Afternoon summary
- The Brexit department has said that excluding the UK after Brexit from military aspects of the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation project, as the EU currently intends, would create an “irreparable security risk” for the country. (See 3.33pm.)
- Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, has refused to tell MPs when the EU withdrawal bill will return to the Commons for MPs to vote on amendments passed in the Lords. (See 12.01pm.) She announced the business for the week beginning Monday 4 June, which does not include the bill. But sources later said the bill would get debated the following week, which begins on Monday 11 June.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Ipsos MORI has released some polling today.
Half think #Brexit is working out as expected while 4 in 10 think it is worse; confidence in the PM to get a good Brexit deal remains low: new @standardnews poll https://t.co/YVQ3CZKzb8 pic.twitter.com/lywF2w0cj2
— Ipsos MORI (@IpsosMORI) May 24, 2018
Despite a torrid time on Brexit, May has gradually crept ahead of Corbyn on satisfaction, whereas he has fallen back compared to 2017 peak pic.twitter.com/E2XnHqxAO2
— Ben Page, Ipsos MORI (@benatipsosmori) May 24, 2018
The Sun’s Nick Gutteridge thinks the government is playing up the threat of a Corbyn government in the economic partnership paper (pdf) published today by the Brexit department.
Fascinating how UK is playing on threat of a Corbyn government in its new trade paper. First a reassuring promise this administration won't go mad on state aid. But if the EU wants to ensure Jezza won't do so in future, it'd better offer up 'commensurate market access' in return. pic.twitter.com/aivHhP05kG
— Nick Gutteridge (@nick_gutteridge) May 24, 2018
The Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns has resigned as a parliamentary private secretary attached to the ministry for housing. In a blog on her website, she explains that she is doing this so that she has more time to support the pro-Brexit minority on the Commons Brexit committee, of which she is a member. She says:
Currently, there are 21 members on the Brexit committee, only 7 of which voted to leave the EU. It is my opinion that the reports produced by the committee have been unbalanced in favour of us either remaining in the EU, the customs union or delaying our departure. I, therefore, feel I need to spend more of my time doing all I can do to correct this imbalance and be a robust voice for the benefits of Brexit.
Being excluded from Galileo satellite system creates 'irreparable security risk' for UK, says government
The title, Technical Note: UK Participation in Galileo (pdf), sounds rather dry, but the contents are anything but. It is not often that you can feel the anger coming through in bureaucratic documents, but you can with this one.
Galileo is a €10bn satellite navigation system being developed by the EU. It will be used commercially - your smartphone will end up talking to it - but, crucially, its encrypted public regulated service (PRS) will be used by the military. Galileo will be safer (less vulnerable to hacking) and more accurate than the American GPS version currently used by the armed forces, and the government says access to Galileo is a matter of national security.
Here are the main points from the document.
- The government says it objects strongly to the fact it is already excluded from security-related Galileo planning for the post-Brexit period.
The UK therefore has a strong objection to its ongoing exclusion from security-related discussions and exchanges pertaining to the post-2019 development of Galileo and the PRS, which serves to limit UK assurance in the programme and discourage UK industrial participation.
- It says excluding Britain from the project creates “an irreparable security risk”.
From a security perspective, any gap in UK involvement in the design and development of Galileo and PRS, whereby the UK is unable to manufacture components or assure those manufactured by member states at any point, will constitute an irreparable security risk. It will mean the UK will not be able to rely on the system for our own security and defence needs.
- It says if the UK is not allowed to participate in the security aspects of Galileo, it will cut all its future involvement in the project.
- It confirms that it is considering setting up its own alternative.
If agreement cannot be reached on the future balance of rights and obligations, and UK security and industrial requirements consequently cannot be met, the UK could not justify future participation in Galileo. In parallel, the UK is therefore exploring alternatives to fulfil its needs for secure and resilient position, navigation and timing information, including the option for a domestic satellite system.
- It says Europe as a whole, not just the UK, would lose out from Britain being excluded from the project.
