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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Chris Grayling tells MPs he is 'sorry' for failure of new rail timetable and announces inquiry – as it happened

Chris Grayling, the transport secretary. Labour are today calling for his resignation over today’s widespread cancellation of services on the rail network.
Chris Grayling, the transport secretary. Labour are today calling for his resignation over today’s widespread cancellation of services on the rail network. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Afternoon summary

  • Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, has announced an inquiry into the failure of the new rail timetable and promised that passengers affected by delays and cancellations will receive compensation. In a Commons statement on the hold-ups affecting Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) services, caused by the introduction of a new timetable two weeks ago, he said that he was “sorry” for what had happened and that there would be an inquiry. (See 5.04pm and 5.18pm.) But he was unable to promise passengers a swift solution to their problems. He told MPs:

I would like to be able to tell the House that there is an easy solution or that the Department could simply step in and make the problems passengers are facing go away. If there was a way to do so, I would do that without the hesitation of a moment. But ultimately this solution can only be delivered by the rail industry. These problems can only be fixed by Network Rail and the train operators methodically working through the timetable and replanning train paths and driver resourcing to deliver a more reliable service.

Grayling said the two companies had problems for different reasons. With Northern, the problem was that “Network Rail did not deliver infrastructure upgrades on time”. With GTR, the timetable developed by Network Rail was “very late to be finalised” and “this meant that train operators did not have enough time to plan crew schedules or complete crew training, affecting a whole range of other issues.” He said Northern and GTR both lacked a proper fall-back plan. But the industry told his department it was ready for the new timetable, he said:

The industry remained of the view until the last moment that it would be able to deliver these changes. That is the bit that everyone will find hard to understand and why there has to be a proper investigation into what has taken place ...

As few as three weeks before the timetable was to be implemented, GTR themselves assured me personally that they were ready to implement the changes. Clearly this was wrong and it is totally unacceptable. The rail industry has collectively failed to deliver for the passengers it serves.

But Grayling’s comments failed to impress MPs, who used the session to pass on the extreme anger felt by their rail-using constituents. Labour MPs said Grayling should resign. Conservatives did not go that far, but many implied they thought Grayling and his department had to take responsibility for what had happened and he received very little from his Tory colleagues in the form of personal support.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Here is more from Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary’s, response to Grayling earlier. McDonald said:

Isn’t the reality that this secretary of state has been asleep at the wheel and this is just the latest episode in a series of rail management failures on his watch?

He is determined to cling to the micromanagement of the railway when it suits him but he will quickly point the finger of blame when things go wrong. He cannot have it both ways.

The secretary of state says he’s sorry for the disruption passengers are facing - that is not good enough. He should apologise to passengers for his failures that have put their jobs at risk and played havoc with their family life.

Bob Neill, another Conservative, asks Grayling to get rid of the Network Rail bosses.

Grayling says he is so angry that anyone found negligent in their job will not be allowed to continue.

This provokes jeering from Labour MPs who think Grayling should apply the same principle to himself.

The Conservative Nadine Dorries says the compensation scheme must be good. Passengers should not just get one month’s free travel; it should be more like six months’ worth, she says.

Grayling says he agrees; there must be proper compensation.

Chris Grayling is having a wretched time in the Commons.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

This is from her BBC colleague Chris Mason.

And these are from the Times’ Patrick Kidd.

Labour’s Chuka Umunna says Grayling should take responsibility for the problem. He has been there for two years, Umunna says. He says Grayling is “utterly pointless” as transport secretary.

Sir Nicholas Soames, a Conservative, says this whole thing is “an absolute disaster and must be put right”. He says the industry readiness board should be “taken quietly outside and disposed of”.

Updated

Sir Michael Fallon, the Conservative, says two villages in his constituency are now effectively cut off because the rail service they had has been cut. Will Grayling get that reversed?

Grayling says he will look into this.

Labour’s Lilian Greenwood asks why Grayling is refusing to take any responsibility for this.

Grayling says that he expects the Glaister review to look at all players, including the Department for Transport.

But he says the industry readiness board told him in May that the industry was ready for the new timetable. If you appoint experts, you should listen to them, he says.

In his response to Grayling Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, repeats his call for Grayling to resign. (See 2.24pm.) He says it is not enough for Grayling to say he is sorry for what happened. He should say he is sorry for his own failings, McDonald says.

Grayling announces inquiry into failure of new rail timetable

Grayling says he completely understands that passengers are angry.

That is why there will be a special compensation scheme for Northern and GTR passengers.

He says passengers in the north should get compensation similar to that received by Southern customers last year.

He says there will be an inquiry into the failure to implement the new timetable.

  • Grayling says the Office of Rail and Road will carry out an inquiry into how implementing the new timetable went wrong. It will be carried out by Stephen Glaister, the ORR chair.

Grayling says if GTR is in breach of its conditions, he will consider enforcement action.

That could include taking away its eligibility to hold a franchise bidding passport.

