Andrew Sparrow 

Boris Johnson says Trump is ‘in many aspects a liberal guy from New York’ – Politics live

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Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, leaving No 10 after cabinet this morning.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, leaving No 10 after cabinet this morning. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Afternoon summary

  • Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has said that Britain will probably leave the EU customs union. In an interview with a Czech daily, he also described Donald Trump as “in many aspects a liberal guy from New York” and claimed that freedom of movement was not a founding principle of the EU - even though it features in the 1957 Treaty of Rome. (See 2.59am.)
  • The burden of preparing for Brexit will be “unsustainable” for some government departments unless chancellor Philip Hammond uses next week’s autumn statement to commit more resources to the task, a respected thinktank has warned. As the Press Association reports, the Institute for Government, which has been talking to key figures inside and outside Whitehall ahead of a report next month, said it had been told that Brexit represented an “existential threat” to the operation of departments whose budgets and staffing have been sharply reduced in recent years. A “secretive approach” at the top of Theresa May’s administration was causing “significant uncertainty” for Whitehall departments and preventing civil servants from planning far enough ahead. To some outsiders, the process appears “chaotic and dysfunctional”, said the thinktank, which warned the Prime Minister: “Silence is not a strategy”.
  • Households can expect to see the cost of a basket of regular purchases rise by an average of around 2.7% as a result of the fall in the pound after the referendum vote for Brexit, a thinktank has forecast. As the Press Association reports, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) predicted that the 12% collapse in the value of sterling since June will drive up the cost of running a vehicle - including petrol - by 5.1%, clothes and footwear by 3.1% and food by 2.9%. While poorer households will be particularly hit by price hikes on food and drink, which make up almost a quarter of their spending, higher-income families will bear the brunt of increases in the cost of clothing and petrol, where they spend more than the average.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.


Updated

Here is my colleague George Monbiot on Boris Johnson’s comment about Donald Trump.

Supreme court judge questions whether article 50 could have to wait until EC Act repealed

Earlier I quoted from a speech given by Lady Hale, deputy president of the supreme court, in Malaysia. She delivered the speech in Malaysia last week, but it is only just getting attention now. It is here (pdf), on the supreme court’s website.

The speech is about the supreme court and the constitution. Hale says there is a limit to what she can say on the article 50 case, because the supreme court will hear the appeal, but she does include this paragraph, suggesting she thinks there is case for saying the government would have to repeal the entire European Communities Act, not just pass a short bill, to be able to trigger article 50.

Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union provides that ‘any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional arrangements’ (article 50(1)). A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention. The Council is then expected to negotiate and agree upon the arrangements for withdrawal with the Member State. These have to be agreed by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, and by the European Parliament (article 50(2)). However, the Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of the entry into force of that agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification, unless the Council unanimously agrees to extend the period (article 50(3)). The issue is whether giving that notification falls within the prerogative powers of the Crown in the conduct of foreign relations or whether it falls foul of the rule that the prerogative cannot be used in such a way as to frustrate or substantially undermine an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament. The argument is that the European Communities Act 1972 grants rights to individuals and others which will automatically be lost if the Treaties cease to apply. Such a result, it is said, can only be achieved by an Act of Parliament. Another question is whether it would be enough for a simple Act of Parliament to authorise the government to give notice, or whether it would have to be a comprehensive replacement for the 1972 Act.

The government is planning to repeal the ECA anyway, but after article 50 has been triggered, not before.

In her speech Hale also says there is a case for saying the government does not need legislation to trigger article 50.

It would probably be unwise to read too much into this, but a shock ruling from the supreme court saying the government had to repeal the ECA before it could trigger article 50 - and that would be a seismic shock - would delay Brexit by months, or even years. That is because repealing the ECA will require complicated legislation and there is no chance of getting it through parliament by the end of March, Theresa May’s deadline for triggering article 50.

