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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Cabinet mini-reshuffle under way as Johnson keeps Nicky Morgan as culture secretary – as it happened

Nicky Morgan gets a peerage and will stay as secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport.
Nicky Morgan gets a peerage and will stay as secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Closing summary

That’s it from us this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:

  • Nicky Morgan was reappointed culture secretary, despite having retired from the Commons. Morgan had said she wanted to spend more time with her family when she stepped down prior to the election. Reports suggested her return to cabinet would be an interim measure ahead of a larger reshuffle early next year.
  • Angela Rayner is likely to seek the deputy leadership of the Labour party, numerous sources suggested. The shadow education secretary is expected to give Rebecca Long-Bailey a clear run as the left-wing leadership candidate.
  • The government must not try to bully the BBC into submission, the broadcaster’s former boss said. Lord Grade, the former BBC chairman, made the comments on Radio 4’s World at One programme after it emerged that the government was considering decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee. Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, also said the BBC was partly to blame for Labour’s defeat at the election.
  • Arlene Foster said she hopes the Northern Ireland assembly will be up and running early next year. The DUP leader accepted the election had created a “momentum” towards breaking the deadlock.
  • The shadow foreign secretary threatened to sue a former parliamentary colleague for saying she once described leave voters as “stupid”. Emily Thornberry said she was involving lawyers because Caroline Flint had refused to retract her comments.
  • Downing Street held the first lobby briefing since the election. You can see a detailed summary of that here.
  • MPs have been arriving at Westminster following last week’s general election that brought a decisive Tory victory. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, addressed the new intake and undertook a mini-reshuffle of his cabinet.

If you’d like to read yet more, my colleagues Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason have tonight’s main politics story:

Boris Johnson will attempt to mark his election promise to “get Brexit done” by writing into law that the UK will leave the EU in 2020 and will not extend the transition period, Kate Proctor, Peter Walker and Daniel Boffey report.

As MPs begin to be sworn in at Westminster on Tuesday, the prime minister’s team is working on amending the withdrawal agreement bill so that the transition, also known as the implementation period, must end on 31 December 2020 and there will be no request to the EU for a further extension. A Downing Street source said:

Our manifesto made clear that we will not extend the implementation period and the new withdrawal agreement bill will legally prohibit government agreeing to any extension.

Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan is promoted to minister of state at the Ministry of Defence in place of Mark Lancaster. Her former role is taken by James Heappey, who becomes a parliamentary under secretary of state at the MoD.
  • Jeremy Quin moves from his role as a government whip to become a parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office.
  • David TC Davies becomes a parliamentary under secretary of state at the Wales Office and an assistant government whip. He will only be paid for the latter role.
  • Kevin Foster is appointed a parliamentary under secretary of state at the Home Office, replacing Seema Kennedy.
  • Robin Walker will move from being a joint parliamentary under secretary of state at the Scotland and Northern Ireland offices, to fulfilling the role solely at the latter.

And Downing street has announced that the following have been removed from their government roles:

  • Nick Hurd, who was previously a minister of state at the Northern Ireland office.
  • Colin Clark, who was previously a parliamentary under Secretary of State at the Scotland office and a government whip.

A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.

They cited an Independent Commission for Aid Impact report (pdf) that found responsibility for the UK aid budget was increasingly being spread around Whitehall, with departments spending more and more in “large middle-income countries”.

The charities, which include the British Red Cross, Ocfam GB and Unicef UK, said:

Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.

By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.

Boris Johnson has briefly addressed the new Conservative MPs at Westminster, telling them they were “here to get things done”. Flick Drummond, the new MP for Meon Valley, said he was “very inspiring”.

He talked about how excited he was to see so many of us here. He said we are here to get things done. We are here to get Brexit done.

Caroline Ansell, the MP for Eastbourne, said:

There is a real energy, a real buzz. Everybody is very keen to move forward.

Paul Howell, who took Tony Blair’s old Sedgefield seat, said:

It is a fabulous occasion. It is a new profile for the Conservative Party. We have got to deliver across the country.

Morgan has joked that leaving the cabinet is more difficult than leaving the EU after it was announced she would be made a life peer to allow her to carry on as culture secretary, despite having stood down as an MP.

The Labour MP, Jo Stevens, offers this criticism:

Senior Scottish National party and Lib Dem figures are equally scathing of Johnson’s decision to reappoint Morgan.

