Afternoon summary
- The government is ready to part-nationalise Tata’s UK steel assets and offer hundreds of millions of pounds in debt relief if a private buyer can be found. As Rowena Mason reports, ministers unveiled their proposals for a package of support after Sajid Javid, the business secretary, said last week that the government was prepared to “co-invest” in British steel.The plans could involve the government taking a minority equity stake of up to 25% in the steel plants, including Port Talbot in south Wales, amounting to part-nationalisation of the struggling industry.
- Adrian Sanders, a former Lib Dem MP, has called for a police investigation into the Conservative campaign for last year’s general election, after the party admitted failing to declare expenditure linked to battlebus visits to marginal seats. He told the World at One:
The evidence is stacking up to a point where I would be very surprised now if the police didn’t investigate what was going on in the individual constituencies affected. Parliament laid down that election expense irregularities are a criminal offence and they carry a custodial sentence. Democracy is very precious and it has to be conducted fairly.
- The Ministry of Justice has said immigrants will face sharp increases in the cost of appealing against Home Office decisions. As the Press Association reports, ministers set out the proposals for raising fees after revealing that only 9% of the annual cost of the first-tier tribunal (immigration and asylum chamber) was recouped from those bringing cases in 2014/15. The first-tier and upper tribunals examine cases brought against decisions made by the Home Office relating to permission to stay in the UK, deportation and clearance to enter the country. A consultation paper just launched proposes new fees for proceedings in both. In the first-tier tribunal they would rise from £80 to £490 for an application for a decision based on legal papers and from £140 to £800 for an application for an oral hearing. A new fee of £455 for an application for permission to appeal to the upper tribunal would be introduced. The consultation also proposes a £510 charge for an appeal hearing in the higher chamber if permission is granted.
- A YouGov poll for the Evening Standard suggests Labour’s Sadiq Khan has an 11-point lead over the Conservative Zac Goldsmith on first preference votes in the London mayoral contests. In March Khan’s lead was just seven points.
- Khan has said parents have told him their children have been put off a career in politics after seeing the attacks the he has received during his campaign. As Aisha Gani reports, Khan criticised Tory tactics and the alienation it was causing among some British Muslims on Wednesday night at the Muslim News awards, attended by Greg Clark, the communities secretary, and high-profile Muslims from sport, media, business and the armed forces.He said:
People have approached me here tonight and and even in the last few days and weeks and have said, ‘Look, my son or daughter, my nephew or niece, my younger brother or sister, is thinking about a career in politics, is thinking about public service, is thinking about entering public life. But they are worried. They are worried because if this is what you suffer, we worry that they will suffer’.
In a powerful intervention, the journalist Peter Oborne has said he will be voting for Khan, despite having voted Tory all his life, because he is disgusted by Goldsmith’s campaign, which he describes as “the most repulsive I have ever seen as a political reporter”.
- Two Conservative MPs, Peter Bone and Tom Pursglove, have received a total of £41,000 from Grassroots Out (GO), the Brexit group they set up, for services they have provided to it, BuzzFeed has revealed. Leave.EU’s Arron Banks has said they should give the money back.
- Britain will welcome another 3,000 refugees under a new resettlement scheme, the government has announced. As the Press Association reports, the majority of those arriving will be children, with some accompanied by their families or carers. It was billed as the “largest programme in the world” for children from the Middle East and North Africa, but the move failed to satisfy demands for the UK to give refuge to youngsters who are stranded in Europe.
- Cameron will not face an investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog after a Labour MP complained that the prime minister had not declared a shareholding in his late father’s offshore fund. Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has decided not to investigate the matter dating back to Cameron’s time as leader of the opposition. Her office refused to explain the reasons for the decision.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
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3 politics books reviewed
One of the perks of my job is that I get sent quite a few new politics books. Here are three that have arrived on my desk recently that I would recommend.
