Afternoon summary
- Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that he was not negotiating Brexit during what he described as a “useful” meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. Before the meeting took place Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, claimed the meeting was an “clearly an attempt to undermine negotiations after [Corbyn] promised to vote down May’s deal”. (See 5.39pm.)
- Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has warned the EU that the UK will “not keep coming back” to the negotiating table with more Brexit proposals. Speaking to Sky News, he said that Theresa May had already put forward “sensible proposals” and said the time was now for engagement from the EU. He said:
We cannot have a situation in the negotiation between a sovereign power like Britain and one of the biggest countries in the EU and the EU where every time we come up with a proposal, instead of engaging with that proposal they simply say, ‘I’m sorry that doesn’t work come back with something else’.
Negotiations require two parties to engage seriously, that hasn’t been happening and Britain is not going to keep coming back with more.
We have put on the table some practical proposals, which mean that we can honour the spirit and letter of the referendum and reassure businesses that they can have the frictionless trade that they want. They’re sensible proposals, we now need some engagement from the EU.
As my colleague Patrick Wintour reports, Hunt also said having another Brexit referendum would fuel cynicism.
Jeremy Hunt FCO said "The trouble with 2nd ref. is what we would be saying is 'you told us to do something, that's proved a bit tricky and can you think again ?' That is not how we do things in Britain. I do not think it would lead to social stability & it would fuel cynicism".
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) September 27, 2018
- Brexiters have been left “flabbergasted” by the EU’s refusal to back down in divorce talks because the UK has never understood that the single market is seen as vital to the political, as well as economic, stability of the continent, according to the European commission’s vice-president. As Patrick Wintour reports, Frans Timmermans also expressed the hope that the UK might yet change its mind on Brexit now it “has seen the facts”. There had been no intention to humiliate Theresa May at the recent Salzburg summit, he said.But he added that the British prime minister had no reason to be surprised by the EU negotiating stance since “she had been told time and time again” by the chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, that her Chequers proposals were unacceptable.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
This is from the BBC’s Adam Fleming.
Probably the most striking thing about @jeremycorbyn's trip to Brussels was the huge interest in him from the foreign media. They couldn't get enough Corbs today! https://t.co/QQHIrl1vm8
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) September 27, 2018
Corbyn says he was not negotiating Brexit during 'useful' meeting with Barnier
Jeremy Corbyn has finished briefing journalists following the meeting that he and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, had with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. The Press Association has filed the best quotes, and here are the key quotes.
- Corbyn said he was not negotiating with Barnier, just setting out Labour’s position. Explaining what happened at the meeting, he said:
We’ve had an interesting, useful discussion with Mr Barnier. We have set out the views of the Labour party surrounding Brexit following the conference speeches made by Keir Starmer and myself.
We are obviously not negotiating. We are not in government, we are the opposition. But he was interested to know what our views are and the six tests we have laid down by which we will hold our government in future.
- He said Barnier did not express a view as to whether he preferred Labour’s Brexit stance to Theresa May’s. When asked if Barnier said the Labour vision of Brexit was acceptable to him, Corbyn replied:
[Barnier] made no opinion on this. It’s not a negotiation, it’s us informing him of what our views are and he telling us what the state of play was on the negotiations.
Asked if Barnier gave any indication that Labour’s plan would be easier to implement than the Chequers plan, Mr Corbyn replied:
He didn’t offer and we didn’t ask him for opinions on that because that would be going over the line. What we did was set out our views and then he set out in broad terms what the progress is and what the timetable is.
- He did not rule out delaying article 50. Asked if this would be necessary if there were an election or a second referendum, Corbyn said:
Obviously it would depend when the election is, what the scenario would be. We would want to maintain the relationship with Europe around the six tests.
- He would not say who called the meeting, but said that he had met Barnier on a number of occasions and that they had an “informal arrangement” to try to meet whenever they were in Brussels at the same time.
This is from the BBC’s Adam Fleming.
The meeting between @jeremycorbyn and @MichelBarnier has finished. The Labour leader didn't ask Mr Barnier whether he found @UKLabour's #Brexit proposal of a customs union + keeping EU regulations acceptable.
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) September 27, 2018
Jeremy Corbyn is being questioned by journalists about now, the Independent’s Jon Stone reports.
Corbyn in the press scrum outside the European Commission in Brussels pic.twitter.com/ZolqlGeBDd
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 27, 2018
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has tweeted this about his meeting this afternoon with Jeremy Corbyn.
