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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Brexit: Tory MPs abandoning May after second referendum offer – as it happened

Closing summary

We’re closing this live blog down now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the latest events:

  • The prime minister set out a series of changes she said she was willing to make to her Brexit deal to get it through parliament. They included, perhaps most notably, the offer of a vote on a potential second referendum. You can read a more comprehensive summary of that here.
  • The proposal was immediately panned by key Westminser figures. The Labour leadership insisted it did not represent a meaningful change and hard Brexit-supporting Tories and the DUP indicated they had little or no intention of voting for it. The People’s Vote campaign also dismissed May’s offer of a vote on a second referendum.
  • Several parties held rallies for their supporters. The Brexit party’s event was addressed by Nigel Farage, who said victory for his side would “kill off” a second Brexit referendum. The Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, reiterated that his party’s campaign was as much about stopping Brexit as about getting his candidates elected to public office, while Change UK’s Anna Soubry urged her former Tory colleagues to put country before party.

If you’d like to read more, my colleagues Heather Stewart, Rowena Mason and Peter Walker have the full story:

Updated

The Liberal Democrats have been holding a rally tonight. Addressing the audience, the party’s leader, Vince Cable, cited British Steel and Jaguar Land Rover – businesses he said were struggling at least in part because of Brexit – as examples of factors he believed had motivated people to turn towards his party and its pro-remain position.

Cable added that the Brexit process was also harming the health service and attacked those who have advocated falling back on World Trade Organization rules, saying he was unsure exactly how many of them understand what that meant.

He told supporters Lib Dem MEPs would provide a “solid block of liberal people who will stand firm against the rise of xenophobia, populism, sometimes outright racism and fascism that we’re now getting across Europe”.

He closed by summarising the party’s plans for the final days of campaigning, including his planned debate with the Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, whom he referred to as “Mr Trump’s little helper”.

Updated

The Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage, vowed to “kill off any chance of a second referendum”. More than 3,000 supporters filled the Olympia conference centre this evening, with speeches frequently punctuated with heckling.

There were boos when Farage name-checked Jean-Claude Juncker, louder boos for Donald Tusk and louder still for Guy Verhofstadt.

But the biggest boo was reserved for mention of a People’s Vote. Farage told the audience:

If we win on Thursday, we kill off any chance of them forcing a second referendum on us because they know they would lose.

Former Conservative supporters were easy to find.


Ian Gregory, a former Tory voter, said he was supporting Farage’s party because “the Tories were losing their space” in the electoral landscape.

They struggle to keep up with the pace of change. Politics is changing and you have to adapt and they are just too slow. We are at an inflection point in history, maybe the same as the 1920s.

Updated

Here’s a little more from Nigel Farage’s speech this evening:

Farage is addressing the audience now:

The former Czech Republic prime minister, Václav Klaus*, was one of three warm up acts at the Brexit Party’s last hustings, which is taking place in a packed Olympic conference centre in London. He told Nigel Farage’s supporters they had “many friends” in his country.

You should give the rest of Europe a good example. Many Europeans need it, and many Europeans are waiting for it.

Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory MP who is running for the Brexit Party in the South West constituency, earlier raised cheers and boos on cue in a pantomime-style question and answer warm-up by the former Conservative MP.

Our game on Thursday is twofold: We have to send a message which will terrify Westminster; [to send a message] which they can only interpret in one way: That their future depends on Britain’s future being outside the EU.

Her second message was: “We are not going away”.

Widdecombe raised a loud boo when she name-checked Guy Verhofstadt, whose aides joked they had turned Britain into a “colony” in a recent Belgian documentary.

He thinks we are a colony. Well, colonies have a disconcerting habit of revolting.

*We originally reported here that the former Czech politician appearing tonight was Václav Havel. It was, in fact, Václav Klaus. Havel died in 2011.

Updated

In Manchester, Anna Soubry tells remain supporters they can be proud of all the Change UK candidates and says it is absolutely imperative for campaigners to get out and canvass votes before Thursday.

This is the beginning of the change that must happen in our country and change is coming.

She is predicting that the main parties will go in to meltdown and urges the Conservatives to do the right thing, adding:

Make no mistake that what is going to happen over the next few months ... is that Mrs May is going to go. God help us if Boris Johnson becomes prime minister ... he is on the threshold of Number 10.

Now is the time for everyone to show courage and to put their country first ... One nation conservatives – you are better working with your neighbours ... which is the European Union.

Updated

The Electoral Commission has carried out its visit to the Brexit Party’s office to conduct a review of the systems the party has in place to receive funds, it’s said.

That was done as part of the commission’s “active oversight and regulation of these rules”, not as part of a formal investigation of the party.

A spokeswoman has said the commission has not “seen evidence of electoral offences, but the law in this area is complex and we want to satisfy ourselves that the pParty’s systems are robust”.

And she said the intervention of Gordon Brown had no bearing on the Electoral Commission’s work.

Last week’s meeting with the Brexit Party was an opportunity to meet with representatives of this newly formed party.

Today’s visit is about taking a closer look at the systems the party has in place to receive funds. It gives us active oversight of the rules and this includes helping those regulated to understand them and to ensure there are systems in place to comply with them.

As a newly registered party running a national election campaign, who have put information into the public domain about the level of their fundraising, it is right and proper for the regulator to be in regular contact with the Brexit Party.

We have been talking to the party since it registered, discussing the rules and the party’s systems. But, recently, we have seen significant public concern about the way the party raises funds. We have not seen evidence of electoral offences, but the law in this area is complex and we want to satisfy ourselves that the party’s systems are robust.

Our regulatory work during this campaign – for the European Parliamentary elections – has not deviated from our usual approach.

We are an independent and impartial organisation which is accountable to Parliament. We regulate as is proportionate to the issue, regardless of a party’s politics. Our decision to visit is not related to comments made by the former prime minister.

Chuka Umunna has begun to speak, revealing that many of his family members from continental Europe are still grieving over the EU referendum result. He calls for a People’s Vote to remain in the European Union.

Brexit goes beyond politics, it is about who we are. This is about a lot more than politics or ideologies. It is about me personally, about my family ... about who we are as people.

What I find so disgusting and reprehensible is the way that my community is dismissed as a liberal, metropolitan elite ... it is disgusting.

Don’t call the people in my community some Waitrose-shopping, latte-drinking elite ... many people in my community live in poverty ... nobody has a monopoly on grievance.

