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The Guardian - UK
Politics
Frances Perraudin (later) and Ben Quinn (earlier)

Brexit: Juncker and Tusk say withdrawal agreement not up for renegotiation – Politics live

Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk in Brussels.
Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk in Brussels. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Afternoon summary

  • Donald Tusk accused MPs of showing a lack of respect for Theresa May, saying there would be no more negotiation on the withdrawal agreement. Speaking at a press conference at the close of a summit in Brussels, the European council president said: “We have treated Prime Minister May with the greatest respect, all of us, and we really appreciate the efforts by the prime minister to ratify our common agreement. My impression is that in fact we have treated prime minister May with a much greater empathy and respect than some MPs, for sure.”

Speaking on Thursday night, Juncker had said:

Our UK friends need to say what they want, rather than asking what we want. We would like in a few weeks for our UK friends to set out their expectations because this debate is sometimes nebulous and imprecise and I would like clarifications.

That’s it from me. The Politics Live blog will be back on Monday. Wishing you all a Brexit-free weekend.

Switzerland and UK strike bilateral trade agreement

Liam Fox, the secretary of state for international trade, has announced the UK has reached an agreement for a transitional trade deal with Switzerland to allow it to continue trading freely after Brexit.

It is one of 40 “continuity” agreements he is seeking to strike with countries that currently trade with the UK through an EU agreement.

The deals will need to be ratified by parliament and would kick in in the event of no deal or an orderly exit from the bloc.

“This is one of the most significant existing trade agreements, with British companies exporting £19bn worth of goods and services last year and it will provide the certainty that businesses need to continue trading freely,” said Fox.

He said “many other agreements are also close to being agreed” and would come into effect as soon as the implementation period ended in January 2021 or on 29 March 2019 if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

“It is a vital part of our no deal planning and it means that businesses and consumers can continue to benefit from our close trading relationships with the world beyond the European Union.”

The UK operates a trade surplus with Switzerland, with exports worth £19.04bn last year, with jewellery, precious stones and metal accounting for just over £10bn.

Updated

This is an interesting piece by Chris Deerin in the New Statesman, in which he says Scottish Tories are preparing to back a second referendum.

“When I look at what’s going on down south, I feel appalled and embarrassed,” one prominent MSP tells me. “I hate the English party. I’m horrified at the support for no deal being expressed by party members. I’ve stopped reading ConservativeHome.”

Updated

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been speaking at a press conference. He made it clear that the ball was in the UK’s court, suggesting Theresa May’s next step was to restore the parliamentary vote on the withdrawal agreement.

He said: “Today we have a negotiation already and this is the only possible agreement and a good one, so if to speculate on what we would do, should not be a topic for us. Today is clearly for the British parliament to clearly take a stance on the agreement negotiated by Theresa May and her team and the EU to purely say whether they accept this agreement.”

Updated

The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, told journalists that May suggested legal assurances could be given around the start date for a future relationship or trade deal – something he rejected.

There were suggestions, some of them perhaps made sense, others would be difficult. One is that we would commit to a particular date to have the future relationship treaty, the trade deal.

We can commit to our best endeavours and say we will work towards a target date. It is not possible to say that we will definitely meet that date. The future relationship treaty will be more complicated, it will have to be ratified by 28 member parliaments.”

He said negotiations on the UK’s future relationship with the EU would begin as soon as possible once the withdrawal treaty was dealt with.

For us to make a legal commitment to have a done deal at a particular moment or time, that is not possible because it is not in our gift to deliver that. We cannot promise anything that is not in our power to deliver.

Updated

Here is a quick summary of the press conference with Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk and Sebastian Kurz.

  • Juncker said the EU was ready to start talks on a future relationship as soon as the withdrawal agreement was ratified in an attempt to assuage doubts over the Irish border backstop. He added: “We have to bring down the temperature. These attacks coming from Westminster against Europe and the European commission will not be responded to in the same way by Europe and the European commission, although I would like to do it.”
  • Tusk said he had “no mandate” for renegotiating the withdrawal agreement, but added that he would remain at May’s disposal. He said: “Yesterday’s conclusions are quite clear I think and we have to treat it as a good sign … we are ready to reconfirm our assurances and our goodwill and good faith when it comes to the so-called backstop.”
  • Juncker said he had not realise that the term “nebulous” existed in English – so implied that there had been a slight mistranslation – and said he been referring to the state of the debate in Britain and not to her personal position. He said: “Theresa May is a good friend of ours. We have the highest respect for the British prime minister, because she has to deliver a very difficult job.”

