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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Kinnock tells Corbyn Britain will never vote for unilateral disarmament - Politics live

UK should review airstrikes against Isis in Iraq, says Jeremy Corbyn

Afternoon summary

  • Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has told Jeremy Corbyn that the British people will never vote for unilateral disarmament. In an interview, Kinnock, who ditched nuclear disarmament as Labour policy after losing the 1987 election, said: “What I do know is the British people will not vote for unilateral disarmament. And that reality has to be dealt with.” (See 4pm.) He spoke as the SNP and Scottish Labour united in a debate in the Scottish parliament to call for Trident to be scrapped. The debate took place only two days after Scottish Labour voted to adopt unilateral disarmament as policy, even though defence is a matter reserved to Westminster and UK Labour still supports Trident. Corbyn wants that to change.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Also in his interview with the Press Association Lord Kinnock was complimentary about Jeremy Corbyn’s performances in the Commons. Asked how Corbyn was doing at PMQs, Kinnock said:

Fine, it’s authentic and that’s the important thing. This isn’t some kind of show being put on. That’s Jeremy. Which is the way it works. It’s the genuine article. About everything else, time will tell.

Kinnock tells Corbyn Britain will never vote for unilateral disarmament

Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has also given an interview to the Press Association. In it, he delivered a blunt message to Jeremy Corbyn. Britain will never vote for unilateral disarmament, he said. He told PA:

The debate is wide open. What I do know is the British people will not vote for unilateral disarmament. And that reality has to be dealt with.

Kinnock has strong feelings about this. When he became Labour leader, he was passionately opposed to nuclear weapons and in the 1987 general election, his first as leader, the party was committed to nuclear disarmament. But he found this position hard to defend during the campaign and after Labour lost he reluctantly concluded that Labour would have to change its policy. By the time of the 1992 election Labour was committed to retaining nuclear weapons - a policy that continues to this day, but one that Corbyn wants to reverse.

Minister calls for more roles for transgender actors

The Commons women and equalities committee is conducting an inquiry into transgender equality and it held an evidence-gathering session this morning. Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, told it that TV producers should offer more roles to transgender actors. When it was put to him that transgender people were only depicted “in terms of coming out”, he replied:

I think that’s probably a valid criticism. There is an ongoing issue that people can be put into the category that they are identified as, and not seen doing mainstream occupations. So if you cast someone who is transgender you might be doing it because you want to make a big deal out of the fact that they are transgender, and I would much rather see somebody cast as a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a policeman, an MP who also happens to be transgender.

There is something in that critique of broadcasters and I hope that more and more we will see people from the transgender community - as indeed from other communities that are under-represented on our screens - cast in mainstream roles and their background is irrelevant in that respect.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has welcomed the news that Number 10 has dropped plans for a vote on military action against Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. He said:

Our prime minister should take the lead in constructing a lasting peace with a strategy geared towards rebuilding Syria, rather than constantly seeking to build a parliamentary majority for counter-productive military action.

More and more bombs are not the answer. Adding extra war will simply create a bigger stream of refugees justifiably looking to escape.

Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has unveiled a plaque outside the house in Chelsea where Nye Bevan, the architect of the NHS, lived with his wife Jennie Lee.

Lord Kinnock with Aneurin Bevan’s great great niece, Jaselle Williams, after he unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at 23 Cliveden Place in Chelsea, London
Lord Kinnock with Aneurin Bevan’s great great niece, Jaselle Williams, after he unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at 23 Cliveden Place in Chelsea, London Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Kinnock said the couple were “poets of politics”. He said:

This house was the home, the lair, of the greatest ever lion and lioness of Labour, Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee. They are among the most inspiring and magnetic political figures of the 20th century.

Nye Bevan And Jennie Lee photographed in 1934
Nye Bevan And Jennie Lee photographed in 1934 Photograph: H. F. Davis/Getty Images

Corbyn condemns Kaufman over "Jewish money" remark

Last week Sir Gerald Kaufman, the Labour MP and, as the longest-serving member, the father of the Commons, triggered a controversy by saying that “Jewish money” was influencing the Conservative party. He said:

It’s Jewish money, Jewish donations to the Conservative Party – as in the general election in May – support from the Jewish Chronicle, all of those things, bias the Conservatives.

