Boris Johnson news: PM faces onslaught in parliament over Queen’s Speech, amid anger over ‘blatant attempt to rig election’

EU leaders warn Brexit deal unlikely this week

The Queen says government will 'ensure it continues to play leading role in global affairs' after Brexit

Boris Johnson has said he will not resign even if MPs vote against his legislative agenda, which was set out in the Queen’s Speech on Monday.

Downing Street also said that Mr Johnson could plough on to introduce the bills announced.

The prime minister used his first Queen’s Speech to insist that the government’s priority is to deliver Brexit by 31 October.

But elsewhere, European leaders warned that a full Brexit agreement is unlikely this week.

“I think there is no time in a practical or legal way to find an agreement before the EU Council meeting,” said Antti Rinne, the prime minister of Finland.

“We need more time and we need to have negotiations after the Council meeting.”

EU leaders will gather on Thursday and Friday for the next European Council meeting.

If Boris Johnson cannot reach a deal, attention will turn to next steps, including a possible extension.

“We are not very optimistic,” a senior EU diplomat said.

“Let’s not wait – we can’t wait: let’s get Brexit done,” Mr Johnson told parliament on Monday.

“If there could be one thing more divisive, more toxic than the first referendum, it be would be a second referendum.”

If you would like to see how the day’s events unfolded, please see what was our live coverage below:

[14 October 2019 08:13 · Ashley Cowburn]

Welcome to The Independent's politics liveblog – we'll be bringing you all the latest updates from Westminster as the Queen prepares to mark the state opening of parliament around 11.30am. 

[14 October 2019 08:47 · Ashley Cowburn]

The EU has told Boris Johnson he must move “further and faster” in last-ditch Brexit talks if he is to secure an exit deal and avoid having to ask for another extension next weekend.

Officials said intensive talks over the weekend had been “constructive” but that the pace of progress was not enough for a deal to be agreed this week.

Mr Johnson is desperate for an agreement to be signed off before Saturday to avoid him having to ask for further delay to Brexit.

But while EU sources said that a breakthrough during the prime minister’s talks with his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, last week meant there was now “a deal to be done”, they urged Mr Johnson to make further concessions to secure an agreement. 

[14 October 2019 08:50 · Ashley Cowburn]

The government will promise a hardline new approach to crime and justice on Monday as ministers use the Queen’s Speech to announce a crackdown on foreign criminals.

Laws will be introduced to toughen up sentences for both violent criminals and foreign nationals who try to re-enter the UK after being deported, while the police will be given new powers to arrest non-British criminals.

Ahead of the speech, Priti Patel, the home secretary, claimed the UK had been “soft on foreign criminals for too long”.

But Labour accused the government of being “hypocritical” after years of cuts to policing budgets.

[14 October 2019 08:53 · Ashley Cowburn]

Sajid Javid has announced his first Budget as chancellor will be unveiled on 6 November – to take place after the government's Brexit deadline of 31 October.

“This will be the first Budget after leaving the EU," Mr Javid said.

"I will be setting out our plan to shape the economy for the future and triggering the start of our infrastructure revolution. This is the right and responsible thing to do – we must get on with governing.”

But Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, said it was clear the government was "making it up as they go along" - and there was no guarantee Mr Johnson would still be in power.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have to say, I think it's another example of this government making things up as they go along."

[14 October 2019 09:00 · Ashley Cowburn]

If Boris Johnson's Brexit plan is successful, then £50bn could be knocked off the UK economy, leaving everyone in the UK £2,000 worse off, a new analysis has found. Academics from the UK in a Changing Europe said the PM's plans would do more harm to the economy than Theresa May's. The silver lining in the research suggests Johnson's plans would be significantly better than a no-deal exit from the EU. In this scenario – leaving on World Trade Organisation terms – would hit income per capita by 8.1 per cent, or £2,500 per person. 

[14 October 2019 09:08 · Ashley Cowburn]

Jeremy Corbyn is under fresh pressure to support a second referendum ahead of going to the country in a general election. The usually loyal ally Rebecca Long-Bailey said on Sunday she had "been on a journey" and that if a deal is agreed by parliament later this week it should be put the people in a referendum. 

Shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman also strayed from the party's carefully crafted line, telling the BBC's Westminster Hour on Sunday evening: "We're not in control of all this and if there is an opportunity to have another referendum that it may be the most pragmatic thing to do is to take that opportunity." 

Chapman added she would be "very surprised" if an amendment for a Final Say referendum wasn't put to a vote on Saturday – the first time parliament sits on a weekend since the Falklands War.

'If we were in control of everything and we could have it mapped out the way we want then yes we would like a general election then yes we would like to have a referendum in the way we’ve described at conference, she said.

[14 October 2019 09:17 · Ashley Cowburn]

Botched announcements by Boris Johnson’s government are putting over a million British citizens living on the continent at the risk of “retaliatory deportations” and other consequences after Brexit, the prime minister has been warned.

UK emigrants living in EU countries fear that a string of hardline statements and “domestic grandstanding” targeting migrants by British government ministers has “directly impacted” the way UK nationals will be treated by their host countries once the United Kingdom leaves.  

Groups representing British citizens living across the 27 EU countries have written to Boris Johnson accusing the prime minister of viewing his own citizens as “simply not a priority” and of “undermining” their legal status.

[14 October 2019 09:28 · Ashley Cowburn]

The SNP has unanimously backed decriminalising the possession and consumption of controlled drugs.

Activists at the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen supported the move, branding the current Misuse of Drugs Act, which dates back to 1971, as “not fit for purpose”.

Anne McLaughlin, the SNP’s Westminster candidate for Glasgow North East, spoke out about the need to decriminalise the possession of drugs.

[14 October 2019 09:33 · Ashley Cowburn]

Summing up today's Queen Speech - due to start at 11.30am - the shadow cabinet minister and senior ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, said in a statement: “This Queen’s Speech is farcical. It is just an uncosted wish list which the government has no intention and no means to deliver, and nothing more than a pre-election party political broadcast."

It's a fair point – the government has no majority in the House of Commons to implement the 22 Bill set to be unveiled today by the monarch. Here's an explainer from the weekend on why Boris Johnson is going ahead with today's Queen Speech. 

[14 October 2019 09:43 · Ashley Cowburn]

"What if there is a Brexit deal?  What if, despite the initial mood music to the contrary from the EU and the Johnson government, they came to an agreement? Perhaps not at the 17-18 October summit but at a later date? The story of whether a deal is possible ebbs and flows wildly," writes former Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable.