Afternoon summary
- Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has said that he wants to reach a consensus on a 10-year funding settlement for the NHS involving giving it “significantly” more money. (See 4.52pm.)
- The National Audit Office has announced that it will hold an investigation into the government’s decision to spend up to £39bn on payments to the EU as part of the withdrawal agreement. (See 2.26pm.)
- The Scottish government has announced that it is preparing it own EU continuity bill in case it fails to reach agreement with the UK government over the EU withdrawal bill. The Scottish government is still minded to refuse the UK bill legislative consent. As a contingency, it is planning to introduce its own bill in the Scottish parliament in February to ensure there are no gaps in legislation when the UK leaves the EU.
- Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, has said Sinn Fein’s continued “eulogising” of the IRA is thwarting efforts to build a shared future in Northern Ireland. Referring to the controversy generated by a Sinn Fein MP appearing to mark the anniversary of an IRA massacre with a joke, she said:
They have to stop eulogising terrorists. They have to stop that, it cannot continue.
If we are building a new shared future for the people of Northern Ireland, let’s build it, but let’s move away from the past and move away from the eulogising of terrorists.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
On Monday the Daily Telegraph splashed on a story saying Theresa May was going to use the reshuffle to have what would amount to a minister for a no deal Brexit attending cabinet. It said Steve Baker, a Brexit minister already in charge of Brexit planning, would start attending cabinet, showing how serious the government was about a no deal Brexit.
As you will have noticed, this never happened.
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says Brexiters are very angry about this.
What happened to an extra Brexit minister being allowed to attend Cabinet? Brexiteers v cross that it didn't happen in reshuffle - but No 10 says now @DExEUgov ministers, like Steve Baker, who has responsiblity for implementation COULD be invited to Cabinet on relevant occasions
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 10, 2018
The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, who wrote the story, says he thinks Baker may have been bounced out at the last minute May wanted to allocated the cabinet attendee slot lined up for him to a woman.
Exactly. But at Lobby yesterday there were no plans for this. Gossip is that Energy minister Claire Perry got 'Cabinet visiting rights' rather than (current 'no deal' minister) Steve Baker for gender balance reasons. Number 10 denies this. https://t.co/xLXptaFAzr
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) January 10, 2018
Hunt says he wants consensus on 10-year funding deal for NHS with 'significantly' more money
The Commons debate on the Labour motion on the NHS has just finished. Here are the key points.
- Jeremy Hunt, the health and social care secretary, said that he wanted to reach a consensus on a 10-year funding settlement for the NHS involving “significantly” more money. But he refused to commit himself to cross-party talks on this issue, and he spoke after Theresa May conspicuously failed to back calls for a royal commission on health and social care. Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem former health minister, told Hunt that Tories like Nick Timothy, May’s former co chief of staff (here), Lord Saatchi and David Cameron’s former policy chief Camilla Cavendish (here) were in favour of a royal commission. Lamb asked Hunt to back this approach, saying it would enable the government to develop a consensus on funding health care. Hunt replied:
I have said publicly that I think as we come to the end of the five-year forward view we do need to look to find a consensus for the next phase of the NHS. We will need significantly more funding in the years ahead. We need to build a national consensus as to how we are going to find that funding. And my own view is that we should try and do that for a 10-year period, not a five-year period.
The current NHS plan, running to the end of the decade, is the Five Year Forward View. Earlier, at PMQs, the Tory MP Andrew Murrison asked May to set up a royal commission on NHS funding. Theresa May sidestepped the question, and just said the government was “putting more funding in and looking at the better integration of health and social care on the ground.”
- Hunt denied a report in the Times saying patients needing cancer treatment were facing delays. The Times story was based on a leaked memo circulated to staff at Churchill Hospital in Oxford. According to The Times, the memo warned the number of chemotherapy cycles offered to the terminally ill would have to be cut because of a lack of staff trained to deal with medication. But when the issue was raised at PMQs May said:
The trust has made clear there are absolutely no plans to delay the start of chemotherapy treatment or reduce the number of cycles of treatment given to cancer patients.
And, in the debate, Hunt said:
The instructions from NHS England could not have been clearer that cancer operations should not be cancelled because they are deemed to be urgent.
