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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

EU referendum: Cameron gives evidence to liaison committee - Politics live

David Cameron is giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee about the EU referendum
David Cameron is giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee about the EU referendum Photograph: Parliament TV

Afternoon summary

  • David Cameron has given his bluntest assessment yet of the chances of Turkey joining the European Union, saying it will not happen “for decades”. Giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee, he said:

I don’t think the accession of Turkey to the European Union is remotely on the cards. I don’t think it will happen for decades. I think if you look at the facts, the facts are it requires unanimity of all European members. The French, for instance, have said they would have a referendum on it.

So I would say very clearly to people, if your vote in this referendum is being influenced by considerations about Turkish membership of the EU, don’t think about it. It is not remotely on the cards. It’s not an issue in this referendum.

His comments are in marked contrast to what he said when he gave a speech in Turkey in 2010 and told his audience: “I will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership.” (See 5.53pm.)

  • Cameron has been warned to “expect a writ” if the government refuses to take down its web posts supporting the case for Britain to remain in the European Union. The Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin told him during the hearing it would be illegal to keep pages on the Gov.uk website up during the so-called purdah period in the last few weeks of the campaign. Cameron said the government was taking legal advice, but that calls for websites to be taken down wre an “extreme position”. Jenkin said legal precedent meant the government could not keep up the websites up. He told Cameron: “Expect a letter before action. If we can raise the funds, expect a writ.”
  • The Crown Prosecution Service has said that police forces may go to court to ensure time limits don’t stop possible prosecution of the Tories for breaking election expenses laws. (See 4.56pm.)
  • Alex Salmond, Scotland’s former first minister, has said the election of Boris Johnson as prime minister could be the “material change of circumstances” that would justify another independence referendum. Speaking on LBC he said:

I have had a number of conversations with Boris Johnson, and one or two of them have been reasonably lucid. Boris, as he used to say, wanted to if not abolish the Scottish Parliament then to severely restrict its powers, if I remember him correctly. I mean, that might well be a change in material circumstances, who knows?

That’s all from me for today.

I won’t be blogging during the day tomorrow - a colleague will be here instead - but I will be covering the election results as they come in overnight in an results blog going up tomorrow night.

Q: Why do you think the UK should remain in the EU?

Cameron says a hard-headed calculation of what is best for the country shows we are better off remaining in.

But there is a big argument about Britain too. Being in the EU enhances the UK’s power, he says.

Q: And how do you answer Michael Gove’s most powerful point, that slowly our national identity is being eroded.

Cameron says he does not feel any less Britain being part of the European Union.

There is a big, bold British case to make, he says.

Tyrie ends by saying Cameron has been “pretty clear” and that he has given some “direct answers”.

And that is it. The hearing is over.

I will post a summary soon.

Andrew Tyrie goes next. He says some months ago he proposed to Cameron a plan to reverse the EU ratchet of regulation. Tyrie then published a pamphlet on this. And Cameron became more interested. There are elements of the idea in the EU renegotiation, Tyrie says. But Tyrie says there is a problem; the European Commission will be the one in charge of reviewing regulation.

Cameron says, if you want a bureaucracy to deregulate, you have to get the bureaucracy to do it. It is no good getting an outside body to do it, he says.

He says this commission is unlike previous ones. It contains strong, pro-business, Atlanticist free traders in it, he says.

Meg Hillier goes next.

Q: Can you be a bit more precise about what will be done to improve agricultural payments to farmers?

Cameron says the government is making progress. The EU’s court of auditors has recognised the UK’s good practice.

The Mirror’s Jason Beattie points out that Cameron has changed his tune on Turkey joining the EU over the last six years.

The quote is from this speech that Cameron gave in Ankara in 2010, shortly after he became prime minister. Here is a fuller extract.

I am here to make the case for Turkey’s membership of the European Union and to fight for it. Do you know who said this? ‘Here is a country which is not European, its history, its geography, its economy, its agriculture and the character of its people - admirable people though they are - all point in a different direction. This is a country which cannot, despite what it claims and perhaps even what it believes, be a full member.’

Now, that might sound like some Europeans describing Turkey. Actually it was General de Gaulle describing the United Kingdom, my country, before vetoing our accession to the European Union. So we know what it is like to be shut out of the club, but we also know that these things can change.

When I think about what Turkey has done to defend Europe as a NATO ally and what Turkey is doing today in Afghanistan alongside our European allies, it makes me angry that your progress towards EU membership can be frustrated in the way that it has been. My view is clear: I believe it is just wrong to say that Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit in the tent.

I will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership and for greater influence at the top table of European diplomacy. This is something I feel very strongly and very passionately about. Together I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.

David Cameron stands as an honour guard salutes during a wreath laying ceremony at Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara, Turkey when Cameron visited in July 2010.
David Cameron stands as an honour guard salutes during a wreath laying ceremony at Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara, Turkey, when Cameron visited in July 2010. Photograph: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA

Cameron says Turkey joining the EU is not 'remotely on the cards'

Cameron says he does not think the accession of Turkey is “remotely on the cards”. He says it will not happen “for decades”. All EU member states would have a veto, he says.

  • Cameron says Turkey will not join the EU “for decades”.

Labour’s Frank Field goes next.

Q: Do you think you will be able to stay on as prime minister if the UK votes to leave the EU?

Yes, says Cameron. He tells Field to remember he won an election just last year.

Labour’s Keith Vaz goes next.

