Boris Johnson has said he will not resign even if MPs vote against his legislative agenda, which was set out in the Queen’s Speech on Monday.
Downing Street also said that Mr Johnson could plough on to introduce the bills announced.
The prime minister used his first Queen’s Speech to insist that the government’s priority is to deliver Brexit by 31 October.
But elsewhere, European leaders warned that a full Brexit agreement is unlikely this week.
“I think there is no time in a practical or legal way to find an agreement before the EU Council meeting,” said Antti Rinne, the prime minister of Finland.
“We need more time and we need to have negotiations after the Council meeting.”
EU leaders will gather on Thursday and Friday for the next European Council meeting.
If Boris Johnson cannot reach a deal, attention will turn to next steps, including a possible extension.
“We are not very optimistic,” a senior EU diplomat said.
“Let’s not wait – we can’t wait: let’s get Brexit done,” Mr Johnson told parliament on Monday.
“If there could be one thing more divisive, more toxic than the first referendum, it be would be a second referendum.”
If you would like to see how the day’s events unfolded, please see what was our live coverage below:
The EU has told Boris Johnson he must move “further and faster” in last-ditch Brexit talks if he is to secure an exit deal and avoid having to ask for another extension next weekend.
Officials said intensive talks over the weekend had been “constructive” but that the pace of progress was not enough for a deal to be agreed this week.
Mr Johnson is desperate for an agreement to be signed off before Saturday to avoid him having to ask for further delay to Brexit.
But while EU sources said that a breakthrough during the prime minister’s talks with his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, last week meant there was now “a deal to be done”, they urged Mr Johnson to make further concessions to secure an agreement.
The government will promise a hardline new approach to crime and justice on Monday as ministers use the Queen’s Speech to announce a crackdown on foreign criminals.
Laws will be introduced to toughen up sentences for both violent criminals and foreign nationals who try to re-enter the UK after being deported, while the police will be given new powers to arrest non-British criminals.
Ahead of the speech, Priti Patel, the home secretary, claimed the UK had been “soft on foreign criminals for too long”.
But Labour accused the government of being “hypocritical” after years of cuts to policing budgets.
If Boris Johnson's Brexit plan is successful, then £50bn could be knocked off the UK economy, leaving everyone in the UK £2,000 worse off, a new analysis has found. Academics from the UK in a Changing Europe said the PM's plans would do more harm to the economy than Theresa May's. The silver lining in the research suggests Johnson's plans would be significantly better than a no-deal exit from the EU. In this scenario – leaving on World Trade Organisation terms – would hit income per capita by 8.1 per cent, or £2,500 per person.
Jeremy Corbyn is under fresh pressure to support a second referendum ahead of going to the country in a general election. The usually loyal ally Rebecca Long-Bailey said on Sunday she had "been on a journey" and that if a deal is agreed by parliament later this week it should be put the people in a referendum.
Shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman also strayed from the party's carefully crafted line, telling the BBC's Westminster Hour on Sunday evening: "We're not in control of all this and if there is an opportunity to have another referendum that it may be the most pragmatic thing to do is to take that opportunity."
Chapman added she would be "very surprised" if an amendment for a Final Say referendum wasn't put to a vote on Saturday – the first time parliament sits on a weekend since the Falklands War.
'If we were in control of everything and we could have it mapped out the way we want then yes we would like a general election then yes we would like to have a referendum in the way we’ve described at conference, she said.
Botched announcements by Boris Johnson’s government are putting over a million British citizens living on the continent at the risk of “retaliatory deportations” and other consequences after Brexit, the prime minister has been warned.
UK emigrants living in EU countries fear that a string of hardline statements and “domestic grandstanding” targeting migrants by British government ministers has “directly impacted” the way UK nationals will be treated by their host countries once the United Kingdom leaves.
Groups representing British citizens living across the 27 EU countries have written to Boris Johnson accusing the prime minister of viewing his own citizens as “simply not a priority” and of “undermining” their legal status.
The SNP has unanimously backed decriminalising the possession and consumption of controlled drugs.
Activists at the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen supported the move, branding the current Misuse of Drugs Act, which dates back to 1971, as “not fit for purpose”.
Anne McLaughlin, the SNP’s Westminster candidate for Glasgow North East, spoke out about the need to decriminalise the possession of drugs.
Summing up today's Queen Speech - due to start at 11.30am - the shadow cabinet minister and senior ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, said in a statement: “This Queen’s Speech is farcical. It is just an uncosted wish list which the government has no intention and no means to deliver, and nothing more than a pre-election party political broadcast."
It's a fair point – the government has no majority in the House of Commons to implement the 22 Bill set to be unveiled today by the monarch. Here's an explainer from the weekend on why Boris Johnson is going ahead with today's Queen Speech.
"What if there is a Brexit deal? What if, despite the initial mood music to the contrary from the EU and the Johnson government, they came to an agreement? Perhaps not at the 17-18 October summit but at a later date? The story of whether a deal is possible ebbs and flows wildly," writes former Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested that the government could use EU law in order to force through a no-deal Brexit by the end of the month.
The Commons leader said he believed there was a "pathway to a deal" but hinted that Boris Johnson could use European legislation to get around a law compelling him to delay Brexit if there is no deal in place by next week.
Ahead of a make-or-break week for Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg warned pro-EU MPs that "it takes two to tango" and any extension must be signed off by Brussels.
Asked how ministers could get round this legislation, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “The law of this land is subject to the law of the European Union, so we’ll have to see what the legal eagles think.”
He added: "Theresa May got an extension not through UK law, but through EU law and until the 1972 European Communities Act is repealed, EU law is superior law in the UK."
Picture - PA Images/Jeremy SelwynThe Queen's Speech is due to take place at around 11.30am, when the monarch will read out the government's legislative agenda for the coming session.
But what is it?
Traditions surrounding the state opening of parliament and the Queen's Speech can be traced back to the 16th century.
Filled with pomp and ceremony, it marks the start of the parliamentary year, while the Queen's Speech sets out the government's agenda and outlines its proposed policies.
The event is the only regular time when the three parts which make up parliament, the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, come together.
The ceremony has existed in its current form since 1852, when the Palace of Westminster was rebuilt after the 1834 fire.
It begins with the Queen's procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster, where she is escorted by the army's Household Cavalry.
The 93-year-old monarch will enter Westminster through the Sovereign's entrance, located at the base of Victoria Tower, and move to robing room.
While wearing the Imperial State Crown and the Robe of State, she will lead the procession through the Royal Gallery to the House of Lords.
Black Rod, the House of Lords official, will summon the House of Commons to the Lords, but during this process the doors to the Commons chamber will be shut in her face.
It is a practice that dates back to the Civil War and is said to symbolise the Commons' independence from the monarchy.
Black Rod will have to strike the door three times before it is opened.
Members of the House of Commons then follow Black Rod and the Commons Speaker to the Lords chamber to listen to the speech.
While sitting on the throne in the House of Lords, the Queen will read the Queen's Speech, which is written by the Government.
Once the Queen leaves, parliament will go back to work, with each house meeting separately to begin debating the content of the speech.
Editorial: "There is a jokey one-liner circulating around social media following John McDonnell’s recent statement to GQ magazine that he and Jeremy Corbyn will step down if Labour lose the next election: “Another reason not to vote Labour.”
"It has more truth in it than Labour might like to admit, languishing as they are 10 points behind the Conservatives. Many would vote Labour if they quit before losing."
