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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Tory MP casts doubt on claim pairing breach was honest mistake as row escalates – as it happened

Julian Smith, the Conservative chief whip.
Julian Smith, the Conservative chief whip. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/REX/Shutterstock

Afternoon summary

  • Downing Street has said that Theresa May still has confidence in Julian Smith, the chief whip, despite new evidence emerging challenging his claim that a Conservative MP broke a pairing deal on Tuesday by mistake. (See 2.21pm and 4.08pm.) The Conservative MP Anna Soubry said it would be “appalling” if reports that Smith ordered some MPs to break pairing agreements turned out to be true. (See 3.49pm.) Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, said he was someone in government was lying about what happened.
  • Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has told Dominic Raab, the new Brexit secretary, that there is “a lot of work to do” to get a Brexit deal ready by the autumn. As the two men addressed reporters in Brussels, Barnier said:

There are 13 weeks left before the October European council. During this short time we have two things to do. We must finalise the withdrawal agreement and we are not yet there. We must also prepare a political declaration on our future relationship. On the withdrawal agreement, it is a matter of urgency to agree a legally operative backstop for Ireland and Northern Ireland. We need an all-weather insurance policy.

  • Proposals to grant anonymity to MPs accused of harassment in a new behaviour code will be seen as politicians trying to cover up their misdoings, the chairman of the standards committee has warned. As the Press Association reports, Labour’s Sir Kevin Barron said he agreed confidentiality was important to ensure people come forward with allegations, but said publishing the name of an MP under investigation would not cause “irreparable damage” to the probe. As Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom outlined the new complaints and grievances scheme for MPs and peers, Barron moved an amendment which sought to ensure the names of individuals under investigation can be published. The amendment was defeated by 79 votes to 22, majority 57.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

The Brexit department (DExEU) has published its annual report today (pdf). It contains information about bonuses paid to senior officials and it reveals that Olly Robbins, who was permanent secretary until September last year, when he went to the Cabinet Office to be Theresa May’s chief Brexit adviser, got a bonus worth between £15,000 and £20,000.

This is from the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.

Conor Burns, a pro-Brexit Conservative MP, seems outraged. (The Brexiters hate Robbins because they have realised, correctly, he is out to sabotage hard Brexit.)

As the PM’s chief Brexit adviser Robbins is now effectively in charge of the Brexit talks (the Brexit department was sidelined - one factor contributing to David Davis’s decision to resign as Brexit secretary). Yet the report also shows that Robbins’s full-time equivalent annual salary before he left DExEU was between £160,000 and £165,000 - a tidy sum, by any stretch, but not that much, surely for someone in charge of what is described as the most complicated peacetime challenge ever facing the modern British state. (Many council chief executives are paid more.) Unbelievable, you might say ...

Updated

Raab says he will be 'heating up' Brexit negotiations

Dominic Raab, the new Brexit secretary, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, have made brief statements to the media at a photocall in Brussels. They are meeting for the first time, and having dinner later. Raab said there were still issues to resolve in the withdrawal agreement and he looked forward to making more progress.

He went on:

I’ve come out today to discuss the detailed proposals we’ve got in our white paper and I’m looking forward to, with renewed energy and vigour and vim, looking at the detail of all of this. As Michel has told us, the clock is ticking. I’m looking forward to intensifying, heating up the negotiations, and making sure we’re in the best position to get the best deal.

Dominic Raab (left) and Michel Barnier in Brussels
Dominic Raab (left) and Michel Barnier in Brussels Photograph: Sky News

Theresa May still has confidence in Julian Smith, the chief whip, Number 10 says. This is from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.

And this is from the Conservative MP Anna Soubry.

This is from Jon Trickett, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, on the pairing breach scandal.

During Brexit questions in the Commons this morning Dominic Raab, the new Brexit secretary, said that he would be meeting Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, later. “I hope that I can attest to his full support for the white paper,” he said.

As my colleague Jennifer Rankin reports, “full support” is not the best way of describing the EU’s view of the white paper.

That is a reference to what Raab told MPs on Thursday last week, when the white paper was published.

Updated

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland, has described Theresa May’s visit to the region as “too little, too late”. O’Neill said:

[May] is coming two years after the referendum, she is coming two years after negotiating with her own party.