Q: There are more than 2,000 EU nations in prisons. Should we have done more to deport them? And, if we leave, will it get easier or harder to get rid of them?

Cameron agrees that the government should have done more.

But, if we leave the EU, it will get “harder” to send prisoners back.

  • Cameron says returning EU prisoners to their home countries will get “harder” if the UK votes to leave.

Q: Do you wish you had never thought up the referendum, given the damage it is doing to your party?

No, says Cameron. He says he believes in democracy. He could have avoided the risk with a referendum on Scotland. But he did not do that. And it’s the same with the EU.

Q: Do you think Project Fear tactics work?

Cameron says he does not accept that there are exaggerated stories.

Q: What about 100,000 jobs lost in the City?

Cameron says that is what the head of the stock exchange told him would happen in the event of Brexit.

Q: Is Theresa May wrong to say that, if the UK votes to leave the EU, there will be another independence referendum in Scotland?

Cameron says we are one United Kingdom, and we take decisions as one United Kingdom.

The SNP’s Pete Wishart says the Scots did not want a referendum. They did not vote for parties that proposed one. So what is Cameron’s message to Scots if the UK votes to leave?

Cameron says the opinion polls show there is very little difference in support from a referendum between Scotland and the rest of the UK. So looking at election results is not a good way of gauging support for a referendum, he says.

Q: Len McCluskely, the Unite general secretary, says the government backed down over the trade union bill to get the unions to back the pro-EU campaign. [Jenkin is referring to my colleague Rajeev Syal’s story.]

Cameron says the two issues were not related. The government needed to back down because it lost in the Lords.

Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative, goes next. He says he has given Cameron notice of this question.

Q: The government says it plans to keep its pro-EU websites up during the purdah period (the pre-election period when the government is supposed to be neutral). But I’ve been told this is against the law.

Cameron says the government will abide by the law. It will take legal advice too.

He says he accepts the need not to update a website during purdah. But he is not convinced that it is necessary to take the website down.

Jenkin says his legal advice is that leaving a notice up amounts to publication. If the government does not change its mind, there will be legal action.

Cameron jokes about needing to get back to the office then to deal with this.

  • Tory MP Bernard Jenkin says government will be taken to court if it tries to leave pro-EU websites up during the referendum purdah.

Back to the committee, and here is a highlight of the last few minutes.

Updated

The CPS say it is up to the police to decide whether or not they will go to court to apply for the time limit rules to be overturned in relation to alleged election overspending. The CPS has offered to help forces with “investigative advice” if that is needed.

To recap: under the Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1983 anyone accused of breaking election expenses law can only be prosecuted within a year of the offence being committed, unless an application it made to the courts for an extension, which is allowed under the Act.

Several police forces will be involved. The Electoral Commission is investigation serious allegations made by Channel 4 News about possible Tory overspending, relating to three byelections at the end of the last parliament (Newark, Clacton and Rochester and Strood) and contests in 29 constituencies at the general election.

Police may go to court to ensure possible prosecution of Tories over alleged election overspending can go ahead

The Crown Prosecution Service has put out a statement about today’s meeting with the Electoral Commission. (See 10.32am.) Here it is in full.

Following a constructive meeting with the police and Electoral Commission, it has been agreed that each relevant police force will consider what action to take. This may include making an application to the court under s.176 of the Representations of the People Act 1983 to extend the time allowed to bring a prosecution.

This is significant. Here’s what it means.

  • Police forces may go to court to ensure time limits don’t stop possible prosecution of the Tories for breaking election expenses laws, the CPS says.

Labour’s Meg Hillier goes next.

Q: The incompetence of your government is putting the pro-Europe case at risk. Payments for farmers have not been processed properly.

Cameron says he accepts that the government needs to manage these payments more effectively.

Cameron says Sir Bill Cash always wanted the UK to have some sort of associate membership of the EU. But that option was not available, he says.

He says Cash argued in the 1990s that the UK opt-out on the single currency would not work. But it has worked. And the Danish opt-out worked for them.

Cameron is now being questioned by Bill Cash.

Cameron says he does not want to “over-emphasis the achievement of his [EU] renegotiation”

Cameron says he does not want to “over-emphasis the achievement of his [EU] renegotiation”.

  • Cameron says he does not want to “over-emphasis the achievement of his [EU] renegotiation”.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, goes first.

Q: Were you serious when you suggested that you might recommend leaving the EU if you did not get your way in the renegotiation?

Cameron says he has never advocated leaving the EU.

Q: But if you had not got a renegotiation, would you be now advocating leaving?

Cameron says that is a hypothetical question. He never wanted the British people to have to answer that question.

Q: I’m trying to find out if you are recommending that Britain stays on the basis of the renegotiation.

Cameron says some people would want to leave whatever happened. He wants to stay in the EU on the basis of what he has renegotiated.

Q: If the choice was staying in the EU as it is now, what would you recommend?

Cameron says he is advising people to stay in the EU on the basis of what he has renegotiated.

He says it is “an additional reasons to stay”. It has addressed concerns people had real worries about.

Cameron questioned by liaison committee about EU referendum

David Cameron is about to give evidence to the Commons liaison committee (the one made up of the chairs of all Common select committees) about the EU referendum.

Farron challenges government to take at least 1,000 child refugees

Tim Farron, the leader of the Lib Dems, has also welcomed the government’s child refugee U-turn. But he says the government will have to take at least 1,000 children to make it meaningful. In a statement he said:

Since I first raised the issue with him last October, the prime minister has done everything he can to ignore the plight of unaccompanied child refugees in Europe, so I strongly welcome the announcement that we will finally be helping these vulnerable kids.

