Afternoon summary
- Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has played down the prospect of financial services being fully included in at Brexit trade deal. (See 4.12pm.) On a visit to Dublin, Tusk also said that it was hard to see how there could be “substantive progress” in the Brexit talks until the UK came up with a solution to the Irish border issue. In his statement he said:
We know today that the UK government rejects: “a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea”; the EU Single Market and the customs union. While we must respect this position, we also expect the UK to propose a specific and realistic solution to avoid a hard border. As long as the UK doesn’t present such a solution, it is very difficult to imagine substantive progress in Brexit negotiations. If in London someone assumes that the negotiations will deal with other issues first, before moving to the Irish issue, my response would be: Ireland first.
- Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, has hinted that he is still hoping for the UK to change its stance on Brexit. (See 4.26pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Boris Johnson has been visiting a primary school. He looks a bit glum. Perhaps he’s been reading what Politics Live said about him earlier. (See 3.38pm.)
In an interview for ITV Julie Etchingham asked Theresa May, after a series of questions mostly about the government’s proposed domestic violence legislation, what would be her perfect night out if she wanted to “let her hair down” with girlfriends. Etchingham got a very Mayish answer. After saying she did not have time to “have the girls round”, May said:
Well, I don’t think that when you let your hair down there’s only one way of doing it. I think it depends on the group that you’ve got, it depends on the time. But as I say, my International Women’s Day is rather more focused not on what we can do to enjoy ourselves but actually on what we can do to help women out there, women who are suffering, women who are being abused and whose lives are being made a daily living hell.
The leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, Willie Rennie, has written to other party leaders at Holyrood calling for them to meet to discuss the recall of MSPs.
The letter comes after the resignation from the SNP earlier this week of Mark McDonald, who admitted “unacceptable” behaviour towards women following a series of complaints, but has insisted on remaining as an independent MSP.
Rennie is inviting the other leaders to “collectively look at the range of sanctions and mechanisms available in future in the event that elected members are found to have done wrong”, noting that one of the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament last year was the ability to make provisions for the recall of MSPs.
Last week, a survey of staff working at the Scottish parliament found that, of those who had experienced sexual harassment, 45% said that the perpetrator was an MSP.
Court rules Arlene Foster wrong to hold back funding for Troubles inquests
Westminster kingmaker Arlene Foster has been censured by a court in Northern Ireland today over her decision to hold back extra finance for inquests into unsolved killings from the Ulster Troubles.
The Democratic Unionist leader, whose 10 MPs still keep Theresa May in power, was criticised by a high court judge for her “unlawful and flawed” decision to block funds for a number of inquests when she was first minister.
Mr Justice Paul Girvan ruled today that Foster was wrong to postpone the funding of the inquests until a full political deal was reached on how to cope with the region’s violent conflict.
In the light of the ruling Amnesty International called on the secretary of state Karen Bradley to urgently release cash for the inquests most of which deal with controversial killings involving the security forces.
Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Campaigns Manager, said:
Victims are not political fodder - their right to justice must not be held to ransom until an agreement is reached at Stormont.
The secretary of state must act without delay following today’s ruling and immediately release funding for legacy inquests.
A failure to do so would show utter contempt for victims who have long been paying the price for the failure of government to effectively deal with the past.
It is time the UK government treated this issue with the urgency it demands.
Varadkar hints he's still hoping UK will change its stance on Brexit
Speaking alongside Donald Tusk in Dublin, Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, hinted that he is still hoping the UK will change its stance on Brexit. He said:
I welcome the European Union’s assurance that we enter the negotiations with an open and positive, constructive mind that will allow for a possible evolution of the UK position in the future, allowing ours to evolve as well.
Varadkar was probably referring to Theresa May’s determination to take the UK out of the single market and the customs union - a red line that, as John Springford explains very clearly in this Centre for European Reform analysis, makes it impossible to see how she can also avoid the return of a hard border in Ireland, and protect the integrity of the UK as a single regulatory space.
Springford describes this as May’s Irish trilemma. She can have any two of the three outcomes she wants - but not all three because they are incompatible.