Layla Moran is the Lib Dems’ culture spokeswoman:

Updated

Labour’s Chris Bryant, a former shadow culture secretary, is somewhat unimpressed by Morgan’s reappointment.

However, as the Telegraph’s Asa Bennett points out, making someone a peer in order for them to serve in the cabinet is by no means unprecedented:

It also appears that Morgan may not be intending to stick around for long:

Updated

Here’s the letter Morgan wrote to her local party chair when she decided not to stand for election.

In the letter, dated 30 October, she cited the impact serving in the Commons was having on her family life and the abuse MPs receive as reasons not to seek re-election. Morgan said she “couldn’t commit to another five-year term” and that “now is the time for me to stand aside and be at home far more”.

Now, she will serve as culture secretary as a life peer.

Updated

Nicky Morgan remains as culture secretary

Nicky Morgan has been confirmed as the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, despite having stood down from the Commons at last week’s election. A No 10 spokesman has said:

The Queen has been pleased to signify her intention of conferring a peerage of the United Kingdom for life on Nicky Morgan.

Updated

The Irish foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, has held talks with the Northern Ireland secretary, Julian Smith, at Stormont.

He is meeting political leaders in Belfast over the next 24 hours before an all-party round table on Wednesday, when he said he hoped they could agree a plan to restore devolution and co-operation between the Republic and Northern Ireland. Coveney said:

Now is the time to get Stormont back up and running. We have had three years without any form of devolved government in Northern Ireland.

It is far too long and I think we have seen the consequences of that in terms of the polarisation of politics across Northern Ireland, not just amongst political parties but also within communities.

The one clear message I have got from the general election in Northern Ireland is that people have been putting pressure on all of the parties to get back to Stormont, to get back to work, to make decisions for Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland and, of course, the job of the British and Irish governments is to work together with the parties to put a foundation in place to allow that to happen, and we are running out of time.

What we have now is a very real window that all of us need to take and the meetings today, from what I hear, have gone well. Certainly, the meeting I have had with the secretary of state was very positive.

Coveney said Wednesday’s planned strike action by nurses represented a “reality check” for politicians.

Decisions need to be made in Stormont. It is a reminder to everybody that now is the time to get this done. We will work night and day before Christmas, and again in the new year, if necessary, to help the parties get it across the line.

Updated

Hart supported Johnson’s bid to be Tory leader in the summer, saying the party needed a “bolder choice, not without its risks, but the sort of choice which really engages people in the debate about the country… [in a way that is] eye-catching, visible and audible”.

On Brexit, Hart supported remain in 2016 and was one of the co-leaders of the Brexit Delivery Group of MPs who backed Theresa May’s deal over a no-deal Brexit and who were seen by many in the Tory party as moderates.

Speaking during the party leadership campaign, he said:

I see myself as an example of somebody who has been in a pretty different place from Boris during the whole Brexit process but who fully accepts that we must now move to a conclusion.

In February, Hart said the Tory party had staked its reputation on being able to deliver a Brexit deal.

Before entering the Commons, Hart served as the chief executive and chairman of the Countryside Alliance and campaigned against the hunting ban introduced by the Labour government.

New Welsh secretary named

Simon Hart, who previously served as a parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, is the new secretary of state for Wales, Downing Street announces.

Hart is the MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire and he replaces Alun Cairns in the ministerial role.

Updated

Here are three contributions to the debate about what Labour should learn from its election defeat from prominent commentators on the left.

  • Miatta Fahnbulleh, head of the New Economics Foundation thinktank, says in an article for the Guardian that Labour should not ditch its entire policy programme.

Whatever the final verdict, the Labour party will have to change if it is to reconnect with the broad coalition of voters it needs to win back power. But as it does this, it must not lose sight of the one thing it got right in this election. Labour was right to grasp the scale of the economic and environmental challenge the country faces and offer ambitious solutions. Against the backdrop of the longest squeeze in living standards for generations, economic growth that has passed many communities by, entrenched poverty and a climate emergency, Labour offered a manifesto that began to rise to the challenge. It contained flaws, but it would have undoubtedly begun the process of transforming our economy. Those eager to reject Corbyn would be wrong to abandon this ground as well.