Loads of communities have been left behind ... the only difference is that we did not feel that leaving the European Union would change things.

Urge everyone, if you want to stop this madness, [to] vote for Change UK on Thursday.

Another erstwhile supporter of May’s deal turns against her:

It is maybe worth noting that Johnson is also on record as saying he hopes to replace May in Number 10.

At the Manchester rally, 57-year-old Andrew Graystone – whose expression of solidarity with his local Muslim community after the Christchurch attacks went viral – gets rapturous applause.

There was a murmur of agreement across the room as he says the damage done by Brexit would take a generation to repair. He said:

I am Manchester through and through. My son is a nurse and wife works with refugees. Six weeks ago, I woke up to the terrible news to the shootings and I thought about how my Muslim friends might feel and it made sense to walk to my local mosque in Levenshulme with a sign that said: ‘You are my friends, I will keep watch while you pray’.

That photograph was shared millions of times, 50,000 personal messages – a torrent of goodwill and hopefulness ... overwhelmingly, British people want to live in peace with their neighbours and communities of co-operation.

The vast majority of people want to build bridges and not walls; want a new kind of politics with a new leadership.

Updated

There is yet more reaction coming in to May’s offer via various reporters in Westminster. And yet more of it constitutes bad news for the prime minister:

Anna Soubry and Chuka Umunna were delayed to the Manchester People’s Vote and Remain rally in the city’s Technology Centre due to train problems. Their supporters were buoyed as they waited though, by a ‘retro’ playlist that included the songs Let You Love Me, by Rita Ora, and Sweet But Psycho, by Ava Max.

Mark Burrows and Nick Foss, both aged 58, carried placards as they accompanied Elisabeth Knight, who is standing for Change UK in the North West constituency.

Burrows has been out campaigning and said people were ready to vote for a new party who would make a stand against Brexit.

There is a lot of goodwill from remainers about Change UK because they see it as a force that can make things happen. It is an alternative that will make something radical happen.

Dan Price, engineer and local councillor from Warrington who left the Labour party for the same reasons Chuka Umunna and some others did, has taken to the stand.

Five weeks ago, I was a member of the Labour party. After years of Brexit fudge, I left the Labour party ... I could no longer look my constituents in the eye.

I was inspired by the bravery of the Change UK candidates who sacrificed their careers and put their country first.

I am a proud Northern, English, British and European. Brexiteers and Westminster have failed us.

Updated

The former Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, who has previously voted for May’s deal, has dismissed her latest plan.

And it has gone down no better with senior figures in the hard Brexit-supporting ERG:

Updated

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, is due to address the CBI’s annual dinner, which is due to start around now. It was reported earlier that he planned to say a no-deal Brexit would damage the economy.

Now, shortly before he’s due to give the speech, a further extract emerges in which he drives home the point that fiscal imprudence is not a look that most Conservatives would like to be seen in. He plans to say:

Fiscal responsibility is a proud boast of Conservative governments and I know that, in the coming months, my colleagues will want to protect that reputation – and so will resist the ever-present temptation to write cheques the country cannot afford.

We must not undo a decade of hard work by the British people by making unfunded commitments that would send our national debt soaring; leave the economy vulnerable to future shocks; burden future generations and waste billions on interest payments. People must know they can trust Conservatives with the public finances.

Earlier, we reported that he planned to attack the idea on the “populist right” that a no-deal Brexit was the only acceptable form of Brexit (see 9.23am). An extract revealed that he planned to say:

On the populist right, there are those who now claim that the only outcome that counts as a truly legitimate Brexit is to leave with no deal.

Let me remind them: the 2016 Leave campaign was clear that we would leave with a deal.

So, to advocate for no deal is to hijack the result of the referendum and, in doing so, knowingly to inflict damage on our economy and our living standards.

Because all the preparation in the world will not avoid the consequences of no deal.

So I will continue to fight, in the face of this polarisation, for a negotiated Brexit; an outcome that respects the British people’s decision to leave, while recognising that there is no mandate for a “no-deal” exit; and that we have an absolute obligation to protect Britain’s jobs, businesses and future prosperity.

But we need to be clear that, if we do not resolve this issue in the next few weeks, there is a real risk of a new prime minister abandoning the search for a deal, and shifting towards seeking a damaging no-deal exit as a matter of policy … in order to protect an ideological position which ignores the reality of Britain’s economic interests and the value of our Union.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, has put out this statement in response to Theresa May’s speech. He said:

The prime minister’s last ditch attempt to get her withdrawal agreement through the Commons without a confirmatory referendum attached is doomed to failure. Her authority is draining away.

Unless and until the government concedes that a people’s vote must be in the legislation, she will not win our support.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.

There is a rule in journalism that, if someone frames a headline in the form of a question, it is normally best to assume the answer is no.

But in this case, if you read Laura Kuenssberg’s blog, you will find that this is a rare example of a question mark being used to understate what an article is saying, not overstate it.

Here’s an extract.

The diplomatic way of describing the situation tonight? Compromising when no one else is interested in consensus is impossible.

The more brutal political interpretation - Theresa May’s mishandling of this whole situation has, over many, many months, pulled her deeper and deeper down into a quagmire of her own creation.

An attempt at this stage to ask others for understanding to help her escape is just too late - far, far too late. Now some Conservative minds are turning to whether she can stay on to have this vote at all.

People's Vote campaign dismisses May's offer to let MPs vote on second referendum

The People’s Vote campaign has dismissed Theresa May’s offer to let MPs have a vote on a second referendum. It has put this statement from the Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett, who supports its campaign. She said:

The prime minister’s last-ditch effort to force through her deal is no more likely to succeed than her previous attempts.

Today she tried to spice up the same old deal with a series of supposedly new concessions, but then admitted she had no way of guaranteeing that she could deliver any of them.

MPs will be rightly weary of offers from a Prime Minister who is about to resign and will probably be replaced by a hard-line successor. It would be very dangerous to vote through a deal to leave the European Union without any clear idea of our eventual destination – a blindfold Brexit that would only prolong uncertainty for families, businesses and parliament.

And her effort to persuade MPs who support a people’s vote that they need to back her or lose the chance to give the public the final say, were contradicted by the prime minister herself when she said that failure to agree her deal could result in a new public vote and the possibility that the UK stayed in the EU. (See 4.27pm.)

