Afternoon summary
- The European commission has said that Theresa May’s Chequers plan has some “positive” elements and played down reports that Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has declared it “dead”. (See 1.53pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Hammond suggests no deal Brexit would lead to cuts in some areas of government spending
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, was asked about the “Operation Yellowhammer” document (see 12.44pm and 2.21pm) on a visit to Glasgow. In his response, he implied that a no deal Brexit would lead to some areas of government spending. He said:
Departments have the funding for no-deal planning. What we’re beginning to discuss is now part of long term contingency planning.
In no deal circumstances we would have to refocus government priorities so that government was concentrated on the circumstances that we found ourselves in. Let me reiterate again that is not the outcome we are expecting and it’s not the outcome we’re seeking.
Today I visited @UniStrathclyde in Glasgow to announce £80m to help industry develop quantum technology.
— Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) September 6, 2018
Thanks to Sir Jim Mcdonald for showing me around. https://t.co/D6MJpNSJAM pic.twitter.com/QhvA3gGGcR
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, has called on the government to publish analysis of the impact a no-deal Brexit would have on England’s regions, speaking at a landmark gathering of northern leaders in Gateshead.
“On what basis is there analysis sitting in a building in London that affects the lives of the people I represent and they won’t share it, so that we can make sense of it?”, said Burnham. He said Brexit minister Suella Braverman had confirmed to him that the analysis existed and had promised it would be published after the Brexit white paper was released in July.
Parts of government analysis leaked to the media earlier this year showed that the north west would suffer a 12% loss of GDP if the UK left the EU with no deal. The north east would suffer a 16% loss and the West Midlands 13%.
Burnham was speaking at the first Convention of the North hosted by the Baltic art gallery in Gateshead. Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City council, said the convention was the first time so many key political, business, social, voluntary sector and faith leaders from across the north had met together. The event, he said, was about moving away from the idea that “we in the north are simply victims who are hard done by” and collaborating with each other to improve things.
On Wednesday, Burnham said he would back a second referendum in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but warned that it would cause “real unrest on the streets of Greater Manchester”. He told the Guardian that other northern leaders had approached him at the Convention of the North on Thursday to say that they agreed.
Speaking to delegates at the convention, Forbes said that the north of England had an economy worth £304bn, meaning it would be the 10th largest nation in Europe if it were a country. “Gone is our acceptance that governments of any persuasion can pick winners and losers from amongst us. Together, we know we are stronger. And together we have a message of untapped potential, of confidence, of hope,” he said.
He told the Guardian afterwards that he would also support a second referendum in the event of a no-deal Brexit. “There are huge risks with a second referendum, but in my view a second referendum where people can at least have a choice between a no deal scenario and continued EU membership is preferable to crashing out without a deal with no alternative route.”
UPDATE: Forbes tweeted this after the meeting was over.
A huge thank you to everyone who came to the inaugural Convention of the North today - there was terrific energy and enthusiasm for working together to make it a better place to live and work. The start of something big! #NorthernVoice
— Nick Forbes (@nick_forbes) September 6, 2018
Updated
The European commission has released some video footage of Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, arriving for the start of their meeting in Brussels this afternoon.
.@MichelBarnier welcomes @DominicRaab, UK Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, at the European Commission
— EC AV Services (@EC_AVService) September 6, 2018
🎥 Video: https://t.co/QMhtd8bnaz
📷 Photos: https://t.co/MusW9YxVqR pic.twitter.com/FA8oFOIn93
On the video you can hear the pair making small talk as they walked down a corridor. The BBC’s Adam Fleming has typed up a mini transcript. Sadly, the issue of whether or not Barnier really does think the Chequers plans “sont mortes” did not come up.
Raab: The family are well?
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) September 6, 2018
Barnier: Tomorrow I have to go to Vienna because we have to prepare for the Salzburg meeting.
Raab: How's that looking?
Ignoring him, Barnier gestures to door.
Raab: After you.
Barnier: After you.