Deloitte has put out a statement backing up the Number 10 criticism of the Times’ “leaked memo” story. (See 2.17pm.) The Times front page story today says the memo was “prepared for the Cabinet Office”, but Deloitte has said that is not true.

No 10 says no decisions have been taken on leaving the customs union

On the subject of the customs union, which Boris Johnson says the UK will probably leave, Downing Street is also saying that no decisions have been taken.

Updated

Number 10 has been trying to clarify Boris Johnson’s comments about free movement, Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh reports.

Updated

Here is my Brussels colleague Jennifer Rankin on Boris Johnson’s free movement gaffe. (See 2.59am.)

(Having spent the last few minutes reading the Treaty of Rome, I’m ruling that Boris Johnson has officially now blundered into “gaffe” territory.)

Updated

Article 3 of the Treaty of Rome is even more explicit about freedom of movement being a key principle of the EU. It talks about “the abolition ... of the obstacles to the free movement of persons”.

For the purposes set out in the preceding Article, the activities of the Community shall include, under the conditions and with the timing provided for in this Treaty ...

(c) the abolition, as between Member States, of the obstacles to the free movement of persons, services and capital

Boris Johnson also seems to be wrong about the 1957 Treaty of Rome. This is what the founding treaty of the union says in article 48.

1. Freedom of movement for workers shall be secured within the Community by the end of the transitional period at the latest.

2. Such freedom of movement shall entail the abolition of any discrimination based on nationality between workers of the Member States as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of work and employment.

But Johnson might argue that this is a reference to the freedom of movement of workers, not the freedom of movement of people, and that they are not the same thing.

The Labour MEP Richard Corbett says John McDonnell is wrong to rule out a second referendum on Brexit. (See 12.11pm.)

Ian Birrell (and others) have been pointing out on Twitter that the free movement of people is a fundamental principle of the EU because it is now in article 3 of the EU treaty.

(Johnson’s point is that it has not always been a fundamental principle of the EU, or its predecessor body the EEC. See 2.59pm and 3.41pm.)

Here is the headline on Boris Johnson’s interview with Hospodářské noviny.

Brexit byl správný. Volný pohyb osob jako základní právo je hovadina, říká Boris Johnson v rozhovoru pro HN

And here is the Google Translate translation.

Brexit was correct. Free movement of persons as a fundamental right is bullshit, says Boris Johnson in an interview for HN

I’ve just been reading the whole thing, courtesy of Google Translate. The key quotes are those picked up by Politico Europe (see 2.59am), but the full transcript also includes this passage, where Johnson explains why he thinks freedom of movement is not a fundamental EU freedom. He says:

It’s a total myth, nonsense. It is stupid to say that freedom of movement, Brownian motion [the random movement of microscopic particles in a liquid or gaseous medium - Ed] is a fundamental right. Freedom of movement of people across Europe is not something that was in the founding Treaty of Rome in 1957, it was in the Nice Treaty, and it was not in the Maastricht Treaty. It’s something that has been acquired by a series of decisions by the courts, for example, the Antonissen judgment [the judgment a person can stay in another EU country six months before finding a job - Ed]. And everyone now has in his head that every human being has a fundamental, God-given right to go and move wherever he wants. But it is not. It was never a founding principle of the European Union. It’s a complete myth. Total myth.

This is a translation of the passage below, from Google Translate with some minor tidying up by me.

Je to naprostý mýtus, nonsens. Je hovadina říct, že volný pohyb osob je základní právo. Brownův pohyb (náhodný pohyb mikroskopických částic v kapalném nebo plynném médiu − pozn. red.) lidí napříč Evropou není něco, co bylo v zakládajících Římských smlouvách v roce 1957, nebylo to ve smlouvě z Nice a nebylo to ani v Maastrichtské smlouvě. Je to něco, co bylo nabyto sérií rozhodnutí evropských soudů, například rozsudkem zvaným Antonissen (podle rozsudku může člověk pobývat v jiné členské zemi šest měsíců, než najde práci − pozn. red.). A každý má nyní ve své hlavě, že každá lidská bytost má nějaké základní, Bohem dané právo jít a přestěhovat se, kamkoliv chce. Ale tak to není. Nikdy to nebyl zakládající princip Evropské unie. Je to naprostý mýtus. Totální mýtus.

Boris Johnson says Trump is 'in many aspects a liberal guy from New York'

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has given an interview to the Czech daily Hospodářské noviny. Politico Europe have taken a look, and their short write-up contains three good lines.

  • Johnson says the UK is probably leaving the customs union.

[There will be a] dynamic trade relationship [between the UK and the EU] and we will take back control of our borders, but we remain an open and welcoming society … We probably will have to come out of the customs union, but that’s a question I am sure will be discussed.

Until now ministers have refused to say whether the UK will leave the customs union, although their language about the possibility of new trade deals suggests they assume the UK will leave. For example, last night in her speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet Theresa May said she imagined a world where “alongside the traditional trading blocs, agile nation states like Britain can trade freely with others according to what’s in their own best interests and those of their people”. If the UK remained in the customs union it would not be able to strike trade deals with other countries because it would have to implement the EU’s common external tariff.

  • He says the claim that free movement is one of the founding freedoms of the EU is “nonsense”. Politico reports:

It is a “myth,” “nonsense” and “bollocks” to claim that freedom of movement is one of the fundamental freedoms of the European Union, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in an interview published Tuesday.

Johnson told the Czech daily Hospodářské noviny that freedom of movement is not enshrined in the EU Treaties. “Everybody now has it in their head that every human being has some fundamental God-given right to move wherever they want. It’s not true. That was never the case. That was never a founding principle of the EU. Total myth,” he said.

  • He says Donald Trump is “in many aspects a liberal guy from New York”.

There is every reason to be positive. Donald Trump is dealmaker, he is a guy who believes firmly in values that I believe in too — freedom and democracy. As far as I understand he is in many aspects a liberal guy from New York.

UPDATE: Foreign Office sources say that Johnson did say free movement was not a founding principle of the EU, but that he did not say it was not a “fundamental” principle of the EU, as the first paragraph of the Politico story says.

Updated

Lunchtime summary

  • No 10 has attacked the credibility of a leaked memo that details how Whitehall is struggling to cope with the scale of work generated by the Brexit vote and the lack of a common strategy among cabinet ministers. As Rowena Mason reports, the note, written by a consultant at professional services company Deloitte, found that departments were working on more than 500 projects related to leaving the EU and may need to hire an extra 30,000 civil servants to deal with the additional work. It identified a tendency by Theresa May to “draw in decisions and settle matters herself” as a strategy that could not be sustained and highlighted a split between Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and David Davis, and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, and his ally Greg Clark, the business secretary. The prime minister’s spokeswoman told journalists:

[The memo] has nothing to do with the government at all. It was not commissioned by [the] government. It was written by an individual at an accountancy firm who is not working for [the] government. I struggle to understand how such an unsolicited memo can be front page news. The individual is not working for the Cabinet Office on this issue ...

This individual has never been in No 10 or engaged with officials there since the prime minister took office.

It is really for Deloitte to answer what the note is about. It has not been distributed widely across government. It does seem this is a firm touting for business aided by the media.

  • Britain’s rising inflation rate has been brought to a halt after cheaper clothes and a smaller increase in university tuition fees meant the annual increase in the cost of living fell to 0.9%. But, speaking to the Commons Treasury committee, Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said inflation would go up in the future. He told the committee:

Inflation is going up. A pass through of a 20% fall in sterling is going to come and will build towards the end of this year and into 2017.

  • Ministers have drawn up a three-line bill giving them the power to invoke article 50 in case they lose their appeal to the supreme court, the BBC reports. (See 12.47pm.)
  • Lady Hale, the deputy president of the supreme court, has spoken of the “difficult and delicate issues” raised by the case. In a speech in Malaysia, she said:

Just before I left to come here, a unanimous divisional court held that the secretary of state does not have power under the royal prerogative to give notice to withdraw from the European Union.