- MPs backed a motion saying that the government should put more money into the NHS, and that Hunt should return to the Commons to explain how. The Tories did not vote against the Labour motion, and so it was passed without opposition. But it is not binding on the government, and ministers now routinely ignore Labour motions passed by MPs. This one said:
That this House expresses concern at the effect on patient care of the closure of 14,000 hospital beds since 2010; records its alarm at there being vacancies for 100,000 posts across the NHS; regrets the decision of the government to reduce social care funding since 2010; notes that hospital trusts have been compelled by NHS England to delay elective operations because of the government’s failure to allocate adequate resources to the NHS; condemns the privatisation of community health services; and calls on the government to increase cash limits for the current year to enable hospitals to resume a full service to the public, including rescheduling elective operations, and to report to the House by oral statement and written report before 1 February 2018 on what steps it is taking to comply with this resolution.
- Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said Hunt was to blame for the NHS winter crisis. He said:
This is not just a winter crisis. This is an all year round funding crisis, a year round staffing crisis, a year round social care crisis, a year round health inequality crisis - manufactured in Downing Street by this government ...
Isn’t the truth that doctors and nurses have lost confidence in him, patients have lost confidence in him, the prime minister it seems has lost confidence in him. He fights for his own job but he won’t fight for the NHS. Our patients are crying out for change and they will look at the health secretary still in post today and see - to coin a phrase - nothing has changed, nothing has changed.
- Hunt criticised Labour for seeking to “politicise” the pressures on the NHS, saying the party was making a “serious mistake”. He said the last time the NHS faced a really difficult winter was in 2009. At the time Andrew Lansley, the then shadow health secretary, refused to attack the government over the matter, treating it as an operational issue, Hunt said. He went on:
Andy Burnham, who was the health secretary, actually thanked him for his measured tone so that together we can give a reassuring message to the public. Sadly, I cannot say that today.
- Hunt defended the performance of the NHS. He said:
[Ashworth] says the NHS is on its knees. So let’s look at the facts - 14,000 more doctors since 2010, 12,000 more nurses on our wards, 5,000 more operations every single day.
In A&Es, which he’s been talking about a lot, 1,800 more people being seen and treated within four hours every single day than 2010.
Updated
Top of Esther McVey’s in-tray at the department for work and pensions should be the so-called ‘rape clause’, according to two campaigning Scottish women politicians.
The SNP’s Alison Thewlis has written to McVey regarding the cuts to child tax credits – which she has been fighting since they appeared in the 2015 budget – which limit the benefit to the first two children in a family and require women who have conceived a third or subsequent child as a result of rape to apply for an exemption. Thewliss said:
Esther McVey is now the fifth secretary of state for the DWP since I was elected in 2015, and the first woman in that time. I want to know from her whether she is comfortable in making a woman who has suffered the trauma of rape, domestic violence and coercive control go through the shame of proving her child was conceived as a result of that sexual abuse.
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has also written to McVey about what she describes as “one of the most abhorrent policies of a government in my adult lifetime”.
Noting their different political ideologies, Dugdale argues:
The rape clause isn’t a question of how much we spend on the welfare state, or indeed whether it is fair to cap child tax credits for families with two children. This is about whether or not women should be punished by the state for being the victim of a violent act.
Karen Bradley, the new Northern Ireland secretary, said that her priority was to get devolved government restored “as soon as possible” on her first visit to Belfast (not just in this job, but ever). She said she wanted to work collaboratively with local parties to forge an agreement to get the power-sharing executive restored.
Asked if she intended to adopt a new approach to the negotiation process, Bradley stressed she was still in learning mode. She said:
I am here to learn, I am here to find out, I am here to meet all the leaders, I’m here to look at what needs to be done.
I know there are challenges but I am determined we will find a way through those challenges.
We need to deliver devolved government to Northern Ireland as soon as possible and that’s what I am determined to do.
Berlin stock exchange chief predicts UK won't get special Brexit deal for the City
The World at One carried a lengthy report about the Philip Hammond/David Davis Brexit article. (See 9.26am.) As part of their package, they carried an interview with the chief executive of the Berlin stock exchange, Artur Fischer, played down talk of a bespoke Brexit deal for the UK (ie, one that would involve the UK getting the benefits of a Norway-type deal, and the regulatory freedom of a Canada-type deal), saying the scenario was “very unlikely”. Fischer said: “It is certainly possible, but not probable.”