There is now a big group of Conservative members of parliament who are pro-Israel whatever government does and they are not interested in what Israel, in what the Israeli government does.

They’re not interested in the fact that Palestinians are living a repressed life, and are liable to be shot at any time. In the last few days alone the Israelis have murdered 52 Palestinians and nobody pays attention and this government doesn’t care.

Now Kaufman has been reprimanded by the chief whip, Rosie Winterton. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, revealed this in a statement. He said:

Last week’s reported comments by Sir Gerald Kaufman about the Jewish community, the Conservative party and Israel are completely unacceptable and deeply regrettable. Such remarks are damaging to community relations, and also do nothing to benefit the Palestinian cause. I have always implacably opposed all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and will continue to do so. At my request, the Chief Whip has met Sir Gerald and expressed my deep concern.

Sir Gerald Kaufman
Sir Gerald Kaufman Photograph: PA/PA

ITV News has now posted the clip of Jeremy Corbyn saying the government should “look again” at continuing with air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq on its website.

Here’s the key quote.

I’m not sure how successful it [military action in Iraq] has been because most of the action appears to have moved into Syria so I think we have to look again at that decision.

Lunchtime summary

    The position has not changed. If you look at what the prime minister was saying last month on this, you can’t put a timescale on the vote because that comes down to going back to the House when there is greater consensus across the House of Commons for that action ... The PM is clear that there is a case for doing more and he will keep working, and the UK government will keep working with allies to look at what we can do to protect ourselves and others from the threat of [Isis].

  • Corbyn has been criticised after it emerged that he has turned down an invitation to address the CBI conference next week. Liam Byrne, the Labour former Treasury minister, said: “I think it would have been better to go to the CBI personally.” Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, was more blunt on Twitter.

And this is from Digby Jones, the former CBI director general.

As Patrick Wintour reports, David Cameron once rejected an invitation from the CBI when he was opposition leader. But, as Patrick says, the circumstances were different.

Although David Cameron in opposiiton once pointedly rejected a CBI speaking engagement, he did so needing to play down the Conservatives’ image as the friend of big business. Labour currently is not seen as excessively close to business.

  • Byrne has given a speech urging Corbyn to adopt an “alternative economic strategy”. Although critical of some aspects of Corbyn’s plans, the speech was most notable for its criticism of New Labour for not having a proper strategy for tackling inequality. (See 11.14am.)

The British are an extremely important partner for us in the EU on at least three central fundamental questions - the deepening of the single market, the development of new markets and the introduction of structural reforms for the good of European competitiveness/ A Brexit will lead us all into a dead end street. We need each other.

  • Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has said his party will use Corbyn’s alleged lack of patriotism to attack Labour in the Oldham West and Royton byelection. Unveiling Ukip’s candidate John Bickley, who is the main threat to Labour’s hopes of holding the seat where the late Michael Meacher had a majority of almost 15,000 at the election, Farage said Ukip would “bite very, very hard” on the “old Labour” vote in the seat. He claimed many Labour voters in Oldham would be “appalled” at Corbyn allegedly “cosying up to the IRA”, wanting to give Falklands back to Argentina and believing the UK should give up the nuclear deterrent. Farage went on:

Is Jeremy Corbyn patriotic? Does he believe in this country? Does he believe in the people of this country? So I feel that we really, really can bite very, very hard into that old Labour vote who frankly bear little in common with the north London, trendy hard-left Labour man.

This very much amongst Labour voters is going to be a test of, does Corbyn connect outside of north London and a very narrow, pretty extreme left-wing group of people? And all the indications that we’ve got is that very large numbers of Labour people are frankly pretty appalled by many of the stances that Mr Corbyn takes.

John Bickley (left) at a news conference with Nigel Farage
John Bickley (left) at a news conference with Nigel Farage Photograph: Pat Hurst/PA
  • Justine Greening, the international development secretary, has told MPs that Britain will send a new ship to support efforts to rescue refugees from the Mediterranean Sea. She was speaking in the Commons following calls from Yvette Cooper, chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce, for British boats to return.

Updated

Corbyn says government should reconsider air strikes against Isis in Iraq

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has been commenting on today’s Guardian revelation that Number 10 has given up hope of getting the Commons to vote to extend air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) to Syria. Corbyn said the government should “think again” about the strikes that are already taking place against Isis in Iraq.

