Andrew Sparrow 

EU chief criticises UK’s Brexit stance, telling MPs their argument has ‘nothing to do with reality’ – Politics live

Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen
  
  

Donald Tusk, president of the European council, has criticised the UK government’s stance on Brexit, telling MPs their complaint about the council has ‘nothing to do with reality’
Donald Tusk, president of the European council, has criticised the UK government’s stance on Brexit, telling MPs their complaint about the council has ‘nothing to do with reality’ Photograph: Marcus Ericsson/AFP/Getty Images

Afternoon summary

  • Theresa May and Donald Trump have spoken on the phone, agreeing they will meet “at the earliest possible opportunity”. (See 5.27pm.)
  • Labour has said the government’s plans to reform corporate governance would not have stopped the scandals that took place at BHS and Sports Direct. Speaking in the Commons as the government published its corporate governance green paper Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, said:

Bringing private companies into the PLC rule book strikes one as a move so targeted at a particular series of events, that it will, I expect, come to be known as the BHS law. But had the proposals outlined today by the secretary of state been in place six months ago, I’m not wholly convinced that we would have avoided the corporate governance scandals that have plagued the last summer. To force private companies to abide by the corporate governance code will do little unless that code is tightened. BHS may have been a private company, but Sports Direct isn’t, and we all know what has gone on there.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

May and Trump agree to meet 'at the earliest possible opportunity'

Theresa May spoke to Donald Trump this afternoon. This is what Number 10 is saying about their calls. A spokesman said:

The prime minister called the US president-elect this afternoon as part of establishing a regular dialogue between both of them.

They discussed how the president-elect’s transition plans were progressing and agreed that their teams should continue to build close relationships through this period, including with a meeting of their national security advisers in the United States before Christmas.

They discussed NATO, agreeing on the importance of the alliance, the need for more NATO members to meet the target of spending 2% of GDP and the role that NATO can play in addressing diverse threats.

They agreed to stay in close touch and to meet at the earliest possible opportunity.

And here are the key lines.

  • May and Trump agree to meet “at the earliest possible opportunity”.
  • British national security chiefs to meet Trump’s advisers before Christmas.

Updated

Here is an extract from the letter sent to Donald Tusk. According to the Independent, it was backed by 80 parliamentarians, including 70 Tory MPs.

They told Tusk:

We warmly welcome the news that individual member states are working with the prime minister and Her Majesty’s government to resolve the status of EU citizens in the UK and our citizens living and working in Europe, but we are extremely concerned that members of the commission - particularly commissioner [Michel] Barnier - seem worryingly indifferent to securing reciprocal rights for our and your resident citizens.

His attempts to prevent negotiations taking place on this issue between the democratically-elected governments of EU member states are making it harder to achieve what is in everyone’s interest: ending the anxiety and uncertainty for UK and EU citizens living in one another’s territories.

It is the only just and humane thing to do and anything else would be unworthy of Europe’s common values.

People are not bargaining chips. Human beings are not cards to be traded ‘tit for tat’ in a political playground.

Here is some more Twitter comment on the Tusk letter.

From John Stevens, the Daily Mail’s Europe correspondent

From Bruno Waterfield, the Times’s Brussels correspondent

From Jennifer Rankin, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent

Steve Baker, the Conservative MP who helped to organise the letter to Donald Tusk asking him for an early agreement on the rights of Britons in the EU and EU nationals in Britain after Brexit, has criticised Tusk’s response.

Here is the key paragraph from Tusk’s letter.

In your letter you state that the European Commission, and in particular Mr Barnier, are attempting to prevent negotiations, thereby creating ‘anxiety and uncertainty for the UK and EU citizens living in one another’s territories.’ It is a very interesting argument, the only problem being that it has nothing to do with reality. Would you not agree that the only source of anxiety and uncertainty is rather the decision on Brexit? And that the only way to dispel the fears and doubts of all the citizens concerned is the quickest possible start of the negotiations based on Art. 50 of the Treaty?

EU chief says Britain to blame for "anxiety' afflicting EU nationals in UK

Donald Tusk, president of the European council, has published a remarkably scathing, and even in parts sarcastic, letter he has sent to around 80 MPs criticising Britain’s stance on Brexit.