Meeting w/@jeremycorbyn and his team today. Continuing to listen to all views on #Brexit and to explain EU positions, which aim for the UK’s orderly withdrawal and to build an ambitious future partnership together.
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) September 27, 2018
Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor, thinks Barnier’s motives may not be as innocent as he claims.
Butter wouldn't melt... https://t.co/wXWKCGSwUf
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) September 27, 2018
Given that Theresa May’s negotiating credibility depends on what she can get through parliament, anything Barnier picks up about Labour’s positioning could have a bearing on what the EU decides to offer.
Voters trust 'Labour' more than 'Corbyn' on key election issues, poll suggests
We’ve got some new Guardian/ICM polling. It’s mostly about key issues facing Britain, and which of the two main parties, and leaders, are trusted most to do the best job.
The polling was carried out last weekend, as the Labour conference was just starting, and so the results give a snapshot of where the parties and leaders stood at the end of the summer. Party conferences do have an effect on poll ratings, particularly in the short term, and so if there was another poll this weekend, or next weekend, the results might be a bit different. But these figures give a good insight into what has, and has not, changed over the last six months.
- Labour is seen as the most trusted party on six of the 10 issues featured in the poll. They are (in order of their lead): improving public services; the NHS; making Britain fairer; pensioners; eduction and the environment. The Tories are ahead on four, which are (in order of their lead): immigration; security; the economy and Brexit. This list includes the issue currently seen by voters as the most important one facing the country (Brexit) and the one that is conventionally seen as crucial to electoral success (the economy).
We last asked this question in February. As ICM’s Alex Turk says, there has not been much change since then, but in areas where there has been change, mostly the Conservatives have been gaining. He says:
While there have not been large shifts in the perceptions of the parties, we can see that compared to February, Labour have a reduced lead over the Conservatives in pretty much all key policy areas. The only exception is on negotiating a good Brexit deal for the UK, were Labour now lag behind the Conservatives by 10 percentage points, rather than 13.
The biggest change since February has been on the NHS. In February Labour had a 23-point lead in this area, but now that is down to 15 points - presumably because Theresa May’s decision to announce a longterm spending boost for the NHS has registered.
- The Conservative lead over Labour as the best part to handle Brexit has fallen over the summer, the poll suggests. But the Labour lead over the Tories on the NHS has reduced more sharply over the same period.
Here is a graphic with the details.
And here is a chart with the numbers.
- Jeremy Corbyn is ahead of Theresa May on the same six issues, when the question about who is trusted most is framed in terms of leaders, not parties, but generally Corbyn does not perform as well against May as Labour does against the Tories. We last asked this question in July. Since then May has been improving her standing compared to Corbyn in seven out of the 10 areas, although generally not by much. The biggest change has been in ‘making Britain fairer’, where Corbyn’s lead has dropped from 11 points to seven.
Here is a graphic with the details.
And here is a chart with the numbers.
- Voters trust Labour more than Corbyn on key election issues, the poll suggests. Having Conservative v Labour, as well as May v Corbyn data, allows us to work out whether each side does best when issues are framed in terms of party, or in terms of leader. And, despite the enthusiasm that Corbyn inspires amongst activists, these figures suggest that amongst voters as a whole Corbyn is not an electoral asset. He is not a big liability, but the party’s appeal is stronger.
This chart shows, on each of the 10 issues, whether May and Corbyn are more trusted, or less trusted, than their party. For example, on Brexit, 31% trust the Tories (v Labour) but 30% trust May (v Corbyn), giving May a net score of -1. May outperforms her party on three issues (improving public services, security and making Britain fairer), scores the same on three issues, and comes behind on four. Corbyn matches his party on just one issue (the environment), and underperforms his party on all nine others. He is most behind on improving public services, where 42% trust Labour, and 37% trust him, giving him a net score of -5.
This may seem perverse; Corbyn has campaigned much more on public services than May. But the Labour party as a whole is seen as being very strong on public services, and Corbyn can’t quite match that. May outperforms her party on this because, for the Tories as a whole, it’s a weak spot.
These findings may help to explain why Corbyn does not feature very prominently in Labour’s new, and widely admired, campaign video. See 4.21pm.
We also asked our regular voting intention question. The results are probably a bit out of date, because Labour conference may have shifted views a bit, but here they are anyway.
