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Jeremy Hunt says no-deal Brexit could obliterate Tory party, as Javid ducks question – live news
Theresa May describes 'great regret' as she arrives for last Brussels summit – live news
(about 6 hours later)
The crowded field for Tory leadership is threatening to get even busier.
The fallout is continuing from Labour’s decision to expel Alastair Campbell, the former communications chief to Tony Blair, after he said that he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections.
Treasury minister Jesse Norman emails to say he is considering a run. He said: “Now is the time for moderate, decent people to speak up. Let us start the long process of reconstruction.”
Support for Campbell has been coming from figures including Charlie Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor in Tony Blair’s government, and Fiona MacTaggart, a former Labour minister who was an MP for Slough.
He added:
Is @campbellclaret’s expulsion time for us all to declare “I am Spartacus”. Hey @labourpress come for me too!
“It is incumbent upon all politicians—Ministers or backbenchers, across political divides—to step up and deliver a sane and workable Brexit for our country. But it is no less important, now more than ever, that all the candidates for the leadership should be able to set out not just their own policy ideas, beliefs and experience, but the deeper principles and purpose that underlie them.
The former defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, has also come out to say that he voted for the Green Party during the European Elections.
“Whatever one’s politics, we need the candidates to use the public platform, the hustings, the debates, the soapbox and interviews not to bring each other down but to build mutual understanding and trust and love, to find and renew a sense of common purpose, for the longer term.”
Ainsworth told the BBC: “I didn’t intend to make this public but now Alistair has been expelled for doing the same I feel obliged to do so.”
An online campaign putting pressure on Conservative MPs to back Boris Johnson as leader of the party is being run by Paul Staines, the founder of the Guido Fawkes blog.
The BBC has announced details of TV debates for the Conservative leadership contest.
The campaign attracted attention amid ongoing questions over the funding and backing of online campaign groups, especially following the Guardian’s revelations that employees of Sir Lynton Crosby were running influence campaigns for a hard Brexit.
One of the debates will be moderated by Newsnigh’s Emily Maitlis in the middle of June with all of the candidates (Is there a stage large enough ?)
Boris on the Ballot, which launched this weekend, is designed to encourage members of the public to write to their local Tory MP and encourage them to nominate Johnson for leader. The former foreign secretary’s supporters fear Tory MPs could stop Johnson making the final shortlist of two leadership candidates which are put to party members for a vote.
Fiona Bruce will host a Question Time special with the final two. while the same two candidates will also be invited to take part in one-on-one interviews with Andrew Neil.
Staines confirmed he is running the campaign group – which is also collecting contact details on potential backers – through the Irish-registered company CampaignAction Ltd, registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
Fran Unsworth, Director BBC News and Current Affairs,said:
“There’s no intention of covering my tracks. I’m the sole director and sole shareholder,” said Staines, who said he had not asked for permission from Johnson’s team before launching the campaign. He said he had acted because he did not think the official campaign would “get their act together” in time.
The decision being made by Conservative Party members will profoundly affect us all, so it feels right that BBC audiences get a chance to see the candidates debate with each other, and that we scrutinise the various policy proposals they will be standing on.
Pro-Boris Johnson campaign launched by Guido Fawkes blogger
Our plans include bringing the final two candidates in front of the same Question Time audience on the same night to be quizzed by the public, as although the final say will fall to Conservative party members, it’s firmly in the public interest for audiences to question and hear from the next potential Prime Minister.
The Guido Fawkes blog is running a rival Tory leadership tally based on which candidates Tory MPs claim they intend to back (it is not always easy to tell).
Other EU leaders who are arriving in Brussels are also giving their reaction to questions about what a new Tory leader might mean for the negotiations on Brexit between the UK and the EU.
Guido says Raab and Gove are the front runners with 19 MPs each, and Johnson is on third with 17. And while Conservative Home claims 29 MPs have backed Hunt, Guido claims only 13 have done so. It also claims Malthouse has already picked up two backers.
Asked about Tory leadership hopefuls that want to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement, Jean-Claude Juncker says: "I was crystal clear. There will be no renegotiation."
The backstory of Labour MP Jess Phillips is to be turned into a TV Drama by the makers of Happy Valley and Queer as Folk, according to PA.
Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg prime minister tells me there’ll be no #Brexit renegotiation. He said “That would be too easy: change the UK Prime Minister, change the Brexit deal. That’s not how it’s going to work”
The Labour politician has spoken out over the hundreds of rape threats she has received on Twitter. She has also revealed that she was sexually assaulted at the age of 19.
Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg prime minister tells me there’ll be no #Brexit renegotiation. He said “That would be too easy: change the UK Prime Minister, change the Brexit deal. That’s not how it’s going to work”
Her book is described as a “collection of empowering stories from her own life, told with honesty and hilarity”.
The drama will be made by RED Production Company - whose hits have included Happy Valley, Clocking Off, Queer As Folk, Scott & Bailey and the recent Years And Years - with executive producer Lucy Dyke, whose credits include Black Mirror and Ripper Street.
As Theresa May arrived in Brussels, Franco-German tensions over who will run the EU’s institutions were played out in public.
The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley said: “They make the kind of television that truly represents people and events as they are and that was deeply important to me. The story of women in politics is complex and nuanced and intriguing, and it’s a story that needs telling.”
The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin reports that Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are divided over the claim of Manfred Weber, the candidate nominated as European commission president by the German chancellor’s political group, the European People’s party (EPP).
Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin failed in his bid to get elected to the European Parliament after saying he “wouldn’t even rape” the Labour MP. He also refused to apologise for the remarks.
“I support Manfred Weber,” Merkel told reporters on her way into the summit, adding that she hoped for a decision by the 28 EU leaders before July when the newly elected European parliament is due to sit. “I will appeal this evening for us to show an ability to act.”
Jeremy Hunt is winning the race to be Tory leader, according to a tally being run by Conservative Home.
The French president, whose La République En Marche (La Rem) gained 22 seats during last week’s elections, and joins an enlarged and emboldened liberal group in parliament, offered a thinly veiled critique of the German MEP who has never held a government position.
It claims that 129 Tory MPs (more than 41% of the parliamentary party) have already backed one of the candidates. Hunt is top with the backing of 29 MPs, with Boris Johnson second with 24 backers. Close behind is Johnson’s old rival Michael Gove on 23 and Dominic Raab on 20.
Macron insisted that the replacements for Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, as presidents of the commission and council, required “experience and credibility to enable them to carry out these missions”.
Sajid Javid is the only other candidate to break into double figures with the support of 12 MPs. Andrea Leadson and Rory Stewart have only manage two backers each, and none have yet plumped Kit Malthouse.
John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has warnedConservative leadership candidates that they will not be able to force through a no deal Brexit without parliament’s approval.
The UK will be forced into a general election that will obliterate the Conservative party if a new leader pushes for the UK to leave the EU with no deal in October, Jeremy Hunt has said.
Speaking in New York, he gave a clear sign that the speaker would make sure parliament has an opportunity to stop the UK leaving without a deal if MPs believe it should be halted.
Having written in a Telegraph article that a no-deal Brexit would be “political suicide”, Hunt said on Tuesday he did not believe parliament would allow the UK to leave with no deal on 31 October and would force an early election.
“The idea that parliament is going to be evacuated for the centre stage of debate on Brexit is simply unimaginable...The idea the House won’t have its say is for the birds,” he said.
“I’m making this argument because I want to solve the Brexit crisis we are in and I’m worried if we don’t solve it we will face a political crisis that is far bigger than our legal relationship with the EU; it could lead to the destruction of our party system and the end of my own party,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He highlighted the fact that while leaving the EU without a deal isthe legal default: “There is a difference between a legal default position and what the interplay of different political forces in parliament will facilitate.”
Hunt: push for no-deal Brexit would be 'political suicide'
Three of the candidates - Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab and Esther McVey - have suggested that they could be willing to try to take the UK out of the EU without a deal on October 31 regardless of parliament’s clear view in the past that this should not happen.
Tony Blair has urged Jeremy Corbyn to “stop equivocating” and back a second referendum.
Bercow is being hosted by the Brookings Institute for an event billed as “a discussion of Parliament’s role in politics and policy at a pivotal time for one of the United States’ closest allies.”
Speaking to Sky News he said: “The risk for Labour is that if it doesn’t put forward a set of policies that can command support in the centre as well as on the left then it can’t get to a majority. On Europe he [Corbyn] has just got to come to a clear position. Both party leaderships have made the same mistake which is to think that it is possible to sit on the fence on Europe and appeal to both sides. The European elections show that isn’t possible.”
