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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Shadow minister and five Labour PPSs resign to defy whip over Brexit – as it happened

MPs debate amendments to EU withdrawal bill – watch live

Summary

  • Theresa May has cleared what was seen in advance as a perilous parliamentary hurdle, as over the course of a two-day debate MPs reversed or partially reversed 14 of the 15 defeats the government suffered on the EU withdrawal bill in the House of Lords. (It decided to accept the 15th.) Labour claims that it might achieve “a whole catalogue of victories against the government” proved unfounded. There were 20 divisions in total, and the government won them all fairly comfortably. But May only averted defeat on a Lords amendment to give the Commons a “meaningful vote “ on Brexit by promising to rewrite the legislation in accordance with proposals drawn up by the leading Tory rebel Dominic Grieve and today fresh evidence has emerged that what the government is offering is not in accordance with what Grieve and his colleagues think they were promised. May has not yet fully defused this row, and a further rebellion on this next week seems quite possible.

That’s all from me for tonight.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

The government won the eighth vote, removing the Lords amendment on environmental protection, by 320 votes to 296 - a majority of 24.

An alternative government amendment on environmental protection went through on the nod.

The government won the seventh vote, removing a Lords amendment giving enhanced protection to EU law relating to employment rights, health and safety, consumer standards and the environment, by 318 votes to 301 - a majority of 17.

MPs are now voting on what should be the final division of the night, removing a Lords amendment on environmental protection.

The government won the sixth vote, removing a Lords amendment removing a restricting on courts using general principles of EU law after Brexit, by 320 votes to 297 - a majority of 23.

MPs are now on the seventh division, on a Lords amendment giving enhanced protection to EU law relating to employment rights, health and safety, consumer standards and the environment.

This seems to be the biggest Labour rebellion we’ve had over Brexit during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Some 75 Labour MPs defied the whip by backing the EEA amendment - 74 by voting in favour, and one by acting as a teller. That is more than the 64 Labour MPs who defied the whip to vote for a Chris Leslie customs union amendment in December. It is also more than the 52 Labour MPs who defied the whip to vote against the third reading of the article 50 bill.

If you include the 15 Labour MPs who voted against the EEA, instead of abstaining, the total size of the revolt - or the double-edged revolt - is 90.

In the fifth vote of the night the government voted down the Lords amendment to keep the charter of fundamental rights in domestic law by 321 votes to 301 - a majority of 20.

Labour’s decision to abstain on the EEA amendment has been criticised by more pro-EU parties.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, said:

Corbyn is completely defunct as an opposition leader. The Labour party had the opportunity to help us defeat the Conservatives over the EEA, but wasted it.

Their alternative fudge amendment was nothing more than a meaningless distraction. Once again, Labour has abdicated its duty as the official opposition and is instead going right along with the Tories’ chaotic Brexit.

Brexit is not inevitable, but we do need Labour’s front-bench to do their job and join us in taking on the Tory government.

And Plaid Cymru’s Brexit spokesperson, Hywel Williams, said:

In abstaining on this crucial amendment, the Labour Party has paved the way for the Tories to deliver a hard Brexit.

The Labour Party has put the jobs, wages and standard of living of our families, businesses and farmers at serious risk. Only a few days ago they said they wanted as soft a Brexit as possible but tonight they willingly allowed the Tories to wreck any hope of that happening by choosing to sit on their hands while the rest of us were voting.

And, bizarrely, the Labour MP for Edinburgh South, Ian Murray, has put out a statement on behalf of “Scottish Labour for the Single Market” criticising his own party. He said:

This was a missed opportunity for Parliament to defeat the Tories’ reckless plans for a hard Brexit, and save tens of thousands of jobs across the UK.For the Labour frontbench to abstain on this crucial issue was a dereliction of duty, and future generations will ask us why we didn’t do more for the workers we represent.

There has been a sixth Labour resignation, my colleague Heather Stewart reports. Rosie Duffield also resigned as a PPS so that she could vote in favour of staying in the EEA.

MPs are now voting on the Lords amendment keeping the charter of fundamental rights as part of domestic law.

The government won a second vote rejecting the Lords customs union proposal by 326 votes to 296 - a majority of 30. (Sometimes more than one vote is necessary because what gets described as a single amendment actually involves more than one amendment, altering different bits of the bill.)

This is from the Labour MP Ged Killen, explaining why he resigned as a Labour PPS so that he could vote for staying in the EEA.

Until relatively opposition parties only had a small number of PPSs (parliamentary private secretaries - bag carriers to ministers or shadow ministers who are bound by collective discipline). Parties have appointed more and more, partly because it helps enforce discipline. But the downside of having more PPSs is that, if they do resign, the number of resignations looks that much larger.

In truth, until tonight, most people in Westminster will have been unaware that Ged Killen, Ellie Reeves, Tonia Antoniazzi and Anna McMorrin were PPSs.

How MPs voted on EEA by party

Here are the figures showing how MPs voted for the EEA by party.

Against the EEA

Conservatives: 298

Labour: 15 (Sir Kevin Barron, Ronnie Campbell, Rosie Cooper, Frank Field, Jim Fitzpatrick, Caroline Flint, Mike Hill, Kate Hoey, Kevan Jones, John Mann, Dennis Skinner, Laura Smith, Gareth Snell, John Speller, and Graham Stringer)

DUP: 10

Independent: 2 - Charlie Elphicke (Conservative but suspended) and Kelvin Hopkins (Labour but suspended)

For the EEA

Labour: 74

SNP: 32

Lib Dem: 11

Conservatives: 3 (Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry)

Plaid Cymru: 4

Independent: 2 - Sylvia Hermon and John Woodcock (suspended from Labour)

Greens: 1

MPs vote against Lords customs union amendment by majority of 27

MPs have voted to reject the Lords customs union amendment by 325 votes to 298 - a majority of 27

Full list of 126 MPs who voted in favour of staying in EEA

Here is a full list of the 126 MPs who voted in favour of keeping the pro-EEA amendment.

Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Luciana Berger (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Mhairi Black (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Mr Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Ms Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Sir Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Dr Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Mr Kenneth Clarke (Conservative - Rushcliffe)
Ann Coffey (Labour - Stockport)
Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Sir Edward Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Geraint Davies (Labour (Co-op) - Swansea West)
Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Martin Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party - West Dunbartonshire)
Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Dame Louise Ellman (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, Riverside)
Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Mike Gapes (Labour (Co-op) - Ilford South)
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Mr Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Neil Gray (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Mr Dominic Grieve (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Lady Hermon (Independent - North Down)
Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Dame Margaret Hodge (Labour - Barking)
Mr George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Dr Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Mr David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Mr Chris Leslie (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham East)
David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Stuart C. McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Mr Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Conor McGinn (Labour - St Helens North)
Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Mrs Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Brendan O’Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Albert Owen (Labour - Ynys Môn)
Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Joan Ryan (Labour - Enfield North)
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Mr Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Mr Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Mr Gavin Shuker (Labour (Co-op) - Luton South)
Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Angela Smith (Labour - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Owen Smith (Labour - Pontypridd)
Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Anna Soubry (Conservative - Broxtowe)
Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Chuka Umunna (Labour - Streatham)
Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Dr Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Dr Paul Williams (Labour - Stockton South)
Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Phil Wilson (Labour - Sedgefield)
Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
John Woodcock (Independent - Barrow and Furness)
Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)

The two tellers were:

Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South) and Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

MPs are now voting on on the amendment saying the government should have to make a statement to parliament about what it has done to negotiate customs union membership.

