Afternoon summary
- NHS bosses have warned ministers they will have to tear up guarantees on waiting times and deny patients new drugs next year because they have been given too little money. As Denis Campbell reports, the government’s refusal to give the NHS the extra funds it said it needed in last week’s budget mean that key waiting time targets – on A&E treatment, cancer care, non-urgent hospital operations and ambulance arrival times – can no longer be met from April, NHS England made clear. In an escalation of its public dispute with ministers over what the NHS can afford to do, it also said it would ignore recommendations to improve patient care made by the National Institute for health and Care Excellence (Nice), because it does not have the money or staff to implement them.
- Theresa May has said she is backing visions for social reform and transformation in the Middle East, as she announced a £90m cash injection for Jordan to help its economic stability in a speech in Amman.
- Labour has accused the government of breaking its promise to soften the impact of controversial disability benefits cuts. Shadow disabilities minister Marsha De Cordova said cuts to employment and support Allowance (ESA) were only justified through “an effective work and health programme”. Her comments came as work and pensions secretary David Gauke outlined further details about the flagship strategy, which has pledged to help get a million more disabled people into work over the next decade. Theresa May said the strategy shows the government is “determined to break down the barriers to employment facing disabled people”. De Cordova, responding to a statement from Gauke in the Commons, said:
You will remember when the government cut £1,500 a year from disabled people through slashing the employment and support allowance. This was justified through an effective work and health programme. Today’s statement is clear evidence that they have broken this promise.
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The Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, has said there should be “agreement not imposition” between the UK and Welsh governments on the sharing of powers after Brexit. Speaking after a meeting with Damian Green, the first secretary of state, Jones, who previously described the EU withdrawal bill as a “crude power grab”, said the two sides had not reached agreement but progress had been made. He said:
There were good discussions about future frameworks, how powers would work across the UK. We are not in a position to support the withdrawal bill yet because of the elements of it that affect devolution, but there was acknowledgement that there was an opportunity for the UK government to consider our amendments as the bill goes through parliament.
There should be agreement not imposition. We understand what the UK government is trying to do and we share the same destination, but either they do it through imposing rules on the rest of us or they do it by us all agreeing.
- Robert Chote, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, has denied that the OBR is biased against Brexit. Giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee, and responding to a question from a Tory MP who said people thought it predicted Brexit would slow growth because it was biased against Brexit, Chote said accusations of bias were “without any foundation whatsoever”. The FT (paywall) has more.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
On Radio 4’s PM programme Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to the US, and Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s communications director, are speaking about Theresa May’s response to President Trump. They both said they thought she got it about right, and that it would have been counter-productive for May to have attacked Trump more aggressively.
Meyer said he could not recall a British prime minister rebuking an American president in the way May did in public in his lifetime.
But Meyer and Campbell both said they thought it was a mistake for May to offer Trump a state visit as quickly as she did.
Updated
Damian Green, the first secretary of state, has published a written ministerial statement correcting something he said at PMQs yesterday when he deputised for Theresa May. He told MPs the government spends £90bn a year on disability benefits. But the figure is £50bn, Green says in his statement.
Jeremy Corbyn has been revealed as the latest cover star of men’s magazine GQ. British GQ tweeted a photo of its January/February issue cover, which features the Labour leader in a dark Marks & Spencer jacket and red tie, the Press Association reports. The issue has been billed a “2018 Election Special” and carries the headline “Jeremy Corbyn’s hostile takeover”. His appearance marks a change in direction for the magazine, which has featured the likes of Liam Gallagher, Alec Baldwin, Cara Delevingne and the Duke of Cambridge on the cover this year.
Corbyn on the front page of GQ magazine. Imagine saying that when he was 20+ points behind in the polls 7 months ago.... pic.twitter.com/t1sc36VfhS
— Shehab Khan (@ShehabKhan) November 30, 2017
Updated
According to Sky’s Darren McCaffrey, Foreign Office officials told the Irish government to ignore what Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said about Brexit when he visited Dublin recently. Here is McCaffrey’s story. And here’s an excerpt.
Sky News has learnt that Foreign Office officials told Ireland’s government “not to listen to whatever he had to say” ahead of Johnson’s visit to Dublin a few weeks ago.
Extraordinarily, officials in Whitehall were very open with their counterparts in the Irish capital to “ignore the public utterances” of Britain’s chief diplomat.
The Foreign Office has not commented.
Penny Mordaunt, Britain’s new international development secretary, is to place a commitment to tackling discrimination against disabled people at the heart of the government’s development strategy, my colleague Karen McVeigh reports.
Ireland’s newly installed deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, has said the EU will not “abandon” Dublin and force it to veto progress of Brexit on its own if a satisfactory deal on the Irish border is not on the table by Monday’s deadline.
He told MPs in the Dail there was “a very strong understanding across the 27 EU states in relation to what is required” in order to get talks over the line into the second phase of negotiations.
He said the decision on whether to move to the next stage or not was of “real historic significance” to Ireland. He said:
This is about permanent change in the relationship between Ireland and Britain and within this island.
Coveney who was promoted to the post of tanaiste on Thursday was responded to calls by the Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald to use Ireland’s veto if necessary.
He said Ireland had been consistent in its demands that there was no regulatory divergence over the Irish border as a result of the UK pulling out of the EU.
“What perhaps has changed is the expectation of others that Ireland might change its position,” he said in reference to the UK.
Robert Wood Johnson, the US ambassador to London, has been inviting people to submit questions to him on Twitter. (He calls it #AskWoody).
Here’s a flavour of the questions he’s been getting.