Rejecting this hotchpotch offer will show once and for all there is no stable majority for any form of Brexit without handing the decision back to the people.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, may be tweeting this as an “amusing aside” ...

But Theresa May’s offer of a vote on a second referendum does rather contradict Ruth Davidson’s election publicity, which has been loudly proclaiming that a vote for the Scottish Tories means “no more referendums”.

Less than 48 hours before the polls open, it can only add to Scottish Tory fears that Nigel Farage is about to halt their resurgence in Scotland.

These are from the Tory MP Simon Clarke, another backbencher who is abandoning Theresa May having supported her at MV3, or meaningful vote 3 - the third vote on the withdrawal agreement (which, pedants will remember, the government claimed wasn’t a “meaningful vote”, but never mind.)

DUP says 'fundamental flaws' in withdrawal agreement remain despite May's speech

Responding to Theresa May’s speech, Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s leader at Westminster, said the “fundamental flaws” with her deal remained. In a statement he said:

We will examine the legislation closely when the bill is finally published but the fundamental flaws of the draft withdrawal agreement treaty itself remain unchanged.

Many of the proposals on the backstop serve as an attempt through domestic law to mitigate a bad deal whereas the focus should be on getting a better deal.

The only positive vote in the House of Commons on Brexit was the Brady amendment which called for alternative arrangements to the backstop to be implemented in the treaty and other changes to remove the current threats posed by the backstop.

That still remains the best way forward to a stable majority in the House of Commons which would deliver Brexit and protect the Union. That is what this or a new prime minister must address.

We will have to await the publication of the text of the bill to see what the proposals actually mean but the fact is that the fatal flaws of the draft treaty remain.

Ireland welcomed Theresa May’s renewed commitment to uphold the deal struck with the EU in December 2017 to ensure no visible border in Ireland.

Her promise to find legally binding “alternative arrangements” for the Irish border by the end of 2020 to obviate the need for the backstop was seen as welcome political rhetoric in Ireland “if it helps get the deal over the line”.

Neale Richmond, the government party Brexit spokesman in the senate said:

We welcome any measures that can see that brought through Westminster as we’ve agreed to bring it through the European structures.

The reality is that it is highly unlikely the UK government will come up with an alternative given that the backstop was created to meet the challenges created by Theresa May’s voluntary red lines on the single market and customs union.

Lisa Chambers, opposition Brexit spokeswoman, pointed out that people had been trying to find alternatives for the last two years and had been unable. She said:

What is the likelihood of alternative arrangements miraculously appearing before the end of 2020? If they existed, you would think they would already be on the table.

Updated

Corbyn says May's bill is 'effectively repackaging of same old bad deal'

Here is the statement from Jeremy Corbyn responding to Theresa May’s speech.

The prime minister’s proposal tonight seems to be largely a rehash of the government’s position in the cross party talks that failed to reach a compromise last week.

On key elements - customs, market alignment and environmental protections - what the prime minister calls her new Brexit deal is effectively a repackaging of the same old bad deal, rejected three times by parliament.

We will of course look seriously at the details of the withdrawal agreement bill when it is published. But we won’t back a repackaged version of the same old deal - and it’s clear that this weak and disintegrating government is unable deliver on its own commitments.

Theresa May could afford to lose some Tory MPs who previously backed her agreement if, at the same time, she were picking up more Labour MPs.

But there is no evidence that she is. If anything, it’s the opposite. The Labour MP Lisa Nandy is one of the backbenchers Downing Street hoped might be won over. Nandy was a strong supporter of the Gareth Snell amendment that the government has adopted. (See 3.51pm.) But, according to ITV’s Paul Brand, Nandy is still opposed to the bill.

In a clip for broadcasters Jeremy Corbyn said Labour could not support this bill because it was basically a “rehash” of what had been offered before.

Here is another Tory MP for Alex Wickham’s list. (See 5.44pm.)

BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham has found 10 Tory MPs who voted for the deal last time, but who are now going to vote against.

Tory MPs start abandoning May after she offers to stage vote on second referendum

Theresa May’s speech is going down badly.

Here are three Conservative MPs who all voted for her deal in the third vote on it, at the end of March, who are now going to vote against

Andrew Percy

From Robert Halfon

From Zac Goldsmith

May's 'New Brexit Deal' speech - Snap summary and analysis

Theresa May gave her speech the title “New Brexit Deal” and in it she identified 10 ways in which she was changing her Brexit offer to MPs.

Most of these simply reiterated concessions that have already been announced, at various points, over the last six months. See 3.51pm for a summary of what was already on the table. Perhaps the language on workers’ rights is a bit stronger - today May proposed a workers’ rights bill that “guarantees workers’ rights will be no less favourable than in the EU” - but essentially items 1-7 on her 10-point list (see 4.43pm), and item 10 were already in the bag.

But what May said about a second referendum (see 4.59pm) and about customs (see 5.04pm) was new. Here are some thoughts.

1) May has offered MPs a vote on a second referendum - which, in symbolic terms, is quite significant. Until now she firmly resisted the idea the idea that the government might schedule a vote on this, and last week, when cross-party talks broke down, May implied one reason was because Labour was insisting on a second referendum.

2) But, in practical terms, this offer means much less than it sounds. During the EU withdrawal agreement bill’s passage, someone was bound to table an amendment calling for a second referendum, and so all (or almost all) May is doing is timetabling a vote that would have happened anyway. She has not promised Tory MPs a free vote on this.

3) May has also promised to legislate for a referendum if MPs vote for one. The two do not necessarily go together; it was easy to imagine MPs voting for a second referendum, but the government then holding up the legislation required to make it happen.

4) But May did not explain how she would stop a future Conservative leader blocking second referendum legislation, or repealing it. (A new Tory leader should be in office before the autumn, and it is unlikely the Brexit bill would be law by then, even if it passed its second reading. Labour has already said such a bill would need more time.) Given how pro-Brexit the Conservative party membership is, it is hard to imagine anyone getting elected as leader if they sound keen on implementing a second referendum.

5) May’s customs offer is much narrower than her second referendum one. She is not proposing a government vote on a permanent customs union, which is what Labour wants, even though she is proposing a vote on a second referendum. Why? Presumably because, while May must be reasonably confident that the Commons would vote against a second referendum, she must be worried that MPs would back a permanent customs union. (As with the second referendum, there would probably be a vote on this anyway, because Labour would table an amendment. But May is only committing to accept the result if MPs vote for the temporary customs union idea she mentioned in her speech.)

