Politics live with Andrew Sparrow
Trump compares Brexit hard border fears to Mexico wall plan as he arrives in Ireland - live news
The day’s political developments, including D-day commemorations, PMQs and the latest from the Tory leadership race
D-day veterans and world leaders take part in emotional ceremony
Majority of voters think Johnson would make bad PM - polling expert
43m ago Evening summary
4h ago Trump says Irish border issue will be ‘fine’ after Brexit because "good minds’ working on it
5h ago Labour-run Welsh government switches policy on Brexit to back staying in EU
7h ago Lunchtime summary
8h ago Rebecca Long-Bailey’s PMQs debut
10h ago 16 nations commit to working constructively together in ‘D-day proclamation’
11h ago Trump and the Queen arrive in Portsmouth for D-day commemoration
Live feed
43m ago 16:16
Evening summary
Tory leadership contenders further set out their stalls this evening. The health secretary Matt Hancock claimed that if elected Jeremy Corbyn would be “the first antisemitic leader of a western nation since the second world war”. The comments were swiftly condemned by Labour, which claimed the Conservatives had “supported governments that actively promote antisemitic policies in Hungary and Poland”.
At a One Nation hustings event, Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab (see 7.04pm) elaborated on their Brexit plans. Gove said the UK’s end of October Brexit deadline is “arbitrary” and that he is “not wedded” to it, Hancock appealed to the centre ground and seemed to focus less on Brexit, and Hunt talked up his skills as a “lifelong entrepreneur” and said the leader needed to negotiate a better agreement than no-deal, while Raab told Tory MPs he would be prepared to temporarily shut down parliament to make sure Brexit happens by the deadline.
Health secretary Hancock declared he would roll back some of the Tory reforms to the NHS which have seen large swathes of the health service privatised. (see 7.24pm)
Donald Trump flew from Shannon airport to his golf resort in Doonbed, Co Clarewhere amid protests against the US military’s use of Irish soil to transport military equipment and personnel. (see 8.20pm)
Trump visit avoids major pitfalls despite usual blunders
Read more
Earlier in the day, Trump compared Ireland’s post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland to the US border with Mexico, along which he wants to build a permanent wall.
Veteran parachutists jumped over Normandy, 75 years since they did so as paratroopers on D-Day.
D-day veterans in their 90s parachute into Normandy once more
Read more
Trump told Leo Varadkar that he was confident the Irish border situation would be fine after Brexit because some “good minds” were working on it. However, yesterday afternoon, the US president met the Brexit party leader Nigel Farage and the Tory Brexiters Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson. All three claim that there is no reason why the Irish border should be a problem after Brexit, even in the event of no-deal. (see 6.19pm)
Sky News
(@SkyNews)
Donald Trump has compared the post-Brexit Irish border with his own planned wall for the US border with Mexico.
Get the latest news and video here: t.co/iOm40vn1kt pic.twitter.com/ydzWv0UAS4
June 5, 2019
The Labour-run government in Wales is now officially committed to remaining in the EU, and is campaigning for remain. (see 4.59pm)
Rory Stewart, the international development secretary and a long-shot candidate for the Conservative party leadership, has said the Brexit policies being promoted by many of his rivals, such as Boris Johnson, would be “catastrophic” for the UK.
I’m afraid [other leadership candidates] are misleading themselves and others, and that’s going to be catastrophic, because the reality is that Europe is barely sitting through to the end of October.
D-day veterans and world leaders took part in an emotional ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, with a vast security operation safeguarding dignitaries including the Queen, Donald Trump and Theresa May.
David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister and May’s de facto deputy, has said the NHS “is not and will not be up for sale” in trade talks with the United States. Speaking at PMQs, in response to a question from Labour’s Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was standing in for Jeremy Corbyn (quite successfully – see 2.16pm), Lidington said:
The prime minister has been very clear and she spoke for everyone in the Government and on this side of the House - when it comes to trade negotiations, the NHS is not and will not be up for sale.
Yesterday, at a news conference, President Trump said the NHS would be on the table in any trade talks with the UK. But in an interview broadcast this morning, he retracted that, saying:
I don’t see [the NHS] being on the table. Somebody asked me a question today and I say everything is up for negotiation, because everything is. But that’s something I would not see as part of trade. That’s not trade.
