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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

May accepts Labour's call to publish Brexit plan before triggering article 50 - Politics live

Theresa May on a British navy ship today during her visit to Bahrain.
Theresa May on a British navy ship today during her visit to Bahrain. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Afternoon summary

  • The contributory welfare system is a “sham” and should be replaced by a private insurance scheme, a thinktank headed by the Conservative former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has recommended. As the Press Association reports, middle class claimants are being failed because the system does not reward those who have paid the most in, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). Welfare reforms mean a claimant who has paid national insurance for 25 years could receive less than a 25-year-old who has worked sporadically, it found. Cutting ties with the European Union will free the government from Brussels’ rules that have stopped it axing the contributory system, the CSJ claimed.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

These are from the Conservative MP Tim Loughton.

Labour welcomes 'hugely significant climbdown' from government over Brexit

The Labour party has put out a press notice describing the government amendment as a “significant concession”. It implies that the party will accept the government amendment, but does not say so explicitly.

The press notice says:

The government has accepted a Labour motion that calls for the government to publish a plan for Brexit before article 50 is invoked.

Facing a likely rebellion on their own backbenches, the government has made a significant 11th hour concession. The motion will be debated tomorrow in the House of Commons.

Labour have consistently emphasised they will not delay or frustrate the process of triggering article 50, but that the government need to publish a plan for Brexit before article 50 is invoked.

And it includes this quote from Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary.

This is a welcome and hugely significant climbdown from the government.

For the last two months Labour have been pushing the government to put their plan for Brexit before parliament and the public. Without that plan, we have had unnecessary uncertainty, speculation and a running commentary on the government’s likely approach.

The government have now agreed to publish that plan, and to do so before article 50 is invoked.

Labour will hold the government to account on this. We will also push for a plan to be published no later than January 2017 so that the House of Commons, the devolved administrations, the Brexit Select Committee and the British people have a chance to scrutinise it.

The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn thinks Theresa May has pulled a masterstroke.

(I disagree. As far as I can see, accepting the government amendment does not amount to giving Theresa May a blank cheque, because there is nothing in it that would stop the opposition amending the article 50 legislation due to be passed if the government loses in the supreme court. Those MPs who are opposed to the government triggering article 50 could not accept the amendment. But Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, and his colleagues have repeatedly said that blocking article 50 is not the opposition’s policy; it wants to qualify the legislation, but not to obstruct it.)

Updated

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says the next demand from Tory Brexit rebels will be for a vote before the triggering of article 50.

Arron Banks, the co-founder of Leave.EU and its main financial backer, says he thinks the government’s handling of this shows how its approach to Brexit has been a “shambles”.

Tom Brake, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, claims that government has now finally admitted the need for a Brexit plan. Commenting on the government’s amendment he said:

Five months on, finally this Conservative Brexit government is admitting that triggering article 50 without a plan would be like jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

Theresa May must now drop the platitudes and come up with clear answers on the big questions facing the country, including membership of the single market.

Anything less risks plunging our economy into years of damaging uncertainty while the government desperately tries to stitch up a deal behind closed doors.

Ultimately, the British people must also be given a say on the final deal negotiated so that they can decide whether it’s right for them.

The Labour MP Helen Goodman says the government amendment represents a victory for Labour.

Sir Gerald Howarth, the Conservative MP who was a strong leave supporter, has told Sky News that he supports the government amendment and that it shoots Labour’s fox. Asked if this was a climbdown by Theresa May, he said:

The Labour fox has been shot. It’s a great opportunity now for the House to come together and do what I think the vast majority of people in the country want, particularly industry and commerce; they want us to get on with the process of renegotiating our position, negotiating our exit from the European Union, and this motion states that we will do that. We will serve notice on the EU by 31 March 2017 as the prime minister indicated was her intention. If the whole House can come behind that, I think that’s a great move.

Neil Carmichael, a pro-remain Conservative MP who had been considering backing the Labour motion, is now backing the government one, Sky News is reporting.

The Conservative MP Steve Baker says the DUP and the Ukip MP Douglas Carswell will back the government’s amendment.