He said such an agreement would go against the EU system of cross-border regulation, stating:
If you want the one thing but not the other, we come back to the famous words ‘let’s have the cake and eat it’. We don’t believe that that’s possible.
Fischer also said that if German Social Democrat leader and former European parliament chairman Martin Schulz went into coalition with Angela Merkel, he would be more focused on protecting the interests of Brussels. Fischer said:
EU interests would not allow for such a nice, special deal David Davis has announced and made a possibility.
Fischer predicted a hard Brexit for the City which he said would be bad for the UK and Germany.
My feeling is that now for about one year we more and more come to the conclusion that it will be a hard Brexit when it comes to financial services.
And Jeremy Corbyn believes the appointment of Esther McVey as work and pensions secretary is alarming, his spokesman has said, while condemning online abuse of the newly promoted MP, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.
The former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has said he regrets telling people he does not believe gay sex is a sin when he was forced to clarify his position during the election campaign, my colleague Rowena Mason reports.
Steven Woolfe, the MEP who was once a potential Ukip leadership candidate before leaving the party to sit as an independent, is part of the delegation of Brexiters meeting Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. He has taken along a hamper of British goodies as a present.
Looking forward to giving Mr Barnier some fantastic products from Britain including some British wine and gin pic.twitter.com/xx69gT2siZ
— Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) January 10, 2018
Obviously it’s not a complete compendium of British greatness, because there’s no blue passport.
My colleague Anushka Asthana says Woolfe may want to throw out the Marmite when he discovers who invented it.
HA HA... Just reading the good old BBC that tells me Marmite was made in Britain (but only after being invented by a German scientist Justus Liebig!) https://t.co/NVcwSC2Ldh https://t.co/MBGjbCdd5C
— Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) January 10, 2018
Theresa May will meet finance leaders in Downing Street on Thursday as part of efforts to keep the business community updated about the Brexit process, No 10 said. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Robin Walker, the Brexit minister, will also be at the meeting with “various CEOs” and “European chiefs of financial institutions who have a presence in the UK”, the prime minister’s spokesman said.
NAO announces it will investigate whether £39bn 'Brexit bill' payments are justified
The National Audit Office has announced that it will investigate the government’s decision to spend up to £39bn on payments to the EU as part of the withdrawal agreement. It made the announcement in response to a request for an investigation of this kind from Nicky Morgan, the chair of the Commons Treasury committee. (See 11.35am.)
In response to Morgan’s letter Sir Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said:
I can confirm that we intend to report on the main elements of the financial settlement with the EU. We are already in discussions with HM Treasury aimed at planning our work. I expect our report to be published in late March.
Morgan asked the NAO to investigate the “reasonableness” of the payments, and the assumptions used to calculate how much the UK should pay.
Theresa May offered the money after the EU made it clear that it would not open talks on a future trade deal unless the UK agreed to honour financial commitments it has made as an EU member. The exact sum to be paid has not been finalised, but May has said it would come out at between £35bn and £39bn.
Some Brexiters claim there will be no legal requirement for the UK to pay anything to the EU once it has left. The NAO investigation is likely to clarify this.
It may also shed light on claims that, under the deal reached between the UK and the EU, UK will end up paying significantly more than £39bn but that both sides have agreed to conceal this to minimise political opposition to the payments in Britain.
Updated
On the subject of the Virgin Trains’ Daily Mail ban (see 1.44pm), Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has piled in. He posted this on Twitter.
Absurd ban on Daily Mail by Virgin! Pompous, censorious and wrong #virginontheridiculous
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 10, 2018
Here is a Telegraph article with details of the case Jeremy Corbyn raised at PMQs about Virgin Care being paid compensation after it failed to win an NHS contract. (See 12.21pm.) And here is an extract.
Virgin Care Services started High Court proceedings against NHS England, Surrey County Council and the CCGs in November last year, after its bid failed.
It said there were “serious flaws in the procurement process” which had left it “so concerned” that it had launched the proceedings.
It sued six Surrey clinical commissioning groups, NHS England and Surrey County Council.
Virgin and the CCGs said the matter had been resolved, stating that the terms were confidential. But board papers for one of the six CCGs involved state that its “liability” in the case is £328,000.
And at the Labour press huddle after PMQs Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman revealed that, if any Virgin Trains passengers want the ban on buying a copy of the Daily Mail lifted, they should back Labour’s plans for nationalisation. This is from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.
