Afternoon summary
- Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, has accused the UK government of sending out a “not welcome here” message to EU nationals. Speaking to investors at the annual Aberdeen Asset Management conference in London, she said:
More than anything else, our long-term economic success will depend on nurturing the talent of those already in Scotland and of those who believe ours is the kind of welcoming country that allows ambition to flourish.
The position of the UK government and some others is very different. From the refusal to guarantee the status of fellow EU nationals living in Scotland and the UK, to the threat to draw up lists of foreign workers, the UK government seems intent on sending out a ‘not welcome here’ message.
I am determined that we send out a different message: one that says to all those living, working and studying in Scotland that they are most definitely welcome.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
My colleague Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, seems to agree with Sir Christopher Meyer.
Sir Kim Darroch UK's man in US today briefed UK National Security Council on the implications of Trump's election. Imagine Farage doing so.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) November 22, 2016
But Sir Christopher Meyer, who himself served as Britain’s ambassador in Washington, has told the Independent that that giving the job to Nigel Farage would be “barking mad”.
Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times’ foreign affairs columnist, thinks that appointing Nigel Farage as ambassador to the US might not be such a bad idea after all. Here’s an extract from his FT Instant Insight column (subscription).
What is the first job of a UK ambassador to Washington? It is to get close to the White House. Mr Farage would have an unprecedented closeness to the US president, the kind of access that other British ambassadors could only dream of. He campaigned alongside the president-elect and, after the election, had a personal meeting with Mr Trump — well before Theresa May (the British prime minister) was given a perfunctory 10 minutes on the phone ...
Ambassador Farage could also play an important role in securing one of Britain’s most important foreign-policy goals: a free-trade deal with the US. Unlike Mr Farage, I believe that Britain’s decision to leave the EU is a disastrous mistake which will inflict long-term economic damage on Britain. But we are where we are. Given Britain has got itself into this absurd situation, we need to look for escape routes. Mr Farage is probably one of the few people with a chance of persuading the Trump administration to make a US-UK trade deal a top priority.
Some of the reasons for rejecting a Farage ambassadorship amount to little more than wounded pride. Yes, Mr Trump’s suggestion is a humiliating breach of protocol. But, frankly, it is just a foretaste of the indignities that Mr Trump is likely to inflict on Britain over the next four years. (Anyone looking forward to that state visit to London?)
The UK Statistics Authority has reprimanded the Department for Education for sending out a misleading tweet about grammar schools, Civil Service World reports.
Leading doctors have expressed concern over the impact Brexit could have on the NHS workforce, the Press Association reports.
If there is a dip in the number of European surgeons who work in the NHS there could be a “significant problem”, Ian Eardley, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons said.
He told the House of Lords Committee on the Long-Term Sustainability of the NHS that recent years had seen an increase in the number of European surgeons who were coming to work in the NHS.
Around one in five surgeons in the NHS in England come from the EU, Mr Eardley said.
He said: “Forty percent of surgeons on specialist registers in this country trained overseas.
“Of these half trained in Europe and the other half trained outside Europe and what has happened in recent years is the number of people coming from outside Europe has been diminishing while the numbers coming from within Europe has been increasing.
“So if that tap was to be turned off there could be potentially a significant problem certainly for surgery.”
Prof Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told peers: “Up to 20% of our workforce is from the European Union.
“We haven’t done the numbers yet because it is still up in the air, I think suffice to say, it is not good.”
On Monday the Department of Health’s most senior civil servant Chris Wormald told the public accounts committee that issues surrounding workforce from the EU was one of the main priorities for the Department’s team working on Brexit.
On the BBC’s Daily Politics Mike Penning, the armed forces minister, said that the government was now backing a private member’s bill that would making posing as a veteran and wearing medals that you have not earned a criminal offence. “The whole government is going to back this now on Friday,” Penning said. The bill has been tabled by the Conservative MP Gareth Johnson who says “people who pretend they have won medals for courage, when that is not the case, should be punished accordingly.”
