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The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Rees-Mogg claims Barnier agrees with him about PM's Chequers plan being 'rubbish' - Politics live

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Afternoon summary

  • The leading Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed that Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, agrees with him that Theresa May’s Chequers plan is “absolute rubbish”. (See 4.46pm.) Rees-Mogg and other members of the Commons Brexit committee met Barnier in Brussels. As the Telegraph reports, after the meeting Rees-Mogg said:

Mr Barnier is, as you would expect, extraordinarily charming. We found ourselves in considerable agreement that Chequers is absolute rubbish and we should chuck it and have a Canada style trade agreement instead.

Eurosceptics and Monsieur Barnier are in greater agreement than Eurosceptics and the government or Monsieur Barnier and the government. It is very encouraging.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comment.

Updated

This is from Ann Black, who has been voted off the NEC. Black is a leftwinger with Corbynite politics and a longstanding NEC member. She was on the Momentum slate two years ago but was left off this year on the grounds she would not always toe the leadership line in NEC votes.

And this is from Richard Angell, director of Progress, the centrist Labour organisation. (It describes itself as centre-left; its opponents describe it as Blairite, or rightwing.) Commenting on the NEC election result, he said:

A clean sweep for the Momentum backed slate is no surprise – and no real change.

While is it obviously disappointing for those who want a centre-left future for Labour, it means that Momentum must stop blaming others for the party’s problems and sort them out as the establishment they now are.

The re-election of Pete Willsman shows institutional antisemitism in the party and the real need for action. However, with Willsman at the top table that is less likely to happen.

In light of Momentum chair Jon Lansman saying he voted for Willsman despite seeing his antisemitic rant first hand the question for Momentum is simple: did they un-endorse Willsman as a PR stunt or point of principe?

Angell’s last point is probably unfair; Lansman said he cast his vote for Willsman before Momentum decided to un-endorse him, backing up the point made by George Eaton. (See 5.14pm.)

This is from Labour Friends of Israel on the Labour NEC election result. (See 5.06pm.)

A good point from the New Statesman’s George Eaton.

Labour NEC election results in full

Here are the full NEC results.

Labour’s NEC election results
Labour’s NEC election results Photograph: Labour

Peter Willsman elected to Labour's NEC, with all other Corbynite candidates, despite antisemitism controversy

PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield has got the results of the Labour election for the NEC.

As expected, the centrists have been roundly defeated and all nine pro-Corbyn candidates originally on the Momentum slate have been elected.

The so-called #JC9 include Peter Willsman, who was elected even though it emerged that he thinks antisemitism allegations against Labour were being made up by Jewish “Trump fanatics”. Willsman came last amongst the nine, only beating Eddie Izzard, the comedian and centrist, by 2,502 votes. He was about 5,000 votes behind the next worst-performing candidate on the #JC9 slate. But in the NEC elections two years ago Willsman was also the worst performing candidate on the winning Corbynite slate, coming about 4,000 votes behind the next worst performer. That suggests the anti-semitism row only caused him minimal damage.

The results seem to show that a majority of Labour members accept the Willsman argument that allegations about antisemitism in the Labour party are exaggerated, and are being exploited by Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents as a means of undermining him.

Updated

Rees-Mogg claims Barnier agrees with him about PM's Chequers plan being 'complete rubbish'

More on what happened when Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, met the Commons Brexit committee, which includes the Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg. These are from the Times’ Bruno Waterfield.

We have not heard Barnier’s account of the meeting yet, although Barnier did tell a German newspaper for an interview published at the weekend that the customs plan in the UK government’s white paper would require an “insane and unjustifiable bureaucracy”.

The committee does intend to publish a transcript of its private meeting with Barnier today, but committee sources say it will take a week or so before that is ready.

The Labour party has not yet announced the results of the election for the national executive committee. There are rumours that we might not get the news until 8pm. But it is being widely reported that all nine candidates originally on the pro-Corbyn Momentum slate, including Peter Willsman, who lost Momentum backing after a recording emerged showing that he told the NEC antisemitism allegations against Labour were being made up by Jewish “Trump fanatics”, have been elected. (See 1.11pm.) Rather than wait for confirmation, Denny Taylor, a spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism, has put out this statement.

The election of the ‘#JC9’ slate by Labour members to the party’s NEC raises further concerns about institutional antisemitism in the party. None of the #JC9 have publicly supported the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of antisemitism, with many simply refusing to respond to polite inquiries from the Jewish Labour Movement to clarify their positions ...

