Burnham urges Harman to drop her call for Labour to abstain on welfare bill - Politics live

Rolling coverage of all the day's political developments as they happen

• Sturgeon defends SNP's U-turn decision on hunting vote
• SNP's hunting decision - Reaction and analysis
• Government pulls hunting vote
• Andy Burnham's press gallery hustings - Summary and verdict
• Afternoon summary

5.08pm BST

I am hugely positive about it but I think we have a big fight to win because the left across Europe is mobilising, often through NGOs, to try to find all sorts of reasons why this is a bad idea. But when you examine them - whether it is the idea we are all going to be force-fed chlorinated chickens or have American banks buy up our health service - they all fall apart.

There is no question: the National Health Service will remain a national heath service and in terms of these investor dispute resolution mechanisms, we have signed them into all the trade deals we've ever done and we've never lost a single case. So a lot of the arguments against TTIP do fall apart but we need to challenge them almost before they come out and I think business can really help with this.

4.06pm BST

Andy Burnham is the third of the Labour leadership candidates to address a press gallery hustings. Liz Kendall probably made the best impression, in that she was relatively unknown when she spoke in May, and she attracted some rave reviews. Yvette Cooper spoke last month, and she came over as serious and experienced, if not exactly exciting. Burnham is still the favourite in the contest, but today he seemed to playing for a no-score draw (which is probably what he achieved). His opening speech gave us a news line about the welfare bill, but otherwise it was unremarkable. His ardent Labourphilia, which works will when he deploys it at normal hustings event, was never going go to down well with a room full of journalists, and wisely he didn't try it today. The questions weren't especially hostile, but Burnham has received some grotesquely negative coverage in the Sun (they seem to be waging a vendetta against him over Hillsborough), and he was non-committal when asked if he would give them an interview. He did not say anything brilliant or inspiring, but he did not say anything crass or naive either. At Coffee House Isabel Hardman has written up his peformance as "solid"; that feels about right.

Here are the key points.

The welfare reform and work bill is unsupportable because it doesn't do what it says on the tin - support work. In fact, it does the opposite. It diminishes work incentives with its changes to tax credits and the ESA. It doesn't encourage people into work. It fact it might do the opposite. It contains some punitive measures in respect of child poverty. If you ask the public about welfare reform, they would be in favour of welfare reform, as I am - I am in favour of welfare reform. But they would say 'Create more incentives to work and don't punish children or those who can't work'. The bill abolishes the measurements around child poverty and at the same time has measures that will push children into poverty. That seems to me to make it a very duplicitous bill.

I will make my decisions at the point where the party has its agreed position, but as you will know I am somebody who supports the collective line of the party, and I've made my views in the proper way in shadow cabinet. I am not normally somebody who then goes outside of the collective ways of agreeing things, but, you know, I've made my position very clear in terms of what I expect to see.

I said I would not get back into a situation where the Labour party, and the leader of the Labour party, is going on bended knee to certain newspapers, trying to court newspapers, because I think in the end that gets you into difficulty. And it got us to the point where a whole city was crying injustice throughout our time in government and we weren't listening.

I am saying that it seems there was a decision to leave it alone. I don't know all of the background to the decision-making, but in 1998, after the Stuart-Smith inquiry, a decision was taken to draw a line under it and to leave it in that position, [I was told] I was better not to carry on looking into it. That was the wrong decision.

I believe a higher priority for public investment are east/west transport links across our country ... I'm also talking about transport links to the south west. This country doesn't work well east/west, and in my view the higher priority is to improve those links, rather than north/south links.

@AndrewSparrow "they seem to be waging a vendetta against him over Hillsborough" What utter nonsense. We think he's a hypocrite and said so.

@StigAbell Thanks. Have you got a link to the piece that explains that?

@AndrewSparrow I'm sure you could find plenty of you wanted: http://t.co/VORss5hQh1. http://t.co/1lpXPXI9Vc pic.twitter.com/y4Glo1U2Ps

2.35pm BST

Q: Would you back the extension of air strikes against Islamic State to Syria?

Burnham says he would proceed "cautiously" but "responsibly". In 2013 he advised Ed Miliband to proceed "cautiously". He was worried about the parallels with Iraq.

