Closing summary
We’re going to close down this live blog now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:
- The US president, Donald Trump, has talked up the possibility of a post-Brexit trade deal between Washington and London during his state visit. Trump claimed talks were already happening after his ambassador made clear the US would expect to be allowed business access to the NHS as part of any deal.
- Trump was honoured with a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, attended by the monarch and prominent political and business figures. The White House reiterated his support for Brexit and Trump used his speech to tell the Queen the UK’s sacrifice in the second world war “ensured that your destiny would always remain in your own hands”. The monarch reminded him of the two countries’ commitments to international organisations set up after that conflict to help ensure peace.
- The chancellor, Philip Hammond, said claims from Tory leadership contenders that they could renegotiate the Brexit deal were unrealistic. He challenged them to explain how they planned to “avoid becoming Theresa May mark II, stuck in a holding pattern”. The favourite to replace May, Boris Johnson, launched his leadership bid in earnest. He released a video promising Brexit – deal or no deal – on 31 October and calling for higher school spending, as well as defending stop and search and his record reducing crime.
- The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, announced he would speak at an anti-Trump rally on Tuesday. He said the demonstration was an opportunity to “stand in solidarity with those [Trump has] attacked in America, around the world and in our own country.”
- Corbyn’s party colleague, Sadiq Khan, joined him in criticising Trump. Khan said Trump’s values were the “opposite of London’s values and Britain’s values”. The US president had earlier engaged in a personal attack on the London mayor, who wrote an article for the Observer protesting the state visit, and with whom Trump has had a long-running spat.
If you’d like to read more, my colleagues Caroline Davies, Heather Stewart and Simon Murphy have the full story:
Updated
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has been reiterating the White House’s stance on a US-UK trade deal, saying he regards it as a priority – but declining to say whether Washington will look to do a deal with the EU or the UK first. He has told NBC’s Euronews:
We’ve got to see how Brexit proceeds and how that timing goes, but yes, [a UK-US deal is] a priority for us. We have a deep, long relationship with the United Kingdom. We have important trade relationships. I’m here in the Netherlands today. They’re huge investors in the United States. The United States are huge investors inside of the Netherlands. We’re having a global entrepreneurial summit because of the two deep commitments to rule of law, trade, openness, entrepreneurship, as the centre of what we do.
We want to do that with the United Kingdom. Yes, we will. When Brexit is completed, as the people of the United Kingdom have demanded, we do intend to work on a free trade agreement with them – one that’s fair, reciprocal, based on mutual trust, and then we will both get after it and grow both of our economies.
Asked in which order the US would approach negotiations over deals with the EU and with the UK, Pompeo said: “I have no idea what the sequence will be.”
Theresa May will give Donald Trump a copy of one of the most significant documents in the transatlantic “special relationship” to mark his state visit. The prime minister and her husband, Philip, will present Trump with a framed typescript draft of the 1941 Atlantic Charter, agreed by president Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, setting out their vision for the post-war world.
The US first lady, Melania Trump, will be given a bespoke tea set from designer Emma Bridgewater.
The prime minister’s spokesman said the Atlantic Charter was “one of the first steps towards the formation of the United Nations”.
It’s a copy of Churchill’s personal draft of August 12, 1941, with his amendments in red pencil. There were no further amendments made and Churchill kept the draft on his wall as a reminder. A copy has kindly been provided with the consent of Winston Churchill’s family.
The first lady will receive a “bespoke No 10 tea set”.
Asked why Donald Trump was being given a historically significant gift, while his wife was being given a tea set, the spokesman said: “I think they are both gifts which have been carefully chosen.” The tea set was “a memento of a visit to No 10 as part of what we hope will be a successful state visit”.
Updated
Boris Johnson has lodged an application for a judicial review over a decision to summons him to court over claims he lied during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, the campaigner who brought the prosecution against him says.
Marcus Ball says Johnson’s legal team is seeking an order that it was unlawful for Westminster magistrates court to issue the summons against the former foreign secretary, and to suspend the criminal proceedings against him until the application for judicial review was determined.
Ball says he is named an “interested party” in the application and will oppose the order, the Press Association reports.
Updated
The White House’s tweet linked to a statement, in which Washington said Trump wanted to strengthen economic ties with the UK through an ambitious new trade agreement.
The United Kingdom is one of the largest markets for US exports and one of the largest suppliers of US imports.
In February, President Trump outlined his negotiating objectives to strike an ambitious trade agreement with the United Kingdom after it leaves the EU.
As two of the top five largest economies in the world, the United States and the United Kingdom stand to benefit greatly from expanded trade and economic cooperation.
Here are some more on the comments made by Trump as the state banquet opened this evening. He told the Queen:
Your Majesty, Melania and I are profoundly honoured to be your guests for this historic state visit.
Thank you for your warm welcome, for this beautiful weather, your gracious hospitality, and Your Majesty’s nearly seven decades of treasured friendship with the United States of America.
This week, we commemorate a mighty endeavour of righteous nations and one of the greatest undertakings in all of history.
Seventy-five years ago, more than 150,000 allied troops were preparing on this island to parachute into France, storm the beaches of Normandy, and win back our civilisation.
As Her Majesty remembers, the British people had hoped and prayed and fought for this day for nearly five years.
In his remarks, Trump made a reference to the UK’s endeavours in the second world war that can be interpreted as a coded reference to Brexit, of which he is a supporter. He told the Queen:
The courage of the United Kingdom’s sons and daughters [during the second world war] ensured that your destiny would always remain in your own hands.
Minutes later, the White House tweeted that Trump wanted to see the process of the UK leaving the EU completed:
President Trump supports Brexit being accomplished in a way that maintains global economic stability while securing voters' wishes for U.K. independence. https://t.co/AhOBiZCZ19
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 3, 2019
Updated
The Queen also mentioned the US and UK’s “strong cultural links and shared heritage” and said the two nations were “bound by the strength and breadth of our economic ties”. She said:
Mr President, as we look to the future, I am confident that our common values and shared interests will continue to unite us.