90,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Europe last year, so 3,000 is the very least Britain can do. I will do everything I can to ensure that the government meets this target.

What started as a call supported only by the Lib Dems has developed into a truly cross party campaign, and those activists up and down the country who have championed this should be proud of their efforts today.

The detail remains to be seen. Tens or hundreds simply won’t be good enough and would be a betrayal of the British public and parliament.

This is a victory, but it’s not the end of the story. The government must also ensure that local authorities are properly funded so that they can help these traumatised children rebuild their lives and achieve their full potential.

UPDATE: In his statement Farron says fewer than 1,000 refugees “won’t be good enough” but a Lib Dem spokesman says the party actually wants the government to take 3,000.

Tim Farron
Tim Farron Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Updated

Many of you are interested in the meeting between the Electoral Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service about extending legal time-limits to allow a possible prosecution in relation to the allegations about the Tories breaking rules on election spending. (See 10.32am.)

The meeting took place earlier. The commission aren’t saying anything about it, but the CPS say they are due to issue a statement later this afternoon. I’ll post it when I get it.

If you are voting tomorrow and you need information before you decide who to back, do take a look at Democratic Dashboard.

It is an online tool set up by Democratic Audit at the LSE that is intended to provide all the relevant information about candidates and past election results that you need.

Yvette Cooper, chair of Labour’s refugee task force, has described the government child refugee U-turn (see 2.13pm) as “a major change”. In a statement she said:

Now we have seen more detail on the government’s announcement, it’s clear this is a major change in principle in the space of a week and that is huge tribute to everyone who has campaigned so hard on this.

I strongly welcome this major change in principle. Now we need to make sure it turns into practice and that enough places are provided.

For the first time, the government has accepted that Britain should do its bit and help child refugees who are at risk within Europe - having refused even a week ago to countenance this. And they are accepting the Dubs amendment that the Prime Minister rejected last week.

This has only happened because of the huge strength of feeling that Britain should help children sleeping rough, at risk of harm and prostitution, meaning ministers realised they would have lost the vote. It shows that cross party campaigning can make a real difference.

However the government hasn’t said how many children will be helped and hasn’t said whether this will be close to the 3000 places we originally called for. So we will keep up the campaign to make sure it delivers in practice.

Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper Photograph: Johnny Armstead/REX/Shutterstock

Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, has told London Live TV that he will use his second preference vote in the mayoral contest to vote for the Women’s Equality party. He said:

I’m a big fan of the Women’s Equality party. I say this in a non-patronising way, I’ve got two daughters and what’s unacceptable in 2016 is your gender can define the job you can get, it can define how safe you are and can define the pay you get.

It will be a completely redundant vote - assuming his first vote is for himself, Khan’s second preference won’t come into play - but it is nevertheless a notable quasi-endorsement.

Nigel Farage is campaigning in Lincolshshire today. Apart from a few seats on Lincoln city council the only other election being held in the county is for the police and crome commissioner. There are serious fears that the turnout will be so low that Ukip could have their first PCC with control over the police force. Their candidate is a Victoria Ayling whose views on sending home all immigrants were too much even for the Daily Mail.

Save the Children has warmly welcomed the government’s announcement about child refugees. In a statement Tanya Steele, its chief executive, said:

The UK government has today matched the great leadership they have shown in providing aid and support to Syrian refugees in the region by reaching out a hand to children already on European shores. This announcement echoes Britain’s proud history of offering safety at times of great crisis and we want to thank the members of parliament who have led the way in championing this cause, as well as the British public who have opened their hearts to refugee children.

Lunchtime summary

  • David Cameron has described Labour as a party that puts “extremists over working people” during PMQs exchanges which saw him repeatedly criticise Jeremy Corbyn for once describing Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends”. Cameron quoted what Corbyn said as a backbench MP, when he said he had invited “our friends” from Hamas and Hezbollah to speak at an event. Cameron went on:

[Corbyn] referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as his friends. He needs to withdraw that remark ... Are they your friends or are they not? Because these organisations in their constitutions believe in persecuting and killing Jews. They are anti-Semitic organisations, they are racist organisations. He must stand up and say they are not his friends.

Corbyn did not explicitly retract the comment, but he told Cameron:

Obviously, anyone who commits racist acts or is anti-Semitic is not a friend of mine. I am very clear about that ... I absolutely do not approve of those organisations.

  • Cameron has said the Iraq inquiry report will come out “not too much longer” after the EU referendum on 23 June. It has always been expected to come out around then, but the government has until now never explicitly ruled out it being published before the referendum.
  • Downing Street has said Cameron has “no intention” of withdrawing his condemnation of comments by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump as “divisive, stupid and wrong”. As the Press Association reports, an adviser to Trump has said Cameron apologise to Trump, after the withdrawal of main rival Ted Cruz made him all but certain of securing the Republican nomination. Cameron criticised Trump last December, saying Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the US was “divisive, stupid and wrong”. George Papadopoulos, an adviser to Trump, said Cameron’s comments were “uncalled-for” and it would be “wise” for the prime minister to “reach out in a more positive manner” to the Republican front-runner. Asked about Papadopoulos’s comments, Cameron’s official spokeswoman said:

The prime minister has no intention of withdrawing his comments, which were made in response to comments that Donald Trump made calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US. That was the context for the PM’s comments.