  • GTR could lose the right to bid for further rail franchises if found to be at fault, Grayling says.

He also says he will assess if Northern had appropriate resilience. He won’t be afraid of taking enforcement action against it either, he says.

  • Northern and GTR bosses will meet MPs in parliament this week, Grayling says.

He says he is “incredibly frustrated” by what has happened. He says the new timetable was supposed to help passengers.

I’m extremely sorry for the levels of disruption passengers are facing.

Grayling says he would like to be able to tell MPs there is an easy solution.

But he says this problem can only be sorted out by the rail companies.

They will have to go through the timetable and sort out a better service, he says.

Grayling says Northern and GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) were not ready for the new timetable coming into force.

He says GTR assured him three weeks beforehand that it was ready to implement the changes. They were wrong, and that was unacceptable, he says.

He says he has met rail bosses today and told them current services are not good enough.

Chris Grayling says he is 'sorry' for delays and cancellations in rail network

Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, is making a statement to MPs now about the crisis on the rail network.

Passengers on these franchises are facing totally unsatisfactory levels of service.

He says he shares the dissatisfaction with what is happening and that he is “sorry” for what is taking place.

He says the rail companies were, until recently, confident that the new timetable could come in on time.

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is making a statement in the Commons about the US decision to impose tariffs on EU steel and aluminium. The UK was “disappointed” by the decision, he said.

We are clear that these unjustified additional tariffs could harm consumers, hold back growth and ultimately damage industry by driving up the price of inputs and production, and diminish global competitiveness.

We remain of the view that issues of global overcapacity in the steel market are best solved through international collaboration, not unilateral action.

He also said the American decision to use national security as a rationale for the tariffs created “a worrying global precedent”. He explained:

Were the United States to be successful it sets a precedent for others do the same and to use national security as pretext for protectionism, and secondly, it leads the WTO [World Trade Organisation] into the realms of having to determine what is and what is not acceptable as a definition for national security, something the WTO has always shied away from.

Fox said the UK was working with the European commission on plans for retaliatory duties on US goods, and on taking the dispute to the WTO.

Liam Fox
Liam Fox Photograph: BBC

Labour has criticised the government’s new counter-terrorism strategy (see 1.21pm) on the grounds that it does not involve reversing police cuts. This is from Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary.

Tories have under-funded counter-terrorism policing and cut police officer numbers by 21,000. Police leaders and the rank and file have publicly complained that cuts are undermining their ability to fight terrorism. The Tories’ focus on local authorities is a red herring when they have savagely and irresponsibly cut our police force’s budget.

A review by David Anderson QC showed that the government needs to improve its efforts to tackle terrorism. But shockingly Sajid Javid has largely ignored the review’s recommendations. Just as bad, it looks like he’s not providing any new resources.

May tells Trump US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium are 'unjustified and deeply disappointing'

Theresa May has told Donald Trump in a phone call that US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium are “unjustified and deeply disappointing”, Downing Street has said.

The pair spoke today for the first time since the announcement and agreed to discuss the issue further at the G7 summit in Canada later this week. In the 30-minute phone call which the prime minister’s spokesman called “constructive”, May told the US president that “the UK, EU and US are close national security allies and recognise the importance of open and fair trade across the world.”

May underlined the need to safeguard jobs that could be affected by this, Number 10 said.

The pair also discussed Trump’s upcoming visit to the UK in July, the spokesman said. “They discussed that meeting and both said they looked forward to further talks during that trip.”

Sir Michael Fallon is not one of the 20 MPs who have signed a cross-party letter to Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, organised by the Labour MP for Croydon Central Sarah Jones, demanding a solution to the rail timetable crisis. But three Conservatives have signed it: Bim Afolami, Sir Nicholas Soames, and Tim Loughton.

Here is an excerpt.

The significant and ongoing problems on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern rail networks over the past 12 days have affected hundreds of thousands of commuters across our constituencies. The abject failure of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) to deliver anything remotely close to a decent service resulted in 455 GTR services cancelled or delayed in just one day.

Many of us have been contacted by constituents who have been late for work, medical appointments or to meet their children due to train cancellations. This anger has only been worsened by poor communication between GTR and passengers regarding delays, with reports that GTR have known of cancellations hours before informing customers. There have been widespread reports of overcrowding on platforms and on trains, as well as significant issues faced by disabled passengers needing to travel ...

In particular, we would be grateful if you could confirm whether your Department was aware that delays to the finalisation of the timetable changes had left just three weeks between Network Rail confirming the new timetables and the planned launch date, rather than the expected twelve weeks? If so, could you clarify why the Department did not encourage GTR to delay implementing the new timetable?

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

In the Commons Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, is responding to an urgent question about the personal independence payment (PIP), the disability benefit replacing DLA (disability living allowance). “Responding to”, not answering, because answers have been in short supply.