The US ambassador in London is holding an #askwoody session. It's going pretty much as you would imagine. https://t.co/LDD7gx8dcc pic.twitter.com/B6moKWEzRs
— Henry Mance (@henrymance) November 30, 2017
And he seems to have got the message. He posted this earlier.
I wanted you to #AskWoody. Thank you for your questions and feedback. I have relayed your concerns to Washington. The U.S. & UK have a long history of speaking frankly with each other, as all close friends do. Our relationship is strong, vital and enduring.
— Ambassador Johnson (@USAmbUK) November 30, 2017
Two Brexit books reviewed
Last year a lot of books were published about the EU referendum. I summarised some of the best ones here. But the Brexit books are still coming, and over the last few weeks two particularly good one have landed on my desk. Here they are - both strongly recommended.
The Lure of Greatness by Anthony Barnett: Barnett, director of Charter 88 and a founder of openDemocracy, has spent his life campaigning for democratic change from the left only to find that, when the moment of seismic, anti-elitist, constitutional upheaval did arrive, it was in the form of Brexit, and from the right. This is his attempt to make sense of it. It is not a campaign book; it’s about the political forces that explain what happened, and it is remarkable in its reach. Barnett is particularly interested in Brexit as a consequence of England’s lack of self-government (“England-without-London” voted 55% leave, he points out), but he ranges very widely, covering neoliberalism, Iraq, Blair’s constitutional reforms and even Princess Diana (an early exponent of “celebrity populism”, he argues.) Some of his judgements are probably too harsh, but overall this is a dazzling, all-encompassing, big picture analysis of the Brexit vote, easily the best of its kind in print, brilliantly written and endlessly thought-provoking. Do read it.
Sample quotes
Unlike all other parts of the UK and the EU, England has no government of its own. The researchers [for an IPPR report] surmised that there was a causal relationship: being deprived of a credible, representative power that clearly belongs to you, leads to anger with the most remote authority of all, which is blamed as the source of your powerlessness. Or to put it the other way round, you only feel comfortable within as large an international association as the EU if you feel directly represented by a government formed of your own primary identity. Within England this seems to be confirmed, as London with its mayor has lower levels of euro-resentment.
The government launched the campaign to remain by saying in effect: ‘We too are against the EU, but think it is in Britain’s selfish interests to remain.’ The rest of the booklet [sent to homes before the referendum] set out the advantages the UK could extract from membership while not being exposed to the risks of full-blooded engagement. In this way, the public was offered a choice between two varieties of hostility to Europe. A majority found the stronger brew more attractive. The UK walked out of Europe on two Big-British Eurosceptic legs. One was called leave, the other remain.
Brexit and Ireland by Tony Connelly: No other country will be more affected by Brexit than Ireland and Connelly, RTE’s Brussels editor, has written the definitive book on its plight. It’s subtitled “The Dangers, the Opportunities and the Inside Story of the Irish Response”, but the opportunities bit barely fills a chapter (UK banks relocating? Farmers benefiting if UK agriculture completely collapses?) and mostly this is a tale about a looming threat. Connelly covers the politics very well, but he also writes vividly, with colour and pace and detail, about the businesses and communities that will be affected. It’s a superb work of reporting, and a much needed one. Northern Ireland voted 56% remain. Yet the demise of the SDLP, and the fact that Sinn Fein refuse to take their seats, means that in parliament the region is just represented by the pro-leave DUP (think 10 joyless versions of Peter Bone) and a single independent. Northern Ireland’s remain concerns are not being heard at Westminster. Brexit and Ireland helps to explain them, and all MPs should read it as a matter of urgency.
Sample quote
It soon became clear [in spring 2017] Theresa May’s government didn’t actually know themselves what they meant by an ‘associative’ relationship [with the customs union]. One Irish official found himself at a meeting in the Department of International Trade, the engine room of Britain’s new buccaneering global-trade ambitions. Teething problems were evident. ‘The department has gone from a unit of 40 to 220,’ says the official. ‘There aren’t enough seats for people. They’re wandering around. It’s fairly chaotic. The vast majority are new, so a clear policy is by no means articulated. They state things that are total conundrums, things you can’t have, matter and anti-matter in the same sentence. We want to stay as close to the single market, but actually we’re not going to be really. We want to be part of the customs union, but we realise that what we say we want to do isn’t compatible with that either’.
Another Irish official was contacted by her British counterpart, who asked what she had been ‘hearing back’ from the EU about the idea of an ‘associated membership’. (This was before article 50 was triggered, so Britain could not engage directly with the EU.) She replied with some incredulity: “What am I going to hear? What does associated membership even mean? Like, what is it?’
Her counterpart replied: “Oh, right, Okay.’
Updated
Theresa demands an apology from the White House (the other Theresa)
A British woman has been on the receiving end of scores of tweets and phone calls after President Trump mistakenly tweeted at her instead of Theresa May. As the Press Association reports, Theresa Scrivener, who lives in Bognor, used her middle name to set up the account TheresaMay in 2009. She has been inundated with messages after Mr Trump directed a tweet at her on Wednesday night. The PA story goes on:
Speaking exclusively to the Press Association, Scrivener said she had received “huge numbers” of messages, adding: “If I wanted to be famous I would have gone on X Factor.”
“It’s amazing to think that the world’s most powerful man managed to press the wrong button,” she said.
“I’m just waiting for a call from the White House with an apology.”
Most of the responses on Twitter were from people offering their condolences, with many Americans apologising for their president.
“I’m just glad he was not contacting me to say he was going to war with North Korea,” she added.
