Afternoon summary
- Number 10 has firmly ruled out holding an early general election. (See 12.13pm.)
- A Guardian/ICM poll has given the Tories a 19-point lead over Labour, suggesting the government’s budget U-turn has done nothing to damage its standing with voters. (See 1.12pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Theresa May's Vogue interview - Summary
Theresa May must be one of the hardest people in British public life to interview. She seems to have little interest in introspection, and even less in answering questions from journalists. Yesterday the Sun published a write up of an interview with her that included the line:
In her most revealing interview ever, Mrs May says: “I do the cooking, because I enjoy cooking, and Philip puts the bins out.”
You may laugh, but the prospect of a May interview being the most revealing ever because it includes a disclosure about who puts out the bins is not entirely fanciful.
Gaby Wood’s interview/profile for Vogue is a better read. She did not get any scoops - bin-related, or otherwise - but here some lines worth noting.
- May said being prime minister was about delivering, not about being popular. (See 4.43pm.)
- She said President Trump was “being a gentleman” when he briefly held her hand as thought walked down a ramp towards their press conference.
“Well, I don’t . . . ,” she begins. “We don’t comment on private conversations that take place. All I would say is, I’ve been very clear: I’m not afraid to raise issues. And the nature of the relationship is such that we should be able to be frank and open with each other.”
So open, indeed, that they held hands outside the White House—an image that quickly went round the world. “I think he was actually being a gentleman,” May says, laughing off this gesture. “We were about to walk down a ramp, and he said it might be a bit awkward.”
At the time it was said that Trump held May’s hand for his own benefit, not hers, because he gets nervous going down ramps.
- She dismissed comparisons with Margaret Thatcher.
“There can only ever be one Margaret Thatcher,” she says. “I’m Theresa May. I do things my way.”
- She said she is thinking of giving up wearing a particular suit after it was dubbed her “lucky suit” in the papers.
[At the Lancaster House speech] May emerged in the Vivienne Westwood tartan pantsuit she’d worn to make her leadership bid in June. (“People have described it as a lucky suit,” she later told me irritably. “I think I’m going to stop wearing it now.”)
- She summed up her key beliefs as “opportunity, freedom, security”.
“What do I believe in?” she says when I put this question to her. “I suppose if I could sum it up: in opportunity, freedom, security.” And does security trump freedom? I ask. She shakes her head. “I think it’s very important that we always ensure that we maintain the fundamental freedoms that we have. Because if you lose your freedoms, then actually the terrorists have started to win.”
- She sidestepped a question about whether she was a feminist.
One significant way in which May differs from Margaret Thatcher is that she has been active in supporting women behind the scenes. In 2006, she was photographed wearing a black T-shirt that read, “this is what a feminist looks like”. When I ask her, at Downing Street, whether she would still call herself a feminist, she prevaricates. “I haven’t thought about that for a very long time!” she says with a laugh.
And here is Wood’s conclusion, wrapping up her piece.
[In Downing Street] May refers at one point to “the law of unintended consequences,” and she appears to have this in mind as we speak, operating at all times as if a trap were being laid for her. She says she doesn’t read much history and tries not to picture how things will be in advance. She doesn’t think about her legacy. When I raise the notion of empathy, she dismisses it as being “a very ‘today’ word” (she prefers understanding). She seems willfully unimaginative, kicking every question into an area of generality.
But her directness with the schoolboy in Maidenhead leads me to wonder: Is it necessary to love our leaders? Or is it enough to trust them? May’s most pronounced characteristics, her rigor and sense of duty, may turn out to be more useful than a grander plan.
As the glossy black door of 10 Downing Street closes behind me, an image comes to mind unbidden: May in a suit of armor—unbreachable, a little embellished, and prepared for whatever might come her way.
Updated
Being PM is about delivering, not about being popular, May tells American Vogue
Here’s an excerpt from the interview.
In an era of personality, May projects reliability. “It’s not a popularity stakes, being prime minister,” she says brusquely when I ask if she feels the need to be liked. “I think what’s important is for people to feel that I’m delivering for them.”
Theresa May on constantly being compared to Thatcher https://t.co/oGMY6hxNJd pic.twitter.com/j6gDG5Hy79
— Adam Payne (@adampayne26) March 20, 2017
Only Vogue can do picture captions like this: pic.twitter.com/sFOB3dhKl7
— Jason Beattie (@JBeattieMirror) March 20, 2017
Theresa May, in Vogue, says this of the Donald Trump hand-holding: “I think he was actually being a gentleman."