The #Brexit talks, ladies and gentlemen. https://t.co/rtdaInzhvW
US, France, Germany and Canada say they have 'full confidence' in UK's assessment about Russia's role in novichok poisonings
The Press Association has just snapped this.
Leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany and Canada have issued a joint statement voicing “full confidence” in Britain’s assessment that the two suspects for the Salisbury poisonings were members of Russia’s GRU intelligence service and their operation was “almost certainly” approved at a senior level of the Moscow government.
Government accused of delaying plans to introduce proxy voting in Commons
Labour has accused the government of delaying plans to introduce proxy voting for MPs forced to be absent from the Commons after ministers announced a general debate on the subject for next week.
Calls for proxy voting to be brought in swiftly increased before the Commons summer break after the designated “pair” for Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, took part in key Brexit votes while Swinson was on maternity leave.
The leader of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom, apologised for the incident and has promised to look at a proxy system. But next week’s Commons business includes time set aside on Thuesday for a general debate on the issue,
While Leadsom told MPs the plan was still to act on proxy voting “as soon as practically possible”, her Labour shadow, Valerie Vaz, says this amounted to more delay. She said:
The Labour party has repeatedly offered to immediately introduce a system of proxy voting for those on baby leave.
The announcement of a general debate next week is a sign that the government are just kicking the can down the road again.
Boris Johnson, one of the leading figures amongst those Tories trying to kibosh the prime minister’s Chequers Brexit plan, was spotted having lunch today with Julian Smith, the chief whip, whose main job at the moment is to stop them.
As this BBC clip show, he was doorstepped by reporters on his way out. Despite Chris Mason’s best efforts, the former foreign secretary cycled off without revealing anything.
Former foreign Secretary @BorisJohnson was spotted having lunch in Westminster with the Conservative chief whip @JulianSmithUK. @ChrisMasonBBC tried to ask Mr Johnson about his plans for Brexit...
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 6, 2018
[👆tap the video to watch in full] pic.twitter.com/pFqP6uTYvu
Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, is giving a speech tomorrow. According to BuzzFeed’s Emily Ashton, he will announce plans for a Labour-style registered supporters scheme that would allow non-members to vote in leadership contests. Ashton says:
Lib Dem insiders hope to learn lessons from Momentum, the pro-Corbyn grassroots organisation, which is seen as a major success in harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of young voters.
One source said it was hoped that the Lib Dems’ own supporters scheme would be a “gateway drug” to party membership and effectively create an anti-Brexit movement for voters who feel abandoned by the two main parties.
This is from my colleague Luke Harding, a former Moscow correspondent and an expert on Russia, on the Kremlin’s latest response (see 1.10pm) to the British government’s revelations about the novichok poisonings.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press spokesman, falling back on protocol: no reason to investigate #Russian Skripal suspects because we haven't had official request. Lacklustre response - and suggests Kremlin on back foot after yesterday's Petrov and Boshirov evidence https://t.co/jZyY2RCmJk
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) September 6, 2018
Ben Bradshaw, the anti-Brexit Labour MP, has said the “Operation Yellowhammer” document (see 12.44pm) is significant because it shows that the Civil Contingencies Secretariat is involved in no deal Brexit planning. The secretariat is responsible for dealing with disasters like floods. In a statement released by the People’s Vote campaign, which is calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal, Bradshaw said:
With the Operation Yellowhammer revelation, we now know the government is preparing for Brexit in the same way they’d approach catastrophes like flooding, a disease outbreak or a terrorist attack. This is not what anyone voted for in 2016.
We were promised ‘sunlit uplands’, but what’s being delivered instead is a public policy disaster with severe implications for the future of our country. Medicines and food are being stockpiled, the value of the pound is taking a battering and companies and jobs are leaving.
We know from this leak that it will be already-stretched budgets in vital areas like health, education and defence that will be forced to bear the cost of this government’s total failure to deal with the mess of Brexit.
