Gove defends Boris Johnson over WW2 jibe, saying it's 'witty metaphor' – as it happened

• Downing Street has said that Theresa May has “full confidence” in Boris Johnson despite growing criticism of his decision to compare the French president to a world war two prison camp guard. Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, said Johnson was “not fit to be foreign secretary” (see 4.29pm) and Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, has urged May to condemn what he said. (See 3.09pm.) But Michael Gove, who wrecked Johnson’s bid for the Conservative party leadership last summer when he resigned as Johnson’s campaign manager saying Johnson was not suited to be prime minister, has defended his erstwhile ally.

“Snowflake” is social media term, particularly favoured on the right, for people who are easily offended. (Gove may be missing the point. People like Ed Miliband aren’t necessarily “offended” by what Johnson said; they just think it was crass.)

• Germany has denied it rebuffed an attempt by Theresa May to seal an early deal on citizens’ rights post-Brexit, and reiterated that there was “complete unanimity” among the EU’s 27 member states that the subject could only be discussed once Britain had triggered article 50.

• Britain should prepare for a fresh spike in hate crimes against EU citizens when the article 50 process triggering Brexit begins, the human rights watchdog has said. As Rowena Mason reports, David Isaac, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told a hearing of MPs he was worried the start of formally leaving the bloc could cause a backlash against EU citizens, similar to the period of increased hate crime that followed the EU referendum, and was calling on police to be prepared for such an eventuality.

• Tristram Hunt, who is standing down as Labour MP for Stoke central to become director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, has used his final speech in the Commons to say Brexit highlighted divisions between the Labour party and its voters. He told MPs:

I remember some days not meeting anyone in the Potteries who wished to stay inside the EU. But I, like many members in this House, accept the result.

This division of opinion between the official Labour party position and many of our heartland voters has served to only highlight the deep-seated challenges which centre-left parties are facing.

From Greece to the Netherlands to Sweden to France, the combination of austerity, globalisation and EU policy has hammered social democratic politics.

The challenge which [Jeremy Corbyn] faces is not unique to him.

All parties are coalitions but what Brexit has done is exacerbate the divergence of priorities between what, say, the Labour voters of Cambridge want and those in Redcar, Grimsby or Stoke-on-Trent.

Keeping a metropolitan and post-industrial coalition together is no easy task.

• Two of the largest investment banks in the City of London have said that some staff will definitely have to move abroad when the UK leaves the EU.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

18 Jan 201712.15 EST

Peter Walker

There were slightly curious scenes at the afternoon lobby briefing, where May’s spokeswoman again insisted that Johnson’s “punishment beating” comments contained no allusion to Nazis, or seemingly other Axis powers from World War II.

Asked if the prime minister agreed with Sajid Javid’s warning against “glib comparisons” with the Nazis, May’s spokeswoman said: “Yes”. She continued:

I don’t know what link you’re making between the two, given that the foreign secretary made no reference to Nazis in his remarks.

Pressed on this, she said:

He was talking about conjuring up the kind of idea of punitive behaviour from World War II, but he didn’t make a specific remark. If you can find for me where the foreign secretary said the word ‘Nazis’, we’ll have to take questions on it.

Johnson was, she said, “making a theatrical comparison to movies”. Asked what film it could be, or if the imagined scene could involve a Briton doling out the hypothetical punishment beating, there was no answer.

We also got no response to Guy Verhofstadt’s characterisation of the comments as “abhorrent”.

May’s spokeswoman said: “Lots is going to be said during this negotiation, and lots of remarks are going to be made.”

In case you were wondering, May does still have “full confidence” in Johnson.

Here is the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast, featuring Sir Keir Starmer, Seema Malhotra, John Whittingdale, Jonathan Isaby, Hugo Dixon, Heather Stewart and Anushka Asthana talking about Brexit and Theresa May’s speech.

Boris Johnson has been tweeting about his visit to India. He posted this earlier today.

And this one a few minutes ago.

On Twitter, at least, he is following Gisela Stuart’s advice (see 4.10pm) not to mention the war.

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, says Boris Johnson’s world war two comment shows he’s not fit to be foreign secretary.

Miliband’s brother David was, of course, foreign secretary himself.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has been speaking about Theresa May’s speech in the European parliament. He said:

Yesterday’s speech by Prime Minister May proves that the unified position of 27 member states on the indivisibility of the single market was finally understood and accepted by London.

It would be good if our partners also understood that there will be no place for pick and choose tactics in our future negotiations.

At the same time I want to underline that we took note of the warm and balanced words of Prime Minister May on European integration which were much closer to the narrative of Winston Churchill than of the American President Donald Trump.

• Tusk tells May she will not be allowed to adopt a pick and mix approach to the Brexit negotiations. By that he appears to mean that Britain will not be allowed to keep the advantages of single market membership while rejecting free movement. (Tusk used the phrase “pick and choose” but clearly meant “pick and mix”.) But the journalist Georg von Harrach thinks this is a hint that the EU will not accept the compromise on customs union membership.

• He praises May for adopting a supportive approach to European integration, saying in this she is more like Churchill than Trump.

UPDATE: In the comments fermatslasthobnob argues - correctly, I’m afraid - that I’m wrong to question Tusk’s use of the phrase “pick and choose” and that I’m thinking too much about Woolworths.