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) March 20, 2017
“We were about to walk down a ramp, and he said it might be a bit awkward.” - https://t.co/Z5J2ADj7L0
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) March 20, 2017
The latest edition of American Vogue is out, featuring an interview with Theresa May.
I will post a summary shortly of any lines from the interview shortly.
Updated
EU preparing for having to impose customs controls on UK, says Barnier
Michel Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, tweeted this earlier today. He says the EU is preparing for the possibility of having to impose customs controls on the UK.
#Brexit: 4th technical seminar @27 to discuss impact on customs controls & procedures. EU27 have to start preparing now for future controls pic.twitter.com/LJjngCcaDd
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 20, 2017
The urgent question is over. The Conservative Michael Fabricant uses a point of order to thank Labour for uniting Tory MPs behind George Osborne.
Updated
Labour’s Liz McInnes asks if Acoba will take into account the European working hours directive when it considers Osborne’s case and ensure that he is not damaging his healthy by working too long.
Gummer says he thinks many MPs may be ignoring the working hours directive.
Labour’s Stephen Pound says this might be an opportunity to go back to basics and consider this issue a fresh. He says about 20% of the cases that are brought to him as an MP are not cases that an MP should be having to deal with.
Labour’s Lucy Powell asks what she should say to constituents who think that MPs are giving up on the Northern Powerhouse.
Gummer says if MPs criticise each other just for the sake of a day’s headlines, they will undermine the reputations of politicians generally.
Labour’s Kerry McCarthy says she has meetings from 8.30 until 8.30 tomorrow. She is contributing in the Commons, including on two select committees. Shouldn’t that be where Osborne makes his contributions?
McCarthy says Osborne does contribute to parliament.
Labour’s Dennis Skinner says these debates are the same as the ones the Commons had 40 years ago when it was decided to set up a register of members’ interests. The rules have been strengthened, he says. He asks how someone can combine editing a paper with being an MP.
Gummer says Skinner came to the Commons after working down a pit and contributed a great deal on the basis of his experience. He says he is not in a position to know whether Skinner’s point about Osborne’s Evening Standard job is a fair one.
The Conservative Tom Tugendhat tells John Bercow, the speaker, that many MPs have second jobs, including Bercow, who does his job as speaker very well. Do people want MPs to give up second jobs and to become a political class?
Gummer congratulates Tugendhat on moving himself up the speaking order in the next debate.
Tory MPs have been defending George Osborne. Andrew Mitchell, the former Tory chief whip, said there was a need for experienced figures in the Commons, not least because parliament is in the unusual position of not having a former prime minister in the Commons or the Lords. Sir Oliver Letwin asked if anyone complained about Osborne not having time to do his job as an MP when he was chancellor. Michael Gove said the Evening Standard owner should be able to hire who he likes as editor.
Osborne defends taking Evening Standard job, says Commons 'enhanced' by MPs having outside interests
This is what George Osborne said in his contribution.
When I heard that this urgent question had been granted I thought it was important to be here, although unfortunately we have missed the deadline for the Evening Standard.
In my view, Mr Speaker, this parliament is enhanced when we have people of different experience take part in our robust debate and when people who have held senior ministerial office continue to contribute to the decisions we have to make.
But I will listen to what my colleagues have to say in this debate. I’m interested to hear.
The SNP’s Roger Mullin says Osborne should not be joking about this. He says this is a disgrace.
Gummer says today he read Nicola Sturgeon’s column in the Daily Record. There is a tradition of MPs contributing to papers, he says.
George Osborne goes next. He says he thought it was important to be here, even though he has missed the Evening Standard’s deadline.
He says he thinks the Commons is enhanced by having people in it with outside jobs.
But he says he wants to listen to what MPs have to say about his appointment.
Gummer is still responding to Gwynne.
He says people become MPs because they believe in public service.
Gummer is responding to Gwynne.
He says the prime minister revised the ministerial code when she took office. The ministerial code now includes advice to ministers about the need to take advice from Acoba when they take future jobs.
He says that is an independent process. So he will not comment on this case, because Acoba is still considering it.
He says the committee on standards in public life is looking at this issue again. He welcomes that, he says.
Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, the party’s elections chair, says this case raises serious concerns.
He says members of the public are worried that the rules are not tight enough.
In 2012 a review proposed reforms of the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba).
He says to hold one outside interest is understandable. But to hold multiple ones is impossible to defend, he says.
John Bercow, the Speaker, starts by telling MPs that he will not allow them to use this session to criticise George Osborne’s conduct. MPs can only criticise other MPs when debating a motion to that effect.
