Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen
Number 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Lunchtime summary
2.37pm GMT
Later today MPs will be debating the energy bill. Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader and a former energy secretary, is planning to intervene.
Will make case later to put zero emissions in law in Energy Bill debate. Hopeful of positive response from government following discussions.
2.16pm GMT
Chris Grayling, the leader of the Commons, will be responding to Tom Watson’s UQ. He’s also lord president of the [privy] council and the UQ is about privy council rules and conventions. (See 1.12pm.)
1.51pm GMT
1.26pm GMT
Back to the urgent question, and the challenge Tom Watson will face trying to raise Michael Gove without mentioning the Queen. This is what John Bercow, the Speaker, said in the chamber on Thursday when the SNP’s Pete Wishart started talking about the Queen and her views on Brexit during business questions last week.
I hesitate to interrupt the honourable gentleman. He said what he said, but for the benefit of the House, and particularly for the benefit of new members, may I underline that we do not discuss the views of the monarch in this chamber? There have occasionally been debates on matters appertaining to the royal family, which I have happily granted, but we do not discuss that matter. I think it better if we just leave it there.
1.22pm GMT
Sir Nicholas Soames has also been on Twitter this morning having a go at Boris Johnson and what he said in his Telegraph column. (See 8.50am.)
Almost inconceivable Boris could be so wrong .Strong evidence in DT today that he is seriously adrift in the argument #compassbroken
Outers running on toxic combo of whinge and grievance. Defeat will come intellectually and politically
Worth reflecting that the bite of EU / US have been vital in managing post post Cold War fallout including Iran #essentialtogether
Global trade major source of stability. EU should be expanding free trade deals with Asia and TTIP #getonwithit
1.12pm GMT
Here is the text of Tom Watson’s urgent question. He will ask the minister for a statement “on the adherence to the rules and conventions of the privy council in light of the suspension of collective responsibility in connection with the European Union referendum.”
Labour sources have confirmed that Watson will not be allowed to refer to the Queen directly, so he will have to use some ingenuity to raise the allegations about Michael Gove being the source for the Sun’s story.
I don’t know how The Sun got all its information.
Is the Gover now owning up to an inexcusable mistake in breaching an oath and a confidence? If so now VERY serious #consequences
1.02pm GMT
The Cabinet Office tell me they do not know yet who will respond to Tom Watson’s urgent question about the privy council. Oliver Letwin or Matthew Hancock, who are both Cabinet Office ministers, or Chris Grayling, who as Commons leader and lord president of the council is actually in charge of the privy council, are all possibilities.
12.44pm GMT
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has been granted an urgent question this afternoon on privy council rules. This will allow him to ask about the suggestion that Michael Gove was responsible for leaking information about the Queen’s views on the EU to the Sun, although Watson may have to phrase his question carefully because John Bercow, the Speaker, will not allow MPs to discuss the Queen’s views.
No statements. 1 UQ at 3.30pm - @tom_watson to ask on Privy Council rules/conventions and suspension of collective responsibility on EU ref
12.36pm GMT
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing
[The prime minister] said when he was in France at the summit that lots of people are making their views known on this issue, including international leaders, and these are people that wish Britain well and they are worth listening to.
The reality is that there is a very long way to go in this negotiation. There are 32 so-called chapters relating to the EU acquis. Negotiations formally opened in 2005. In that time we have only opened 15, and only one has been concluded. There are about the same number of chapters to open. And every time we seek to open or close a chapter, every country [in the EU] has a veto.
Prime Minister David Cameron visits Harris Academy in Bermondsey, south London https://t.co/j5CAGsJN3x pic.twitter.com/xADEaJMTMK
10.58am GMT
Foreign travel is “likely to become more expensive” if Britain leaves the EU, travel agents are warning.
Abta, the main trade association representing travel agents and tour operators, has produced a report on the impact Brexit would have on the industry, in association with consultants Deloitte.
It is difficult to foresee how the travelling consumer would react to Brexit in the immediate aftermath of the vote. Trade negotiations between the UK and the EU are likely to span over a number of years, and the related uncertainty could affect consumers’ propensity to travel during this period.
Even if there were no changes to travel requirements, in terms of freedom of movement restrictions, consumers might worry about other issues, such as access to health care, currency fluctuations or even perceptions of the UK, when travelling to EU countries. As a result consumers might opt for other destinations, or even reduce their travel abroad altogether.
Our assessment of the report’s findings is that a vote to leave will lead to uncertainties and may lead to increased costs for travel businesses and the travelling public.
We recognise that people will approach this referendum by considering many factors - personal, professional and economic - before casting their vote.
10.37am GMT
Steven Woolfe, Ukip’s immigration spokesman, has joined Boris Johnson in criticising President Obama for opposing Brexit. Woolfe told the Express:
When he is not insulting this country on the international stage as he did last week, President Obama should take a careful look at EU policy and how it often acts against America’s interests as well as Britain’s.
Also as a head of a foreign government he should stay out of a decision which is one for the British people and only the British people.
10.15am GMT
Denis MacShane, the Labour former Europe minister, has also had a go at Boris Johnson over his Obama column.
Boris right to say Nafta not Single Market. Hence 11 mn illegal immigrants in US. This what B wants? https://t.co/uNlfp1JRpw
@montie @BorisJohnson One of the strongest columns Boris has ever written: what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed
10.09am GMT
It is Commonwealth Day, apparently, and Ukip has marked it by saying the Commonwealth marks “a real alternative” to EU membership for the UK. This is from its Commonwealth spokesman, James Carver MEP.