As Labour members seek to make sense of what happened, they must also confront the reality that some of the people around Corbyn trampled over the ideals of Corbynism. They destroyed the moral standing of a lifelong anti-racism campaigner by choosing to interpret antisemitism as a factional issue rather than a moral one. They prevented the heir to Tony Benn fulfilling his commitment to member-led democracy by seizing control of selections for themselves. They brought bullying, threats and intimidation to the office of a man famed for being kind, gentle and polite. This is an unavoidable part of the story of Labour’s failure.

The truth is that the problems Labour faced cannot be disentangled from the question of leadership. Corbyn faced a barrage of attacks – that he tolerated antisemitism, supported the IRA and other terrorists, disliked the monarchy and didn’t support the armed forces – that were more ferocious than any other party leader in living memory. But the problem with Corbyn’s leadership was not the things outside his control, but those over which he had full power. While he reaffirmed the values of social justice and helped Labour to rediscover its radicalism, he was unable to rise to the challenge of one of the toughest jobs in public life.

  • And Paul Mason has posted his thoughts on the defeat in a Twitter thread. It starts here.

And here are his two final posts, the last of which includes a link to his 22-page pamphlet setting out his argument in more detail.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

The Press Association photographer Yoi Mok has some more pictures from Frank Dobson’s funeral.

Angela Rayner may duck Labour leadership contest and stand for deputy leader instead, MPs predict

I’ve now been told by three Labour MPs, and a couple of other party sources, that they expect Angela Rayner to run for the deputy leadership – though had no confirmation yet from Rayner’s camp.

The shadow education secretary had been widely regarded as a strong possible contender for the leadership, but has apparently decided to give her old friend and flatmate Rebecca Long-Bailey a clear run as the leftwing candidate – a gesture one colleague said was “sisterly”.

Laura Pidcock, another leftwing favourite, lost her North West Durham seat to the Conservatives last week.

Angela Rayner.
Angela Rayner. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Updated

Tim Farron has told the BBC that he won’t be standing for the Liberal Democrat leadership. He held the post between 2015 and 2017, but told the BBC that if he were asked to do it again, the answer would be a “definite, definite no”.

Updated

And this is from Fay Jones, the new Conservative MP for Brecon and Radnorshire. Jones is on the left. She is beside Virginia Crosbie (centre), the new Conservative MP for Ynys Môn, and Sarah Atherton, the new Conservative MP for Wrexham.

They are the first women to be elected as Conservative MPs in Wales.

Conservative MP Simon Hart speaking to a journalist on Whitehall. There is speculation that he may be appointed Welsh secretary.
Conservative MP Simon Hart speaking to a journalist on Whitehall today. There is speculation that he may be appointed Welsh secretary. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

From Olivia Blake, the new Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam

From the Times’ Matt Chorley

The Electoral Reform Society, which campaigns for a fairer voting system, has released figures saying 14.5 million voters are effectively “unrepresented” because they voted for a candidate who did not win. It says:

More than 14.5m voters are effectively ‘unrepresented’ according to the Electoral Reform Society, after 45% of voters rejected their local MP.

The number reflects the millions who did not vote for the local MP in their area, under Westminster’s ‘one-person-takes-all’ voting system. Under proportional representation, there are far fewer votes thrown on the ‘electoral scrapheap’, the ERS say.

The society are also highlighting ‘warped’ results, with a large majority won on a minority of the vote. The Conservatives’ vote share rose only slightly (1.3 percentage points), while their share of seats rose 7.4 points (to 56%).

Labour’s vote fell by 7.9 points while their share of seats fell by slightly more than that, 9.2 points.

The Liberal Democrats won 11.5% of the vote but just 1.7% of seats. The party’s vote share increased significantly but had a net loss of one seat. The SNP have 7.4% of seats on 3.9% of the vote.

Updated

Ian Lavery, the Labour party chair, says he has suffered abuse and harassment because he argued the party had to accept the result of the Brexit referendum.

And the Lib Dems have also been posing for a team photograph - which, given the numbers, was probably a bit easier to coordinate.

Here is the new cohort of SNP MPs.

Labour’s defeat is ‘big opportunity’ to move to centre ground, says Andrew Adonis

Stephen Kinnock outside the Houses of Parliament today.
Stephen Kinnock outside the Houses of Parliament today. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

An old joke in the Labour party is that, after every election defeat, the party promptly forms a circular firing squad. Labour figures never actually end up shooting at each other although, as my colleague Rowena Mason reports, today they are threatening to sue each other - or at least one of them is.