I am quite clear what she will hear today, she’ll hear about the catastrophic implications of Brexit, the fear and trepidation of the business community in terms of what comes next for them.

We can’t withstand being outside the customs union and the single market.

Theresa May needs to realise that we will not be collateral damage her for own reckless Tory agenda.

Michelle O’Neill (centre) speaks to media at a press conference in Coalisland, Co Tyrone.
Michelle O’Neill (centre) speaks to media at a press conference in Coalisland, Co Tyrone. Photograph: PA

ITV’s Robert Peston has more on the Conservative pair-breaking scandal.

Lunchtime summary

  • Julian Smith, the Conservative chief whip, is coming under increasing pressure to resign in the light of new reports claiming that he told some MPs to break pairing arrangements on Tuesday when the government was at risk of losing a key Brexit vote. Only one MP, Brandon Lewis, did break a pair, and Theresa May and other ministers have insisted it was just an honest mistake. But a report in the Times this morning says Smith told Lewis to break a pair (see 9.46am) and ITV and the Sun have both published similar reports. (See 11.51am and 1.39pm.) Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chief whip, has told MPs that he did not find the explanation for what happened given to him by Smith in private convincing. (See 12.13pm.) Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative MP, effectively told the BBC’s Daily Politics he found it hard to believe government claims the pairing breach was just an error. (See 12.42pm.)
  • The EU has issued a document urging member states and other parties to “intensify preparedness at all levels” for all Brexit outcomes, including a no deal. (See 1.02pm.) It says:

Contingency planning for the worst possible outcome is not a sign of mistrust in the negotiations. The Commission is devoting very significant resources and committing great efforts to achieve an agreement. This remains our goal. However, the outcome of negotiations cannot be predicted.

  • Jon Thompson, permanent secretary and chief executive at HM Revenue and Customs, has told peers that not all aspects of the “facilitated customs arrangement” (FCA) plan in the Brexit white paper would be ready by the end of the transition period. Giving evidence to a Lords committee, he said the dual tariff aspect of the system could be in place by December 2020, when the transition ends. But he went on:

In relation to the repayment mechanism [a system whereby importers would pay the higher of the UK or EU tariff, and then claim a refund if their goods ended up in the lower tariff territory], that would take a bit longer because it needs to be clear about what free trade agreements the UK has signed, how much difference does that make to tariffs, and then business needs to make an economic decision about whether the tariff differential is worth reclaiming or not ... We would need to write this piece of very bespoke technology to allow them to get the tariff refund. So we are being upfront with ministers. We do not think the tariff refund would be there for January 2021. That would take some time after that ....

It requires some further work from us to work out exactly what that piece of technology is and how long exactly would it take to acquire it because it is a very bespoke arrangement. We can’t find anywhere else in the world that does that.

Thompson also told peers the FCA plan would cost business around £700m a year. (See 11.06am.)

  • The Conservative MP Philip Davies has revealed that he has submitted a letter calling for a no confidence vote in Theresa May because he does not trust her to deliver Brexit. (See 11.24am.)

Updated

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has been offered a new explanation as to what happened on Tuesday night with the pairing.

UPDATE: Here are some more in this thread.

Updated

Up to five Tory MPs were told to break pairs on Tuesday, Sun claims

According to a story by Tom Newton Dunn in the Sun, as many as five Conservative MPs who were paired on Tuesday night were asked by the chief whip, Julian Smith, to break the pair and vote regardless. The paper quotes an unnamed MP who was involved as saying:

Julian told me I was needed and told me to come in and vote. Of course he knew I was paired.

I didn’t vote and honoured my pair, and he demanded to know why not afterwards.

It then appears Julian told the prime minister it was all an innocent mistake ...

What happened was unacceptable. We cannot behave like this.

In the event only one Conservative, the party chairman Brandon Lewis, did break a pair. Theresa May, Smith, Lewis and Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, have all claimed this was an innocent mistake.

Giving evidence to the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee this morning, the acting cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, said the UK would be ready for a no deal Brexit. He told MPs:

We will be ready but we shouldn’t assume it will be smooth, if it’s a disruptive outcome ...

We do have confidence in our ‘no deal’ planning, we know that it will be disruptive for them and for us if there is no deal and that we haven’t been able to find some other arrangement.

But we will be ready for that and we have a whole range of mechanisms, some of them designed over many years for different circumstances that we can apply should that be the case against a range of no deal scenarios.

