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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Andrew Sparrow, Damien Gayle, Kate Lyons and Kevin Rawlinson

Brexit: Government's no-deal planning operation stood down – as it happened

Closing summary

That’s all from us this evening. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events:

  • Boris Johnson vowed to renew his push for a 12 December general election after being denied it in the Commons. MPs voted by 299 to 70 in favour of holding the election, though that was 135 short of the two-thirds majority required by law. Later, Downing Street said the prime minister would seek to amend the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act to allow an election on that date anyway.
  • The prime minister’s Brexit deal will not be brought back to this parliament. No 10 pledged to drop it in a bid to convince the SNP and the Lib Dems to support the push for a general election before Christmas.
  • Boris Johnson formally broke his promise to bring the UK out of the EU on 31 October. The prime minister accepted the bloc’s offer of a three-month extension, though Brexit could still happen before 31 January if MPs vote through a deal to leave.
  • This parliament has “run its course”, Johnson said as he demanded the pre-Christmas election just a fortnight after insisting on setting out a new legislative programme. No 10 claimed the Commons was to blame for the further delay to Brexit, not the prime minister.
  • The MP, Keith Vaz, should be suspended for six months, the Commons standards committee recommended. Its report said Vaz had expressed willingness to buy a class A drug.

If you’d like to read yet more, my colleague Rowena Mason has the full story:

My colleagues, Rowena Mason and Rajeev Syal, have been looking into what they’ve termed the “meltdown: at the People’s Vote campaign.

It’s embroiled in infighting after the chairman, Roland Rudd, fired two directors by email over the weekend. Today, Peter Mandelson – an Open Britain board member – has said:

Roland Rudd is like the captain of the Titanic demanding the passengers show him more respect as the iceberg carves open the hull and water gushes into the bowels of the ship.

Updated

Government's no-deal Brexit planning operation stood down

Operation Yellowhammer, Whitehall’s no-deal Brexit planning effort, has been shelved, the government has confirmed.

While it’s understood that some planning for such an eventuality will continue because the government’s official position is that the possibility of it yet happening remains open, Yellowhammer has been stood down operationally.

In August, my colleague Rowena Mason helpfully set out the findings of a government report on Yellowhammer that set out the probable consequences of a no-deal Brexit. It makes for useful reading this evening:

The SNP will not be “dancing to Boris Johnson’s tune” on his demands to get a general election on 12 December, one of its MPs has said. Kirsty Blackman told Channel 4 News:

We are keen for there to be a general election before the 12th. I don’t trust Boris Johnson. I’m not convinced I trust him to follow through on any promises that he’s likely to make on this.

We may have conversations with many different people but we will not be dancing to Boris Johnson’s tune on this.

Boris Johnson could have secured a general election by supporting the Lib Dems’ bill for a vote on 9 December, the party’s leader, Jo Swinson, has said.

The prime minister has lost another vote in parliament. This latest attempt to force his bad Brexit bill through parliament has failed because this parliament simply does not trust him.

Boris Johnson claims he wants a general election, but he also claimed he wouldn’t prorogue parliament or put a border down the Irish sea.

If Boris Johnson wants a general election, then he could have supported our bill for a general election on 9 December. Instead, he has chosen to stick to his original plan for 12 December, which we have already rejected.

Labour made suggestions it was poised to reject Johnson’s latest bid to get a pre-Christmas general election.

The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, said the proposed 12 December vote would “disenfranchise” voters including students and cause voters “immense” difficulties getting to the polls. Asked if Labour would rule out a winter general election, he told Sky News:

I think it’s very unwise to be having a general election in the run-up to Christmas. If it comes, it comes. We will get on with it and we will take our proposals to the people. I doubt the wisdom of holding it at this time of year; it’s not a wise choice.

Updated

MPs will be asked to vote for the general election under the one-clause motion on Tuesday, the Press Association understands.

PM to press ahead with 12 December election plan, No 10 source says

A one-clause motion to amend the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act (FTPA) to call for a general election with the specific date of 12 December will be laid tonight, an unnamed Downing Street source has told the Press Association.

The source is also quoted as saying that the withdrawal agreement bill to implement Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – referred to as the WAB – will not be put back to MPs.

Tonight we are laying a one-clause motion to amend the FTPA and call an election with the named day of 12 December. The bill is very similar to the LD/SNP bill. The WAB will not be put back. This is the way to get Brexit done so the country can move on.

Updated

Only one Labour MP voted with the prime minister for a general election this evening: Kate Hoey. Johnson had the support of 280 of his Tory colleagues and 18 independents.

No Conservative MP voted against, though Ken Clarke – formerly of the party and now sitting as an independent – did vote ‘no’.

The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, told the Commons his party would support the prime minister’s new plan for a 12 December election if he gave a “cast-iron guarantee” he would not bring back the withdrawal agreement bill.

It is clear that there is a desire on the opposition benches to bring forward a bill that can give us an election. But we don’t trust this prime minister and we don’t trust this prime minister for good reason.

So, the prime minister, if he is going to bring forward a bill, must give an absolute cast-iron assurance that, up until the passage of that bill and the rising of parliament, that there will be no attempt to bring forward the withdrawal agreement bill.

Updated

Raising his point of order after belatedly entering the Commons, Corbyn told MPs:

I apologise to you and to the prime minister for not being here at the point when he raised his point of order, I was detained outside the chamber, I’m now back here.

I understand a bill will be tabled tomorrow. We will obviously look [at] and scrutinise that bill and we look forward to a clear, definitive decision that no deal is absolutely off the table and there is no danger of this prime minister not sticking to his word – because he has some form on these matters – and taking this country out of the EU without any deal whatsoever, knowing the damage it will do to jobs and industries all across this country.

The Labour MP Stephen Doughty says he was wrong when he suggested earlier that there were rumours that Boris Johnson could stand as a candidate in East Yorkshire, not in his current constituency, Uxbridge and South Ruislip. (See 5.42pm.) He says the Tory MP for East Yorkshire, Sir Greg Knight, has been readopted as a candidate. Doughty says he muddled the constituency up with another one.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

Jeremy Corbyn says Labour will look at the bill and scrutinise it. He says Labour wants a definite statement about no deal being off the table. He says this must be clear, because the PM has “some form” for not keeping his word.

Johnson says he will table bill for an early election to take place on 12 December

Boris Johnson makes a point of order.

People will find Jeremy Corbyn’s stance “bewildering”.

Johnson says tonight the government will give notice of its plans for a short bill for a general election on Thursday 12 December.

  • Johnson says he will legislate for an early election. A bill will not be subject to a super-majority, and with the Lib Dems and the SNP potentially supporting the government (although they want a different date), Johnson has a good chance of winning.

Updated

Boris Johnson fails to get enough votes to trigger early election

MPs have backed the motion by 299 votes to 70 - leaving Boris Johnson 135 votes short of the votes he needed for this division to have force.

Reading out the result, John Bercow says this technically means “the noes have it”.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

Boris Johnson’s first attempt to call an early election using the Fixed-term Parliaments Act super-majority procedure was on 4 September. The motion was passed by 298 votes to 56 - leaving Johnson 136 votes short of the target he needed.

And the second attempt was on 9 September. That motion was passed by 293 votes to 46 - leaving Johnson 141 votes short.

MPs vote on government motion calling for an early election.

MPs are now voting. Here is the text of the motion:

That there shall be an early parliamentary general election.

For the motion to pass and have effect, it needs to be backed by two-thirds or more of all MPs – 434. No one expects it to clear that hurdle.

What we are really waiting for is not the result, but what Boris Johnson says once it is over. He is expected to use a point of order to make an announcement about what the government will do next.

Updated

Mike Gapes, the former Labour MP who now sits for the Independent Group for Change, told MPs that internet campaigning would not be properly regulated in any election held in the next few weeks. His group is opposed to an early election.

From ITV’s Robert Peston

From the Times’ Steven Swinford

I’ve updated some of the earlier posts from the opening of the debate with direct quotes. But to see the updates, you may need to refresh the page.

The DUP’s Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, is speaking now. He says what is on offer is not Brexit for the whole of the UK, because it leaves Northern Ireland in the single market.

He describes the PM’s deal as a “death deal to the union”.

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, has just finished speaking now. She said that she wanted a second referendum but did not believe there was a majority for it in the Commons. That is why she wanted an early election, she said. She argued that this provided the best chance of stopping Brexit.

Anna Soubry, the former Tory MP who now leads the Independent Group for Change, intervened. She said she thought there was now a majority in the Commons for a confirmatory referendum. Swinson did not accept this.

Like Blackford, Swinson also defends giving 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote - but without making it a precondition for backing an early election.

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, told MPs that his party would not back the motion for a December 12 election but would support efforts for a December 9 poll.

If we enable this motion to pass, we will be out [of the EU] before the prime minister’s election. We cannot allow the Prime Minister to railroad through this disastrous so-called deal.

We will support the Liberal Democrats’ proposals for an election before Brexit can happen, with no reintroduction of the withdrawal agreement bill.

Because given the way that some Labour MPs voted we cannot trust Labour to block the Bill in future.

Asked by the Tory Brexiter Iain Duncan Smith if the SNP would insist on amending an early election bill to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote, Blackford said his party favoured this because it was the right thing to do. (In Scotland 16 and 17-year-olds were given the vote for the 2014 independence referendum, and subsequently they were allowed to vote in elections to the Scottish parliament and for local government.) But Blackford did not appear to insist on this as a red line.

From RTE’s Tony Connelly on Boris Johnson’s letter to Donald Tusk.

What Corbyn said about when Labour might back an early election

This is what Jeremy Corbyn said about the conditions that would need to be apply for Labour to back an early election. He said:

Many of us are very cautious of believing anything the prime minister said. We want it tied down before we agree to anything.

The 12 December election is less than a fortnight before Christmas, nine days before the shortest day of the year. The house must consider that in parts of this country it will be dark before 4pm. Many students will have just finished their term and gone home for Christmas ... and they risk being disenfranchised ...

As I was saying about students and their opportunity to vote on the dates in question, the latter point may not be the case on the 9 December and we will consider carefully any legislation proposed that locks in the date.

The theme of this is we don’t trust the prime minister. We want something that definitely and definitively takes no deal off the table and ensures that the voting rights of all of our citizens are protected ...

We agree that an early election is necessary. But also seek good reason, since no general election has been held in December since 1923 ...

When no deal is off the table, when the date for an election can be fixed in law, and when we can ensure that students are not being disenfranchised, we will back an election so this country can get the government it needs.

And here are the main points.

  • Corbyn appeared to rule out accepting an early election on Thursday 12 December, the government’s preferred date. He suggested this would lead to students being disenfranchised.
  • But he suggested that Labour could back on early election taking place on Monday 9 December (the date proposed by the Lib Dems and the SNP). But the date would have to be set in law, he said (something that would happen if MPs passed an amendment to the Fixed-term Parliament’s Act for an early election, but not if MPs used a FTPA super-majority vote to trigger one - because that mechanism would allow the PM to decide the election date.)

Labour sources are saying it would be a mistake to take Corbyn’s words as implying that he favours an election in early January. (See 5.48pm.) That would involve the election campaign taking place over the Christmas holidays - something that would probably be as popular with voters as the plague.

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn Photograph: House of Commons/PA

Updated

Journalists are split over the precise implications of Corbyn’s words.

This is from the BBC’s Iain Watson.

And this is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.

I will post the exact quotes in a moment so that you are better able to judge who’s right.

Corbyn also says he is opposed to an election on Thursday 12 December, particularly because students might not be at university to vote.

Corbyn hints Labour would support early election if date fixed

Corbyn says Labour will not agree to an early election until the government has committed itself to a specific date.

This is significant because it implies Labour could support, or at least abstain on, legislation to amend the Fixed-term Parliaments Act to allow an early election.

Updated

Labour’s Stephen Doughty intervenes to say there are rumours that Johnson will not even stand as an MP at the election in his constituency, Uxbridge and South Ruislip (where he had a majority of 5,034 at the last election). Johnson may stand in Sevenoaks (where there was a Tory majority of 21,917 in 2017) or East Yorkshire (where it was 15,006), Doughty says.

Johnson shakes his head but does not intervene.

UPDATE: Corbyn also took an intervention from the Labour MP Paula Sherriff who said Johnson still had not apologised for what he said to her in a debate in September implying her concerns about death threats to MPs were “humbug”.

Corbyn replied:

I will be happy to give way now to the prime minister if he wants to get up and apologise to my friend for what he said about her during that debate.

Johnson replied:

I will happily apologise if the shadow chancellor would for instance apologise for inviting the population to lynch [Tory minister Esther McVey].

Corbyn said: “Sorry seems to be the hardest word, doesn’t it?”

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn is responding to Boris Johnson.

He says Johnson has broken his promises.

This is a prime minister who cannot be trusted. Having illegally prorogued parliament for five weeks for his Queen’s speech, he now abandons that Queen’s speech.

He got his deal through a second reading then abandoned it. He promised us a budget on November 6 and then he abandoned that too.

He said he would never ask for an extension and he said he would rather die in a ditch - another broken promise.

The government spent £100m on an advertising campaign saying the UK would be leaving the EU on 31 October. He says that money could have been spend on food parcels for food banks, or social care packages.

He says an investigation for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme has revealed that the government has been holding secret meetings with US drug companies about the price paid for drugs by the NHS.

He says the prime minister has not confirmed that he will be accepting the extension offered by the EU.

This provokes much jeering from MPs who have been reading Twitter on their phones. Johnson intervenes and says he has sent a letter to the EU confirming that he will obey the law.

(Corbyn will have written his speech before the text of the PM’s letter to Tusk was published. See 5.31pm.)

Updated

Johnson confirms he is accepting EU's extension, but urges it to rule out another beyond January

Boris Johnson has written to Donald Tusk, president of the European council, confirming that the UK is accepting the extension offered by the EU. Under the Benn Act, he had no choice. See 10.13am. Here is his letter (pdf).

In the letter Johnson urges the EU to rule out any further extension beyond 31 January.

PM’s letter to Tusk
PM’s letter to Tusk Photograph: No 10
PM’s letter to Tusk
PM’s letter to Tusk Photograph: No 10

Johnson says Labour has 'run out of excuses' not to back early election

Johnson accuses Jeremy Corbyn of wanting to frustrate the wishes of the people.

Corbyn has “run out of excuses”, he says.

He says first Corbyn said the Benn act would have to pass for Labour to back an election.

Then Corbyn said the Benn act would have to be implemented, Johnson says.

And now Corbyn is coming up with more extreme excuses, he says. He says Corbyn now wants the government to rule out a no-deal Brexit at the end of 2020.

We must have an election now, we cannot continue with this endless delay, and I don’t know about you Mr Speaker, but I think the leader of the opposition has now run out of excuses ...

And he’s still coming up with ever more ludicrous excuses for hiding from the British people.

Now he says we’ve got to take no-deal off the table at the end of the transition period in December 2020.

Would it not make sense, according even to his own logic, for him to agree to an election now, so that he can have an opportunity to take no-deal off the table himself - isn’t that the logic of his position?

He says Corbyn’s allies, like the Lib Dems and the SNP, are deserting him.

He can run, but he cannot hide forever. Across parliament, his supposed allies are deserting him. The SNP, I now read, are in favour of an election, and the Lib Dems are in favour of an election.

What an incredible state of affairs that there is one party tonight that is actually against a general election. There is one party that does not trust the people of this country, and that is the principal party of opposition.

I hope he accepts tonight that he is snookered, that this charade has gone on for long enough, that he will agree to allow Brexit to get done, and then allow us to make our cases to the people.

And, when that election comes, the people of this country will have to make a choice between a government that delivers, a government that not only got a great Brexit deal when they said it was impossible, but which is also putting 20,000 more police on the streets, delivering the biggest hospital building programme in a generation, investing £14bn more in our schools in levelling up education funding across the country, a great one nation Conservative government, which is what we represent, and a Labour opposition that would turn the year 2020 into a toxic tedious torture of two more referendums.

Updated

The DUP MP Ian Paisley intervenes. If Boris Johnson wins the election, will he implement the Brexit deal he negotiated? Or will he try and renegotiate the provisions for Northern Ireland.

Johnson says he will be campaigning to implement the “excellent deal” he negotiated.

Boris Johnson says parliament has 'run its course' as he opens debate on holding early election

Boris Johnson is opening the debate on his motion calling for an early election. It is the third time he has asked MPs to vote on this. After both previous debates Johnson won the vote - but not with the two-thirds majority required under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act for the vote to count.

He starts by saying that MPs do not want an early election.

But there is a widespread view that this parliament has “run its course”, he says. He says it is not capable of delivering on the priorities of the people.

Across the country there is a widespread view that this parliament has run its course.

I simply do not believe that this house is capable of delivering on the priorities of the people, whether that means Brexit or anything else.

Updated

Tory Brexiters suggest extension should be used to renegotiate PM's backstop alternative

This is from the Conservative Brexiter MP Craig Mackinlay.

Steve Baker, the Tory MP who chairs the European Research Group, which represents hardline Brexiters, thinks his colleague has a point.

The Scottish parliament’s information centre has produced a 39-page briefing (pdf) on what the withdrawal agreement bill means for Scotland.

According to a snap YouGov poll, only around a quarter of people think the UK will leave the EU by 31 January – the new deadline set by the EU.

Updated

The Times has been serialising the new book about Theresa May’s premiership by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, but May probably wishes they weren’t. Saturday’s excerpts (paywall) focused on how bad she was as a campaigner. Today’s (paywall) include comments from insiders arguing that she was pretty hopeless at managing cabinet too. Here is an excerpt.

Prime ministers earn authority and respect from ministers in part on how effectively they conduct themselves in cabinet, just as respect from MPs is earned by their conduct in the house. One official in attendance at cabinet comments: “She didn’t enjoy chairing cabinet. Nor did she enjoy the company of cabinet colleagues. I began to think she thought cabinet was a waste of her time. Her initial ambition was of a ‘return to cabinet government’, similar to Gordon Brown when he became prime minister. But it was not true. She had neither the time, nor patience, nor inclination to discuss important matters in cabinet and cabinet committees. Someone said she was a good poker player. But I don’t think that’s true, because she wasn’t that subtle and didn’t think deeply enough. On most prime ministerial issues, other than those she had dealt with at the Home Office, she didn’t have a view at all. She had neither political friends nor any idea that they were important to a prime minister.

Another official adds: “She was the least collegiate prime minister I ever worked with, worse even than Gordon Brown because she was not as bright and lacked his intelligence and vision. She was very insular and couldn’t communicate. She shared one trait with Brown, though: neither trusted people, and both were very tribal.”

There is also a perceptive essay on May in the new book from Steve Richards, The Prime Ministers. He says that, although May was often described as weak, that does not explain her flaws as a PM.

May was often described as ‘weak’. The term is close to useless in casting light on a leader, but as far as it means anything, it points us in the wrong direction here. Politically she was in a much weaker position, but as a personality she remained the most stubborn prime minister to occupy No 10 for many decades – arguably more so than Margaret Thatcher. Often Thatcher was more expedient than she seemed. May was a wilful leader in a weak position: an explosive combination.

The Prime Ministers is superb, one of those rare books that can change the way you think about politics, and I would recommend it strongly. It covers every PM from Harold Wilson to May, focusing not so much on what they did as on what their premierships reveal about leadership, and about what works and what doesn’t. This is a subject often not fully addressed by biographers, and almost never as well as by Richards here.

Theresa May in the Commons for PMQs last week.
Theresa May in the Commons for PMQs last week. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/AP

Updated

The Sun’s Matt Dathan has more on today’s shadow cabinet.

In the Commons Priti Patel, the home secretary, has just delivered a statement about the 39 people who were found dead in the back of a lorry in Essex. As well as updating MPs on the fact that a lorry driver has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, she said that those who died were the victims of “brutal and unscrupulous criminal gangs” and a reminder of the evils of people trafficking.

She said that the nationality of the 39 people who died has still not been confirmed, and that the investigation would be long and meticulous.

She also said the Border Force was increasing its presence at Purfleet and that Belgium was allowing the UK to deploy more border officials in Zeebrugge.

Priti Patel
Priti Patel Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

From the Financial Times’s Sebastian Payne

Updated

There are five MPs in the Independent Group for Change (aka continuity Change UK). They will not be voting for an early election, Sky’s Lewis Goodall reports.

“Shock bombshell” is sarcasm (not always obvious on Twitter) because it is widely assumed that the IGC MPs will all lose their seats at the election.

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

ITV’s Joe Pike has more on John Mann.

John Mann stands down as MP

The Treasury has confirmed that Labour’s John Mann has been appointed steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds - the archaic process that means he is no longer an MP. He is going to the House of Lords to take up a post as an independent government adviser on antisemitism.

Mann voted leave in 2016 and was one of the 19 Labour MPs who voted to give Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement bill a second reading last week.

Updated

The shadow cabinet seems to have wrapped up.

This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.

This is from the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar.

And this is from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.

Here are two questions from readers about the Lib Dem/SNP proposal for a general election on Monday 9 December, instead of Thursday 12 December (which is what the government is proposing).

What are the advantages of having the election on Monday 9 December, not Thursday 12 December?

The Lib Dems have not officially given an explanation for this, but in private, party sources have said one advantage of having the election on the Monday rather than the Thursday is that students are more likely to be at university on the Monday. This is from the academic Ivor Gaber.

In a very useful analysis for the Higher Education Policy Institute website, Nick Hillman, its director, points out that there are seats where the student vote has clearly helped the Lib Dems. But he also concludes:

It is hard to find a single general election when the student vote determined who got the keys to Number 10. Even if the contested claim that student support for Jeremy Corbyn made a big difference at the 2017 election is true, Labour still lost (as Kay Burley famously reminded Richard Burgon MP the other day).

There are other advantages to the Liberal Democrats from a 9 December election. It would allow more time for a new government to agree a Brexit deal, or negotiate another extension, before the 31 January deadline. And it would allow even less time for Boris Johnson to pass his Brexit deal, which is something the Lib Dems are opposing ahead of an early election.

Wouldn’t it be easier to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, instead of just amending it as the Lib Dems and the SNP propose?

The Lib Dems and the SNP are proposing legislation that would effectively allow a one-off exemption from the FTPA, to allow an early election to take place this year. Theresa May prepared a similar bill in 2017, although in the end she did not need it because (to her surprise) Labour agreed to vote for an early election (meaning she had the two-thirds majority needed under the FTPA for an election poll to go ahead).

Another option would be to repeal the FTPA wholesale. But this would effectively put the power to call an election back entirely in the hands of the prime minister, at a time when the trend has been to curtail these prerogative powers (as in the supreme court ruling on article 50), not extend them. In the current circumstances, it is very hard to see how this would get through parliament.

Updated

Commons standards committee says Keith Vaz should be suspended as MP for six months

The Commons standards committee has just published a report on its very long-running inquiry into the Labour MP Keith Vaz. It is recommending that he be suspended as an MP for six months for expressing willingness to buy a class A drug.

Here is an extract from the report (pdf).

We have found that Mr Vaz acted in breach of paragraph 16 of the 2015 House of Commons code of conduct. By expressing willingness to purchase a class A drug, cocaine, for others to use, thereby showing disregard for the law, and by failing to cooperate fully with the inquiry process, thereby showing disrespect for the house’s standards system, he has caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole.

This is a very serious breach of the code. We recommend that the house should suspend Mr Vaz from its service for six months.

We note that this suspension, if agreed by the House, will trigger the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015 and require a recall petition to be opened in Mr Vaz’s constituency.

We further recommend that if Mr Vaz were to cease to be a member of the house for whatever reason, he should not be eligible to be granted a former member’s pass.

This recommendation has to be approved by the Commons as a whole, but that is almost automatic in the case of reports from this committee.

No MP has ever been suspended for this long since the second world war, as this report (pdf) confirms, although one Labour MP was expelled from the Commons in 1947, and a Conservative in 1954.

Keith Vaz.
Keith Vaz. Photograph: David Gadd/Sportsphoto/Allstar

Updated

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

President Macron’s office said France had worked all weekend to insist on very clear conditions written “in black and white” to allow the UK’s Brexit extension. An Élysée official said:

All weekend, France took the initiative with Germany, Ireland, Donald Tusk’s team and a few other countries, to fix the terms of the extension very precisely: that the withdrawal agreement isn’t renegotiable, that the UK would follow a code of conduct and allow the EU’s 27 members to meet to discuss other issues for their future [such as the budget], and that the UK must legally appoint a commissioner if the European commission sits before the UK leaves.

The Élysée said France’s long-held preference for a much shorter extension had focused minds, put on pressure and allowed those clear conditions to be put in place.

After Macron was styled by some media as seeking to put a spanner in the works of a longer extension, the Elysée official said this had never been France’s line.

A veto or tension is not our approach. We always build a collective solution in the end ... The most important issue is the unity of the EU’s 27 members. We wanted to preserve that unity without creating a crisis over Brexit. Because the worst outcome would be for Brexit – a British political crisis – to be imported to the EU and spread a form of poison and division that we don’t want.

The source added that France’s main concern was to stay out of British internal politics and to ensure that a Brexit extension was justified.

Some said we were playing Boris Johnson’s game, or the British opposition’s game. We have never tried to take any part in Britain’s internal game.

The official said Macron had no interest in imposing a General de Gaulle or Napoleon-inspired “splendid isolation” within the EU.

France has now insisted that in December the EU’s 27 members must sit down in the cold light of day to hold discussions on strategy for the future negotiations over the relationship with the UK. The official said:

It’s healthy to sit down and lay out our ideas for future negotiations, to stop reacting in the heat of the moment to this or that Brexit event.

The Elysee Palace
The Élysée Palace Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

Updated

Yesterday Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, posted a thread on Twitter explaining why her party was supporting the Lib Dem call for an early election. She said there was no evidence that there was a majority in parliament now for a second referendum. And she also commended this article by the prominent anti-Brexit journalist Ian Dunt arguing why an election now was probably the best option for remainers. Her thread starts here.

The SNP normally works closely with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, but on this issue the two nationalist parties are divided. Plaid Cymru says a second referendum should come first. In a statement Liz Saville Roberts, its leader at Westminster, said:

Boris Johnson has failed to deliver on yet another promise. Working together, opposition parties have stopped Mr Johnson delivering his damaging Brexit deal – or no deal – on Halloween.

Those of us opposed to inflicting the harm of Brexit on the four nations of the UK must now unite again to deliver the most sensible way to end this mess – a final say referendum.

The extension granted by the EU should now be used to secure a people’s vote and end the Brexit chaos.

If the government fail to deliver this, opposition parties must work together, and if necessary, form a caretaker government to deliver this most democratic solution to Brexit.

Liz Saville-Roberts
Liz Saville Roberts. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

These are from the Daily Mirror’s Dan Bloom.

Boris Johnson says new parliament would meet before Christmas if election held on 12 December

Ahead of the vote this afternoon on his call for an early election, Boris Johnson has used a Commons written statement to set out the election timetable that would be followed if he secures the two-thirds majority required under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act for an early election to go ahead. He said:

The government has tabled a motion proposing that an early general election be held. The motion is in the terms set out in section 2(2) of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. If agreed to by a super-majority of the House of Commons, an early election will take place in accordance with that act.

In the event this house approves the motion for an early election, I will recommend that Her Majesty the Queen appoints 12 December as the date of the general election. This would mean parliament dissolving just after midnight on 6 November.

In line with the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, the date of parliament’s return will be set by royal proclamation following dissolution, and I will recommend to the Queen that the first meeting of the new parliament takes place before 23 December.

Labour says it will only back an early election when a no-deal Brexit has been taken off the table and one concern it has raised is that an early election could result in a new government not taking office until mid January, leaving it very little time to pass a new deal. Johnson declaration that the new parliament would meet before Christmas in the event of the election taking place on Thursday 12 December seems intended to address this point.

Boris Johnson posing for a photograph outside No 10 today during a meeting with fundraisers for the Royal British Legion.
Boris Johnson posing for a photograph outside No 10 today during a meeting with fundraisers for the Royal British Legion. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated

Government sources are now briefing the broadcasters that if Boris Johnson fails to get the two-thirds majority needed this evening to trigger an early election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, he will table a very similar bill tomorrow. These are from Laura Kuenssberg, Robert Peston and Beth Rigby, political editors at the BBC, ITV and Sky respectively.

No 10 did not go quite this far on the record at the morning lobby briefing, but journalists who attended were left with the impression that this was being planned (see 12.15pm) and it is also what Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, was suggesting in interviews this morning. (See 8.39am.)

There are two Commons statements today, and no urgent questions. That means the debate on holding an early election should start soon after 5.30pm, with the vote soon after 7pm (90 minutes later).

Parliament to blame for PM having to break his 31 October Brexit promise, No 10 says

Boris Johnson has no intention of apologising for failing to meet his repeatedly promised deadline of 31 October to leave the EU, and believes parliament is to blame for the delay, Downing Street has said.

At the regular lobby briefing there was not, as yet, a formal response to the EU’s offer of another extension, to 31 January. Johnson’s spokesman said the PM was in Essex on a visit connected to the death last week of 39 people found in the back of lorry. He said:

The PM has not yet seen the EU’s response to parliament’s request for a delay, and the PM will respond once he has seen the detail. His view has not changed: parliament should not have put the UK in this position and we should be leaving on 31 October.

With a delay inevitable, Johnson’s spokesman was repeatedly pressed on whether the PM had any contrition for failing to keep to the key campaign pledge which arguably most helped him become Conservative leader and thus enter No 10. The answer, while oblique, was a definite “no”. His spokesman said:

What the prime minister has done, despite being told it was impossible, was secure a deal and set out a timetable which would have allowed us to deliver that deal on 31 October. Parliament has stood in the way of being able to deliver Brexit.

Pressed repeatedly on the matter, he eventually said: “I think I’ve said all I have to say on that matter.”

What does seem more likely is that Downing Street could embrace a version of the Lib Dem-inspired plan to force an election via a new bill requiring a simple majority in the Commons, if its attempt to call one through a motion under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (FTPA) does not reach the necessary two-thirds majority, as seems inevitable.

Asked about the idea of a bill-based election, Johnson’s spokesman said the government was “currently focused on the FTPA bill”.

But if this falls, it seems there could be movement on an election bill pretty quickly. It is understood the government could even accept the Lib Dems’ preferred election date of 9 December, meaning that, to allow the required five-week campaign period, the election would need to be called this week.

With parliament not due to sit on Friday, and set to be dominated on Wednesday by the response to the report into the Grenfell tragedy, that would leave Tuesday or Thursday.

Yet even with this tight timetable, so far there have been no talks between the Lib Dems and No 10.

10 Downing Street.
10 Downing Street. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Updated

Here are three journalists all making broadly the same set of points, which sum up quite well the 24-carat dysfunctionality of Westminster at the moment.

From the BBC’s Nick Robinson

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From the Atlantic’s Tom McTague

This is from the politics professor Philip Cowley on the issue of whether or not Boris Johnson gets the blame for the Brexit extension. (See 10.55am.)

From Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London

The prime minister and the home secretary joined Essex emergency services this morning to pay their respects to the 39 people found dead in a refrigerated lorry trailer last week, the Press Association reports. Alongside senior local dignitaries, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, whose constituency of Witham is in Essex, signed a book of condolence and will lay wreaths in Mulberry garden outside the Thurrock civic offices in remembrance.

A message left by Boris Johnson in the book of condolence.
A message left by Boris Johnson in the book of condolence. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

From my colleague Peter Walker, who has been at the No 10 lobby briefing.

Updated

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s lead Brexit spokesman, is also urging the UK not to waste this extension.

This morning John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, claimed that the Lib Dem decision to back an early election (see 8.39am) showed that they were aligning with the Tories and “selling out the People’s Vote campaign”.

That prompted this response from Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader.

The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has received a sobering warning that its deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, may lose his seat to Sinn Féin in the next election.

Steve Aiken, the incoming leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), has ruled out a tactical voting pact with the DUP, leaving Dodds vulnerable in his Belfast North constituency.

The prospect will complicate the DUP’s calculations over whether to back efforts in Westminster to trigger a December election.

The UUP and DUP have cooperated in recent elections to avoid splitting the unionist vote in marginal constituencies, enabling Dodds to fend off Sinn Féin and lead the DUP’s 10 MPs at Westminster.

Over the weekend Aiken, a former submarine commander who is due to take charge of the UUP next month, announced it would contest every seat and not make a pact with a party that had bungled Brexit and “besmirched unionism with its corruption and sleaze”, a reference to the cash-for-ash scandal.

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, said this would imperil Dodds, who faces a stiff challenge from Sinn Fein’s John Finucane, the mayor of Belfast. “I think that’s really regrettable, that’s something for him to reflect on, I think it’s something for wider unionism to reflect on,” she said.

Something else to reflect on: according to a new poll 65% of voters in Northern Ireland believe Brexit will make a united Ireland more likely within 10 years.

Nigel Dodds addressing the DUP conference at the weekend
Nigel Dodds addressing the DUP conference at the weekend. Photograph: Lorraine O’Sullivan/Reuters

Updated

And more from Jennifer.

This is a reference to what Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said in April, when the UK’s second and longer Brexit extension was agreed. “Please do not waste this time,” he said. The Conservative party then embarked on a leadership contest, and it was six months before the new PM presented a revised deal to parliament. Tusk may feel his advice was not taken very seriously.

From my colleague Jennifer Rankin

This is from David Sassoli, president of the European parliament.

From ITV’s Robert Peston

EU's 'flextension' offer - Snap analysis

The announcement that the EU would agree to delay Brexit until 31 January did not come as a surprise to anyone this morning. But it is still a milestone in the Brexit process, and arguably one of the most important moments in Boris Johnson’s premiership. Here are three reasons why.

1 - Boris Johnson has now failed to achieve what he set out as the most important goal of his premiership. Even at the end of last week he was still claiming that Brexit could happen by 31 October, but that dream is now dead. And it is hard to overstate how important this was to the Johnson project. During the Tory leadership campaign the most important issue that separated Johnson from Jeremy Hunt, his challenger, was that Johnson said Brexit would have to happen by 31 October, whereas Hunt said it was more realistic to accept that the deadline might slip. After becoming prime minister Johnson repeatedly said unequivocally Brexit would happen by 31 October, particularly on social media. He said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than extend Brexit. And then, of course, there were the Tory countdown clocks, one of which was delivered to No 10. Presumably this morning they have been stalled.

But Johnson’s monumental failure in this regard begs a much bigger question ...

2 - Johnson’s political future now depends on whether voters will forgive him for breaking his signature promise. Sometimes politicians can be destroyed by failing to deliver on a high-profile promise (eg George Bush putting up taxes, when Americans remembers “Read my lips, no new taxes”, and Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems putting up tuition fees, when they promised before the 2010 general election to vote against tuition fee increases). But sometimes politicians can get away with it (Tony Blair also broke a tuition fees promise), and so far the polling evidence suggests that Johnson (a politician who has more experience than most at getting away with flouting norms) and his party does not seem to have been damaged much by the expectation (confirmed this morning) that Brexit would be delayed. (See the polling below.) What seems to be working in his favour is the perception that at least he tried. Whether or not opinion turns against him on this later may decide the next election.

3 - The EU decision will make it harder for Labour to justify opposing an early election. At one point Jeremy Corbyn was saying that, as soon as the Benn act became law, Labour would be ready to vote for an election. With the party split internally about the wisdom of an early election, Corbyn has now set new hurdles for what might be needed before his party would be willing to back an early poll. Yesterday the party said Johnson would have to rule out a no-deal Brexit in all circumstances before Labour would agree to an election. But this argument is starting to sound tenuous (at other times the party has said assurances from Johnson cannot be believed), and so it is conceivable that Corbyn could lift his opposition to an early poll.

Updated

From PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield

Why PM must accept EU's 'flextension' offer

We have not had a response from No 10 yet to the EU Brexit extension decision. But under the terms of the Benn act (the law that was passed requiring Boris Johnson to request an extension), he has to accept the offer. This is what it says in section 3(1):

If the European council decides to agree an extension of the period in article 50(3) of the treaty on European Union ending at 11.00pm on 31 October 2019 to the period ending at 11.00pm on 31 January 2020, the prime minister must, immediately after such a decision is made, notify the president of the European council that the United Kingdom agrees to the proposed extension.

Updated

Here is our main story from Daniel Boffey and Jon Henley about the EU offering a Brexit “flextension” until 31 January.

From the French journalist Quentin Aries

From Sky News

Bloomberg’s Nikos Chrysoloras has a helpful summary of the “flextension” proposal from the EU.

MPs are now ready to vote for second referendum, People's Vote campaign claims

One of the reasons by the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are pushing for an election now is because they have given up hope of MPs voting for a second referendum in this parliament. This is how Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, explained it on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday. She said:

I have worked hard in parliament to try to secure a majority for a people’s vote. It hasn’t been forthcoming. Even this week we tabled an amendment. We have tabled amendments for a people’s vote 17 times and Labour have not backed them in sufficient numbers. In contrast, 19 Labour MPs voted for Boris Johnson’s deal.

But this morning Tom Baldwin, communications director for the People’s Vote campaign, insisted that there was a majority in the current House of Commons for a second referendum. He told the Today programme:

The more people look at Boris Johnson’s deal, the more they realise this is perhaps not quite what was promised. And if we can expose Boris Johnson’s deal for what it is, I believe there is a majority in the current House of Commons for a confirmatory referendum.

When challenged on this, he repeated the point about the majority being there for a second referendum once the flaws in Johnson’s deal were obvious. He explained:

[The majority is there] when you have exposed Boris Johnson’s deal for what it is. What I have said all the way through is that our strategy is to be the last thing standing. We are not an option in this crisis. We are a solution to it.

I described Baldwin as the communications director of the People’s Vote campaign but that is a moot point because Baldwin was on the programme to discuss the reports that emerged last night that he had been sacked. Here is our overnight story about the row.

Baldwin told the Today programme that he did not actually work for Roland Rudd, one of the People’s Vote campaign figureheads and the person who supposedly sacked him, and that he would be going into work as normal today.

In a subsequent interview Rudd said that Baldwin had not been fired, but that he was being offered “an opportunity for a different type of role”.

Rudd also said he thought there was “a real opportunity” this week to get MPs to vote for a confirmatory referendum. “We’ve got more MPs supporting us than ever before and I think we have every chance to be able to get that prize, which is being able to put it back to the people,” he said.

As Michael Savage explained in this Observer article at the weekend, the row at the People’s Vote campaign is largely about strategy, and the extent to which it should transform into an overt remain campaign. But, as with most feuds in smallish political organisation, personality clashes are thought to have been a factor too.

People’s Vote supporters can take comfort from the fact that something very similar happened to the Vote Leave campaign in 2016. Dominic Cummings, its campaign director, came close to being ousted in a boardroom coup, but survived. Vote Leave went on to win.

Tom Baldwin
Tom Baldwin. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Updated

From Sky’s Michelle Clifford

EU has agreed Brexit 'flextension' until 31 January 2020, Tusk announces

This is from Donald Tusk, the president of the European council.

“Flextension” means flexible extension. If MPs approve the Brexit deal sooner, the UK could leave the EU before 31 January. Under the draft plan being considered by EU ambassadors this morning, 1 December or 1 January would also be possible dates for Brexit in the event of the deal passing.

Updated

Agenda for the day

Here are the main items on the agenda for the day. We will be focusing mostly on Brexit-related news, and so I have only included the Brexit-related items.

9am (UK time): EU ambassadors meet in Brussels to discuss the proposed Brexit extension. As Daniel Boffey and Jon Henley report, the EU is expected to agree an extension to 31 January 2020 with an option for the UK to leave earlier if a deal is ratified.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 3.30pm: MPs debate the government motion calling for an early election. The debate will last 90 minutes, with voting immediately afterwards. If there are urgent questions or statements, the debate will start not at 3.30pm but later.

Late afternoon: MPs start the debate on the second reading of the environment bill.

Government could back Lib Dem/SNP plan for early election, cabinet minister suggests

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Damien Gayle, and back from a particularly ill-timed half-term holiday. I’ve missed some intense parliamentary drama, although, as is usual with Brexit, deadlock and uncertainty still prevail.

Or perhaps not. Today Boris Johnson is staging a third vote on an early election – which, again, he is expected to win, but not by the two-thirds majority required under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act for it to actually happen.

But this morning we have had fresh evidence that the government is gearing up to support the Liberal Democrat/Scottish National party proposal to bypass the FTPA by using legislation to schedule an early poll. After the plan was revealed in the Observer, James Cleverly, the Conservative chairman, yesterday dismissed it as “a gimmick”. But later No 10 sources would not rule out the idea, and this morning Gavin Williamson, the education secretary and former chief whip who has been doing a media round, strongly hinted that the government might back the plan if, as expected, it doesn’t get enough votes this afternoon.

From the government’s point of view, the main advantage of the Lib Dem/SNP plan is that passing legislation to amend the FTPA just requires a majority of one, which means the Labour party would not have a veto. There are drawbacks too, because legislation could be amended, but the Lib Dem/SNP proposal does offer a route to a pre-Christmas election.

These are from Sky’s Tamara Cohen and the BBC’s Chris Mason, covering what Williamson has been saying.

Updated

Swinson says Lib Dem/SNP plan for early election 'still alive'

The Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, who together with the SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, has put forward a tightly drafted bill that would grant an election on 9 December, have said their plan is “still alive”.

Swinson and Blackford have put forward a bill that would grant an election on 9 December – three days earlier than the PM’s suggested polling date – as long as the European Union grants an extension until 31 January.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

It certainly, it seems to me a sensible way forward. We also understand from our contacts in the EU that putting forward this bill and sending the letter that we did has helped out EU friends have confidence that if they offer the extension that they’re discussing today that that will be time well spent.

One of their big concerns was that they offered an extension earlier this year, said ‘don’t waste time’, and then we had a Conservative leadership election and Boris Johnson mucked about not trying to get a deal, shutting down parliament, and you know, the very master class in time-wasting so, understandably, they had a degree of reluctance, I think evidenced by the fact they didn’t grant the extension on Friday when many thought they would.

So I’m hopeful that as a result of what we’ve done we will see that extension granted today because otherwise we’re still in the very real risk of crashing out without a deal on Thursday.

Jo Swinson
Jo Swinson Photograph: Jeff Overs/PA

Updated

Boris Johnson and his cabinet hope the election of a new Speaker will help force a general election, the Times reports this morning. John Bercow, a bête noire of the Tory right, retires on Thursday and the government apparently thinks his successor will be much more amenable.

“The government believes his successor will be much less likely to allow backbenchers to seize control of the order paper again to pass legislation to prevent a no-deal Brexit,” writes the Times’ deputy political editor, Steven Swinford.

Bercow has repeatedly allowed MPs to seize control of Commons business and push through legislation against the wishes of the government, including the so-called Benn act that forced Johnson to go cap in hand to Brussels to ask for a Brexit extension.

Johnson might not get what he is looking for, however. Among contenders for Bercow’s job is Harriet Harman.

Updated

Harriet Harman features in G2 today, speaking to Gaby Hinsliff about her campaign to become the new Speaker and her listening tour of the country, asking people what they think of parliament.

Leafing through her notes from the mini listening tour she has undertaken, asking people around the country what they think of parliament, underlines how difficult that has become. Westminster politics is seen as aggressive, entitled, phoney and unprofessional, a braying bear pit hopelessly out of step with modern workplaces, where respect and empathy are increasingly valued.

“One woman said: ‘I’m a trade union negotiator. I’d get nowhere if I walked into a negotiation and behaved like that,’” Harman recalls. “One of the things that’s been very striking is that people think the anger that’s displayed in parliament is an artefact, that it’s basically fake, playing up to the cameras. So if anybody’s under the impression that their anger is regarded as inspiring by people outside – people don’t buy it.” And that hints at something more complicated than the crude “people v parliament” narrative pushed by Downing Street, pitting furious leave voters against a supposedly obstructive elite.

Harman’s research suggests the angry, uncompromising stances that many Brexiters (and, arguably, parts of the left) see as connoting passion or ideological purity don’t always come across that way to voters, many of whom see squabbling and division merely as proof of impotence. Resorting to shouting is seen as “the ultimate failure of an institution”, says Harman. “In the outside world, people disagree about Brexit but they get along.” If she’s right, then politicians who believe they are channelling the public mood by ratcheting up their language may be in for a shock come a general election.

Updated

PA Media reports that the government is going ahead with its preparations for a no-deal Brexit by activating measures to manage traffic on Kent’s motorways despite the EU considering an extension.

Operation Brock will come into force at 6am on Monday – three days before the UK is due to withdraw from the EU and the day parliament votes on whether to hold a snap general election.

It comes amid signs the EU is set to grant a fresh Brexit delay until the end of January after Boris Johnson was forced – under the terms of the so-called Benn act – to request a further extension.

The traffic measures are designed to keep the M20 open in both directions in case there is a disruption to services across the English Channel.

Lorries heading for Europe will face a 30mph limit on a 13-mile stretch of the coast-bound carriage of the M20. All other traffic on the motorway – including lorries carrying out UK deliveries – must use a 50mph contraflow of two lanes in each direction on the London-bound side of the road.

Several holding areas to park lorries are also available to be activated if required, including at Manston airfield. Hauliers must be ready to show they have the correct paperwork before reaching the border or face being turned back.

Motorists have been warned to allow for extra travel time and to make sure they have food and water in their vehicles in case of delays.

Nicola Bell, the Highways England south-east operations director, said Operation Brock was part of a set of measures in place to allow the M20 and the rest of Kent to keep moving in the event of cross-channel disruption.

“We have worked extensively with our partners in Kent to ensure that the county is as prepared as possible for any disruption to cross-channel services,” she said in a statement.

Operation Brock was initially deployed on 25 March, four days ahead of the first planned Brexit date.

It was deactivated about three weeks later following the delay to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, but the steel barriers for the contraflow system and 50mph speed limit remain in place.

Updated

How the papers covered it

There’s a mix of stories on the front pages today, including the killing of Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But some papers splash on politics, including the Guardian, with our exclusive story “EU read to give UK three-month Brexit extension, leak reveals”.

Updated

Good morning and welcome to Politics Live on this Monday morning.

The government has tabled a motion under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (FTPA) for a general election to be held on 12 December. But, in reality, this is not likely to get over the line. The FTPA requires that two-thirds of MPs need to vote to trigger an early election and Labour looks like it will not play ball on this one.

However, we may still get an early election, but by a different means, as both the remain-backing Lib Dems and the government have proposed amending the FTPA to pass a separate one-line bill specifying that there will be an election on a certain date. The advantage of this route is that, as a traditional bill, it requires only a straightforward majority to pass the Commons.

It is in the Lib Dems’ interest to get an election on the table before a Brexit deal has been locked in and decided, because it is thought their appeal could diminish if people believe the argument has been settled.

Meanwhile, according to a leaked draft seen by the Guardian, the EU is preparing to sign off on a Brexit extension to 31 January 2020 with an option for the UK to leave earlier if a deal is ratified, suggesting the EU will agree to the UK’s request for a further delay.

As usual, you can get in touch with me while I have the blog in the early hours, on Twitter or via email (kate.lyons@theguardian.com).

Thanks for reading.

Updated

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