Scrivener, 41, said the first she heard of the incident was when she woke at 4am to huge numbers of messages on her phone from reporters hoping to speak to her. It was not until a few hours later she saw the tweets from Mr Trump.
Speaking from her home on Thursday, she said: “I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. I was in bed by half 10 last night and oblivious to it all.
“It has been very surreal. I am laughing about it now but he is the one who sent the tweet and I have been inundated with calls.
“I haven’t been able to leave my house. I’ve been bombarded and been contacted by press from around the world.”
Scrivener said she wanted to stay out of the debate surrounding Trump’s conversation with the prime minister, but added: “He needs to think before he tweets. We - Theresa May and I - are so different. Our profiles are completely different. She runs the country, I’m a mum from Bognor.”
Scrivener’s account has just six followers compared with May’s 427,000.
A senior member of the Irish cabinet has said Ireland is still waiting for the British government to “put flesh on the bones” of a proposal to secure a frictionless border with Northern Ireland post Brexit.
Agriculture minister Michael Creed told RTE’s Sean O’Rourke programme that the clock was ticking and there was still no sign of draft working on a deal ahead of Monday when Theresa May has been asked to put forward her final proposals on the three key Brexit issues - the divorce bill, Ireland and EU citizens.
“It is now incumbent on the British government to clearly deliver a roadmap,” he said.
Sources say wording for the draft proposal is being circulated in Whitehall to satisfy Ireland’s demands that there is no “regulatory divergence” between the Republic and Northern Ireland. The proposal will succeed or fail on the wording - Ireland is looking for a guaranteed commitment that can be delivered in the second round of talks.
Talk of “regulatory alignment” between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland would give Ireland the highest degree of legal comfort but the alternatives “regulatory convergence” or “regulatory equivalence” are also acceptable, it is believed.
Earlier in Dublin, Ian Paisley, DUP MP for North Antrim, renewed his attack on Ireland’s position that the region should stay in the customs union and the single market even if the UK withdraws on exiting the bloc.
He said Ireland should stop “shouting about” the border and the Good Friday Agreement and talking about “doom and gloom” and instead work with the UK to get a solution.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Paisley said he would “love to encourage” the Republic to leave the EU along with the UK but he that respected the decision to stay.
Paisley warned that any efforts to “trip up” the UK as it left the EU would have repercussions.
He was commenting less than a day after telling a parliamentary committee that Ireland had been acting “disgracefully” in relation to the Northern Ireland question.
UK ambassador in Washington confirms he complained to White House about Trump's tweets
Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador in Washington, has confirmed that he complained about President Trump’s Britain First tweets to the White House. He has posted this on Twitter.
British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which seek to divide communities & erode decency, tolerance & respect. British Muslims are peaceful and law abiding citizens. And I raised these concerns with the White House yesterday.
— Kim Darroch (@KimDarroch) November 30, 2017
The Labour MP Wes Streeting wasn’t impressed by what Theresa May said in her Q&A.
Barely any rebuke and the honour of a state visit remains. Pathetic. If you can’t even stand up for yourself @Theresa_May how can you stand up for Britain? pic.twitter.com/5A6AhqtpXS
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) November 30, 2017
May says Trump 'wrong' to retweet tweets from far-right group Britain First
Here are the main points from Theresa May’s Q&A.
- May said that President Trump was “wrong” to retweet tweets from the far-right group Britain First. Describing it is a “hateful organisation”, she said what Trump did was “the wrong thing to do”. She said:
Britain First is a hateful organisation. It seeks to spread to division and mistrust among our communities, it stands in fundamental opposition to the values that we share as a nation - values of respect, tolerance and, dare I say it, just common British decency.
On the issue of radical Islam, British Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding people who have themselves been the subject and victims of acts of terror by the far right. There are those who conduct acts of terror in the name of Islam, but it is not in the name of Islam. And as prime minister I am very clear about the priority that I give to dealing with the challenge of the threat of terrorism, and that’s dealing with the threat of terrorism and and extremism from whatever source they come ...
The fact that we work together does not mean that we are afraid to say when we think that the United States have got it wrong and to be very clear with them. And I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.
Her wording was virtually identical to the wording her spokesman used at the Number 10 lobby briefing yesterday. She did not resile from what was said yesterday in any way, but she did not develop her criticism either.
- She confirmed that no date has been set for Trump’s state visit to the UK, implying that it will not be happening soon. Asked if the visit should go ahead, she just said:
An invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted. We have yet to set a date.
- She sidestepped a question about whether Trump was a fit person to be allowed to meet the Queen. This question was included in the question about the state visit, but May did not address it in her reply.
- She refused to comment on Trump’s decision to post a further tweet criticising her personally. (See 9.10am.) She did comment on the substance of Trump’s tweet, the claim that the UK isn’t taking terrorism seriously (see below), but she would not comment the fact that Trump was using Twitter to rebuke an ally in public. She was asked twice specifically about this, and both times she replied by saying she had already made her views on Trump’s tweets clear. For example, in her first reply, she said:
I have made my position clear on the tweets I have seen from President Trump.
But at that point she had only commented on the Britain First tweets, not the overnight tweet about herself. (The ‘I’ve answered that already’ response, when you haven’t, is a classic politician’s way of avoiding a difficult question.)
- She insisted that the UK-US relationship was “enduring”. She said:
Let me be clear about the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. This is a long-term special relationship that we have. It’s an enduring relationship that is there because it is in both our national interests for that relationship to be there. And as prime minister’s I’m clear that that that relationship with the United States to continue. I think it is in the interests, both of the United Kingdom and of the United States and of the wider world.