Labour’s Andrew Gwynne asks for a statement.
Ben Gummer, the Cabinet Office minister, is replying.
He says the advisory committee on business appointments has received a latter from George Osborne about his appointment as editor of the Evening Standard. It is considering the request and, when it has a decision, it will publish it.
We are about to have an urgent question about George Osborne and the advisory committee on business appointments.
UQ from @GwynneMP will be answered by @cskidmoremp - full question below: pic.twitter.com/1YkmS1Dvdp
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) March 20, 2017
Bill Cash says UK should not pay anything when it leaves EU because it helped pay off Germany's WWI debts
The European scrutiny committee hearing has finished.
Mostly it was quite dull. In fact, the best news line came from Sir Bill Cash, the committee chairman and veteran Eurosceptic.
- Sir Bill Cash said the government should “tactfully” remind the Germans that Britain helped to pay of half of German debt after the second world war. This was debt dating back to the Treaty of Versailles. He said this one reason why the UK should not have to pay the EU anything when it left. He said:
[Michel] Barnier [the European commisision’s chief Brexit negotiator] has been making some fairly extravagant statements, some would say, in going up as high as €60bn as the money due [from the UK to the EU]. Has anybody pointed out to them, or would you make sure that they do understand, that we have been net contributors for many decades to the tune of what is now running at around £9bn or £10bn a year, that our accumulated liabilities are offset by the extent to which we have made these massive contributions.
And perhaps also to bear in mind that back in 1953 there was a thing called the London debt agreement, where Germany, for all its malfeasance during the second world war, and its unprovoked aggression, found that in 1953, in circumstances which were quite remarkable, found that we remitted one half of all German debt. And that therefore if you compare that situation with what it is now, given Germany’s extremely dominant role in the European Union, that it might be worth tactfully - not one of my strongest points - reminding people that there is a realistic position here, which is that we really don’t owe anything to the European Union, whether it is legal or political.
UPDATE: This is from Sky’s Mollie Goodfellow.
When you're giving evidence to the European Scrutiny committee and Bill Cash brings up the War pic.twitter.com/CvarAfabN2
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) March 20, 2017
Updated
Corbyn and Watson issue joint appeal for Labour unity, glossing over their differences
The Labour party has just sent out a joint statement from Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson. Here it is in full.
The shadow cabinet met today to discuss Labour’s policy and election plans and had a robust and constructive discussion about the challenges and opportunities ahead.
The shadow cabinet agreed on the need to strengthen party unity. It recognised the right of groups across the spectrum of Labour’s broad church to discuss their views and try to influence the party so long as they operate within the rules.
The leadership represents the whole party and not any one strand within it. No one speaks for the leadership except the leadership themselves and their spokespeople.
The shadow cabinet agreed our local and mayoral election strategy and what a united Labour party can and must offer the whole country after seven years of Tory austerity in terms of jobs, housing, education and health and social care.
We will fight for a Britain where people aren’t held back and where everyone in every community can lead a richer life.
And this is what it means.
- Corbyn and Watson issue joint appeal for Labour unity, glossing over their differences.
- They stress that Momentum, and its boss, Jon Lansman, do not speak for Corbyn.
- They admit the shadow cabinet has had a “robust” talk about the party’s condition at today’s awayday.
Labour’s Kate Green goes next.
Q: How much legislation will there have to be to implement Brexit?
Jones says he does not know if the figures in the Institute for Government report today are accurate
Jones also says the government is looking closely at recommendations from the Lords constitution committee about how secondary legislation implementing Brexit should be passed.
Sir Bill Cash goes next.
Q: Has someone told our EU partners who are demanding €60bn for withdrawal that we have been net contributors. And in 1953 we remitted half of all German debt. It might be worth tactfully reminding people of this. We don’t owe anything to the EU, whether that is legal or political.
Jones says he does not know how tactful you can be when mentioning the London debt agreement.
Q: What is the latest gossip? What was the reaction of your EU colleagues to the announcement of the 29 March article 50 date?
Barrow says he did not tell colleagues over the weekend. He had some conversations today, and there was a welcome for the clarity this gave.
Q: Will a twin-track approach by covered by qualified majority voting? And would a trade deal be covered by different rules, giving national parliaments a say?
Jones says we will need to see how the negotiations develop. He says Rees-Mogg is right to say national parliaments, and sub national parliaments, should not get involved with the withdrawal agreement.
Barrow says it depends on the content of a deal.
