from countries where medical staff are in short supply.

May says up to one third of people in hospital stay longer than necessary because the right care is not available for them at home.

But, for someone aged 80, 10 days of bed rest in hospital has the same affect as 10 years of ageing, she says.

May says at its best the NHS is world class.

But it has been a challenge to spread that best practice, he says.

She says NHS leaders told her that was because, if they innovated, they felt as if they were going against the grain.

She says, an Aneurin Bevan said at the second reading of the NHS bill, the intention was to “universalise the best”.

She says she wants to reward those who deliver the best, and hold people to account when they don’t.

May says the NHS must produce a plan to improve efficiency.

This must be a plan that ensures every penny is well spent. It must be a plan that tackles waste, reduces bureaucracy and eliminates unacceptable variation, with all these efficiency savings reinvested back into patient care.

It must be a plan that makes better use of capital investment to modernise its buildings and invest in technology to drive productivity improvements. It must be a plan that enjoys the support of NHS staff across the country – not something dreamt up in Whitehall and centrally imposed. But NHS leaders at national and local level must then be held to account for their role in delivering this plan.

May says the government must get more efficiency from the NHS in return for the extra funding.

She says that, when Labour put more money into the NHS after raising national insurance in 2002, too much of that money did not go on patient care.

  • May accuses Labour of increasing NHS spending without patients getting all the benefit.

May says the government will also come forward with plans to put social care on a sustainable footing.

May says some of the money will come from no longer having to pay the annual subscription payment to the EU. That is the Brexit dividend, she says.

But she says that taxpayers will also have to pay more.

The government will keep to its fiscal responsibility rules, she says.

May turns to funding.

It is clear more money is needed, she says.

She says the NHS needs to be able to plan for the future.

In the past increases have been inconsistent, changing from one year to the next.

She says the government will do more than give the NHS a one-off increase.

And she reads out the figures briefed overnight. See 12.40pm.

May says care has improved. The number of staff recommending their service for their own family has never been higher. And it has been described as the best in the world.

But the demands facing the NHS are growing. People are living longer, she says. More treatments are available. And problems like malnutrition, and loneliness, which is bad for health, are growing.

She says patients can be confronted by a hard-to-navigate system.

Some hospitals are world-leading, she says. But others aren’t.

May says she wants to talk about how the NHS preserves the values of fairness embedded in it.

It was the crowning achievement of the post-war Attlee government, she says.

But she says it does not belong to one party. It was proposed by the wartime coalition government, she says.

She says it has been under the stewardship of Tory government for 43 years and Labour ones for 27 years.

May says she has also seen what the NHS has done for others, and she talks about visiting a hospital in Manchester after the bombing at the Manchester Arena last year.

I will never forget visiting the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack. There, in the face of the very worst that humanity can do, I witnessed first-hand, the very best.

Doctors and nurses working 24 hour shifts to treat the injured. Surgeons who were off-shift, dropping everything to come in and perform life-saving operations.

Paramedics who had risked their own lives to get others to safety. In every instance, I was struck not only by the medical expertise of the staff, but the compassion with which people were treated. This is our National Health Service.

Theresa May is speaking now.

She says people know the NHS is there for them when they need it.

From life-saving treatment to managing a life-changing condition - whoever we are, whatever our means, we know the NHS is there for us when we need it.

It was there for me when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I will never forget the support - not just of my GP and consultants - but also the clinical nurse specialists attached to my local hospital. Their advice was critical: enabling me to adjust to the new treatment regime, to manage my condition, and minimise the impact it has on my life.

I would not be doing the job I am doing today without that support.

Updated

Theresa May is about to start her speech.

This is from my colleague Heather Stewart.

Downing Street released some excerpts from Theresa May’s speech overnight. Here is an extract from their news release.

On funding, the prime minister will say that the government’s investment is about making sure the NHS can plan for the future with ambition and confidence, setting out that funding will grow on average by 3.4% in real terms each year from 2019/20 to 2023/24.

The government’s commitment to making sure this money goes to the frontline and to improve patient care is illustrated by the fact the PM has set aside an additional £1.25bn each year to cover specific pensions pressure on top of the settlement.

She will say:

By 2023/24 the NHS budget will increase by over £20bn in real terms compared with today. That means it will be £394m a week higher in real terms.

So the NHS will be growing significantly faster than the economy as a whole, reflecting the fact that the NHS is this government’s number one spending priority.

