Theresa May is facing a crucial 36 hours as she attempts to convince her Cabinet to back her Brexit plan ahead of a key EU summit on Wednesday night.
The prime minister will travel to Brussels tomorrow in a bid to break the deadlock over disagreement on the Northern Ireland backstop.
But first she must persuade angry ministers to support her proposal, which could see the UK remain in the customs union indefinitely if no other method is found for avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Other Tory MPs have also criticised John Bercow as the Commons discusss bullying and harassment in Parliament.
James Duddridge reads out a list of allegations contained in the Cox Report and adds: "How can we encourage Mr Speaker to stop this behaviour?
A big moment in the Commons as Maria Miller, chair of the women and equalities committee, calls on John Bercow to resign over allegations of bullying. She says:
"The report is clear that there needs to be a complete change in leadership at the most senior level, including you, Mr Speaker."
John Bercow has given his own response to the Cox Report into bullying and harassment in Parliament.
He tells the Commons he is persuaded of the need for "a body that is both entirely independent of and external to Parliament to hear and adjudicate upon all allegations of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct".
He says "independence and transparency are the best guarantors of a process that will both be fair and command confidence".
MPs are now hearing an urgent question from Labour MP John Mann on the subject of bullying and harassment in Parliament.
Responding, Andrea Leadsom, leader of the Commons, says everyone has been "shocked and appalled" by the reports of abuse in Parliament.
She says the findings of the Cox Report are "undeniably worrying" and "reflect poorly on the systems in the House of Commons".
She tells victims: "You deserve so much better."
But she says "culture change will not happen overnight".
Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, has said he hopes a deal is possible "in the coming weeks".
He said:"We have done a lot of work in the past weeks and the last few days with the British authorities to achieve a global agreement on the objective of an orderly withdrawal of the UK."This withdrawal must be orderly for everyone and in all subjects - including Ireland. We must find a solution to ensure that there is no hard border in any circumstance on the island of Ireland.
"We are not there yet. Several subjects remain open, including Ireland. We need more time to find this global agreement and achieve the decisive progress we need to finalise this negotiation on the orderly withdrawal.
"We will take this time, calmly and seriously, to find this global agreement in the next weeks."
NEW: Theresa May told her Cabinet this morning that they must "stand together" if they are to secure a Brexit deal.
According to her spokesman, the prime minister said:
"I'm convinced that if we as a government stand together and stand firm, we can achieve this."
The spokesman said there was unity in support of Ms May's view that the UK should not be kept in the customs union indefinitely, but that the meeting was "not a decision-making" one.
Emily Thornberry is facing a backlash after suggesting the importance of Brexit means now is not the time to replace John Bercow as Commons speaker, despite numerous allegations of bullying against him (which he has strongly denied).
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union, which represents public sector workers, called the shadow foreign secretary "completely disingenuous" and accused her of putting "party politics before people".
wwwConfused about why the EU won't allow cherry-picking the single market or how the customs backstop could prevent an FTA?
My colleague Jon Stone has explained all the key Brexit-related terms you need to know:
22 Brexit terms everyone's using but you were too afraid to ask about, explained
A jargon-buster for BrexitParliamentary history was made this morning when a robot addressed a Commons select committee for the first time. "Pepper", a robot from Middlesex University, answered questions from MPs about the fourth industrial revolution..
The twice-daily Downing Street briefing with Westminster journalists is currently underway, so we're expecting some news of this morning's crunch Cabinet meeting imminently....
MPs are currently listening to an urgent question from Labour MP Frank Field, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, on Universal Credit.
Work and pensions minister Alok Sharma says he will not comment on "speculation" that rollout of the controversial policy could be delayed again, as reported here:
Universal credit rollout to be 'delayed' once more, reveals leaked documents
Revelation comes after Esther McVey admitted some claimants could be 'worse off' when they switch from legacy benefits to universal creditGermany has told Theresa May to "take responsibility" for Brexit.
The country's foreign minister, Michael Roth, spoke as he arrived at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
He said his message for Ms May was: "Take responsibility and be constructive."
Cabinet has now been going on for more than two and a half hours... Is Theresa May finding it harder than expected to convince her ministers to back her Brexit plan?
NEW: EU officials have said they won't even discuss a potential trade deal with the UK at Wednesday's crunch summit because there is no agreement on the customs backstop
EU leaders won’t even consider trade deal with UK at Brexit summit this week because of talks collapse
Leaders will not be presented with a draft of the political declaration on the future relationshipIrish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said there is unlikely to be a Brexit deal this week...
What is the row over the customs backstop?
Theresa May's hopes of securing a Brexit deal hinge on reaching an agreement with the EU over plans for a customs backstop. But what is it, and why is it so contentious?
The backstop spells out what should happen if the UK and EU cannot, at a future date, agree a trade deal that would lead to the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland being maintained.
Under the prime minister's proposal, in such a scenario the UK would agree to stay in a customs union with the EU until an alternative could be put in place. May insists this arrangement would be "temporary". However, Brexiteers fear it would lead to the UK staying in the customs union indefinitely, and so they are demanding the back-stop has a specific time limit on it - something the EU is refusing to agree to.
The EU also believes an agreement on the whole UK staying in the customs union temporarily is too complex to be signed off in the next few weeks. It therefore wants its original proposal to also be part of the deal - in effect, as a backstop to the backstop (still following?). Under this plan, only Northern Ireland would remain in a customs union with the EU, while the rest of the UK would not. May says any suggestion of Northern Ireland having different customs rules to the rest of the country after Brexit is completely unacceptable - and that's where the sticking point lies.
Her job today is to convince her Cabinet to accept her proposal for a UK-wide backstop that is temporary but not necessarily time-limited. Her task for tomorrow - which is likely to prove much more difficult - is to persuade EU leaders to ditch their demands for a fall-back that would keep only Northern Ireland in the customs union..
Maria Miller, the former culture minister who now chairs the Commons' women and equalities committee, has led calls for John Bercow to step down.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
"We have outstanding allegations directly against the Speaker, who will be one of the people who will be considering this report, and it cannot be right that the very people who are being criticised so heavily in an independent report are those who are going to be deciding how it is taken forward."
Asked if this meant Mr Bercow should resign, she said: "Absolutely."
Here's more, from my colleague Ash Cowburn, on calls for John Bercow to resign following a damning report on abuse of staff in Parliament.
John Bercow faces calls to resign amid Commons bullying report
'It cannot be right that the very people who are being criticised so heavily in an independent report are those who are going to be deciding how it is taken forward'NEW: The urgent question on the Cox Report into abuse of staff in Parliament has been granted. We can expect to see MPs stand up and demand John Bercow step down over allegations about his own treatment of staff.
However, Labour appears to be supporting the Speaker. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said:
"I think this is absolutely not the time to be changing Speaker. We don't know, for example, with regard to Brexit as to what is going to happen, whether there is going to technically an amendable motion or not, whether it will be the Speaker's discretion as to whether it is."We do need to have all hands on deck at the moment."
Here's today's Commons schedule - potentially with an urgent question on abuse of staff in Parliament, which, if granted, will take place at 12.30pm.
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