6) May seems to have resolved the question about whether to hold indicative votes before the second reading vote on the bill, or after (assuming it gets defeated) by deciding to hold the indicative votes within the bill. The referendum vote offer and the customs union vote offer seem all that is left of her indicative votes plan.

May’s argument to Labour MPs that, if they want a second referendum, they need to vote for her bill is a plausible one. It is a case that Nick Boles MPs was making powerfully at the end of last week. But, with opposition to her deal already so entrenched, it feels as if she may have left it too late.

Updated

What May said in her speech on customs

And this is what May said in her speech on customs.

Now the government has already put a proposal which delivers the benefits of a customs union but with the ability for the UK to determine its own trade and development policy.

Labour are both sceptical of our ability to negotiate that and don’t believe an independent trade policy is in the national interest. They would prefer a comprehensive customs union - with a UK say in EU trade policy but with the EU negotiating on our behalf.

If we are going to pass the withdrawal agreement bill and deliver Brexit, we must resolve this difference.

As part of the cross-party discussions the government offered a compromise option of a temporary customs union on goods only, including a UK say in relevant EU trade policy and an ability to change the arrangement, so a future government could move it in its preferred direction.

We were not able to agree this as part of our cross-party talks – so it is right that parliament should have the opportunity to resolve this during the passage of the bill and decide between the government’s proposal and a compromise option.

What May said in her speech about second referendum

This is what May said in her speech about a second referendum.

For the record, this is what she said about a second referendum

I have also listened carefully to those who have been arguing for a Second Referendum.

I have made my own view clear on this many times. I do not believe this is a route that we should take, because I think we should be implementing the result of the first referendum, not asking the British people to vote in a second one.

But I recognise the genuine and sincere strength of feeling across the house on this important issue.

The government will therefore include in the withdrawal agreement bill at introduction a requirement to vote on whether to hold a second referendum.

This must take place before the withdrawal agreement can be ratified.

And if the House of Commons were to vote for a referendum, it would be requiring the government to make provisions for such a referendum – including legislation if it wanted to ratify the withdrawal agreement.

So to those MPs who want a second referendum to confirm the deal: you need a deal and therefore a withdrawal agreement bill to make it happen.

Theresa May delivering her New Brexit Deal speech
Theresa May delivering her New Brexit Deal speech Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

How May summed up her "New Brexit Deal' in 10 points

Here is the section from May’s speech in which she summed up her offer as a 10-point plan.

So our New Brexit Deal makes a ten-point offer to everyone in Parliament who wants to deliver the result of the referendum.

One - the government will seek to conclude alternative arrangements to replace the backstop by December 2020, so that it never needs to be used.

Two - a commitment that, should the backstop come into force, the government will ensure that Great Britain will stay aligned with Northern Ireland.

Three - the negotiating objectives and final treaties for our future relationship with the EU will have to be approved by MPs.

Four - a new workers’ rights bill that guarantees workers’ rights will be no less favourable than in the EU.

Five - there will be no change in the level of environmental protection when we leave the EU.

Six - the UK will seek as close to frictionless trade in goods with the EU as possible while outside the single market and ending free movement.

Seven - we will keep up to date with EU rules for goods and agri-food products that are relevant to checks at border protecting the thousands of jobs that depend on just-in-time supply chains.

Eight - the government will bring forward a customs compromise for MPs to decide on to break the deadlock.

Nine - there will be a vote for MPs on whether the deal should be subject to a referendum.

And ten – there will be a legal duty to secure changes to the political declaration to reflect this new deal.

All of these commitments will be guaranteed in law – so they will endure at least for this parliament.

Q: Some of your MPs seem to be opposed to this because it is you asking them to back it. What do you say to those who say you should step aside now?

May says this is not about her. If it were about her, the UK would be leaving, she says.

And that’s it. The Q&A is over.

Q: You came into office committed to delivering Brexit and to bring the Tories together. How successful have you been?

May says she admitted in her speech she has not delivered Brexit.

Q: If MPs vote for a confirmatory referendum, will it happen? And if MPs vote to stay in a customs union permanently, will you implement that?

May says she is not proposing a vote on a permanent customs union. She is proposing one on a temporary customs union. A future government would then be able to decide what happened in the future.

Q: Will you publish the bill before the recess?

May says it will be published “in the next few days”.

  • May says EU withdrawal agreement bill will be published shortly.

Q: Do you want a Brexiter to replace you, or will that just prolong the conflict?

Nice try, says May. She says she will not comment on the leadership contest. That is a matter for the Conservative party.

May is now taking questions.

Q: The opposition parties say they will not vote for this. Isn’t this too late?

May urges MPs to look at the detail of the bill. It will be published, she says. She has compromised, she says.

Q: If you lose the vote, can you confirm you will resign?

That was last week’s news, says May. She made a statement with the chair of the 1922 Committee.

May says this deal will set the groundwork for life outside the EU.

But in future, Britain will be able to choose how it develops. Some will want it to move closer to the EU. Others will want it to move further away.

Future governments will be able to decide, she says.

She says over the next two weeks the government will try to get MPs to back this deal.

Tomorrow she will make a statement to MPs, she says.

She says she has compromised. It is up to MPs to compromise too, she says.

May says this is a great time to be alive.

Britain can make a success of the 2020s and 2030s.

But it will not do that if it remains stuck in the Brexit impasse, she says.

She says, with the right Brexit deal, she can end this debate.

She says the UK will have opportunities outside the EU. And it will be able to do even more if it has a deal. It can protect trade, and protect security partnerships.

This is a huge opportunity for the UK, she says - out of the EU, out of every closer union, free to do things differently.

May says this opportunity is practical and deliverable.

But it is “slipping away from us”, she says.

May says, if MPs approve her deal, they can get Brexit done.

May says, if MPs vote down the bill, they will be voting to reject Brexit.

Some MPs think there will be a no-deal Brexit. But parliament will do everything it can to stop that.

So in practice MPs will be choosing a second referendum or a general election, she says.

  • May says MPs will be left with second referendum or general election if they vote down her deal.

May sums up the changes she is announcing. There are 10 of them.

(I will post the list in full later.)

May says Brexit bill will include requirement to hold vote on whether or not to have second referendum

Turning to the issue of a second referendum, May says she is opposed. But she recognises that some MPs want one.

