Sajid Javid says Tories aim to raise national living wage to £10.50 an hour – as it happened

Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

from Economics | The Guardian on 2019-09-30 21:11 (#4RGP2)

Rolling coverage of the day's political developments, including Brexit and the Conservative party conference

10.11pm BST

We're going to close down this live blog now. Here's a summary of the day's main events:

9.48pm BST

The UK's proposal for dealing with the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic includes the creation of a series of customs posts either side and a few miles back from the border itself, according to a report by Ireland's RTi News.

The outlet says it has seen extracts of documents produced in London and that the proposals also include the idea of monitoring the movement of goods from one "customs clearance site" to another using GPS via mobile phone data, or tracking devices placed on trucks or vans.

Under the British proposals, both the UK and EU would create what are believed to be called 'customs clearance sites', but to all intents and purposes a customs post.

Traders would have a choice of either a straightforward customs declaration which would have to be lodged and cleared on either side of the border, or the so-called 'transit' system.

8.34pm BST

At the fringe event, the denunciation of the government by some of its former members goes on:

.@AlistairBurtUK: "most EU regulations which affect us are British made...The Trump trade deal? You just wait for it. Trump's eyes will light up. It'll be a deal which suits them."

Burt is a former senior minister at the Foreign Office.

Dominic Grieve says the Prime Minister is responsible for encouraging the decline in debate and increase in use of terms such as "traitor" etc.

8.25pm BST

The shadow culture secretary, Labour's Tom Watston, has welcomed the reversal of the BBC's decision to partially uphold a complaint against the presenter, Naga Munchetty:

This is the right decision. I'm glad the complaint against Naga Munchetty has been overturned. She was right to give her interpretation of Trump's language based on her experiences as a woman of colour. Calling out racism takes courage. The ruling against her was wrong and I hope the BBC reviews the process that led to it.

8.10pm BST

Labour's plans to secure cheaper medicines for the NHS through a system of "voluntary and compulsory licensing" would "put lives at risk," the health secretary has claimed.

At Labour's conference in Brighton last week, Jeremy Corbyn said his government would use a system of voluntary and compulsory licensing to procure cheaper versions of patented drugs. Corbyn said Labour would "tell the drugs companies that if they want public research funding then they'll have to make their drugs affordable for all".

I think that the announcement to essentially nationalise parts of the drugs supply would ultimately lead to fewer drugs being available and less innovation and that ultimately would not only damage our life sciences industry and the economic damage that comes with that but I think it would put lives at risk.

8.00pm BST

A veteran of Boris Johnson's political campaigns has resigned as a Downing Street political adviser as tensions rise between former Vote Leave members and ex-City Hall factions around No 10.

Alex Crowley, who worked on Johnson's Tory leadership campaign, two mayoral campaigns and wrote a book about him, quit last week. His exit came as several sources with knowledge of No 10 suggested that there was an atmosphere of feuding inside Johnson's administration.

7.51pm BST

The former justice secretary, David Gauke, has been saying that - while he is himself a Eurosceptic - he fears a no-deal Brexit and that the UK's approach has been fundamentally wrong:

And @DavidGauke says it is 'complete nonesense' uk can leave without a deal and just talk about the hospital building prog. Will still need a deal with trading partners and 'our negotiating position will be weaker' Some of the problems of No Deal cannot be solved by preparation

Gauke: "second myth is to say all no deal effects can be mitigated by preparation.

You cannot prepare your way out of massive new tariffs. You cannot if you're a business which uses JIT supply chains, prepare for a world where you don't have them any more."

Gauke: "third myth is that the threat of no deal gives the UK huge negotiating leverage.

The British govt has been challenge time and again for a solution to the Irish border and we simply have not been able to do so. And no amount of leverage is going to solve that."

Gauke: "fourth myth is there was a democratic imperative for no deal. Frankly that was not what was put to the British people in 2016."

.@DavidGauke says that if the Tory Party keeps going the way it's going, going down a route of "confrontation" and "division" that it will "soon less be the party of Churchill and more the party of Trump."

Wow.

7.30pm BST

Here's a little more on that fringe event, where the former minister Alistair Burt has been telling an audience he does not need lessons on loyalty to the Tory party.

.@AlistairBurtUK reminds the audience he's been a Tory for fifty years and was even PPS to Iain Duncan Smith as leader: "I don't need any lessons on loyalty from anybody about what to do for the Conservative Party in the future." pic.twitter.com/K9ECFJweCk

At this packed meeting a@AlistairBurtUKa(C) says he stood by IDS in his day and 'needs no lectures on loyalty' -it's 50 years since he joined @ukconservatives pic.twitter.com/gMRN63HuNf

Burt: "one of the big mistakes in 2016 is to think it was all about us...the idea that because they wanted to sell us cars and Prosecco they would give us exactly what we wanted. It wasn't true then it isn't true now."

Burt: "Bringing into office the Vote Leave campaign just hasn't worked. To produce confrontation and division may win you a referendum but it doesn't get people on your side in Parliament."

7.26pm BST

The Guardian has just published a leader on Labour's universal credit policy, concluding that the "plan makes sense".