Militant by Michael Crick: Crick first published this book in 1984, with a 1986 update, and it combines a history of Militant and its Labour party entryism with an account of how Neil Kinnock fought to expel its leaders from the party. It has been republished on the grounds that Jeremy Corbyn’s election victory last year makes it topical. In truth, the parallels between Militant and Corbynism are fairly slight and Crick, who has written a a new foreword and afterword to the 1986 edition, does not really pretend otherwise. But that doesn’t matter. This is a superb work of investigation, and an essential read for anyone interested in the history of Labour and the far left.
Sample extracts:
In the period from 1945 to 1970, when he joined the front bench, [Michael] Foot probably voted against his party more than any other Labour MP; on the Tory side only Enoch Powell rebelled more often ... What is so fascinating about the [Labour party’s] history is that rebels should so easily become leaders. As far as this story is concerned, it is particularly ironic that three of the main leaders of the recent campaign against Militant should themselves have incurred the wrath of party officials at one time or another: Denis Healey, the Communist ‘infiltrator’ in the 1930s; Jim Mortimer, member of a proscribed organisation; and, above all, Michael Foot.
Trotsky’s followers have suffered possibly more divisions in Britain than anywhere else. And what makes the progression particularly difficult to understand is that as one sect has replaced another, each has felt obliged to compose its name from a holy list of about 12 words, among them: Workers, Labour, Socialist, International, Revolutionary, Marxist, Communist, Militant, Group, Party, Tendency and League. According to the rules of the game of ‘Select-a-Sect’, you can pick any two or three from the above list and make yourself a new Trotskyist grouping. You might end up with the Workers’ International League, the Militant Labour League, the International Marxist Group, the Revolutionary Socialist League, the Revolutionary Communist party or the Workers’ Revolutionary party. All of these, and dozens more, exist now or have existed at one time or another.
Why Vote Leave by Daniel Hannan: Hannan, a Conservative MEP, has a good claim to be the most persuasive Brexit advocate in the country and this is in many respects the Vote Leave manifesto. Essentially Hannan is a Tory Bennite and, although he covers trade (in some detail) and immigration (marginally), mostly this is a critique of EU institutions and a plea for democracy and self-government. In the best Benn tradition it’s erudite and witty, with a clarity/simplicity (delete according to taste) that gives the book’s argument great force.
Sample extracts:
Eurocrats are rarely bothered by proportionality. In their view, ‘unregulated’ is synonymous with ‘illegal’. The idea that an absence of regulation might be the natural state of affairs finds little sympathy in the EU. British herbalists had been essentially self-regulating since a dispensation dating from the reign of Henry VIII, which gave them the freedom to trade without being prosecuted for witchcraft. In Brussels, this was regarded, not as an ancient liberty, but as a loophole that needed closing.
Pro-EU supporters often have a go at me, for example, for quoting our gross rather than our net contribution to the EU budget. I stand by my figures. After all, in every other field of politics, we quote gross rather than net figures. You can’t imagine a parliamentary candidate saying: ‘If you think about it, basic rate income tax isn’t 20p in the pound, it’s zero, because the entire sum is given back in roads, schools and hospitals.’
Being Red by Ken Livingstone: This is a collection of three long interviews with Livingstone (about his time at the GLC and as mayor, and about his life generally), two essays by Livingstone and one about his record as a patron of the arts. Anyone who has read his long autobiography, You Can’t Say That, won’t find anything hugely surprising here, but Livingstone is incapable of being dull, and if you fancy 180 pages of quintessential Ken, this is for you.
Sample extracts:
I remember Illtyd Harrington, my deputy [at the GLC] was barred from standing as an MP in 1964 because he was in CND. In those days, George Brown, who was deputy leader of the Labour party, and Sara Barker, Labour party national agent, would go out for lunch with MI5 officials who’d been given a list of all the newly selected Labour candidates, and they’d then be told who they should stop from standing. So MI5 was given a veto. Not many were stopped, but all this stuff was so outrageous.
I think [Boris Johnson is] a complete waste of space. Apart from being chancellor or prime minister, being mayor is the third best job in British politics and he hasn’t done anything. He could have set a completely new rightwing ideological agenda. If you think of my time at the GLC, we were pushing forward in all these new areas. It was the same with my mayoralty. But Boris hasn’t done that. He’s spent the time promoting himself, writing a couple of books, doing his weekly column for half a million pounds. The whole machine has been geared up to just promoting Boris.