The UK wants to continue participating in Galileo. This is in the mutual interests of the UK and EU, benefitting European competitiveness, security, capability development and interoperability. An end to close UK participation will be to the detriment of Europe’s prosperity and security and could result in delays and additional costs to the programme.
- It says excluding the UK from the full participation could delay the project by up to three years and add €1bn to the costs.
Excluding industrial participation by UK industry in security-related areas risks delays of up to three years and additional costs of up to €1 billion to the programme. It will not be straightforward to effectively fulfil all Galileo security work elsewhere.
- It says the UK’s share of Galileo was not taken into account when the Brexit “divorce bill” was being calculated because it was assumed the UK would retain full access. If this is not the case, the Brexit financial settlement should be reopened, it says.
Paragraph 66 of the [December joint report] states that “union assets relating to union space programmes (EGNOS, Galileo & Copernicus) are not part of the financial settlement”. The exclusion of these UK sunk costs was agreed on the basis that the UK would retain full access. Should the UK’s future access be restricted, the UK’s past contribution to the financing of space assets should be discussed.
Updated
The Brexit department has now published four position papers today:
Labour MP Ian Austin claims 'mainstream social democrats' don't support Corbyn
It is not just the DUP that has been attacking Jeremy Corbyn over his stance on Northern Ireland. (See 1pm.) The Labour MP Ian Austin, a former minister and former aide to Gordon Brown who is on the right of the party and who has repeatedly criticised Corbyn before, has published an article today on PoliticsHome arguing that Corbyn is more leftwing than any of his predecessors and that he has turned Labour “from a mainstream social democratic party into something very different”. Quite a lot of the evidence cited by Austin to back his case relates to Corbyn’s record on Ireland. Austin says:
On Northern Ireland, they were both completely outside the mainstream of the Labour Party. It might be ancient history for lots of the party’s new young recruits, but lots of older people will never forget what they said about the IRA during a brutal war which saw bombs planted and people murdered in shopping centres, hotels and pubs.
A few weeks after the IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton and murdered five people at the Tory party conference in 1984, Jeremy Corbyn invited two suspected IRA terrorists to the House of Commons. When the man responsible for planting the bomb was put on trial, he demonstrated outside the court.
As recently as 2003, John McDonnell [the Corbyn ally and shadow chancellor] said “those people involved in the armed struggle” should be honoured - people who he said had used “bombs and bullets”.
Let’s be really clear about this. It is not true to claim as John McDonnell does, that he did “everything I possibly could to secure the peace process in Northern Ireland”. It is just not true. People like him and Jeremy Corbyn were campaigning for a victory for the republican cause, not working for a peaceful agreement between the two bitterly divided sides.
That’s why Jeremy Corbyn was amongst a handful who voted against the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985 and why John McDonnell opposed setting up a power-sharing assembly which eventually became the Good Friday agreement because “an assembly is not what people have laid down their lives for over thirty years … the settlement must be for a united Ireland.”
Austin concludes his article by suggesting that “mainstream social democrats” should not support Corbyn. He says:
The truth is that Jeremy Corbyn and the hard left have taken over the Labour party and want to turn it from a mainstream social democratic party into something very different.
It’s got a different leadership, different policies and different values.
They want to create a different party. That’s why mainstream social democrats do not support Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Corbyn’s supporters would no doubt point out that lots of mainstream social democrats in the party do back his leadership. They might disagree with him on foreign policy (the main focus of Austin’s article), but on domestic policy even the centrists broadly support Corbyn, and there is also a recognition that his leadership is legitimate because he has the clear support of members.
Opposition parties have reacted with derision after it emerged that Nicola Sturgeon will not personally launch a long-awaited and much-hyped Scottish National party report setting out a prospectus for independence, including the country’s currency options. (See 11.11am.)
The 458-page “Sustainable Growth Commission” report, first started some 20 months ago by Andrew Wilson, a former SNP MSP turned expert lobbyist, will only be published online on Friday without any press conference.
