Brexit: Johnson 'will seek extension if no withdrawal deal agreed in time' – as it happened

As proceedings in the Scottish courts continue, the PM’s Europe adviser David Frost is having further technical talks with officials in Brussels which Downing Street said could go on into the weekend.

A No 10 spokeswoman said:

I think it’s clear that all sides want a deal. What we have done is put forward fair and reasonable proposals to help us negotiate a new deal.

The [European] Commission, who obviously we will be negotiating with, welcomed our determination to advance talks and make progress towards that deal.

We are ready to talk at any point, including over the weekend.

Confirmation of the talks comes as the Irish deputy leader Simon Coveney said that it was clear many unionists in Northern Ireland do not support Boris Johnson’s customs proposals.

Lots of unionists have difficulty with that, whether it’s the head of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, the head of the Ulster Farmer’s Union, the CBI, virtually every business organisation in Northern Ireland, most of them headed by unionists, let’s be honest, don’t think that this is a comprehensive enough proposal to ensure we maintain borderless trade on this island.

On whether changes to the petition of concern could allay the Irish government’s fears over the possible veto, Coveney said the matter was a domestic one, as the crux of the issue lies between the UK and EU, not Northern Ireland.

We don’t have an executive up and running, I wish we had, if there was a will there we could find a basis, I’ve been working with the Secretary of State on that.

We need to be clear here, mechanisms that are linked to cross community support in the executive are primarily about issues of competence for the executive on domestic decision-making in Northern Ireland, this is very different, this is the UK as a whole and the EU as a whole, to deal with an international border question.

The idea that any one party could eventually veto the implementation of those solutions is something that the EU and the Irish Government could never accept.

The issues around the Petition of Concern are important issues, but in terms of Brexit outcome and deal here, when you look at the response in Northern Ireland yesterday, there’s only one party in Northern Ireland supporting Boris Johnson’s proposals as the basis of deal, no one else is, because there’s real problems with it, I hope the PM will recognise that and we’ll see an evolution of position.

On Wednesday, Irish officials described the prime minister’s proposals as unworkable, unacceptable and illegal under British domestic law. However, the DUP supports the offer and Home Office minister Brandon Lewis this morning claimed support for the proposed deal was growing in parliament.

The court is now hearing another case on Brexit regarding the refusal of the government to provide the media copies of the arguments comprising its legal case.

Aidan O’Neill QC, acting for the petitioners, said he was not seeking a court order today asking for fines or jail time if Boris Johnson does not comply, although that could happen.

He said the prime minister had “repeatedly” threatened to thwart or ignore the Benn act. “This isn’t the PM going off ad lib or a frolic of his own,” he said, adding that it was clear government policy.

Meanwhile, a hearing has now begun in the outer house of the court of session on whether the prime minister can be forced to extend article 50.

The Guardian’s Scotland editor Severin Carrell has been at the court of session’s inner house – Scotland’s highest civil court – covering the developments.

After campaigners called for the use of an obscure power, the judge said it would be “unprecedented” for an official to exercise powers to sign the Article 50 extension on behalf of Boris Johnson, since the unique power of nobile officium – which would allow a court official to sign the letter – has never been used over a prime minister.

Lord Drummond Young said: “In the circumstances of this case it is unprecedented. There’s a question of competence.”

The three judges - Lord Drummond Young, Lord Menzies and Lord Turnbull - set the date for the hearing for Tuesday.

Daniel Janner, the son of the late Labour MP Greville Janner, who was one of Beech’s victims, has also accused the deputy Labour leader, Tom Watson, who raised the matter in parliament after speaking to Beech, of being “partially responsible”. He claimed Watson “applied pressure on the police and should hang his head in shame and resign”.

Watson, who was a backbencher at the time, said the review contained “multiple inaccuracies” about him and that it did not make clear letters from him about allegations against Brittan were received by police after they had already interviewed the pper.

In a statement, he said it “cannot be argued that it was pressure from me that led to Lord Brittan being interviewed”.

He added: “I have always said that it wasn’t my place to judge whether sexual abuse allegations were true or false – that was for the police.”