I am passionate about parliamentary democracy, but also our network of global relationships. Being pro-American doesn't have to be anti-European. Our relationship with the US is much bigger than one president, says Bercow. #BBTI pic.twitter.com/g57xE72Wfb
Tony Blair says the Labour Party needs to "stop equivocating" on Brexit, and says the country is "profoundly divided".Read more about the fallout from #EP2019 here: https://t.co/hs4aot14ZY pic.twitter.com/gDxHVqa3Hp
May lingered long enough to answer a few questions, one of which was whether or not she worried about the direction of the UK after the European elections.
Blair also praised Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who has been pushing for a second referendum. He said: “I think Tom Watson has shown a lot of leadership in the last year or so and I support what he is trying to do within the Labour party which is to give a broad shelter to those MPs that believe Labour wins when it wins from a centre left position.”
Her reply was that the results had been disappointing “for my party” and that some very good candidates had failed to get elected and some very good MEPs had failed to keep their seats.
Asked if he was talking to Watson, Blair said: “Yes of course. I talk to a lot of Labour MPs.
The Labour Party also saw “significant losses,” said May, who added: “I think what it shows is the importance of actually delivering on Brexit.”
The former Labour prime minister said he voted Labour in the European elections with “no enthusiasm”.
I think the best way of doing that is with a deal but it will be for my successor and parliament to find a way forward to get a consensus and I hope that those election results will focus parliament on the need to deliver Brexit.”
On the Conservative leadership race, Blair said: “There is no Tory leader that would be crazy enough to try and tip this country into no-deal Brexit without going back to the people.”
She as gone before the last shouted question - “Are you going to miss Brussels Prime Minister? - but I have a feeling most people will guess what the honest answer to that might have been.
He added: “What Jeremy Hunt has said is absolutely right: the Conservatives would be certifiably insane to do a general election in the shadow of Brexit. This Tory leadership competition is going to a competition in Brexitness. Whoever emerges will go back to Europe, they are still trying to pitch this idea that Europe is going to allow us access into the market without abiding by the rules. They will find that Europe says no to that. Europe will not make concessions to a hardline Tory leader that they were not prepared to give to Theresa May.”
The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has been among those talking in the meantime about what is likely to happen after May is replaced. Here’s Politico’s Chief Brussels Correspondent:
Sajid Javid has ducked the question of whether he would take the UK out of the EU without a deal.
#Netherlands @MinPres Mark Rutte says new #UK PM will change nothing on #Brexit for #EU. says Brits “collectively” set redlines. “As long as the redlines are there what can a new Prime Minister do?” Rutte: @theresa_may did a “marvelous job” but thwarted by gridlock in London
Challenged on a no-deal Brexit by reporters outside his home the home secretary said: “Brexit is clearly going to be one of the big issues that has to be addressed properly and every candidate has to come forward with a credible plan. So I will have much more to say on that in the coming days.”
Theresa May has been speaking at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, where she said that she hopes that the European election results will focus parliament on the need to deliver brexit.
His use of the words “credible plan” appears to be a swipe at some of the candidates who have called for UK to leave the EU with or without deal on 31 October.
“ I have been to something like 15 council meetings or more and have been working hard to very hard,” the prime minister told journalists outside the summit.”
He added:
“It is a matter of great regret to me that I haven’t been able to deliver Brexit but that matter of course is for my successor. They will have to find a way of addressing very strongly held views on all sides.”
“What the public wants to see is much more trust with their politicians. A much stronger more confident relationship and I am concerned about the future and how we do that and that’s why I think we need the right type of leadership.
May is attending the summit where EU leaders are to consider candidates for the Commission’s most important jobs in the wake of parliamentary elections.
“Sadly I think there are too many divides in our country today, whether someone was Leave or Remain, or whether in the north or the south, whether they are young or they are old. And I think we shouldn’t be exploiting any of these divisions. What we need to do is bring people together.”
Looking and sounding fairly relaxed (demob happy even?), the prime minister said that the UK “would continue to play a constructive role” during the extension which it has been given to its membership of the EU.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid says the next PM will need to "promote unity" rather than "exploit divisions", after launching his bid to replace Theresa May https://t.co/WlAQjMa1Ri pic.twitter.com/nnmHLun9QS
Here’s a summary of what’s happened today:
Here’s more on Jeremy Hunt’s warning that pursuing no-deal would be catastrophic for the Tories and his call for finding a different way of getting a deal. He said:
Alastair Campbell, the former communications chief to Tony Blair, has been expelled from the Labour party for saying he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections. Labour MPs including Jess Phillips, Darren Jones and Margaret Hodge accused the Labour leadership of double standards after its failure to expel members accused of antisemitism.