Tonight we celebrate an alliance that has helped to ensure the safety and prosperity of both our peoples for decades, and which I believe will endure for many years to come.
The Queen finished by inviting the room to raise a toast to the “continued friendship between our two nations, and to the health, prosperity and happiness of the people of the United States”.
Updated
In her speech, the Queen spoke of the “new challenges” the US and the UK face in the 21st century, and stressed the bonds between the two countries.
As we face the new challenges of the 21st century, the anniversary of D-day reminds us of all that our countries have achieved together.
After the shared sacrifices of the second world war, Britain and the United States worked with other allies to build an assembly of international institutions, to ensure that the horrors of conflict would never be repeated.
While the world has changed, we are forever mindful of the original purpose of these structures: nations working together to safeguard a hard-won peace.
Updated
Trump rises and says he and his wife are honoured to be present. He thanks the Queen for her hospitality.
He acknowledges that the two heads of state will commemorate the D-day anniversary this week and says the UK “showed the world what it means to be British” during the Blitz that preceded that invasion.
Trump invokes the Queen’s wartime service and calls her a “great, great woman”. And he says the two countries defeated the Nazis and liberated the world from tyranny.
The US president offers a toast to the friendship of the two nations and the long reign of the Queen. The guests rise for the UK’s national anthem.
Updated
The Queen is delivering her speech to open the state banquet. She says she is glad of an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of the relationship between the US and the UK.
She tells the US president the two nations’ armed forces have cooperated regularly – including on D-day; the 75th anniversary of which Trump will commemorate on Thursday.
She recalls her first state visit to the USA, at the invitation of President Eisenhower, who commanded the Allied Forces as they liberated Europe.
The Queen reminds Trump that the UK and US helped set up organisations following that war. One interpretation is that she may have been referring to Nato, an organisation Trump has regularly attacked.
She proposes a toast to the Trumps and the continued relationship between the UK and the US, then the guests rise for the US national anthem.
Updated
The Trump dynasty is mingling with the royal family at the state banquet, where industry chiefs – rather than Hollywood stars – have gathered.
In the Buckingham Palace ballroom, the white-clothed, horse shoe-shaped table has been laid out with George IV’s silver gilt grand service dinner set.
White place cards embossed with a golden royal crest and edged in gold show where the 170 guests are to be seated. The Queen, who does not have her own place card, is at the head of the table, with the Prince of Wales on her left and Trump on her right.
Joining Trump and the first lady, Melania, at the white tie and tiara event are four of the president’s five children – Ivanka Trump, with her husband Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and his wife Lara, and Tiffany Trump.
Including the Queen and Prince Charles, 16 members of the royal family are at the dinner – the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal, vice admiral Sir Tim Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and Princess Alexandra.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be present.
Among the captains of industry invited are the Swedish businessman and chairman of AstraZeneca, Leif Johansson, the chairman of BP, Helge Lund, and the Balfour Beatty chief executive, Leo Quinn, the GlaxoSmithKline boss, Emma Walmsley, the Universal Music Group chairman, Sir Lucian Grainge, and the Royal Dutch Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden. They are joined by the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick.
Here is the menu:
- Steamed fillet of halibut with watercress mousse, asparagus spears and chervil sauce.
- Saddle of new season Windsor lamb with herb stuffing, spring vegetables, port sauce.
- Strawberry sable with lemon verbena cream.
- Selection of assorted fresh fruits.
- Coffee and petit fours.
Updated
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has been accused of being blind to the scale of poverty in the UK after he dismissed a UN report that found the government’s austerity programme had caused misery for many Britons.
The report by the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, said 14 million people in the UK live in poverty and 1.5 million were destitute. It claimed the government’s “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies were often intended to bring about social re-engineering.
Hammond has balked at the claims, telling the BBC’s Newsnight programme:
I reject the idea that there are vast numbers of people facing dire poverty in this country. I don’t accept the UN rapporteur’s report at all. I think that’s a nonsense. Look around you, that’s not what we see in this country.
Of course, there are people struggling with the cost of living. I understand that. But the point being is that we are addressing these things through getting to the root causes.
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, responded:
Multi-millionaire Hammond lives in a different world to the rest of us. He displays a brutal complacency about the scale of poverty and human suffering his austerity programme has created.
Heartless, without compassion or any sense of humanity, after these remarks he demonstrates he is not fit to hold office and should consider his position.
It’s not just the United Nations: Human Rights Watch and others have commented on the poverty and inequality under this government. Meanwhile, Philip Hammond’s colleagues compete with each other to promise more tax cuts, showing how utterly out of touch the Conservatives are with the problems of today’s society.
Updated
It appears Trump has arrived at Buckingham Palace in Marine One for the state banquet.
Two US helicopters fly into the grounds of Buckingham Palace, one of which is though to have Trump inside pic.twitter.com/5PXARH3A9u
— Simon Murphy (@murphy_simon) June 3, 2019
The royal family has released a picture of the ballroom in which they’ll be dining:
A sneak peek of the State Banquet table in the Buckingham Palace Ballroom.
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 3, 2019
The final finishing touches will be added shortly before The Queen welcomes @POTUS, @FLOTUS, members of the Royal Family and around 170 guests to celebrate the #USStateVisit. pic.twitter.com/yFNCx1vYSH
Updated
Donald Trump claimed he has not seen any protests. About 100 demonstrators are outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. They are protesting against the US president being handed “the red-carpet treatment”.
Waving banners emblazoned with messages declaring the president was “evil”, scores of protesters blowing whistles and horns massed on a green outside the palace.