  • May says her Brexit bill will include a requirement to hold a vote on whether or not to have a second referendum.

May says this means, if MPs want a second referendum, they must vote for the bill.

May says government will let parliament decide whether or not to stay in customs union

May says customs is the most difficult area.

She says many people who voted to leave want to retain close trading links with the EU, just as many who voted remain, like herself, are excited by the trade opportunities offered by Brexit.

May says the government and opposition both want “as close as possible to frictionless trade” at the EU border.

She says the government has its own plan. (She seems to be referring to the facilitated customs arrangement plan.)

Labour wants a customs union, she says.

She says the government offered a temporary customs arrangement.

Labour and the government could not agree.

So parliament should resolve this, she says.

  • May says government will let parliament decide what to do about customs.

May says she is committed to maintaining workers’ rights.

There will be a new workers’ rights bill to ensure workers get rights that are very bit as good as, or better than, EU rights.

There will be a new office to uphold environmental standards.

She says the new bill will oblige the government to keep trade in goods with the EU as frictionless as possible.

May says she backed the plan from Lisa Nandy and Gareth Snell, two Labour MPs, for MPs to have to approve the negotiating terms for the UK-EU trade deals.

May says she will create legal obligation on government to seek alternative arrangements to backstop

May says she tried to reach a deal with Labour.

Those talks did not succeed, but she will not give up.

She has listened to MPs, and today she is making a serious offer to MPs.

She says she wants the Conservative party to stay united. Nine out of 10 Conservative MPs have agreed the deal.

She says MPs backed the Brady amendment.

  • May says she will put the government under a legal obligation to seek alternative arrangements to the backstop by December 2020.

May says she will also legislate to stop a future government splitting Northern Ireland off from Britain in regulatory terms.

Updated

May says delivering Brexit has proved “even harder than I anticipated”.

She says the way to deliver Brexit is to deliver a good deal with the EU.

That is what she proposed in her pitch for the Conservative leadership, and in her 2017 election manifesto. Labour’s said much the same, she says.

She says she has tried hard to deliver this.

At first she tried to deliver this with Conservative votes. She even offered to give up the job she loved. She says at the end of March if just 30 MPs had voted differently, the Brexit deal would have passed.

Theresa May is speaking now.

She say her job was and is to deliver Brexit.

And she wants a country that works for everyone, she says.

From the Independent’s Andrew Woodcock

From my colleague Heather Stewart

The European parliament will investigate Nigel Farage for failing to declare lavish expenses funded by Arron Banks, my colleague Jennifer Rankin reports.

From ITV’s Robert Peston

This is from the Telegraph’s Steven Swinford.

Theresa May's Brexit speech

Theresa May is due to start delivering her Brexit speech any minute now.

She is speaking at a venue in London.

There is a live feed at the top of this blog.

From Sky’s Jon Craig

This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.

Concessions already announced by government to try to win support for Brexit deal

In her speech this afternoon Theresa May is expected to argue that the version of her Brexit deal contained in the EU withdrawal agreement bill is a new one because of the various changes and concessions it contains.

But in fact May and the government have already announced multiple minor amendments to her Brexit offer since MPs started debating it before Christmas to address the concerns of her critics. It is not clear yet whether she will be unveiling proposals that are genuinely new, or whether she will just be aggregating what it already on the table.

Here is a summary of what has already been offered

On Ireland and the backstop

On 9 January, when MPs resumed the first debate on the Brexit deal, the government said it was accepting an amendment from the Tory MP Sir Hugo Swire imposing six new conditions in relation to Northern Ireland and the backstop. They included MPs having the right to decide whether to trigger the backstop, or extend the transition instead, and, in the event of the backstop being introduced, the government having a duty “to have an agreed future relationship or alternative arrangements one year after the Northern Ireland backstop coming into force”.

On the same day the government published plans for what it described as the “Stormont lock” (pdf). It runs to 13 pages and it includes proposals for the Northern Ireland assembly to have a “strong role” in backstop provisions becoming law, and for there to be no regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in mattes covered by the backstop.

At the end of January, in a Brexit debate after the deal was voted down for the first time, the government accepted an amendment from the Tory MP Sir Graham Brady saying the Commons required “the Northern Ireland backstop to be replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border”.

And in March, in her speech opening the debate when MPs voted on her deal for the second time, May made three specific commitments to legislate to put some of the “Stormont lock” measures into law.

Workers’ rights and environmental protections

In a Brexit debate in January, after her deal was defeated for the first time, May said the government would do more to protect workers’ rights and environmental standards after Brexit. She virtually quoted word for word an amendment tabled by the Labour MP John Mann saying that, if the EU strengthens rights after Brexit, the Commons should also consider whether to match the new Brussels rules.

In a letter to Jeremy Corbyn in February, May also said the government was “prepared to commit to asking parliament” if it wanted to match the new EU laws if it beefed up workers’ rights or environmental protection after Brexit.

Role of parliament in Brexit trade talks

On 29 March, on the day of the third Commons debate on the Brexit deal, the government said it would accept an amendment tabled by the Labour MP Gareth Snell saying MPs would be able to vote to set the negotiating mandate for the next phase of the Brexit talks.

By the standards of Conservative in-fighting, this is rather minor, but it still tells you something about the state of the party that MPs are talking about each other in public like this. Here is the Tory Brexiter Andrea Jenkyns in a Twitter spate with two pro-European colleagues, Sir Nicholas Soames and Antoinette Sandbach.

Chuka Umunna, the spokesperson for Change UK, had a phone-in with LBC this morning. During the phone-in, he argued that Brexit was to blame for the problems facing British Steel. He explained:

Over 20,000 jobs in the supply chain and what are the two reasons which are being cited as creating difficulties for what was a company in profit? First of all the fall of the value of the pound after the referendum vote has made the products that British Steel sells more expensive and this is what the company has said. And, secondly, because of Brexit uncertainty they are not facing the same orders.

Umunna also said, if Boris Johnson were to become prime minister, his reaction would be: “God help us.” He explained:

[Johnson is] an incredibly divisive figure. I don’t think a lot of people will forgive him for some of the things that the vote leave campaign did and I think he has shown himself to be a complete opportunist who’s all about Boris Johnson and not about the national interest ...

If his record as foreign secretary is anything to go by, that guy should not be allowed anywhere near 10 Downing Street.