The Brexit party’s candidate in the Peterborough byelection was criticised for profiteering from buying and selling freeholds of hundreds of new homes.
A one-woman show by the new Brexit party MEP Ann Widdecombe was cancelled in protest at her apparent endorsement of gay conversion therapy.
Updated at 4.17pm EDT
43m ago 16:16
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1h ago 15:35
Here is our report on tonight’s Tory leadership hustings, courtesy of the Guardian’s Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason.
Corbyn as PM would be ‘west’s first antisemitic leader since WWII’
Read more
Meanwhile, Labour has challenged frontrunner Boris Johnson to disavow his previous denial of climate science.
Boris Johnson challenged by Labour over climate science
Read more
Updated at 3.36pm EDT
2h ago 15:22
A peace camp was set up outside Shannon airport to demonstrate against Trump’s arrival, with more than one hundred protesters listening to speeches, poems and music throughout the day.
Many criticised Shannon Airport’s use by the American military. In 2002, the Irish government agreed to provide landing and refuelling facilities to the US military at the airport, and close to three million US troops and their weapons have passed through in the years since.
Wednesday’s protest was organised by local group Shannonwatch, who hold bi-weekly demonstrations at the airport protesting the military.
Politicians Catherine Connolly, the independent TD for Galway, newly elected MEP Clare Daly, and Labour TD for Limerick, Jan O Sullivan, were among the crowd who carried the flags of Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Palestine as well as signs and banners protesting Trump.
Protesters and signs are seen during an anti-U.S. President Donald Trump demonstration in a camp they have set up outside Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, June 5.
Protesters and signs are seen during an anti-U.S. President Donald Trump demonstration in a camp they have set up outside Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, June 5. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Speaking at the event – amid a counter protest by about 20 Trump supporters – Connolly said she felt it important to stand against Trump’s policies.
I think President Trump’s policies are not acceptable and it’s unacceptable that we’re using Shannon Airport to traffic American soldiers to wars all over the world, it’s important to stand up for our neutrality. We should be a force for peace in the world.
There’s no doubt we have strong relations with America, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we should stand up for what is right.
Saoirse Exton, 13, said the peace camp was her 15th protest and that she was there to stand against Trump’s policies on climate change.
I think climate change needs to be stopped and there’s not enough action being taken on it. President Trump doesn’t recognise climate change as a real cause, he pulled out of the Paris Climate agreement, and America has the biggest carbon emissions, and they’re one of the biggest countries that need to take action.
I want to preserve this earth for future generations, my generation are going to be the last generation if we don’t do something about it.
Protesters are seen holding signs during an anti-U.S. President Donald Trump demonstration in a camp they have set up outside Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, June 5.
Protesters are seen holding signs during an anti-U.S. President Donald Trump demonstration in a camp they have set up outside Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, June 5. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
During the protests, letters were handed to a senior police officer to be passed on to Trump and the taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
The letters called for an immediate end to the US military use of Shannon, and what they called “Irish complicity in US military operations, and the environmental destruction of the planet”.
2h ago 15:12
Donald Trump defended his environmental record after he was questioned over criticism from his Irish counterpart Michael D Higgins who claimed the US president’s stance on climate change was “regressive and pernicious”.
“I haven’t heard those comments,” Trump said amid protests outside Shannon airport before boarding Marine One to fly to his five-star golf resort in Doonbed, Co Clare.
But we have the cleanest air in the world in the United States and it’s gotten better since I became president, we have the cleanest water, it is crystal clear, I always say I want crystal clear water and air, so I haven’t heard his comments, but we are setting records environmentally.
In a speech in Dublin on Tuesday night, Higgins criticised the US decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate change accord.
While the EU has a set of binding emissions targets for 2020 and 2030, we must now plan for full decarbonisation of our European economies by 2050, encouraging the rest of the world to follow suit, and urging in the strongest possible terms the USA to re-consider its regressive and pernicious decision to leave the global Paris Agreement.
Protesters are seen during an anti-U.S. President Donald Trump demonstration in a camp they have set up outside Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, June 5, 2019.
Protesters are seen during an anti-U.S. President Donald Trump demonstration in a camp they have set up outside Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, June 5, 2019. Kilcoyne/Reuters
Updated at 4.01pm EDT
2h ago 15:05
Environment secretary Michael Gove has said his three Cabinet positions were effectively an “apprenticeship” for the top job.
According to the Telegraph’s deputy political editor, Steven Swinford, he claimed that he is no longer the neo-conservative he once was and highlighted criticism from Donald Trump over his “weak kneed, lily-livered approach” approach to Iran as evidence of how he has “evolved”. He also said that in hindsight the invasion of Iraq was the wrong decision.
Gove went on to say that the deadline of 31 October to leave the EU is “arbitrary”.
“If we get to October, let’s say we’re 95% there, say we default to no deal. That would be a mistake,” he is reported to have said – in opposition to Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab’s positions on the issue.
He warned that if government is “locked on” to a no deal, then that would lead to a confidence vote and possibly a general election. “We would lose that. We would have Corbyn propped up by Sturgeon. Therefore we must deliver Brexit”.
Suggesting some of his fellow candidates do not believe in the UK, Gove reportedly said:
If you believe in this country then saying I’m going to default to no deal actually isn’t having confidence we will get a deal ‘It’s because I have confidence in this country and it’s capacity to succeed that I believe we will get a deal.
Steven Swinford
(@Steven_Swinford)
Gove can clearly draw a crowd
Here at the Spectator interview with @FraserNelson it’s packed to the rafters
He’s says his three Cabinet jobs were effectively an ‘apprenticeship’ for the Tory leadership pic.twitter.com/jgzkYWEeM9
June 5, 2019
Updated at 3.13pm EDT
2h ago 14:42
The Guardian’s political correspondent Peter Walker has been examining the register of MP’s interests ahead of the Tory leadership election.
Peter Walker
(@peterwalker99)
Register of MPs’ interests, Tory leadership edition: latest update shows Jeremy Hunt trousered just under £104,000 in donations from individuals and companies in the past month. pic.twitter.com/Ubxm0KEA6X
June 5, 2019
Peter Walker
(@peterwalker99)
Finally, Twitter’s Rory Stewart amassed just over £50,000 in donations, despite his minimal chances of becoming Tory leader. pic.twitter.com/r3GrTJrSJ1
June 5, 2019
Updated at 2.43pm EDT
2h ago 14:30
Elsewhere, wildcard candidate Rory Stewart is trumpeting his ability to draw a crowd.
Richard Moss
(@BBCRichardMoss)
Conservative leadership candidate @RoryStewartUK tells audience at Q and A that he is the only contender who can draw a crowd spontaneously and that will persuade his colleagues to back him. Reiterates he would not serve under Boris Johnson as PM if he pursued a No Deal Brexit pic.twitter.com/uN2kepKpPm
June 5, 2019
As one of the more social media savvy candidates, the secretary for international development livestreamed his event.
3h ago 14:24
Matt Hancock has told HuffPost UK that as PM he would repeal part of the government’s reforms to privatise the NHS and end a requirement to tender services for outside work
It follows calls from NHS bosses to scrap the controversial legislation, which has seen profit-driven health firms win health service contracts in England worth about £10.5bn in the five years since the act came into force.
Scrap laws driving privatisation of health service, say NHS bosses
Read more
As prime minister, the legislation to improve the way that the NHS works would be a priority for me. We are putting the bill together now, the proposals are very much borne of the NHS.
The legislation includes removing some of the legal requirements to go to tender where that isn’t appropriate. With time, it’s been shown that it’s better done a different way. I believe very strongly in the NHS free at the point of use, according to need not ability to pay, that it should be well funded.
The central thrust is to try to remove some of the admin burdens and the overbearing legal requirements that have come as a consequence of the last set of reforms.
The health secretary also pledged to partly reverse the student nursing bursary axed by the government in 2016, leading to a 30% fall in nursing degree applications. Hancock said there would be new “targeted support” for mature students, mental health and community nurses under his leadership.
There’s a question of how you make sure the money we’ve got goes as far as possible. There’s an overall shortage of nursing. It isn’t as big as the headline vacancy figures suggest. But there are acute shortages, especially in some specific areas like mental health nurses, and community nursing.
I want to make sure that the approach we take is to support and incentivise people into those areas where we’ve got shortages.