The MPs, led by the Conservatives Michael Tomlinson and Steve Baker, said in their own letter to Tusk that the EU’s refusal to start talks on the status of EU nationals living in the UK, and Britons living in Europe, was creating “anxiety and uncertainty”.

Tusk says that it was the vote for Brexit that is creating this uncertainty. And he says that, if Britain wants this matter resolved, it could invoke article 50, allowing the Brexit talks to starts.

He tells the MPs that their argument has “nothing to do with reality”.

His words are unusually blunt for a letter of this kind. It gives a revealing insight into quite how frustrated some EU leaders are getting with Britain’s refusal to commence Brexit talks.

Updated

Kate Bush says Theresa May is 'wonderful' and 'very intelligent'

And, while we’re on the subject of music, May has received a glowing endorsement from Kate Bush. In an interview with Macleans, a Canadian magazine, Bush said:

We have a female prime minister here in the UK. I actually really like her and think she’s wonderful. I think it’s the best thing that’s happened to us in a long time. She’s a very intelligent woman but I don’t see much to fear. I will say it is great to have a woman in charge of the country. She’s very sensible and I think that’s a good thing at this point in time.

Back to Ukip, and the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope has been interviewing Paul Nuttall, the new Ukip leader. It turns out that Nuttall has something in common with David Cameron; he’s a Smiths fan.

He also has something in common with Theresa May. They are both admirers of the Liberal Unionist statesman Joseph Chamberlain.

Michael Gove used to spend his life reorganising schools, managing Tory MPs, trying to reform prisons and orchestrating the departure of the UK from the European Union. Now, though, he is a mere backbencher and it seems he has nothing better to do with his afternoon than spend it on Twitter.

It turns out he can use emojis. This is what he tagged on a tweet from me about Ed Balls taking part in the Strictly Come Dancing live tour next year.

Even more worryingly, it turns out he now speaks teenage. In response to this:

he tweeted this:

Ukip rejects plan to invoke article 50, saying that would fudge Brexit

In a statement marking his appointment as Ukip’s new Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten said Ukip did not want the government to invoke article 50, the measure that starts the two-year EU withdrawal process. That could delay, or water down, withdrawal, he claimed. Instead he said Ukip wanted the government to just repeal the European Communities Act as quickly as possible. He said:

Theresa May and her Tory government cannot be trusted to deliver our withdrawal from the EU. She was a remainer who heads a predominantly remain government.

If she were genuine about delivering Brexit she would have triggered article 50 the moment she became prime minister. Instead nothing has been done in the last five months, and there are no plans for the next four. Then we will face at least another two years of protracted negotiations. Under article 50 they could be extended for years to come.

Mrs May’s strategy is to delay and delay the whole process in order to fudge it and to try and foist on us a ‘Norwegian or Swiss’-type EU model whereby we continue to pay money to the EU, obey a large percentage of its laws, and have open borders. In which case we would not have left the European Union at all.

Ukip’s policy will be to reject article 50. Rather, we will call for parliament to repeal the European Communities Act (1972) immediately as the first step in the process: this will restore law-making supremacy to the UK parliament and put the British government in the driving seat of negotiations not the EU.

Ukip reshuffle

Ukip’s new leader Paul Nuttall has been carrying out a reshuffle.

Mike Hookem, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, has been made fisheries spokesman. He was the party’s defence and veterans spokesman, but he will keep responsibility for veterans.

John Bickley, a former election candidate, has been appointed immigration spokesman.

Gerard Batten, MEP for London, has become Brexit spokesman.

Julia Reid, MEP for south west England, has become environment spokesperson. Reid has a science doctorate and worked as a laboratory researcher before becoming an MEP.

Bill Etheridge, MEP for the West Midlands, has been made defence spokesman. Etheridge came third in the last Ukip leadership contest (the one won by Diane James).

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has put out a statement criticising Philip Hammond for refusing to commit to keeping the triple lock into the next parliament. (See 1.12pm.) McDonnell said:

The chancellor’s refusal again today to commit to the triple lock in the next parliament, only further proves that the Tories are abandoning older people.

After six wasted years of Tory failure, we already have a social care system close to collapse, and a National Health Service that has been cut to the bone.

