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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Seth Jacobson, and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Labour leadership hopefuls make pitches to parliamentary party - as it happened

Rebecca Long Bailey, Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips.
Rebecca Long Bailey, Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips. Composite: Rex/PA/UK Parliament

Evening summary

Louise Haigh, who had previously been identified as backing Rebecca Long Bailey, says that Lisa Nandy’s performance at the hustings stood out:

All this Lisa-mania is causing her betting odds to shorten, with Ladbrokes now quoting her as 5/1 third favourite:

Updated

I think it’s safe to say Tom Copley, a London Assembly member, is part of Team Nandy:

Chris Bryant, already declared as a Phillips supporter, is raving about her “impressive” performance:

Seb Dance, an MEP for London, has tweeted that the hustings at least showed that the party’s potential leaders were under no false illusions about the size of the task facing them and that they could provide a “credible opposition”:

Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West, also felt that all six contenders acquitted themselves well:

ITV political correspondent Paul Brand tweeted that “a lot of wavering MPs leaning towards Keir Starmer tonight after the hustings. But Lisa Nandy also said to have performed well. None of the candidates had a shocker.”

Updated

To judge by social media reaction from those in the room and journalists talking to them, Lisa Nandy – who was predicted by YouGov’s poll of Labour party members to be the first candidate to leave the race – has had a good night at the leadership hustings.

Peter Hain said colleagues told him they felt she had ‘won’:

Journalists talking to MPs, MEPs and Lords who attended reported the same. Kevin Schofield, editor of PolticsHome.com said:

Jane Merrick, policy editor of the i paper, said that while Long Bailey, Starmer and Phillips were seen as having performed well, Nandy’s was a breakout appearance:

Updated

Paul Brand of ITV has said that both Starmer and Long Bailey impressed some undecided MPs, but pointed out that the PLP remains “less ideologically inclined to [Long Bailey] and so were a tough crowd to impress:

He also tweets that Clive Lewis had a difficult night:

Updated

Some positive mood music coming out of the hustings from MPs. Darren Jones, who represents Bristol North West, tweeted about the virtues of the candidates before nailing his colours to Jess Phillips’ mast. His name wasn’t on the list we referred to here so that suggests a gain for Phillips from the hustings:

Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP for Aberavon and son of the former leader Neil, has already come out for Nandy and is singing her praises on Twitter: “Lisa Nandy nails it in PLP hustings: a plan for empowering local communities (based on her Centre for Towns); clear on how to re-build trust & support in our heartlands; courage to make tough choices on policy priorities. Bold, inspiring and crystal clear. #WeWinTogether”.

Nandy is saying that the party must sing the praises of its local councils where there are successes taking place: “Let’s tell the stories about what Preston council is doing rebuild the economy, how Plymouth is providing clean energy, how Luton is building homes. Let’s show the difference Labour councillors and Labour in power make.”

Updated

Adam Payne of Business Insider says that Starmer, Nandy and Phillips have been the most impressive so far of the six candidates:

Jack McConnell, a Labour lord who was first minister of Scotland between 2001 and 2007, sounds like he’s had his mind made up by Lisa Nandy’s pitch tonight:

Updated

Jess Philips has given a strong message on antisemitism, saying: “Jewish people were afraid of us governing”, and that she can be “trusted to fight antisemitism and bullying and harassment”.

Updated

Peter Hain makes the good point that, as chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, Lisa Nandy’s strong message on antisemitism has considerable resonance:

A half-time verdict if you will from inside the room courtesy of Alexandra Rogers:

Updated

According to Harpin, Lisa Nandy has said that there was a “collective leadership failure to acknowledge anitsemitism crisis” and says that party must “accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission in full and emphasises listening to Jewish community”. In an apparent attack on Rebecca Long Bailey, Nandy says “people on this stage” didn’t agree with International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.

Lee Harpin of the Jewish Chronicle tweets that Emily Thornberry has backed her rival Keir Starmer over being willing to raise the issue of antisemitism at shadow cabinet meetings:

The hustings has turned to the issue of antisemitism, which has bedevilled the party over the last few years. Andrew Adonis notes that: “Keir Starmer the strongest answer in the PLP hustings – ‘the job of leaders is to lead & on antisemitism I wouldn’t leave it to someone else but take personal responsibility for dealing with it, every day’.”