This money will be provided specifically for the NHS. And it will be funded in a responsible way.

No 10 says government will introduce its own bill to ban upskirting

The Press Association has snapped this.

Legislation to ban upskirting is to be adopted as a government bill, with a second reading in the Commons before the summer break in July, Downing Street said.

The government will introduce its own bill to ban upskirting, Downing Street said today.

This is from the Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, a former Treasury special adviser. There is speculation that freezing tax allowances will be the tax increase (it amounts to a tax increase, because people pay more as a result) that funds the extra money for the NHS.

Theresa May's NHS speech

Theresa May is about to deliver her NHS speech.

There is a live feed at the top of the blog.

There will be a statement from Jeremy Hunt in the Commons today after 3.30pm about health spending.

The Green MP Caroline Lucas has tweeted a pictures of the knickers outside Sir Christopher Chope’s door. (See 11.51am.)

My colleague Peter Walker says the Conservative MP Sir Chrisopher Chope has a surprise waiting for him when he arrives at his Commons office today.

Carl Sargeant's family threaten court challenge over terms of inquiry into his death

The family of a politician found dead following groping allegations are considering a High Court challenge to the independent inquiry into his sacking, the Press Association reports. Welsh Assembly member Carl Sargeant, 49, was found dead at his home in Connah’s Quay, North Wales, on November 7 last year. His death came four days after he was removed from his role as cabinet secretary for communities and children by Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones. The father-of-two was suspended from the Labour Party over allegations of “unwanted attention, inappropriate touching or groping”. He was not told the details of what he was accused of and was unable to properly defend himself, his family said.

An independent inquiry into the handling of Mr Sargeant’s sacking is still to be held by the Welsh Government in Cardiff. But today’s Sargeant’s family said they have been excluded and will challenge the process in court if they have to, the Press Association reports. The family say the procedures and rules, or operational protocol, set by civil servants in the Welsh Government with inquiry chairman Paul Bowen QC, are “deeply unsatisfactory”. Neil Hudgell, representing the Sargeant family, said:

The grieving Sargeant family are losing patience and faith in the inquiry and are hurt and upset that everything they have asked for has been ignored.

While the family take at face value Mr Bowen’s assurances that he will carry out a fair and independent investigation, they do not believe the protocol allows for it.

The permanent secretary, acting on behalf of the first minister, has refused to allow the family to have their own legal representation at the inquiry, meaning they will be unable to have a barrister cross-examine any of the witnesses.

I have written to both Paul Bowen and the permanent secretary to advise them that we believe the decision-making in relation to the protocol to be unreasonable and we will challenge it by way of a judicial review in the High Court if we have to.

In an interview on the Today programme this morning Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem deputy prime minister, criticised Theresa May for refusing to relax the law on the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes when she was home secretary and they were in government together in the coalition. He told the programme:

It is pathetic - and I saw it for myself in government - this bone-headed triumph of prejudice over evidence. The active substance in these cannabis-derived medicines is less harmful than stuff you can get across the counter from a chemist.

When I was in government, I certainly couldn’t get Theresa May and the Home Office and indeed other parts of the government to just address the evidence.

That poor mother is finding herself in this heartbreaking situation because politicians can’t separate off the issue of medicinal cannabis to help her child from their wider prejudice about drugs generally.

In the comments BTL some people have been asking for more information about the supposed “Brexit dividend”. Here are three articles explaining some of the context.

  • Toby Helm’s article in the Observer saying why Theresa May’s Brexit dividend claim is so contentious.

Updated

Peers set to approve 'Grieve II' amendment on 'meaningful vote' this afternoon

The action in the Lords tonight is likely to squeak in just before the England game - with the key motion on the “meaningful vote” voted on around 6.30pm. There has been another last-minute amendment - one based on the compromise Tory rebels believed they had secured with the prime minister - before they say they were double-crossed.

Viscount Hailsham, the former Conservative cabinet minister Douglas Hogg, had already tabled Dominic Grieve’s original compromise amendment which he attempted, but failed, to get debated in the Commons last week.

That Grieve amendment had the controversial “clause C” which Brexiters and ministers objected to; it said that if there is no prospect of a Brexit deal by February 15, then within five days the government must consult parliament “and must follow any direction in relation to negotiations.”