Updated

This, from Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brexit correspondent

Sebastian Kurz says: “I was in the meeting and not all rumours in the media really go in line with how the meeting was. I think the problem is just that we have two different positions but that is all. I think Theresa May was a tough negotiator in the meeting and made her point very clear. And, on the other side, the EU27 are united, which is good, and were able to make our point clear.”

“Merry Christmas,” says Juncker and the press conference is concluded.

Updated

Jean-Claude Juncker is asked about his run-in with May this morning.

“We were not dancing. I think at the very first moment … she thought that I did criticise her by saying yesterday night that the British position was nebulous. I didn’t know that this word exists in English ... I did not refer to her, but to the overall state of the debate in Britain.

“As I told you earlier, I was following the debate in the house and I can’t see where the British parliament is heading at, and that’s why I was saying that this was nebulous, foggy, in England. I was not addressing her, and in the course of the morning after checking what I’d said yesterday night, she was kissing me.”

Tusk adds: “We have treated prime minster May with the greatest respect. All of us. And we really appreciate the effort by the prime minister to ratify our common agreement. My impression is that we have treated prime minister May with much greater empathy and respect than some British MPs, for sure.”

Juncker says: “I have to add that Theresa May is a good friend of us. We have the greatest respect for the British prime minister because she has a very difficult job.”

Updated

Donald Tusk says: “Our intention was clear from the very beginning. Yesterday’s conclusions are quite clear I think. And we have to treat it as a good sign. I mean that we are ready to reconfirm our assurances, our goodwill and our good faith when it comes to the so-called backstop.” He said he had no mandate to reopen the negotiations, but that he was always at Theresa May’s disposal.

Jean-Claude Juncker said May was a good friend. “This is a woman of great courage, doing a job in the best way possible,” he said. “I am supporting her.”

Juncker said he watched the debates on the agreement in the House of Commons and noticed there was deep mistrust of the EU. He said the EU needed to prove to MPs that they did not want the backstop to be “a permanent instrument”. He added: “No one in the room did agree to reopening the withdrawal agreement. The withdrawal agreement will stay.”

Updated

European leaders speak at a press conference in Brussels

The press conference circuit in Brussels has begun. The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, says May and EU leaders “created some more clarity”.

“The deal that was negotiated was a good deal for both sides and we hope that the deal will find support in both parliaments.”

The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, speaking at a press conference in Brussels
The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, speaking at a press conference in Brussels. Photograph: Screengrab/BBC News

Updated

Here is Labour’s response to Theresa May’s earlier comments:

The last 24 hours have confirmed that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is dead in the water. The prime minister has utterly failed in her attempts to deliver any meaningful changes to her botched deal. Rather than ploughing ahead and dangerously running down the clock, the prime minister needs to put her deal to a vote next week so parliament can take back control.

Updated

Angela Merkel has been giving a press conference and the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent Kate Connolly has been listening.

Merkel said the exit deal would not change. She said the integrity of the single market must stay intact and the Good Friday agreement must remain intact. “None of the EU 27 wants the Backstop to be needed, but it is there,” she said. “Let’s see how the British prime minister reacts to this,” Merkel added.

This is from the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, Jennifer Rankin.

Updated

While the analysis of Theresa May’s Brussels body language continues, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, has been addressing a charity lunch in Glasgow. Gove, who was tasked with ringing round wavering Scottish Tory MPs last weekend to persuade them to back the prime minister’s deal, referred only to his “unnerving and surreal” week in passing. Perhaps he was aware that, as he was addressing supporters of the Journalists’ Charity, even his jokes would be parsed with great interest. That said, he did make a decent one about planning to speak later to the Rangers manager, Steven Gerrard, “for advice on how to exit Europe in good order before Christmas”.

Updated

Some interesting analysis by the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe.