David Davis to share platform with Nigel Farage at Leave Means Leave rally
Former Brexit secretary David Davis is to appear on a platform along with Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, for the Leave Means Leave campaign, it has been announced. As the Press Association reports, Davis, who walked out of Theresa May’s Cabinet in protest at her Chequers plan in July, said he was taking part in the rally in Bolton “to ensure Brexit is delivered and democracy upheld”.
Also taking part in the event on September 22, the eve of Labour’s annual conference, is the party’s leave-backing MP Kate Hoey, who rebelled to back the PM in a crunch Brexit vote in Westminster in July. As the Press Association reports, the Bolton rally will be followed by further Leave Means Leave rallies in Torquay, Bournemouth, Gateshead and Harrogate during October.
In a statement Davis said:
I am joining the Leave Means Leave rally in Bolton as a matter of principle - to ensure Brexit is delivered and democracy upheld. I look forward to sharing a platform with other politicians from across the political spectrum to support this cause.
The government’s Chequers proposal doesn’t meet the requirements of the referendum. We may be out of Europe but we would still be run by Europe. We must pursue a Canada-style deal which the EU has already made clear they are agreeable to.
If this is not possible, Britain can still thrive with a World Trade Deal under WTO rules.
A former Stormont minister appeared emotional as he claimed he was “just one boy” against multiple attempts to “smear” him, the Press Association reports. Jonathan Bell claimed the DUP “fitted” him up, the executive office briefed against him and a journalist advised the DUP how to discredit him. “I fear I have been the victim of a massive smear campaign,” he said.
Bell made the claims while giving evidence to a public inquiry in Belfast into how costs for a green energy scheme spiralled. The BBC has a full report here.
UPDATE: In the comments ID9637740 flags up a plausible link between today’s RHI inquiry evidence and the timing of Karen Bradley’s statement to MPs. (See 11.47am.)
Updated
Chequers plan has 'positive' elements says EU as it plays down reports Barnier thinks it's 'dead'
The European commission today played down reports that Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, told MPs at a private meeting on Monday that the Cheques plans were “dead”.
At a briefing in Brussels, Margaritis Schinas, the commission spokesman, said that the commission thought that there were some “positive” aspects to the plans and that people would have to wait for the release of the transcript of what was said at the Barnier meeting to find out if his views had been accurately reported. Shinas said:
Michel Barnier was very clear expressing the commission position on Chequers from the very first moment.
I don’t think that people present in the room and beyond the room have any doubt on what we said on Chequers - we identified where there were positive elements and we discussed also the possibility for further discussions to address issues that still create problems.
Schinas said a private meeting provided “the perfect recipe for everybody coming out of there and saying what one or the other understood Michel saying”. He went on:
Let’s wait for the transcript and then let’s check the sort of things that are reported of what Michel Barnier said against what he actually really said.
Here is the full text of the statement that Karen Bradley, the Northern Ireland secretary, delivered in the Commons this morning. (See 11.47am.) And here is some reaction.
From Arelene Foster, the DUP leader
Whilst only a small step towards decisions being made, we welcome the statement from the secretary of state. Ultimately, Northern Ireland needs a ministerial decision-making mechanism which respects democracy. We have been and will continue to press the government to get a mechanism in place which can ensure decisions about front line services are no longer left in abeyance. We will continue to engage with the government in the coming weeks to find the best way forward.
We would prefer to have a fully functioning local executive where decisions about our schools, roads and hospitals are being made in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein is the roadblock to an executive. It is the only major party boycotting the executive. All other parties would elect ministers today without preconditions.
We stand ready to form an executive today and enter an assembly with nothing but our mandate. Our proposal from August 2017 to run a talks process in parallel with an Executive was rejected by Sinn Fein within an hour of being published but that offer still stands.
The proposal to reduce the pay for MLAs is a sensible step as we are not able to fulfil our full role as legislators. The secretary of state is right to guard against cuts to the pay and allowances for members’ staff.
And this is from Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland.
