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EU referendum live: Corbyn says Labour would veto TTIP trade deal
EU referendum live: Merkel says UK will lose out if it leaves EU
(35 minutes later)
1.39pm BST
13:39
This is what Reuters have filed on Angela Merkel’s comments.
Germany wants Britain to stay in the European Union, chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, adding it would be better for Britons if London can wield power from within the 28-member bloc rather than from the outside.
Merkel made her comments at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin.
1.36pm BST
13:36
This is from Bloomberg’s Robert Hutton.
NEWS: Merkel has weighed in on Brexit. Short version: it's up the the UK, but you won't get a better deal by leaving.
1.34pm BST
13:34
This is from the BBC’s Berlin correspondent Jenny Hill.
Angela Merkel warns Britain it will be much harder to negotiate issues of the single market from outside of the EU
1.33pm BST
13:33
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Fascinating thing about Merkel's intervention is a few weeks ago German sources were saying privately that she wasn't minded to say anything
Updated
at 1.34pm BST
1.30pm BST
13:30
Merkel says UK will lose out if it leaves the EU
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has spoken out about Brexit.
In last few mins, Merkel has weighed in on Brexit, 'you'll never get the results you want if you're not in the room'
I will post more as soon as I get proper quotes.
1.26pm BST
13:26
Earlier Boris Johnson and his Vote Leave Tory colleagues, Michael Gove and Priti Patel, visited Farmhouse Biscuits in Nelson, Lancashire, a biscuits factory. The trip seems to have been scheduled entirely around a single pun, because this is what Johnson had to say.
I’ve never seen so much dough in all my life.
But never forget - no matter how much dough they have here, it’s nothing like the dough we are sending to Brussels every day: £50 quids worth, £350m a week over which we have no control.
These biscuits are an example of British dough that is well controlled.
They know what’s going to happen to these biscuits ...
This is a company that is in total control of its dough. They know it to the ounce how much they use. We have lost control of our dough.
1.15pm BST
13:15
David Cameron is taking part in a Sky EU referendum event tonight (we’ll be covering it live, of course), but it has also been announced that BuzzFeed News and Facebook will hold a “town hall event” (a Q&A, basically) with him on 10 June.
Commenting on it, Cameron said:
The referendum on 23 June is the most important vote in our country for a generation and the BuzzFeed News and Facebook event is a great chance to debate what sort of future we want for our country.
12.57pm BST
12.57pm BST
12:57
12:57
Earlier Boris Johnson sold a cow at the cattle market.
Earlier Boris Johnson sold a cow at the cattle market.
Boris Johnson has just sold this cow for £960. pic.twitter.com/oRTb8uklps
Boris Johnson has just sold this cow for £960. pic.twitter.com/oRTb8uklps
And here are two tweets from my colleague Rowena Mason, who is covering Johnson’s visit.
And here are two tweets from my colleague Rowena Mason, who is covering Johnson’s visit.
Quite difficult to hear questions above the mooing but I think a farmer has just said he doesn't trust Boris promises about subsidies
Quite difficult to hear questions above the mooing but I think a farmer has just said he doesn't trust Boris promises about subsidies
Again Boris Johnson making promises about what will happen post Brexit when he is not actually in a position of power to do so (yet)
Again Boris Johnson making promises about what will happen post Brexit when he is not actually in a position of power to do so (yet)
12.51pm BST
12.51pm BST
12:51
12:51
This is from the FT’s Jim Pickard.
This is from the FT’s Jim Pickard.
Senior Labour figure says Corbyn speech amounts to "sabotage" of Remain camp.
Senior Labour figure says Corbyn speech amounts to "sabotage" of Remain camp.
12.47pm BST
12.47pm BST
12:47
12:47
Here is the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush on Jeremy Corbyn’s speech. And here is an excerpt.
Here is the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush on Jeremy Corbyn’s speech. And here is an excerpt.
On that metric, Corbyn’s speech today went very well. He made enough pro-EU noises to make grumbling from Labour’s more committed pro-Europeans look insurrectionist rather than constructive. He chucked a bit of red meat at his core supporters, bashing TTIP – a treaty that is now looks to be dead on arrival in any case - and re-announcing that a Labour government would renationalise the railways. And, crucially, he did just enough to hint to those few Labour MPs and activists who are anti-European that he might just possibly remain on their side, really ...
