Afternoon summary
- NHS England has released figures showing that delayed discharges from hospitals are at their highest levels since monthly statistics started being collected in 2010. (See 2.59pm.)
- Aslef, the rail union, has called for Chris Grayling’s resignation as transport secretary following the release of a letter suggesting political bias may have been behind his decision to to scrap plans to transfer control of London rail services to Transport for London. (See 1.55pm and 3.26pm.) Mick Whelan, the Aslef general secretary, said:
The transport secretary said that cost was the reason for overruling the plan for Transport for London to take over suburban rail services around London. We now know that’s not true because, in a letter to London mayor Boris Johnson in April 2013, he admitted he did not want a future Labour mayor of London to run trains into and out of the capital ... If he won’t do the decent thing and resign Theresa May should sack him.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Here is a Guardian video of Michelle Thomson’s speech in the Commons today about how she was raped at the age of 14. (See 2.11pm.)
David Cameron has been watching basketball with George W Bush, he reveals on Twitter. It would be nice to think that they had a learned debate about the relative catastrophe rankings of Brexit versus the Iraq war, but one suspects that the conversation didn’t quite pan out like that ...
My second basketball game with a US President & I'm still a bit baffled by some of the rules! Congrats @SMUBasketball - great game. #PonyUp pic.twitter.com/hyyDSo2IvK
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 8, 2016
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has said today’s NHS waiting time figures (see 2.59pm) are “shocking”. He said:
These shocking figures present a bleak outlook for the coming winter months. Delayed discharges are at their highest level since 2010 and this is having a severe knock on effect on overwhelmed A&E departments.
Patients are being forced to wait too long in A&E departments, and thousands are being left stranded on trolleys waiting for beds to become available on overcrowded hospital wards.
Shamefully, the Tories failed to provide any extra investment for social care in the autumn statement last month. Patients deserve better than this, and with the busy Christmas period approaching, Labour is urging the government to take immediate action to protect our NHS.
This is what the department for transport is saying in response to the call from Conservative MP Bob Neill for Chris Grayling to resign. Neill is angry about Grayling’s decision to scrap plans to transfer control of London rail services to Transport for London and thinks a leaked letter shows Graying may have misled MPs about the reasons for his decision. (See 1.55pm.) In response, a spokesman for the department said:
The mayor’s business plan for the South Eastern franchise did not provide more frequent trains, it provided no extra capacity in peak hours, and it promised infrastructure improvements with no funding identified. These would come at a cost to Londoners or mean re-prioritising other travel schemes in the capital.
MPs and councillors had raised concerns about the mayor being given control over services for people who could not vote for the mayor.
We can deliver services improvements through partnership, without the need for a massive reorganisation and splitting the franchise.
Here is Matthew Swindells, NHS England’s national director of operations and information, on today’s waiting figures. (See 2.49pm.)
These figures suggest A&E attendances are increasing rather faster than the growth in the number of major “accidents” and medical “emergencies”, putting great strain on A&E departments.
Going into the busy winter period, it is important people remember the first port of call for minor conditions or non-emergency medical care should be the local chemist, the 111 helpline, or their GP practice.
As well as pressures at the hospital ‘front door’, this month’s figures show a 41% increase in delays in being able to discharge inpatients as a result of unavailability of social care, the highest figure ever.
Going into the holiday period, it is vital local councils, community health services and hospitals work closely to enable older patients to get the support they need after a hospital stay, back at home.
NHS England figures show delayed discharges at a record high
Today’s NHS England waiting time figures (pdf) show the health service continues to struggle, the Press Association reports.
Just 89% of patients were dealt with in A&E within four hours in October, against a target of 95%. The total number of A&E attendances was up 4% compared with the same period last year.
Other targets were also missed, including for patients to start treatment led by a consultant within 18 weeks, and cancer patients to start their first treatment within 62 days of urgent GP referral.
Delayed discharges are also the highest on record. This is when patients are medically fit to leave hospital but are unable to do so because social care packages or other care is not in place in the community.
The proportion of calls abandoned by people seeking help from the 111 helpline has also risen to 2.4% of calls in October, up from 1.5% in September.
Ambulance trusts across England also continue to miss targets for responding to life-threatening calls.
More tests to diagnose conditions were performed, although the proportion of patients waiting six weeks or more for results has risen slightly.
Updated
Michelle Thomson tells Commons of how she was raped aged 14 during debate on violence against women
MPs are holding a debate to mark UN international day for the elimination of violence against women and in her speech Michelle Thomson told of how she was raped at the age of 14. “I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor,” she said.
Describing what happened she said:
When I was 14 I was raped. As is common, it was by somebody who was known to me. He had offered to walk me home from a youth event and in those days everybody walked everywhere, it was quite common to do that.
It was early evening, it wasn’t dark. I was wearing - I’m imagining, I’m guessing - jeans and a sweatshirt.
I didn’t think anything of it [when he took her a slightly different route.] He told me he wanted to show me something in a wooded area and at that point, I must admit, I was alarmed. I did have a warning bell - but I overrode that warning bell because I knew him and therefore there was a level of trust in place.
To be honest, looking back, at that point I don’t think I knew what rape was. It was not something that was talked about.”
It was mercifully quick and I remember first of all feeling surprise, then fear, then horror as I realised I quite simply couldn’t escape - because he was stronger than me, and there was no sense even initially of any sexual desire from him, which I suppose, looking back, again I find odd.
Thomson said that she did not tell her parents and that she felt “ashamed” of what had happened.
I didn’t tell my mother, I didn’t tell my father, I didn’t tell my friends and I didn’t tell the police. I bottled it all up inside me. I hoped, briefly and appallingly, that I might be pregnant so that would force a situation to help me control it ...