Tusk plays down prospect of financial services being fully included in Brexit free trade deal
As the Press Association reports, Donald Tusk, the European council president, also used his visit to Dublin to respond to Philip Hammond’s speech yesterday suggesting the UK will reject any Brexit trade deal that does not include financial services. Asked about Hammond’s comments, Tusk said:
In the FTA [free trade agreement] we can offer trade in goods with the aim of covering all sectors, subject to zero tariffs and no quantitative restrictions.
But services are not about tariffs. Services are about common rules, common supervision and common enforcement, to ensure a level playing field, to ensure the integrity of the single market and ultimately also to ensure financial stability.
This is why we cannot offer the same in services as we can offer in goods. It’s also why FTAs don’t have detailed rules for financial services.
We should all be clear that, also when it comes to financial services, life will be different after Brexit.
When it was put to him that Hammond said it was in the interests of both sides for British banks to have easy access to the single market, Tusk replied:
I fully respect the chancellor’s competence in defining what is in the UK’s interest. He must allow us to define what is in the EU’s interest.
To drive the point home, Tusk, or more likely whoever runs his Twitter account, has also put this on Twitter.
Life will be different after #Brexit, also for financial services.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) March 8, 2018
I fully respect UK Chancellor’s competence in defining UK’s interest. I would ask to allow us define what’s in EU’s interest.
Updated
Ireland must come first in Brexit talks, says European council president
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has said that Ireland must come first in the Brexit talks. He made the comment on a visit to Dublin, where he is meeting the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar.
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and Sky’s Darren McCaffrey.
Tusk - "If in London someone assumes that the negotiations will deal with other issues first, before coming to the Irish issue my response would be: Ireland first.” - more on #Brexitcast soon
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) March 8, 2018
But @EUCoPresident says any suggestions on back sliding on December agreement on the Irish border will hinder #Brexit negotiations
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) March 8, 2018
Tusk says Ireland must come first in #Brexit negotiations
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) March 8, 2018
Tusk says every EU Leader declares protecting the peace process and preventing a hard border is a priority, EU stands behind Ireland 🇮🇪
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) March 8, 2018
But @EUCoPresident tells me it would be "an exaggeration" to suggest that Ireland effectively has a veto on #Brexit
— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) March 8, 2018
Jeremy Corbyn has admitted having been a member of a controversial private Facebook group about Palestine but denied ever seeing some of the antisemitic messages that were reportedly posted on it. Asked about this on a visit to Alfreton, Derbyshire, he told the Press Association:
I was joined on to that group without knowing it in probably about 2013/14.
I removed myself from the group in 2015. I replied by Facebook message to a couple of things about a suggestion on the vote on recognising Palestine, which I supported, and inviting a doctor to speak at an event.
I have never trawled through the whole group. I have never read all the messages on it. I have removed myself from it.
Obviously, any antisemitic comment is wrong. Any antisemitism in any form is wrong.
Corbyn also said that Labour “doesn’t tolerate” antisemitism “in any form” and that he would have challenged any abusive posts if he had seen them.
Had I seen it, of course, I would have challenged it straight away but I actually don’t spend all my time reading social media.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has posted this on Twitter to show that he is doing his bit for International Women’s Day.
Proud to support International Women's Day on my morning run. Much to celebrate, but still much more to achieve, including 12yrs of quality education & learning for all girls #IWD2018 pic.twitter.com/kpThmWkrzK
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 8, 2018
Not everyone will be willing to accept the notion of Johnson as a feminist. Sonia Purnell, who published a good but highly critical biography of him some years ago, wrote this about him for the Guardian’s women’s blog five years ago, when Johnson was still mayor of London.
Repeated claims by Johnson to be a feminist have perhaps helped win him an unaccountably large proportion of the female vote. But they do not sit comfortably with his poor record in appointing women to senior positions or promoting them in the public eye – how many of you know Isabel Dedring, his only female deputy mayor with a portfolio?
Then there is the laddish banter he slips so easily into in private – or occasionally the pages of the Daily Telegraph, which for him is almost the same thing. Remember his references to Olympic female volleyball-players “glistening like wet otters”? He’s certainly not popular with many women at City Hall, and has been the subject of complaints about the offensive language that he hurls at female members of the London assembly. He described one of them as “economically illiterate”, addresses most of them as “dear” and overspeaks their contributions with such words as: “blah, blah, blah fishcakes”. The fact is that the closer people get to Boris the more sexist they realise he is – as the geniality wears thin.
