EU door remains open until UK departs, Macron tells May – as it happened

That’s all from politics live for Tuesday - thanks for reading and do join us again tomorrow morning.

13 Jun 201716.14 EDT

Rajeev Syal

Jeremy Corbyn has told buoyant Labour MPs that he will visit at least 65 Conservative marginal seats in preparation for the possible collapse of the Tory minority government and urged them to be a “government in waiting”.

The Labour leader also told MPs he wanted to learn lessons why they lost in some areas, and said he would be meeting candidates who lost their seats.

Labour’s hopes of unseating the Tories from power are now within its grasp if a general election is called within the next two years, according to Guardian analysis of the new electoral landscape.

Analysis of the new marginal seats shows that a swing of just 1.63% to Labour would deliver the 34 gains that Corbyn needs to make it the largest party in the Commons.

Last Thursday’s general election left 22 Tory MPs sitting on majorities of less than 1,000. The home secretary, Amber Rudd, is now defending a majority of 346 in Hastings and Rye, while the former Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, has been similarly left defending a majority of 353 in Chipping Barnet.

13 Jun 201715.59 EDT

Owen Bowcott

Sinn Féin has issued a statement tonight reaffirming its intention not to take its seats in Westminster:

“We went to the people on an active abstentionist ticket looking for a mandate opposing Brexit, a border and Tory austerity and standing up for equality, rights and Irish unity. We received 238,00 votes from the electorate on that platform.

“Sinn Féin intends to honour its mandate and offer strong effective representation within constituencies, at Stormont, at the Dáil and with our All-Ireland EU MEPs in Brussels rather than sitting on the green benches of Westminster.”

At a press conference in London, the Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Michelle Gildernew, said: “There’s a lot of anxiety and fear for what is being discussed. Any agreement is going to have to come back to Stormont to be discussed. We have faced challenges in the past and we will face this one.”

13 Jun 201715.36 EDT

Henry McDonald

DUP leader Arlene Foster has made some comments tonight, telling Ulster Television that one of her aims was to see a “frictionless border” after a “sensible Brexit” is reached.

However, she held back from releasing any substance regarding the deal between the DUP and the Conservatives that will keep Theresa May in Downing Street.

Government officials are drawing up the details of the package and are in close contact with the DUP high command tonight.

Party sources said that they aim to have the deal secured by the end of Wednesday before of the resumption of all-party talks in Belfast aimed at restoring power sharing government in Northern Ireland.

13 Jun 201715.33 EDT

Henry McDonald

The Democratic Unionists are collectively in conclave tonight as they absorb the details of the deal being offered up for their supporting Theresa May and the Tories in government.

Radio Ulster reported that no members of the DUP, MPs, Assembly members or councillors were being put up to speak on its Evening Extra programme tonight in Belfast. Information is being very tightly controlled inside the DUP as to the nature of the deal with the Conservatives.

The substance of the deal will be known on Wednesday. The bulk is expected to be socio-economic, but there may be movement on tax such as air passenger duty being either cut in half, or abolished.

Back to Theresa May’s attempt to strike a formal deal with the DUP for a moment.

Martin Kettle argues that such an arrangement brings no added benefit to the Tories, while creating further reputational damage because of the DUP’s image as a socially reactionary, culturally conservative, climate-change denying party.

For a Tory leader who needs more than anything to reconnect with mainstream British voters after a tone deaf election campaign, this deal that makes no sense at all. The real challenge for the Tory party is not to scrabble together a Commons majority. It is to reset its relationship with British voters. The message to the Tories on 8 June was that the country does not want rightwing economic and Brexit policies. May’s real challenge now is to devise a programme with reordered priorities at home and a more open approach to the EU. As it happens, the DUP would probably vote for that anyway.”

13 Jun 201715.02 EDT

Severin Carrell

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Tommy Sheppard, the SNP MP who became a contender for the vacant post of Westminster leader following Angus Robertson’s election defeat last week, has withdrawn from the contest after admitting he did not have enough backing from SNP colleagues.

In a Facebook post, Sheppard, a former deputy leader of the Labour group on Hackney borough council, said he believed the SNP now had to tack to the left to take on Labour and prevent the party losing more seats in future to Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour unexpectedly won six new Scottish seats and held its Edinburgh South with Scotland’s largest majority of 15,514. In Sheppard’s seat of Edinburgh East, the SNP majority was heavily trimmed back by Labour to 3,425.

He said: “We need to win these voters back and we might not have long to do it. In my view this means our priority should be to focus on our left flank and take the battle Labour in Scotland. The SNP is Scotland’s radical voice. We need to assert that.”

Latterly the founder and owner of the Stand Comedy Club chain, Sheppard was one of four SNP MPs who stood to succeed Robertson, competing against Joanna Cherry QC; Drew Hendry, the former leader of Highland council; and Ian Blackford, an investment banker and former SNP treasurer.

Robertson earned a formidable reputation as a Commons speaker, and regularly out-performed Corbyn during first minister’s questions, increasing the pressure on his successor. With the SNP still the third-largest party in the Commons, its Westminster leader is guaranteed questions at PMQs.

He said: “I had hoped to present myself for election as leader of our group at Westminster to take these ideas forward. I have spent the last two days discussing matters with colleagues. It is clear to me that whilst there seems widespread support for many of the ideas I am arguing, I do not have majority support for becoming leader.”

