Uk politics

For those Brexiteers worried the government may change its mind on leaving the customs union, David Davis’s appearance in front of a select committee gave reasons for reassurance – but also possibly some cause to worry. The Brexit secretary was clear that he is sticking firmly to his guns on the issue. But can he – and the government – continue to do so under pressure from MPs who are seeking to keep Britain inside the customs union? Hilary Benn asked Davis what would happen if the vote in Parliament on the Brexit trade bill went against the government.

At Cabinet today, ministers discussed the fallout from the Windrush scandal. I understand that Boris Johnson made the point that there needed to be a broader immigration amnesty for long-standing Commonwealth immigrants. He argued that this was necessary to prevent others from getting caught up in the same situation, having to produce overly onerous amounts of evidence to show that they have been living here for years. Obviously, this amnesty wouldn’t apply to those with a criminal record. I’m told that Theresa May then rather acidly remarked that Boris had previously called for an amnesty for all immigrants, which he did first in 2008 and then again in 2016 when he privately proposed one for those who had been here for over a decade.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary has called for the Home Secretary to resign over the Windrush debacle that has been dominating the newspaper headlines over the past week. The government has u-turned and apologised after threatening to deport Caribbean migrants who could not provide proof of their decades of residence in the UK, with some of those affected having been refused jobs and access to healthcare as a result. To add insult to injury, it was revealed that the Home Office had destroyed the landing cards for immigrants who arrived aboard HMT Empire Windrush, thereby removing a vital source of documentation. The government has since said that it will provide compensation 'where appropriate'.

The BBC’s decision to re-broadcast Enoch Powell’s so-called “Rivers of Blood” speech in its entirety this week has excited just the shouting match that was to be expected. On the one hand, there has been liberal fury at the honour supposedly paid to a speech that endorsed and encouraged racial hatred. On the other, the standard defence of Powell’s line of argument: that he was not encouraging a race war, but predicting one and seeking to head it off.  What’s striking on revisiting the speech is that, for better or for worse, Powell predicted and encompassed both those points of view in the speech.

The government ends what has been a truly dismal week with a row over whether or not Theresa May supported 'go home' vans and reports that Amber Rudd privately boasted to the prime minister that she would give immigration officials greater 'teeth' to accelerate the UK’s deportation programme. There is much frustration in No 10 over how this week has played out. Despite winning all Commons votes on Syria and the much-anticipated Commonwealth celebrations, what was supposed to fly the flag for global Britain has manifested into a row over hostile environments and anti-immigration rhetoric with the Windrush scandal.

After the EU referendum, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were such a dream team that the pair looked destined to take the top two jobs in government. However, some political back-stabbing on Gove's part soon put an end to that friendship and, as history shows, paved the way for Theresa May to become Prime Minister. This week, the Windrush row has reminded the Conservatives the hard way of the problems with her appointment. As Fraser details in his Spectator cover piece, there's growing concern among Conservative Brexiteers that the problem with having a Remainer in No. 10 is that they ‘misread’ the referendum result and see it as a 'battle of ‘open’ vs ‘closed’ — seeking to control immigration is not the same thing as being anti-immigrant.

And we're back to Brexit with a bump. After a brief pause in the negotiations and legislation, the government has this afternoon been defeated on a customs union amendment in the Lords. The defeat was by no means minor either – peers voted by 348 to 225 in favour of a plan requiring ministers to report on steps to negotiate a continued EU-UK customs union. This in itself isn't catastrophic for Theresa May. When the bill returns to the Commons it will most likely be thrown out – and besides it only binds the government to report on the steps being taken to negotiate a customs union so there is wriggle room regardless. However, the scale of the defeat points to a bigger problem with the government's strategy.