Hammond’s refusal once again to provide pensioners with the reassurances over the triple lock will only add to the worries of people in their older age.

Labour is committed to supporting older people, and ensuring they have a secure and sustainable retirement. Labour will support the pensions triple lock and instead of cutting taxes for the super-rich and giant corporations will make sure our NHS and social care is properly funded.

Today’s Guardian/ICM poll tables (pdf) show why Labour is so keen to improve its offer to pensioners. Amongst over-65s the Tories are ahead of Labour by 60% to 18%. And, amongst the over-75s, their lead is even higher - 67% to 12%. These figures, of course, are based on a sub-sample of the poll, meaning that they are much less reliable than the headline poll figures. But, even allowing for a colossal margin of error, they are not great for Labour.

As the Herald reports, the SNP spent less on their EU referendum campaign than they did fighting the Glenrothes byelection in 2008. Commenting on this, the Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said:

The SNP is behaving like leaving the EU is the end of the world for Scotland. But the party’s pitiful investment in the campaign tells another story completely.

The SNP is not a poor organisation, yet it treated the EU referendum like it was a council by-election.

Now we know Alex Neil and other senior SNP figures wanted Brexit, perhaps that explains why such little effort and cash was invested.

Scottish opposition parties have questioned the depth of Sturgeon’s commitment to keeping the UK in the EU after it emerged the Scottish National party spent just £90,830 on its referendum campaign – less than the Sun newspaper and less than its spending on byelections. It had a legal spending limit of £700,000.

The disclosure follows the Scottish government’s admission at the time of the referendum that it had not publicised, press released or printed its official brochure urging a remain vote in the referendum: the document was put online without any fanfare in April.

Willie Rennie, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, said the figure “reveals the low priority that they gave the referendum. They hardly lifted a finger during the referendum.” He said the SNP could only redeem herself by battling against Brexit.

An SNP spokesman said that attack was ridiculous: Scottish voters had overwhelmingly backed the remain vote, by 62% to 38%, and SNP leaders including Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond had campaigned vigorously for the EU.

EU states 'increasingly fed up' with not knowing UK's Brexit plans, MSPs told

The Scottish government’s Brexit minister Michael Russell has warned that the UK government’s incoherent approach to Brexit is resulting in an increasingly hardline attitude in Europe.

Giving evidence to a Holyrood committee on Tuesday morning, Russell said:

The European view is hardline and it’s getting harder. They are increasingly fed up with not understanding what’s going on and hearing things which, in the words of the Dutch foreign minister about Boris Johnson, are intellectually incoherent and there’s no doubt that that’s true.

Speaking as first minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Irish senate that the option of a second independence referendum remained “firmly on the table”, Russell confirmed her position that the Scottish government was “ruling absolutely nothing out”.

Russell said that the Scottish government would publish over the next few weeks a paper which will outline what are “the options that exist at this time” for Scotland.

They lie broadly in three areas: the undifferentiated option of leaving the EU in exactly that same way as the UK intends to leaves. At the other end of the spectrum is the possibility that we will not be able to find any other adequate solution but to go forward with another independence referendum and give the people of Scotland the choice.

In the middle are a range of differentiated options and the success of those will depend on the willingness of the UK government to include those in their negotiating position.

Russell added that there are currently almost 30 sub-state arrangements within the EU, and noted that Sturgeon herself had confirmed last week that a Norway-style model was being considered.

But Russell went on to caution: “The key to this will lie in the willingness of the UK to fold into their negotiating position deals and opportunities which exist for other parts of the UK.” For example, he said that it had been made clear at last Friday’s meeting of the British-Irish Council that “there must be a commitment ... that there has to be a deal for Ireland as an island that does not have a hard border”.

Russell also pointed out that Brexit is not the only thing happening in the EU, and that the union is facing a number of challenges currently. Terms like “impossible” should not be used at this time, he said.

I genuinely do not believe that anything is unlikely or impossible because the EU has always been flexible but these are extraordinary circumstances and we have to continue to talk about them.

This is from the Financial Times’ Jim Pickard, who has started looking at the corporate governance green paper.

Oliver Dowden, a Conservative, says changes to company law are no substitute for basic morality.