It is highly disappointing that, despite the raised profile of antisemitism in the Labour party over the summer, Labour members have chosen to give their support to candidates so apparently ambivalent towards tackling what is an existential threat to our party.

Boris Johnson now thinks like us, says Ukip

Ukip says Boris Johnson’s Telegraph article (see 9.57am) shows the former foreign secretary is turning ’Kipper. This is from the party leader, Gerard Batten.

It seems that Boris Johnson is finally catching up with Ukip - we’ve been saying that Theresa May is a committed remainer since the very beginning of the process and always intended to throw the match. Make no mistake, the Tories never had any intention of getting us out of the EU.

Johnson must bear his own responsibility because he was involved with David Davis in setting up the initial negotiating strategy when he was foreign secretary. Perhaps if he wasn’t so loyal to the Tories and put his country first, he would have made these statements much sooner.

Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s constitutional relations secretary, has written an open letter to David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, saying the views of the devolved administrations should be considered at the meeting next week where the UK cabinet will reportedly consider no deal Brexit planning. Russell says:

We have serious concerns that a no deal outcome will magnify massively the uncertainties over Brexit. The Scottish government believes there are major questions over a range of vital matters, including customs arrangements, burdens on business, imports and exports of plasma products, medicines and medical devices, the involvement of UK universities in programmes such as the Erasmus scheme and future funding for UK aid organisations.

I would be grateful to know what arrangements you will be making to ensure that the devolved administrations are consulted and their views made known in advance of the special cabinet meeting in order that the discussion reflects the interests of the whole of the UK.

The Conservative Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg and other members of the Commons Brexit committee are in Brussels today where they have been meeting Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. According to the Telegraph’s James Crisp, Rees-Mogg left the meeting saying, at least on one point, he and Barnier were in agreement.

Jeremy Corbyn has been tweeting about his “Tory rail mayhem” train tour. (See 1.21pm.)

Frank Field says he will not trigger byelection in Birkenhead

At the end of last week, after announcing that he was resigning the Labour whip in the Commons, Frank Field refused to rule out triggering a byelection in Birkenhead so that he could fight for re-election as an independent Labour candidate.

He has now issued a statement saying he will not be doing this. Here it is in full.

A key component of our democracy is that MPs are accountable to their electorate, while of course taking into account the views of their local party membership. Those people that I work with most closely in Birkenhead stress that, in the 2017 general election, I received the biggest majority I have ever had in Birkenhead, standing clearly on a national and local manifesto. All of these people, and practically all of the local residents who have contacted me in recent days, have stressed that I should simply get on with the job of representing Birkenhead.

Therefore, I will not be calling a by-election. The whole of my time will continue, as in the past, with trying to serve Birkenhead to the best of my ability and spearheading a whole series of major projects in the town. I also look forward to contributing further to the development of the Labour party’s programme of social and economic reform.

Meanwhile, I now have what may become a major legal dispute with the Labour Party over my continuing membership of the Party. I shall fight any attempt at expelling me in every way I can and, if need be, in the courts. This interpretation of Labour’s rule book could last a long time.

(It was not obvious why Field would want to fight a byelection in the first place. If this parliament runs its course, he will stay an MP until 2022, whether or not he retakes the Labour whip. A byelection would allow him to campaign on the issues he raised in the letter announcing he was quitting the Labour whip, instead of on issues dominating a general election campaign. But he could also find himself fighting an official Labour candidate backed by all the financial and activist muscle of Labour HQ.)

Frank Field
Frank Field Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

These are from the BBC’s Adam Fleming.

@danutahuebner is Danuta Huebner, a Polish MEP, a member of the centre-right EPP group in the European parliament and chair of the parliament’s constitutional affairs committee.

David Rutley, a Conservative whip, has been appointed a junior environment minister, Number 10 has announced. He will do the job in addition to his current role as a whip, and will not receive any extra pay.

UPDATE: A Defra spokeswoman said that Rutley was an addition to the department’s team and was not replacing any other minister.

Updated

A reader has sent me a link to some polling on the poll tax. It turns out that Justine Greening rather understated her case (see 2.12pm); for several years the poll tax was considerably more popular with the public than the Chequers plan now is. Support for it only evaporated completely once it was implemented in England and Wales (in the spring of 1990), and by March 1991 only 9% were in favour of keeping it.