But James Glancy, a former captain in the Royal Marines who received the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his service in Afghanistan, told the programme that the bill was unnecessary. He said:
I think it’s just going too far to suggest someone could go to prison … I think it’s very important to look at what’s going on with someone that is actually pretending that they served in the armed forces. There may well be a serious mental health problem and actually that person just has low self-esteem, they’re not a threat to the public, and they actually need professional help.
Lunchtime summary
- Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has criticised Labour for attacking Donald Trump’s stance on climate change. During Foreign Office questions in the Commons he also claimed that Britain hoped to “shape and influence” the actions of the Trump administration. (See 12.02pm and 12.11pm and 12.17pm.)
- Manfred Weber, a German MEP and chair of the centre-right European People’s party in the European parliament, has said he thinks the UK wants to stay in the single market. Speaking after a meeting with David Davis, the Brexit secretary, in the European parliament, Weber said:
What we really expect are clear proposals. Today, in my talk with David Davis, unfortunately I have not heard anything new, I have not heard much as to how the British government wants to tackle Brexit and what Brexit really means. I have not received any new information, quite the opposite is true.
Today I have been told that the British government, as far as the economy is concerned, it wants to stay in the single market - but the British government would also like to continue and have very close co-operation in legal issues.
Later Downing Street said that the government’s position had not changed and that it wanted “a trading relationship that allows UK companies to trade both with and within the single market and lets European businesses do the same.”
- Weber has also criticised Boris Johnson for promoting the idea of Turkey joining the EU while he spread alarm about it during the EU referendum campaign. Referring to Johnson, Weber said:
[Johnson] himself did, in the Brexit campaign, leaflets where he showed Turkey, Syria and Iraq as possible members of the European Union, making people afraid of possible EU migration waves. He used it himself and then a few weeks afterwards he is travelling to Erdogan and he is offering support for becoming a member of the European Union - it is unbelievable, it is a provocation and it is arrogant what we hear from him. I cannot respect this any more, what he is doing in this regard.
- Britain’s factories are poised to raise both output and prices over the coming months as they continue to adjust to the impact of the EU referendum in June. As Larry Elliott reports, the latest snapshot of the economy from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) showed that order books for UK manufacturers are strong and production is expected to rise at its fastest pace in almost two years over the next three months.But the employers’ organisation warned that the fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote was pushing up the cost of the raw materials and components used by industry and factory gate prices were going up at their fastest rate since early 2014.
- Lord Kerslake, the former head of the civil service, has told the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee that the civil service will have to expand if it wants to be able to cope with both Brexit and its normal government duties. He said:
There is a genuine issue about capacity to manage both the demands of Brexit, which is huge, complex and with big stakes, and at the same time taking forward a set of other policy initiatives that government wants to take up. I think it’s not possible to do that at a point where the civil service is at its lowest number since the Second World War and continuing to fall.
The government ought to do some form of independent or semi-independent assessment of its preparedness for this huge task it’s got ahead of it on Brexit.
- Thomas Mair, who is accused of murdering the Labour MP Jo Cox, has opted not to give evidence in his defence at the Old Bailey. As Matthew Taylor reports, the jury was told that Mair had declined to appear as a witness in the trial. Simon Russell Flint QC said the defence would offer no other evidence.
- Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair boss, has claimed ministers “haven’t a clue” over Brexit. Speaking at the annual conference of the Airport Operators Association O’Leary, who campaigned for remain, said:
Frankly there’s very little evidence apart from some mildly lunatic optimism over here that it will be all right on the night. It’s like Dad’s Army going off to war here. It’ll be all right Sergeant [sic] Jones. You’ll just keep plodding along.
These guys have no idea where they’re going for the next two years and the problem is that in the absence of any discussions with the Europeans on Brexit they’re all talking to themselves. They stand up in the Houses of Parliament [and say] ‘We’re going to do a good deal for Britain’. Any idea what a good deal looks like? No, they haven’t a clue.
The UK is going to walk itself off a cliff unless somebody in the Tory Party comes up with a bright idea.
Theresa May has been hosting talks with her Belgian opposite number, Charles Michel, in Downing Street this morning.
