Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs and May’s Commons statement on the G20 and Brexit
PMQs - Snap verdict
Lunchtime summary
Afternoon summary
4.45pm BST
Tens of thousands of Labour members and trade unionists will be worried to hear that Jeremy Corbyn appears to agree with David Davis that our membership of the single market is not worth fighting for.
I have been consistent in saying that trade with Europe is in our national economic interest. It brings jobs, growth and investment.
Amber Rudd rejects Goddard call to narrow scope of abuse inquiry to current cases saying historic cases - even long ago - imp for future
Home Sec Amber Rudd on why Goddard resigned "I think..she found it too much for her. She found it too lonely. She was a long way from home."
4.29pm BST
Theresa May is going to hold talks with Donald Tusk, president of the European council, in Downing Street tomorrow, Number 10 has said.
4.27pm BST
And the Guardian’s Hilary Osborne has also written an analysis looking at whether the government really is replacing every home sold under right to buy with a new one. She concluded that Theresa May was wrong.
Related: Reality check: are right-to-buy homes being replaced as promised?
4.16pm BST
Huffington Post’s Martha Gill has written a good analysis of who was right when Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn clashed over housing at PMQs. It is not straightforward, but she gives it to Corbyn. She gives it to Corbyn.
4.04pm BST
Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, has been giving evidence to the Treasury committee this afternoon. Here are some of the key points. I’m using tweets from the FT’s Chris Giles, Sky’s Ed Conway, the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn, Politics Home’s John Ashmore, the BBC’s Kamal Ahmed and Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall.
Carney top time from TSC so far: BoE governor takes credit for lowering recession risk in UK
Carney says part of the reason markets and property prices have held up post-referendum is because of the Bank's intervention
Carney to #TSC: economy's bounce back means the UK is now growing faster, but still at half the rate of before the EU referendum.
Carney: BoE forecast implies 0.1% GDP growth in coming quarters. PMIs now suggesting slightly stronger GDP. "That's great; that's welcome"
Mark Carney being grilled by Treasury committee says he is "quite comfortable" with the analysis the Bank of England made pre-referendum
Carney tells #TSC there are "signs of stabilisation in the economy" post EU referendum. Remains "absolutely serene" about his pre warnings.
Carney says he is "highly confident" interest rate cut "will be passed on" to mortgage holders "in the course of the next few months"
Everyone looking at Carney but more significant is Charlie Bean intervention on Euro-clearing: "I think it's certain that we will lose it."
3.42pm BST
Sky News is playing the “let’s get Ken Livingstone talking about Hitler” game. And he’s up for it. Asked if he will apologise for the remarks that led to his suspension from Labour, he says what he said was true ...
2.52pm BST
May on #Brexit: 'we will not reveal our hand prematurely and we will not provide a running commentary'
i.e. Even when we work out what we want, we won't tell you
"When we know what we've got, we'll explain to you that it's what we wanted." https://t.co/QzaP3W6N4k
It’s a model of running the global economy that the prime minister acknowledges has produced huge increases in inequality and failed in its own terms. Rising levels of inequality in all of our economies fuel insecurities and pit people and communities against each other. The free trade dogma the prime minister spoke of has often been pursued at the expense of the world’s most fragile economies, and has been realised with destructive consequences for our environment. We need a UK trade agenda that protects people and the environment, and I urge the Prime Minister to stand with me against the use of Britain’s aid and trade policies to further the agenda of deregulation and privatisation in developing countries.
Everyone gets how - over time - renewable energy sources have an important role to play in a sensibly conceived mixed energy policy. However wishful thinking doesn’t generate the power we need to heat homes, keep the lights on and the economy functioning; this means that until there are technological breakthroughs in carbon capture or solar storage then gas and nuclear power are the only reliable, low-carbon shows in town for all those days when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Limiting the UK’s options on achieving energy self-sufficiency by proposing an outright ban on fracking is naive and short-sighted.
2.16pm BST
Theresa May has now finished taking questions. I will post a summary soon.
2.09pm BST
The SNP’s Joanna Cherry says Edinburgh could replace London as Europe’s leading financial centre when the UK leaves the EU, because Scotland wants to remain in the single market.
May says the best thing for prosperity in Scotland is for Scotland to remain part of the UK.
2.06pm BST
Labour’s Clive Efford asks if the UK is having to employ people from overseas to work as trade negotiators.
May sidesteps the question. She says the department for international trade is building up its capacity.
2.01pm BST
Labour’s Tristram Hunt asks what conversations May had with the Japanese about Brexit. And will May take control of these negotiations herself?