Farage accuses Osborne of 'sycophancy' and sounding like an EU commissioner

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has accused George Osborne of “sycophancy”. This is the statement Farage put out about Osborne’s speech.

If this sort of sycophancy is what we have to expect from Cameron’s so-called renegotiation they may as well give up now. From Osborne calling for deeper single market integration to reform of the EU’s treaty framework to strengthening the Euro, it sounded more like a speech from an EU commissioner.

As far as I can tell all he actually asked is for Britain to not be forced to bail out the euro, but for further treaties to be written and for a stronger EU constitution. Who is he actually working for?

Osborne made no mention of free movement, no mention of getting back any of the powers we have already ceded to Brussels and no mention of cutting regulation nor even reducing the net contributions we make to the EU. It is quite apparent that the Conservative government are not just for ‘in’, they are actually for ‘more’.

Here is some Twitter reaction to George Osborne’s speech.

From the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe

From Andrew Lilico, the economist and journalist

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From Open Europe’s Nina Schick

Merkel says she wants UK to stay in EU - 'British concerns are our concerns'

This is what Angela Merkel told the BDI conference before George Osborne spoke.

I am of the opinion that Britain should stay in the EU ... But of course we aren’t the ones making that decision. It is for the British to decide. When it comes to justified concerns, where competitiveness and better functioning‎ of the EU are concerned, British concerns are our concerns.

Treasury sources claim that this is significant because it goes further than what Merkel has said in public before about wanting to stop the UK leaving the EU.

Angela Merkel addressing the BDI conference in Berlin
Angela Merkel addressing the BDI conference in Berlin Photograph: Bernd von Jutrczenka/EPA

Osborne ended by summing up the kind of deal he wanted.

You get a Eurozone that works better.

We get a guarantee that the Eurozone’s decisions and costs are not imposed on us

You get a stronger Euro.

We make sure the voice of the pound is heard when it should be.

A deal that’s written into the law

A deal that’s good for Britain.

And a deal that’s good for Germany too.

Osborne stresses that he is not looking for a veto.

We are not looking for a new opt-out for the UK in this area — we have the opt-out from the single currency we need.

Nor are we looking for a veto over what you do in the Eurozone.

Instead, what we seek are principles embedded in EU law and binding on EU institutions that safeguard the operation of the Union for all 28 member states.

Osborne says countries outside the eurozone should not have to bail out eurozone countries.

We must never let taxpayers in countries that are not in the euro bear the cost for supporting countries in the Eurozone.

This is exactly what was attempted in July, when, out of the blue, in flagrant breach of the agreement we’d all signed up to, and without even the courtesy of a telephone call, we were informed we could have to pay to bail out Greece.

That would have been grossly unfair.

We have fought hard, with German help, to stop that happening — and we succeeded.

But we shouldn’t have to fight a running battle on these issues.

Osborne is now reading out the passage released in advance about the changes Britain wants to see. See 9.51am.

Osborne says there is a 'deal to be done' on EU reform

Osborne says there is “a deal to be done” on the EU renegotiation.

So let me be candid: there is a deal to be done and we can work together.

Rather than stand in your way, or veto the Treaty amendments required, we, in Britain, can support you in the Eurozone make the lasting changes that you need to see to strengthen the euro.

In return, you can help us make the changes we need to safeguard the interests of those economies who are not in the Eurozone.

Osborne turns to the need “to fix the relationship between the member states in the Eurozone and those outside, so it works better for everyone”.

As many in Germany have recognised, the EU as currently constituted does not provide the strong legal and constitutional basis needed to make the euro the stronger currency you want it to be.

Ideas like the Banking Union and the Single Resolution Mechanism have been real steps forward, but they have been put together through inter-governmental agreements and unsuitable single market provisions.

Nor are you going to achieve the kind of binding commitment you want to see improving competitiveness in other Eurozone countries if you rely on the current legal framework.

In the end the inexorable logic of monetary union will mean the Treaties will have to be changed to support the financial and economic union required for a permanently stronger euro — the stronger euro we want you to build.

At the same time, the current European Union arrangements are also not suitable for countries that aren’t in the euro, like Britain.

Osborne says financial services, and services generally, also need to be deregulated.