I felt I was spoiled and impure and really felt revulsion towards myself. I, of course, then detached from the child up to then I had been. Although, in reality, at the age of 14 it was probably the start of my sexual awakening, at that time, remembering back, sex was something that men did to women and perhaps this incident reinforced that early belief.
She said she later told a school boyfriend who was “supportive”.
But I couldn’t make sense of my response and it is my response which gives weight to the event. I carried that guilt, anger, fear, sadness and bitterness for years.
When I got married 12 years later I felt I had a duty to tell my husband. I wanted him to understand why there was this swaddled kernel of extreme emotion at the very heart of me that I knew he could sense, but for many years I simply could not say the words without crying.
It was only in my mid-40s that I took some steps to go and get help with it.
Thomson said that although she had been happily married for 25 years, the rape had “fatally undermined” her self-esteem, confidence and sense of self-worth.
She said that she now knew rape was not about sex, but about power and control. And she questioned myths about rape perpetuated from a male perspective.
These assumptions put the woman at the heart of cause, when she should be at the heart of effect.
A rape happens when a man makes a decision to hurt someone he feels he can control. Rapes happen because of the rapist, not because of the victim.
We women and our society have to stand up for each other, we have to be courageous, we have to call things out and say where things are wrong. We have to support and nurture our sisters as we do with our sons.
She concluded:
One thing I realise now is I’m not scared and he was. I’m not scared, I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor.
At the end Bercow thanked her for her speech, saying it had “left an indelible impression on us all”.
Updated
Lunchtime summary
- The head of the British intelligence agency MI6, Alex Younger, has said that cyber-attacks, propaganda and subversion from hostile states pose a “fundamental threat” to European democracies, including the UK. As Ewen MacAskill reports, younger, in a rare speech by an MI6 chief while in office, did not specifically name Russia but left no doubt that this was the target of his remarks. Russia is being blamed for interfering in the US presidential election and there are concerns it could do the same in French and German elections next year.He did specifically name Russia in relation to Syria, portraying Russian military support for the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in the takeover of Aleppo and elsewhere as potentially creating a long-term problem that could increase radicalisation.
- Spencer Livermore, who was Labour’s general election campaign director in 2015, has accused Labour figures who favour curbs on EU migration of promoting a “dangerous fantasy”. Livermore did not name any individuals in his article for Progress Online, but his article came out after Andy Burnham gave a speech in the Commons yesterday claiming that the Labour party’s failure to grasp the need for migration controls was putting people at risk. (See 9.13am.) Livermore said that staying in the single market should take precedence over ending free movement for EU workers. He said:
During the referendum campaign, the Labour party made it clear that simultaneously having cake and eating it was merely another Boris Johnson fantasy. Yet now, I regret to say, there are leading figures in our own party who are willing to collude in this fantasy. People who should – and I suspect do – know better, have become complicit in creating a fiction that our economy can remain within the single market, while at the same time cutting immigration and ending freedom of movement.
This is an extremely dangerous fantasy, and at some point in the next two years, this collective denial will collide with reality. As every European leader has made clear, this is not a deal that will ever be on offer. There will be no United Kingdom membership of the single market without freedom of movement. So as a nation we will have to make a stark choice: do we end freedom of movement or do we stay in the single market ...
Of course beating Ukip is a priority, but we need to ask whether conceding the argument that immigration is the underlying cause of every problem facing voters in Labour constituencies will in the end hurt or help Ukip – the party with the biggest lead on this issue.
It should be clear what would actually happen if we followed this path. Out of the single market, the British people will be poorer. But we will have left the EU, and freedom of movement will have been ended, so the Tory Government and a ferociously partisan tabloid media – desperate to avoid responsibility themselves – will need to find someone else to blame for the nation’s economic malaise.
- An MP has moved colleagues to tears after revealing she was raped at 14, telling the Commons: “I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor.” Michelle Thomson, MP for Edinburgh West, who sits as an independent after being suspended by the SNP, shared her personal story during a Commons debate focused on UN international day for the elimination of violence against women. I will post extracts from her speech on a new post shortly.
- Bob Neill, the Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst and chair of the Commons justice committee, has called for Chris Grayling’s resignation as transport secretary. Neill is angry about Grayling’s decision to scrap plans to transfer control of London rail services to Transport for London and, in an article for PoliticsHome, he says that a letter revealing Grayling was opposed to giving these powers to a Labour mayor suggests Grayling “misled” MPs when he explained his decision to MPs.
- Labour MPs have criticised Conservative party HQ for using Twitter to attack specific Labour colleagues, with tweet claiming the fact that they did not back the government last night meant they were refusing to respect the referendum result. As PoliticsHome reports, at least one of those targeted did not vote because he was abroad, and Labour have pointed out that Theresa May did not vote in the division either.
- The UK parliament can change the laws of Scotland regarding Brexit - but not the UK government using royal prerogative powers, Scotland’s most senior law officer has told the supreme court. As the Press Association reports, Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC argued that an act of parliament was required to trigger article 50 of the Lisbon treaty to start the two-year process of withdrawing from the EU. And he said the Scottish parliament was also entitled to a voice on the issue, which involved the serious loss of EU rights for Scottish people. There is more on our supreme court live blog.
Downing Street has released pictures of Theresa May’s Christmas cards. All three pictures have been drawn by children from her constituency.
Some people will get this one.
Perhaps if you are more important you will get this one, because it is signed.
And then there is this one, which is also unsigned on the inside.
The Lib Dems are also accusing Boris Johnson of hypocrisy over Saudi Arabia. This is from Tom Brake, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman.
