Corbyn says Labour has team to win election as Formby appointed general secretary – as it happened

• The Unite official Jennie Formby has been appointed as Labour’s new general secretary. Formby, a leftwinger backed by Jeremy Corbyn, beat the former NUT general secretary Christine Blower in a decision taken by the party’s national executive committee. She will replace Iain McNicol, who was widely distrusted by the Corbynites in the party and whose position became untenable when Corbyn supporters recently gained a clear majority of votes on the NEC. Her appointment means that, for the first time since he became leader, Corbyn and the left now have absolute control over the Labour party bureaucracy. After her appointment Formby said:

Last year’s general election showed the strength of our movement when we are united, challenging this government’s failed and damaging policies and campaigning for real change, in the interests of communities across the UK.

Labour is preparing for government and I look forward to working with Jeremy Corbyn, our party’s staff, members of parliament, members and affiliates to oppose the Conservatives’ destructive austerity programme inside and outside parliament, and to win elections to build a society that works for the many, not the few.

And Corbyn said:

I would like to congratulate Jennie Formby on her new role as general secretary of our party. Her talent, experience and commitment to the Labour and trade union movement makes me confident she will play a crucial role in building on last year’s inspiring general election advance and taking our party forward to victory.

The Labour party is on the cusp of power and we are ready for a general election whenever it comes. We have the team, the passion and the policies to win the support of the British people, form a government and transform our society for the many, not the few.

Formby is currently Unite’s south east regional secretary and previously served as its political director.

• Downing Street has said ministers discussed new checks by border officials on private flights at today’s national security council. As my colleague Anushka Asthana reports, Theresa May chaired today’s session, which focused on measures being taken in response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. The checks are focused on tracking people entering the country who could pose a threat to national security. The prime minister’s spokesman said:

Action has been taken at the UK’s border to enhance our efforts to monitor and track the intentions of those travelling to the UK who could be engaged in activity that threatens the security of the UK and of our allies.This includes strict checks by border officials on private flights.

• Theresa May’s response to the Salisbury nerve agent attack is overwhelmingly seen by the public as better than Jeremy Corbyn’s, a Guardian/ICM poll suggests. (See 4.51pm.)

• Jeremy Hunt, the health and social care secretary, has indicated that a cap on the “punitive” costs faced by people requiring care is set to be included in the latest government plan for reform of the system in England. As the Press Association reports, Hunt acknowledged there was an “illness lottery” which left people suffering from conditions such as dementia facing far bigger bills than others who need hospital treatment for cancer. In a speech setting out his plans for a forthcoming green paper, Hunt said:

The way that our current charging system operates is far from fair. This is particularly true for families faced with the randomness and unpredictability of care and the punitive consequences that can come from developing certain conditions over others.

If you develop dementia and require long-term residential care, you are likely to have to lose a significant chunk of your savings and the equity in your home to pay for that care. But if you require long-term treatment for cancer you won’t find anything like the same cost.

So people’s financial wellbeing in old age ends up defined less by their industry and service in their working lives and more by the lottery of which illness they get. We therefore need a system that includes an element of risk pooling.

Asked if that meant a cap on costs would feature in the plans, Hunt replied that it would.

• Sir Patrick Stewart has called for medicinal cannabis to be legalised as he gave his support to a young boy hoping to receive the treatment for epilepsy. As the Press Association reports, Alfie Dingley, aged six, suffers from a rare condition and needs cannabis oil to help reduce his seizures. His parents, Drew Dingley and Hannah Deacon, want the government to let him use the medication, a banned substance in the UK. They met with Theresa May and other ministers today and handed a 380,000-strong petition to Downing Street. Stewart, who uses medicinal cannabis to treat his arthritis while living in California, joined Alfie and his family and gave his support to the campaign. He said:

How could one not support Alfie? Hearing what his life has been and the benefits given to him by being able to use medicinal marijuana. There has never been a stronger case for the legalisation of medical marijuana.

I have been registered for medical marijuana in California for over three years and have found it immensely beneficial for my arthritis.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

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The Conservative former minister Nick Boles has joined those attacked Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, for sending a letter congratulating Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian president with mentioning the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The Labour peer Andrew Adonis has also spoken out, offering Juncker an alternative wording.

But the Conservative MEP Charles Tannock - brave man - has defended Juncker.

We’ve got some new Guardian/ICM polling out today. It covers three topics, and all three sets of figures will provide some cheer in Number 10

How May and Corbyn responded to Salisbury attack

First, we asked people to say how they thought Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have responded to the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The findings are very clear.

• Theresa May’s response to the Salisbury nerve agent attack is overwhelmingly judged to have been better than Jeremy Corbyn’s, the poll suggests. Asked how May responded “in her capacity as prime minister”, 51% said well and 22% said badly, giving her a net score of +29. Asked how Corbyn responded “in his capacity as leader of the opposition” (a line included to acknowledge that Corbyn has different responsibilities, as he himself has said), 23% said well and 42% said badly, giving him a net score of -19.