Let’s face it — some of Europe’s self-imposed regulations and rules have actually made this continent a less competitive place to run a financial services business.

That’s not in Britain’s interests, as home to the world’s largest financial centre, but it is not in the interests of Germany either to see the centres of European finance move outside of Europe.

We both have huge service economies — services make up 70% of Germany’s output, and 80% of Britain’s.

Yet trade in services in Europe is far too low. We’ve allowed the opponents of economic reform and the liberalisation of services to win the day. We should complete the single market for services and create millions of jobs.

I welcome the Internal Market Strategy the commission published last week. It reflects much of what Britain said it should. But now let’s turn a strategy document into reality.

Osborne says, under Jean-Claude Juncker, the amount of new regulation coming out of the EU has been cut by 80%.

But more needs to be done, particularly in the digital economy, he says.

All Europe’s citizens will benefit directly from the new agreement to cut mobile phone roaming charges — it is an example of the single market working for people.

But where, in the age of the internet, is the digital single market?

I can buy a CD from a German music store with a British credit card while I’m here in Berlin, but I can’t log on to a German website with my British account and download a song.

We always, as Europeans, come together at conferences like this and lament that the world’s biggest internet companies aren’t European companies; but that’s because we haven’t created the world’s largest market for them here in the EU.

Let’s do it, now — not in 2 years time or 5 years time.

Osborne turns to the need to cut regulation.

Europe is losing ground to the rest of the world, and the people who pay the price are our citizens.

One-fifth of young people in the European Union cannot get a job.

US companies can get new products licensed and to market in days, yet it can take weeks or months in Europe.

And a decade ago the commission estimated a total administrative burden to EU businesses of €125bn a year. Progress has been made, but only about a fourth of this cost has been reduced — much more needs to be done.

Let’s be clear about what is at stake here.

If the EU allows itself to be priced out of the world economy, the next generation will not get jobs, living standards will decline and the Union will lose the popular consent of the people of Europe.

Osborne turns to other changes Britain wants to see.

So how do we build a better European Union?

There are a number of changes needed to make that happen.

If freedom of movement is to be sustainable, then our publics must see it is freedom to move to work, rather than freedom to choose the most generous benefits.

If politicians are to be accountable then we’ll need to strengthen the role of national parliaments.

Osborne says Britain does not want to be part of an “ever closer union”. He is using the passage released in advance. See 9.51am.

Osborne says Britain has made a big contribution to the EU too.

I think you would agree that Britain has been the strongest and most consistent voice in Europe for expanding the EU’s single market; for concluding EU free trade deals with other parts of the globe; for enlarging the borders of the EU to include first the countries of Central and eastern Europe, and now the Balkans.

And as you know, we’ve been arguing in favour of closer ties with Turkey for years.

So my country too has made a big contribution to the development of the European Union.

Osborne praises Germany for the role it has played in Europe.

I have huge respect for the leadership Germany has shown, alongside other countries like France and Italy and the Low Countries in first creating the European Union and now the efforts you are making to ensure the common European borders work and the Eurozone is a strong and resilient currency area.

Let me be clear. We want you to succeed in all these endeavours. It’s hugely in Britain’s interests, let alone Europe’s that you do.

I know, in turn, you respect the fact that Britain has a different relationship with the European Union.

We are not part of the single currency.

Nor are we part of the Schengen single border area.

But we are a huge part of the European economy.

After you, we are the largest contributor to the European Budget.

We — along with the French — provide the military capabilities to ensure Europe’s voice is heard on security and defence issues around the world.

And in partnership with you, and our friends in Paris, we provide the diplomatic heft to help resolve the tragedy in Syria, and try to bring Iran in from the cold.

This Anglo-German partnership is on display in the new Formula One Champion — the ingenuity of a British driver, Lewis Hamilton, powered to success by a German Mercedes car.

This gets a laugh. Then Osborne adds:

The fastest car Mercedes makes is the only one they make in Britain.

Osborne explains why Germany and Britain have both been successful.

Why have our two economies succeeded where too many others have struggled?

Because we have risen to the challenge of reform.

We’ve both made difficult decisions to make our labour markets more flexible — not so it is easy to fire people, but because we wanted it to be easy to hire people.

We’ve both made difficult decisions to fix our public finances and live within our means.

