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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs - Politics live

May and Corbyn clash over Brexit and Trump at PMQs

Afternoon summary

This U-turn comes just 24 hours after David Davis seemed to rule out a white paper, and failed to answer repeated questions from MPs on all sides of the House. The prime minister now needs to confirm that this white paper will be published in time to inform the Article 50 process, and that it will clear up the inconsistencies, gaps and risks outlined in her speech.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said white paper should be published before the article 50 bill’s committee stage.

  • Downing Street has said Theresa May is committed to increasing support for the fight against dementia. Speaking after David Cameron announced that he was becoming president of Alzheimer’s Research UK and that he would be campaigning for proper funding for dementia research, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said:

We are committed to taking forward the plans that have been already set out for increased support for helping people with dementia and tackling this vital issue.

  • Michael Gove, the former justice secretary, has urged the government to push on with plans for US-style problem-solving courts to reduce the number of people sent to prison. Speaking in a Labour debate on prisons, and addressing the justice secretary Liz Truss, Gove said:

One of the things I would like to see, and I know you are looking at it, is building on the experience of problem-solving courts. Those charged with sentencing offenders have the option, of course, of custody, but can also say to the offender concerned that if they commit to undertake either an appropriate course of mental health care, or they commit to dealing with their drug or alcohol addiction, or if they commit to dealing with their behaviour in a meaningful way, then they have the option of dealing with their sentence out of court.

In her speech Truss said that from April prison governors would get new freedoms to run jails as they want. Currently they can not even choose what size bath mats they order, she said:

From April, prison governors will be given new freedoms to drive forward the reforms I’ve been talking about. Cut free from Whitehall micro-management, they will have control over budgets, over education, over staffing structures, and they will be able to set their own prison regime.

At the moment we have a whole plethora of prison rules, including how big prisoners’ bath mats can be - and surely that is not the way to treat people who want to be leaders of some of our great institutions?

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

One unlikely group that has welcomed the supreme court’s exclusion of the devolved assemblies from the article 50/Brexit triggering vote are the hardline Irish republican dissidents opposed to peace and power sharing in Northern Ireland.

Republican Sinn Fein - the political allies of the Continuity IRA - said today that the supreme court judges’ decision to give no room for the regional parliaments in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff to have a say was proof that real state power over Northern Ireland remained in London’s hands.

Des Dalton, the president of Republican Sinn Fein, which broke away from the mainstream Sinn Fein party way back in 1986, said of that part of the supreme court ruling:

Firstly, it underlines the powerlessness of the various devolved assemblies. What this ruling reinforces is that all powers of national sovereignty are vested in the British imperial parliament at Westminster while the six-county state is regarded as merely another region of the so-called United Kingdom.

Secondly, the British supreme court ruling exposes the British government’s supposed concern for that the “will of the majority within Northern Ireland” be upheld as subservient to the interests of the imperial parliament at Westminster.

In the Scottish Parliament Willie Rennie, the Lib Dem MSP, asks if SNP MPs would support a Lib Dem attempt to try to amend the article 50 bill to require a referendum on the final Brexit deal.

Russell says the Lib Dems have refused to say that, if such a second referendum were to take place, Scotland would stay in the EU if the rest of the UK voted to leave. He says the Lib Dem proposal has no chance of getting through the Commons. He is happy to talk to the Lib Dems, he says, but he says it is more important for the SNP to go with the flow, by which he means to focus on amendments they might win.

Russell is still speaking.

He says this is also about what kind of country we want.

Do we want the country to be taken in a rightwing direction? Or do we want Scotland to decide its own future?

Michael Russell is making his statement now.

He says the Scottish government welcomes the supreme court judgment.

SNPs will try to amend the article 50 bill when it comes to the Commons, he says. And he says one amendment will be for the joint ministerial committee (the committee comprising ministers from the UK government and from the devolved bodies) to have to approve the triggering of article 50.

