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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

MPs vote to give May power to trigger article 50 – as it happened

Article 50 bill approved by majority of MPs

Summary

  • MPs have taken a historic step towards taking Britain out of the European Union by approving the bill allowing the prime minister to trigger article 50 by a majority of 384 votes. The bill still has to get through another three days of debate in the Commons, and then it will go to the Lords, but with MPs backing it by such a large margin it now seems certain to clear all its parliamentary stages by the beginning of March. This means Theresa May will be able to trigger article 50 as she plans before the end of that month, starting a two-year process that should lead to the UK being out of the EU before April 2019.
  • Jeremy Corbyn has suffered a serious rebellion, with 20% of his parliamentary party, including 13 serving frontbenchers, defying the whip. (See 8.38pm.) Corbyn has said he understands why MPs representing remain areas found it hard to follow the Labour whip and vote for the bill and party sources are playing down the prospect of mass sackings. But the decision to back the Tories over Brexit has gone down very badly with the party’s activist base, and it is possible that the vote could traumatise the party for years to come, just as the vote for the Iraq war vote did in 2003.

Here are highlights from the debate.

Brexit debate: the best Commons speeches, from Ken Clarke to Nick Clegg

That’s all from me for tonight.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

A Conservative party spokesman said this about the vote.

Forty seven Labour MPs voting against the article 50 Bill shows Labour can’t speak for themselves, let alone speak for the country. They’re hopelessly divided and can’t even agree whether they should back the Bill to implement the decision taken by the public to leave the EU.

What we do know is that they aren’t interested in controlling our own laws or immigration and are completely out of touch with ordinary working people.

We’ve found another shadow minister who voted against the bill (Lyn Brown, policing), and so I have updated the post below about the scale of the Labour rebellion and adjusted the figures. (See 8.38pm.) We now have 17 Labour frontbenchers (shadow ministers and whips) either resigned over the vote or defied the whip.

The Lib Dem leader Tim Farron put out this statement after the result.

The Tories and Labour have failed future generations today by supporting a hard Brexit.

Labour’s leadership tonight have waved the white flag. They are not an opposition, they are cheerleaders.

The Liberal Democrats will continue to fight to give the British people the final say on the deal.

The Labour party will not be taking any disciplinary action tonight against the frontbenchers who defied the whip and voted against the article 50 bill (see 8.38pm), ITV’s Chris Ship reports.

Jeremy Corbyn has put out this statement about the vote. A spokesman for the Labour leader said:

Labour MPs voted more than three to one in favour of triggering article 50.

Now the battle of the week ahead is to shape Brexit negotiations to put jobs, living standards and accountability centre stage.

Labour’s amendments are the real agenda. The challenge is for MPs of all parties to ensure the best deal for Britain, and that doesn’t mean giving Theresa May a free hand to turn Britain into a bargain basement tax haven.

Full details of the Labour rebellion

Here are the key figures that show the size of the Labour rebellion tonight.

  • 47 Labour MPs defied the whip and voted against the article 50 bill on second reading. That’s 20% of the parliamentary party.
  • Three members of the shadow cabinet resigned so that the could vote against the bill. They are: Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, Rachael Maskell, the shadow environment secretary, and Dawn Butler, shadow minister for BME communities.
  • Four frontbenchers resigned so they could vote against the bill. They are the three shadow cabinet ministers and Tulip Siddiq, who was shadow early years minister.
  • Another 10 shadow ministers voted against the bill but so far have not resigned. The nine shadow ministers are: Kevin Brennan (culture), Ruth Cadbury (housing), Alan Whitehead (energy), Rupa Huq (crime prevention), Stephen Pound (Northern Ireland), Andy Slaughter (housing), Catherine West (Foreign Office), Daneil Zeichner (transport), Rosena Allin-Khan (culture) and Lyn Brown (policing).
  • And three whips also voted against bull but have so far not resigned. They are Thangam Debonnaire, Vicky Foxcroft and Jeff Smith.
  • A total of 17 Labour frontbenchers (shadow ministers and whips) either resigned over the vote or defied the whip.

UPDATE: I’ve updated the paragraph about shadow ministers defying the whip to say there were 10, not nine. The Press Association points out that Lyn Brown, a shadow police minister, voted against the bill.


Updated

The list I posted earlier, naming all 114 MPs who voted against the article 50 bill getting a second reading, has now been updated so that they are sorted by party. (See 8.03pm.) You may need to refresh the page to get the update to appear.

This is from the Labour Whips Twitter feed, an official party account.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, did not vote tonight. She was one of the members of the shadow cabinet who was known to be particularly unhappy about the prospect of voting for article 50 but, according to Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh, her office say she was stayed away because she was ill.

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has tweeted this about the result.

Full list of 114 MPs who voted against article 50 bill at second reading

And here is a full list of the 114 MPs who voted against the article 50 bill getting a second reading.

Conservatives
Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe)

Liberal Democrats
Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington)
Nick Clegg (Sheffield, Hallam)
Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland)
Sarah Olney (Richmond Park)
John Pugh (Southport)
Mark Williams (Ceredigion)
Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Scottish National party
Chris Law (Dundee West)
John Mc Nally (Falkirk)
Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South)
Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Stewart Hosie (Dundee East)
George Kerevan (East Lothian)
Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Stephen Gethins (North East Fife)
Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran)
Patrick Grady (Glasgow North)
Peter Grant (Glenrothes)
Neil Gray (Airdrie and Shotts)
Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Roger Mullin (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
John Nicolson (East Dunbartonshire)
Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute)
Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire)
Steven Paterson (Stirling)
Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West)
Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East)
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central)
Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East)
Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West)
Paul Monaghan (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Angus Robertson (Moray)
Alex Salmond (Gordon)
Mike Weir (Angus)
Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire)
Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan)
Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire)
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil and South Perthshire)
Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East)
Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife)
Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West)
Lisa Cameron (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Richard Arkless (Dumfries and Galloway)
Hannah Bardell (Livingston)
Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire)
Stuart Blair Donaldson (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Ronnie Cowan (Inverclyde)
Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith)
Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Mhairi Black (Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North)
Philip Boswell (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)

Labour
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East)
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow)
Graham Allen (Nottingham North)
Rosena Allin-Khan (Tooting)
Luciana Berger (Labour (Co-op) – Liverpool, Wavertree)
Ben Bradshaw (Exeter)
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West)
Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton)
Lyn Brown (West Ham)
Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North)
Dawn Butler (Brent Central)
Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth)
Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley)
Ann Coffey (Stockport)
Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Ian Murray (Edinburgh South)
Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West)
Mary Creagh (Wakefield)
Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) – Walthamstow)
Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) – Cardiff South and Penarth)
Jim Dowd (Lewisham West and Penge)
Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood)
Mrs Louise Ellman (Labour (Co-op) – Liverpool, Riverside)
Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford)
Mike Gapes (Labour (Co-op) – Ilford South)
Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South)
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood)
Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) – Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Peter Kyle (Hove)
David Lammy (Tottenham)
Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) – York Central)
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East)
Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend)
Stephen Pound (Ealing North)
Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall)
Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn)
Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith)
Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington)
Owen Smith (Pontypridd)
Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central)
Stephen Timms (East Ham)
Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green)
Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test)
Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge)

Green
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion)

Plaid Cymru
Hywel Williams (Arfon)
Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd)

Independents
Natalie McGarry (Glasgow East)
Lady Hermon (North Down)
Michelle Thomson (Edinburgh West)

SDLP
Mark Durkan (Foyle)
Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down)
Alasdair McDonnell (Belfast South)

Updated

Full list of MPs who voted for article 50 bill to get a second reading

Here is a full list of the 498 MPs who voted for the article 50 bill to get a second reading.

Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Nigel Adams (Conservative - Selby and Ainsty)
Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Heidi Allen (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Sir David Amess (Conservative - Southend West)
Mr David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Edward Argar (Conservative - Charnwood)
Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Ian Austin (Labour - Dudley North)
Mr Richard Bacon (Conservative - South Norfolk)
Mr Adrian Bailey (Labour (Co-op) - West Bromwich West)
Mr Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Stephen Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Mr John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Sir Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Gavin Barwell (Conservative - Croydon Central)
Guto Bebb (Conservative - Aberconwy)
Margaret Beckett (Labour - Derby South)
Sir Henry Bellingham (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Richard Benyon (Conservative - Newbury)
Sir Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Mr Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Nicola Blackwood (Conservative - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Crispin Blunt (Conservative - Reigate)
Mr Peter Bone (Conservative - Wellingborough)
Victoria Borwick (Conservative - Kensington)
Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Tracy Brabin (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Karen Bradley (Conservative - Staffordshire Moorlands)
Mr Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Sir Julian Brazier (Conservative - Canterbury)
Andrew Bridgen (Conservative - North West Leicestershire)
Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
James Brokenshire (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Mr Nicholas Brown (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Andy Burnham (Labour - Leigh)
Conor Burns (Conservative - Bournemouth West)
Sir Simon Burns (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Mr David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)
Mr Alan Campbell (Labour - Tynemouth)
Mr Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Mr Ronnie Campbell (Labour - Blyth Valley)
Neil Carmichael (Conservative - Stroud)
Mr Douglas Carswell (UK Independence Party - Clacton)
James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Sir William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Jenny Chapman (Labour - Darlington)
Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Mr Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Greg Clark (Conservative - Tunbridge Wells)
James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Vernon Coaker (Labour - Gedling)
Dr Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Yvette Cooper (Labour - Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford)
Jeremy Corbyn (Labour - Islington North)
Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Mr Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Stephen Crabb (Conservative - Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Sir David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Jon Cruddas (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
John Cryer (Labour - Leyton and Wanstead)
Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Mr Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Byron Davies (Conservative - Gower)
Chris Davies (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
David T. C. Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Dr James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Glyn Davies (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Mims Davies (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Mr David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Mr Nigel Dodds (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast North)
Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Democratic Unionist Party - Lagan Valley)
Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Nadine Dorries (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Richard Drax (Conservative - South Dorset)
Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Mrs Flick Drummond (Conservative - Portsmouth South)
James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)
Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Mr Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Sir Alan Duncan (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Mr Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Ms Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham)
Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Tom Elliott (Ulster Unionist Party - Fermanagh and South Tyrone)
Michael Ellis (Conservative - Northampton North)
Jane Ellison (Conservative - Battersea)
Mr Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Charlie Elphicke (Conservative - Dover)
Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)
Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)
Graham Evans (Conservative - Weaver Vale)
Mr Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Sir Michael Fallon (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Suella Fernandes (Conservative - Fareham)
Frank Field (Labour - Birkenhead)
Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Yvonne Fovargue (Labour - Makerfield)
Dr Liam Fox (Conservative - North Somerset)
Mr Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Lucy Frazer (Conservative - South East Cambridgeshire)
George Freeman (Conservative - Mid Norfolk)
Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Richard Fuller (Conservative - Bedford)
Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Marcus Fysh (Conservative - Yeovil)
Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Sir Edward Garnier (Conservative - Harborough)
Mr David Gauke (Conservative - South West Hertfordshire)
Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Nick Gibb (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Mr Robert Goodwill (Conservative - Scarborough and Whitby)
Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Mrs Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Damian Green (Conservative - Ashford)
Justine Greening (Conservative - Putney)
Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Mr Dominic Grieve (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Ben Gummer (Conservative - Ipswich)
Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Mr Sam Gyimah (Conservative - East Surrey)
Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Mr Philip Hammond (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Greg Hands (Conservative - Chelsea and Fulham)
Mr David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Ms Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Mr Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Richard Harrington (Conservative - Watford)
Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Rebecca Harris (Conservative - Castle Point)
Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Mr John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Sue Hayman (Labour - Workington)
Sir Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
James Heappey (Conservative - Wells)
Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative - Daventry)
Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Mr Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Mr Stephen Hepburn (Labour - Jarrow)
Nick Herbert (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Kate Hoey (Labour - Vauxhall)
Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
George Hollingbery (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Mr Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Adam Holloway (Conservative - Gravesham)
Kelvin Hopkins (Labour - Luton North)
Kris Hopkins (Conservative - Keighley)
Sir Gerald Howarth (Conservative - Aldershot)
John Howell (Conservative - Henley)
Ben Howlett (Conservative - Bath)
Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Mr Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Mr Nick Hurd (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Mr Stewart Jackson (Conservative - Peterborough)
Margot James (Conservative - Stourbridge)
Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Mr Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Mr Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Alan Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Boris Johnson (Conservative - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Dr Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Joseph Johnson (Conservative - Orpington)
Andrew Jones (Conservative - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Graham Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Mr David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Mr Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Mr Marcus Jones (Conservative - Nuneaton)
Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Seema Kennedy (Conservative - South Ribble)
Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Julian Knight (Conservative - Solihull)
Sir Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Mark Lancaster (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Dr Phillip Lee (Conservative - Bracknell)
Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Sir Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Sir Oliver Letwin (Conservative - West Dorset)
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Dr Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Mr Ivan Lewis (Labour - Bury South)
Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Mr David Lidington (Conservative - Aylesbury)
Mr Peter Lilley (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Mr Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Fiona Mactaggart (Labour - Slough)
Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Mr Khalid Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Perry Barr)
Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Mrs Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Mr Alan Mak (Conservative - Havant)
Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Kit Malthouse (Conservative - North West Hampshire)
John Mann (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Rob Marris (Labour - Wolverhampton South West)
Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Christian Matheson (Labour - City of Chester)
Dr Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Mrs Theresa May (Conservative - Maidenhead)
Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Mr Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Conor McGinn (Labour - St Helens North)
Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Sir Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Sir Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Mark Menzies (Conservative - Fylde)
Johnny Mercer (Conservative - Plymouth, Moor View)
Huw Merriman (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Mrs Maria Miller (Conservative - Basingstoke)
Amanda Milling (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Anne Milton (Conservative - Guildford)
Mr Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Penny Mordaunt (Conservative - Portsmouth North)
Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Nicky Morgan (Conservative - Loughborough)
Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
James Morris (Conservative - Halesowen and Rowley Regis)
Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
David Mowat (Conservative - Warrington South)
David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Mrs Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Dr Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Jesse Norman (Conservative - Hereford and South Herefordshire)
Mr David Nuttall (Conservative - Bury North)
Dr Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Guy Opperman (Conservative - Hexham)
Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton)
Mr George Osborne (Conservative - Tatton)
Albert Owen (Labour - Ynys Môn)
Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Mr Owen Paterson (Conservative - North Shropshire)
Mark Pawsey (Conservative - Rugby)
Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Claire Perry (Conservative - Devizes)
Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Sir Eric Pickles (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Christopher Pincher (Conservative - Tamworth)
Dr Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Mr Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)
Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Mr Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Mr Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Mary Robinson (Conservative - Cheadle)
Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Labour - Coventry North West)
Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Amber Rudd (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
David Rutley (Conservative - Macclesfield)
Joan Ryan (Labour - Enfield North)
Antoinette Sandbach (Conservative - Eddisbury)
Paul Scully (Conservative - Sutton and Cheam)
Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Alok Sharma (Conservative - Reading West)
Mr Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Mr Keith Simpson (Conservative - Broadland)
Chris Skidmore (Conservative - Kingswood)
Mr Dennis Skinner (Labour - Bolsover)
Ruth Smeeth (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Mr Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Sir Nicholas Soames (Conservative - Mid Sussex)
Amanda Solloway (Conservative - Derby North)
Anna Soubry (Conservative - Broxtowe)
John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Dame Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Mark Spencer (Conservative - Sherwood)
Keir Starmer (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Bob Stewart (Conservative - Beckenham)
Iain Stewart (Conservative - Milton Keynes South)
Rory Stewart (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Mr Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Graham Stringer (Labour - Blackley and Broughton)
Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Ms Gisela Stuart (Labour - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Rishi Sunak (Conservative - Richmond (Yorks))
Sir Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Sir Hugo Swire (Conservative - East Devon)
Mr Robert Syms (Conservative - Poole)
Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Edward Timpson (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Michael Tomlinson (Conservative - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
David Tredinnick (Conservative - Bosworth)
Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Elizabeth Truss (Conservative - South West Norfolk)
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Mr Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Mr Andrew Tyrie (Conservative - Chichester)
Mr Chuka Umunna (Labour - Streatham)
Mr Edward Vaizey (Conservative - Wantage)
Mr Shailesh Vara (Conservative - North West Cambridgeshire)
Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Mrs Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Mr Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Mr Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Mr Ben Wallace (Conservative - Wyre and Preston North)
David Warburton (Conservative - Somerton and Frome)
Matt Warman (Conservative - Boston and Skegness)
Dame Angela Watkinson (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Tom Watson (Labour - West Bromwich East)
James Wharton (Conservative - Stockton South)
Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Heather Wheeler (Conservative - South Derbyshire)
Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Mr John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Craig Williams (Conservative - Cardiff North)
Mr Rob Wilson (Conservative - Reading East)
Phil Wilson (Labour - Sedgefield)
Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Mr David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Dame Rosie Winterton (Labour - Doncaster Central)
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Conservative - Totnes)
John Woodcock (Labour (Co-op) - Barrow and Furness)
William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)
Jeremy Wright (Conservative - Kenilworth and Southam)
Mr Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative - Stratford-on-Avon)

Party breakdown of how MPs voted on second vote - on the bill itself

And here are the party breakdown figures for how MPs voted in the second vote - on whether or not to give the bill a second reading.

For the bill

Conservatives: 319

Labour: 167

DUP: 8

UUP: 2

Ukip: 1

Independent: 1

Total: 498

Against the bill

SNP: 50

Labour: 47

Lib Dems: 7

SDLP: 3

Independents: 3

Plaid Cymru: 2

Green: 1

Conservative: 1

Total: 114

Updated

On the BBC Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has said he does not know what will happen to the Labour frontbenchers who defied the whip.

Party breakdown of how MPs voted on first vote - on the SNP amendment

Here are the figures showing how MPs voted on the first vote, the SNP amendment.

For the amendment saying the bill should be blocked

SNP: 50

Labour: 33

Lib Dems: 7

SDLP: 3

Plaid Cymru: 2

Green: 1

Conservative: 1

Total: 100

Against the amendment

Conservatives: 319

DUP: 8

Labour: 6

UUP: 2

Ukip: 1

Total: 336

Updated

MPs for government’s article 50 bill programme motion by 329 votes to 112 - majority of 217

Here is the result.

  • MPs for the government’s article 50 bill programme motion by 329 votes to 112 - a majority of 217. The programme motion sets aside three days, but no more, for the remaining debates on the bill, meaning it will be ready to go to the Lords by Wednesday night.

MPs vote on article 50 bill programme motion.

MPs are now voting on the programme motion. (See 6.30pm.) The tellers are the same as for the last vote: Gavin Williamson, the chief whip, and Jackie Doyle-Price, another government whip, are for the ayes; and the two SNP whips Marion Fellows and Owen Thompson are for the noes.

MPs vote for bill giving May power to trigger article 50 by 498 votes to 114 - a majority of 384

Here is the result.

  • MPs vote for bill giving May the power to trigger article 50 by 498 votes to 114 - a majority of 384.

This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.

Updated

This is from the BBC’s Iain Watson.

Updated

This is from the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.

For the record, here are the current figures for how many MPs each main party currently has.

Conservatives: 329

Labour: 229

SNP: 54

Lib Dems: 9

DUP: 8

This is from my colleague Heather Stewart.

Dawn Butler’s office has put out a statement about her decision to resign from the shadow cabinet. A spokesperson said:

Dawn has said that it was an honour to be a part of the shadow cabinet doing a job that she loves.

She could not in good conscience vote for a bill which is just a few lines. Since the referendum Dawn has made it clear to her constituents that she would respect the democratic vote of Brent, which voted 60% to remain. Dawn cannot vote for a bill which she is sure will make her constituents poorer.

Following the referendum Dawn was clear that if parliament was presented with a vote on triggering article 50, she would vote against.

Last night Dawn held a local residents meeting to discuss the intricacies of the various stages of the article 50 bill and she listened carefully to the views of her constituents. And assured her constituents that the Labour Party will put forward amendments that will improve this shame of a bill.