I wouldn’t want any of our partners to think that we won’t be ready for it.

MoD to spend £4m reimbursing service personnel paying higher taxes in Scotland

The Ministry of Defence is to spend about £4m reimbursing 8,000 military personnel who are paying higher income taxes in Scotland, with some highly-paid officers getting back £1,500 this year.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence secretary, said military personnel who have to pay higher Scottish income taxes would get a lump payment at the end of this tax year worth between £12 and £1,500 per head.

The move is designed to fuel the battle between the Conservatives and Edinburgh’s Scottish National party government over its decision to use Scotland’s new powers to set its own income tax rates.

Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance secretary, announced last December that higher tax rates would rise by 1p this year, with a new intermediate tax rate for middle earners, after intense pressure from Labour, the Lib Dems and Scottish Greens to use his new tax powers to boost spending.

Williamson claimed that unfairly penalised Scottish military personnel, many of whom are based overseas but are taxed at the Scottish rate, and would make Scotland a less attractive posting for army, navy and air force staff.

It could also put off some Scots from joining the armed forces because they would be paid less than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK. With youth unemployment rates at a low level currently, Scotland’s infantry regiments have been struggling to recruit new personnel.

“It is completely wrong for the brave men and women of our armed forces to be punished for serving in Scotland by unfair raids on their pay packets by the Scottish government,” he said.

Mackay insisted those higher taxes helped pay for other tangible benefits for Scottish residents, including free school meals, free prescriptions and eye tests and free tuition at Scottish universities. Scottish council tax and water rates are also often much lower than in England, while council spending is higher than in England.

Submarines at HM Naval Base Clyde, also known as Faslane.
Submarines at HM Naval Base Clyde, also known as Faslane. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

The EU has now published its document urging member states to step up preparations for a no deal Brexit.

Here is the news release about it. And here is the main 17-page document (pdf).

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen casts doubt on claims broken pair incident was honest mistake

This is what Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP, told the Daily Politics a few minutes ago when asked what he thought actually happened in the broken pair incident. (See 12.37pm.) He said:

I think the fact that Brandon Lewis abstained on six votes and then just mysteriously voted on the vital two - I think it tells you all you need to know.

Bridgen also made it clear that he thought the opposition parties should not get too indignant. Referring probably to this report on the Guido Fawkes website, he said that both Labour and the Lib Dems have broken pairs since the general election.

Andrew Bridgen
Andrew Bridgen Photograph: Daily Politics/Andrew Bridgen

Updated

On the Daily Politics the Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen was asked a moment ago about the pair breaking scandal and what he thought actually happened (ie, whether he believed it was an honest mistake). Bridgen said the fact that Brandon Lewis did not vote in most of the divisions on Tuesday night, but did vote in the two crucial ones, “tells you all you need to know”.

  • Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen casts doubt on claims broken pair incident was an honest mistake.

Updated

Alistair Carmichael on how he did not find Julian Smith's explanation satisfactory

This is what Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chief whip, told MPs a few minutes ago about the pair breaking scandal. (See 11.45am.)

In the course of that urgent question [yesterday, on the broken pair incident] I indicated that I had received an apology from the government chief whip [Julian Smith, which of course I accepted, not that I did not quite understand how things had come to pass in this way. I indicated also that I would pursue that with the government chief whip.

I have to tell the House that, subsequent to the urgent question, I did meet with the government chief whip. He did offer me a fuller explanation which I have considered very carefully overnight. Regrettably I have to say I still do not understand how this highly regrettable state of affairs came to pass.

Carmichael said Smith should come to the Commons to make a statement himself to clear things up.

Alistair Carmichael
Alistair Carmichael Photograph: Parliament TV

Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, replied:

I’m grateful to [Carmichael] for his measured words and I’m glad that he did indeed meet with the chief whip. I have, as I made clear yesterday, been absolutely assured that it was an administrative error. I sought to explain to the House yesterday that in pairing it is very often the absence of an hour or two and therefore the administrative complexity around managing temporary pairings during the course of a day are quite significant. I also made clear to the House that [Brandon Lewis], by virtue of the conversations I had with him - it was absolutely clear to me that he was totally unaware that he was paired with [Jo Swinson]. I myself texted [Swinson] and I have made very clear to her that I will continue to ensure that her maternity pair is in place. I apologise again for that error that took place, and also reassure the House that it did not change the outcome of that division.

