Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt under pressure to denounce Trump over racist tweets – live news

This is from my colleague Jennifer Rankin in Brussels.

UK in a Changing Europe, an academic network, have been holding a Brexit conference today. Here are some of the highlights.

You can read the full text of the speech from Bernard Jenkin, the Tory Brexiter and chairman of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, here.

Gus O’Donnell is a former cabinet secretary.

Sir Vince Cable, the outgoing Lib Dem leader, has just told the BBC’s Politics Live that he expects to see more MPs defecting to his party “before the summer is out”. There were a small number of Tory and Labour MPs who have given up on their parties, he said. But he would not be drawn on reports that the Tory MPs Phillip Lee and Guto Bebb are poised to switch if (as expected) Boris Johnson becomes party leader next week.

Nadhim Zahawi, an education minister and a supporter of Boris Johnson, told the BBC’s Politics Live that he thought President Trump’s tweets were “inappropriate”. But he would not describe them as racist, and argued that British politicians should not get involved in domestic internal politics, BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham reports.

UPDATE: Here’s the clip.

From my colleague Jessica Elgot

UPDATE: PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield has the text of the motion.

Theresa May is famously reserved. Even before she became prime minister she was notorious amongst journalists for her reluctance to any anything indiscreet – Nick Robinson once turned down a lunch with her when she was home secretary and he was BBC political editor because he thought it would be a waste of time – and as PM she has got through countless interviews giving almost nothing away.

But another rather less well-known characteristic of hers is that she is, in the words of Tory journalist Matthew Parris, “a good hater”. As Parris explained last year in a very good Times article (paywall) about his various encounters with her:

I learnt that this well-mannered woman was a good hater. At the mention of a particular colleague’s name her lip curled, she made no attempt to conceal her dislike, and rather seemed to enjoy the disdain.

In her final days in office this side of May’s character seems to be coming out – at least, a little. The Number 10 lobby briefing this morning (see 11.48am) seems to give a clue as to what she really feels about the US president who showed his gratitude for a state visit by insulting her in public. I can think of three other examples in recent weeks where she gave a glimpse of who else is on her hate list.

1 – Jeremy Corbyn. May has often denounced Corbyn at PMQs, but two weeks ago there seemed to be an added bitterness in her voice as she effectively accused him of hypocrisy, saying Labour had no right to criticise no-deal when it repeatedly voted down her own proposed Brexit deal.

2 – Nicola Sturgeon. Barack Obama once said that the only people determined to obstruct anything he did, regardless of their own interests, were Vladimir Putin and congressional Republicans. In a recent speech in Edinburgh, May said something broadly similar about Sturgeon and the Scottish government.

3 – Boris Johnson. May has been reluctant to criticise her likely successor directly, but just occasionally we get a clue as to what she may be thinking privately. There was a good example on Friday when she spoke out about people who think being PM is all about power, not service. It was not hard to decipher who she meant

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, says Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt should both also condemn President Trump’s racist tweets. (See 11.48am.)

So far both Johnson and Hunt have been silent on this. (See 11.17am.)

Unusually Theresa May, via her press secretary, managed to issue a condemnation of President Trump’s latest outrage before Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, who is normally much more ready to denounce him. But Sturgeon has now issued her own criticism on Twitter.

This is from the BBC’s Nick Eardley who is just back from the Downing Street lobby.

Here is the Guardian story about how Donald Trump posted a racist tweet on Sunday attacking four progressive Democratic congresswomen, telling them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came”.

And here are the Trump tweets.

What’s remarkable about this is that, until now, Theresa May has been extremely reluctant to criticise Donald Trump.

Perhaps her stance has shifted in response to what he had to say about her last week. Here’s a reminder.