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Cameron and Corbyn at PMQs - live Cameron: people who register today 'will have a vote in EU referendum' - live
(35 minutes later)
11.52am BST 12.29pm BST
11:52 12:29
There is an urgent question on voter registration after PMQs. Labour’s Matthew Pennycook asks why the government has watered down efforts to tackle air pollution.
UQ granted to @GloriaDePiero on problems with the gov.uk website just before the deadline for voter registration for the EU referendum Cameron rejects this. He says the government is tackling this.
11.49am BST 12.28pm BST
11:49 12:28
John Hayes, the Conservative MP and security minister, is on the Daily Politics. Asked about the voter registration issue, he sounded unsympathetic to calls to extend the deadline, saying everyone knew people had to register before the end of yesterday. Liam Fox, a Conservative, asks Cameron to accept that the referendum is not advisory, but an instruction to the government. Any attempt to ignore it would be a democratic outrage, he says.
But it is not his call. We’ll get the official government position from David Cameron at PMQs shortly. Cameron says he agrees. He says many people would like him to be more nuanced. He says he very strongly believes we would be better off if we stay in.
11.45am BST 12.27pm BST
11:45 12:27
Electoral Commission urges government to extend electoral registration deadline Stephen Gethins, an SNP MP, says the delay to building the new frigates in Glasgow is causing real problems.
The Electoral Commission is also saying it favours using emergency legislation to extend the deadline for voter registration to help those people who could not register because the website crashed last night. In a statement it said: Cameron says this country has not run out of money or ambition when it comes to ship building. There is only one way to threaten shipbuilding on the Clyde; that would be for Scotland to leave the EU.
It is vital that everyone who wants to participate in this historic referendum is able to. 12.26pm BST
There was a very significant increase in applications to register to vote yesterday on the government’s website. However, issues with the government website arose around 10.15pm and were not resolved until after the registration deadline at midnight. 12:26
The government are looking into exactly what happened. Neil Carmichael, a Conservative, says Britain should lead in the EU to help young people.
There will be many people who wanted to register to vote last night and were not able to. The registration deadline is set out in legislation and we have said to the government this morning they should consider options for introducing legislation as soon as possible that would extend the deadline. We would support such a change. Cameron says universities have been pretty much unanimous in saying Britain should remain in the EU. Universities would lose research funding if we left, he says.
11.41am BST 12.25pm BST
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Labour is offering to help the government push through emergency legislation to extend the voter registration deadline. This is from Gloria De Piero, the shadow minister for voter registration. Labour’s Helen Goodman says the Brexit economist Patrick Minford says British manufacturing would be mostly eliminated under his plans for trade.
The tens of thousands of voters who were trying to register when the voter registration site crashed last night – who through no fault of their own are now unable to take part in the referendum – could have a decisive impact on the result. Cameron says Goodman is making a good point. Firms invest in the UK because we are in the single market. He says what the head of Hitachi said this week was very important. In his view, jobs come first, he says.
We need the government to act to give a 24 hour extension of both the voter registration and postal vote deadlines, so that anyone who has registered to vote today will be able to have their say in the decision of a lifetime. 12.23pm BST
We are making an offer to the government today to support any legislative changes necessary in the Commons and the Lords, to ensure democracy isn’t hijacked just because the computer says no. 12:23
11.36am BST Craig Mackinlay, a Conservative, asks about a business centre in his South Thanet constituency.
11:36 Cameron says David Willetts as science minister did a good job getting businesses to locate in South Thanet.
Robert Hayward, a polling expert, Tory peer and former MP, is now predicting that unless something “substantial” changes, the “balance of probability” is that the nation will for Brexit, the Telegraph reports. 12.22pm BST
11.28am BST 12:22
11:28 Cameron says the buses bill is a devolved matter, but he will look at what it can do to help disabled people.
Cabinet Office says it is 'urgently considering' what it can do to help people prevented from registering to vote 12.21pm BST
The Cabinet Office is hinting that it will help people who were unable to register to vote last night. It has posted these messages on Twitter. 12:21
We are urgently considering what the options are for those who were unable to register to vote last night (1/2) Cameron says the European budget has been fixed for seven years, until 2020. The budget is going down. That cannot be changed. There is a veto over changing it. And there is a veto over the rebate too. The only person who can give it up is the British prime minister. As long as he is prime minister, he will not give it up.
