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Boris Johnson prepares to enter No 10 as Hunt 'refuses cabinet demotion' – live news
May uses last PMQs to tell Corbyn to quit as Johnson prepares to become prime minister – live news
(about 1 hour later)
Kate Green, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons standards committee, has said that appointing Dominic Cummings to a job in Number 10 would be “a very serious matter” given that he has been found guilty of a contempt of parliament. She said:
Harriet Harman, the mother of the Commons (longest-serving female MP), says May was only the second female PM. Even her harshest critics must recognise her public service, her integrity and her commitment to her country. But she has some advice: sometimes you have to be careful when a man wants to hold your hand. (That’s a reference to Trump.)
An admonishment of an individual for contempt of parliament is an extremely serious matter, which I would expect any government to take very careful note of in making appointments.
May thanks Harman for what she has done to get more women into the Commons. She says when she became an MP in 1997, there were only 13 female Tory MP. She remembers someone assuming she must be Labour because she was a woman.
Theresa May will take her last PMQs in about half an hour. Tony Blair and David Cameron also resigned on a Wednesday after PMQs, and they both used their final appearances at the despatch box to pay tribute to the value of MPs.
May says we are living through extraordinary times. The House of Commons is, rightly, at the centre of events. That is because MPs represent their constituents.. That duty to servie her constituents will remain her greatest motivation.
You can read Blair’s last PMQs here. He started with a joke his engagements (the first topic that has to be addressed at PMQs).
May leaves. Tory MPs give her a standing ovation. But not Labour MPs, although a few Labour MPs seem to be joining in the applause.
This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the house, I will have no such further meetings today, or any other day.
Dame Cheryl Gillan, a Conservative, says there are 2.8 million families living with autism in this country. They are often isolated. Will May join the all-party group on autism?
And he ended the session with a moving tribute to the Commons, and to politics as a calling.
May pays tribute to Gillan for passing the Autism Act as a backbencher. She says she has committed to taking the autism training available to MPs.
Mr. Speaker, if I may just finish with two brief remarks – first to the house. I have never pretended to be a great House of Commons man, but I pay the house the greatest compliment I can by saying that, from first to last, I never stopped fearing it. The tingling apprehension that I felt at three minutes to 12 today I felt as much 10 years ago, and every bit as acute. It is in that fear that the respect is contained.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, says although they have disagreed, she respects May’s commitment to service and her resilience. She asks if May will speak out if it looks as though Boris Johnson is ignoring warnings of the dangers of a no-deal Brexit.
The second thing that I would like to say is about politics and to all my colleagues from different political parties. Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall. Although I know that it has many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. If it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well. That is that. The end.
May says she is confident Johnson will consider all the issues. But if Cooper is so concerned about the security risks of no-deal, she should have voted for a deal.
In his final PMQs, Cameron started with a variant on the Blair joke.
Helen Whately, a Conservative, asks May if she will continue to push for women to be more empowered.
This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. Other than one meeting this afternoon with Her Majesty the Queen, the diary for the rest of my day is remarkably light.
May says she wants women to know there are no limits to what they can do.
And here are Cameron’s final words.
Jo Swinson, the new Lib Dem leader, says it is inspiring for girls to see women in positions of power. She asks if May has advice for men who think they can do a better job but who are not prepared to do the work.
I will watch these exchanges from the backbenches. I will miss the roar of the crowd and I will miss the barbs from the opposition, but I will be willing you on. When I say “willing you on”, I do not just mean willing on the new prime minister at this dispatch box, or indeed just willing on the government front bench and defending the manifesto that I helped to put together. I mean willing all of you on, because people come here with huge passion for the issues they care about and with great love for the constituencies that they represent. I will also be willing on this place. Yes, we can be pretty tough, and we test and challenge our leaders – perhaps more than some other countries – but that is something we should be proud of, and we should keep at it. I hope that you will all keep at it, and I shall will you on as you do.
May says her advice to women is to be yourself. And she congratulates Swinson on her election. She is glad the Lib Dems now have a woman leader. She says almost all parties in the Commons have had a woman as leader, including even the Independent Group for Change, which is now on its second female leader. Only Labour has not had a woman as leader, she says.
The last thing I would say is that you can achieve a lot of things in politics and get a lot of things done; in the end, public service and the national interest is what it is all about. Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. After all, as I once said, I was the future once.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, says he has not always seen eye to eye with May. (He led a move to force her out at the end of last year.) But he thanks May for her service, and her courtesy.