Clark says generally the standards of governance and behaviour in British companies are high.

Clark says he feels “surprise and dismay” about how few Labour MPs there are in the chamber. See 1.37pm.

Labour’s Clive Efford says last week the chancellor adopted Labour policy on investment. Now Clark is adopting Labour policy on having workers on company boards.

Clark says there are hardly any Labour MPs in the chamber, and far more Tory MPs. That shows Tories care about this, he says.

UPDATE: Tim Montgomerie has posted a picture.

Updated

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, says fairness in progression is an issue too. Will he encourage firms to say what they are doing on this?

Clark says this is a reasonable point. Farron can contribute to the consultation.

Labour’s David Winnick says the best way to ensure workers get proper pay is for them to be represented by a union.

Clark says he hopes the unions will respond to the consultation. They have an important role to play, he says.

Michael Gove, the former justice secretary, welcomes the statement. The dynamic growth we need will only be secured if we have public support for capitalism, he says. He says we should have working class people on boards.

Clark says he wants all talent represented on company boards.

The SNP’s Callum McCaig gives a cautious welcome to the plans.

He asks when the changed might be implemented.

And he asks what is being done to improve diversity in board rooms.

On workers on boards, Theresa May said in a speech that too often people on boards were drawn from the same narrow, social circle. The government’s current plans will not change that, he says.

When May said the Tories were the part of workers, was that post-truth, or just not true at all?

Clark welcomes McCaig’s tone at the start of his comments.

The government values transparency, Clark says. It does not want to say what pay levels should be.

The consultation will close in February. The government will respond as soon as possible after that, he says.

He says May was clear about wanting consumers and workers represented on company boards. That is what these plans will do, he says.

Clark is responding to Lewis.

He says he hopes Labour responds to the consultation.

Britain has a good record on corporate governance, he says. This is one area where the rest of the world looks to Britain.

He says the problem with executive pay got worse during the Labour years. Between 1998 and 2010 average chief executive pay went from £1m to £4.3m, he says. And the ratio of the chief executive’s pay to the average full-time worker’s pay went from 47/1 to 132/1.

After 2010 average chief executive pay fell from £4.3m to £4.25m, he says. And the ratio fell from 132/1 to 128/1.

Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, is responding to Clark.

He says Theresa May has changed her mind about putting workers on company boards.

He says when MPs debated Philip Green recently, Lewis said what was shocking was that everything he did with BHS was legal. Would these plans change that, he asks. He says he thinks not.

He says firms are paying less now in dividends. And investment is lower. No wonder productivity is so much lower than in Germany.

This “damaging short-termism” is also seen in corporate takeovers, he says.

Lewis says corporate governance reform requires changes to the way companies work.

Greg Clark's statement on corporate governance

Greg Clark, the business secretary, has just made a statement to MPs setting out the government’s plans. The three key proposals were briefed overnight.

Lunchtime summary

  • A Guardian/ICM poll has put the Conservatives 16 points ahead of Labour and given them their highest vote share for seven years. (See 9.42am.)
  • Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has criticised Labour for promising to keep the triple lock for pensioners in the next parliament. After Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, challenged Hammond during Treasury questions to back Labour in committing to keep the triple lock for the duration of the next parliament, he replied:

Well, Mr Speaker, this was worth waiting for. We have a firm commitment by the opposition to run the triple lock through the lifetime of the next parliament. I wonder if [Long-Bailey] knows how much money she has just spent. Without knowing the fiscal circumstances the country will face, what we have said, and the only responsible thing to say, is that all the commitments that we have made for the duration of this parliament we will review at the spending review before the end of the parliament. And we will decide then which ones we can afford to renew, which ones are appropriate to renew. I think it tells us everything we need to know about the opposition that three and a half year out they are willing to spray around commitments without any idea of what it is going to cost them.

The triple lock, introduced by the coalition, ensures pensions rise every year by 2.5% or in line with earnings or inflation, whichever is highest.