May says she will focus her efforts on getting a good deal.
1.56pm BST
The Conservative MP Nigel Adams asks May if Britain has the international trade negotiators it will need for the Brexit talks.
May says for many years Britain did not need trade negotiators. But she is building up capacity through the department for international trade, she says.
1.55pm BST
Many Labour pro-Europeans have been urging Theresa May to commit to keeping the UK in the single market. But Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, is less keen on this, according to Labour sources.
This is from Politics Home’s Kevin Schofield.
Labour source refuses to say Jeremy Corbyn wants Britain to remain a member of the single market post-Brexit. Significant.
Interesting. Corbyn against keeping single market membership, spksman reveals. "There are aspects of it that Jeremy has campaigned against".
1.47pm BST
Jessica Morden, the Labour MP for Newport East, says it was disappointing that May did not raise the issue of Chinese steel at her meeting with the Chinese president.
May says she did raise this issue, but at the plenary session. A new forum to look at this is being set up, and China will sit on it.
1.41pm BST
Sky’s economics editor Ed Conway thinks Theresa May’s “no running commentary” policy on Brexit is quite sensible.
Having covered plenty of late night Brussels negotiations, sounds quite sensible for PM May to insist she won't show her hand too early
1.39pm BST
Emma Reynolds, the Labour MP, asks May to clarify that David Davis was wrong to say the UK would probably leave the single market, Boris Johnson was wrong to back a points-based immigration system and Liam Fox was wrong to say the UK would leave the customs union.
May says she has said what she has said on these issues.
1.34pm BST
Pat McFadden, the Labour former Europe minister, quotes what David Davis said in his ConservativeHome article in July about the new prime minister triggering a large round of global trade deal on 9 September. (See 9.18am.) Will May be triggering those trade deals in two days’ time?
May says she had many discussions at the G20 about trade deals.
1.31pm BST
Alex Salmond, the SNP foreign affairs spokesman, asks why Number 10 slapped down David Davis over what he said on Monday about the single market. And doesn’t she know a lot more about Brexit than May, because she has only been a Brexiteer for a few weeks.
May says she wants the best deal for the UK.
1.25pm BST
Labour’s Ben Bradshaw says giving up membership of the single market out of a “dogmatic” desire to cut immigration would be an act of self harm.
May says Bradshaw should consider the message given by the public in the EU referendum.
1.23pm BST
In his statement to MPs about Brexit on Monday David Davis, the Brexit secretary, said he wanted to build a “national consensus” on Brexit and to minimise uncertainty.
First, as I said, we wish to build a national consensus around our position. Second, while always putting the national interest first, we will always act in good faith towards our European partners. Third, wherever possible we will try to minimise any uncertainty that change can inevitably bring. And, fourth, crucially, we will – by the end of this process – have left the European Union, and put the sovereignty and supremacy of this Parliament beyond doubt.
1.19pm BST
Labour’s Yvette Cooper says it is important to know what May values in the Brexit negotiations. Does May value membership of the single market? And should staying in be an aim of the negotiations?
May says she has answered this already. If people ask the same questions, they will get the same answer.
That would be the best way to come out with the worst deal.
1.15pm BST
Anna Soubry, a Conservative, asks what assurances May can give the automative industry about tariffs and the customs union.
May says she wants the right deal for trade on goods and services. It is important not to think of this as trying to replicate something here, or something there.
1.13pm BST
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, says Australia has told the UK it is at the back of the queue for a trade deal. Can May confirm we will remain a member of the single market? We trusted the people on the departure. And we should trust them on the destination too, he says.
May says the Australian trade minister has just set out the legal position; we cannot concluded a trade deal while we remain a member of the EU. But that does not mean we cannot negotiate with them in the meantime.
1.10pm BST
Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, says he asked twice at PMQs if Britain would remain a full member of the single market. May would not reply. But this is not a “twist and turn”. This is a crucial issue. Can she reply?
How many trade negotiators has the UK hired since the referendum vote, he asks.
1.04pm BST
Here is the full text of what Theresa May said about not providing a “running commentary” on Brexit.
I know many people are keen to see rapid progress and to understand what post-Brexit Britain will look like. We are getting on with that vital work. But we must also think through the issues in a sober and considered way. And as I have said this is about getting the kind of deal that is ambitious and bold for Britain. It is not about the Norway model or the Swiss model or any other country’s model – it is about developing our own British model.
