Afternoon summary
- Michael Gove has been criticised by fellow parliamentarians for being too deferential to Donald Trump in his interview with him. The Labour MP Mary Creagh told Gove on the BBC’s Daily Politics:
You are elected by people in Surrey to represent them and yet you talk about your job being to generate news, not to stand up to some of the outrageous things Trump has said. There was nothing in your interview about his comments on women, which I find disgraceful. I think it creates real questions about this second job you have got.
On Twitter Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, said:
Seems to me Gove's interview tells us more about Gove's desire for publicity than Trump's desire for a trade deal!
— Barry Gardiner (@BarryGardiner) January 16, 2017
And Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative party chairman, used Twitter to criticise Gove for endorsing someone which such a poor record on issues like gender and racial equality.
Once upon a time @michaelgove styled himself as a champion of #britishvalues today he 👍a man who flouts them all 🙄 pic.twitter.com/Ns8dxxYF7h
— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) January 16, 2017
She also tweeted this, appearing to endorse the headline on a critical article about the interview written by the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland.
Gove is sadly simply Trump’s cheerleader, glossing over inconsistencies and ignorance | Jonathan Freedland https://t.co/2UdI0uBqr7
— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) January 16, 2017
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The CBI has said that Britain risks a “disorderly crash landing” if it assumes it can safely walk away from troublesome Brexit talks. Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI’s director general, spoke out in an interview with the Guardian as the Policy Exchange thinktank published a report saying the government should go for a “clean Brexit”, leaving the single market and the customs union. The reports authors, economists Gerard Lyons and Liam Halligan, say:
We need key planks of the UK’s future relationship with the EU to be clear as soon as possible. Chief among those is that we must leave the Customs Union and the Single Market. Declaring ‘Clean Brexit’ now, and putting it at the forefront of our thinking, helps avoid a dramatic policy change overnight for which we are unprepared. It offers businesses greater certainty about the future. It also means we can walk away from the Article 50 negotiations if the EU does not offer us a good enough deal without endangering our economy.
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Less than a third of voters trust the government’s so-called “Three Brexiteers” to “do what is right” regarding Brexit, a poll suggests. As the Press Association reports, foreign secretary Boris Johnson (26%), Brexit secretary David Davis (24%) and international trade secretary Liam Fox (20%) trailed Theresa May in the trust ratings, although she also lacked majority support and attracted 36% of support among respondents. In a separate question, May’s trust rating following the EU referendum was 35% compared to 23% for Jeremy Corbyn - with the Labour leader having scored 28% in 2016 - while Johnson dropped from 43% in 2014 to 24% in 2017.
- A government review of a Scottish business model has been launched following allegations linking it to a $1bn US dollar fraud. As the Press Association reports, the UK Government review will examine limited partnerships across the country, particularly focusing on Scotland. Scottish limited partnerships (SLPs) have their own “legal personality” enabling them to hold assets, borrow money from banks and enter into contracts - unlike limited partnerships elsewhere in the UK - which is allegedly leading to exploitation by criminals.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
Bercow pays tribute to the late Prof Anthony King
In the Commons the Labour MP Ian Austen used a point of order to pay tribute to Prof Anthony King, the political scientist and broadcaster who died last week. Austen was taught by him at the University of Essex, and he said that King also taught John Bercow, the Speaker, Priti Patel, the international development secretary, and the Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh. But Bercow was the only one of them to get a first, Austen said.
Bercow thanked Austen for raising the issue. He went on:
Colleagues will doubtless have noted that Prof Anthony King died last week, aged 82, after a stellar career and vocation as one of the most distinguished political scientists of this generation. He was a brilliant teacher. He was an outstanding communicator, not least on television in his analysis of byelections. And he was a prodigious and illuminating writer. Personally I feel every day a sense of gratitude to Tony for what he did for me - and, God, I must have been an awkward student to teach 30 years ago - and he stuck with me, and I’m hugely grateful ... Tony King was a great man who did wonders for the study and teaching of political science in the United Kingdom and we should honour his memory.
A potent warning from the student movement in Northern Ireland today about the political crisis at Stormont and the collapse of the power sharing government.
Fergal McFerran, president of the National Union of Students/Union of Students in Ireland, has said the imminent end of the cross community government would convince young educated people from the region never to come back home. McFerran said:
Today I am reflecting on the thousands of young people who leave Northern Ireland to make a future for themselves elsewhere. The majority of those young people will never return. Looking at the state of affairs as they are, why would they?
An increasing number of people look to Stormont and see nothing that relates to their lives in any meaningful way. We are treading dangerous territory where people question the value of devolution and its capacity to improve our society. That is an appalling place for us to be.
The Institute for Government thinktank has published a report today calling for the tax-making process to be simplified. It supports the government’s plan to abolish the autumn statement and have just one budget statement a year and it says budgets should contain fewer measures which are better thought out.
The report includes these charts to justify the IfG’s claim that new taxes are proliferating.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lifted UK growth forecasts for 2017 saying better-than-expected economic performance in the wake of the Brexit vote raised prospects for the year ahead, the Press Association reports.
However, a simultaneous downgrade to the IMF’s forecast for 2018 is pointing to a slowdown in Britain’s productivity.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it now expects the UK economy to grow by 1.5% this year, marking a 0.4% upward revision to forecasts made in October.
The UK is among a number of countries - including the Germany, Japan and Spain - to see growth forecasts raised “mostly on account of a stronger-than-expected performance during the latter part of 2016,” the report stated.
“Preliminary third-quarter growth figures were somewhat stronger than previously forecast in some economies, such as Spain and the United Kingdom, where domestic demand held up better than expected in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.”
The IMF has downgraded its UK forecasts for 2018 by 0.3%, with gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2018 now expected to come in at 1.4%.
The IMF is also warning that Donald Trump’s protectionism could be a threat to the world economy.
Lunchtime summary
- Sinn Fein has declined to re-nominate a Stormont deputy first minister in a move set to collapse the powersharing executive in Belfast and trigger a snap election. As the Press Association reports, barring a highly unlikely u-turn by the republican party, the institutions will now fall at 5pm on Monday and Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire will be legally obliged to call the election.
The Labour peer Stewart Wood has written a good blog 15 things things we’ve leant from the Trump/Gove interview.
My colleague Jonathan Freedland has a good article on the Trump/Gove interview. Here’s an excerpt.
Above all, the Gove/Trump encounter provides a useful glimpse into what the future of direct media accountability of the US president will look like. You can see why Trump Tower granted the former minister his hour. It’s the same reason Trump gives regular access to Sean Hannity of Fox News. He would prefer to be questioned only by those who are ideological sympathisers.
Gove provided regular reassurance of that, seeing no reason to challenge Trump on anything. So when the new president slammed the invasion of Iraq, Gove was too polite to note that Trump is on tape supporting that decision. (“Are you for invading Iraq?” Trump was asked on 11 September 2002. His reply: “Yeah, I guess so.”) The MP was similarly happy to let the billionaire assert that the EU’s uselessness was proved by the fact that he was blocked from building a sea wall to protect a Trump golf course on the Irish coast from the effects of the same climate change Trump calls a “hoax”.
And here is the piece in full.
On the Daily Politics Jo Coburn effectively accused Michael Gove of asking Donald Trump soft questions.
"Do you think you gave him a proper grilling?" @Jo_Coburn asks Michael Gove about Trump interview: "Where were the difficult questions?" pic.twitter.com/tnYox6D3MR
— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) January 16, 2017
No 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Here is a summary of the Number 10 lobby briefing.
- Downing Street played down the prospects of a trade deal with the US being signed as soon as the UK leaves the EU. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said that the government welcomed Trump’s comments about an early trade deal. But she also said that Britain would respect its obligations while it remained a member of the EU, and that these prevented EU member states from entering into free trade agreements. She said “scoping discussions” about a deal could take place before the UK left, but she did not challenge suggestions that these would not amount to full trade negotiations.
- Number 10 refused to support Trump’s plan to introduce “extreme vetting” for Muslims entering the US. In his Times interview Trump said this policy would apply to Muslims entering the country from places with terrorist problems. He told the newspaper:
There will be extreme vetting, it’s not gonna be like it is now, they don’t even, we don’t even have real vetting. The vetting into this country is essentially non-existent as it is, as it was at least, with your country.
Asked if the UK government supported this, the spokeswoman said there would be much greater opportunity to learn about the policies of the new administration once Trump takes office. Britain would want to discuss “a whole range of issues” with the president then, she said.