The court held that just as making a treaty does not change the law of the land, unmaking it cannot do so, but triggering article 50 will automatically have that effect.

What has to be done instead is perhaps not so clear. But the case is destined for our court, so I must say no more.

The case raises difficult and delicate issues about the constitutional relationship between government and parliament. What is meant by the exercise of the executive power of the state?

To what extent can it be exercised in a way which may undermine the exercise of the legislative power of the state? We do not have a written constitution to tell us the answer. But I doubt whether many written constitutions would tell us the answer either.

Perhaps significantly, the government has given up the argument that the issue is not justiciable in our courts. To that extent, at least, it is accepted that we are indeed the guardians of the constitution: if only we knew what it meant.

  • The government has begun a high court bid to block industrial action brought by prison officers over health and safety concerns. Speaking in the Commons, Liz Truss, the justice secretary said the “unnecessary and unlawful” action taken by prison officers will “make the situation in our prisons more dangerous”. The dispute has affected the courts, including halting the Old Bailey trial of Thomas Mair, who is accused of murdering the MP Jo Cox. Mair’s trial will resume tomorrow.
  • The number of new homes recorded in England is at its highest level since the financial crash, according to government figures. As the Press Association reports, analysis found a net housing increase of 189,650 in 2015-16, a rise of 11% on the previous financial year. Ministers said there had been an additional 893,000 homes since 2010 and hailed the report as proof the government had “turbocharged” housebuilding. But Labour dismissed the figures as “disappointing” and said Tory targets for an extra 1m homes in England by 2020 would be missed.

Updated

Greens accuse Labour of 'premature capitulation' over article 50

The Green party’s co-leader Caroline Lucas has criticised John McDonnell for saying Labour would not try to stop the government triggering article 50, the process that starts EU withdrawal. (See 12.11pm and 1.09pm). She said:

Labour’s premature capitulation on article 50 leaves those of us who oppose a hard Brexit in a weaker position.

As a result, we now have less power to persuade the government to give us proper details on their plans ahead of a vote.

Though we should not seek to overturn the result of the referendum, it is down to us as MPs to look closely at the deal on the table before throwing our support behind the government’s plans.

A small majority of people voted to leave the EU, but without any clear plan of what such a vote would mean.

Updated

The Conservative MP Dominic Raab has responded to John McDonnell’s speech on behalf of his party. In a statement put out by CCHQ he said:

Labour have absolutely zero credibility when it comes to safeguarding our economy.

But what is truly astonishing is that John McDonnell completely failed to mention immigration, or control of our borders, in his vision of post-Brexit Britain.

This is yet more evidence of how out of touch Labour are with the values of working people in our country.

Only the Conservative party can deliver the best possible deal as we leave the EU - and that must mean controls on the number of people that come to Britain.

After his speech John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, was asked how Labour would force the government to reveal more about its plan for Brexit (as the opposition has been demanding) if it is not prepared to block or hold up the triggering of article 50. McDonnell said Labour would use “moral pressure”. He told journalists:

I think it’s the moral pressure that we’ll be able to exert right the way across the country to get them to be open and transparent about what their vision is for the country’s relationship with Europe in the future.

I don’t think it will come down to parliamentary divisions and just as we’re campaigning now on this particular issue, I think it will be moral pressure not just in parliament but right across the country.

Updated

No 10 says leaked memo has 'no credence'

At the Number 10 lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokeswoman strongly rejected the suggestion that the leaked document in the Times (see 10.14am) in any way reflects government thinking. These are from Sky’s Faisal Islam.

Ministers prepare three-line article 50 Brexit bill, BBC reports

According to the BBC’s Norman Smith, the government has drawn up a three-line bill that would give it the power to trigger article 50, starting the EU withdrawal process. It will push it through parliament if it loses its appeal to the supreme court.

