Theresa May has secured “legally-binding’’ changes to her Brexit deal after an eleventh-hour dash to Strasbourg on the eve of a dramatic Commons vote.
In a late-night press conference with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, Ms May urged MPs to back her “improved” deal in the meaningful vote tomorrow after pledging she had secured reassurances that the UK would not be trapped in the Irish backstop.
Cabinet Office minister David Lidington set out details of some of the changes agreed with Brussels in a Commons statement as he tried to buy the prime minister time to finish her talks before the Commons rose for the night.
It comes ahead of a parliamentary showdown on Ms May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday, which returns to the Commons after it was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs in January.
As speculation mounts over a fresh humiliation for Ms May, all eyes will be on the Brexiteers and her DUP allies to see if the changes the prime minister has secured will be enough to get the deal over the line.
That really is all the evidence the EU should require.I think it would be worth reiterating that and actually putting the detail of the proposals which we worked up with the Government over recent weeks on the table so that the EU could be fully aware and discuss what it was exactly we were proposing."
Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay held talks with pro-second referendum Labour MPs
Labour MP Peter Kyle says Mr Barclay was ‘engaging fully’ with possibilities during 45-minute meeting in Downing StreetEnvironment secretary Michael Gove - one of the leaders of the official Leave campaign in the referendum - became the latest Cabinet minister to urge MPs to vote for Mrs May's deal.
In an article for the Daily Mail, he said: "I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy - in the importance of delivering Brexit, but also in the critical need to unite our country - will come behind the Prime Minister's deal this week."
Labour's shadow chancellor has dismissed the MPs who left the party to form The Independent Group as "completely irrelevant".
John McDonnell insisted he had never contemplated leaving the Labour Party under Tony Blair's leadership, even though he and current leader Jeremy Corbyn "occasionally" voted against the party line.
He said it was "absolutely futile" that politicians including Chuka Umuna and Luciana Berger had quit, pointing to Labour's subsequent support for a second Brexit referendum.
Opinion: It’s now likely we will never leave the EU. This is how it will work
Parliament faces a choice between May’s deal and delaying our departure, possibly for ever"I hope the prime minister can get withdrawal through and then I do think we need to choose a new leader for a new generation with a new vision of a conservatism that can make sense of Brexit and reinspire and reunite the nation."I hope we can do that having secured a sensible withdrawal agreement. A panicked change of leader now will solve nothing, we have got to get this through.
"I hope colleagues this week will recognise that: vote for the deal and then we can change."
John McDonnell calls The Independent Group 'completely irrelevant' and insists Labour was already backing new Brexit referendum
'I get on the bus, I get on the tube....I get a bit of banter from constituents, people are coming up with their different issues. Not one of them has raised this'
Theresa May desperately attempts to salvage Brexit deal with 48 hours to go
One senior Conservative warns PM's position may become untenable if her Brexit policy is 'dismantled' in coming days"48 per cent of the country voted to remain. Their voices need to be listened to, their hopes incorporated in our plan for the future. That doesn’t mean giving in to the much smaller number who want to overturn the decision and frustrate Brexit.
"But it must mean that none of us Leavers should try to make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good.
Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy — in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country — will get behind the prime minister’s deal this week.
It is, of course, a compromise. But so many of the great British traditions and institutions I and many others value are the result of compromise."
"I do hear some suggestion that the votes may be called off in favour of a new vote as a result of which the House of Commons would tell the European Union what they want. That really misses the point. We're two-and-a-half years if not nearly three years now since the referendum.
"It is far too late for the United Kingdom to tell us what they want. The withdrawal agreement requires a compromise and this withdrawal agreement is already a compromise."
"We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the government in London and the Parliament in London."
"It is now for the House of Commons to take an important set of decisions this week."
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