The Chequers plan has not been implemented either. What would happen to its popularity if it does actually happen is anyone’s guess ...

Greening claims Chequers plan 'more unpopular than poll tax'

Justine Greening
Justine Greening Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Justine Greening, the Conservative former education secretary and a leading remain supporter in the referendum, has joined Boris Johnson in urging Theresa May to drop her Chequers Brexit plan. Generally Tory pro-Europeans have been supportive of May - Chequers is “softer” than May’s previous Brexit blueprints, and most of the opposition to it in the party is coming from hardline Brexiters - but Greening said it was “the worst of all words” and that it would never get through parliament.

Greening said much of this in July, when she used a Times article (paywall) to call for a three-option referendum as the means of resolving the impasse. But today she added the claim that the Chequers plan was less popular than the poll tax. In an interview with the World at One she said:

I was clear before summer recess that I thought [the Chequers proposal] was the worst of all worlds. Boris has echoed those views and even today we see Nick Boles, who’s a remainer, also saying that he can’t support it anymore.

The biggest problem for me is how people see this. The Chequers deal is now more unpopular with the British people than the poll tax was, and that is why it’s untenable to take forward.

The prime minister cannot now waste the next two months shuttling around Europe pretending that nothing has changed, trying to land a deal that no one wants and has no prospect of actually getting through parliament.

To support her claim Greening said that only 14% or 15% of people backed the Chequers plan. I can’t find the specific poll she is referring to, but YouGov polls in July (pdf) found first 13% and then, 10 days later, 12% of people saying the Chequers proposal would be “good for Britain”. More than 40% said it would be bad for Britain, and roughly the same amount said they did not know. In the same month Deltapoll found 7% thought Chequers was the “best possible Brexit solution”, and another 13% saying it was “a good compromise”, against more than 50% saying they were opposed to it.

I can’t find polling on the poll tax, but when it was announced, the poll tax probably did poll better than this. However it ultimately let to demonstrations and riots on the streets, not a level of unpopularity yet achieved by Chequers.

The poll tax riot in Trafalgar Square, London, in 1990.
The poll tax riot in Trafalgar Square, London, in 1990. Photograph: PA

Labour has been holding a national rail campaign day today, and it has involved (among other things) Jeremy Corbyn travelling the route of the “Crossrail for the north”, from Liverpool to Manchester, then to Leeds and Hull, to highlight Labour’s support for the plan.

In a statement he issued in advance he said:

For decades northern communities have received only a fraction of the transport investment that is spent in London and the South East. Labour will put this right by building Crossrail for the north, connecting the great cities of the north of England to unlock huge untapped potential.

People’s lives are being badly affected by this chaos and the government needs to recognise that rail privatisation has failed. Labour will end this rip-off and bring our railways into public ownership so they are run in the interests of passengers, not private profit.

Jeremy Corbyn on a train at Liverpool Lime Street Station, in Liverpool
Jeremy Corbyn on a train at Liverpool Lime Street Station, in Liverpool Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
Jeremy Corbyn on a train at Manchester Victoria Station.
Jeremy Corbyn on a train at Manchester Victoria Station. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
Jeremy Corbyn speaking with passengers on board a train to Leeds from Manchester Victoria Station.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking with passengers on board a train to Leeds from Manchester Victoria Station. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The Labour party is due to announce of the result of the election for the nine seats on the national executive committee allocated to constituency representatives at 2pm. Since Jeremy Corbyn became leader the left has won all seats available in these elections, and when the ballot opened in July, the nine people on the Momentum slate all looked like dead-certs. (Centrists in the party were running an alternative slate.)

But then Momentum withdrew its backing from one of the so-called #JC9, Peter Willsman, after a recording emerged of Willsman telling an NEC meeting that Jewish “Trump fanatics” were making up allegations about antisemitism in the party.

Accordibg to Skwawkbox, the pro-Corbyn website said to have close links to Corbyn’s office, there are unconfirmed reports that Willsman has been elected anyway, along with the rest of the Momentum slate.

SNP has more members than the Conservative party, report says

The Scottish National party now has the second largest membership of any UK party, leapfrogging the Conservatives for the first time, according to the House of Commons Library.

Its research unit said the SNP had just under 125,500 members, as of August 2018, against around 124,000 members for the Tories UK-wide in March 2018. Boosted heavily by yes voters joining after the independence referendum in 2014, the SNP says its membership has continued to grow this year, from 118,162 in April 2018.

