Brexit news: Tory leadership candidates brace for screenings of TV interviews as time runs out for votes to be cast

Updates from Westminster as Tory leadership candidates prepared for major TV interviews

Business minister Greg Clark warns of no-deal jobs calamity

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt were braced for the release of a grilling by the BBC's Andrew Neil as the Conservative leadership contest begins to draw to a close.

The pair were each interviewed for half an hour in a programme to be aired on Friday night, with less than two weeks to go until the new prime minister is announced.

It came after Greg Clark, the business secretary, warned that a no-deal Brexit would mean "many thousands" of jobs in the UK being lost.

And Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach, said the decision to leave the EU would send the UK into decades of decline.

Follow the developments as they happened

Key Points

• No-deal Brexit would mean 'many thousands' of jobs lost, says business secretary
• Labour's general secretary calls deputy leader 'deeply irresponsible' as antisemitism row deepens
• Ministers could stage 'sit-in' to prevent no-deal Brexit, suggests chancellor
• John Bercow among MPs who could face new bullying investigation

[12 July 2019 18:03 · Peter Stubley]

Theresa May has also given an interview to the BBC ahead of her departure from Downing Street later this month.

She said she had "underestimated the unwillingness of some people in parliament to compromise" to deliver Brexit.

"On the one hand some people who'd always campaigned for Brexit but didn't vote for the deal because they had a particular vision of Brexit and they were sticking firmly to that vision.

"On the other side people who said they didn't want to leave with no deal but weren't prepared to vote for a deal in order to make sure that what they wanted happened.

Mrs May insisted she had negotiated a "good deal", but added: "One could always look back and say 'if I'd sat down and talked to people more often'."

[12 July 2019 18:07 · Peter Stubley]

Asked how she would feel walking out of Number 10, Ms May said: "I think it'll be a mixture of pride at having done the job. But also a degree of disappointment because there was more that I wanted to do.

"I think we have achieved a lot over the last three years but whenever you come to the end of a premiership I think everybody will always feel that there is more that they wanted to do."

Ms May added: "I will leave with happy memories. It's not - I felt at home here as Prime Minister but it's not obviously the home that Philip and I built up together.

"It is as I've said very much a place of work but there are happy memories because it is an immense privilege to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, it's a huge honour it has a huge responsibility but I'm immensely proud to have been able to do it for three years.

"And you know, I hope that whoever people are, whether they voted for the Conservative Party or for other parties, whether they were Leavers or Remainers, whatever they felt, I hope that will feel that in everything I've done, I've always done what I believe to be in the national interest."

[12 July 2019 18:26 · Peter Stubley]

Some more detail from Jeremy Hunt's BBC interview being aired tonight.

He claimed he was confident of getting a deal by the end of September, : "I believe we can and I, as I say, I think that people like Angela Merkel want to solve this problem.

"If we have a deal, if it's clear to us and to the Europeans there's a deal to be done, then of course I would go for that and if it took a little bit - you know, a few extra days - to get it through Parliament."

He said Parliament would be "willing to sit at weekends, will be willing to sit late, to do this" but that it "may take a few extra days and I would be willing to allow those days".

Asked whether he would be prepared to delay by days, weeks or months, Mr Hunt replied: "Well it's not going to be months."

[12 July 2019 18:28 · Peter Stubley]

Asked if there was any chance the UK could still go in to 2020 as a member of the EU, he replied: "I don't believe so, no."

Mr Hunt also claimed he would deliver Brexit "more quickly than the alternative" - ie Boris Johnson..

He added: "If you want to leave the EU quickly, if you want to avoid a general election, which is the risk if you go about this in the wrong way, I'm the person who has the biggest chance of negotiating that deal and getting us out by October 31."

[12 July 2019 18:36 · Peter Stubley]

That's it for today's politics liveblog. Tonight's Andrew Neil interviews have been heavily trailed already and it remains to be seen how much effect they will have on the leadership race.

There are now only ten days left for Conservative Party members to vote, with the result to be announced on 23 July.