Crucially, Smith says government lawyers think the bill is so tightly drawn it will be very hard to amend. Here’s an extract from Smith’s report.

Sources say they believe the legislation is so tightly drawn it will be difficult for critical MPs to amend.

Ministers have drawn up the legislation in the expectation that they may lose their appeal to the Supreme Court, which would force them to consult parliament.

Sources say they would plan to introduce the bill in the Commons immediately after the Supreme Court ruling.

And here is a link to the full post.

The issue of whether or not the bill can be amended is crucial. Most MPs accept that the government should have the power to trigger article 50, but Labour and the Lib Dems have both indicated that they will try to amend the bill to impose conditions on the government. Ministers fear this because they don’t want their options constrained. In situations like this, the parliamentary rules determining what amendments can be tabled to a bill and what cannot be accepted (because they are irrelevant to the bill’s aims) become very important. Ultimately the rules are enforced by the Commons clerks, and the speaker, John Bercow.

John McDonnell's economy speech - Summary

Here are the key points from John McDonnell’s economy speech.

  • McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, strongly affirmed Labour’s commitment to fiscal discipline, saying there is “nothing ‘progressive’ about running up excessive deficit”. Pointing out that the government has missed its previous fiscal targets, he urged Philip Hammond, the chancellor, to adopt something similar to the “fiscal credibility rule” he committed Labour to in March.

Those on the left have a duty to be scrupulously honest about the economic tasks in front of us.

There are no easy options.

There is no proverbial magic money tree.

We can only deliver the high-quality public services that our communities want and need when we have a high-quality economy that can pay for them.

That means an absolute and unbreakable commitment to fiscal discipline on the part of any future Labour government.

There is nothing “left-wing” about running an excessive deficit.

There is nothing “progressive” about running up excessive debts.

A government has an absolute responsibility to manage the money it is entrusted with by the people it serves.

Last week the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report saying, among other things, that almost all Treasury targets set since 1997 have been missed. The IFS said there was a lot to be said for flexible fiscal targets, and the Labour target qualifies as an example because it says the government would have to show at every budget how it would balance the current account budget over five years.

  • He praised Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England.

I want to pay tribute here to the Governor and to those at the Bank.

When the Chancellor was nowhere to be seen, the Prime Minister resigned, and assorted Tory Brexiteers simply walked away from the mess they helped create.

It was the actions of the Governor and the Bank of England that were there to offer the necessary support to our economy.

And yet their reward has been noises off from the Tory Party elite about the alleged failings of the Bank.

(This passage reads as if it were influenced partly by this column by Rafael Behr.)

  • He said Labour was committed to protecting the Bank’s independence.

At a time of economic uncertainty, not just here but across the world, we would trifle with the Bank’s independence at our peril.

It is a hard-won economic asset for this country.

So I want to repeat a point I have made already: under Labour, the Bank of England’s operational independence will be sacrosanct.

It is up to the government of the day to give the Bank its mandate.

But it is up to the Bank, and the Bank alone, to achieve it ...

The public servants who run the bank are drawn from the very top of the global talent pool. We will not allow a cabinet drawn from the dregs of a Tory government to place the blame for their failures on the bank.

Conservatives who have questioned Bank of England independence include William Hague, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg. McDonnell seems to working on the basis that defending the Bank robustly will help to boost Labour’s economic credibility.

  • McDonnell claimed that George Osborne’s austerity policies failed.

Philip Hammond will have to admit that the Conservatives have failed in every task they set themselves.

They failed to bring the deficit under control. It was supposed to have been eliminated by 2015.

They failed to bring down the government’s debt. It’s now 1.7 trillion.

They failed to restore wages, they failed on productivity, they failed on investment.

They failed because at every step of the way there was a Conservative Chancellor who put rhetoric ahead of the hard economic facts.

He chose austerity, when he could have chosen investment ...

Worst of all, it is an economy where after all the sacrifices of spending cuts and stagnant wages and zero hour contracts - the government debt burden continues to rise and the government deficit remains stubbornly high.