Sturgeon insisted during Thursday’s first minister’s questions at Holyrood the report would provide “the positive debate that we look forward to leading is how Scotland raises its game even further, matching the best in the world.” She said:
We will do that with our current powers and we will look to equip this parliament so it is even stronger to deliver on behalf of the people we represent.
Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Tories’ shadow finance secretary, accused the first minister of cowardice. “It’s telling that Nicola Sturgeon is too scared to face questions on the matter,” he said.
A leader in the Scottish edition of the Sun, a longstanding supporter of the SNP as a devolved government, said:
Nicola Sturgeon is not normally one for dodging the limelight. Earlier this week she appeared in person to announce extra funding for regeneration in Dalmarnock, Glasgow. She personally launched a community shares scheme to fund the revamp of the city’s Govanhill baths.
Yet the long-awaited growth commission report “will be published on the internet tomorrow with no fanfare and, crucially no opportunity to question Sturgeon or the report’s authors,” it said.
A duo of Russian pranksters with suspected links to the country’s security services say they managed to get through to the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and hold an 18-minute phone conversation with him by pretending to be the Armenian prime minister, my colleague Shaun Walker reports.
Commons Brexit committee says government should urgently clarify whether it plans to extend transition
The government should urgently set out whether it plans to extend the UK’s transitional membership of the customs union beyond 2020, given the likelihood that no replacement plan will be ready in time, the Commons Brexit committee has said.
In an often damning latest update on the progress of departure, the cross-party committee of MPs said it was “highly unsatisfactory” that nearly two years after the referendum, ministers had not even set out what post-Brexit trading and customs arrangements they hoped to make.
The report (pdf) – which was agreed by all the committee’s members, including Conservative Brexiters Jacob Rees-Mogg and Peter Bone, and the DUP’s Sammy Wilson – also issued a warning over progress on citizens’ rights.
It said the Windrush scandal had “undermined trust in the ability of the Home Office competently to register EU citizens living in the UK” and process their status.
It added that, while planning for this was under way in Britain, in many other EU states where UK citizens were living little work had been done on what they would need to do to keep their residential status. It said the government should “seek urgent clarification from the EU27”.
Hilary Benn, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said the “clock is now running down” and MPs would need considerably more clarity before being asked to vote on a draft withdrawal agreement in the autumn. He said:
Twenty-three months after the referendum and 14 months since the triggering of article 50, we still don’t know what the UK’s future relationship with the EU will be on trade, services, security, defence, consumer safety, data, broadcasting rights and many other things.
Here is a link to text of Corbyn’s speech in Belfast.
.@jeremycorbyn's speech at Queen’s University Belfast https://t.co/O7FuFNjVXU
— Labour Press Team (@labourpress) May 24, 2018
The Labour party has also accused the Telegraph of misrepresenting Cobryn’s views. In a comment on a tweet linking to the Telegraph splash (see 12.16pm), it said:
Lots of inaccurate reporting on united Ireland comments.
— Labour Press Team (@labourpress) May 24, 2018
It was made clear this was not about Northern Ireland or now, and Jeremy has said today he's not advocating it.
The Good Friday Agreement sets out terms by which people on island of Ireland can determine their own future https://t.co/D5Fl0AbvCr
DUP accuses Corbyn of snubbing victims of IRA terrorism on visit to Northern Ireland
But the DUP has criticised Jeremy Corbyn for not meeting the victims of IRA violence during his trip to Northern Ireland. Labour told the Belfast Telegraph that Corbyn’s trip was arranged some time ago and that when the DUP MP Gregory Campbell proposed a meeting with victims, it was too late to set that up. But Campbell says he will published emails later showing that Corbyn’s office did have enough time to reorganise his schedule.
Mr Corbyn’s office was contacted on 14 May at 11:08am. Gregory Campbell will publish email chain later. Mr Campbell received a reply yesterday afternoon having confronted Mr Corbyn as he entered the House of Commons for PMQs. https://t.co/VjcdYuR4iG
— DUP (@duponline) May 24, 2018
In a statement Campbell said:
Jeremy Corbyn is well known for having avoided specific issues relating to terrorism in Northern Ireland. His answer that he “condemns all bombing” when asked about IRA terrorism is somewhat reminiscent (if different in scale) to his comments that he “condemns all racism” when asked about antisemitism.
This would have been a very useful opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn to demonstrate just how willing he is to meet people who live and work in border areas, but whose views he may not have heard face to face befor
Unfortunately having emailed the invitation on the morning of 14 May, hand delivered that invitation and personally invited him in a face to face interaction yesterday, I am still without any substantive reply. Yesterday afternoon Mr Corbyn’s office emailed me asking for my direct number. I supplied it but I have never received a call. This appears to be a blatant and deliberate snub to innocent victims.
The SDLP, Labour’s sister party in Northern Ireland, says Jeremy Corbyn should commit itself to keeping the UK fully aligned with the single market after Brexit.
SDLP Leader @columeastwood said he very much welcomes the Labour Leader’s visit to NI. Eastwood said the visit was important at a critical time for the North. The SDLP Leader urged Mr Corbyn to back full alignment with the SM as well as the CU.
— SDLP (@SDLPlive) May 24, 2018
Read more: https://t.co/j36eHFZesn pic.twitter.com/fAjzuXEjIs
What Corbyn said about not pushing for a united Ireland
This is what Jeremy Corbyn said in response to the final question, which was about whether he would back border poll as prime minister. He said:
That would be a decision that could be made within the terms of the Good Friday agreement. If that is the wish, then clearly such a poll would happen. I’m not asking for it, I’m not advocating it. What I’m asking for is a return to the fullness of the Good Friday agreement which would open up the opportunities and possibilities for the future of Ireland as whole.
That is the point of the Good Friday agreement - not direct rule, not imposition of a political view from Westminster, but devolution of powers to Stormont here and of course the relationship with the Republic. And it is quite clear that it’s there for a poll on both sides of the border, should that be something that is demanded.
Corbyn is a longstanding supporter of Irish reunification, although since becoming Labour leader he has said little on this subject.
His comment today, stressing that he would not be pushing for a border poll, seemed intended to correct a story on the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph. At a briefing yesterday Corbyn’s spokesman was asked if Corbyn still supported a united Ireland, as he did when he was a backbencher. The spokesman said that Corbyn had not changed his view, but that he accepted that unification would only happen in accordance with the procedure set out in the Good Friday agreement (which said the people of Northern Ireland would have to vote for this in a referendum.)
By the time this ended up as the Telegraph splash, it became: “Corbyn calls for a united Ireland.”
Thursday’s Telegraph: Corbyn calls for a united Ireland #BBCPapers #tomorrowspaperstoday (via @hendopolis) pic.twitter.com/dzORuysMwM
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 23, 2018
Updated
Leadsom refuses to tell MPs when EU withdrawal bill returning to Commons
In what is becoming a regular ritual, Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, has just announced another week of business with no news about the return of the EU withdrawal bill, or indeed anything else related to Brexit.
With the Commons in recess next week, Leadsom was announcing what was happening for the week beginning on Monday 4 June, which include the Ivory bill, and general debates on Nato, TB and human rights in Turkey.
Leadsom added: “With regards to important Brexit legislation, I’m confident I will be able to update the house on these bills shortly, in the usual way.” This brought some open laughter from opposition MPs.
Valerie Vaz, the shadow leader of the Commons, pointed to reports which claimed Tory MPs had been told the EU withdrawal bill – where MPs must consider 15 amendments made in the Lords – would return the following week, 11 June, with the long-delayed trade and customs bill to follow as well.
“It is unprecedented to treat parliament in this way – business is announced in the media and not in the house,” Vaz said, saying Leadsom was part of a government “limping from one week to the next”.
Corbyn says as PM he would not push for referendum on Irish unification
Q: I’m tempted to ask if you have read the Good Friday agreement (a reference to the immigration minister Caroline Nokes, who hasn’t), but I know you will have done. Do you think there should be special arrangements for Northern Ireland?