On that metric, Corbyn’s speech today went very well. He made enough pro-EU noises to make grumbling from Labour’s more committed pro-Europeans look insurrectionist rather than constructive. He chucked a bit of red meat at his core supporters, bashing TTIP – a treaty that is now looks to be dead on arrival in any case - and re-announcing that a Labour government would renationalise the railways. And, crucially, he did just enough to hint to those few Labour MPs and activists who are anti-European that he might just possibly remain on their side, really ...
And just as the Prime Minister’s skill in holding his party together will be largely underappreciated until after he’s gone, Corbyn’s tightrope-walk is further evidence that he is a better player of the game of Labour politics than many of his opponents might wish.
And just as the Prime Minister’s skill in holding his party together will be largely underappreciated until after he’s gone, Corbyn’s tightrope-walk is further evidence that he is a better player of the game of Labour politics than many of his opponents might wish.
12.43pm BST
12.43pm BST
12:43
12:43
Boris Johnson is speaking now at a Vote Leave event in Clitheroe, in Lancashire, at what seems to be a cattle market.
Boris Johnson is speaking now at a Vote Leave event in Clitheroe, in Lancashire, at what seems to be a cattle market.
He says, if we left the EU, the government would maintain its support for farmers.
He says, if we left the EU, the government would maintain its support for farmers.
12.32pm BST
12:32
With the voter registration deadline for the referendum approaching, we are looking into reports of confusion with the process and with postal votes. To help us understand how widespread - or not - these issues are, let us know if you’ve been affected by any problems with registering to vote.
12.11pm BST
12:11
Jeremy Corbyn's speech - Summary and analysis
Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised in some quarters for not being willing to campaign alongside David Cameron for EU membership but after today’s speech any such complaints are totally superfluous. Corbyn and Cameron could never share a platform because, in relation to their views on the EU, there is virtually no overlap at all.
It is said by people who know him well that Corbyn would privately be quite happy to leave the EU (a view that he has has helped to substantiate by stressing that his position now is partly dictated by what the Labour party thinks) and some of the passages in this speech devoted to listing the benefits of the EU did sound half-hearted. But, given that he is not a Mandelsonian Europhile, it would be a great mistake to pretend that he was. Instead, Corbyn has identified a Remain argument that he can make with 100% conviction. He may not be opposed to Brexit, but does believe a Tory Brexit (ie, Brexit, combined with a Tory government likely to see this as an opportunity for a deregulatory free-for-all) would be “a disaster for the majority of people in Britain”. That’s not a case he could make credibly standing alongside Cameron.
The two men also disagree fundamentally on TTIP (the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, the proposed US/EU trade deal). Corbyn has expressed reservations about TTIP repeatedly in the past, but his commitment to opposing, or vetoing, it unless his concerns are met seemed stronger than anything said before. (Interestingly, it also opens up the question of whether a Corbyn-led government would continue to support EU membership after 2020 if TTIP were by then in place.) Corbyn was also quite powerful on the subject of immigration, arguing passionately that it was not migrant workers who undercut wages, but unscrupulous employers.
Corbyn also opened up a rift with the Tories on Remain tactics, rubbishing the Treasury’s “Project Fear” tactics and dismissing George Osborne’s warnings about the economy. Corbyn is, of course, right to say that some of the warnings from Remain have been hyperbolic, although whether is helpful to the campaign to say that now is another matter. And he was also rather vague, in his final answer in the Q&A, as to what he thought the negative consequences of Brexit would be. (See 10.56am.)
Which takes us on to the way the journalists were treated at the event, the booing after ITV’s Chris Ship asked a question about the claim that Corbyn’s campaigning has been half-hearted (see 10.36am) and the hissing at the very mention of the name Laura Kuenssberg (see 11.19am.) This has happened before, and not just at Labour events, and compared to the hazards some reporters face in the course of their work, it is trivial. But it is also indicative of a growing tendency to demonise the media which ought to be worrying if people are still reliant on them (us) to inform the public.
Here are the key points from the speech.
There are just three weeks to go until the referendum vote on 23 June, but too much of the debate so far has been dominated by myth-making and prophecies of doom. In the final stage of this referendum, as we get closer to what is expected by many to be a very tight vote, it does not help the debate over such a serious issue if the hype and histrionic claims continue or worse intensify ...
Just over a week ago, George Osborne claimed that the British economy would enter a year-long recession if we voted to leave. This is the same George Osborne who predicted his austerity policies would close the deficit by 2015. That’s now scheduled for 2021.