Lunchtime summary
- The Commons Brexit committee has published the confidential government Brexit impact report which ministers wanted to keep private. It models three Brexit outcome, and concludes that Britain would become poorer over the next 15 years under all three. And it quashes suggestions that there would be a “Brexit dividend”. (See 1.16pm.) The government does not accept the conclusions are valid, because officials did not model the Brexit outcome it hopes to achieve, but campaigners claim the report shows Theresa May is pursuing a policy that she knows will damage the economy. Open Britain, which is campaigning for a soft Brexit, released a statement from the Labour MP Chris Leslie saying:
The government can no longer conceal the grim fact that they are leading us to a new era of austerity. As new facts like these emerge about the monumental costs of Brexit, everyone is right to keep an open mind about whether it is all worth it.
- The president of the British Chambers of Commerce, Francis Martin, has suggested that firms could move abroad if the government does not secure a Brexit transition deal soon. Speaking at the BCC conference, he said:
Over the next fortnight, the government must deliver a swift agreement on transition that gives business short-term certainty - and they must strain every sinew to deliver a pragmatic long-term settlement that keeps trade and commerce flowing.
The time for political posturing on both sides is over. The time for getting stuck into the detail and answering those real world business questions has arrived, otherwise there’s the very real possibility that we will see business hiring less, investing less, or, worst of all, looking elsewhere for future growth.
- Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has suggested EU countries wanting to punish the UK for leaving are acting like a gang. Speaking at the BCC conference, he said:
Punishing Britain to me is not the language of the club it is the language of the gang.
- The EU has said the UK owes it £2.4bn because of its failure to tackle customs fraud. (See 2.09pm.)
- Jeremy Corbyn has aired his support for Picturehouse cinema employees who are staging a strike on International Women’s Day over a long-running pay row. As the Press Association reports, staff will protest outside Picturehouse Central near Piccadilly Circus in London between 6pm and 9pm on Thursday, and they will be joined for the protest by campaigners from the International Women’s Strike. Members of the Bectu union at five cinemas across the capital have been on strike for almost two years for the London living wage, sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and union recognition. Corbyn said in a statement:
I want to send my solidarity to Bectu members on strike at Picturehouse cinemas on March 8. I fully support your campaign to be paid the real living wage and to tackle the injustices that you face in your workplace. We desperately need an economy that works for the many, not the few.
- The former prime minister Tony Blair has been named as the first British recipient of an award for leadership in memory of Abraham Lincoln. As the Press Association reports, the Lincoln Leadership Prize honours figures who show “great strength of character, individual conscience and unwavering commitment to the defining principles of democracy” in a lifetime of service in the spirit of the 16th president of the United States. Naming Blair as its 2018 winner, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation cited his stewardship of the Northern Ireland peace process, introduction of the National Minimum Wage and civil partnerships, “revitalisation” of public services including health and education, improvements to maternity rights, success in lifting people out of poverty and equality and human rights legislation. Previous winners include Bill Clinton, Lech Walesa, Steven Spielberg and Desmond Tutu. (They don’t include Jeremy Corbyn, but last year he was awarded the Séan MacBride Peace Prize - prompting complaints in some quarters that the media refused to cover the news out of bias.)
EU says UK owes it £2.4bn because of failure to tackle customs fraud
The EU executive has said the UK owes €2.7bn (£2.4bn) to Brussels for alleged failure to tackle customs fraud, as it launched legal action against the government.
While the case is unrelated to Brexit, the threat of a hefty payment to Brussels is bound to raise tensions as the UK and EU debate customs arrangements to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The European commission announced it was sending a letter of formal notice to the government over its refusal “to make customs duties available to the EU budget as required by EU law”. Citing a confidential report by the EU’s anti-fraud office Olaf, the commission said the UK “negligence” had allowed customs fraud that caused a €2.7bn loss to the EU budget. “The UK must assume the financial consequences of its violations of union rules,” the commission said.
A government spokesman said it would respond in due course to the commission, but did not recognise the estimates of alleged duty loss.