The shocking failings of universal credit are justly blamed on the government having listened to the wrong people when setting it up. The sensible reforms set out by Labour show that the opposition has been listening to the right ones. Never mind that the package of changes announced by Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday was misleadingly described as a plan to "scrap" universal credit. His party's proposals to end the five-week wait for initial payments, scrap the benefit cap and two-child limit (and heinous "rape clause") are sound. So are promises to review the sanctions system, ditch the "digital only" approach and hire 5,000 new advisers to help those who struggle with online applications.

7.18pm BST

The army's zero-tolerance drugs policy has been scrapped less than a year after it was introduced, the defence secretary has confirmed.

Speaking at a ConservativeHome fringe event at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Ben Wallace told Tory members he had changed the policy because it should be for commanding officers, and not the government, to decide to strip an individual of their job.

I changed it. I took the view that some people are young and irresponsible and it should be up to their commanding officers to decide, whether it's a young lad or girl who's made a mistake, whether they should be allowed to remain in the armed forces or not.

And people who have left and want to rejoin, the same should apply to them as well. I think, you know, that doesn't mean to say you should be able to do drugs in the armed forces.

It should be up to commanding officers to understand their workforce, to understand whether that individual is the problem, or if there's a medical problem and they think they need help, or whether indeed it was a mistake.

7.15pm BST

Some of the 21 MPs to have had the Conservative whip withdrawn earlier this month are holding an event on the fringes of Tory party conference:

And now to the Gaukeward squad. Applause as (former Tory MPs) @AlistairBurtUK @DavidGauke and Dominic Grieve enter the room. pic.twitter.com/f8EIHhsMy3

Grieve: "All of us want the best for the Conservative party and also want what is best for the country. Being a party loyalist means putting country before party. And we are 30 days away from a potentially catastrophic event in our country's history."

Grieve: "There may be many people in this country who can make a no deal transition. But as the yellowhammer papers make clear, it'll be the vulnerable in our society who will suffer most. That is something that we as Conservatives cannot neglect."

Grieve: "some call the Benn Act the 'surrender act'; I call it the 'safeguarding act'"

Grieve: "I'm concerned some people seem to want a kind of constitutional anarchy...if you start to take a sledgehammer to the constitution's structure in a cavalier way, you will smash it into pieces and you won't be able to put it back together again." #cpc19

Grieve getting heckled by some in the audience.

Grieve: "Why should people vote for us as a party which safeguards the constitution if we're happy to throw it in the waste paper basket when the ends justify the means?" #CPC19 pic.twitter.com/OD8ndKc1DD

Dominic Grieve says the idea that remainer MPs are getting help and cash from foreign sources is nonsense. As is the idea that Number 10 has the power to investigate them at all, let alone seize their phones. pic.twitter.com/NR8ZKF6a4g

Grieve reckons Parliament will be just as hung after a December election as it is now. #cpc19

Grieve says second referendum only way out of the impasse. Says it's only way to restore unity to the Conservative Party.

Where have we heard that before...

6.49pm BST

Signs have emerged that the hardline position of the Conservative party's most Eurosceptic backbenchers has softened just days before Boris Johnson's team are due to enter a "tunnel" of secret negotiations with Brussels.

Mark Francois, the deputy chair of the European Research Group, has opened the door to a potential Brexit deal, indicating he would look at one even if it included a version of the controversial Irish border backstop to which the Eurosceptic ERG was once implacably opposed.

It has been sometimes been said that we will vote against anything regardless. That's not true.

If there is some form of deal, be it over the backstop or anything else, then I and my colleagues will look at it and read it very carefully, because at the end of the day you are talking about international treaty law. So I'll look at a deal if there is one.

6.38pm BST

An anti-abortion billboard targeted at the Labour MP Stella Creasy, who is pregnant, has been removed amid claims the campaign amounted to harassment.

The owner of the billboard, the advertising agency Clear Channel, apologised and said it was taking immediate action to remove them. The Walthamstow MP said she was being targeted by the anti-abortion group, CBRUK, because she is pro-choice.

We apologise for a recent billboard campaign in Walthamstow. We have removed this campaign and are reviewing our internal processes.

Clear Channel have taken the decision to remove the ad. Therefore we will not be taking any further action at this point.

6.02pm BST

This is from my colleague Graeme Wearden on the UQ in the Commons this afternoon on the Brexit and currency speculation.

The UK government has refused to launch an inquiry into its links to financial speculators who are accused of shorting UK assets to profit from a disorderly departure from the EU.

Treasury minister Simon Clarke has tried to rebut claims, from former chancellor Philip Hammond, that Boris Johnson's hedge fund backers would win "billions of pounds" from a no-deal Brexit.

5.57pm BST

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has said that if the Tories deliver Brexit by 31 October, the threat from the Brexit party will vanish. At the "Stand up for Brexit" fringe he said:

If we deliver Brexit on 31 October then [the Brexit party's] job is done. If we don't do what we must do by 31 October, then they will be a real force threatening us. So there is no deal to be done, there is delivery to be done.

