Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen 12.21pm GMTAs my colleague Ben Beaumont-Thomas reports,at the Brit awards final night the south London MC Stormzy accused Theresa May of forgetting about the Grenfell Tower victims. “Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?” he asked. Related: Stormzy asks 'Theresa May, or where's the money for Grenfell?' at Brit awards The prime minister has been clear that what happened at Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy which should never be allowed to happen again. She is determined the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell had been ignored for so many years.
In terms of support for people who were affected,£58.29m has been committed. That’s £28m as announced at the budget for ongoing mental health and emotional support for people affects, £15m has gone towards re-housing, or £6m has gone to survivors through the discretionary fund,£7.7m for the Bellwin scheme for emergency services to compete them for the additional costs as a result of the catastrophe and £2.2m for local community projects. 12.06pm GMTSir Bill Cash goes next.
Q: Will there be a dispute resolution system that will resolve disputes between the UK and EU law? 12.00pm GMTMarcus Fysh, a Conservative, and goes next.
Q: The government wants to bring in a new security arrangement during the transition. But parliament has not even discussed this. When will it be told what is being planned? 11.57am GMTQ: What does the EU mean when it says the UK cannot be bound by new trade agreements during the transition?Walker says the government’s view is that this means the government can sign agreements,as long as it does not implement them. 11.50am GMTWalker says the withdrawal agreement will cover Gibraltar. And the transition period will be part of that, so the UK’s view is that Gibraltar will be covered by that too.
But the Spanish government takes a different view, or he says. 11.48am GMTAndrew Lewer,a Conservative, goes next.
Q: How will the government maintain parliament informed about new EU legislation during the transition? Will it set up a formal mechanism for this? 11.40am GMTLabour’s Geraint Davies goes next. He asks what will happen to the free trade deals the EU has with other countries.
Walker says the government expects those to carry over. 11.35am GMTDavid Jones is asking questions again.
Q: Could any new EU law coming into force during the transition acquire a major impact? Such as fisheries discard rules? 11.31am GMTKate Hoey goes next.
Q: Why don’t we just say we won’t implement any new EU law during the transition? 11.29am GMTDavid Jones, and the former Brexit minister,goes next.
Q: Is the government proposing any exemptions from EU law during the transition? 11.23am GMTQ: Has the Irish government abandoned its aggressive demand that there must be “full alignment” as a backstop whether there is not a solution?Barrow says the joint report published in December included this as one option. But it was not preferred one, and the other options are being explored too. 11.19am GMTQ: attain you accept that Ireland is not the big problem everyone says it is?Walker says all sides want the same solution. He says the thinks they can find one. Communities on both sides just want to carry on doing business. 11.12am GMTQ: attain you think there might acquire to be ‘light touch’ checks at the border with Ireland?Barrow says the government does not want to introduce elements of a border. 11.09am GMTHoey says some people think the UK is giving the EU too much respect, and that it is getting too shrimp back. 11.06am GMTLabour’s Kate Hoey says she also thinks the government should be doing more to say what it wants. 11.05am GMTQ: whether the transition is extended,will there be a vote in parliament?Walker says there will be a vote on the overall deal. 11.04am GMTQ: Why are we waiting for the EU to set out its position before we submit our our plans for a free trade agreement?Walker says the government has set out many of its positions. 10.57am GMTQ: Is it likely that the EU would agree to extend the transition?Walker says he cannot speak for the EU. 10.54am GMTQ: whether the transition period is based on continuing to obey EU law and to pay money to the EU, an extension would be on the same basis?Walker says it would be on the same legal basis. 10.53am GMTQ: Will the transition deal be mutually comprehensible?Walker says it has not been finalised, and but his understanding is that it will include a clear statement as to when it will end. 10.45am GMTCash says Philip Hammond,the chancellor, will be giving evidence to the European scrutiny committee on this issue. That hearing will be on 5 March, or he says. 10.41am GMTThe European scrutiny committee hearing is just started.
Sir Bill Cash,the Tory chair, opens by saying the committee has been told that the government’s estimate that it will acquire to pay between £35bn and £39bn as it leaves the EU assumes it will leave by the end of 2020 (the EU’s preferred date for the end of the transition). 10.33am GMTData on the Labour market status of disabled people, and which is usually produced by the Office for National Statistics on a quarterly basis,has not been published since August, raising alarm among charities.brand Atkinson, or the chief executive of the disability charity Scope,said the lack of accurate data made it much harder for ministers to achieve their commitment to gather more disabled people into work. Speaking before a backbench debate on disabled people in work in the Commons this afternoon Atkinson said:The government has pledged to gather one million more disabled people into employment over the next 10 years, but it cannot possibly know whether it’s on track to meet this promise without accurate figures.