2.32pm BST

Q: Should trade unions accept whatever the law says?

Burnhams says everyone should live within the law. That goes without saying. But this bill is highly unjustified. What justification is there for saying trade unions require a higher threshold than applies for ballots in other areas of public life.

2.29pm BST

Q: If you lose, will you ask for your old job back?

Burnham says he is confident he will be the next leader of the Labour party. He is not thinking of anything else at the moment.

2.27pm BST

Q: What would you do about free schools?

Burnham says he does not support the free-for-all approach. He would want free schools to be brought back into a local family of schools. You do not have to have losers for their to be winners. He says he does not think the forced academisation of schools is a good thing.

2.26pm BST

Q: Who would you have as shadow chancellor?

Burnham says he has said he favours balance. He would appoint a woman was shadow first secretary of state. That person could be shadow chancellor.

2.24pm BST

Q: What is your alternative to the northern powerhouse?

Burnham says George Osborne is going about this the wrong way. He wants one mayor of the north east of England. That won't necessarily work.

2.21pm BST

Q: Would you rebel if the party says MPs should abstain on the welfare bill?

Burnham says he will take a decision nearer the time. But he is someone who normally supports collective decisions.

2.20pm BST

Q: What cuts would you implement if you were in government?

Burnham says he was chief secretary to the Treasury at the time of the last spending review. They imposed real-terms cuts on departments.

2.16pm BST

Q: What would you say about Grexit if you were prime minister today?

Burnham says the EU is becoming associated with a rightwing orthodoxy.

2.13pm BST

Q: What would your advice be to Labour MPs who say they definitely want to vote against the bill next week?

Burnham says he would advise MPs to wait for the party's decision. He does not advocate breaking collective decisions.

2.10pm BST

Q: Did shadow cabinet today over-turn Harriet Harman's position on the welfare bill? Will Labour vote with the SNP against the bill next week?

Burnham says he made his own position clear.

2.08pm BST

Burnham says Westminster has shirked the problem of addressing the problem of care for the elderly for far too long.

Labour will win again when it has the courage to speak for everyone, and provide an answer. The party that comes up with that answer will be rewarded by the electorate, he says.

2.06pm BST

Q: Would you, as Labour leader, continue to support HS2?

Burnham says east/west transport links are a higher priority.

2.03pm BST

Q: How will you vote on the welfare bill?

Burnham says the party has not taken a view yet.

2.02pm BST

Q: [From the Sun] Can you commit to being interviewed by the Sun before the contest is over?

Burnham says, as leader, he would talk to all papers.

1.58pm BST

Q: How are you different from Ed Miliband? Won't the Tories be pleased to have you as leader?

Burnham says the Tories speak with "forked tongue" on this. There is an element of double bluff going on. A poll of Tories at the weekend found they did not want him or Yvette Cooper.

1.56pm BST

Q: Last time you came fourth. Now you are favourite. What has changed?

Burnham says last time he thought David Miliband would stand, and Ed Balls, and that there was space for someone to come through the middle. That happened. But he did not expect Ed Miliband to stand.

1.54pm BST

Q: Would you give Jeremy Corbyn a shadow cabinet role?

Does he want one, Burnham asks.

1.53pm BST

Burnham is now taking questions.

Q: Would you ever contemplate exit from the EU?

1.48pm BST

Burnham winds up by saying he wants to supply something in short supply - hope.

And he ends with a joke about his sign-off to his letters to Prince Charles.

1.46pm BST

Burnham turns to the welfare bill.

He has been through it in great detail, he says.

1.41pm BST

Burnham says the leadership contest has been good-natured on the whole, but nevertheless things have been said. One was that candidates have to have children. That is "absolute nonsense".

There is also the Treasury's two-child test. He has failed that, he says.

1.37pm BST

Andy Burnham is speaking now.

He says he will play in the Labour v the lobby football match if elected leader. But he has lost his strike partner, Ed Balls.

1.36pm BST

Robert Hutton, the Bloomberg political editor, has just introduced Andy Burnham. He told him he was at the very centre of the place he most hates, the Westminster bubble.

1.23pm BST

Andy Burnham is due to speak at a Labour leadership hustings at the Commons press gallery.