The British secretary of state has finally made some movement but only because she faced the imminent prospect of the courts ordering her to do so.
The political process has been allowed to drift for far too long as a result of her government adopting a do nothing approach rather than confronting the denial of rights by the DUP ...
Clearly, the British government’s reliance on the DUP remains a central problem and if any process around restoring the institutions is to be credible, Karen Bradley must begin prioritising the rights of citizens over Tory party self-interest ...
The reduction in MLA pay should have been introduced months ago. Sinn Féin told Karen Bradley that on several occasions but it is clear she was reluctant to move because of resistance from the DUP. That position has now become untenable and it is right that wages are finally being reduced.
And Sarah Rainsford, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent, has more quotes from Putin’s spokesman.
#Kremlin: any suggestion Russian leadership - any officials - involved in Salisbury poisoning ‘unacceptable’
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) September 6, 2018
As far as the two individuals that were shown are concerned, thousands of Russians visit Britain. For us to take any action against them would need a request from Britain for legal assistance. . ”
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) September 6, 2018
..from the very beginning, Russia proposed cooperation in the investigating. British refused this. Statements in Parliament do not and cannot represent such a request (for legal assistance). If Britain thinks there’s no point - we can only express regret
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) September 6, 2018
Here are more quotes from what Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian president Vladimir Putin, told journalists this morning about the UK statement about two Russian military intelligence officers being responsible for the novichok poisonings.
Peskov said claims that the Russian leadership was involved were “unacceptable”. He said:
We again say that neither the upper leadership, nor the leadership a rank lower or any official representatives had or have anything to do with the events in Salisbury.
Any suggestions of this kind or accusations, I repeat, are unacceptable.
Peskov also said Russia was not investigating the two men because the British government had not asked it to. He said:
For us to have grounds to verify their identity we need to be contacted by the British side.
Statements in parliament are not and cannot be considered a request.
Kremlin says it won't investigate two Russian novichok poisoning suspects
I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over now from Matthew Weaver,
The Kremlin has hit back at the UK government over the novichok poisonings. Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Theresa May’s accusations were “unacceptable” and that “no-one in the Russian leadership” had anything to do with the poisoning.
He said Russia “has no reasons” to investigate Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov because Britain has not asked for legal assistance on the case.
Updated
Mundell says Salmond's relationship with Russia's RT 'appalling'
Speaking to journalists after an appearance at Holyrood’s constitution committee, Scottish secretary David Mundell labelled former SNP leader Alex Salmond’s ongoing association with RT (formerly Russia Today) in the light of the latest Salibury developments “appalling”. Mundell said:
I think Alex Salmond’s approach to Russian television has been appalling from the start. It was ill-advised, it certainly didn’t put the interests of Scotland or the UK to the fore, it’s become increasingly clear that Mr Salmond has one guiding principle in his actions and that’s himself. I think he would do Scotland, himself and the whole country a great service if he were to end his programme on Russian TV.
Asked about the former SNP leader’s crowd-funding exercise which raised over £100,000 last week to support his judicial review of the Scottish government’s handling of allegations of sexual misconduct made against him, Mundell said:
Every member of the public that I’ve spoken to has found it extraordinary that he would take that decision to seek funding from others for a matter that related primarily to himself.
He added that Salmond’s actions could affect other people coming forward with similar complaints:
We want people to come forward, to challenge figures of authority, of power and wealth and it’s not helpful for them to create a backdrop where people think those people can bring huge resources to bear to make their case while an ordinary person is not able to do the same.
Mundell also urged colleagues and political opponents to “rally round” the Chequers Agreement.
While accepting “You can’t dress up that there are different views” within his own party, he insisted that “people who argue for a no deal don’t in any way represent a majority”.
Updated
No-deal plans codenamed 'yellowhammer'
More embarrassing details about the governments contingency plans for a no-deal Brexti have leaked out from a photograph of official documents being carried into a Whitehall meeting.