- The spokeswoman indicated that May does not share Trump’s views about the future of the EU. “We want to see a strong, successful European Union,” the spokeswoman said. But Trump is neutral about the survival of the EU (see 10.12am) and he told the Times that he expected other countries to leave and that it would be “very hard to keep it together”.
- The spokeswoman said May was not bothered about the fact that Trump had shown Michael Gove the letter May sent her at Christmas. May also sent Trump a copy of Churchill’s address to the American people in 1941, after Pearl Harbour, and May told Trump what Churchill said in the speech about the “unity and fraternal association” between the UK and the US then applied as much today. The Times has published a photograph of May’s letter. Asked about this, the spokeswoman said:
[Trump] was delighted to receive a gift. Often when you are delighted to receive a gift, you tell people about it.
- The spokeswoman hinted that May’s Brexit speech tomorrow might amount to the full Brexit plan promised by the government. In December last year the government agreed to publish a plan for Brexit before article 50 is invoked. David Davis, the Brexit secretary, tolds MPs that it would not be published before February. Many MPs want it to comprise a lengthy white paper, but Davis refused to say what form it would take when giving evidence to MPs in December. Asked if the government was still planning to publish a plan at some point after May’s speech, the spokeswoman said that May would be setting out more details tomorrow and that people should wait for that. The spokeswoman also refused to rule out a document of some kind being published alongside the speech tomorrow.
- The spokeswoman played down the prospect of ministers or officials debriefing Gove to learn more about Trump. The government had “strong lines of communication” with Trump already, she said.
- Number 10 reaffirmed Philip Hammond’s threat that the government could slash business taxes in the UK if the EU failed to offer a good Brexit deal. Hammond made this point in an interview with a German newspaper released at the weekend. Asked if Theresa May agreed, her spokeswoman said:
We want to remain in the mainstream of recognisable, European-style taxation systems. But if we are forced to do something different if we can’t get the right deal, then we stand ready to do so.
But the spokeswoman rejected claims that Hammond’s comments amounted to a threat to reconfigure the welfare system. In his interview Hammond said:
We are on the US end of the European spectrum, but we do have an open-market economy with a social model that is recognisably the European social model that is recognisably in the mainstream of European norms, not US norms. And most of us who had voted remain would like the UK to remain a recognisably European-style economy with European-style taxation systems, European-style regulation systems etcetera. I personally hope we will be able to remain in the mainstream of European economic and social thinking. But if we are forced to be something different, then we will have to become something different.
But the spokeswoman said that it would be wrong to read what Hammond said as applying to welfare.
- The spokeswoman refused to say what May thought about the fact that three of her Brexit interventions have led to falls in the value of the pound. (See 9.08am.) “There’s a long-standing policy of not commenting on the currency,” the spokeswoman said. She also refused to confirm reports saying some in Number 10 expect her speech to lead to what they call a “market correction” (ie, a devaluation).
- May spoke to Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister, and Martin McGuinness, her Sinn Fein deputy, this morning about the crisis affecting the Northern Ireland assembly, the spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman said May “wanted to encourage them to take what time is left today to try to find a resolution”.
- The spokeswoman said that the NHS plans to increase the amount it recovers from foreigners who are treated in hospitals in this country. Some £289m a year is recovered now, and this is due to go up to £500m by the middle of this parliament, she said. This question was prompted by the story about a hospital being left with a bill for £350,000 after it treated a Nigerian woman who had complications when giving birth to twins.
- Britain has raised concerns with the authorities in Bahrain over the execution of three men found guilty of a deadly bomb attack on police in the Gulf state, the spokeswoman said. The execution by firing squad of the Shiite men on Sunday has been condemned by human rights groups and sparked outrage among opponents of the Sunni-ruled government. Asked about this, the spokeswoman said:
Clearly, we have concerns about the situation there. We are firmly opposed to the death penalty. The foreign secretary [Boris Johnson] raised this specific issue with the Bahrain government in a phone call ahead of the weekend.
Updated
Richard Tice, the co-chair of Leave Means Leave, has just told BBC News that it is “nonsense”, legally and practically, for Number 10 to argue that the UK cannot start formal trade talks with the US while it remains a member of the EU.
No 10 plays down prospect of UK-US trade deal being ready for when Brexit happens
I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. These are probably the two best lines.