Earlier today Dawn gave the leader of the opposition a full explanation of her position on this matter, which has not changed since the referendum, and she recognises that this stance makes her position on the Labour frontbench untenable and therefore resigned.

The Conservative MP Chloe Smith has brought her baby into the chamber as she votes. John Bercow, the speaker, thought she might be hesitant and told her she was free to bring the little one in. This is from the Times’ Patrick Kidd.

In the second vote the tellers for the ayes are Gavin Williamson, the chief whip, and Jackie Doyle-Price, another government whip.

And the tellers for the noes are Marion Fellows and Owen Thompson, both SNP whips.

Labour’s Lilian Greenwood says she will vote against the bill. Earlier in the debate she said she came into the chamber without having fully decided which way she would vote.

MPs vote on article 50 bill

MPs are now voting on the bill itself. This is the most important of the three votes tonight. See 6.30pm.

MPs vote down SNP amendment opposing article 50 bill by 336 votes to 100 - a majority of 236

Here is the result.

  • MPs vote down SNP amendment opposing article 50 bill by 336 votes to 100 - a majority of 236.

This, from the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush, helps to explain why this is such a difficult evening for Labour.

As does this from ITV’s Chris Ship.

Updated

This is from the Mirror’s Ben Glaze.

The tellers for the ayes are Marion Fellows and Owen Thompson, both SNP whips.

And the tellers for the noes are Gavin Williamson, the chief whip, and Jackie Doyle-Price, another government whip.

MPs vote on SNP amendment opposing article 50 bill

MPs are now voting on the SNP amendment. See 6.30pm.

Jones says MPs will have plenty of opportunities to scrutinise the great repeal bill.

He says he agrees with Jenny Chapman. The people have made their decision. The government must act not for the 52%, or the 48%, but the 100%.

And that’s it. MPs are now voting.

Jones is now addressing the role of parliament. The prime minister has said parliament will have the final say on the deal, he says.

He says the white paper will be published tomorrow. But it is entirely separate from this bill, he says.

Jones says he hopes the UK will continue to have good relations with the EU as they work together on issues like security and immigration.

Back in the Commons Jones says EU citizens living in the UK will continue to be welcome in this country, as it assumes Britons will be welcome in other countries.

Jeremy Corbyn has put out this statement about the resignations of Rachael Maskell and Dawn Butler. He said:

I would like to thank Dawn and Rachael for their work in the shadow cabinet. They are great assets to the Labour party and to our movement.

MPs have a duty to represent their constituents as well as their party, and I understand the difficulties that MPs for constituencies which voted remain have in relation to the European Union withdrawal bill.

However, it is right that the Labour party respects the outcome of the referendum on leaving the European Union. We have said all along that Labour will not frustrate the triggering of Article 50 and to that end we are asking all MPs to vote for the bill at its second reading tonight.

I wish both Dawn and Rachael well and look forward to working with them in the future.

In the circumstances, that is a very warm letter. It suggests that this vote will not be held against Maskell and Butler for long, and that Corbyn would like them back in the shadow cabinet at some point.

David Jones's speech

David Jones, a Brexit minister, is winding up now for the government.

He says this is a simple bill giving the government the power to trigger article 50. It is not a bill to set the terms of the government’s Brexit negotiation.

Back in the Commons Chapman says Brexit must work for all communities, especially the most disadvantaged. Labour will do its duty. Quoting FD Roosevelt, she says Labour must be a party of liberal thought, planned action, enlightened international outlook, and one that wants the the greatest good for all citizens. It is not a party just for the 48% who voted to remain, but for everyone, she says.

Here is Rachael Maskell’s resignation statement. And here is an excerpt.

I have consulted with my constituents and local businesses throughout the process and held a number of meetings for them to voice their opinions, read over one thousand pieces of correspondence just this weekend, and organised two packed emergency meetings on Monday night. I have listened carefully to my constituents, those I am entrusted to represent in Westminster, who voted strongly to Remain in the EU. In voting against the legislation, I am representing the will of my constituents, ensuring their voice is heard in Parliament. When I took the oath of allegiance upon swearing in to Parliament in May 2015, I broke with convention and swore my oath to my constituents first; I will not forget this.

I believe that Theresa May’s Brexit ‘plan’ is creating an unjustifiable level of risk at a time of national and international uncertainty and volatility, with silence on national security measures, no mention of climate change mitigation or environmental protections, and no guarantee of good jobs or employment rights. Most worrying of all is the rapidly changing social context which is leading to a rise of racism and hate crime in the UK. These are the very things that I have campaigned on all my life and believe are central to Labour’s values.

Chapman says the vote for Brexit has deepened the sense that values we cherish, like tolerance, openness and solidarity, are under threat.

There is a fear that xenophobia, fear and isolationism are drowning out our values, she says. Bigotry should have no place in our politics.

She says there are very few MPs who do not fear about the threat to values we support.

Labour will not neglect its duty to challenge the government when it thinks it is getting Brexit wrong.

And the best Brexit will never come via a cliff edge, she says.

She says Theresa May must get a deal worthy of this House.

Jenny Chapman's speech

Jenny Chapman, the shadow Brexit minister, is winding up now for the opposition.

She says what is unusual about this bill is that MPs are voting on a matter which has been the subject of a referendum.

The SNP’s Alex Salmond asks if Labour will vote against the “restrictive” programme motion. (See 8.30am.)

Chapman says she wants the bill to proceed.

Labour is an internationalist, pro-European party. That will never change, she says.

The Evening Standard’s Kate Proctor has quotes from Dawn Butler’s resignation letter.

Theresa May has now arrived in the chamber for the wind-up speeches.

Article 50 debate - Guide to the voting

There will be three votes tonight. Here is a guide to what is coming.

7pm: MPs will first vote on the “reasoned amendment” tabled by the SNP. This says that the bill should not get a second reading, and explains why. Here is the full text.

That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill as the Government has set out no provision for effective consultation with the devolved administrations on implementing Article 50, has yet to publish a White Paper detailing the Government’s policy proposals, has refused to give a guarantee on the position of EU nationals in the UK, has left unanswered a range of detailed questions covering many policy areas about the full implications of withdrawal from the single market and has provided no assurance that a future parliamentary vote will be anything other than irrelevant, as withdrawal from the European Union followed two years after the invoking of Article 50 if agreement is not reached in the forthcoming negotiations, unless they are prolonged by unanimity.

The amendment has been signed by 66 MPs, mostly from the SNP, but including some MPs from Labour, Plaid Cymru, the SDLP and the Green’s Caroline Lucas. MPs in favour of article 50 will vote against.

Around 7.15pm: MPs will then vote on the main motion - to give the article 50 bill a second reading. This is the main vote. The numbers will be much the same as on the first vote, although there may be a few MPs who want to vote against the bill at second reading but who draw the line at supporting an SNP amendment.

Around 7.30pm: MPs will then vote for the programme motion. This is the motion that sets a three-day timetable for the debate on the rest of the bill. Without a programme motion the government would not be able to guarantee getting its bill through the Commons on time. Labour MPs are not opposing the programme motion, but there may be more MPs voting against the government on this vote than on the first two. That is because there are some opposition MPs who accept that the bill should go through, but who think more time should be set aside for debate.

Two more Labour MPs resign from shadow cabinet to vote against article 50 bill

Dawn Butler has announced that she has resigned from the shadow cabinet so she can vote against the bill.

That means, with Rachael Maskell (see 6.11pm) we have had two more Labour frontbench resignations within the last few minutes. Maskell was a full member of the shadow cabinet. Butler was not a full member, but she was on the list of those with a right to attend and was included in statistics about the number of women in the shadow cabinet.

Two other frontbenchers (one of whom was in the shadow cabinet) had previously resigned. See 2.59am for more details.

Updated

The shadow environment secretary Rachael Maskell has announced that she will vote against the bill and that she has resigned from the shadow cabinet. This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.

Labour’s Owen Smith, who unsuccessfully challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership last year, says he will vote against the bill. He says he thinks it will be his constituents who will suffer from Brexit. But this is not just about economics, he says. He says it is also about values. He believes in internationalism. He does not want to see the UK lining up alongside Donald Trump. He says he stands instead alongside Angela Merkel, who was willing to speak out against Trump.

Labour’s Roberta Blackman-Woods has just told MPs that she will abstain tonight.

Updated

Labour’s Stephen Doughty says he will vote against the bill. His constituency, Cardiff South and Penarth, voted to remain and he will vote in line with their wishes.

He says Theresa May claims to be a leader. But she is a follower, following the siren calls of hardline Eurosceptics on her benches.

Ben Howlett, a Conservative, says he is giving a speech he never wanted to give. He says he campaigned passionately for remain. And 70% of residents in his constituency, Bath, voted for remain.

He says if the UK is to leave the EU, it should get on with it quickly, to reduce uncertainty.

He will vote in favour, he says.

The SNP’s John Nicolson says he is often asked why the SNP want to share sovereignty with the EU, but not with the UK. It’s a good question. He says pooling sovereignty can have its benefits. But that does not work for Scotland in the UK now, he says. He compares Scotland with Denmark, a country of roughly the same size. He says Denmark is in the EU, but it is better off than Scotland because it has more power over what happens to it.

The Conservative Kevin Hollinrake says Labour MPs are demanding a meaningful vote on the Brexit deal. But what they seem to want is a veto. And that would be a mistake, he says, because it would give the EU an incentive to offer a poor deal.

MPs are now just getting three minutes for their speeches. Labour’s Ben Bradshaw says this shows MPs should have been allocated more time.

The politics professor Philip Cowley, who is an expert on parliamentary rebellions, says today’s debate and vote will provide a perfect case study for anyone interested in the theory of representative democracy.

The SNP’s Pete Wishart says people in the UK should work as if they are in the early days of a Ukip United Kingdom, because that is what the country is turning into under Brexit.

Labour’s Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, says up to 100,000 jobs in the City could be at risk from Brexit. That would affect her constituents. And she says it is not just top City jobs that would go. There are many ordinary jobs dependent on financial services, she says. She says she will vote against the bill.