Commonwealth Day celebrations show clearly the continuing support for this voluntary organisation of nation states. It is increasingly evident that a reinvigorated Commonwealth, co-operating ever more closely on trade and sharing historic and democratic values, offers a real alternative to our membership of the European Union.
The future prosperity of the UK is dependent on making every available use of every available network to penetrate deep into the giant and rising markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The best network we have to hand to assist with this aim is the ready-made Commonwealth network - reinvigorated in an age of almost total connectivity and interactivity, with a common working knowledge, and embracing a dozen or more of the world’s fastest growing economies.
10.03am GMT
Tristram Hunt, the Labour MP and former shadow education secretary, says Boris Johnson’s attack on Washington over Brexit (see 8.50am) is “ridiculous”.
Ridiculous attack on Obama by Boris today. Have the Brexiteers really run out of proper arguments already? #StrongerIn
9.58am GMT
The Green party is launching its campaign for Britain to stay in the EU today. The launch will be attended by Natalie Bennett, the party leader, Caroline Lucas, the party’s one MP and Jean Lambert, one of the Green’s MEPs. Lucas said the party would be proud to defend the EU.
We won’t sit idly by when our environmental protections and our rights at work are threatened by brexit. Our campaign for British membership of the EU will be loud and it will be proud ...
In a fast-changing world we need international rules to control big business and finance, and to ensure that people’s rights are protected - at work and as consumers. The EU has also given us the freedom to live, study, work and retire across an entire continent.
9.43am GMT
And while we’re on the subject of the budget, George Osborne indicated yesterday that he would have to announce cuts worth £4bn by the end of this parliament in his statement on Wednesday.
On the Today programme this morning Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that in practice these cuts may very well not materialise because, by the time they are due to be implemented, the economic situation may have changed. He explained:
[Osborne] needs to make plans all the way through to always ensure that it looks like he is in balance by the end of the parliament. One of the things I am guessing he is going to do is say that these cuts will be planned to happen in 2017 or 2018 and then, frankly, hope that the numbers move back in his direction before he actually has to implement them. So what actually turns out to happen, I don’t think we will necessarily learn this week.
I think we will learn ‘this is how I will balance the books if I have to’ but frankly hoping that he doesn’t have to because things don’t have to change very much at all to reverse this again.
9.35am GMT
In keeping with what appears to be the new policy of unveiling budget announcements over a five-day period ahead of the actual budget statement, it has been announced that the Treasury will set up a new scheme to help low-paid workers save. Under the help-to-save scheme, some 3.5m people could have their savings topped up by up to £1,200.
Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, says George Osborne will only be partially replacing money he has already taken from workers in this category. In a statement Smith said:
This is like stealing someone’s car and offering them a lift to the bus stop.
It is right that there should be incentives to save, that’s why a Labour government introduced the almost identical ‘Saving Gateway’ that the Tories scrapped.
9.23am GMT
Although Boris Johnson’s Telegraph article is mostly about America, at one point in it he also responds to David Cameron’s arguments about the sovereignty case for Brexit.
To recap: one of the arguments for Brexit, and one particularly favoured by Johnson and Michael Gove, is that leaving the EU would enable the UK to regain control over its own affairs. It would take back sovereignty. But Cameron (and others) have argued that there is a difference between having power and having sovereignty and that, while leaving the EU may give “the illusion of sovereignty”, it is belonging to the EU that gives the UK real power. (The Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe put this argument particularly well in a recent Bagehot column, noting: “If sovereignty is the absence of mutual interference, the most sovereign country in the world is North Korea.”)
The whole concept of “pooling sovereignty” is a fraud and a cheat. We are not really sharing control with other EU governments: the problem is rather that all governments have lost control to the unelected federal machine. We don’t know who they are, or what language they speak, and we certainly don’t know what we can do to remove them at an election.
8.50am GMT
President Obama is expected to visit London next month to reaffirm Washington’s long-held belief that the UK should remain in the EU. But this morning Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London who is now a leading figure in the Brexit campaign, has used his Telegraph column to engage in pre-emptive retaliation. He is accusing Washington of “hypocrisy” because, he argues, America would never dream of compromising its national sovereignty in the way that EU membership requires.
The Telegraph has splashed on the story.
Monday's Telegraph front page:
Boris rage at 'hypocrite' Obama#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #euref pic.twitter.com/o1iwYLDH0t
Related: Boris Johnson attacks Obama 'hypocrisy' over Brexit warning
The American view is very clear. Whether in code or en clair, the President will tell us all that UK membership of the EU is right for Britain, right for Europe, and right for America. And why? Because that – or so we will be told – is the only way we can have “influence” in the counsels of the nations.
It is an important argument, and deserves to be taken seriously. I also think it is wholly fallacious – and coming from Uncle Sam, it is a piece of outrageous and exorbitant hypocrisy.
Outrageous & exorbitant hypocrisy @BorisJohnson ? In Jan16 you were In, in Mar16 you are Out, cos it's your best chance of being Tory leader
Only world leader supporting Britain leaving EU is Putin! Boris Johnson has hissy fit about Obama @BBCr4today
Boris Johnson now an expert on hypocrisy but ignores value of NATO & Europe in delivering peace & prosperity @BBCr4today
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