The UQ was tabled by Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, and it was prompted by an announcement last week that McVey is no longer appealing against a tribunal decision saying that the Department for Work and Pensions wrongly refused to pay PIP to two claimants with chronic conditions. The ruling related to the rules about PIP conditions relating to “managing therapy or monitoring a health condition”.

Abrahams said that this was the second time McVey had had to withdraw a DWP appeal after it lost a PIP case. She wanted to know how many people were affected by the DWP’s decision to wrongly apply the rules, how much money they would have lost, and when they would be repaid. She went on:

With a record of 69% of PIP decision being overturned at appeal, it is clear the assessment process is not fit for purpose ... So when will [McVey] get a grip of PIP and immediately stop reassessment of disabled people with progressive conditions.

McVey said the claimants in the case would receive the backdated money that they were owed. They would get the money within days. But she would not say how many people overall were affected by the DWP decision criticised by the tribunal, or how much money they might have lost.

Esther McVey
Esther McVey Photograph: BBC

Labour says allowing MPs just one day to debate Lords amendments to EU withdrawal bill a 'disgrace'

The Times’s Sam Coates has posted a copy of the letter to Conservative MPs from the chief whip about the EU withdrawal bill debate next week.

And Labour has said allowing just one day for MPs to debate the Lords amendments to the EU withdrawal bill is a “disgrace”. This is from Labour Whips, an official account.

Updated

It looks like we’ve got a long night next Tuesday. These are from the Telegraph’s Steven Swinford.

Fallon says Grayling must explain how rail timetable 'disaster' was allowed to happen

At one stage, when he was deputy chair of the Conservative party, Sir Michael Fallon’s main job seemed to consist of going on TV and defending the government in almost all or any circumstances.

This afternoon Fallon, now a backbencher after resigning as defence secretary last year, took to the airwaves again. But this time he was so critical of his erstwhile cabinet colleague Chris Grayling that almost sounded like a Labour MP. He said that the introduction of a new rail timetable had been “a disaster”, that he would be passing on the “raw anger” of passengers to Grayling, the transport secretary, and that Grayling had to sort it out.

Fallon, MP for Sevenoaks in Kent, told BBC News:

This is now week three and this is becoming a scandal. My constituents can’t get to work in London. Their children can’t get on trains to school. And we are now into more cancellations even with the emergency timetable. So it really is time now that ministers got a grip on this and forced Thameslink to get on and run a decent service, if necessary borrowing drivers from other companies who know the routes ...

I shall be meeting Chris Grayling at three o’clock and I will be leaving him in absolutely no doubt as to the real, raw anger of my constituents. All of this was supposed to be an improvement. That was supposed to be the point of the new timetable, and it’s turned out to be a disaster ...

I met passengers on the line this morning who had come south to try and get a better train back up to London. They are certainly not passive about it. They are very angry that their lives have been disrupted. They are running into trouble by being late for work, their children are being penalised for being late for school. So it’s not acceptable. And the secretary of state is in charge and he’s got to find some solutions to this.

More train drivers, trained drivers, seconded from other companies. Borrow freight train drivers if necessary. They know the routes. And, above all, Thameslink being told they’ve got to sort out a problem that they should have addressed properly.

Fallon also suggested that Grayling was at fault for letting the rail network get into this situation in the first place. He said:

There are a lot of questions now as to how this ever happened in the first place, why it wasn’t properly prepared. I shall be pressing [Grayling] on how much longer the Thameslink franchise has to run, and whether it is feasible to take the franchise away, or whether that would just simply make the situation even worse. But clearly the transport secretary has to demonstrate today that he has this situation on board and that he’s ready to use all his powers to start putting things right ... Commuter patience is running very, very thin. There is real anger in the villages.

Sir Michael Fallon
Sir Michael Fallon Photograph: BBC News/BBC

Lunchtime summary

Chris Grayling is the head of Network Rail at the end of the day ... He should resign. But this prime minister is so enfeebled that she cannot dismiss him, so he’s not going to resign. She can’t dismiss him. So we’re stuck with the status quo in terms of the DfT. But he should accept that this is yet another complete failure on his part. And in ordinary times any self-respecting secretary of state would resign today, I have no doubt about it.

Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway have cancelled services to allow themselves more time to adjust to a new timetable introduced two weeks ago. McDonald said that Grayling should have been aware of the problems in advance and cancelled the move to the new timetable to avoid disruption to travellers. He said:

I’d want to know why on earth this wasn’t red flagged weeks and weeks ago, and somebody pressing the pause button. If I had been secretary of state, I’d be saying, ‘Could you guarantee me that these services will take place in accordance with the new timetable?’ And in the absence of those guarantees I’d be saying, if we’re not ready, we pause it. It’s as simple as that. And I’m aghast that Chris Grayling has been so far removed from this, and seeks to blame all and sundry, rather than accepting his responsibility as secretary of state.