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According to the BBC’s Norman Smith, there have been “multiple” expressions of interest in buying Tata Steel.
Im told there have been "multiple" expressions of interest in buying Tata steel
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) April 21, 2016
And here is a statement from Sajid Javid, the business secretary.
This government is committed to supporting the steel industry to secure a long-term viable future and we are working closely with Tata Steel UK on its process to find a credible buyer. The detail of our commercial funding offer is clear evidence of the extent of that commitment.
Ministers have visited Tata Steel sites across the country and the pride and dedication of the highly-skilled men and women working there is obvious to see. We have already delivered on energy compensation, on tackling unfair trading practices and on procurement of British steel, and we will keep on going further to support this vital industry.
Here is a Guardian video with extracts from the Cameron and Corbyn tributes to the Queen.
The Adam Smith Institute, a free-market thinktank, has criticised the government’s Tata Steel announcement. (See 1.38pm.) This is Ben Southwood, its head of research.
Stepping in to part-nationalise Port Talbot and other Tata Steel operations in the UK, as well providing hundreds of millions of pounds of debt finance, will make Britain poorer in the long run and keep steelworkers dependent on state aid for the foreseeable future.
If no buyer has approached at the market price, this means that the people who know the steel industry best have judged that Britain’s steel sector is not viable in the long run. Sweetening the deal with government guarantees could mean permanently propping up an unproductive industry when the world is moving away from the sort of blast furnace steel production that Port Talbot has.
There is an alternative: after the steel industry declined in Deeside in North Wales, an enterprise zone was created, which kick-started a revival in different industries with a future. Now, it is a booming site for advanced manufacturing of aeroplanes and cars.
If there is to be state intervention, it should at least support industries that have a long term future.
Government announces it's willing to take 25% stake in Tata Steel
The government has announced that it is willing to take a 25% stake in the Tata Steel business to help ensure that a new buyer for it comes forward.
Here is the Guardian’s story.
And here is some more detail from the Press Association.
The business department said the financial support package will be tailored to the purchaser’s strategy and financing needs.
It is expected that all, or the large majority, will be through the provision of debt financing. Other options include providing hybrid (convertible debt) or alternative forms of financing and supporting a purchaser’s financing by taking a minority equity stake of up to 25% to support any sale.
The government said it was actively working with Tata Steel and the British Steel Pension Scheme’s trustees to find a solution that will help minimise its impact on a potential purchaser, and potentially separate it from the business.
Corbyn's tribute to the Queen - Extracts
Here are some extracts from Jeremy Corbyn’s tribute to the Queen.
- Corbyn said, whatever people felt about the institution of monarchy, there was “overwhelming support” for her as an individual.
Today we’re talking about a highly respected individual who is 90 - and whatever different views people across this country have about the institution, the vast majority share an opinion that Her Majesty has served this country and has overwhelming support with a clear sense of public service and public duty. She’s carried out that duty with enormous warmth.
- He joked about being in favour of leaders of “a finer vintage”.
Many people across the country today will be wishing Her Majesty a very happy 90th birthday and these benches send our warmest greetings to add to that. May I say, as a relatively young whippersnapper, I’m fully in favour of our country having leaders of a finer vintage.
- He recalled what the Queen told the late Labour MP Mildred Gordon.
My dear friend Mildred Gordon, the former member for Bow and Poplar, who recently died aged 92 and whose funeral is tomorrow, met the Queen at the opening of the Docklands Light Railway.
The Queen asked Mildred how she was getting on as a newly elected MP and Mildred replied with the devastating honesty she replied to everything, she said she felt she had very little power to help her constituents. So the Queen took her on one side and with her customary wit said, ‘Once they find out you lot can’t help them, they all write to me’.
- He said the Queen had “lasted 12 prime ministers’.