We are talking to the @ElectoralCommUK & will provide an update as soon as possible (2/2) 12.18pm BST
11.23am BST 12:18
11:23 PMQs - Snap verdict:
Toby James, an academic specialising in electoral administration, has written a blog this morning saying there is a simple solution to the problem generated by the voter registration site crashing last night. It’s automatic registration. PMQs - Snap verdict: Corbyn has until now avoided tackling Cameron over the EU referendum, and we can see why. He tried to taunt Cameron over comments made by pro-Brexit ministers, but it was like watching someone try to barge through an open door, because Cameron was able to deftly deal with this by saying that he did not agree with Patel, Gove etc either. Angela Eagle managed extract some political capital from this topic last week, through mockery, but today it was hard to see what Corbyn was trying to achieve. His question about Sports Direct was good, but Cameron had a reasonable answer to it. And Corbyn did not really achieve a hit either on Tory MEPs and tax avoidance, although he had a good line about how nice it would be if they actually voted to tackle tax avoidance too. Overall, though, it was a breeze for Cameron.
There are more details here, in a report from the all-party parliamentary group on democratic participation (pdf).
11.08am BST
11:08
Farage tells MEPs Brexit vote could bring down the EU
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, delivered a speech in the European parliament this morning in a debate on the EU investment plan. In it he described the referendum as “the biggest event in the history of this project” and predicted that a Brexit vote would bring down the entire EU.
There was a strong element of “I told you so” running through the speech. Here’s an extract.
I came in here in 1999 and sat at the back and there were only three of us in the whole building who thought our member state should leave the European Union. But it is grand projects that have turned the tide of public opinion, in particular the introduction of the Euro. I warned you, we all warned you; it would not work for the Mediterranean countries. It could comfortably work for the optimal currency zone in the north but no, through massive ambition and hubris you ploughed on and you allowed countries like Greece to join a currency that they were never fit for. And what has happened to Greece now? Well they’re facing the next bailout in probably July of this year and because you want to hold your project together you are forcing them bit by bit to become a third world country and all I can say frankly is shame on you ...
And the other feature that I have noticed here is the growth of what I can only describe as authoritarianism. We actually saw the prime minister of Greece removed effectively by a coup d’état and we saw Mr Berlusconi removed by a coup d’état and in both cases replaced by appointees who were former directors of Goldman Sachs. So I think you’ve sown the seeds of your own destruction.
He ended saying he hoped this would be his last speech to the European parliament from a member state.
And I hope on June 23rd it is not just independence day for the United Kingdom, I hope it brings an end to this entire project and in a few years’ time we can be sovereign, democratic nation states that work and trade together. I hope this is the last time I’ll be speaking in this parliament from a member state and I hope that we are going to leave this union on June 23rd. So I’m going out now, I may be some time.
Farage ends by quoting Captain Oates, the Antarctic explorer who sacrificed himself to help save his colleagues. But it was in vain, because his colleagues, led by Captain Scott, also died. It is odd for Farage to end his speech quoting a heroic failure.
You can read the full speech here.
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at 11.17am BST at 12.19pm BST
10.55am BST 12.13pm BST
10:55 12:13
Heidi Alexander says NHS could not function without EU migrants Corbyn says there is anger all over the world about tax avoidance. MEPs have not been supporting country by country tax transparency. When will they back closing down tax loopholes?
Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, has been giving a speech on the threat to the NHS from leaving the EU to Unison this morning. My colleagues Heather Stewart and Anushka Asthana previewed it this morning. Here are the key points from what she said. Cameron says no government has done more nationally or internationally to address this. He says his MEPs do support country by country reporting.
But we have to be honest: as of today, parts of the health system would not function without the contribution of EU migrants. Corbyn says he is pleased by that. He just hopes they will vote for it too. That would certainly help. He is concerned tackling tax avoidance is not a priority for Tories. Tories like Gove and Patel and Boris Johnson are trying to destroy protections for workers. If they do not speak for the government, why are they still in it.
Put simply, you’re more likely to come across a migrant caring for you in a hospital, then in the bed next to you ... Cameron says he had hoped to maintain consensus. But he could mention that Gisela Stuart was spinning for Nigel Farage yesterday. He says extending county by country reporting could make a real difference.
Would hospitals be able to fill staff shortages without immediate access to the pool of qualified staff from other European countries? 12.10pm BST
The truth is we just don’t know. 12:10
Just because the bus has got the NHS logo plastered on its side, doesn’t mean for a second that you should trust the people sat in its seats. Corbyn says, if the government is compassionate, why does it have an employment minister who wants to make work less secure. And Michael Gove says he cannot guarantee that people would keep their jobs if the UK leaves the EU. Can Cameron do something about that?
People like Boris Johnson who has written that “people [should] have to pay” for the NHS. Cameron says we are having a referendum. Ministers are campaigning on the other side in a personal capacity. He says he does not agree with Patel and Gove. He says he and Corbyn agree. And other parties, like the Lib Dems and the Greens, agree too.
