Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen
The budget deficit is down by a third under this government, and we will see what happens on Wednesday at the autumn statement. But the fact is we have got the nation’s finances under control and so it makes sense to spend money on long-term investments, like road and rail schemes, improvements at our ports - things that will make our economy grow faster and spread prosperity to every part of our country.
It has unstoppable momentum now, because the plan for the tunnel is robust, the money in the national budget is there, the vital importance of infrastructure is now accepted by everybody. I think this is now unstoppable.
We know that the current government’s sudden interest in roads has more to do with the forthcoming general election than it does with the transport needs of the country.
This is a sort of sad attempt at motorways for the marginals. New lanes for soon to be defeated Liberal Democrats. Trunk roads for Tories about to be turfed out by Labour.
Like all politicians Gordon Brown will be remembered for a variety of reasons but no one should ever forget that when the world economy stood on the abyss it was his determined action which persuaded many countries to take the cumulative steps which ensured that there was not a global depression ...
As the MP for the neighbouring constituency of mine in Fife our personal relations have always been cordial and I count him as a friend. Whatever he does next we can be certain that he’ll do so with vigour and commitment for the public good.
Gordon has been a towering figure in politics, he has been a towering figure for the Labour Party. He will have to his credit a lot of the achievements of the Labour Party ... I know he will continue to play an active part in politics in different ways.
We predicted before Nicola Sturgeon came into office that she would be Scotland’s most left-wing first minister. She hasn’t been in the job two weeks and already she’s proven us right.
The scorecard so far is a home-buyers tax on aspiration, a proposed income tax hike, and a ridiculous land tax which she unveiled last week.
Sir Alan Beith, the Lib Dem MP, welcomes the A1 announcement (which he has been campaign for for 40 years - see 9.33am.) The Lib Dems want dualling all the way from Newcastle to Edinburgh, he says.
Labour’s Robert Flello says we have had a rail statement and a roads one. We need an integrated transport strategy, he says.
McLoughlin says the government is delivering an integrated strategy.
Ben Bradshaw, the Labour MP, says the Conservatives made the same announcement about the A303 in 1996. He says what would help the south west most would be more resilient rail links.
McLoughlin says Labour was in power for 13 years after 1996.
Labour’s Louise Ellman, the Labour chair of the transport secretary, says this is a “renewed announcement”. And she complains too much is going to London.
McLoughlin says this announcements puts flesh on the bones of earlier ones. And he says there is a good spread across the country.
McLoughlin is responding to Dugher.
He says, through the “rant”, he thought he heard support for the strategy.
Michael Dugher, the shadow transport secretary, starts by thanking McLoughlin for advance sight of his statement. The whole country has had advance sight of it, he says - in June 2013, when the plan was first announced.
But the government is all talk and no delivery, he says.
Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, is speaking now.
He says road traffic has doubled since 1976.
Patrick McLoughlin is about to make a Commons statement about today’s £15bn roads investment.
Here’s a politics afternoon reading list.
On these figures, Labour and the Tories end up neck-and-neck in terms of both votes and seats. The basic bias in Labour’s favour in Britain’s electoral geography is wiped out by the combined impact of Scotland and the incumbency factor.
Welcome to the brave new world of hashtags and online mob rule. The mistake is to equate this shrill and often deafening white noise with democratic will. Step away from Tweetdeck, close down your laptop and believe it or not everything carries on just as it was before. #CameronMustGo is the hashtag that didn’t shake Cameron. If we’re honest it didn’t really do anything, did it?
Against this backdrop of shrill Twitter outrage and “10 thousand dead from the Bedroom Tax” memes (#DrEoinClarke), the sight of David Cameron in Number 10 Downing Street this morning is strangely reassuring, even though nothing will stop me from voting to throw him out at the next election.
Some HIV campaigners have dumped a pile of horse manure outside a Ukip office in south London to protest about they say is the “bullshit” Nigel Farage has been talking about people with HIV. That’s a reference to these comments.
Here’s a Guardian video of Nick Clegg speaking about today’s roads investment.