There is no other way to say it. Those sacrifices were made in vain.

  • He said Osborne’s austerity policies helped to trigger the Brexit vote.

The Tories want you to forget George Osborne but I want to you to remember what he did in detail.

Because he not only failed on every target he set himself – he plunged Britain’s hard pressed communities into such a state of neglect that they reached for the option of a break with Europe.

  • He signalled Labour would oppose calls for a second referendum on Brexit.

Labour accepts the referendum result as the voice of the majority and we must embrace the enormous opportunities to reshape our country that Brexit has opened for us.

In that way we can speak again to those who were left behind and offer a positive, ambitious vision instead of leaving the field open to divisive Trump-style politics.

This means we must not try to re-fight the referendum or push for a second vote and if article 50 needs to be triggered in parliament Labour will not seek to block or delay it.

  • He confirmed that Labour wanted a Brexit with full, tariff-free access to the single market.

We are insisting on full, tariff-free access to the Single Market for our businesses because this is the best way to protect jobs and living standards here.

This must include provision for our financial services sector, as part of a deal for the whole economy.

  • He said people should be more positive about Brexit.

The question of what Brexit means will be fought in the months and years through the negotiations and in the next election when we will define what a post-Brexit Britain looks like.

It is time we all were more positive about Brexit,

Labour wants to see an ambitious Brexit Britain.

And the British public know that only a Labour government can make an economic success of Brexit, as we are the only party prepared to make the hard choices, and invest seriously to grow a post-Brexit Britain we can all be proud of.

  • He condemned Donald Trump.

His was a victory won with the rhetoric of division.

Coming on the back of Brexit it is a wakeup call not just for the parties of the left, but for everybody who believes in science over superstition; merit over inherited wealth; paying your taxes instead of dodging your taxes.

  • He called for the planned cuts in universal credit and employment support allowance to be reversed.

Updated

Here is James Schneider, the Momentum organiser, with an extract from John McDonnell’s speech.

And here is the Financial Times’ Jim Pickard making the point that the speech (which I’ve just read, and will summarise very soon) contains a strong defence of Mark Carney.

My colleague Peter Walker is at Dragon Hall in London where John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is about to give his speech on the economy.

I won’t be covering it minute by minute, but I will post a summary as soon as I’ve seen the full text.

Richard Harrington, the pensions minister, has announced plans today to bring in a cap on early exit charges for occupational pensions. The details are in a news release here.

Deborah Haynes, the Times’ defence editor and one of the journalists who broke the leaked memo story (see 10.14am), has said that senior civil servants did aid the production of the document that the government is now disowning.

And Sam Coates, the Times’ deputy political editor, has hit back at the claim that it was just a pitch by a consultancy for work. (See 10.14am.)

Updated

Farage says UK's ambassador to the US should be sacked

Sky News has now broadcast its full interview with Nigel Farage, the outgoing Ukip leader. In it Farage said Sir Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the US, should be sacked. Farage told Sky:

I would have thought it’s obvious [that Darroch should be sacked]. He’s part of the old regime. He’s a fanatical Europhile, he’s part of the old regime, his worldview and the worldview of the Trump team are going to be diametrically opposed. I would have thought it would be more sensible to put someone there who is likely to get on with team Trump.

But Farage did not want the job himself, he said.

I don’t think I’m the ambassadorial type. Whatever talents or flaws I’ve got, I’m not sure diplomacy is necessarily at the top of my list of skills.

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, has just started giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

You can watch the hearing here.

And my colleague Graeme Wearden will be covering it on his business blog here.

The Times’ leaked memo story is not quite as exciting as it appears. It was written by a consultant working for Deloitte. The Times says the author is working for the department, but government sources are saying it was unsolicited. In that respect it is similar to the many Brexit update reports produced by thinktanks, banks, consultancies - and even news organisations. I get several in my inbox every week.