These figures are not surprising because other pollsters (eg YouGov last week and Opinium at the weekend) have had very similar results. One consolation for Corbyn is that Labour supporters are inclined to support him. Only 14% of them said he had responded badly, and 46% said he had responded well, giving him a net score of +32 amongst Labour supporters. But May’s net score amongst Conservative supporters was +78.

How the Brexit process is seen to be going

Next we asked people how they thought the Brexit process was going. We last asked this in early February, and before that in December.

• People are slightly less negative about how the Brexit process is going now than they were a month ago, the poll suggests. Some 19% of people said it was going well, and 47% said it was going badly, creating a net score of -28. In early February it was -37, and in December it was -30.

Overall these are still fairly dreadful figures, but ministers will be encouraged by the fact that the fieldwork for this poll took place before Monday’s announcement about a transition deal. The media coverage of that has been a lot more positive than might have been expected given the scale of the concessions involved (the Daily Mail and the Sun, the two most influential Brexiter newspapers, have both written editorials broadly welcoming what was agreed). A poll now might even find the number of people saying the process is going well nudging above 19%.

Voting intention

Finally, here are the voting intention figures.

ICM’s Alex Turk says the increase in the Conservative lead - 3 points now, compared with 1 point two weeks ago - might be related to the media focus on Salisbury. He writes:

We shouldn’t speak too soon, as these are still small shifts in our results. Nevertheless, in the context of recent deadlock in our regular ICM/Guardian vote intention polling, it is possible that this could be showing the start of a small shift away from Labour and towards the Conservatives. We’ll be watching the next few polls closely, to see if this develops into anything more than a small blip in an otherwise unprecedented period of far-too-close-to-call polls.

ICM will publish the tables here, on their website, a bit later.

ICM Unlimited interviewed a representative online sample of 2,013 adults aged 18+ on 16 to 18 March 2018. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

20 Mar 201812.39 EDT

Spain demands assurances over its Brexit Gibraltar veto ahead of EU summit

Daniel Boffey

A hard fought agreement struck between the UK and EU over a 21-month transition period has been thrown into doubt after Spain insisted that its veto over the deal covering Gibraltar needed to be made clear.

The Guardian understands that Madrid is unconvinced that the 129-page withdrawal agreement, containing the terms of the transition, is concrete enough on the issue.

The EU is insisting that the UK and Spain must come to a bilateral accord with over the future of the Rock before it can benefit from an additional period of time in the single market and customs union.

It is understood that Spain is holding back on endorsing the withdrawal agreement, of which 75% has been agreed by the UK and EU, until changes are made to the document in its favour.

Talks are ongoing among the member states and EU officials in Brussels.

In an open letter ahead of a leaders summit, where the 27 member states were accepted to give their support to the withdrawal agreement, Donald Tusk, the president of the European council writes:

Whether all 27 member states can welcome this at the European Council remains open. I still need a couple more hours to consult with some of the most concerned member states.

Clause 24 of the EU’s negotiating guidelines states agreed last year says that any transition agreement or future trade relationship between the UK and the EU can only be extended to Gibraltar after bilateral agreement between the UK and Spain.

The UK believes that this is not legally watertight.

Asked by a Spanish journalist on Monday whether the transition agreement covered Gibraltar, the Brexit secretary David Davis replied: “Yes, it does cover Gibraltar. That is our view of it.”

Responding to the same question, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier acknowledged that the legal text agreed by Brussels and the UK included Gibraltar in its scope before adding that there remained a caveat. He said:

Gibraltar leaves the European Union at the same time as the United Kingdom [and] legally, we’ve specified the territorial scope of the agreement.

But there’s a reference which remains valid [and] which member states are keen on, all member states of the European Union on behalf of whom I negotiate.

Barnier was referring to the clause 24 veto included in two sets of negotiating guidelines agreed by the EU over the past year. He said:

Twice, the 27 member states and head of state and government indicated their position on the question of Gibraltar, in total solidarity with the Spanish government.

The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has warned that gaps still remain between the EU and the UK over Brexit. As the Press Association reports, speaking in Berlin after a meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, he said that while there has been progress in the Brexit negotiations, “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. He said:

I think we are seeing steady progress in the Brexit negotiations, but more needs to be done in the coming weeks and months to close the remaining gaps between the EU and the UK ...

We should all remember, we are proceeding on the basis that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and will be working closely with partners to make sure this is faithfully respected

Merkel said Germany fully supported Ireland’s position on the Irish border issue.

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Jeremy Hunt, the health and social care secretary, has been giving a speech on social care this afternoon. According to the Press Association, he accepted that care services “unprecedented pressure” and that previous reform plans had been “stalled”. He said the government would publish a green paper on a sustainable funding model for social care in the summer.

Setting out his approach, Hunt told an audience of health and social care leaders:

Too many people experience care that is not of the quality we would all want for our own mum or dad.

We need a relentless and unswerving focus on providing the highest standards of care - whatever a person’s age or condition.

This means a commitment to tackle poor care with minimum standards enforced throughout the system, so that those using social care services are always kept safe and treated with the highest standards of dignity and compassion.

Resolving this will take time. But that must not be an excuse to put off necessary reforms.

