Brexit news - live: Tories considering changing leadership rules amid 'chaos' as 12th candidate enters race

Labour 'complicit' in Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister with incoherent Brexit position, says Alistair Campbell

The Conservatives are considering a review of their leadership contest rules after the 12th candidate entered the race to succeed Theresa May as prime minister.

Nigel Evans, executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, warned the field could swell to as many as 20 as Mark Harper, the former chief whip, announced his intention to stand.

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn was facing increasing pressure over Labour party policy on Brexit as former spin doctor Alastair Campbell described it as “bonkers”.

This live blog has now closed, but you can see Friday's events below

Key Points

• Mark Harper becomes 12th candidate in Conservative leadership contest
• ... as Tory 1922 Committee mulls review of party rules as field swells
• Alastair Campbell says Jeremy Corbyn is 'bonkers on Brexit'
• Labour suspends senior official over 'antisemitic rant'
• David Cameron takes on new role at AI company

[31 May 2019 13:30 · Peter Stubley]

Jeremy Hunt, who has claimed his business background would help resolve Brexit, once tried to set up a business selling marmalade across Japan.

"Unfortunately the boom had passed by," he tells Nick Robinson on the BBC's political thinking podcast, admitting that it was one of his several business failures.

[31 May 2019 13:34 · Peter Stubley]

Jewish community organisations have written to Labour's general secretary Jennie Formby to call for the expulsion of Pete Willsman from the party following his recent comments.

[31 May 2019 13:40 · Peter Stubley]

The letter, signed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust, condemns Labour NEC member Peter Willsman for his "anti-Semitic slur".

"It is racist by any measure," they added.

"It is also, ironically, one of the behaviours described as anti-Semitic in the definition of anti-Semitism that Labour's leadership very grudgingly adopted last year, but have still failed to include anywhere on the Party's website."

"Pete Willsman must be immediately dismissed from Labour's National Executive Committee and expelled from the Labour Party."

[31 May 2019 13:53 · Peter Stubley]

Aviation minister Baroness Vere has warned protesters they could face a maximum life sentence for disrupting Heathrow Airport with drones.

Extinction Rebellion say they will hold an initial one-day protest on 18 June to "pause" flights before a longer protest of "up to 10 days" begins on 1 July.

"Extinction Rebellion demands the Government begins to act on its declaration of a climate and environment emergency by cancelling all Heathrow expansion," a statement from the group said.

"The addition of the planned third runway would make Heathrow the single biggest carbon emitter in the UK; to expand the airport at this critical point in history would be madness.

"We understand the action will cause disruption to a great number of holidaymakers, however we believe that it is necessary given the prospect of far greater disruption caused by ecological and societal collapse, if we don't act now.

"Holidaymakers are being given advance notice to change travel plans."

Baroness Vere warned: "Flying drones near an airport is a serious criminal offence and using drones to deliberately put people's safety at risk carries a maximum life sentence.

"No Government has done more to reduce carbon emissions, and Britain is at the forefront of global efforts to tackle climate change.

"Any illegal activity must be met with the full force of the law."

[31 May 2019 14:03 · Peter Stubley]

Liberal Democrat leadership contender Jo Swinson has ruled out forming a coalition with Labour or the Conservatives unless the electoral system is changed.

She said: "Currently, the leadership of those parties is so fundamentally opposed to our core values that that (a coalition) isn't possible.

"Strategically, for solving the problems within our politics, we need to change the broken way in which we do things.

"One of the key things that needs to happen as we address the political chaos is, we need to change our electoral system.

"That's part of what's going wrong. In any future discussions with any leaders that are not so diametrically opposed to our values, that fundamental political reform has to be front and centre."

Ms Swinson added: "There's no way we can go forward in the future in those type of arrangements without securing that political reform."

[31 May 2019 14:11 · Peter Stubley]

David Cameron has a new job - he is due to join the artificial intelligence company Afiniti as Chair of its Advisory Board.

"Mr Cameron’s experience of political leadership through periods of complexity, both domestically and on the international stage, will be invaluable," the company says.

The former prime minister, who has spent much of the past three years writing a book in a shed, says in a statement: "I have been exploring developments in AI for some time."

[31 May 2019 14:17 · Peter Stubley]

Jeremy Corbyn usurps Margaret Thatcher in Madrid.

[31 May 2019 14:29 · Peter Stubley]

Further details have emerged from the secret tape of Pete Willsman's remarks in an Oxford restaurant earlier this year.

He is said to have called himself "Red Pete", before adding: "They call me Corbyn's enforcer. But I said I don't want to be called Corbyn's enforcer because enforcers ain't got no sense of humour.

"I'm more like Corbyn's protector, 'cos he never looks after himself. He never defends his back. Because he's not interested in himself, he just wants to change the world."

He continued: "It's me who has to stop people stabbing him in the back... I spend 10 hours a day working for Jeremy Bernard Corbyn. Voluntary, 10 hours a day."

[31 May 2019 14:51 · Peter Stubley]

Both Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage will be in Peterborough tomorrow (Saturday 1 June) for some by-election campaigning.

The Labour leader will be giving a speech in the morning before setting out to knock on doorsteps.

Meanwhile the Brexit Party leader is holding a rally at a theatre and will presumably be much better prepared for any potential incidents involving milkshakes.

[31 May 2019 15:09 · Peter Stubley]

Mark Harper may be the least known Tory leadership contender, but he has previously enjoyed media attention for resigning as immigration minister. 

In 2014 Mr Harper discovered that his long-standing cleaner did not have indefinite leave to remain in the UK and he was therefore employing her illegally.