Labour’s Mary Creagh has just told MPs that she will vote against the bill. Voting in favour would be against her conscience, against her values and against her DNA, she says.

Kevin Schofield at PoliticsHome has an interesting article at PoliticsHome looking at what Jeremy Corbyn might do if Clive Lewis goes ahead with this threat to resign from the shadow cabinet and vote against the article 50 bill at third reading if the government does not accept any of the Labour amendments. Here’s an extract.

One well-placed source said: “Corbyn’s team are very irritated with Clive. By resigning, he will get the love and support of all the young lefty members who are appalled at Corbyn’s stance on Article 50.”

The Labour leadership are well aware that Lewis - should he make good on his resignation threat - could well become the new standard bearer for the thousands of idealistic activists who have joined the party in the last 18 months, and now feel let down by Jeremy.

Some party insiders now believe Team Corbyn could use Lewis’ departure as an opportunity to promote another bright young thing.

“I think there’s a good chance they’ll move Rebecca Long-Bailey from shadow chief secretary to shadow business to replace Clive,” says one. “They are really pushing her - it looks like she is now Jeremy’s chosen successor. Shifting her gives her profile plus a platform to build alliances with the trade unions.

Back in the Commons Labour’s Stella Creasy says her constituents want employment rights protected and the rights of EU nationals living in the UK protected.

She says she cannot approve the government’s plans. She does not want to vote against the opportunities for the future that being in the EU offers. The government must go back to the drawing board, she says.

Britain’s withdrawal from the EU will probably come under review by the European court of justice (ECJ) which may ultimately amend the terms of a post-Brexit trade deal, the institution’s most senior judge has said.

As the Press Association reports, Theresa May made clear in a speech to the Conservative conference in October that a key priority in Brexit negotiations will be to take the UK out of the jurisdiction of the ECJ.

But ECJ president Koen Lenaerts said it was likely that, before the UK leaves, one party or another in the two-year negotiating process will end up seeking the arbitration of the Luxembourg-based court on one of the many contentious subjects involved. Prof Lenaerts told the Reuters news agency that even “a lawyer with the wildest imagination” would not be able to anticipate precisely how the court would become involved in the Brexit debate. He added:

It probably will, one day or another, end up on the docket of the court - not because of the court, but because of parties bringing the case.

The SNP’s Hannah Bardell says she has recently seen Trainspotting 2 and she uses a parody of the “Choose life” monologue to mock the Brexiteers.

(It doesn’t quite come off, partly because some MPs don’t seem to know what she is on about.)

The BBC’s Mark D’Arcy has written an interesting blog with five take-outs from the debate so far.

Labour’s Adrian Bailey says he will reluctantly vote for the bill. He thinks that, having had a referendum, it would be bad for democracy if MPs ignored the result. But he says his result does not mean he is committing himself to accepting the final result. He reserves the right to vote against the deal Theresa May obtains later.

Labour’s Seema Malhotra says she will accept the result of the referendum and vote in favour of the bill. But she urges Theresa May to set up a national convention so that local government leaders and others can contribute to the debate about what kind of Brexit the country wants.

I’ve been beefing up some of the earlier posts with direct quotes. You may need to refresh the page to get them to appear.

The Conservative MP Bob Neill says he will vote for the bill. But he says the vote promised by the prime minister on the final deal must be a meaningful one. And MPs must get a vote before the European parliament votes on it.

At the afternoon lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman was asked to respond to what George Osborne said about Theresa May not making the economy her Brexit priority. (See 1.39pm.) This is from Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh.

Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP and a shadow transport minister, says he will vote against Brexit. He is against it, his constituents are against it (he is MP for Cambridge), and he will not be moved.

I’m fortunate that my personal, long and strongly-held views align with the three quarters of my constituents who voted remain.

I will therefore be voting against the triggering of article 50 by whatever route someone is empowered to it - royal prerogative, referendum result, prime ministerial diktat, whatever.

I’m against it, my constituents are against it and I will not be moved from that.

He says his father came to the UK as a refugee fleeing the Nazis and he says the EU has been a force for peace.

The Tory MP Sir Gerald Howarth asks him if he accepts that the unemployment generated by Eurozone policies has made Europe less stable. Zeichner says he does not accept that.

Updated

The Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, who was shadow environment secretary until she resigned last summer, has put a statement on her website explaining why she will be voting against the article 50 bill tonight. Here is an excerpt.

At this point, however, we are not voting on the Brexit deal, i.e. the terms on which we will leave the EU. This vote is on whether the UK is ready to trigger article 50, which then gives us two years to negotiate our withdrawal. As far as we know – although there is a court case pending – this process is not reversible.

I do not believe we are ready to trigger article 50 and I do not believe it would be right for me to vote to do so tonight. It would not be in my constituents’ interests and nor would it be in the interests of the country. Labour called upon the prime minister to publish a clear plan, in the form of a white paper, before triggering, but she has not done so. There is no clarity on any of the key issues, and I have no confidence that the government will be able to negotiate the sort of trade deals they talk about - we will not be in a strong position; in fact, as the prime minister’s recent visit to see president Trump suggests, we will be somewhat desperate to conclude a deal ...

It is also worth noting that we have elections in France and Germany this year, and it seems to me there is little logic in triggering article 50, when we will not be able to start negotiations in any meaningful sense until those elections are over.

Labour’s Chris Bryant says he is a democrat. But he believes in a form of democracy that accepts the rights of minority opinion as well as majority opinion. That is why he will be voting against the bill, he says.

I am a democrat but I believe in the form of democracy that never silences minorities and I think the 48% in this country have a right to a voice and for that matter the 46% or the 45% or whatever the actual figure was in my constituency.

Today I’m afraid I am voting and speaking on behalf of a minority of my constituents ..

In the end there is no point in any single one of us being a member of this House if we don’t have things that we believe in and that we are prepared to fight for and, if necessary, lay down our job for.

Updated

The Labour MP Madeline Moon says she does not trust the government to take the country to the right place. She will vote against the bill.

Another Welsh Labour MP, Kevin Brennan, also told MPs that he would vote against the bill.

Labour’s Mike Gapes says that, by triggering article 50 early, the government will be putting the UK on an escalator it will not be able to get off. It should have waited until the Irish court case determines whether or not article 50 is reversible, he says.

The problem with the position taken by both front benches by triggering early, we are going to be on an escalator in one direction with no ability to get off. We need to not be on this escalator. We need to have a means to stop that process and that’s why we need clarity before we start triggering it.

Updated

The Green MP Caroline Lucas has written an article for Guardian Comment criticising Labour’s tactics over the bill.

Here is an extract.

By promising early on that they would vote unconditionally to trigger article 50, the Labour party has capitulated to the government, as well as reduced its bargaining position on the things they want to secure from the bill. Labour’s amendments to the detailed content of the bill represent important safeguards against an extreme Brexit but their strategy of unconditional support delivered via a three-line whip, removes all incentive for the government to negotiate and thereby undermines their best chance of securing the changes we all want.

And here is the article.

The Labour MP Jim Dowd says he will vote for the SNP amendment and against the article 50 bill. He says he will not be complicit in something he knows to be wrong. And he is worried that many MPs will be voting for something that they do know to be a mistake.

I will not be complicit in something that I know and feel to be wrong, and to be against the best interests of not just my constituents, and not just the city of which my constituency is a small part, but this country and all its people.

Updated

Tulip Siddiq, who resigned as a shadow early years minister last week so she could vote against the bill, tells MPs that she cannot vote for the bill because that would not be in the interests of her constituents.

The reason why I’m taking the stand I’m taking is because, in Hampstead and Kilburn, we do not wince when we hear people speak in a different language on public transport.

We do not blame the very real pressures on our health system, on our criminal justice and on our housing by scapegoating others, just because they do not look like us and because they do not sound like us.

In Hampstead and Kilburn, we do not indulge in baseless theories that our country is at breaking point.

Siddiq is one of two shadow ministers who have already resigned ahead of this vote. The other is Jo Stevens, who was in the shadow cabinet (unlike Siddiq) and who resigned as shadow Welsh secretary.

But there is speculation that there could be further resignations later. As my colleague Rowena Mason says, some shadow cabinet ministers have not yet said how they will vote.

Other Labour frontbenchers, including at least three whips (these two, and this one), have said they will vote against the bill, defying orders from the party. It is not clear yet whether junior frontbenchers will be sacked if they go against the whip. In normal circumstances that is what would happen, but Jeremy Corbyn has said that he understands why MPs representing pro-remain constituencies may find it hard backing the bill.

Here is the latest Guardian story about the prospective Labour revolt.

And here is a New Statesman tally of Labour MPs likely to vote against the bill.

Updated

Nadine Dorries, the pro-leave Conservative, criticised David Cameron for trying to get Paul Dacre sacked as editor of the Daily Mail.

Graham Allen, the Labour MP, said parliament should be voting to trigger article 50. But it should only do so after MPs have exercised “due diligence” and scrutinised the government’s plans properly, he said.

He also said MPs should be prepared to ignore the abuse directed at them on social media for the stance they take on Brexit.

Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP who chairs the international trade committee, says that no one knows what sort of trade relations the UK will have after Brexit.

He says only six members of the UN do not have regional trade arrangements. The UK will be going where even North Korea does not dare to go, he says.

We are like someone who smashed up a Rolls-Royce and then goes to a second-hand car dealer to ask for a suitable replacement, he says.

People assume the House of Commons knows what it’s doing. It doesn’t. It’s crossing its fingers and hoping for the best ..

The best deal for the UK is after smashing up the Rolls-Royce. The best deal, we have it now, we have it with Europe. Now we are going to head down to a second hand car dealer and ask him for the best motor he has got because we have smashed up our Rolls-Royce.

Updated

Nicky Morgan, the Conservative former education secretary, says parliament must be involved in the Brexit process. She says she hopes the government will say more about how this might happen, perhaps in the wind-up speech from the front bench tonight.

The Labour MP Neil Coyle said he would oppose the bill. He said that Labour members opposed Brexit and they deserved something better from the Labour front bench. It should not just be accepting the government’s position, he said.

