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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Boris Johnson says it's 'not too late to save Brexit' as May faces MPs – as it happened

Evening summary

We’re closing down this live blog now but you can read our main story here:

Here’s a summary of the day’s events:

  • The prime minister met Conservative backbenchers and MPs sought to project an image of unity after a lengthy period of infighting. Theresa May was told that one critical MP had withdrawn his support for a leadership contest. But she was warned many more had not.
  • Theresa May has told MPs that dozens of documents spelling out the actions needed to prepare for a no deal Brexit will be published this summer. Giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee, she said:

Over August and September we are going to be releasing a number of technical notifications to set out what UK citizens and businesses need to do in a no deal scenario, so making much more public awareness of the preparations. We imagine there are going to be around 70 of those technical notices that will be issued.

  • May admitted that some aspects of her facilitated customs arrangement plan might not be ready by the end of 2020, when the transition period is due to end. (See 3.55pm.)

Updated

My colleague, Heather Stewart, has been looking at Boris Johnson’s Commons speech. Here, she explains what said and what he meant:

The Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has said his government will have to “change gear” in how it deals with Brexit.

The nation’s cabinet has been discussing ways to step up preparations for a hard Brexit on Wednesday. Its government is also planning to hire 1,000 custom officers and veterinary inspectors at its ports and airports.

Varadkar said that, with Brexit eight months away, growing uncertainty loomed over whether it would be possible to get a withdrawal agreement through Westminster.

We need to change the gear and up our preparations in dealing with Brexit.

Updated

In a dramatic intervention, the Conservative MP, Simon Clarke, stood up and declared he was withdrawing his letter of no confidence in the prime minister and said others should give her their backing.

Afterwards, Clarke told reporters he had put in his letter last Tuesday following the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis as foreign and Brexit secretaries, respectively. But Clarke said he had since had second thoughts.

We have got a mission in government and it is serious. God knows, the threat of a Corbyn government is real.

May had stressed the risks of an election and a Labour administration, he said, adding:

We’ve looked into the abyss in the last few days. We’ve really been through the mill. We should just not do this.

One MP said the scene was “electric” when Clarke withdrew his letter, saying they had “never seen anything like that in all my years at the 22”. Clarke said the prime minister was impassive as he did so.

That’s the prime minister, she doesn’t buckle under pressure and she doesn’t revel in the good times. There was no big smile.

Another MP said May had “done enough”.

I think we’ve all witnessed her under attack by both sides, both Andrea Jenkyns at PMQs and by Anna Soubry yesterday, and the vast majority of us are in the middle and don’t want to see chaos.

Steve Baker, who resigned as a Brexit minister last week over the prime minister’s Chequers deal, has a further warning for Theresa May. He suggested the number of his Tory colleagues willing to vote down any deal that is “too soft” is substantially more than 40. The number required to trigger a leadership challenge is 48.

A number of 40 has been bandied around in this House in the last few days – I’m sorry to say, it gives me no pleasure to say it, but the thing I have to say is ‘and the rest’.

The people who have said the number 40 are not out by a fraction when they come to consider the number of members who don’t like this deal on these benches and are willing to vote in line with that dislike, they are out by a factor.

People must face up to the difficult truth that a Brexit which requires a high degree of permanent alignment to the European Union will not go through this House of Commons. It will fail.

Others apparently believe the magic number will be reached soon:

Yesterday, senior Conservatives was trying to portray the choice facing rebellious Tory MPs as being between backing Theresa May and backing Jeremy Corbyn, whom party whips were claiming would be the main beneficiary of a Commons defeat for the government over Brexit.

The Brexit-supporting MP, Iain Duncan Smith, is echoing that language as he leaves the meeting:

Simon Clarke, the Tory MP who withdrew his letter of no confidence this afternoon, is making clear that May’s government is not out of the woods yet. This from Business Insider’s UK political editor, Adam Bienkov:

We’re getting some news now on how the 1922 committee meeting went for the prime minister: Relatively well, it seems.

These from Sky News’ senior political correspondent, Jason Farrell, and the Sun’s political editor, Tom Newton Dunn:

And this conciliatory message from the regular thorn in May’s side, Jacob Rees-Mogg, via the Guardian’s own Pippa Crerar:

Afternoon summary

  • Theresa May has told MPs that dozens of documents spelling out the actions needed to prepare for a no deal Brexit will be published this summer. Giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee, she said:

Over August and September we are going to be releasing a number of technical notifications to set out what UK citizens and businesses need to do in a no deal scenario, so making much more public awareness of the preparations. We imagine there are going to be around 70 of those technical notices that will be issued.

  • May admitted that some aspects of her facilitated customs arrangement plan might not be ready by the end of 2020, when the transition period is due to end. (See 3.55pm.)