- She rejected the claim that she was not taking terrorism seriously. This was what Trump was suggesting in his overnight tweet. On this point, she said:
Of course, as I said, we take the need to deal with the terrorist threat very seriously. That’s about what we do domestically in the United Kingdom. It’s also about what we do elsewhere in the world, such as the work I saw yesterday in Iraq.
- She said no cabinet minister would retweet Britain First tweets. Asked if she would sack a cabinet minister who did what Trump did, she replied:
I have absolute confidence that my cabinet ministers would not be retweeting material from Britain First.
- She said she was not a prolific tweeter herself. In response to one of the questions about the overnight Trump tweet, she said:
Just to be clear, I’m not a prolific tweeter myself, as you may have seen, and that means I don’t spend all my time looking at other people’s tweets. But when I feel that there should be a response, I give it. And I have given it to President Trump’s tweets.
Updated
May has now finished.
If anyone was hoping for a Love Actually moment, they will have been disappointed. May did not resile from the Downing Street criticism of Trump issued yesterday, but she did not take it any further either - and seemed anxious to change the subject as quickly as possible.
I will post a summary soon.
Updated
Q: Would you sack a cabinet minister who retweeted something from Britain First?
May says she has “absolute confidence” that her ministers would not do that.
Q: How did you feel when you saw Trump’s recent tweet?
May says she is not a prolific tweeter. She does not spend a lot of time looking at Twitter. But she has made her views clear.
Q: Do you think Trump is a supporter and enabler of far-right groups?
May says we must all take the far right seriously. She has commented in the past on the far fight in America.
Q: Trump also tweeted that you should keep out of his business. Is that acceptable?
May says she want the US-UK relationship to continue. It is good for the world.
Q: Will the state visit go ahead? Is Trump a fit person to meet the Queen?
May says the invitation has been extended and accepted.
May's Q&A
May is taking questions.
Q: You have talked about online extremism. What do you think about President Trump spreading hate speech on Twitter, and what will you do it?
May says Britain First is a hateful organisation. It stands against common Britain decency.
She says Muslims have been the victims of far-right terrorism.
As home secretary and prime minister, she has been confronting terrorism, wherever it comes from.
She says she works together with the US. But she is not afraid to say when they have got something wrong. And rewtweeting Britain First is wrong, she says.
This is from Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser in the Obama White House. He is commenting on a tweet from Sadiq Khan. See 10.13am.
The harm Trump is doing to our closest alliances makes us less safe. It also makes us an embarassment around the world - exactly what he falsely accused Obama of https://t.co/ravnW5guQ3
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) November 30, 2017
In her speech Theresa May says Brexit does not mean the UK is stepping back from the world.
To those who ask if the United Kingdom is in danger of stepping back from the world, I say: nothing could be further from the truth.
We understand that we best defend our values, our interests and our way of life by working together with our international partners to uphold the international rules-based system.
This could be seen as a response to what Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said about the Brexit vote and European security yesterday.
Theresa May has just started giving her speech in Jordan. I will cover the speech when we’ve seen the full text, but I will be covering the Q&A as it happens.
Britain’s ambassador to the United States has conveyed the government’s concerns to the White House over Donald Trump’s promotion on Twitter of material created by far right group Britain First, the Guardian understands. Here is my colleague Rowena Mason’s story.
Amber Rudd's urgent question on Donald Trump - Summary and verdict
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, handled that UQ rather well. The government’s intention has been to de-escalate the public row with President Trump, without withdrawing the criticism expressed yesterday, by stressing that UK-US relations go beyond individuals. That is the approach Justine Greening took on the Today programme (see 9.10am), that was the line coming out of the lobby briefing (see 11.57am), and that was the argument Rudd adopted.
But, even though Rudd did not really go any further in criticising Trump than Number 10 yesterday, she expressed her disapproval with conviction. Theresa May always sounds nervous saying anything remotely disobliging about Trump, but Rudd sounded as though she meant it. She also dropped hints to MPs that she, personally, would like to go further.
Here are the main points.
- Rudd seemed to confirm that Trump’s state visit has effectively been postponed until further notice. This is not especially surprising, because it has already been revealed that Trump does not want to visit the UK until he can be sure of a warm welcome. Many MPs said the visit should be cancelled altogether. In response, Rudd repeatedly used the same formula. She said:
An invitation for the visit has been extended and accepted, but the dates and the precise arrangements have yet to be agreed.
But she made a point of thanking the MPs who asked these questions, implying that she was at least sympathetic. And she adopted the same response to the Labour MP Kevin Brennan who suggested that, given the Queen’s age, the royal wedding next year and the birth of another great-grandchild on the way, the government should use these as reasons for announcing the postponement of the visit, for three years.
- Some MPs called for Trump to be banned from the UK in the light of his decision to retweet far-right, Islamophobic propaganda. Chris Bryant, a former Labour foreign office minister, even suggested Trump should be arrested if he came to the UK. Bryant said:
I say to the home secretary, it is no good saying ‘we’ve been robust’. You’ve been robust before. He is a repeat offender. And it will go on and on and on. You cannot stand up to this kind of action, you cannot stand up to horrible racism, or pretend to do so, and invite the man in through the front door.
In the past, and quite rightly, the prime minister when she was home secretary said homophobes and racists who will stir up hatred in this country will not be allowed in this country and if they come to this country, they will be arrested. That is what should happen in this case and the home secretary knows it. Just say it.