Declaring that he doesn’t need to see Donald Trump after his apparent U-turn over whether the NHS would be ‘on the table’ in a post-Brexit trade deal, Hancock said:
I haven’t sought [a meeting with Trump], I haven’t been granted one. It’s neither here nor there. As the President has confirmed this morning the NHS is not on the table for trade talks so there would be no reason to.
He also said cyberflashing could be made illegal.
Cyberflashing is absolutely disgusting and it’s a really good case in point where what is illegal offline should also be illegal offline. If a man walked down the street and exposed himself to people who didn’t want that to happen there are laws about that. And yet online it seems increasingly to happen and we need to tackle it.
Yes the companies have got a responsibility and frankly their artificial intelligence algorithms should be able to work out what is and isn’t an inappropriate picture but there’s also a legal aspect here where we have the law and it needs to be applied properly.
Should we change the law?
If need be, like we did on upskirting yes. But the basis should be if it’s illegal offline, it’s illegal online too. I think in this area there’s more work that can be done.
Varadkar has spoken to reporters following his meeting with Trump.
[Trump] said in the meeting he was aware that the sticking point in negotiations, one of the most difficult points in the negotiations, is the issue of the Irish border and he wants to keep that open and believes that can be done.
We didn’t go into any particular detail as to how he thinks it can be done but he understands that that has to be a shared objective - that if the UK is going to leave with a deal, that deal must involve legally-operable guarantees that we won’t see the emergence of a hard border between north and south.
[Trump] didn’t elaborate on why he thinks Brexit would be good for Ireland. We very much discussed the different nature of the border and I explained that 20 or 30 years ago we did have a hard border between north and south, particularly when the Troubles were happening and there were customs posts and so on, and that everyone in Ireland - north and south, unionist and nationalist - want to avoid a return to a hard border, but that Brexit is a threat in that regard and an unintended consequence that we can’t allow.
Updated at 2.39pm EDT
3h ago 14:04
Tory leadership contenders Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab have been speaking at a One Nation group hustings this evening with chancellor Phillip Hammond in attendance.
Former Brexit secretary Raab has been talking up his negotiating skills, arguing that he is the only contender with a credible plan. He said he had “seen the EU upfront and personal” and “as Brexit secretary I looked our EU opposite numbers in the eyes”.
I know the strengths but also the weaknesses of their positions. That’s why we don’t just need a conviction Brexiteer. We need someone who is resolute, but someone who can navigate the rocky path ahead and get Brexit delivered. I’m the candidate you can trust, who will give us the best shot of getting a better deal for the UK.
Education minister Nadhim Zahawi, a supporter of Raab’s campaign, said he would not rule out anything – except delaying Brexit once again, which would leave the UK with “zero credibility”.
In contrast, Gove is said to have suggested the October 31 Brexit deadline could be extended in order to secure a deal, according to George Eustice. He added that candidates offering “easy, simple answers” by promising to leave on October 31 in any circumstance would “come unstuck”.
An MP who attended the Tory leadership hustings and did not wish to be named said: “He said that that is the date, but if it needs to move a day or a week in order to avoid something, then we shouldn’t be wedded to a single date.”
On a no-deal scenario, the MP said of Gove: “He said it wouldn’t be ideal, quite obviously. He’s looking for movement on the back stop.”
An MP supportive of Hancock said the health secretary had warned the hustings about the possibility of a Labour government. The MP, who also did not want to be named, told reporters: “He said there would be a danger that we would have an anti-Semitic party with its hands on the levers of power.”
This was swiftly rebuffed by Labour, with a source calling it a “baseless political attack”, according to the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar.
Foreign Secretary Hunt told the hustings that parliament would block a no-deal Brexit, and therefore the Tories needed a leader who could negotiate a better agreement. Referring to himself as a lifelong entrepreneur, he suggested that could be him.
At the moment we only have bad choices. We risk Parliament blocking no deal and the EU blocking a better deal, so we need a leader who can negotiate a new approach. I’m an entrepreneur who has been doing deals all my life. I negotiated the new BBC licence fee and the new doctors’ contract. I won’t pretend this will be easy.
I met (Emmanuel) Macron and (Angela) Merkel today in Portsmouth and a hardline approach will lead to a hardline response. They will wait for Parliament to block no deal.
Alex Wickham
(@alexwickham)
65 MPs present for Michael Gove to kick off the next round of One Nation hustings tonight - quite a bit fewer than yesterday. Philip Hammond in the audience
June 5, 2019
Steven Swinford
(@Steven_Swinford)
Dom Raab is not backing down on his comments about some feminists being ‘obnoxious bigots’
He tells One Nation hustings: ‘There is a feminist agenda that is in favour of positive discrimination which puts me off the label’
June 5, 2019
Kevin Schofield
(@PolhomeEditor)
Matt Hancock tells Tory leadership hustings: “I want to slay this unicorn, that we need a Brexiteer as PM. We don’t need a Brexiteer as Prime Minister. We need someone who is committed to delivering Brexit.”
June 5, 2019
Pippa Crerar
(@PippaCrerar)
First up @michaelgove at Tory One Nation hustings:
got to deliver Brexit before general election
formally opens door to Brexit delay of weeks not months
wants to renegotiate backstop
dig at Boris from supportive MP: “It wasn’t stuffed full of supporters like yesterday”.
June 5, 2019
Tonight’s hustings follows a similar event last night. The Spectator’s Katy Balls was the only journalist allowed inside, as she chaired the meeting. Here’s her report.
Updated at 3.55pm EDT
3h ago 13:37
Veteran parachutists are jumping over Normandy, 75 years since they did so as paratroopers on D-Day.
Veterans Harry Read, 95, and John “Jock” Hutton, 94, followed 97-year old fellow second world war survivor Tom Rice to descend upon Sannerville, in western France.
“It went perfect, perfect jump,” Rice said after his jump into roughly the same area, in fields of wildflowers outside Carentan, that he landed in on D-Day. “I feel great. I’d go up and do it all again.”
Rice jumped with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division on that day 75 years ago, landing safely despite catching himself on the exit and a bullet striking his parachute. He called the 1944 jump the worst he had ever had.
Read and Hutton arrived hours later than expected after their plans became fraught with technical difficulties, which then delayed the clearance they needed to enter French airspace.
Speaking with reporters afterwards, Read said:
I feel good. My health is good and my mind is still ticking away very nicely. I thought the jump was brilliant. I just had thoughts of anticipation after looking forward to it. Everything is worth the wait. The jump was wonderful in every way. I couldn’t believe the drop was going to be postponed in any way because I had his assurance from God. If that had happened, I was going to be examining my faith. I don’t think I’ll do another jump again.
Paratroopers from Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade and France’s 11th Parachute Brigade perform a jump over Sannerville, north-western France, on June 5, 2019.
Paratroopers from Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade and France’s 11th Parachute Brigade perform a jump over Sannerville, north-western France, on June 5, 2019. Photograph: Fred Tanneau/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. World War II paratrooper veteran Tom Rice, 97 years-old who served with the 101st Airbone, jumps during a commemorative parachute jump over Carentan on the Normandy coast ahead of the 75th D-Day anniversary, France, June 5, 2019.
U.S. World War II paratrooper veteran Tom Rice, 97 years-old who served with the 101st Airbone, jumps during a commemorative parachute jump over Carentan on the Normandy coast ahead of the 75th D-Day anniversary, France, June 5, 2019. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters
D-Day veteran Harry Read makes his final preparations with members of the Army Parachute Display Team before flying to Normandy in France where he will make a parachute jump as part of the 75th D-Day commemorations, in Duxford, Britain, June 5, 2019.
D-Day veteran Harry Read makes his final preparations with members of the Army Parachute Display Team before flying to Normandy in France where he will make a parachute jump as part of the 75th D-Day commemorations, in Duxford, Britain, June 5, 2019. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
D-Day veteran Harry Read, 95, comes into land as he joins parachutists, in full Allied uniforms, in a parachute drop onto fields at Sannerville on June 05, 2019 at Sannerville, France.
D-Day veteran Harry Read, 95, comes into land as he joins parachutists, in full Allied uniforms, in a parachute drop onto fields at Sannerville on June 05, 2019 at Sannerville, France.
Andrew Sparrow Andrew Sparrow
President Trump told Leo Varadkar that he was confident the Irish border situation would be fine after Brexit because some “good minds” were working on it. He also said that in Britain he had met some “very good people” who were heavily involved in Brexit. (See 5.55pm.) He did not say who these very good minds were, or what their solution to the border problem was.
But we do know that yesterday afternoon, at the US ambassador’s residence in London, he met the Brexit party leader Nigel Farage and the Tory Brexiters Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson. All three claim that there is no reason why the Irish border should be a problem after Brexit, even in the event of no-deal. And Duncan Smith and Paterson have been heavily promoting the “alternative arrangements” border plan promoted by the Tory European Research Group, a new version of which was published by Steve Baker earlier today. (See 3.37pm.)
So it is possible that Farage, Duncan Smith and Paterson were the “good minds” whose plan for the Irish border has impressed Trump.
But what do other experts think? Since the new ERG paper was published by Baker today, various experts have been commenting. And they have been damning.
David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project, has written a Twitter thread about it starting here. He concludes by saying the plan amounts to a “total refusal to face up to the real world”.
David Henig
(@DavidHenigUK)
From Trump back to Brexit, and we have the treat of another paper from no-deal Brexiteers - “A Clean Managed Brexit” to be launched tomorrow.
Have they finally found the way forward?
Spoiler alert: No… 1/ pic.twitter.com/Pqf44tNVOg
June 4, 2019
And here is a Twitter thread from Steve Peers, a law professor. He says “anyone producing such dishonest [crap] in any other line of work would lose their professional reputation.”
Steve Peers
(@StevePeers)
This latest no deal Brexit paper is full of false or misleading statements. Surprise! I will supplement David’s excellent comments with some comments of my own. t.co/TB46IjjQo3
June 4, 2019
And here is a Twitter threat from Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor.
Peter Foster
(@pmdfoster)
So @SteveBakerHW has produced a 10-page ‘no deal’ manifesto - here’s my report with analysis from @jdportes @SamuelMarcLowe @DavidHenigUK @MichaelAodhan
The plan is completely ludicrous - as others have attested - so what’s the game? 1/threadhttps://t.co/rX6kcJsQVa
June 5, 2019
That is all from me for tonight.
4h ago 12:55
Trump says Irish border issue will be ‘fine’ after Brexit because "good minds’ working on it
This is what President Trump said when he spoke to reporters alongside Leo Varadkar, the Irish PM.
We will be discussing various things. Probably you’ll ask me about Brexit because I just left some very good people who are very much involved with Brexit, as you know. And I think that will all work out very well, and also for you with your wall, your border.
I mean, we have a border situation in the United States, and you have one over here. But I hear it’s going to work out very well …
It is an honour to be in Ireland with my friend, and he is doing a great job as your prime minister.
Varadkar then explained that, actually, having a wall at the Irish border was precisely what he wanted to avoid. Trump accepted this. He went on:
I think you do, I think you do. The way it works now is good, you want to try and to keep it that way. I know that’s a big point of contention with respect to Brexit. I’m sure it’s going to work out very well. I know they’re focused very heavily on it.
In answer to a question about whether Brexit would be bad for Ireland, Trump said:
I think it should be good. The big thing is going to be your border, and hopefully that’s going to work out, and I think it will work out. There are a lot of good minds thinking about how to do it. And it’s going to be just fine. I think ultimately it could even by very, very good for Ireland. But the border will work out.
President Trump meets with Leo Varadkar at Shannon
President Trump meets with Leo Varadkar at Shannon Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
Updated at 12.57pm EDT
4h ago 12:35
Here is a clip of President Trump talking to Leo Varadkar.
I will post the quotes in a moment.
Sky News
Donald Trump has compared the post-Brexit Irish border with his own planned wall for the US border with Mexico.
President Trump has arrived in Ireland where he is holding talks with Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach (prime minister) before heading off to his golf course. As the BBC’s Jayne McCormack reports, Trump claimed the border issue would not be a problem after Brexit.