If we deliver, we win and if we don't, we lose. And it's as simple as that and if you don't believe me the person who puts this most clearly is the great Dominic Cummings, to whom we should all be enormously grateful.

There are many, many good Conservatives in the Brexit party. There's even a Rees-Mogg [Annunziata, Jacob's sister, an MEP].

Richard Tice [now MEP for the east of England] was on the candidate list for us and could easily have been our mayoral candidate in London. There are some really, really excellent Conservatives in the Brexit party and I just want them to come home.

I think it can be won if the deal that is brought back is, as anticipated, considerably better than the one that we had before, with the question of the Irish backstop dealt with. And if the DUP are persuaded and if Steve is persuaded, then I think we are very, very close to a majority in parliament. I think if we get the deal we will get the majority in parliament, partly because I think we are all fed up of this.

5.48pm BST

And here is some business reaction to the national living wage announcement.

From Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI director general

Business shares the chancellor's ambition to end low pay. Increasing productivity is the only way to sustainable pay rises. The success of the independent low pay commission has been its evidence-based approach to increasing wages without damaging job prospects. The commission will work best if it retains the ability to judge the pace and affordability of any future wage rises.

The government's ambition to raise and simplify the national living wage is laudable but the path to doing so must be on the basis of clear economic evidence, with ample time for businesses to adjust to any changes. Companies already face significant cumulative employment costs, including pensions auto-enrolment, immigration skills charge and the apprenticeship levy, so government must take action to alleviate the heavy cost-burden facing firms, or risk denting productivity and competitiveness.

5.48pm BST

These are from Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, on the national living wage announcement.

Pledging to get min wage to two thirds median earnings (about 9.50 per hour if done next year) is a very big deal indeed.

One in four employees would be on the minimum - i.e. have wages set in Whitehall.

Chart shows swift rise in value of min wage https://t.co/4YG8HkOIRI pic.twitter.com/HRRyBhSeVW

We would have just about highest minimum wage in advanced economies if it goes to two thirds median.

That is a big (and risky) punt.

The way we have a bidding war between Labour and Conservatives over level of min wage is not healthy. pic.twitter.com/9L1MI48Oau

5.40pm BST

5.38pm BST

These are from Sky's Sam Coates.

Exclusive - Civil service under strain

Letter from Sir Mark Sedwill, head of the civil service, to colleagues has been leaked to Sky News

- Says brexit is "unsettling" civil service
- He's on a listening tour this month
- "mindful of my constitutional role" pic.twitter.com/NxFS3pToQn

Brexit is "unsettling", and Sir Mark Sedwill declares "I am mindful of my own constitutional responsibilities"

- This could be a reference to the role he plays advising the Palace who the Queen should call as PM pic.twitter.com/qCqSMrPZex

5.23pm BST

5.17pm BST

The Federation of Small Businesses has said that Sajid Javid's national living wage increase could put some small firms out of business. Its national chairman, Mike Cherry, said in a statement:

While it is welcome that the chancellor is giving businesses five years to adapt, this increase will leave many small employers struggling and, without help, could make some small firms unviable.

Those in sectors with tight margins and which are heavily labour-dependent, such as the care sector, retail or hospitality, will be particularly badly hit without support.

5.09pm BST

From ITV's Robert Peston

What a@sajidjavida(C) didn't mention was that setting a target for living wage of two thirds of median or typical pay was an ambition first mooted in the spring by the ex Chancellor who must not be mentioned (cough a@PhilipHammondUKa(C)) pic.twitter.com/3casJgztiH

5.06pm BST

And here is Frances O'Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, on the national living wage announcement.

The TUC has long campaigned for a minimum wage of over 10, and an end to the discrimination young workers suffer from lower rates.

But the chancellor's pre-election promise should be taken with a huge bucket of salt. This pledge would be overwhelmed by a no-deal Brexit. If we leave the EU without a deal, jobs will be lost, wages will fall, and our public services will suffer.

5.01pm BST

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has dismissed Sajid Javid's national living wage announcement as a "pathetic attempt at catch-up". He explained:

This pathetic attempt at catch-up by the Conservatives will fool nobody.

Labour will introduce 10 as a minimum as soon as we take office and, rising with living costs, it will mean everybody over 16 years of age will be earning comfortably more than 10.50 an hour by 2024.

4.55pm BST

The Resolution Foundation, a thinktank specialising in low pay, has welcomed Sajid Javid's plan to increase the value of the national living wage and widen its scope. Here is an extract from its news release.

The chancellor's plan to eliminate low pay over the next five years - by raising the national living wage (NLW) to reach two-thirds of typical hourly pay - is hugely ambitious and will need to be implemented carefully, the Resolution Foundation said today ...

The foundation says that achieving this would mark a dramatic turnaround for Britain's low pay landscape. Before the introduction of the national living wage (in 2016), over one in five workers across Britain (20.7%, or 5.5 million workers in total) were in low-paid work, a figure which has now fallen to 17.1 per cent (or 4.7 million workers). Aiming to abolish low pay entirely represents a significant increase in ambition.