And the Labour MP Naz Shah said:
No modern American president has promoted inflammatory content of this sort from an extremist organisation. Not only has the commander-in-tweet done this, he has defended it, publicly chastising the British prime minister for her comments. Putting aside the question of a state visit, should he even be allowed to enter our country, because unprecedented actions require unprecedented responses.
Khalid Mahmood, a Labour foreign affairs spokesman, also suggested that, if a Muslim leader was “promoting hatred” in the way Trump was, he would be banned from the UK.
Rudd brushed aside calls for Trump to be excluded from the country, but she said the government had expressed “absolute clarity” in terms of its criticisms of Trump.
- Rudd suggested that Trump should give up Twitter. In response to a question from the Tory MP Peter Bone, who suggested the “world would be a better place” if Trump deleted his Twitter account, Rudd replied:
It’s interesting to note [Bone’s] advice regarding Twitter accounts - I’m sure many of us might share his view.
And when the Tory MP Tim Loughton said that if Twitter was serious about fighting hate crime online, Rudd replied:
I am sure that the chief executive of Twitter will have heard the interesting suggestions from [Loughton] and we will leave it to them to decide what action to take.
- Some MPs suggested Twitter and social media were bad for democracy. The most striking interventions on this theme came from Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, and Philip Hollobone, a Conservative. Cooper said:
Britain First gets is succour from spreading its poison and its extremism online. That is how it works and the president of the United States has just given it a rocket boost in promoting hatred in our communities. Online is where the new battle for democracy is being fought and the prime minister has rightly challenged Putin’s Russia for what she described as “seeking to weaponise information, to plant fake stories, in an attempt to sow discord” ... We know from the plaque behind us [commemorating Jo Cox] and from our own history where the spread of extremism leads.
And Hollobone said:
For politicians, tweeting encourages the transmission of half-formed ideas, instead of listening to the developed arguments of others. It prompts a culture of instant reaction instead of considered thought. And it provokes people to immediate outrage instead of pauseful reflection.
Rudd agreed with Hollobone about it being important for politicians to pause and reflect before posting tweets.
- John Bercow, the Commons speaker, took the unusual step of denouncing Trump himself. The speaker does not normally intervene in debates, or express any view on what MPs are discussing. But at the start of proceedings Bercow explained why he was keen to allow the urgent question. He said:
I thought the House would want urgently to express support for the victims of racism and bigotry and to denounce their purveyors.
- Rudd was unable to say if the government has asked Trump to take down his tweets. When asked by the Labour MP Liz McInnes if anyone had asked for the tweets to be taken down, Rudd said she would have to get back to McInnes with an answer.
- Rudd reaffirmed the government’s belief that Trump was “wrong” to retweet the Britain First tweets. Describing Britain Firs as “an extremist organisation which seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which spread lies and stoke tensions”, she said:
President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet videos posted by the far-right group Britain First.
Rudd also said the UK would continue to speak “freely and frankly” to the US.
- Rudd did not comment directly on Trump’s overnight night. She criticised his Britain First tweets, but did not express a view about his overnight tweet criticising May personally.
Updated
No 10 responded to Trump’s tweet by defending Theresa May’s record on tackling Islamist extremism. The prime minister’s official spokesman offered no further criticism of Trump, stressing instead the “close and special relationship” between the UK and US.
Asked for May’s response to Trump’s tweet, he said:
Firstly I should say that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country are law abiding people who abhor extremism. The PM has been clear where islamist extremism takes place it should be tackled head on and we are working hard to do that both at home and internationally including with our US partners.
For an example of that I would point you to the work the PM is doing with the US president and President Macron and others to get terrorist content removed from the internet as quickly as possible.
He also insisted Trump’s state visit would go ahead, saying: “The offer of a state visit has been extended and accepted and we will set out more details in due course.”
Updated
The UQ has finished.
Bercow thanks Rudd and Abbott for being present “on this important occasion”. And he thanks MPs for being here too.
I will post a summary soon.
The Labour MP Liz McInnes asks if anyone in government has asked for the Trump retweets to be taken down.
Rudd says she will get back to McInnes with an answer on that.
Updated
Labour’s Rupa Huq says May said she would not allow people who were “not conducive to the public good” to come to the UK when she banned a hate preacher as home secretary. Why can’t the government ban Trump?
Rudd says the government is very serious about tackling extremism.
She says she does not comment on individual exclusion cases.
Labour’s Tony Lloyd asks how he could explain to constituents that there is a national interest in inviting Trump for a state visit.
Rudd says the invitation is justified because the British and American people have such a close and special relationship.
Labour’s Barry Sheerman says, if Trump is allowed to visit the UK, there will be protests “unprecedented in this country”.
Labour’s Kevin Brennan says he thinks he has a solution for the government. The Queen is getting older, she has a royal wedding to looking forward to next year, and the birth of another great-grandchild to look forward to. Wouldn’t it be fair to announce that the state visit is being postponed - perhaps for three years.
Rudd repeats the point about a date for the visit not being set, but she thanks Brennan for his suggestion.
Updated
Laboru’s Chi Onwurah says Muslims in her constituency will have seen Trump’s tweets as an attack on them. She says Trump is not accountable to the government, but the government does have power over social media companies. What is it doing to stop them spreading extremism.
Rudd says many Muslims will agree with what Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, said about Trump. (See 9.24am.)
The Conservative MP Steve Double says he does not understand how the president has time to trawl through Twitter.
Labour’s Chris Bryant says homophobes and extremists who come to this country should be arrested. That is what should happen in this case, he says.