Q: But will it be a mixed treaty if it is a treaty under article 50?
Barrow says that is an argument for lawyers. It depends how much the article 50 withdrawal treaty covers future arrangements.
Quite a lot of legal discussion has been going on covering this, he says.
The Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg goes next.
Q: Will the negotiation be mainly political or legal?
Barrow says some of it will be political. But much will be technical, which is what Rees-Mogg may mean.
Q: The Lords committee says the UK is not obliged to pay the EU an exit fee. Will this be the starting point?
Jones says that report was very helpful. But there will be a big political element to the discussion. It will be interesting to see the balance between the political and the legal.
Barrow says his opposite numbers have received other legal opinion offering a different view.
Sir Bill Cash, the Conservative committee chair, says in the Lords former senior civil servants voted against the House of Commons on article 50 bill. So what will the government do to ensure the civil service does not try to obstruct Brexit?
Jones says he has no doubt about the loyalty of civil servants, and their desire to implement government policy.
Q: How much do you expect ministers to lead in negotiations? And how much will be done by “sherpas” (officials)?
Jones says that will depend on how the negotiations proceed. But when sherpas do do the negotiating, they will be acting under instructions from ministers.
Q: Who will be the lead sherpa? Sir Tim Barrow or Olly Robbins, permanent secretary at the Brexit department?
Jones says they will work closely together. Barrow agrees.
Here is the ICM write-up of today’s poll. And here are the tables (pdf).
Richard Drax, a Conservative, goes next.
Q: What has been done about sorting out our negotiating team?
Jones says the shape of the team will to some extend be determined by the shape the negotiations take. But the prime minister will lead the team, supported by David Davis.
Q: How are we going to handle the fact some EU countries do not want us to leave?
Jones says Brexit cannot be stopped.
The UK wants the best possible deal, he says.
Q: Ivan Rogers told the committee that Whitehall departments were not engaging properly with the EU on day-to-day business because Brexit was a distraction.
Jone says the UK is fully engaged with the EU.
Barrow says the same. Ongoing business really does matter, he says. He says his team are getting the instructions they need from Whitehall.
Q: Will the EU’s guidelines for the talks be decided by qualified majority voting?
Jones says he does not know.
Barrow says the guidelines will be prepared in response to what is in the UK’s letter.
Normally the guidelines would be agreed by unanimity.
After that there would be a need for more detailed negotiating mandates, he says.
Labour’s Stephen Kinnock goes next.
Q: EU countries seem to be saying it will not be possible to negotiate the divorce deal and the new trade deal at the same time. Can you comment on the timescale?
David Jones says it was Michel Barnier who said he hoped to conclude everything by autumn next year, to allow for ratification.
He says article 50 talks about negotiating withdrawal in relation to the framework of future relations. But you cannot do that if you do not know what the future relationship will be. So a twin-track approach makes sense, he says.
Sir Tim Barrow says there has been a lot of speculation about this. But no one has done this kind of negotiation before. Previous trade talks have focused on the need for convergence. In this case the regimes will already be converged.
Sir Bill Cash, the committee chair, is asking the questions now.
Q: After Brexit, will the department for exiting the EU still exist as a department for relations with Europe?
David Jones says that is a matter for the prime minister.
Labour’s Kate Green goes next.
Q: What will happen to UKRep (the team of British diplomats based in Brussels and working on EU business)?
Jones says he thinks there will be a need for a big diplomatic presence in Brussels.
He says the extent of the UK’s access to the single market may help to determine how big that presence is.
Turning away from the committee for a moment, Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has said that he will present draft Brexit guidelines to the other 27 EU member states within 48 hours of article 50 being triggered on Wednesday next week.
Within 48 hours of the UK triggering Article 50, I will present the draft #Brexit guidelines to the EU27 Member States.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) March 20, 2017
The committee hearing has started.
David Jones, the Brexit minister, says a lot of other EU ministers were shocked by the Brexit vote in June last year. But since then the atmosphere has changed, he says.
Britain's ambassador to EU, Tim Barrow, giving evidence to MPs
Sir Tim Barrow, who replaced Sir Ivan Rogers recently as Britain’s ambassador to the EU, is about to give evidence to the Commons European scrutiny committee. I will be covering the hearing in detail.
David Jones, a Brexit minister, is giving evidence too.
Unite’s acting general secretary, Gail Cartmail, has issued a statement accusing Tom Watson of making false claims about the union and Momentum. She says there are no plans for Unite to affiliate to Momentum. Here is the statement in full.