Here is my colleague Patrick Wintour’s take on Donald Trump’s suggestion that Nigel Farage should be appointed UK ambassador to the US.
And here is how it starts.
Donald Trump’s interest in other world leaders has sometimes seemed closely related to whether or not his family has a golf course or luxury hotel under construction in their territory. The conversations reportedly turn as much to completing a planning permission as a peace process.
So it will have been with alarm that Downing Street woke up this morning to find Donald Trump has been involved in some more Twitter diplomacy – advising thatNigel Farage, the interim Ukip leader, would make a great UK ambassador to Washington.
Apart from underlining how social media has become integral to modern politics, the tweet reveals how strong and deep Trump’s connections are with the Farage Ukip team, how little he possibly cares – or possibly knows – about diplomatic protocol, and how much his ego precedes all else.
Here is Boris Johnson in the Commons saying there is no vacancy for ambassador to the US.
Johnson says that although the UK is leaving the EU, it is not leaving Europe. He says he wants UK to carry on hosting the 2023 European capital of culture. And he wants the UK to carry on participating in events like this after it leaves.
Boris Johnson is now taking topic questions in the Commons. These are questions that have not been tabled in advance, and so any subject can come up.
Here is the SNP MP Mhairi Black on Boris Johnson’s comments on Donald Trump.
Listening to Boris telling us to look for positives in Trump's administration reminds me of this. No 'special relationship' is worth racism pic.twitter.com/qL3u4FZNSY
— Mhairi Black MP (@MhairiBlack) November 22, 2016
Johnson says UK hopes to 'shape and influence' actions of Trump administration
And here is the quote from Boris Johnson where he said the British government hoped to “shape and influence” the actions of the Trump administration. He was responding to the SNP MP Gavin Newlands. (See 11.39am.) Johnson said:
I do think it is very important that on all sides of this House we should be as positive as we possibly can be about working with the incoming US administration. It is of massive importance to our country and indeed to the world. And I suggest to the honourable member that he should judge that new administration by their actions in office which, of course, we hope to shape and influence.
Johnson says UK will try to change Trump's stance on climate change
And here is the Boris Johnson quote where he said the UK would urge Donald Trump to accept the reality of climate change. He was responding to Labour’s Emily Thornberry (see 11.49am) and he said:
I think it is vital that we are as positive as we can possibly be about the new administration-elect. And, as I have said before, I believe the UK-US relationship is of vital importance. I think that president-elect Trump is a deal maker. And when it comes to climate change, this is something that the UK has led on globally, we have had outstanding success and, yes - I’m very open with the House - it is a message that we are taking to the administration, we believe it to be important, we believe it be in the interests of the United States and of the world.
Johnson accuses Labour of damaging the national interest by attacking Trump over climate change
Here is the quote where Boris Johnson said Labour’s attacks on Trump were against the national interest.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said that Donald Trump’s election was a “hugely dangerous development for the future of our planet” because he thought climate change was a hoax. She asked if Theresa May would have “have the moral backbone to tell [Trump] he is wrong on climate change” when she visited him in Washington. And Thornberry said that, if Trump refuses to change his stance on climate change, May should condemn him.
Johnson replied:
I really must say to the right honourable lady that I believe she is being premature in her hostile judgments of the administration-elect. And any such premature verdict, I believe, could be damaging to the interests of this country. It is important for us in this country to use our influence, which is very considerable, to help the United States to see its responsibilities, as I’m sure they will.
Updated
Labour’s Emma Reynolds asks Johnson to confirm that the government is considering a transitional deal on Brexit.
Johnson says the government will get the best possible deal for the UK. It will be “win/win” for the UK and the EU, he says.
Johnson says Labour attacks on Trump are against the national interest
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, says we meet on the 53rd anniversary of John F Kennedy’s death. Johnson says Trump is a “liberal guy” and that we have every reason to be positive about him. Why should be be positive about his views on climate change?
Johnson says it is vital we are as positive as we can be about Trump.
He says Trump is a deal maker. And, when it comes to climate change, this is something the UK has led on. The UK will be taking this message to the Trump administration, he says.
- Johnson says UK will urge Trump to accept the reality of climate change.