No 10 source says government amendment will force Labour and Lib Dem MPs to confirm they back Brexit

Number 10 take the view that accepting the Labour motion, with the government amendment, doesn’t amount to much. “It doesn’t change our approach to the government’s plan,” a source said. “But what it does do is force Labour and Lib Dem MPs who say they support the referendum result to actually do it.”

May backs down over Brexit plan - Summary and analysis

Here is a summary of what is happening.

  • Theresa May has accepted a Labour call for the government to publish a plan for Brexit before triggering article 50 (which means before the end of March). Tomorrow MPs will debate a motion chosen by Labour and Labour has tabled this motion.

Yesterday the government would not say whether it would support this motion. But some Tory MPs indicated that they would vote for it, meaning the government was facing the real prospect of defeat. This afternoon it has announced it will not ask Conservative MPs to oppose the motion. Instead, it will ask them to back a government amendment, accepting everything Labour says - ie, accepting the call for a “plan” to be published - but adding some new conditions.

  • May is challenging Labour and other opposition MPs to accept three conditions; that article 50 should be invoked by the end of March; that the result of the referendum should be accepted; and that the publication of the plan should not undermine the government’s stance in the Brexit negotiations. Labour is likely to accept all three conditions. Indeed, the final one is very similar to one contained in Labour’s own motion.

Analysis: With Sir Keir Starmer as shadow Brexit secretary, Labour is adopting a cautious and incremental approach to shifting government policy on Brexit. Twice now Labour has made modest demands in the Commons - a vote on Brexit, the publication of a plan - and twice now the government has to concede its demands, against Theresa May’s initial wishes. Starmer seems to be a pragmatist who would rather chalk up a minor victory than a glorious defeat, and he has shifted the government.

But the government is not committing itself, in the wording of the motion and the amendment, to publishing a proper 100-page white paper or whatever. The Labour motion just talks about the government having to publish a “plan”. Conceivably this could amount to a handful of tweets; more realistically, if the government refuses to publish a white paper, it could just release a written ministerial statement with a 300-word summary of what the government hopes to achieve. This would be in keeping with the letter of what it is agreeing too, if not the spirit.

That seems to be what the government is briefing.

But Labour can take some consolation from the fact that, now the government has shifted ground twice, it is not inconceivable that it will be forced to make further parliamentary concessions on Brexit in the future.

Updated

Here is the text of the amendment.

May accepts Labour's call to publish Brexit plan before triggering article 50

The government has tabled an amendment to the Labour motion being debated tomorrow. It accepts what the Labour motion says about the need for the government to publish a plan for leaving the EU before triggering article 50. But it also says the Commons should accept the outcome of the referendum, and it says the government should trigger article 50 by the end of March.

Updated

The Conservative MP Steve Baker says he has seen the government amendment for tomorrow, and approves. Baker was a leading leave campaigner.

The government will back the Labour motion tomorrow saying it should publish its plan for Brexit before triggering article 50, the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn reports.

Here is the wording of the motion.

Updated

Gerard Batten, Ukip’s Brexit spokesman, has welcomed the fact that Michel Barnier confirmed that Britain would not be able to control EU immigration if it remained in the single market. Batten said:

We in Ukip had made it plain during the referendum that to control our borders and immigration we would have to leave the single market. But in doing so, like every other non-EU country in the world, we would retain access to the single market under WTO rules.

What part of ‘leave the single market’ don’t the remainers understand? It is always good to be able to agree with one’s political opponents, and Monsieur Barnier has made it plain that there is no point in long protracted negotiations with the EU that will achieve nothing. We have to leave as quickly as possible!

Here is the SNP MSP Stuart McMillan on Theresa May’s comment about wanting a “red, white and blue Brexit”. McMillan said:

Theresa May’s promise today of a ‘red, white and blue’ Brexit is every bit as vacuous as her previous assurance that ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

We need more than meaningless soundbites – if the UK government really want people to consider getting behind their efforts, then it’s about time they offered some clarity about what their plans for Brexit actually are.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chair of the Commons Treasury committee, has criticised Michel Barnier for the tone he took in his press conference today. Tyrie said:

Mr Barnier’s latest contribution is of just the type calculated to raise the political temperature at a time when he should be lowering it. He should have the economic wellbeing of Europe and its citizens as his overriding objective, not grandstanding to Brussels.