It is sometimes described as a pro customs union amendment, but in fact it is so mild that it would not formally commit the government to seeking customs union membership as a negotiating objective.

Labour says around 90 MPs rebelled over EEA - 75 for, and 15 against

Labour Whips, an official Twitter account, says around 90 Labour MPs defied the whip - around 75 voting for the EEA amendment and 15 voting against.

MPs vote against staying in EEA by majority of 201

The government won the vote to reject the EEA amendment by 327 votes to 126 - a majority of 201.

But dozens of Labour MPs must have defied the whip to back the amendment. We will get the figures within the next 15 minutes or so.

Laura Smith says she resigned as shadow minister for the Cabinet Office so that she could vote against the EEA amendment, instead of just abstaining as the party has ordered.

She has a majority of just 48 in Crewe and Nantwich, which voted 60% for leave in the EU referendum (well above the 52% UK average).

Corbyn says EEA 'not the right option for Britain'

In a statement about the resignations Jeremy Corbyn said:

I would like to thank Laura, Ged, Ellie, Tonia and Anna for their work with the Labour frontbench. I look forward to working with all five in a Labour government that invests in all our communities and gives real hope to our people.

I understand the difficulties MPs representing constituencies which voted strongly for leave or remain have on the EEA amendment to the EU withdrawal bill.

The Labour party respects the outcome of the EU referendum and does not support the EEA or Norway model as it is not the right for option for Britain. It would leave us with next to no say over rules we have to follow, it does not allow us to negotiate a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union and it fails to resolve the Irish border issue.

But we are not voting with the government on this amendment because the Conservatives offer no plan for securing the full tariff free access to the EU’s internal market, which is so vital for jobs and living standards in our country.

Labour will continue to use every opportunity to hold the government to account and protect jobs, rights and living standards.

One shadow minister and 4 Labour PPSs resign to defy party whip over Brexit

The Labour party has just announced that five MPs have resigned from party role - one as a shadow minister, four as PPSs - so they can defy the whip over this bill.

In a press notice, Labour says:

Ahead of voting on Lords amendment 51 to the EU withdrawal bill, Laura Smith MP has resigned from her junior shadow cabinet office role and Ged Killen MP, Ellie Reeves MP, Tonia Antoniazzi MP and Anna McMorrin MP have resigned from PPS roles.

MPs are now voting on the Lords EEA amendment.

This is what the amendment says.

But none of the remaining provisions may come into force until it is a negotiating objective of the Government to ensure that an international agreement has been made which enables the United Kingdom to continue to participate in the European Economic Area after exit day.

This is from the BBC’s Esther Webber.

Labour 'internal market' amendment defeated by 82 votes

Labour has lost the vote by 322 votes to 240 - a government majority of 82.

MPs vote on Labour amendment saying UK should seek 'full access to internal market'

MPs are now voting on amendment (a) to the Lords EEA amendment.

This is the Labour amendment saying that, instead of remaining in the EEA being a Brexit negotiating objective, the UK government should instead aim for “full access to the internal market of the European Union, underpinned by shared institutions and regulations, with no new impediments to trade and common rights, standards and protections as a minimum.”

Like all today’s amendments, it is available in this Commons paper (pdf).

John Bercow, the speaker, tries to call the vote.

Robert Buckland, the solicitor general, says he wants to speak. He was expecting frontbench wind-up speeches. Bercow says they had agreed not to have these speeches. Buckland says he wants to speech, and Bercow lets him go.

Buckland says he just wants to reassure Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee who has tabled an amendment to the government version of the Dubs child refugee amendment, that the government will look at accommodating her point when the bill goes back to the Lords.

Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP, told MPs he had been pushing for an EEA solution to Brexit for 18 months. He said being in the EEA, but not in the EU, would keep the UK from the direct jurisdiction of the European court of justice.

Afternoon summary

  • MPs have been told that obscure amendments passed yesterday without attracting much attention will effectively keep the UK in the single market. Conservative MPs Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow chancellor, made the claim at the start of a six-hour debate on the EU withdrawal bill. (See 1.55pm, 2.41pm and 5.11pm.) There will be a series of votes after the debate ends at 7.30pm, and both main parties are expected to see some backbenchers rebel and vote in favour for the UK staying in the EEA (European Economic Area) against party orders.

I will be focusing now almost exclusively on the debate and on the votes.

Labour’s Gareth Snell says he will vote against the EEA amendment, instead of just abstaining (the official Labour position). He says he does not see how his constituents’ lives would be improved by the UK remaining in an EU-lite.

And he says he objects to people who say that people like him and Caroline Flint oppose EEA membership because they are opposed to immigration. They want a firm but fair immigration system, he says.

Labour’s Wes Streeting is speaking now. He says he will be voting for the EEA amendment. There is no just thing as a “jobs first Brexit” (Labour’s stated priority) outside the single market, he says. He says MPs were sent to Westminster to do what is best for their constituents’ jobs, not to do what makes their jobs easiest.

Simon Clarke, a Conservative, is speaking in the now. He says he was concerned to hear Anna Soubry say people concerned about immigration and being in the single market should just “suck it up”. (See 6.32pm.) His constituents voted to leave the EU precisely because they did not want to suck it up, he says.

Labour’s Rushanara Ali told MPs she would be supporting the EEA amendment “with a heavy heart”. She said she did not want to vote against her front bench, but she said keeping the EEA option open was in the best interests of her constituents.

These are from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

A pro-EU demonstrator holds a placard during an anti-Brexit protest outside the Houses of Parliament today.
A pro-EU demonstrator holds a placard during an anti-Brexit protest outside the Houses of Parliament today. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Highlights from the EU withdrawal bill debate

The EU withdrawal bill debate will run until about 7.30pm. After that we are expecting around eight votes, which will take about two hours.

Here are some of the highlights from the debate so far.

From Labour

Pat McFadden, the former minister, said that it would be “rash” to rule out staying in the EEA. Labour MPs are being told to abstain on the amendment that would seek to keep the UK in the EEA after Brexit. But McFadden said:

The bottom line is that any serious party of government or any opposition party which aspires to government has to care as much about the creation of wealth as about its fair distribution and that is why these questions are so central ...

So it seems to me that the idea of taking the only existing model of full participation in the single market while not being a member of the European Union off the table would be an unwise and a rash thing to do.

It covers both goods and services and it has in it workers’ rights and other consumers’ rights... Would we rather have those workers’ rights enshrined in an international treaty or entrusted to the tender care of the members of the European Research Group that have railed against European regulation.

Chuka Umunna said he would vote for the EEA amendment. Leaving the EEA would not solve the migration problems that contributed to the vote to leave, he said. He said:

Curbing Commonwealth immigration then and ending EU free movement now did and is not going to solve these problems and we know it. That is why Labour governments have always addressed these problems by properly funding the NHS, by having a national minimum wage, investing in our schools and so on. That is why I will be voting for my frontbench’s amendment but also the Lords’ amendment too.

Alison McGovern also said she supported having the option of EEA membership as a backstop. It would be better than no Brexit, or a Tory Brexit, she said.

From the Conservatives

Tory MPs are being told to vote against the EEA amendment. But Anna Soubry, the former minister, said she would vote for it. She said:

I will be voting for the EEA amendment because I believe, as I have said many, many times in this place, of the value of the single market.

And she said MPs opposed to the EEA because they wanted to curb immigraton should “suck it up”. She said:

Suck it up: there is no alternative that has been advanced in this place other than the customs union, the single market. Let’s grab it, let’s do it and move on.

Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, said he would vote for the amendment too. He said:

There becomes a point when you have to stand up and be counted, and if it’s not this week it has to be next week.

The truth is I’m really anxious for my constituents, really anxious for the direction of travel that we are taking generally: I respect the decision in the referendum but we are closing off options of how we conduct future relationships in ways which are utterly damaging to ourselves.

Yes, of course, the EEA amendment is rather flawed and it does have the merit, as the Labour frontbench has substituted instead an adherence to a motherhood and apple pie amendment which I can’t possibly support because it is motherhood and apple pie, but at least this one has got some bite and I’m afraid today’s the day I shall be voting for it.

Heidi Allen said she would be abstaining on the EEA. But she said it might be needed as a lifeboat plan B at some point in the future, and she suggested that she might vote for EEA membership later in the year. She said:

[EEA membership] is far inferior to a bespoke customs arrangement that the prime minister is determined to seek, but if she doesn’t we need it as a plan B ... We’d be absolute fools to write it off. So let’s get to the Trade Bill, see where we are, see how the June council goes and potentially that might be the lifeboat we all should grasp with both hands.

Antoinette Sandbach said she would be abstaining on the EEA amendment. She said MPs might have to return to the issue of whether to stay in it.

Robert Buckland, the solicitor general, explained why the government was opposed to the EEA amendment. He said:

After the implementation period ends, then that agreement [the EEA] will no longer apply to the UK. Seeking to participate in the EEA agreement beyond that period doesn’t pass our test that our future partnership with the EU must respect the referendum - it doesn’t deliver the control of our laws and indeed other aspects of our domestic policy that we seek.

On borders, it would mean we’d have to continue to accept all four freedoms of the single market - including free movement of people.

From the SNP

Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, said Britain was on the cusp of becoming a failed state due to Brexit. He said:

Notwithstanding some fine individuals on the benches of both sides who I respect, we have the most ineffective and incompetent Government in living memory - only let off the hook because they are shadowed by the most ineffective Opposition most of us will ever have known and hopefully ever know.

I say to the Labour benches, we want you to be doing better, we rely on you to be doing better, but just at a time when we need an effective Opposition and Government, we have neither.

Given the devastating impact that leaving the EU is having on jobs, the economy and those who have made the UK their home, the UK is on the cusp of becoming a failed state that does not represent its constituent parts and makes this generation and following generations worse off than the ones that came before for the first time ever.

One way or another, there’s a better way to do this.

Updated

The UK government has also published two Brexit documents today: a framework for civil judicial cooperation after Brexit (pdf), and a framework for UK-EU cooperation affecting company law (pdf).

Yahoo’s Luke James claims the civil judicial cooperation document basically makes the case for EU membership.

The European commission has released a document today (pdf) with slides setting out its position on the UK continuing to participate fully in the Galileo, the EU’s satellite global-positioning system. It shows why EU rules will not allow the UK to get the level of involvement it wants. Here are two of the key slides.

This one shows how the EU rules work.

EU rules on Galileo
EU rules on Galileo Photograph: European commission

And this one shows how what the UK is requesting is not compatible with those rules.

What UK wants from Galileo after Brexit
What UK wants from Galileo after Brexit Photograph: European commission/What UK wants from Galileo after Brexit

In the EU withdrawal bill debate Labour’s Caroline Flint has just finished a speech strongly opposing the Lords amendment saying the UK should seek to remain in the EEA. She said MPs had to respond to the concerns of people who voted to leave the EU.

Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, is following Flint. Although MPs are normally expected to pay tribute to the previous speaker, she says it was not a pleasure to follow Flint. It was one of the saddest speeches she has heard, she says. She says she was disappointed to hear an MP, and a Labour MP, says she did not value immigration.

Flint intervenes. She says that is not what she said. She does value immigrants, and her constituents do as well, she says. But she says they want to know that immigration is under control.

Almost 1,000 people have joined the SNP this afternoon, Ross Colquhoun, a party official, says.

In a speech in Oxford this afternoon Lord Malloch-Brown, the former foreign office minister who now chairs the anti-Brexit Best for Britain, will say Brexit is undermining British foreign policy. According to extracts released in advance, he will say:

Britain has lost its anchors, one has been cut by Britain’s own choice; the other by President Trump. Britain had enjoyed a triangulated standing in the world – America’s pre-eminent link to Europe and Europe’s intermediary with Washington. Both relationships are in crisis. Theresa May appeared a spectator in the corner at last weekend’s G7 summit in Canada. A stranger to Europe and to Trump ...

Instead the unpredictability of a Trump tearing down the walls of the international world order system established by America and its allies after the Second World War – flouting its rules on trade and the rule of law; trashing its institutions – leaves Britain a supplicant at the doors of its former colonies looking for trade deals that aren’t there. Talk about mangy old lions: consumed by dreams and aspirations that under a former Tory prime minister, Harold MacMillan, appeared to have been exorcised ...

Needless to say on foreign policy as on so much else to stay and fight for a stronger Europe remains the only real path forward for a Britain confronted by a Europe and world in crisis. Far from running away from Europe we should remember the real lesson of our history. Our security and prosperity is bound up first and foremost with Europe.

Lord Malloch-Brown.
Lord Malloch-Brown. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters

McDonnell says Labour's policy on Brexit is 'traditional British compromise'

In a speech to the TheCityUK conference this morning John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, described Labour’s Brexit policy as a “traditional British compromise”. He explained:

We are walking on a tightrope at the moment. We campaigned for remain but many of our MPs, including myself, now represent seats which voted heavily leave.

Labour was “trying to bring the political reality of that vote to leave in line with the economic reality of what the consequences of that will mean in practice for jobs and living standards and sectors of our economy,” he said. He went on:

We are trying to construct at the moment a traditional British compromise and we are trying to drag as many with us as possible both in government and elsewhere around some key elements of that compromise.

John McDonnell.
John McDonnell. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Earlier I said that, at the start of the EU withdrawal bill debate, Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve and Sir Keir Starmer said an amendment passed yesterday with virtually no attention paid to it would effectively keep the UK in the single market. (See 1.55pm and 2.41pm.)

This is what Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, said about the amendment.

It was the most significant thing that happened yesterday, but in the circus that surrounded everything, and the timetable that stopped us debating it, nobody so far has taken any notice. The legally binding commitment yesterday extends the needs of the Irish border to the whole of the United Kingdom. So we’re talking about Dover, and we settled that yesterday. We’re not having a border down the Irish sea, so the United Kingdom has got to negotiate an arrangement with the EU as a whole that has no new frontier barriers. So effectively we are going to reproduce the customs union and the single market and the government will not be able to comply with yesterday’s legal obligation unless it does so.

Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said this was a “very significant amendment”. He explained:

We’ve now got a political commitment in December to no hard border, no infrastructure, no checks and no controls [at the border]. We have a binding law to that effect. And it goes to the “maximum facilitation” because, if “maximum facilitation” does involve infrastructure, checks or controls, it would be unlawful under the provision passed yesterday. And therefore it cannot happen.

And this is what Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general, said.

Not only will we have to stay in a form of customs arrangement amounting to a union, but we’re also going to have to have a high level of regulatory alignment because otherwise the life that takes place along the border will be impossible because of different regulations on either side.

May says new tech visa will allow 'best talent' to come to UK

A new visa will allow the “best talent” from across the world to work in Britain’s burgeoning technology sector, Theresa May has told industry bosses. As the Press Association reports, during talks at No 10, the prime minister said rules are being changed to allow more tech entrepreneurs to head to the UK. Plans for around 1,600 new jobs and billions of pounds of investment were set out at the meeting held in Downing Street as part of London Tech Week. May said:

There are exciting tech opportunities here in the United Kingdom. In London tech week, Britain as a place to do tech business is being enthusiastically championed. We have continually shown the advantages that the UK has for the tech sector.

A new start-up visa for entrepreneurs is being introduced in spring next year, the Press Association reports. It will expand a graduate permit to include “talented business founders”.

Theresa May hosting a tech round table meeting at Downing Street this afternoon.
Theresa May hosting a tech round table meeting at Downing Street this afternoon. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Paul Dacre has warned Geordie Greig, his successor as the Daily Mail’s editor, that any move to weaken the newspaper’s support for Brexit would be “editorial and commercial suicide”, Jim Waterson reports.

In the EU withdrawal bill debate Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general who lead yesterday’s “meaningful vote” rebellion, told MPs that he would be voting for the Lords amendment saying the UK should seek to remain in the EEA (European Economic Area).

He also said he would vote with Labour for the Lords amendment saying that if ministers want to water down rights using powers in the EU withdrawal bill, there should be enhanced scrutiny of the legislation in parliament.

Ken Clarke is still speaking. He is now talking about the customs arrangement amendment tabled by a group of Conservative MPs, including remainers like Nicky Morgan, Antoinette Sandbach and Damian Green, and leavers like Sir Bill Cash and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

He says he knows these MPs; they don’t agree on anything.

He says he cannot see the point of the amendment. It is a waste of paper, he says.

Here is part of what it says:

A Minister of the Crown must lay before each House of Parliament a statement in writing outlining the steps taken by Her Majesty’s Government, in negotiations under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, to seek to negotiate an agreement, as part of the framework for the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the EU, for the United Kingdom to participate in a customs arrangement with the EU.

Clarke says there will have to be a customs arrangement. This amendment is pointless, he says.

Concluding his speech, he repeats the point about how the Irish border amendment agreed yesterday (see 1.55pm and 2.41pm) means the government has agreed to high regulatory alignment with the EU.

He says the “max fac” customs proposal is ridiculous. It could take years to implement, he says. He suggests it could take 10 years to introduce.

Ken Clarke, the Conservative pro-European, is speaking now. He says he will focus on the customs union amendments.

He says he does not remember any member of the public asking him about the customs union during the EU referendum campaign.

He says the government thinks they will be able to negotiate generous trade deals. But it is not as simple as that, he says. He says countries like the US and India will not just open their markets to the UK.

And he says the government claims that being able to negotiate its own free trade deals will protect sovereignty. But these trade agreements involve the two sides making binding obligations to each other, he says.

He says President Trump wants to actually reduce the amount of imports the US is taking from the UK. But what the US really wants is access to our markets for their farmers. They produce food on an industrial scale, to lower standards than ours. They want us to abandon European regulations on farm standards and adopt theirs, he says.

Ken Clarke
Ken Clarke Photograph: Parliament TV

It’s worth considering the SNP’s principled walkout this lunchtime in the context of the nationalist group’s trajectory at Westminster since their landslide victory in the general election of 2015.

In their first months at Westminster, as the greatly enlarged group after winning 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, the SNP scored a series of strategic hits that marked them out as canny and focused operators.

Their MPs were instrumental in a series of government climbdown’s on EVEL, the date of the EU referendum, and fox hunting.

Since then, that early momentum appears to have fallen away, although a number of diligent campaigning MPs like Alison Thewliss, Joanna Cherry and Stewart McDonald have continued to raise the party’s profile. But there have been increasing concerns about the Westminster group feeling too far removed from the party in Edinburgh, most recently over the lack of briefing they received before the publication of the party’s Growth Commission report on the economics of independence. Will yesterday’s ‘democratic outrage’, as SNP leader Ian Blackford described it, reinvigorate the group, and perhaps kickstart better communication with Holyrood?

It’s also worth noting the number of posts on social media this morning from people saying they had joined or rejoined the SNP in protest at yesterday’s perceived silencing of Scottish voices in the Commons.

Updated

Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, has just finished his speech in the debate now. Several MPs criticised him for the SNP’s walkout earlier. But Gethins said that in the 1980s, when Donald Dewar was shadow Scottish secretary, he staged a walkout of Scottish Labour MPs.

Conveniently, BTL, ScottishPanda posted a link to an article with a line about the Dewar stunt.

Gethins ended by saying the UK was on the brink of becoming a failed state.

Updated

In the debate Robert Buckland, the solicitor general, is still speaking. He has just confirmed that the government will accept the Oliver Letwin amendment covering environmental protection (full text here) instead of the one that was tabled by Lord Krebs and passed in the Lords.

Soubry accuses No 10 of going back on 'meaningful vote' promise made by May yesterday

As my colleague Heather Stewart has reported, after PMQs Downing Street said that the government will not consider the clause of the Dominic Grieve “meaningful vote” amendment that would allow the Commons to direct the government what to do in the event of the Brexit withdrawal agreement being voted down.

There is an explanation here about what clause C, or 5C, is all about.

Anna Soubry, one of the Tory pro-European MPs who met Theresa May yesterday when she agreed to consider the Grieve amendment, said that No 10 was going back on what May promised. She tweeted these.

Bercow says telling female minister to avoid 'dilation' not sexist

John Bercow’s office confirmed a complaint had been received from the business minister Claire Perry (see 1.24pm) but denied denied that the speaker had been offensive.

A spokeswoman for the speaker’s office said:

During question time yesterday, the speaker was trying to move business along ahead of the much anticipated debate on the EU withdrawal bill. He simply urged the minister to give a ‘brief answer … no dilation’ – in other words, he was asking Ms Perry not to speak at length. It is a term he has used many times before.

One dictionary definition of dilation is: “The action of speaking or writing at length on (a subject).”

Bercow has also invited Perry to a cup of tea to “clear the air”.

Robert Buckland, the solicitor general, is speaking now on behalf of the government. He says the Lords amendments are “not properly thought through” and would undermine Brexit.

Dominic Grieve intervenes. He says he does not understand the government’s claim that the UK could not be a member of the EEA without the European court of justice having control over UK law.