Rudd says the government has criticised Trump for what he did.
Labour’s Naz Shah says when Theresa May was home secretary she banned extremists from visiting the UK. She says Trump has the support of the Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke. She says this is unprecedented, and she suggests Trump should be banned from coming to the UK.
Rudd says the government has made its views clear. She does not comment on individual exclusion cases, she says.
Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake says that his party wants to see the state visit cancelled.
Rudd urges MPs to remember the importance of the relationship with the US generally.
Philip Hollobone, a Conservative, says politics and Twitter is a toxic mix. For politicians, it encourages the spread of half-formed thoughts. And it encourages people to focus on instant outrage, not reflection. How has Twitter improved politics?
Rudd says that is too big a question for today. But she says people should reflect before they press the Twitter button.
Rudd’s comments on the state visit are being taken a hint that it is being postponed. These are from the Telegraph Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope.
Amber Rudd says Trump State visit invitation stands, but "we have yet to make the arrangements". Hinting that it is on ice???
— Gordon Rayner (@gordonrayner) November 30, 2017
BREAKING Amber Rudd hints at postponement of Donald Trump's state visit to the UK. "We have yet to make the arrangements," she tells MPs.
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) November 30, 2017
They may be right, although all the evidence suggests that the state visit was already on ice long before this week’s events. See 9.10am.
Labour’s Dennis Skinner says Trump is a “fascist” president. He says he will only respond to action. The government should cancel the state visit, he says.
Rudd repeats the line she has already used about the state visit offer being accepted, but the details not being arranged. But she thanks Skinner for expressing his view.
(Was that a hint that she would like to see it cancelled? Perhaps, but it is hard to tell.)
Updated
Here is the start of the Press Association story about the UQ.
Home secretary Amber Rudd has repeated Downing Street’s condemnation of Donald Trump telling MPs the president was “wrong” to spread the messages of far-right group Britain First on Twitter.
But the home secretary urged critics of the president to remember the importance of the trans-Atlantic alliance to Britain.
The government is facing demands for Trump’s planned state visit to the UK to be cancelled in the wake of his tweet which delivered a direct rebuke to prime minister Theresa May.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said May should cancel the visit and demand an apology on behalf of the British people from the president, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable branded Trump an “evil racist” whose invitation should be withdrawn.
Answering an urgent question in the House of Commons, Rudd denounced Britain First as “an extremist organisation which seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which spread lies and stoke tensions”.
She added: “President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet videos posted by the far-right group Britain First.”
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, says Britain First gets is succour online. Trump has given it a rocket boost. She says online is where the right against extremism is taking place. She says Trump will keep doing this. We know that, and we know from the plaque in the Commons commemorating Jo Cox where this leads. We must stand up and so no, she says.
Rudd says the government is standing up to this. That is why May has criticised Trump’s tweet.
She says she is getting internet companies to tackle extremism.
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Asked about Trump’s state visit, Rudd says the invitation has been extended and accepted. But the date and details have not been arranged, she says.
Rudd suggests Trump should give up tweeting.
The Conservative MP Peter Bone says people tend to listen to the advice of friends. Will the UK advise Trump to delete his Twitter account.
One of the advantages of having such a special relationship with the United States is when a friend tells you you’ve done something dreadfully wrong, you tend to listen.
And wouldn’t the world be a better place if the prime minister could persuade the president of the United States to delete his Twitter account?
Rudd says many MPs will share that.
- Rudd, the home secretary, suggests Trump should give up tweeting.
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Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, says Labour sees the US as the UK’s closest allies.
She says Trump’s decision to retweet the Britain First were offensive to all decent people.
On the question of the online activities of the 45th president, does the home secretary accept that the fact [he] chose to retweet material from Britain First is not just offensive to British people of Muslim heritage, it’s not just offensive to British people of black and minority ethnic heritage, it is offensive to all decent British people? It is also an attack on the values of this country.
Rudd says the government agrees. It will continue to speak “freely and frankly” to the US on issues like this, she says.
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Replying to Doughty, Rudd said that May had explicitly criticised Trump’s tweet. She said:
I know that [May] will always make sure that she calls it out where she see it.
What Boris Johnson said about Trump's use of Twitter
This is what Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said on Fox News earlier this year about President Trump’s tweets. It is the quote Doughty was referring to a moment ago. Johnson was responding to a question about how people outside the US saw Trump. He replied:
I think you’ve got to realise that the American president is just one of the huge, great global brands, and he is penetrating corners of the global consciousness that I think few other presidents have ever done. So his method of tweeting earlier in the morning, no matter how rambunctious those tweets may be, they are communicating with people. And, yes, a lot of people don’t like it. But a lot of people relate to it. And in an age when people have been turned off politics, it is more direct and it’s more communicative than a lot of previous presidents have managed.
Bercow intervenes. He says Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, is awaiting trial. He asks MPs not to say anything prejudicial.
Stephen Doughty is responding to Rudd.
He says Trump was spreading the tweets of a convicted criminal. By sharing these posts Trump was either racist, or incompetent, or unthinking, or all three.
This is the president of the United States sharing, with millions, inflammatory and divisive content, deliberately posted to sow hatred and division by - as the home secretary says - a convicted criminal who is facing further charges, who represents a vile fascist organisation seeking to spread hatred and violence in person and online.
By sharing it, he is either a racist, incompetent or unthinking - or all three.
He asks if Trump and the PM have spoken.
He says just days ago Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, heaped praise on Trump for his Twitter activity. Has he called in the American ambassador?
He says Twitter have not responded. Their response has been typically irresponsible.