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.

Theresa May spoke to reporters on her way into the Conservative 1922 committee meeting. She confirmed that she had not seen Boris Johnson’s speech. And, as the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn reports, she said that watching it later would not be a priority.

As my colleague Pippa Crerar reports, she also told journalists they needed a break.

In his speech Boris Johnson claimed the pound “soared” after Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech.

But, as the Press Association’s Ian Jones says, it didn’t.

At the liaison committee Julian Lewis, the Conservative chair of the defence committee, is now asking about defence.

In an unusual (and welcome) move, the committee has provided a visual aid. It has posted this graph (pdf) on its website showing how defence spending has more than halved since the 1950s as a proportion of GDP.

Defence spending as a proportion of GDP
Defence spending as a proportion of GDP Photograph: Liaison committee/Commons liaison committee

Lewis asks May to accept that the UK has always outspent its European Nato allies. Shouldn’t the UK continue to do so?

May says the UK is spending more than EU partners.

Here is my colleague Heather Stewart’s story about Boris Johnson’s speech.

Reaction to Boris Johnson's speech

Here is some reaction to Boris Johnson’s speech, from politicians and journalists.

From Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader

From Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group

From the Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith

From the Conservative MP Ross Thomson

From the shadow home secretary Diane Abbott

From the SNP MP Chris Law

From the Labour MP David Lammy

From the Labour MP Stephen Doughty

From Christopher Montgomery, who works for the European Research Group

From Torsten Bell, head of the Resolution Foundation thinktank

From the Financial Times’ Robert Shrimsley

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

From the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

From the Corbynite commentator Paul Mason

From the Times’ Jenni Russell

From the Financial Times’ Sebastian Payne

Updated

At the liaison committee Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative committee chair, asks if the government will be transparent with the public about what they might need to do to prepare for a no deal.

May says the government will be issuing technical notices to people working in specific areas. That is part of making this information available.

Wollaston says the wider public need to know. She says her committee, the health committee, has heard evidence saying people with long-term health conditions would be uninsurable in the event of there being no deal covering health.

May says she hopes there will be a deal by October.

At the liaison committee Neil Parish, the Conservative chair of the environment committee, is asking the questions now. He asks about fishing.

May says, after Brexit, the UK will be out of the common fisheries policy.

May admits some elements of her customs plan may not be ready by end of transition

Theresa May started her evidence to the Commons liaison committee soon after Boris Johnson stood up. Here are the main points so far.

  • May admitted that some aspects of her facilitated customs arrangement plan might not be ready by the end of 2020, when the transition period is due to end. Asked about this, she said:

The majority of what is required for this facilitated customs arrangement will definitely - as we have indicated - be in place by December 2020. There is a question as to the speed with which the repayment mechanism would be in place. So far the suggestion is that could take longer to be put into place. That has yet to be finally determined.

  • She reaffirmed her belief that a “no deal” Brexit would be better than a bad deal. Asked about this, she said:

You ask me about the fact that I have said ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’. I think that is right, I remain by that. Some have suggested that we would be prepared to pay ‘any price’ for something, I think that would not be a good deal for the UK.

  • She admitted that there was no intentional precedent for the trade and tariff plan she was proposing. Asked about this, she said:

It’s a novel idea. I would sincerely hope that you wouldn’t suggest to me that the only approach the United Kingdom government can take to this is simply to say ‘what else exists and what can we take out of that?’, rather than saying, actually, what is the arrangement that we think is going to be best for the UK?

Let’s put that forward, and let’s argue for that in these negotiations.

Here is the Press Association first take on the Johnson speech.

Boris Johnson has issued a call for Theresa May to tear up her “miserable” plans for close relations with the European Union after Brexit and return to the “glorious vision” of Global Britain which she set out last year.

In a highly-charged personal statement to the House of Commons following his resignation as foreign secretary, Johnson did not make a direct challenge to May’s position as prime minister and Conservative leader.

But he denounced the plan agreed at Chequers and set out in the PM’s white paper last week as a “Brexit in name only” which would leave the UK in a state of “vassalage”.

And he left no doubt of his intention to put himself at the head of Tory backbench forces demanding a return to May’s original red lines of total withdrawal from the customs union and single market in order to allow Britain the unfettered ability to forge trade deals around the world.

Accusing the government of “dithering” over its Brexit negotiations, he said that a “fog of self-doubt” had descended on May’s stance to EU withdrawal since she first set it out in a speech at Lancaster House last year.

In a 12-minute statement, he said: “It is not too late to save Brexit.

“We have time in these negotiations.

“We have changed tack once and we can change again.

“The problem is not that we have failed to make the case for a free trade agreement of the kind spelt out at Lancaster House.

“We haven’t even tried.