Tom Watson has made claims about Unite and its general secretary Len McCluskey which are entirely inaccurate.
As Unite has made it clear it is exclusively for our executive council to determine which organisations we affiliate to. There are no plans for Unite to affiliate to Momentum. For the record, Len McCluskey has never met Jon Lansman to discuss this or any other matter.
It is extraordinary that the deputy leader of the Labour party should interfere in Unite’s democracy in this way, and it is very disappointing that he was allowed to make his unsupported claims without being challenged, and that the BBC [in its Today programme report] ignored the Unite statement with which it had been provided well in advance.
Mr Watson’s latest, and misguided, campaign is part of an unprecedented pattern of interference in the current Unite general secretary election by elected Labour politicians who should, frankly, be concentrating on their own responsibilities.
Mr Watson is a Unite member with a right to a vote and a view. But he should remember that, first, he is deputy leader of the Labour party with the obligations that this senior post imposes, and second thatUnite is not a subsidiary of any political organisation.
She was also interviewed on the World at One, where she refused to rule out Momentum affiliating to Momentum. When pressed on this point, she stuck to the formula about the union having “no plans” to do this.
Last week the SNP was asking for an assurance that the devolved governments would be given advance notice of the triggering of article 50. Now the devolved governments, along with everyone else, have been given advance notice, but the SNP’s Brexit minister, Michael Russell, seems to be complaining that he wasn’t given advance notice of the advance notice.
Thank you @BBCNews for letting JMC members like me know that #Article50 is to be triggered next week. @GOVUK somehow forgot to inform us.
— Michael Russell (@Feorlean) March 20, 2017
There will be an urgent question in the Commons at 3.30pm about George Osborne and the advisory committee on business appointments.
UQ at 3.30: @GwynneMP to ask @theresa_may for statement on ACOBA & Min. Code in light of @George_Osborne to editorship of @standardnews
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) March 20, 2017
Budget U-turn fails to damage Tories as poll suggests their lead over Labour up to 19 points
The latest Guardian/ICM polling figures are out. And Theresa May might be regretting her decision to rule out an early general election because the poll suggests the Tories have a 19-point lead over Labour. That is their highest lead under ICM since the 2015 election.
Here are the figures.
Conservatives: 45% (up 1 from Guardian/ICM two weeks ago)
Labour: 26% (down 2)
Ukip: 10% (down 1)
Lib Dems: 9% (up 1)
Greens: 4% (down 1)
Conservative lead: 19 points (up 3)
Martin Boon, director of ICM, says that, as well as being the highest Tory lead since the general election, a 19-point Conservative lead has only been beaten by three polls in the Guardian/ICM series going back to 1983: in two polls giving them a 20-point lead, in 1983 and 2008, and in one giving them a 21-point lead, in June 1983.
Boon says the Electoral Calculus website suggests these figures would translate into a Conservative majority of 140. And he says the detailed figures are also gruesome for Labour.
It’s so desperate for Labour that it’s also nearly a ‘full house’ across standard demographics. Only members of non-white communities offer up a Labour lead over the Tories, with DEs tied. When 18-24s split 41% vs 29% for the Conservatives, Labour can only be in some sort of historic mess.
You might have thought that the government U-turn over national insurance contributions would have done the Tories some damage. But, if these figures are right (and all polling figures should be treated with some degree of caution, although in Copeland Labour’s actual performance in a byelection was just as bad or worse than national polling implied), the budget has caused the Conservatives no harm at all. ICM repeated a question on economic competence we asked two weeks ago and the Tory lead on this metric has actually gone up.
ICM asked people which team they thought was better able to manage the economy properly. The results were:
Theresa May and Philip Hammond: 44% (up 1 from Guardian/ICM two weeks ago)
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell: 11% (down 1)
Neither: 31% (up 2)
Don’t know: 14% (down 3)
Conservative lead: 33 points (up 2)
- Budget U-turn has failed to dent Tories’ huge lead over Labour on economic competence.
Last week Labour supporters might have seen the announcement from the Electoral Commission about the record fine imposed on the Conservatives for not accurately reporting election spending as a bonus. Perhaps this might persuade voters that the Conservatives are inherently sleazy?
Well, perhaps not. ICM also asked about the reputation of the main political parties, inviting respondents to score on a scale of 1 to 10 whether they were “completely honest and reputable”. Ukip comes out the worst, and there is little to choose between the two main parties, but the Tories’ net score is marginally better than Labour’s.
Here are the results.