Ministers and many MPs were nervous about the idea of parliament being able to “direct” the government and May bought off the rebels last week with a promise that Clause C would be discussed to find an agreeable wording. Grieve and his supporters believed they have reached a compromise over the wording late on Thursday, but the government amendment then tabled in the Lords promised an unamendable vote on a neutral motion, which would not stop a “no deal” Brexit. Grieve said the wording had been changed at the last minute and called the government amendment “unacceptable.”

Now Hailsham will table yet another amendment. This new wording, which Lords sources are calling “Grieve II” will be based on the compromise the rebels thought they had on Thursday night.

Hailsham is expected to withdraw his other amendment so this will be the crucial vote, and is expected to comfortably pass through the Lords. That will mean it will be back on the table for the Commons on Wednesday. The government amendment is highly likely to be defeated, and may be withdrawn.

There are two other interesting matters for debate in the Lords today. Lord Pannick is expected to push again for the EU charter of fundamental rights to form part of the EU Withdrawal bill. And Labour Lords Brexit spokeswoman Dianne Hayter will push for more guarantees on workers rights and equality. Both will be looking to get some firmer commitments from Lords ministers at the despatch box.

Viscount Hailsham
Viscount Hailsham Photograph: Parliament TV

Boris Johnson welcomes £20bn NHS money as 'downpayment' on 'Brexit dividend'

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is in Geneva today. As the most prominent figure in the Vote Leave campaign, he has always been one of the main champions of the Vote Leave bus claim that leaving the EU could free up £350m per week for spending on the NHS and this morning he welcomed Theresa May’s claim about the existence of this “Brexit dividend”. As reported on Sky, he said:

Yes, I think it is, as the prime minister has rightly said, a downpayment on future receipts that will come to this country as a result of discontinuing payments to Brussels.

This is the same formula that Johnson used in a tweet yesterday.

Johnson is insisting that there will be a “Brexit dividend” in the future. But, by using the word “downpayment”, he seems to be conceding that the money announced at the weekend will not come from a “Brexit dividend” (because even those who believe such a thing exists accept it will not come onstream until 2021, after the transition, at the very earliest.) Downpayment implies money from a difference source, in expectation of payment later.

This means that we’ve reached the odd position where what Number 10 and Theresa May are saying about the “Brexit dividend” (see 9.26am) is arguably even more misleading than what Boris Johnson is now saying about it.

As a reminder, this is what May said yesterday on the Andrew Marr Show. She said:

Some people may remember seeing a figure on the side of a bus a while back of £350million a week in cash. I can tell you that what I’m announcing will mean that in 2023-24 there will be about £600million a week, more in cash, going into the NHS.

Of course we’ve got to fund that. That will be through the Brexit dividend, the fact that we’re no longer sending vast amounts of money every year to the EU once we leave the EU. And we as a country will be contributing a bit more.

Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson Photograph: Sky News

Jeremy Hunt's morning interviews - Summary

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, gave various interviews this morning. Here are the main points he made.

  • Hunt admitted that the “Brexit dividend” would not be “anything like enough” to fund the £20bn extra for the NHS promised by the prime minister. (See 9.26am.)
  • He said that the experts who have challenged the existence of the “Brexit dividend” had been wrong in the past in their forecasts about the economy. The experts say the dividend does not exist because the negative impact of Brexit on growth will more than compensate, in lost tax revenue to the exchequer, for the savings from money not having to be paid into the EU budget. But Hunt suggested growth after Brexit could be much better than expected. He said:

There is debate between the thinktanks and the forecasters over what is going to happen with economic growth over the next five to 10 years. And one thing we should be clear about is those forecasts have often proved to be wrong ...

In fact the British economy has been much more resilient over the last few years. Last week we had record employment figures.

But Hunt also said the money promised for the NHS was not conditional on growth outperforming expectations.

This commitment that we’re making is not conditional on this or that outcome on economic growth. We are making a firm commitment to the NHS for the next five years.

  • He said taxes would rise to fund the extra NHS investment. He refused to give details, but he said:

A lot of thinking has gone on at the Treasury to make absolutely sure this can be afforded. We are clear that there will be an increased burden of taxation.

But he also claimed that the Conservatives were still committed to the promise in their 2017 manifesto to lower taxes. The manifesto said: “It is our firm intention to reduce taxes on Britain’s businesses and working families ... We want to reduce taxes on British businesses and working families.” Asked about this, Hunt said:

We will honour manifesto commitments. But we also recognise our number one priority as far as public services is concerned is the NHS.

Hunt said details of where the money would come from would be set out in the budget in the autumn.

