Brexit news – live: Corbyn called ‘preening narcissist’ by defeated Labour MP as Boris Johnson warned over ‘strange’ statement
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Boris Johnson has been accused of “reckless and irresponsible behaviour” after he amended his Brexit bill to prevent MPs extending the Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020 – sending the pound plunging as it puts the possibility of no-deal back on the table.
Mr Johnson is also accused of showing “two fingers to democracy” after announcing Nicky Morgan has been handed a peerage and will carry on as culture secretary, despite standing down as an MP. Baroness Morgan ruled out taking a job in any Johnson cabinet last year.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told MPs during a Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting that he was "very sorry" for Friday's election defeat. However defeated Labour MP Mary Creagh said Mr Corbyn was guilty of "preening narcissism", after revealing no one from his team had been in touch after she lost her seat.
Earlier in the day, the PM made his ministers chant false campaign claims about nurse and hospital numbers as he assembled his cabinet for the first time since the election. It comes as Angela Rayner is reportedly ready to step aside and support Rebecca Long-Bailey’s bid to become the next Labour leader.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the post-election fallout, as MPs prepare to be sworn in at parliament today.
Nicky Morgan peerage and cabinet role causes outrage
Boris Johnson has been accused of showing “two fingers to democracy” after announcing Nicky Morgan will carry on as culture secretary, despite her quitting the Commons.
No 10 said the former MP would be made a life peer and would answer questions in the House of Lords.
It still drew a furious response from opposition MPs, with Labour’s former shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant saying it “stinks”.
“You abandon your constituents, eschew the tough work of representing a constituency but remain in the Cabinet. That really is two fingers up to democracy,” he said.
His fellow Labour MP Jo Stevens said it was “absolutely disgraceful” MPs would not be able to scrutinise or challenge her on the performance of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The Lib Dems’ culture spokeswoman Layla Moran said the “sycophancy” showed why reform of the Lords was needed while the SNP's Pete Wishart accused the Tories of showing “disdain for democracy”.
The decision to keep her on appeared to surprise even the now Baroness Morgan. “Well it turns out that leaving the Cabinet is harder than leaving the EU!” she tweeted.
PM accused of ‘reckless’ behaviour as he puts no-deal back on the table
Boris Johnson is to legislate to prevent MPs extending the Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020, government sources have said.
Ministers have re-worked the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) – due to come before the Commons this week – to “legally prohibit” any further extension.
Under current plans, Johnson intends to end Britain’s EU membership on 31 January, with an implementation to run to the end of 2020 while the government negotiates a trade deal.
However, key EU figures – including chief negotiator Michel Barnier – have expressed scepticism that a deal can be agreed in time, raising the fresh prospect of a no-deal break.
Labour’s Keir Starmer said it was “reckless and irresponsible”.
Angela Rayner ready to back Rebecca Long-Bailey for Labour leadership, say reports
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is to step aside and support her friend Rebecca Long-Bailey to succeed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, according to reports.
Rayner is expected to run as deputy leader in a bid that would allow her flatmate, shadow business secretary Long-Bailey, to take the party’s top job.
It comes as Corbyn indicated he would quit as Labour leader in the early part of next year after the party suffered its worst general election defeat since 1935.
Tom Watson stepped down as deputy leader shortly before the election was called.
According to multiple reports, Rayner has not made a final decision, but is exploring a deputy leadership bid.
Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner (PA)
Northern voters should be ‘wary’ of PM’s promises, says Andy Burnham
The mayor of Manchester issued a warning to Boris Johnson that he could not simply offer infrastructure improvements that were “decades away” to keep his new Northern voters on side.
Andy Burnham, the former Labour leadership hopeful told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I would warn people across the North to be wary of these promises.
“Infrastructure is decades away, very easy things for politicians to promise because actually it is not going to be delivered anytime soon.”
He added: “The North definitely does need new infrastructure. The rail chaos - that we see this morning even, with more cancellations across the North - is due to Victorian infrastructure more than anything.
“But they can’t say that they are doing everything to the North by simply promising infrastructure in the distant future. They have got to deal with the here and now.”
Burnham said Labour under Jeremy Corbyn leadership had been “thwarting” its traditional voters’ views on Brexit. He said his party was in a “pretty dark place right now,” but refused to say whether an emerging leadership successor had his support.
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester (PA)
Thornberry ‘wanted Jeremy in No 10’ – but clashed with Corbyn over Brexit policy
Emily Thornberry has admitted that three months before the general election she worried Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to take a position on Brexit could cost the party.
In an interview with the BBC in September, due to be broadcast on Tuesday evening, the shadow foreign secretary said a neutral position would “make it more difficult” to win an election.
“What worries me is that every single interview he does will all be about Brexit,” she told the BBC documentary, The Brexit Storm Continues.
Asked at the autumn party conference whether Labour could win a public vote with a neutral stance, Thornberry added: “I think it makes it more difficult.
“That’s why I’m really pushing this because I want Jeremy in No 10,” she said, according to a clip previewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Putting no-deal on the table will ‘focus minds,’ says Liam Fox
Former international trade secretary Liam Fox said Boris Johnson’s decision to use UK legislation to rule out an extension to EU trade talks would focus minds in the negotiations.
“We’ve got a very, I think, big sea change now in the relationship with Europe,” the senior Conservative told the BBC.
“They know that there’s no chance that Britain won’t leave the EU. Up till now I think there’s always been a view in Brussels that ‘maybe they just might stay’.
“We’re going to be leaving by the end of January. We’ve got a government with a big majority committed to doing that, that will produce a different, I think, attitude in Brussels.
“They now know that there will be a finite amount of time to get an agreement done.”
Next Labour leader doesn’t need ‘ovaries or Northern accent,’ says Starmer ally
Jenny Chapman, a key ally of leadership contender Sir Keir Starmer, has ridiculed the idea that the next Labour leader must “have ovaries or a Northern accent”.
The former Labour MP, who lost her seat at the election, told the BBC: “Nobody on doorsteps of Darlington said the next leader has to have ovaries or a northern accent, and I think that’s such a patronising attitude to think that presenting someone who speaks the northern accent means you're going to win support in the North.”
Is Zac Goldsmith also heading to the House of Lords?
There’s been plenty of criticism for Boris Johnson’s decision to retain Nicky Morgan in the cabinet and give her life peerage despite her decision to stand down in the Commons.
And there are reports the PM is ready to hand Zac Goldsmith – who lost his Richmond seat to the Lib Dems last week – a role in the House Lords.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Johnson wants to appoint various Brexit supporters to the upper chamber, and say Goldsmith is “tipped for promotion”. Robert Peston suggested he could then stay in cabinet with his “green job” (as an environment minister).
Zac Goldsmith, defeated in Richmond (PA)
Brexit deadlines ‘concentrate minds,’ claims Gove
Michael Gove has been asked if the amendment to the Brexit bill making any further extension illegal – and putting no-deal back on the table – is “putting a gun to Britain’s head”.
The cabinet office minister said both sides, the UK and the EU, had “committed themselves to concluding the new relationship … by the end of 2020”.
He claimed the government would “operate at pace” and it would help “get Brexit done promptly”.
Earlier Gove earlier suggested there would be no need to crash out of the EU at the end of next year because “deadlines concentrate minds”.
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