Corbyn says Labour does not want a hard border. If a special arrangement is made for Northern Ireland, then there will have to be a border somewhere. Will it be between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland. Labour’s priority is to avoid a hard border on trade with the EU. He says when he and Keir Starmer went to meet Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Ireland was the first subject Barnier brought up. They are very conscious of the needs of Northern Ireland, he says
Q: If you become PM, will you hold a border poll on Irish unity?
Corbyn says that would be a decision that could be made within the terms of the Good Friday agreement. If that was the wish, it would happen. But he is not asking for it or advocating for it, he says.
The Good Friday agreement allows for this if it is something that is demanded, he says.
- Corbyn says he will not push for a referendum on Irish unification if he becomes prime minister. A border poll would only happen if there was a demand for it, he says.
Corbyn's Q&A
Corbyn has finished his speech. He is now taking questions.
Q: [From the president of the students union] What role do you see for students?
Corbyn praises the work done on civil rights at Queen’s University. Any conflict in the world starts with an abuse of human rights, he says. He says Labour strongly supports the private member’s bill from the Labour MP Conor McGinn to allow same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. But he is not sure what chance of success it has, he says.
He says the problem was not so much that young people were not interested in politics. It was that politics was not interested in young people. That was one of the messages of last year’s election, he says.
He urges students to go on campaigning.
He says he does not want to bring back direct rule from Westminster. He has seen that before, and does not want to return to that.
Young people should never be afraid to say the unsayable, or to campaign on any issue of human rights. Human rights legislation never came from above. It came from pressure below.
He says he has been reading the UN report on human rights in the UK. It is uncomfortable reading. But that is okay - provided politicians respond.
Q: Wouldn’t it be better just to stay in the single market and the customs union?
Corbyn says he recognises the results of the referendum.
But he wants to maintain a good trade relationship with the EU.
Labour is proposing a customs union, which would give the UK a say. It is not proposing that in a threatening way. Some ministers are talking about trade deals as if they could be used to undermine the EU, he says.
He says he and Keir Starmer have worked very hard on Labour’s plans.
He says, after the EU referendum, Labour proposed in the Commons guaranteeing the rights of EU nationals in the UK. The government still has not done that. Labour would legislate for that from day one.
Corbyn says Labour would support ship building in Northern Ireland.
We are committed to supporting manufacturing in Northern Ireland and Labour’s recent pledge to reverse the decision to put the £1 billion contract to build the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships out to international tender will keep jobs and prosperity in Britain’s shipyards and could benefit Belfast.
Corbyn says he will be visiting the Irish border tomorrow.
Avoiding a hard border is not just a matter of avoiding customs checks, he says. An open border is more than that. It is a symbol of peace.
Corbyn claims there is majority in Commons for Labour's Brexit plan
Corbyn turns to Brexit.
Driven by the free-market fantasists within their ranks, the reckless Conservative approach to Brexit is a very real threat to jobs and living standards here in Northern Ireland and risks undermining and destabilising the cooperation and relative harmony of recent years.
Labour will not support any Brexit deal that includes the return of a hard border to this island. But we are also clear there must be no border created in the Irish Sea either. That is why Labour has put forward a plan that would go a long way to solving this issue, a plan for which I believe there is a majority in Westminster. Let’s not give up years of hard fought cooperation and stability for the pipe dream prize of race-to-the-bottom free trade deals with the likes of Donald Trump.
Opposition to the idea of bringing back a hard border to this land isn’t just about avoiding paperwork or tariffs, important though that is, it’s about deep rooted cultural and community ties. An open border is a symbol of peace, two communities living and working together after years of conflict, communities who no longer feel that their traditions are under threat.
- Corbyn claims there is a majority in the Commons for Labour’s Brexit plan, which would involve the UK staying in a customs union with the EU for good.
Corbyn says it is not inevitable that peace will always continue.
The Westminster parties need to do more, he says.
Devolution and power-sharing have given every community a voice and helped maintain the peace process.
If the current stalemate in Stormont cannot be sorted out in Belfast, I call on the UK government to reconvene the British-Irish intergovernmental conference. We must step up to find a creative solution, in the spirit of the Good Friday agreement, that avoids a return to direct Westminster rule and lays the ground for further progress for all communities.