Thornberry says Trump thinks climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese. Will Theresa May tell Trump he is wrong. And will she condemn Trump if he scraps the Paris climate change treaty.
Johnson says Thornberry is being “premature”. And he says criticising Trump like this is against the national interest.
- Johnson says Labour attacks on Trump are against the national interest.
The SNP’s Alex Slamond says Sir Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador, said in a memo to London, that was published in the Sunday Times, that Britain was well placed to influence the Trump administration. Does Trump’s tweet suggest that that assertion is well founded?
Johnson says it is too early to make judgments.
Labour’s David Hanson asks Johnson to tell the new US administration that we value the Baltic states highly.
Johnson says the UK has a military presence in the Baltic states. Nato has been the guarantor of peace and stability on our continent. That is “well understood in Washington,” he says.
Keith Simpson, a Conservative, says he is glad Johnson has ruled out having Nigel Farage as an ambassador. What will Johnson say about future relations when he visits the US?
Johnson says he wants to stress “the vital importance of Nato, of free trade and free enterprise” and the need to stick up for our values.
Sir Simon Burns, a Tory, asks Johnson about the suggestion that Nigel Farage should be UK ambassador to the US. And will he suggest that Hillary Clinton should be ambassador to the UK.
Johnson says Burns himself would be a good candidate. But we have a first-rate ambassador in Washtington, doing a very good job of relating with the current adminstration and the new one. “There is no vacancy,” he says.
David Winnick, the Labour MP, says Brandon Victor Dixon, the Hamilton actor who lectured vice president-elect Mike Pence on diversity, would be a good ambassador.
Johnson says he would be welcome to come to the UK.
Updated
Boris Johnson says Britain hopes to “shape” decisions of Trump administration.
Boris Johnson answers the question about America.
Britain and America have a strong, enduring special relationship. It looks forward to working with the US.
Q: Must the UK and the US work together on shared priorities?
Johnson congratulates the MP for his wisdom. The UK/US relationship has been the most important geopolitical fact of the last century.
The SNP’s Gavin Newlands asks specifically about Donald Trump, and his appointments.
Johnson says the UK should be “as positive as we possibly can be” about the new Trump adminstration.
He says Trump should be judged by his actions, which the UK government hopes to “shape”, he says.
- Johnson says the UK should be “as positive as we possibly can be” about the new Trump administration.
- He says Britain hopes to “shape” the decisions of the Trump administration.
Updated
In case you don’t read the Mail on Sunday, this story may come up. Here’s how it starts.
Boris Johnson was at the centre of a Cabinet row last night over claims that he turned up at a vital Brexit meeting chaired by Theresa May with the wrong documents.
A source said the Foreign Secretary sparked groans of disapproval at a meeting of the Cabinet’s Brexit committee on Thursday because he had read the wrong briefing notes ahead of the discussion.
The news fuelled suggestions that the Prime Minister was ‘coming to the end of her tether’ over a series of gaffes by Mr Johnson on handling Britain’s exit from the EU.
Last night, a spokesman for Mr Johnson insisted that he had been equipped with the right papers and had made ‘lengthy interventions on a number of points’. Downing Street declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the Foreign Office.
Boris Johnson takes questions in the Commons
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is taking questions in the Commons at 11.30.
It won’t take long for Donald Trump to come up. Here is the first question on the order paper, tabled by the Conservative MP Craig Tracey.
What assessment he has made of prospects for the future relationship between the UK and the US?
And here is some comment from journalists on the Trump proposal.