One of the best is the Guardian’s own Brexit weekly briefing, mainly written by Jon Henley. The latest is out today.

Still, a leak is a leak, and if the Guardian had been given this document, we’d have run it too.

And, even if the memo - which you can read in full here, on the Times’ webstite (paywall) - does not have the status of a secret report written by a top civil servant, it is still worth reading, not least because its analysis seems fairly sound. Here’s an excerpt.

The prime minister’s over-riding objective has been to keep her party from repeating its history of splitting 4 times in the past 200 years over global trade — each time being out of power for 15-30 years. The public stance of government is orientated primarily to its own supporters, with industry in particular barely being on the radarscreen — yet ...

The divisions within the cabinet are between the 3 Brexiteers on one side and Philip Hammond/Greg Clark on the other side. The prime minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself — which is unlikely to be sustainable. Overall, it appears best to judge who is winning the debate by assuming that the noisiest individuals have lost the intra-government debate and are stirring up external supporters ...

Industry has 2 unpleasant realisations — first, that the government’s priority remains its political survival, not the economy — second, that there will be no clear economic-Brexit strategy any time soon because it is being developed on a case-by-case basis as specific decisions are forced on government.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has a theory as to where the leak came from.

Updated

CPI inflation down from 1% to 0.9%

Inflation fell marginally last month, the Office for National Statistics has revealed. The Press Association has snapped this.

The rate of consumer price index inflation fell to 0.9% in October from 1.0% in September, the Office for National Statistics said.

Here is the ONS statistical bulletin.

Nigel Farage, the outgoing Ukip leader, is back from the United States and he has been giving interviews attacking Theresa May for her refusal not to use him as an intermediary with Donald Trump. This is what he told Sky News.

Amazing, isn’t it? Can you imagine if we were a business, and we were looking at Trump and America as somebody that we thought it was very important to form a close relationship with. What would you do? You’d find somebody that had connections. I do have connections with Trump, more particularly with Trump’s team, many of whom I’ve known for years, and yet the government don’t want in any way to talk to me informally, or do anything. And it says a lot about the way we are governed in this country. We are run by people who have never worked in the real world.

Asked about reports that Liam Fox, the international development secretary, was interested in using Farage in some way, and whether Fox had been in touch, Farage replied: “You’ll have to ask him about that.”

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is giving a big speech on the economy this morning, ahead of the autumn statement a week tomorrow. As Phillip Inman reports in our preview story, he is urging the government not to extend austerity beyond 2020.

As part of his pitch, McDonnell is also urging the government to adopt Labour’s pro-investment fiscal credibility rule. This is what he told the Today programme a few minutes ago.

We are hoping that next week Philip Hammond will put behind him the fiscal framework that he and George Osborne designed when they were in opposition and implemented when in government and enable ... investment to take place. I’m hoping that Philip Hammond will steal some of our ideas on that.

Also, we’ve got to say now, if we want a fair economy, we’ve got to end the austerity measures that were introduced by George Osborne. We saw a period of time in which tax cuts were given to the rich and corporations while some of the most deprived in our communities, particularly disabled people, were hit with cuts in benefits. So we are looking to see how the government now lays out its plan, rewrites the rules of its fiscal framework and then looks to long-term investment.

I will be covering the speech later in detail.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Inflation figures are published.

9.45am: Prison governors give evidence to the Commons justice committee.

10am: Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee. My colleague Graeme Wearden is covering is on his business live blog.

10.30am: John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, gives a speech on the economy.

11am: Sir Julian King, the European commissioner for security union, gives evidence to a Lords committee.

11.130am: Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, speaks at the launch of a report by the children and young people’s mental health commission.

2.15pm: The Iraq Historical Allegations Team give evidence to the Commons defence committee.

I will also be covering any more reaction that comes in to the leaked Cabinet Office memo criticising the state of Brexit planning although, as we report on our overnight story, the government is saying it did not commission the report and does not agree with its analysis.

As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will 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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