4.36pm BST

Mark Francois, the deputy chair of the European Research Group, the Tory caucus pushing for a harder Brexit, has opened the door to a potential vote in favour of a deal that could include an Irish border backstop.

Francois said during a heated debate on the future of Brexit that the ERG would be the first to sign off a deal if it meant a genuine exit from all the institutions of the EU. He said:

It has been sometimes been said that we will vote against anything regardless. That's not true.

If there is some form of deal, be it over the backstop or anything else, then I and my colleagues will look at it and read it very carefully because at the end of the day you are talking about international treaty law. I'll look at a deal if there is one, but as I think I said my acid test will be, does it mean we genuinely leave the EU?

It rather depends what's in it. As a so-called Spartan, if it means we genuinely leave the EU, if it means we genuinely leave on Halloween, I will be the first in the Aye lobby.

4.23pm BST

In Manchester officials have been briefing on the chancellor's plans to increase the value of the national living wage. Here are the main points.

3.33pm BST

Javid also says the Tories will lower the age at which people can get the national living wage. At the moment it is paid to people aged 25 and over.

And to help the next generation of go-getters to get ahead "

" we will reward the hard work of all millennials too"

3.29pm BST

Javid says the Tories will aim to raise the "national living wage" to 10.50 an hour

In 2016, we introduced the national living wage...

Giving Britain's workers the biggest pay rise in two decades.

3.24pm BST

Javid announces a 500m youth investment fund.

This ambitious 500m programme will roll out youth centres and services right across our country"

" helping millions more young people get on the conveyor belt to a better life and career.

3.23pm BST

Javid announces a further white paper on devolution.

So I can announce today we will bring forward a white paper on further devolution in England.

Giving more local areas more local powers"

3.22pm BST

Javid praises Ruth Davidson, the former Tory leader in Scotland. She was one of his biggest supporters, but she has not been mentioned by other ministers on the conference platform. (She resigned partly because she disapproved of Boris Johnson's Brexit strategy.)

3.20pm BST

Javid turns to buses - a subject he said this morning had been long neglected by Whitehall. (See 9.18am.)

Now buses ....

" they haven't been given the attention they deserve from politicians"

3.17pm BST

Javid promises an infrastructure revolution.

Successive governments failed to invest enough for the long term.

We've started to put that right, but we can do more, a lot more.

3.15pm BST

Javid stresses his commitment to public services, saying they will be at the heart of the government's agenda.

For me, like so many others around the country"

" public services were my lifelines.

3.14pm BST

Javid announces plans for a Brexit red tape challenge.

As we look towards a future outside the EU"

" I'm very optimistic we can build on our extraordinary economic strengths "

3.11pm BST

Javid says since 2010 the Conservatives have reduced the deficit.

We may disagree on our approach on Brexit"

" but as Conservatives we can be very proud of what they helped us to achieve.

3.08pm BST

Javid says Brexit is an opportunity to ask big questions about the future of the country.

Jeremy Corbyn sees this as an opportunity to bring in nationalisation, protectionism and state control.

If they [Labour] had their way, whole sectors of the economy would be renationalised.

People's taxes would rise to the crippling levels of the past.

3.06pm BST

Javid says there are millions of people who voted remain but who now just want to see Brexit delivered.

He says the risks from not delivering Brexit are greater than the risks from Brexit.

People talk a lot about the risks of Brexit.

Some understandable, some not.

3.03pm BST

Javid turns to Labour.

They're so split down the middle"

" that even their leader and their shadow chancellor don't agree on whether they support Brexit.

3.02pm BST

Javid says this is ultimately a question about trust.

Democracy is not just for when it suits you, he says.

A strong economy can only be built on the foundation of a successful democracy.

And by definition, democracy isn't just for when it suits you.

3.01pm BST

Javid says, deal or no deal, the UK will be ready.

3.00pm BST

Javid says we are leaving the EU in 31 days - deal or no deal.

Preparing to leave without a deal is not only the responsible thing to do, but the best way of getting a deal too.

2.58pm BST

Sajid Javid is speaking now. He says his mother is here. Twenty years ago she thought it was a big deal when the first Asians moved into Coronation Street. Now she has seen the first Asians move into Downing Street.

Once again, they are living above the shop.

2.56pm BST

Sajid Javid, the chancellor, is about to deliver his conference speech.

2.53pm BST

From Sky's Europe correspondent Adam Parsons

EU source, just now: "Betrayal, collusion and surrender. When we hear those words, we don't feel like 'the friends over the sea' that your Prime Minister talks about."
Says a chance of a deal now "feels remote".

2.50pm BST

David Gauke, the former justice secretary and one of the 21 Tories who had the whip removed for rebelling over Brexit, thinks Boris Johnson will get the blame if Brexit is delayed.

From @DavidGauke: We won't leave the EU on October 31st - and Johnson will be blamed https://t.co/LdtBhOhxTJ

I fear worse - we won't leave and Boris won't be blamed. He may have reached a new zen level of politics where he is loved for promising what he could never deliver and loved more for failing. What his opponents see as untruths his supporters forgive as statesmanlike optimism. https://t.co/Xms7RG89CX

2.41pm BST

Back in Westminster the opposition parties have ruled out calling a no confidence vote this week, Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, has said. This is from the FT's Jim Pickard.