Sky News political editor Faisal Islam tweets:

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More on those comments from Emmanuel Macron on Brexit. While the French president said France wanted talks to start as “quickly as possible”, the “door remains open, always open, until the Brexit negotiations come to an end”.

He added: “Until the negotiations come to an end, of course there is always the possibility to re-open the door. But let us be clear ... once the negotiations have started we should be well aware that it’ll be more difficult to move backwards.”

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Asked about John Major’s warning to the Tories about doing a deal with the DUP, May says her government remains steadfast in its support for the Belfast agreement and the peace process in Nothern Ireland.

Macron, who decides to continue answering in French, says he respects the decision by the British people to come out of the EU.

However, he adds that the possibility of reopening the door remains until the UK actually departs, though the longer talks go on it will become “more and more difficult to go backwards”.

And with that the press conference ends so both leaders can dash off to the Stade de France for the England v France friendly tonight.

Macron is asked about Brexit and says that talks will be led by the EU in a coordinated manner. He doesn’t want to spend too much time on the technicalities of Brexit, but instead talks about how France and the UK can work together to face the common challenges both countries face.

May says the UK wants a “deep and special partnership” with the EU and for the bloc to remain strong. Issues on security are also important to cooperate on, the prime minister adds.

Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron’s briefing is under way in Paris:

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Jeremy Corbyn also told the PLP meeting tonight that the government Theresa May was trying to put together is “weak, wobbly and out of control” and was on notice from voters.

“We are now a government in waiting and we must think and act at all times with that in mind. That is our responsibility to the huge numbers who voted for our manifesto last week: a programme to transform Britain for the many that caught the imagination of millions,” he said.

“This was a remarkable result achieved because we stayed united and worked as a team and I have no doubt together we can win the next general election, whenever that may be.”

More on the PLP meeting, where Jeremy Corbyn told Labour MPs and peers that Theresa May’s premiership has no mandate and declared: “We are now a government in waiting.”

The party leader was greeted with cheers and a 45-second ovation as he arrived at the meeting. The scenes were in marked contrast to the difficult meetings Corbyn had with his critics in the parliamentary party before the election.

“Last Thursday, we turned the tables on Theresa May’s gamble and gained seats in every region and nation of Britain and I’m particularly delighted that we have increased our representation in Scotland. We increased the Labour vote by the largest margin in any election since 1945 and gained seats as a party for the first time since 1997,” Corbyn said.

“So now the election is over, the next phase of our campaign to win power for the majority has already begun. We must remain in permanent campaign mode on a general election footing. We achieved what we did last Thursday because we were a united party during the campaign and we need to maintain that unity and collective discipline in the weeks and months ahead.”

The parliamentary Labour party is holding its first meeting since the election in Westminster this evening and MP Clive Lewis tweets:

Theresa May has made it to the Élysée in Paris - in a Range Rover, of course.

Tory MP Nigel Evans tells Sky News it’s understandable why the Queen’s speech is going to be delayed for a week or so given the time it will take to sort out a deal with the DUP.

Meanwhile, Labour peer Lord Foulkes, who has been something of a Jeremy Corbyn critic, admits he is eating humble pie following the election result and says he has not seen as much joy among Labour MPs since Tony Blair’s election in 1997.

“We are beating the Tories, we are beating the SNP – and we are looking forward to another election – bring it on,” he tells Sky, adding: “Jeremy ran a brilliant campaign.”

Sky’s Jon Craig notes that the 170-odd majority Blair won 20 years ago is a little different to Thursday’s result for Labour, however.

The Guardian’s Jessica Elgot in in Paris, where Theresa May is about to meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for the first time since his election.

• Sir John Major, the Conservative former prime minister, has warned that a Tory/DUP deal at Westminster could threaten the Northern Ireland peace process. (See 2.27pm.)

• Talks on an informal coalition between the Conservatives and the Democratic Unionists have progressed well, the leader of the Northern Irish party has said following talks at Downing Street.

• The idea that the Westminster parties should cooperate on Brexit negotiations is gaining support from the public, businesses and senior politicians from across the political spectrum.

• Steve Baker, one of the most prominent and influential hardline Tory Brexiteers, has been appointed a junior minister in the Brexit department. Intriguingly, shortly before his appointment was announced, he used Twitter to try to recast the debate about soft/hard Brexit by calling for the “softest” version of a real Brexit. (See 4.12pm and 4.24pm.)

• Theresa May has marked her return to parliament with a notably more conciliatory approach, telling the new contingent of MPs that parliament should “come together in a spirit of national unity” to tackle issues such as terrorism and Brexit. As Peter Walker reports, in a brief address to the Commons following the re-election of John Bercow as Speaker – formal parliamentary business does not resume until next week – May employed some self-mockery over the surprise election result. She began by congratulating Bercow for his unanimous re-election, adding to laughter: “At least somebody got a landslide.”

• The government is under pressure from Labour and the Social Democratic and Labour party to deliver a pre-election pledge to force Northern Irish political parties to declare their donors.

• Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has called on the Conservatives to guarantee that they will reject the Democratic Unionist party’s pledge to scrap the BBC licence fee in talks to secure a parliamentary deal.

• The Welsh assembly has decided to call itself a parliament after the public backed the idea in a consultation.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Chris Johnston is taking over the blog now.