“I’m worried that if we don’t solve it (Brexit), we will face a political crisis that is far bigger actually than our legal relationship with the EU, it could lead to the destruction of our party system and the end of my own party,” he told Today.
The UK’s human rights watchdog is facing demands to launch an inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative party. The Muslim Council of Britain filed a complaint of more than 20 pages saying calls for the party to allow an independent inquiry have so far been largely ignored.
“I’ve always believed we should keep no deal on the table, I’ve always thought that’s the best way of getting a good deal and I’ve always thought that ultimately our economy would find a way to flourish even with the shock of no deal, but the biggest risk to Brexit now is ... a general election.”
Separately the Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether the Labour Party “unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish”. Labour said it will cooperate fully and rejected “any suggestion that the party does not handle antisemitism complaints fairly and robustly”.
“We must not go back to the electorate asking for their mandate until we’ve delivered what we promised we would do last time, which is to deliver Brexit, it would be absolutely catastrophic for us as a party.”
An online campaign putting pressure on Conservative MPs to back Boris Johnson as leader of the party is being run by Paul Staines, the founder of the Guido Fawkes blog. Boris on the Ballot, which launched this weekend, is designed to encourage members of the public to write to their local Tory MP and encourage them to nominate Johnson for leader.
In his interview Hunt suggested he would also involve Scotland and Wales in the negotiations as well as the DUP and the ERG.
Jeremy Hunt has warned that pushing for a no-deal Brexit would be political suicide for the Tories. The foreign secretary also pledged to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement with the help of the DUP and the ERG, but not Nigel Farage.
He said: “I think what we need to do is have a new negotiating team. In that team needs to to be not just the Government, but the DUP, the ERG, I think you should have someone from Scotland and Wales so that the Union side of these issues is properly thought through.”
Sajid Javid has ducked the question of whether he would take the UK out of the EU without a deal. He told reporters: “Brexit is clearly going to be one of the big issues that has to be addressed properly and every candidate has to come forward with a credible plan.”
His team has since clarified that he meant Tory representatives from these countries, according to Huff Post’s Paul Waugh
Kit Malthouse has also refused to rule out seeking an extension to article 50 as he set out his case for becoming Tory leader. He said: “I’m the only candidate that has proven the ability to unify MPs around a Brexit plan which could deliver us out of this jam.”
Sources close to Hunt stress he meant *Tory* representatives in Scot and Wales. @NicolaSturgeon and @MarkDrakeford won't be on his negotiating team.
Tony Blair has urged Jeremy Corbyn to “stop equivocating” and back a second referendum. Shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, insisted Labour was “moving towards a clearer line” on a people’s vote.
Hunt said the Labour frontbench “has shown that they aren’t prepared to do this in good faith, so I don’t think that would work”. Nigel Farage, he added, was not in parliament and did not want a deal.
Wigan MP Lisa Nandy warned a second referendum “would be the final breach of trust with that working-class electorate”. She added: “I strongly suspect that if there is a second referendum people here would come out and vote in fairly large numbers and probably vote for no deal.”
Hunt added that having “proper representation” in the negotiating team from “other voices ... can then give Brussels confidence that they are talking to someone who can deliver a deal”.
Michael Gove will pledge free British citizenship for 3 million EU nationals after Brexit if he becomes prime minister. The environment secretary, one of the leading figures in Vote Leave, is understood to believe strongly that the pledge would honour the promises given to EU citizens by that campaign during the 2016 referendum.
A team of DUP, ERG, Scottish & Welsh representatives would be Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt's plan for renegotiating a Brexit deal with the EU. "It would include people who say if we can't get the right deal we should leave with no-deal" #r4today https://t.co/pUfzHiRulA pic.twitter.com/H0PeP8L867
We’re pausing the blog for now, but we’ll resume if and when there are important developments.
The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, has insisted there would be no contradiction between having a second referendum and respecting the result of the one in 2016, as another senior Labour MP warned the party would lose the trust of its traditional voters.
Rory Stewart has gone from Kew Gardens to a fish stall on Lewisham market. No one wants to talk to him about Brexit in Dari, or any other language, he claims in his latest video selfie.
Abbott said the party was “supporting a people’s vote strongly now because it’s the right thing to do and it’s the democratic thing to do” – though she said it was uncertain that remain would win a fresh poll.