Labour was far ahead of both, claiming 540,000 members in April, the research unit reports LabourList saying. Labour’s annual accounts published last September put its membership then officially at 564,400.

At either figure, that puts Labour’s membership far ahead of all the parties mentioned by the House of Commons Library report combined. It said the Lib Dems had 99,200; the Green party in England and Wales 39,400 and Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, about 8,000.

The research unit cautions however that comparing party membership figures is tricky, with annual reports the most reliable source. It says:

Political parties are under no legal obligation to publish membership statistics. There’s also no uniformly recognised definition of ‘membership’, nor is there an established method or body to monitor it.

While the SNP has a few thousand members living outside Scotland, on a per capita basis it is the largest party by far in the UK. Scotland has an estimated population of 5.4m people, compared to 60m across the UK.

That level of support puts the SNP on a secure political footing in two significant ways: it is a substantial army of supporters and activists available for general elections and potentially a second independence referendum. Like Labour, it also makes the party far less reliant on wealthy and powerful donors.

It relied heavily before the 2014 referendum on gifts from Chris and Colin Weir, who won a then record £161m on the Euromillions lottery, and in the past the Stagecoach founder Brian Souter, whose support for campaigns against teaching gay rights in schools put him at odds with leftwing voters. (It’s worth noting the Weirs gave a further £500,000 to the party before last year’s snap general election, bringing their total donations to £4.5m.)

It is unclear, however, whether the divisive row between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon over the Scottish government’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against him will affect party membership. Some of Salmond’s fans said on social media they were quitting the party in protest. Sturgeon’s defence of the #MeToo anti-harassment agenda in the face of Salmond’s attacks and crowdfunding appeal could, however, see more people join.

Comments on the blog will probably close at about 6.30pm tonight. The last post will probably go up at about 5.30pm. These timings are provisional, but I just mention them because readers said it would be helpful to know what’s planned in advance.

Javid gives qualified support to May's Chequers plan, saying critics need to say what alternative could be

In the Q&A after his speech on tackling online child sexual abuse, Sajid Javid, the home secretary, was asked about Boris Johnson’s column. Was it helpful? Javid replied:

The thing that’s helpful is for us all to support the prime minister with her plan, and make sure it is getting a fair hearing at the EU. For those who think there is a different way, then they need to properly set out what alternatives there might be. Right now, this is a plan that has been put forward by the UK government, and it is still being considered by all the different bits that make up the EU. Let’s see what they say. But that’s the plan, and that’s the one everyone should be uniting behind.

You’ll see that Javid is supporting May, but only conditionally. Her opponents need to set out an alternative, he says. “Right now” the government is backing Chequers, he says. But he implies that, if the EU were to react negatively, he might be up for a rethink.

Javid voted remain in the EU referendum, but reluctantly. At the time he said that in his heart he was for Brexit, but that he voted to stay in the EU because of the business arguments in favour.

Sajid Javid.
Sajid Javid. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated

Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary

Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.

  • Downing Street hit back at Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, saying that he did not offer “serious leadership” and that his Telegraph column today criticising Theresa May’s Brexit plan contained “no new ideas”. (See 11.36am.)
  • The prime minister’s spokesman insisted that the Chequers proposal was “the only credible and negotiable plan” on offer. He said:

The Chequers proposals are the only credible and negotiable plan which has been put forward and which will deliver on the will of the British people.

What you have seen over the summer from a series of European leaders is a positive response to the Chequers proposals.

  • He said the government believed the Chequers plan could win the support of the House of Commons.
  • He played down polling evidence suggesting May’s Brexit plan would increase support for Scottish independence and Irish reunification. (See 10.29am.) He said:

The prime minister has been absolutely clear throughout of her determination to deliver Brexit in such a way that it protects the integrity of the union.

  • He played the significance of a line in May’s Sunday Telegraph column suggesting the government will offer further concessions to the EU in the Brexit talks. May said in her article (paywall): “I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest.” David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said yesterday this was “an incredible open sesame door” that could be used to justify further concessions. Asked if Davis was right, the spokesman said:

What the prime minister has said very clearly is that we have now made our move and it is now for the EU to make its move ... The prime minister has set out a number of things which are simply not negotiable; that is taking back control of our laws, our borders and our money, and an end to free movement.