Buckland says he does not agree. He says being in the EEA would leave the UK as a law taker.

Why Ken Clarke thinks an amendment passed yesterday will effectively keep UK in single market

Earlier several MPs claimed that MPs and the press missed the most significant amendment passed yesterday. (See 1.55pm.) They were referring to amendments passed by the government that altered an amendment passed in the Lords, a Chris Patten amendment saying Brexit policy must not lead to the creation of a hard border in Ireland.

This is what the Patten amendment said:

“Continuation of North-South co-operation and the prevention of new border arrangements

(1) In exercising any of the powers under this Act, a Minister of the Crown or devolved authority must—

(a) act in a way that is compatible with the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, and

(b) have due regard to the joint report from the negotiators of the EU and the United Kingdom Government on progress during phase 1 of negotiations under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union.

(2) Nothing in section 7, 8, 9 or 17 of this Act authorises regulations which—

(a) diminish any form of North-South cooperation across the full range of political, economic, security, societal and agricultural contexts and frameworks of co-operation, including the continued operation of the North-South implementation bodies, or

(b) create or facilitate border arrangements between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after exit day which feature—

(i) physical infrastructure, including border posts,

(ii) a requirement for customs or regulatory compliance checks,

(iii) a requirement for security checks,

(iv) random checks on goods vehicles, or

(v) any other checks and controls,

that did not exist before exit day and are not subject to an agreement between Her Majesty’s Government and the Government of Ireland.

Last night, after a debate lasting just 15 minutes, MPs voted for five amendments to this amendment. And then the Patten amendment, as amended was accepted.

Two of the amendments to the amendment passed last night - (d) and (e), set out here on this pages - altered the wording of clause 2b, which refers to border controls.

Taking into account the amendments, clause 2b of the amendment now says:

Nothing in [sections of] this Act authorises regulations which ... create or facilitate border arrangements between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after exit day which feature physical infrastructure, including border posts, or checks and controls, that did not exist before exit day and are not in accordance with an agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU.

That is the clause in the bill that Ken Clarke thinks will create a legal obligation that will effectively keep the UK in the single market. (See 1.55pm.)

Starmer explains why Labour is committed to the Lords amendment saying that, if ministers want to reduce rights guaranteed by EU law relating to employment rights, equality, consumer standards, health and safety or the environment after Brexit after Brexit, they should only be able to do so using primary legislation.

He says this is necesary because some government ministers are on the record as saying they want to reduce rights after Brexit.

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative pro-European, intervenes. He says he agrees with Starmer on this. He says he thinks the Conservatives should accept this principle.

Starmer is now addressing the EEA amendment.

He says he can understand why peers tabled this. He says Theresa May’s red lines on Brexit are a mistake.

He says he has visited Norway to see how the EEA works.

He says the EEA works well for Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein.

They are all small countries, he says.

And he says they strike trade deals as a group within Efta (the European free trade association).

But those deals would not work better for the UK than EU trade deals, he says.

And he says there is infrastructure at the border between Sweden and Norway, not for people and goods. He says the EEA provides little flexibility in relation to the four freedom.

Anna Soubry, another leading Conservative pro-European, has been tweeting about the Irish border amendment and the single market. (See 1.55pm.)

Owen Smith, the Labour MP and former shadow Northern Ireland secretary, asks Starmer to accept that it is possible to be in the customs union and the EEA (European Economic Area), as Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said yesterday.

Starmer says he will deal with the EEA later in his speech.

Government amendment on Irish border passed yesterday will effectively keep UK in single market, MPs claim

Starmer says the government agreed in December that there must be no hard border in Ireland after Brexit, meaning no new infrastructure at the border.

He says one of the government amendments passed yesterday (an amendment to the Chris Patten amendment) now makes this a legally binding obligation. He says this did not get much attention yesteday, but it is hugely significant.

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative pro-European, says the Ireland amendment is even more important. To avoid border infrastructure, there would be to be a high level of regulatory alignment, he says.

Starmer agrees.

Ken Clarke, another Conservative pro-European, intervenes. He says the government passing the amendment that Starmer is talking about was the most significant thing that happened yesterday, even though it did not attract much attention. He goes on:

Effectively we are going to reproduce the customs union and the single market and the government will not be able to comply with yesterday’s legal obligation unless it does so.

Starmer agrees. He says the Irish amendments passed yesterday were the most significant event of the day.

  • Government amendment on Irish border passed yesterday will effectively keep UK in single market, MPs claim.

John Bercow, the speaker, intervenes. He says MPs are not supposed to be having a “replay” of yesterday’s debate. They are meant to be debating today’s amendments.

Starmer says the customs union amendment is sensible for many reasons.

Staying in the customs union is vital for manufacturing, he says. Manufacturers now operate a just-in-time model, and so they need to be able to import parts without disruption.

My colleague Heather Stewart has this from the Downing Street briefing Ben Bradshaw referred to a moment ago. (See 1.37pm.)

Labour’s Ben Bradshaw says Number 10 has been briefing that it will reject a “meaningful vote”.

Starmer says he is not aware of these reports. They would be worrying, he says.

Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, says Theresa May said at PMQs that an amendment would be laid.

MPs debate Lords amendments to EU withdrawal bill

The debate on the Lords amendments to the EU withdrawal bill is starting now.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is opening the debate.

He says the amendments being debated today cover rights, environmental safeguards and the charter of fundamental rights.

There is also an amendment saying the government should have to make a statement about its policy towards negotiating a customs union, he says.

He says the government is going to great lengths to avoid accepting this.

But the amendment is a “sensible one for many reasons”, he says.

A Conservative MP asks if Labour is willing to accept free movement. Starmer says he will address that later, but free movement is nothing to do with a customs union.

Here is Nicola Sturgeon’s tweet about the Blackford protest.

Business minister Claire Perry accuses Bercow of being 'sexist' towards her

Claire Perry, the business minister, has written to the speaker to complain about his bullying manner to her when she was answering questions in the Commons on Tuesday.

She accused him of having “a woman problem” and being “overly aggressive and particularly sexist” towards her.

Last month there was a row after John Bercow was overheard calling Andrea Leadsom a stupid woman.

Investigations into allegations of bullying of his staff are also being investigated.

Perry, 54, the MP for Devizes, wrote:

You used a tone and language to admonish me for giving over-long answers which seemed both overly aggressive and particularly sexist.

In the exchanges, Bercow told Perry to resume her seat. He said:

I am most grateful to you, but I am afraid dilation is not in order today. We have a lot to get through and not much time in which to do so. We have to make progress. We need short questions and short answers.

Perry tried to make a joke of it, saying the last time she talked about dilation, she was in labour.

The speaker immediately interrupted her again, telling her: “Order. What is required is a brief answer and a brief question—no dilation.”

Some Bercow allies, including the Serjeant at Arms, believe he is being made victim of a witch hunt.

UPDATE: See 2.49pm for Bercow’s response.

Updated

Labour’s Dennis Skinner raises a point of order. He says he is an expert on being thrown out of the chamber. He says on one occasion, after being thrown out, he was told he could stay. He says the speaker can also bar someone from the chamber, but not from the parliamentary estate. He asks Bercow to explain if this is the case for Ian Blackford.