Corbyn is now talking about the need to re-establish power sharing in Northern Ireland.
Look back at the sacrifice and courage shown at all levels of society that paved the way for something that had once seemed impossible. That was the spirit of the Good Friday agreement. We all need that spirit again - Stormont and Westminster parties, the British and Irish governments, business and unions, UK and EU negotiators - if we want to secure 20 more years of peace and greater prosperity for the many not the few.
Jeremy Corbyn's Belfast speech
Jeremy Corbyn is delivering his speech in Belfast now.
There is a live feed on the Queen’s University Belfast Facebook page.
He has just told a story about voting on one occasion in the House of Commons with teh late DUP MP Ian Paisley. That illustrated the importance of being able to talk to people from all sides, he said.
Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, has just delivered the business statement in the Commons. But she has still not announced a date for when MPs will debate the Lords amendments to the EU withdrawal bill, the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn reports.
Andrea Leadsom tells MPs the Ivory Bill - not the EU Withdrawal Bill - will be put in front of the Commons week beginning June 4. So Govt still prevaricating on setting a date for the great Brexit showdown.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) May 24, 2018
There are quite a few interesting Brexit stories in the papers this morning. Here is a round-up.
Britain will propose another transition covering customs and trade that will follow the period already agreed, scheduled to last until the end of 2020, The Times understands.
The prime minister’s new proposal has not yet been tabled in Brussels and faces opposition from EU negotiators and Brexit-supporting Conservatives. The transitional deal already agreed will last from next March to the end of 2020. Britain will ask for a customs and regulatory alignment implementation period from 2021 to at least 2023 to avoid the need for infrastructure or checks on the border.
Leaked papers apparently show that a pro-Remain group has launched a six-month plan to stop Britain leaving the EU.
Backed by billionaire financier George Soros, Best for Britain aims to spend nearly £6million on the campaign, according to the documents.
They allegedly reveal that the group will contradict whatever final agreement Theresa May strikes with Brussels – arguing it is ‘not what we voted for’.
There is growing fury in London at what it sees as Brussels’ uncompromising stance in negotiations over a project that the British government see as a test case for how close the U.K.’s future security relationship with the Continent will be.
One cabinet minister told The Sun that Chief Whip Julian Smith was being too cautious in delaying the votes, giving the impression Downing Street are running scared.
They dismissed him as a overly nervous “bedwetter” and insisted Mrs May had the numbers to defeat a handful of pro-EU diehards.
Addressing the backbench 1922 Committee Mr Smith confirmed that Tory MPs would be heavily whipped to oppose the Lords amendments next month.
SNP report to claim increasing growth in line with small, wealthy nations would make Scots £4,100 per head richer
The “growth commission” set up by Nicola Sturgeon to sketch out the economic advantages of independence will claim tomorrow that every Scot could be £4,100 better off if Scotland were able to match the growth rates of other smaller wealthy nations.
The long-awaited report by the policy adviser Andrew Wilson, some 20 months in the writing and re-writing, makes the familiar case an independent Scotland would be able to tailor its tax, investment and economic strategies to better suit the country’s needs. He admits that could take at least a generation.
That ought to allow Scotland to match GDP growth by countries such as Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, and another nine small nations it studied. Scotland’s economy is stuttering, however, and has lagged behind the UK’s growth rate for several years. It had a current account deficit of £13.5bn in 2016 or 8.3% of government spending, more than three times larger than the UK’s as a whole.
Wilson said comparable small nations had seen their GDP rise by 0.7% on average over the last 25 years: larger nations’ growth rates were lower. Scotland needed more migration; fiscal discipline; a “flexible workforce”; a competitive inward investment policy; and a focus on innovation, he said.
After several stop-start efforts to reinvigorate Sturgeon’s campaign for Scottish independence since losing the 2014 referendum by 10 points, Sturgeon wants the latest iteration to be founded on “optimism”.