Lunchtime summary

  • Theresa May has just given a press conference in Brussels. She insisted that the EU27 had made clear that they were determined to work speedily on a future relationship – or alternative arrangements – to ensure by the end of 2020 that there will be no hard border in Ireland, so the backstop need not be triggered. She said that as formal conclusions from the summit they had “legal status”, but that it was also clear that “further clarification and discussion” was possible.
  • Video footage of European leaders gathering for Friday morning’s talks captured May in a frosty exchange with Jean-Claude Juncker. Lip readers (and people on Twitter) have deduced that she is complaining to the European commission president about his description of the British debate as “nebulous”. Speaking in this afternoon’s press conference, she said he had used the word to refer to “the general level of debate”.
  • The Times reported earlier today that European leaders decided at a private dinner last night not to help Theresa May sell her Brexit deal to parliament. “British negotiators had agreed a draft statement with the most senior EU officials that would have provided ‘political comfort’ to Mrs May that the bloc was prepared to compromise on the Irish backstop,” the paper reported. “At a dinner last night, held without her, European leaders went back on the joint agreement in order to send a message to MPs that no further concessions would be forthcoming from Brussels.”
  • Speaking at a People’s Vote event at the Royal Academy this morning, Tony Blair said there would soon be a majority in parliament for a second referendum. “What has been revealed by the whole negotiation process is that all the Brexit options have significant drawbacks compared with staying in the EU,” he said. “This pursuit of incompatible ends through inept means has led us to the present impasse.”

Updated

Summary of Theresa May's Brussels press conference

May has just finished speaking. Here’s what she said.

  • On the backstop, she said: The EU had published a series of conclusions and made clear that it is its firm determination to “work speedily on a future relationship or alternative arrangements, which ensure no hard border by 31 December 2020, so the backstop will not need to be triggered”.

“If the backstop was ever triggered it would apply only temporarily and the EU would use its best endeavours to negotiate and conclude expeditiously a subsequent agreement that would replace the backstop. That the EU stands ready to embark on preparations so that negotiations on the future partnership can conclude as soon as possible. As formal conclusions these commitments have legal statements and therefore should be welcomed.”

She said it was not true that the EU was unwilling to consider any further clarification. “The EU is clear, as I am, that if we are going to leave with a deal, this is it, but my discussions with colleagues today have shown that further clarification and discussion following the council’s conclusions is, in fact, possible.”

  • On the film of May involved in a frosty exchange with Juncker, she said they had had a robust discussion. “I think that’s the sort of discussion you are able to have when you have developed a working relationship and you work well together.” She said he had been talking about “the general level of debate” when he used the term “nebulous”.
  • On a no-deal Brexit, asked if she would be prepared to see Britain trade on WTO terms rules when it leaves the EU, May said: “We are making no-deal preparations, we’ve stepped up those no-deal preparations ..… my position is very clear. I believe it is better to leave with a good deal and the deal we have is a good deal.”

Updated

Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brexit correspondent was watching the press conference.

May tells the Sun that the government has stepped up its no-deal preparations, but that she thinks it’s better to leave with a good deal and that what she has secured is a good deal.

The Daily Mail’s Jason Groves says it looks like May has had a tiring week. “Why, what’s happened this week?” she responds. She says negotiations like this are always tough and get more difficult as they near a conclusion. May says she is driven by a sense that “this is what’s right for the British people”.

Updated

She says it was clear from other European leaders that they wanted to get the deal “over the line”.

May tells the Times that we have had the clearest statement yet from the EU that the backstop is only intended to be temporary and that they want to negotiate a trade deal quickly.

Updated

May says she had “a robust” discussion with Juncker and that when he used the term “nebulous” he was talking about the “general level of debate”.

May gives press conference from Brussels

May has started speaking in Brussels. You can watch the live stream here.

She says it is in the overwhelming interest of everybody - in the EU and the UK - to get this done as quickly as possible.

Updated

Worth noting while we wait for May’s press conference, that Jean-Claude Juncker didn’t just announce that she would have to come back another day to Brussels with a less “nebulous” roadmap for Brexit.

He also announced no-deal operations will be published in full next Wednesday, about a month before originally envisaged.

“The commission on 19 December will publish all the information that is generally useful for the preparation of a no-deal [Brexit],” Juncker told a press conference last night.

Updated

Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll has been reacting to the Times’ story that European leaders decided at a dinner last night not to provide any “political comfort” to May.

Updated

It was only a matter of time … Channel 5 News has employed “two expert lip readers” to tell it what we had all worked out for ourselves – that Theresa May accused Jean-Claude Juncker of describing her as “nebulous” during the heated exchange captured on camera this morning.

Updated

European leaders reneged on promise to help May – report

The Times has been told that European leaders decided last night not to help Theresa May sell her Brexit deal to parliament.