  • The spokesman refused to deny that Mark Carney could be asked to stay on as governor of the Bank of England beyond next summer, when he is due to stand down. Asked about these reports, the spokesman just said:

The governor has said that he intends to step down in June 2019 and the Treasury has said they will start recruiting a new governor in due course and that is still the plan.

The spokesman said that May thought Carney had done a good job, but he would not say whether May wanted Carney to extend his contract.

10 Downing Street.
10 Downing Street. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

No 10 hits back at Boris Johnson, saying he has 'no new ideas' and doesn't offer 'serious leadership'

I’m just back from the Downing Street lobby briefing where the prime minister’s spokesman delivered what amounted to quite a sharp slap-down to Boris Johnson. Asked about his Telegraph column, the spokesman said:

Look, Boris Johnson resigned over Chequers. There are no new ideas in this article to respond to. What we need at this time is serious leadership with a serious plan and that’s exactly what the country has with this prime minister and this Brexit plan.

That might sound relatively anodyne, but in Number 10 terms, that is about as harsh as the spokesman ever gets talking about a senior Conservative. Remember, until less than two months ago, Theresa May was happy to have Johnson as her foreign secretary.

I will post a full summary of the briefing shortly.

Here is the BBC’s Nick Robinson on Boris Johnson’s column.

I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing. I will post again after 11.30am.

As the SNP does its best to refocus on the business of government, with Nicola Sturgeon set to announce her legislative programme for the coming year at Holyrood tomorrow, former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is keen to draw attention to one potential inclusion to help the hundreds of women travelling from Northern Ireland to Scotland to access abortion services each year.

New regulations allowing women from Northern Ireland free abortion services in Scotland came into force last autumn, but campaigners have continued to raise concerns about the prohibitive expense faced by women travelling across to the mainland.

In a letter to Dugdale, the Scottish government’s new health secretary Jeane Freeman appeared to go further than previous statements made by the first minister Nicola Sturgeon, insisting: “I recognise that providing funding for travel and accommodation would be helpful in these situations, particularly for patients on low incomes.”

Adding that there are “complex issues” to consider, Freeman reassured Dugdale that she was “carefully considering the options for further support to women from Northern Ireland”.

Dugdale welcomed the comments, saying she supported “the introduction of a travel bursary for as long as Northern Irish women are denied their basic human rights”. She added: “Nicola Sturgeon now has an opportunity to take vital action on this in her programme for government tomorrow.”

Jeremy Corbyn also said this morning it was time for “serious people” to take over the Brexit negotiations. Asked, in the light of Boris Johnson’s latest broadside, whether Theresa May’s Chequers plan was in tatters, Corbyn replied:

It sounds like it is and it sounds like Boris Johnson, having spent two years as foreign secretary, has achieved nothing and now says it’s all off.

Well surely, it’s time for some serious people to take over the negotiations? The Tories have had two years since the referendum and made no progress at all.

Jeremy Corbyn at Liverpool Lime Street Station in Liverpool this morning.
Jeremy Corbyn at Liverpool Lime Street Station in Liverpool this morning. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Corbyn says there was no need for Frank Field to resign Labour whip

Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking about Frank Field’s decision to resign the Labour party whip in the Commons. In an open letter announcing his decision, Field said he was leaving the parliamentary party because of its approach to antisemitism and because there was “a culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation” in Labour. Corbyn said today he did not see why Field had to go. He said:

Frank has been a Labour MP for a very long time, even longer than I have. I’ve known him for a very long time. I’ve worked with him in the past on social security and other issues. Sometimes we haven’t agreed but we have always got along personally.

I’m sorry he’s resigned and I thank him for all the work that he’s done as an MP and for the party, but I don’t see why he had to resign.

Asked about Field’s claims of bullying in the party, Corbyn said:

I’d have to see the claims, I don’t know what the claims are or what the details of them are. Obviously bullying and intimidation is totally unacceptable in the Labour party in any form. Debate, of course, discussion, of course.

Brexit would boost support for Scottish independent and Irish reunification, poll suggests

Polling by the anti-Brexit campaign group Best for Britain has underscored concerns that leaving the EU threatens the survival of the UK, by boosting support for Scottish independence and Irish reunification.

The internet based poll by the firm Deltapoll says that in Northern Ireland, 52% of voters would back reunifying the province with the Republic of Ireland after Brexit, while 39% would vote to remain within the UK.