From the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland
UKippers thrilled by Trump's nomination of Farage to be UK Amb to the US: we don't really need listen to them on "sovereignty" ever again
— Jonathan Freedland (@Freedland) November 22, 2016
A sovereign country does not allow a foreign government to pick its ambassadors https://t.co/b0xoPfJiwF
— Jonathan Freedland (@Freedland) November 22, 2016
From Roger Boyes, the Times’ diplomatic editor
1.Ambassadors need trust of home gov 2.Foreign leaders can't choose them3.Strategic savvy needed. So #Farage non-starter
— Roger Boyes (@rogerboyes) November 22, 2016
From the BBC’s Jeremy Vine
If we are now allowed to suggest other countries’ ambassadors, please @realDonaldTrump can you make Bruce Springsteen your ambassador to UK
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) November 22, 2016
From Bloomberg’s Thomas Penny
The new Twitter game: 1. Trump says something outrageous 2. Find the story he wants to distract from... Voila! https://t.co/FkEMzuJhuX pic.twitter.com/3WjnWOsGz7
— Thomas Penny (@ThomasWPenny) November 22, 2016
From BuzzFeed’s Jamie Ross
Surely this won't come to anything as Nigel Farage notoriously hates it when US presidents tell UK what to do. pic.twitter.com/6h9ahqwKm9
— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) November 22, 2016
I’m Andrew Sparrow and I’m back, taking over the blog from Matthew Weaver, who has been in charge since my first post this morning.
Here the Lib Dem leader Tim Farron on Donald Trump’s Farage intervention.
Farage as ambassador is a frankly stupid idea. I have more diplomacy in my little finger. But what's more worrying is the axing of TPP
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) November 22, 2016
Davis has met the European parliament’s cheif Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt in Brussels.
Before the meeting Verhofstadt was predicting “a hell of a conversation” after Davis has referred to Verhofstadt as “satan”.
Looking forward to a hell of a conversation with David Davis tomorrow :) https://t.co/R5r67Shm8P
— Guy Verhofstadt (@GuyVerhofstadt) November 21, 2016
Just literally bumped into @GuyVerhofstadt after his meeting with @DavidDavisMP in #strasbourg @europarl .....we live in interesting times!
— Sajjad Karim MEP (@SHKMEP) November 22, 2016
Davis also met the German MEP Manfred Weber who said he heard nothing new from the Brexit secretary. “The 4 fundamental freedoms are not negotiable,” Weber said.
Unfortunately I haven’t heard anything new f/ @DavidDavisMP today. For us it’s clear: The 4 fundamental freedoms are not negotiable. #Brexit pic.twitter.com/kdcoNhPFEw
— Manfred Weber (@ManfredWeber) November 22, 2016
Brexit secretary David Davis says there is no vacany for a new ambassador to the US.
Asked by a BBC reporter Brussels whether Trump was wrong to call for Farage to be made ambassador, Davis grinned and said: “We are believers in free speech in Britain, but we have got a very good ambassador Kim Darroch who is going to be there for some years.”
He added: “People can say what they like. The simple truth is there is no vacancy. The ambassador there is very very good. And he will be there for years.”
James Forsyth, the political editor of the Spectator, says Farage should not be our man in Washington, but he argues the Ukip interim leader could still help the government regarding Trump. In a blogpost he writes:
It would be foolish of the Foreign Office not to pump Farage for information on Trump and his circle. Whatever information Farage has about who actually has influence with the president-elect would be useful for Britain.
The sensible thing to do would be to have Boris Johnson invite Farage down to Chevening for the weekend and over dinner try and talk out of the Ukip leader everything he knows about Trump world. I suspect that Farage would be both sufficiently flattered by the invitation and keen enough to help, that he would happily reveal all he knows about Trump and the people around him.
Farage, who has still said nothing about the investigation, says Donald Trump’s suggestion that he should be ambassador to the UK’s ambassador to the UK came like a “bolt from the blue”.
Writing on the right wing news site Breibart he said:
Like a bolt from the blue Trump tweeted out that I would do a great job as the UK’s Ambassador to Washington.
I can still scarcely believe that he did that though speaking to a couple of his long time friends perhaps I am a little less surprised.
This isn’t quite true. Farage himself joked that he would like to be Trump’s ambassador to the EU, on the eve of his election.
.@Nigel_Farage tells @Peston what his dream job working for @realDonaldTrump would be ...it might surprise you #TheAgenda pic.twitter.com/qHwTa7V6kQ
— The Agenda (@agendaitv) November 7, 2016
In the article Farage has also accused Downing Street of putting its dislike for him ahead of the national interest, after aides to the Prime Minister dismissed Trump’s call.