Grayling is due to make a statement to MPs about the situation this afternoon. Compounding his embarrassment, he has also had to reschedule meetings planned with MPs to discuss the problem, as the Labour MP Lisa Nandy points out on Twitter.

  • Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, has accused the SNP and the Conservatives of both backing austerity. In a speech in Glasgow he said:

The real divide in the UK is not between the people of the four nations. It is between the richest and the rest of us. 1 in 4 Scottish children are living in poverty at a time when the richest one per cent in Scotland own more personal wealth than the poorest 50 per cent.

That won’t change by redrawing lines on a map, it will only change with a rebalanced economy and a redistribution of wealth, power and opportunity.

That’s why we need to stop dividing people on the basis of nationality and start uniting people on the basis of class to bring about real change.

Only Labour can offer this unifying vision. Austerity is a political not an economic choice, and it is the choice being taken by both Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon.

Liberty, the human rights group, has criticised the government’s new counter-terrorism strategy. Its advocacy director, Corey Stoughton, issued this statement.

Terrorism is a serious issue deserving serious thought. Sadly this ‘strategy’ is a regurgitation of failed thinking - heavy on soundbites, light on substance.

The government continues to use dangerously vague definitions of extremism to tarnish communities, encourage policing by prejudice and press service providers and local authorities into becoming unwilling and untrained agents of the security services.

There is one urgent question in the Commons today, then three statements, then an application for an emergency debate on the abortion laws in Northern Ireland.

Here is a round-up of some Brexit news around today.

  • Katya Adler, the BBC’s Europe editor, says there is a lot of talk in Brussels about the possibility of a last-minute EU summit being scheduled for November because the Brexit deal may not be ready by October. She says so in a Twitter thread starting here.

In a letter seen by the Financial Times from Mel Stride, financial secretary to the Treasury, to Charlie Elphicke, MP for Dover, the minister also says: “The government aims to keep VAT processes after EU exit as close as possible to what they are now.”

If Britain seeks to remain inside the EU VAT area, it will continue to be bound by rules set in Brussels that are ultimately policed by the European Court of Justice, breaking one of Theresa May’s negotiating red lines.

If Britain leaves the EU VAT regime, it will need border infrastructure to impose VAT at borders, as occurs on the Swiss-German border, or accept a loss of control of VAT revenue. The EU VAT area is separate from the bloc’s customs union and single market.

European officials have told the government that they will not ask the EU’s trading partners to allow Britain to benefit from current trade deals with key countries such as Japan or South Korea until Theresa May signs the final legal text of a Brexit deal.

The decision means that Liam Fox, the trade secretary, will have less than three months between the conclusion of withdrawal negotiations at an EU summit in December and Brexit day, March 29, 2019, to negotiate the continuation of Britain’s current free trade agreements. Without the trade deals Britain faces a cliff edge of tariffs and economic disruption despite having agreed a transition period covering membership of the single market and customs union until the end of 2020.

According to a survey of Conservative party members for ConservativeHome, almost 70% of party members think Theresa May should either resign now (24%) or before the next general election (45%). As the ConservativeHome editor Paul Goodman says in his write-up, there are only two other months since the general election when May’s standing on this measure was worse.

This figure stood at seven out of ten party members last June, in the immediate aftermath of the calamitous general election campaign. It peaked again in January in the wake of the bungled Cabinet reshuffle.

Now it is at its third highest rating on record. The only credible explanation is that May’s policy of delay over the Brexit negotiation is damaging her position, and further procrastination is likely to do so even further.

Her best rating came in February in the aftermath of her impressive handling of the Salisbury attack. The only other time it has dipped below 60 per cent was in December, in the wake of that month’s draft agreement with the EU (the “joint report”).

Survey of party members about when May should stand down as party leader
Survey of party members about when May should stand down as party leader Photograph: ConservativeHome

Updated

Javid's speech and Q&A - Summary

Here are the main points from Sajid Javid’s speech on the government’s new counter-terrorism strategy (pdf) and Q&A afterwards.

  • Javid said that MI5 intelligence will be shared with bodies outside the security community in a drive to stop terror attacks at an earlier stage. The Home Office explained this in its news release like this:

Responding to the recommendations of MI5 and the counter-terrorism police’s Operational Improvement Review into the 2017 terrorist attacks, which was overseen by David Anderson, new multi-agency approaches – initially in London, Manchester and the West Midlands – involve MI5 and the police using and sharing information more widely, working with partners such as local authorities to improve our understanding of those at risk of involvement in terrorism and enable a wider range of interventions.

Through Prevent, the government, local authorities, police and communities will continue to safeguard and support vulnerable people from the risk of being drawn into terrorism, working with a wide network of partners to prevent radicalisation and build resilience.

In his Q&A Javid explained that information would be shared in a declassified form and that it would go to agencies like neighbourhood police officers, councils, the ministry for housing, the Charity Commission and probation officers.