“We must try now because we will not get another chance to do it right.”

You can read the full text of the Boris Johnson speech on Johnson’s Facebook page.

Boris Johnson's resignation statement - Snap verdict

Boris Johnson’s resignation statement - Snap verdict: The two most famous ministerial resignation speech in modern times are Geoffrey Howe’s, which, as intended, triggered a leadership contest that brought down Margaret Thatcher, and Robin Cook’s, which was delivered late at night, at a time in the news cycle where it would cause least damage, and which, although devastatingly critical of Tony Blair’s Iraq strategy (and prophetically so - almost everything he predicted came true) was definitely not intended to lead to the prime minister being replaced. Johnson’s version was somewhere in between; he mocked Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, while refusing to address the question of leadership.

In fact, on the subject of leadership, at the start of his speech Johnson was remarkably generous towards May. This will probably come as a surprise to people working in Number 10, where as foreign secretary Johnson’s disloyalty was legendary.

Most of the speech, though, was about Brexit, and he set out the critique already familiar to anyone who read his resignation letter; Britain needs a clear break from the EU, not the ongoing close relationship envisaged by the Chequers plan which would keep the UK bound by the “common rulebook” (ie, the EU rulebook), and any concerns about the economic costs can be overcome with a dose of Johnsonian optimism. Johnson set out this argument with perhaps more coherence than usual, and he effectively explained the difference between the Chequers blueprint and what May proposed at Lancaster House.

His message to his party was: “It’s not too late to save Brexit.” Assuming that just so long as the UK leaves the EU in March next year all will be well for the Brexiters, because they can reboot Brexit later (an argument favoured by Michael Gove, the environment secretary), was a mistake, Johnson argued.

At that point the speech floundered, because Johnson did not address the “how”. May is not going to change, and if Johnson really wants his sort of Brexit, he will have to replace the party leader. But he did not challenge May explicitly, and there was nothing in the speech that sounded like an invitation to others to launch a leadership contest on his behalf. The Brexiters have got the numbers (48) to trigger a no confidence vote, but the conventional wisdom is that May would win such a vote easily and this did not sound like a speech that would change those dynamics. Geoffrey Howe, this wasn’t.

Updated

Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s statement.

The Lib Dem MP Tom Brake rises to make a point of order. He says it is rare for an MP to get time for a resignation statement. As rare as inviting a photographer to witness him signing his resignation statement, he says. Brake suggests that Boris Johnson should have used his statement to apologise for the mistake he made about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, or for making misleading comments about how the NHS might gain from Brexit, or for his role in a campaign that broke election spending rules.

Johnson says the key thing now is to believe in this country.

He says the UK’s admirers expect the UK to take back control.

They want it to behave not as a rule taker, but as an independent actor.

That was the vision that the UK fought for.

That is the vision the PM set out last year.

That is still attainable, he says. And if May can deliver, she will deliver a great Brexit for Britain.

Johnson has finished. An MP shouts: “Is that it?”

Boris Johnson says it is 'not too late to save Brexit'

Johnson goes on:

It is not too late to save Brexit.

He says it is not too late for the UK to make the case for the kind of Brexit described in the Lancaster House speech.

We have not even tried.

Johnson says it would be mistake to accept a “botched treaty” now and to then try to reset it at some point in the future.

He says last night’s vote showed there is no majority in the Commons for staying in the customs union.

Johnson says the Thatcher government would not have been able to introduce its reforms if it was bound in this way.

(But the UK was in the EEC at the time. At this point Johnson’s argument is not clear.)

But since then a “fog of self-doubt” has come down, Johnson says.

He says the markets and commentators liked that vision.

The pound soared, he says.

But the government did not build on it. It agreed to hand over an exit fee of £40bn. And it allowed the Northern Ireland issue to become politically charged.

He says no one wants a hard border.

You could not construct one if you tried.

But there are already two different jurisdictions, he says.

He says he and David Davis proposed further solutions that would allow customs checks to be done remotedly. But they were never investigated. It was as if they had become unwelcome.

He says after the backstop was agreed in December, it became “taboo” to even discuss technical fixes.

He contrasts what the Lancaster House speech said with what the Chequers deal says. On complying with EU rules, having a say in EU rules, and complying with the ECJ, the two diverge.

There will be many sectors where ministers will not be able to deviate from EU laws, he says.

He says the UK will have to accept “every jot and tittle” of EU laws in some areas.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, once said regulatory innovation would be the main benefit from Brexit. But there won’t be much, he says.

He says the UK will be stuck in “economic vassalage”.

Johnson starts with thanks to the Foreign Office staff.

He says he is proud that the Foreign Office rallied the world after the Salisbury attack against Russia.

He says new missions have opened.