For once Boris Johnson is talking sense, but his comments on Saudi’s questionable role in Middle Eastern politics are completely at odds with official government policy.
This will be a huge embarrassment to May as she returns from her grubby tour of the Gulf, where she did her best to ignore human rights and desperately push trade at all costs.
The Conservative government rightly condemned Fidel Castro for his human rights record, but have fallen completely silent when it comes to the appalling record of countries they have been cosying up to in the Middle East.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
Labour accuses Boris Johnson of 'shabby hypocrisy' over Saudi Arabia
And here’s Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, commenting on Boris Johnson’s Saudi intervention. She is accusing him of “shabby hypocrisy”.
For months, Labour has been arguing that what last year began as a UN-backed attempt to restore the government of Yemen has now descended into a brutal and indiscriminate proxy war, and a desperate humanitarian crisis, with the lives of hundreds of thousands of children at risk.
That argument has consistently been rejected by Boris Johnson in the House of Commons, but now these remarks in Italy have shown us what he really thinks.
If that is his genuine view, he needs to explain why he ordered his MPs to vote against Labour’s calls in October to suspend support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, until a lasting ceasefire has been brokered and until alleged violations of international humanitarian law have been properly investigated.
The government cannot complain about Saudi Arabia’s military actions one minute, then continue selling it the arms to prosecute those actions the next. We need to see some consistent principle in the UK’s foreign policy, not more shabby hypocrisy.
Here is the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Boris Johnson and Number 10.
No 10 says Boris Johnson's comments on Saudi Arabia are 'not the government's position' - ouch
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) December 8, 2016
Govt taking an unusual view of collective repsonsibility these days when views of senior ministers are not No 10's views v soon after...
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) December 8, 2016
EU Diplomat asked me recently, 'what should we tell our govt when they ask if we should listen to Boris?' ...a fair question
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) December 8, 2016
No 10 slaps down Boris Johnson, saying his Saudia Arabia comments not government policy
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been slapped down by Downing Street over his claim, reported in today’s Guardian splash, that Saudi Arabia has been “playing proxy wars” in the Middle East, the Press Association reports.
Theresa May’s official spokeswoman said the prime minister had “full confidence” in Johnson but told reporters that his comments at a conference in Italy were his own personal view and did not reflect government policy.
And she pointedly noted that Johnson will have the opportunity to set out official policy - of Britain’s desire to strengthen its ties with Saudi Arabia and support for its military involvement in Yemen - when he travels to the desert kingdom for talks on Sunday.
May spoke with King Salman during her visit to the Persian Gulf this week, when he was able to hear the PM assure him of “her commitment and that of her government to enhancing and strengthening this relationship”, said the spokeswoman.
Updated
I’ve been banging on this morning about how hard it is for journalists to get Theresa May to say anything revealing. Before Christmas we will find out if the Commons liaison committee can do any better. May is going to take questions from it for the first time on Tuesday 20 December, the final day the Commons is sitting before the holiday recess. The committee will ask her about Brexit and health spending. The committee chair Andrew Tyrie is probably about the sharpest interrogator in Westminster (well, after the BBC’s Andrew Neil) and the session will certainly be worth watching.
Updated
The Spectator may have had to work hard to get a line from their Theresa May interview (see 10.15am), but the Christmas issue also has a notebook by George Osborne, and the former chancellor is a lot better at knowing how to say something interesting. Here are three lines that stood out.
- Osborne reveals that he predicted Donald Trump would win the US presidential election in the summer.
I had a £50 bet with [fellow Tory MP Sir Simon Burns] in the summer that Hillary would lose to Trump. I saw too many similarities with the Brexit campaign.
- He says politicians should only send Christmas cards to people they know.
One thing I won’t miss about No. 11 Downing Street are the Christmas cards: 2,056 Christmas cards to be exact. That was the number I had to sign every year. The recipients included 87 FTSE chief executives, 209 foreign dignitaries, six EU commissioners and one shadow chancellor. They all added up, and it involved several days of signing, and sore wrists. Every chancellor, prime minister and opposition leader I’ve known does the same. Judging by the thousands of cards I would receive, many must go unread. So I propose to my successors a Christmas truce. Only send cards to people you actually know. Give the money you save to a good charity and use your time more productively to, for example, run the country.
- He says political memoirs are often boring.
I didn’t want to write a political memoir — I’m not a huge fan of them because, by their very nature, they are backward-looking and can tip into self-justification. Too many of them are just boring. I’m not that interested in what I said to Nick Clegg or Boris Johnson in 2013, and I don’t see why anyone else should be.
But he is writing a book about populist nationalism, he says.
It’s to be called The Age of Unreason, and it will be my attempt to understand why populist nationalism is on the rise in our western democracies — and how those of us who believe in free markets and open societies can respond.
Home affairs committee launches immigration inquiry in hope of reaching national consensus
Yvette Cooper is an optimistic woman. She’s hoping to establish a national consensus on immigration.
She set out her ambition in a speech this morning (pdf) in which she announced details of the home affairs committee’s new inquiry into immigration. She recently took over as chair of the committee and the speech suggests that she wants to redefine what an inquiry of this kind can achieve. Committee inquiries are often specific and government-focused but it sounds like Cooper would like this one to function like a mini royal commission.
Here are the key points from her speech.
- Cooper said that immigration was “probably the most divisive issue we now face as a country” and that the public needed to reach a consensus on it.
- She suggested that reaching a consensus was possible.
What if five years down the line we end up with less integration or more skills shortages or higher public concern and everyone just shouting at each other as a result?
What if division grows? Won’t we look back and wish we had at least tried to have a sensible debate.
