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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Brexit department announces concessions over EU withdrawal bill ahead of key debates next week - Politics live

Prime Minister Theresa May leads her first cabinet meeting of the new year at 10 Downing street in central London.
Prime Minister Theresa May leads her first cabinet meeting of the new year at 10 Downing street in central London. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

Afternoon summary

  • The Brexit department has announced a series of concessions over the EU withdrawal bill. With the bill due to have its report stage and third reading in the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, the department has tabled 25 amendments to the bill addressing various concerns that have been raised about the legislation. In a press notice the department said:

During the bill’s passage through the House of Commons, the government has worked with and listened to MPs who have made constructive suggestions to ensure our statute book functions on exit day.

On the correcting power in the bill, the government would add further, specific guarantees to those already in place which will clarify the strict limits on when the power can be used.

In an effort to boost legal certainty, and responding to suggestions made by MPs during committee stage, the government has also brought forward an amendment relating to the general principles of EU law. These are the binding legal principles that shape EU law and the way it is interpreted. Citizens and businesses would have an additional three months after exit day to start court cases where they believe the general principles of EU law have not been followed prior to exit day.

A further proposal reflects the ongoing dialogue between the government and devolved administrations, changing the way in which Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland can use the correcting power. Where they previously needed to seek the consent of the UK government they would now only need to consult.

Commenting on the amendments, the Brexit minister Steve Baker said:

In bringing forward these amendments today, we’re showing the seriousness with which we take parliament’s views.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

If you want graphs about the reshuffle, the Institute for Government live blog is the place to go. This one is particularly revealing.

Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick points out that there will be a big gender pay gap in cabinet.

Six female backbenchers promoted to whips office

Downing Street has announced that six female backbenchers have been made government whips. They are:

Kelly Tolhurst

Mims Davies

Amanda Milling

Jo Churchill

Wendy Morton

Nusrat Ghani

As well as being a whip, Ghani has also been made a junior transport minister.

As a result, seven of the 18 Tory whips in the Commons are female.

No 10 has also announced that Chris Pincher has been made deputy chief whip, replacing Esther McVey, who has become work and pensions secretary. Pincher was a senior whip until he stood down in and voluntarily referred himself for investigation by the Tory party over a report alleging sexual misconduct in 2001, before he became an MP. Pincher was subsequently cleared of breaching the party’s code of conduct.

May says reshuffle makes government look 'more like the country it serves'

Theresa May has released a statement about the reshuffle. She said:

This government is about building a country fit for the future – one that truly works for everyone with a stronger economy and a fairer society.

This reshuffle helps us do just that by bringing fresh talent into government, boosting delivery in key policy areas like housing, health and social care, and ensuring the government looks more like the country it serves.

It also allows a new generation of gifted ministers to step up and make life better for people across the whole UK.

No 10 says there are now more women attending cabinet than before, more female ministers than before and more ministers from a BME background than before.

According to Sky’s Lewis Goodall, Suella Fernandes, the new Brexit minister (see 3.35pm), said a no deal Brexit would be “great” for the UK last year.

Shailesh Vara returns to government as Northern Ireland minister

Shailesh Vara was a justice minister when David Cameron was prime minister but he left the government when Theresa May took over. He was a Michael Gove supporter in the 2016 Tory leadership contest, which probably ruined his chances under May.

Aged 57, and an MP since 2005, Vara is not a young rising star, like many of the other people getting promoted today. But he is BME (his family are Ugandan Asians, and they came to the UK when he was four), and one aim of the reshuffle is to make the government more diverse and representative, and that probably helps to explain his ministerial comeback.

The FT’s legal commentator David Allen Green thinks it was a mistake for Theresa May to move David Lidington and Dominic Raab from justice with the EU withdrawal bill (a Brexit department bill, but one with major legal implications) is still in the Commons.

This is from Sky’s Beth Rigby.

Sky have been suggesting that Theresa May will appear outside Number 10 later for a photocall with some of her new ministers.