Updated

Although seen as a centrist option, Keir Starmer has made a string emotional appeal to the party’s traditional bonds to unions and other organisations that he worked for in his career as a barrister. Alexandra Rogers tweets that he earlier backed Labour’s union links:

As we reported earlier, Jess Phillips is doubling down on her ability to challenge Boris Johnson as a different sort of politician: “Yes I would be a different kind of leader, no doubt about it. But anyone who ever fought a marginal seat knows that playing it safe doesn’t win, sometimes you have to close your eyes and be bold. I am the bold choice, its going to take bold to beat Boris Johnson.”

Updated

Asked about the disconnect between the party and previously solid areas such as Wales, where the party lost seats in December, Lisa Nandy says: “We need to tell the stories of Labour’s success in power and show we are relevant in people’s lives – but in Rhyl they feel just as distant from Cardiff as they do from Westminster. We need to empower people and communities.”

Keir Starmer also went down well in the room. The Independent’s Lizzy Buchan wrote that:

The BBC’s Iain Watson tweets that Starmer stressed the need for the party to become an effective opposition to the Tories:

Lisa Nandy’s pitch to the party has gone down well. Paul Waugh tweets that:

And Labour veteran Peter Hain said:

Paul Waugh, executive editor of Huffington Post, reports that deputy leadership hopeful Richard Burgon arrived at the hustings flanked by the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, newly elected MP Claudia Webbe and Nav Mishra, MP for Stockport who was elected in December. His hustings for deputy aren’t until tomorrow.

Updated

Responding to a constituent and party member on Twitter, Charlotte Nicholls, the MP for Warrington North, makes an important point that the PLP process is different from that involving Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs):

For more information on the slightly Kafka-esque process that the party now uses to select a leader, here’s our excellent guide by political editor Heather Stewart:

Updated

According to lobby journalist Alexandra Rogers, the candidates have been allowed two minutes to make their opening statements at the hustings:

Updated

Some Twitter banter as the hustings begin, former secretary of state for transport, Andrew Adonis, on just how many elections his colleague Margaret Beckett has endured:

While Louise Haigh, shadow minister for policing, seems somewhat less than enthused by the event:

Updated

Jess Phillips: 'I want to be prime minister to change people’s lives'

Jess Phillips will tell the Labour hustings tonight that they have the chance to elect a different sort of leader who can communicate in a way that resonates with normal people, and who is a big enough personality to take on Boris Johnson.

She’ll tell Labour MPs: “I don’t want to be the leader of the opposition – I want to be prime minister. I want to be PM to change people’s lives. I have spent my life in one way or another working to change lives. What I have realised is that I can’t keep moving the dial slightly. We have to get power to really swing the dial and change lives. That would be radical.

“I understand that there’s a path that looks safe. But the pathway to being prime minister is much harder. Out of 31 elections since the Labour was created, we have won a working majority in only five. Boris Johnson has got a majority of 80. We run the risk of being completely irrelevant for the next four years. All over the country people have busy lives, with lots of noise from one way or another. We have got to get them to hear us in the little time they give us.”

Updated

The Guido Fawkes website is maintaining a running tally of the MPs who have publicly declared for the six leadership candidates, and as of around 5pm with 46 MPs having committed, 23% of the party, the total is:

Keir Starmer: 17
Jess Phillips: 11
Rebecca Long Bailey: 10
Lisa Nandy 6
Clive Lewis: 2
Emily Thornberry: 0

The prominent names in the party to declare include the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, for Long Bailey (as well as party chairman Ian Lavery); former cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw for Starmer as well as Tracy Brabin, who replaced Tom Watson as shadow culture secretary today; and ex-ministers Margaret Hodge and Chris Bryant for Phillips. Lisa Nandy is backed by Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, who served in Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet, while Lewis is supported by Rachael Maskell, who was today appointed to the shadow cabinet as employment rights spokesperson.

Updated

In the Commons Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, has just finished his speech opening the committee stage debate on the EU (withdrawal agreement) bill. As expected, he restated the government’s determination not to extend the post-Brexit transition period, which will finish at the end of 2020 (meaning any UK-EU trade deal must be concluded by then). Otherwise, he did not say anything particularly striking, and my colleague Peter Walker sums it all up well here.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Seth Jacobson is now taking over.