He says the Scottish government is “disappointed” about what the judgment said about the legal enforceability of the Sewel convention. (See 10.51am.)

This shows that writing the Sewel convention into law did not achieve what it was meant to. So it is a defeat for the Tory architects of that move, he says.

He quotes tweets from the Times columnist Kenny Farquharson showing the judgment showed the weakness of the home rule settlement.

Russell says the judgment could undermine a convention that has applied for 20 years.

The Sewel convention will be engaged by a law that changes the competencies of the Scottish parliament.

So, when the article 50 bill is published, the Scottish government will publish a memorandum saying whether it approves. And it will say that it does not support the UK legislation.

He says the Westminster government is not listening to the devolved bodies.

Theresa May announced her Brexit plan before the Welsh government had even published its Brexit plan, he says.

He says the Scottish government has done all it can to reach compromise with the UK government.

There is a mandate for taking England and Wales out of the EU. But not Scotland, he says.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected the third paragraph. Russell said one amendment that SNP would table would be for the joint ministerial committee to have to approve triggering article 50. The original paragraph said the Scottish parliament instead of the JMC.

Updated

Scottish Brexit minister Michael Russell's statement in the Scottish parliament

Michael Russell, the Scottish Brexit minister, will be making a statement about the supreme court judgment shortly.

You can watch it here.

PMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs.

The consensus is that Theresa May won.

From the New Statesman’s Anoosh Chakelian

From Sky’s Adam Boulton

From the Daily Mirror’s Ben Glaze

From the Daily Mirror’s Keir Mudie

From the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman

From the Guardian’s Rafael Behr

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From ITV’s Libby Wiener

From the Sun’s Lynn Davidson

The Times’ Sam Coates points out that, applying Daily Mail logic, Theresa May is now plotting to thwart Brexit.

During PMQs Jeremy Corbyn mistakenly said that the police office who was shot in Northern Ireland at the weekend had died. Afterwards his spokesman said that Corbyn had meant to say that the police officer had “nearly died” and that Corbyn had not intended to cause offence.

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland is angered by what he said.

Corbyn mistakenly offers condolences to family of ‘dead’ Northern Irish police officer

Updated

My colleague Anushka Asthana is speaking about PMQs now on the Guardian’s Facebook Live page.

PMQs - Verdict

PMQs - Verdict: PMQs is not contested on a level playing field. The prime minister has various advantages, one of which is that she, or he, can use the platform to make an announcement that will flummox the leader of the opposition. That’s what Theresa May did today, and it worked.

Her decision to announce a white paper on Brexit did not come as a huge surprise, because anyone who listened to David Davis’s Commons statement yesterday will have concluded that the government would end up being forced into publishing one anyway. But it was odd to see May offer up this up so quickly. Governments often need to be able to dangle concessions to the opposition and to rebel MPs as legislation is going through parliament, and May has just given away something that might have averted defeat at report stage on the article 50 bill. And all that will happen now is that Keir Starmer, Alex Salmond and Anna Soubry will start dreaming up the next demand around which remain-minded MPs can coalesce.

But it was not just the white paper announcement that handed May a win. Corbyn asked four questions about Brexit, and two about May’s visit to Trump, but none of them did any damage. It is not enough to ask about an issue on which the prime minister’s politics might be unappealing; the leader of the opposition has to be able to show that that’s the case. Angus Robertson gave a good example of how this can be done with his question highlighting how an UK/US trade deal could end up lowering food standards in Britain (see 12.51pm), a question to which May couldn’t provide an adequate answer.

Instead Corbyn focused his energy on banging away about May wanting to turn the UK into a “bargain basement” economy. This is clearly a potentially fruitful line of attack. The implications of May’s threat to turn the UK into a low-tax, deregulated economy are very serious, as this quote, for example, makes very clear.