Number 10 has also released the text of Philip Dunne’s letter to the PM following his resignation as a health minister. As the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn points out, the first sentence of the letter makes it clear that his resignation was not entirely voluntary.

Former minister John Hayes to take on task of trying to boost Tory party membership

Downing Street has been making a distinction today between ministers who have resigned and ministers who have been sacked (or “left the government”, as they put it euphemistically). See 12.58pm. The perk for ministers who resign seems to be that the get an exchange of letters with the prime minister, because Number 10 has released the exchange between the PM and John Hayes and Philip Dunne.

Hayes wrote to May by hand. And in his letter he revealed that he is going to work for the party as a backbencher on increasing membership. Here’s the key extract.

Extract from John Hayes’s resignation letter.
Extract from John Hayes’s resignation letter. Photograph: No 10

If you are having difficulty with his (rather elegant) handwriting, it says:

Outside of the limits of ministerial office I will be free to make a case for the socially elevating conservatism in which you know I believe. In particular, as we discussed, I hope to continue to assist with policy development and will, as we agreed, devise and deliver with the Central Office team a means by which we boost party membership.

(“Socially elevating conservatism” is not quite the same thing as social mobility. Hayes is an unusual Tory, committed to his own blend of romanticised paternalism.)

Boosting party membership is a big priority. As I reported earlier, the new party chairman Brandon Lewis did not challenge a claim that the membership is down to 70,000 when he was interviewed on the Today programme this morning. (See 9.23am.)

John Hayes.
John Hayes. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library / Alamy/Alamy

Updated

Sir Nicholas Soames, the Conservative MP who last night said he hoped today’s phase of the reshuffle would be a “major improvement” on yesterday’s (see 9.23am), remains disappointed.

Suella Fernandes has joined the government as a Brexit minister. Fernandes is a fierce Brexiter and has been chair of the European Research Group, an influential group of Tory MPs campaigning for a hard version of Brexit. Assuming he stays at the department, she will be joining Steve Baker, her predecessor as ERG chair, as a Brexit minister. If she is replacing Robin Walker, a current Brexit minister who voted remain, then the Brexit department as a whole will be turning a much stronger shade of leave.

Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister who recently resigned as chair of the social mobility commission, told the World at One earlier that Justine Greening’s resignation from the government was a loss.

He said:

Justine was a champion for social mobility within the government. I think her departure is a loss as far as the social mobility cause is concerned. She was someone who was deeply committed to the issue.

Michael Gove appears to be walking the walk on reducing waste, as he was spotted strolling into Downing Street with a reusable coffee cup, the Press Association reports. The environment secretary has previously been photographed clutching a disposable coffee cup, but now appears to have made the switch to a more sustainable alternative for his takeaway brew. The move comes amid growing pressure to tackle the 2.5bn disposable coffee cups the UK gets through every year, with almost all of them incinerated, exported or sent to landfill because their plastic lining makes them costly to recycle.

Michael Gove carrying a disposable coffee cup in October into No 10 in October (left) and today, when he turned up with a re-usable cup.
Michael Gove carrying a disposable coffee cup in October into No 10 in October (left) and today, when he turned up with a re-usable cup.
 Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratford-upon-Avon since 2010, has been made an education minister.

Another backbencher has got a job. Robert Jenrick, who was first elected in a byelection in 2014, becomes a Treasury minister.

Four backbenchers from 2015 intake get ministerial jobs

Number 10 has announced the promotion of four backbenchers, all of whom entered parliament in 2015.

Rishi Sunak becomes a housing and communities minister. Aged 37, he succeeded William Hague as MP for Richmond in Yorkshire.

Lucy Frazer becomes a justice minister. She is 45, and a QC.

Oliver Dowden becomes a Cabinet Office minister. Aged 39, he used to be David Cameron’s deputy chief of staff.

Kit Malthouse becomes a work and pensions minister. Aged 51, he used to be a member of the London assembly and was a deputy mayor for business under Boris Johnson.