There was, BTW, a delicious pause in Corbyn's speech as he mentioned the Queen having 'outlasted 12 Prime Ministers,' before glancing at DC.
— Tom Peck (@tompeck) April 21, 2016
- He joked about the Queen being a secret Arsenal fan (like Corbyn).
In 2006, she was due to open the new Emirates Stadium in my constituency but had to pull out due to an injury. Unfortunately Mr Speaker, this is a fate that has afflicted far too many of Arsenal’s squad in subsequent years. So we must congratulate her on her prescience.
[Catherine West, Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green] was then the leader of Islington Council and as the Queen could not attend the opening they were invited to Buckingham Palace and she accompanied the whole squad to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen. Now we know the Queen is absolutely above politics. She may be above football too but many locals harbour this quite secret view that she’s actually privately a Gooner.
Cameron's tribute to the Queen - Extracts
Here are some extracts from David Cameron’s tribute to the Queen.
- Cameron said the scale of the Queen’s service to the country was “truly humbling”.
As I said when we gathered in September to mark Her Majesty becoming our longest reigning monarch, for all of us in this Chamber who seek to play our part in public service, it is truly humbling to comprehend the scale of service that Her Majesty has given to our country over so many years.
- He said her service started even before she became Queen.
Her Majesty the Queen - our Queen - has lived a life of service that began long before her accession to the throne. In 1940, just 14 years old, the then Princess Elizabeth made her first BBC radio broadcast to bring comfort and hope to the children who had been evacuated from Britain’s cities during the war. At 18 she became the first female member of the Royal family to join the armed forces, joining the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic.
- He said she had honoured her promise to serve the nation.
At just 21 she made that exquisite and defining broadcast from Cape Town in which she uttered those famous words - saying and I quote: “My whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service.” Mr Speaker, never has such an extraordinary promise been so profoundly fulfilled.
- He quoted figures illustrating the extent of her longevity.
If you think of the vital landmark in completing our journey to democracy when everyone over 21 was finally given the vote in 1928. It means that Her Majesty has presided over two thirds of our history as a full democracy. In that time she has met a quarter of all the American Presidents since Independence. She’s provided council to no fewer than 12 Prime Ministers.And that is just in Britain.She has worked with well over 150 Prime Ministers in her other realms.
He also said she had made 266 overseas official visits to 116 different countries.
- He said he tried not to bore her about Europe.
Her first Prime Minister, in 1952, was Winston Churchill.Like him and all those that have followed, I can testify that she is quite simply one of the best audiences in the world. There is no-one else in public life that any Prime Minister can really speak to in total confidence. And no other country has a Head of State with such wisdom and such patience.
Mr Speaker, there are some who suspect that at times I may have put her patience to the test. In the play The Audience, the character who portrays me goes on and on about Europe for so long that she falls asleep! But I can guarantee this has never happened. I may not have kept my promise not to bang on about the EU in every forum but this is certainly the one where I try the hardest!
In the Commons the Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick is speaking now. He used to be vice-chamberlain of HM’s Household, the senior government whip who, among other duties, has to write a daily letter to the Queen telling her what is going on in the Commons. He says when he got the job he asked what she wanted to know. What wasn’t in the papers, he was told; in other words, the gossip!
Here is David Cameron’s YouTube message to the Queen.
Here is a link to a clip of Jeremy Corbyn delivering the Mildred Gordon anecdote about the Queen. (See 11.31am.)
Watch: Laughter greets Jeremy Corbyn anecdote about Queen https://t.co/4arsQJA0Wp via @BBCNews
— AndrewSparrow (@AndrewSparrow) April 21, 2016
The two opening speeches are now over. I won’t be covering the rest of the debate in detail, although if there is anything particularly good, I will cover it.
David Cameron’s tribute was fine, but people were much more interest in what Jeremy Corbyn had to say, given his rather his rather awkward record on royal matters. In the event, Corbyn’s speech was very good. He was warm, generous and funny, but without being in any way insincere. Corbyn, famously, is a republican, but he made a point of suggesting that it was possible to have reservations about the institution of the monarchy while still having admiration for the Queen as an individual.