It should start in about 10 minutes. I'll be covering it in detail.

1.14pm BST

And this is what David Cameron said about the hunting decision when he was taking questions after his gender equality speech.

I would not quite put it like that. The position of the SNP has up to now always been clear which is that they do not vote on matters that are purely of interest to England or England and Wales. I find their position entirely opportunistic and very hard to explain in any other way.

I am a believer in the United Kingdom. I want us to stay together as a United Kingdom and we have to recognise that England is a very large part of the total.

You are never going to get total perfection. If you want total perfection in terms of English votes for English laws you would have to have an English parliament, a federal system. That is not what we are proposing. What we are proposing is relatively modest, it really is that you should not be able to legislate in the United Kingdom parliament against the wishes of English MPs. It's a veto, a block, rather than a right of initiative. I think that is right.

1.04pm BST

Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing relating to hunting and English votes for English laws (Evel).

11.58am BST

The government has just published its revised proposals for English votes for English laws (pdf).

I'm just off to the Number 10 lobby briefing. I'll post again after 12.30pm.

11.57am BST

Angus Robertson, the SNP's leader at Westminster, has put out a statement about the government's decision to pull the vote on hunting. He says this is the fourth issue on which the SNP has forced the government to back down.

This is the fourth issue where the SNP group have led the opposition in forcing the Tories into backing down - stopping the EU referendum being on the same day as the Scottish parliament election, getting any moves to repeal the Human Rights Act kicked into the long grass, the debacle of the government having to abandon last week's vote on English Votes for English Laws, and now stopping this week's vote to relax the fox hunting ban in England and Wales.

This is another powerful reminder of just how fragile the Tories' majority is - on these four issues it was non-existent, they were staring defeat in the face, and there will be more such issues.

And on the issue of Evel, the UK government should respond positively to the First Minister's letter and agree to sensible discussions on the basis of mutual respect - rather than laying down the law to make Scotland's representation at Westminster second class.

The SNP group are delivering on our pledge to help deliver progressive politics across the UK. We were fully prepared to vote with Labour to stop harm being done to foxes in England and Wales - Labour should now commit to voting with the SNP next week against harm being done to people by the Tories' cruel welfare cuts.

11.38am BST

Outside Westminster the anti-hunting protesters have blocked a road, the BBC's James Landale reports.

Anti hunt protestors block road outside Commons. pic.twitter.com/6HLwkEqHbs

11.37am BST

Here is some Twitter comment from journalists on the hunting decision.

From the Guardian's Owen Jones

The Tories to bring forward undermining the constitution and the Union so they can start bringing back fox hunting. British politics, 2015.

So far David Cameron has performed three U-turns under pressure from MPs (EVEL, EU ref and now fox hunting). His Government is 67 days old.

Media trying to decide whether pulling the foxhunting vote is a humiliation for Cameron or the SNP doing him a big favour

11.32am BST

This is from Joe Anderson, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, on the hunting decision.

Let's use the Commons time freed up with the arrogant cancelation of Fox Hunting debate, to debate the attacks on the working poor in budget

11.30am BST

This is interesting. It shows where support for the Hunting Act is strongest and weakest.

Every region of Britain supports the fox hunting ban - http://t.co/B3pUJWPjkp pic.twitter.com/pZjqm6gP7X

11.28am BST

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, has tweeted a picture of herself, with some of the anti-hunting protesters.

Great turnout to celebrate a win today as Cameron backs down on efforts to undermine the ban #keeptheban pic.twitter.com/grwXiTCoCt

11.25am BST

Here's the Guardian's story on the shelving of the vote on hunting.

11.21am BST

This is from the New Statesman's George Eaton.

Tories have now pulled votes on fox hunting, EVEL and Human Rights Act - proof that a majority of 12 is barely a majority at all.

11.18am BST

Animal rights activists have been campaigning in Westminster today against the plans to relax the ban on hunting.