This year you have achieved a budget surplus; and I will shortly be setting out the measures required to achieve that surplus in Britain. For we both understand that without sound finances there is no economic security.

Osborne says Germany and Britain have a responsibility to show economic leadership in the EU.

Since the economic crash 7 years ago, our two economies have each expanded by the same 13%. The rest of Europe has grown by just 4%.

We have together provided two-thirds of all the economic growth in the European Union.

And while we have together created over 3 million jobs, jobs have been lost across the rest of the continent.

George Osborne speaking in Berlin
George Osborne speaking in Berlin Photograph: BBC News

He says back in 1989 he never thought he would be here talking to his Germany opposite number, Wolfgang Schaeuble.

They had dinner last night at an Italian restaurant. They reflected on the fact that they are two of the EU’s longest-serving finance ministers.

He says the whole world has been impressed by the generosity of Germany to refugees seeking sanctuary.

Osborne says he is also talking about a friendship that has brought peace and security to a continent for the whole of his life.

And he is talking about shared values, including openness and a commitment to freedom.

Berlin has been a beacon of freedom throughout his life, he says.

He says his continent was divided when he grew up. His grandmother was Hungarian. He says his mother told him recently about the wave of refugees from Hungary who came to their house in 1956 after the uprising.

And he recalls watching the Berlin wall being torn down. That remains the single most extraordinary and exciting and exhilarating moment of his lifetime, he says.

George Osborne's speech

George Osborne has just started his speech in Berlin.

He says he has come to talk about trade, investment, and businesss.

Germany companies are household names in the UK, he says.

George Osborne is due to speak to the German equivalent of the CBI shortly.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has been speaking there already. She told the audience she wanted the UK to remain in the EU.

Liam Byrne's speech - Summary and analysis

Liam Byrne’s speech about the future of Labour does not seem to be getting a huge amount of coverage this morning. That may be because reporters were expecting a “Blairite attacks Jeremy Corbyn” story, and Byrne failed to deliver.

But actually the speech is more interesting than that; much, much more interesting. Byrne is a relatively marginal figure in the party at the moment, but nevertheless his speech is one of the most insightful, and potentially significant, that any Labour figure has given for ages.

Why? Partly because Byrne performs the last rites over New Labour. He is not the first “Blairite” to say that New Labour failed on the issue of inequality - Liz Kendall made this point in her leadership campaign, and even in 2010 David Miliband was saying something similar - but it is hard to recall anyone from Byrne’s wing of the party making this argument so clearly and unequivocally.

And partly because the speech confounds suggestions that that Corbynites and the “moderates” (as Byrne calls them) will never agree on the economy. Byrne proposes what he describes as “an alternative economic strategy”, but at least one element of is a proposal that John McDonnell, the Corbynite shadow chancellor, has already actively endorsed (see below) and most of his other ideas would win Corbyn/McDonnell approval too. The only one that is obviously problematic is Byrne’s call for a more contributory welfare system. Significantly, McDonnell has welcome the speech.

That doesn’t mean the gulf between Labour’s Corbynites and its “moderates” has vanished. On issues like Trident, the gap is still huge. But Byrne’s speech suggests that on economic policy there could be more common ground than people assumed.

Here are the key points.

  • Byrne conceded that Blairism (my term, not his) had lost the argument in Labour about the party’s future.

[Corbyn’s] victory confirmed the new Labour Millbank-era of politics is over. It confirmed the moderates lost the argument.

  • He said the “moderates” did not have enough to say about tackling inequality.

If Mr Corbyn’s election said one thing to the Labour family it was this:

We want the debate about injustice and inequality front of house, not somewhere lost in the wings.

As a party, we had stopped making big ethical arguments. We’d become too tactical.

Too narrow in our appeal.

Too retail.

We weren’t campaigning in poetry – we were campaigning in prose.

We stopped painting in primary colours.

And the result was no-one knew what we stood for anymore.

  • He said that inequality on the scale that exists now was not just immoral, but economically inefficient, and that this was now accepted by mainstream economic bodies like the IMF, the World Economic Forum and the Bank of England.
  • He said that he “loved” Corbyn’s “passion for challenging inequality”. (See 9.18am.)
  • He said that New Labour’s problem was that, although it promoted redistribution and growth, it was “neutral” about where growth came from, meaning that it was complacent about the causes of growing inequality.
  • He said New Labour thought lack of skills was the primary cause of inequality, but that it is now clear that other structural problems are just as important.