The case came to light last year, after EU anti-fraud investigators, accused British customs officials of turning a blind eye to criminal gangs using fake invoices and making false claims about the value of clothes and shoes imported from China. France, Germany, Spain and Italy lost a combined €3.2bn from 2013 to 2016 in VAT revenues, as a result of British failures in handling imports at its ports, according to Olaf.
A letter of formal notice is the first stage in the EU’s legal process against rule-breaking. It could lead to the government being taken to the European court of justice, although most cases are settled without going to a judge.
The British government has agreed that any cases registered at the ECJ on Brexit day, should be allowed to continue to a binding ruling. But the UK wants to ensure British lawyers can continue to be involved, a point that needs to be settled in ongoing Brexit negotiations.
The case helps to explain why EU diplomats mistrust British proposals for an unprecedented customs arrangements that would see the UK collecting EU customs duties on the Irish border. One EU diplomat described the UK as “the weak link in the chain” on customs controls, while a senior French official last year accused the government of not making an effort to stop fraud.
A government spokesperson said:
We do not recognise the European commission’s estimate of alleged duty loss. We take customs fraud very seriously and we continue to evolve our response as new threats emerge.
HMRC has a very strong track record for tackling evasion and rule-breaking of all kinds, securing a record £28.9 billion last year that would otherwise have gone unpaid.
UK won't get Brexit dividend because borrowing will rise, confidential government report suggests
Here are three more of the key charts from the government’s confidential Brexit impact analysis (pdf) published by the Commons Brexit committee this morning. (See 11.27am.)
- Diverging from EU rules will damage the UK economy, the confidential government analysis suggests. After the recent Chequers meeting where a cabinet committee settled the government’s Brexit approach, pro-Brexiters briefed that divergence had “won the day”. But the analysis looks at how Brexit could affect the economy under three scenarios and concludes “the most important driver of the GDP estimates is the change in NTBs [non-tariff barriers - regulatory burdens that would increase as a result of regulatory divergence] in each scenario.”
My colleague Heather Stewart suggests that this is the chart showing how much Boris Johnson’s demands could cost the economy.
Remember the Chequers awayday when "divergence won"? Orange boxes here are govt's estimates of hit to GDP from "gradual regulatory divergence". The cost of keeping Boris on board? pic.twitter.com/8mvL49365a
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) March 8, 2018
- The north east of England would suffer most economically, and London least, under Brexit, the government analysis suggests. But all parts of the UK would end up poorer under all three Brexit scenarios modelled.
- The analysis quashes claims that the government would benefit from a Brexit dividend. This chart shows the estimated impact of the three Brexit scenarios on government borrowing. Although the Treasury would gain by not having to pay into the EU budget (the yellow bars - below the zero line because the impact of that on government borrowing would be negative), the analysis suggests this in no way compensates for the amount the exchequer would lose, particularly from lower tax receipts caused by the impact of NTBs on trade (the green bars). Overall (look at the line on the chart with the black diamonds), after 15 years annual net borrowing would be around £20bn higher under the EEA option, almost £60bn higher under the free trade agreement option and more than £80bn higher under the WTO option.
Of course, it has to be said that the government does not accept this analysis. It says the report is flawed because it does not take into account the Brexit trade deal it hopes to achieve.
Updated
No 10 refuses to say when £65bn Saudi trade and investment package will happen
Downing Street said it could not expand on the “landmark ambition for around £65bn of mutual trade and investment opportunities over the coming years” which was agreed at a bilateral meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince last night.
In a briefing after the meeting last night, Number 10 said it would be “direct investment in the UK and new Saudi public procurement with UK companies” and called it a “significant boost for UK prosperity and a clear demonstration of the strong international confidence in our economy as we prepare to leave the European Union.”
New investment and procurement opportunities will be spread across education, training and skills, financial and investment services, culture and entertainment, healthcare services and life sciences, technology and renewable energy and the defence industry, a spokesman said.
On Thursday, the prime minister’s spokesman said there was not a specific timescale for the investment to happen. “This is agreement in relation to investment opportunities over the coming years,” he said. He went on:
Essentially, as and when the agreements are reached they will be announced in due course over the coming years. Precise details will follow. Yesterday’s agreement is an ambition.
