Theresa May has gathered her senior ministers for briefings on the Brexit negotiations as the fierce battle to agree the shape of a deal with Brussels reaches its final weeks.
Ahead of next week's key EU Council summit, Downing Street admitted there were still "big issues to resolve" while officials in Brussels said there was "no breakthrough yet" in the talks.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up Ms May's government, dramatically flexed its muscles by insisting its 10 MPs would block the Budget - and potentially topple the government - if the prime minister breaches its Brexit red lines.
In a warning shot to Ms May, DUP MPs failed to back the government in voting against an amendment to an Agriculture Bill on Wednesday.
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also warned that checks on goods over the Irish border could increase tenfold after Britain leaves bloc - an ultimatum likely to infuriate the Northern Irish politicians.
Elsewhere, cabinet minister Esther McVey, who was not invited to attend the meeting, became the second member of Ms May's top team to repeatedly refuse to endorse the Chequers plan, although she insisted the prime minister had her full support.
If you want to follow the day's events, see our live coverage below:
Theresa May's Brexit blueprint is a "pipe dream" and there has been "culpable naivety" in the negotiations, the UK's former ambassador to the European Union has said.
Sir Ivan Rogers said neither the PM's Chequers plan for future relations with the bloc or Boris Johnson's alternative had any chance of being agreed by Brussels.
In a speech in Cambridge, the ex-diplomat, who quit last year, said there had been no plan for Brexit but plenty of "plausible bullshit" instead.
Sir Ivan said there had been "culpable naivety" on an almost daily basis over the last two years as the UK makes demands that Brussels will not accept.
He dismissed the PM's Chequers plan for Brexit and the Canada-style deal being floated by former foreign secretary Mr Johnson, saying the chance of the EU agreeing to either was "precisely zero".
He said: "Nearly two and a half years on from the referendum, we are, both on the EU deal, and on other post Brexit trade deals, still lost in campaign mode on fantasy island. But the time for these fantasies is long past."
Sir Ivan branded Mr Johnson's so-called Canada plus plus proposals as "fiction" because they are "not the pluses anyone else will agree".
"The Johnsonian Canada plus plus is as big a pipe dream as Chequers," he said. "In some respects, rather bigger."
Cannabis health products will be made available for patients from 1 November, the home secretary has announced.
The government had previously said it planned to legalise treatments derived from the drug over the summer after young epilepsy sufferers Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell had struggled to access cannabis oil, which appeared to soothe their symptoms.
Story:
A Tory MP has clashed with Chris Grayling after it emerged the government is planning to use part of the M26 motorway as a "parking lot" in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Tom Tugendhat, the MP for Tonbridge and Mailing, claimed work had begun on the motorway in the south-east on Wednesday evening and said the community had been kept in the dark over the plans devised by the Department for Transport (DfT).
More here:
"Those are real situations. I’m still not going to back away from [telling the truth] if I think something’s not going to work - it’s incumbent on me.
"We live in a democracy so in the end, it’s for governments to decide, ministers to decide what they want to implement. But our role as civil servants is to act with integrity and to give them our best advice."
Here's our story on his comments back in May:
"We urge the medical world to get behind these reforms so they can help the tens of thousands of people who are in urgent need of help," she said.
"I have personally seen how my son's life has changed due to the medical cannabis he is now prescribed.
"As a family we were facing his death. Now we are facing his life, full of joy and hope, which is something I wish for each and every person in this country who could benefit from this medicine."
The new rules apply to England, Wales and Scotland, and follow several high-profile cases, including that of young epilepsy sufferers Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell, whose conditions appeared to be helped by cannabis oil.
- What is Universal Credit?
UC replaces six existing benefits - Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit - with a single payment.
- When is it being introduced?
UC is being rolled out gradually across the country, starting in pilot areas in 2013. So far, only new benefit claimants have been put onto the system.
But from July 2019, around 2 million people already receiving the old benefits will be moved onto UC, in a "managed migration" which is not due for completion until 2023.
- Who will be affected?
Among those being moved to UC will be about 1 million working families and 745,000 people unable to work because of long-term illness or disability.
- Will anyone lose out?
The Government has provided a pot of money for "transitional protection", which ministers say will ensure that no existing claimants suffer a cut to payments in cash terms unless their circumstances have changed.
- Will there be a wait for payments?
UC is paid in arrears, and the first payment is not made until at least five weeks after a claim is lodged. Claimants can apply for advance payments to avoid hardship while they wait.
- Why is UC being introduced?
Ministers say that the new system is simpler and easier to understand than the old benefits. They believe it creates incentives for claimants to take on temporary work or increase hours.
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey says that when UC is fully rolled out, it will deliver £8 billion of benefits to the UK economy per year.
A hard Brexit could cut the UK’s trade with the European Union in half, a new study has found.
Economists from the German Economic Institute in Cologne say that if the UK crashes out of the single market and customs union with no deal next March and is forced to rely on bare World Trade Organisation rules then exports and imports would be significantly disrupted by tariffs and also new regulatory barriers.
Ministers have been accused of sneaking out plans to sell almost £4 billion of the student loan book.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner called on the Government to justify the proposal, as she warned that the last student loan book sale led to losses of £900 million.
But universities minister Sam Gyimah denied sneaking out the plans, saying the announcement was made in a written ministerial statement, as he defended the move as "good for the taxpayer".
In a written ministerial statement published on Wednesday, Mr Gyimah announced the Government's intention to process plans to sell part of the English student loan book.
The Independent has launched its #FinalSay campaign to demand that voters are given a voice on the final Brexit deal.
Sign our petition here