He says none of what he did would have been possible without the support of the prime minister. She supported is global Britain agenda, and she set out that vision too.

At Lancaster House she set out a vision for a global Britain doing new trade deals around the world.

Boris Johnson's personal statement

Boris Johnson is now making a personal statement to after his resignation as foreign secretary last week.

Here is the full text of his resignation letter.

This is from the Yorkshire Post’s Arj Singh.

Theresa May will start giving evidence to the liaison committee at 3pm.

And around then Boris Johnson will deliver his resignation statement in the Commons.

At the moment, it seems 50/50 which starts first.

Lunchtime summary

  • Labour has said that action will be taken against Margaret Hodge MP after she called Jeremy Corbyn an “antisemitic racist”. A spokesman for the Labour leader said Hodge’s comments were “clearly unacceptable”. As the Press Association reports, he declined to reveal the precise nature of the action being brought against the Barking MP, who is herself Jewish. But he said that it would be taken under parliamentary Labour party procedures requiring MPs to behave in a “respectful” way towards colleagues and not to “bring the party into disrepute”. In response, the Labour MP Wes Streeting accused the party of “hypocrisy”, arguing that it was penalising Hodge while not doing enough about allegations of antisemitism.

In normal circumstances, if you stand for election on one platform and then decide to abandon the platform you stood on, basic rules of democratic accountability suggest that you should then put that to the electorate.

  • May has acknowledged the importance of preparing for a “no deal” Brexit. At PMQs Steve Baker, who resigned as a Brexit minister last week because he thinks May’s Chequers plan does not honour the results of the EU referendum, said:

It is in the national interest that we should have and have implemented contingency plans for the unwanted eventually of exiting the EU with nothing agreed. Now that there is collective agreement to accelerate delivery of our plans, will [May] please give instructions that every communication related to no deal serves to bolster our negotiating position and by reinforcing the credibility and the feasibility of those contingency plans.

Responding to Baker, who was in charge of “no deal” planning when he was a minister, May said:

[Barker is] absolutely right we do need to make sure that we have those no-deal preparations in place while we negotiate with the EU on a deal because we need to ensure that we have made contingency arrangements for every eventuality, but also the EU need to be in no doubt that we are making those preparations and ensuring that should that be the outcome that we are prepared.

We take pairing very seriously and we recognise its value to Parliament and we will continue to guarantee a pair for MPs that are currently pregnant or have a newborn baby.

She also said the government was “looking very careful” at proposals to allow proxy voting in the Commons.

Michael Gove, the environment secrtary, told MPs this morning he was “sure” that Britain could secure a post-Brexit free trade deal with the US even if it insisted on keeping out American products like chlorine-washed chicken. As the Press Association reports, Gove said that it would be “a mistake to under-estimate” President Trump, who he described as a “shrewd negotiator”. He suggested that the president’s unorthodox deal-making style might mean that agreement is possible despite apparent obstacles.

Speaking to the Commons European scrutiny committee, Gove said Trump was known to take an unconventional approach to deal-making, using “provocative” gambits to “disorientate” the other side “before coming to a satisfactory conclusion”. While conventional negotiators would respond to a $10 price-tag by offering $5 before eventually settling at $7.50, Mr Trump was more likely to agree the $10 price before suddenly declaring at the last minute that the product was worthless and dropping his offer to one dollar, he said.

As the Press Association reports, Gove, who interviewed Trump shortly after his election, said:

[Trump] is a very unique politician, but it is a mistake to under-estimate him. He has a particular political analysis and also he is a shrewd negotiator.

I wouldn’t necessarily judge this president’s deal-making style by the approach that others classically take towards deals. Because his style is different that doesn’t mean a deal is any more unlikely, it just means the route is rather more of a roller-coaster.

Gove also told MPs that officials at the Department of International Trade and his own Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were taking time to make a “close study” of the Trump approach before negotiations on a trade deal with the US began.

Michael Gove
Michael Gove Photograph: Parliament TV

At PMQs the Conservative MP Keith Simpson asked Theresa May about Donald Trump, with a neat sideswipe at Boris Johnson. Simpson said:

[May] should be commended for her dealing with a giant ego, somebody who believes that truth is fake news and I’m not referring to [Boris Johnson], I am of course referring to President Trump. He has acted in a very bizarre way over intelligence, I know she has to work with him but is she not alarmed at the way in which he refused to challenge President Putin over the Russian activity which resulted recently in the death of a young woman here in Salisbury.

May replied:

I understand that there have been some clarifications of some of the statements that President Trump made, I did raise the incident in Salisbury.

The Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, has posted this on John Woodcock leaving the Labour party.

Strong words from Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, today on Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin.

Writing in the Scotsman, she condemns the US president’s “desperate and dangerous sycophancy”, suggesting that “nothing attracts a wannabe strong man ... like thuggish strength”.