Tusk used the phrase “pick and choose” but clearly meant “pick and mix”

Seems Mr Tusk's command of the English language is better than Andrew Sparrow's. Pick and choose was used fro decades, if not centuries, before "pick and mix" as a description of taking only the best parts from a selection. Maybe Andrew hasn't got over the demise of Woolworths.

fermatslasthobnob18 January 2017 4:31pm

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Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP who was a colleague of Boris Johnson’s on the Vote Leave campaign, has defended him over his world war two jibe about the French president. This is from the BBC’s Carole Walker.

In one of those “you couldn’t make it up” specials that come along from time to time to remind us that real life is often more extraordinary than fiction, the Holocaust Educational Trust has put out a press notice clearly prepared some time ago condemning people who make “glib comparisons” with the Nazis.

Just to make it even more awkward the key quote comes from Sajid Javid, the communities secretary. He is quoted in the press release as saying:

We have to call out bigotry and racism when we see it. We have to object when a line is crossed from legitimate debate to smears and abuse. We have to push back when people lazily reach for glib comparisons that belittle what happened … calling those we disagree with “Nazis” or claiming someone’s actions are “just like the Holocaust”.

The press release was prepared well before Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, spoke at an event in India this morning making what might be described as a “glib comparison” to a Nazi prison camp guard. (See 11am.) It refers to comments Javid is due to be making at a Holocaust Educational Trust reception this afternoon. But it was sent out in advance, with a 3.30pm embargo, quoting Javid in the past tense (a routine practice with press releases.)

Johnson did not use the word “Nazi”. He accused the French president, Francois Hollande, of administering “punishment” beatings “in the manner of some world war two movie”. But Johnson was not talking about British or American soldiers punishing a prison camp escapees. Whatever Number 10 says (see 1.55pm) it is obvious he was talking about the Nazis.

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18 Jan 201710.14 EST

Lisa O'Carroll

Hundreds of thousands of elderly Britons living in Europe may be forced to return to the UK unless the government guarantees that their healthcare continues to be reimbursed by the NHS, campaigners for British people settled in Spain and France have warned.

The House of Commons Brexit select committee was told on Wednesday that an unintended consequence of Brexit could be a surge in immigration of British migrants both working and retired.

Groups campaigning for the rights of Britons settled in Europe told the committee that many pensioners in countries such as Spain and France would not be able to afford private health insurance if the current NHS overseas was jettisoned post-Brexit.

“They may have no alternative but to come back,” said Sue Wilson, one of the founders of the Remain in Spain group.

The committee was also told there could be exodus of professionals whose right to practice, law, medicine or other disciplines would no longer be recognised if a deal was not done.

Guy Verhofstadt, the head of the liberal ALDE group in the European parliament and the parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, has described Boris Johnson’s world war two jibe about the French president as “abhorrent and deeply unhelpful” and urged Theresa May to condemn it.

• Boris Johnson has warned the French president, François Hollande, against trying to “administer punishment beatings” in the manner of “some world war two movie” to any country that tries to leave the EU. The Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has condemned Johnson. He said:

This is an utterly crass and clueless remark from the man who is supposed to be our chief diplomat.

I assume Boris Johnson says these things to deflect from the utter shambles this Brexit government is in over its plans to take Britain out of the Single Market.

But this kind of distasteful comment only serves to unite Europe further against Britain at a time we need friends more than ever.

And the Labour MP Wes Streeting has also criticised the foreign secretary. In a statement issued by Open Britain, which is campaigning for a “soft” Brexit, Streeting said:

It seems the foreign secretary has been leafing through his well-thumbed copy of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

Nobody who wants to see a good Brexit deal for Britain should welcome these crass comments. To get a deal that protects our economy and keeps Britain an open, tolerant country, we need to negotiate in good faith and with courtesy with our European partners.

• The supreme court has announced that it will give its ruling on the article 50 case on Tuesday. It is expected to reject the government’s appeal, meaning that the government will have to put a bill through parliament before it can trigger article 50, the process starting the two-year Brexit process.

• Jeremy Corbyn has condemned the government’s threat to turn the UK into a low-tax economy if it cannot get a satisfactory Brexit deal, telling Theresa May that it would damage the UK and demeaned her office.

• Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, will warn on Wednesday that the Brexit plan outlined in Theresa May’s speech on Tuesday could “rip Britain apart”, striking a markedly different tone to the Labour frontbench.

• Wage growth picked up and unemployment fell in the three months ending November, in the latest sign that the UK economy has so far avoided a Brexit-related shock.

• The BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, inaccurately reported Jeremy Corbyn’s views about shoot-to-kill policies in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Paris, according to the BBC Trust.

• Ukip has dismissed an ITV report saying Paul Nuttall will be the party’s candidate in the Stoke central byelection. No decision has been taken about who the candidate will be, sources say.

The supreme court has announced it will give its judgement in the article 50 case on Tuesday next week, at 9.30am.

It has issued this statement about access arrangements. Here is an extract.

Members of the public wishing to visit the building on the morning of Tuesday 24 January are advised that we are expecting a large number of visitors that morning, and those not specifically coming to observe the judgment in R (on the application of Miller & Dos Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union are encouraged to choose other days to visit the building ...

The judgment hand down will last around five minutes and will take place in the largest courtroom, where a justice will deliver a summary of the court’s decision. The court has made arrangements for two ‘overflow’ courtrooms where a live video feed of the summary will be shown.

Here is a Guardian video with PMQ highlights.