EU withdrawal bill unacceptable to Scotland, says Scottish parliament committee

The Scottish parliament’s finance and constitution committee has published a unanimous report saying the Scottish parliament should not grant legislative consent to the EU withdrawal bill. It says that clause 11 of the bill, which would stop the Scottish parliament legislating on matters previously covered by EU law after those powers get taken back to Westminster, is unacceptable.

Bruce Crawford, the SNP MSP who chairs the committee, said:

The committee is unanimous in its view that it is not in a position to recommend legislative consent to the EU withdrawal bill. The whole committee is of the view that clause 11, as currently drafted, is incompatible with the devolution settlement in Scotland. This view was shared by the vast majority of expert evidence we received on clause 11 as it represents a fundamental shift in the structure of devolution in Scotland.

The EU withdrawal bill is still going through parliament and the UK government says it wants to find a solution to what happens to powers affecting devolution after Brexit that is acceptable to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A decision by the Scottish parliament to refuse legislative consent to the bill would not necessarily block it but it would trigger a crisis, because Westminster is only supposed to legislate on matters devolved to Scotland with the consent of Edinburgh.

Updated

BBC director general Tony Hall summoned to Commons committee to discuss gender pay gap

Damian Collins, the chair of the Commons culture commitee, has announced that Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, will be called to give evidence to his committee about equal pay at the BBC.

In the Commons, in response to an urgent question on the topic, Matt Hancock, the new culture secretary said the BBC must do more to address this issue. He told MPs:

The BBC’s overall gender pay gap stands at around 9%, but the figures also show two thirds of those earning over £150,000 were men, and reveal a lack of staff from BAME backgrounds among top earners.

At the time of publication, some male presenters were understandably uncomfortable with the results.

John Humphrys even acknowledged that he would not necessarily be able to explain his salary of 600,000.

This isn’t just a matter of levelling women’s pay up. It’s a matter of pay equality.

Working for the BBC is public service and a great privilege, yet some men at the BBC are paid far more than other, equivalent public servants.

Matt Hancock.
Matt Hancock. Photograph: PA

Updated

David Davis’s claim in a leaked letter to the prime minister that the EU is discriminating against the UK and damaging its economic interests by preparing for a no-deal scenario in March 2019 has been met with flat denials and accusations of hypocrisy in Brussels, my colleague Daniel Boffey reports.

The Telegraph’s Ashley Kirk has produced some useful charts looking at how yesterday’s reshuffle changed the composition of the cabinet. His figures just cover full cabinet ministers, not those attending cabinet too.

Osborne's Evening Standard says Tories 'would be finished' if Labour not so poor

George Osborne’s Evening Standard has delivered a damning verdict about Theresa May’s reshuffle. Here is an extract from its editorial.

Now we have the ridicule of a government attempting to present itself as the face of modern Britain spend a week defending the misogynistic comments of its newly appointed universities regulator, Toby Young, when they were warned by the Evening Standard and others that he couldn’t stay — only to see him inevitably resign this morning.

You have to hand it to this prime minister: she’s given us the hat-trick of the worst reshuffle, the worst party conference speech and the worst manifesto in modern history.

If they were not facing one of the worst oppositions we’ve ever had, the Tories would be finished.

Osborne is probably right about May having delivered the worst manifesto and worst conference speech in modern times.

But Osborne is probably wrong about this reshuffle being the worst of modern times. It is certainly went awry, and mostly all it has achieved so far is showcase May’s weakness. The reshuffle in 2003, when Tony Blair announced he was getting rid of the post of lord chancellor only to discover that that was not legally possible, was far more inept.

Harriet Baldwin promoted to Foreign Office/DfID minister

Harriet Baldwin has been made a minister of state serving the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development. She was a junior defence minister, so she is going up.

Margot James promoted to culture minister

Margot James has been appointed minister of state at culture. She was a junior minister at business, so that’s a promotion.

Rory Stewart appointed justice minister

Rory Stewart, the Africa minister, has been appointed a minister of state at justice. That’s a sideways move, and not one for which there is an obvious reason. A former diplomat, Stewart has considerable foreign affairs experience. But he does not have a background in law or criminal justice.