Insisting that “America does not conform to Mr Trump’s small and insular vision of it”, she concludes:

Let’s not inflate Mr Trump’s ego even more by fearing him too much. Let’s instead remember that our values and our way of life are always stronger than one man alone.

As always, the positioning is as interesting as the words themselves, with Davidson - considered by many as a potential party leader - suggests a very different approach to Trump than that recently displayed by Theresa May.

More on Labour and Margaret Hodge. This is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

Margaret Hodge faces disciplinary action for calling Corbyn antisemitic, Labour says

This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.

Here is our story about Margaret Hodge calling Jeremy Corbyn an “antisemitic racist” yesterday.

PMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

This is what political journalists and commentators are saying about PMQs.

Generally they think Theresa May won.

From the BBC’s Andrew Neil

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush

From the i’s Nigel Morris

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From Sky’s Beth Rigby

From the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges

From the Guardian’s Peter Walker

From PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield

From the Times’ Patrick Kidd

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Wesminster, used his two questions to ask about Brexit. Here is an account of the exchanges from the PoliticsHome live blog.

SNP Westminster boss Ian Blackford says the PM caved into her Brexiteer MPs on Monday - while the PM tries to laugh it off.

He says the PM has put her party interest before those of the country and ask if the events this week make a no deal more likely.

The PM says negotiations are ongoing with the EU on the basis of the Chequers agreement and the white paper.

She says putting party interests first is what the SNP do when they call for independence.

Blackford says the PM is in office but not in power. He uses a Gallic word that I can’t spell [boorach?] to argue the government is in a mess and calls for the government to extend Article 50.

Theresa May simply says “no”. Seen off?

Harriet Harman, the Labour MP, says last night’s shambles should make it clear pairing is not the answer for MPs having babies. Will May let MPs vote on the proxy voting proposals.

May says the breaking of a pair last night “was done in error and was not good enough”. She say Brandon Lewis and Julian Smith, the chief whip, have both apologised. The government is looking carefully at the procedure committee’s report, she says.

Huw Merriman, a Conservative, asks about a cancer affecting children. NICE have now approved a drug that can be used in these cases. Will May ensure the NHS makes it available?

May says the drug is now available through the NHS through the cancer drug fund.

Labour’s Naz Shah asks May to restate her commitment to eradicating violence against women and girls, and to press the Pakistani authorities for action in a particular constituency case.

May says the term “honour violence” is a misnomer. Everyone should be working to eliminate this.

Anna Soubry, the Conservative, says MPs will congratulate Sir Cliff Richard on his successful action against the BBC. Will the government change the law so that suspects cannot be named until they are charged. She says she knows she is off May’s Christmas card list, but will May consider this.

May says this is a very important issue, affecting people who are not in the public eye, not just celebrities like Richard. She looked at this when she was home secretary. But she says sometimes naming a suspect can lead to more evidence coming forward. She says the police and the media both need to consider their responsibilities.

Nigel Dodds, the DUP leader at Westminster, asks if the government will agree to adding folic acid in flour as a health measure.

May says there is NHS guidance on how pregnant women need folic acid. The government will continue to look at this issue, she says.

Sir Hugo Swire, a Conservative, says a minister needs impartial, sound and honest advice to do their job. He says the home affairs committee has called for the publication of the report into the advice given to Amber Rudd about migration targets. (That advice was flawed, and led to her resignation.)

May says the home secretary is considering this matter.

Steve Baker, who resigned as a Brexit minister last week, says it is in the national interest to have contingency plans for a “no deal” Brexit. Will May accept that having those plans boosts the UK’s negotiating position?

May thanks Baker for his work as a minister. She says the EU needs to be in no doubt that the UK is making those plans.

PMQs - Snap verdict

PMQs - Snap verdict: A clear win for May - her easiest for many weeks. Her party may be tanking in the polls, her Chequers Brexit plan may be on life support and her leadership looking as frail as ever (yesterday one firm of bookmakers stopped taking bets on her being replaced this summer), but Corbyn could not press this case at PMQs. He asserted it at times, but to win an argument you need more than a slogan and an assertion; you have to engage with what you are being told, and articulate why it is wrong, and Corbyn didn’t manage this. His best moment was probably when he quoted Dominic Raab on the ECHR, but what the prime minister says about government policy now trumps what a minister might have said in the past, pre-appointment, and May’s knocked back his point successfully. Corbyn’s best topic was Vote Leave, where he was absolutely right to say that the role that ministers like Michael Gove did or did not play in Vote Leave’s electoral cheating is a serious matter that merits full investigation. (“Nothing to do with me. guv”, is more or less what Gove and other Vote Leave leaders have said about the over-spending revelations - some people are not convinced.) But if you are going to imply that cabinet ministers have been complicit in some form of electoral foul play, you have to be able to make the case. With what sounded like at least a degree of feigned indignation (she seems to get more worked up about ball-tampering in cricket than the EU referendum misconduct), May pushed back hard against Corbyn - and at that point, instead of persisting, Corbyn moved on. His next topic was the Brexit white paper, and the ERG amendments, and he asserted that the government had torn up its own proposals. But when May contested this, with reference to detail, he again failed to stand up his assertion. He then resorted to a generalised broadside about government divisions, but May’s broadsides - about she is implementing the EU referendum result more effectively than Corbyn, and her jibe about Corbyn redefining antisemitism - were more convincing. It was about as good a PMQs as she could have asked for before the summer recess.