To add to the spirit of comradeliness, the Labour MP Stephen Kinnock (who represents leave-voting Aberavon and who was urging the party to back a soft Brexit, not remain) told the BBC’s Politics Live earlier that those in the party who backed a second referendum should apologise to pro-leave Labour supporters. And the party should choose a new leader who did not argue for a second referendum, he said. He explained:

I think it’s important that our next leader should be someone who didn’t back a second referendum, because I think that would send a very important signal that we understand where those leave voters are coming from and how alienated they felt by those in the Labour party who tried to preach at them that they somehow did not understand what they voted for in 2016.

But Andrew Adonis, the former transport secretary, Labour peer and passionate remain campaigner, told BBC News this afternoon that he thought it was not all over for the remain campaign. He said that, although the UK would now leave the EU next year, the remain cause was not “gone for all time” and that at some point in the future a party might campaign to rejoin the EU.

I don’t know about the next year or two, but because I don’t believe Britain will flourish long term outside the European Union, I think the case for rejoining will come back into British politics.

He said Labour should view its defeat as a “big opportunity” to elect a better leader.

Well, with all catastrophes come opportunities, and the big opportunity for the Labour party now is to position itself in the centre grounds of politics with a leader who is credible, who can hold the government to account, and who can do so in a way that makes people think that at the next election there will be a very real choice.

Asked to say who the new leader should be, Adonis said he had not firmly decided, but he said that he had “always been hugely impressed by Keir Starmer” (the shadow Brexit secretary, who won’t get Kinnock’s vote because he backed a second referendum) and that Starmer was fit to be prime minister.

Andrew Adonis
Andrew Adonis Photograph: BBC News

From my colleague Heather Stewart

Larry the Downing Street cat siting under the Christmas tree outside No 10 this morning.
Larry the Downing Street cat siting under the Christmas tree outside No 10 this morning. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

President Trump has called to congratulate Boris Johnson on his election victory, No 10 has said. A Downing Street spokesman said:

The prime minister spoke with President Trump, who congratulated him on the result of the general election.

They discussed the huge importance of the relationship between the UK and US, and looked forward to continued close cooperation on issues such as security and trade, including the negotiation of an ambitious free trade agreement.

Tony Blair arriving for the funeral of Frank Dobson at St Pancras Church in London.
Tony Blair arriving for the funeral of Frank Dobson at St Pancras Church in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Many senior Labour figures have been attending Frank Dobson’s funeral in London. This is from Alastair Campbell, director of communications at No 10 when Dobson was health secretary.

Jeremy Corbyn leaves following the funeral of Frank Dobson at St Pancras Church in London.
Jeremy Corbyn leaves following the funeral of Frank Dobson at St Pancras Church in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

From the Sunday Times’ Gabriel Pogrund

DUP's Arlene Foster says she hopes Northern Ireland assembly can revive early next year

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, has said she hopes the Northern Ireland assembly will be up and running early next year. Speaking after a meeting with Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland secretary, she said:

I listened very carefully during the election campaign and right throughout the election campaign there was a desire to get Stormont back up and running again. Therefore we are here to try to make that happen. I hope all the other parties will too.

Foster accepted the election had created a new “momentum” towards breaking the deadlock and reaching agreement on power-sharing.

I know it’s Christmas, it’s that time of the year again, we have been in processes before in and around this time of the year, but I very much hope that at the beginning of the new year we will have an assembly up and running and one that can deal with all the issues we have talked about today.

Foster, who said she did not believe a new assembly election was necessary before 2022, also stressed the need for an injection of money. She said reforms were required to ensure that any new executive was “sustainable”.

Arlene Foster with the DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson speaking to the media after talks with Julian Smith at Stormont House in Belfast.
Arlene Foster with the DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson speaking to the media after talks with Julian Smith at Stormont House in Belfast. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

This is from Mark Rutte, the Dutch PM.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Commons, taking to a journalist in Whitehall today. During the general election campaign he was virtually banned from speaking to the media by CCHQ after his insensitive comments about the Grenfell Tower victims.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Commons, taking to a journalist in Whitehall today. During the general election campaign he was virtually banned from speaking to the media by CCHQ after his insensitive comments about the Grenfell Tower victims. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland secretary, has been holding talks today with the five main parties in Northern Ireland - the DUP, Sinn Féin, the UUP, the SDLP and the Alliance party - about restoring power-sharing in the province.