In the end I still believe that most people in Britain want to find solutions not just shout about problems, that most people are ready to consider and compromise and that there is already more consensus than people think. That is what this inquiry is designed to find out.
- She said that her starting point was that immigration was valuable, but that it needed to be controlled, and that people had lost confidence in the current system.
Immigration is really important for Britain – for our economy and society, and it has always been so throughout our history.
But it needs to be controlled and managed so the system is fair and so that it can command public support and confidence.
Right now that doesn’t happen. Public concern has steadily grown and it has consistently been one of the issues of highest concern over the last ten years.
- She said that, even though the desire to control immigration was an important factor in people voting to leave the EU, there was no consensus as to what people wanted.
On both sides of the referendum debate there are a wide range of views. Even among those who led the campaign to leave the EU there are different views on immigration policy – some called for a points based system, some want to stop immigration altogether, some support free movement.
- She said the Brexit negotiations would require a trade-off between immigration demands and trade demand. Britain needed to compromise, she said.
- She said that worrying about immigration was not racist.
Just because some people exploit the issue in a way that is totally wrong, doesn’t mean the rest of us should be silent from talking about it or ignore the problem. It isn’t racist to worry about immigration. We have to make sure we have a sensible debate.
- She said the committee’s inquiry would involve not just taking evidence from experts, but trying to establish what people want, through mechanisms like public meetings, debates and citizens’ juries.
The full terms of reference of the inquiry, and details about how to submit evidence, are on the committee’s website.
Updated
Universities warned that Brexit poses “major challenges” to the UK’s higher education system, with concerns about recruitment of overseas students, the immigration status of staff and access to international funding and academic networks, the Press Association reports.
The concerns are outlined in submissions made by universities across the country to an inquiry by the House of Commons education committee into the impact on the sector of the referendum vote to withdraw from the European Union.
University College London warned that Brexit created a “heightened reputational risk for UK education as a whole”, while Cambridge University’s submission warned of a “significant risk” to research in the UK.
But the Universities UK organisation, which represents the sector, said that with the right support from government, universities will be able to “thrive” outside the EU.
“Leaving the European Union poses some major challenges for the UK higher education system, in relation to the recruitment of talented students and staff from across Europe and beyond, future access to invaluable EU networks and funding and international opportunities for UK students and staff,” warned UUK.
This morning MP Eilidh Whiteford is launching a private members calling on the UK government to ratify the Istanbul convention, an international treaty aimed at combating violence against women and domestic violence, that that Westminster initially signed up to in 2012. The SNP MP says:
We’ve been waiting over 4 and a half years for the UK government to ratify the Istanbul convention. It is no longer a valid excuse to say there is not enough parliamentary time to take forward the necessary changes to domestic legislation.
Her bill is intended to set out a clear timetable to bring forward the required legislation.
Women’s Aid federations across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have already written an open letter to all MPs asking them to attend Whiteford’s debate on the Istanbul Convention on the 16 December.
As they point out, this is the first international treaty to establishing a legally-binding definition of violence against women as “a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women”. It is also the most comprehensive international treaty to tackle violence against women, requesting states to criminalise forms of violence against women.
In addition, it requires states to support women and girls by protecting access to specialist domestic abuse services – such as those run by Women’s Aid members all over the UK. It’s thus a hugely valuable tool for holding governments to account, for example over refuge space and funding for helplines, at a time when specialist services are under threat.
Last week, the Scottish government’s communities secretary Angela Constance called on the UK government to act over convention, writing to home secretary Amber Rudd asking for a “clear timetable” for ratification.
The launch of Whiteford’s bill comes as more than 60 MPs, led by Labour’s Seema Malhotra, have written to Theresa May asking that the government immediately ratify the convention. Later today, MPs will debate a Commons motion to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women and girls.
Theresa May has been giving some pre-Christmas interviews and two are out this morning. They are worth reading, although they both suggest that as an interviewee she is quite hard work.
James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson interviewed her for the Spectator. My colleague Peter Walker has written up the main line here.
And George Parker and Lionel Barber interviewed her for the FT (subscription). The FT seems not to have even tried getting a hard news story out of what she said, but the Press Association has managed to squeeze a line out of it. Here is the start of the PA story.
Theresa May has played down suggestions that German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds the key to the kind of Brexit Britain can expect to get.
As leader of the European Union’s most populous and economically powerful country, Merkel is widely viewed as the strongest influence on the EU’s approach to Brexit and her comments are scrutinised closely for clues to her attitude.
Brexiteers argue that she will want a liberal trade regime to preserve one of Germany’s largest export markets for luxury products like cars, while others warn that Berlin’s priority will be to send a signal to other EU states that quitting the 28-nation bloc has consequences.
She said on Wednesday that the UK would not be allowed to “cherry pick” from the four freedoms - including freedom of movement - required as a condition of single market membership.
Speaking to the Financial Times, May insisted it was important to deal with all 27 of the other EU states and not simply focus on Germany.
She acknowledged that the two-year negotiation - which MPs voted on Wednesday should be triggered by the end of March - will not be “easy” and acknowledged that the remaining EU countries do not want to see a repeat of the June 23 Leave vote in other member states.
Discussing the role of Merkel - who faces a re-election battle in the autumn of 2017 - in the Brexit process, Mrs May said: “I think it’s also important to build a relationship with others sitting around the European table. There are 27 member states which will be negotiating.”
Attorney general plays down prospect of early move to bring in a British bill of rights.
In the Commons Jeremy Wright, the attorney general, is taking questions.
He says he does not think human rights protections in the UK are dependent on EU law.
Peter Bone, a Conservative, asks if the government is still committed to bringing in a British bill of human rights.