  • A legal expert has said the government could lose 11-nil when the supreme court hears its appeal against the ruling that it must consult MPs before invoking article 50. In a legal magazine Prof Michael Zander QC, Professor Emeritus of Law at the London School of Economics, said:

I would be surprised if the attorney general and his team of supporting QCs and other lawyers have given ministers reason to hope that there was any great hope of the [high court’s) unanimous and very strong decision being reversed. The appeal is to be heard in December - for the first time with all 11 [supreme court) justices sitting. In my view, the government could be looking at losing 11-0.

  • Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has told MPs that the impact of Brexit on the economy is unlikely to be “anywhere close” to being as damaging as the impact of the 2008 crash. Giving evidence to the Treasury committee he said the downturn predicted by many forecasters “may not materialise” - though things “may turn out considerably worse”.

I don’t think it is within most people’s bound of uncertainty that we will have anything close to what happened in 2008, but there are changes coming along and we don’t exactly know how the economy will respond to them.

I believe that all of these ties [between Scotland and Ireland] will strengthen further – to our mutual benefit – in the years ahead.

There is no doubt that the UK-wide vote to leave the EU was deeply unwelcome. For Scotland, as for Ireland, it creates a challenge which is not of our choosing.

For Scotland, too, we know that how we - and indeed the UK as a whole - respond to June’s vote will define us for generations to come.

We can choose to turn inwards or we can choose to stand strong for the principles of an open economy and a progressive, liberal democracy.

I choose the latter. But in doing so, I recognise that we mustn’t just assert the benefits of these values - we must be able to demonstrate them.

Ireland provides an interesting example. The decisions you took after 1958 to open your economy to the world were transformational. You are a wealthier, more open and more diverse society as a result.

  • Ed Balls will take part in Strictly Come Dancing’s 10th anniversary live tour in 2017, it has been announced. He said:

Going on tour is going to be another first for me and I plan to give it everything I’ve got for the audiences across the country.

Poland’s foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski, who was in London yesterday for the UK-Poland summit, has said that Britain may not leave the EU for another three years, the Evening Standard reports.

Michael Gove, the Conservative former justice secretary and leading Vote Leave campaigner, has rediscovered his respect for experts from organisations with acronyms.

In Treasury questions Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow chief secretary, asks Hammond to remove the uncertainty facing pensioners and commit to keeping the triple lock throughout the next parliament.

Philip Hammond says Long-Bailey has just made a big spending commitment without knowing how much it will cost. He says the government will review the finances before making a commitment before the 2020 general election. The fact that Long-Bailey is willing to “spray around” money without knowing the cost tells you everything you need to know about Labour, he says.

In the Commons John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, says the only information we are getting about the government’s Brexit plans is coming from a leaked note. It says the government is opposed to a transitional deal. Will the government do an assessment of the impact of all the Brexit options, including leaving the single market?

Simon Kirby, a Treasury minister, says this is what the government does. The note was not government policy, he says.

Luxembourg PM rules out giving UK a transitional deal after Brexit

The prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, has said that Britain will not be allowed to “have its cake and eat it” in the Brexit talks. In an interview with the AFP news agency he said:

They want to have their cake, eat it, and get a smile from the baker, but not the other things. There are European values which cannot be separated. No cherry-picking.

He also said he would be opposed to the EU giving Britain a transitional deal that would allow it to retain some of the benefits of single market membership after leaving before a full UK-EU trade deal gets finalised. Bettel told AFP:

What would interim mean? That we are going make a hybrid status now? Either you’re a member or you’re not a member of the European Union.

We are not going to make a status of ‘a little bit member’ or ‘not completely’, ‘pending divorced’, ‘nearly divorced’.

There is no in-between status, there is no hybrid status between the two.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is taking questions in the Commons now. In response to a question from Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chair of the Treasury committee, Hammond said that a reduction in openness (in trade terms) with the EU would be bad for the economy and that he wanted “the most open possible trading relationship” with the EU after Brexit.

Britain will ratify plans for a single European patent system, marking its first commitment to a new EU initiative since the Brexit referendum in June, the Financial Times (subscription) reports.

The move goes against the expectations of many intellectual property lawyers and experts, who had predicted that the UK would pull out of the agreement along with its exit from the EU.

The single patent system is intended to protect inventions across the EU. Its members have accepted the supremacy of EU law, as decided by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, intellectual property minister, said the decision to ratify “should not be seen as pre-empting the UK’s objectives or position” in Brexit negotiations ...

