No 10 rules out starting Commons summer recess before new PM takes office – live news | Politics

• Downing Street has said the new prime minister will get to face MPs before they leave for their summer recess, squashing speculation that the parliamentary holiday could start early to minimise the risk of Theresa May’s successor facing an immediate no confidence vote. (See 4.08pm.) Number 10 has also insisted that May will stand down as soon as her successor is chosen, despite an earlier briefing suggesting that she might delay if there were a risk of the person replacing her not being able to command the confidence of the Commons. (See 3.24pm.)

That’s all from me for today.

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Downing Street has very firmly, if indirectly, reprimanded Philip Hammond for arguing that a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 would cost the country £1tn, money which could otherwise have been spent on public services.

In a letter to Theresa May, leaked to the Financial Times, the chancellor argued that the target could see some industries become “economically uncompetitive”.

In a robust response, May’s spokeswoman dismissed Hammond’s line of argument, while officially insisting this was a general point, and not directed particularly at the chancellor.

No 10 believe Hammond is, in economic terms, comparing apples and oranges by both treating an all-economy cost as if it was just a government spend, and failing to take account the benefits such a policy would bring, or accounting for the costs of failing to act. Downing Street also says any predicted cost would be bound to fall over time.

The spokeswoman said:

Obviously, I’m not getting into the contents of the letter, but broadly there are a lot of figures out there on this issue that don’t factor in the benefits or consider the costs of not doing this. I would add that the costs related to meeting this target are whole-of-the-economy costs, not a fiscal cost, and so it’s not really right to frame it as a trade-off for public spending. I think that’s important to set out.

Asked if Hammond was thus being misleading, she added:

I just set out the way we believe this should be framed. I’m not going to talk about the specifics of a leak, but I think I’ve been pretty clear in the position from the PM.

Peter Walker

This is what the Downing Street spokeswoman said about how the government has ruled out starting the summer recess before the new prime minister has been elected. She said:

I fully expect that the house will ensure it is sitting when a new prime minister is appointed. Then it’s a matter for the house, after that, what activity or action it chooses to take.

Downing Street has answered the question that Mel Stride, the leader of the Commons, was dodging during business questions this morning (see 11.36am), my colleague Peter Walker reports. He is just back from the afternoon lobby, where journalists were told the government is not planning to start recess before the new PM takes office.

Downing Street has been in touch to say that the comments from the prime minister’s spokesman at lobby this morning (see 12.46pm) have been over-interpreted. A source said that there was “no question of the prime minister hanging around beyond the Conservative leadership contest”. The source said that when the spokesman talked about May needing to be able to tell the Queen that her successor could command the confidence of the Commons, he was just setting out the language used as a formality, not flagging up May’s intention to make this an issue.

That does not mean that this might not become an issue. But when I asked the Number 10 source what might happen if Boris Johnson’s election as leader coincided with a group of 10 or so Tories announcing they would vote with Labour to bring down the government to stop a no-deal Brexit, the source would not speculate on this scenario. But he said May did not intend to hang around, and the briefing this morning was not meant to suggest otherwise.

As my colleague Matthew Weaver reports on his D-day commemorations live blog, President Trump has been talking about Brexit at a press conference with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. He said it would “all work out” – although he did not explain how. He told journalists:

That’s really going to be between the UK and the European Union. And they’re working very hard. I know they’re working very hard together, it doesn’t seem to be working out. But at some point, something will happen one way or the other, it’ll all work out.