Demonstrators, many of who were clutching signs urging people to “just say no” to the special relationship, chanted: “Donald Trump’s not welcome here.”
The demonstration, labelled Protest at the Palace: Spoil Trump’s banquet by Facebook organisers, called on attendees to “Bring pots and pans, vuvuzelas, musical instruments etc and make some noise”.
Weyman Bennett, 54, the co-convenor of Stand up to Racism who helped organise the protest, told the Guardian the state visit represented “an insult to people’s basic decent values” and should have been cancelled.
It will be cucumber sandwiches over champagne. It doesn’t matter how boorish he is or what ridiculous things he says, I think very few people will challenge him. That’s not to our credit.
Sometimes you have to say to a bully they’re wrong and stand up for basic rights.
He’s threatened nuclear war, he’s behaved like a boorish idiot, he doesn’t even respect basic diplomatic values.
Theresa May had hoped to bolster her position by inviting Trump, he said, but it had “completely backfired”, adding: “His visit should have been cancelled until he accepts basic human rights.”
Bernard Kiernan, a 70-year-old retired IT consultant who volunteers at a hospital, said he had joined the protest in “solidarity” with friends living in America. He branded Trump a “bully” and a “misogynist”, adding: “He should not have the right to visit our country. He’s not fit to be president.”
Margaret Sanchez, 65, a retired nurse from north-west London, described the multi-million pound visit as a “waste of public funds”. She added:
He’s a businessman, he’s not a politician. He doesn’t know how to talk to people. If it doesn’t suit him, he calls it fake news.
Neighbours Roshan Pedder, 72, and Paul Gossage, 66, from Surrey, travelled to London to voice their opposition to the visit. Gossage, a retired ambulance technician, carried a sign declaring: “TRUMP IS A MENACE.” He said:
I think it’s important that ordinary people from the UK life myself show we don’t want him here.
At one stage during the protest, a scuffle broke out when a demonstrator tried to wrestle a “make America great again” red hat from a Trump supporter who had turned up.
Updated
Trump talks up US-UK trade deal
The US is ready to do a trade deal once the UK “gets rid of the shackles”, Donald Trump says.
London part of trip is going really well. The Queen and the entire Royal family have been fantastic. The relationship with the United Kingdom is very strong. Tremendous crowds of well wishers and people that love our Country. Haven’t seen any protests yet, but I’m sure the....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
....Fake News will be working hard to find them. Great love all around. Also, big Trade Deal is possible once U.K. gets rid of the shackles. Already starting to talk!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
Serious concerns have been voiced in some quarters about the standards the UK might be obliged to accept in order to secure a trade deal with Washington after Brexit.
Fears about US farming methods resurfaced earlier this year when the US ambassador, Woody Johnson, urged the UK to open up its markets and insisted practices such as washing chicken in chlorine to kill pathogens were safe.
Johnson has also indicated that the US will want business access to the NHS as part of any deal. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday: “I think the entire economy, in a trade deal, all things that are traded would be on the table.” Asked if that specifically meant healthcare, he said: “I would think so.”
In his Financial Times article today, Vince Cable wrote:
Behind the pomp is a simple truth about trade. Mr Trump is doing what he can to destroy the international rules-based order on which the government’s “Global Britain” strategy is based. His administration is systematically undermining the World Trade Organization, in which Brexiters have such touchingly naive faith. And he is destroying the multilateral agreements in which UK governments have invested so much political capital: the climate change agreement; the nuclear proliferation deal with Iran; the UN Arms Trade Treaty — all are being shredded by the Trump administration.
The hoped-for bilateral trade deal between Britain and the US looks less appetising by the day. Mr Trump’s crude mercantilism — based on bilateral trade balances — will not suit a country such as the UK with a trade surplus. The US is clear that it wants lower food standards to please its agricultural exporters. It wants to bypass British courts to settle disputes. And it would like preferential access to public service procurements, including the NHS. Even if the government dodges these negotiating icebergs, the draft agreement would have to pass the US Congress, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lies in wait prepared to reject any deal if the UK ditches Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement in pursuit of Brexit.
Updated
The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Vince Cable, turned down an invitation to attend this evening’s royal banquet.
Today, writing for the Financial Times, he criticised the decision to invite Donald Trump at all; denouncing it as political manoeuvring by Theresa May as she sought to secure the UK’s place in the world after the Brexit vote.
President Trump will not be the first or last nasty piece of work to enjoy a state visit, but he is among the most dangerous.
His attitudes to women and to race are abhorrent. And his crude protectionism has placed the world on the brink of trade war between the US and China, with an exposed Brexit Britain stuck in the crossfire. No amount of pomp, circumstance and royal regalia can disguise the fact that Mr Trump poses a real risk to the world, and to Britain.
Here’s what Cable said when he announced the decision:
I will not attend the state banquet with Donald Trump when he visits.
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) April 25, 2019
We should not be beguiled by pomp and circumstance into hobnobbing with a man who is on record as a misogynist and a racist. Rolling out the red carpet to Trump is a shameful stain on this government #BBCQT pic.twitter.com/LJzRc8Vo5t
Updated
The housing and communities secretary, James Brokenshire, has faced criticism from Whitehall officials after suggesting people should be allowed to dip into their pension funds to afford the deposit on a first home.
A DWP source said the idea had not been discussed with the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, or her department, and that officials had outlined their worries to No 10.
We cannot support this policy because the evidence shows it will be risky and does not help the people it intends to help. The housing market doesn’t need people to dip into their pensions to buy more houses.
Hammond says Tory leadership candidates proposing to renegotiate Brexit deal not being realistic
In an interview for the BBC’s Newsnight, Philip Hammond, the chancellor and one of the most pro-European members of the cabinet, has suggesting that those Tory leadership candidates proposing to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement (which is almost all of them) are not being realistic. He said:
My challenge to all of the candidates is: Explain to me how you will avoid becoming Theresa May mark II, stuck in a holding pattern.