Steve Rodhouse, the officer in charge of Operation Midland and Operation Vincente – an investigation into a separate rape claim against the former home secretary Leon Brittan – has issued an apology.

I am sincerely sorry for the distress that has been caused to innocent people and their families as a consequence of Operation Midland and Operation Vincente.

In hindsight I can see that I did not ensure that we got the balance right between our determination to maintain that confidence and our duty to robustly test the allegations being made.

I understand the criticisms that have been made of my decisions during these investigations but I acted with the best of intentions throughout and I hope that I have demonstrated the transparency, honesty and integrity which have always been vital to me; my decisions were not taken lightly or without great consideration of their impact.

Nevertheless, I sincerely regret the damage that the investigation caused to the reputations of those who were accused and for the hurt felt by their families.

Downing Street has said the public needed to be assured that the Met had learned lessons from the case.

A No 10 spokeswoman said:

This is a deeply concerning case. The trial of Carl Beech raised serious issues over the Metropolitan police response. We welcome the decision to publish further detail. It is vital the public receives independent assurances that the Met has learned lessons identified in this review.

That is why the home secretary has asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to follow up on the report’s findings and ensure the necessary improvements have been made and continue to be made.

The Met’s deputy commissioner, Sir Stephen House, said:

The Met is determined to learn lessons from Sir Richard’s review to improve our response to similar situations in the future. The Met and the officers involved cooperated fully with Sir Richard.

Mistakes were made in Operation Midland and we have apologised for those. We apologise for them again today. However, we do not agree with everything Sir Richard wrote in his report or indeed all of his recent statements regarding further investigations into the actions of officers.

This morning, the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor called for the Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick, to consider her position.

“She showed no leadership or professional ability to insist on investigation into Beech himself,” he said, accusing her of failing to amend previously inaccurate statements on the credibility of Beech’s allegations.

“Her inaction was irresponsible and immoral and she should now consider her position.”

Moving away from Rory Stewart for now, it has emerged that Scotland Yard officers agreed to tell the media they believed “Nick”, the key witness into an ill-fated multi-million pound investigation into an alleged Westminster VIP paedophile ring, whose claims sparked a major police operation.

A new report reveals that revelation was omitted three years ago when the Metropolitan police released a heavily redacted version of the high court judge’s report on its handling of the £2.5m Operation Midland, which shut without a single arrest.

Former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques said a “major contributing factor was the culture that ‘victims’ must be believed” in his findings.

The report added:

Whilst the responsible officers assert that they kept an open mind, several failures can only be explained by an unwarranted and disproportionate belief in ‘Nick’s’ credibility.

The most significant error in this investigation was the decision to apply for search warrants coupled with formulating inaccurate statements which were placed before the district judge.

But for that decision, this investigation may well have been completed without the dreadful adverse consequences I have described.

The operation saw the homes of D-Day veteran Lord Edwin Bramall; Lady Diana Brittan, the widow of former home secretary Leon Brittan; and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor raided on the basis of false claims made by fantasist Carl Beech, who was jailed earlier this year for perverting the course of justice.

My colleagues Simon Murphy and Vikram Dodd have the full story, which will be updated shortly.

You can read the newly announced mayoral candidate’s letter to Londoners in full here.

Here is an excerpt:

We are going to have to work together to lead London through one of the most challenging times in its history, through the uncertainty of Brexit, and in the face of an ever more divisive politics.

And there is so much to do immediately. I felt this in Poplar, when I saw a man who had just been stabbed to death in a park, and when a woman in the neighbourhood led me into a public lavatory, to show me male heroin addicts shooting up in the female cubicles.

I felt it in Lewisham, where some people are living with seven people in a two-room flat, and waiting three weeks for a GP appointment.

I feel it through the frustration of tech entrepreneurs, struggling to plan for the future. And almost every day I feel the consequences of the vicious party divisions in Westminster.

There is also confirmation that Stewart’s video on the Millenium bridge was a genuine selfie, after he was forced to admit pretending to hold his phone in Kew Gardens during a clip he posted back in May.

It now appears that the former international development secretary resigned on stage at the Royal Albert Hall last night, where he also read a letter from Boris Johnson’s Eton house master in 1982.

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