- Number 10 reaffirmed Philip Hammond’s threat that the government could slash business taxes in the UK if the EU failed to offer a good Brexit deal.
- Downing Street played down the prospects of a trade deal with the US being signed as soon as the UK leaves the EU.
UPDATE: There is now a full summary of the lobby briefing here, at 1.13pm.
Updated
Greens criticise Corbyn over nuclear power U-turn
During the 2015 Labour leadership campaign Jeremy Corbyn said he was opposed to building new nuclear power stations. But this stance creates problems for Labour in the Copeland byelection (Sellafield is the most important employer in Copeland) and in an interview with Andrew Marr yesterday (pdf) Corbyn shifted his stance, indicating that he would back plans for a new nuclear power station in the constituency at Moorside. He told Marr:
I want to make sure there’s an energy mix in this country. We have to first of all make sure there is sufficient energy supplies and there has to be an energy platform. So what happens in Moorfield is pretty key to ensuring that actually happens.
This morning the Green party has attacked him for this. Jonathan Bartley, the Green party co-leader, said:
Jeremy Corbyn’s defeatist attitude will no doubt be a massive disappointment to the many people across the country who don’t believe that dirty, expensive nuclear power is the way forward. We know that alternatives to nuclear exist – and that renewable power will provide more jobs than this redundant technology of the past.
Labour’s U-turn leaves the Greens as the only party who will be fielding an anti-nuclear candidate in the Copeland by-election. We’ll have our plans for a clean energy revolution at the heart of our campaign, as well as protecting the NHS and maintaining a close relationship with Europe.
I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing now. I will post again after 11.30am.
The full transcript of Michael Gove’s interview with Donald Trump which has gone up on the Times’ website (paywall) shows that Gove gave the president-elect a copy of his book Celsius 7/7 about Islamist extremism. Gove described it as a book on how to fight terrorism. Trump replied:
Good, I’d love that. That’s fantastic - how to fight terrorism. I can use that.
Gove's interviews about Trump - Summary
Michael Gove has given several interviews this morning about his Trump interview. Here are the key points he has been making.
- Gove said that Donald Trump wanted a UK-US trade deal “signature ready” for when Britain left the EU in 2019. (See 8.55pm.)
- Gove said he believed an expert analysis saying a UK-US trade deal could increase jobs and growth “significantly”.
I’ve been impressed by work that has been done by Shanker Singham of the Legatum Institute [a thinktank] who is probably at the moment in Britain the leading expert on trade deals, and he’s pointed out that it would be possible for Britain to conclude a deal not just with America but with other countries like New Zealand, whose prime minster was here recently ... Shanker Singham has concluded that such a deal could increase Britain’s GDP and jobs and growth significantly. There are some experts whom one does not automatically follow, but I’m inclined to believe that Shanker Singham and the work the Legatum Institute has done points the way to a successful trade relationship between Britain and other countries.
In his final sentence he is alluding to his famous comment about Britain having had enough of experts who get things wrong.
- Gove said Trump a proprietorial interest in Brexit.
He feels a sort of sense of ownership of our decision to leave the European Union, because he predicted it and he was one of the few international figures to back our leaving the European Union. Now he says that he wants to make a success of it.
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Gove played down the fact that Trump refused to say yes when Gove put it to him that the UK would be in the front of the queue for a trade deal with the US after Brexit. Trump said it was a mistake for President Obama to say the UK would be at the back of the queue. Gove then put it to him that the UK would be at the front of the queue. Trump replied: “I think you’re doing great. I think it’s going great.” When it was put to him that this did not sound like a yes, Gove replied:
One of the things about interviewing President Trump is that he does not like anyone putting words into his mouth. So when you ask a question, it’s as much a prompt to the next flow of information and rhetoric as anything else.
Gove also said it thought it was possible to “read what it is that [Trump] wants. When asked if he felt he could trust Trump, he replied: “I can’t make a window into Donald Trump’s soul. But what I can tell is that was enthusiastic about Brexit.”