Wright says the government is still committed to reforming human rights law. But it has “a few other things on its plate at the moment”, he says.
- Wright plays down prospect of early move to bring in a British bill of rights.
And here is the list of the 23 Labour MPs who defied the whip and voted against the Labour and Conservative whips in the first vote, the one approving the amendment for article 50 to be triggered by the end of March.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow); Graham Allen (Nottingham North); Ben Bradshaw (Exeter); Ann Coffey (Stockport); Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark); Stella Creasy (Walthamstow); Geraint Davies (Swansea West); Jim Dowd (Lewisham West and Penge); Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside); Chris Evans (Islwyn); Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme); Mike Gapes (Ilford South); Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood); Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch); Peter Kyle (Hove); David Lammy (Tottenham); Chris Leslie (Nottingham East); Ian Murray (Edinburgh South); Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield); Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn); Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge); Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) and Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge).
How MPs voted in the main Brexit vote
The full voting figures for last night are available on Hansard. But MPs are not listed by party.
There were two votes, both of which was passed by majorities of more than 300. The first was on the government amendment, saying article 50 should be triggered by the end of March, and the second was on the Labour motion calling for the publication of a Brexit plan, including the article 50 amendment.
Here, from the Press Association, is a full list of MPs who voted for the motion, as amended (ie, in the second vote) by party.
Conservative MPs voting in favour
The 289 Conservatives who voted in favour were: Nigel Adams (Selby & Ainsty), Adam Afriyie (Windsor), Peter Aldous (Waveney), Heidi Allen (Cambridgeshire South), Sir David Amess (Southend West), Stuart Andrew (Pudsey), Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne), Edward Argar (Charnwood), Victoria Atkins (Louth & Horncastle), Richard Bacon (Norfolk South), Steven Baker (Wycombe), Harriett Baldwin (Worcestershire West), Stephen Barclay (Cambridgeshire North East), John Baron (Basildon & Billericay), Guto Bebb (Aberconwy), Henry Bellingham (Norfolk North West), Richard Benyon (Newbury), Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley), Jake Berry (Rossendale & Darwen), Andrew Bingham (High Peak), Bob Blackman (Harrow East), Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West & Abingdon), Crispin Blunt (Reigate), Peter Bone (Wellingborough), Victoria Borwick (Kensington), Peter Bottomley (Worthing West), Graham Brady (Altrincham & Sale West), Julian Brazier (Canterbury), Andrew Bridgen (Leicestershire North West), Steve Brine (Winchester), James Brokenshire (Old Bexley & Sidcup), Fiona Bruce (Congleton), Robert Buckland (Swindon South), Conor Burns (Bournemouth West), Simon Burns (Chelmsford), David Burrowes (Enfield Southgate), Alistair Burt (Bedfordshire North East), Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan), Neil Carmichael (Stroud), James Cartlidge (Suffolk South), Bill Cash (Stone), Maria Caulfield (Lewes), Alex Chalk (Cheltenham), Christopher Chope (Christchurch), Jo Churchill (Bury St Edmunds), Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells), James Cleverly (Braintree), Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswolds, The), Therese Coffey (Suffolk Coastal), Damian Collins (Folkestone & Hythe), Oliver Colvile (Plymouth Sutton & Devonport), Alberto Costa (Leicestershire South), Robert Courts (Witney) Geoffrey Cox (Devon West & Torridge), Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire), Tracey Crouch (Chatham & Aylesford), Byron Davies (Gower), Chris Davies (Brecon & Radnorshire), David Davies (Monmouth), Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire), James Davies (Vale of Clwyd), Mims Davies (Eastleigh), Philip Davies (Shipley), David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden), Caroline Dinenage (Gosport), Michelle Donelan (Chippenham), Nadine Dorries (Bedfordshire Mid), Stephen Double (St Austell & Newquay), Oliver Dowden (Hertsmere), Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock), Richard Drax (Dorset South), Flick Drummond (Portsmouth South), James Duddridge (Rochford & Southend East), Alan Duncan (Rutland & Melton), Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford & Woodford Green), Philip Dunne (Ludlow), Michael Ellis (Northampton North), Jane Ellison (Battersea), Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East), Charlie Elphicke (Dover), George Eustice (Camborne & Redruth), Graham Evans (Weaver Vale), Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley), David Evennett (Bexleyheath & Crayford), Michael Fabricant (Lichfield), Michael Fallon (Sevenoaks), Suella Fernandes (Fareham), Mark Field (Cities of London & Westminster), Kevin Foster (Torbay), Mark Francois (Rayleigh & Wickford), Lucy Frazer (Cambridgeshire South East), George Freeman (Norfolk Mid), Mike Freer (Finchley & Golders Green), Richard Fuller (Bedford), Marcus Fysh (Yeovil), Roger Gale (Thanet North), Edward Garnier (Harborough), Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest), David Gauke (Hertfordshire South West), Nus Ghani (Wealden), Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis & Littlehampton), John Glen (Salisbury), Robert Goodwill (Scarborough & Whitby), Michael Gove (Surrey Heath), Richard Graham (Gloucester), Helen Grant (Maidstone & The Weald), James Gray (Wiltshire North), Chris Grayling (Epsom & Ewell), Chris Green (Bolton West), Damian Green (Ashford), Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield), Andrew Griffiths (Burton), Ben Gummer (Ipswich), Sam Gyimah (Surrey East), Robert Halfon (Harlow), Luke Hall (Thornbury & Yate), Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon), Matthew Hancock (Suffolk West), Greg Hands (Chelsea & Fulham), Mark Harper (Forest of Dean), Richard