He writes:
The political revolution of 2016 now sees a new order in charge of Washington. In the United Kingdom the people have spoken but the players at the top have, I am afraid, stayed the same.
Those who supported Remain now hold senior positions. Worst still, those who were openly abusive about Trump now pretend to be his friend.
It is career politics at its worst and it is now getting in the way of the national interest.
I have said since the now famous photograph with Donald Trump ten days ago that I would do anything to help our national interest and to help cement ties with the incoming Anglophile administration.
At every stage I am greeted by negative comments coming out of Downing Street. The dislike of me, UKIP, and the referendum result is more important to them than what could be good for our country.
I have known several of the Trump team for years and I am in a good position with the President-elect’s support to help. The world has changed and its time that Downing Street did too.
More from PA on the Ukip investigation.
An audit found that ADDE financed polling in the UK between February and December last year, including pre-election surveys in Thanet South, where Nigel Farage unsuccessfully stood for Parliament, and Ukip target seats Great Grimsby, Thurrock, Rochester & Strood and Cardiff South & Penarth.
Nine opinion polls ahead of the 2015 election and 2016 EU referendum were found to have breached the rules on European party financing.
Expenditure linked to the services of three consultants was also considered non-eligible by an external auditor and by the Parliament’s administration.
The European Parliament had advised the commission that “it has formally concluded that ADDE and IDDE used EU grant funding for the benefit of Ukip in breach of its rules and therefore, these expenses were declared as non-eligible for the financing”.
Commission officials have already met with representatives of the European Parliament and inspected material gathered as part of the audit.
The Electoral Commission has more on the election rules Ukip is alleged to have broken.
It lists the permissible donors under Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 as:
- An individual registered on a UK electoral register, including overseas electors and those leaving bequests.
- Most UK-registered companies.
- A Great Britain registered political party.
- A UK-registered trade union.
- A UK-registered building society.
- A UK-registered limited liability partnership (LLP) that carries on business in the UK.
- A UK-registered friendly society.
- A UK-based unincorporated association that carries on business or other activities in the UK.
The list does not include European political groupings.
Here’s a quick summary from PA:
Ukip is being investigated by Britain’s elections watchdog over claims it breached party funding laws.
The European Parliament Bureau has already ruled the grouping Ukip belongs to, the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE), will have to repay €172,655 (£146,696), and will no longer be given a grant of €248,345 euro (£211,000) previously allocated to it after finding it misused EU funding.
The Electoral Commission has now opened its own investigation into whether Ukip accepted “impermissible donations” from the ADDE and its affiliated foundation, the Initiative for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE).
There has been no response yet from Ukip on the allegations that it misspent European funding.
Interim leader Nigel Farage is still putting himself forward as Britain’s ambassador or envoy to a Trump-led United States.
His latest tweet was posted minutes after the Electoral Commission’s announced it was launching an investigation.
I have known several of the Trump team for years and I am in a good position with the President-elect’s support to help.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 22, 2016
Jennifer Rankin in Brussels has more background on the investigation into Ukip.
A Ukip-dominated group in the European parliament has been found to have misspent more than half a million euros (£427,000) of taxpayers’ money following an investigation by European parliament officials.
The Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, a Ukip-controlled group, was asked to return €172,655 by a committee of senior MEPs on Monday night, after officials found the party had breached EU rules by pouring money into the UK 2015 general election and the EU referendum.
The group will also be denied €248,345 in grants it could have secured if it had followed the rules, a damaging blow to the cash-strapped party. Once misspending by Dutch and Belgian parties was taken into account, the ADDE and an affiliated foundation were found to have misused €500,615 of EU grants.
Senior MEPs endorsed the report of the parliament’s finance team, a document seen by the Guardian last week, which concluded the ADDE had funnelled cash into Nigel Farage’s failed attempt to win a seat at Thanet South, as well as opinion polls to test the public mood in the run-up the EU referendum campaign.
EU rules ban parties from spending European grants on national elections or referendums.
“The activities of the ADDE were found to breach the rules for European party financing,” a European parliament statement said, citing opinion polls funded by the ADDE in British constituencies before of the 2015 general election, as well as public opinion surveys before June’s referendum.