Just broke the news to the foxes that the Govt has shelved the vote. They weren't quite sure how to react. pic.twitter.com/ar0EnANBJM

Latest foxhunting protestors. "We will, we will, we will stop you!" was the chant. Nod to @DrBrianMay I reckon. pic.twitter.com/GxL90HrxPk

A spokesman for the vulpine community pic.twitter.com/cxKwE89eNS

Protesters say no to #foxhunting @RTUKnews @RuptlyNewsroom @PETAUK @peta @rustyrockets @HuntSabs pic.twitter.com/VcovMmSGQC

11.11am BST

Here is some reaction from MPs to the news that the hunting vote has been pulled.

From the SNP's Stewart McDonald

Be in no doubt, the Tories are on the run thanks to @theSNP #foxhunting pic.twitter.com/PJ1o3826r5

Cameron warned of chaos, that's exactly what he's got. With 24 hours to go he's had to pull fox hunting vote. What a shambles

Tories abandon vote on fox hunting. Congratulations to anti-blood sports campaigners everywhere #keeptheban pic.twitter.com/AQeWu3CUmR

Incidentally I don't think the Tories will win a vote on #keeptheban even when they've rigged the vote.

Government has pulled tomorrow's hunting vote. Seems they did not want to risk Parliament making up its own mind in the - er - "free vote"

11.04am BST

The government was due to publish revised plans for English votes for English laws ahead of tomorrow's debate. But they still have not emerged.

Still no sign of the \governments revised EVEL plans, due yesterday, due to be debated tomorrow...

I don't see how EVEL will help Tory leadership pass foxhunting change apart from indicating how English and Welsh MPs feel -needs double maj

10.47am BST

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader and Scotland's first minister, has welcomed the government's decision to pull the hunting vote.

Sturgeon:"I'm glad they have pulled the vote." But says "The reason ...he can't carry his own parliamentary group" #foxhunting

10.46am BST

Labour claims the hunting decision is a "shambles". This is from the official Labour Whips account.

Absolute shambles from PM & Govt on Fox Hunting, schedulde at shortest poss. notice backdoor attempt to repeal & now appear to have pulled

10.44am BST

Ministers plan to hold the hunting vote after English votes for English laws has been implemented, my colleague Patrick Wintour reports.

Government has withdrawn fox hunting vote fearing defeat. Issue to be revisited in Autumn when rules on Scottish MPs voting changed.

10.42am BST

One consequence of the government's decision to pull the hunting vote is that MPs will have more time tomorrow to debate English votes for English laws.

10.41am BST

The government has pulled tomorrow's planned voting on foxhunting, the BBC is reporting.

Following the SNP's decision to take part, it was almost inevitable that the proposals, which would relax the hunting ban, would be defeated, and so this is perhaps not a big surprise.

10.37am BST

The hearing is starting.

Andrew Tyrie, the committee chair, starts.

Mark Carney: Greek crisis underlines the "institutional shortcomings" of the eurozone

10.24am BST

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, is about to give evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

My colleague Jill Treanor wrote a preview story yesterday. Here's how it starts.

The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, will face questions this week about the outlook for interest rates and the precarious situation in Greece when he becomes the first witness to appear before the new-look Treasury select committee.

The parliamentary committee - one of the most influential in Westminster - will meet on Tuesday for the first time since the general election, the first opportunity for the new members to set out their agendas.

10.18am BST

Tomorrow MPs are due to spend 90 minutes debating a statutory instrument relaxing the hunting ban and, separately, the matter of English votes for English laws (Evel). Following the SNP's decision yesterday to vote on the Hunting Act, even though it does not affect Scotland, those two issues have effectively been merged.

A week ago, when MPs last debated Evel (it's becoming a weekly occurrence), it was clear that David Cameron was facing a significant backlash from backbenchers. The threat of a revolt was so serious that ministers had to put off the vote until the autumn. But now, in the light of the SNP decision, which could see Scottish MPs having a decisive impact on an England-only matter, the Tory Evel rebellion may well evaporate.

The Scottish National Party risk making themselves look foolish, unprincipled and unwise by voting against making English law similar to Scottish law. This action is naive - it makes them look silly and is perhaps the first major mis-step by Nicola Sturgeon.

Whatever your views on hunting it's surely a bit rich of SNP to vote to deny England a law that Scotland already has. Time for EVEL methinks

Fox hunting vote tomorrow is set to become more about English Votes 4 English Laws than hunting as SNP wade in to vote on an English matter

Now I'm no fan of fox hunting, but SNP preparing to vote on this English & Wales only issue shows why English Votes for English Laws needed!