During his statement earlier about the Iran crisis, Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, insisted that Britain’s support of the United States was not unquestioning. Responding to a question from Labour’s Chi Onwurah, who criticised the government’s “unquestioning support of Trump”, Wallace replied:

Our support of the United States is not unquestioning at all. We talk to our allies a lot, indeed I said to my United States counterpart about being told in advance, and not being told in advance, I have those discussions. We are friends and allies but we are also critical friends and allies when it matters.

During the general election campaign the Conservative party issued a press notice about what would happen in the first 100 days of a Boris Johnson government. Among other things, it promised “a post-Brexit budget in February which will cut taxes for hardworking families”. In perhaps the first broken election promise of this parliament, Sajid Javid, the chancellor, announced today that his first budget will in fact take place on 11 March.

No one would normally object to a budget being delayed by a week or two, regardless of what was said during the campaign. But in Scotland this has serious consequences because Scottish councils have to set their budgets by 11 March, and this year they will have to do so not knowing now much cash they will get from the Scottish government.

Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance secretary, told the Scottish parliament that this was “disrespectful of devolution”. He went on:

It appears to me that the Tory UK government has given up on the union altogether, in not wanting to make our established processes work.

In response, a spokesman for the UK Treasury said:

Nothing stops the Scottish parliament from passing their budget before the UK budget. We are working with the Scottish government as part of an agreed process to provide the information they need to prepare their budget. At the spending round, we announced that the Scottish government’s block grant will increase by £1.2bn next year.

Updated

This is from John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, responding to the report that Boris Johnson has told cabinet ministers to cut wasteful spending. (See 2.21pm.) McDonnell said:

During the election the IFS said that austerity was baked into the government’s future spending plans. So this looks like a cuts round dressed up as an efficiency exercise with the government desperately looking for funds down the back of the sofa.

In an interview before Christmas Dan Jarvis refused to rule out standing for the Labour leadership. But he has finally ruled it out now.

Jarvis already has a second job in addition to being MP for Barnsley Central; he is mayor of Sheffield city region. Normally MPs with metro mayor positions stand down from parliament, but Jarvis has been able to hang on to both posts because the Sheffield city region mayor currently has only very limited powers and responsibilities.

'10 out of 10' - Long Bailey gives her verdict on Corbyn as a leader, and blames media for his negative image

Rebecca Long Bailey, the Labour leadership candidate, has recorded an interview with ITV’s Paul Brand. In it she insisted, as she did earlier today, that she was not a Jeremy Corbyn continuity candidate. (See 11.53am.) But when Brand tried to get her to identify any differences between them, he did not get very far. This is from the transcript sent out by ITV.

PB: I’ll ask you again what makes you different?

RLB: We are very different people. The reasons I supported him were because I liked his approach to policy making.

PB: But how different are you?

RLB: We are different in the way we speak, different in tone.

PB: How would rate Corbyn as a leader out of ten?

RLB: I thought Corbyn was one of most honest, kind, principled politicians I’ve ever met.

PB: Out of 10?

RLB: I’d give him 10 out of 10, because I respect him and I supported him all the way through. What we can’t ignore was that Jeremy was savaged from day one by the press ... We have a role as party to develop the image of our leader and to put them forward in the most positive way, but we also have a duty to rebut criticism and attacks. As a party we needed to have a rebuttal unit, a clear structure in place to rebut the attacks against him.

Labour does employ press officers whose job it is to present the party to the media in a positive light. And Corbyn has his own press team too. Long Bailey is implying either that they weren’t very good (not true, in my experience as a “customer”), or that they should have been more pro-active in responding to media criticism. She is not attaching any blame to Corbyn himself for the way he was presented in the media.

Brand also asked Long Bailey what she did for fun. She replied:

I like watching telly. I spend a lot of time with my family and my favourite hobby is having a Chinese take away and watching box set on a Friday night with my husband. My life centres around my little boy ... making sure the time I spend time with my family is fun for him, taking him to trampoline parks and things like that.

UPDATE: Here is a clip from ITV.

Updated

Turning back to Treasury questions, Rishi Sunak, the chief secretary to the Treasury, made what may be a revealing slip of the tongue when he spoke about the government’s plans to hire extra police officers. He said:

The government is determined to keep our families and communities safe by backing the police with the resources that they need. And that is why we have committed to finding 20,000 new police officers by the end of 2023 to help keep our seats ... streets safe.

When he said “seats”, MPs erupted with laughter.

This is from my colleague Peter Walker, who is reporting back from the afternoon Downing Street briefing.