This explanation is odd because Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem MP, needs a pair because she has just had a baby and is on maternity leave. It is not as if she was planning to vote in some divisions, but not others. And Lewis did not not take part in most of the divisions on Tuesday night (honouring the pairing arrangement). But he did take part in the two closest ones (one of which the government won, and one of which it lost.)

Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom Photograph: Parliament TV

Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says he has also been told by a source that Julian Smith, the Conservative chief whip, ordered an MP to break a pair on Tuesday night. The government, of course, is claiming that the pair was broken as a result of an honest mistake.

Tory chief whip's private explanation as to how pairing mistake happened unconvincing, says MP

Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chief whip, says he has had a meeting with Julian Smith, who offered him a more detailed explanation as to what happened. He says, having considered it overnight, he is still not clear what happened.

He says he thinks Smith should make a statement to MPs. He knows chief whips don’t normally speak in the Commons, but the system works on checks and balances. This is necessary to restore trust, he says.

  • Lib Dem chief whip Alistair Carmichael says Julian Smith, his Tory counterpart him, failed to give him a convincing explanation as to what happened on Tuesday. He says Smith should make a public statement saying what happened.

Andrea Leadsom thanks Carmichael for his “measured words’. She says she has been assured there was an “administrative error”. Pairs can be arranged at short notice, she says. She says she has told Jo Swinson that her maternity pair will continue to remain in place. And she will redouble her effort to ensure that pairing efforts remain in place.

UPDATE: See 12.13pm for full quotes.

Updated

Leadsom insists Tories broke pair ‘in error’ on Tuesday and condemns MPs who suggested otherwise

Labour’s Wes Streeting asks Andrea Leadsom about the Times story. He says that Leadsom said previously that a pair was broken by mistake. He says Leadsom may have been set up, and told the wrong thing to say. He asks for an assurance that, when MPs debate proxy voting in the autumn, they will vote on a motion.

Leadsom says Streeting should not be calling her out when she came to the despatch box yesterday it the pair was broken “in error”. She says she gave that assurances. There were three pairs on Tuesday. She says she was one of them. She was not asked to break the pair, she says. She says Streeting “should be ashamed of himself” for suggesting she was not being honest.

John Bercow, the speaker, says Streeting did not use unparliamentary language. (MPs are not allowed to call fellow MPs liars in the Commons.)

  • Leadsom insists Tories broke pair “in error” on Tuesday and condemns MPs who suggested otherwise.

At business questions Pete Wishart, the SNP’s spokesperson, asks Andrea Leadsom about the Times story (see 9.46am) saying the Tories deliberate broke a pairing arrangement on Tuesday. He says he is glad the SNP has nothing to do with this discredited system.

But Wishart raises various other points too. Leadsom addresses his other questions, but ignores the one about the chief whip.

Tory MP Philip Davies says he has submitted letter calling for no confidence vote in PM

Philip Davies, the Conservative Brexiter, has submitted a letter to the chair of the Conservative 1922 committee calling for a no confidence vote in Theresa May, the Yorkshire Post’s Arj Singh reports. There is a link to his story here.

In a letter to constituents, Davies said:

Politics is all about trust and once it is lost it is impossible to win back. Many people have told me that as a result of this they have lost trust in the PM to properly and fully deliver the referendum result. It is with much sadness that I have to say that I have also lost trust in her to deliver the referendum result too.

Failure to keep our promise to the electorate will almost certainly lead to the catastrophe of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister and I cannot sit back and allow that to happen.

Therefore I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I have no alternative but to send a letter to the chairman of the 1922 committee asking him for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. If 48 such letters are sent a vote of no confidence in the prime minister amongst Conservative MPs will take place.

It is not known how many other Conservative MPs have submitted letters calling for a no confidence vote in May. There have been rumours that up to around 40 letters have gone in; once the 1922 committee chair, Sir Graham Brady, gets 48 (15% of Tory MPs), a no confidence vote is called. MPs can submit letters confidentially, but in his letter Davies said he was going public because he thought his constituents had a right to know.

Tory chief whips should make statement to MPs explaining pairing 'mistake', Lib Dems say

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem MP who was paired with the Tory Brandon Lewis on Tuesday night when he broke the pairing arrangement, has posted this on Twitter about the Times story saying it was a deliberate act, not an honest mistake. (See 9.46am.)