Although Corbyn is a republican, it is also worth pointing out that he appears to have no ambition to get rid of the monarchy. He was asked about this in an interview with Andrew Marr after being elected Labour leader and he indicated that, given the monarchy has so much public support, he is not itching to overthrow it. He told Marr:
I’m not in favour of hereditary systems in politics. We do have a head of state who is hereditary. I guess the majority of people probably go along with that in Britain. That’s fine. Leave it there. No part of my election campaign was about this.
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Corbyn says Britain has become a better place since the Queen took the throne.
He is welcoming two 90-year-olds from his constituency to parliament today. One of them worked as as tax collector - raising money to pay for public services. And the other had another link with the Queen; he was a postman, delivering pictures of her head through letterboxes.
He says in 2006 the Queen was due to open the Emirates stadium in his constituency. But she had to pull out because of an injury. This is something that has happened to many members of the Arsenal squad.
He says the Queen is above politics. She may be above football too. But his constituents think secretly she is a Gooner.
He says the Queen has seen off 12 prime ministers.
And he wishes her a very happy birthday.
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Jeremy Corbyn is now speaking. He says many people will be wishing her a happy birthday, and Labour MPs fully support that.
He says, as a relatively young whipper snapper, he fully approves of having leaders of a certain vintage.
He says, whatever people feel about the institution of the monarchy, people have nothing but respect for the Queen.
And he quotes a story that was included in a Guardian obituary of the former Labour MP Mildred Gordon published earlier this week.
At the opening of the Docklands Light Railway shortly after her election in 1987 she told the Queen, who had asked how she liked the new job, that she felt she had little power to help her constituents. The Queen replied understandingly: “Once they find out you lot can’t help them, they all write to me.”
Cameron says there will be a service of thanksgiving for the Queen at St Paul’s in June, and a street party in the Mall.
For today, he just wants to wish her a happy birthday.
Cameron says the Queen has represented the country on 266 visits to 116 different countries.
The reach of her diplomacy is extraordinary, he says.
He say, when the King of Saudi Arabia visited Balmoral, the Queen became the only woman to drive him in a car. Cameron says he has heard that story from both of them.
Cameron says the Queen is the only person born in the UK who is neither English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish.
She is all of these things, and none of these things, he says.
David Cameron is opening the debate.
He recalls the speech the Queen gave on her 21st birthday when she dedicated her life to public service. He says never has a promised been so honoured.
MPs pay tribute to the Queen on her 90th birthday
MPs are now beginning a debate paying tribute to the Queen on her 90th birthday.
Other people might just send a card. But the House of Commons is going to mark the occasion by submitting a “humble address” to Her Majesty. Here is the text of the motion that they will debate.
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty to offer the heartfelt good wishes of the House on the occasion of Her Majesty’s ninetieth birthday, expressing its deep gratitude for Her Majesty’s lifelong commitment to the service of the country and the Commonwealth, and praying that Her Majesty may long continue in health and happiness.
It will probably get horribly saccharine ...
As my colleague Anushka Asthana reports, Jeremy Corbyn is been asked by six Laboour MPs to discipline Andrew Fisher, one of his advisers who reportedly claimed that the steel crisis had played well for the Labour party.
Here’s the story.
And here is an extract from the letter sent to Corbyn by the six Labour MPs: Tom Blenkinsop, Caroline Flint, Stephen Kinnock, Christina Rees, Angela Smith and Anna Turley.
We were absolutely horrified to read in the Sun last night that a member of your staff had gone to a Momentum meeting and described the steel crisis as ‘playing very well for us [Labour]’.
This statement is offensive and insulting, not only to the thousands of Tata steelworkers whose futures remain in the balance, but also to more than 3,000 people who lost their jobs on Teesside when the Redcar steelworks was shut last year. Our communities have been devastated and many lives ruined.
Alistair Carmichael, the former Scotland secretary, has been cleared of breaching parliamentary rules by the standards commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, after he approved the leak of a civil service memo on Nicola Sturgeon’s alleged support for David Cameron at the general election in a meeting with French diplomats.