Bercow says Blackford has been excluded from the chamber and from the Palace of Westminster from the rest of the day.

The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, has tweeted this about his PMQs protest.

John Bercow, the speaker, is still taking points of order. Labour’s Margaret Beckett asks him to confirm that, if the Ian Blackford got his way and his “that the House sit in private” motion had been carried, the public and press gallery would have been cleared and broadcasting from the chamber turned off. Bercow confirms that that is the case.

(But Blackford’s motion would not have been carried. He was using it as tactic to disrupt PMQs, not because he expected to close down broadcasting from parliament.)

Bercow says he hopes that these “stunts” will stop.

Blackford says he disrupted PMQs to protest about 'democratic outrage' affecting Scotland

Here is the start of the Press Association story about the SNP protest.

PMQs was plunged into chaos after SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford was kicked out for repeatedly challenging Speaker John Bercow.

MPs from the party walked out of the question session in protest, with many shouting as they left.

Bercow said he was suspending the party leader for the rest of the day following his “repeated refusal” to take his seat when told to do so.

Blackford called for the Commons to sit in private when he was called to ask a question during the weekly PMQs session.

He said the people of Scotland had not been given the courtesy of proper debate on Brexit issues that will affect them during a debate on Tuesday night.

Bercow said it would be better to deal with the issue at the end of the question session.

The SNP leader repeatedly objected and refused to return to his seat.

Bercow told him “in light of the persistent and repeated refusal of the Right Honourable gentleman to resume his seat when so instructed” he was banning him for the rest of the day.

Blackford told BBC News: “Scotland’s voice has not been heard, we have had changes to the devolution settlement that were pushed through last night without Scottish MPs voices being heard. That is a democratic outrage.

I asked the prime minister to bring in emergency legislation so we can conduct a proper debate, with respect, on the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Let’s discuss the power grab that is coming from Westminster.

“That is not acceptable and the Speaker refused to allow a division which I rightly called for. It is an absolute disgrace.

“My job, my colleagues’ job is to stand up for the powers of the Scottish Parliament. I will do that.”

Asked if it was a stunt, he replied: “Under standing orders I was entitled to push for that vote today on the basis of the lack of respect that the Conservative government and Theresa May have shown. It is not acceptable.

“I have a duty on behalf of my colleagues, on behalf of the first minister and the government of Scotland and of the parliament of Scotland, to stand up against the betrayal that has taken place of the Scottish people with the unprecedented power grab which is taking place. We need to, we will and we must stand up and defend Scotland’s interests.”

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she was “right behind” Blackford and accused Westminster of treating Scotland with “contempt”.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said the SNP was about to be granted a debate on the devolution aspects of the EU withdrawal bill.

He added: “Disappointed, if not surprised, that if they really felt so strongly about it, they chose a stunt over holding the government to account.”

Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray in Scotland, uses a point of order to say the SNP were going to request an emergency debate on the time set aside for debating devolution matters in the EU withdrawal bill last night. But now they have walked out, they cannot make the application. He says the SNP should have stayed in the chamber instead of engaging in a stunt.

John Bercow, the speaker, says it is the SNP that is responsible for the fact that this application is not being moved now.

PMQs is over. John Bercow, the speaker, says for all the disruption, the baby observing the session from the gallery has behaved impeccably. He says the baby is Clive Lewis’s.

Tom Brake, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, asks about the president of the CBI’s comments about Brexit today. (See 10.40am.) Is there any Brexit harm she won’t accept?

May says she wants as frictionless trade with the EU as possible. She says there was a time when the Lib Dems supported the people having a choice on Brexit.

Giles Watling, a Conservative, says he is a father of twin girls, who enjoy an equal education. Does May agree we should support equality for women across the globe?

Yes, says May. She says the work the government is doing on modern slavery is particularly helpful to women.

Philip Davies, a Conservative, says MPs who want parliament to have a “meaningful vote” would be betraying those people who voted for Brexit. And does May agree that ruling out a no deal Brexit would help the EU in the negotiations?

May says the government is making preparations for all eventualities. But she says she cannot countenance parliament overturning the will of the British people. MPs must listen to them and deliver on what they voted for, she says.

The Conservative MP Bob Blackman asks May to pay tribute to Gena Turgel, the so-called “bride of Belsen”, who died last week.

May says Turgel was one of the first people to go into schools to tell pupils about the Holocaust. We must never forget what happened, she says.

Labour’s Chris Williamson says schools are targeted in war zones. He says he recently met pupils who asked her to sign a safe schools declaration. Does that mean she will stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which has been targeting schools in Yemen.

May says the G7 summit included a commitment for education in the developing world, and in conflict zones.

This is what May said about the “meaningful vote” issue.

PMQs - Snap verdict

PMQs - Snap verdict: May is certainly resilient. After a run of PMQs defeats on Brexit, and with her Brexit strategy looking increasingly threadbare and ill-fated, she still managed to see off Corbyn’s attempts to ridicule her fairly comfortably. Corbyn’s manner was good - he sounded particularly confident - but mostly his script let him down. His first question was terrific, but he prefaced it with a comment about Grenfell Tower, that allowed May to focus on that in her reply (quite effectively) before having to address the Trump point. Then he asked a series of questions that just hadn’t been properly thought through in advance, because May was able to swat them away quite easily. December 2021 or December 2020? May’s always been able to state her policy clearly (it’s just that it’s not plausible.) Publishing the white paper before the June summit? I don’t think she ever had promised that (Corbyn may have been relying on a newspaper report - not always a good guide). Postponing the June summit? Such a non-starter as an idea, that it is hard to see why Corbyn thought it would cause May problems. Having started with a strong question, Corbyn ended well too, with a rousing soundbite about clashing egos, which of course will play well on the news and on social media. But May’s peroration was funnier, lifted as it was by what was, by PMQs standards, a half-decent joke.

Updated

Blackford was trying to hold a vote on “that this House sit in private” to disrupt proceedings. It would have held things up for 15 minutes.

He was doing this as a protest about the way Scotland has been treated over Brexit, and the EU withdrawal bill in particular. See 11.43am for more details.

Blackford and his SNP colleagues have now left. Blackford was told to leave, but the others went out in solidarity with him.

(Presumably that means they won’t be able to call the vote at the end of PMQs on clearing the public gallery.)

Blackford ordered to leave Commons chamber after trying to disrupt PMQs with vote

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, ends his second question to Theresa May to say he wants the House to sit in private.

That is a mechanism for forcing a vote on clearing the private gallery. This is the sort of tactic Blackford implied he would use when he was on Sky earlier. (See 11.43am.)

But John Bercow, the Commons speaker, says he is not hearing the question now.

(Normally an MP who wants to move a motion to his effect does so formally. But Blackford included it in his question to May.)

Bercow says he will take this at the end of the session.

He appears to offer Blackford the chance to put the vote now.

Then he goes back, and says he will hold the vote after PMQs.

He tells Blackford to resume his seat.

Blackford refuses.

Bercow orders him to leave.

  • Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, is ordered to leave the chamber after refusing to sit down.