Former prime minister John Major referred to the like of the former secretary of state for work and pensions as bastards.

He could not have known that his party would become a whole government full of bastards who are absolutely causing economic damage for my constituents and for the whole country.

At the risk of offending my own front bench as well as the government front bench, I say this - my members campaigned vigorously to remain in the European Union and they deserve a front bench position that is not to sign up to the government’s position, the government’s timetable and the government curtailing debate.

It is a disgrace.

Updated

Alistair Burt, the Conservative former Foreign Office minister, said that he opposed Brexit. But he told constituents that he would accept the result of the referendum, and so he will back the bill, he said.

He also said that he would not be then campaigning for the UK to rejoin the EU in the future. He said Europe had divided the Conservative party for long enough, creating bitterness, and that he wanted the party not to have to face “the blight of this argument dogging them, their associations and their members and voters the same way it has dogged us”.

Updated

The Conservative former minister Sir Gerald Howarth told MPs this was a historic day. Parliament would be sovereign again, he said.

He also said Margaret Thatcher’s response to this bill would have been: “Rejoice!” (Howarth was her parliamentary private secretary.)

The Labour MP Ian Murray said he would be voting against the bill. He said he wanted to be able to look his constituents in the eye and say he had done everything he could to stop Brexit.

It’s with a heavy heart that I will vote against triggering article 50.

But I will do so in the knowledge that I can walk down the streets of Edinburgh South and look at my constituents in the eye, and say to them I’ve done everything I possibly can to protect their jobs, livelihoods and the future for their family.

Updated

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May's plan for 'frictionless' border with Ireland after Brexit cannot be achieved, MPs told

Theresa May’s declaration that she wants a “seamless, frictionless border” post Brexit in Ireland amounted to meaningless “nice words”, the government has been told.

The Northern Ireland affairs select committee has been told by two customs lawyers with decades of experience of border controls that the continuing free movement of goods is legally impossible if the UK quits the Customs Union in a hard Brexit.

Retired customs trade lawyer Michael Lux, who worked for the German ministry of finance, has said Theresa May can do what she likes once the UK leaves the European Union but that Ireland Taoiseach Enda Kenny will have to apply EU law with no choice but to have customs checks on the border. He said:

If Northern Ireland is no longer part of the customs union, Ireland is obliged to apply all these rules, what is done on the UK side if it’s outside the EU they can do what they want.

His two hours of evidence drew audible gasps from MPs as he told how every vehicle carrying goods worth more than €300 crossing from Ireland into Northern Ireland would have to be stopped, even if only “for a few minutes” and checked.

Every driver would have to have an “export declaration” document before travel which would have to be cross-checked by a human being at a border check.

“It is important to understand, it isn’t just about customs, it is also about VAT and excise on alcohol and cigarettes,” he said.

Dux, who has 40 years experience in customs trade law, told how dogs taken for a walk from south of the border would need documentation as would horses being ridden for pleasure on the border region. This is currently the case on the German/Swiss border, he said.

His comments do not bode well for May and Kenny who have warned that a return to the checkpoints of the past could imperil the fragile peace in the region.
Asked by Lady Hermon what he thought of Theresa May’s comments this week in Dublin when she said she wanted a “seamless, frictionless border”, Dux replied: “Well these are nice words but what does that mean?”

Even if the export declaration paperwork was electronic, a customs official would still be required to check the reference number for the freight and declare the “export movement closed” he said.

Lux told how cross-border customs charges and possible tariffs could be the death-knell for cross-border dairy production.

Medium-sized businesses might need two people to do the administration, or they could use an agent which would charge typically between €50 and €80 per consignment for an export declaration number, explained Lux.

Even if shrewd businesses got the cost of the export declaration document down to €20, the cost of continually moving milk and milk products back and forth would be prohibitive, Lux said.

Asked if Northern Ireland could get a “waiver” from the EU because of the special conditions pertaining to the island, lawyer Eric Pickett, an expert in World Trade Organisation rules and international trade law, said this was legally impossible.

“It would be a strict violation of WTO law,” he said.

Trafic crosses the border into Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic next to a poster protesting against a hard brexit near Dundalk.
Trafic crosses the border into Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic next to a poster protesting against a hard brexit near Dundalk. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

As the debate goes on I will be updating some earlier posts, to include direct quotes from speeches initially just covered in reported speech. To get these to appear you may need to refresh the page.

Dame Caroline Spelman, the Conservative former environment secretary, said it was important for the government to recognise the role played by foreign workers in agriculture. She said it was important for the government to ensure farmers could still hire foreign labour after Brexit.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, said the Lib Dems were a fiercely internationalist party. People may have voted for Brexit, but they did not vote for a destination, he said. That was why it was important to have a second referendum.

The prime minister has made her choice. She has chosen hard Brexit. But if you are so confident that what you are planning is what people voted for, then you must give them a vote on the final deal.

What started with democracy must not end up with a government stitch-up.

Both the Labour front bench and the Conservatives don’t want to give the British people their say; they think they know better.

It is an arrogance. It is anti-democratic and that is why Liberal Democrats are fighting for the British people to have a final vote on the deal that the government negotiates.

Updated

Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, told MPs in her speech that she would vote for the bill, even though she backed remain. She said voting against the bill would make it harder to defend faith in democracy.

I think the challenge that we will face over the next few years in many European countries is how we defend those democratic values.

For me in my constituency, that will be much harder to defend that faith in democracy if we ignore the results of the ballot box last summer.

John Whittingdale, the Conservative former culture secretary, said he had hoped that David Cameron would return from his EU renegotiation with plans for proper reform of the EU.

Geoffrey Robinson, the Labour former Treasury minister, said, having given the public a referendum, MPs had to accept the result. But he said it was important to get a soft Brexit, and a transitional deal. Anything else would lead to a harsh outcome, he said.

Updated

Osborne says EU won't prioritise economy when negotiating Brexit deal

Here is the key quote from George Osborne’s speech. (See 1.12pm.) He said that German and French political leaders have told him they are not interested in offering the UK a complex, hybrid agreement.

The government has chosen not to make the economy the priority in this negotiation ...

The European Union is not prioritising the economy either in these negotiations. Having spent the last couple of weeks in Berlin and in Paris talking to some of the French and German political leaders, it is absolutely clear that while they understand that Britain is a very important market for their businesses, their priority is to maintain the integrity of the remaining 27 members of the European Union. They are not interested in a long and complex, hybrid agreement with the United Kingdom.

So therefore both sides at the moment are heading for a clean break from the European Union for the United Kingdom.

And the only thing, I think, in the end the negotiation will come down to is how that break is achieved.

Updated

Caroline Johnson, the new MP for Sleaford, has just given her maiden speech in the debate, backing the bill and backing Brexit. She said:

As someone new to the world of Westminster, the greatest surprise to me was that so many seemed surprised by the result of this referendum.

I was brought up to believe that a good democracy is ruled by the majority, with protection for minorities.

As I talked to my constituents, however, I increasingly understand that they perceive we are ruled by a vocal, minority elite, who are disregarding the views of the majority - and they’re angry.

Why is this important? Because so many seem to have been surprised by the Brexit vote, because they failed to understand the genuine concerns of the majority.

John Bercow, the speaker, has just announced that 80 MPs still want to speak. He is imposing a four-minute time-limit on speeches, he says.

Updated

Salmond says if Theresa May is determined to throw down the gauntlet to Nicola Sturgeon over Brexit, she can be sure that Sturgeon will pick it up.

  • Salmond says Sturgeon is serious about her threat to hold a second independence referendum if May takes Scotland out of the single market.
Alex Salmond.
Alex Salmond. Photograph: Parliament TV

Salmond says Scotland has a great history. William Wallace was put in trial in Westminster Hall. He says he hopes he gets a pardon soon too.

He says the Scottish government put forward a plan to keep Scotland in the single market.

If Ireland can have a frictionless border with the UK, Scotland can have one with England too, he says.

Salmond says the Tory 2015 manifesto is not his bedtime reading. But on page 72 it says the Tories say yes to the single market, he says.

He says he debated Brexit with the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan during the campaign. Hannan told him no one was talking about leaving the single market, he says.

Alex Salmond's speech

Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minster, is speaking now.

He says it is good to follow George Osborne. Osborne speeches don’t come cheap now, he says.

He says Ken Clarke said yesterday Theresa May was going down the hole like Alice in Wonderland. But Alice only took herself down the hole; May is taking everyone else, he says.

My honourable friend ... asked me yesterday if I could remember in the last 30 years in this place of a time the House was gripped by collective madness.

That time obviously was Iraq, when this House was mesmerised by a strong prime minister into the blood and disaster of the Iraqi war.

But it’s certainly not mesmerising rhetoric that’s responsible for mad MP disease in this case.

The right honourable member for Rushcliffe [Ken Clarke] yesterday compared it to Alice in Wonderland.

But Alice only took herself into the hole.

This prime minister is taking virtually all of the Tory party, half the Labour party and the entire country into the hole.

It is politically crazy, what is being done.

Updated

Osborne hints he will fight any attempt by May in future years to adopt protectionist policies.

Osborne says the Brexit negotiations will be “rather bitter”.

He spent four years negotiating with Michel Barnier, he says. He says he would advice David Davis to pack some Pro Plus, because there will be long nights.

He says issues are going to come to parliament which will divide MPs sharply, including MPs from the same party.

We are already seeing divisions over free trade. And there will be arguments about agricultural subsidies, and immigration, and state aid.

He says he will be in those fights in the years ahead.

  • Osborne hints he will fight any attempt by the government in future years to adopt protectionist policies.
George Osborne.
George Osborne. Photograph: Parliament TV/BBC Parliament

Updated

Osborne says EU leaders not interested in giving UK a complex deal

Osborne says the government has chosen not to make the economy the priority in the Brexit negotiations. Instead it has prioritised immigration control and escaping the jurisdiction of the ECJ.

He says the economy will not be the priority for the rest of the EU either. Having spoken to EU leaders recently, he has learnt their priority it maintaining the EU.