Both sides in the negotiations can gain together or lose together. So his first priority should be thinking about how to re-establish a close economic relationship between the EU and the UK after Brexit.

Here are some more pictures taken today from Theresa May’s trip to Bahrain.

Theresa May is greeted by Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, during a bilateral meeting at the UK villa in Manama, Bahrain.
Theresa May is greeted by Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, during a bilateral meeting at the UK villa in Manama, Bahrain. Photograph: Carl Court/PA
May visits HMS Ocean in Manama.
May visits HMS Ocean in Manama.
 Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Theresa May addresses sailors on deck of HMS Ocean in Manama.
Theresa May addresses sailors on deck of HMS Ocean in Manama. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Theresa May addresses sailors on board HMS Ocean during her trip to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Bahrain.
Theresa May addresses sailors on board HMS Ocean during her trip to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Bahrain. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
Theresa May meets Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (R) at the Kuwait villa in Manama.
Theresa May meets Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (R) at the Kuwait villa in Manama. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Theresa May meets King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia in Manama.
Theresa May meets King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia in Manama. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Lunchtime summary

I think that with a fair wind and everybody acting in a positive and a comprising mood, as I’m sure they will, we can get a great deal for the UK and for the rest of Europe within that timeframe, I see no reason why not at all. We’re going to get on and do, as the prime minister has said, a deal that makes a great success of Brexit and that timeframe seems to me to be absolutely ample.

Boris Johnson responding to Michel Barnier.
Boris Johnson responding to Michel Barnier. Photograph: Sky News

Speaking on the World at One Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP and a prominent leave campaigner, also said Barnier’s timetable was realistic. Jenkin said:

We would all like to get this resolved very much more quickly than two years. The Czech Republic broke from Slovakia in just six months, that was splitting up a unitary state.

Many countries have gone independent from their former colonial masters very much more quickly than two years and it should be easy, if we don’t make things impossibly complicated for ourselves, to do this much more quickly. I think that will provide the certainty that business wants.

  • Theresa May has said that she will give more details of the UK’s Brexit negotiating stance “when it is possible”. Speaking in Bahrain, in response to a question about whether the government will back a Labour motion being debated tomorrow saying the government should publish its plan for leaving the EU before article 50 is invoked, May said:

I have always said to parliament, that parliament would have many opportunities to have their say on these issues. But that also, when it is possible for me to set out more detail then I will do so. That’s why I have already said we will be triggering Article 50 by the end of March.

I’m going to keep some cards close to my chest, I’m sure everybody would realise that in a negotiation you don’t give everything away. It’s important that we are able to achieve the right deal for the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said that if it was true that May was going to give MPs more details about the plan “when it is possible”, that meant she should back Labour’s motion. He told the World at One:

If she is true to that, that means that she won’t resist the motion tomorrow because a decision has to be made about direction of travel before article 50 is invoked. They can’t invoke Article 50 without having a basic plan.

  • May has said Britain needs to engage with Gulf states on human rights rather than “snipe” from the sidelines. Speaking in Bahrain, in response to a question about putting trade ahead of human rights, she said:

If we look at this issue, it’s important that we see there isn’t an either or. While we talk about trade, we also talk about human rights issues. What is important, if you are going to raise these issues of human rights, if we are going to work to see that it is being addressed, is that we are engaging with these states, that we are here and we are talking to them, not that we are just sniping from the sidelines.

  • Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, has strongly backed the findings of Dame Louise Casey’s report on integration. Speaking in the Commons in response to an urgent question, Javid, who comes from a Muslim immigrant family, was much more positive about the Casey report than in the formal response to it he issued yesterday. He told MPs:

Many of her findings ring true to me personally. I’ve seen for myself the enormous contribution that immigrants and their families make to British life, all without giving up their unique cultural identities.

But I’ve also seen with my own eyes the other side of the equation.

For too long, too many people in this country have been living parallel lives - refusing to integrate and failing to embrace the shared values that make Britain great.

And for too long, too many politicians in this country have refused to deal with the problem.

They’ve ducked the issue for fear of being called a racist, failing the very people they’re supposed to be helping and I will not allow this to continue.

We in public life have a moral responsibility to deal with this situation and Dame Louise’s report is a crucial step in that process.