An extension of time to try to renegotiate, when the EU have already said they have finished the negotiation and, indeed, have disbanded their negotiating team, strikes me as a not very auspicious policy.
Hammond also said that a no-deal Brexit, and no Brexit, were both unacceptable outcomes. That meant MPs would have to accept compromises they did not like, he said. He explained:
We have a solemn obligation to find a solution which avoids both of those outcomes [no-deal or no Brexit]. That means that even at this late stage, a deal.
It means people in parliament having to stop pontificating, get off their high horses and understand that we will all have to give up something to get to a deal that will work. We will all be grumpy about it, we will all be dissatisfied. But in many ways that is the only way forward for the country.
If we end up with a deal that means half the people in this country think they achieved total victory and the other half think they have been totally defeated, that is not the recipe for unity in the future. And countries that are not unified are not successful.
That’s all from me for today. My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.
He will be covering tonight’s state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Jeremy Corbyn will be addressing the anti-Trump demo tomorrow, but not the parliamentary Labour party, the Evening Standard’s Joe Murphy reports.
Oh... Jeremy Corbyn!
— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) June 3, 2019
Jezza cancels appearance at the PLP tomorrow citing by-election trip ... yet still has time to go to Trafalgar Sq to protest Trump pic.twitter.com/EckxzpAtl1
President Trump has arrived back at Winfield House, the US ambassador’s residence, via helicopter, following his tea with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House.
Corbyn to speak at anti-Trump demonstration
And while we’re on the subject of the anti-Trump demonstration tomorrow, Labour has just announced that Jeremy Corbyn, the party leader, will be attending and speaking at it.
Earlier he tweeted a message of support for the protesters. (See 12.33pm.)
In another Guardian article, my colleague Owen Jones argues that the protests against President Trump due in London tomorrow won’t just be about who Trump is, but about what he represents.
Here is an extract.
These protests won’t simply be about Trump and the perverse reality TV show he’s treated the world to ever since he fatefully declared for the presidency. The protests will be about Trumpism: about confronting a resurgent global far right, defending the rights of women and minorities, fighting the climate emergency, opposing the threat of war, and standing against an attempt to gut the NHS and trash hard-won rights and freedoms. Trump will have left our shores by Wednesday: sadly, our own Trumpism will remain and, in the coming months, we must continue to fight it.
And here is the full article.
Updated
In the US, my colleague Jamiles Lartey is writing the US Politics Live blog. He is focusing on Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and influential adviser, refusing to deny in an interview that Trump’s birtherism (his assertion that Barack Obama might not be a US citizen) was racist.
Updated
The Labour backbencher Kate Hoey, who is one of the few MPs in her party who enthusiastically supports Brexit, like Donald Trump, has criticised her colleagues how have been complaining about his visit. (See 11.06am.)
Saddened by the hysterical reaction to visit of @POTUS by some Labour colleagues A democratically elected President of our closest ally should be welcomed whether we agree with his views or not. HM the Queen shows the world the nature of the U.K. @USAmbUK
— Kate Hoey (@KateHoeyMP) June 3, 2019
President Trump has now arrived at Clarence House, where he is having tea with the Prince of Wales.
According to the White House pool, when President Trump was in Westminster Abbey he paused at white marble slab commemorating Lord Byron and inspected the stone marking the grave of Robert Adam, the Scottish architect.
Updated
Khan says Trump's values are opposite of London's values and Britain's values
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has broadened his attack on President Trump. He has posted a video on Twitter saying Trump’s values are the opposite of London’s values and Britain’s values.
Here’s an extract.
President Trump, if you are watching this, your values, and what you stand for, are the opposite of London’s values and the values of this country. We think diversity is not a weakness. Diversity is a strength. We respect women, and we think they are equal to men.
We think it’s important to safeguard the rights of all of us, particularly the vulnerable and the maginalised. When you are president of the US, you have a massive leadership role. You have a massive platform as well. People follow what you do. What we have seen over the last few years in the USA is a rolling back of much of the progress made in previous decades. It is really important we continue to move forwards.
What we are seeing in the USA is a rolling back of the reproductive rights of women. We’ve got a situation now where some states in the USA are making it almost impossible for women to have the right to have an abortion ...
The fight for gender equality shouldn’t just be a fight women and girls. All of us should be feminists. That means men and boys too ...
If you believe that it’s wrong that there’s gender inequality, if you believe it’s wrong that women earn less than men, if you believe it’s wrong that women are still discriminated against in 2019, then you are a feminist.
Khan’s message focuses in particular on the way abortion rights in the US are being restricted because a number of conservative states, like Louisiana (here), Missouri (here) and Alabama (here), have been passing increasingly draconian abortion laws. Trump is not personally responsible for these state-level decisions, which have received negative media coverage in the UK, but they are consistent with the extreme anti-abortion line taken by his administration in Washington and his appointments to the supreme court, and to other courts, suggest he hopes to eventually overturn the historic 1973 Roe v Wade ruling making abortion constitutional.
Women have the right to autonomy over their own bodies and their reproductive rights should be protected – in London, the USA, everywhere. pic.twitter.com/5M04P5LKdE
— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) June 3, 2019
Updated
President Trump was welcomed at Westminster Abbey by the dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, who led prayers at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. As the Press Association reports, a wreath was laid in honour of the two world wars and more recent conflicts, as is tradition with a state visit - President George W Bush laid a wreath in 2003 and President Obama in 2011. Standing at the grave, the president touched his hand on the wreath and kept his eyes closed during the prayer.
Updated
The proposal from Boris Johnson, the favourite in the Tory leadership contest, to ensure that every school in England gets at least £5,000 per pupil (see 10.51am) could amount to a spending increase of just £48.6m, or 0.1%, according to a report for Schools Week.