Conservatives: 41% (down 1 compared to ICM two weeks before)
Labour: 40% (up 1)
Lib Dems: 9% (up 1)
Ukip: 4% (no change)
Greens: 3% (no change)
The tables will go up later on the ICM website. I will post an update here with the link when they are available.
ICM Unlimited interviewed a representative online sample of 2,006 adults aged 18+, between 21 and 24 September 2018. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
UPDATE: Here are the tables (pdf).
Updated
Treasury minister says Tories should learn from Labour's 'very good' campaign videos
Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has said the Conservatives risk losing the next general election because, she said, some Tories underestimate how slick Labour’s campaigning machine has become.
Speaking at an event organised by the centre right think tank Reform Scotland on Thursday, Truss said the Tories had to prove to voters they had turned the economy around, warning:
It’s not about attacking the opposition: oppositions don’t win elections; governments lose them.
Truss had been asked by a Tory student called Daniel whether she had seen Labour’s latest party political broadcast. He said the PPB was based in a northern English town and “was, sadly, a fantastic piece of film”.
EXCLUSIVE: Check out our new TV broadcast, Our Town 👇 pic.twitter.com/v1eA76SpL3
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) September 26, 2018
It focused on questions such as “regeneration, renewal, ‘we’ve been left behind’, ‘jobs have gone overseas’.” Describing that as “quite a bold [pro-Brexit] message”, the student asked Truss how the Tories could effectively counter this “cheap populist slogans” from Labour. Truss replied:
First of all: I agree with you it is a serious threat. I don’t buy people that say Labour is not a serious threat. They have got more professional. I have seen quite a lot of their videos; I think they’re very good. And also I don’t denigrate populism because democracies are fundamentally populist. People vote for what they like.
So we’ve got to be careful about saying that we don’t want to be populist. I mean we want to be popular. And we have to go with the grain of what people are thinking. It sounds to me that what you’re saying about that video does capture the heart of where we need to be as a party. So we need to be talking about how people’s lives are getting better. But PR [successful public relations] follows real progress. So you can’t communicate a message if it isn’t true.
If the economy is sluggish at the next election and the Tories are seen as not having turned things around, we will open ourselves up to losing the next election. It’s not about attacking the opposition: oppositions don’t win elections; governments lose them. So for me its about how do we turbo charge the economy post-Brexit? What bolder things can we do to make sure we are on the right track.
[So] running attack ads on Labour and scaring people, I don’t think will work and I think that was one of our problems in the 2017 election.
Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has hinted that English local councils may get more generous government funding or see an end to real terms cuts to their funding.
After a speaking event in Edinburgh, Truss was asked about complaints from Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, that local council funding cuts had gone too far and needed to be halted. (See 11.15am.) Street, who is due to give the opening speech at the Tories annual conference in Birmingham on Sunday, told the Birmingham Mail “the cuts have gone far enough. It’s not reasonable to expect that this continues.” He was echoing complaints from many council leaders in the West Midlands, and elsewhere in England, including from Tory led administrations in Somerset and elsewhere.
Truss told the Guardian she believed the UK government had been right to ask councils to raise more locally. She said changing “the balance of local funding” from central to local government increased their accountability. She went on:
Now of course going into the spending review, which is next year, and the local government finance settlement at the end of this year, we need to make sure that local councils have the wherewithal that they need. And what we have already done is given more flexibility in terms of council tax.
But I can’t pre-announce what’s going to happen with the local government funding settlement or the spending review.
Of course I am in regular discussion with local government, listening to what they have to say and we will need to look at that in the local government finance settlement and the spending review, but I can’t make any announcements now.
Quizzed about Amber Rudd’s remarks to Robert Peston on ITV on Thursday night that 40 Tory MPs were willing to revolt on the final Brexit deal if it involved a Canada-style free trade arrangement, Truss insisted Theresa May would secure a good deal. She said:
The prime minister is well aware of the views of the Conservative parliamentary party; she is the person charged with getting a deal. It is a tough thing to do but she is doing a very good job of that. I’m convinced she will secure a deal that can command the support both of the European Union and of the parliamentary party.
Updated
This is from Sky’s Mark Stone.
“Has anyone got any euros?” asks Labour Party aide as @jeremycorbyn & @Keir_Starmer’s cab rolls into the @EU_Commission for meeting with @MichelBarnier and team.
— Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) September 27, 2018
😂😕 We’ve all been there. 🎥 pic.twitter.com/xGRLlekqw0
The Times’ Bruno Waterfield has a picture of Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, arriving at the European commission HQ for their meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
'Nice to see you,' says Corbyn rather insincerely. 'Are you seeing Selmayr,' is the shouted question pic.twitter.com/rgHOMBAle0
— Bruno Waterfield (@BrunoBrussels) September 27, 2018
Selmayr is Martin Selmayr, the secretary general of the commission (its most senior office - ie, the commission’s cabinet secretary). Corbyn had been expected to meet him, but at a briefing this morning a spokesman said he was not aware that there would be a meeting between the two men.
Tories rule out striking Brexit deal in line with Corbyn's demands
In his speech to the Labour conference yesterday Jeremy Corbyn made a direct offer to Theresa May: negotiate a Brexit deal on Labour’s terms, and Labour will back it, he said.
Today we’ve had an official response from the Conservatives. And it’s a no.
Brandon Lewis, the Tory chairman, turned down Corbyn’s offer in an interview with the Evening Standard. He said:
Look, I would hope the Labour party and all parliamentarians would back the prime minister’s deal.
The problem with what Labour outlined is that would not allow us to do global trade deals and therefore doesn’t respect the referendum.
This won’t come as much of a surprise to Corbyn, who was probably motivated in what he said more by the desire to show that Labour is not blocking Brexit than by any expectation that May was going to agree. (Corbyn said Labour would back a deal including a customs union with the EU, something May has directly ruled out and something that would be anathema to many of her MPs.)
In his Standard interview, Lewis also claimed that the Conservative party membership was “actually ... quite supportive” of May’s Chequers plan - despite a ConservativeHome survey suggesting that only 7% of members want her to persist with the proposal.
He also revealed that, at the conference starting this weekend, the party will unveil an interactive conference app which will allow people to provide feedback during cabinet minister’s speeches.
In the circumstances, that could turn out to be a brave move.
And here is the statement issued by Jeremy Corbyn after the memorial event for Jo Cox in Brussels. He said:
Today is a difficult day for Jo’s family and friends. And it is a difficult day for Jo’s friends and colleagues in the Labour party, who also knew and loved Jo, and who mourn her passing.
I would like to thank Jo’s family for inviting me here to pay tribute to Jo on behalf of the Labour party. And I would like to thank you, the people of Brussels, for this wonderful gesture, which will allow Jo’s legacy to live on in a city that she loved.
In Jo’s memory, we must recommit to the values of peace and justice that Jo fought for every day. We must stand up for the values of internationalism, the values of reaching out to support those in need all across the world.
We will never forget Jo. In her memory let us build a better world.
These are from Philippe Close, the “bourgmestre” (mayor) of Brussels.
Rencontre avec @jeremycorbyn à l’hôtel de Ville, juste avant l’inauguration de la place Jo Cox à la @VilleBruxelles. #JoCox pic.twitter.com/3WjAeZW3Xb
— Philippe Close (@PhilippeClose) September 27, 2018
Je suis très honoré d’inaugurer la place #JoCox aujourd’hui en présence de sa famille et du chef du parti travailliste @jeremycorbyn. #MoreInCommon #Brussels pic.twitter.com/llA9LxNG6N
— Philippe Close (@PhilippeClose) September 27, 2018
Airlines including British Airways, Easyjet and Ryanair are among the airlines most exposed in a no-deal Brexit scenario, the credit ratings agency Moody’s has said in a report.
“A no-deal Brexit could be significantly credit negative for European airlines,” said Jeanine Arnold, a senior credit officer at Moody’s and author of the report.
Travel companies TUI, Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic are also among those most exposed, it says.
Moody’s identified five main risks including loss of traffic rights between the UK and the EU in the event of no deal, which the government admitted last week could lead to disruption to flights from 30 March.
It says the “strong liquidity” of BA, easyJet and Ryanair should enable them to weather the storm “even if flights are disrupted for an extended period”. However it says there could be a longer term impact on airlines negatively affected which “could lead to negative rating actions”.
In response to the Moody’s report, British Airways parent group AIG said it was “confident” that a deal would be reached on aviation with the EU.
“It’s in the UK and EU’s interests to have a fully liberalised aviation agreement,” it said.
Corbyn pays tribute to Jo Cox at Brussels memorial event
Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking at the Jo Cox memorial event in Brussels. He said:
Jo was killed in brutal and horrible circumstances. She lived her life to make lives beter for everybody else. She loved her time in Brussels, she loved the spirit and the music, the internationalism, the globalism of this city, and she always gave this message, that we have far more in common, far more than unites us, than can ever possibly divide us.