Corbyn says May has to face the fact there may be a meltdown. Those are not his words, but the words of Boris Johnson. Johnson also accused the Treasury of being the heart of remain. Does May back the foreign secretary in wanting more friction for trade?

May, picking up on a Dennis Skinner heckle, says Skinner is right. She is in government. Labour said it wanted to do trade deals, but it wants to be in a customs union that would stop it. It said it would respect the referendum, but now it won’t rule one out.

Corbyn says in the parallel universe inhabited by Johnson, you are not respecting the result unless you want friction at the borders. May has no position paper on Brexit. A deal with her backbenchers were reneged on. And economy is suffering. How much more damage will be done before May realises she needs a deal for the country, not one for the giant, clashing egos in her cabinet.

May says she will get a good deal for the country. The last Labour government left the country with 500,000 more people out of work. She says Corbyn is trying to organise a music festival. It will have a solidarity tent - but obviously with no Labour MPs in it. The headline acts are John McDonnell and a band called the Magic Numbers; that just about sums it up, she says.

Corbyn says he is not sure if it a backstop or a backslide. He asks when the white paper will be published. She did say it would be published before the June summit. Is that the case?

May says that is not the case. She says she will be bringing ministers together after the summit, and it will be published after that.

Corbyn says, how about making it a green paper instead, so we can all comment on it. If the government’s plans are not ready by the June summit, will she seek a delay to the summit so she can decide her policy.

May says the summit is not about Brexit. Many issues are coming up, including sanctions against Russia. She wants to strengthen sanctions. She says Corbyn quoted a minister saying it would be published in July. July is after the June council. If Corbyn wants to talk about division, she can tell him what it is. Division is members of the Labour party circulating instruction manuals on how to deselect Labour MPs.

Corbyn pays tribute to the families too.

He says the government is now working on the basis that the transition could continue until December 2021, not December 2020. Which December is she talking about?

May says Corbyn is wrong. He is talking about the backstop. She says it is there to ensure that, if new customs arrangements are not in place, there will be no hard border in Ireland. But the government wants new customs rules to ensure there is no need for a hard border.

Jeremy Corbyn says he hopes the World Cup goes well and England win.

He says it is carers week. He pays tribute to carers.

On Grenfell Tower, he says “the sad truth and reality” is many survivors are still waiting for a permanent home.

He asks if May did as Boris Johnson suggested when she met Trump and asked him to take over the Brexit talks.

(May looks sullen.)

May says people said before December she would not get a deal on Brexit then.

On Grenfell Tower, she says every household has received an offer of temporary or permanent accommodation, and 183 have accepted an offer. But it is not just about buildings. People who suffered are having to rebuild their lives. They lost their possessions, and anything that reminded them of the people they loved. She pays tribute to the families for the strength and dignity they’ve shown.

Mark Harper, a Conservative, says people voted for Brexit to get back control of immigration policy. If the UK stays in the EEA, as MPs will vote on later, that will be impossible. Will May reject this policy?

May agrees. Labour used to say they want control of their borders. Now they want free movement, she says.

Labour’s Gareth Thomas says last year the top five cooperative companies in the country paid four times as much tax as internet giants like Amazon. Will the government do more to help cooperative businesses?

May says HMRC has been trying to get the large internet companies to pay more tax.

Theresa May starts by saying tomorrow marks one year from the Grenfell Tower fire. This “unimaginable tragedy” remains at the forefront of our minds, she says. She says the government is doing everything it can to ensure the survivors get the help they need, and that the inquiry gets to the truth of what happened.

She wishes the men’s England football team well.

PMQs

PMQs is about to start.

And, while we’re talking about moments from our political history, it is worth registering that Brexiter Tories have been speaking out against the House of Lords “meaningful vote” amendment on the grounds that it would “bind the hands” of the prime minister. Daniel Kawczynski, the Conservative MP, gave a good example on Sky’s All Out Politics earlier. He said:

At this juncture we need to ensure that the prime minister has as much flexibility and leeway to negotiate the very best deal for the United Kingdom and any indication or sign that we are trying to bind her hands in these negotiations will give succour to the European commission and those people who want Britain to have a bad deal, or a deal which is so bad that it will force the United Kingdom to come begging to re-enter the club. And that’s completely unacceptable.

“Don’t bind my hands” was, of course, one of the famous soundbites from the 1997 general election campaign. It is what the then prime minister, John Major, said at a press conference. But on that occasion he was accusing Tory Eurosceptics of trying to bind his hands, not pro-Europeans.

The issue at the heart of the row shows just how dramatically politics has been transformed in the last 21 years. Major was saying “don’t bind my hands” because he wanted to keep open the option of joining the euro. The Tory Eurosceptics were the ones who wanted to rule out joining the euro. Now even pro-European ultras like Tony Blair and Nick Clegg would think twice before saying euro membership should be an option, and what was once a Eurosceptic position is the consensus.

SNP says Brexit 'crisis' means it will adopt more confrontational approach to UK government

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, told Sky’s All Out Politics this morning that the SNP is going to adopt a confrontational approach to the government in the light of the way it has handled the EU withdrawal bill.

The SNP object to the plans in the bill for what will happen to powers being repatriated from the EU relating to policy areas that are normally devolved. The UK government wants to retain control of power in some areas so it can impose common UK-wide rules. The SNP accept that in principle, but wants decisions relating to those rules to be reached by agreement; the UK government wants London to have the final say in the event of a dispute.

As well as an argument about policy, there is also an argument about procedure. The key amendments relating to the government plans were tabled in the Lords, where the SNP is not represented (they don’t nominate peers because they disapprove of the Lords on principle). MPs were meant to debate the amendments last night, but because of the way the business was scheduled, the debate lasted just 15 minutes. Subsequent points of order, which saw many Scottish MPs complain about what happened, lasted three times as long.

Blackford told All Out Politics:

The Conservatives were against devolution for 100 years and at the first opportunity they’ve taken back powers from the [Scottish] parliament to Westminster and we haven’t had any meaningful debate in the House of Commons ...

This is bullying by Westminster. There’s a lack of respect for the sovereignty of the Scottish parliament and the Scottish people. We can’t have this. This is a very serious moment. This is a crisis that the government is bringing on. And we have to make it very clear to the government that the relationship that we have with them will now change. We cannot sit in Westminster and allow the Conservative government to treat Scotland in the way they are. We will use parliamentary mechanisms to make sure that our voice is heard, that we stand up for Scotland.

Blackford did not say what he meant by using parliamentary mechanisms to make sure the SNP’s voice is heard, but the party does have some form in this area. As a young MP, Alex Salmond disrupted a budget speech by ignoring convention and intervening on the chancellor, Nigel Lawson. Eventually Salmond was suspended.

Ian Blackford
Ian Blackford Photograph: SNP

Updated

MPs urge government to set up emergency hardship fund for Windrush migrants facing destitution

The Commons home affairs committee has issued a short, urgent report today saying the government should set up an emergency hardship fund for Windrush-era migrants who are in difficulty because they cannot prove their right to be in the UK. The report says:

We are concerned that some people from the Windrush generation face destitution; are unable to settle legal bills; or are facing bailiffs due to debts run up when they were forced to give up work or had their social security payments stopped, through no fault of their own. They cannot wait many months for consultations to be concluded on the design and scope of the compensation scheme. We urge the government to act immediately to set up a hardship fund for those in acute financial difficulty.