  • Two more Labour councillors have been suspended over allegations of anti-Semitism, the party has said. Miqdad Al-Nuaimi, a councillor in Newport, south Wales, and Terry Kelly, who sits on Renfrewshire Council, have been suspended “pending an investigation”, a spokesman said.
  • Cameron has declined to appear before a parliamentary committee to give evidence to its inquiry into Libya, citing diary pressures. He told the foreign affairs committee that Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, has already given evidence to it on behalf of the government.
  • Cameron has revealed, in an interview with First News, the children’s newspaper, that he bans his children from playing with electronic devices on Saturday mornings. After the interview Alex Garcia-Ghuran, from Hertfordshire, said:

We learned from Mr Cameron that his children do not get to play with any electronic devices on Saturday morning and he will get upset if he catches them breaking the rule. That sounded like my dad.

Corbyn did not mean to say Labour would not lose council seats in elections, aide explains

There was some confusion after PMQs about Jeremy Corbyn’s statement on Tuesday that: “We are not going to lose seats, we are looking to gain seats where we can.”

Asked whether he really meant this, an aide to the leader said Corbyn may have been “slightly misinterpreted”, adding that “what he said was that he said he would make no predictions about the number of seats to be won or lost.”

That assertion was challenged by the Daily Mirror’s political editor, who pointed out that Corbyn had clearly said Labour was “not going to lose seats”.

Corbyn’s aide clarified that the leader said in his previous sentence and elsewhere on many occasions that he was not going to make predictions about gains and losses.

Asked whether Corbyn had misspoken, the spokesman said: “I’m telling you what he intended to say. He was saying we are not in the business of losing seats.”

No 10 says child refugees registered in Greece, Italy or France before 20 March could come to UK

Downing Street has just issued new details of the child refugee climbdown.

Child refugees who registered in Greece, Italy or France before 20 March (when the EU/Turkey migration agreement came into force) will be eligible for resettlement in the UK, it says.

Here is an extract from the news release.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will be resettled from Greece, Italy and France, in an initiative announced today following discussions between the government and Save the Children.

This initiative builds on last month’s announcement that up to 3,000 vulnerable children and family members will be resettled direct from the Middle East and North Africa.

And it adds to the resettlement of 20,000 people direct from Syrian refugee communities, which has been under way since last year.

The government has always adopted a twin-track approach to dealing with the migrant crisis: helping the most vulnerable while not encouraging new perilous crossings to Europe.

That approach will continue through this initiative, by restricting resettlement to children registered before the EU migration agreement with Turkey came into force on 20 March.

The retrospective nature of the scheme will avoid creating a perverse incentive for families to entrust their children to people traffickers.

And it will mean that the UK can focus on the most vulnerable children already in Europe without encouraging more to make the journey.

The government says it is not putting a figure on the number of children who will be accepted, but that it “will instead work with local authorities across the UK to determine how many children will be resettled”.

The first arrivals are due before the end of the year, it says.

Updated

Corbyn spokesman says Corbyn used 'friends' as 'diplomatic term of address' in meeting about peace

After PMQs a spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn said Corbyn’s use of the term “friends” to refer to Hamas and Hezbollah was about “a diplomatic term of address in a meeting about peace and reconciliation”. The spokesman went on:

He has been involved in peace and reconciliation processes all over the world, including Latin America, the Middle East, Ireland and elsewhere and he will continue to pursue dialogue in areas of conflict, as he always has done. He has been involved in various peace and reconciliation initiatives in which all the parties to the conflict have been met

Jeremy has said repeatedly that anti-Semitism in any form in society and in the Labour Party is completely unacceptable and repugnant and will be acted upon, and he has acted on it.

In the time that he’s been leader, 18 people have been suspended in relation to anti-Semitic allegations or incidents, and every single one of those has taken place within 48 hours.

I should say that getting on for half of those relate to incidents or online posts before Jeremy Corbyn was leader. He has taken more action, more quickly, than any other Labour leader or any leader of any other party.

Updated

PMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

And this is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs on Twitter.

Generally the view seems to be that it was a win for Cameron, but a messy and unpleasant one.

From the Daily Mirror’s Jason Beattie

From the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From the Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Hope

From Sky’s Adam Boulton

From the Sunday Times’s James Lyons

From the Birmingham Post’s Jonathan Walker

From the Sun’s Craig Woodhouse

From the Yorkshire Post’s Kate Proctor

From the Specator’s Isabel Hardman

From the BBC’s Norman Smith

From PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield

PMQs verdict

PMQs verdict: There is a time and place for a sensible discussion about whether or not Jeremy Corbyn is unduly sympathetic towards certain terrorists organisations, like Hamas and the IRA. It is a debate that can encompass the evils of colonialism, the willingness of governments to conduct secret negotiations with terrorist groups, Corbyn’s own personal aversion to violence, quite what he meant when he spoke about his “friends” from Hamas (he has said he uses the phrase about all groups invited to meetings he chairs, although it is hard to imagine him using it in association with, say, Ukip) and his refusal repeatedly to condemn the IRA in an interview last summer.

But PMQs is not the time and place for a sensible discussion about anything. It is a coarse and rather brutal arena in which, as Cameron once said, you are either the lion, or the Christian who gets eaten. It’s a contest to assert political authority (which, by the way, is why the complaints about it being Cameron’s job to answer questions, not ask them, are beside the point). And today, by challenging Corbyn repeatedly on extremism, Cameron easily came out on top. It wasn’t particularly pleasant to watch, but human sacrifice in the amphitheatre never was.

