PM suffers first defeat on Brexit bill as peers vote to give EU nationals physical proof of right to stay – live news
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
- Boris Johnson suffers defeat in Lords on Brexit bill
- NI assembly votes to refuse legislative consent to PM’s Brexit bill
- EU says talks on trade deal with UK won’t start before end of February
- Gordon Brown’s speech on case for radical devolution – Summary
Usdaw, the shopworkers’ union, has nominated Sir Keir Starmer for Labour leader. With Unison and Sera, the Labour environment campaign, also backing him, this means that he has got enough affiliate nominations to be guaranteed a place on the final ballot. He is the first of the five candidates left in the contest to clear this hurdle.
Usdaw nominates @Keir_Starmer and @AngelaRayner https://t.co/fHDc8WDobL
Usdaw believes that Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner are the right leadership team to unite and rebuild Labour after a devastating election loss. Our members desperately need Labour in power, they cannot afford another decade of Conservative governments attacking workers’ rights, incomes and public services.
The Labour Party must be led by someone who can persuade voters that they have what it takes to be a Prime Minister and we are a government in waiting. That is at the heart of Usdaw’s decision to make these nominations.
In her webchat with Mumsnet earlier Jess Phillips, the Labour leadership candidate, was asked if she would get rid of Momentum from Labour on the grounds that it was acting as a party within a party. Phillips did not accept that description, and she praised some of its activists, but she also hinted that she had concerns about some of its activities. She said:
Would I get rid of Momentum? I get asked that a lot. The answer is … there are some brilliant Momentum activists in my constituency who are just interested in getting a Labour government. So a blanket approach is inappropriate. However, if there is evidence that any group in the Labour party is organising without inviting anyone who wished to be a member in, or are operating an organisation that is more interested in controlling the party than getting Labour into power then any leader would have to act. If everyone is pulling together in the same direction, then groupings within the party will have the same aim and there should be no problems. Anyone from any group who bullies, harasses, is racist or stops the functioning of any Labour meeting through malice, would have no place in the Labour party.