Wilson, a former SNP MP who now runs Scotland’s most influential lobbying outfit, Charlotte Street Partners, said he believed his report was the most substantial yet produced. “Our sincere hope is that this can raise the content and quality of debate at a time such a focus is sorely needed,” he said.
Opposition parties were immediately dismissive. With its uncanny echoes of the promises and threats made by yes and no, leave and remain camps in the 2014 vote and the 2016 EU referendum, it also echoes Alex Salmond’s ill-fated “arc of prosperity” claim some 10 years ago. He said an independent Scotland could easily emulate the vibrant economies of Iceland and Ireland, before both crashed violently in the 2008 banking crisis.
Britain must face reality on post-Brexit trade rather than continue the “buccaneering blather” of hard Brexiters, the UK’s former chief EU diplomat Sir Ivan Rogers has said in a hard-hitting speech. My colleague Jessica Elgot has written it up here.
And you can read the full, 11,000-word text here.
Scottish government announces plan to cut carbon emissions by 90% by 2050
Scotland is to legislate for tougher action on climate change, with ministers proposing new laws that would require emissions to be cut by 90% by 2050, the Press Assocation reports. At the moment the commitment is to reduce emissions by 80% by that date, a move hailed as world-leading when it was first introduced. The new target is “at the limit of feasibility”, according to the advisory body, the UK Committee on Climate Change. But environmental campaigners were pressing for a 100% reduction in emissions - known as a “net zero” target - to be in the new Climate Change Bill.
Announcing the move, the Scottish government’s environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham said:
Our 90% target will be tougher even than the 100% goal set by a handful of other countries, because our legislation will set more demanding, legally-binding, annual targets covering every sector of our economy.
By 2030, we will cut emissions by two-thirds and, unlike other nations, we will not use carbon offsetting, where other countries are paid to cut emissions for us, to achieve our goal.
Updated
The Brexit department is publishing more position papers relating to the negotiations today. The BBC’s Adam Fleming has a quick preview.
THREAD. UK #Brexit negotiators are publishing a LOT of documents in the talks this week. There's the very punchy paper on Galileo that everyone's talking about with the warning that it'll cost €1bn without the UK and contravenes the December Joint Report. (1)
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) May 24, 2018
The UK has also tabled an analysis of 30+ Justice & Home Affairs measures from the European Arrest Warrant to football hooliganism, spelling out the "capability gaps" if the UK is treated as a third country (as mentioned in the security presentation given a few weeks ago) (2)
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) May 24, 2018
And finally (for today) there's a UK wish-list for how to co-operate on foreign and defence policy. Basically a LOT of consultation, including a weekly meeting between the UK and the Political and Security Committee, and ad hoc meetings with the Foreign Affairs Council. (3)
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) May 24, 2018
THIS is how plugged-in the UK would like to be when it comes to the EU and foreign policy after #Brexit, according to a British technical note to be published later seen by the BBC. Would this mean @BorisJohnson coming to every FAC but just for an informal chat at the start? pic.twitter.com/FKkS3OaE4k
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) May 24, 2018
I’m sorry the blog has been quiet for a while. My posts have been appearing in the wrong place due to an old-fashioned fuck-up. I’ll put them all here now.
Updated
David Gauke, the justice secretary, was on the Today programme this morning talking about his plans to improve education and employment opportunities for prisoners. But he was also asked about the HMRC claim yesterday that the “max fac” customs plan favoured by cabinet Brexiters would cost businesses up to £20bn a year. He did not reject the assessment, telling the programme:
We obviously want to ensure any costs are kept to a minimum but we are considering the options, the pros and cons.
At this point, it is speculation and it will depend precisely how it is designed and so on. [The HMRC boss, Jon Thompson] set out a range, that is the top end of it. We have to look very carefully at the options, we need to keep friction to a minimum in our trade with the EU.
It’s speculation as to what the precise number would be. I have no doubt that is Jon Thompson’s best assessment from where he is but we need to continue to look at ways to keep that number as low as possible and keep it as frictionless as possible, consistent with our ability to do trade deals with the rest of the world.