Conservatives
Honest: 19%
Dishonest: 26%
Net score: -7
Labour
Honest: 13%
Dishonest: 24%
Net score: -11
Lib Dems
Honest: 11%
Dishonest: 25%
Net score: -14
Ukip
Honest: 8%
Dishonest: 38%
Net score: -30
- Ukip seen as most dishonest of the main political parties, poll suggests.
ICM also asked about the SNP, but 92% responded don’t know.
The honest and dishonest scores are calculated by adding up the three best/worst scores on the 1-10 scale.
ICM Unlimited interviewed 2,012 adults aged 18+ online on 17 to 19 March 2017. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
ICM will publish the tables online soon. I will post a link to them here when they are up.
UPDATE: Here is the ICM write-up of today’s poll. And here are the tables (pdf).
Updated
No 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.
- Article 50 will be triggered on Wednesday 29 March, the prime minister’s spokesman said. On the day a letter from Theresa May to Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, saying the UK is triggering article 50 will be handed over. May will also make a statement to MPs in parliament. Number 10 would not give further details, or comment on suggestions that the white paper on the “great repeal bill” could be published at the same time. Tusk has said that the EU will give a preliminary response within 48 hours, the spokesman said.
- Number 10 firmly ruled out an early general election. In the past Theresa May has said repeatedly that she has not plans to call an early general election, but this morning her spokesman was firmer, saying: “There is not going to be one [an early general election]. He also ruled out any election before 2020, the date when the next one is due under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, saying that any election outside the FTPA timetable would count as early. “There is not going to be one until 2020,” he said.
- Downing Street refused to respond to Nicola Sturgeon’s suggestion at the weekend that she might compromise over the timing of a second Scottish independence referendum. Sturgeon has said she wants it to take place between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, but yesterday in interviews she suggested that she could accept a referendum a bit later. The prime minister’s spokesman said that the motion which MSPs will debate this week refers to the autumn 2018/spring 2019 timetable, and that May had ruled this out last week, saying now was not the time for a referendum.
- The spokesman refused to be drawn into the controversy about George Osborne accepting a job as editor of the Evening Standard. When asked about claims that Osborne had illustrated the toothlessness of the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba), because Osborne has accepted the job before receiving Acoba clearance, the spokesman he was not aware of plans to change the Acoba system. Acoba were looking into this, he said. And he said other committees were also looking at this. “That’s a matter for them,” he said.
Updated
The Daily Mail’s Jason Groves says article 50 will be triggered on Sir John Major’s birthday.
Theresa May has chosen to mark Sir John Major's birthday, March 29, by taking the UK out of the EU - sure he'll appreciate the gesture
— Jason Groves (@JasonGroves1) March 20, 2017
No 10 firmly rules out early general election, saying 'there's not going to be one'
There was one other key announcement from the lobby briefing.
- Number 10 rules out early general election. In the past Theresa May has said repeatedly that she has not plans to call an early general election, but this morning her spokesman was firmer, saying: “There is not going to be one [an early general election]. He also appeared to rule out any election before 2020, the date when the next one is due under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, saying that any election outside the FTPA timetable would be early.
Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot’s story about the article 50 announcement.
No 10 says article 50 will be triggered on Wednesday 29 March
The lobby briefing is over. Here is the key announcement.
- No 10 says article 50 will be triggered on Wednesday 29 March.
Tom Watson says early general election is 'more likely than not'
In his Sky interview Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, said he thought Theresa May would call an early election.
She is losing votes in parliament. I think she will ultimately conclude she needs a new mandate to deliver these Brexit reforms that seem to be going a little bit awry ... And I think we are heading for an early general election. I think it is more likely than not.
I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing now.
I will post again after 11.30am.
Momentum has sought Unite’s support since the group was established to support Jeremy Corbyn’s first leadership election campaign in 2015, according to insiders.
At the organisation’s national steering committee meeting in February 2016, Jon Lansman told Momentum supporters that Unite wanted to support the group but would only do so if it only had Labour supporters as members, sources said.
One source said: “It has been very important to Jon to gain support from Unite. He knows that the executive and Len McCluskey are key players in the movement and needs their support.”
For over a year, Lansman has been involved in a power struggle for control of Momentum with Trotsykist and hard left factions who wanted to keep the group’s membership open to non-party members.
Lansman eventually won the power struggle by mounting a so-called “coup” in January which means that all Momentum members from this summer will have to be Labour supporters too.
Here is another quote from the Tom Watson interview on Today. (See 8.33am.) Here is Watson summing up what he wants to happen next.