He also said the security services closely monitor 3,000 “subjects of interest” but that they also have another 20,000 “closed subjects of interest” on their books - people who are not longer being closely monitored, but who are still potential suspects. He went on:

Of that 20,000, there will always be a few hundred that, although they are closed subjects, at a local level these agencies might be able to help with them and maybe come up with an intervention programme of some sort. When we start with the pilots, it won’t be in the hundreds. We’re going to start with one to 100 or so. They are pilots. We want to see what kind of interventions work best.

We do understand and accept that one of the lessons from 2017 was that we need to work more broadly and share that data more locally.

  • He said the government wanted to work more closely with the private sector to identify potential terror suspects. The security minister Ben Wallace explained how this might work in an interview this morning. (See 9.46am.)
  • Javid dismissed suggestions that sharing intelligence information with officials outside the intelligence community could involve breaching people’s human rights. He said there would be safeguards because those who received the information would be professionals trained in handling sensitive information. (See 11.11am.)
  • He said EU plan to limit security cooperation with the UK after Brexit could increase the chances of a terror attack on the continent. That was why, although the European commission wanted to limit post-Brexit security cooperation, EU member states wanted it to continue, he said. And he said he was confident that cooperation at the level that exists now would continue. This is what he said about this in his speech:

When the British people voted to leave the European Union, they were not voting for us to stop working with our European allies to keep everyone safe.

So it would be wrong and reckless for anyone to advocate any unnecessary reduction in this co-operation.

He also went into this in more detail in his Q&A. (See 12.09am.)

  • He said “machine learning” (ie, the use of algorithms) was allowing the big internet companies to get much better at taking down extremist or terrorist-related content. He said 98% of the extremist content taken down by Google was identified by machine learning. And for Twitter the figure was 93%, he said. He said, of that 93%, 74% was removed before a tweet was even posted.
  • He said a new counter-terrorism bill would help the police to disrupt attacks at an early stage by making it easier for them to arrest suspects. In his Q&A he explained:

One thing that was a lesson from the 2017 attacks was that we need to be better at disrupting potential attacks earlier on. And at the moment we don’t feel that there are enough offences on the statute book, maybe less serious offences, that would give the police or the CPS [the ability] to charge someone or prosecute someone early on.

I’ll give you an example. Today if someone is encouraging terrorism online, they are sharing information clearly, they are sharing images, there’s a certain threshold that needs to be reached before the police or CPS can act. And we want to lower that threshold because it would allow us to intervene and bring that person in a lot earlier. And I think that’s sensible.

The planned bill will also: making streaming terrorist videos online an offence (currently only downloading them is an offence); increase maximum sentences for some terrorist offences; and extend the range of terrorist offences that can be prosecuted in the UK if committed abroad. (See 10.53am.)

  • He spoke about having to explain to his daughter what lay behind the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris, and why he felt, Islam, the religion of his parents was being abused. In his speech he said:

Days after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, I recall being at a vigil in Trafalgar Square with my eleven year old daughter. She’d heard that something truly terrible had taken place in Paris, but she wasn’t entirely clear on the details or the context. She saw people in the crowd holding pens and pencils in the air, and she asked me why.

I told her that the men who were murdered at Charlie Hebdo had been targeted because they’d drawn cartoons. When you say it in such stark terms you realise just how absurd it sounds. And my daughter, with the innocence of a child, was troubled by this. She loves drawing, she wants to be an artist herself one day. So she looked at me and she said something that is seared into my memory. “Daddy … if I draw a cartoon, will they kill me too?” So I had to explain why not, and what the issues were, and why it had happened …

And that crash-course in religious bigotry and hatred was a pretty heartbreaking conversation. One that I do not think any father wants to have with his young daughter. I had to explain that these murderers called themselves Muslims. That they were invoking our religion, the religion of my parents, and my grandparents, and countless generations of Javids before them.

After any attack like this, a lot of well-meaning people will line up to say it has nothing to do with Islam. That the perpetrators are not true Muslims. I understand this reaction. I know they are not true Muslims.

Sajid Javid, the home secretary, giving his speech at the Southbank Centre
Sajid Javid, the home secretary, giving his speech at the Southbank Centre Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

Alan Travis, who until recently was the Guardian’s home affairs editor, has been looking at the new counter-terrorism strategy published today.

EU plan to limit security cooperation with UK after Brexit could increase chance of terror attack, Javid suggests

This is what Sajid Javid, the home secretary, said in his Q&A when asked about EU plans to stop full security cooperation with the UK after Brexit.

Javid said that there was a lot of cooperation at the moment and that the UK wanted this to continue. Then he went on:

Actually, the European Union is not speaking with one voice on this. Nothing unusual about that. The commission has got its hardline on so many things. It’s negotiating, you would expect a bit of that.

But one thing that is absolutely clear, although I’ve been in this role [five weeks], I’ve met with a number of European interior ministers, who are my equivalents, and every single one that I’ve met, they’ve absolutely agreed, they not only want the cooperation to continue as it is, but they also are open to how can we make it even deeper.