Cameron’s words were less memorable than Blair’s. And they were also less accurate. Soon afterwards he resigned as an MP, so he no longer watched PMQs from the backbenches, and, in terms of Brexit at least, the jury is still out on: “Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it.”
May thanks Rees-Mogg. She says the Commons is meant to be about debate and argument and discussion. Those debates are best held when they are conducted with courtesy.
Margaret Thatcher took her final PMQs the day before she left Downing Street. You can read it here. PMQs was less of an event in those day, because there were two of them every week, lasting just 15 minutes, not just one lasting almost an hour, and the session was not especially valedictory. But Thatcher did start with this line:
Nigel Dodds, the DUP leader at Westminster, thanks May for her public service, and for her proper relations with the DUP. Working together, they have ensured there is a proper Conservative and unionist government. And they have ensured there is no early election. He urges May to take a walking holiday in Northern Ireland.
Mr. Speaker, this morning I had a number of meetings. After my duties 738 in this house, I shall continue to reply to some of the 30,000 letters that have so far been delivered to Downing street in the past few days.
May thanks Dodds for his comments.
Church leaders have written to Boris Johnson warning that a no-deal Brexit will “hit those held back by poverty very hard indeed”. The letter says:
Victoria Prentis, a Conservative, thanks May for her personal commitment to Syria.
At a time when increasing numbers of families have difficulties putting enough food on the table, we believe it is irresponsible to consider a course of action that is expected to make that situation worse.
May says the government remains committed to working for a political solution.
The church leaders ask the government to publish evidence of the impact a no-deal Brexit on disadvantaged communities, and invite the prime minister to visit one of many social action projects run by churches to support millions of people who live in poverty.
Ian Austin, the former Labour MP who now sits as an independent, says he agrees with what May said to Corbyn about it being time for him to stand down. The “vast majority” of Labour MPs agree, he claims. He says his constituents want more police on the beat. Will she urge Boris Johnson to ensure the West Midlands gets all the support it needs.
The letter is signed by leaders from the Methodists, the United Reformed church, the Baptists, the Church of Scotland, the Salvation Army, Quakers, and the Scottish Episcopal church.
May congratulates Austin on his recent appointment as a government trade envoy to Israel. She says she presumes Austin did not approve of Labour voting against extra money and powers for the police.
In his Today programme interview this morning Matt Hancock, who is health secretary now but who hopes to have a better job by the end of the day, said that he expected Boris Johnson to give “a surprising amount of detail, especially on the domestic agenda” when he addresses the nation as PM for the first time this afternoon. Hancock said that Johnson felt that people were not focusing enough on the non-Brexit policies that he wants to implement. He also said that, working with Johnson as part of his campaign in recent weeks, he had been surprised by Johnson’s grasp of policy detail.
Back at PMQs, the Conservative John Hayes asks May if she considers reducing the number of workless households as one of her main achievements?
One of the things that surprised me very positively, since joining Boris’s team about a month ago, is the grip on domestic policy ... and the level of detail that he gets into.
May pays tribute to Hayes’ work as a minister, and she agrees with his point about workless households.
Whether it’s how we bring our left-behind towns up to speed so they can share with the success that many parts of Britain are seeing, how we can level up education spending, because at the moment it’s very uneven in different parts of the country, so that everybody can get a better education for their children, in social care – in these three areas I’ve gone into the detail with Boris and he has grip and interest.
Turning away from PMQs, this is from Sky’s Beth Rigby.
It looks as if David Gauke, the outgoing justice secretary, has been using that ageing app that is all the rage at the moment.
.@Steven_Swinford bat phone working at top speed. Hearing this is the latest Javid - ChancellorRaab - Foreign Sec Gove - CDL (de facto deep)Patel - Home *caveat this is not her confirmed* https://t.co/3GanyNYTX2
A few Ministers leaving government today. Some of us hope to return...one day #BRB pic.twitter.com/Fopx0tSUbu
Dame Caroline Spelman, a Conservative, praises May’s record on modern slavery and says she hopes May will continue to campaign on this as a backbencher.
The Daily Mirror has hired a bus to let us know what it feels about the Boris Johnson premiership.
May says this is a scourge. And it does not just affect migrants, she says. She says there are British citizens in slavery.
This is from Sarah Wollaston, the former Conservative MP who now sits as an independent.
Labour’s Vernon Coaker says last year 507 victims of modern slavery were locked up as illegal immigrants. That can’t be right, he says.
If true, would be an appalling error of judgement to appoint someone who has been in contempt of Parliament. Very rare for this to happen & would be shameful to be rewarded by PM with such a high profile role. Background to this here: https://t.co/cx7dm5h7Jg https://t.co/3CnCbue1MS
May says the Modern Slavery Act was meant to address this. She says the government will accept most of the recommendations from a review looking at how victims are treated.