And it highlights several examples of Windrush-era migrants who need financial help. Here are two of them.

Anthony Bryan, a painter and decorator who lost his job when he was told he was in the country illegally. Mr Bryan has lived in the UK since 1965. He estimates that he has spent £3,000 on legal and application fees and owes £5,000 in overdue council tax and loans. He has been placed in immigration detention on two occasions. Last week he had his car removed by bailiffs.

Sarah O’Connor, who moved to Britain from Jamaica 51 years ago when she was six, and has lived here ever since. When we met Sarah she told us how she was challenged to prove she was here legally when she was applying for benefits last summer, after losing the job in the computer shop where she had worked for 16 years. Although she has successfully interviewed for several new jobs, the employers have had to withdraw their offers when they discovered she has no passport. Unable to get work and told she is not eligible for benefits, she built up large debts, she had to sell her car and in March was facing bankruptcy.

Car firms could face 'extinction' if UK leaves EU with no customs union, says CBI boss

Paul Drechsler, the outgoing president of the CBI, told the Today programme this morning that businesses were spending millions preparing for the possibility of a no deal Brexit. He said:

Every single day in my job at the CBI I’m aware of decisions about investments, about delays, about deferrals. We already know tens of millions, in fact hundreds of millions, have been invested by UK pharmaceutical and finance companies to create continuity post worst-case Brexit scenario. Tens of millions. What could we have done with that money?

As the BBC reports, he also said that parts of the British manufacturing would become extinct if there is no customs union with the EU after Brexit. He was referring to the car industry in particular, he said.

If we do not have a customs union, there are sectors of manufacturing society in the UK which risk becoming extinct. Be in no doubt, that is the reality.

Dreschler also dismissed the idea that the UK could compensate for leaving the customs union by striking new trade deals. He said:

There’s zero evidence that independent trade deals will provide any economic benefit to the UK that’s material. It’s a myth.

The final hustings before the Lewisham East by-election descended into chaos last night as police shut down the meeting because of a huge protest against far-right candidate Anne-Marie Waters.

Labour’s Janet Daby, who is favourite to win the seat, did not attend the hustings but sources said around 150 protesters from Stand Up to Racism attended to express their anger at Waters’ presence. The former Ukip leadership candidate is now leader of her own fringe party, For Britain. Waters did not turn up to the event, but Ukip’s candidate David Kurten was heckled by the audience and police then intervened to end the debate.

Liberal Democrat candidate Lucy Salek, who attended the hustings along with the Green party and Women’s Equality party, said her party believed it was crucial to have a debate and expressed frustration with how the event has turned out. “As a result of the actions of a few, my voice was stifled,” she said. She went on:

I will always defend the right to peaceful protest but the toxic and threatening atmosphere outside the hustings tonight was totally inappropriate. If Labour had attended the hustings they could have joined with me in defending our values, but instead they stayed away fanning the flames of intolerance and refusing the people of Lewisham the chance to hear from those who wish to serve.

One source at the hustings said the protesters had “shouted Labour slogans” and said they believed the tension could have been prevented if the party had attended the event.

Daby had said she did not want to share a platform with Waters.

The by-election for the seat, which Labour’s Heidi Alexander resigned from last month, will take place tomorrow.

Anti-racism demonstration at the Lewisham East byelection hustings
Anti-racism demonstration at the Lewisham East byelection hustings Photograph: Guardian

This is from @ParlyApp, run by the journalist Tony Grew.

The Scottish government, SNP and Scottish Labour MPs are furious after yesterday’s EU withdrawal bill debate saw the time allocated to discuss devolution squeezed to 15 minutes so that only David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, was able to speak with a handful of brief interventions from Scottish MPs.

The Scottish government’s Brexit minister, Michael Russell, said that Holyrood was being “treated with contempt” by Westminster, and suggested that the Scottish government might pull out of further negotiations. He warned: “We can’t carry on with devolution as it is now”.

SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford called for the UK government’s Scottish secretary David Mundell to resign on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme this morning.

Mundell dismissed the calls, saying later on the same programme that it was “most unfortunate” more time could not be found but arguing that the issues had been fully debated already.

Blackford was also enraged that, when he asked the speaker what options were available given the lack of time to debate, a Tory MP shouted “suicide!”

This Twitter feed, from Simon Usherwood, deputy director of the UK in a Changing Europe project, sums up the Brexit state of play quite usefully.

So what exactly did Theresa May agree to offer the potential Tory rebels only minutes before voting started yesterday afternoon to avert defeat on the EU withdrawal bill, and on the amendment that the Commons should be able to say what must happen next if the withdrawal agreement gets rejected by MPs? It was not clear last night, and, with both sides giving interviews this morning, it is increasingly obvious that there is something of a perception gap as to what is on offer.

Nicky Morgan, one of the potential Tory rebels, told the Today programme:

What was agreed was the prime minister understood that parliament wants to have a real say, in all circumstances, in relation to what’s going to happen in the Brexit deal ...

It was the prime minister’s personal assurance that was very important to us. And she has given us that, and those discussions on how we are going to build on the amendment that has been approved by the House of Commons will start today.

But Robert Buckland, the solicitor general who first mentioned a concession during the debate yesterday, told the Today programme that the government would not let parliament tell the government how to conduct the Brexit negotiations - despite this being one of the elements in what the rebels were demanding. He said:

I have a problem, both constitutionally and politically, with the concept of a direction being given by parliament ...

It’s important, I think, to reiterate the point that was made by David Davis, and others, yesterday, that the concept of directing the government to do something if there was no deal, I think is not something that is acceptable.

I think that far too much echoes what the Lords suggested in their amendment. It would tie the hands of the government in a way that I think could make no deal more likely. So, let’s not go down that road

Not for the first time, the May-engineered Brexit compromise has failed to produce a stable solution acceptable to both sides. We could end up with another rebellion when this amendment comes back to the Commons, probably next week. This is what Heidi Allen, another of the potential Tory rebels, told Sky:

If [the Grieve amendment does not get incorporated into the bill by the government in some form or another], then when [the bill] comes back, if it is not improved, we will vote against the government.

We have got another six-hour debate on the EU withdrawal bill today, followed by a long series of votes. We are not expecting any government defeats, but MPs will vote on an amendment saying the UK should stay in the EEA (European Economic Area), and dozens of Labour MPs are expected to back this despite being under orders to abstain.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, gives evidence to the Commons environment committee

10.30am: John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, speaks at TheCityUK conference.

12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

Around 1pm: MPs resume their debate on the Lords amendments to the EU withdrawal bill. Voting will start six hours after the debate begins and, with multiple votes, the process could take around two hours.

2.30pm: May hosts a tech round table at Downing Street.

2.30pm: John Glen, a Treasury minister, gives evidence to the European scrutiny committee about Brexit.

5.30pm: Lord Malloch-Brown, chair of the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, gives a speech in Oxford.

I will be focusing mostly on the EU withdrawal bill debate this afternoon but I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at the end of the day.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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