One of the reasons [for this is that] they rely so much on the intelligence information we provide them, and there’s not going to be a single European interior minister that, if we weren’t cooperating as we did today, would want to explain after an attack how it could have been stopped if the British had still been involved, perhaps with some secret intelligence.

And obviously the benefits are both ways. We all benefit. And that is very easy to see.

Those negotiations are just starting. But I am, from what I’ve seen, and from the reality of the situation, quite confident that we are going to get to keep working together in such a way.

  • Javid said EU members states are opposed to the European commission’s plans to limit security cooperation with the UK after Brexit.
  • He suggested the EU plan to limit security cooperation with the UK after Brexit could increase the chances of a terror attack on the continent.
  • He said he was “confident” that the UK would get a deal to maintain security cooperation, despite the commission’s stance.

My colleague Simon Jenkins has written a ‘First thoughts’ column on Sajid Javid’s plans to share information about potential terror suspects more widely. He is horrified.

Here is his article.

And here is an excerpt.

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has made an astonishing proposal among his raft of strategies to be unveiled today. It is that personal information possessed by MI5 on some 20,000 British “suspected” citizens be declassified and shared with local authorities, police “and others”. This is in order to “counter terrorism”. There is no way such material can possibly stay secret.

Since no one knows if they are on this list, they have no way of countering or correcting false identification or information. No one giving information to the state, including possibly the identity of the giver, will be able to trust its secrecy ...

Nothing is more dangerous to freedom than a new home secretary. He or she is bombarded with ideas from the backwoods of the security industry, ideas which failed to pass muster with predecessors. The industry knows that the newcomer will be desperate to win headlines as “tough on crime”. It will push eagerly for new powers and new controls. Javid appears to have fallen at the first fence.

Here is the news release from the Home Office about the new counter-terrorism strategy.

Q: [From the Telegraph’s Kate McCann] What will your new policy mean for consumers? If I buy a lot of fertiliser for my roses, will I get a visit from the police?

Javid says, when people buy dual use products, if those purchasers have been flagged up before as a person of concern, then action should be taken. That is a sensible approach, he says.

He says the government also needs to get better at disrupting attacks early on. He says there are not enough offences that could be used to prosecute people at an early stage when an attack is being planned. He says, if the police want to bring someone in who may be plotting an attack, there is a high evidential threshold. He wants to lower that.

He says his bill will also cover people who stream terrorist videos. At the moment downloading them is an offence, but not streaming them. That is an anomaly the bill will address, he says.

And that’s it. The Q&A is over.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: [From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn] Who do you think in the private sector is not doing enough? And, in Brussels, who is blocking a security deal?

Javid says he would like to commend those are are starting to do a lot more. Google, Facebook and Twitter were not doing enough in the past. But, largely because of what Amber Rudd did in terms of setting up a global initiative on counter-terrorism, they are doing a lot more.

For example, Google is focusing more on machine learning. It says 98% of the extremist or terrorist content it removes is identified by machine learning. For Twitter the figure is 93%. Some of those tweets are removed before they are even posted, he says.

He says this week he is going to Silicon Valley, with his US counterpart, to discuss this with tech companies.

He says some smaller platforms are not doing enough. For example, Telegram is not doing enough, he says.

On the subject of the EU, he says he is referring to the EU commission. At the moment they want to treat the UK as a third country. That is who he had in mind.

He says all EU countries will lose if the UK stops fully cooperating with Europol.

Q: [From the BBC’s Frank Gardner] You are putting money into counter-terrorism. But community policing is being starved of funds. Won’t this cut of the supply of intelligence?

Javid says since 2015 police budgets have been protected.

And he says, as he told the Police Federation, he would prioritise community policing in the next spending review.

He says more and more plotting happens online now. That is why it is important to prioritise this area.

Q: [From 5 News’s Andy Bell] Potentially you are talking about councils and others being told that people not guilty of anything are suspects. Doesn’t this breach people’s human rights?

Javid says the agencies is talking about already get access to some of these names.

There is nothing to suggest that people are guilty of an offence, or that they have done something wrong, he says. They will not be on police records. So there will be clear safeguards, he says.

He says, for this to work, some biographical information must be supplied - names and addresses, for example. But all of those involved will be professionals. They are used to handling sensitive information. They have or will be trained, he says.

So there will be safeguards, he says.

Javid says EU interior ministers do not support European commission’s hardline approach to security cooperation after Brexit

Q: How will you develop security relationships with the EU after Brexit? And how will you get them to collaborate with the UK when it is no longer a member?

Javid says, at the moment, there is a lot of security cooperation.

He says the UK has made it clear that it wants to remain part of the European security framework.

He says he wants a wide-ranging treaty on this.

He says the EU is not speaking with one voice on this. The commission is playing hardball, he says. But you would expect that, he says. He says all the European counterparts he has met want cooperation to continue and for it to become even deeper.