Although the EU is setting up the UPC [unified patent court], the court itself is not technically an EU institution but an international patent court with a judiciary including UK judges. However, the system in its present form is only open to EU member states.

Joff Wild at IAM, an intellectual property website, has written a blog on this going into more detail. Here is an excerpt.

For dyed-in-the-wool anti-Europeans in the UK that will prove to be a very bitter pill to swallow. However, as ratification already has Parliamentary approval, there is little in practical terms that those opposing the deal can do. The one hope might be to seek to create a “betrayal” narrative in the Eurosceptic British press to build pressure on the government to change its mind. But patents are not exactly high profile, so it may well be that the anti-Brussels brigade seeks to fight any battles it deems necessary elsewhere.

In a speech delivered in Frankfurt and posted on his department’s website this morning Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, said that Britain wanted to act as “a global catalyst for further trade liberalisation” with Germany.

Germany and Britain enjoy one of the world’s strongest and most open trading partnerships, a friendship built upon trade and mutual prosperity that we both cherish.

Together, we can act as a global catalyst for further trade liberalisation.

When we leave the EU, Germany will be Britain’s biggest trading partner in the Union, and our close economic and commercial ties will remain.

He also said that leaving the EU would not lead to Britain turning its back on free trade.

Chancellor Merkel has long been a champion of international trade deals, such as the one between the EU and Japan ...

The United Kingdom will continue to support such international free trade deals as long as they remain on the table.

After all, Britain’s aim is not to erase the achievements of our last four decades within the EU, nor to advance any kind of ‘de-globalisation’. Rather, we intend to be open for business, for we in Britain hold our commercial relationship with Germany particularly dear.

His speech made it clear that the government would like to maintain tariff-free trade with the EU, even if the UK leaves the single market and the customs union. But Fox did not address the fact that most EU leaders think this will be impossible if the government insists on restricting the right of EU workers to move to the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, says the ‘have cake and eat it’ note highlights the need for the government to publish its Brexit plan. In a statement he said:

The case for government to come clean, to end this unnecessary uncertainty and publish a clear plan for Brexit is now overwhelming.

Two weeks ago Boris Johnson told a Czech newspaper that the government is not planning for the UK to stay in the customs union, yesterday we learn from leaked notes that the government does not intend to stay in the single market either.

These disclosures are significant because they suggest that the government is not even going to fight for the single market or customs union in the negotiations. If that is the case, there are huge implications for the economy, for businesses and for jobs in the UK.

Here is some comment from polling experts on today’s Guardian/ICM poll. (See 9.42am.)

From GfK’s Keiran Pedley

From Number Cruncher Politics’ Matt Singh

Here is Sir Christopher Meyer, a former ambassador to Germany and America, on the ‘have cake and eat it’ Brexit note.

Updated

ICM’s Martin Boon has his own write-up of today’s polling here, and the full tables are here (pdf).

Earlier this month Theresa May went to Berlin for a summit with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and other world leaders. On her arrival May and Merkel seemed to be getting on well.

But, when they appeared together later in the day, relations seemed a lot cooler.

Often it is a mistake to read too much into body language, but this morning Politico Europe has published a story that might explain why May left Berlin feeling disappointed. Paul Taylor and Charlie Cooper say May went to Berlin hoping that Merkel would agree an informal deal saying that Britons living in the EU will be granted the right to stay, in return for EU nationals living in the UK having the right to stay too, but that Merkel refused.

Here’s an extract from their story.

Angela Merkel rebuffed a request by Theresa May for assurances that Britons living in the European Union and EU citizens living in the U.K. would keep their rights to residence, work and healthcare after Brexit.

The German chancellor’s polite but firm “Nein” when the two leaders met in Berlin on November 18 dashed the British prime minister’s hopes of a quick informal deal to reassure expatriates on both sides of the Channel that they will not lose out when Britain leaves the EU, three people familiar with the matter said ...

The tactical thinking behind the German rejection speaks volumes about the depth of mistrust between Berlin and London, and about Merkel’s determination to put preserving the unity of the other 27 EU members ahead of the future relationship with a departing Britain.

