Brexit news LIVE: Boris Johnson to meet new European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay defended Prime Minister Boris Johnson against allegations of being “absent” during the Middle East crisis.

He said:

The Prime Minister has been engaging, he has been speaking on a regular basis with world leaders, he is continuing to do that today, as are my colleagues across Government.

 

On whether Britain would join America if President Donald Trump looks to retaliate, he added: I’m not getting into speculation about the next steps.

The former Conservative politician said the West Coast Main Line, connecting major cities such as London, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, would be “completely packed” within the next three decades if capacity was not increased.

Mr Osborne added:

HS2 must go ahead. It must be accompanied by what is called Northern Powerhouse Rail or HS3, which is across the North. I think that’s critical.

The London Evening Standard editor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

HS2 is absolutely critical to changing the economic geography of this country.

 

For the nation that invented the railway, the fact we are the only nation in Europe without high-speed lines should be an embarrassment.

Former chancellor George Osborne – instigator of the Northern Powerhouse concept – said HS2 “must go ahead”.

He also said the Government should go further and sign off HS3 – a fast rail route connecting cities in the North from east to west.

Asked if he was worried HS2 could be ditched after Boris Johnson called for Cabinet ministers to review spending, Mr Street said:

Occasionally you have to just go through the cupboard and say which are the things that have perhaps gathered dust and need killing off. This is not in that category.

 

This is literally a once-in-a-generation, game-changing investment. And I’m actually very confident that when the Government look in detail at the business case, they will see there is a good repayment on taxpayers’ investment.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said scrapping HS2 would “set back” the revival of the wider Birmingham region “by decades”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Conservative politician and former Marks & Spencer managing director, said:

The Prime Minister and the Government talk about ‘levelling up’, getting the Midlands, and indeed the North, to the sort of standards of wealth enjoyed in London.

 

And I see this is an absolutely critical way of achieving that. And if it didn’t go ahead, obviously it would set back our revival by decades.

Boris Johnson is set for a showdown with the European Commission’s new president as they hold talks for the first time since she replaced Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Prime Minister is expected to tell Ursula von der Leyen the UK wants a free trade agreement with the EU by the end of December this year, when the transition period is set to end.

Mr Johnson insisted he will not push back the deadline, but critics claim that the timescale is too tight to reach a new deal.

Their face-to-face meeting in Downing Street on Wednesday, the first since she took office, will also be attended by Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

MPs have defeated the Liberal Democrats’ new clause 34, which sought to establish a right to appeal settled status decisions, by 251 votes to 343.

This concludes proceedings on day one of the Bill’s committee stage, with the second day scheduled for tomorrow.

Labour leadership hopeful Rebecca Long-Bailey told the hustings that by losing the election, the party “let down the people who rely on us”.

She said:

Our number one duty as Labour MPs is to learn the lessons of defeat and make sure we don’t repeat them.

We lost because our compromise position on Brexit was seen by Leavers as an attempt to undo the referendum result, without satisfying Remainers.

We lost because too few voters thought Labour spoke for them, and because they didn’t trust us to deal with anti-Semitism.

And we lost because we didn’t do a good enough job at convincing voters that our popular policies were credible and deliverable, or come up with a framing and slogan that could match Johnson’s simple pledge to ‘Get Brexit Done’.”

She said she believed she was the person to “unite all our heartlands” and to rebuild trust, listen to voters and deal with anti-Semitism.

Mr Lewis said in the future immigration documents would be “digital by default” for everyone.

He added:

On physical documentation, I’ll go a bit further. We’re developing a new border and immigration system that is digital by default – for all migrants, not just EU citizens.

This is being rolled out incrementally and over time we intend to replace all physical and paper-based documents, which can be lost or of course stolen.”

He continued:

Eventually, all migrants, not just those from the EU, but also from the rest of the world, will only have digital status.

So this amendment would impede our ability to deliver this improved equal, fair digital status.”

Immigration minister Brandon Lewis has urged the SNP to withdraw its Brexit bill amendments which he said would undermine the process of granting EU citizens settled status.

He told MPs:

I will be very clear with members as well. The EU settlement scheme itself is already up and running, is designed to be quick and easy for applicants and it’s working.”

Mr Lewis said the latest figures showed that 2.8 million have applied for status under the scheme and 2.5 million have been granted it so far.

He added:

Part of the challenge and the problem with a declaratory scheme is it exactly leads into the problems of Windrush.

This scheme means that people have evidence of their rights that means in the future that can not be contestable and we avoid that problem in the first place.”

The SNP has put forward amendments to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to automatically grant EU citizens living in the UK settled status rather than them having to apply, as under the current scheme.

The party has also called for physical documents to be provided for those with settled status, rather than just a digital record as at present.

SNP immigration spokesman Stuart McDonald warned the current arrangements could lead to another Windrush scandal.

He told MPs: “This is absolutely not the way as the Government has said previously to avoid a new Windrush disaster.

“This is the way to create a disaster on an even greater scale.”