He says they are not interested in giving the UK a complex deal. Instead, they want a simple break.

  • Osborne says EU leaders not interested in giving UK a complex deal.

The negotiation will be a trade off, like all divorces, between access and money.

George Osborne's speech

George Osborne, the former chancellor, is speaking now.

He says democracy is easy to defend when it produces results you like. It is harder to defend when it produces results you do not like.

He says he fought hard for the UK to stay in the EU. He sacrificed his position in government in this case.

He is a passionate believer in having an open democracy. But he is also passionate about democracy.

Britain has helped to spread democracy around the word. That is why he will be voting for the bill.

We have given the modern world a version of democracy that has spread far beyond our shores.

And therefore to vote against the majority verdict of the largest democratic exercise in British history I think would risk putting Parliament against people, I think it would provoke a deep constitutional crisis in our country, I think it would alienate people who already feel they are alienated, and I am not prepared to do that.

So I will be voting for the bill tonight.

Updated

Miliband says UK should be fighting for EU countries to get exemption from Trump travel ban

Miliband says he thinks the UK will be weaker internationally outside the EU.

He says when he was climate change minister, he saw how the UK’s influence was increased by being a member of the EU.

He says he accepts Theresa May’s argument that Brexit means Brexit. But he does not see why Brexit should mean Trump.

I can go along with the prime minister that Brexit means Brexit but I cannot go along with the idea that Brexit means Trump.

And nor do I believe that is inevitable and nor do I believe that is what the British people want either.

The danger is this, the prime minister feels it is an inevitable consequence of the decision to leave the EU that we are driven into the arms of president Trump.

In her Lancaster House speech, May set out her objectives. But they did not include maximising international cooperation, he says.

He says the UK should be collaborating with its EU allies.

Where has the coordinated EU response to the Trump travel ban been, he asks.

He says he is glad Britons have an exemption. So does Canada, New Zealand and Australia. But he says EU countries are not covered. The UK should be standing in solidarity with them.

  • Miliband says UK should be fighting for EU countries to get exemption from Trump travel ban.
Ed Miliband.
Ed Miliband. Photograph: BBC/BBC Parliament

Updated

Ed Milband's speech

Ed Miliband is speaking now.

He did not want a referendum, he says. He opposed calls for one in the last parliament.

But he said he would accept the result of the referendum. And so he will vote for the bill tonight.

He says MPs should not let people who may have voted for Brexit because they felt ignored think they are being ignored again.

Part of the reason why I’ll be voting the way I will tonight is I think this referendum in part stemmed from a deep frustration about politics and the sense of disaffection from politics that there is in the country.

Therefore I think a heightened reason for saying that this process must begin is we do not want to give the sense that people, having voted for Brexit because they felt they’d been ignored, are being ignored once again.

But he says the government should not go into Brexit without an analysis of what it might mean.

He says there must be a meaningful vote in the Commons on the outcome.

Theresa May is just offering a “take it or leave it” option, he says, meaning MPs would have to accept the deal, or see the UK leave the EU on WTO terms.

He says he hopes MPs will back the amendment calling for a meaningful vote.

Labour’s Rupa Huq says there may be a “crock of something” at the end of Brexit, but that it won’t necessarily be gold.

Miliband agrees.

Updated

MPs resume debate on article 50 bill

John Bercow, the speaker, starts by saying there will be an eight-minute time limit on speeches for backbenchers.

He calls the first speaker, Ed Milband, the former Labour leader.

I missed the questions from Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, because I was writing up the snap summary. Here are his questions.

He started by asking how Theresa May would ensure the land border with Ireland stays open after Brexit.

Given that people will be watching this not just in Britain but also in Ireland, would she take the opportunity now to say how she will deliver these sensible and important outcomes?

May said she wanted the border to be “as frictionless as possible:.

These are absolutely the outcomes that we want to see. I was very pleased to meet with the Taoiseach and discuss the joint intent to ensure we don’t see a return to the borders of the past. We focus on the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; of course, the issue of movements from Ireland affects ports in Wales and, of course, Stranraer. We have agreed the work we’re going to do to deliver what I believe will be as frictionless as possible a border.

Robertson then used his second question to suggest that this meant the SNP’s plan for Scotland to stay in the single market, even if the rest of the UK left, migth be feasible. He said:

The prime minister has very helpfully explained that it is perfectly possible for parts of these islands to be in the single market, with free movement of people and at the same time protect and enhance trade with one another. This is very, very welcome, Mr Speaker.

But May did not accept this interpretation.

Following the meeting of the JMC plenary sessions we did agree to an intensification of discussions. He really should listen to the answers that are given because he’s trying to imply something that isn’t there. We’re very clear we want to see a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and the Republic ... but I’m also clear another negotiation is to see as frictionless a border as possible with the EU ... and if he wants that, he shouldn’t want to take Scotland out of the EU by becoming independent.

I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.

Labour’s Naz Shah asks about a female constituent lured to Pakistan and killed. Will the government encourage Pakistan to ensure that justice is done?

May says two people have been arrested and charged in Pakistan in connection with this case.

Updated

The SNP’s Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh asks if the government will stand up for refugees, wherever they come from? And does she accept the right of women to wear the hijab?

May says women should be free to wear the hijab. What a woman wears is a woman’s choice, she says. And she says the government is opposed to discriminating against refugees on the grounds of religion.

Labour’s John Woodcock asks what the government is doing to ensure that the proposed Moorside nuclear power station remains on track. He says Toshiba is reviewing its commitment to this.

May says the government remains committed to this.

Nigel Adams, a Conservative, asks about the impact of the 2015 floods on Tadcaster.

May says she is glad the Tadcaster bridge has reopened.

John Bercow, the speaker, says the Lib Dems are here now, and he calls Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, to ask a question.

Farron does not seem to be expecting this.

He says the Lib Dems are doing the job that Labour should be doing, opposing the government on Brexit.

May will come back with a Brexit deal. Who should agree it? Parliament, the government or the people? He thinks it should be the people.

May says she has already said MPs will get a vote.

Peter Bone, a Conservative, says the Lib Dems asked for extra time for the article 50 bill to be debated, but they were not there last night as it was being debated.

May says she has fought the Lib Dems all her career, and nothing they do surprises her.

The decision for MPs tonight is do they trust the people.

May says there is a committee that will look at whether Sir Philip Green will lose his knighthood. It is waiting for the results of the investigation into BHS to conclude.

Labour’s Stephen Hepburn says the association of directors of adult social care says £4.6bn has been cut from adult social care since 2010. Does the government accept responsibility?

May says there is a longer-term issue here. The government wants a sustainable solution to social care. Labour ducked this for 13 years, she says.

Labour’s Ruth Cadbury says air quality in London has recently been worse than in Beijing. So will the government shelve the plans to double the capacity of the M4?

May says the government does want to do more to improve air quality.

Alec Shelbroke, a Conservative, asks what May is doing to ensure that other Nato countries spend more on defence.

May says the government has been pressing for this for some time. She agrees with President Trump that other countries need to do more. She will continue to raise this with other countries.

May says Turkey is an important country to the UK, both in terms of security and because of its role in the migration crisis. She says she made it clear in her press conference in Turkey that she expected the country to uphold human rights.

May announces government’s Brexit white paper will be published tomorrow

  • May announces the government’s Brexit white paper will be published tomorrow.

Snap PMQs verdict

Snap PMQs verdict: Strong and effective performances from Corbyn and May. Corbyn started with a superb, short zinger, and for the first four questions of the exchanges, as he quizzed May over Trump, he clearly had the upper hand. He asked a good question on the NHS and a UK-US trade deal too, but May was able to knock this back with a reply that was convincing rhetorically, if not necessarily technically and legally. (What on earth does “the NHS is not for sale” actually mean?) May only really got the better of Corbyn with her final answer, when she powerfully accused Corbyn of leftish grandstanding and of being not able to accept the realpolitik necessity of maintaining cordial relations with someone like Donald Trump. This is key to how she sees herself, while Corbyn rates ideological integrity much more. So both of them will be pleased with how PMQs turned out.

Theresa May defends Trump state visit at PMQs

Updated

Corbyn says he wrote to the PM about this. He holds in his hand her piece of paper (a discreet Neville Chamberlain reference.) She does not mention the convention in it. On trade, will May rule out opening up the NHS to US companies.

May says she could give a complex answer. But a simple answer is required.

The NHS is not for sale and never will be.

Corbyn says he hopes that means US companies cannot come here. Trump has torn up international deals on trade and climate change, he has defended torture and demeaned women. What more does he have to do for his state visit to cancelled?

May says Corbyn’s policy has been to insult our most important allies. Would he have been able to get a deal protecting British citizens? Would he have been able to get a commitment on Nato? No. He is leading a protest, but she is leading a country, she says.

Updated

Corbyn asks why May refused three times on Saturday to condemn the ban.

May says she has said it is wrong.

Corbyn says May says the US is responsible for its policy on refugees. But surely we all have to defend the 1951 convention on refugees. Why did she not speak out?

May says the UK has a proud policy on refugees. Some 10,000 Syrian refugees have come to the UK since the conflict began. She has said the policy is wrong.

Jeremy Corbyn also denounces the attack in Quebec. And he pays tribute to Dalyell, who he says doggedly fought to expose official wrong-doing and cover-ups. Dalyell made this House a better place. And he recommends his autobiography, called The Importance of Being Awkward.

Corbyn says last week May says she was not afraid to speak frankly to the US president. “What happened?”

May says, given the number of resignations Corbyn has had, some of his colleagues have read Dalyell’s book.

She says in the US she was able to build on our relationship with our most important allies. And she got some important commitments, especially on Nato.

Corbyn says No 10 has not denied May was told about the travel ban. Did she try to persuade Trump otherwise.

May says the government is clear that policy is “divisive and wrong”. As home secretary she never did that. She says she did not have advance notice of the restriction on refugees, or on the fact that UK citizens might be affected by the ban. But we all had advance notice of the other aspect of the ban, because Trump spoke about it during the campaign. What matters is how you respond? The government is protecting the interests of the British citizens.

