Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a vote on key bit of Brexit legislation to avoid a humiliating Commons defeat over rules governing tax havens.
Labour grandee Dame Margaret Hodge had tabled a cross-party amendment to the Financial Services Bill, which would have compelled UK overseas territories to be more transparent about business ownership.
It came as Labour MPs from Leave-backing areas dismissed Theresa May's "Brexit bribe" of £1.6bn for run down towns, saying their "vote is not for sale".
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it “smacks of desperation from a government reduced to bribing MPs to vote for their damaging flagship Brexit legislation”.
Beleaguered transport secretary Chris Grayling also came under fire on Monday for failing to personally answer questions from MPs about the botched Brexit ferry contracts.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, causing chaos and wasting billions of pounds yet he shows no contrition… the transport secretary has become an international embarrassment.”
Here's how the day unfolded:
May accused of 'bribing' Labour MPs with £1.6bn for deprived towns
The government has been accused of “bribing” MPs to back Theresa May‘s Brexit deal after announcing a new £1.6bn fund to help deprived towns.
The “Stronger Towns Fund“ will offer investment to places that have not benefited from economic growth as much as other parts of the country, ministers said.
The government said the money would be used to create jobs, train local people and boost investment, but critics said it was an attempt to convince Labour MPs in Leave-voting areas to back Ms May’s withdrawal agreement, and was not enough to offset the impact of Brexit.
£1bn of the funding will be allocated to areas across the country, with more than half going to towns in the north of England. The other £600m will be available for local authorities to bid for.
MPs urge government to end benefits freeze early to stop ‘destitution’
The government should lift 200,000 people out of poverty by ending its controversial benefits freeze a year earlier than planned, an influential committee of MPs has said.
The Commons work and pensions committee urged ministers to use an expected budget surplus to scrap the policy this year, rather than next year as expected.
The MPs want Philip Hammond, the chancellor, to announce the change in his spring statement later this month, saying it is needed to prevent further "destitution".
"But there is no constitutionality in that sense, this funding is there to see that towns grow and that we are actually looking at what we need to do, which is seeing those areas really prospering and following through on what the prime minister has really believed in, that sense of leaving no part of our UK behind and how this will help support that."
Labour voters in party's heartlands back fresh Brexit referendum, poll finds
Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to support a fresh Brexit referendum enjoys the overwhelming backing of Labour voters in Leave-voting areas, new research has found.
Only 21 per cent of those in the north and the midlands who voted Labour at the last election said they opposed the dramatic policy shift – a figure dwarfed by the 66 per cent in favour.
In a further boost for Mr Corbyn, 35 per cent said it made them feel more favourable towards Labour, compared with just 14 per cent who said it made them feel less positive.
Peter Kellner, former president of YouGov, said the survey scotched “the myth” that the Labour leader would pay a heavy price for the move, pointing out that Labour voters in Leave areas now back Remain by a margin of more than three to one.
Senior Tory Brexiteer says he is ready to back Theresa May's deal
Theresa May has received a major boost after an influential Tory backbencher said he was ready to back her Brexit plan.
Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs, previously voted against the prime minister’s deal in January but said he was likely to support a revised version.
The influential MP urged his colleagues to “pull together behind the prime minister” when her deal returns to the Commons.
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Editorial: Support for Theresa May’s deal is still a vote for a misplaced principle
Are the hardline Brexiteers softening their stance? Certainly there have been indications in that direction.
Last week Jacob Rees-Mogg hinted he was prepared to be more flexible over demands the infamous Irish backstop be amended. Now a group of lawyers within the hardline, pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) have set out three tests that a new agreement regarding the backstop would have to meet to win their support.
While the demands are hardly unfamiliar – especially regarding the need to ensure that the backstop can only be temporary – the group, led by Sir Bill Cash, have suggested they are not wedded to any particular mechanism by which all this can be achieved.
Government launches bid to end period poverty worldwide by 2030
Huge health problem from women and girls without sanitary products ‘using dirty items of clothing, inserting plastic or overusing a pad or tampons’
Downing Street confirmed that attorney general Geoffrey Cox and Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay will return to Brussels on Tuesday to continue their efforts to secure legally-binding changes to backstop arrangements designed to keep the Irish border open.
But Ms May's spokesman declined to discuss reports that Mr Cox has dropped attempts to secure a time limit for the backstop or a unilateral exit mechanism, telling reporters: "We are now at a particularly critical stage in these negotiations. I'm not going to get into specifics."
The spokesman said the UK was "definitely making progress" after discussions spanning the past two weeks with the European Commission, he said.
But he added: "There definitely remains more work to be done."
Ministers are under fire for postponing a bid to bring transparency to tax havens over fears the government faced a Commons defeat.
At the eleventh-hour, the Financial Services Bill was pulled from debate in the Commons before a vote, after backbench MPs tabled a bid to force areas under UK jurisdiction to be more open about who owns assets held there.
Here's our write-up of the growing row:
