Summary

  • Court rejects challenge to Jeremy Corbyn automatically being on Labour ballot

  • Boris Johnson meets French counterpart in Paris

  • Theresa May holds Brexit talks in Slovakia and Poland

  • Hinkley Point nuclear plant set to get final investment approval

  1. MPs offered extra securitypublished at 14:54 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Norman Smith
    Assistant political editor

    All MPs are to be automatically offered additional security in their offices and homes. The move comes amid increased security concerns, particularly following the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.

    Until now, MPs who wanted to install security had to apply through the parliamentary expenses watchdog IPSA. There also had to be a risk assessment carried out by the police and written estimates before any work could be carried out.

    MPs have become increasingly unhappy with delays and the response of IPSA to security concerns, and on Monday night the House of Commons Members Estimate Committee decided to strip IPSA of its authority over MPs' security arrangements.

    So in future all MPs will automatically be offered extra security - such as panic buttons, extra lighting, additional locks and emergency fobs - and will not have to apply to have them installed.

  2. Rumours swirl around Labour leadership nominationspublished at 14:51 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    BBC political editor tweets...

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  3. Will the UK move Trident?published at 14:37 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Nick Eardley
    BBC Scotland Westminster correspondent

    TridentImage source, PA

    The breakdown of last night's vote is uncomfortable for the UK government. Theresa May has made maintaining the United Kingdom a central part of her first week in office. She's already promised to listen to the SNP Scottish government on Europe. This gives the SNP the opportunity to say Scotland is being ignored.

    Ministers in London believe the way Scottish MPs voted does not represent public opinion. Opinion polls suggest they may have a point - a recent YouGov poll suggested Scots are less supportive of Trident than most of the UK but a significant proportion still back the weapons system (though we've learned to take polls with heavy pinches of salt of late).

    The Ministry of Defence has previously looked at other sites to store the weapons, but found none to be as good as Faslane. There are no contingency plans to move the submarines from the Clyde (even if Scotland was to back independence). For now it appears unlikely Trident submarines are going anywhere.

  4. Watch: When Owen Smith wasn't going to run for Labour leaderpublished at 14:29 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

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  5. Brexit 'will determine fate' of Theresa May's governmentpublished at 14:24 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Cabinet meeting

    The BBC's assistant political editor, Norman Smith, looked back at the first meeting of Theresa May's new cabinet on the World at One.

    Mrs May told her ministers "politics is not a game" which, Norman suggested, was "a slight kick under the table at Boris Johnson, who was sitting next to her. Just a sort of reminder - forget the funnyman stuff".

    This could be a more "workmanlike, monochrome government" that the last cabinet, Norman added.

    However, it will be "extremely hard" for it not to be defined by Brexit, despite Mrs May's assertions that it should be about social justice as well, he said,

    Quote Message

    It will determine her fate, the government's fate, just as pretty much every Conservative prime minister in recent history has been broken by Europe."

  6. Listen: 'If Corbyn wins again, party will split' - Robert Harrispublished at 14:22 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Media caption,

    Mr Harris told presenter Mark Mardell he is urging people to sign up to the Labour Party to defeat Mr Corbyn, and that he has rejoined the party himself

    The best selling author and political commentator Robert Harris believes if Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected, many of the parliamentary Labour Party will not support him, and possibly break away from the party.

  7. Leadership contest is 'last chance to save Labour' says authorpublished at 14:12 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Requiring new Labour members to pay a £25 fee to vote in the leadership contest is "absolutely disgraceful", says author Robert Harris, who has rejoined Labour to vote against Jeremy Corbyn.

    He tells the World at One that it is "embarrassing" for a party set up to help poorer people to charge so much money, but he urges people to "take part if you can afford it".

    He believes the contest could be the last chance to "save" Labour in its present form.

    If Mr Corbyn wins again, "it must be highly likely that the parliamentary party, or a large section of it, will break away", he adds.

  8. Robert Harris: There has to be one single candidate against Corbynpublished at 14:12 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    One former Labour supporter who has rejoined the party to vote against Jeremy Corbyn is the author Robert Harris.

    He thinks Mr Corbyn is "not capable of leading the party in Parliament - he just can't do the basics of the job".

    Mr Harris tells the World at One that an example of this was the Trident debate on Monday, when Mr Corbyn spoke in the Commons "repudiating" party policy.

    He believes "there has to be one single candidate" for opponents to unite around, adding: "It may not be an ideal candidate." However, he claims both Angela Eagle and Owen Smith are more suited to being prime minister than Mr Corbyn.

    Quote Message

    There simply has to be an opposition. We can't continue in the way we are at the moment when the government, when the government can do virtually anything and we don't even know the names of the shadow ministers opposing them. In fact, in many cases there aren't any shadow ministers opposing them."

  9. Jeremy Corbyn has 'clear advantage' in leadership contestpublished at 13:48 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Conor Pope from Labour-supporting website LabourList tells the World at One that 130,000 people joined the party following the EU referendum.

    Following a rule that these new members cannot vote in the leadership contest, the rate of new membership applications has slowed, he adds.

    New members who wish to take part must re-register and pay a £25 fee if they wish to vote. Corbyn opponents are confident that people who've left because of Mr Corbyn's leadership are coming back as £25 supporters to vote against him, Mr Pope says.

    However, Corbyn supporters are very good at "mobilising" party members and "they have a candidate", while those who want to challenge him "are stuck at two" at present.

    With a poll suggesting he would win another leadership election, Mr Corbyn will go into the contest "with a clear advantage", Mr Pope says.