Updated

Corbyn says the Brexit white paper says the UK is committed to membership of the European convention on human rights. Is Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, signed up to this? (Raab is on record as criticising it.)

May says support for the ECHR is government policy. It was in the manifesto. She says Corbyn has not been listening to her answers.

Corbyn quotes Raab saying he does not support the ECHR. He is backsliding to keep his job, or policy has changed. He says the government wanted to shut down parliament. It has even given up on negotiating with itself. Isn’t it the case that the government is failing to negotiate Brexit, and failing to meet the needs of the country, because they are too busy fighting each other.

May says she will tell Corbyn what he has done over the last week. While she was agreeing the future of Nato with President Trump, Corbyn was joining a protest against him. While she was delivering a plan for trade with the EU, Corbyn was delivering a plan to teach children to go on strike. And while she was renegotiating our future relationship with the EU, Corbyn was redefining the definition of antisemitism.

Corbyn asks why the defence minister had to rebel against the government to support government policy. He says the government abandoned this “cobbled together mish-mash”, her customs policy.

May says it has not been abandoned.

Corbyn ask if May really thinks the EU will agree a deal just to satisfy Tory divisions. Isn’t it the case that the government has no serious negotiating strategy whatsoever.

May says she has a copy of her white paper; she is happy to send one to Corbyn. She will end free movement; Corbyn will keep it. She wants the UK out of the customs union; Corbyn doesn’t. She is respecting the referendum; he isn’t.

Corbyn says he stated the fact that the Electoral Commission had made that reference. He asked for a guarantee ministers would cooperate. Those cabinet ministers were central to the Vote Leave campaign. The cabinet has now sunk into a mire of division. The government U-turned on Monday to make its own proposals unlawful. When will the new white paper be published.

May says Corbyn said members of the government failed to cooperate with the Electoral Commission. He should withdraw that. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. He made accusations against ministers that were unjustified.

Turning to the white paper, she says she will go through all four ERG amendments. One was about parliamentary scrutiny of plans to form a customs union. The government will not do that. Another prevents a border down the Irish sea. That is government policy. And another is about reciprocity on customs. That is on the white paper too.

Jeremy Corbyn pays tribute to Mandela. He lists cabinet minsters who were involved in Vote Leave. He says Vote Leave did not cooperate with the Electoral Commission. Will May make sure the cooperate with the police inquiry?

May says Corbyn is making an allegation about ministers. He should reflect on whether that was right. The Electoral Commission is independent. It took steps in relation to Vote Leave. All those asked to give evidence will respond, she says. She says Corbyn should withdraw his allegations.

Updated

The Tory Brexiter Andrea Jenkyns asks May when she decided Brexit means remain.

May says Brexit means Brexit. She agrees with Jenkyns that we should talk about the positives of future. And she says Jenkyns criticised her for looking for a “workable” solution to Brexit. She says she does not agree with Jenkyns that having a workable solution is wrong.

The SNP’s Alison Thewliss asks why Glasgow is not allowed to adopt a new drugs policy as a way of dealing with its drug problems. Drugs is not a devolved matter.

May says there is no legal way of setting up drug consumption rules (as Thewliss suggested for Glasgow) and it is not policy to allow them.

Theresa May starts by saying today marks 100 years since the birth of Nelson Mandela. She says MPs will want to pay tribute to him, and recall that his message of peace and forgiveness is as relevant as ever.

This is from BuzzFeed’s Emily Ashton.

PMQs

PMQs is about to start. It is the last before the summer recess.

This is from the Birmingham Post’s Jonathan Walker.

Updated

A YouGov poll out today suggests Labour have a five-point lead over the Conservatives. Various polls have shown Tory support falling since Theresa May unveiled her Chequers Brexit plan.

Updated

The Times’ Sam Coates has been adding up Commons sitting days in the autumn and reckons that Ian Paisley will be unavailable to vote for the government until 22 November.