We all make mistakes and, when you do, it’s best to own up and apologise. That’s what Lord Ashcroft has done today, admitting that some of the figures he released in a poll about Ed Miliband and Doncaster North last week were wrong. It was quite a cock-up (as Penny Mordaunt might put it.) Here’s an excerpt.
A mistake at the data processing stage meant that the poll included too many Conservative voters and not enough Labour voters. This made opinion in Doncaster North look considerably less favourable towards Ed Miliband than it actually is.
Corrected data tables are below, as is an amended summary of the results. In a nutshell, Labour lead UKIP by 29 points in Doncaster North, not twelve; Miliband leads Cameron as best PM by 14 points, not one point; Miliband’s constituents would rather see him as PM than Cameron; they give him the highest ratings of the four main party leaders, not the third highest; and they trust Miliband and Labour more on the economy than Cameron and Osborne, not the reverse.
The SNP MP Angus MacNeil has used Twitter to post his own version of Sam Coates’ joke. (See 12.27pm.)
So Gordon Brown has made an announcement following previous announcement, this announcement saying that he will make announcement tonite! :)
David Cameron has paid tribute to Gordon Brown.
Obviously, I wish him well. He’s been someone dedicated to public service and has worked very hard for other people and I’m sure he will continue to give a lot to public life, if not in parliament but elsewhere. But I wish him well.
Once again UK transport policy is heading in the wrong direction.
This is yet more out-of-date thinking by the government - tackling congestion by building or widening roads was discredited decades ago.
With our candidate @annietrev hearing how £290m of upgrades to the A1 will boost the economy + create jobs in the NE pic.twitter.com/oHetT2BIHj
Britain’s public finances have been weakened by Tory policies which focus on low paid, low skilled, insecure jobs - often part-time or temporary – because they do not raise as much revenue as the high skill, high wage opportunities we need to be creating.
And our public finances have been weakened by higher social security bills to subsidise low paid jobs and the chronic shortage of homes.
Theresa May’s decision to spend £75m on elections in deepest, darkest November was risible. Since then we have seen some of the worst turnouts in British electoral history, again costing millions, and all the Home Secretary can do is look away. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has pulled the rug from beneath her flagship policy by announcing the abolition of one post already.
We cannot waste £50m on another round of unpopular elections when the money is needed to save over 1000 frontline police from being cut instead.
Charlie Whelan, another former Gordon Brown spin doctors, has paid tribute to his old boss.
I had the honour to work for two great Scottish political giants. Gordon Brown and Jimmy Airlie
And here’s Damian McBride, Gordon Brown’s former communications chief, on his old boss.
As a feat of sheer endurance, no modern politician will ever again match Gordon Brown's 18 years at the top of his party.
And here’s Steve Richards, author of a very good book on Brown, on the former prime minister.
Gordon Brown is one of Labour's biggest post war figures-of course famously flawed but some epic, currently underestimated achievements.
The Times’s Sam Coates is joking about Gordon Brown’s habit as chancellor of re-announcing his plans.
True to form, Gordon Brown is today re-announcing his departure from Parliament.
Here are three verdicts on Gordon Brown from three guests on the BBC’s Daily Politics, the Conservative Mary Macleod, the Lib Dem Norman Baker and the Labour MP Jamie Reed.
"I was not surprised he is stepping down, I think he's rarely in Westminster anyway" says @MaryMacleodMP on Gordon Brown standing down as MP
"A reasonable chancellor not a very good prime minister" says @NormanBakerMP on G Brown standing down as MP "Gordon is an honest politician"
"He made some extraordinary decisions as prime minister. I'd say that the country is still benefiting from those today" @jreedmp on G Brown
Last month, after it was first reported the Gordon Brown was close to announcing his resignation from parliament, Red Box, the Times daily newsletter, published some YouGov polling showing what people think of Brown’s record.
By a narrow margin, YouGov found that people think he was a better chancellor than George Osborne. Some 33% of respondents said he was better a better chancellor than Osborne is now, and 29% said he was worse.
For a reminder of Gordon Brown at his best, here’s the Better Together speech he gave the day before the Scottish independence referendum.
The Sun’s Steve Hawkes suggests that Gordon Brown is trying to overshadow the autumn statement.