Jo Swinson says opposition leaders have agreed not to carry out a vote of no confidence this week because it would make No Deal more likely and "play into Boris Johnson's hands" pic.twitter.com/ThI6rOLIcr

2.36pm BST

2.35pm BST

Like her colleagues, Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, used her conference speech to road test an attack line against Labour. Hers involved quoting what Tim Roache, the GMB general secretary, said about the plan to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2030. She said:

We're working out the path to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. We can do it, and we will help the world to do it.

Contrast that to Labour who last week announced net zero by 2030! Total tosh!

2.26pm BST

Here is more from the Bruges Group fringe. These are from my colleague Lisa O'Carroll.

Pippa Crear from Daily Mirror loudly booed by audience, and shouts of "shame on you" when she asks question about language in House of Commons on memory of Jo Cox. At Bruges Group "The moment of truth" session with Arlene Foster, Mark Francoise and John Redwood

Mark Francois asked if he supported timeline on backstop:
Some people say we will vote against anything.
If there is some sort of deal be it over the BS or anything else then I and my colleagues will look at it and consider it very carefully 1/2

"My acid test will be does it mean we genuinely leave the EU"

2.22pm BST

These are from the Times' Steven Swinford.

Is Sajid Javid about to announce a significant rise in the National Living Wage as per @SamCoatesSky here?

Boris Johnson repeatedly said he wants to increase it during the Tory leadership contest, highlighting its impact when he introduced it as Mayor of London https://t.co/jVP1rRr5dW

It's the kind of major policy announcement that you'd want as prime minister ahead of your first appearance on the Today programme tomorrow morning

It could finally move coverage on from a discussion about Boris Johnson's personal life to a big policy announcement...

2.18pm BST

From HuffPost's Arj Singh

I'm told most of the Tory rebels opposed to a no-deal Brexit will NOT back any opposition plan to toughen up the Benn act by forcing Boris Johnson to ask for a Brexit delay as early as this weekend https://t.co/5nB6jrkEdx

2.08pm BST

Mary Wakefield, the Spectator journalist who is married to Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's special adviser, has denied being the second woman at the lunch attended by Charlotte Edwardes 20 years ago where the latter alleges she was groped by Johnson. There was a rumour Wakefield was the second woman referred to, but not named, in Edwardes' Sunday Times column as being groped by the then editor.

Statement from Mary Wakefield, who happens to be Dominic Cummings' wife-'I am not the woman referred to in Charlotte Edwardes's column. Boris was a good boss and nothing like this ever happened to me. Nor has Charlotte, who I like and admire, ever discussed the incident with me.'

2.03pm BST

There are two urgent questions in the Commons today, starting at 2.30pm. (There are no questions today.)

Two UQs granted from 2:30pm:

1) @johnmcdonnellMP to ask @sajidjavid to make a statement on the short positions being taken against the pound in the lead up to a possible no-deal Brexit.

2) @ianpaisleyuk to ask @JulianSmithUK to make a statement on Wrightbus in Ballymena. https://t.co/3Ps5A0z0bn

1.58pm BST

In the conference hall yesterday Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, seemed to get a warmer reception than any of his ministerial colleagues. He has been speaking at a Daily Telegraph fringe event at lunchtime and, as the Telegraph's Owen Bennett points out, the queue to see him was huge.

Huge queue for the recording of @brexitbroadcast with @Jacob_Rees_Mogg and @DavidGauke #cpc19 pic.twitter.com/17pa0lMGVL

Jacob Rees-Mogg defends Boris Johnson's use of language but tears into John McDonnell's "Lynch" comments. Says "Using language like the surrender bill doesn't lead to murder. Advocating someone's lynching might" #CPC19

Jacob Rees-Mogg again hints that the govt thinks EU could veto extension required by Benn Act: "There are legal requirements but the question of article 50 and its exercise is not entirely a UK matter."

Jacob Rees Mogg defends PM's "humbug" comments, claiming @paulasherriff mentioned Jo Cox "then went on in a sort of rant generally", and that's what was humbug.

Here's that "rant" in full: pic.twitter.com/gDFvJntDKn

At a frine Jacob Rees-Mogg calls the Fixed-Term Parliament Act "one of the mosts stupid acts that was ever put on the statute books" #CPC19

Jacob Rees-Mogg doesn't deny saying the supreme court judgement was a "constitutional coup" in a cabinet meeting

On David Gauke, who is due to appear after him, Mogg says he is "a credit to the Conservative Party" and deserves a round of applause, adding: "I'm very sorry that he is not formally in receipt of the whip." #CPC19

1.43pm BST

My colleague Lisa O'Carroll is at a Bruges Group fringe. The Bruges Group represents hardline Brexiters, and it seems that the Guardian is not especially popular ...

Barry Legg chair of Eurosceptic Bruges Group gets several rounds of applause in opening remarks at their session titled "Moment of Truth" involving John Redwood, Arlene Foster, Mark Francois.

" Boris has 17 days, even if we added on another 90 days,"it would still not be possible to transform these docs from the terms of vassalage"and free and independent states" he says in relation to W/A

Withdrawal agreement "is nothing of the sort, quite simply [it is] a surrender document" - applause. "I have no doubt we will be challenged by the judiciary" if we attempt to challenge their documents - applause

John Redwood rousing the crowd at The Comedy Club..

"Come the election I wouldn't want to be an MP who broke his word to the people when he said we would leave the European union. "

Bruges Group chair Barry Legg: "Mark Francoi and his colleagues are heroes"
"Most important thing about Mark is he is one of 28 MPs who voted against T May agreement along with our friends in DUP
"Without Mark and his colleagues we would now be living in a vassal state."

Mark Francois to the Tory Fringe "the Moment If Truth" session "incidentally if any of you do read the Guardian, I advise you on health grounds to leave now"... (did he see @marinahyde in the audience along with me?)

Cheers and applause when Mark Francois says it is estimated that Labour will lose 100 seats.
Then Pantomime roll call of "remainers", Grieve, Heseltine, Benn, Cooper, Phil, Swinson followed by boos and 'no's

I do believe Mark Francois has seen Marina in the audience. Again he name checks the Guardian. "I have acquired a reputation for quoting poetry - much to the dislike of certain Guardian journalists".

1.02pm BST

Dominic Grieve, one of the 21 Tories who had the whip removed after rebelling over Brexit and one of the MPs involved in drafting the Benn Act to rule out a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, has said he thinks the legislation is robust, and that ministers will not find loopholes in it.

In an interview with Sky News, Grieve said that if Boris Johnson tried to ignore the law, the courts could force him to comply.

[Johnson] would be taken to court and a writ of mandamus would be issued against him and he would be told, as a matter of law, that he has to write the letter [to the EU requesting a Brexit delay]. The case could go to the supreme court and I suspect the courts could deal with it very quickly.

The PM would be "dismissed" by the Queen if he fails to seek a delay to leaving the European Union in the event he can't secure a deal by October 19th, former Conservative MP Dominic Grieve says.

Get live updates from the conference: https://t.co/lGGLEXr8Fd pic.twitter.com/EaWcPNzytk

12.47pm BST

In another interview, asked if he had squeezed the thigh of the journalist Charlotte Edwardes 20 years ago, Boris Johnson replied:

No, and I think what the public want to hear is about what we are doing to level up and unite the country.

I'm just saying what I've said. What the public want to hear is what we are doing for them and for the country and the investment in ways of uniting the country.

Not at all. I think what the public want to hear is what we are doing to bring the country together and get on with improving their lives.

I think I would make one general comment: I think there is a lot of people who basically want to stop us delivering Brexit on October 31.

12.41pm BST

12.35pm BST

The pharmaceutical industry has already moved 25% of its medicine imports away from Calais to mitigate the risk of bottlenecks in a no-deal scenario, the industry body has revealed.

Mike Thompson, the chief executive of the British Pharmaceutical Association, has also criticised the EU for not allowing the industry on both sides of the channel to engage in talks to prevent blockages.

12.17pm BST

BBC News has just broadcast a clip of Boris Johnson responding to a question about whether he squeezed Charlotte Edwardes' thigh at a Spectator lunch 20 years ago with a long and rambling reply about his plans to improve bus services.

12.12pm BST

In an interview with ITV's Joe Pike, Boris Johnson refused to apologise for his comment about money spent on historical child abuse investigations being "spaffed up a wall". Johnson said it was "very, very important" that historical child abuse was investigated, in places such as Rotherham. But he said his comment referred to other cases where allegations were unfounded, such as those raised by the man known as "Nick".

WATCH: I spoke to @BorisJohnson about his controversial use of language and claims he finds it difficult to say sorry.

He refused to apologise for his comments to @LBC that:
Millions of pounds of police funds was 'spaffed up the wall' investigating historic child abuse.

/1 pic.twitter.com/ygAsKkdXsM

11.57am BST

Good spot from ITV's Angus Walker:

Conservative MEPs looking for an intern in Brussels - job starts Nov 1st...#Brexit pic.twitter.com/IsMiVe8jQi

11.52am BST

But it wasn't all Labour-bashing. In his speech, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, also set an ambitious target for education policy over the next decade. He said he wanted England to be better than Germany at technical education within a decade. (Education policy is devolved, so he is just education secretary for England.)

I promise to give my all to make technical and vocational education the first choice for anybody " with the aptitude, desire and interest to pursue it.

Apprenticeships, technical and vocational education are just as valuable as university education, and they are just as important to our economy.

In a crowded field this is the most meaningless announcement I've ever heard from an education secretary. What would "overtaking Germany in technical education" even look like? https://t.co/iP0tOnzAsw

11.29am BST

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, used his conference speech, to claim that Labour's plans to return schools to local authority control would amount to removing "choice" from parents. He said:

I'm not going to let Labour's ideological zealots tear up years of progress " made by both New Labour and Conservative governments.