  10. 'Law prevents many acting with their conscience'published at 13:48 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Ten Minute Rule Bill

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Ruth Cadbury, who is a Quaker, tells MPs the "law as it currently stands prevents many from acting in accordance with their own conscience".

    Quakers believe that war and conflict are against God's wishes and so they are dedicated to pacifism and non-violence.

    During World War I many Quakers, including two of Ms Cadbury's grandfathers, were allowed to be conscientious objectors, and not participate in warfare.

    "War is now waged with money rather than man power, funded by UK tax payers," she says.

    The bill is passed without a vote. But this does not mean conscientious objectors will soon be able to withhold their taxes from the defence budget.

    Very few Ten Minute Rule Bills become law - and those that do only do so with government support. They are instead used as high profile ways of drawing attention to a cause.

    Ruth Cadbury
  11. Whoever wins the leadership, Labour is deeply divided - shadow ministerpublished at 13:47 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Barry Gardiner

    Shadow energy secretary Barry Gardiner says the Labour leadership election is now being done in the right way, following a "destabilising" attempt "to force a resignation" by Jeremy Corbyn.

    Mr Gardiner, who did not back Mr Corbyn to be leader in 2015, says he has not nominated anyone in the current contest.

    "Whoever wins, the outcome is that we have party that is deeply divided," he tells the World at One.

    A process of "mediation with all parts of the party" will be needed, he argues.

  12. Watch: Ken Clarke (and other politicians) on forgetting the microphone is still onpublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

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  13. Conscientious objection to military spendingpublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Ten Minute Rule Bill

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Labour MP Ruth Cadbury is presenting a Ten Minute Rule Bill to allow taxpayers to self-certify a conscientious objection to public spending on defence.

    The bill would also place a duty on the Treasury to take account of the amount and proportion of such self-certified income tax income in preparing the supply estimates.

  14. Call for 'Boris beacon' to be attached to foreign secretarypublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Point of Order

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Alex Salmond

    SNP MP Alex Salmond raises a point of order to ask if it would be possible to fit a "Boris beacon" which would tell the House of Commons "when [the foreign secretary] is and when he is not available to join us in the chamber".

    Mr Salmond was presumably making a point about Mr Johnson not being present to answer today's urgent question. The foreign secretary is currently meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry.

    Speaker John Bercow replies that Mr Salmond was "more interested in what he had to say to me than in anything I may have to say to him".

  15. 'Today could be crucial' to determining challenger to Corbynpublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Angela Eagle, Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith
    Image caption,

    Angela Eagle, Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith

    BBC political correspondent Iain Watson says "today could be crucial in determining" whether it is Angela Eagle or Owen Smith who takes on Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership.

    Iain tells the World at One that Ms Eagle and Mr Smith are believed to have reached a "common understanding", meeting "to hammer out a deal of sorts" in which "the one lagging behind stands down".

    What emerges could look more like a "joint ticket" which could mean one being shadow chancellor if the other becomes leader.

    If one challenger clearly looks ahead in terms of support from their fellow Labour MPs, the other might drop out early, Iain says. The Smith camp think he's ahead but Angela Eagle "did much better than expected" at Monday's hustings in front of MPs.

  16. Duncan: Ill-judged to criticise Boris Johnsonpublished at 13:28 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Urgent question Turkey

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Earlier in the debate, SNP foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond attacked Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for advocating Turkish accession to the EU, and then using Turkish accession as an argument to leave the EU.

    There can be "no such ambiguity in the message which now goes to Turkey" about criticising the coup and any attempts at clamping down on civil liberties.

    Sir Alan Duncan - who previously called Mr Johnson “Silvio Borisconi”, external for his impact on the UK's reputation - says it is "ill-judged" to criticise Mr Johnson, who is "working very furiously". 

    It is too "early after the event" to discuss Turkish accession to the EU, but argues it was "less of a matter than it was before 23 June".

  17. Gove: Erdoğan should protect social media he used to quell couppublished at 13:10 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Urgent question on Turkey

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Former justice secretary Michael Gove

    Former justice secretary Michael Gove welcomes Sir Alan Duncan to what he calls a "formidable Foreign Office team" - also aiming praise at his one time fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson.

    Mr Gove points out that President Recep Erdoğan's use of social media was crucial to the quelling of the coup, but that the Turkish regime have been "restrictive in its approach to social media" in the past.

    He calls on the government to make sure President Erdoğan appreciates that those behind the coup "wished to crush" press freedom and freedom of speech and "he should seek to uphold them".

    Sir Alan Duncan replies Mr Gove is "absolutely right".

  18. Watch: Andrew Neil on the Melania Trump speech rowpublished at 13:03 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

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  19. Deepening or undermining democracy in Turkey?published at 13:01 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Urgent question on Turkey

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry

    Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, who tabled the question, tells MPs that Turkey is a "pivotal cultural, political and strategic importance to the world. Straddling East to West and bordering eight countries."

    She says she is worried that Turkish President Recep Erdoğan is not using the coup as an "opportunity to deepen and strengthen democracy" but rather to "undermine it".

    Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after the failed coup, and suspended almost 3,000 judges over the weekend. 

    She calls on the government to work together to ensure that Turkey has a secure foundation of democracy, freedom of speech and human rights.

  20. Brexit takes Welsh MP to Downing Streetpublished at 13:00 British Summer Time 19 July 2016

    Clwyd West Tory David Jones will work from Number Nine Downing Street as a minister in the new department to negotiate Britain's exit from the EU.

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