Trust Gordon Brown to confirm he's stepping down, two days before the Autumn Statement ... Announcement expected tonight
Here’s the Daily Mirror columnist Kevin Maguire on Gordon Brown.
History will be kinder to Gordon Brown than contemporary politics but he was back to his best in the Scottish referendum
My colleague Michael White wrote an excellent mini-assessment of Gordon Brown’s career last month when it was first reported that he was about to announce his retirement from politics.
Here’s how it starts.
As a political leader, Gordon Brown came close to being a great man. He had – still has – brains, energy and high moral seriousness, all in greater quantities than Tony Blair, his protege, friend and deadly rival, who made him wait a decade for the premiership Brown wrongly thought his by right of succession. But insecurities that trigger debilitating suspicion and indecision can derail even the most formidable careers.
Gordon Brown is to confirm that he will stand down as an MP at the next election, the BBC is reporting.
Former UK PM Gordon Brown to confirm in a speech today that he intends to stand down as an MP http://t.co/YMRniG8xDcpic.twitter.com/oz08uqTbCh
The Campaign to Protect Rural England has described today as ‘a black Monday for the countryside”. This is what Ralph Smyth, its transport campaign manager, has said about the roads investment.
National Parks from the New Forest to Northumberland are threatened by the government’s plan to turn back the clock and restart a massive roads programme. Road-building didn’t help the economy in the 1970s and it will have even fewer benefits now as travel patterns change and traffic levels flatline.
Even Twyford Down, birth of the anti-roads movement in the 1990s, is not safe from the return of the bulldozer. As if it wants to turn the knife in the wound, the Department for Transport now proposes localised widening of the M3, which would chip away at the new South Downs National Park.
Here’s today’s Populus poll.
Latest Populus VI: Lab 35 (-2), Con 32 (=), LD 9 (=), UKIP 14 (=), Oth 10 (+2). Tables here http://t.co/RjTfNv9XJE
The Green party is opposed to the £15bn roads investment. This is from Caroline Russell, its local transport spokesperson.
The government announcement of £15bn to be spent on roads across the country is both short-sighted and retrograde. If you build roads you get more traffic clogging up our towns cities and villages, adding to road danger, air pollution and congestion. The government should be investing in our public transport infrastructure and building convenient networks of cycling and walking routes rather than creating more traffic jams.
The more we learn about the damaging impact of diesel pollution and physical inactivity on our health, the more urgent the need for this change in direction and priorities becomes. The £100m offered for cycling is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions being spent every year on roads while walking does not even get a mention. If the government is serious about creating jobs and supporting a sustainable economy they should be seizing the huge opportunities available from investing in new, less carbon-intensive transport technologies and looking to reduce our need to travel by car.
Some 65 have been cleared to start, with two thirds of the schemes in Conservative or Lib Dem areas, including some of the parties’ most marginal seats, The Telegraph has found.
Of those, 42 schemes will benefit the constituencies of Coalition MPs and 21 will benefit Labour MPs. Two other schemes benefit both Labour and Coalition MPs.
Here’s Newsnight’s Chris Cook on the roads announcment.
I'm disappointed every time @LibDemPress tweets about "A1 dualling". Money for A1 duelling would be way cooler. pic.twitter.com/vtTYHcq6fd
Nick Clegg reminds us all he was an archeology student.
Last time I was here I was an undergraduate archeology student. Hasn't changed much! pic.twitter.com/qGDj2kkRj4
Here is some reaction to the roads announcement.
From motoring groups
We spend less than a quarter of motoring taxes on this critical national asset whilst many key competitor countries spend much more. At long last the government has recognised that we need a long term coherent plan for our roads, with guaranteed funding, to end the stop-start mess experienced over the last few decades.
This is not about concreting over the countryside with new roads but upgrading many existing routes which have been the source of misery to motorists for years if not decades. That the government is investing money along whole lengths of roads and not just a mile or two here and there is to be welcomed.
The benefits won’t be felt overnight because much of the work will take place towards the end of the next parliament, but we now have a commitment of funding and a firm list of schemes that the money will be spent on.