That is because the recommendation is that Paisley should be suspended for 30 sitting days, not 30 days. Most weeks the Commons only sits for four day.

At least two more Labour MPs have expressed sympathy for John Woodcock following his announcement that he is leaving Labour.

From Angela Smith

From Chris Leslie

We have got three urgent questions in the Commons today after PMQs.

And, after those, there is one government statement.

And, after that, Boris Johnson will make a resignation statement. It will probably start at some point after 3pm, which means that it will coincide with Theresa May’s evidence to the liaison committee.

DUP's Ian Paisley should be suspended for 30 days for breaking Commons rules, standards committee says

The Commons standards committee has published a report this morning (pdf) recommending that the DUP MP Ian Paisley be suspended from the Commons for 30 sitting days for not declaring visits to Sri Lanka paid for by the Sri Lankan government and for breaking the Commons rule banning paid advocacy.

Here is an extract from its report.

We support the conclusion of the commissioner that Mr Paisley was in breach of the code of conduct by engaging in paid advocacy in his letter of 19 March 2014 to the prime minister, and by failing to declare in that letter the benefits he and his family had received from the Sri Lankan government during two of his visits to Sri Lanka in 2013, and those he had received during his third visit in that year. We also support the commissioner’s conclusion (not contested by Mr Paisley) that he was in breach of the code of conduct by failing to register his March/April and July 2013 visits ...

Mr Paisley’s failure to register the hospitality he received from the Sri Lankan government is made more serious by the scale of that hospitality. While he has disputed the Daily Telegraph’s claim that the value was £100,000, by his own calculation it amounted to over £50,000 - and may have been significantly more than that. This massively exceeded the threshold for registration, which at that time was £660. The expenditure on the two visits included that on business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for Mr Paisley and his wider family. Mr Paisley may have taken part in meeting with government ministers and others, but for his accompanying family members these two visits were clearly holidays at significant cost.

A 30-day suspension from the House of Commons is about the most serious penalty the Commons standard committee recommends short of expulsion from the House.

This recommendation will have to be put to the Commons for a vote, but standards committee recommendations almost always get approved without opposition, so the suspension will happen.

It means that May’s working majority will be reduced by one for several weeks in the autumn.

Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley Photograph: Northern Ireland Affairs Committ/PA

Updated

The prime minister is to make her first visit to the Irish border since the Brexit referendum, the Press Association reports. Theresa May had been criticised for not hearing first-hand from locals living on what is to become the UK’s only land border with the European Union. She will meet business representatives on the Northern Ireland side of the border on Thursday and the following day she will deliver a speech in Belfast focusing on how her vision of Brexit.

Speaking in advance of her trip, May said:

I look forward to hearing views from businesses on the border in Northern Ireland on our departure from the European Union.

I fully recognise how their livelihoods, families and friends rely on the ability to move freely across the border to trade, live and work on a daily basis.

That’s why we have ruled out any kind of hard border. Daily journeys will continue to be seamless and there will be no checks or infrastructure at the border to get in the way of this.

I’ve also been clear we will not accept the imposition of any border down the Irish Sea and we will preserve the integrity of the UK’s internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it.

An anti-Brexit sign on the Corgary Road near Castlederg, Northern Ireland
An anti-Brexit sign on the Corgary Road near Castlederg, Northern Ireland Photograph: Paul Mcerlane/EPA

This is from the Press Association’s Andrew Woodcock.

Updated

John Woodcock is down to ask a question at PMQs, the Sun’s Steve Hawkes points out.

Irish government stepping up plans for 'no deal' Brexit

The Irish prime minister has said his government is stepping up preparations for a no-deal Brexit as politicians in the Republic and Northern Ireland turned on Sinn Féin for not taking up its seats in Westminster to help defeat the government on knife-edge trade and customs votes.

Leo Varadkar said the instability in Westminster meant there was no guarantee that a withdrawal agreement, even if agreed in Brussels, would get passed in London. He said:

We can’t make assumptions that the withdrawal agreement will get through Westminster.

It’s not evident, or not obvious, that the government of Britain has the majority for any form of Brexit quite frankly. Because of this the government would step up plans for a “no-deal scenario”.

Here is a full version of John Woodcock’s resignation letter.

The Labour MP Mike Gapes, who has also been critical of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, has said that it is “understandable” that John Woodcock chose to resign from the party.

Labour sources are saying that John Woodcock’s claim in his resignation letter that the disciplinary process that led to him being suspended is “rigged” against him (see 9.41am) is “entirely false”.

They claim that there is no political involvement in internal disciplinary cases, that cases going to the party’s sexual harassment panel are anonymised and that the national constitutional committee, which deals with disciplinary matters, is separate from Labour’s national executive committee.