He says there is no EU security minister who wants to explain how a terror attack could have been foiled if cooperation with the UK had continued.

So he is “quite confident” there will be a deal, he says.

  • Javid says EU interior ministers do not support European commission’s hardline approach to security cooperation after Brexit.

Javid's Q&A

Javid is now taking questions.

Q: As you spread out classified intelligence to bodies that do not normally see this information, how will you retain public support for the process?

Javid says the report from David Anderson, the former independent reviewer of terror legislation, recommended this in a report.

He says this approach will be piloted. Information will be shared in a declassified form, he says.

He says there are 3,000 subjects of interest being looked at the security services every day, and then another 20,000 people connected with them of interest.

He says, of those 20,000 people, a few hundred will be of particular interest.

He says the pilots will start by looking at a small number of people in this group.

Javid, who is of Muslim heritage, said the fact that he is home secretary is a rebuke to the terrorists.

We need to offer compelling alternatives to the narrative of hate. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Islamist extremists, with their claims that our shared values are incompatible with the religion of Islam.

Or the hateful extremists of the far right, who feed off the narratives of Islamists to attack our multi-ethnic society. These people want to destroy the values we hold dear, and undermine the freedoms that make us who we are.

And there’s one other thing that Islamists and the far right have in common. As a Home Secretary with a name like Sajid Javid - I’m everything they despise.

So the way I see it, I must be doing something right.

Javid recalls taking his 11-year-old daughter to a demonstration in London to express support for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. He had to explain that people were killed for drawing cartoons, he says. He says this was particular difficult because his daughter likes cartoons and wants to be an artist. She asked him, if she became an artist, whether people would want to kill her, he says. He says it was harrowing having to explain to her what had happened.

New counter-terrorism law will increase sentences and cover more offences committed abroad, Javid says

Javid confirms that he will bring forward new counter-terrorism legislation.

The Home Office has just sent out a new news release with some details. It says:

This legislation will:

amend existing terrorism offences to update them for the digital age and to reflect contemporary patterns of radicalisation and to close gaps in their scope, including making it an offence to repeatedly view streamed video content online;

strengthen the sentencing framework for terrorism, including by increasing the maximum penalty for certain offences, to ensure that the punishment properly reflects the crime and to better prevent re-offending; and

enable further terrorism offences committed overseas to be prosecuted in the UK courts.

Updated

Javid says an extra £50m will be spent on counter-terrorism policing this year. That will take the budget for counter-terrorism policing to around £750m, he says.

Javid says there are six key elements in the new counter-terrorism strategy.

This is how the Home Office summed them up in its briefing. It said the government -

will work to disrupt threats earlier and we are bringing forward new legislation to enable us to do that.

will continue to make sure counter-terrorism policing and our security and intelligence services have the support they need.

will work more closely with our international partners.

will work more with key partners outside of central government and increase our cooperation with the private sector.

must work together with technology companies to get terrorist material off the internet.

will do more to prevent people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The Home Office has now published its revised counter-terrorism strategy (Contest) on its website. The 98-page document is here (pdf).

Javid sums up the state of the current terror threat.

See 9.26am for a summary.

Without the work of the security services in foiling attacks, we would have seen one terror attack every two months since 2013, he says.

Sajid Javid's speech on counter-terrorism strategy

Sajid Javid, the home secretary, is delivering his speech on the government’s new counter-terrorism strategy now.

He starts by referring to the London Bridget attack last year. He quotes a resident saying it changed the community around London Bridge - but not in the way the attackers expected. It made residents more determined than ever to preserve its diversity, he says.

In his Today interview Ben Wallace, the security minister, was also asked about today’s Guardian splash saying a large number of convicted terrorists are due to be released by the end of this year. Here is our story.

Asked if this was a matter of concern, Wallace said:

It is a concern because what we are seeing nowadays is a large group of people who have effectively crossed the Rubicon to becoming radicalised, that is the mindset that they have now accepted or adapted.

Wallace said the government’s response would be to put resources into efforts to “to try and make them disengage”. He went on:

That’s why we are piloting in the Contest [counter-terror strategy] the multi-agency approach for some of these individuals that will see us bring to bear the broader public sector and agencies and, indeed, even the private sector to try and focus on them.

Councils should not be asked to take over role of police in fighting terror, says LGA

The Home Office briefing about the Sajid Javid speech indicates that he will propose more sharing of information about terror suspects with local authorities, but it does not give much detail. (See 9.10am.) The Home Office will “work more with key partners outside of central government and increase our cooperation with the private sector”, it says.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, put out a statement saying local authorities should not be expected to take on the work of the police and the security services. Simon Blackburn, chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, said:

Information sharing could be a positive step but what is crucial is that councils are not treated as a replacement for the expertise and resources of the security services and police. Local authorities are not MI5 and it’s essential that the police and security services lead on responding to and acting on any threats.