Seems Tory MPs and SNP on mutually assured course to dismantle the Union.

But it does leave one wondering if the SNP's full-throated opposition to the government's shambolic-but-hardly-revolutionary proposals for EVEL waswholly sincere. Because this kind of fox-hunting ploy is the kind of thing designed to infuriate English Tory MPs. And so resentment is stoked, grievances nursed, and outrage manufactured on both sides of the border. Job done. If nothing else, you might at least admire the party's opportunism.

9.52am BST

Here are comments from two journalists on the SNP's decision to vote on English hunting legislation.

From the Independent on Sunday's Jane Merrick

Remember when David Cameron warned that voting Labour would allow the SNP to block legislation + cause chaos? Thank god that's not happening

SNP set to thwart Cameron's moves to relax the hunting ban in England. It could be a blessing in disguise for Tories http://t.co/hmY25GcZ4T

9.44am BST

A Survation poll today suggests the SNP are on course to increase the size of their majority at Holyrood in next year's election.

Survation poll seat prediction: SNP 71 Lab 24 Con 14 Green 12 LDem 7 UKIP 1 #SP16 pic.twitter.com/KK3XXU7fHL

Scottish Daily Mail: New poll shows SNP is heading for landslide victory, but Scots still don't want independence. pic.twitter.com/m8Ru6zRKKp

9.39am BST

Inflation was zero last month on the government's preferred measure, according to the Office for National Statistics.

9.32am BST

Labour formally asked the SNP to vote against the proposal to relax the hunting ban. In an article for Huffington Post, Paul Nuttall, the Ukip deputy leaders, says this shows that Labour was lying during the election campaign when it said it would not give the SNP any influence. Here's an extract.

In the run up to the last general election, a huge play was made about the risk a Labour government would effectively mean an SNP government.

Miliband tried to reassure us non-Scots that if we trusted him with the reins of the UK, Labour would not allow the SNP influence they didn't deserve.

9.22am BST

Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, told the Today programme that he was glad the SNP had decided to vote against the plan to relax the hunting ban. But if the Tories lost, it would not be the SNP's fault, he said.

The Conservatives have a majority of 12. They could win this vote tomorrow, if they so wished to do so. The fact that they're not is because they have their own backbench rebellion going on.

9.11am BST

Here is more from what Liam Fox, the Conservative former defence secretary, said on the Today programme about the SNP's decision to take part in the vote on foxhunting in England.

People in England are perfectly capable of electing MPs to look after their own interests, so we can thank Nicola Sturgeon to keep her nose out of that one. In February she was saying that hunting is the sort of issue she would not want SNP members of parliament voting on because it purely affects England. So what we've seen really is a pretty toxic mixture of opportunism and hypocrisy coming from the SNP.

And it is particularly galling because the government has been very careful, and parliament has been very careful, to try and protect the union by moving slowly and thoughtfully and constructively in terms of English votes on English laws. And more time has been given to the debate. And it seems that while we're trying to be reasonable to the SNP, they are sticking two fingers up at us.

8.52am BST

In February Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, said the SNP would not vote on issues just affecting England, like hunting.

The SNP have a longstanding position of not voting on matters that purely affect England - such as foxhunting south of the border, for example - and we stand by that.

Firstly, there has been overwhelming demand from people in England for the SNP to vote on this issue this week. I can't think of another issue where I've had more communication and it's unprecedented for so much of that to come from England and what people have been saying to me is if what you meant during the election that you cared about more than Scotland, you wanted to hold out a hand of friendship to people in England, build progressive alliances where you could, if you meant that, then please on this issue vote with us to retain the ban on foxhunting.

The second reason is that actually this debate over the past debate has thrown a spotlight onto Scotland's foxhunting law because what the Conservative government are saying is they're simply bringing the English law into line with the Scottish law - that's made a lot of people in Scotland think 'shouldn't we be tightening up our law to bring it into line with English law as it stands'. Inevitably there will now be a look at the Scottish law and what we will be looking at is whether the current English law is better and actually there is an interest for us, then, in making sure the English law stays as it is.