Jayne McCormack
(@BBCJayneMcC)
“We love the Irish - it’s an honour to be here,” says Donald Trump. He says the US “has a border situation too”. Leo Varadkar says Ireland wants to avoid a hard border with Brexit, President Trump replies that “we do too… the border will work out”. @BBCNewsNI pic.twitter.com/7zOmXk1neN
June 5, 2019
Leo Varadkar greeting President Trump at Shannon Airport
Labour-run Welsh government switches policy on Brexit to back staying in EU
The Labour-run government in Wales is now officially committed to remaining in the EU. It used to favour a soft version of Brexit (which is still the position of the overall Labour party in London) but now it has concluded that the option is no longer obtainable, and it is campaigning for remain. Jeremy Miles, the Welsh government’s Brexit minister, made the announcement in the Welsh assembly yesterday afternoon (when many of us were focused on Donald Trump). He explained that the European elections, and the events in the Conservative party, where a new leader is likely to push for a no-deal Brexit, had persuaded the Welsh government to change its mind. He told AMs:
The negotiations between the government and the opposition have broken down, destroyed by the jockeying for prominence of would-be Conservative leaders, and we know that there is no appetite in the parliamentary Conservative party for a form of Brexit that we had consistently advocated, one that retains participation in the single market and a customs union.
The prime minister is quitting and her deal is in tatters. It seems inevitable, given the bizarre process and the wholly unrepresentative electorate that will provide us with her successor, that in July we will have a prime minister who will demand, in a show of bravado, if nothing else, that the EU27 reopens negotiations of the withdrawal agreement. This will be rejected, and the government will set a course to a ‘no deal’ Brexit …
We sought to reconcile the result of the 2016 referendum with the least damaging kind of Brexit, but that effort has now reached the end of the road.
The European elections have shown that the electorate remains profoundly divided, and, indeed, the split has widened, with many of those who voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum now supporting no deal, and many, probably a majority, wanting us to remain within the European Union. Faced by this sort of binary choice, we are clear that, almost three years on from the referendum, and more than two years after we put forward ‘Securing Wales’ Future’, we as a government must recognise these realities and change course …
So, as a government, we will now campaign to remain in the EU. And to make that happen, parliament should now show the courage to admit it is deadlocked and legislate for a referendum, with ‘remain’ on the ballot paper.
The Welsh government’s new stance has been welcomed by the Scottish government, which is also anti-Brexit. This is from Michael Russell, the Scottish Brexit minister.
Michael Russell
(@Feorlean)
Very welcome statement from my colleague @wg_CounselGen. Scotland & Wales now officially against #Brexit & Northern Ireland likely to be when / if Assembly re-convened: Welsh Government will now campaign to remain in the European Union | Wales - ITV News t.co/pvE54nCZuf
June 5, 2019
Under devolution the Welsh Labour party is free to divert from policy set in London, but nevertheless this development will encourage Labour MPs who want the national party to commit to supporting remain in a referendum. At the moment Jeremy Corbyn remains committed to getting a better version of Brexit, not to stopping it.
(Thanks to philipphilip99 in the comments for flagging this up.)
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I’m confused. I heard Penny Mordaunt being interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, but not once did she use the words ‘cock’, ‘lay’ or ‘laid’. I thought it was mandatory for her. Perhaps it’s only when she speaks in the House of Commons?
Also, I’d like her to let us know how soon Albania, Syria and Turkey will be joining the EU, because many people are scared and frightened of the consequences.
After all, she did say:
’A remain vote in this referendum is a vote to allow people from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey to move here freely when they join the EU soon.
‘Many of these countries have high crime rates, problems with gangs and terror cells as well as challenging levels of poverty.
‘I believe that this is dangerous and it will make us less safe.
‘That’s why the safer option in this referendum is to Vote Leave and take back control.’
– PENNY MORDAUNT, ARMED FORCES MINISTER
Biggest advocate for Turkey joining before the referendum and before they lurched into a Dictatorship, was none other than our own PM, Mr Cameron. Wanted their membership application fast tracked.
Brexit supporters are like survivors of a shipwreck in storm-tossed seas. They have always been desperate for solid ground, like a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a jagged rock in the ocean.
The latest example is “WTO rules” which many Leavers have taken-up and parrot like a mantra endlessly repeated - despite having no understanding of the meaning of the words. Now the “WTO rules” rock has crumbled to dust and once more the hapless Brexiters are floundering once more in the sea of delusion.
From the FT
Accusing China of cheating is hypocritical when almost all trade policy actions taken by the Trump administration are in breach of WTO rules, a fact implicitly conceded by its determination to destroy the dispute settlement system.
The US negotiating position vis-à-vis China is that “might makes right”. This is particularly true of insisting that the Chinese accept the US role as judge, jury and executioner of the agreement.
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