Wollaston is referring to how Dominic Cummings was found to be in contempt of parliament because he refused to give evidence to the culture committee inquiry into fake news.
The Conservative Keith Simpson commends May for her stamina and her courage. He says he assumes May will recommend to the Queen that she appoints Boris Johnson as PM. But does she have one piece of hard advice for Johnson on being PM?
From the Spectator’s James Forsyth
May says some of her colleagues are saying her advice should be to read Simpson’s annual summer reading list. (Simpson, a historian, produces every summer a reading list for colleagues.)
Understand that Boris Johnson is planning to do away with chief of staff style titles in Number 10
Tom Brake, a Lib Dem, asks May if she agrees all politicians should call out nationalist rhetoric which paints others as enemies or victimises minorities.
Boris Johnson is said to operate a “court” where a wide circle of advisers compete for his attention, not all of them saying the same thing (unlike, say, Theresa May, who relied very heavily on just two close aides when she became PM). Johnson also does not like disappointing people. That might be why he would be attracted to the idea of not have to choose just one person to be chief of staff.
May says everyone in public life should be careful about the language they use.
More on Dominic Cummings. This is what my colleague Patrick Wintour wrote in 2013, summarising a 250-page essay Cummings had written on how to reform education.
Education in England is no better than mediocre, and billions of pounds have been wasted on pointless university courses and Sure Start schemes for young children, Michael Gove’s special adviser has said in an outspoken private thesis written a few weeks before he is due to step down from his post.
Dominic Cummings, the most influential adviser to the education secretary in the past five years, also argues in a revealing 250-page paper that “real talent” is rare among the nation’s teachers – and, eye-catchingly, says educationists need to better understand the impact of genetics on children. The adviser, known for making fierce demands of civil servants, writes that the endgame for the Department for Education should be to reduce its role to acting as accountants and inspectors, employing hundreds and not thousands of civil servants – and creating an environment in which private and state education would be indistinguishable.
The Cummings manifesto claims that “the education of the majority even in rich countries is between awful and mediocre”, and that the quality of maths education, in particular, is poor.
“In England, few are well trained in the basics of extended writing or mathematical and scientific modelling and problem-solving,” he writes.
According to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Boris Johnson is going to appoint Dominic Cummings as a senior adviser.
One big appointment coming today - Dominic Cummings expected to be senior advisor to the new PM - Vote Leave chief moving into govt - huge brain and experienced in govt, and will be applauded by Brexiteers - highly controversial too
This would be a remarkable appointment – depending on how much power Cummings ends up having, perhaps one of the two or three most important of the day. Cummings is an ultra-bright, scruffy iconoclast who worked as a special adviser for Michael Gove before becoming campaign director for Vote Leave. He is credited by some with being the mastermind behind that campaign, which is why the playwright James Graham gave him the central role (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) in his TV drama about Brexit.
The key point about Cummings is that is he not really a conservative; he is a Tory Leninist who believes British government, and especially the civil service (of which he has been very critical) needs fundamental reform. Officials in Number 10 will be horrified at the prospect of his heading their way. Some of Johnson’s allies in the European Research Group, which represents hardline Brexiter Tories, will also be concerned. Cummings has been caustic about them in the past. For example, this is what he said in a blog earlier this year.
Those of you in the narcissist-delusional subset of the ERG who have spent the last three years scrambling for the 8.10 Today slot while spouting gibberish about trade and the law across SW1 – i.e exactly the contemptible behaviour that led to your enforced marginalisation during the referendum and your attempt to destroy Vote Leave – you are also in the pirate category. You were useful idiots for remain during the campaign and with every piece of bullshit from Bill Cash et al you have helped only Remain for three years. Remember how you WELCOMED the backstop as a ‘triumph’ in December 2017 when it was obvious to everybody who knew what was going on – NOT the cabinet obviously – that this effectively ended the ‘negotiations’? Remember how Bernard Jenkin wrote on ConHome that he didn’t have to ‘ruin his weekend’ reading the document to know it was another success for the natural party of government — bringing to mind very clearly how during the referendum so many of you guys were too busy shooting or skiing or chasing girls to do any actual work. You should be treated like a metastasising tumour and excised from the UK body politic.
On the Today programme Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, confirmed that Labour is talking to Tory MPs opposed to a no-deal Brexit about whether they would support the opposition in a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson. When asked about these talks, Gardiner said: “Of course those discussions are going on.”
