Esther McVey apologises for misleading parliament over universal credit – Politics live

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQsMcVey accused by NAO of misleading MPs – Summary and analysisPMQs – Snap verdictPMQs – Verdict from the Twitter commentariat 2.59pm BST According to Sky’s Faisal Islam, pro-European Conservatives are now meeting the prime minister, following the Brexiters’ meeting with the chief whip this morning. (See 1.15pm and 1.55pm.)So the ERG Tory Brexiter had a meeting with the Chief Whip this morning – I’m told the PM is now meeting with the other side – the Conservative Group for Europe MPs in the Commons. Some suggestion they might be asked to drop customs union amendment to Trade Bill… 2.45pm BST Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to focus on bus issues at PMQs came as a surprise and opinion is divided as to whether or not this was a good idea. (See 1.24pm.)But if you want to know why Corbyn raised the topic, this table probably helps to explain things. It is from a Hansard Society book about the last election, Britain Votes 2017, and (bear with me) it shows “correlation coefficients measuring the associations between the shares of the vote obtained by the parties in constituencies and the usual range of social and demographic variables”. Continue reading…
Via: Esther McVey apologises for misleading parliament over universal credit – Politics live