Thomas Piketty has offered us new insights, with his now famous formula, R > g; in other words, the rate of return to capital tends to outstrips the rate of economic growth – so increasing levels of inequality become inevitable.

But just as important as Joseph Stiglitz argues in the seminal ‘Rewriting the Rules’ institutions matter - and right now they’re broken.

What we’re seeing today is not inevitable. It’s not some natural order.

It reflects CHOICES with made in the new bargain with business struck by the neo-liberals in the 1980s and adapted by new Labour in the 1990s.

Neo-liberals said: deregulate, cut taxes and break down walls to free trade.

In return, the Conservatives expected business to produce great jobs – and wealth to trickle down.

And on the left, we hoped we could turn up the redistribution so the trickle-down of wealth became a torrent.

But guess what?

These institutions which we built – free trade, deregulation, low tax, shareholder value enshrined in company law - have created a global super-league of companies bigger than countries that are no longer honouring the deal.

  • He said these “corporate gargantuans” were not behaving properly, and that their faults included not thinking longterm and not sharing the rewards of growth fairly with workers.
  • He said that just demanding equality of opportunity was not enough because there were “three basic power failures” that enabled huge corporations to have so much power. The state has “little power against the 2,400 companies that control so much of global wealth”, he said. Individual workers have little power, he said. And “the working class is now so fractured – that it lacks the power to mobilise political majorities behind its interests in conflict with either the company or the state.”
  • He called for a new approach to the economy which he described as “progressive capitalism” or “entrepreneurial socialism”.
  • He identified 10 goals that should be at the heart of Labour policy.

Before I left government I asked my civil servants to examine all of our public service targets and translate them into a handful of basic powers we want to see in the hands of citizens.

It’s a fascinating list;

    1. To survive and have good health;
    2. To be skilled and knowledgeable
    3. To have a good job which brings in a sufficient income;
    4. To have a decent place to live;
    5. To be free from fear or attack;
    6. To have a strong, supportive family life;
    7. To be part of a strong, active community;
    8. To have a healthy, sustainable natural environment;
    9. To be able to move around and access different places easily;
    10. To have aspirations for the future.

What we should seek in the Labour party is an equality of these powers between our citizens.

This is the basis of a new civic rights movement, and today I’m publishing my Treasury research for the first time.

  • He said that he agreed with many of Corbyn’s goals but that some of Corbyn’s proposals could lead to “failure”.

In his leadership campaign, Mr Corbyn proposed many things on which we agree; ‘tax justice’, rebalancing the fiscal burden, ‘welfare efficiency’, industrial policy, a green plan and devolution.

But I worry that Peoples’ QE - printing money - renationalising things and spiralling public spending risks failure.

  • He said he was proposing an “alternative economic strategy” to Corbyn’s and that it included at least six elements.

1 - Changing the Bank of England’s remit so that it does not just focus on tackling inflation when setting interest rates. Byrne suggested adopting the American approach, under which the Federal Reserve is required to give equal priority to price stablity and full employment. (Actually, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has already announced a review of the Bank of England’s remit intended to move it in this direction.)

2 - Encouraging firms to take a more longterm approach to investment. Byrne cited laws in France and Italy giving longterm shareholders double voting rights as one model the UK could follow. Another option would be to change corporate governance law to force directors to take more account of the wider public interest, he said.

3 - Giving the Office for Budget Responsibility more power to assess the impact of Treasury policies, particularly on the tax gap.

4 - More investment in science.

5 - More support for entrepreneurs.

6 - Making the contributory principle more important in the welfare state, so that it works better for employees in the “gig economy” (ie, reliant on shorterm jobs). Byrne said he was writing to Frank Field, chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, asking him to launch an inquiry into the contributory principle.

Liam Byrne
Liam Byrne Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Updated

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has described George Osborne’s speech in Berlin today as “a meaningless publicity stunt”. He’s issued this statement.

Following last week’s humiliation in parliament on tax credits, George Osborne appears to have run off to Berlin to defend bankers and indulge in a phoney negotiation process to give the pretence that this government has any sway in Europe.

This trip is a meaningless publicity stunt as he is demanding powers of veto that we already have. These conditions are all straw men that the chancellor wants to then knock down and claim victory to a home audience.