Here’s the press release from the commission:
The Electoral Commission has opened an investigation regarding the UK Independence Party (UKIP) to ascertain whether the party accepted impermissible donations from the European political party the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE) and its affiliated foundation the Initiative for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE).
ADDE and its affiliate IDDE, as with other European political parties and foundations, can receive grant funding from the European Union (EU). This funding can cover up to 85% of the parties’ eligible expenditure and be used for a range of activity, from administrative functions through to the campaign costs connected to European elections. It cannot, however, be used for a range of other specified purposes, including for the direct or indirect funding of national parties, election candidates and political foundations at either the national or European level. More information about the EU’s rules can be found here.
On the evening of 21 November, the European Parliament advised the Commission that following its annual audit and inspection of the funding provided to European Parties in 2015, it has formally concluded that ADDE and IDDE used EU grant funding for the benefit of UKIP in breach of its rules and therefore, these expenses were declared as non-eligible for the financing. The Commission has in recent weeks already met with representatives of the European Parliament and inspected material that it gathered as part of its audit.
The Commission has now opened its own investigation into UKIP to look at whether there has been any breach of UK election law. This includes whether any impermissible donations have been accepted by the party.
Donations and loans to political parties are regulated under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). A donation is money, goods or services given to a political party without charge or on non-commercial terms, with a value of over £500.
Parties must record the donations and loans they receive, check they are from a permissible source, and report certain donations and loans to the Electoral Commission. If donations and loans are not from a permissible source, a party has thirty days to return the donation and must report the impermissible donation to the Commission.
The time taken to complete an investigation varies on a case-by-case basis. Once the investigation is complete, the Commission will decide whether any breaches have occurred and if so what further action may be appropriate.
The Commission will conduct the investigation in line with its Enforcement Policy and will issue a press release at the conclusion of the case setting out what has happened, including whether any offences have been committed.
Electoral Commission investigates Ukip over European funding
The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into Ukip over whether it got “impermissible” donations from the ADDE group in Europe.
Updated
Life certainly hasn’t been dull since Donald Trump was elected as the next US president. One awakes every morning in the UK ready to discover what the latest shocker to emerge overnight from his Twitter feed is and today’s is a corker.
Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
A week ago the prospect of Nigel Farage, the outgoing Ukip leader, as ambassador to Washington could be dismissed as some comic Daily Express/Daily Telegraph fantasy, but if Trump is joining in, then that takes things to a new level.
Downing Street has dismissed the suggestion. A Number 10 spokesman said: “There is no vacancy. We already have an excellent ambassador to the US.”
Nevertheless, Trump’s tweet has some quite serious implications. Offhand, I can think of four.
1 - Trump has at a stroke undermined the authority of Britain’s current ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch. Effectively he has issued a public statement of no confidence in him. This would be relatively unusual if he were dealing with the ambassador from a hostile country, but it is an extraordinary thing to do to the ambassador of an ally.
2 - Trump has orchestrated his first public disagreement with Theresa May. It is hard to imagine he expected her to take his advice, but he has put her in the position where she has had to reject his proposal. Hardly the special relationship.
3 - He has given a huge boost in status to a leading figure in a UK opposition party - again, an unfriendly move to May.
4 - He has confirmed that any hopes of him operating as a “normal” president seem misguided. Perhaps it was just a joke. But, if so, that probably makes it all worse.
Here is the Guardian’s version of this story.
I have got an appointment (nothing serious) so I won’t be blogging again for an hour or so. Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Mark Garnier, the international trade minister, speaks at the Association of British Insurers conference.
9.45am: Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the lord chief justice, gives evidence to the Commons justice committee.
11.30am: Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.45am: Theresa May holds talks with the Belgian prime minister Charles Michel at Number 10.
3.30pm: Facebook and Google give evidence to the Lords communications committee on children and the internet.
Labour’s national executive committee is also meeting today although, as Jessica Elgot reports, plans for this to be a “democracy day” agreeing major internal party reforms have been shelved.
As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan on posting a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
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