- Gove said he did not believe that Trump wanted to destabilise the EU. When asked if he thought this was Trump’s intention, he said no. But he also implied that he thought Trump was neutral about whether the EU survived. Until now, American administrations have always supported the EU. But Gove said:
We asked Donald Trump what his view as directly about the European Union. Did he believe that it was better for America for there to be a strong European Union or stronger individual nation states? And he said that, in a sense, that he did not have a strong view either way about the future of Europe from America’s point of view. He said specifically that he felt that the European Union had been created in order to have a rival trade bloc to America. But he concentrates on what’s right for America.
- Gove dismissed suggestions that he could be Britain’s next ambassador to Washington. When this was put to him by Today’s Sarah Montague, he laughed. Then he went on:
I think you can probably tell from my instinctive reaction to that that, wonderful though the Foreign Office is, it is probably better off without me as one of its ambassadors. We have got Kim Darroch doing a fantastic job in Washington, by all accounts. Certainly, from the encounters I have had with him, he is a first-class diplomat.
This is @michaelgove's response when asked if he could make a future British ambassador #r4today pic.twitter.com/uvVIHEY8cG
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 16, 2017
- Gove said that he thought Theresa May was doing an “exemplary job” as prime minister. He said they last spoke in a private meeting before Christmas. Gove would not say what they said to each other.
- He said he did not agree with Trump’s claim that the EU refugee crisis was the reason for people voting to leave the EU. He said he thought Lord Ashcroft’s analysis explained best why people voted for Brexit.
- Gove said that, while he could not defend some of the things Trump has said and done, he found him an “engaging” personality. He said Trump was a “big, bombastic personality”.
When you actually meet him, yes he is an electric figure - charismatic - but also he is warmer ... close up than you would imagine.
- Gove said Trump was a deal-maker who wanted the best deal for both sides.
Everything that he says is in capital letters and in glowing gold, but then he also, when he gets into the room, looks at the spreadsheet and tries to get the best possible outcome for both sides ... He is a businessman. The important thing about any world leader dealing with Donald Trump is to think ‘How can I get a deal that suits us both?’.
- He said Trump had a “soft spot” for Britain.
His mum comes from Scotland and he has a soft spot for Scotland particularly but Britain generally.
Updated
The Times has just published a full transcript of the Gove/Trump interview on its website (paywall). I will be taking a look at it and posting any lines that we have not already picked up in our coverage of the interview.
Pound falls in value ahead of Theresa May's Brexit speech tomorrow
Theresa May is giving a speech on Brexit tomorrow and advance briefing suggests it will firm up suggestions that the UK will be leaving the single market and the customs unions. For at least the third time, a Brexit intervention by May has sent the pound heading south.
My colleague Nick Fletcher is covering this on the business live blog.
Trump wants a UK-US trade deal 'signature ready' for Brexit in 2019, says Gove
Unless you have managed to avoid all news this morning, you’ll know by now that Donald Trump has given an interview to the Times and that it was conducted by Michael Gove, the former justice secretary and former Vote Leave leader who was sacked by Theresa May when she became prime minister. This is how the Times has presented.
THE TIMES: I'll do a deal with Britain #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/CiMzP3FY5X
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) January 15, 2017
And here is the Guardian’s overnight follow-up story.
Gove has been giving interviews this morning and, on the Today programme, he firmed up the line that Trump wants to negotiate a trade deal with the UK quickly. The president-elect wanted a deal that would be “signature ready” by 2019, when the UK is due to leave the EU, Gove said. (The UK cannot sign one while it is still a member.) Gove said:
Judging from both the interview and also from the conversation that we had off the record, he wants to see Theresa May as quickly as possible, he wants to invite her to the White House as quickly as possible, and then lay the groundwork for a deal.
My understanding - I have to stress I’m no expert in trade negotiations - is that we have to wait until Britain has concluded its divorce from the European Union before we can sign any new deal. But I think the president-elect wants to have something signature ready at the earliest possible opportunity, and I think there are two reasons for that. Firstly, he sees real economic benefits for both Britain and America in forging this deal. The other things is that he feels a certain, what’s the word, sympathy for Britain as a result of our decision to leave the European Union.
I will post more from Gove’s interview soon. Meanwhile, here is a Guardian summary of what Trump said in the interview. And here is a story about Trump criticising Angela Merkel’s refugee policy.
May is due to deliver her big speech on Brexit tomorrow, but we’ve got a Number 10 lobby briefing at 11am, and so we should get some reaction to Trump then. Otherwise, the diary is relatively empty.
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