Speaking a few minutes ago after those meetings, Smith said that every party had been “very, very positive” about doing what they could do to get the Northern Ireland assembly and the power-sharing executive back up and running. So it was a “very heartening” set of discussions, he said. He went on:

Probably the most positive thing is there’s going to be a number of bilateral discussions between the parties later today and tomorrow. And I would encourage that, because at the end of the day this is an issue for Northern Ireland parties to come together on. They’ve heard the message on the doorsteps. I think they’ve heard it loud and clear. And we need to get this done.

By “message on the doorsteps”, Smith was referring to the anger about the fact that the executive has been suspended now for almost three years. This partly explains why both the DUP and Sinn Féin, the two main parties in Northern Ireland who between them are responsible for the deadlock, saw their share of the vote go down in the election.

Sky News
Julian Smith on Sky News. Photograph: Sky News/Julian Smith

Updated

Don't try bullying BBC into submission, former corporation boss Lord Grade tells government

On the World at One Lord Grade, the former BBC chairman, warned the government against trying to bully the corporation. Commenting on the government plan (see 1.37pm) to consider decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee (a move that could reduce the BBC’s revenue), Grade said an independent report looked at this in 2015 and concluded the status quo should remain. “I cannot say any new factor that would justify the government reopening that debate,” he said. He went on:

What worries me is any government, whether it’s a Conservative government or a Labour government, using its legislative powers to threaten the independence of the BBC. I don’t like that and I would always oppose that and speak out, in the Lords or wherever, against any attempt to bully the BBC through the threat of legislation. I think the British public would be up in arms about that.

When asked if he thought that was what was happening, Grade said:

If the reports are correct, it feels that we could be moving in that direction, and I don’t like it at all. And I think any elected government should think very, very, very carefully before it attempts to bully the BBC into submission.

Grade said he also thought no prime minister would want to be remembered for destroying the BBC.

Michael Grade.
Michael Grade. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

At the morning lobby briefing Downing Street confirmed that it would consider decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee. (See 12.08pm.) There was no mention of this idea in the Conservative manifesto, but Boris Johnson disclosed it at a campaign event on a day when he was facing intense criticism for his response to questions about the boy sleeping on a hospital floor and CCHQ was anxious to find another story that might divert journalists.

Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, has been defending the idea in interviews this morning (although not on the Today programme, which still seems to be the subject of a No 10 boycott). He told Sky News:

We are going to look at the licence fee because we do think it is an unusual arrangement that it is criminalised. That’s putting a lot of pressure, which I think is unnecessary, on the criminal justice system.

It doesn’t seem sensible to me that many members of the public, including vulnerable people, are being taken to court.

He also said that under the current system people were “ending up in court for something that they wouldn’t in other walks of life, if they were paying bills to other companies and organisations”.

Updated

Mark Spencer, the government chief whip, arriving at Downing Street today.
Mark Spencer, the government chief whip, arriving at Downing Street today.
 Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Turning back to the BBC, the Evening Standard says in its splash that the corporation will respond to criticism of its election coverage by expanding coverage from outside London. In their story Joe Murphy and Sophia Sleigh report:

The Evening Standard understands that BBC chiefs are already discussing how they can respond to the unprecedented backlash from both sides of the political divide.

It is planning an increase in reporting and outside broadcasts from the North and Midlands, which revealed critical swings of opinion in the election, and other regions.

Insiders said it will not mean opening new centres or hiring a lot more staff, but will involve telling existing stars to get out of the capital city more often and put their ears to the ground in far-flung regions.

Thornberry threatens to sue Flint for saying she once branded leave voters 'stupid'

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary and a potential candidate for the Labour leadership, has threatened to sue Caroline Flint, a former parliamentary colleague, for saying that Thornberry once described leave voters as “stupid”. Thornberry said she was involving lawyers because Flint, who lost her seat in the election, refused to retract what she told Sky News yesterday alleging Thornberry had once told a colleague: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours.” Thornberry says this is a lie.

Updated

At the No 10 lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman also declined an opportunity to contest today’s Times splash that says the government is going to review the way the Ministry of Defence spends billions on procurement. Asked about the story, the spokesman said the government was committed to a wide-ranging review of foreign and defence policy. He said:

As the PM announced during the election campaign, the government will undertake a new integrated foreign policy, security and defence review which will extend from the armed forces to the intelligence services, counter-terrorism, serious organised crime, diplomacy and development. This will ensure we are making the best use of spending to ensure all our security forces are ahead of hostile powers, terrorists and organised crime.