Hudson ruled the leak in March 2015 was a ministerial matter it did not concern her. In a report she found:
Since Mr Carmichael did not receive the information in the course of his parliamentary activities, the allegations concerning his decision to authorize its disclosure fall outside my remit.
Her ruling ends official involvement in the so-called Frenchgate affair, after Carmichael narrowly won an election court hearing on the case in December.
But the political damage is far from over: the Lib Dems fear the local fall-out could see them lose their only two constituency seats in Holyrood on May 5 – the seats of Orkney and Shetland. The affair has hit support for both their candidates, Liam McArthur and Tavish Scott.
Updated
ONS figures show that George Osborne missed his borrowing target for last year, the Press Association reports.
George Osborne has been dealt a blow in his efforts to shore up the nation’s finances after official figures showed the chancellor missed his borrowing targets for the year.
The Office for National Statistics said the budget deficit stood at £74bn for the financial year ending in March.
The Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast borrowing to hit £72.2bn for 2015/16, meaning the chancellor overshot his borrowing target by £1.8bn.
Whittingdale says he wants to tread 'very carefully' on press regulation
In the Commons two MPs, Simon Danczuk and Paul Farrelly, asked John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, why he has still not introduced the recommendations from the Leveson inquiry saying newspapers that do not sign up to a royal charter-backed regulator will have to pay the costs of people who sue them for libel.
Farrelly said Whittingdale was breaking promises made to implement the Leveson inquiry proposals. He told Whittingdale:
In signalling already that he has no intention of taking this step, has the secretary of state reflected very much at all that he is not only thwarting the will of parliament, breaching a cross-party agreement, but also breaking very firm, clear and unequivocal promises made by the prime minister and his colleagues.
Whittingdale insisted that he had not ruled out implementing this part of Leveson - section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 - and that this was still under consideration. He was still having meetings on this, he said. He said there were two new press regulators in operation. But he said that he could not implement section 40 until a new press regulator was in place with official royal charter recognition, and that that was not the case.
In a reference to the newspaper stories about his own private life, Whittingdale also said he was minded to move “carefully”.
I would say that, having had my faith perhaps tested to the utmost, I still believe that press freedom is a vital, important component of a free society. We should tread very carefully.
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After the general election the government committed itself to keeping defence spending at 2% of GDP. The defence community welcomed that announcement, but this morning the Commons defence committee has published a report (pdf) saying the Ministry of Defence is only achieving this by changing the definition of defence spending. Here is its conclusion.
The report commends the UK government’s commitment to UK defence and finds that its accounting criteria fall firmly within existing NATO guidelines. However, those criteria have been amended to include several significant items not previously included when calculating defence expenditure. Since these items are instrumental in attaining the minimum 2% figure, the government can be said to have ‘shifted the goalposts’ in comparison with previous years. There is a risk that the promise of new money to defence could be undermined by the inclusion of items in the re-calculation of defence expenditure that previously had not fallen within the MoD budget.
In response, the MoD said it would be wrong to say there was no new money going on defence.
When defence spending will increase by £5bn over this parliament, it is nonsense to suggest there is no new funding. Our plans will deliver more ships, more planes, more troops at readiness, better equipment for special forces, and more on cyber to help keep Britain safe.
That is the main row running on what is a relatively quiet morning politically. Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, takes questions in the Commons. Simon Danczuk is due to ask him about the Leveson inquiry.
9.30am: The ONS and the Home Office publish quarterly crime figures.
10.15am: Robert Goodwill, the transport minister, is questioned by a Lords committee about the safety of drones.
11.30am: David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn lead tributes to the Queen on her 90th birthday in a special Commons debate.
As usual, I will also be covering other breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime.
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.
If you think there are any voices that I’m leaving out, particularly political figures or organisations giving alternative views of the stories I’m covering, do please flag them up below the line (include “Andrew” in the post). I can’t promise to include everything, but I do try to be open to as wide a range of perspectives as possible.
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