So we will not take decisions until we are ready. We will not reveal our hand prematurely and we will not provide a running commentary on every twist and turn of the negotiation. And I say that because that is not the best way to conduct a strong and mature negotiation that will deliver the best deal for the people of this country.
1.02pm BST
May is responding to Corbyn.
She says the government is acting on hate crime. There was a recent meeting with the Polish on this.
Free trade can be the best anti-poverty policy for those countries.
12.57pm BST
Corbyn says the G20 was formed after the financial crisis. Rising levels of inequality pit communities against each other, he says.
He says the free trade dogma May spoke of has often damaged the world’s most vulnerable community.
12.54pm BST
Jeremy Corbyn is now responding to May.
He says he first went to China in 1998. That was the same year the Human Rights Act was passed. Labour is worried about the plans to repeal this.
12.51pm BST
May says she intends to return to the issue of illegal immigration when she next visits the UN.
She says she wants Britain to lead a global effort to tackle human trafficking.
12.49pm BST
May is now running though the G20 summit conclusions.
Here is the summit communique.
12.47pm BST
Theresa May is now making her statement the G20 and Brexit.
She says she knows many people are keen to see rapid progress on Brexit.
12.42pm BST
Labour’s Jim Dowd asks May to send her condolences to the family and friends of the woman and boy killed in Penge last week by a dangerous driver. Will the government review the laws on dangerous driving? They are not tough enough, he says.
May says this was a terrible tragedy. She is aware of the concern there is about the law on dangerous driving. The Ministry of Justice is looking at this, she says.
12.40pm BST
Cheryl Gillan, the Conservative MP, asks about a drug newly available for a rare medical condition, a form of muscular dystrophy.
May says this is a very important issue
12.39pm BST
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, says the government still has not ratified the climate change treaty. Is the government still committed to action on climate change? And when will the treaty be ratified?
May says it will be ratified. But she urges Lucas to congratulate the government. The UK has been rated the second best country in the world at tackling climate change.
12.37pm BST
Philip Hollobone, a Conservative, asks about the funding of NHS services in his constituency.
May says all MPs are aware of the challenge there is in integrating health and social care. In some areas this is done very well. The government wants to spread good practice on this.
12.36pm BST
The Lib Dem MP Tom Brake asks May for an assurance that, when £350m a week becomes available for the NHS (he is being sarcastic) the first £100m goes to his local hospital.
May says the government will continue to fund the NHS.
12.35pm BST
Julian Sturdy, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that universities will get the funding they need to thrive post Brexit after 2020.
May says the chancellor has given assurances to universities. Looking ahead, a higher education bill is going through the House. That will ensure the UK can provided the university places it needs. Britain has a great record on universities, she says.
12.34pm BST
Labour’s Helen Hayes asks for an assurance that funding for schools in London will not be cut by up to 20% when the school funding formula gets changed.
May says this will be done carefully to see what impact there is on all parts of the country.
12.33pm BST
According to a Guardian report from May, the figures for the number of homes sold under right to buy that get replaced are even worse than those Jeremy Corbyn quoted. He said just one in five was replaced. Hilary Osborne’s story quotes figures saying it was just one in 10.
12.28pm BST
Snap PMQs verdict: An unedifying draw. Theresa May sounded confident, but her pre-scripted anti-Corbyn jibes (in response to questions two and three) came over as unprovoked, gratuitous and consequently rather cheap. It was reminiscent of David Cameron’s Bullingdon aggro, but Cameron found a way of at least making his attacks sound relevant. Corbyn ignored the obvious topics (grammar schools, or Brexit) and he asked solid, serious questions about one of the most pressing social questions of our time. But, as ever, he did not really use follow-up questions to drive home his points and so he did not really succeed in discomforting May at all. The PM was relatively weak on detail, but she did try to turn the argument into a wider one about values, and about home ownership, and on these points Corbyn’s responses were thin.
12.18pm BST
Corbyn says only a year ago May voted against a Labour amendment to the housing bill saying all homes in the rented sector should be fit for habitation. The Treasury is losing £500m a year from unpaid tax from landlords in the housing sector. Unpaid tax, poor quality homes - doesn’t this require government intervention.
May says the government has intervened. Thousands of landlords face further action. Corbyn may have a model of society where he does not want to see private landlords. But that is not what she wants. She wants people to have opportunities.
12.13pm BST
Corbyn says there is a housing crisis in Britain. Some £9.3bn is paid from housing benefit into the pockets of private landlords. Is that money well spent?