Doughty says he loves America. His true grandfather was an American GI who came to fight in world war two.
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John Bercow, the speaker, says he granted this UQ because he thought MPs would want to express support for the victims of “racism and bigotry”. (This is unusual. He does not normally make a comment like this at the start of a hearing.)
Stephen Doughty, the Labour MP, rises to ask for a statement about
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, says Britain First is a hateful group. It stirs hatred. The deputy leader is subject to a pending trial.
British people overwhelmingly reject the views of the far right, she says.
This government will not tolerate any groups that spread hate.
She says President Trump was wrong to retweet videos posted by Britain First.
She says she knows how valuable the US-UK relationship is. The unparalleled sharing of intelligence between the two countries is vital. That is the bigger picture here, she says.
Updated
Commons urgent question on Trump's tweets
The Commons urgent question on President Trump’s tweets is about to start.
Strong frontbench turnout in Commons for urgent question on Trump and Britain First. Alan Duncan here for Foreign Office; Amber Rudd, Brandon Lewis and Victoria Atkins for Home
— Patrick Kidd (@patrick_kidd) November 30, 2017
Some Labour MPs want the government to escalate its row with America over President Trump’s tweets.
Chris Bryant, the former Foreign Office minister, posted this on Twitter this morning.
The Foreign Secretary should summon the US Ambassador today to explain that Trump's standing by Britain First is unacceptable as it fosters hatred and unrest.
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) November 30, 2017
And Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, posted this last night.
So what has Gov't done? Has No 10 raised it w White House? Has Foreign Sec spoken to US Ambassador. Have they called on @POTUS to remove tweets, told him this woman has been charged w hate crimes in UK, or told him the damage he is doing? https://t.co/LQWIzgr9Fc
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) November 29, 2017
Ann Coulter, the right-wing US commentator who may have been the source of the videos tweeted by Donald Trump has admitted she did not know who Britain First were and did not attempt to check them out before spreading their messages online. As the Press Association reports, Coulter said there was no need for her to check the the far-right group’s messages, telling the Radio 4 Today programme: “A video is a video is a video.”
Coulter said:
I think [Trump] has only given as good as he gets. I think he has been verbally attacked from the mother country for a lot longer than he has been attacking Britain.
Coulter is one of just 45 people Mr Trump follows on Twitter, and it is thought he may have retweeted three videos posted by Britain First after seeing them on her timeline, PA reports.
Asked if she knew who Britain First - described by communities secretary Sajid Javid as “a vile, hate-filled racist organisation” - were before sharing their clips, she said: “No... I don’t think it really matters, it’s a video.”
Coulter confirmed she had not even checked the Twitter biography of Britain First leader Jayda Fransen, who originally sent out the message.
“I have a little tip for you,” she told interviewer Nick Robinson. “You need to spend a little time on Twitter and figure out that people retweeting videos are not researching the bios of the people who sent the video. A video is a video is a video. It’s not a fake video.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan says government should block any official visit by Trump to UK
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London who has himself been on the receiving end of a Trump Twitter broadside, has said that the government should block any official visits by the American president to the UK, not just the state visit. In a statement he said:
President Trump yesterday used twitter to promote a vile, extremist group that exists solely to sow division and hatred in our country.
Many Brits who love America and Americans will see this as a betrayal of the special relationship between our two countries. It beggars belief that the president of our closest ally doesn’t see that his support of this extremist group actively undermines the values of tolerance and diversity that makes Britain so great.
As the mayor of this great diverse city, I have previously called on Theresa May to cancel her ill-judged offer of a state visit to President Trump. After this latest incident, it is increasingly clear that any official visit at all from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed.
The prime minister of our country should be using any influence she and her government claim to have with the president and his administration to ask him to delete these tweets and to apologise to the British people.
Cancelling any official visit by Trump to the UK would be a much more extreme move. State visit, which involve the full panoply of royal ceremony (state banquets, 21-gun salutes, carriage rides down the Mall etc), are relatively rare. But the US president would expect to visit the UK for an official visit at least once during a presidency. There have been reports that a non-state visit is being lined up for 2018.
Theresa May is in Amman, Jordan, today, where she’s going to meet the king and prime minister, and make what has been billed as a major speech on UK policy in the Middle East in the post-Brexit era.
Much of this, of course, has been overshadowed by the furore over Donald Trump’s tweets, and his rebuke of May for criticising his apparent endorsement of the views of the far right Britain First group.
So far in Amman today the officials with May have rebuffed any attempt to seek a reaction from her to Trump’s overnight criticisms. It’s understood she won’t say anything until a brief press conference after her speech, due around lunchtime UK time.
May had presumably hoped to answer questions about her Middle East vision, Wednesday’s visit to Iraq and talks in Saudi Arabia, or even Brexit. Instead they are all likely to focus on one thing: does she regret her earlier cosying up to a US president now seen by some as openly sympathetic to the far right?
Labour says Trump's latest Tweet shows May's attempt to win him over failed
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said Britain needed to “stand up” to President Trump. In an interview with the Today programme, she also suggested that the offer of a state visit should be withdrawn, although she accepted that the involvement of the Queen made this awkward. She said:
The invitation wasn’t Theresa May’s invitation to make. The invitation technically comes from the Queen. Now it puts the Queen into a very difficult and invidious position of entering into politics.
If there is a way that this can be finessed, I would support that.
If he comes next year, a year which is supposed to be a really happy year for the royal family, what on earth are people supposed to make of it? Of course, the whole thing will be a total security nightmare if Donald Trump comes over.