Downing Street denied it was a guess. “It was obviously based on a meeting which the prime minister and the Crown Prince and other ministers had yesterday,” he said, though he said they could not be more specific on the timeframe.
At the Numbe 10 lobby briefing Downing Street would not be drawn on whether the condition of the British policemen seriously ill after the Salisbury attack would escalate the government’s response. “It’s important we establish the facts,” a Downing Street spokesman said. “If we move to attribution, we will need all the facts.”
Theresa May’s spokesman said the attack in Salisbury was “an appalling and reckless crime and the public will rightly want those responsible to be identified and held to account. He went on:
But it is important that we avoid speculation and allow police and others to rigorously establish the full facts.
As the home secretary and foreign secretary have made clear, our response to those found to be responsible will be robust.
And here is a thread about the Brexit impact report from the Conservative MP Antoinette Sandbach, a remainer.
#Brexitanalysis "modelled US deal takes central view of what could be achieved. Benefit to UK GDP is 0.2% of GDP long term." The analysis clearly shows that new FTA's will NOT make up the damage of a WTO or FTA #Brexit.
— Antoinette Sandbach (@Sandbach) March 8, 2018
Back to the Brexit impact report, and Sky’s Faisal Islam has a useful thread on what it says.
Well... Commons Brexit committee publishes the full 29 page official internal Brexit Impact study first leaked to @AlbertoNardelli and then further leaked to @skynews pic.twitter.com/W3wJKi5NJc
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 8, 2018
Nigel Huddleston, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that eventually the full force of the law will be brought down upon the perpetrators.
Rudd agrees. She says the government is responding with a cool head, but that that does not mean it does not feel outrage. She says when she has more information, she will return to the Commons.
And that’s it. The statement is over.
Cheryl Gillan, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that the government will work internationally to explore unexplained deaths that are possibly related.
Rudd says the government needs to be very “clear-eyed” about Russia. She says the government will want to work internationally should that prove necessary.
The Russian embassy in London has just posted this on Twitter about the Salisbury case.
He was actually a British spy, working for MI6 pic.twitter.com/PPAcE8a9vz
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 8, 2018
Sergei Skripal was a Russian, who was a spy, and so the headline seems perfectly reasonable, but you can see the point they are getting at.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, says she has written to Rudd asking for a review of 14 suspicious deaths associated with Russia in the UK. And she says the government should ask the UN to make a statement calling on other countries to allow extradition in cases like this.
Rudd says now is not the time to reopen other incidents. She says the government is focusing on dealing with the incident at the moment.
Updated
Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that the defence review will lead to defence spending going up.
Rudd says the security services are recruiting extra staff. She does not comment on the defence spending issue.
Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative, says the circumstantial evidence against Russia is very strong. If it was Russia, it was “a brazen act of war”. He says the UK needs to spend more on defence.
Rudd says there will come a time to attribute blame.
Afzal Khan, the shadow home office minister, is responding.
He asks Rudd to confirm that Salisbury remains open for business.
He asks if the government is satisfied that it has all the powers it needs with regard to sanctions.
Rudd now turns to speculation about who was to blame “for this most outrageous crime”.
This was a “brazen and reckless act”, she says. It was attempted murder “in a most cruel way”.
Hundreds of officers are involved in the investigation, she says.
She thanks the people of Salisbury for their help.
She says the government will respond in a robust manner when it knows who is responsible.
Updated
Amber Rudd's Commons statement on Salisbury nerve agent poisoning attack
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is making a Commons statement now about the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning attack.
She stars by setting out what is known about what happened.
The counter-terrorism police network has taken charge of the investigation.
Forensic analysis has revealed the presence of a nerve agent. The incident is being treated as attempted murder.
It is highly likely that a police officer was exposed to the same nerve agent.
The investigation will be complex, and may take some time.
She says the chief medical officer has said the risk to anyone else is low.
The emergency services are well equipped to deal with these cases, she says.
Here is one of the key charts. It is the one showing that, under three potential Brexit outcomes, growth would be lower over the next 15 years than it would be without Brexit.
Brexit committee publishes government's confidential Brexit impact assessment
The Commons Brexit committee has just published on its website (pdf) material from the government’s Brexit impact assessment. This is the confidential document the government only released to the committee after the Commons passed a motion demanding this in January.