The Times story points out that Dominic Cummings, who has resumed his role in No 10 as Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser, has described current MoD procurement as a farce. In its story (paywall) it says:

In a post published in March, before he joined the government, the former Vote Leave campaign director hit out at the programme to build the carriers, the second of which was commissioned last week. Calling the scheme a ‘farce’, he added that it ‘has continued to squander billions of pounds, enriching some of the worst corporate looters and corrupting public life via the revolving door of officials/lobbyists’. Scrutiny by MPs had been ‘contemptible’, he said, adding that the vessels ‘cannot be sent to a serious war against a serious enemy’.

Dominic Cummings (right) arriving at 10 Downing Street this morning,
Dominic Cummings (right) arriving at 10 Downing Street this morning, Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Updated

Downing Street lobby briefing – summary

I’m just back from the No 10 lobby briefing. It went on for quite a while, but it was not hugely illuminating. We certainly did not come away with any great new insights into the agenda of the new government.

Here are the main points.

  • The prime minister’s spokesman confirmed that the government would “start the process” of passing the Brexit withdrawal agreement bill before Christmas. It is understood that No 10 wants to hold the second reading debate on Friday, after the Queen’s speech on Thursday. But it would be unusual to hold a second reading debate a day after the Queen’s speech, and it is not clear yet whether the Speaker would approve this.
  • The spokesman said Boris Johnson had now approved the intelligence and security committee’s report in Russian involvement in British politics for publication. This is the report that Johnson refused to publish before the election, prompting speculation that he was suppressing it because it would be embarrassing to the Conservatives. This means the ISC is now free to publish it. But the ISC does not currently exist, because a new ISC has to be appointed when the new parliament meets, and so the report is not expected to appear until a new ISC is formed at some point in the new year. The spokesman declined to say exactly when the PM decided the report was fit for publication.
  • The spokesman confirmed that the government would review whether non-payment of the TV licence fee should be decriminalised.
  • The spokesman refused to say whether the withdrawal agreement bill due to be published this week would be exactly the same as the one given a second reading by MPs before the election. Asked about this, the spokesman said:

You will have to wait for it to be published but it will reflect the agreement that we made with the EU on our withdrawal.

  • The spokesman said the government would be aiming for “a Canada-style free trade agreement with no political alignment” in its talks with the EU on a post-Brexit trade deal. But he refused to say any more about the government’s strategy in those talks.
  • The spokesman refused to confirm that a no-deal Brexit at the end of the transition period was still a possibility. Asked to confirm that this was a logical possibility if the UK and the EU failed to reach an agreement by the end of next year, the spokesman just said that it was in the interests of both the UK and the EU to get a Canada-style trade deal.
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, has also given an interview to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire. In it, he partly toned down his criticism of the BBC. He said that he was not blaming it for Labour’s defeat. And he said that he treasured it. But he repeated his claim that some of its coverage was slanted against Labour. He said:

I’m suggesting that we treasure our public service broadcaster, the BBC, and in my opinion they have trespassed with regularity during the course of this campaign into an area that they should not trespass into.

We’ve had endless examples from the political correspondents of the BBC that we find very difficult to accept.

Derbyshire said McDonald’s use of the word “consciously” on the Today programme this morning (see 9.48am) implied he thought BBC reporters were deliberately slanting coverage to increase the chances of a Conservative victory. McDonald replied:

Well, when your senior political correspondent opines about the postal ballots, and says that the postal ballots are not looking good for Labour – we don’t look at postal ballots – how on earth could that opinion be expressed? And why is an interpretation on what is blind at that time being interpreted as not looking good for Labour?

Why is it that stories sent from Tory HQ are received by the BBC and turned into a factual story when the reality is that the Labour political activist did not punch a political adviser to Matt Hancock? Yet that was put out on the airwaves.

McDonald said Labour would be reviewing what went wrong with its campaign, and he said he hoped the BBC would review its coverage too.

In my view [the BBC has] been used and abused, and if we are not careful the rampant Tory party will dispense with the BBC, and sadly those who are currently in charge of it have nobody to blame for themselves.

But I treasure the BBC. It’s a bastion. And it’s really, really important that we hold our public service broadcaster close and make sure that it is not undermined. I’m afraid the way people have gone about their business during this election does not fill me with confidence.