Harrington (Watford), Rebecca Harris (Castle Point), Simon Hart (Carmarthen West & Pembrokeshire South), Sir Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden), John Hayes (South Holland & The Deepings), Sir Oliver Heald (Hertfordshire North East), James Heappey (Wells), Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry), Peter Heaton-Jones (Devon North), Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne & Sheppey), Simon Hoare (Dorset North), George Hollingbery (Meon Valley), Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk & Malton), Philip Hollobone (Kettering), Kris Hopkins (Keighley), Gerald Howarth (Aldershot), John Howell (Henley), Nigel Huddleston (Worcestershire Mid), Nick Hurd (Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner), Stewart Jackson (Peterborough), Margot James (Stourbridge), Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove), Ranil Jayawardena (Hampshire North East), Bernard Jenkin (Harwich & Essex North), Andrea Jenkyns (Morley & Outwood), Robert Jenrick (Newark), Boris Johnson (Uxbridge & Ruislip South), Joseph Johnson (Orpington), Andrew Jones (Harrogate & Knaresborough), David Jones (Clwyd West), Marcus Jones (Nuneaton), Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury & Atcham), Seema Kennedy (South Ribble), Simon Kirby (Brighton Kemptown), Greg Knight (Yorkshire East), Julian Knight (Solihull), Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne), Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North), Pauline Latham (Derbyshire Mid), Andrea Leadsom (Northamptonshire South), Phillip Lee (Bracknell), Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough), Oliver Letwin (Dorset West), Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth), Julian Lewis (New Forest East), Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater & Somerset West), David Lidington (Aylesbury), Peter Lilley (Hitchin & Harpenden), Jack Lopresti (Filton & Bradley Stoke), Jonathan Lord (Woking), Karen Lumley (Redditch), Jason McCartney (Colne Valley), Karl McCartney (Lincoln), Craig Mackinlay (Thanet South), David Mackintosh (Northampton South), Patrick McLoughlin (Derbyshire Dales), Stephen McPartland (Stevenage), Alan Mak (Havant), Kit Malthouse (Hampshire North West), Scott Mann (Cornwall North), Tania Mathias (Twickenham), Paul Maynard (Blackpool North & Cleveleys), Mark Menzies (Fylde), Johnny Mercer (Plymouth Moor View), Huw Merriman (Bexhill & Battle), Stephen Metcalfe (Basildon South & Thurrock East), Maria Miller (Basingstoke), Amanda Milling (Cannock Chase), Nigel Mills (Amber Valley), Anne Milton (Guildford), Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield), Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North), Nicky Morgan (Loughborough), David Morris (Morecambe & Lunesdale), James Morris (Halesowen & Rowley Regis), Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills), David Mowat (Warrington South), David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale), Sheryll Murray (Cornwall South East), Dr Andrew Murrison (Wiltshire South West), Bob Neill (Bromley & Chislehurst), Sarah Newton (Truro & Falmouth), Caroline Nokes (Romsey & Southampton North), Jesse Norman (Hereford & Herefordshire South), David Nuttall (Bury North), Matthew Offord (Hendon), Guy Opperman (Hexham), George Osborne (Tatton), Priti Patel (Witham), Owen Paterson (Shropshire North), Mark Pawsey (Rugby), Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead), John Penrose (Weston-Super-Mare), Andrew Percy (Brigg & Goole), Claire Perry (Devizes), Chris Philp (Croydon South), Eric Pickles (Brentwood & Ongar), Christopher Pincher (Tamworth), Daniel Poulter (Suffolk Central & Ipswich North), Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane), Victoria Prentis (Banbury), Mark Pritchard (Wrekin, The), Tom Pursglove (Corby), Jeremy Quin (Horsham), Dominic Raab (Esher & Walton), John Redwood (Wokingham), Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury), Mary Robinson (Cheadle), Andrew Rosindell (Romford), Amber Rudd (Hastings & Rye), David Rutley (Macclesfield), Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury), Paul Scully (Sutton & Cheam), Andrew Selous (Bedfordshire South West), Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield), Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet & Rothwell), Keith Simpson (Broadland), Chris Skidmore (Kingswood), Henry Smith (Crawley), Julian Smith (Skipton & Ripon), Royston Smith (Southampton Itchen), Nicholas Soames (Sussex Mid), Amanda Solloway (Derby North), Anna Soubry (Broxtowe), Mark Spencer (Sherwood), Andrew Stephenson (Pendle), Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South), Rory Stewart (Penrith & The Border), Mel Stride (Devon Central), Graham Stuart (Beverley & Holderness), Julian Sturdy (York Outer), Rishi Sunak (Richmond (Yorks), Desmond Swayne (New Forest West), Hugo Swire (Devon East), Robert Syms (Poole), Derek Thomas (St Ives), Maggie Throup (Erewash), Edward Timpson (Crewe & Nantwich), Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester & Strood), Justin Tomlinson (Swindon North), Michael Tomlinson (Dorset Mid & Poole North), Craig Tracey (Warwickshire North), Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed), Elizabeth Truss (Norfolk South West), Thomas Tugendhat (Tonbridge & Malling), Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight), Ed Vaizey (Wantage), Shailesh Vara (Cambridgeshire North West), Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes), Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet), Charles Walker (Broxbourne), Robin Walker (Worcester), Ben Wallace (Wyre & Preston North), David Warburton (Somerton & Frome), Matt Warman (Boston & Skegness), James Wharton (Stockton South), Helen Whately (Faversham & Kent Mid), Heather Wheeler (Derbyshire South), Chris White (Warwick & Leamington), Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley), John Whittingdale (Maldon), Craig Williams (Cardiff North), Gavin Williamson (Staffordshire South), Rob Wilson (Reading East), Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes), Mike Wood (Dudley South), William Wragg (Hazel Grove), Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth & Southam), Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon).