To his credit, Corbyn did not fold. He made an effective point about the Tory hypocrisy over Suliman Gani, and he came close to retracting the comment about his “friends” from Hamas when he said that anyone who did anything racist could not be a friend of his. But that was not enough to stop Cameron demanding a full retraction. Could have have done anything different? A full apology and withdrawal might have done the trick, but that would have involved Corbyn turning his back, or at least partially turning his back, on things he has said and believed for his entire political career, and that is not something he is able to do.

Updated

Cameron on child refugees

I normally miss Angus Robertson’s questions in the PMQs minute-by-minute, but I know from reading comments BTL that this annoys readers so a colleague has been helping out. Here are extracts from the exchanges.

This is where David Cameron announced the U-turn over child refugees and the Dubs amendment.

Angus Robertson: Last week the prime minister took issue when I raised the issue of unaccompanied syrian refugee children in Europe and the Kindertransports of the 1930s ... Why has it taken so long and a threat of a parly defeat for the PM to begin changing his mind?

David Cameron: Let’s be clear that no country has done more than Britain to help when it comes to syrian refugees. No country has raised more money, and only the United States has spent more money. But I do want us to proceed with as much support across the house as we can. I think it’s right to stick to the principal that we shouldn’t be encouraging people to make this dangerous journey. I think its right to stick to the idea we keep investing in the refugee camps and in neighbouring countries and I also think its right not to take part in the EU resettlement schemes.

Robertson came back, and in his second answer Cameron said the government would accept the Dubs amendment. He said:

I do reject the comparison with the Kindertransport, I would argue that what we’re doing primarily which is taking children from the region, vulnerable people from the camps, going to the neighbouring countries and taking people in to our country. That to me is like the Kindertransport. To say the Kindertransport is taking today children from France, Germany or Italy - safe countries that are democracies - I think that is an insult to those countries. It won’t be necessary to send the Dubs amendment back to the other place. We’re going to go round the local authorities and see what more we can do but let’s stick to the principle we should not be taking new arrivals to Europe.

Labour’s Keith Vaz, a Leicester MP who is wearing a Leicester City scarf, says Gary Lineker said he would present Match of the Day in his underway if Leicester won the championship, he thought it was so unlikely. Does Cameron agree that if you make a promise, you should keep it.

Cameron says he does agree. He notes from what Lineker says that he has not yet given a definite answer.

Greg Mulholland, a Lib Dem, asks about a war widow who lost her pension when she remarried.

Cameron says the government changed the rules so that this does not happen in future. But, like previous governments, it has taken the view that the rules should not be changed retrospectively.

John Baron, a Conservative, says the Tories must be a one nation party. Does Cameron agree if we leave the EU wages will rise.

Cameron says that if we leave the EU the economic consequences will be negative. That is what the experts say, he says.

Labour’s Graham Allen asks Cameron to help get a “what works” centre looking at tackling sexual abuse up and running.

Cameron says the Home Office is setting up a centre on preventing sexual abuse and exploitation.

Cameron announces partial climbdown on child refugees

David Cameron has said his government will not stand in the way of an amendment by Lord Dubs paving the way for the UK to take unaccompanied refugee children who have already arrived in Europe.

The prime minister gave credit to the Labour peer, who was a refugee himself as part of the kindertransport, and said that he would accept it now that it no longer included the figure of 3,000 children.

“It won’t be necessary to send the Dubs amendment back, it doesn’t mention a number of people. We are going to speak to local authorities to see what we can do,” the prime minister told MPs.

However, he said he wanted to stick to the principle that Britain would not take in new children who were arriving in Europe because he believed that it could act as a pull factor, and argued that other European countries ought to be safe places.

Updated

The SNP’s Margaret Ferrier asks what protections the goverment is seeking for the NHS in TTIP.

Cameron says this is “the reddest of red herrings”. The NHS is totally protected, he says.

Labour’s Stephen Kinnock asks what is being done to ensure that Tata is a responsible seller.

Cameron says the timetable for a sale is short. The government is working with Tata to help the sale go through.

Cameron says Chilcott report will be published 'not long after' EU referendum

David Amess, a Conservative, asks about the Chilcott report.

Cameron says he expects the Chilcott report to come “not long after” the EU referendum on 23 June.

Updated

The SNP’s Patrick Grady asks Cameron to review guidance saying it is acceptable to send asylum seekers back to Eritrea. He says it has been described as the North Korea of Africa.

Cameron says he will look at this.

Martin Vickers, a Conservative, asks about a road in his constituency where new safety work is required. Cameron says he will look at this.

The Green MP Caroline Lucas asks Cameron to define a “modal verb”.

Cameron says the whole point of these tests is to ensure that the next generation is better educated than we are.

Snap PMQs verdict

Snap PMQs verdict: A wretched 17 minutes for Corbyn. This is not the first time Cameron has attacked Corbyn’s alleged extremist sympathies at PMQs, but today the onslaught was particularly timely and pertinent. Corbyn made a reasonable fist of trying to defend himself, dissociating himself from the “friends” remark about Hamas (although not retracting it as bluntly as Cameron proposed) and pointing out, quite rightly, the hypocrisy of the Tory attacks on Suliman Gani. And the Cameron broadside was not especially fair, because there is probably no one in parliament who believes that Corbyn actually approves of Hamas rocket attacks on Israelis. But Corbyn has been more sympathetic to groups like Hamas than MPs in the political mainstream, meaning that Cameron’s comments had enough justification to give them potency. Today Cameron exploited that to the full, with brutal effect.