Chuka Umunna
Chuka Umunna Photograph: George Cracknell Wright/REX/Shutterstock

Today the Guardian has published a long read about how Nigel Farage has modelled his Brexit party on the Italian populist party, the Five Star Movement (M5S).

Coincidentally, Farage has told the Press Association that he is tempted not to stand as a candidate in the general election because Beppe Grillo, the M5S leader, did not stand for parliament either. Asked if he would seek a parliamentary seat, Farage said:

I guess so. I’ll have to, won’t I? It will be my duty as leader.

Although I’m very tempted not to because Beppe Grillo didn’t stand in the Italian elections.

What he did was tour Italy supporting the Five Star candidates and, guess what, they won.

There are many different ways to approach this. I would see it as my duty to stand but there is an argument that I could do more good for the party by not.

This is from Sky’s Kate McCann.

In the urgent question in the Commons earlier on British Steel, which is on the brink of collapse putting 5,000 jobs at risk, Andrew Stephenson, the business minister, said the government “leave no stone unturned” in supporting the UK steel industry. He said:

I can reassure the house that, subject to strict legal bounds, the government will leave no stone unturned in its support for the steel industry ...

We can only act within the strict bounds of what is legally possible under domestic and European law.

I can assure the house we will continue to do whatever is in our power to support the UK steel industry and those who work in the sector.

Stephenson said £291m has been paid in “compensation” to the steel sector since 2013 to help make energy costs “more competitive”. He added: “We have also published a timeline of upcoming projects every year to enable steel businesses to plan for future demand.”

These are from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

Presumbably those four options were the four customs union options set out in this leaked document.

The Mail on Sunday’s Harry Cole has posted these on what he says are the concessions in the EU withdrawal agreement bill.

Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary

And here is more from the Number 10 lobby briefing. I posted a snap summary at 1.12pm.

  • The prime minister’s spokesman said that the EU withdrawal agreement bill, which will be the latest format in which MPs are asked to vote on what has been described as Theresa May’s Brexit deal, would contain some “significant new aspects”.
  • He implied that the bill would include compromises from the government. Asked if there would be compromises in it, he said:

The prime minister has said that, if we are going to find a way through this, there will have to be compromise on both sides.

  • The spokesman confirmed that today’s cabinet meeting was not just about rubber-stamping a draft text of the bill. The text of the bill is now being finalised on the basis of what was agreed at today’s meeting.
  • The spokesman said the cabinet meeting was characterised by “a clear determination to find a way of passing the withdrawal agreement bill”. This is what he said in response to a question about the tone of today’s meeting.
  • The spokesman sidestepped a question about whether the text of the bill had been agreed unanimously. “You know how this works,” he said. “The prime minister sums up at the end of the meeting. Then she will set out the government position.”
  • The spokesman would not say when the text of the bill would be published. But he indicated that that would not happen before Thursday at the earliest.
  • The spokesman said May was making her speech outside the Commons this afternoon because Commons business for the day had already been scheduled. (MPs and the Speaker object when policy announcements of this kind are made outside the chamber, and May will probably come under pressure to make a statement in the Commons tomorrow, where MPs will be able to question her on the details.)
  • The spokesman said the government’s view was that leaving the EU without a deal remained a “plausible outcome” and that planning for no-deal was continuing. When it was put to the spokesman that Philip Hammond, the chancellor, in his CBI speech argues that no-deal would be a betrayal of the 2016 vote to leave (because the leave campaign said there would be a deal - see 9.23am), the spokesman said it was a “simple fact” that the question on the ballot paper was about leaving the EU.
  • The spokesman said that cabinet also discussed President Trump’s state visit. Ministers were told what the programme would be.
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

May to give speech at 4pm with details of 'new' Brexit deal offered to MPs

I’m just back from the Downing Street lobby briefing. And we have news ...

  • Theresa May will give a speech this afternoon setting out details of what Number 10 is describing as the “new” Brexit deal that will be put to a vote in the Commons in the first week of June. Cabinet spent two hours discussing the plans, which will be set out in the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and finalising what they will entail. May will say more in her speech at 4pm. Commenting on the cabinet discussion, the prime minister’s spokesman said:

Cabinet discussed the new deal which the government will put before parliament in order to seek to secure the UK’s exit from the European Union.

The discussions included alternative arrangements, workers’ rights, environmental protections and further assurances on protecting the integrity of the UK in the unlikely event that the backstop is required.

The prime minister said that “the withdrawal agreement bill is the vehicle that gets the UK out of the European Union and it is vital to find a way to get it over the line.”

And the prime minister will be setting out further details on the way forward in a speech this afternoon.

I will post more details from the lobby briefing in a moment.

Hammond says no-deal Brexit would damage economy in long term, not just short term

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has been using Treasury questions to restate his opposition to a no-deal Brexit, HuffPost’s Paul Waugh reports.

I’m off to the Downing Street lobby briefing now.

I will post again after 1pm.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

This is from ITV’s Paul Brand.

Cabinet has wrapped up after almost three hours.

Here are three columns in today’s papers that are worth reading.

The interesting question is, if Mr Johnson does get to No 10 will he double down on the right-wing populism that has made him so appealing to the Tory right, or will he betray the Brexiteers who got him elected in an attempt to reconnect with the voters? Will the Tories’ Lord of Misrule do a deal with Nigel Farage or try to win over the One Nation Conservatives who yesterday launched a new grouping in parliament?

After the EU elections, the momentum in the Tory leadership contest will be with the hard Brexiteers, but many of those who know Mr Johnson best think he will ultimately back away from taking the UK out of the EU without a deal. One ally describes it as the “Nixon to China” strategy for ending the Brexit mess, arguing that only a politician with an unassailable reputation among their supporters can reach an agreement that involves compromise.

Some believe he could even back a second referendum to get a mandate without risking his entire premiership on a general election. It is an idea that he has toyed with in the past. When I interviewed him in 2015 he told me he was “very interested” in a second referendum if people initially voted to Leave as a way of negotiating a better relationship with the EU. “I love our friends and partners in Brussels, I understand quite deeply the way they do things, they are not remotely interested in you unless you tell them no,” he explained.