From CBS’s Mark Knoller
With the help of 2 US Marines, Pres and Mrs Trump place a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Then stand for a moment of silent reflection. pic.twitter.com/iUqUEUZ55P
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
More on what President Trump and the Queen viewed from the Royal Collection.
Among items the palace decided to show Trump:
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 3, 2019
—description of a conversation between George III and George Washington
—photos of George VI visit to DC in 1939
—horse statuette Trump gave queen in 2018
—bits of Scottish ancestry, including tartans, and photos of royals golfing. pic.twitter.com/GcprgfePgM
President Trump has arrived in Westminster Abbey, where he will be laying a wreath on the tomb of the unknown warrior.
President Trump’s convoy is now leaving Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey. It’s not far. By the time the first car arrives, the last vehicle may just be leaving the Palace.
Presidential Motorcade departs Buckingham Palace en route Westminster Abbey, where Pres Trump will place a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. pic.twitter.com/EFRZ8FYXm1
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
Updated
This is what the White House pool has filed on the visit to the Royal Gallery.
The president and the queen entered a lovely pink-walled gallery at 2:28 pm for a tour of objects in the royal collection chosen for Trump’s review. Many have obvious ties to the United States or the Americas, including a map of New York and Audubon birds.
The first couple and the Queen are now making their way around the display now, with a guide. Conversation mostly inaudible.
Also - a John Bolton sighting among the aides trailing along.
And this is from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs.
Trump, Melania, the queen, Prince Charles and Camilla are looking at a collection at Buckingham Palace of historical items.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 3, 2019
Jared and Ivanka are with Prince Harry.
Mnuchin, John Bolton, Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders also on this tour of memorabilia.
These are from CBS’s Mark Knoller.
After lunch in the palance, The Queen escorts Pres and Mrs Trump ino the Picture Gallery to see Royal Family items of "historical interest" to he United States. A portrait of George Washington is visible on the far table. pic.twitter.com/6mWVsOFIeL
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
Pres takes a closer look at some photographs in the Royal Collection. pic.twitter.com/Sq5aL63eva
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
One of the items on display is an invitation from FDR to King George VI in 1939. Also photographs of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Hyde Park that same year. pic.twitter.com/9U5OmaYJ3S
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
Also on display from the Buckingham Palace Collection was a copy of the Declaration of Independence - under the heading - A Tale of Two Georges: King George III and George Washington. pic.twitter.com/4ULIomtvS3
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
President Trump is still in Buckingham Palace, where the Queen is showing him items from the Royal Collection.
Bill de Blasio, the Democrat mayor of New York, has said that he is happy to be compared to Sadiq Khan by Donald Trump. (See 9.17am.)
#ConDon takes another shot at me. But I’m a total @SadiqKhan stan, so consider any comparison a compliment. Plus the Mayor is a much better British doppelgänger than Brexit Bojo.... https://t.co/HkSbR8Hzml
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) June 3, 2019
“Stan” is not a typo, but slang for devoted fan. It’s from an Eminem song, my younger and much cooler colleagues tell me.
It is also good to see de Blasio make the point that there is a very obvious reason why Trump is so fond of Boris Johnson; they have a great deal on common.
UPDATE: This is from my colleague Matthew d’Ancona.
One of Trump's few uses is that he reminds American and British people of how much we like each other. https://t.co/z1Y7XH0bJL
— Matthew d'Ancona (@MatthewdAncona) June 3, 2019
Updated
The Washington Post story on President Trump’s state visit to the UK is headlined: “As Trump’s state visit looms, Britain seems a reluctant host.” Here’s an extract:
In Britain, a state visit doesn’t just mean dining with the prime minister, or even tea with the queen. It means an extraordinary level of pomp and pageantry, plus a sleepover at Buckingham Palace.
At least, it normally does.
Britain is gearing up for this week’s state visit by President Trump as only Britain can do. There will be an official greeting ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a lavish banquet with the queen’s best china, a gun salute fired from Green Park and the Tower of London.
It will all be suitably over-the-top.
But there is also a sense that British officials are slightly less than enthusiastic about this particular round of state visit grandeur ...
Unlike his predecessor, Trump won’t be staying overnight at Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the queen.
Instead, he will stay at Winfield House, the stately home of U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson, which has the second-largest gardens in London (after Buckingham Palace). When Trump visited Britain last summer for a more modest working visit, he stayed there as well.
Buckingham Palace is reportedly unable to host the Trumps because of ongoing renovation work that began in 2016. According to the official royal website, Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, including 52 “Royal and guest bedrooms.”
Donald Trump clearly thinks the UK would be a better place if we were able to watch Fox News. (See 12.54pm.) But, as the Guardian reported at the time, 21st Century Fox took it off air in the UK in 2017 because it was no longer commercially viable. Subsequently Ofcom, the media regulator, ruled that some of its programmes did not comply with UK impartiality rules.
If the 13 candidates who have declared that they are running for the Conservative party leadership were to form their own group in the Commons, they would be the fourth largest party - bigger than the Lib Dems, Change UK or the DUP.
This morning, in his speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank, James Brokenshire, the housing secretary, said that those candidates with no realistic chance of winning should stand down now, to enable the party to conclude the contest quickly. He said:
This morning, in his speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank, James Brokenshire, the housing secretary, said that those candidates with no realistic chance of winning should stand down now, to enable the party to conclude the contest quickly. He said:
We simply do not have any time to waste.
We simply do not have the luxury of weeks of navel gazing or days and days of whittling candidates down to the final two and talking to ourselves.
At a time when the country is looking to us for leadership we need to show this as a party.
So I say gently to some of my colleagues who have put themselves forward for what has been described as the Grand National of political contests.
Please think carefully.