The sources also claim that Woodcock’s decision to leave the party means that the investigation into his conduct will not be concluded and that the complainant will be denied justice - although Woodcock in his letter says he wants to refer himself to an independent process so this can be resolved. (See 9.41am.)

Commenting on John Woodcock’s resignation, a Labour spokesperson said:

Jeremy [Corbyn] thanks John for his service to the Labour party.

Woodcock says Labour 'taken over by hard left' and Corbyn 'a clear risk to national security'

Here is an extract from John Woodcock’s resignation letter to Jeremy Corbyn.

Woodcock says he is resigning primarily because Corbyn has not appointed an independent investigator to rule on his disciplinary case and because he thinks the process has been manipulated against him for factional purposes (ie, because he is a Corbyn critic.)

But he also condemns Corbyn’s leadership generally. He says:

I was elected to put the people of Barrow and Furness first, no matter how difficult or controversial. I have promised to fight for local jobs, promote a credible alternative government, protect the shipyard and ensure the safety of my constituents through strong defence and national security. I now believe more strongly than ever that you have made the Labour party unfit to deliver those objectives and would pose a clear risk to UK national security as prime minister.

The party for which I have campaigned since I was a boy is no longer the broad church it has always historically been. Antisemitism is being tolerated and Labour has been taken over at nearly every level by the hard left, far beyond the dominance they achieved at the height of 1980s militancy.

Here is John Woodcock’s resignation letter.

John Woodcock quits Labour to sit as independent MP

This is from the Telegraph’s Kate McCann.

Woodcock had been suspended from Labour, over allegations that he sent inappropriate text messages to a female former aide. A former special adviser to Geoff Hoon, when he was defence secretary, and Gordon Brown, when he was prime minister, Woodcock was firmly on the right of Labour and was more outspoken than any other Labour MP in his criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. Before the 2017 general election he said he was standing on the election on the basis that he would not vote for Corbyn to become prime minister.

Updated

Senior Tory criticises May over Brexit, saying: 'Jacob Rees-Mogg is running our country'

In the debate on the trade bill last night, in a passionate speech just before voting started, Nicky Morgan, the Conservative pro-European and former education secretary said: “It is very clear that in this House there is a majority for a customs union to safeguard business and jobs and the financial interests of our constituents in the future.” What became clear when the result of the vote on NC18 was announced about 45 minutes later was that Morgan was wrong. Coming soon after the failure of the opposition and the Tory pro-European rebels to secure the full “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit agreement that they wanted, this suggests that the softer Brexit lobby in the Commons is much weaker than many people assumed, and that the harder Brexit gang remain predominant.

In an interview on the Today programme this morning Anna Soubry, the Conservative former business minister and leading pro-European rebel, effectively conceded this. She told the programme:

The problem is, I don’t think [Theresa May] is in charge any more. I’ve no doubt Jacob Rees-Mogg [the chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group] is running our country.

Soubry was so insistent on this point that she made it again, saying:

Your listeners should be angry that the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg are running our country at this, the most difficult of times since the second world war.

Soubry said too many MPs were “frightened” of the extremes in their local parties and were not willing to vote in the national interest. And she conceded that Conservative pro-Europeans were more likely to back down than the hard Brexiters were. She said at one stage there were at least 16 Conservatives were willing to vote for a customs union. Only 12 backed the amendment last night, and Soubry said some of her colleagues had been influenced by the “hollow and rather ridiculous threats” by government whips that a defeat would trigger a confidence vote and perhaps a general election.

As an alternative, Soubry said she favoured “a government of national unity”. But she conceded that Jeremy Corbyn would not back this, saying that Labour was in an “even greater mess” than the Conservatives, with the “old Trotskyists in charge”, and she was hazy (to put it politely) as to how this might happen. She said:

I personally would abandon the Labour front bench and I would reach beyond it and I would encompass Plaid Cymru, the SNP and other sensible, pragmatic people who believe in putting this country’s interests first and foremost, and that is what we need.

To be honest, I don’t know how these things work, but we simply cannot go on like this any longer. Jacob Rees-Mogg has no mandate. We lost the last general election; we lost our majority and we lost on a manifesto that was based on a hard Brexit.

In the absence of a government of national unity, May remains in charge, and we shall be hearing from her a lot today. She has got PMQs, a hearing with the Commons liaison committee and then an appointment with the Conservative backbench 1922 committee.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, gives evidence to the Commons European scrutiny committee.

12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

After 1pm: MPs hold a general debate on the relationship between the UK and the EU. Boris Johnson is expected to speak for the first time since he resigned as foreign secretary.

3pm: May gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.

5pm: May addresses the Conservative backbench 1922 committee.

As usual, I will also 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 after PMQs 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’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.

Anna Soubry
Anna Soubry Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Updated

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