May says Corbyn asked about home ownership, but than objects to a measure that helps people have homes. Corbyn may have an ideological objection to the private rented sector. Everything Corbyn tells us everything we need to know about Labour. The train has left the station, the leader is on the floor, even on rolling stock, they are a laughing stock.
12.09pm BST
Jeremy Corbyn starts off also congratulating Team GB. The average house price is now £215,000. That is eight times the average wage. Isn’t the dream of home ownership now just a dream?
May says it is important to help people get their first foot on the housing ladder. House building is up. But the government wants to do more, she says.
12.05pm BST
Neil Parish, a Conservative, asks for an assurances that farmers will not lose out from Brexit.
May says the chancellor’s announcement also said farmers would have their EU income guaranteed too until 2020.
12.04pm BST
Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour MP, says the UK has a disproportionate number of the world’s best universities. But some are already losing out as a result of Brexit. Can May tells MPs what the government’s stragegy is?
May welcomes Debbonaire back. (She was ill earlier this year.) She says the chancellor has announced that universities will have some EU funding guaranteed.
12.03pm BST
Theresa May starts by congratulating the British Olympic team. They did themselves and their country proud, she says. And she offers best wishes to the Paralympic team.
11.55am BST
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Followed by PM's statement on G20, expect a strong message from May that she won't be rushed
11.52am BST
PMQs starts in 10 minutes.
Here is the order paper showing which MPs are asking questions.
There's a G20 statement by PM 1230ish, on our #PMQs panel we have @wesstreeting @StephenGethins and @andreajenkyns pic.twitter.com/6w5dRKrtkI
11.49am BST
Here is my colleague Alan Travis’s story on Liz Truss’s evidence to the justice committee.
Related: Liz Truss puts prison reform plans put on hold
Theresa May’s new government has pulled back from Michael Gove’s plan to introduce a major prison reform bill that formed the social reform centrepiece of David Cameron’s last Queen’s speech only four months ago.
The new justice secretary, Liz Truss, sparked astonishment among MPs when she refused to guarantee to the Commons justice select committee that Gove’s prison reform legislation would go ahead.
11.46am BST
Chuka Umunna, the Labour former shadow business secretary, will stand for election as chair of the Commons home affairs committee, I’m told. He is a member of the committee and all MPs will vote for the new chair following Keith Vaz’s resignation yesterday. Umunna has the backing of all Labour members of the committee, as well as some Tories on committee. As MP for Streatham in south London, where there is a sizeable black and minority ethnic (BME) community, he feels that chairing the committee would dovetail with his constituency responsibilities (because home affairs covers some issues of particular relevance to BME communities). He also thinks that having a serving member of the committee replace Vaz would provide continuity, which would benefit the committee, and that it would be good for Vaz to be replaced by a BME candidate because Vaz was the only BME Commons select committee chair.
Home affairs is one of the most high-profile Commons committee and there is likely to be strong competition for the post, which has to got a Labour MP. Caroline Flint, a former Home Office minister, has already confirmed that she is also standing.
11.28am BST
Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign team have responded rather wittily to Owen Smith’s open letter about what he should say at PMQs. (See 10.17am.)
.Hi @owensmith2016, like all Labour supporters, you're welcome to submit questions for Jeremy to ask at PMQs here: https://t.co/vVQmI0tB6u
11.25am BST
Liz Truss, the new justice secretary, has just finished giving evidence to the Commons justice committee this morning. Here are some of the highlights. The tweets are from the Guardian’s Alan Travis, the BBC’s Danny Shaw and the legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg.
Liz Truss appears to have pulled back from introducing Michael Gove's prison reform bill which was centrepiece of Queen's Speech
Justice cttee chairman expresses astonishment that Queen's Speech jail reform centrepiece not guaranteed - I am looking at that, says Truss
Liz Truss resists justice select ctte pressure to commit to cut prison numbers and says there is no right or wrong levels of imprisonment.
Liz Truss tells Victoria Prentis she doesn’t want to be judged on prison numbers. Her “metric” is whether prisoners are motivated to engage.
Liz Truss suggests new technology in some prisons to detect 'legal highs' is working & drug levels have been cut @CommonsJustice
We're 25 minutes into Liz Truss's first appearance at Justice select committee. 25 minutes of meaningless platitudes I will never get back.
Half an hour of Liz Truss's management-speak guff is almost enough to make you miss Michael Gove. It's actually that bad
Philip Davies asks again about allowing sex in prisons. Truss replies: "We'll be setting out a framework in due course." She really is a gem
Justice Secretary Liz Truss appears to be fudging her way through first Justice Select Committee appearance.