Jeremy Corbyn spokesman says a Labour government would overturn Virgin’s ban on the Daily Mail: “There would be no bans on a publicly-owned railway."
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) January 10, 2018
A government source confirmed that the Tories’ approach to this afternoon’s Labour-led debates on the health service winter crisis and the East Coast rail franchise will be to ask MPs to abstain.
“We will be abstaining on both the motions - people are not being whipped to turn up”, the source said, after PMQs.
Opposition day debates are ways for other parties to raise pressing political issues; but rather than risk a series of embarrassing defeats, May’s minority government has advised its MPs not to vote - or even to attend.
Journalists were also told that, as May suggested in the House, the Department of Health will be “looking at the evidence,” on the impact of high-sugar energy drinks on public health, after a case raised by Conservative MP Maria Caulfield, involving the suicide of a young constituent.
Corbyn says May 'too weak' too sack Hunt, proving NHS in crisis
Here is the main Press Association story about the exchanges between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.
Theresa May has accused Jeremy Corbyn of giving the impression that the NHS is failing everybody amid claims she was “too weak” to sack the health secretary.
The prime minister reiterated her apology to patients affected by winter pressures, including to the thousands who have seen their operations cancelled, as she defended the preparations.
But Labour leader Corbyn said May had recognised there is a “crisis” in the NHS because she initially wanted to sack Mr Hunt, who ultimately survived the reshuffle and saw social care added to his portfolio.
The NHS dominated the pair’s exchanges at the first PMQs of 2018.
Corbyn cited reports that nurses were “spending their entire shift treating people in car parks” due to backed-up ambulances.
He added: “We know the prime minister recognises there’s a crisis in our NHS because she wanted to sack the health secretary last week but was too weak to do it.
“And if the NHS is so well-resourced and so well-prepared, why was a decision taken last week to cancel the operations of 55,000 patients during the month of January?”
Labour frontbenchers shouted “apologise” at May, who said she had already made clear her apology during PMQs.
She added: “We will make sure those operations are reinstated as soon as possible. We are putting record funding into the NHS and record funding into mental health.”
Corbyn raised the case of an 82-year-old woman who spent 13 hours on a trolley in a corridor, noting she arrived at hospital three hours after first dialling 999.
He said this is not an “isolated” case, adding: “Does the prime minister really believe the NHS is better prepared than ever for the crisis it’s now going through?”
May offered to examine the case, adding: “Week in and week out, in the run-up to Christmas and now today, what [Corbyn] is doing is giving the impression of a National Health Service that is failing everybody that goes to use the NHS.
“The reality in our NHS is that we are seeing 2.9m more people now going to accident and emergency, over 2m more operations taking place each year.
“Our National Health Service is something we should be proud of and that’s why it’s a first-class National Health Service.”
PMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat
This is what political commentators and journalists are saying about PMQs.
There is more praise for Corbyn than May, but generally the hacks are underwhelmed.
From the FT’s Sebastian Payne
#pmqs summarises the political challenges facing the NHS. Neither Labour nor the Tories willing to engage at all with policy issues -
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) January 10, 2018
reverting instead to petty point scoring. And it's patients that will suffer as a result.
This is the appalling level of debate:
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) January 10, 2018
Corbyn: Tories aren't spending enough on NHS
May: But Wales
Corbyn: Tories want to privatise NHS
May: But Tony Blair
Corbyn: Tories only care about the rich
May: But we saved the economy
Corbyn: We love the NHS
May: But we love the NHS more
From the New Statesman’s George Eaton
#PMQs review: May's botched reshuffle weakened her against Corbyn. https://t.co/A1Zl9yUYyr
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 10, 2018
From the Daily Mirror’s Jason Beattie
My snap verdict on #PMQs: A sorry performance by Theresa May hands Corbyn victory
— Jason Beattie (@JBeattieMirror) January 10, 2018
https://t.co/nmrziZzEzl pic.twitter.com/xP0ThtFNbR
From the Guardian’s Heather Stewart
So another #PMQs in which the two leaders chuck statistics at each other. But NHS the right issue for Labour; JC quick on his feet.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) January 10, 2018
From the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman
This is a deeply tedious PMQs about a deeply serious issue.