  • Labour has accused the government of putting the nation’s railways on the “slippery slope back to the bad old days of Railtrack” with plans to shake up who is in charge of rail infrastructure. Speaking in the Commons, shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said the plans risk compromising safety as he repeated Labour’s call for the railways to be returned to public ownership.

Updated

And here is Jenny Chapman, the shadow Brexit minister, on Theresa May’s “red, white and blue Brexit” comment. Chapman said:

The government can call it whatever colours they like – the fact is, their plan for Brexit is completely blank.

Every indication so far is that the prime minister will seek a hard and damaging Brexit, with Britain outside the single market and the customs union. This would be bad for the economy, for business and for jobs.

What we need to see is a plan and a strategy, and the government seeking to build consensus around it. They can do that by publishing their basic plan before article 50 is triggered, as Labour will again be calling for tomorrow.

Here’s the Lib Dem leader Tim Farron on Theresa May’s declaration that she wants a “red, white and blue Brexit”. (See 12.08pm.) Farron said:

The prime minister has surpassed herself with this statement. It’s jingoistic claptrap.

It doesn’t matter what colour she tries to paint this, her plans to leave the single market will wreck the economy.

If this Conservative government cared about Britain and what makes our country great, they would not be running headlong towards a hard Brexit that will blow a 220 billion black hole in the budget.

The Union Jack represents an open, tolerant, multicultural Britain, not the narrow-minded vision of Ukip and Farage.

Leave.EU has called on Theresa May to clarify her plans for Brexit. A spokesman said:

It’s time for Theresa May to get off the fence and confirm Britain will be leaving the single market. If we do not leave the single market, we have not left the European Union and voters won’t forget a betrayal of that magnitude at the next general election.

Here is my colleague Jennifer Rankin on the Barnier press conference.

The BBC’s Norman Smith says a government source has accused Michel Barnier of “posturing”.

Michel Barnier's press conference - Summary and analysis

Here is a full summary of what Michael Barnier said in his news conference. Barnier had some substantive things to say. By comparison, Theresa May’s latest insight into the UK government’s Brexit approach - that it is going to be a “red, white and blue Brexit” (see 12.08pm) - seems trite.

  • Barnier, the European commission’s chief negotiator, said the deal offered to the UK outside the EU would not be as good as membership. He made this point when setting out the commission’s four priorities for the negotiation. He also said that the UK would not be allowed to cherry pick, and that the four freedoms were indivisible (meaning the EU will not allow free movement of goods to the UK without the UK also allowing free movement of labour). Barnier said:

First, unity. Unity is the strength of the European Union. President Juncker and I are determined to preserve the unity and the interests of EU 27. This determination is shared by all governments.

Second, being in the European Union comes with rights and benefits. Third countries can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations.

Third, negotiations will not start before notification.

Fourth, the single market and its full freedoms, its four freedoms, are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option.

Downing Street responded by saying that there was nothing new about the insistence on no cherry picking. But Angela Merkel, the Germany chancellor, made the same point in a speech this morning (see 11.57am). With some in UK government circles still apparently believing that cherry picking is an option (or “have cake and eat it”, as it is termed at Westminster), Barnier’s warning still carries force.

  • He said the actual Brexit talks would have to conclude within 18 months. That was because, even though article 50 allows for a two-year withdrawal process, the European commission would need some time at the start to prepare, and around five months would have to be set aside at the end for the European council, the European parliament and the UK parliament to ratify the deal. So in practice the talks would have to wrap up by October 2018, Barnier said.

It’s clear that the actual negotiation period will be shorter than two years: the European council must set its guidelines at the beginning, and at the end the agreement must be approved by the council, the parliament and the UK government.

All in all, there will be less than 18 months. If, as Theresa May has said, we receive notification by the end of Match, it is safe to say the negotiations could start a few weeks later and article 50 agreement would have to reached by October 2018.

This truncated timetable seemed to take Number 10 by surprise this morning, and it will intensify pressure on the UK government to agree to a transitional deal, because negotiating an all-encompassing final deal in 18 months will be even harder than negotiating one in two years.