Stephen Barclay promoted to become health and social care minister

Stephen Barclay has also been promoted to become a health and social care minister. He was a junior minister at the Treasury.

Caroline Dinenage promoted to become health and social care minister

Caroline Dinenage has been appointed a minister of state at the department of health and social care. She was a junior minister at the DWP, so that’s a promotion too.

(Ministers of state are more senior than parliamentary under-secretaries, and are paid more too.)

Updated

Sam Gyimah promoted to become universities minister

Sam Gyimah is replacing Jo Johnson as universities minister. He was a junior minister (a a parliamentary under-secretary of state) at the justice department, in charge of prisons, so this is a promotion.

Ministerial code to be beefed up to cover bullying, harassment and 'Priti Patel' foreign policy freelancing

One piece of news has emerged from Downing Street following the first meeting of Theresa May’s new cabinet where, we are told, the main discussion was about the environment ahead of a speech on the issue by the PM later this week.

Later this afternoon the government will publish a revised ministerial code, which sets out the expected behaviour of ministers. It will be sent to ministers, who will need to confirm that they are their aides have read it, May’s spokesman told reporters.

There were “a number of changes”, he said:

It will ensure new wording to ensure that the code properly covers inappropriate, bullying or harassing behaviour. There’s also new wording to specifically address the requirements on ministers to report official meetings domestically and, especially, overseas.

The first issue follows a wave of allegations against MPs and some ministers, which saw defence secretary Michael Fallon leave government, May’s effective deputy Damian Green get sacked, and the junior trade minister Mark Garnier allowed to stay in his job (until he lost it in the reshuffle today).

The second change could be termed the Priti Patel clause – the then-international development secretary lost her job in November after it emerged she had held a series of unofficial meetings while supposedly on holiday in Israel.

Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general who masterminded the Tory rebellion that led to the government being defeated on the EU withdrawal bill before Christmas, was seen going into Number 10 earlier, prompting speculation that Theresa May could be about to pull off a clever masterstroke.

But, according to the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, it’s all a false alarm.

Scottish Labour leader says he expects final Brexit deal to be rejected by MPs

The Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has said another UK general election in the next two years is far more likely that a second EU referendum, but said that even then, the UK would still leave the EU.

A Jeremy Corbyn loyalist, Leonard told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme he strongly doubted that the Commons would support the Brexit deal, triggering a second snap election. He said:

I suspect it will not command support, looking at the way the negotiations are going at the moment, which will in turn precipitate a general election. So rather than talking about second referenda, I think it’s more likely we would be taking about a general election to determine the future direction of the UK’s membership of the EU.

He was pressed hard on Labour’s stance on Brexit, and implied that if his party won a snap election, it would still press on with leaving the EU – a policy which recent opinion polls suggest a majority of Labour voters reject.

Leonard, who has little influence on UK party policy on Brexit, was challenged on Corbyn’s statement at Monday evening’s parliamentary Labour party meeting that single market membership required EU membership. Leonard said that was wrong, since Norway had single market access through the European Free Trade Area, but added he had not heard Corbyn say that or its context.

He was also challenged on remarks by Neil Findlay, who he appointed Scottish Labour’s Brexit spokesman, that a second EU referendum remained on the table.

Leonard told BBC Radio Scotland he was “almost certain” the UK would leave, adding:

I expect Brexit will happen. There are circumstances conceivable where Brexit mightn’t happen but I think they’re extremely slim and I think that there will be a withdrawal from the EU. But I think it’s imperative that we make sure that withdrawal is on terms that best protects the interests of working people.

Richard Leonard.
Richard Leonard. Photograph: John Linton/PA

No 10 names two ministers who have resigned, and two who have been sacked

Number 10 has also sent out a press release saying that two ministers have resigned. They are:

John Hayes, who was transport minister

Philip Dunne, who was health minister.

The same press notice says another two ministers have “left the government”. That’s a euphemism for been sacked. They are:

Robert Goodwill, education minister

Mark Garnier, international trade minister

Greg Hands is staying as minister of state for trade policy at the international trade department, Number 10 has announced.

Ben Wallace has announced that he is remaining as security minister.