— Isabel Hardman (@IsabelHardman) January 10, 2018
From the Sun’s Steve Hawkes
All those hopes 2018 may be slightly different - gone in 18 mins of PMQs
— steve hawkes (@steve_hawkes) January 10, 2018
From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg
Exchanges btw May and Corbyn aren’t telling us much so far
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 10, 2018
From the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope
The Speaker has got to stop these long speeches. It is meant to be Prime Minister's QUESTIONS. It is 12.23pm and we still have not got past the May/Corbyn exchanges.
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) January 10, 2018
This is from the Daily Mirror’s Dan Bloom.
Source close to Angela Rayner says Tory whips were aware that she was away because of "pairing" (where a Tory stands out of a vote to match a Labour MP who is unwell and vice versa). A bit embarrassing for May.
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) January 10, 2018
As usual, I missed the questions from Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, because I was writing the snap verdict. So here they are.
Blackford asked May to accept that clause 11 of the EU withdrawal bill, which would limit the Scottish parliament’s right to legislate on devolution-related areas using powers being repatriated from Brussels, must be changed. He said:
Does the prime minister agree with her colleague that we must amend clause 11, which is nothing more than a power grab from Scotland?
May said the the government was still discussing this with the devolved administrations. She said:
We continue to amend clause 11, we are looking to work with the devolved administrations to ensure we put the right frameworks in place so when we come to put any amendments forward it is in the best interests of all concerned.
Blackford said that was “not good enough”. He went on:
The Tories always promise Scotland everything and deliver nothing. The prime minister has one more chance - will she assure the House that these amendments will be tabled next week, as promised?
May said the government will amend clause 11. She said:
[The SNP] say they want clause 11 amended and we are doing exactly that. [David Lidington] is intensifying his discussions with the Scottish government and the assembly in Wales.
May also said Scotland got an extra £2bn in the budget.
I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
Updated
Richard Drax, a Conservative, asks about the work of a lifeboat in Dorset who were called out over Christmas and averted a disaster.
May says she is happy to praise volunteers in the RNLI.
Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh asks about a foster parent in her constituency evicted by a landlord who refused to do a repair. Now the council won’t let her foster because her accommodation is not good enough. How does that make sense?
May says that does not appear to make sense. She says she hopes the local council will look at this again.
Simon Clarke, a Conservative, asks if government funds can be used to help workers affected by a closure in his constituency.
May says the DWP’s rapid response service will step in to help. The business department is looking at this too, she says.
Labour’s Fiona Onasanya says May said once not getting things done made her depressed. She says she wrote to May last year about a constituent kept waiting 18 months for a driving licence. But May has not replied.
May says she will reply.
PMQs - Snap verdict
PMQs - Snap verdict: In the light of the winter crisis, and the cancellation last week of 50,000-odd operations to free up beds and staff for A&E patients, health was an open goal for Corbyn this week and he was solid and convincing, quite comfortably getting the upper hand. But it wasn’t quite the clear walkover that some Labour MPs may have expected, and May was reasonably resilient. That is because both leaders had a point; it is perfectly possible for NHS planning to be better than ever, and yet hospitals still be stretched to an extent that leaves some patients suffering an appalling service. Corbyn put the case against May well, but his best question was probably his first, where he managed to use May’s answer at the last PMQs of 2017 against her. (A good example of how a lacklustre PMQs performance, which was how I judged Corbyn’s at the end of December, can nevertheless set a boobytrap for the future.) The payment to Virgin Care in Surrey sounded as if it was worth developing at greater length, and Corbyn could have probed May more aggressively about the relatively meaninglessness of May’s social care name change at the Department of Health. May was better than in some of the other NHS-focused PMQs because it sounded as if she was engaging with what Corbyn said, not just reading out statistics, and she got the balance about right between apologising and defending her record. You could tell that she felt reasonably confident because she did not resort to banging on about Wales until question four. Her reference to Angela Rayner being absent backfired when she was told Rayner was ill, but May had the sense to apologise fully and quickly, which allowed her to recover her stride quite well.
Corbyn says tax cuts are being paid for by longer NHS waits. Hunt said when he met May to ask to keep his job that he would not abandon the ship. Isn’t that an admission the ship is sinking?
May says more people are being treated in the NHS. But you can only have a strong NHS with a strong economy. She says Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, who is not here ...