What I want is Momentum to withdraw their commitment to taking over the Labour party, I want Unite members to tell Len McCluskey this plan is half-baked and I want Labour party members to be aware that these rule changes they are proposing at conference are against the interests of our party.
By “rule changes”, he is referring to the proposal to reduce the threshold needed for leadership candidates, so that someone can stand with the support of just 5% of MPs and MEPs, not 15% as now.
There is a shadow cabinet away day today, the Telegraph’s Laura Hughes reports. Tom Watson’s intervention should make for a lively discussion.
#Labour's shadow cabinet 'away day' today, lots of opportunity for Corbyn and Watson to discuss the 'Momentum takeover'
— Laura Hughes (@Laura_K_Hughes) March 20, 2017
'We're the moderates', says Momentum's Christine Shawcroft
Here are the main points from Christine Shawcroft’s interview with Today. Shawcroft, a member of Labour’s national exective committee, was speaking in her capacity as a director of Momentum and an ally of Jon Lansman’s.
- Shawcroft said Tom Watson’s attack on Momentum was in reality about trying to stop Len McCluskey being re-elected as the Unite general secretary. The Lansman tape was a “non-story”, she said.
I think this whole non-story - Jon said nothing that was at all controversial. I think this is a concerted attempt to interfere in the internal election in Unite for general secretary, which is really shocking.
- She said that Corbyn and Momentum were “moderates” and that labels like “hard left” were “nonsensical”.
These labels [calling Momentum “hard left”] are really quite nonsensical. I consider myself to be a moderate. I’m a moderate socialist. I consider Jeremy Corbyn to be a moderate socialist. I consider organisations like Members First to be the hard right. Jeremy’s policies are just pure common sense.
Shawcroft said “Members First”, but she may have meant Labour First, a group on the right of the party (also calling themselves “moderates”) who run slates of candidates in internal elections. Adrian McMenamin, a former Labour staffer, thinks she may have muddled this up with another grouping from the 1990s.
Christine Shawcroft going on about mystery organisation "Members First". What's that? There was a 1998 NEC slate with that name, that it?
— adrian mcmenamin (@adrianmcmenamin) March 20, 2017
- She said the media’s use of misleading labels was partly to blame for Labour not doing better in the polls.
If you ask people if they support certain policies which are Jeremy’s policies, they say yes. Even Tory voters support many of them. But then when they say these are Jeremy Corbyn’s policies, people say ‘oh dear’. I think people like yourselves have to take a lot of responsibility for that with your silly labels about “hard left” and “destroying the party”.
Asked about an interview John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has given to the i newspaper saying it could take two years for Labour to rebuild its credibility with the electorate, she did not disagree. She said:
We need to get the message out, and it would help if we did not have people talking about “moderates” and the “hard left” when the actual opposite is the case. We are the moderates.
- She said that Watson was “rightwing” and “Blairite”.
I happen to think that Mr Watson is rather rightwing ... He clearly wishes to go back to the days of command and control on a Blairite model, and that is not what the Labour party is about. We have a mass membership now and that mass membership wants its voice to be heard.
- She said Labour needed to turn to the left to have a chance of winning the general election. Asked about turning to the left, she said:
It’s the only way we are going to win the election. We lost the last two general elections. Was that Jeremy Corbyn’s fault?
And she rejected charges that Michael Foot showed in 1983 that this would not work for Labour. “Things have changed a lot since then,” she said.
- She said that there was a “democratic deficit” in Labour and that putting more Momentum supporters in positions of power would strengthen the party.
I think there is a democratic deficit in the Labour party where the structures of the party don’t reflect the support for Jeremy Corbyn that has been shown by the mass of the membership ...
We need to make sure all the structures of the Labour party can reflect the wishes of the membership. That is going to strengthen the Labour party, not going to destroy it.
- She dismissed claims that Momentum were entryists. She and Lansman had both been Labour members for 40 years, she said.
- She said Labour needed Momentum to counter the impact that rightwing groups have within the party.
We have seen over the last few hours a quite shocking attack on the leader by leading lights of organisations like Members First, Progress and so on. And so obviously there is a need for Momentum to be supporting Jeremy.
- She defended the idea of Unite affiliating to Momentum, saying it needed money to counter the impact of groups like Progress, the Blairite Labour organisation funded by Lord Sainsbury. She said:
We don’t have the millions sloshing around our bank account from Lord Sainsbury that the likes of Progress have.