In the past Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has been more explicit, saying in February the visit should be scrapped.
Thornberry said that Britain should “stand up” to Trump while at the same time being friends with America. She explained:
There are Americans who are our friends, we share many values with America. But we don’t share values with this man.
And it isn’t just on this issue, it’s a series of other ones - the way in which he has this constantly shifting position on Nato, trying to undermine climate change agreements, threatening the deal with Iran, from Syria to North Korea his only response to difficult situations is increasing belligerence.
This is not someone with whom we share values. Of course we need to work with America, but we need to be clear and stand up to him.
She said that she was “very pleased” to see Theresa May “stand up to [Trump] at last”, but she said that Trump’s latest Tweet showed how May’s attempts to ingratiate herself with him had failed. Thornberry said:
Isn’t it extraordinary that we have got ourselves into a place whereby, despite all the political capital [May] has expended trying to get a good relationship with this man, he is trying to humiliate and belittle her in the way that he is?
May managed to get herself invited to the White House for a meeting and press conference with Trump within days of her inauguration. What seems to have helped get her through the door so quickly was the fact that she arrived with an invitation from the Queen for a state visit. No American president has ever been offered a state visit so soon after taking office, and at the time May’s offer seemed to buy her some influence. But since then Trump has gone cold on the idea of a state visit, and now - as Thornberry’s words suggest - her January rush to Washington isn’t looking such a triumph.
This morning Brendan Cox, widower of Jo Cox, the MP murdered last year by a man shouting “Britain first” as he shot and stabbed her, posted this response to President Trump’s jibe at Theresa May.
You have a mass shooting every single day in your country, your murder rate is many times that of the UK, your healthcare system is a disgrace, you can’t pass anything through a congress that you control. I would focus on that. https://t.co/SNcqOZGvLQ
— Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox) November 30, 2017
In case you missed it, it is worth flagging up this tweet from Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, last night.
So POTUS has endorsed the views of a vile, hate-filled racist organisation that hates me and people like me. He is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) November 29, 2017
Bercow grants Commons urgent question on Trump's tweets
John Bercow, the Commons speaker, has granted an urgent question about President Trump’s tweet. It has been tabled by the Labour MP Stephen Doughy. A Home Office minister - perhaps Amber Rudd, the home secretary, but more probably one of her juniors - will have to respond.
The UQ will come at 10.30am.
UQ granted at 1030 to @SDoughtyMP to ask @AmberRuddHR to make a statement on the activities of Britain First, online hate speech, and the sharing of inflammatory content by the President of the United States, @realDonaldTrump .
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) November 30, 2017
Bercow has got form on the subject of Trump. Earlier this year he said that, if a state visit were to go ahead, he would use his power as speaker to prevent Trump being invited to give a speech in Westminster Hall.
'Presidents come and go' - UK cabinet minister brushes aside Trump's Twitter jibe at May
So, Theresa May woke this morning to find out that she now has something in common with Kim Jong-un. Like the North Korean dictator, the prime minister has joined the list of world leaders who have now been derided on Twitter by President Trump.
It certainly marks something of a first for the “special relationship”. Presidents and prime ministers have often rowed bitterly in private, and these disagreements have sometimes spilt out in public too, but getting slagged off on social media? God knows what Churchill and FD Roosevelt would have had to say about this.
Here is Trump’s comment. He was responding to the fact that Downing Street yesterday afternoon described his decision to retweet inflammatory anti-Islamic videos posted by the deputy leader of a fringe British far-right group as “wrong”.
.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017
And here is out story about the new Trump tweet.
May is in Jordan where she is giving a speech later, and so we will get her response’s to Trump’s response to her response to Trump’s original tweets in person around lunchtime. But we got an early sense of the UK government’s response from Justine Greening, the education secretary, who was asked about this on the Today programme. She argued that one individual (despite being president) would not undermine the close, historic relationship between Britain and America. She said:
In the end, our relationship with the United States has a longevity to it that will succeed long after presidents come and go.
I don’t agree with the tweet President Trump has made, but I have to say I also believe it should not distract from the agenda we have domestically and I don’t believe it should detract from the close relationship the UK has had for many, many years and will go on to have with America and the American people.
This is a president that behaves unlike any other in the nature of the tweets he puts out. I don’t believe that should be abe to undermine an overall important relationship with our country.
Trump’s latest Twitter outburst has also led to renewed calls for his state visit to be cancelled. Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, posted this on Twitter this morning.
New @realDonaldTrump insult to @theresa_may. She must end humiliating dependence of #Brexit Britain on goodwill of evil racist. Cancel visit
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) November 30, 2017
But this issue may be something of a red herring. Although Downing Street said yesterday the state visit invitation would not be withdrawn, no date has been set for the visit and there is no expectation that it is going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future. As the Guardian revealed in the summer, Trump has told May that he does not want to come until he can be sure he will get a welcome from the British public. On that basis it is safe to assume he will be waiting a while.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8am: Damian Green, the first secretary of state, holdsa meeting with Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister.
9.30am: Migration statistics are published.
10am: Justine Greening, the education secretary, hosts a summit on building skills in the workforce.
10am: Robert Chote, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, gives evidence on the budget to the Commons Treasury committee.
11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.
Around 12.30am: Theresa May gives a speech in Amman, Jordan.
3.30pm: Penny Mordaunt gives her first speech as international development secretary at a Solutions to Disability Inclusion event.
3.45pm: Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, speaks at the King’s Fund annual conference.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary 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’s Playbook. Here is the ConservativeHome round-up of today’s political stories. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
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