British negotiators had agreed a draft statement with the most senior EU officials that would have provided “political comfort” to Mrs May that the bloc was prepared to compromise on the Irish backstop. At a dinner last night, held without her, European leaders went back on the joint agreement in order to send a message to MPs that no further concessions would be forthcoming from Brussels.

“To use a Christmas theme, we want all parties and factions in the British parliament to feel the bleak midwinter,” said a senior EU source.

Updated

Theresa May is due to give a press conference from Brussels at midday, though it looks like it is delayed.

The Mirror is reporting that Westminster Bridge has been blocked by pro-Brexit protesters wearing yellow vests. The Metropolitan police confirmed they were aware of the protest and said there had not been any arrests.

Transport for London tweeted: “Buses serving routes via Westminster Bridge Road may be delayed because of a demonstration which is blocking the road.”

Updated

This from David Phinnemore, a professor of European politics at Queen’s university in Belfast, provides a useful analysis on how “the Irish question” came to dominate the Brexit process.

Updated

Here is that footage of May and Juncker in a “frosty exchange”.

There’s a lot of speculation on Twitter about what they might be saying to each other. Is anyone any good at lip reading?

Updated

It’s Frances Perraudin here, taking over from Ben Quinn for a few hours.

Tony Blair has started speaking at a People’s Vote event at the Royal Academy in London. The Tony Blair Institute Twitter account is tweeting extracts of the speech.

He told the Today programme this morning that there would soon be a majority in parliament for a second referendum.

Updated

Only one obstacle is preventing May from winning Tory backing for her Brexit deal, writes Paul Goodman in a piece on the influential Conservative Home website, in which he imagines that the backstop was radically amended so that a “unilateral exit” mechanism was included.

For now, however, he concludes:

Her deal and the backstop march together in step. And admittedly, even with a right to unilateral exit, this government would be unlikely to exercise it if no deal waited on the other side of the door.

Nonetheless, that exit would be there – which, ultimately, is what matters. We’ve said before that Brexit isn’t a still photo, but a moving film – or should be. Where Britain will be on day one isn’t where we will be in year ten. The backstop freezes that film and prevents it from playing. Provide a sure means of escape from it, and the film begins to roll. And May’s deal thus becomes acceptable.

Unfortunately, there is vanishingly little prospect of that. The backstop lies between her and success like a hollow in the path of a runner. It is so narrow as almost to be leapable. But it plunges many, many miles deep.

Updated

The DUP leader is on Twitter with a “we told you so” statement aimed squarely at the prime minister.

Updated

You had almost forgotten about the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), hadn’t you? Its leader, Arlene Foster, has been talking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, and it looks like May really has an uphill struggle to get the party back on board in terms of providing any parliamentary support.

Updated

Despite the pictures of May remonstrating with Juncker, No 10 tried to sound a diplomatic tone this morning, arguing there was still time for the “dust to settle” and that there was a range of briefings emerging from EU leaders and officials.

The prime minister is due to give a press conference at lunchtime to respond to last night’s EU rebuff.

Updated

May filmed in heated exchange with Juncker

Here’s a clip of Theresa May and Jean Claude Juncker having what appears to be a less than cordial exchange this morning before the opening of the summit’s latest session. It’s really set tongues wagging in Brussels.

Updated

Here’s the Irish taoiseach speaking on his arrival this morning in Brussels, via a tweet from Sky’s Mark Stone (that sound you might hear in the background is the grinding of Conservative MPs’ teeth):

Updated

In other non-Brexit news (yes, it exists), Politics Home reports that the former head of the House of Commons standards and privileges committee “angrily confronted” Jeremy Corbyn after Labour blocked the appointment of its own MP Jess Phillips to the watchdog.

PoliticsHome reported last month that the Birmingham Yardley MP had been nominated by Labour to take a seat on the committee, with the appointment even appearing on the House of Commons order paper on 19 November.

Kevin Barron, who stepped down as chair of the committee this year, was said to have raised the issue with Labour’s chief whip, Nick Brown, at the party’s weekly meeting of MPs on Tuesday night, which Corbyn also attended.

Updated

Fresh from his spat with fellow members of England’s 1986 World Cup squad, BBC Sport host Gary Lineker has now been criticised by his colleague Jonathan Agnew for expressing his political views on Twitter.

The former England football captain, who hosts the BBC’s flagship Match of the Day programme, has been outspoken in his political opinions, in particular his opposition to Brexit, which he regularly tweets about. Lineker also appeared at a rally in London campaigning for a second referendum in November.