Peter Heaton-Jones, a Conservative, asks about a hospital closure in north Devon. He wants to be able to say the Tories are the party of the NHS.

May says the government wants people to have the best possible health care. There are concerns about the future of the north Devon hospital. But there are no specific plans for it at the moment.

Theresa May starts by offering condolences to those killed in the gun attack in Canada. And she offers condolences to the relatives of Tam Dalyell, who died last week.

PMQs

PMQs is about to start.

Ivan Rogers' evidence to the European scrutiny committee - Summary

Sir Ivan Rogers’ evidence on Brexit has been fascinating. It is probably one of the most revealing select committee hearings we’ve had on this topic since the referendum. Here are the key points.

  • Rogers said that EU leaders will demand that the UK pays a huge price for leaving the EU. They could demand that the UK pays a sum between €40bn and €60bn, he said.
  • He said that he does not know any EU leaders who think the UK will be able to sign a trade deal with the EU until well after 2020. Speaking about the memo he send to Number 10 on this he said:

My summary of the senior beltway wisdom of the people I spoke to on a daily basis was that it would probably take until the early to mid-2020s for ratification. I have not found a single senior person in any of those organs who has diverged from that view.

But he said he never said it would take 10 years to get a deal, and he thought it might be possible to go “much faster”.

  • He insisted he did not leak his advice to the BBC, or to anyone else.

I never leak, I never have, I never would. I can categorically deny and rebut that.

He implied the leak came from Downing Street.

  • He said he did not think the EU would agree transitional deals in stages. The EU would not agree sector-specific transitional deals until the overall transitional deal is sort, he said.
  • He said the Brexit talks would descend into “name-calling” and “fist-fighting” (although he was being metaphorical when he spoke of fist-fighting.)
  • He said the Brexit negotations would be a “humongous” task.

[This will be] an unprecedentedly large negotiation covering large tracts of Whitehall ... on a scale we haven’t experienced probably ever and certainly since the Second World War ...

This is going to be on a humongous scale. We are going to have enormous amounts of business running up various different channels and then involve difficult trade-offs for Her Majesty’s government and difficult trade-offs for the other 27 on the other side of the table.

  • He said the UK could negotiate trade deals more quickly outside the EU, but that ti would have less clout.

One of the key cases for leaving is the nimbleness and agility we would have (when) not a member state, on our own, to negotiate at speed with only our own priorities on the table.

I have no doubt that we will negotiate FTAs (free trade agrements) with other partners outside the EU faster than the EU can do it. No doubt at all.

The question is then the negotiating heft you have at the table in comparison with being part of a wider bloc. The advantage of being in the EU is not speed or nimbleness .... it is the size of the market. Why are the Canadians or South Koreans or others interested in the EU market? It’s the size and scale.

  • He said he expected details of the Brexit negotiations to be copiously leaked.
  • He said he was not not to blame for getting Cameron to downgrade his ambitions for his EU renegotiation.
  • He said after the EU referendum Whitehall stopped focusing properly on day-to-day EU business.

The Daily Mirror has also got a good summary of 11 things we’ve learnt from what it calls a “bombshell” evidence session.

Rogers says that David Cameron’s conclusion about it being impossible to get a UK opt-out from free movement being impossible if the UK remained in the single market is one that Theresa May has also accepted.

Labour’s Kate Hoey goes next.

Q: In the period before the referendum, did you ever tell other EU countries there was a real chance the UK might vote to leave?

Rogers says he said repeatedly that he thought the chances of the UK voting to leave were 50/50. He became notorious for that. Some people did not think the Conservatives would win a majority in the general election. But he said they might, and he said that if they did they would hold a referendum and that people might vote to leave. He says he said there was a “very, very serious risk” that the referendum would be lost.

He said in parts of Number 10 people were much more sanguine. Some people thought the referendum would be won comfortably.

Q: Did you tell the prime minister he might be wrong?

Roger says he cannot talk about his advice to the prime minister. He did not know what would be in the Conservative manifesto.

He says some people have accused him of downgrading what the prime minister hoped to achieve in the renegotiation. He rejects that claim. He says the ambitions for the renegotiation were set politically.

  • Rogers says he was not to blame for getting Cameron to downgrade his ambitions for his EU renegotiation.

Rogers says after EU referendum Whitehall stopped focusing properly on day-to-day EU business

Rogers says other EU countries are trying to include things in EU directives now that they know will cause difficulty for the UK.

Whitehall has had a lot to do on Brexit, he says.

He says in the six months after the referendum he saw Whitehall paying less attention to day-to-day EU business. He has officials telling him they were getting no instructions from London about what position they should be taking on routine EU business.

He says he said that was not good enough. He told people in London that the government had to be able to “walk and chew gum” at the same time.

  • Rogers says after the EU referendum Whitehall stopped focusing properly on day-to-day EU business.

Updated

Rogers says at the EU other countries are now less willing to listen to what the UK wants, because they know it will be leaving.

Here is some Twitter comment on Sir Ivan Rogers’ evidence.

From Politico Europe’s Charlie Cooper

From the Sun’s Steve Hawkes

From the BBC’s Vicki Young

Q: How robustly is the UK engaging in EU working groups at the moment?

Very robustly, says Rogers. He says this did not change after the referendum.

Rogers says EU not likely to agree transitional deals bit by bit

Q: How easy will it be to arrange a transitional deal?

Rogers says the appetite for a bespoke, interim deal will be limited. The EU may push for transitional arrangements that would be wholly unacceptable.

He says some leave campaigners have raised this prospect. He cites Richard North and his “flexit” idea.

Rogers says he does not think the EU will agree sector-specific transitional deal until the whole thing is sorted.

  • Rogers says EU not likely to agree transitional deals bit by bit.

Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP, goes next.

Q: How legally binding are our financial obligations? If we don’t pay, will the EU take us to court?

Rogers says he does not know how EU figures have come up with the €40bn and €60bn figures. But he can guess, he says. It is based on EU liabilities. That would produce a figure for Britain to pay of between €25bn to €30bn. Then there are other components, like unfunded EU pensions liabilities.

Q: Are we liable for pensions?

Rogers says this would be a complex question. But he can imagine how the other EU states would say the UK’s liabilities do not cease, particularly in relation to the period when the UK was a member.

Rogers says there is a legal question. You do not have to be too cynical to see how the EU lawyers and the UK lawyers may come to a different view. They can reach a compromise. Or one side could walk. Or there could be a political solution.

Here is the start of the Press Association story about Sir Ivan Rogers’ evidence.

Negotiations to leave the European Union are likely to descend into “name-calling” and “fist-fighting” before any agreement can be found, the UK’s former ambassador to the EU has warned.

Sir Ivan Rogers, who quit in January after telling Prime Minister Theresa May that Brussels diplomats thought it might take 10 years to reach a deal, said there was a “humongous” amount of work to do in what would probably be the country’s largest ever negotiation.

Sir Ivan told the House of Commons European scrutiny committee that he did not leak his advice to May, which sensationally became public ahead of a key European council summit in December.

“I never leak, I never have, I never would,” said the diplomat. “I can categorically deny and rebut that.”

Sir Ivan denied that he had ever said that he personally believed a post-Brexit trade deal would take 10 years.

But he said his private memo to May detailed the “street wisdom among the senior players” in Brussels and EU capitals, who thought trade negotiations would not start until late 2017 at the earliest and would not be concluded and ratified until the “early-mid 2020s”.

Labour’s Graham Stringer is asking questions now. Stringer voted leave.

Q: The more I listen to you, the more I think we should leave now. What would you say to MPs who think we should leave without a deal?

Rogers says you have to took at the “real-world consequences” of leaving without a deal.

People object to the fact that the EU has become something different from what it was in 1973. That is “indubitably” the case, he says.

But he would say you cannot just cut the strings on something tied up so closely with UK life carefully.

And you have to look at what the ‘default to WTO terms’ would mean.

He understands why people want Brexit now. But the issue is how to minimise the costs and disturbances.

You should look at what would happen sector by sector, he says. Look at aviation, or medicine, or pharmaceuticals.

He says a lot of single market access depends upon trade being certified by bodies that the UK will not recognise after Brexit. So access to the single market will automatically lapse without new agreements.

For example, medicines authorised by EU bodies will not be able to go on sale after Brexit without that authorisation.

If the UK walks away without a deal, and is reliant on WTO terms, you need to understand what that means.

Back in the European scrutiny committee Rogers says that, if the Trump administration rules out trade deals with blocs like the EU, that could lead to tensions, because the EU might resent the UK getting special treatment.

But we are not at that point yet, he says.

Elsewhere in the Commons Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is giving evidence to the international trade committee. As my colleague Dan Roberts reports, Fox started by taking a swipe at the former cabinet secretary, Gus O’Donnell, who has said publicly that setting up the new department was a mistake.

Rogers is now setting out what would happen if the UK gave up single market membership.

City firms would not have passporting rights, he says. That would matter more to some than to others.

Then there is a question about whether they can rely on “equivalence” instead. But that is capricious and incomplete, he says, and “equivalence” can be withdrawn quite quickly by the 27 EU states. That is a big worry for City firms. If it were to be withdrawn quickly, that would create a big problem.

So financial institutions will want a mutual recognition agreement that gives more certainty, and gives both sides some imput.

But this could be difficult, he says.

He says the UK should be looking for something unprecedented from the EU, a “deeper” free trade agreement, which benefits the financial services industry, but which also benefits the 27.

Rogers says he has heard Angela Merkel says repeatedly over the years that the four freedoms of the EU - freedom of movement for goods, capital, services and workers - cannot be unpicked.

Rogers says the UK will have exploded a bomb under the EU’s seven-year budget plan when it leaves. That is why getting the UK to pay a price for Brexit is so important to EU leaders, he says.

Rogers says EU will demand that UK pays multi-billion euro price to leave EU

Q: EU leaders are briefing that the UK will be required to pay billions when it leaves. Is that a real threat, or is it unreasonable?

Rogers says it can be both.