We will continue to engage with government to ensure residents are kept safe and that local authorities can play their role in supporting and protecting communities. While we can all be on the lookout, preventing and protecting us from terrorism is a responsibility that should remain with the police and security services.

On the Today programme this morning Ben Wallace, the security minister, tried to explain how the new counter-terrorism strategy will involve those on the margins of terrorist activity being monitored more effectively. He said core suspects, or “hardened attack planners” as he put it, were investigated by the intelligence services. But these investigations threw up other names, he said.

During the course of these type of investigations people make hundreds of phone calls, thousands of text messages are sent, and people appear on the periphery of those type of investigations, either by association or indeed because they may or may not be involved in a supporting role, such as lending them some money - they might not know what it’s for, or they might know exactly what they are lending the money for. So that creates a large pool of people who are currently not active but present a real challenge because they are the ones who often appear in some of the attacks, who have been known but [have] not actually crossed that current activity that means we could do something about it. So we have to see how we can broaden the system to flag up when those people are behaving suspiciously or engaging in something more serious.

And he explained what this sort of monitoring might involve.

If it’s reported to use that some of these people are now buying explosive precursors, or poisons which are regulated substances already in law, if we run those people’s names pass a database and it flags them up, it gives us an early warning system that we have to do something ...

If it came to car hire or van hire, and the DVLA or a car hire company washes its data to us - this is not us giving them names, this is them giving us names if they are suspicious or anything else - and we see a flag, suddenly an individual is hiring a van who isn’t involved in delivery or doesn’t use a van and has been involved in previous plots or discussions about using a vehicle as a weapon, that allows us to flag something up that previously has not been possible.

Ben Wallace, the security minister.
Ben Wallace, the security minister. Photograph: Tom Nicholson/LNP/REX/Shutterstock

How Home Office assesses terror threat

The Home Office overnight briefing about the Sajid Javid speech contained a useful overview about the state of the terror threat. Here is an excerpt.

The threat level assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) is SEVERE meaning an attack is highly likely. Twice in 2017 JTAC raised the threat level to CRITICAL.

The security and intelligence agencies and CT policing have foiled 25 Islamist plots since June 2013, 12 since March 2017.

They are currently handling over 500 live operations involving roughly 3,000 ‘subjects of interest’. In addition, there are over 20,000 further individuals – or closed subjects of interest – who have previously been investigated, and may again pose a threat.

The UK now faces a number of different and enduring terrorist threats. Islamist terrorism remains the most severe, in particular that inspired by Daesh and al-Qaida.

However extreme right-wing terrorism is a growing threat and in 2016 we proscribed an extreme right-wing terrorist group, National Action, for the first time. Four extreme right-wing plots have been disrupted since March 2017.

Meanwhile Northern Ireland related terrorism continues to pose a serious threat in Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

In summary we expect the threat from Islamist terrorism to remain at its current, heightened level for at least the next two years, and that it may increase further.

We assess the threat from extreme right-wing terrorism is growing. The threat from terrorism is constantly evolving. Globally, terrorist groups and networks of all ideologies continue to develop organically, exploiting social media, technology and science to further their aims and ambitions.

Javid promises 'no safe spaces for terrorists' as he unveils counter-terrorism strategy

Sajid Javid, the home secretary, is unveiling a new counter-terrorism strategy today. There will be a written ministerial statement to parliament (no plans for an oral statement yet, although the opposition may try to insist on one) and a speech this morning. According to extracts from the speech released overnight, Javid will say there must be “no safe spaces for terrorists”. He will say:

Ultimately, our approach is about ensuring that there are no safe spaces for terrorists. No safe spaces internationally, in the UK or online.

Part of the “no safe spaces” policy will involve doing more to investigate people who make suspicious purchases, he will say.

I’m committed to improving how we work with businesses across a range of issues.

That includes faster alerts for suspicious purchases, improving security at crowded places across the UK, and reducing the vulnerability of our critical infrastructure.

And we must also get better at harnessing private sector and academic innovation.

New detection techniques, data analytics and machine learning all have the potential to dramatically enhance our counter-terrorism capabilities.

There will also be more sharing of information about suspects with local authorities, he will say.

More on the speech later.

But it is not just counter-terrorism today. Parliament is back after last week’s recess, and so we will probably get urgent questions on some of the topics that cropped up last week, with the Northern Rail cancellations likely to be top of the list. And, of course, there’s always Brexit.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Sajid Javid, the home secretary, gives a speech setting out a new counter-terrorism strategy.

10.30am: Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, gives evidence on Brexit and devolution to the Commons public administration committee.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.

11am: Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, gives a speech in Glasgow on the SNP’s economic blueprint for independence.

2.30pm: Javid takes Home Office questions in the Commons.

Also, Theresa May is meeting business leaders in Downing Street today to discuss Brexit. And the GMB is holding its annual conference in Brighton. The debates will include one this afternoon on Brexit.

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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