Liz Truss was far from impressive before the justice committee. She seems pretty vague about what she's doing.
10.45am BST
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, is today launching a Lib Dem “plan for Britain in Europe”. The party is campaigning for people to be given the chance to vote on the final Brexit deal, although it claims that this is not the same as demanding a second referendum. Farron said:
Voting for departure is not the same as voting for a destination. Brexit means Brexit but we still don’t know if that means £350m a week extra for the NHS, immigration controls or membership of the Single Market. This is not an attempt to re-run the first referendum. It is to enable the public to vote on the final deal, reflecting that there is disagreement even in the cabinet over every major aspect of Brexit.
10.36am BST
David Willetts, the former Conservative universities minister who now chairs the Resolution Foundation thinktank, was on the Today programme this morning criticising the government’s proposal to bring back grammar schools. It’s a subject about which he feels strongly, because his opposition to grammar schools probably cost him a seat in cabinet. As shadow education secretary in 2007 he gave a speech saying bringing back grammar schools would be bad for social mobility. David Cameron backed him at the time, but the Willetts argument went down very badly with Conservative party members and Willetts was subsequently demoted to the shadow universities post. As universities minister he attended cabinet but not as a full cabinet minister.
On the Today programme he said he had not changed his mind on grammar schools.
It’s a very serious problem in these selective systems: they do tend to be captured by the better-informed, more affluent parents ... They’re doing the right thing for their kids but the trouble is social mobility suffers as a result.
If you look overall, not just in Britain but around the world, at those school systems we admire that have got high performance and high standards, from Shanghai to Finland, by and large they don’t put their effort into trying to pick which kids they educate; they put their effort into raising standards for all the kids.
10.17am BST
Owen Smith, the Labour leadership challenger, has written an open letter to Jeremy Corbyn about the questions he should ask at PMQs.
His suggestions are rather good. But they are contained in a letter that is both critical and patronising. Here’s a flavour of it.
I’m sorry to say that in her first PMQs in July, you put Theresa May under no pressure at all. You moved from issue to issue with no follow-up for any of your six questions, so that the prime minister’s answers were not challenged.
You didn’t even ask her about the EU, even though Brexit was and is the biggest challenge facing her government, and the reason for David Cameron’s resignation and her elevation to Downing Street. Perhaps the same reticence about standing up for Britain’s place in the EU which led you to campaign so ineffectively for Remain also puts you off exposing the weaknesses and contradictions in the Government’s position – but continuing to fail to take Theresa May on over Brexit would be a dereliction of duty.
Following her experience at the G20 summit this weekend, does the PM regret not campaigning harder for Britain to remain in the EU?
The PM has said on a number of occasions that “Brexit means Brexit”. Did she find that this vacuous slogan was sufficient to alleviate our allies’ concerns at the G20 this weekend, or did they still have some questions?
10.06am BST
Here are some more lines from the Today programme’s interview with Steven Ciobo, the Australian trade minister.
I indicated that if a request was forthcoming, Australia would certainly be willing to help. I made the passing quip to Secretary Fox that if we were going to have negotiations with Australia, they would probably go very smoothly if it was Australians on all sides of the negotiating table. But, ultimately, we’re happy to provide whatever support we can.
Absolutely. Cheap Australian wine is a good fringe benefit of an FTA [free trade agreement] if we are able to put one in place.
9.18am BST
In July, a few days before his surprise appointment as Brexit secretary, David Davis wrote a detailed article for ConservativeHome about the approach the government should adopt to EU withdrawal. In it, he confidently predicted that new trade deals with countries outside the EU could be negotiated quickly, within two years.
So be under no doubt: we can do deals with our trading partners, and we can do them quickly. I would expect the new prime minister on September 9th [at this point the Tories still thought members would be voting in a lengthy leadership election[ to immediately trigger a large round of global trade deals with all our most favoured trade partners. I would expect that the negotiation phase of most of them to be concluded within between 12 and 24 months.
So within two years, before the negotiation with the EU is likely to be complete, and therefore before anything material has changed, we can negotiate a free trade area massively larger than the EU.
My formal advice is that, and this is from the UK side, the UK is unable to negotiate or sign an agreement prior to the formal exit from the EU. We can certainly have preliminary discussions and that’s part of what I’m doing here this week. Preliminary discussions around what a post-Brexit Australia-UK trade deal might look like.
Based upon what we’ve been told, if article 50 is present in Q1 or Q2 next year [the first or second quarter of the year] and then the two year year window in relation to that, so you would expect it is at least two and a half years off.
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