The papers reveals that the no-deal plans are codenamed “yellowhammer”, and the Treasury’s first objective is to “maintain confidence” particularly for financial services.
1. Here it is ... Operation Yellowhammer - the inimitable @PoliticalPics snaps document about Treasury no deal planning - lines that jump out.... pic.twitter.com/KixnK48pCt
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 6, 2018
Here’s what I could make out from that @PoliticalPics photograph.
Operation Yellowhammer: no deal contingency planning
Summary of issue
• The meeting will consider progress on the Government’s plans for mitigating the immediate impacts of a No Deal Brexit.
• The Civil Contingencies Secretariat held a two-day workshop last week to review departments’ plan, assumptions, interdependencies and next steps.
HMT objectives:
1. Emphasise the importance of building XWH communications architecture that can help maintain confidence in the event of contingency plans being triggered – particularly important for financial services.
2. Explain that departments should be raising Yellowhammer costs through the normal channels – through their spending terms for in-year pressures, and in their bids for 19/20 Brexit allocations for spending in that year. Their first call should be internal reprioritisation.
3. ... the need for consistent planning assumptions across plans ..... and raid access to the EU.
4. ... departments of the need to consider the financial ... commercial firms that play a role in their contingency plans.
The yellowhammer's song is usually represented as "A little bit of bread and no cheese". Adequate food in the event of no deal? https://t.co/vA3Bg8h8BI
— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) September 6, 2018
Updated
The Northern Ireland secretary was told off by Speaker John Bercow for informing the media about the salary cut for Stormont assembly members before it was read to the Commons.
She apologised to the House, and claimed the premature release of the information was a “genuine mistake”.
Paul Davies new Welsh Conservative leader
Paul Davies, the Welsh Assembly member for Preseli Pembrokeshire, has been elected as the new leader of the Welsh Conservatives.
He beat fellow remainer and his namesake Suzy Davies, to succeed Andrew RT Davies.
Paul Davies has been serving as interim leader since his predecessor quit in June. In his campaign Davies said he will do all in his power to become the first Tory first minister of Wales.
— Welsh Conservatives (@WelshConserv) September 6, 2018
Updated
Salaries of Stormont assembly cut
The Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, has reduce the salaries of members of suspended Stormont assembly, PA reports.
Salaries will be cut by more £13,000 as they are not performing all their functions, she said.
Northern Ireland’s devolved legislature in Belfast has not sat since early last year in a row over identity issues like the Irish language, which has prevented the appointment of ministers.
Repeated negotiations convened by the British and Irish governments have failed to persuade former coalition partners the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein to reconcile their differences.
Bradley told parliament:
While assembly members continue to perform valuable constituency functions, it is clear that during any such interim period they will not be performing the full range of their legislative functions.
So, in parallel, I will take the steps necessary to reduce assembly members’ salaries in line with the recommendations made by Trevor Reaney.
The reduction will take effect in two stages, commencing in November - it would not reduce the allowance for staff as I do not think that MLAs’ [Members of the Legislative Assembly] staff should suffer because of the politicians’ failure to form an executive.”
Bradley’s predecessor as Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, commissioned former assembly chief executive Reaney to examine the controversial issue of paying assembly members.
He recommended the 27.5% cut, a move that would take the standard salary rate of £49,500 down to £35,888 in two stages.
Public services have suffered because no ministers are in place to make major decisions. Controversial issues like provision of abortion cannot be addressed in the absence of an assembly.
In explaining the need for a “stepped approach”, Reaney said the impact of any salary reduction on MLAs’ personal circumstances has been acknowledged. Reaney added that research shows Assembly members spend 50% to 60% of their time on constituency work.
The average working week exceeds 50 hours, and sometimes up to 80 hours he added.
Last week, Northern Ireland surpassed Belgium’s 589 day record without fully functioning government.
Updated
The Welsh Conservatives are due to name their new assembly group leader in the next few 30 minutes or so.