Those figures hardened to 56% backing reunification if a hard border was established in Ireland. If the UK stayed in the EU, support for reunification would slump to 35%.

The poll’s Scottish results are less clear-cut but still point at the wider constitutional challenges posed by Brexit. It found support for Scottish independence rises to 47% after Brexit, with 43% voting to remain in the UK, with 10% don’t knows, if Brexit goes ahead. Indeed, if the UK stayed in the EU in the medium term, support for independence slips to 43%.

That is almost a direct switch from sentiment at present, with 47% saying they would vote to remain in the UK if an independence referendum took place tomorrow, while 45% would vote to leave. (Don’t know’s in that question were slightly lower, at 8%, suggesting less ambivalence on a snap poll.)

Those numbers suggest strongly that hard Brexiters are gambling with the future of a union they claim to be defending, although in both Scotland and Northern Ireland translating this sentiment into final decisions are fraught with problems. Reunification of the north and south Ireland requires consent on both sides, which is not guaranteed, and risks a return to sectarian violence.

In Scotland these numbers will offer Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National party leader, a much-needed if modest fillip as she prepares to deliver a speech next month on her plans for a second independence vote. But they still betray ambivalence and the lead for separation is marginal.

The Deltapoll survey work in Scotland was carried out last week at the height of the furore over the sexual harassment allegations against her predecessor Alex Salmond, implying it did not dent backing for independence.

Boris Johnson's Brexit column - Summary and analysis

Here are some of the key points from Boris Johnson’s Brexit column (paywall) in the Daily Telegraph today.

  • Johnson claims that the Chequers proposal amounts to the UK surrendering to Brussels and that EU objections to it are cosmetic. He says the UK is agreeing to pay the EU £40bn “for two thirds of diddly squat”. He says:

I suppose there may be some aspects of the Chequers proposals that they pretend not to like. They may puff about “cherry picking” the single market. There may be some confected groaning and twanging of leotards when it comes to the discussion on free movement. But the reality is that in this negotiation the EU has so far taken every important trick. The UK has agreed to hand over £40 billion of taxpayers’ money for two thirds of diddly squat.

In adopting the Chequers proposals, we have gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank. If we continue on this basis we will throw away most of the advantages of Brexit. By agreeing to a “common rulebook” with the EU – over which we have no control – we are making it impossible for the UK to be more competitive, to innovate, to deviate, to initiate, and we are ruling out major free trade deals.

While Johnson’s complaints about Chequers may be well founded (if you ignore the objections to his alternative plan), his assertion that, in private, the EU is actually quite happy with the plan is almost certainly wrong. One of the key points about Chequers is that it is unacceptable not just to the Conservative party, but to Brussels. Just look at what Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, was saying about it yesterday.

  • Johnson claims some people in government have been using the Northern Ireland border issue “to stop a proper Brexit”. He says:

It is now clear that some in the UK Government never wanted solutions. They wanted to use that problem to stop a proper Brexit. Solving Ireland would mean a solution for Dover-Calais, and they didn’t really want that. They wanted essentially to stay in, and to create a Brexit in name only.

  • He says there is no need for a hard border in Ireland because, under his proposals, goods could be checked away from the border.

And above all it is a total myth to say that you need a hard border. You don’t need to check people – because we already have the Common Travel Area, and that will be unaffected by Brexit. You don’t need to check goods at the frontier, for all sorts of reasons. As it happens, the UK and Ireland are already very sparing in their checks on goods entering from outside the EU – only four per cent get checked by the UK and only one per cent by Ireland. In so far as either side might want to do checks, it could be done away from the border, not least since the volume of trade is so small. Only 5 per cent of Northern Ireland’s GDP goes to Ireland, and only 1.6 per cent of Irish exports go to Northern Ireland. There are only about 50 large companies that trade across the frontier, and their goods could be subject to spot checks in warehouses or at points of sale – not at the border. As for small traders and farmers, they should obviously be given a de minimis exemption. For every problem, there is a potential solution.

Under the Chequers plan the UK would effectively stay in the single market for goods, removing the need for regulatory checks on goods at the border. Johnson is opposed to this and wants a Brexit involving something more like a Canada-style free trade agreement.

  • He repeats his hope that Theresa May will change course in the negotiations.

Of course I hope that the PM will still change course – and rediscover the elan and dynamism of Lancaster House. With more than two years until the end of the implementation period, there is still ample time to save Brexit.