It is quite probable that a future agreement on a future relationship will be of a different legal nature. It will have to be signed with a third country, and only with a third country. So, legally, these things cannot be done together at the same time, even though what the future relationship may be may shed light on the usefulness of a very limited transitional period, and may even impact on some of the elements of the negotiation itself.

  • Barnier indicated that he was open to offering the UK a transitional deal. He said he did not think it would be possible to negotiate a final deal in the 18 months available.

You can’t do everything in 15 to 18 months of negotiations. We are going to have to take things step by step in the right order.

Asked about a transitional deal, he said this might be useful in some circumstances.

There would be some point and usefulness to a transitional period if it is the path towards a future agreement on this new partnership.

A transitional deal could keep the EU in the single market or the customs union for a few years after Brexit, pending a final trade deal, to minimise the impact of withdrawal on business. On this point Barnier is taking a similar view to David Davis, who suggested last week he might favour a transitional deal, but only on condition that it was agreed what would happen afterwards. Davis would not approve of one simply as a means of prolonging the negotiations, he suggested.

  • Barnier said finding a solution for Ireland that did not threaten the Good Friday agreement would be a priority. Asked about the impact of Brexit on Ireland, and on the Ireland/Northern Ireland border, he replied:

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union will have consequences, in particular perhaps for what are the EU’s external borders today. All I can say at this moment in time is that I am personally extremely aware of the importance of this particular topic. We will, throughout these negotiations with the UK, and with Ireland, do our utmost to find a way in order to preserve the success of the Good Friday process and retain the dialogue there. That is all I can say now.

  • He said he did not know what a hard or a soft Brexit meant.
  • He said he thought it was a mistake for the UK to leave the EU. He said that he first cast a vote in a French referendum on whether Britain should join the EEC. He voted yes, and still thinks it was the right choice, he said. And he ended his opening remarks with a comment about how it was better for countries to stick together.

For their safety, security, defence and prosperity, it is much better to show solidarity than to stand alone.

  • He said he would adopt a “keep calm” approach to the negotiations. Discussing the forthcoming Brexit talks he said:

We are entering unchartered waters. The work will be legally complex, politically sensitive and will have important consequences for our economies and our people ...

We are ready. Keep calm, and negotiate.

Michel Barnier.
Michel Barnier. Photograph: Sky News

Updated

Asked about Michel Barnier’s claim that the Brexit negotiations would in practice have to conclude within 18 months (see 11.22am), Downing Street said that article 50 set out a two-year withdrawal process. A spokesman for the prime minister said:

We have been clear that we are not seeking to extend that process. In terms of how long actual negotiations take, clearly that’s a matter that will resolve itself as a result of the negotiations. It would be wrong for me to put a timetable on that.

The European negotiating team’s approach to the negotiations between the UK and the other 27 member states is clearly a matter for them. We have been clear on our timetable and we are not moving away from that.

It is our article 50 as well, because we are members of the EU. The timetable is clear in that.

Asked about Barnier’s use of a wartime slogan to urge the UK to “keep calm and negotiate”, the Number 10 spokesman said:

We are going into these negotiations with a spirit of goodwill and we are seeing that reflected in the dialogue we’ve had thus far with our European partners. We are entering negotiations with other member states. We will do that in a spirit of goodwill and we will do it calmly.

May says she wants 'red, white and blue Brexit'

For weeks after the EU referendum, the only description Theresa May gave was Brexit means Brexit, but now the prime minister has a new slogan - “a red, white and blue Brexit”.

The remark made during May’s visit to the Gulf is a veiled retort at a so-called “grey Brexit” a phrase used to describe a deal reportedly favoured by chancellor Philip Hammond and Brexit secretary David Davis - leaving the single market with Canada-style bespoke access to parts of the free trade zone, and limits on immigration apart from for skilled migrants in specific sectors.

Such a compromise deal is mid-way between a “black Brexit”, a cliff-edge scenario for businesses and financial services where the government left the article 50 talks without a future deal with the EU, and a “white Brexit” which would see the UK attempt to remain in the single market.

May dismissed any suggestion that the government was using such language. “I’m interested in all these terms that have been identified, hard Brexit, soft Brexit, black Brexit, white Brexit, grey Brexit and actually what we should be looking for is a red, white and blue Brexit,” she told reporters during her two-day trip to the Gulf Co-operation Council in Bahrain.