What happens when [Johnson] wins? He can’t get no deal through this parliament, but at Halloween the UK is due to crash out willy-nilly, without some deal agreed. The Calais border would clang shut and so would the Irish border, firing up demands for a united Ireland referendum, with the Scots likely to follow suit with Indyref2. As everything seizes up, Britain would have only the feckless Johnson to cope with a pile-up of calamities in fuel, food, medicines, visas, lorry queues and a plunging pound.

Johnson has no plan: his foresight goes no further than winning the prize of Downing Street. If he had the impulse control to visualise consequences, would he want to win on a no-deal pledge? Before 31 October, Labour would table a vote of no confidence and Tory One Nation MPs would back it to bring down their own government, and call an election. Seeing that inevitability, Johnson will surely call an election himself, shortly after reaching No 10. At risk of becoming the shortest serving prime minister of all time, he will be tanked up with vaunting hubris. Farage will bid to strip off Tory votes and seats (and some Labour ones too), while the Liberal Democrats syphon away remain and moderate voters. In the best scenario, the Armageddon that awaits may turn out to be the fate of Johnson and the Tory party for years to come, but not of the country as a whole.

For if one thing has emerged from the European parliamentary election in which his party looks set to win the most seats, it is that the forces of remain have some major lessons to learn if they are to have any chance of winning the second referendum for which they are so actively agitating. The stakes may also be higher. Until recently, advocates of a second vote did not expect a no-deal Brexit to be one of the options. It is now hard to imagine how it cannot be.

Not only is Mr Farage likely to win this weekend, he has also won the fight to define Brexit as a clean break. He turned the battle into an issue of keeping faith with a democratic vote and positioned himself as the true force for change in the UK. With speed, social media and clarity of purpose, his start-up party has dominated the campaign. Britain’s version of Emmanuel Macron turns out not to be Chuka Umunna and Change UK but Mr Farage and the Brexit party.

From ITV’s Paul Brand

Normally on a Tuesday, when the cabinet is meeting, the regular Downing Street lobby briefing takes place at 12pm.

But today’s has been delayed, because cabinet has over-run.

This is from the Telegraph’s Steven Swinford.

A disorderly Brexit would threaten the loss of skilled manufacturing jobs and millions of pounds of investment, a new study suggests. As the Press Association reports, research by the GMB union indicated that manufacturing employs 2.5m workers and contributes £118bn a year to the economy. The industry also supports another five million jobs in areas including the supply chain, said the GMB.

GMB national officer Jude Brimble said:

These figures show what is at stake in the European elections. The prospect of a chaotic Brexit is sending a chill throughout manufacturing.

We have already seen job losses and paused investment in foundational industries such as food manufacturing, car production and ceramics.

The situation will only get worse if we end up with a rushed and disorderly Brexit.

That’s why it is vital that politicians from all parties rule out a no-deal Brexit that would be devastating for our manufacturing and export industries.

And while we’re on the subject of Boris Johnson, LabourList has a survey of more than 4,000 of its readers in which overwhelmingly they name Johnson as the greatest threat to Labour. As Sienna Rodgers reports:

With Theresa May set to reveal her departure date next month, the Conservative party is expected to hold a leadership contest over the summer. Asked which of the potential candidates would be most difficult for Jeremy Corbyn to beat in a general election, 45.2% of our readers picked Johnson.

Given the opportunity to choose just one candidate, a huge 72% of 4,478 respondents then named the former foreign secretary as the possible Tory leadership contender who “would be most damaging to the country as prime minister”.

Boris Johnson says he backs one nation Conservatism

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is seen as clearly on the right of the Conservative party, has confirmed that he is backing Boris Johnson for leader (see 10.35am) even though last night Johnson aligned himself firmly with the one nation tradition in the party. He posted this on Twitter.

As Jack Blanchard reports in his London Playbook briefing for Politico Europe, the timing of Johnson’s tweet made it particularly interesting. Blanchard says:

Both Newsnight’s Nick Watt and the Times’ Sam Coates report that dozens of MPs from [Conservative one nation group] could yet throw their weight behind Johnson if he rediscovers the liberal-Tory values that won him two terms as mayor of London. A senior figure involved confirmed this to Playbook. “Aren’t we all — in theory — Brexiteers now?” the source said. “We want candidates to work with us to shape policy moving forward. Not just on Brexit but on everything … The whole contest will be a big test for Boris to prove he actually can unite the party in the way he says he can.”

Last night’s TV: Nick Watt broke the story of Boris’ potential new chums on Newsnight at 10.57 p.m. “I understand they are giving very serious consideration to backing a Brexiteer as the next leader of the Conservative party,” Watt said, of the 60-strong group of moderate MPs. “The thinking is ‘no’ to somebody like Dominic Raab, because he seems far too keen on a no-deal Brexit, but a possible ‘yes’ to Boris Johnson. They would essentially be saying to him ‘look, if you give us an undertaking that you will really try for a deal over about a period of 12 to 18 months, then we would look [at you] very seriously. In other words, if you don’t jump straight into no deal.” Watch the clip.

I wonder who was watching? A whole nine minutes later at 11.06 p.m., Johnson was suddenly tweeting his support for the “one nation” manifesto. “Agree with all of this,” Boris announced. “One nation values have never been more important.” What on earth could have prompted this show of love?

Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson Photograph: David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Updated

These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on today’s cabinet.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, has confirmed that he is backing Boris Johnson for next Conservative leader, talkRadio’s Ross Kempsell reports.

The Guardian has just published a long read by Darren Loucaides about how Nigel Farage has modelled the Brexit party on the Italian populist party, the Five Star Movement.

Here is an extract.

In Milan, Farage was struck by how [Gianroberto] Casaleggio was using social media and the internet to create a new model for political communications. Five Star members were discussing and voting on policy and nominating and electing each other to run for office while being steeped in party propaganda, all on a single online platform. This made supporters feel as if the movement’s identity was emerging organically from their online interactions, while Casaleggio and Grillo could guide those interactions with messaging from above. What’s more, the “movement” was dominated by a private company owned by Casaleggio. Five Star was in many ways less like a political party than a publicly traded company in which members were voting shareholders, but Casaleggio had the controlling stake ...

If Casaleggio’s ambition was to replace parliament with direct democracy, Farage’s ambition seems, in the first instance, to destroy the Conservative party. Farage declined to speak to me for this article, but [Arron] Banks told me that the Brexit party and Leave.EU, which is still very much active, were pursuing a sort of pincer movement on the Tories. (He also denied to me that he is a “mystery donor” to the Brexit party.) “Leave.EU goes behind enemy lines, blowing up their bridges, causing mass mayhem in the Tory party, while the Brexit party can come in head-on, into their face,” he said.