Corbyn condemns US 'assassination' of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani

In the Commons Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, is giving a statement to MPs updating them on the Iran crisis. What he said at the start did not really go beyond what the government has already said about the US killing of Qassem Suleimani (lukewarm endorsement, combined with a call for restraint and de-escalation) and the most lively opening exchanges came when Wallace clashed with Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, who was responding for the opposition.

Wallace started by saying the UK would always defend the right of countries to defend themselves. He said the US had in the past shown restraint when its bases in Iraq were under attack, and he said the UK was urging all parties to de-escalate the crisis as soon as possible.

Travel advice for Iran and Iraq has been revised, he said. And he said non-essential UK personnel had been moved out of Baghdad. He went on:

As part of prudent planning, a small team has been sent to the region to provide additional situational awareness and contingency planning assistance.

Wallace said the Iraqi parliament had voted to end the coalition presence in Iraq. But that vote was only one part of the process, he said. The UK government was speaking to the Iraqi government about what this might mean, he said. He said the coalition was only in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government.

He said the UK would be urging Iran to take a different path. Its aggressive behaviour, including targeting dissidents in Europe and hijacking civilian ships, was never going to go unchallenged. He went on:

Her Majesty’s government urges Iran to return to the normal behaviour of the country it aspires to be and resist the urge to retaliate ... None of us wants conflict, none of us wants our citizens, our friends and our allies to be put at risk.

In response Corbyn said Boris Johnson was “hiding behind” his defence secretary and that he should be making the Commons statement himself. He said the “assassination” of Suleimani put British servicemen and women in danger, but Johnson was afraid to say so. Corbyn explained:

Isn’t the truth that he’s scared to stand up to President Trump because he’s hitched his wagon to the prospect of a toxic Trump trade deal?

Instead, at this highly dangerous moment, we find the government giving cover and even expressing sympathy for what is widely regarded as an illegal act, because they’re so determined to keep in with President Trump?

Corbyn asked Wallace if he thought the killing of Suleimani was legal. And he criticised the government for saying that the onus was on Iran to de-escalate. If an American general had been killed, the government would not be telling the US to de-escalate.

Responding to Corbyn, Wallace said what he was saying was “usual anti-American tripe”.

On the issue of the legality of the killing, Wallace said it was for the US to make its case. But Wallace also said it was clear that a legal defence of self-defence could be made in this case relating to Suleimani going to Iraq plotting to murder American citizens.

My colleague Matthew Weaver has more about the Iran crisis on a separate live blog.

Updated

Javid branded 'pathetic' by Labour after claiming UK has had 'unprecedented decade of growth'

Boris Johnson likes to adopt a positive, optimistic approach to life and his outlook seems to be rubbing off on the chancellor, Sajid Javid, who has just told MPs that the UK has just ended “an unprecedented decade of growth”.

Javid was responding to a question from Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, who asked what the government was going to do about falling productivity. Javid replied:

Mr Speaker, we’ve just had an unprecedented decade of growth ... It is only the third time since 1700 that we’ve had an uninterrupted decade of growth thanks to the work of this government.

Javid’s claim may well be true, because the UK economy has grown every year since 2010 and this may well be only the third time since 1700 (although the economic data was probably a bit haphazard back then). But “unprecedented decade of growth” implies something to boast about. What has been unprecedented about the last 10 years is quite how feeble growth has been.

As this Bank of England chart shows, growth in recent years has been well below the post-war average.

Growth rates since 1950
Growth rates since 1950 Photograph: Bank of England

And as this Financial Times chart (paywall) shows, this government’s record on growth is worse than any other postwar government.

Growth under different governments
Growth under different governments Photograph: FT

And my colleague Larry Elliott wrote about what happened to growth in the last decade in a recent column. He says that what was remarkable about the 2010s was that the recovery expected 10 years ago never materialised.

In the Commons, in response to Javid, Dowd said the chancellor’s claim was “pathetic, absolutely pathetic” and that Javid was just engaging in bluster. He said Britain had had the worst recovery since the Industrial Revolution.

Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid Photograph: BBC

Updated

Later this afternoon MPs will start debating the committee stage of the EU (withdrawal agreement) bill. Eight hours have been set aside for debate, and the list of amendments tabled to the bill (pdf) runs to 78 pages.

Throughout the whole of 2019 the government’s lack of a majority meant that every Brexit vote was fraught with peril. But given that the government now has a majority of 88 (taking into account the seven Sinn Fein MPs who haven’t taken their seats), there is no need to stay up late to find out whether the government is going to beat the opposition.

