Brexit minister apologises to peers for saying article 50 cannot be revoked - Politics live

• The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into Vote Leave, as well as a Eurosceptic veterans’ group and student campaigner, saying it has reasonable grounds to suspect an offence has been committed.

• Lord Callanan, a Brexit minister, has apologised to the House of Lords for wrongly telling peers that article 50 cannot be revoked. (See 3.34pm.)

• The 10 cabinet ministers who sit on the EU exit and trade (strategy and negotiations) sub committee have been meeting in Downing Street to discuss increasing the UK’s financial offer to the EU. The meeting seems to be still going on.

• One of the world’s biggest logistics companies, whose clients include Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Primark, has said it is “bordering on insanity” to think new Brexitcustoms systems will be in place for 2019.

• The EU27 have chosen Amsterdam as the city that will host the European Medicines Agency when it leaves London after Brexit. Amsterdam beat Milan on the toss of a coin after the voting was tied.

• Hundreds of local councillors in England’s rental hotspots are landlords or own second properties, including more than a third of members in some town halls, analysis for the Guardian has revealed. As Tom Wall and Robert Booth report, more than 300 councillors in the 40 boroughs with the largest proportion of private homes for rent own multiple properties. One in seven elected representatives in the areas are landlords, according to declarations of interest.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Sir Ivan Rogers, who was the UK’s ambassador to the EU until he resigned unexpectedly in January after falling out with Number 10, has been speaking at an NFU event today. Thomas Cole from Open Britain has some of the highlights.

And, while we’re on the subject of Brexit and Germany, Robert Peston’s Facebook post on the Brexit bill issue is worth a read. Here’s an extract.

Second, can the EU actually accept a new offer from the UK on how much we think we owe - £40bn versus EU estimates of more than £60bn - when the most powerful country in Europe Germany is in political turmoil?

In other words, is there any point making a better divorce offer when Angela Merkel is focussed on her own political survival, and is unlikely to prioritise what for her is the irksome secondary issue of whether the UK is adequately recognising its debts?

May and her Cabinet big hitters will have a genuine debate today. And they are likely to license May and Davis to offer that £40bn or so.

But it is a potential problem that some EU governments think we should pay much more. It would be of a piece with the chaos of the Brexit talks to date if the EU says thanks and they’ll get back to us when Germany has a stable leader.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

The Electoral Commission has announced it is investigating whether Vote Leave broke campaign spending rules during the EU referendum. It is also investigating Darren Grimes, who received £625,000 from Vote Leave despite being a student, and Veterans for Britain, which received £100,000 from Vote Leave. Grimes and Veterans for Britain both spent money on digital marketing.

In a press statement the commission said:

The Electoral Commission has today announced it has opened an investigation to establish whether Vote Leave Limited, Mr Darren Grimes and/or Veterans for Britain breached campaign finance rules in relation to spending at the 2016 EU referendum ...

The opening of this investigation follows a review of previous assessments that the Electoral Commission conducted in February and March 2017 which, at the time, resulted in no further action being taken. Since that time, new information has come to light which, when considered alongside the information obtained previously, has given the Commission reasonable grounds to suspect an offence may have been committed.

Vote Leave, Grimes and Veterans for Britain were all “permitted participants” in the referendum, meaning they were allowed to spend money on campaigning up to a certain level.

The commission said its investigation would look at four issues.

whether or not Mr Grimes may have delivered a return that was incorrect in relation to a donation he received from Vote Leave and related campaign spending;

whether or not Veterans for Britain delivered a return that was incorrect in relation to a donation it received from Vote Leave and related campaign spending;

whether or not Vote Leave delivered a return that was incorrect in relation to campaign spending;

whether or not Vote Leave exceeded its spending limit in the referendum.

My colleague Jessica Elgot has written this up here.

The Conservative MP George Freeman has now responded to the Labour press announcement about his resignation. (See 3.57pm.) And, in doing so, he has clarified that it was not so much a matter of standing down as chairman as winding up the whole enterprise.

For the record, this is what Labour’s Jon Trickett actually said about the “resignation”.

For a man who once said that the ‘raison d’ être’ of his role in No.10 was to face the challenge of renewal in office, his resignation speaks volumes on the current state of the Tories in government.

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We like our live blogs at the Guardian. But even we drew the line at a live blog of the EU27 deciding at the general affairs council which countries are going to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and and the European Banking Authority (EBA) when they leave London after Brexit.

But, don’t worry, Politico Europe are on the case. They are covering all the drama, including the Eurovision-style voting system, in a blog here.

Jon Trickett, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, triggered a story alert in the press gallery at Westminster a few minutes ago by putting out a press release about the Conservative MP George Freeman resigning from his role as a policy chief at Number 10. This took journalists by surprise because no one knew he had resigned.

It turns out Trickett was referring to this line, buried in the middle of a long ConservativeHome article by Freeman that was posted online at around 7am this morning. Freeman said:

And it’s why I’ve stood down as chair of the prime minister’s policy board in Number Ten, to focus on my role as chair of the Conservative policy forum.

But Freeman was not talking about resigning today, or indeed any time recently. MailOnline’s James Tapsfield says that the prime minister’s policy board was wound up at the time of the election, and has not been revived since, and so his “resignation” appears to be a bit of a non-event.

Lord Callanan, who was appointed a Brexit minister last month to replace Lady Anelay, who stood down for health reasons, has just apologised in the House of Lords for telling peers last week that article 50 could not be revoked.

Asked a week ago today to confirm that the supreme court, in the Gina Miller case, said article 50 was irrevocable, he said:

I can confirm that. It is also stated by the European commission that article 50, once invoked, is irrevocable unless there is political agreement on it.

The Labour peer Andrew Adonis said he would be reporting Callanan to the privileges committee over this because it was a false statement that Callanan was refusing to correct.

And today Callanan did apologise. In a statement to peers, he said that his statement last Monday was incorrect. That was a result of “a misunderstanding of the question”, he said.

To reiterate, for the avoidance of any doubt, the supreme court proceeded in the Miller case on the basis that article 50 would not be be revoked, but did not rule on the legal position regarding its irrevocability. It was, and remains, the government’s policy that our notification of article 50 will not be withdrawn ...

I recognise that my comments have caused confusion and I apologise to the House.

Lord Kerr, the British diplomat credited with drafting article 50, has repeated said article 50 could be reversed.

The Conservative MP John Redwood told BBC News a few minutes ago that he did not see why the UK should have to pay any money to the EU after it left. He said:

I have not yet seen any legal base for payments other than our contributions up to the date of leaving. Bear in mind how generous that is. Because of the extra nine months delay over the court proceedings, it does mean that roughly £30bn payments will be made from the date when we decided to leave until the date when we do leave, and it gives you a long transitional period for both sides, which I think should be sufficient.

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Michel Barnier is now briefing ministers from the EU 27 on the Brexit talks.

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Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, has welcomed what Michel Barnier said about Ireland in his speech today. (See 12.24pm.)