It’s the same George Osborne who said the British economy would be “carried aloft by the march of the makers” yet the manufacturing sector has stagnated ever since, and manufacturing employment declined.
Too often the British government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into acting to protect our own environment. As we know, we have a prime minister who has lurched from ‘hug a husky’ when he became Tory leader to, a decade on, ‘gas a badger’ and ‘poison the bees’. “Britain has dragged its heels, so much for David Cameron’s rhetoric of ‘leading the greenest government ever’.
Updated
at 12.26pm BST
11.19am BST
11:19
Here’s a clip of Laura Kuenssberg’s question, and the moment she was hissed by Labour supporters.
11.06am BST
11:06
Global Justice Now, a campaign group, has welcomed Jeremy Corbyn’s statement about Labour’s opposition to TTIP. In a statement Nick Dearden, its director, said defeat of the deal was now “a real possibility”.
10.56am BST
10:56
Q: [From the FT’s Jim Pickard] You said George Osborne’s warnings about recession are histrionic. Do you think there would be no negative effects from Brexit?
Corbyn says there would be effects. But we have to have a serious discussion, not deal with the whole thing “on the basis of a fear agenda”, he says.
He says Labour is supporting Remain. But it is “not unconditional support for everything the European Union does”, he says.
He says he is putting the social Europe case, and the case for Remain and reform of the EU.
And that’s it.
I’ll post a summary and reaction shortly.
10.54am BST
10:54
Q: [From Channel 4 News’ Gary Gibbon] If TTIP were signed before the referendum, could you support Remain.
Corbyn says that is a hypothetical question.
Q: That sounds like half-hearted support ...
No, says Corbyn. He says he is just saying it is a hypothetical question.
He says TTIP is a “seminal moment” in the extension of corporate power. It is strongly opposed in the US, he says.
He says there is also an issue to do with the regulations on imported goods.
What happens if you have tough regulations, but the same rules do not cover imports. “You can end up exporting pollution,” he says.
He says trade can be beneficial. But if corporations just have the whip hand, then rights are weakened.
He thanks Gibbon for his question.
10.50am BST
10:50
Corbyn says EU rules protecting workers should be tougher
Q: A lot of people do not know about workers’ rights, and how they are relevant. What can we do about this? And how would you extend workers’ rights.
Corbyn says the posting of workers’ directive is important. And he says the agency workers directive needs to be toughened. And he calls for some tightening of TUPE, the transfer of undertaking (protection of employees) rule.
And he calls for tougher rules on zero-hours contracts. These are “cruel and unfair” because people do not know what hours they will get. He says he has come across far too many cases of constituents losing benefits because they did not know what hours they would be working. He says there should be basic rights across the EU. There are too many companies, especially in the fast food industry, making huge profits from the work of people on these contracts, he says.
He says Labour’s Workplace 2020 initiative is developing policies to address these problems.
10.45am BST
10:45
Corbyn says we need to do more about air quality. If we do not take action, how many more children will have harmed lung capacity, he asks.
He says you can only deal with environmental pollution by working together.
10.42am BST
10:42
Corbyn is now taking questions from Labour activists in the audience.
Q: Are the Tories determined to slash workers’ rights if we leave the EU?
Corbyn says we can either enforce workers’ rights, or have a race to the bottom.
He says he is convinced that the Tories leading the Leave campaign would, in their own words, start a “bonfire of regulations” on 24 June if the UK left the EU. Regulations do not sound very nice, he says. But he says they offer vital protections.
He says is is arguing for staying in the EU in order to build on what we have achieved, not destroy what we have achieved.
UPDATE: Here Bloomberg’s Thomas Penny on the question.
Question from the floor for Corbyn: "just how evil are the Tories?" (I only paraphrase slightly)
Updated
at 10.43am BST
10.39am BST
10:39
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg gets called.
She gets hissed by some in the audience. Corbyn urges people to stop.
Q: This morning the GMB general secretary Tim Roache said you are failing to get your message across. Is he right?
Corbyn says he is speaking to a GMB event on Sunday. He is getting his message out, he says. He says he is campaigning to extend and defend workers’ rights. He says it is the government’s austerity policies that are causing problems.
He says people should not blame migrants. It is unscrupulous employers who are to blame, he says. He says he will keep going on about the posting of workers directive. (See 10.21am.)