And here is the full article.

Yesterday David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said that, having voted for Theresa May’s deal in the last Commons debate, at the end of March, he would now revert to voting against it. He said he opposed the EU withdrawal agreement bill because it would tie the hands of May’s successor.

Now Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the European Research Group, which represents Tory MPs pushing for a harder Brexit, is also turning against May’s deal. Or, rather, hardening up his opposition to it. He voted against it in the first two votes, but voted in favour at the third opportunity because he was worried that the alternative might be no Brexit.

Now, however, he is hinting he will vote against the bill because, like Davis, he does not want it to constrain a new Tory leader. This is from the Mail’s Jason Groves.

Sky’s Beth Rigby says there are at least seven ERG members who voted for May’s deal reluctantly at the third opportunity who are now planning to revert to voting against.

UPDATE: Here is another quote from the Jacob Rees-Mogg podcast. He said:

As we have already delayed, it’s hard to see any point in having a bill which fails to avoid the European elections, fails to get us out on time, fails to get the process going in the way that might have worked with a new leader coming in, because Mrs May said that if it went through she would go.

Updated

Farage claims 'huge percentage' of Brexit party Euro voters will stick with it in general election

The Electoral Commission has said it will visit the Brexit party offices today to review whether it is complying with electoral law in the way it handles donations. It announced the visit after Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, called for an investigation.

Speaking on LBC this morning, Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, accused the commission of acting in “bad faith”. He explained:

We went to visit them last week. They said we had all the right procedures in place. We asked them for a letter to confirm that, they failed to give it.

Now, in an act of bad faith, clearly politically-motivated, despite the fact we had invited them to our offices. Last week, they were two busy to see us. This week, 48 hours before a national election, they are coming into our office.

Farage also claimed the established parties were “terrified” of the Brexit party.

They are absolutely terrified, because what they are seeing is ... people are saying, not just they will vote for the Brexit party on Thursday in the European election, but a huge percentage of them saying they will do so in a general election. And that’s what’s got [the established parties] scared.

Nigel Farage speaking at a rall at Frimley Green, south west of London, at the weekend.
Nigel Farage speaking at a rall at Frimley Green, south west of London, at the weekend. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Thornberry says EU withdrawal agreement bill will mark 'last rites' for May's premiership

In an interview on the Today programme this morning Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said she expected Labour to vote against Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement bill. She said that the bill would be defeated and that it would be like May performing the ‘last rites’ over her premiership. She said:

It’s almost a piece of political theatre. It is almost as though she needs to have a dignified way of leaving. It’s like it’s her moment when she will resign when she doesn’t get this bill through. It’s almost like she’s setting up her own political version of the last rites. She does not, she cannot realistically expect to see this get through without fundamental changes and we are not getting fundamental changes, from everything I hear. So we we’re going to vote against it.

Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

A man has been charged with common assault and criminal damage after Nigel Farage had a milkshake thrown at him while on a walkabout in Newcastle city centre, the Press Association reports.

Cabinet to discuss latest Brexit offer to MPs as ministers feud in public over no-deal

Theresa May is chairing cabinet this morning, where ministers will discuss the EU withdrawal agreement bill that will get put to a vote in the first week of June. May is trying to construct a Commons majority for her bill. But the cabinet itself is deeply divided, and those divisions have been on full display this morning.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor and probably the leading pro-European in government, has been arguing for a long time that a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster. But tonight he is escalating his campaign against that option, with a speech to the CBI annual dinner in London in which he will dismiss this as a plan being championed by the “populist right” that would be both economically damaging and politically illegitimate. According to an extract released in advance, he will say:

On the populist right, there are those who now claim that the only outcome that counts as a truly legitimate Brexit is to leave with no deal.

Let me remind them: the 2016 Leave campaign was clear that we would leave with a deal.

So to advocate for no deal is to hijack the result of the referendum, and in doing so, knowingly to inflict damage on our economy and our living standards.

Because all the preparation in the world will not avoid the consequences of no deal.

So I will continue to fight, in the face of this polarisation, for a negotiated Brexit - an outcome that respects the British people’s decision to leave, while recognising that there is no mandate for a no-deal exit, and that we have an absolute obligation to protect Britain’s jobs, businesses and future prosperity.

But we need to be clear that if we do not resolve this issue in the next few weeks, there is a real risk of a new prime minister abandoning the search for a deal, and shifting towards seeking a damaging no-deal exit as a matter of policy ... to protect an ideological position which ignores the reality of Britain’s economic interests and the value of our union.

As the Times reports in its splash, this is being seen as a pre-emptive attack on Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary who is the favourite in the forthcoming Tory leadership contest. Johnson and other Brexiters have argued that a no-deal Brexit would be acceptable.

But this morning, in an interview on the Today programme, Andrea Leadsom, the Brexiter leader of the Commons, rejected Hammond’s argument. A no-deal Brexit should be an option, she said. She told the programme:

I continue to support the prime minister to get her withdrawal agreement through. It is leaving the European Union and, so long as it continue to be leaving the European Union, I continue to support it.

What I do think is for any negotiation to succeed, you have to be prepared to walk away. And, in addition, the legal default position is that on 31 October the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal. I would like us to have a deal. I think it’s very important that we do. But, in the event that we get to the end of October and it’s not possible to get a deal, I think leaving the European Union is the most important thing of all, delivering on the will of the people. As a democrat, that is what we have to do.

Leadsom was responding to a question about whether she would be willing to accept no-deal “when” she ran for Tory leader. She did not challenge the premise of the question, implicitly confirming that she will be a candidate.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Theresa May chairs cabinet.

10am: Education ministers Nick Gibb and Nadhim Zahawin give evidence to the Commons education committee on special educational needs.

10am: The MPs Anna Soubry and Wes Streeting give evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about Islamophobia.

10.30am: Sharon White, the head of Ofcom, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.

11.30am: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.

After 12.30pm: MPs begin debating the parliamentary buildings (restoration and renewal) bill.

1pm: Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister, gives a speech.

At some point today the Electoral Commission is visiting the Brexit party offices to review whether it complies with electoral law on donations.

As usual, 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 lunchtime and another when I wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s 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 below the line (BTL) but it is 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 questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

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

Updated

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