Nor must it delay the debate we need to have with the public about where the funding for social care in the future should come from - so the Green Paper will jump-start this vital debate.

According to the Press Association, other principles set out in the green paper will include: the quality and safety of services, the integration of the health and social care systems, control for those receiving support, valuing the workforce, providing better practical support for families and carers and ensuring greater security for all.

Hunt also said:

Innovation will be central to all of these principles: we will not succeed unless the systems we establish embrace the changes in technology and medicine that are profoundly reshaping our world.

According to the BBC, the 23 Russian diplomats and their families who have been expelled from the UK have been taken to Stansted to get on this plane taking them back to Russia.

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20 Mar 201811.06 EDT

Severin Carrell

Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, which represents a substantial majority of the country’s trawlermen, said that they not only shared Michael Gove’s disappointment at the fisheries deal but that it had been predicted. He said:

Our strong input [during the talks] was that we shouldn’t give away sovereignty. You can give away fish in a progressive and gradual way but we shouldn’t give away sovereignty. That has now happened, for an extra 21 months. We are very unhappy with that.

Armstrong said Gove and the UK government now had to redouble efforts to block any further concessions to the EU on sovereignty beyond the transition period. “That is the red line that must not be crossed,” he said. He went on:

What we are seeking now is a guarantee that access will not be granted beyond the end of the interim period. We will then become a fully responsible coastal state and will be able to make the decisions of a coastal state on access and quota. But every effort will be made by the EU to try to whittle away at that.

20 Mar 201810.40 EDT

Anne Perkins

The Foreign Office has taken to social media to get its story out about Russia and the Salisbury poisoning.

It has released a one minute video on its twitter feed stitching together all the conflicting allegations and counter charges made by Russian media outlets since the British government first pointed the finger at Putin and the Russian state.

“A campaign of disinformation”, it says, that has variously accused the UK of poisoning the Skripals to fuel anti-Russian sentiment, that Ukraine did it to frame Russia, or the US did it to destablise the world, that the nerve agent came from Sweden, Slovakia or the Czech Republic …

It highlights the way that parts of the government at least are catching up with the rest of the world.

• The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has issued a coded warning to rebellious Tories to keep their “eyes on the prize” as he said he understood the fishing industry’s grave disappointment at Theresa May’s agreement to keep EU fishing policies during the Brexit transition period.

• Jeremy Corbyn has said he would still do business with Vladimir Putin, as Russian diplomats expelled from the UK over the poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter leave the embassy in London.

• Senior Conservatives have criticised Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, for sending a letter congratulating Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian president that did not mention the Salisbury nerve agent attack. (See 12.19pm.) Ashley Fox, the leader of Conservative MEPs, said:

This is a disgraceful letter from Jean-Claude Juncker. To congratulate Vladimir Putin on his election victory without referring to the clear ballot rigging that took place is bad enough. But his failure to mention Russian’s responsibility for a military nerve agent attack on innocent people in my constituency is nauseating.

The European commission president is appeasing a man who poses a clear threat to western security.

• The information commissioner is seeking an urgent court warrant to enter the London headquarters of the elections consultancy Cambridge Analytica after the firm was caught in an undercover sting boasting about entrapping politicians, using honey traps and running fake news campaigns.

• The Commons culture committee has written to the Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg asking him to appear in person before the committee to give evidence about how Facebook has allowed personal data to be taken without permission. In the letter Damian Collins, the committee chair, said there had been a “catastrophic failure of process” and that Facebook’s previous evidence to the committee has been “misleading”.

• Inflation fell further than expected last month, as the effects of the Brexit vote on the price of petrol and food begins to fade, easing the pressure on squeezed British households.

• A BBC presenter has told MPs she tried to kill herself because of stress over the controversial arrangements under which she was employed. As the Press Association reports, the anonymous presenter was among TV and radio personalities who gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry that they were pressured into setting up personal service companies (PSCs) which later fell foul of the taxman, leading to massive bills for unpaid taxes. Damian Collins, the chair of the culture committee, said the BBC had fallen “well below” the standards expected in its treatment of staff and said he would be demanding answers from the director general, Lord Hall.

• Appeal judges have ruled that a Scottish court has to properly examine claims that the UK should be able to unilaterally abandon Brexit without permission from other EU member states.

• The Welsh government has published plans to cut the number of councils in Wales from 22 to as few as 10. This is from Alun Davies, the Welsh government’s secretary for local government.

Gove says the transition deal is a “sub-optimal outcome”. But it is only for 12 months, he says.

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry asks why Gove and Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader in Scotland, were promising only 10 days ago why the UK would leave the CFP after March 2019.

Gove ignores the questions, and instead says the SNP would keep Scotland in the CFP.

Gove says the UK negotiating team encountered “intransigence” from the EU in the negotiations. That was disappointing. But he pays tribute to the officials involved, and says he won’t hear a word against them.

Nigel Evans, a Tory Brexiter, asks if Gove will find “imaginative” ways of supporting the fishing industry as the UK moves into Brexit.

Gove says the government will be publishing proposals addressing this.