People like Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell who have called for a “price-mechanism in healthcare”. Corbyn says he celebrates the work done by trade unions throughout Europe. Two weeks ago he asked about the posting of workers directive. Will Cameron now confirm that he will support closing the loophole in it that allow exploitation to go on.
Or people like Nigel Farage, who was caught on video, saying that he wants the NHS to move to an insurance based system like the United States. Cameron says the government supports the current draft. It is good, and the government is backing it.
Now, the past few weeks of this campaign have sometimes felt like a beauty contest for the next leader of the Conservative Party. 12.07pm BST
I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up of it. 12:07
Fed up of the mud-slinging and the name-calling. Jeremy Corbyn pays tribute to Muhammad Ali.
Fed up of the dry debates about sovereignty and the rebate. He asks Cameron to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts.
And fed up of being told that people like me, a comprehensive girl from Swindon are somehow part of an elitist establishment that have been brainwashed by bureaucrats from Brussels. Cameron agrees with Corbyn about Ali.
Boris, Nigel - I can assure you that is not the case. On Sports Direct, he says he abhors companies not paying the minimum wage. He says the government is doing more to enforce it than any previous government. More firms are paying penalties.
It seems to me the public want less spin and more substance in this debate. They want to understand what their vote on the 23rd June means for them and for the things they care about – like the National Health Service. He says the government legislated in the last parliament to ban exclusive zero-hours contract. But the review did not recommend going further, because some workers want them.
10.25am BST Corbyn pays tribute to Unite for exposing the Sports Direct abuses. He says Priti Patel, the employment minister, says leaving the EU would reduce the regulatory burdens on firms. Does she speak for the government?
10:25 Cameron says the government is in favour of staying in the EU. And the Commons has repeatedly chosen to go beyond the rights guaranteed by the EU. This modern, compassionate Conservative government has an excellent record on these things.
And the Electoral Reform Society is saying the same thing. This is from Katie Ghose, its chief executive.
This is a similar situation to the 2010 general election, when people were turned away from polling stations despite being in the queues before close of polls. Those queueing up last night shouldn’t be turned away, and plenty more may have heard about the site crashing and not bothered. There’s still time to put this right, with over two weeks to go until the referendum.
Given the huge rush to register there is clearly a huge demand for people to have their voice heard, so we believe the deadline should be extended until at least midnight tonight, or ideally the end of the week if feasible. Everyone turned away needs time to hear about the extension and to sign up, and a day might not be long enough given the high numbers involved.
Over 1.5m people have applied to register this past week, and 525,000 on the final day alone. This huge enthusiasm to take part shouldn’t be cast aside because of a short cut off.
10.22am BST
10:22
Leanne Wood, the Plaid Cymru leader, has joined those saying the voter registration deadline should be extended. “It is unacceptable that thousands of people were unable to register to vote last night due to a technical error on the government’s website,” she says.
10.01am BST
10:01
Farage says more black migrants would come to UK under his proposed immigration system
On ITV’s Good Morning Britain Nigel Farage also claimed that, under his preferred immigration system (the Australian-style, points-based one, in case you had not heard), there would be more black people coming to the UK.
I believe in the Commonwealth. I believe our relationship with the Commonwealth is vital. I think we’ve been stupid to turn our backs on it in favour of EU membership. And what has happened, because of the huge numbers of people coming from the EU, is it’s now very difficult for somebody who’s qualified from India or from Africa to get into this country because we have an unlimited open door to unskilled labour from southern and eastern Europe. And the effect of what I’m proposing – a points system, call it the Australian one or whatever you like – actually more black people would qualify to come in under that.
UPDATE: This is from Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future thinktank, which specialises in migration and identity issues.
@AndrewSparrow true of @Steven_Woolfe Ukip policy (envisages net migration at 250k+);ruled out by Gove for @vote_leave to aim under net 100k
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at 11.25am BST at 12.10pm BST
9.54am BST 12.03pm BST
09:54 12:03
Farage accuses archbishop of turning 'blind eye' to problems exemplified by Cologne sex attacks Cameron suggests government will extend registration deadline
In his interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, also hit back again at the archbishop of Canterbury, accusing him of turning a “blind eye” to the problems exemplified by the sex attacks in Cologne. Mims Davies, a Conservative, says Emily Davison died on the 8 June 1913. Will David Cameron update MPs on what he is doing to ensure everyone can vote in the referendum.