This is the argument that Johnson also used in his Commons resignation speech in July - it is the line that provides cover against the charge that he is calling for May’s resignation - but that “of course” reeks of insincerity and at Westminster the article will be read as a challenge to her leadership.

  • He criticises May for abandoning the “Global Britain” project.

If we go ahead with the Chequers proposals, we are forswearing the project of Global Britain – so splendidly articulated by the prime minister in her Lancaster House speech of January 17 2017 – and abandoning the notion of the UK as a proud independent economic actor.

In a critical report earlier this year the Commons foreign affairs committee said “Global Britain”, a concept championed by Johnson when he was foreign secretary, was in danger of being just a “superficial branding exercise”.

  • He says that, under the Chequers plan, the UK would remain “in the EU taxi; but this time locked in the boot”. This is an image first used by Michael Gove, Gove’s fellow Vote Leave campaigner and now the environment secretary, in the EU referendum campaign two years ago. Given that Johnson is thought to be paid around £5,000 per column, Gove might want to ask for a cut.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Updated

Damian Green, the Conservative former first secretary of state and still a May loyalist, told the Today programme this morning that the prime minister’s position was “difficult but not impossible” and that the Chequers plan would end up winning support. He told the programme:

We’re walking a narrow path with people chucking rocks at us from both sides ...

Everyone is going to have to face the fact that the British government has got a plan ... no-one else in the EU has suggested a plan that is in any way workable.

David Davis says Theresa May should stay on as prime minister

David Davis, who resigned as Brexit secretary over Chequers a few hours before Boris Johnson resigned as foreign secretary over the same issue, delivered a veiled attack on his former cabinet colleague on Good Morning Britain today. He said that now was not the time for “personality politics”.

Asked if it would be better if Theresa May stood down, Davis said:

No, we don’t need any more turbulence right now. What matters in all of this is not the personality politics, it’s the outcome at the end.

Boris Johnson branded 'great charlatan' by senior Tory after he ridicules Chequers Brexit plan

Good morning. I hope you all had a good summer.

And we return to find politics in much the same state as it was when we left off, with the Conservative party still hopelessly divided over Brexit, Labour still embroiled in a row about its approach to antisemitism - and Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, engaged in an all-but-transparent pitch for the Conservative party leadership.

Johnson’s latest manoeuvre is embedded in his Daily Telegraph column, which contains a withering assessment of Theresa May’s Brexit strategy and her Chequers plan. It goes further than the critique Johnson launched in his resignation speech to the Commons in July. Here is the column (paywall). Here is my colleague Dan Sabbagh’s overnight story about it.

And here is how Dan’s story starts.

Boris Johnson has used his first newspaper column of the new parliamentary term to attack Theresa May’s Chequers plan, saying it means the UK enters Brexit negotiations with a “white flag fluttering”.

The declaration amounts to a significant escalation of the former foreign secretary’s guerrilla campaign against the prime minister and her Chequers plan a day before the Commons returns and at a time when party disquiet over the direction of the divorce talks is mounting.

Johnson wrote that “the reality is that in this negotiation the EU has so far taken every important trick. The UK has agreed to hand over £40 billion of taxpayers’ money for two thirds of diddly squat”.

Johnson added that by adopting the Chequers plan, in which the UK would adopt a common rulebook for food and goods, “we have gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank”. It will be “impossible for the UK to be more competitive, to innovate, to deviate, to initiate, and we are ruling out major free trade deals,” he added.

Tory Brexiters have welcomed Johnson’s comments. This is from Owen Paterson, a former Northern Ireland secretary.

And this is from Steve Baker, who resigned as a Brexit minster over the Chequers plan, like Johnson, and how is now mobilising opinion against it on the Conservative backbenches.

Labour politicians have condemned Johnson. This is from Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary.

And this is from the Labour peer Andrew Adonis.

But Johnson has also been branded a “great charlatan” by one of the leading Conservative pro-Europeans, Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health committee.

I will post more reaction to the Johnson article as it comes in.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11am: Number 10 lobby briefing

11.15am: Sajid Javid, the home secretary, gives a speech on tackling online child sexual abuse. As Ben Quinn reports, Javid will urge technology companies such as Facebook and Google to do more to help combat the problem.

And at some point today Labour is due to announce the results of its national executive committee (NEC) elections.

As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to publish a summary at lunchtime and another when I wrap up, probably at around 5.30pm.

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

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

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

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

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

Updated

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