Labour MPs say Rayner is not her because she is ill.
May apologises for criticising that Rayner is not there.
But she goes on, referring to Rayner saying Labour’s strategy amounts to a “shit or bust” strategy. (May just referred to “or bust”, leaving MPs to guess the missing word.)
Corbyn says May’s government has cut funding for Wales. May is responsible for the NHS in England. Giving Hunt a new job title will not affect the fact that £6bn has been cut from social care budgets. And NHS money is being siphoned off to private health companies. This is happening in Surrey, Hunt’s constituency, where money was paid to Virgin Care because it did not win a contract.
May says the government has given more money to Wales. It is the Labour government in Wales that has deprioritised health. And which government started bringing the private sector into health?
(May is getting quite shouty at this point.)
May repeats the point about Wales. And she says it was under the Labour government, of which Corbyn was a member [actually, he wasn’t] that the use of the private sector in health expanded.
Corbyn quotes from Vicky. Her 82-year-old mother spent three hours on a trolley, having waited an hour to get to hospital. This is not an isolated case. Does May really believe the NHS is better prepared than ever?
May says nobody wants to hear of people experiencing things like this. We must learn from these incidents. She says this case will be looked at. But week in, week out, Corbyn is implying the NHS is failing everyone. She says 2.9m more people are going to A&E. Some 2m more operations are taking place every year. The NHS has been identified as the number one health system in the world.
Corbyn says all MPs are proud of the principles of the NHS. But more than 500,000 people in the last year have spent time on trolleys in hospital. He turns to care, and asks why May has promoted the health secretary.
May says many people, including from Labour, have called for better integration of health and social care. She has responded to this by changing Jeremy Hunt’s position. Age UK has welcomed this, she says. She says this is the way forward. She says the way Corbyn talks, you would think Labour had all the solutions. If so, why is funding being cut, and why are targets not being met in Wales?
Jeremy Corbyn starts by wishing everyone a happy new year too.
He says before Christmas he asked about the 12,000 people waiting in ambulances. She said the NHS was better prepared than ever before. So what will she say to the 17,000 people kept waiting in the week before Christmas. Is it “nothing is perfect” (as she said on the Marr Show on Sunday.)
May says she has apologised to people who have had to wait. But the NHS was better prepared for every. There were more flu vaccinations than before. More than 2,000 extra beds were available, she says.
She says Corbyn said at the last PMQs of 2017 that mental health budgets had been cut. That was wrong. Will he apologise?
Corbyn says everyone knows mental health budgets have been raided. We have seen nurses treated people in car parks. We know the NHS is in trouble because she wanted to move the health secretary. Why were 50,000 operations delayed?
May says she has apologised to those affected. Last week she visited a hospital to thank NHS staff. She says NHS staff do a fantastic job. She quotes NHS Providers saying that preparations for winter have been more extensive than ever before.
James Cleverly, the new Tory deputy chair, asks May to passionately embrace the vision she set out last year, improving life chances and leaving the country in a better place.
May says Cleverly never got the kiss from her he once asked for. (Apparently he said kiss about May in a snog/marry/avoid quizz.)
UPDATE: Here’s the reference.
Here is that snog offer @JamesCleverly made to the Prime Minister back in October 2016 for @JPonpolitics 5live Sunday morning programme #PMQs https://t.co/fQTeOfZZa0
— Jack Evans (@jackcevans) January 10, 2018
Updated
Labour’s Mike Amesbury says at least 1.4m households have been victims of unfair practices in the leasehold market. It is a scandal, he says. What will the government do to help?
May says the government is looking to see what it can do to ensure that people are not subject to unfair practices.
Theresa May starts by wishing all MPs and staff a happy new year.
This is from the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.
Can’t remember Chamber being this empty before PMQs
— steve hawkes (@steve_hawkes) January 10, 2018
Six of the women promoted by T.May are lined up at the bar of the House (ie by the doors to the Chamber - it's not a pub bar).
— Quentin Letts (@thequentinletts) January 10, 2018
This is from my colleague Dan Sabbagh, who has just started a new job covering politics at Westminster.
Watching PMQs from the gallery for the first time. However noisy it appears on television, it is far noisier here
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) January 10, 2018
Those set to quiz Theresa May at #PMQs shortly are... pic.twitter.com/wkKGyABGiR
— PoliticsHome (@politicshome) January 10, 2018
PMQs
PMQs is starting very soon.