Labour MPs voting in favour
The 149 Labour MPs who backed the motion were: Diane Abbott (Hackney North & Stoke Newington), Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East & Saddleworth), Graham Allen (Nottingham North), David Anderson (Blaydon), Jon Ashworth (Leicester South), Ian Austin (Dudley North), Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West), Kevin Barron (Rother Valley), Margaret Beckett (Derby South), Hilary Benn (Leeds Central), Clive Betts (Sheffield South East), Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central), Tracy Brabin (Batley and Spen), Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West), Nick Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East), Chris Bryant (Rhondda), Richard Burgon (Leeds East), Andy Burnham (Leigh), Dawn Butler (Brent Central), Alan Campbell (Tynemouth), Sarah Champion (Rotherham), Jenny Chapman (Darlington), Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley), Julie Cooper (Burnley), Rosie Cooper (Lancashire West), Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract & Castleford), Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North), David Crausby (Bolton North East), Jon Cruddas (Dagenham & Rainham), John Cryer (Leyton & Wanstead), Judith Cummins (Bradford South), Jim Cunningham (Coventry South), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Gloria De Piero (Ashfield), Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West), Peter Dowd (Bootle), Jack Dromey (Birmingham Erdington), Michael Dugher (Barnsley East), Angela Eagle (Wallasey), Maria Eagle (Garston & Halewood), Clive Efford (Eltham), Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central), Chris Elmore (Ogmore), Bill Esterson (Sefton Central), Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar & Limehouse), Rob Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South), Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East), Caroline Flint (Don Valley), Paul Flynn (Newport West), Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield), Gill Furniss (Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough), Barry Gardiner (Brent North), Mary Glindon (Tyneside North), Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland), Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South), Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West), Nia Griffith (Llanelli), Louise Haigh (Sheffield Heeley), Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East), David Hanson (Delyn), Harriet Harman (Camberwell & Peckham), Carolyn Harris (Swansea East), Sue Hayman (Workington), John Healey (Wentworth & Dearne), Mark Hendrick (Preston), Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow), Sharon Hodgson (Washington & Sunderland West), Kate Hollern (Blackburn), Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North), George Howarth (Knowsley), Rupa Huq (Ealing Central & Acton), Imran Hussain (Bradford East), Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central), Alan Johnson (Hull West & Hessle), Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney), Kevan Jones (Durham North), Barbara Keeley (Worsley & Eccles South), Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon), Ian Lavery (Wansbeck), Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields), Clive Lewis (Norwich South), Ivan Lewis (Bury South), Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford & Eccles), Ian Lucas (Wrexham), Steve McCabe (Birmingham Selly Oak), Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East), John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington), Conor McGinn (St Helens North), Liz McInnes (Heywood & Middleton), Jim McMahon (Oldham West & Royton), Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port & Neston), Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham Perry Barr), Seema Malhotra (Feltham & Heston), John Mann (Bassetlaw), Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West), Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South), Rachael Maskell (York Central), Chris Matheson (Chester, City of), Alan Meale (Mansfield), Ian Mearns (Gateshead), Ed Miliband (Doncaster North), Jessica Morden (Newport East), Ian Murray (Edinburgh South), Lisa Nandy (Wigan), Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central), Kate Osamor (Edmonton), Albert Owen (Ynys Mon), Teresa Pearce (Erith & Thamesmead), Matthew Pennycook (Greenwich & Woolwich), Toby Perkins (Chesterfield), Jess Phillips (Birmingham Yardley), Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East), Angela Rayner (Ashton Under Lyne), Jamie Reed (Copeland), Steve Reed (Croydon North), Christina Rees (Neath), Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West), Steve Rotheram (Liverpool Walton), Joan Ryan (Enfield North), Naseem Shah (Bradford West), Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall), Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury), Gavin Shuker (Luton South), Dennis Skinner (Bolsover), Ruth Smeeth (Stoke-on-Trent North), Andrew Smith (Oxford East), Cat Smith (Lancaster & Fleetwood), Karin Smyth (Bristol South), Keir Starmer (Holborn & St Pancras), Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central), Graham Stringer (Blackley & Broughton), Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston), Mark Tami (Alyn & Deeside), Gareth Thomas (Harrow West), Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen), Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury), Jon Trickett (Hemsworth), Anna Turley (Redcar), Karl Turner (Hull East), Derek Twigg (Halton), Stephen Twigg (Liverpool West Derby), Chuka Umunna (Streatham), Keith Vaz (Leicester East), Valerie Vaz (Walsall South), Tom Watson (West Bromwich East), Alan Whitehead (Southampton Test), David Winnick (Walsall North), Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central), Iain Wright (Hartlepool).
Other MPs voting in favour
There seven Democratic Unionist Party MPs who backed the motion. They were: Gregory Campbell (Londonderry East), Nigel Dodds (Belfast North), Jeffrey Donaldson (Lagan Valley), Ian Paisley (Antrim North), Jim Shannon (Strangford), David Simpson (Upper Bann), Sammy Wilson (Antrim East).
UK Independence Party MP Douglas Carswell (Clacton), the Ulster Unionist Party’s Danny Kinahan (Antrim South) and Independent Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) also backed the motion.
And the two tellers for the motion (who backed it, but did not vote because they were tellers) were Labour MPs Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) and Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe).
MPs voting against
One Conservative MP, Ken Clarke (Rushcliffe), voted against the motion.
The nine Labour MPs who voted against the motion were: Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green & Bow), Ben Bradshaw (Exeter), Jim Dowd (Lewisham West & Penge), Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme), Mike Gapes (Ilford South), David Lammy (Tottenham), Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead & Kilburn), Catherine West (Hornsey & Wood Green), Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge).