Because let's be clear: abolishing all primary school tests, ending phonics reading tests, scrapping free schools and academies, taking freedom from headteachers, and choice from parents, returning all schools to local authority control, scrapping Ofsted, and making local authorities responsible for inspecting their own schools and even their own local children's services, this is no plan for the future.

11.20am BST

From the Spectator's Isabel Hardman:

All these speeches from cabinet ministers so far have been terribly anodyne, almost like they've been told to give a speech not even they will remember.

11.16am BST

These are from Sky's Beth Rigby, who interviewed Sajid Javid, the chancellor, this morning.

NEW: Spoke to Javid about No Deal planning. Confirms govt will set up much more detail on No Deal 'mitigations' > I have heard that govt gearing up to published set of No Deal planning papers as early as next week pic.twitter.com/tUPunc58uK

And @sajidjavid clear that the govt will obey the law AND leave on Oct 31. Describes the Benn Act as a "silly" law. Asked if No 10 had found a loophole: he said "I wouldn't call it a loophole" > but "it" is clearly something isn't it pic.twitter.com/fiRGQ79L6R

And Javid on groping allegations. Says he's spoke to PM and he's "absolutely clear that the allegations are untrue"

Does the PM have a women problem? "No, not at all, not at all" pic.twitter.com/lVEz4bTt6Z

11.13am BST

11.05am BST

In his speech to the conference earlier Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said he loved the NHS because it embodied "timeless Conservative values". He said:

Now, as you might have heard, I love the NHS.

And I think the NHS embodies timeless Conservative values:

11.01am BST

Sir Nicholas Soames, one of the 21 Tories who had the whip withdrawn after a Brexit rebellion earlier this month, has described the decision to punish those 21 as "absolutely insane".

"I'm disappointed at the least, and very angry at the most"

Winston Churchill's grandson, independent MP Sir Nicholas Soames, says it's "absolutely insane" that the PM has withdrawn the Tory whip from "real heroes" of the partyhttps://t.co/aX5TZ4yj9L @VictoriaLIVE pic.twitter.com/SWKhDwZ0vf

10.59am BST

10.58am BST

On the conference stage Matt Hancock, the health secretary, was asked to name the one thing the Conservatives should be saying on the doorstep about the Tory approach to public services. He replied:

With the NHS, the single most important thing, which is so important, is that we show and communicate that we love the NHS.

10.52am BST

Normally at Tory conferences cabinet ministers have a sprinkling of policy announcements in their speeches. This year most of them have had little or nothing to say on policy. Partly that's because the overall focus is on "getting Brexit done", but partly it is because this is a government without a majority, probably just weeks away from an election, which is not really in a position to implement anything.

Instead, ministers are using their speeches to rehearse attack lines against Labour. Therese Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, used her speech a moment ago to claim that a Jeremy Corbyn government would penalise pensioners. She was not arguing about the value of state benefits, but instead making an argument about the value of pension funds, and the possible impact on them of policies like Labour's inclusive ownership funds. (See 10.33am.) She said:

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour will hit pensioners' saving pots through hiking taxes and renationalising swaths of industry - costing pensioners thousands of pounds.

Unlike Conservatives.

10.39am BST

Boris Johnson's long-standing allies have accused him of shutting them out and only listening to his adviser, the Vote Leave campaign head Dominic Cummings, and to Carrie Symonds, Johnson's partner, the Sun's Tom Newton Dunn is reporting this morning. Newton Dunn says Lynton Crosby, the Tory election strategist, and Will Walden, Johnson's communications chief when he was London mayor, feel marginalised. Newton Dunn writes:

One former close ally of the PM's told the Sun: "The Cummings experiment has palpably failed, but Boris will not turn the ship.

"He's only listening to two voices now, Dominic and Carrie - and Dominic's approach is proving a car crash. We're getting really worried."

10.33am BST

In the conference hall Rishi Sunak, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has just delivered what he said was his first speech to a Tory conference. He spent much of it attacking Labour, saying that its plan to give up to 10% of shares in large companies to an "inclusive ownership fund" controlled by workers would be "the largest expropriation of assets ever seen in a western democracy". Sunak said:

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would fundamentally destroy the free enterprise economy that pays for our nurses, our teachers, our armed forces.

Take just one example. Their plan to confiscate 10% of the value of all successful companies.

10.19am BST

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has criticised Sajid Javid for not being able to say how much a no-deal Brexit would cost the economy. (See 8.21am.) McDonnell said:

The chancellor refused to say what the real costs of a no-deal Brexit would be, or how it would impact on the economy. He either has no clue or he is being completely disingenuous, because he knows what a disaster no deal would be for everyone except the super rich.

10.02am BST

Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, will use his conference speech to announce plans to extend the right that housing association tenants have to shared ownership of their homes. In a press statement, the Conservative party says:

We will establish a new national model for shared ownership which allows people in new housing association properties to buy a proportion of their home while paying a subsidised rent on the rest - helping thousands of lower earners step on to the housing ladder. People will be able to buy more of their home in 1% increments, rather than the 10% (or more) chunks currently required.