Chris Leslie asks for Labour pro-Europeans to be included in cross-party campaign to keep UK in single market

Four opposition party leaders have held a meeting at Westminster to discuss working together to try to keep the UK in the single market after Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn was invited to the meeting, convened by the SNP, but he stayed away - prompting the four to empty chair him.

Afterwards the SNP’s Ian Blackford, the Lib Dem Sir Vince Cable, Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville-Roberts and the Green MP Caroline Lucas issued a joint statement. Here’s an extract:

With the clock ticking, it is now more important than ever that we have a united and effective opposition holding the UK government to account, and working together in the national interest to prevent the most damaging excesses of a hard Brexit or no deal scenario.

We are jointly committed to providing that opposition, and call on Labour to join with us - to fail to do so would be an abdication of responsibility, and would make Labour just as culpable for the lasting damage a hard Brexit would do to UK jobs and prosperity.

Today, we call on the prime minister to dismiss any chance of a ‘no deal’ scenario. The possibility must be firmly off the table.

We will work together in the Commons alongside members from all political parties to protect the UK economy and prevent any attempts to drag Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland out the single market.

Moving forward together, we will seek to meet with key stakeholders, such as the TUC and business groups, and the devolved administrations including the London Assembly, to express Parliament’s cross-party desire to avoidthe damage that Brexit will cause, and encourage all efforts to avoid such an outcome.

In a letter to Blackford last week Jeremy Corbyn explained why he would not be attending. He said:

Labour has been clear that we want jobs first Brexit with a final deal that retains the benefits of the customs union and the single market.

Your proposed summit appears to be based on the flawed assumption that the single market is a membership club – it is not. We have consistently said that we are committed to negotiating to keep the benefits of the single market and securing the best possible deal for the whole of Britain, which protects our economy and the people of this country, whilst at the same time respecting the result of the referendum.

Therefore, Labour will not attend your meeting. However, we will work with your party and others to hold this government to account every step of the way and invite you and others across the House to work with us to achieve a jobs first Brexit that puts living standards and the economy first.

Chris Leslie, the pro-European Labour MP, wrote to Blackford last night asking if he or anyone else could attend on Labour’s behalf in place of Corbyn. In his letter he said:

All conceivable avenues for preventing this outcome by keeping Britain in the single market and the customs union should therefore be pursued. No party has a monopoly on ideas for how this is best achieved, and none can be effective if they act in isolation. The time has come for far greater coordination and cooperation, and this is a time for pro-Europeans across the House of Commons to put the UK national interest above party interest ...

Given the widespread support in the parliamentary Labour party and among Labour members and voters for the aims of these talks, I hope the party can be represented in another way if Labour’s leadership is not able to attend.

Leslie was not there this morning. His office said he is still waiting for a reply from Blackford to see whether he or anyone else from Labour gets invited to any further meetings the group holds.

The cross-party pro-single market meeting with (left to right) Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville-Roberts, Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford and Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas alongside a chair reserved for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was invited but did not attend.
The cross-party pro-single market meeting with (left to right) Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville-Roberts, Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford and Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas alongside a chair reserved for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was invited but did not attend. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Updated

Jo Johnson appointed transport minister

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, has been made transport minister and minister for London. His brother Boris, of course, was mayor for London.

Sky’s Beth Rigby is monitoring the ministers going into Number 10.

Dominic Raab appointed housing minister

Dominic Raab, the justice minister, has been made housing minister.

This is a sideways move for Raab. Housing is a key government priority, and so he can’t complain about it being a non-job, but at the weekend he was being tipped as a dead-cert for a cabinet post, and he leaves justice, where he had relevant expertise (he’s a lawyer) for a portfolio not relevant to his background, and so he may have mixed feelings about it all.

Alok Sharma appointed employment minister

Number 10 has started announcing new appointments.

Alok Sharma, the housing minister, becomes the new employment minister.

This is a sideways move for Sharma, who has been dealing with the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy since becoming housing minister after the election.

When David Cameron became prime minister in 2010 he took the view that government needed a bit of continuity and he waited two years before carrying out his first proper reshuffle.