“That is the right deal for the United Kingdom, what is going to be the right relationship for the UK with the European Union once we’ve left. That’s what we’re about, that’s what we’ll be working on.”

Theresa May as she walks on the deck of the ship after addressing sailors on board HMS Ocean during her trip to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Bahrain.
Theresa May as she walks on the deck of the ship after addressing sailors on board HMS Ocean during her trip to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Bahrain. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Merkel says EU's four freedoms must be protected

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has been giving a speech to a conference of her CDU party this morning. Like Michel Barnier, she has said that the “four freedoms” at the heart of the EU (free movement of goods, services, capital and people) are indivisible. These are from the BBC’s Jenny Hill.

Barnier sets out four conditions that will determine EU's approach to Brexit talks

Here is the quote where Michel Barnier set out the four conditions that will determine the EU’s approach to the Brexit negotiations.

First, unity. Unity is the strength of the European Union. President Juncker and I are determined to preserve the unity and the interests of EU 27. This determination is shared by all governments.

Second, being in the European Union comes with rights and benefits. Third countries can never have the same rights and benefits since they are not subject to the same obligations.

Third, negotiations will not start before notification.

Fourth, the single market and its full freedoms, its four freedoms, are indivisible. Cherry picking is not an option.

Michel Barnier's press conference - Snap summary

Here are the key lines from the Michel Barnier press conference.

  • Barnier, the European commission’s chief negotiator, said the deal offered to the UK outside the EU would not be as good as membership. He made this point when setting out the commission’s four priorities for the negotiation. He also said that the UK would not be allowed to cherry pick, and that the four freedoms were indivisible (meaning the EU will not allow free movement of goods to the UK without the UK also allowing free movement of labour). (See 10.50am.)
  • He said the actual Brexit talks would have to conclude within 18 months. That was because, even though article 50 allows for a two-year withdrawal process, the European commission would need some time at the start to prepare, and around five months would have to be set aside at the end for the European council, the European parliament and the UK parliament to ratify the deal. (See 10.57am.)
  • Barnier indicated that he was open to offering the UK a transitional deal. (See 11.02am.)
  • He said finding a solution for Ireland that did not threaten the Good Friday agreement would be a priority. (See 10.53am.)

I will post a beefed-up summary soon, with the full quotes.

Q: Is it possible to avoid hard Brexit? If so, how?

Barnier says he does not know what a hard or soft Brexit is. He knows what Brexit is. He says he wants a clear agreement, reached within the time available, and he wants it to take on board the interests of the 27. And it must preserve the unity of the 27, he says.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

I will post a summary soon.

Q: Are you in principle in favour of a transitional arrangement?

Barnier says this would be useful it it were the path towards a new relationship.

But we need to know what what the perspective would be.

He says third countries, like EEA members, might be affected.

Norway and Iceland are examples of how a transitional arrangement could operate.

Norway has access to the single market, but pays for it, he says.

Q: Article 50 negotiations are one thing. The new relationship is something different. Will you negotiate them in parallel, or in sequence?

Barnier says the EU needs to hear what the UK wants. Then the EU 27 will react.

He says a future agreement on a future relationship may be of a different nature. It could be signed with a third country.

So these things cannot necessarily be done at the same time.

He says you cannot do everything in 15 to 18 months of negotiations.

We will have to do everything in the right order, he says.

  • Barnier suggests EU will not be able to negotiate final trade deal with UK before it leaves.

Q: Are the 2019 elections the final deadline for the UK leaving? And what principles might underline a transitional deal?

Barnier says article 50 is the basis of his work.

The article 50 process should be over by March 2019, he says.

Approval would be needed by October 2018 to allow the European council, the European parliament and the UK to ratify the agreement, he says.

He says it will be up to the UK to say what it wants from this new partnership.

Then EU countries will say what they are prepared to concede.

Until EU countries know what the UK wants, it will be difficult to talk about a transitional period, he says.

He says a transitional period would only make sense if it prepared the way for a future relationship.

Barnier is now taking questions.

Q: Do you rule out a hard border in Ireland?

Barnier says as a commissioner he had the Northern Ireland peace process in his portfolio.