Ministers always have the option of deciding to accept opposition amendments without letting them go to a vote. But on the BBC’s Politics Live programme earlier James Duddridge, a Brexit minister, said the government was not planning to accept any amendments. He told the programme:

Our focus will be getting the bill through as it is. A lot of changes have been made to the bill historically [ie between the version published before the election, and the version published after the election]. So I don’t think the government will be minded to make any changes or accept any amendments. We want to keep this bill simple

A large number of amendments have been tabled by the DUP, and on some issues the DUP is lining up with the SDLP and the Alliance party to propose measures that would protect businesses in Northern Ireland from the impact of the plan that would effectively place a customs border down the Irish Sea. When asked specifically about these amendments, Duddridge said that Robin Walker, a Northern Ireland minister, would say more on this topic in the debate tomorrow. But Duddridge also said that some of these amendments were “probing amendments” (ie, amendments tabled with the intention of provoking debate, not with the intention of being passed into law).

James Duddridge
James Duddridge Photograph: BBC

Johnson tells cabinet ministers to cut wasteful spending and focus on manifesto priorities

At cabinet Boris Johnson and the chancellor, Sajid Javid, also unveiled a plan for what was described as “tough decisions” on spending ahead of March’s budget and the subsequent spending review.

“Ministers need to root out any waste, particularly anything that is not aligned with the government’s priorities and demonstrate value for money of every pound of taxpayers’ money that we spend,” the pair told the meeting, according to the No 10 spokesman. The spokesman went on:

All secretaries of state were encouraged to go through their departmental spending and their projects, each and every one, in detail, and ensure that there is no waste, and where waste exists, it is rooted out.

The project will involve ministers and officials examining all ongoing projects, even those begun under the last nine years of Conservative rule, to both assess them for waste and for compliance with Johnson’s stated aim of spreading wealth around the country.

Such campaigns against supposed waste or flabbiness in Whitehall are traditional for new governments, and generally meet with mixed success.

David Cameron’s much-touted “bonfire of the quangos” in 2010, intended to abolish unnecessary quasi-government agencies, ended up costing twice as much to implement as planned, the National Audit Office concluded two years later.

Declining to give specifics on what projects could be at risk, the No 10 spokesman was asked how Johnson’s war on waste would differ from others in the past. He said:

The key point is, this is a new government, it has a new manifesto with new priorities. It was elected on the basis of those priorities, and it’s making sure that we are focused on delivering the country’s priorities. That will mean looking at existing priorities and making sure that they deliver on the government’s agenda.

Updated

Johnson has shelved plans to merge DfID with Foreign Office, No 10 signals

Downing Street has indicated that it has abandoned plans to reshape or merge a series of ministerial departments, and will instead focus on more traditional new-government priorities such as a war on wasteful spending.

Ahead of the election aides around Boris Johnson said that a new government would merge the Department for International Development (DfID) with the Foreign Office, and create borders and immigration department, spun off from the Home Office, among other changes.

But asked whether these ideas had been abandoned following reports this was the case, a No 10 spokesman indicated this was correct.

While stressing that he could not discuss the “machinery of government changes”, the spokesman hinted that the decision had been taken to avoid the organisational turmoil.

“The PM has set out his ambitious programme to get Brexit done and level up the country,” the spokesman said, citing priorities such as investing in the NHS. “The government’s focus will be on delivery of these priorities.”

Here are some of the lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing earlier.

  • Downing Street said that force protection measures for British troops in Iraq were kept under “constant review”. The prime minister’s spokesman said:

The safety and security of our personnel is of paramount importance. We keep our force protection measures under constant review.

  • The spokesman said Boris Johnson briefed ministers on the situation in Iraq at cabinet. The spokesman said:

The prime minister set out the government’s position on the importance of protecting British citizens and interests and de-escalating tensions.

A more “substantial” discussion would take place at the national security council following cabinet, the spokesman said.

  • The spokesman defended Johnson’s decision not to give the oral statement to MPs this afternoon about the Iran crisis himself. Instead Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, will address the Commons. Asked why the PM was not doing it, the spokesman said:

The PM leads a cabinet government and the response to events in the Middle East is a collective cabinet response. The prime minister continues to speak to world leaders. He has overseen the ministerial response and will chair the national security council later today.

  • The spokesman said the government had raised “numerous concerns” about the judicial process in the Cyprus rape case case with the Cypriot authorities. The spokesman said:

The Foreign Office will be working with Cyprus and other countries on how we can avoid cases like this happening ever again.

The woman’s lawyers have said they are going to appeal the verdict and we will await the outcome of that appeal.

We have had numerous concerns about the judicial process in this case and the woman’s right to a fair trial, and we have made these clear to the Cypriot authorities.

10 Downing Street.
10 Downing Street. Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

UK ministers could make provision in areas of devolved policy as a result of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, according to a new report. As the Press Association reports, a briefing (pdf) by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) says new powers in devolved policy areas will be handed to Scottish ministers under Boris Johnson’s EU (withdrawal agreement) bill to ensure it is properly implemented. But the powers will also be conferred on UK ministers, allowing them to act “alone or jointly with Scottish ministers”, according to SPICe. It means the powers granted to UK ministers in the bill will extend to the whole of the UK and relate to both reserved and devolved matters.

The SPICe document states:

The new powers conferred on Scottish ministers are also conferred on UK ministers to act alone or jointly with Scottish ministers. As a result, the powers granted to UK ministers in the withdrawal agreement bill extend to the whole of the UK and relate to both reserved and devolved matters. Consequently, the powers allow UK ministers, acting alone, to make provision in devolved policy areas.

Jeremy Corbyn has conducted a mini reshuffle to fill three gaps in his frontbench team left by the general election. Tracy Brabin has been appointed shadow culture secretary to replace Tom Watson, who stood down. Rachael Maskell has been appointed shadow employment rights secretary to replace Laura Piddock, who lost her seat. And Luke Pollard has been appointed shadow environment secretary to replace Sue Hayman, who also lost her seat.

Corbyn has also appointed Tan Dhesi as his parliamentary private secretary.

Jess Phillips, the Labour leadership candidate, has said she is opposed to holding a second referendum on Scottish independence. Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme this morning, she said:

I don’t think we should have another referendum on Scottish independence – 53% of the Scottish public in the general election did not vote for a party that was promoting independence.

I think that we should be talking about things that are relevant to the lives of people in Scotland.

I can’t see a circumstance where I think it would be better for Scotland to leave the UK.

Phillips also said she thought one of the reasons why Labour lost in Scotland was that it did not necessarily have a clear position on the two big constitutional questions of the day (Brexit and Scottish independence). On Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn said he would be neutral in a second referendum on the topic. And, although Corbyn did not support Scottish independence, he did not rule out allowing Scotland to hold a second referendum on the issue.

Updated

Long Bailey says she's 'nobody's continuity candidate'

In a clip recorded for Sky News Rebecca Long Bailey, the Labour leadership candidate, dismissed claims she was a continuity Corbyn candidate. She said:

I’m nobody’s continuity candidate, that’s for sure.

Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, became the most senior party figure to level this accusation against Long Bailey yesterday, when he said she represented “Corbynism in its purest sense”.

Despite her comment to Sky, Long Bailey’s Tribune article shows that, in terms of policy at least, she does want to continue with the approach championed by Jeremy Corbyn. She says:

Many candidates in the leadership election say they will not return to the triangulation and Tory-lite policies that held our party back before Jeremy. But we need a leader that can be trusted with our socialist agenda. A leader who is totally committed to the policies and has the political backbone to defend them ...

I don’t just agree with the policies, I’ve spent the last four years writing them.

Rebecca Long Bailey
Rebecca Long Bailey. Photograph: Sky News

Updated

Labour supporters must stop attacking each other on Twitter, says Long Bailey

Last night the Labour MP Alison McGovern posted this on Twitter.

It attracted this response from someone who presents on Twitter as a Jeremy Corbyn supporter.

In response, Rebecca Long Bailey, the Labour leadership candidate, posted this.

Updated

Rosena Allin-Khan announces she is standing to be Labour's deputy leader

The shadow sports minister, Rosena Allin-Khan, has also announced this morning that she is standing to be Labour’s next deputy leader. In a statement the MP for Tooting, who still works as a practising A&E doctor, said the party needed to listen with “humility” to voters who abandoned the party at last month’s general election. She said:

It is vital that we restore trust in the Labour party across the country. It is clear that people did not trust us – we need to accept this fact, evaluate it, and learn from it in order to move forward.

We cannot put words into people’s mouths. Our path back to power involves listening with humility to those former Labour voters who have abandoned the party.