This five-year strategy marks a significant milestone in our journey towards the delivery of much-needed upgrades to our existing road network, the arteries of our economy.
I’ve been calling for a tunnel underneath Stonehenge as part of wider upgrades along the A303, a lifeline for businesses in the South West, so I am glad to see it getting the green light.
The strategic road network (motorways and major A-roads) is the most business-critical infrastructure network for manufacturers and today’s announcement is a significant step toward filling in the gaps to create a network that better supports growth. This is, however, just a medium-term catch-up and we can’t afford to allow this level of drift in maintaining and upgrading our road network in the future.
The strategic road network is vital to the UK, but for too long it has suffered due to piecemeal investment and constant changes to government policy. This approach must change if we are to ensure the road network can cope with the expected increase in traffic volume in the years ahead.
The government’s £15bn road-building plan will prove a counter-productive waste of money.
There is no evidence that building new roads creates jobs or benefits the economy and plenty of evidence that it creates new traffic that just fills up the roads again.
Michael Dugher, the shadow transport secretary, has described today’s announcement as a “desperate pre-election con”.
Another desperate pre-election con. Govt cut road investment in 2010. http://t.co/bLWIEdClrj
We know David Cameron’s record on infrastructure is one of all talk and no delivery. Infrastructure output has fallen significantly since May 2010 and less than a third of projects in the Government’s pipeline are actually classed as ‘in construction’.
If ministers were as good at upgrading roads as they are at making announcements about upgrading roads, life would be considerably easier for Britain’s hard-pressed motorists who have been consistently let down by this government.
Here is some reaction to the Stonehenge announcement.
From Helen Ghosh, director general of the National Trust
After many false starts and challenges, this does for the first time feel like a real opportunity to tackle the blight of the road that dominates the landscape of Stonehenge.
If designed well, putting the A303 into a tunnel of 2.9km will bring the Stonehenge landscape together once more, creating space for nature and improving the site’s tranquillity.
This will be the biggest single investment ever by government in this country’s heritage and is truly a momentous decision.
We felt so proud to close the A344 last year and build award-winning visitor facilities at Stonehenge.
Nick Clegg has been at Stonehenge this morning giving interviews about the roads announcement. Here are the key points he’s been making.
You don’t make decisions like this based on a political map. You do it based on a map of the country and to make sure that we have all of the arterial roads, proper dual carriageway roads to link different parts of the country.
I’m actually, later today, going to be up in Manchester, highlighting the significance of the announcements we’re making to deal with the bottlenecks which impede the flow of traffic across the Pennines. That’s a part of the country where almost all of the MPs, with a few exceptions, are Labour MPs.
Having highly congested roads is very bad for air pollution. It’s not good for the environment at all. Having this very congested A road right next to a World Heritage Site really does damage the environment in this part of the country and about £300m of the announcement we’re making today is actually, precisely aimed at investing in making these projects as environmentally sustainable as possible.
And it, for instance, includes new investment so that there are charging points for low emissions vehicles, electric vehicles, within every 20 miles on our main road network. I think this makes environmental sense as well as making economic sense.
It is right that this government hasn’t been dogmatic about our deficit reduction plan. We’ve been firm, we’ve been consistent. But when it became obvious that the structural deficit was not going to be eliminated by the end of this parliament, far from doing what some people urged me to do, which was to chase our tail, cut even more, implement even more stringent cuts, we said no, we’re going to stick to the plan, but we will accept that it will take even longer and that there will be three years into the next parliament before you wipe the slate clean and balance the books for future generations.
@nick_clegg: Interviews early this morning@EH_Stonehenge to talk about Coalition's £15 billion investment in roads. pic.twitter.com/rlz7mTpgap
It’s roads announcement day. Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, and Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, have announced a £15bn road investment strategy, with details of more than 100 road schemes that are now scheduled for attention sometime between now and 2021. The £15bn figure is not new - it was set out in an Action for roads plan published in 2013 (pdf) - but 84 of the projects are being published for the first time.
The Department for Transport’s news release, with a summary of the projects, is here, and there are links at the bottom to separate news releases listing all the projects on a region by region basis.
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