Now in Lewisham Market - a safe Labour seat - but a seat we held in the 1980s. Come and talk #GetBritainTalking #commonground #Rory4Leader pic.twitter.com/2xgYEE20vg
“Now at minutes to midnight on these negotiations, the Tories have plunged into their leadership contest so we get no sense out of them for a few months. We think it’s important to foreground the people’s vote,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Jeremy Corbyn has refused to answer questions about the EHRC investigation into alleged antisemitism in the Labour party. As is often the case, Corbyn declined to talk to reporters outside his North London home.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Labour MP Lisa Nandy warned a second referendum would lead to the country voting for no deal with the EU and said it would destroy trust in Labour.
Naz Shah, shadow equalities minister, said the Muslim Council of Britain’s letter about alleged Conservative Islamphobia “highlights the deep-rooted nature” of the problem in the party.
Diane Abbott: second Brexit referendum is democratic thing to do
She said:
Kit Malthouse has refused to rule out seeking an extension to article 50, unlike some of hard Brexit candidates in the race.
“The countless evidenced examples and failure to swiftly deal with the problems shows us how the problem is not just about a few members sharing hateful views, but about institutionalised Islamophobia that exists right at the top and trickles all the way down.
Speaking on BBC News he stopped short of saying he would take the UK out of the EU on 31 October, as Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey have all pledged.
“Only a few weeks ago, the Conservative party ignored calls from large sections of the Muslim community to adopt the APPG definition of Islamophobia, and instead decided it should be down to two experts to draw up a definition for British Muslims. Those experts should instead start to draw up the terms of reference for an inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative party.”
Asked whether he could guarantee there would be no extension beyond 31 October, Malthouse said only: “An extension would be extremely difficult, I’ve never voted an extension in parliament.”
He added:
This debate is coming down to the question of no deal and whether the prime minister is willing to go over the line on no deal. We delude ourselves if we think no deal is entirely in our control. President Macron has said that he wouldn’t allow us to go beyond 31 October.
My primary objective is to get a deal around which we can all unite.
We need to get to 31 October ready and able to take no deal if we want to. Those people who say no deal is going to be a catastrophe are wrong, but also so are those people who say it is going to be a walk in the park.
Malthouse said he had showed he could unite the party after securing the Malthouse compromise on the Irish border that was agreed by former Remainers like Nicky Morgan and Robert Buckland and Brexiters like Steve Baker.
He said:
I’m the only candidate that has proven the ability to unify MPs around a Brexit plan which could deliver us out of this jam.
That is going to be my primary appeal beyond this really compelling domestic agenda focussed around children and schools and investing in the future.
The country remains hopelessly divided still on this issue and we still have a mathematical problem in parliament. And unless the Conservative party can find a way to come together as a whole and take us over the line on 31 October, then we will remain in this jam.
Housing Minister Kit Malthouse set out his case to become Tory leader in the Sun.
He said: “This leadership campaign cannot be about the same old faces, scarred by wars that have split the Tory party over three years.
“We need to end the Brexit paralysis, and while I voted to leave the EU, I know that without unity across the UK, we cannot get a deal over the line. “It’s time for a new generation to lead the charge into our future with boldness and vision.”
Malthouse, widely credited as the convener of both Conservative Leavers and Remainers to develop a compromise on May’s withdrawal agreement, said there was a “yearning for change”.
The 52-year-old is a former deputy mayor of London and entered the Commons in 2015 as David Cameron’s Conservatives won a majority.
His name was given to the so-called Malthouse Compromise - a proposal drawn up by backbenchers from Leave and Remain wings of the Tory Party, which would have implemented May’s withdrawal deal with the backstop replaced by alternative arrangements.
Hunt claimed that inviting the DUP and the ERG into the negotiations would give the EU confidence that whatever was agreed would be passed in the House of Commons.
He also said it was important to get the tone right in the negotiations with Brussels. He claimed that a hardline stance would prompt a hardline response from the EU.
Hunt admitted that he had not asked the DUP and the ERG whether they would be willing to join negotiations led by him.
“We can’t escape the parliamentary arithmetic,” he said.
Unlike Rory Stewart, Hunt said he would be “delighted” to serve in a government led by Boris Johnson.
Jeremy Hunt has defended his warning that pursuing no-deal would be political suicide.