If you already know it’s going to be a bit of a struggle to get over the first fence let alone Becher’s Brook ahead, then maybe you should pull up.
There is no embarrassment in that.
It doesn’t reflect on your talent or ability to influence the direction of our party now and in the future.
It’s just the overriding need to get our new leader in place as quickly as possible.
The ConservativeHome website has been keeping a tally of how many Tory MPs are publicly backing each leadership candidate. It was last updated this morning, when it had Boris Johnson in the lead, with 30 endorsements, ahead of Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove, both on 29.
Since then six more MPs have come out for Johnson: Jack Lopresti, Simon Hart, Anne Main, Sir Paul Beresford, Andrew Stephenson, and Graham Stuart.
Here are tweets from four of them.
I’m backing @BorisJohnson to be our next Prime Minister. He is the only one who can unite our party, our country and deliver #Brexit by October 31st.
— Jack Lopresti MP (@JackLopresti) June 3, 2019
Let’s join him in moving forward to deliver what our great nation expects and deserves. @BackBoris #BackBoris pic.twitter.com/r44DY4D5HK
Vital we choose right leader for the current times. That means an orderly brexit, restoring hope and saving the U.K. from the horrors of the hard left. Truth is that only one person, @BorisJohnson has a realistic chance of success. #BackBoris
— Simon Hart (@Simonhartmp) June 3, 2019
We need a Prime Minister who can create a hopeful vision for our country and deliver Brexit. That’s why I’m supporting @BorisJohnson to be our next Prime Minister @BackBoris #BackBoris pic.twitter.com/jgzqyq9W2v
— Andrew Stephenson MP (@Andrew4Pendle) June 3, 2019
We've got a great future. Let's back Boris together to deliver it. pic.twitter.com/9bmxphWYp6
— Graham Stuart MP (@grahamstuart) June 3, 2019
The others have been announced by @BackingBoris.
And here is Guardian video of the president’s arrival at Buckingham Palace.
Here are more pictures from the president’s arrival at Buckingham Palace.
the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during the Ceremonial Welcome at Buckingham Palace Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
Trump arrives in UK and complains he can't get Fox News
What was Donald Trump doing at Winfield House, the US ambassador’s residence, before he arrived at Buckingham Palace? Watching TV, it seems.
Anyone used to spending time in foreign hotels will know what it is like to be disappointed at the choice of channels available. Trump seems to have had the same problem.
Just arrived in the United Kingdom. The only problem is that @CNN is the primary source of news available from the U.S. After watching it for a short while, I turned it off. All negative & so much Fake News, very bad for U.S. Big ratings drop. Why doesn’t owner @ATT do something?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
I believe that if people stoped using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News! Why wouldn’t they act. When the World watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
Obviously, he thinks we should be watching Fox News.
According to the White House pool, along with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, other US visitors on the balcony included: Steven Mnuchin, the US treasury secretary; Woody Johnson, the US ambassador; and Kellyanne Conway, Dan Scavino, and Steven Miller, advisers to Trump.
Pres Trump is escorted by Prince Charles and a Grenadier officer to inspect the Honor Guard assembled for the @POTUS visit. pic.twitter.com/KICxKLF3jD
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
Meanwhile, back at Buckingham Palace ...
JUST IN: Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Pres. Trump and first lady Melania Trump to Buckingham Palace at start of three-day state visit to the U.K. https://t.co/J2JIq7Sxfi pic.twitter.com/jWxRutSKQQ
— ABC News (@ABC) June 3, 2019
The Queen escorts @POTUS and @FLOTUS back out to the Terrance for the playing of the national anthems. pic.twitter.com/d3ix7JD7gb
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn is encouraging people to join the anti-Trump demonstration tomorrow. He has just posted this on Twitter.
Tomorrow's protest against Donald Trump's state visit is an opportunity to stand in solidarity with those he's attacked in America, around the world and in our own country - including, just this morning, @SadiqKhan.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 3, 2019
Earlier I said that being denounced by President Trump would do Sadiq Khan no harm at all when it comes to be re-elected as mayor of London next year. (See 9.17am.)
The polling figures back this up. Last month YouGov published a poll (pdf) suggesting that 63% of Britons think Trump has been a poor or terrible president. But, for Londoners, that figure is 71%, the poll suggests, and only 9% of people in the capital think Trump has been a great or good president. The only place where Trump polls worse is Scotland, where 72% of people think he has been poor or terrible.
The president was met by Prince Charles.
From CBS’s Mark Knoller
Marine One on the lawn at Buckingham Palace where Pres and Mrs Trump will receive formal welcome from the Queen. pic.twitter.com/8oEytYS240
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 3, 2019
These are from my colleague Heather Stewart, who was at the Downing Street lobby briefing.
NEW - Number 10 confirms there will be no formal, one-on-one bilateral between the PM and Donald Trump: they will meet in Downing St alongside their respective delegations. Though she will also show him round the Churchill war rooms.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 3, 2019
Asked about Trump’s comments about Brexit, May’s spox says, “she worked as hard as she possibly could to get the best deal for the UK.” Adds, “the next phase of Brexit negotiations will be conducted by somebody else, not by the PM” - it will be for them to find a way through.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 3, 2019
Asked whether Trump didn’t want to meet the PM alone, her spox says, “I’m sure the answer to that is no”.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 3, 2019
Could the PM try to make some progress on Brexit before she leaves, by passing uncontroversial bits of the WAB? “I am not aware of any plans to do that”.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 3, 2019
President Trump is arriving now at Buckingham Palace by helicopter.
His daughter, Ivanka, is already there.
In an interview on the Today programme this morning Ken Clarke, the Conservative pro-European and father of the Commons (ie, its longest-serving MP), said his party’s leadership election was turning into a “tragic farce” because there were so many candidates. He said:
It is all a shambles and is in danger of becoming a rather tragic farce unless some order is brought into it. There is nothing I can do about that; the 1922 Committee perhaps should have tightened up the rules before we started.