The Lib Dems are saying Julian Smith, the Tory chief whip, should make a personal statement to MPs to explain what happened. A spokesperson said:

The Conservative government’s account of Tuesday’s pairing collapse is at complete odds with The Times story today.

The Conservatives have clearly broken the pairing convention and possibly misled parliament in calling the vote ‘a mistake’.

The breaking of that convention means we must break another. The Tory chief whip must make a statement to the House and be accountable for this mess.

PM's post-Brexit customs plan will cost business £700m a year, HMRC tells peers

At the House of Lords EU external affairs sub committee Jon Thompson, the permanent secretary and chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs, has just told peers that HMRC estimates the facilitated customs arrangement - the customs plan set out in the government’s Brexit white paper - would cost business £700m a year.

That is a lot less than the £20bn a year that HMRC said “max fac”, an alternative customs plan favoured by Brexiters, would cost.

Jon Thompson
Jon Thompson Photograph: Parliament TV

Voter ID pilots 'worked well', says Electoral Commission

Controversial pilot schemes requiring voters to show ID before casting their ballot “worked well”, the elections watchdog has found. As the Press Association reports, trials of voter ID schemes were carried out at May’s local elections in Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking, in an effort to cut down on voter fraud. The government has committed to extend the trials in next year’s local contests, but the schemes have been described as “shambolic” by Labour and criticised by campaigners for electoral reform.

In its assessment of the pilots, the Electoral Commission said:

Overall, the voter identification requirements trialled in May 2018 worked well.

Nearly everyone in the five pilot scheme areas who went to vote in their polling station was able to show identification without difficulty. The number of people who did not vote because they couldn’t show identification was very small.

But the commission called for a wider range of councils to be included in future pilots and acknowledged concerns from organisations including Mencap and the RNIB that “some groups of people may find it harder than others to show a passport, driving licence or travel card” as part of a photo ID scheme.

DUP MP Ian Paisley apologises to MPs for breaking rules

The DUP MP Ian Paisley is making a personal statement now about the standards committee report yesterday saying he should be suspended from the Commons for breaking rules on paid advocacy and declaring interests.

He says he is making this statement with “profound personal regret and deep personal embarrassment”.

He says the trips that were not declared took place when he was a new MP.

He says he particularly wants to apologise to his constituents.

He says politicians should be able to admit human frailty, to apologise and to move on. Because that is what human life is like, he says.

UPDATE: Here are extracts from Paisley’s statement.

It is with profound personal regret and deep personal embarrassment that I have to make this statement ...

I have given an unreserved apology to the House and to colleagues. I take the opportunity to do so again from my place here, and I do it without qualification. I say sorry and apologise for the failings that were identified in the standards committee report ...

I take my duties as a member of parliament seriously. I believe I conduct myself with colleagues with integrity, with openness and that is why I have such remorse about the matter as I believe it goes against the grain of who I am - especially how it is portrayed.

It is to my constituents, who have sent me here since 2010, that I make the profoundest of all apologies. They have honoured me with unwavering support to be their voice and I hope they will continue to have that confidence in me in the future ...

I believe in a politics and I believe in politicians that can admit human frailty, that can apologise, can mean it and can move on - because that’s what real life is all about.

It’s often said it’s how we respond to these challenges in our lives that defines who and what we are, and defines our character and demonstrates to us where the true source of our personal strength rests.

The eighth-century prophet Isaiah said: ‘You were angry with me, that anger has turned away, you comfort me.’ I hope to learn that lesson.

Updated

“High-harm” violent offences involving weapons continue to rise, official figures have revealed, as knife and gun crime, as well as homicide, increase in England and Wales. Offences involving knives or sharp instruments went up by 16% to 40,147, according to police-recorded crimes for the year to March published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), my colleague Jamie Grierson reports.

You can read the ONS report here.

In Brexit questions Labour’s Daniel Zeichner asks for an assurance, in the light of what the Office for Budget Responsibility said this week, that there will be no more talk from the government about the “fantasy Brexit dividend”.

Dominic Raab does not accept this. He says after Brexit the UK will not longer be making membership payments to the EU, which means money will be available for other purposes.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, says yesterday Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, said 40 Tories were willing to vote against the white paper. What evidence is there that the government can get it through the Commons.