Senior Tory tells May any NHS funding increase worth less than 4% could be 'disastrous'
In an article in this week’s Spectator Fraser Nelson, the magazine’s editor, and James Forsyth, its political editor, claim the government is planning to announce a 3% increase in NHS spending around the time of its 70th anniversary in July. They say:
[Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive] is about to get what he demanded. Theresa May plans to give the NHS a present, ahead of its 70th birthday in July — a settlement of 3% extra a year, which would mean that by the next election NHS spending would be £350 million a week more than it is today. This means, much to [Philip] Hammond’s rage, that the famous Brexit bus pledge is to be honoured — though not of course with money saved by leaving the EU.
Stevens, ever wily, now wants the figure to be closer to 4%, and for the next decade. Hammond, a political realist, has accepted the case for giving significantly more money to the NHS. But the Treasury prefers an increase of around 3% and for five years, not ten. Nor has Hammond agreed that this sum ought to be dressed up as an NHS birthday present.
According to the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg, this increase has not yet been agreed, and there is talk of the increase in NHS spending being as low as 2% a year.
But even if the Spectator is right, and 3% is on the cards, May has been told this morning that this would not be enough. In fact, Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP and GP who chairs the Commons health committee, suggested on the Today programme that any increase less than 4% could be “disastrous”. She said:
The difficulty would be if [the government] make a funding announcement that is way below expectations, I think that would be disastrous. The figure we are hearing touted today, of 3%, that simply wouldn’t be high enough.
If we look at the long-term average since the start of the NHS, that’s been around 3.7%. And what we are hearing very clearly from today’s report is that we need a longterm average of 4%, and if possible more in the short term, to make up for the eight long years where we’ve had the longest squeeze in the NHS’s history.
By “today’s report”, she was referring to the report (pdf) from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Health Foundation saying the NHS needs a funding increase of around 4% just to secure “modest improvements”. We’ve splashed on the report.
Cost of NHS that can cope:
— Paul Johnson (@paul__johnson) May 23, 2018
-£2k tax every household.
The choice
-Tomorrow’s Guardian pic.twitter.com/0hXt6iHEE8
And here’s our story.
On the Today programme Wollaston said that a 3.3% increase in NHS funding (what the Specatator says is being planned) would just be enough to “stay where we are”. She went on:
If we want to improve services, we’re looking at 5% in the immediate few years, and 4% as a longterm average. And I think the government should look very seriously at these figures.
She also said she thought the public would be willing to pay more in tax to fund an increase in NHS spending.
Wollaston’s demand for a 5% increase in spending in the short term echoes what the IFS/Health Foundation report says. Here is an extract from the news release summarising its findings. (Their bold type, not mine.)
To secure some modest improvements in NHS services, funding increases of nearer 4% a year would be required over the medium term, with 5% annual increases in the short run. This would allow some immediate catch-up, enable waiting time targets to be met, and tackle some of the underfunding in mental health services. This would take spending in 2033–34 to 9.9% of national income, an increase of 2.6% of national income relative to 2018–19.
At the same time, pressures on social care spending are increasing and, if we continue with something like the current funding arrangements, adult social care spending is likely to have to rise by 3.9% a year over the next 15 years taking an extra 0.4% of national income, relative to today.
Put these figures together and health and social care spending is likely to have to rise by 2–3% of national income over the next 15 years.
I expect there will be more on this as the day goes on. But there is a lot else around, including Brexit developments.
Here is the agenda for the day.
After 10.30am: Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, will make her weekly business statement. She is expected to announce when MPs will debate the Lords amendments to the EU withdrawal bill.
11am: Jeremy Corbyn gives a speech at Queen’s University, Belfast. As Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report, he will call on Theresa May to reconvene the British-Irish intergovernmental conference, set up under the Good Friday Agreement, to help restore the power-sharing government to Northern Ireland.
1pm: The Commons Brexit committee publishes a report on the Brexit negotiations.
4.15pm: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, gives a speech at the European Business Summit in Brussels.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.
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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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