I’m not saying for one minute that the BBC have caused the defeat. They didn’t. But I do want us to have some reflection about this important part of our society.

Andy McDonald
Andy McDonald Photograph: BBC

Updated

The Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds has criticised his colleague Andy McDonald for part-blaming the BBC for their party’s defeat. (See 9.48am.)

According to the Press Association, Sajid Javid, the chancellor, declared: “Welcome to the people’s government,” as he left 11 Downing Street this morning.

Sajid Javid in Downing Street this morning.
Sajid Javid in Downing Street this morning. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Updated

BBC 'played a part' in contributing to Labour's election defeat, says shadow cabinet minister

Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, told the Today programme this morning that he thought the BBC was partly to blame for Labour’s defeat at the election. In an interview with Justin Webb, McDonald said:

Don’t get me started on the media, Justin. I’m very worried about our public service broadcaster.

When Webb asked him if he was blaming the BBC for the fact that Jeremy Corbyn did not win, McDonald replied:

I am saying that they played a part. I’m really worried about the drift. You’ve seen the catalogue of criticisms that we’re making.

We’ve accepted that the print media are rained against us, but my goodness me. I’m going to look at us.

We’re the important part here. We got this wrong, but if the BBC are going to hold themselves out as somehow having conducted themselves in an impartial manner, I think they’ve really got to have a look in the mirror. We’ve got a lot to say about this.

Asked if he was saying the BBC “consciously” played a part in slanting coverage against Labour, McDonald replied:

Consciously, yes.

When you have a BBC presenter standing in front of a television camera saying ‘and Boris Johnson is on his way to a richly-deserved victory’.

McDonald seemed to be referring to the BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth, who during one live broadcast referred to Boris Johnson winning “the majority that he so deserves.” From the context it seemed obvious to many that she meant to say “the majority he so desires”.

Webb put it to McDonald that this was just “a slip of the tongue” and that it was “madness” to read too much into it. McDonald replied:

How many slips of the tongue are we going to make until you accept it?

As my colleagues Matthew Taylor and Jim Waterson report, the BBC is also under pressure at the moment from the government, with No 10 seriously considering decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, while boycotting Radio 4’s Today programme over the broadcaster’s supposed anti-Tory bias.

Andy McDonald.
Andy McDonald. Photograph: Sky News/SKY NEWS

Updated

New MPs arrive at Westminster as Boris Johnson prepares mini reshuffle

Good morning. Or at least it is for newly-elected members of parliament, most of whom, of course, are Conservative. There are 109 new Tory MPs, and they have started arriving at Westminster already. The Commons is not sitting today – it does not commence formally until 2.30pm tomorrow, when MPs will assemble in the chamber to re-elect the Speaker - but MPs are coming to parliament to start the business of settling in.

Here are tweets from three newly-elected Tories.

From Christian Wakeford, MP for Bury South:

From Aaron Bell, MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme:

From Jonathan Gullis, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North:

Journalists are going to have to spend the next few months getting to know the new intake of MPs, because for most of us they are something of an unknown quantity. CCHQ may be keen to learn a bit more about them too. One consequence of a surprise election victory is that it results in people who were never expected to win getting into parliament. It remains to be seen whether the new Tories, particularly those elected to represent previously safe Labour seats, will end up behaving, culturally and politically, in similar ways to conventional Conservative MPs, or whether they will be noticeably different, pushing the party in a new direction.

Boris Johnson reportedly wants the party to change. According to the Sunday Times (paywall), after the exit poll was announced on Thursday night he told his team:

We can’t go back to being the Tory party of the old days ... This is a totally different party and we’ve got to make sure everyone realises that.

One of the big questions in politics over the next parliament will be whether or not Johnson does transform his party in the way he is proposing.

And as new Conservative MPs arrive at Westminster, Labour MPs are preoccupied with the inquest into their defeat, and the forthcoming leadership contest.

Here is the agenda for the day:

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.

Early evening: Boris Johnson is due to address Tory MPs at a reception in Westminster.

At some point today we are also due to get announcements from No 10 about who is being appointed to the two vacant cabinet posts – culture secretary (because Nicky Morgan stood down at the election) and Welsh secretary (because Alun Cairns “resigned” in the early stages of the election campaign over what he knew about the role of a former aide in sabotaging a rape trial).

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 publish a summary when I wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is 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 questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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