For an interesting take on the state of the nation as 2018 begins, this Britain Thinks report (pdf) is worth reading. It is based on the findings of focus groups and a poll.
Here are some of the key slides.
This is what the report says about people’s views of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.
And these charts put views of Labour and the Tories into context.
NAO asked by Commons Treasury committee chair to investigate £39bn 'Brexit bill'
Nicky Morgan, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Treasury committee, has written to the National Audit Office asking it to investigate whether paying the EU a “Brexit bill” of up to £39bn is reasonable.
Here is the text of her letter, addressed to the NAO chief Sir Amyas Morse.
Commenting on the letter, Morgan said:
Various wide-ranging sums for the UK’s withdrawal payment to the EU have been bandied about. Last month, the prime minister told parliament that the so-called Brexit divorce bill will be £35-39bn.
Parliament must be able to scrutinise the reasonableness of this bill. Accordingly, I have written to Sir Amyas to request that the NAO examines the withdrawal payment, including the assumptions and methodologies used.
The NAO is independent and, even as chair of the Treasury committee, Morgan cannot force it to investigate the “Brexit bill.” But it may choose to do so anyway.
An NAO spokesman said they would be issuing a response later today.
Leadsom says new Commons anti-harassment charter could lead to MPs fighting recall byelections
Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, told BBC Radio 5 Live this morning that she plans to publish details of the new procedures for dealing with harassment and bullying complaints involving MPs before the end of this month. In an interview with Emma Barnett she said she wanted to ensure the report had “some serious teeth” and that offenders could end up being suspended from the Commons and forced to fight a recall byelection if they want to remain an MP.
Dismissing the suggestion that the report would not impose proper sanctions, Leadsom said:
It will absolutely not just be an apology. As ever, with something like this, you want to focus on informal resolution, you want to focus on prevention, you want to focus on changing the culture. However there will be real sanctions at the end of this process.
If it’s a member of parliament, then it would be a referral to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, and ultimately to the Commons committee for standards, which has the ability to suspend members of parliament.
And there is of course then the Recall of MPs Act 2015, that itself does enable a constituency to decide to get rid of their member of parliament. So that would be the ultimate sanction.
Leadsom also said she did not have to persuade Theresa May to let her stay in her post in the reshuffle. Describing her conversation with May on Monday, Leadsom said:
We had quite a short conversation, and she asked me to continue doing the job. She told me there was some important work that I was doing, and that she would like me to stay in the role, and I was delighted to do that.
Umunna says he will refuse to vote for any Brexit deal involving UK leaving single market
On Sky’s All Out Politics, the Labour pro-European Chuka Umunna said that his party would eventually have to decide whether to vote for or against the final Brexit withdrawal deal expected to be agreed by the end of the year. He said if it involved leaving the single market and the customs union, he could not back it.
If we are not in the single market and the customs union, I would not be able to support any deal.
Jeremy Corbyn claims that the UK cannot remain in the single market after Brexit. But Labour’s position on staying in the customs union is more nuanced, and the Times today (paywall) is reporting that the party will come out in the spring favour of staying in some form of customs union with the EU. In their story Sam Coates and Lucy Fisher write:
Labour is likely to announce by the spring that it wants to stay indefinitely in a modified version of the European customs union.
Senior Labour figures, including MPs for Brexit-supporting areas, said the move was intended to mark a significant break from the government’s policy.
The policy has not been agreed and still faces obstacles, but a range of senior figures have confirmed to The Times that the move is likely. “Things are fluid” a source said, but added that they hoped the party would modify its position by March or April.
New Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley to make first ever visit to Belfast
The new Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley makes her first ever visit to the region this morning. She is meeting staff and students at Belfast Metropolitan College in the city’s Titanic Quarter.
The 47-year-old has replaced outgoing James Brokenshire who has stood down from the post as he faces lung surgery. Ahead of her trip to Belfast, the DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley claimed she has a “strong unionist outlook.”
But the former culture secretary’s parliamentary record is at odds with many in the DUP. She has voted for for equal gay rights and same sex marriage - the latter which the DUP has consistently opposed in the currently deadlocked Northern Ireland assembly.