Corbyn says Ghani is a Conservative. And he quotes a former Tory candidate saying she was ashamed of the “repulsive campaign of hate” in Goldsmith’s campaign and would be voting Labour.

Corbyn turns to inequality, and says the government is taking away the measures that can tackle it.

Cameron says inequality is going down under this government. He says the government is investing in schools and homes. He may be a friend of the terrorist group Hamas. But he is a friend of aspiration.

Corbyn says politics is about choices. Cameron’s govenrment has cut income tax for the richest, and cut corporation tax again and again. Tomorrow people can make their choices. The Tories want to cut taxes for the rich. Labour want decent services for everyone, he says.

Cameron says Corbyn is right. Politics is about choices. People can back a party that puts extremists over working people and is incapable of providing leadership.

Cameron says Corbyn needs to stand up and say Hamas and Hezbollah are not his friends.

Corbyn says anyone who commits racist acts is not a friend of his. He says Cameron should reflect on the way Zac Goldsmith has smeared Sadiq Khan in London.

He says a Joseph Rowntree report found 1.5m are unable to afford the thing they need.

Cameron says the stronger economy means more people are in work.

He rejects what Corbyn said about Khan. We are not responsible for what people say who we share a platform with. But there is a pattern of behaviour here. Khan shared a platform with someone who trained the 7/7 attacks. And he shared a platform with someone who called for Jews to be drowned. And he then said they were just flowery words. He challenges Corbyn again to withdraw what he said about Hamas/

Corbyn says Suliman Gani, the imam that Cameron attacked Khan for sharing a platform with is a Conservative supporter. And he says Andrew Lansley said some time ago racism was endemic in the Conservative party. Cameron should set up an inquiry too.

He asks Cameron to follow the example of the Welsh Labour government in placing a responsibility to help people in a housing crisis.

Cameron says the government has built twice as much council housing as Labour. He quotes some of the views of Gani.

Jeremy Corbyn welcomes Cameron’s comment about Leicester, and asks if this means he will be supporting another team, in addition to the two he supports already.

He says preparations for anti-Holocaust day are starting in Israel. We all have a duty to oppose antisemitism, he says.

He asks about council cuts. Cameron used to say we were all in it together. What happened to that.

Cameron welcomes what Corbyn said about anti-Holocaust day, but he quotes Corbyn saying in the past it would be a pleasure to host his “friends” from Hamas in parliament.

Corbyn says he has made it clear Labour is an anti-racist party. It has established an inquiry into antisemitism. He says Cameron is referring to a meeting he hosted to try to help the peace process. His remarks do not amount to an approval of those organisation.

If social care is a priority, why has £4.5bn been cut from the adult social care budget, leaving 300,000 without the care the need.

Karl McCartney, a Conservative, asks Cameron to condemn the actions of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Cameron say the point about Hamas is important. They are a terrorist group who believe in killing Jews. He says Corbyn needs to withdraw the remark about Hamas being friends.

The SNP’s Martyn Day asks Cameron to stop air strikes in Syria, which had done nothing to bring about peace.

Cameron says we should continue to hit Daesh terrorists, but also do everything to support dialogue between the opposition and the Syrian regime.

David Cameron starts by congratulating Leicester on winning the Premier League. They have shown superb ability and a great team ethic, he says.

PMQs

PMQs is about to start.

Antisemitism row has damaged Labour's chances in Scotland, Dugdale says

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, has admitted the furore over anti-semitism within Labour after Ken Livingstone’s remarks last week has damaging the party chances in tomorrow’s Scottish parliament election.

With Scottish Labour now neck and neck with the Tories in Holyrood polling, Dugdale told the Guardian that voters were raising the controversy in the final days of the campaign. “It has unquestionably had an effect,” she said.

Insisting she was going to “keep smiling”, Dugdale added:

I’m not going to go into the business of analysing what has happened over the past few days but it is coming up on the doorsteps.

I’m going to carry on doing what I have always done in this campaign which is make a positive case for how we can use the powers of the Scottish parliament to make different choices from the Tories in Scotland.

Khan apologises for 'Uncle Toms' remark seven years ago

Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, was interviewed on LBC earlier. Here are the main points.

  • Khan apologised for using the phrase “Uncle Toms” seven years ago. As today’s Sun reports, he used the phrase in 2009, when he was a communities minister. Khan told LBC that he was using it in a self-deprecatory way, to explain the need to reach out to the wider minority ethnic community. But he accepted that using the phrase was wrong. He said:

I regret using the phrase. I do regret using the phrase and I’m sorry.

  • He said Zac Goldsmith’s campaign had been “divisive” and worse than any mainstream campaign he had seen in his lifetime.

Some of the tactics used are not the sort of tactics that I’ve seen in mainstream politics in my lifetime.

  • Khan said he was worried that Goldsmith’s campaign would deter Asians and Muslims from going into public life. He said:

During the last few weeks in particular I’ve met more and more and more Londoners, Asian origin, some of them Islamic faith, who are saying, ‘You know what, we’ve done really well in business, or accountancy, or medicine, we were thinking about our children, encouraging them to go into politics, to get involved in public life, but you know what, no, after what’s happened to you, we are not going to do that’. What I’m saying to them is, no, you must do it.