He says the UK’s decision to leave the EU will have consequences, including for the EU’s external border.

He says he is extremely aware of the importance of this. He wants to find a way to protect the Good Friday process.

Barnier says UK's deal outside EU will be inferior to membership

Barnier is now setting out the terms that will apply.

He says he does not want to speculate on what the future relationship will be like. It will be for the British to say what they want, he says.

He says this deal will be of a different legal nature from what has gone before.

He says the European council will in the next few weeks and months set the framework for the talks.

Barnier says less than 18 months will be available for Brexit talks

Barnier says the European commission is ready to receive notification from the UK.

The time for the negotiations will be less than two years, he says.

He says at the start of the process (after article 50 has been triggered) the commission will have to set guidelines.

And, at the end of the negotiation, the deal will have to be agreed.

That means there will be less than 18 months for the actual talks, he says.

He says if Theresa May triggers article 50 by the end of March, the deal could be ready by October 2018.

  • Barnier says less than 18 months will be available for Brexit talks.

Barnier says he has been preparing for the Brexit negotiations. He has visited 18 member states already, and will have visited them all by the end of January.

He is building a team of 30 officials, with solid experience in all areas.

Michel Barnier's press conference

Michel Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, is starting his press conference.

He says he first cast a vote at the age of 20, in a referendum in France on whether the UK should be allowed to join the EU (or the EEC, as it was then.) He voted yes, he says. He still thinks he made the right choice.

Updated

Ukip accuses Labour of using Commons motion to try to prevent Brexit

Ukip’s Brexit spokesman, Gerard Batten, has put out this statement in response to the reports that some Tory MPs may vote with Labour saying the government should publish a Brexit plan before it triggers article 50. Batten said:

The anti-Brexit majority in the Commons is clearly planning to use the drawn out article 50 process to hijack Brexit. That is a total disgrace. More than 17m Brexit voters are entitled to be disgusted. Only a surge of support for Ukip can get the establishment parties back into line, as it has done before.

If Tory MPs vote with Labour on this issue they will be putting themselves in opposition to the people.

The referendum result was very clear: the British people voted to leave the European Union. This was not dependent on any ‘deal’, and the voters’ decision was not conditional in any way.

These MPs hope to start a guerrilla war in the Commons by trying to gum-up the works in order to delay Brexit, and, they hope, eventually stop us leaving us at all.

They should accept the decision of the people and allow Mrs May to get on with the job.

The Labour party has said clearly it is not trying to prevent Brexit. In fact, it’s motion makes this clear.

UK demands incompatible with 'smooth' Brexit, says eurozone chief

Today’s Financial Times (subscription) says Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, told bankers they wanted a “smooth and orderly” at a meeting in London yesterday. Hammond was asked about this when he arrived for the meeting of EU finance ministers (Ecofin) in Brussels and he replied:

I think that’s in everyone’s interests, on both sides of the English channel, to have as smooth a process as possible, that minimises the threat to European financial stability and minimises the disruption to the very many complex relationships that exist between European manufacturing businesses and their financing banks and so on in London.

But a fellow finance minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said a smooth Brexit was incompatible with Britain’s current demands. Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, told reporters:

It can be smooth and it can be orderly, but it requires a different attitude on the part of the British government because the things I have been hearing so far are incompatible with smooth, incompatible with orderly ...

There are different options that are not available. If the UK wants to have full access to the internal market it will have to accept the rules and regulations that go with that internal market.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Today’s supreme court article 50 appeal hearing is just about to start. My colleague Haroon Siddique is covering it on a separate live blog.

Theresa May’s comments to the troops on board HMS Ocean were relatively banal - she told them they were “vital to protecting our nation’s interests”, as well as wishing them a happy Christmas - but the key significance of the photocall was that it enabled her to tick off what has become one of the key requirements of a modern prime minister - being photographed beside a tank (or something similar), preferably somewhere hot.

Here is a quick picture gallery.

Arguably it was Margaret Thatcher who started it all. This photograph is iconic, although nowadays PMs tend not to drive the tanks.

Margaret Thatcher on a Challenger tank.
Margaret Thatcher on a Challenger tank. Photograph: Peter Jordan/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Here is John Major in the Gulf.