So she treated people as they should be treated, with respect, wherever she worked, in the Congo and other parts of Africa, and other parts of the world, always trying to bring people together, and bring about peace.
And I think it’s a wonderful gesture that you, the mayor, and the council of Brussels, have decided to name this square in her memory, so that generations on people can enjoy being in this square, on beautiful days like this, enjoying music, enjoying food, enjoying life, and enjoying understanding each other, and understanding that we can achieve a world free from war, and a word of justice and respect.
Updated
Here is a live feed of the Jo Cox memorial event in Brussels.
The event in Brussels where a square is being named in honour of Jo Cox, the Labour MP who was murdered in 2016, is taking place now. Here are some tweets about it.
From the Labour MP Richard Corbett
After #Lab18, a busy day in Brussels with #JeremyCorbyn , here on balcony of Town Hall in the Grand Place.
— Richard Corbett (@RCorbettMEP) September 27, 2018
Not just talking #brexit - the highlight will be inauguration of Square #JoCox with the Mayor of Brussels @PhilippeClose pic.twitter.com/gePPTsNztf
From Deutsche Welle, a German broadcaster
In a few minutes, this quiet square in Brussels will become “Place Jo Cox”, named after the murdered MP and equality campaigner who lived here while working for @Oxfam and the @Europarl_EN. pic.twitter.com/0TxGBizhPy
— DW Europe (@dw_europe) September 27, 2018
From the Independent’s Jon Stone
Small crowd has gathered in the peaceful Brussels square set to be named in honour of Jo Cox today. It’s behind a music venue she used to frequent when she lived here pic.twitter.com/F19ppO7t6I
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 27, 2018
From AFP’s Dave Clark
Corbyn listens to trilingual tributes to Jo Cox, led by Brussels mayor pic.twitter.com/RlyqRoobBo
— Dave Clark (@DaveClark_AFP) September 27, 2018
From my colleague Daniel Boffey
Jeremy Corbyn at the naming of Belgian square after Jo Cox pic.twitter.com/A9sW6kxup2
— Daniel Boffey (@DanielBoffey) September 27, 2018
People’s Vote, which is campaigning for a referendum on the final Brexit deal, says it is holding its largest ever “national day of action” this Saturday. In a press notice it said:
There will be over 100 local groups participating, in towns and cities the length and breadth of the country, in areas that voted both remain and leave. Over 2,000 activists and supporters are expected to take part, with more than 1,000 door to door leafleting sessions organised and over 1m leaflets handed out.
Tory West Midlands mayor says 'cuts have gone far enough'
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor for the West Midlands, has given an interview to the Birmingham Mail ahead of the Tory conference that starts this weekend, in Birmingham. In it, he calls for an end to austerity, saying the cuts have gone far enough. He says:
I do also think it is right to say that the cuts have gone far enough.
It’s not reasonable to expect that this continues.
Labour could 'bend' its red lines to help secure Brexit deal, Gardiner claims
The ITV Peston show also had Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, on as a guest last night, and he said Labour would be willing to “bend” its red lines in the interests of helping the UK get a Brexit deal. He told the programme:
What Jeremy did today this was taking, seizing the initiative, saying to the country look we want to work together in the interests of the country to get a deal. It’s not perfect, but we certainly don’t surely for goodness sake all of us don’t want the no deal that will take us off the edge of that cliff. And if it means compromising, if it means you bending your red line to give us a customs union, we’re prepared to bend our red lines to give, to give this a deal.
It was a curious comment because Jeremy Corbyn did not say anything in his party conference speech yesterday that suggested he was altering his stance. He did say Labour might be willing to back a Brexit deal negotiated by Theresa May, but that was only on the basis that such a deal matched Labour’s demands.
Gardiner is one of the members of the shadow cabinet most worried about Labour being seen as opposing Brexit. According to PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield, Labour sources have been playing down the significance of his comments last night.
Senior Labour source gets in touch to play down significance of Barry Gardiner's comments: "I mean, it's Barry ..."https://t.co/XkpaxDKiRh
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) September 27, 2018
TUC boss urges SNP's Nicola Sturgeon to join campaign for second referendum on Brexit
Nicola Sturgeon is under further pressure to support calls for a second Brexit referendum after Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, warned her “this is not the time to keep your head down.”