The row was triggered by an interview Farage gave to the Sunday Telegraph in which he warned about the danger of Cologne-style attacks in the UK if the UK remained in the EU. He described the issue as a “nuclear bomb”. Yesterday the archbishop, Justin Welby, accused Farage of racism. Cameron says it is welcome so many people want to vote. Last night there was record demand on the website. There was an overload. He says people should continue to register today. The Electoral Commission wants the government to consider legislating to extend the deadline. The government is discussing that, he says.
Speaking on GMB, Farage tried to clarify what he meant. “We are working urgently to make sure people who register today and who registered last night will be able to vote in the EU referendum,” he said.
I didn’t say that I was going to detonate that bomb, did I? In fact, what I said was this was an issue for the longer term, it’s not a problem for the short term. Longer term, there could be an issue if the one million men, young men, economic migrants that went to Germany last year were to get EU passports but I quite deliberately played that down ... Updated
Read what Alison Pearson’s written in the Daily Telegraph, listen to what Liam Fox has said, listen to what Iain Duncan Smith has said – they’ve gone far further than me, they’ve been far more explicit about this. But there was no question that during this campaign there was going to be a moment when people chose to attack me. What they’ve done here is, frankly, confected outrage. at 12.14pm BST
Turning to Welby, Farage went on:
He hasn’t read what I’ve said, he hasn’t studied what I’ve said ...
This is the archbishop who, in his New Year’s message on 6 January, didn’t even make any mention of what had gone wrong in Cologne. It would appear to me he’s one of those people who’s prepared to turn a blind eye.
As I say, there are people leading the debate on this subject; I’m frankly a follower on it. But to try to talk about this and to link it to people who are black or racism is ludicrous. What actually has happened in Germany and in Sweden is there is a cultural difference, that there are countries in North Africa and the Middle East where women are not treated as they are in the West.
This is not the first time Farage has made incendiary remarks in an interview, only to find himself clarifying them later after being branded racist. There was a good example two years ago when he had a go at Romanians.
I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
9.36am BST
09:36
Here is more from the legal blogger Carl Gardner on how the government could extend the voter registration deadline.
I can't find where in legislation the June 7 registration deadline's laid down. But I think it's these regs: (1/3) https://t.co/eV0ywnIAQK
Anyway, s4 of the EU (Referendum) Act 2015 gives ministers power to modify electoral registration rules: https://t.co/cqrABuJJ2C (2/3)
And an amending SI made today (Wednesday) would I think take effect automatically *at the start of* today. Problem legally solved. (3/3)
9.32am BST
09:32
Harriet Harman, the Labour former deputy leader, says the whole voter registration system is flawed anyway.
Why on earth do we still have "opt in" elec registration? U shouldn't have to apply. Govt should put all eligible on register
9.26am BST
09:26
This is from Sky’s Faisal Islam.
Record referendum registration applications yesterday - 525,000...(previous high 485k) 302k under 35, 402k under 44: pic.twitter.com/60IHJODcQ5
9.25am BST
09:25
More than 500,000 people did register to vote on Tuesday, government sources are saying.
But Philip Cowley, a politics professor, is using Twitter to point out that technically these are applications to register. Many people apply to register to vote who are either already registered, or who turn out to be ineligible.
For the next two days, I will mostly be tweeting this...From The British General Election of 2015. pic.twitter.com/elfVUU3Sru
9.13am BST
09:13
Cabinet Office not saying yet whether voter registration deadline will be extended
This is what the Cabinet Office is saying this morning. A spokesperson said:
We became aware of technical issues on gov.uk/register-to-vote late on Tuesday night due to unprecedented demand. Some people did manage to get through and their applications were processed. We tried to resolve the situation as quickly as was possible and to resolve cases where people tried to register but were not able to.
But the Cabinet Office is not saying yet whether or not the government will agree to extend the deadline.
That is probably because they are still thinking about it. We will almost certainly get an answer one way or the other later, and perhaps at PMQs, where David Cameron will be asked about this.
9.09am BST
09:09
Farage says backs extending voter registration deadline - but just for a day
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has given half-hearted backing to the call to extend the deadline for voter registration in the light of the fact that the website crashed last night. This is what he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning.
If you apply that logic, you might say why not delay the date of the referendum itself. I think there have been some pretty big clarion calls for people to register and my understanding is that a very, very large number of people have. So if the website crashed last night then maybe the sensible thing is to extend it by a day but I really wouldn’t go beyond that.
Given that the people registering to vote at the last minute are overwhelmingly likely to be young rather than old, as the government’s voter registration dashboard reveals in precise detail, and young voters are more likely to be Remain than Leave, it is not surprising that Remainers like Farron are far more keen on extending the deadline than Leavers like Farage.