Dominic Raab says Starmer says more interested in Tory whipping arrangements than in his own policy.

Starmer says Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, will want to know if Raab is willing to face down the threat from Tory rebels. What will Raab tell him?

Raab says he is not interested in this media circus. He urges Starmer to get behind the policy.

Starmer was referring to what Baker said in the debate on relations with the EU yesterday. Here is Baker’s quote.

I believe that the Labour party, for all the good faith of the shadow secretary of state, will in the end vote against any agreement—any agreement. That therefore means that people—whether or not they like it, and however impartial they may be—must bring forward a deal that can be voted through by the Conservative party.

The number 40 has been bandied around in this House in the past few days. I am sorry to say it—it gives me no pleasure to say it, but I must do so—“and the rest”. People who have said 40 are not out by a fraction: when they come to consider the number of members on the Conservative benches who do not like this deal and are willing to vote in line with that dislike, they are out by a factor, not by a fraction. That means people must face up to the difficult truth that a high alignment—a Brexit that requires a high degree of permanent alignment to the European Union—will not go through this House of Commons; it will fail. Those are the two difficulties that officials—officials—must face up to.

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister
Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister Photograph: Darren Jack/REX/Shutterstock

'New world is coming', says Cable as he claims political re-alignment may happen

On the Today programme this morning Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, said he thought there could be some sort of political re-alignment. Asked if he thought this would happen, he replied:

It does look as if it may happen.

The problem is the Conservative Party is now hopelessly divided in civil war and there is a similar situation in the Labour Party for different reasons.

A lot of people in both the major parties are talking openly about breaking away and people outside are trying to encourage it.

I think the public generally are fed up with the very dysfunctional nature of British politics.

I certainly want my party to be more open and willing to work with other people. We recognise a new world is coming and I’m certainly over the summer going to be thinking about how we make ourselves more open and relevant to this new world.

Cable also claimed that the chances of a no deal Brexit were now “significantly higher” than they were. He went on:

I think there are people in the Conservative party who are egging on that outcome and hope to be able to blame the European commission for it. All the evidence we have ... is that it would be massively disruptive and significant losses would be imposed on the UK economy and the most vulnerable people are often the people in the deprived parts of Britain which voted for Brexit.

Ten years ahead, no doubt all this would be sorted out, but it would mean we enter a very difficult economic period with significant economic damage.

I don’t think reasonable people on all sides of this argument really want that to occur.

Sir Vince Cable (left)
Sir Vince Cable (left) Photograph: John Phillips/Getty Images

The new Brexit minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, has told just MPs in Brexit questions that he does not accept the claim from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services that leaving the EU next year could lead to a rise in hate crime.

The Conservative MP Heidi Allen is also expressing concern about the Times story (see 9.46am) claiming that the chief whip told Brandon Lewis to break a pairing deal on Tuesday.

Labour says Tory chief whip and Tory chair should resign if they lied about breaking pair

Labour says that if the Times report (see 9.46am) about Julian Smith, the Tory chief whip, telling Brandon Lewis, the Conservative chair, to break his pairing arrangement on Tuesday turns out to be true, both men should resign. Dawn Butler, the shadow minister for women and equalities, has issued this statement.

If these reports are correct, the Tory whips, Brandon Lewis and even the prime minister have been telling untruths about their shocking move against an MP on maternity leave.

Breaking a pairing arrangement was a desperate move by a collapsing government and makes politics even more inaccessible for women.

We need a full, honest explanation of what’s gone on. If they can’t do so, surely the chief whip and Conservative party chair should resign.

When asked about the incident at PMQs yesterday, Theresa May said: “The breaking of the pair was done in error. It wasn’t good enough and will not be repeated.”

On Tuesday Smith claimed that Lewis voted by mistake.

Updated

Paul Blomfield, the shadow Brexit minister, says in 2016 Dominic Raab wrote an article for the Times saying Brexit would give the UK a chance to ditch the 100 most burdensome regulations, including the agency workers directive. But now the government says it won’t undermine workers’ rights. Does Raab still agree with what he said then?

Suella Braverman, the junior Brexit minister who is replying, says what matters is that the UK has control over its own laws.