I’ve never talked about some of the racism I suffered when I was a young lawyer, or as a young politician. I’ve always talked about how easy it is. ‘If I can do it, you can do it, it’s so easy, just listen to your teachers, you can do it, join a mainstream party.’

I’m the man that celebrated when Adam Afriyie was elected in Windsor. I think that it’s great that there are parties competing for minority votes. I think Sajid [Javid] in the cabinet and Priti [Patel] is fantastic for our way of life. We’re not all the same, Asian people. We’ve got different views ...

So I’ve been disappointed. I don’t like talking about it because I don’t want people to think, ‘If that’s what Sadiq’s family went through, why should we want to be a councillor?’

  • He denied a claim that he does not want Jeremy Corbyn to attend his victory party if he wins in London.
  • He criticised Boris Johnson for giving the impression that “mayors can’t do much”. Johnson implied that the job of a mayor was just to walk on red carpets and crack a few jokes, he said.

Actually, mayors can do a huge amount. I’ve met with and studied mayors from around the world. A mayor can use the levers given to him or her by parliament, the powers, but also to use the pulpit of City Hall to persuade people to do stuff for the betterment of London.

Sadiq Khan on LBC
Sadiq Khan on LBC Photograph: LBC

The Home Office minister James Brokenshire will answer the urgent question, Laura Kuenssberg reports. It seems it won’t cover child refugees.

ITV says David Cameron is expected to announce a climbdown on unaccompanied child refugees at PMQs.

Piers Corbyn says Ken Livingstone was 'misunderstood'

Piers Corbyn, Jeremy’s brother, has defended Ken Livingstone in relation to the row about Hitler and Zionism. Jeremy suspended Livingstone from the Labour party for the comments, but Piers has told the Evening Standard that Livingstone was “misunderstood”. He told the paper:

I think Ken has been misunderstood, because he has been talking actual history which now looks incomprehensible.

We can’t understand now the context those things happened in, but there is numbers of historical documents around which seem to bear out some things that Ken has said.

But they’ve been taken out of context ...

The relationship between Nazis and the Jews, and Russia, have been complicated and there have been serious alliances, or mutual supports, or dealings which are difficult to understand now.

Piers Corbyn
Piers Corbyn Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer

There is an urgent question on the proposed changes to EU asylum rules in the Commons at 12.30pm.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg is wondering whether this will be when we get the child migrants climbdown.

Responding to government suggestions that it is going to offer a compromise over unaccompanied child refugees (see 10.07am), Yvette Cooper, chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce, said the government needed to do a “proper U-turn” on this.

Fear of losing Monday’s vote on the Dubs amendment has led to the government briefings that they are looking at this again. Now we need real action. We were promised a few weeks ago that the government would make concessions, but in the end they only re-announced the same help for refugees outside Europe. That won’t be good enough his time. We need to see real action to help child refugees who are at risk of abuse, exploitation and trafficking within Europe. So far ministers have only ever announced increased support when under serious political pressure - we will keep this up until next week’s vote.

Across the country there is strong support for Britain to do its bit to give sanctuary to vulnerable children just as we did with the Kindertransport decades ago. And Kindertransport survivors have been the strongest voices calling on us to help once more. Now we need real action and a proper u-turn from the prime minister, not just warm words.

Updated

Khan extending his lead over Goldsmith, poll suggests

LBC and ITV have released a London mayoral poll this morning showing Labour’s Sadiq Khan extending his lead over his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith. Here is an extract from the news release.

In the race for City Hall, Khan now leads Goldsmith 56% compared to 44%, when the second preferences of those voting for another candidate are taken into account. This represents an increase of two points from the previous ComRes poll for LBC and ITV News London conducted in April, suggesting that the Labour candidate is moving ahead with just one day to go before the mayoral elections.

One in five Londoners (19%) say that Zac Goldsmith’s campaign has been ‘dirty’, opposed to 8% for Khan, and a third of those questioned (32%) describe Khan’s campaign as ‘positive’ and ‘inspiring’ (16%), compared to 23% and 9% respectively for Goldsmith. However, while 45% say that Khan is ‘passionate’, 20% of Londoners think that he is ‘extreme’. In comparison, 32% think that Goldsmith is ‘passionate’ and 13% say that he is ‘extreme’.

The poll also suggests that, if Boris Johnson were the Conservative candidate, he would beat Khan by by 41% to 39%.

The Electoral Commission has got a meeting today with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service at which it will try to persuade them to apply for a court order to extend the time limit for a possible prosecution in relation to claims the Tories overspent in some constituencies during the general election. This is from the Press Association.

Tories face claims that accommodation costs of activists bussed into key constituencies around the country should have been recorded under individual candidates’ limits, rather than as part of the national campaign.

The Electoral Commission believes its ongoing probe into alleged breaches of reporting obligations will take at least another month - taking it past the one-year time limit for launching criminal proceedings.

It is meeting with police forces covering the constituencies involved and the Crown Prosecution Service to ask them to seek an extension to ensure the door is not closed.

Claims about the Conservatives’ general election spending - as well as that at three parliamentary by-elections - were first raised by Channel 4 News.

The party blames an “administrative error” for failing to register some accommodation costs.

But David Cameron insists it was right to include such expenditure as part of the national campaign rather than against the limits imposed on individual candidates.