Bradley’s main task will be to encourage the main unionist and nationalist parties - the DUP and Sinn Fein - to reach a compromise that could lead to the restoration of power sharing government in Northern Ireland.
A year and a day ago the resignation of the late deputy first minister Martin McGuinness led to the collapse of devolved government in Belfast. McGuinness and Sinn Fein accused the DUP of disrespecting the Irish language and culture.
DUP leader and then first minister Arlene Foster’s refusal to temporarily step down from her post over a bungled green heating scheme she and her party promoted was the other main reason for McGuinness’ resignation.
Grayling says he doesn't mind not becoming Conservative chairman
Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, told the Today programme this morning that he was not bothered about the fact that he was wrongly named as the new Conservative chairman by a party Twitter account very briefly on Monday morning, as the reshuffle was taking place. He said there was always “endless speculation” with reshuffles.
I think over the last two weeks I’ve been going to be sacked, I’ve been going to become deputy prime minister, I’ve been going to become party chairman; actually I’m the transport secretary who’s always wanted to be transport secretary, who’s very happy doing it.
Nothing’s changed. Lots of media speculation and a mistaken tweet and that happens quite often these days.
Asked if he was angry about the mistake, he replied:
No, not in the slightest. I’m doing a job I really enjoy doing, I want to make a difference, I believe we are making a difference.
Unusually, Grayling also found himself commenting on the prime minister’s weight. Earlier the Today programme hosted a discussion about similarities between today’s politics and the Tudor era and Grayling was asked at the end of his interview if he thought there were any similarities between Theresa May’s regime and Henry VIII. He replied:
The prime minister has only got one husband rather than six and I don’t think she’s got quite the same build as Henry VIII.
The Today discussion was prompted by the profile on the Conservative website of David Lidington, the new Cabinet Office minister (and now the most senior person in government after May, according to his position in the government table ranking cabinet ministers.) Lidington has a PhD in Elizabethan history and the website says he thinks “that Tudor court politics is a pretty good guide to life in Westminster today.”
Penalising UK banks after Brexit will pose financial risk to EU, ministers claim
During the EU referendum campaign one argument constantly used by leave campaigners was that Brussels would have to offer the UK a good free trade deal because German car manufacturers, who export a lot to Britain, would insist on one and Angela Merkel would give in to their demands. So far there is little evidence that the “BMW factor” is having quite the effect Vote Leave expected, but the government has not given up and today Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, are both in Germany speaking to business figures and making the case that a wide-ranging free trade deal will be in Germany’s own interests.
My colleagues Lisa O’Carroll and Philip Oltermann have written an overnight preview story.
The two cabinet ministers have got a joint article in Frankfurter Allgemeine. It makes many of the usual arguments about the importance of keeping trade barriers to a minimum after Brexit, but Hammond and Davis also make a relatively new claim in relation to the City; the EU will put financial stability at risk if they block the City from access to the single market, they argue. They write:
The economic partnership should cover the length and breadth of our economies including the service industries — and financial services.
Because the 2008 Global Financial Crisis proved how fundamental financial services are to the real economy, and how easily contagion can spread from one economy to another without global and regional safeguards in place.
That is why the UK has worked with our partners in the EU to ensure we led the world in making the regulation and supervision of finance safer.
In particular, we’ve sought to ensure that financial authorities across the world can cooperate in rule-setting and supervising systemically important global firms, to make sure such a catastrophe doesn’t happen again.
That work shouldn’t end because the UK is leaving the EU. On the contrary, we must re-double our collective effort to ensure that we do not put that hard-earned financial stability at risk, by getting a deal that supports collaboration within the European banking sector, rather than forcing it to fragment.
Hammond is delivering a speech in Berlin, but it is not due until this evening.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11.30am: David Lidington takes questions in the Commons for the first time in his new role as Cabinet Office minister.
12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQ for the first time this year.
Around 1pm: MPs begin a debate on a Labour motion on the NHS. Later there will be a debate on the East Coast rail franchise bailout.
2pm: Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, meets Brexit campaigners including Leave Means Leave’s John Longworth, the independent MEP and former Ukip member Steven Woolfe, the former CBI director general Digby Jones and Labour Leave’s John Mills.
Around 3.30pm: Peers debate the data protection bill. Opposition peers are threatening a vote on an amendment obliging the government to set up an inquiry into the press.
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.
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