He told Today that the biggest risk to the government and Brexit would be holding an election before Brexit had been delivered. “We would be very severely punished and we would risk having the most left wing prime minister in history,” Hunt said.
He insisted that the best way to secure Brexit was to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement secured by Theresa May. “We have to have a go at this”, he said.
Hunt said he would bring in the DUP and the ERG into the negotiations, but he ruled out inviting Nigel Farage into the talks as the Brexit leader has demanded.
Here’s more from Diane Abbot’s interview. She said:
The people’s vote has always been part of our policy package and as Kier Starmer put it, ‘we move through the gears’. But now at minutes to midnight on these negotiations, we think it is important to foreground the people’s vote.
If we are not going to have a general election we would support a people’s vote. There is no inherent contradiction between respecting the result of the referendum and having a people’s vote. I’ve always argued that it is perfectly possible that Leave would win again.
But we are supporting a people’s vote strongly now, because it is the right thing to do and the democratic thing to do.
Asked if Labour was only supporting another vote in certain circumstances she said: “We are clear that our ideal situation would be a general election, in the event there was a people’s vote and remain was on the ballot paper, I personally would be supporting remain. We are consulting now with Members of Parliament. This is something we are going to have to decide collectively.”
"There is no inherent contradiction between respecting the referendum and having a People's Vote."Shadow home secretary @HackneyAbbott says Labour would want a general election otherwise would support another Brexit vote#r4today | @bbcnickrobinson | https://t.co/cZY6yGVr6f pic.twitter.com/qm9mHJu7s0
Earlier, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy warned a second referendum “would most likely result in a no-deal outcome”, adding “this could be the final breach of trust with that working-class electorate”.
She told Today:
“Obviously in constituencies like Wigan you get very mixed views, you get different views like everywhere in the country, but to most people the idea of a second referendum just seems quite absurd.
“People were asked what they think, you can see from the results that we had here, that very few people have changed their minds and if there is a shift in this area of the country I think it’s towards no-deal Brexit.”
“I think we’ve got to wake up to the seriousness not just of what we’re about to do to the Labour Party, but what we’re about to do the country because I strongly suspect that if there is a second referendum people here would come out and vote in fairly large numbers and probably vote for no deal.”
“There is a huge frustration amongst Labour voters who voted Leave in towns like mine to see leading figures from the Labour Party out calling for a second referendum before there’s been any serious attempt to implement the result of the first.”
Shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, has pushed Jeremy Corbyn to go further on backing a second referendum.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she said the party was “moving towards a clearer line” on a people’s vote.
“We do want a people’s vote on any deal” she told the programme. She claimed the party is now “foregrounding” what has always been Labour’s policy.
But Abbott refused to be drawn on Paul Mason’s Guardian article which called for members of Corbyn’s team to be sacked over their opposition to a second referendum.
Welcome to Politics Live as the race to become the next prime minister intensifies and recriminations from the European Parliamentary elections continue.
The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has put himself at odds with many hard Brexit candidates in the race by warning that pursuing a no-deal exit from the EU would be committing “political suicide”.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph he claims advocating a no-deal exit would risk losing a confidence vote in Parliament and prompting a general election.
“Trying to deliver no deal through a general election is not a solution; it is political suicide,” he writes.
His column prompted this riposte from fellow leadership contender Esther McVey:
Political suicide actually lies in not having a clean break from the EU and not leaving on the 31st October. https://t.co/SeUHOZqAoj
The issue of a no-deal Brexit is threatening to dominate the campaign. But the Tory MP Alberto Costa is trying raise another issue of UK citizenship for EU nationals. He has praised Michael Gove for pledging to give 3 million EU national free UK citizenship, and criticised Home Secretary Sajid Javid for failing to do so.
Meanwhile, Kit Malthouse has become the 10th Conservative MP to confirm he has joined the race to be Tory leader. The housing minister is known for brokering the Malthouse compromise as an alternative arrangement to the hated backstop on the Northern Ireland border. It is popular with Brexiters but has been rejected by European Union.
Over on Labour’s side its evolving new position on whether to hold a second referendum on whatever Brexit deal is agreed is coming under fire.
Former front bencher, Lisa Nandy, says promoting a second referendum will be seen as a “final breach of trust” in her Leave-backing constituency of Wigan.
Working class Labour voters in Wigan will see a second Brexit Referendum as the "final breach of trust" says its MP @lisanandy #r4today https://t.co/ilZx3G95tV pic.twitter.com/hG6tL5DH3B