Rather than sticking up for bankers in Berlin, he should be sticking up for steel workers in the UK and those people in our country who are not paid a living wage, and who are about to be hit by 1,300 a year on average by his tax credits cuts.

John McDonnell
John McDonnell Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

George Osborne's speech in Berlin - Excerpts

The Treasury has released some excerpts from George Osborne’s speech in Berlin in advance.

  • Osborne will insist that the UK must be exempt from the EU treaty commitment to an “ever closer union”. He will say:

Remain or leave... is the question our democracy has demanded we put because, quite frankly, the British people do not want to be part of an ever closer union.

‎We want Britain to remain in a reformed European Union, but it needs to be a European Union that works better for all the citizens of Europe - and works better for Britain too.

It needs to be a Europe where we are not part of that ever closer union you are more comfortable with.

In the UK, where this is widely interpreted as a commitment to ever-closer political integration, that concept is now supported by a tiny proportion of voters.

I believe it is this that is the cause of some of the strains between Britain and our European partners.

Ever closer union is not right for us any longer.

  • He will give some details of what the government wants from its EU renegotiation.

What are those changes?

Let me say more than we have done in public about what they are...

‎What we seek are principles embedded in EU law and binding on EU institutions that safeguard the operation of the Union for all 28 member states.

The principles must support the integrity of the European Single Market.

That includes the recognition that the EU has more than one currency and we should not discriminate against any business on the basis of the currency of the country in which they reside.

The principles must ensure that as the Eurozone chooses to integrate it does so in a way that does not damage the interests of non-euro members.

There will be cases where non-euro members want to participate in developments like the banking union. But that participation must be voluntary, and never compulsory.

We must never let taxpayers in countries that are not in the euro bear the cost for supporting countries in the Eurozone.‎

George Osborne (left) with his German opposite number, Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin last night.
George Osborne (left) with his German opposite number, Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin last night. Photograph: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Here is the text of Liam Byrne’s speech.

Here’s one of the striking quotes from Liam Byrne’s speech.

That’s why I love Jeremy Corbyn’s passion for challenging inequality. That idealism unites us.

It’s why he’s not a Trot – and I’m not a Tory.

It’s why we’re both in the Labour party.

I’ll post more from it soon.

Liam Byrne, the Labour former chief secretary to the Treasury, has been giving a speech on the future of the party this morning. Byrne is a leading figure on the “Blairite” or “moderate” wing of the party, and in some respects the speech is a rebuke to Jeremy Corbyn, as the Sunday Mirror reported and Laura Kuenssberg is saying on Twitter.

On the Today programme, in an interview ahead of his speech, Byrne said Labour must avoid bashing business.

I think there’s a risk in the tone in some of the debates we’ve had in the Labour party over the last four or five years, actually, that we should get in a big head-butting competition with business and if you listen to what people like John Cridland have said today, if you listen to the head of the IMF, the head of the OECD, the head of the biggest investment fund in the world, Larry Fink, actually they’re all saying that capitalism isn’t working any more, it’s producing an economy which is much, much too unequal. That’s why I’m saying we need to seize on building common cause with business reformers and doing things differently.

That coincides with reports this morning that Jeremy Corbyn has turned down an invitation to speak to the CBI conference next week.

One senses that Byne would disapprove. Yet in his interview Byrne was also quite complimentary about Corbyn in some respects, and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor and Corbyn’s most important ally, has welcomed much of what Byrne is saying.

I will post more from the speech, and the interview, shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

8.15am: Liam Byrne, the Labour former Treasury minister, gives a speech proposing a new clause 4 for the Labour party, featuring fighting inequality.

11am: Ukip hold a press conference in Oldham ahead of next month’s byelection. John Bickley is expected to be unveiled as the party’s candidate.

11.30am: George Osborne, the chancellor, gives a speech to the BDI in Berlin, the German equivalent of the CBI.

12pm: Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, gives a speech on schools. As Sally Weale reports, Morgan is expected to unveil plans to send 1,500 elite teachers into under-performing schools as part of measures to tackle pockets of failure in education.

2.45pm: Police chiefs give evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about the reform of the police funding formula.

3.30pm: A memorial service for the late Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, is held at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark.

As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

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

Updated

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