We will be able to explain exactly where every penny is coming from but we will do that in the Budget. Why are we not doing it now? We do know - the Treasury has done its sums, it hasn’t made its final decisions but it is very clear this can be affordable.

The reason why we are not spelling it out now is because we want to give the NHS six months to come up with a really good 10-year plan.

When we have that plan in November, we will say ‘This is a great plan, we accept that it is going to lead to improvements in cancer care and mental health and so on’.

  • He said the government would also announce plans to improve the funding of social care. This could involve people being incentivised to save for their own care, he said:

We all need to make better provision for our own social care ... than we do at the moment.

We are going to have to find a way of making it easy for people to do the right thing and to save for the long term, to make additional contributions so we have that security we need in the social care system.

There are numerous different ways we could do that, but we will put those choices to the British people and have that debate.

This sounded a bit like a plan to revive the Dilnot commission proposal from 2011 to impose a cap on the maximum amount that people might have to pay for their own care, with a view to encouraging insurers to start providing policies so that people can insure themselves against the cost of needing care in their old age.

  • He said the law banning the medicinal use of cannabis could not be justified. Asked about the case of Billy Caldwell, who was only allowed the cannabis oil he needs for his epilepsy after a Home Office U-turn, Hunt said:

I don’t think anyone who followed that story could sensibly say that we are getting the law on this kind of thing right. I think everyone feels for the lady concerned, and of course there are many, many other people in that situation.

Hunt said the Home Office was reviewing the law on this.

We have to do something, we have to do it quickly. I think it is unfair to say Sajid [Javid, the home secretary] didn’t act quickly in the situation. He has released that oil for that child. We are going to go through this process as quickly as we possibly can, because, like everyone, we think these stories are totally heartbreaking.

The Home Office are not dragging their feet on this. The home secretary has said he will review this issue.

It does take time, because we’ve got to not only look at the law, we’ve got to look at the clinical evidence and make sure there are no unintended consequences. But I think we all know that we need to find a different way.

Jeremy Hunt arriving for cabinet this morning,
Jeremy Hunt arriving for cabinet this morning, Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s morning story from Jeremy Hunt’s morning interviews. As he reports, Hunt conceded that having a Brexit dividend to partly finance an increase in NHS spending will depend on the economy outstripping forecasts, as he pledged the £20bn in extra annual funding would be provided even if this did not happen.

Hunt admits 'Brexit dividend' won't be 'anything like enough' to fund PM's £20bn boost for NHS

After Theresa May announced her £20bn spending increase for the NHS yesterday, Downing Street posted a series of infographics about it on Twitter, including this one. For those who believe that the “Brexit dividend” is about as real as the Loch Ness Monster (that’s most experts, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the leading public spending thinktank, and the Office for Budget Responsibility, the official forecasting body that provides the numbers that underpin government policy), this one was particularly provocative, implying, as it does that the “Brexit dividend” will cover most of the cost, and that any tax increases also needed will just be marginal.

This morning Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has been giving interviews. He stuck to the Number 10 line about the “Brexit dividend” actually existing, but he was much more candid than the prime minister has been about how tax increases will have to fund the bulk of the increase. He told the BBC:

One [of the sources of extra money for the NHS] ... is the fact that we won’t be paying subscriptions to Brussels by the end of this period. But that alone won’t be anything like enough, so there will also be more resourcing through the taxation system, and also through economic growth.

(Hunt’s claim that “economic growth” would help raise the money also sounded optimistic. UK growth at the moment is, by historical standards and by comparison with competitor economies, dismal. At the spring statement the OBR did not forecast growth getting above 1.5% in any year for the next five years. In the past, 2% growth was just average.)

I will post more from Hunt’s various interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet. (Cabinet is normally on a Tuesday, but this week it’s been brought forward a day.”

12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.

Lunchtime: Theresa May delivers her NHS speech.

1pm: The Labour MP Chris Leslie gives a speech on the future of the political centre to the Social Market Foundation.

3pm: Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about the NHS contract with Capita

After 3.30pm: Peers debate the Commons amendments to the EU withdrawal bill. They are expected to defeat the government by inserting a new “meaningful vote” amendment into the bill.

After 3.30pm: MPs hold an emergency debate on the Sewel convention.

4.45pm: Rail bosses give evidence to the Commons transport committee about the chaos caused by the recent timetable changes.

As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at the end of the day.

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

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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