One of the criticisms of May is that she has reverted to the practice of shuffling some posts on an almost annual basis. Sharma’s move means that she is about to appoint her third housing minister since becoming PM in July 2016. And the Conservatives are about to get their seventh housing minister since 2010.

May is also on her third justice secretary and her third work and pensions secretary since becoming PM less than two years ago.

UPDATE: Here is a chart showing how long recent justice secretaries have remained in post.

Updated

Number 10 let a photographer record the first meeting of the new cabinet this morning. Here is Theresa May.

Theresa May, with Philip Hammond, the chancellor, sitting to her left and Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, sitting to her right.
Theresa May, with Philip Hammond, the chancellor, sitting to her left and Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, sitting to her right.
 Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Curiously, May is barely visible in one of the main pictures offered to newspapers.

The new cabinet meets.
The new cabinet meets. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

It is probably more fun blogging the Polish reshuffle. This is from Jakub Krupa from the Polish Press Agency.

Duncan Smith says junior ministerial changes will let May do proper cabinet reshuffle later this year

You might think that, after this episode is over, Theresa May will decide she has had enough of reshuffles. But Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former work and pensions secretary, told Sky’s All Out Politics this morning that he expected another reshuffle before the end of the year. He argued that the junior changes being announced today will pave the way for a significant cabinet-level reshuffle in the future. He said:

I don’t think there was ever an intention to make a big, cabinet reshuffle. The intention was to have a very big ministerial shake-up which will happen over the next 24 hours. That is the key to what then happens to the cabinet in about nine months’ time when I think there will be bigger changes in cabinet.

Duncan Smith said it was a mistake for Number 10 to let the media think that this week’s cabinet reshuffle would be wide-ranging. “The problem, as in all these things, is how the media is managed is the run to a cabinet reshufle,” he said.

Iain Duncan Smith.
Iain Duncan Smith. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Toby Young was right to quit Office for Students board, says its chair

It looks as if they are not going to miss Toby Young on the board of the new Office for Students. Michael Barber, the former head of Tony Blair’s delivery unit who is chair of OfS, put out a statement saying:

I welcome Toby Young’s statement. He has reached the right conclusion. Mr Young has done good work founding a number of schools, as director of the New Schools Network, and to promote greater social mobility.

However, many of his previous tweets and articles were offensive, and not in line with the values of the Office for Students. Mr Young was right to offer an unreserved apology for these comments and he was correct to say that his continuation in the role would have distracted from our important work. I now look forward to working with the board, and our newly appointed student panel, as we prepare for the Office for Students to begin its operations in April.

This is from the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope.

Rory Stewart, the Africa minister, is heading for Number 10, the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn reports.

Mark Garnier sacked as international trade minister

Mark Garnier has announced that he has been sacked as an international trade minister.

Only last month it was announced that he was being allowed to stay in his post after a Cabinet Office investigation into alleged inappropriate behaviour with a female parliamentary assistant in 2010.

According to the BBC, Philip Dunne, a health minister, Robert Goodwill, an education minister, and John Hayes, a transport minister, are also leaving the government.

Dunne probably did not help his chances yesterday when he told MPs in the chamber that patients who need to be admitted can sit on seats in A&E units while they wait for a bed.

Updated

Greening says leaving government was 'right thing to do'

Justine Greening
Justine Greening Photograph: Sky News

Justine Greening, who was sacked yesterday as education secretary after refusing a move to work and pensions, has said leaving government was “the right thing to do”.

She was doorstepped outside her home by a Sky reporter who asked why she did not take up the offer to become work and pensions secretary. She replied gnomically:

I did what what I thought the right thing to do was.

Then she set of on a run, ignoring further questions.

Justine Greening
Justine Greening Photograph: Sky News

Greening was marginally more forthcoming about the reasons for her decision to quit the government in a tweet she posted last night.