Today’s bilateral between May and Macron – which is still going on – is particularly key given that France is one of the countries pushing hard against the prime minister’s idea of having a 12-month time limit on any Irish backstop.

A grim-sounding No 10 official tried to remain upbeat in briefings, according to the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh.

“There’s plenty to discuss,” said the official.

Emmanuel Macron arrives at the EU summit on Friday.
Emmanuel Macron arrives at the EU summit on Friday. Photograph: Reuters

Updated

The Labour party is floating proposals today to break up the big four accounting firms.

The party has commissioned a report which also proposes capping the firms’ share of the audit market at 50% of the largest listed companies.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, who has tweeted a link to the report,- told the FT: “A lack of openness, transparency and accountability [in the accounting industry] means nobody ever seems to be punished for their transgressions.”

Updated

Parliament’s Twitter account tweets a reminder of today’s historic significance:

Theresa May is now meeting the french president, Emmanuel Macron, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Meanwhile, the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, appears to be continuing to shore up support for Ireland’s position:

Updated

Arriving for the second day of the summit, the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, said he does not expect a special Brexit summit in January to agree a way forward. He said they now need the British parliament to back the deal agreed with May.

We need a positive vote from the British parliament, not a summit. We want a vote. We need a vote from the British Parliament to continue.

We very much hope this will be a positive vote. We count on that.

The Czech minister for Europe, Ales Chmelar, said the meeting last night had not been bad but that “nobody knew beforehand what would be the solution”. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today:

I know there was in the room a strong willingness to offer something, but at the same time it would put, most probably, into question the backstop for Ireland.

It was almost an impossible situation and technically speaking there was not an easy way out.

Updated

The Croatian prime minister has just arrived for today’s summit discussions, saying “the ball is in the UK’s court”.

Sounds like there might be a few contenders to do something about that, namely warring members of England’s 1986 World Cup football squad.

After Theresa May survived a vote of no confidence by Conservative MPs on Wednesday, several members of the side that reached the quarter-finals in Mexico offered their thoughts on social media. They revealed “a divide as great as the one in the England defence when Diego Maradona dribbled straight through it”, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

Goalkeeper Peter Shilton and midfielder Peter Reid found themselves particularly at odds. “Have been so impressed with @Jacob_Rees_Mogg@Conservatives @itvnews with interviews in the last few days”, Shilton wrote on Twitter. “He really knows what he is talking about and puts it across in a calm and calculated manner!”

Shilton has now picked up the gauntlet it seems:

Updated

Tony Blair: majority soon in parliament for new referendum

Tony Blair has made a fresh pitch this morning for a new referendum on Brexit, predicting there will be a majority soon in parliament for such a poll.

Apppearing on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme before a speech in which he will say that Europe will be “significantly weaker” at a time of global geopolitical competition from China and other countries, the former prime minister sketched out how he believed the EU could lay the ground for a new referendum.

There would be a trade-off, particularly on one of the pillars of the European project – freedom of movement, he said.

“I think it would be sensible and right if Europe responded with a series of measures that allowed people in Britain to feel that they were being listened to,” said Blair, arguing that European leaders may be willing to be flexible on the issue if they know a new referendum was on the way.

But what would he say to someone who voted leave in the last referendum?

His answer was twofold. First of all, “ardent Brexiteers” didn’t support May’s deal, so it was not clear what form of Brexit the country wanted.

Secondly, after months of negotiations the situation was a mess. How could it be undemocratic to go back to the people in light of this?

“It’s clear that people did not vote for crashing out of the EU without a deal,” said Blair.

“It’s perfectly possible for [Theresa May] to become the facilitator and say there are various options. If we cannot have a parliamentary majority for any of those options then it becomes logical to say to the British people: ‘Parliament is gridlocked and parliament cannot decide.’”

Asked if he been hearing things privately from European power brokers, Blair said: “I have no doubt whatsoever that if Europe’s leaders thought that Britain was prepared to think again, they would do everything possible to accommodate that”.

European leaders didn’t wake up in the morning thinking about Brexit, he added, not least someone like Emmanuel Macron, who is facing daily protests on the streets of France.

However, he argued that those who took a step back and thought about the broad sweep of history would know it was a “critical mistake” to pull Britain and the British economy out of Europe at the current time.