Unite accuses Tom Watson of interfering in its leadership election
Unite has accused Tom Watson of trying to interfere in its leadership election. A spokesman for the union said:
As Unite has stated, repeatedly, it is for the Unite executive council, not the general secretary, to agree to which bodies our union aligns. There are no plans whatsoever for Unite to affiliate to Momentum, as has, again, been made repeatedly clear.
It is extraordinary that the deputy leader of the Labour party continues to interfere in Unite’s democracy in this way.
Watson used to be an ally of Len McCluskey, the pro-Corbyn Unite general secretary who, according to the Lansman tape, will affiliate Unite to Momentum if he gets re-elected. But the two onetime flatmates have had a bitter falling out, and Watson is now seen as supporting Gerard Coyne, who is challenging McCluskey for the Unite leadership in a contest where ballot papers are due to go out a week today.
Shawcroft confirms that Momentum wants to change Labour rules to stop a leadership candidate requiring the support of 15% of MPs and MEPs. The threshold should be lower, she says. She says MPs should not have a veto over leadership candidates.
Q: Without a rule change, the hard left will not be able to run a leadership candidate.
Shawcroft says this is about democratising the Labour party.
Q: What is the logic of you wanting Unite to affiliate to Momentum.
Shawcroft says several unions are already affiliated to Momentum. They hope Unite will do. She says Momentum does not have Lord Sainsbury’s millions washing around, like other groups in Labour.
She says Unite would not be disaffiliating from Labour.
Q: Lansman wants Labour to turn to the left. Even if you do not win the election.
Shawcroft says turning left is the only way to win the election. It lost the last two, without Corbyn as leader.
Q: What about Michael Foot?
Shawcroft says that is going back some way.
She says if you ask about policies, people like Corbyn’s policies. But they don’t like them so much when told they come from Corbyn. That is partly because of the media, and the way they use silly labels like hard left.
She says people like herself in Momentum are the “moderates”.
And that’s it. The interview is over. I will post a summary soon.
Christine Shawcroft's Today interview
Christine Shawcroft, a director of Momentum and a member of Labour’s national executive committee, is being interviewed on Today now. She is responding to the Watson comments.
She says there is a democratic deficit in the Labour party. Those in positions of power do not reflect the views of the members who voted for Jeremy Corbyn.
She says this is a “non-story”. Jon Lansman said nothing surprising, she says.
She says this is an attempt to interfere in the Unite leadership elections.
She says she considers herself to be a moderate. Corbyn’s policies are common sense.
Q: And Tom Watson?
Shawcroft says she thinks of him as quite rightwing.
Tom Watson accuses Momentum of 'hard left plan to control Labour'
On Sunday the Observer published a recording of Jon Lansman, the head of Momentum, addressing a meeting of the pro-Jeremy Corbyn Labour organisation in Kingston. The Observer said it revealed “a hard-left plot by supporters of Corbyn to seize permanent control of the Labour party”.
That prompted Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, to denounce Momentum’s plans on Twitter. As the Guardian reports, Lansman hit back.
This morning the row is escalating. Watson gave an interview to the Today programme earlier, and in it he said the Observer tape revealed “a hard left plan ... to take control of the Labour party”. He said he would be speaking to Corbyn about this, and he urged Labour members to oppose what Momentum was doing. He told the programme:
[On the recording] Jon Lansman outlined a hard left plan to control the Labour party after Jeremy’s departure ... There was also a plan to organise, to take control of the Labour party. Indeed, he actually said the plan was more important than the election ...
I regard this as a battle for the future existence of the Labour party. This is high stakes, and I hope my fellow members are going to understand that, and our leader.
I hope [Corbyn] is going to deal with Jon Lansman ...
I’m afraid there are some people who do not have our electoral interests at their heart and that’s why I’m speaking out now.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Greg Clark, the business secretary, gives a speech to Policy Exchange on industrial strategy.
9am: Launch event for the Jo Cox commission on loneliness.
11am: Number 10 lobby briefing.
11.30am: Priti Patel, the international development secretary, visits the disaster emergency committee HQ.
12pm: Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, holds a briefing at Westminster on Scotland’s future in the UK.
1.15pm: Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, and Angela Constance, the Scottish government’s communities, social security and equalities secretary, give evidence to a joint sitting of the Holyrood and Westminster committees on social security.
2pm: Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s ambassador to the EU, gives evidence to the European scrutiny committee.
2.30pm: Justine Greening, the education secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Also, Theresa May is is Wales today as part of her pre-article 50 UK listening tour, but I don’t have the timings yet.
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.
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. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
Updated