The five Liberal Democrats who opposed it were: Alistair Carmichael (Orkney & Shetland), Nick Clegg (Sheffield Hallam), Tim Farron (Westmorland & Lonsdale), Sarah Olney (Richmond Park), Mark Williams (Ceredigion).
The three Plaid Cymru MPs who voted against it were: Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr), Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd), Hywel Williams (Arfon).
There were 51 SNP MPs who voted against the motion. They were: Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil & Perthshire South), Hannah Bardell (Livingston), Mhairi Black (Paisley & Renfrewshire South), Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber), Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North), Phil Boswell (Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill), Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North & Leith), Alan Brown (Kilmarnock & Loudoun), Dr Lisa Cameron (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow), Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and Fife West), Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West), Ronnie Cowan (Inverclyde), Angela Crawley (Lanark & Hamilton East), Martyn Day (Linlithgow & Falkirk East), Martin Docherty (Dunbartonshire West), Stuart Donaldson (Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine), Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen & Hamilton West), Stephen Gethins (Fife North East), Patricia Gibson (Ayrshire North & Arran), Patrick Grady (Glasgow North), Peter Grant (Glenrothes), Neil Gray (Airdrie & Shotts), Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey), Stewart Hosie (Dundee East), George Kerevan (East Lothian), Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk), Chris Law (Dundee West), Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South), Stuart McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East), Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East), John McNally (Falkirk), Angus MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar), Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West), Dr Paul Monaghan (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross), Roger Mullin (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath), Gavin Newlands (Paisley & Renfrewshire North), John Nicolson (Dunbartonshire East), Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute), Kirsten Oswald (Renfrewshire East), Steven Paterson (Stirling), Angus Robertson (Moray), Alex Salmond (Gordon), Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East), Christopher Stephens (Glasgow South West), Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central), Owen Thompson (Midlothian), Mike Weir (Angus), Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan), Dr Philippa Whitford (Ayrshire Central), Corri Wilson (Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock), Pete Wishart (Perth & Perthshire North).
Independent MPs Natalie McGarry (Glasgow East) and Michelle Thomson (Edinburgh West) also opposed the motion along with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion) and three from the Social Democratic and Labour Party - Mark Durkan (Foyle), Dr Alasdair McDonnell (Belfast South) and Margaret Ritchie (Down South).
And the two tellers for the noes were SNP MP Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw) and Liberal Democrat Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington).
Yesterday’s vote in the House of Commons was a landmark moment in the Brexit process and all the coverage in today’s papers reflects that. But it meant that some of the speeches got overlooked, in particular an important one from Andy Burnham.
Burnham, who was shadow home secretary before leaving the shadow cabinet to become Labour’s candidate for mayor of Greater Manchester, has in the past expressed doubts about the impact of allowing EU migrants unlimited access to the UK. But in the debate he went further, saying that the EU referendum result showed that the status quo was unsustainable and that the left had failed to accept the need for migration reform.
The left across Europe has got to break out of its paralysis on this issue. The fear of being labelled as “pandering” stops people entering the debate, but it also stops progressive ideas that meet the public’s concerns and leaves the pitch clear for those with right-wing solutions.
I want to set out two principal reasons why there is a legitimate left-wing case for reform. First, in an era of increasing globalisation, free movement has arguably been providing greater benefit to large companies than it has to the most deprived communities. There is nothing socialist about a system of open borders that allows multinationals to treat people as commodities and to move them around Europe to drive down labour costs and create a race to the bottom.
Secondly, there is a strong case for saying that the immigration system that has developed over time in this country is inherently discriminatory—it does not treat all migrants equally. Instead, it accords a preferential status to migrants from our nearest neighbours in the context of a policy that seeks to cap numbers. That, therefore, discriminates against those non-EU migrants who seek to come here and who have families here.
Burnham even claimed that the Labour party’s failure to grasp the need for migration controls was putting people at risk. He told MPs:
It is time for many of us on this side of the House to confront a hard truth: our reluctance in confronting this debate is undermining the cohesion of our communities and the safety of our streets. I am no longer prepared to be complicit in that. We need answers to the public’s concerns, but answers that are based on hope, not hate.
His comments are particularly topical because this morning the Commons home affairs committee is launching an inquiry intended to trigger a national debate about migration. Yvette Cooper, the committee’s chair, said in a statement released this morning:
Immigration is one of the most important issues facing our country and will be central to the Brexit deal. Britain voted for change, especially on free movement, but there has been very little debate about what kind of reforms or immigration control that should now mean or how we get the best deal for the country.
Successive governments have failed on immigration and public concern has grown. Yet too often the polarised nature of the debate makes it hard to get consensus over what should be done instead. If there is no consensus behind the most important parts of the Brexit deal in the end it will unravel.
That is why our cross party committee will be holding a different kind of inquiry – looking outward at the country not inward at the government. Instead of just taking evidence in Westminster, we will be travelling round every region and nation, holding public meetings, bringing local people together for debates and discussions, citizens juries, and online consultations. We are encouraging other organisations to run events and debates too – community groups, business organisations, faith groups, think tanks, local councils, MPs, media organisations. We want to hear people’s views both about immigration and about how they believe that common ground can be found to stop this issue dividing the country.
I will be covering more from her press conference later.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Jeremy Wright, the attorney general, takes questions in the Commons.
9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly hospital waiting time figures.
9.30am: The Office for National Statistics publishes domestic abuse figures.
10am: Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, holds a press conference to announce details of her committee’s new immigration inquiry.
And in Sleaford and North Hykeham people are voting in the byelection. The Conservatives are expected to hold the seat easily.
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 plan to 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.
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.