It is not obvious why Greening thinks that she will be able to do more to promote social mobility than as work and pensions secretary, where she would have been in charge of by far the biggest spending budget in government (although whether the welfare system does much for social mobility is, of course, a moot point). Instead the reference to social mobility may have been an attempt to portray herself as a grammar school martyr. Greening fell out with May and her team because she did little to hide the fact that she does not share May’s enthusiasm for expanding grammar schools. May and some other Tories think grammar schools are good for social mobility, but most education experts disagree, and Greening is thought to think they’re right.

How the papers are covering the reshuffle

As I said earlier, the today’s papers are relatively unanimous about the reshuffle being a bit of a disappointment. Here are the main front pages.

But one paper has a positive splash (if, like the FT, you think the cabinet fixer being a pro-European is a good thing).

''Not quite', says new Tory chair, when asked about party being 'in a mess' after reshuffle

The Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames, but who is independent-minded but also an instinctive loyalist and no troublemaker, probably summed up the views of of most of his colleagues when commenting on the reshuffle on Twitter last night.

As the Guardian’s overnight splash, and indeed pretty much every other splash reports, May’s cabinet reshuffle yesterday wasn’t exactly a triumph.

And then, this morning, more awkward news: Toby Young has resigned from his post on the board of the new higher education regulator. On the one hand this terminates a controversy that has become increasingly toxic for the government in recent days. Yet Young only decided to quit after many senior figures had expended quite a lot of political capital defending him. Some of the Tories speaking up for him, like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, were friends and ideological soulmates. But Jo Johnson, the universities minister, did not look particularly comfortably as he spent almost an hour in the Commons yesterday afternoon trying to justify Young’s appointment. And Theresa May also looked awkward when explaining on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday why Young was being allowed to stay in post. The Channel 4 News political editor Gary Gibbon has speculated that May only agreed to Young remaining in post because she did not have the authority to over-rule Johnson and Gove.

Young once wrote a book called “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”. It’s obviously time for a new edition.

Here’s our story about Young’s resignation.

This morning Brandon Lewis, the new Conservative party chairman, was asked about the reshuffle on the Today programme. He played down criticism and insisted that there would be good news today, as May reshuffles junior ministers. He said:

It hasn’t finished yet. You’ll see today new talent coming into government in the reshuffle work that will be done today by the prime minister ... You’ll see a really good breath of fresh air coming in with some really good people coming in.

But, when asked about the state of the Conservative party, Lewis sounded a bit more measured. When it was put to him that the Conservative party was “in a mess”, he replied: “Not quite. I wouldn’t go quite [that far].”

Lewis also refused to say how many members the Conservative party has, claiming that CCHQ did not have the figures because it did not have a centrally-run membership list. One prominent activist claimed recently the figure was as low as 70,000. When this figure was put to him, Lewis did not challenge it. He just said he was “very focused” on increasing the membership. Labour has more than half a million members.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Leaders of SNP, Lib Dem, Plaid Cymru and Green MPs meet at Westminster to discuss working together to keep the UK in the single market after Brexit. The SNP, which organised the meeting, invited Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn but he is not participating.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs a meeting of her new cabinet. Later she will continue work on the government reshuffle.

11.30am: Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

2.30pm: Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, or housing secretary as he is now, gives a speech to the Local Government Association’s annual finance conference.

Around 12.45pm: MPs begin the trade bill’s second reading debate.

I will be focusing on the reshuffle today but, as usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

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

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

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

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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The former NBA star read the fake messages on his podcast, ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq,’ and joked that he has ‘way more game than that’
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Everything We Know About 'Five Nights at Epstein's': The Viral Game Sweeping US School Campuses
A FNAF-inspired game called 'Five Nights at Epstein's' has gone viral among US students as it takes place in Jeffrey Epstein's Little St. James island, where he lured his victims.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
You Think Howard The Duck Is Bad? Let Me Tell You About The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
There's trash movies, and then there's garbage.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
The new Trump coin will have an eagle on the back. Here are some better options
The real defining image of this presidency should be the bank statement of the average American citizen
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
‘What is literally the point’: Utah man sets up a date. Then he sees her address and tries to change the plan
Low effort, high red flags.
We Got This Covered
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