In a statement Hilary Benn, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said:
The results of this analysis, undertaken by the government with the aim of quantifying the potential impact of leaving the EU on the British economy, are already largely in the public domain in one form or another. Allowing this information to be considered in its full context, rather than selectively quoted, will help properly to inform public debate about how the figures were arrived at and what the economic effects of Brexit might be.
The analysis suggests that there will be an adverse effect on the economy of the UK and all its regions, and that the degree of impact will depend on the outcome achieved in the negotiations. Last week the prime minister said that as a result of Brexit “our access to each other’s markets will be less than it is now.
The committee asked the secretary of state whether there was any specific material that he would prefer the committee not to publish on the grounds that it was commercially, market or negotiation-sensitive. Having considered both the department’s response and the significant public interest in the impact of Brexit on the British economy, the Committee has decided to publish the EU Exit Analysis, with a single annex removed on the grounds of negotiation sensitivity.
I will post the highlights shortly.
Bus drivers to get power to remove passengers blocking wheelchair access, minister says
In a Commons written statement Nusrat Ghani, a transport minister, has signalled that the government will change the law to enable bus drivers to remove passengers who refuse to make space for wheelchair users. She says measures will be introduced later this year, and that “in principle” the government accepts a recommendation saying the relevant bus regulations need to change. The government set up a group to look into this after a supreme court ruling in January last year saying that the current system, where bus drivers are not required to remove passengers refusing to make space for a wheelchair user, was discriminatory.
Since we’re on the subject, this is probably a good moment to flag up something a reader asked me to publicise - a handbook (pdf) showing how political parties can ensure disability access and comply with the Equality Act 2010. It was drawn up for Labour CLPs by Deal (Disability Equality Act Labour) but the advice applies equally to other parties.
Former army officer and Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee Tom Tugendhat has called for action against Russia over the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal.
“As the first duty of government is to protect the British people I think using nerve agents on British streets really does demand a response,” he told the Spectator’s Coffee House Shots podcast.
Asked what proof there was of Kremlin involvement, Tugendhat said:
I think it is unlikely we will ever have 100% proof, but this will build up towards a pattern where it makes any other answer extremely unlikely. As we start to see a former Russian intelligence officer who was spy swapped back into the UK after he was arrested in Moscow. We see threats in 2010 made by President Putin himself on Russian television, we then see a modus operandi that looks remarkably similar to the murder of Litvinenko and the attempted murder of the Montenegro prime minister and indeed others around Europe. We are beginning to see not only a very strong pattern, but also a very strong centre to that pattern and that centre appears very strongly to be the Kremlin.
Asked what motive Putin would have for ordering an attack on Skripal, Tugendhat said:
President Putin, if it is indeed he who ordered it, is trying to make sure that those who betray him know that there is a cost to betrayal.
All ageing dictators have a problem which is that as they age, people begin to think about the future. Young men with ambitions and dreams start to wonder whether they could take his place ... and so this is one way possibly of stating very clearly that disloyalty however historic will be punished and will be punished very obviously. It wasn’t just Colonel Skripal that was [attempted to be] murdered it looks likely that his wife was murdered a year or so ago, his son was also murdered in 2017 and now his daughter too.
Government rejects EU demand to maintain access to British fishing waters after Brexit
In environment questions there were several more attempts to clarify the government’s position on fishing. Mostly they did not take us much further than what George Eustice, the farming minister, said earlier. (See 9.50am.) But near the end of the session Eustice did firm up his line. He was responding to a question from David Duguid, the Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan, who asked him to confirm that the EU’s position on fishing (that “existing reciprocal access to fishing waters and resources should be maintained”) was unacceptable. Eustice replied:
Yes. I simply say this is an EU position. They currently benefit considerably from access to UK waters. At the moment the UK fleet access around 100,000 tonnes of fish in EU waters. The EU access 700,000 tonnes of fish from UK waters. So, they would say that, wouldn’t they? But it is not a position that the UK government shares.
UPDATE: As milnersw19 points out in the comments, Theresa May did propose reciprocal access in her Mansion House speech. She said:
We will want to continue to work together to manage shared stocks in a sustainable way and to agree reciprocal access to waters and a fairer allocation of fishing opportunities for the UK fishing industry.