Bob Posner, director of party and election finance and legal counsel at the Electoral Commission said: “The police and the CPS both have the power to apply to the courts to extend the time limit on bringing criminal prosecutions for electoral offences to allow for full investigations to take place. We have requested that they consider doing this.”

The commission said it did not take any view as to whether the party should be pursued under the Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1983, which regulates candidate spending.

There is more detail here, in a statement from the Electoral Commission last week.

The commission said the meeting was taking place this morning, but it would not give any more details, or so who would be attending. And it is not clear yet whether the CPS will announce today whether or not it intends to comply with the commission’s request and seek a court order to extend the time limit for prosecutions.

Osborne says government planning to announce new measures on child refugees

Yesterday it emerged that the government is considering further concessions on Britain accepting unaccompanied child refugees from Europe ahead of a vote next week which could see up to 30 Tory MPs rebelling and voting in favour of a Labour pro-refugee amendment to the immigration bill.

This morning the Conservative MP Heidi Allen, who abstained in the first vote on this (she explained why she did not vote against the government on her blog) told the Today programme that she was “100%” determined to rebel in next week’s vote and that “many” Tory MPs felt the same way.

But George Osborne, the chancellor, told the BBC this morning that discussions were still going on and that an announcement about new measures (intended to avert the revolt) would be made in due course.

Britain has always been a home to the vulnerable and we’ve always done what we need to do to help people who are fleeing persecution. That’s why we are taking people from the refugee camps as a result of this terrible Syrian civil war and we’re working with others, with charities, with other political parties, talking to people about what we can do to help the unaccompanied children as well, where we’re already providing financial support. So we are in those discussions and those discussions will go on and you will hear what we’ve got to say in due course.

George Osborne
George Osborne Photograph: BBC/BBC News

On the Today programme the Labour MP Louise Ellman, who is Jewish, welcomed the chief rabbi’s article, saying he was “quite right”. She went on:

This is a very serious problem. I think we need a great deal more education about what antisemitism is. Criticising the government of the state of Israel is absolutely legitimate. But when the world’s only Jewish state is demonised, treated in a way no other state is, when people talk about conspiracy theories, they talk about Jewish power and Jewish control, indeed applying to Zionism exactly the same untruths that are applied to Jews in straightforward antisemitism, we are moving into antisemitic territory. And that has to be understood. I don’t think it is understood at the moment.

Just as the row about antisemitism in the Labour party was starting to die down, the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has propelled it back on to the front pages with a forceful article in the Daily Telegraph. It is the first time he has commented since the Labour MP Naz Shah was suspended last week, prompting Ken Livingstone to try defending her with his bizarre ramblings about Hitler.

There are three key points in the article.

  • Mirvis suggests he is worried that the inquiry into antisemitism in the Labour party could just amount to “political posturing”. He said he welcomed Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to announce the inquiry, but he said he was worried about people saying the allegations about antisemitism in the party were not genuine, but were just a “smear”.

In recent days, we have heard anti-Semitism in the Labour Party described variously as “a smear” and as “mood music” being manipulated by political opponents of Jeremy Corbyn. There has been nothing more disheartening in this story than the suggestion that this is more about politics than about substance. The worst of mistakes, in trying to address this problem, would be to treat it as a political attack which requires a political solution.

If this inquiry turns out to be no more than a sticking plaster, designed to placate and diffuse until after the elections this week, the problem will surely get worse and not better. Jeremy Corbyn has stated that his party “will not tolerate anti-Semitism in any form,” and I very much hope that this inquiry will deliver on that pledge and be followed by decisive action. All political parties share in the responsibility to rid our society of anti-Semitism but we cannot achieve that objective with political posturing or empty promises of action never to be fulfilled.

One person making the “smear” claim has been Corbyn’s close ally Diane Abbott. She told the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “It’s a smear to say that Labour has a problem with antisemitism. It is something like a smear against ordinary party members.”

  • Mirvis argues that attacking Zionism amounts to antisemitism.

Zionism is a belief in the right to Jewish self-determination in a land that has been at the centre of the Jewish world for more than 3,000 years. One can no more separate it from Judaism than separate the City of London from Great Britain.

Open a Jewish daily prayer book used in any part of the world and Zionism will leap out at you. The innumerable references to the land of Israel are inescapable and demonstrative ...

Zionism is a movement celebrated by people right across the political spectrum, all over the world, and requires no endorsement or otherwise of the particular policies of any Israeli Government at any time.

But to those people who have nevertheless sought to redefine Zionism, who vilify and delegitimize it, I say: Be under no illusions – you are deeply insulting not only the Jewish community but countless others who instinctively reject the politics of distortion and demonisation.

And, in particular, he effectively accuses Livingstone of spreading antisemitism.

To those who so eagerly reach for a vicious Holocaust reference in order to exact the maximum amount of pain and offence upon “Zionists”, I say: You are spreading that ancient and insidious virus of anti-Semitism.

I will be posting reaction to the Mirvis article as it comes in.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11am: Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, is interviewed on LBC.

12pm: David Cameron faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

4.30pm: Cameron gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee about the EU referendum.

I will be focusing in particular on PMQs and Cameron’s appearance at the liaison committee but, as usual, I will also be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary after PMQs and another in the afternoon.

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

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

If you think there are any voices that I’m leaving out, particularly political figures or organisations giving alternative views of the stories I’m covering, do please flag them up below the line (include “Andrew” in the post). I can’t promise to include everything, but I do try to be open to as wide a range of perspectives as possible.

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