I believe my life experience means I can help our movement do this. As a doctor, I cannot guess or assume what is wrong with a patient – I have to listen to their symptoms and investigate the root causes.

This is what we must do as a party, and is what I will do as deputy leader.

Here is her campaign video.

Allin-Khan is the sixth candidate to declare for the deputy leadership. The others are: Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary (and probable favourite); Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary; Dawn Butler, the shadow minister for women and equalities; Khalid Mahmood, the shadow Europe minister; and Ian Murray.

Updated

Ian Murray confirms he is standing to be Labour's deputy leader

Ian Murray, the only Labour MP in Scotland, has confirmed he is standing to be Labour’s deputy leader. In a statement he said:

The next leadership team must turn us into an election-winning machine that uses the skills and talents of all our members and supporters to succeed.

To win again we will need to beat the odds, and I know how to win by building broad coalitions of support.

The Labour party must change. We must be honest with ourselves so we can be honest with the voters.

Looking to the past will only prolong our years in the wilderness and put our country at risk.

We must become a credible alternative government of the future, not a protest movement of the past.

That’s how we lift millions of children, families, and pensioners out of poverty again.

As he sets out in an article for the Daily Mirror, he has four campaign priorities: 1) making sure Labour listens to voters who have given up on the party, particularly in Scotland; 2) being clear on key issues like Brexit and Scottish independence; 3) reforming Labour’s organisation; and 4) having an open policymaking process.

Updated

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, is travelling to Brussels today for talks with his European counterparts on the situation in the Middle East following the death of Qassem Suleimani and the escalating conflict in Libya, the Foreign Office has confirmed. As the Press Association reports, Raab will have a bilateral meeting with the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, before they join their German and Italian counterparts and the EU high representative for talks on Libya.

The so-called “E3” – Britain, France and Germany – will then meet to discuss the tensions between the US and Iran, with all three pushing for de-escalation, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Updated

Rebecca Long Bailey's Today interview - Summary

I have already posted on two of the main lines from Rebecca Long Bailey’s Today interview. (See 9.18am.) Here are some of the other points she made.

  • Long Bailey cited Brexit and antisemitism as two of the reasons for Labour’s election defeat. In her first answer, speaking about why Labour lost, Long Bailey said:

We weren’t trusted on Brexit. We weren’t trusted as a party to tackle the crisis of antisemitism. We weren’t trusted on our policies, no matter how radical or detailed they were. They simply didn’t hit the ground running.

In her Tribune article published last night she did not mention Brexit or antisemitism at all. Instead, in that article she said one reason for Labour’s defeat was that the campaign “lacked a coherent narrative”.

  • She accepted that Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was a factor in Labour’s defeat, but she implied that his unpopularity was down to critical coverage in the media. When it was put to her that Corbyn’s name came up repeatedly on the doorstep, she replied:

Of course it did. Jeremy had suffered unprecedented levels of criticism and attack against his own personal character, and he was very resilient throughout.

  • She stressed her support for Corbyn. She said:

I supported Jeremy. I still support Jeremy because I felt that he was the right man with the right moral integrity to lead the party.

  • She said Labour lost the trust of leave voters during the election and that all the parliamentary effort focused on blocking a no-deal Brexit obscured the fact that Labour was “trying to get a good deal”.
  • She said Labour was not “strong enough” when it came to dealing with antisemitism. Asked if Corbyn was responsible, she said: “Ultimately he has to take responsibility as the leader of the party.” She also said Labour should accept all the recommendations of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report into the party when it was published.
  • She rejected claims that she had given a misleading account of remembering the impact of the closure of the Salford docks on her family. Asked about this story in the Sunday Times (paywall), she said:

That’s rubbish. People are scraping the barrel. My dad worked for Shell Barton docks, which is a dock in Salford, and that closed approximately around the late 80s and unfortunately we were forced to move as a family, because my dad needed to move to a new place of work, Ellesmere Port, Shell there. And he did face round after round of redundancies.

I remember, I was always quite nosy as a child and I used to sit at the top of the stairs when my dad came home from shifts and listen to what him and my mum were talking about. And one particular incident stuck in my mind where he came home and he was in tears because he’d been forced to - he was sitting in a room that looked at the oil tankers being filled up on cameras and it was the same exit that workers used to leave the premises. And he knew that redundancy consultations and discussions were happening and he was forced, as the trade union rep, to sit in that room and watch colleague after colleague walk out of the building with a bin liner full of stuff from their lockers. And he knew that his role to protect them as a trade union organiser and representative hadn’t been fulfilled, and he was absolutely devastated by that.