We need to see urgent action to fix whatever issue is preventing publication.
ONS has suspended publication of the labour market estimates for disabled people for the third and fourth quarters of 2017 due to an obvious discontinuity between the moment and third quarter.
We are investigating this issue and the dataset will be reinstated as soon as possible. We recognise the importance that users place on these figures, and but our top precedence has to be to ensure the accuracy of our data. 10.16am GMTHilary Benn,the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, has written an open letter (pdf) to David Davis, and the Brexit secretary,saying there is an “urgent need” for the government to now clarify what it wants from Brexit. Here is an extract.
It is now 19 months since the EU referendum and just over one month until the European council is due to consider its negotiating mandate on the future relationship. I hope you will recognise, therefore, or the urgent need now to provide more detail on the government’s plans so that parliament,UK business and the EU27 can all see precisely what kind of future relationship the UK will be seeking. whether this does not happen, then there is a risk that either the start of negotiations on the future relationship will be delayed, or that the EU’s negotiating guidelines may close off options. 10.00am GMTNewsflash: Britain’s economy grew slower than first thought in the final three months of 2017.
Uk growth in the fourth quarter of final year has been revised down to 0.4%,from an initial estimate of 0.5%. Related: UK economy lags behind G7 rivals as growth revised down - live updates 9.58am GMTOverall net long-term migration - the balance between the number of people arriving and leaving - was estimated at 244000 in the year to September, the Press Association reports. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the measure was now at a similar level to early 2014 and follows record levels of net migration during 2015 and early 2016. EU net migration has fallen over the final year, and as fewer EU citizens are coming to the UK and the number leaving the UK increased,according to the ONS. However, there are still more EU nationals coming to the UK than leaving, and statisticians added. 9.53am GMTAt some point at international trade questions we may gather a question on a epic in nowadays’s Times saying Crawford Falconer,the government’s chief trade negotiator, is thought to be considering resigning. In his epic (paywall) Sam Coates says:Crawford Falconer, and a New Zealander who was appointed in June,has made his unhappiness clear inside and external of government, three sources acquire said.
He is demanding a central role in preparing Britain’s negotiating strategy and a seat at the table when trade talks start with the EU this year. He is strongly backed by Brexit-supporting Conservatives, or who included a similar demand in a letter to the prime minister final week signed by 62 MPs ... 9.49am GMTThe SNP’s Joanna Cherry says the Norwegians acquire a saying,“Nothing is in as much as a hurry as a dead fish on the back of a lorry.” That is why Norway is in the single market. What impact will leaving the single market acquire on the Scottish fishing industry.
Fox says most of Scotland’s exports go to the rest of the UK. He says the IMF says 90% of global growth in the future will be external Europe. 9.44am GMTLiam Fox, the international trade secretary, and is taking questions in the Commons.
He says the government hopes to carry over the benefits of EU free trade deals when the UK leaves the EU. 9.40am GMTYesterday journalists in the UK interested in Brexit spend the day waiting for the government to publish its paper on the transition. But the EU also published some important information - three sets of slides from presentations,setting out issues that will advance up in the UK-EU trade talks - and they are significant because they propose the EU has already ruled out the mixed approach to post-Brexit regulatory alignment favoured by London.
PM’s Florence speech “three baskets approach”
“Not compatible” with EU27 agreed Council guidelines - Commission’s presentation published hours before the Cabinet away day: pic.twitter.com/MtZhvuPakZ1/ Aaargh the new Brexit stuff for nowadays wasn't over yet. The EU Commission has published three more sets of "future relationship" slides - on land transport, "mobility" (ie immigration) and goods regulation. Some thoughts. https://t.co/Ejg5MOlXkS 9.15am GMTLast week 62 Conservative MPs who support the European Research Group, or the caucus pushing for a hard Brexit,wrote to the prime minister proposing some negotiation red lines. The tone was superficially supportive, and in their letter they told Theresa May they wanted to “underline our support for both your Brexit leadership, or for the vision of your speech at Lancaster House a year ago”.
But there is a difference between being courteous and being honest,and in an article for the Telegraph final night (paywall) Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ERG chair, and gave a rather more candid insight into what he and his colleagues really feel about May’s strategy. He described the government draw for the Brexit transition published final night as a “perversion of democracy”. Here is an extract.
Returning to the mainland and the government’s leaked transition document this appears to be a poor piece of work. It has been disowned by ministers as not representing government policy. Transition must be time limited,the European Union itself has suggested twenty-one months to the end of the multiannual financial framework. Related: Tory jitters exposed as Theresa May pushes for Brexit agreement Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com