Officials were concerned that London would try to salami-slice the negotiations, seeking to retain most of the advantages of EU membership while rejecting obligations such as allowing continued free movement of people, accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, implementing all EU rules and continuing to pay into the EU budget ...

In German eyes, any early, partial deal on citizens’ rights might encourage May to play for time and delay triggering Article 50. It might also embolden those in the U.K. government and the Conservative Party who believe Brussels can be bounced into accepting continued British access to the single market without too many concessions.

Downing Street has said it won’t comment on May’s talks with Merkel, but that May has made it clear that she wants an early reciprocal deal guaranteeing the rights of EU nationals living in the UK and of Britons living in the EU.

Clark insists 'having cake and eating it' not government's Brexit policy

Greg Clark, the business secretary, has been giving interviews this morning ahead of his statement to the Commons this afternoon. On the Today programme he was asked about the note being carried by a Tory aide in Downing Street yesterday which implied that the government’s Brexit policy now amounts to having cake and eating it.

That was not what he had been told, Clark said:

I was interested and amused to see it because it doesn’t reflect any of the conversations that I’ve been part of in Downing Street.

I don’t know what the provenance of that note is. All I can say is this is going to be a negotiation that has to be serious. We have to get our negotiating mandate in place but this is being done soberly and meticulously.

Asked if the government’s policy was to have its cake and eat it, he replied:

It would be nice to have but it’s not the policy.

Last week’s autumn statement was one of the most important government announcements since Theresa May became prime minister and we’ve got the first set of Guardian/ICM polling since it took place. As everyone knows, polling is not always an exact predictor of how people will vote but it is a much better guide to public thinking than guesswork and so, with those caveats, here are the figures.

State of the parties

Conservatives: 44% (up 2 points from ICM earlier this month)

Labour: 28% (no change)

Ukip: 12% (up 1)

Lib Dems: 7% (down 2)

Greens: 4% (up 1)

Conservative lead: 16 points (up 2)

ICM’s director Martin Boon urges caution about attributing the two-point increase in the Tory lead just to the autumn statement. But he says the Conservative score, 44%, is the highest the party has achieved since October 2009 and just one point off the highest it has ever hit in Guardian/ICM polling going back to 1992. The Tories have reached 45% on just five occasions, three of them just after John Major’s election victory in 1992 and two after the 2008 financial crash.

Boon also says the figures for Labour are “bleak”. The tables (pdf) show the Tories ahead of Labour amongst every social grade, even DEs (where the Tories are on 33% and Labour 32%). The Tories are also ahead amongst all age groups, apart from 18 to 24-year-olds.

Economic confidence

Respondents were asked to think about the economy, their financial position and their ability to keep up with the cost of living, and were then asked “how confident do you feel about things at the moment?”

Confident (very or fairly): 53%

Not confidence (not very or not at all): 43%

Overall that amounts to a +10 confidence measures (those who are confident minus those who are not). Boon says this quite a drop from August, when the net measure was +34, but that it is still relatively good. Over the last decade the net measure has often been negative.

Living standards

Last week, after the autumn statement, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said rising inflation meant that by 2021 workers would have gone more than a decade without an increase in wages in real terms. ICM asked respondents to think about their own living standards over the last 10 years and to say what had happened to them.

Got better: 31%

No change: 34%

Got worse: 29%

These are hardly figures that a government would want to boast about: only a third of people think their living standards have got better over the last decade. But, equally, only about a third of people are saying their living standards have actually got worse. These figures might help to explain why the government’s ratings are so high.

ICM Unlimited interviewed an online sample of 2009 adults aged 18+ on 25-27th November 2016. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

9.30am: Sam Gyimah, the justice minister, and Michael Spurr, the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, give evidence to the Commons justice committee about prison reform.

10.15am: Officials from the department for international trade give evidence on Brexit to the Commons international trade committee.

11am: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech to the Irish parliament about Brexit.

11.30am: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

12.30pm: Greg Clark, the business secretary, makes a statement in the Commons about the government’s plans to curb corporate pay.

Around 2pm: MPs begin the second reading debate on the Commonwealth development corporation bill.

I will be covering the Clark statement in detail but, 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 on posting 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.

Updated

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*