Paul Davies and Suzy Davies, both Remainers, are competing to succeed Andrew RT Davies, who stepped down in June amid criticism over his vocal pro-Brexit stance.
We'll be broadcasting live from Ffos Las, Carmarthenshire at 11.40 a.m. for the declaration of the count of the new Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the National Assembly for Wales. Watch along here: https://t.co/1DltXIsaLh
— Welsh Conservatives (@WelshConserv) September 6, 2018
Frank Field, who resigned the Labour whip last week, is urging the Archbishop of Canterbury to intervene in the administration of Wonga to ensure that poor people are not ripped off.
In a letter to Justin Welby, Field, who chairs the work and pensions committee chair said:
The Wonga loan book will be sold and, if past record is any guide for the future, they will be sold at knockdown rates. Within these loan books will be some I assume devoted exclusively to their exploitation of the poor.
Is there a possibility please of you asking the Church Commissioners quickly to assemble a consortium of good people with money who will attempt to buy those poor people’s loan books at a knockdown price?
Field’s letter said this would prevent money lenders and bailiffs “terrorising” the poor and would be an “example of the jubilee in setting slaves free of their debts”.
As the PA notes according to the Book of Leviticus, a jubilee year occurs every 50th year, during which slaves and prisoners are freed and debts forgiven.
Speaking to PA Field said: “Wonga targeted people who are beyond the abyss. This is an ambulance rescue operation, but longer term we need to look at offering long-term credit, through a people’s bank, for those who are in urgent need.”
Updated
As he mentioned, Andrew is popping away from the blog this morning for a meeting. I’m going to try to keep things ticking over while he’s away.
Here’s one I prepared earlier on Matt Hancock’s disclosure that the government is in discussion with pharmaceutical companies about the cost of stockpiling medicines as part of its no-deal Brexit contingency planning.
Boris Johnson racing ahead as Tory members' favourite for next leader, survey suggests
ConservativeHome, the well-regarded website for Conservative activists, has published its latest survey of party members on the party membership. Their surveys are seen as reliable guides to party opinion, and they are closely watched by Tories. And today’s, perhaps, more than most; it shows Boris Johnson soaring ahead as favourite for next leader.
Here is an extract from Paul Goodman’s write-up of the results.
Last month, Boris Johnson topped the poll with 29 per cent of the vote, and Sajid Javid was second with 19 per cent. This month, the former Foreign Secretary consolidates his position to take 35 per cent, and Javid drifts down a bit to 15 per cent.
And that’s it in a nutshell. Johnson’s resignation – plus his seniority, relative youth, the recognition factor and his Eurosceptic record – has given him the freedom to speak out and lent wings to his potential candidacy.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, that stern and unbending critic of Chequers, has been squeezed to ten per cent. Michael Gove, that pragmatic backer of it, is down to six per cent.
As recently as July, the Environment Secretary was second on 17 per cent. The previous month, Rees-Mogg was first on 21 per cent. Chequers and the Davis/Johnson resignations have turned everything round.
And here are the latest figures.
Johnson is not popular with many MPs and, given that under Conservative party rules he would have to make it into the final two to get his name on the ballot of members for leader, it has always been thought that, in a future contest, the parliamentary party might stop members ever getting the chance to vote for him.
But, as Goodman points out, growing evidence of his popularity could make MPs much more reluctant to over-ride the views of members.
Here are three interesting Brexit blogs around today that are worth reading.
I hear from Sunday onwards we should expect several days of carefully planned announcements, almost like a government grid perhaps, where the Brexiteers, with their eyes ruthlessly on their short term prize of “chucking Chequers”, will lay out an alternative.
A roll out of written papers will begin over the weekend, with a big event expected in Westminster on Monday which, if it comes off, would just by chance coincide with Boris Johnson’s next newspaper column ...
On Monday, we should see an explanation of the Brexiteers’ vision for money and migration, and then on Wednesday for solutions to be presented for the crucial Northern Irish border question and other issues like agriculture and fishing.
