Tory MP says Telegraph 'Brexit mutineer' splash led to her receiving threats

The Times columnist Rachel Sylvester says the Telegraph “mutineers” front page may inadvertently be flagging up an alternative, and rather better, cabinet.

Bercow says attempts to intimidate MPs will fail

This is what John Bercow, the Commons speaker, said in response to Anna Soubry when she told him a few minutes ago that she had received threats following the Daily Telegraph “Brexit mutineers” splash. (See 1.59pm.) He told MPs:

I’m extremely concerned to hear what [Soubry] has just told me. She should not be subject to threats and neither should any other member of this House, or indeed any person for holding and expressing a political opinion.

Thankfully we do have a free press - imperfect, deeply flawed, like all of us. They don’t always realise it; they realise everybody else’s flaws, but very rarely their own. Our media are deeply flawed. But, nevertheless, they are free and that is a good thing. And none of use would seek to deny the merits, indeed the indispensability, in a free society of a free press.

Equally, however, members of this House are free and duty-bound to do what they think is right. I hope [Soubry] won’t take it a amiss if I say not only is any attempt to threaten or intimidate her, or any colleague, repugnant. It is also doomed to fail. I know her and I know my colleagues well enough to know that even if there are people who think they can intimidate, even if, hypothetically, there were someone in the media who thought he or she could intimidate, that person would be grossly mistaken. Members will not be intimidated and they never should be.

MPs resume debate on EU withdrawal bill

MPs are now starting day two of the committee stage debate on the EU withdrawal bill.

The debate will run for eight hours, and it looks as if all the votes will come right at the end.

They are debating amendments relating to clauses 2, 3 and 4 of the bill, dealing with the retention of existing EU law and covering issues like workers’ rights, the environment and animal sentience.

You can find all the paperwork related to the bill and the amendments here.

Here are the some of the key amendments being debated, including ones that may be put to a vote.

Labour’s new clause 2 (NC2): This would stop Henry VIII powers in other acts of parliament from being used to water down EU rights relating to workplace protections, equality provisions, health and safety regulations or fundamental rights.

Chris Leslie’s new clause 15 (NC15): This will ensure that ministers have to report to parliament when the EU makes changes after Brexit that would have changed UK law if the UK had remained in the EU.

Kerry McCarthy’s new clause 25 (NC25): This would establish a mechanism by which ministers could change some aspects of EU law being incorporated into UK law outside the time limits in the bill, subject to enhanced scrutiny.

Labour’s new clause 58 (NC58): This would ensure that rights derived from EU law covering employment rights, environmental protection, standards of equalities, health and safety standards and consumer standards get enhanced protection after Brexit. It would do that by saying they could only be changed by primary legislation, or legislation under this bill.

Caroline Lucas’s new clause 30 (NC30): This would ransfer the EU Protocol on animal sentience set into UK law, so that animals continue to be recognised as sentient beings under UK law.

Mary Creagh’s new clause 60 (NC60): This would ensure that the environmental principles of EU law remain part of UK law after Brexit.

Labour’s new clause 67 (NC67): Like NC60, this would ensure that environmental principles of EU law remain part of UK law after Brexit. It applies to the principles in article 191 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union.

Tory MP says Telegraph 'Brexit mutineer' splash led to her receiving threats

This is what the Conservative MP Anna Soubry said when she raised her point of order a few moments ago.

According to my office, they have just reported about five, if not more, tweets to the police issuing threats against myself following the front page article on today’s Daily Telegraph. Would you therefore, Mr Speaker, make it very clear to everybody, in whatever capacity, that they have an absolute duty to report responsibly and make sure they use language that brings our country together and makes sure that we have a democracy that welcomes free speech and an attitude of tolerance.

 In the Commons the Conservative MP Anna Soubry says her office has had to report threatening tweets to the police that were made after the Daily Telegraph included her in its list of “Brexit mutineers”.

John Bercow, the Commons speaker, says threats should be made against any MP. He says the press in this country is flawed, but it is also free, and that is how it should be.

He says any threats to someone like Soubry are “repugnant”. But there are also “doomed to fail”, he says.

Thousands of British nationals living in Zimbabwe must be given “all the assistance that they need” following a military takeover in Harare, Labour has said. In an urgent question in the Commons, the shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry described the situation as “highly volatile” and urged the government to do all it could during a “dangerous period”. Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said there had been no reports of “any injuries or suffering” involving the 20,000 British nationals in Zimbabwe.

Ratcliffe says Boris Johnson has 'reservations' about granting Nazanin diplomatic protection

The husband of jailed British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has described his hour-long meeting with foreign secretary Boris Johnson as “positive and constructive”, the Press Association reports. Richard Ratcliffe said Johnson has no fixed date for his planned visit to Iran, but the Foreign Secretary was “keen” for him to travel with him.

Ratcliffe said he had pressed Johnson to give diplomatic protection to his wife. Johnson did not rule out the idea, but he did express reservations. Ratcliffe said:

We talked, of course, about the point of diplomatic protection ... and it’s different from diplomatic immunity.

Diplomatic protection is in essence when a state like Britain decides that Nazanin was being treated badly because she is British and she is entitled to be protected as an extension of the British state. It is not unprecedented, but it is a big step.

I said I thought it would be important and helpful. The foreign secretary and the Foreign Office expressed reservations, and we agreed that there are some questions that we have sent from the lawyers.

They have agreed to answer the questions and then for the lawyers to sit down and talk it through. Both legally and then also practically. But certainly, I think it is an important thing for us to be pushing for.

Asked what reservations Mr Johnson had expressed about granting diplomatic protection status, Ratcliffe said:

He didn’t personally give a long list of objections. He asked how it would help, in a nutshell. What did we think doing it would make different from what we are doing currently?

I said, ‘I’m not a lawyer, I think it would help, I think it would send an important signal that the way Nazanin is being treated is unacceptable’.

I appreciate it’s an escalation, but I think ... it’s important that where softly-softly doesn’t work, where it has been escalated by the past couple of weeks’ events and the foreign secretary’s words being used, I think it is appropriate. We agreed to keep talking about it.