And May’s threat (something she says she will do if the EU does not offer the UK a good Brexit deal) is impossible to square with her “Red Tory” statism. But Corbyn did not expose these problems forensically, and instead he seems over-reliant on a soundbite that strikes me as ineffective. Corbyn is using “bargain basement” to refer to a low-pay, low-standards economy, but a colleague points out that people like bargains. Is anyone aware of how this phrase plays out in focus groups? If so, please post something below the line. I’d love to know.

Updated

As usual, I missed the questions from Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster because I was writing up the snap verdict. But here they are.

Robertson asked about Theresa May’s visit to America.

In the spirit of progress for parliament, in advance of meeting President Trump, will the prime minister tell parliament what she wants to achieve in a UK-US trade deal?

May says she wants a trade deal.

What we want to achieve ... it’s very simple, we want to achieve an arrangement that ensures the interests of the UK are there, are put first and that we see trade arrangements with the US, as we will be looking for with other parts of our world, that will increase our trade, bring prosperity and delivers for every part of the UK.

Robertson then asked how any trade deal might work given the differences in standards between the UK and the US in areas like food standards and access to health services. He asked:

Will the prime minister tell President Trump that she is not prepared to lower our food and safety standards or to open health systems for privatisation, or does she believe this is a price worth paying for a UK-US trade deal?

May said the government would put British interests first.

I can assure the RHG that in doing that we will put UK interests and UK values first.

I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, rises to a lot of cheering. “It brings back memories,” he says. He says May carries great responsibility in being the first foreign leader to meet President Trump. Will she urge him to stick to the Paris climate change agreement? And, if he does not believe in climate change, will she offer him some British scientists.

May says the government hopes all parties to the Paris climate change treaty will ensure it is put into practice.

The Conservative Maggie Throup asks if May will order a review of social care in Derbyshire.

May says successful social care is not just about funding. It is also about what happens on the ground. This issue has been ducked by governments for too long. The government wants a sustainable solution.

The DUP’s Nigel Dodds wishes a full recovery to the policeman shot in his constituency. Will May stop the one-sided persecution of police officers and soldiers in Northern Ireland who contributed so much to peace.

May says the majority of people killed were killed by terrorist activity. That is why the Northern Ireland secretary is looking at a legacy investigation.

David Burrowes, a Conservative, asks if May backs a united Cyprus free from Turkish troops.

May says she is hopeful that that talks will reach a solution. Britain will play its part to make the talks a success, she says.

May says the work and pensions secretary is looking at what can be done to get more disabled people into the workplace.

May says she hopes the fate of EU nationals living in the UK, and of Britons living on the continent, will be decided “very early” in the Brexit negotiations. She wants their rights guaranteed, she says.

The SNP’s Ian Blackford asks how many MPs have lodged petitions on behalf of women penalised by the rise in the state pension age.

May says the number of petitions received is a matter for parliament. But the government has taken steps to address this issue, she says.

May says she was very pleased to take the cabinet to Daresbury on Monday.

Labour’s Pat McFadden asks what would happen if parliament votes down the government’s Brexit deal. Would there be another one? Or would the UK leave the EU on WTO terms?

May say she expects to get a good deal. If parliament does not accept it, then “we do have to fall back on other arrangements”.

The Conservative Sir Gerald Howarth asks if May will support an independent Ukraine.

May says she will.

Labour’s Chris Bryant asks if the Duke of Westminster will continue to receive £407,000 when the UK leaves the common agricultural policy. And will other dukes still get similar amounts.

May says the government will decide what system what works best for the country.

Oliver Dowden, a Conservative, asks if May will support making assaulting an NHS worker a specific offence.

May says the health secretary will look at this.

The SNP’s Patrick Grady asks if May supports the principle in the Scotland Act that whatever is not reserved is devolved. So will Scotland get powers coming back from Brussels.

May says she will discuss this with the devolved administrations. No powers currently with the Scottish parliament will be taken back.