Clarke also used the interview to challenge the argument in a much-read briefing by the Institute for Government arguing that, if the next prime minister decides to take the UK out of the EU without a deal, it would be “near impossible” for the House of Commons to prevent this. The blog has encouraged Tory Brexiters, who at one stage were very taken with the argument that MPs would never allow a no-deal.
Asked about the IfG argument, Clarke said:
Procedurally you might be able to tie it [stopping no-deal] to a vote of confidence or whatever, if some prime minister was ploughing on, regarding himself or herself as not accountable to parliament.
With respect to the so-called experts at the Institute for Government, and they are experts, I find it a constitutional innovation, this argument that all parliament can do is change laws, that governments no longer need the approval of parliament for policy. If you had suggested 20 years ago that a government could proceed despite the fact that parliament had passed a motion condemning the policy it was pursuing, that would be regarded as absolutely absurd. We have conventions. Parliament has got more powers than just the powers to change the law and pass statutes.
Even though Clarke thinks a government cannot, in practice, just ignore a Commons vote opposing its policy, last year Sir David Natzler, the then clerk of the Commons, told MPs that the government could ignore a vote of this kind.
The IfG briefing, by Maddy Thimont Jack, is well worth reading. But it probably does not make enough allowance for the possibility that John Bercow, the Speaker, could allow some sort of binding vote on no-deal by ignoring precedent and applying the Commons procedural rules in a new way. He has already done this once before in the Brexit process, and in an interview last week (given after the IfG published its piece) he strongly hinted he would be willing to do so again.
Vauxhall bridge in central London is now bedecked with anti-Trump banners.
Ivanka Trump has also been tweeting today about the state visit, but her tweets are blander and more diplomatic than her father’s.
Today, Her Majesty The Queen will welcome @POTUS and @FLOTUS for a State Visit to the United Kingdom.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 3, 2019
I am looking forward to joining the US delegation for this commemorative visit. 🇺🇸🇬🇧
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, has criticised President Trump for what he said about Sadiq Khan.
Ridiculous insults from Trump https://t.co/EXMWlz70Uw
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) June 3, 2019
And Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, has condemned Trump too, calling him “divisive, childish and destructive”.
So appalled Theresa May has given this man a red carpeted platform to do this. Doesn’t help Britain to be lavishing pomp on a President so determined to be divisive, childish & destructive. Doesn’t help US or world to be gifting him a whole load of Royal photo ops to use next yr https://t.co/iApxm4G7m9
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) June 3, 2019
The increasingly-beleaguered Ukip are looking for yet another leader after Gerard Batten stepped down, the party has announced.
Batten made the announcement at a meeting of the Ukip national executive on Sunday. A replacement – the fifth permanent leader since Nigel Farage left the post in 2016 - will be in place by 10 August, a party statement said.
Ukip performed disastrously at both the local and European elections last month. In the latter they won just 3.2% of the vote, and seem to have been more or less entirely replaced by Farage’s new vehcile, the Brexit party.
Batten took over as leader without a contest last year after the disastrous tenure of Henry Bolton, and built up the party in the polls as public frustration with Brexit grew.
However, his fixation with anti-Islam policies and links to the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson saw a series of leading figures leave, among them Farage. Ukip’s future even under a new leader remains extremely perilous.
Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock
Johnson promises to increase minimum per-pupil spending on schools if elected Tory leader
Turning away from President Trump’s visit for a moment, Boris Johnson, the favourite to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader and prime minister, has released his campaign launch video. It starts with Johnson promising that, if he takes over, “we will come out [of the EU], deal or no deal, on October 31”, and a voter responding by saying that would be enough to make him vote Conservative again. It also features Johnson calling for higher school spending, defending stop and search and his record reducing crime when he was London mayor and speaking to a women who tells him she would consider voting for him although she is not a Conservative voter.
Please check out my campaign launch video. Time to deliver Brexit and unite our fantastic country. I hope you will support me > @BackBoris #BackBoris pic.twitter.com/iRZ8b0flRK
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 3, 2019
Johnson elaborates on his plan to increase school spending in his column in today’s Daily Telegraph. He says he will improve “significantly” per-pupil funding.
Above all, we need to address what is now a yawning funding gap between some parts of the country and others; not to split the difference, but to level up. It is simply not sustainable that funding per pupil should be £6,800 in parts of London and £4,200 in some other parts of the country ...
Of course there are special and extra costs of living in the capital, and London schools, which face unique challenges, deserve that recognition and a helping hand. But I pledge significantly to improve the level of per pupil funding so that thousands of schools get much more per pupil – and to protect that funding in real terms.
In his article Johnson does not say what his new per-pupil funding minimum would be, but a news story in the paper, which attributes its information to a source close to Johnson, says he would spend at least £5,000 on every secondary school pupil - ££200 more than the government’s target for 2019-20.
Neither the Johnson column, nor the news story, explain how this policy would be funded.
But that is unlikely to stop his policy appealing to Conservative MPs and party members who have long complained that the complicated formula used to decide how much schools receive per pupil favours inner city schools at the expense of rural schools (which are often in Tory-voting areas).
And this is what Jeremy Hunt said about what President Trump said to him as they spoke on the tarmac at Stansted.
I said to him that we were going to put on a great show for him, because America is our closest ally. And he mentioned to me some of his very strong views about about the mayor of London ... What he said to me was consistent with what was in his tweet.
President Trump is now at Winfield House, the US ambassador’s resident in central London.