The idea is not, sources say crucially, to put pressure directly on Theresa May to trigger some kind of putsch.
But don’t be in any doubt, it is a carefully worked-through plan designed to present alternatives to what the government has put on the table, calculated to force the prime minister to ditch the policy.
[Tory Breixiters from the European Research Group] tell me that the ONLY way [May] can survive in office is to ditch Chequers and revert to a version of the Canada-plus free trade agreement that Davis was designing till he quit as Brexit secretary in July.
And if that sounds like a threat, that is is because IT IS a threat.
Led by Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker - and supported by Davis - they say that what they want is an approach to Brexit for which they can vote. And that matters more to them than who occupies 10 Downing Street.
They are explicit: do the right Brexit thing, and Boris Johnson’s schmoozathon (he has embarked on a remorseless campaign of wooing potential MP supporters and buying off putative rivals) will be as fatuous as Jeremy Corbyn looking for votes in Tel Aviv.
“In the end this autumn, we just need to scrape through with the completed withdrawal bill and with sketchy outlines of a future relationship that everyone can live with,” one high-level EU source told me ...
With so many political opponents circling back in the UK, Brussels thinks Mrs May might choose to present parliament with a final hour, take-it-or-leave-it-and-face-no-deal-chaos agreement, produced after an all-nighter at a special Brexit summit in November.
“We’ll then be happy to say anything that will help her at home,” one political source here told me. “We’ll say she’s the toughest negotiator we’ve ever come across, if that helps.”
Putin is responsible for novichok poisonings, says security minister
In the House of Commons yesterday, as she was making her statement about the decision to identify two Russian military intelligence officers suspected of carrying out the novichok poisoning attack in Salisbury, Theresa May was asked if she was saying that President Putin was directly responsible. She refused to go that far. When she said that the attack was “approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state”, what she meant was that the attack was approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state, she explained.
This morning, Ben Wallace, the security minister, was less circumspect. Putin was to blame, he told the Today programme. When asked if Putin did bear responsibility, Wallace replied:
Ultimately he does insofar as he is the president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence - that’s the GRU - via his minister of defence.
The GRU is a military intelligence unit. Soldiers are supposed to to be disciplined. They will follow orders. I don’t think anyone can ever say Mr Putin is not in control of his state. He takes pride in surrounding himself by serving and former intelligence officers, the siloviki as they are called in Russia.
And the GRU is, without doubt, not rogue, it is led, linked to both the senior members of the Russian general staff and the defence minister and, through that, into the Kremlin and the president’s office.
Ultimately of course he’s responsible. He’s the leader of the state.
Wallace also insisted that the UK would retaliate for the attack, although he refused to give details. He told the programme:
We do all the time, but we retaliate in our way. We are not the Russians, we don’t adopt the sort of thuggish, destructive and aggressive behaviour that we have seen.
We choose to challenge the Russians in both the overt and the covert space, within the rule of law and in a sophisticated way.
Today looks much quieter than it has been so far this week. Here is the agenda.
11am: The Welsh Conservatives announce the result of their leadership election. It was triggered by the resignation of Andrew RT Davies in June.
After around 12pm: MPs hold backbench debates on Brexit, science and innovation and on the international rules-based order.
3.30pm: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, gives a speech at the Health and Care Innovation Expo, Manchester.
And Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, will be meeting Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in Brussels. They are not expected to speak to the press, although that could change.
I’ve got to go to a meeting at HQ this morning, and so a colleague will be taking over the blog for a couple of hours or so a bit later. I expect to close the blog by about 5pm. The moderators plan to keep the comments open until about 6pm, although that might change.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
Updated
Andrew
This announcement to cut the MLAs salaries in Northern Ireland has been announced today to deflect attention from the former DUP minister Jonathan Bell giving evidence to the Renewable Heat Inquiry. He has stated today that decisions were made by special advisors rather than ministers in the Northern Ireland government. The announcement has been done today by the Tories to save their partners in government the DUP.