May says it is sad that Labour councils cannot back plans to promote growth.

The SNP’s Peter Grant asks about the detention fast-track system used for asylum seekers. This was recently found to be illegal.

May says she looked at this when she was home secretary. A number of changes were made. But the scheme is built on a simple principle: if someone’s asylum application seems very likely to be turned down, the government wants to know it will be able to deport them.

Labour’s Kelvin Hopkins asks if May will support a plan to provide a large-gauge rail line for rail freight. This would allow more foreign trains to come to the UK.

May says the government will continue to encourage the carrying of freight by rail.

Iain Stewart, a Conservative, asks about Milton Keynes, where is is MP. It is its 50th birthday, he says.

May congratulates the town on its birthday. It shows what you can achieve with a clear plan and strong local leadership.

Asked by the Conservative Andrew Tyrie if she will tell President Trump she will not accept the use of torture, May says that the government does not support the use of torture and that that will continue to be the case.

Snap PMQs verdict

Snap PMQs verdict: That was probably May’s best PMQs since her debut. She used a classic ambush at the start to wrongfoot Corbyn (her surprise announcement in response to the previous question about publishing a white paper on Brexit) and after that she prevailed in all six questions. Corbyn, to his credit, responded to the fact that his most obvious line of attack had vanished reasonably well, but after that his questions on Brexit failed to hit home, and May successfully deployed a Sadiq Khan quote to quash his claims about her wanting to rip up workers’s rights. Towards the end Corbyn switched to Trump, but he could not successfully stand up the charge that May is offering Trump a “blank cheque” (perhaps she will, but Corbyn did not say anything that made the case). His challenge to May to condemn Trump’s misogyny was a good one, but even that did not work because May had a plausible response.

Updated

Corbyn says the threats to rights are visible every day. He asks if May will congratulate those who marched against Trump on Saturday. And will May express concerns about his misogyny. Will May offer up parts of our public services to the US in a trade deal.

May says this government has introduced the national living wage and changes rules on zero-hours contracts. She is pleased she is meeting Trump early. That is a sign of the special relationship. But she is not afraid to speak frankly to the US president. She can do so because of that special relationship.

Corbyn asks how May will get a special deal from a US president who wants to buy American and build a wall. He accuses her of offering a “blank cheque” to President Trump and criticises her again for proposing to turn the UK into a bargain basement.

May says Corbyn cannot even agree with John McDonnell about Brexit. McDonnell does not agree with the Keir Starmer, Starmer does not agree with Diane Abbott, and Abbott has to ring up Corbyn to tell him to change his mind.

Corbyn says the chief executive of Nissan is now saying he will have to re-evaluate his investment plans. May is threatening to turn the UK into a bargain basement country. Will May rule this out?

May says she expects to get a good deal. But she is also clear that she will not sign up to a bad deal. She says Corbyn should listen to Sadiq Khan who today said he does not think the government wants to weaken workers’ rights. As usual with Labour, the right hand is not talking to the far left.

Corbyn says the evidence of what the Tory party really thinks was there for all to see yesterday, a 10-minute rule bill that would have torn up workers’ rights. He asks what May’s priority is. Social care? Education? Or further tax cuts for business.

May says she has been clear she will protect workers’ rights. That is one of her objectives. If Corbyn asks about threats to public services, the real threat is a Labour government borrowing £500bn.

Jeremy Corbyn says May has given in to pressure from all sides. When will the white paper come? And why has it taken so long?

May says Corbyn wanted debates, and there have been debates. He asked for votes, and the Commons is getting votes. He asked for a plan, and she offered one. He asked for a white paper, and May has given him one. Corbyn asks about process. May is focused on outcomes, and getting the right result.

Corbyn says his question was not complicated. Will the white paper come out at the same time as the bill? Last week he asked if the government would pay for tariff-free access to the single market. She did not reply. So can she answer now.