Hunt refuses to condemn Trump's comments about Khan
In an interview with Sky News Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, refused to criticised President Trump for his comments about Sadiq Khan. (See 9.17am.) When it was put to him that Trump’s tweets were shocking, Hunt replied:
Well, the elected mayor of London has made some pretty choice insults about Donald Trump, and all I would say is that that spat started because the mayor of London, and other people in the Labour party, decided to boycott this visit. And I think that is just totally inappropriate.
In the end, everyone has their views about President Trump. I don’t agree with President Trump about some things. I went to battle with him on some of the things he said about the NHS when I was health secretary. But you put those things aside when the leader of the free world, the president of our closest ally, comes here on a state visit hosted by Her Majesty, and you celebrate what is special and enduring about our relationship.
Actually, the Trump/Khan spat started long before this state visit was scheduled. It has been running since 2016.
Updated
Khan says Trump is 'most egregious example of far-right threat' to values of liberal democracy
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has responded to President Trump’s Twitter broadside. (See 9.17am.) A spokesperson for Khan said:
This is much more serious than childish insults which should be beneath the President of the United States. Sadiq is representing the progressive values of London and our country warning that Donald Trump is the most egregious example of a growing far-right threat around the globe, which is putting at risk the basic values that have defined our liberal democracies for more than 70 years.
Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, is speaking to BBC News now. He won’t say exactly what President Trump had to say to him when they spoke at Stansted a few minutes ago, but he said that Trump’s comments were “consistent” with the comments on posted on Twitter about Sadiq Khan. (See 9.17am.)
And here is a video of the Trump arrival.
Here are more pictures of the Trump’s arrival at Stansted.
Here are President Trump and his wife, Melania, posing for a photograph as they were about to get off Air Force One.
They were met on the ground by Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, and have just now left Stansted by helicopter for the ambassador’s residence in central London.
Trump dismisses Sadiq Khan as "very dumb' and 'incompetent'
In an article for the Observer yesterday Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, said that the language used by President Trump was similar to the language used by 20th century fascists. It was the latest in a long-running series of bitter barbs the two men have exchanged about each other in public.
As Trump’s plane was about to land, he responded on Twitter, dismissing Khan as a “stone cold loser”. He also suggested that “Kahn” (sic) was “very dumb” and “incompetent”, and mocked him for being short.
.@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly “nasty” to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
....Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job - only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
Khan will probably not be that bothered. In fact, the easiest job in politics at the moment is probably running Khan’s campaign for re-election as London mayor next year. Trump is not a popular figure with Londoners, and so all Khan needs is a few posters saying Trump wants him out, and he should be home and dry.
Here is President Trump’s plane landing at Stansted.
Trump arrives in UK as Hunt rules out giving US access to NHS as part of trade deal
Donald Trump has only just landed in the UK yet already he’s been stirring things up considerably. A state visit of this kind is supposed to improve relations between the UK and the US. But the American president has backed Boris Johnson as the next prime minister, called for Nigel Farage to be given a role in negotiating Brexit and described Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, as “nasty”. He has also signalled that he is not going to let up in the ongoing row about whether the UK should give the Chinese firm Huawei a role in creating the UK’s 5G infrastructure. And there is a row about what might be included in the potential post-Brexit UK-US trade deal.
The Americans want healthcare to be included. Yesterday Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to London, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “I think the entire economy, in a trade deal, all things that are traded would be on the table.” Asked if that specifically meant healthcare, he said: “I would think so.” But yesterday Matt Hancock, the health secretary and a contender to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader and prime minister, immediately ruled out this proposal. And this morning, on the Today programme, Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, former health secretary and another Tory leadership candidate, also said that the NHS would be off limits in a trade deal. Asked if he agreed with Hancock, he replied:
Yes. Matt is absolutely right. I can’t conceive of any future prime minister, for any party, ever agreeing that we would allow NHS procurement to be part of trade talks, because the NHS as a publicly-run, publicly-owned institution is part of our DNA.
That’s not to say that pharmaceutical products, drugs, those kind of things which are freely traded between countries could not be discussed. But the ownership of the NHS, and NHS services, I can’t imagine that ever being part of a trade deal.
This is important because May’s decision to offer Trump a state visit, only days after he had taken office, was to a large extent inspired by the idea that it would help the UK secure some wonderful trade deal that would somehow compensate for the economic harm caused by Brexit. (The experts say it won’t, but that’s another matter.)
Now that state visit is actually happening, May seems peripheral to the proceedings because she has already announced that she is resigning. As my colleague Patrick Wintour writes in his very good preview, Trump is “undertaking a state visit at a time when the Queen is head of state but there is no fully functioning state”. But Trump won’t mind. As my colleague Julian Borger writes in another good scene-setter, the US president doesn’t seem to care much about the Downing Street aspect of his visit.
Trump is bringing his extended family, including the heirs to his fortune and political power, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka. The most powerful of them, Ivanka, will attend a “business leaders” breakfast on Tuesday with her father in the company of Theresa May and the Duke of York.
The scenes will eventually be marketed by his business empire and his re-election machine in the same way: the House of Trump and the House of Windsor, the top luxury brands of their respective nations, sitting down to make deals in the most sumptuous settings.
In effect, the British royals will be serving as co-stars and extras in stock footage for Trump’s 2020 re-election ads. The only royal with experience of acting for a living, Meghan, the American-born Duchess of Sussex, is thought to be staying away.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Donald Trump, the US president, is due to arrive at Stansted. Later he will receive a ceremonial welcome from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Then he will visit Westminster Abbey before having tea with Prince Charles at Clarence House and arriving at Buckingham Palace in the evening for a state banquet.
9am: James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, gives a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank.
9am: Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, takes part in an LBC phone-in.
Morning: Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, is due to launch a campaign video for his bid for the Tory leadership.
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, although I will be focusing mostly on the Trump visit. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another when I wrap up.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is 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 questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
UPDATE: I have taken out some of the timings in the 9am paragraph above because they were not accurate.
Updated