But May was implying some reciprocal access. The EU is asking for existing reciprocal access.
Updated
Rudd says government funding plans won't lead to reduction in beds in women's refuges
In her Today interview Amber Rudd, the home secretary, was also asked about plans to stop housing benefit being used to fund women’s refuges. There is a Guardian story explaining the proposals here, and a briefing on the subject from the charity Refuge here. The government says it will make up for this change with grants to councils, but refuges fear that the money will not be passed on and there are claims that 40% of refuges could close if the plans go ahead.
Rudd said that she was determined that the number of refuge beds would not fall.
I have engaged with the women’s organisations and charities that have these concerns and I’m very alive to them. I’m proud of the fact that since 2010 we’ve seen a 10% increase in the number of beds available for women fleeing domestic abuse and I will not oversee a reduction in the number of beds. But we will look at the best way to fund those refuges. I want to make sure that his country has the best available support for women who need it.
But she refused to say the government would drop its plans. Instead, the government would listen to the evidence, she said.
I want what [the charities] want, which is the best protection and support for victims of domestic abuse.
Yesterday the draft EU guidelines for the UK-EU Brexit trade talks were published and they said that “existing reciprocal access to fishing waters and resources should be maintained.” The fishing industry reacted angrily. And fishermen were even more alarmed when Philip Hammond, the chancellor, said the government would be willing to let EU fishermen continue to use British waters. In a Q&A after his speech he said:
Fishing is an iconically important British industry and we are very clear that we are taking control of our waters.
But of course we would be open to discussing with our EU partners about the appropriate arrangements for reciprocal access for our fishermen to EU waters and for EU fishermen to our waters.
We would have to negotiate the basis on which such an arrangement could be fair and appropriate for us.
The Daily Mail has written this up this morning as Hammond saying “ministers are ‘open’ to trading away access to Britain’s fishing grounds in return for a better Brexit deal.”
In environment questions the Tory MP Martin Vickers has just asked for an assurance that British fishermen will not be “sold out”. George Eustice, the farming minister, offered a relatively evasive answer. He said that, when the UK left the EU, it would leave the common fisheries policy and become an independent coastal state. That meant the UK would manage fisheries and manage access to its own waters. But his answer seemed to leave open the possibility that “managing access” would include granting access to EU fishermen in return for trade concessions.
Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is not in the Commons for environment questions. George Eustice, one of his junior minister, tolds MPs at the start of the session that Gove was in the US on departmental business.
Rudd says UK keeping 'cool head' as it plans response to nerve agent attack on Russian spy
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has been giving interview this morning. It is International Women’s Day and she was booked to appear not just as home secretary but as minister for women and equalities, and she was promoting the new government plans to tackle domestic abuse.
But inevitably she was also asked about the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning attack. On the Today programme she said that, if Russia was deemed responsible, the government would respond. But it would act with a “cool head”, she said
When we have all the evidence of what took place, we will - if it is appropriate - attribute it to somebody.
If that is the case then we will have a plan in place. We need to be very methodical, keep a cool head and be based on the facts, not rumour.
She also said there was “nothing soft” about how the UK responded to state-sanctioned attacks of this kind.
Let me be clear, we are absolutely robust about any crimes committed on these streets of the UK. There is nothing soft about the UK’s response to any sort of state activity in this country. You may not hear about it all, but when we do see that there is action to be taken, we will take it.
Here is our latest story about the Salisbury incident. Rudd will be making a Commons statement about it later.
And here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
10am: Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, speaks at the British Chambers of Commerce conference. Other speakers include: Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, at 10.20am; John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, at 12pm; and Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, at 12.20pm.
After 11am: Amber Rudd, the home secretary, makes a Commons statement on the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning attack.
11.25am: Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, speaks at a nursing summit in Liverpool.
2pm: Donald Tusk, president of the European council, meets the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar in Ireland.
Also at some point today David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, will chair a meeting of the joint ministerial committee, comprising UK and devolved administration ministers who will seek to reach agreement over the EU withdrawal bill.
And my colleagues Claire Phipps and Alexandra Topping are covering International Women’s Day on a separate live blog.
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.
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