9.38am BST

Sajid Javid implied in his Today interview that the government does have a plan to bypass the Benn Act. In a useful Twitter thread at the weekend, the Times's Raphael Hogarth listed five possible ways in which this could be done - all of which he thinks are flawed.

As far as I can make out, we have now heard of 5 suggested routes around the Benn Act, the legislation which would compel the PM to seek a delay of Brexit until next year if Parliament had not approved a deal or no deal by 19 October. All, I think, are dead ends. pic.twitter.com/MdCQPRfwH9

Route 1 (ht @owenjbennett): send letter requesting extension as required, but also an "explainer" which says that he doesn't really want one. Dead end because unlawful: the Act says he must "seek to obtain" an extension, and he wouldn't be doing so.

https://t.co/SoNyn4Yjyl

Route 2 (ht @JolyonMaugham): Get MPs to vote for a deal - so the duty to seek an extension falls away - but don't get them to vote for legislation to implement the deal. Under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, that means HMG can't ratify. Hence no deal.https://t.co/yaCJDAbJ1O

Dead end, I think, because (a) there isn't a majority for a deal in the first place, and (b) would require the PM to whip MPs into an extraordinary double-think, saying "vote for the deal to get no deal", and (c) Parliament, now it's sitting, could legislate again to prevent this

Route 3 (ht John Major): simply try to use an "Order of Council" (or possibly Order in Council), a type of secondary legislation not requiring parliamentary approval, to suspend the Benn Act. A dead end because patently unlawful. See the Bill of Rights: pic.twitter.com/7wSLsE4wuM

Route 4 (ht @JolyonMaugham): use an Order in Council, but under Part 2 of the Civil Contingencies Act, which allows the Government to suspend Acts of Parliament to deal with an emergency. Unlawful, because this isn't an emergency. See @ProfMarkElliott:https://t.co/18MJDSy2Yr

Route 5 (ht @JudgeJohnHack): argue that the Benn Act is itself unlawful under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. (While we are still in the EU, EU law prevails over UK law.) https://t.co/WUZFL9tGPD

Dead end, I think, because it's hard to find EU lawyers who think there's a shred of sense in this argument. https://t.co/5AAJl94Ftw

9.18am BST

Here are the main points from Sajid Javid's Today interview.

I'm also clear that, if it was no deal, there would be a significant economic policy response. You have the independent Bank of England that will almost certainly think about a monetary policy response, and that's for them. But I will be thinking about a fiscal, and other economic policy, response.

Javid's suggestion that BoE will act to stimulate the economy after a no deal Brexit is:

a) true
b) likely to go down like a bucket of cold sick in BoE, which has studiously said rates could go in either direction

I think I do.

Yes, we've been very clear, and we could not be clearer. What investors, businesses and others want to know is that you are going to end this uncertainty. We've had delay after delay after delay. Businesses want to see an end to the uncertainty. And the way we do that is leave.

Whether it's Michel Barnier or others involved in the EU side, they will say all sorts of things. It is part of a negotiating strategy.

For most of the country, especially when you get out of our capital city, the main public transport people rely on is buses. And I think politicians just haven't taken [them] seriously enough.

If you are referring to these allegations of a personal nature that were made a couple of days ago, I've talked to the prime minister about that. First of all, he could not be clearer - absolutely clear that they are completely untrue. And I totally trust him on that.

8.29am BST

Q: What has happened to the Tory inquiry into Islamophobia in the party?

Javid says it will happen.

8.24am BST

Javid says he has spoken to Johnson about the groping allegation. Johnson denies it. Javid says he trusts him.

He says he does not get involved when people make allegations like this.

8.24am BST

Q: Your plan for buses involves spending just 30m. That will make just a dent on the spending lost over the last decade.

Javid says the total spending being announced is worth 220m.

8.21am BST

Q: What would the cost to the UK be of leaving the UK without a deal?

Javid says it is hard to know.

8.18am BST

Q: Are the EU going to get formal proposals from the UK this week?

Javid says the EU complaints are just part of a negotiating strategy.

8.16am BST

Nick Robinson is interviewing Sajid Javid.

Robinson talks about the long-term consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

I think I do.

8.06am BST

Sajid Javid, the chancellor, is addressing the Conservative conference in Manchester this afternoon and, as is usual, the party has previewed his speech with an overnight policy announcement. It is about infrastructure spending. But it has failed to grip the news agenda. Partly that's because the government is now far short of having a majority, so anything big announced at this conference is basically an election pledge, not a statement of intent by a party in power. And partly it's because large elements of what was in the overnight press notice have been announced before.

And mostly, of course, it is because before Javid can even mention the word infrastructure in the interviews he is doing this morning, he is finding himself fending off questions about Boris Johnson's behaviour towards women.

I don't think it's a good idea to get drawn into personal allegations. For my part, I'm not going to get into that.

The prime minister has said that this is completely untrue. I have full faith in the prime minister, I don't doubt what he has said for a second but I'm not going to get drawn into these allegations.

I can't comment on those accusations, but they are deeply concerning and in a sense they go to the heart of this question about character and integrity of people in public life and what standards the electorate have a right to expect.

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