Tony Blair on Good Morning Britain earlier this month.
Tony Blair on Good Morning Britain earlier this month. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has weighed in this morning with her conclusion on last night’s events in Brussels:

Updated

Back in the UK, Conservative civil war continues. The Times reports that the Conservative party is facing an irrevocable split over Brexit. It says:

Some MPs from the European Research Group (ERG), a Brexiteer faction, were said to be threatening to go “on strike” until there was a change of leader.

Under the plan those MPs would fail to vote on some legislation, to prove that Mrs May cannot command a majority in the Commons.

The divisions are no less acute within her own cabinet, it seems. The Telegraph reports that May’s attempts to salvage her Brexit deal are “phoney” and unlikely to succeed, cabinet ministers have said privately.

The paper casts this as a “renewed push” by remainers for a second referendum.

Despite publicly supporting the prime minister, ministers believe the prime minister has been left significantly “weakened” by the vote of confidence in which 117 MPs called for her to go.

Updated

A good explanation of where things are at – and some rather pointed criticism of Theresa May – can be found in this thread by Ole Ryborg, the EU correspondent in Brussels for Danish Radio and Television.

It contains quotes from the Danish prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who recalls when Danes and Irish voters opposed EU treaties in previous referendums, adding: “In both countries someone took the responsibility on them to decide what to do.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent also has this account of one of Theresa May’s responses during last night’s discussions:

Updated

Eurozone reform will be the first item on the agenda when the EU’s leaders gather again this morning at the European Council summit, reports the Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief, Dan Boffey, who adds:

But they won’t be able to avoid questions about what went wrong for Theresa May last night. The prime minister had made an impassioned appeal to the 27 heads of state and government before their dinner.

She had called for them to put faith in her one last time to get a Brexit deal through parliament.

To “get the deal over the line”, May told them, she needed a legal document with a target of getting out of the Irish backstop within 12 months if it was brought into force. The initial plan among the EU27 had been to offer some warm words, but also cruciall promised to reflect on that specific request.

Over dinner, largely led by the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, a chunk of the warm words were removed from their official statement, known as European council conclusions. And the promise to react to the prime minister’s request disappeared.

Some EU diplomats suggest the bloc has had enough. They don’t believe the prime minister has a plan that could get her deal through parliament. The European commission’s president, Jean-Claude Juncker, described the debate in the UK as “nebulous”, in his late-night press conference.

But he left the door open by asking for clarifications. May will be speaking later, and the pressure will be on. Again.

Theresa May and Leo Varadkar at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.
Theresa May and Leo Varadkar at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Updated

EU leaders are due to start arriving for the second day of the summit in Brussels for a session which starts in around an hour.

There’s going to be a press conference by the European council president, Donald Tusk, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as one by May. Timings are hazy at the moment but they’re expected shortly after lunchtime.

Updated

The job of flying the flag for Theresa May’s tattered attempts to seek changes to the Brexit withdrawal deal has fallen this morning to her de factor deputy, David Lidington.

Gamely, he has just told the BBC’s Today Programme that last night was a “welcome first step”, with the removal of any doubt about the intentions of the other EU states to negotiate a free-trade deal with the UK speedily.

“They have made clear that they don’t want the backstop used,” he added, in reference to the mechanism designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, but which critics say could keep the UK tied to EU rules indefinitely and curb its ability to strike trade deals.

He added that there was more work to be done and the prime minister would be “getting on with it” in the days – he started to say weeks but appeared to check himself – ahead.

Updated

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s politics live blog. I’m Ben Quinn and, as usual, we’ll be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web.

Theresa May will be returning to the UK later today to face the continued wrath of Tory backbenchers, 117 of whom opposed her in a vote of confidence on Wednesday, after EU leaders delivered a devastating knockback to her in Brussels last night.

The prime minister had appealed to them to hold “nothing in reserve” and work with her to salvage her Brexit deal by putting a 12-month limit on the unpopular Irish backstop.

But it was opposed by Ireland, France, Sweden, Spain and Belgium, who voiced doubts that the prime minister would be able to sell the technical concession to hostile MPs in Westminster.

One of the key quotes seems to have been this one from the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker:

Our UK friends need to say what they want, rather than asking what we want. We would like in a few weeks for our UK friends to set out their expectations because this debate is sometimes nebulous and imprecise and I would like clarifications.

The prime minister remains in Brussels, where she will officially be discussing migration issues with EU leaders, as British diplomats do what they can on the sidelines to lobby in support of the extra concessions which May needs so badly to placate her party.

Updated

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