Speaking in Glasgow later today at a lecture to honour Jimmy Reid, the Clyde shipyards union leader, O’Grady is expected to compliment the first minister for calling for an extension to the article 50 process if the Brexit deal proves to be inadequate.
However Sturgeon has vacillated on the question of a referendum on the final Brexit deal: after initially refusing to commit to it, she now says she is not opposed to it in principle but wants to know what Scotland would gain if it again voted differently from the rest of the UK.
In the original referendum in 2016, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain while England and Wales out-voted them in favour of leave.
Sturgeon has not, however, precisely set out what her terms would be to win the Scottish National party’s backing for it, claiming that is for proponents of the second referendum to set out. Many suspect she worries that backing a second Brexit referendum would require the SNP to accept a second vote on a future Scottish independence referendum.
At her Jimmy Reid Foundation lecture O’Grady is expected to say:
Like the TUC, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon has rightly called for an extension to article 50. This would give us a chance to negotiate a deal on new terms. A deal that protects jobs, rights and peace in Ireland.
But the truth is most people don’t trust the Westminster government to get that deal and we’re running out of road. So I have been taking the same message to all politicians – this is not the time to keep your head down.
I hope that Nicola Sturgeon will join me in putting the prime minister on notice. And warn Mrs May that if we don’t get the terms working people need, we will mobilise for a popular vote on the final deal.
Sturgeon’s spokesman deflected questions earlier this week on whether she would want the UK parties to guarantee, in return, that they would support a second Scottish independence referendum if Scotland rejected the Brexit deal but the rest of the UK accepted it.
He said one option was to structure the Brexit vote in such a way that all four UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) needed to support the same result for the referendum to be valid – a proposal effectively giving any of those four a veto on the final result.
May faces revolt from 40 Tory MPs if she opts for Canada Brexit deal, Rudd says
When people mention Conservative Brexit rebels, you probably think of Jacob Rees-Mogg, his European Research Group and the many Tory MPs who have declared that they could never vote for the Chequers plan advocated by the prime minister. But there are rebels on the pro-European side too, and last night Amber Rudd, the former home secretary and perhaps liberal conservatism’s answer to Rees-Mogg, said there were around 40 MPs on her side who would vote against any Canada-style trade deal with the EU. She told ITV’s Peston last night that she would not vote for such a plan herself and she went on:
I think there are a number of people, in fact I’ve talked to a few colleagues and I reckon there are conservatively about 40 of us who would not support a Canada type deal. But to be frank there are so many reasons a Canada type deal doesn’t work, starting with the Irish border, going on to manufacturing that I think we can make those arguments.
Why does this matter? Because, as the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday, May is under growing pressure to opt for a Canada-style deal. But Labour would not support a Canada-style deal, because it would not retain the benefits of being in the customs union and the single market, and with 40 Tories also voting against, it would have no chance of getting through parliament.
Monday’s TELEGRAPH: Cabinet now backs Canada Brexit deal #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/SjJQ47qoMB
— Helen Miller (@MsHelicat) September 23, 2018
On Peston Rudd also said that a second referendum would be better than a no deal Brexit. She said:
I don’t think no deal will happen. I think that if we can’t get a negotiated deal that the prime minister brings back through parliament then I think that we’re in completely uncharted territory constitutionally ...
I do think it would be ironic indeed if we got a people’s vote because the more Brexit-y people in my party were unable to support the Prime Minister in her negotiated settlement and then they might not even get their Brexit. So I think they have to think very carefully about the consequences of not supporting a negotiated settlement.
The hiatus between the end of the Labour conference and the start of the Conservative conference is normally a dead period for Westminster politics, but with Brexit the news never entirely dries up and today Jeremy Corbyn is going to Brussels for a meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. My colleague Daniel Boffey has written a preview which is here.
And he has tweeted this.
Understand that today’s meetings between Jeremy Corbyn and Michel Barnier/Martin Selmayr we’re initiated by the EU side with concerns growing over a no deal Brexit. https://t.co/SHI6lJ9EmK
— Daniel Boffey (@DanielBoffey) September 27, 2018
Here is the agenda for the day.
12pm: Corbyn attends an event at a square in Brussels being named in honour of Jo Cox, the Labour MP murdered by a far-right terrorist during the EU referendum in 2016.
3pm: Corbyn meets Barnier.
As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at when I finish, at around 5pm.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments 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.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
Updated