At Brexit questions Dominic Raab has just told MPs that he looks forward to meeting Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in Brussels later and that he hopes to attest to Barnier’s “full support” for the white paper.

That may be optimistic. As my colleague Daniel Boffey reported yesterday, a senior EU diplomat told him: “The white paper is not going to form the basis of the negotiations.”

After Brexit questions we’ve got business questions. Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, is likely to be asked about this story by Sam Coates in the Times (paywall) saying Julian Smith told three MPs to ignore pairing arrangements in the Commons on Tuesday. Brandon Lewis, the Conservative chair, did break a pairing deal, but claimed it was a mistake.

Coates says:

Mr Smith summoned Brandon Lewis, the Tory chairman, from a meeting to parliament as a crunch vote on customs approached, witnesses claim.

The chief whip is understood to have told Mr Lewis that the later votes were going to be close and he needed him to vote. This breached the pairing deal with Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat MP who is on maternity leave.

The Times has been told of two other Tory MPs told by Mr Smith that they should vote on Tuesday despite being paired. Both sought further advice and ignored the instruction. The Tory whips’ office did not comment.

One Tory MP said: “This suggests a worrying pattern of behaviour and could amount to a breach of trust.”

A friend of Mr Lewis said he believed it was a “cock-up by the whips” rather than a deliberate bid to break the pair.

Coates is a very good reporter but, without an on-the-record quote, if the government continue to deny deliberately breaking the pairing arrangements, it may be hard for MPs to pursue this further. We’ll see today ...

Updated

Dominic Raab tweeted this this morning.

May will have to revise Chequers plan in face of Tory opposition, says former Brexit minister

Dominic Raab is going to Brussels today for the first time since he was appointed Brexit secretary next week to meet Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. Before that he has his first question session in the Commons, starting in 20 minutes.

Yesterday Theresa May told MPs that the government would soon be publishing documents saying what firms need to do to prepare for a no deal Brexit. Today the EU will publish its own advice to member states about a no deal Brexit. The UK advice is designed to give assurance the UK could cope with this scenario. One suspects that the EU document is intended to show the opposite; that it couldn’t.

On the Today programme this morning David Jones, the Tory Brexiter who was a Brexit minister until last summer, said that a no deal Brexit would be disruptive and that the government should have been doing more to get ready for such an option. He said:

Inevitably, Brexit means that there will be some disruption and of course the important thing is to minimise that disruption. I’ve been pressing the government for some time to come up with more visible preparation for leaving without a negotiated deal.

I’m glad to see that that’s happening now, but I think it should have been done some considerable time ago.

Jones also predicted that Theresa May would have to revise her Chequers Brexit plan because, in its current form, it would be unacceptable to the Conservative party. He said it was “now looking less and less likely as a solution” and he went on:

I think we do have to look at it again. There are some very sensible ways forward that I know were being considered by DExEU [the Department for Exiting the EU] - most particularly looking at a Canada-style deal which the EU have already said is available to the UK. I think that’s a sensible way of progressing.

I think the prime minister has shown herself to be extremely resilient and also open to debate over the last two years. I think she is also a realist and I think that, when she analyses the impact of this week’s vote upon the the white paper, she will want to engage in a debate within the party.

Asked if May’s leadership would be replaced as leader if she refused to change tack, he gave a non-committal answer. He said:

I don’t think we’ve arrived at that point yet. We need to have that debate within the party.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

9.30am: Crime figures are published.

10.05am: Jon Thompson, permanent secretary and chief executive at HM Revenue and Customs, gives evidence to the Lords EU external affairs committee about customs after Brexit. At 11.15am Robin Walker, the Brexit minister, and Mel Strike, the Treasury minister will give evidence.

10.30am: Sir Mark Sedwill, the acting cabinet secretary, gives evidence to the Commons public administration committee.

After 11.30am: MPs debate the new independent complaints and grievance policy for the Commons.

After his questions in the Commons Raab will travel to Brussels for his first meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiate. Theresa May will be in Northern Ireland.

On the last day the Commons is sitting before a long recess it is common to get a mountain of written ministerial statements, many of which contain low and medium-grade announcements that are not particularly helpful to the government. The Commons does not rise until Tuesday next week, but today there are 18 ministerial statements on the order paper. (There are normally about five or six.) I’ll be keeping an eye on those too.

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 lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

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

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. 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

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