May says there are two separate issues. There will be an article 50 bill. There is then the question of publishing the plan. That will be in the white paper. One objective is the best possible trade arrangement. She will negotiate for that.

May announces government will publish a white paper on Brexit

Chris Philp, a Conservative, says May published a plan for Brexit. Does May agree that the best way to set out what the government will do would be to publish a white paper.

May says parliament will get every opportunity to scutinise the government’s plan. She recognises there is an appetite for a white paper. There will be one, she says.

  • May announces government will publish a white paper on Brexit.

Labour’s Helen Jones asks why the prime minister is introducing cuts that threaten maintained nursery schools. They are the best drivers of social mobility, she says.

May says she wants to improve the number of good school places. As chairman of an educational authority in the 1990s, she introduced nursery places for every parent who wanted one.

Theresa May starts by welcoming the Burmese Speaker. She also offers her sympathy to the police officer shot in Northern Ireland.

Later this week she will go to the US for talks with President Trump, she says.

John Bercow, the Speaker, starts by saying the Speaker of the Burmese parliament is watching from the gallery.

This is from the Times’ Patrick Kidd.

PMQs

PMQs is starting soon.

As the BBC reports, in his Good Morning Scotland interview Michael Russell, the Scottish Brexit minister, also accused London of not listening to Edinburgh on this topic. He said:

What we need to do is get the best possible settlement for Scotland which means continuing membership of the single market at least through EFTA and EEA membership which is available and which our paper [Scottish government Brexit plan] deals with.

There are opportunities to have our voice heard, but is anybody listening? Because if nobody is listening then this is a pointless process.

So far the evidence is is that they are not listening if you take the single market example, Theresa May went and announced her decision on that without consultation, without even consultation with the committee set up to negotiate the common position on article 50. That is disrespectable but it actually means there is no point in having a discussion.

Scotland's Brexit minister accuses UK government of not telling truth about Holyrood's powers

Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s Brexit minister, will be making a statement on the article 50 judgment in the Scottish parliament this afternoon. In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland he said that the Scottish government’s negotiations with London over Brexit were “getting harder by the day” and that the supreme court ruling had made things worse.

It has got a little worse, because the UK government has asserted constantly that they put the Sewel convention into legislation, and that this was a guarantee of consultation, and now we consider, to be blunt with you, they weren’t telling the truth. And it is very difficult to negotiate with people who aren’t telling you the truth.

The Sewel convention says that, if the UK government wants to pass a law on something that is the responsibility of the Scottish parliament, it should get the Scottish parliament’s agreement (or “legislative consent”, in the jargon). It was adopted as a convention when the Scottish parliament was set up but the Scotland Act 2016 (giving the Scottish parliament new powers) put this on a statutory footing, in a move that was seen as giving the convention proper legal clout.

But yesterday in its judgment (pdf) the supreme court ruled that the convention did not mean that the UK government would have to get legislative consent from Scotland for triggering article 50. The UK government argued in the appeal that the Scotland Act 2016 did not mean the convention had legal force. The court said:

As [the advocate general for Scotland - the UK government’s chief adviser on Scottish law] submitted, by such provisions [in the Scotland Act], the UK parliament is not seeking to convert the Sewel convention into a rule which can be interpreted, let alone enforced, by the courts; rather, it is recognising the convention for what it is, namely a political convention, and is effectively declaring that it is a permanent feature of the relevant devolution settlement. That follows from the nature of the content, and is acknowledged by the words (“it is recognised” and “will not normally”), of the relevant subsection. We would have expected UK parliament to have used other words if it were seeking to convert a convention into a legal rule justiciable by the courts.

The supreme court in its conclusion accepted the UK government’s argument.

The lord advocate and the counsel general for Wales were correct to acknowledge that the Scottish parliament and the Welsh assembly did not have a legal veto on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union ...