  • She praised Angela Rayner, her flatmate in London, who is standing for the deputy Labour leadership. Asked what last made her laugh out loud, she said it was probably Rayner, because she was “always coming out with cracking jokes”.
Rebecca Long Bailey.
Rebecca Long Bailey. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Updated

Here is some Twitter comment on the Rebecca Long Bailey interview from journalists.

From the BBC’s Norman Smith

From my colleague Gaby Hinsliff

From the Daily Mirror’s Dan Bloom

From the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s James Ball

From the Mail on Sunday’s Harry Cole

Cole is rarely positive about any Labour figure, and so this counts as a compliment.

Updated

Long Bailey adopts pro-immigration stance in first campaign interview

Good morning. At one stage Rebecca Long Bailey, the shadow business secretary, was seen as the favourite in the Labour leadership contest because she is the candidate most favoured by Jeremy Corbyn and his inner circle. But she kept a low profile after the general election, avoiding interviews, and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is now seen as the favourite based on polling showing that he is more popular with members.

But Long Bailey has now given her first interview as a candidate for the Labour leadership. She did so after using an article for Tribune published last night to formally announce that she will be a candidate. My colleague Rajeev Syal has written it up here.

In her interview Long Bailey mostly struck a note likely to go down well with Labour members. Two of her answers were particularly revealing.

  • Long Bailey insisted that Labour should be pro-immigration. In her Tribune article she said that Labour should never again “put ‘controls on immigration’ on a mug”, as it did in the 2015 general election, and, when asked if that meant she was opposed to any immigration controls, she said the 2015 policy was a “nod towards quite dangerous politics”. She said:

I think we need to have a fair immigration system, but we can’t nod towards quite dangerous politics ... And I understand the reasons why that was done in the election campaign. There are concerns... We do need as a party to make a stronger argument, because I don’t think we’ve every set out the economic case as to why immigration is a positive force.

Long Bailey said she did not accept claims that immigration depressed wages. She said that, when the UK left the EU, EU freedom of movement would end. But when asked what should replace it, she said that was the “million dollar question”. When it was put to her that as party leader she should have a response to the million dollar question, she said it was vital to protect the rights of EU nationals living in the UK. And she added:

We need to have immigration to serve our economic needs.

This stance is likely to meet the approval of Labour members who, at the party conference last year, passed a motion saying that freedom of movement should be extended (even though quite what this meant has subsequently become a matter for debate).

  • Long Bailey expressed very strong reservations about using the nuclear deterrent - without ruling it out. Asked if she would be willing to authorise the nuclear deterrent as PM, she said:

Any leader, any prime minister, has to be very clear that the security and the protection of the people that they represent comes first, above all else, and that they would do anything that it takes to ensure that the people of this country are protected. And I would be very clear on that.

When asked if that included using the nuclear deterrent, she replied:

Well, if you have a deterrent, you have to be prepared to use it. But I’m not going to be a warmonger foaming at the mouth and saying that I’m going to press a button, because any leader needs to ensure that they assess the situation, they address the consequences of their actions. And of course any country that was considering pushing the nuclear button needed to realise that we were facing nuclear annihilation right across the whole world. But, yes, a leader would need to be prepared to engage in that if they were going to use the nuclear deterrent going forward.

This is probably the right answer for the Labour membership too. They will interpret the “warmonger foaming at the mouth” line as a reference to the former Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, who is much disliked by Labour activists and who stressed her willingness to push the nuclear button during the election campaign. In the early days of his leadership Corbyn did firmly rule out using nuclear weapons, but the party as a whole backs the nuclear deterrent (not least because a lot of union jobs are tied up with the nuclear submarine programme) and later he became more evasive when asked if he would ever use nuclear weapons.

I will post more on the interview shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.

12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Sajid Javid, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

After 3.30pm: Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, makes a statement in the Commons about the Iran crisis.

Around 5pm or later: MPs begin the committee stage debate for the EU (withdrawal agreement) bill.

6pm: Labour leadership candidates speak at a private hustings for Labour MPs organised by the parliamentary Labour party.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. We plan to post a summary when we wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s 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 below the line (BTL) but it is 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 questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

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

Updated

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