John Major visting troops in the Gulf.
John Major visting troops in the Gulf. Photograph: Sportsphoto/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Tony Blair did this more regularly than most PMs, for obvious reasons.

Tony Blair meets soldiers at Shaibah logistics base, Basra, Iraq.
Tony Blair meets soldiers at Shaibah logistics base, Basra, Iraq. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Gordon Brown seemed a bit more hesitant about tank iconography than some of his predecessors, but he still did the obligatory visits.

Gordon Brown meets with troops at Camp Bastion.
Gordon Brown meets with troops at Camp Bastion. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

As did David Cameron.

David Cameron speaks to British soldiers at Camp Bastion.
David Cameron speaks to British soldiers at Camp Bastion. Photograph: POOL/REUTERS

And here is Theresa May today. (The Sky picture - see 9.33am - made it look as if she were in front of a tank, but this picture shows what seem to be armoured vehicles, not tanks, behind her.)

Theresa May addresses servicemen and women on deck of HMS Ocean.
Theresa May addresses servicemen and women on deck of HMS Ocean. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Theresa May has wished troops on board HMS Ocean a “peaceful Christmas” despite the sweltering 25C heat, which saw one member of the company faint on deck awaiting the prime minister’s arrival.

Addressing 300 troops on the desk of the 21,500 tonne helicopter carrier in Bahrain’s Khalifa Bin Salman Port, the prime minister said she felt for the men and women who would be spending Christmas in the Gulf away from their families.

“Even in this glorious sunshine, and though it feels little early, I want to wish you a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year,” she said, flanked by two Jackal tanks draped in union jacks.

HMS Ocean, the flagship of the Royal Navy, is set to be decommissioned in two years time, despite a £65m re-fit in 2014, with the Ministry of Defence declaring the ship had reached the end of her natural life.

The vessel is stationed in Bahrain until March 2017, where its operations including training local armed forces and directing US Task Force 50, the Americans’ fleet of naval vessels in the Gulf.

Theresa May on HMS Ocean in Bahrain’s Khalifa Bin Salman Port.
Theresa May on HMS Ocean in Bahrain’s Khalifa Bin Salman Port. Photograph: Sky News

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has arrived in Brussels for a meeting of EU finance ministers and, in a doorstep with journalists on his way in, he said that Britain wanted “as much flexibility as possible” in its Brexit negotiating position. He told reporters:

What we’ve said is that we want to keep as many options open as possible so that we go into these negotiations with as much flexibility as possible, recognising that they will be complex, they will be lengthy, and we want to be able to negotiate in good faith with our European partners to see if we can find a way of working together in the future that benefits both sides.

He also confirmed that the government might be willing to continue to pay the EU after it left for access to the single market. David Davis, the Brexit secretary, floated the idea last week. At the weekend Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, sounded wary of the idea, but Hammond seemed more open to it. This is what he said when he was asked if he agreed with Davis.

What [Davis] said was that we would not rule out the possibility of some ongoing contribution in some form if we have an ongoing relationship. And that will be something that we have to look at, looking at the costs and looking at the benefits and making a decision based on what’s in the best interests of the British taxpayer.

Labour is staging a vote on Wednesday on a motion saying the government should publish its Brexit plan before article 50 is triggered (the process that starts the formal two-year EU withdrawal process) and today we may get the government’s response, in the form of an amendment to Labour’s motion. We are also getting a press conference from Michel Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, which I will be covering in detail.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, publishes a written ministerial statement outlining his plans for a new a fully privatised railway line, with track and trains operated by the same company, and for Network Rail and train companies to work more closely together.

10am: International PISA education results are published.

10.15am: The second day’s hearing of the article 50 appeal at the supreme court starts.

10.30am: Michel Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, gives a press conference in Brussels.

10.30am: The Commons culture committee takes evidence from Hacked Off, IMPRESS, IPSO and the Press Recognition Panel on press regulation.

2.30pm: David Armond, deputy director general of the national crime agency, and Richard Martin of the national police chiefs’ council give evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about the EU and policing and security issues.

Theresa May is on a visit to Bahrain. And Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is in Brussels for a meeting of Nato foreign ministers.

As usual, I will also be covering the 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.

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.

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