In reaching this conclusion we do not underestimate the importance of constitutional conventions, some of which play a fundamental role in the operation of our constitution. The Sewel convention has an important role in facilitating harmonious relationships between the UK Parliament and the devolved legislatures. But the policing of its scope and the manner of its operation does not lie within the constitutional remit of the judiciary, which is to protect the rule of law.

That is why Russell feels that the Scottish parliament has been misled by Westminster. We will hear more on this this afternoon.

Michael Russell, Scotland’s Brexit minister.
Michael Russell, Scotland’s Brexit minister. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Gerard Coyne, who is challenging Len McCluskey for the leadership of the Unite union, will today seek to make Donald Trump an election issue.

Last week McCluskey, who is a prominent Jeremy Corbyn supporter, described the election of Trump as “a real rejection of establishment politics, a real rejection of a political elite by people who have been left behind”.

McCluskey also said that he was worried about Trump, and that he deplored some of the things that he had said, but he argued that workers had to “wait and see what [Trump’s] approach will be” and that, given the uncertainty, having an experienced leader would be in the best interests of Unite members.

Today, on a visit to Gatwick, Coyne will argue that McCluskey should be condemning Trump more strongly. According to a news release from his campaign he will say:

Last week, Len said that Donald Trump’s election was a ‘real rejection of establishment politics, a real rejection of a political elite.’ I completely disagree. His election has put more billionaires into government than ever before, and he used his inauguration for anti-worker policies.

Trump is about to embark on an era in which profitability increasingly takes precedence over the health and safety of the workforce. If that happens, we must not allow the contagion to spread across the Atlantic to the UK. That is what Len should be warning about.

The leadership election is important for Labour because of Unite’s power in the party over donations and over votes at conference and on committees. Coyne is not a Corbynite and thinks McCluskey has got too involved in Labour leadership matters.

Cameron becomes president of Alzheimer's Research UK

David Cameron has announced that he has got a new job. The Times, which breaks the story, describes it as “his first important political intervention since leaving Downing Street”, which might be stretching it a bit, but it is certainly noteworthy. He’s becoming president of the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK.

In an article for the Times (paywall) he says that when he was prime minister he made this a priority (he launched a dementia challenge in 2012 to improve awareness and organised a dementia summit a year later) and he says he wants to ensure that dementia research gets proper funding. He says:

Cancer research and stroke research deserve all their funding — but dementia shouldn’t be so far behind. After all, dementia remains one of our greatest health challenges, which leads to the third battle: winning continued support for scientific research that must be properly funded and promoted. Britain is in a great place to do this. Today, more scientists are working on dementia and there has been a renewed determination to catalyse world-class research.

And this leads to the final battle: ensuring we work internationally to demonstrate that this is a global challenge that we will only beat by working together.

David Cameron.
David Cameron. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

MPs are still pondering what comes next after yesterday’s landmark supreme court ruling on article 50 and there is particular focus on what the Labour party will do. With most Labour MPs voting remain in the referendum, but 70% of them representing constituencies that voted leave, the party is in something of a quandary and the leadership has had to settle for a compromise; it won’t block Brexit, but it will try to use the amendments to the article 50 bill to shape the way it happens.

But last night Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, put a particularly colourful interpretation on this. Speaking on Newsnight, she said Labour would be willing to engage in “hand-to-hand combat” as the bill goes through parliament to try to influence it. (She was speaking metaphorically, obviously; the party is not bringing back Eric Joyce.) Thornberry said:

Article 50, if it is going to be triggered, we will not get in the way of it, but we will try and amend the legislation in order to ensure that they keep coming back, that we keep an eye on them. And, if necessary, there will be hand-to-hand combat on this.

I will post more on article 50 as the day goes on.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: The Commons education committee takes evidence from various specialists on the impact of Brexit on higher education.

9.15am: Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s chief minister, gives evidence to the Brexit committee.

12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

After 2pm: Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s Brexit minister, gives a statement to the Scottish parliament on the article 50 judgment.

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

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

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.

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