He thinks Barnier and other EU leaders think the UK should have to pay between €40bn and €60bn.

He says it remains to be seen whether they will stick to these figures.

But money will be an issue, he says.

  • Rogers says EU will demand that UK pays a multi-billion euro price to leave the EU.

Rogers accepts that one option for the UK would be just to walk away.

But other EU leaders think the UK will not just walk away because the consequences would be so “unpalatable”, he says.

  • Rogers says EU leaders do not believe UK would walk away from EU without a Brexit deal.

Rogers says the EU will not be able to draw up a withdrawal treaty unless it knows where the UK is heading.

So he thinks the EU will have to negotiate the UK’s withdrawal, and a future trade deal, at the same time.

But Michel Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, wants to negotiate UK withdrawal first, and then the free trade agreement. Rogers says others in the EU think this too.

So the first argument will be about whether to negotiate these two matters together, or separately.

Rogers says he has no doubt that the UK will be able to negotiate trade deals with other countries more quickly than the EU.

But there is also an issue about how much negotiating “heft” the UK would have on its own, he says.

Rogers says all senior EU figures he has spoken to think EU will not be able to agree trade deal with UK before 2020

Q: Did you really say getting a trade deal could take 10 years?

Rogers says he never said getting a trade deal with the EU would take 10 years.

But what he did say was that if you spoke to senior people in Brussels and other EU capitals, they say a trade deal will be a single negotiation, it will start late in 2017 and that previous free trade agreements negotiated by the EU have taken “an awful lot of time”.

So he told government that his summary of talks to “beltway people” was that the whole process would probably take to the early or mid 2020s.

He says he did not use the term 10 years.

But he was reporting what key people said to him. That was his job as an ambassador. He has not found a single person in a senior position saying something different.

He says he has argued it could happen faster.

But the “consensus wisdom” amongst the Brussels bureaucracy was that it could not all happen quickly.

  • Rogers says all senior EU figures he has spoken to think the EU will not be able to agree a trade deal with the UK before 2020.

Q: This was reported by the BBC. Did you give this information to the BBC?

No, says Rogers. He says he never leaks information.

Q: There is a view that you were involved.

Rogers says he can categorically deny that. This information was based on something he wrote in a confidential memo to Theresa May on 14 October, before her first EU summit. He is known for writing very long memos, he says.

He says he has “no idea” why this came out two months later.

  • Rogers denies leaking information about how getting an UK-EU trade deal could take up to 10 years.

Updated

Q: How important is confidentiality?

Rogers says he thinks quite a lot of the negotiations will take place in public.

But that is not always ideal for negotiators, he says.

Rogers says it is not fully appreciated how important it will be for the remaining 27 members of the EU to decide what they want themselves before they start negotiations with the UK.

Ivan Rogers gives evidence to the European scrutiny committee

Sir Ivan Rogers, Britain’s former ambassador to the EU, has just started giving evidence to the European scrutiny committee.

He says the Brexit negotiations will be “on a humongous scale”.

There will only be a deal if both sides want one, he says.

You can watch the hearing here.

Updated

The UK in a Changing Europe, an academic research project, and the Mile End Institute have conducted some research about the attitude MPs have to Brexit. They polled 101 MPs and then weighted them, by party, to make them representative of the Commons.

And the conclusions are perhaps not that surprising; that there are significant differences between the views of leave and remain MPs.

Here are some extracts from their news release.

Of leave MPs, 72% prioritise controlling immigration or not paying into the EU budget over retaining access to the single market. MPs who voted to remain in the EU, however, are more divided, with under half prioritising access to the single market over either immigration control or paying into the EU budget, with the rest taking a variety of different positions ...

A minority of MPs believe that the referendum result would not be honoured if Britain remained in the single market (just 26% think this would not honour the result) or continued to pay into the EU budget (35%). The latter contrasts with polling by Lord Ashcroft (in August) which found 81% of the public believed continuing to pay into the EU budget would not be compatible with leaving the EU.

MPs see controlling immigration from the EU as key – with 58% viewing it as a condition for respecting the referendum result. However, when it comes to EU nationals already living and working in the UK, MPs say that allowing them to stay is compatible with the referendum result – only 5% say this is incompatible with leaving the EU.

Pro-European Tories want more concessions from the government over the Brexit process, but they seem reluctant to commit themselves to voting with Labour when MPs debate detailed amendments to the article 50 bill next week. Here is an extract from a story in the Times today (paywall) about their thinking.

Pro-European Tory MPs have warned ministers that they expect to see parliament given a “meaningful vote” on the outcome of Britain’s Brexit negotiations before a deal is ratified in Europe ..

The government has said that it will give parliament a vote on the final deal but has made clear it would not represent a chance to veto Brexit or call another referendum. Privately, pro-European MPs do not believe this promise is meaningful but, having won a concession over the publication of a white paper, they do not want to be seen as disloyal by siding with the opposition amendments. However, they have made clear to the whips that they expect further concessions: a proper debate and vote in parliament before any deal is finalised is their key demand.

“They have banked the white paper and now is not the time to be seen to be disloyal by siding with Labour,” one source said. “There will be no rebellion but that does not mean that people have changed their views.”

The obvious problem with the approach as described here is that, unless they threaten to rebel, the pro-European Tories do not have any leverage they can use to get the government to offer more.

The former head of NHS Digital has said he was put under “immense pressure” by the Home Office under Theresa May to release data on immigrants despite his concerns over its legality, the Press Association reports.

Kingsley Manning said he was challenged for “daring” to question if there was a legal basis for handing over confidential patient data that would help the Home Office trace suspected illegal immigrants.

Last month, the Home Office published an agreement showing the basis by which information can be requested from NHS Digital.

But Manning said the NHS body has been forced to hand over data that the Home Office would find useful since “at least” 2005, sometimes to junior officials who would just “ring up” and ask for it. In an interview with the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Manning said:

We said to the Home Office: ‘We need to understand what the legal basis of this is.’

The Home Office response was: ‘How dare you even question our right to this information. This is data that belongs to the public. It is paid for by the taxpayer. We should use it for public policy’ ...

The Home Office view was that tracing illegal immigrants was a manifesto commitment. If I didn’t agree to co-operate [with the sharing of patient data] they would simply take the issue to Downing Street.

Sir Anthony Seldon, who has written the official history of Number 10 as well as books on the last four UK prime ministers, has come up with a list of the 10 most important things for a prime minister to do and the 10 to be most avoided. He offered the advice in a speech to the Institute for Government in Whitehall yesterday,

Professor Seldon was careful to avoid saying how Theresa May rated on these 10 yardsticks, but in questions after his lecture he said he was concerned that modern prime ministers travelled too much. Although he himself had favoured remaining in the European Union, the professor said that one advantage of Brexit would be that the prime minister would not have to travel to so many EU summits.

He said that no prime minister should normally serve more than seven years and he revealed that David Cameron would have retired from Number 10 in 2018 if he had won the EU referendum last year. Most speculation had previously assumed Cameron would have stayed on until late 2019 before handing over in time for the next general election in 2020.

Professor Seldon’s ten top Dos and Don’ts for a successful premiership were:

  • Do “secure the citadel” at Number 10 by forging strong bonds of trust from the start with the cabinet secretary in order to drive priorities
  • Do find your authentic political voice and stick to it. If you don’t, the press will find it for you. Leaders are most persuasive when they speak from the heart not the head.
  • Do focus on the big things. You will only be remembered one or two things, perhaps three at best. So be macro not micro.
  • Do control your time. Be spare about chairing cabinet committees. Carve out time for reflection and rest. Go on, and stay on, holiday
  • Do be totally clear from the outset with the cabinet. Tell them what you want. Sack them quickly if necessary. Find an enforcer in your cabinet to do the machine work.
  • Do set a clear relationship with the media. Either they are the masters or you are. Be aloof. Be regal. Pick a fight with the media early on, and win it.
  • Do behave with dignity and decorum. A prime minister is only one rung down from a head of state. You are a big figure. Display gravitas to gain respect. Never snap back.
  • Do seize the big moments and command them. Set the tone for the key issues, debates and unexpected events. Aim to use a crisis to leave your footprint on history.
  • Do be lean and simple in your leadership. Think longterm. Avoid the impulse to react to everything. Be sparing with reshuffles and relaunches.
  • Do choose a chancellor of the exchequer whom you trust, and with whom you can work well. Don’t choose either a poodle or a tiger.

And here are his ten tips on things for a prime minister to avoid:

  • Don’t spend your time fiddling with trivial issues
  • Don’t overwork
  • Don’t have silly fights with colleagues, which diminish a premier’s authority
  • Don’t be angry or bad tempered, as Anthony Eden, Gordon Brown and occasionally David Cameron were
  • Don’t put the micro side of government before the macro
  • Don’t blur or conceal the truth. If there is a bad test launch of a missile, be open.
  • Don’t react. Be active and optimistic
  • Don’t abandon the dignity of the office
  • Don’t lose the backing of your cabinet
  • Don’t drink too much or preferably at all

It’s the full Brexit again today. MPs will resume their debate on the second reading of the article 50 bill, or the European Union (notification of withdrawal) bill, to give it its full title, and they will vote at 7pm. The bill is certain to be passed, but we will find out this evening how many Labour MPs are willing to defy Jeremy Corbyn and vote against it.

Here is our live blog from yesterday covering what happened in the debate until it ended at midnight.

But, before that, we’ve got two interesting Brexit-related committees. Sir Ivan Rogers, who resigned as Britain’s ambassador to the EU last month with a parting email implicitly accusing Number 10 of “muddled thinking” on Brexit, will be speaking in public about this for the first time to the European scrutiny committee. And Liam Fox, the international development secretary, will give evidence to the first time to the committee set up to shadow his department.

Oh, and there is PMQs too.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.05am: Sir Ivan Rogers, who resigned as Britain’s ambassador to the EU earlier than expected last month, gives evidence on EU-UK relations to the Commons European scrutiny committee.

10.30am: Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, gives evidence to the international trade committee for the first time.

12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.

Around 12.40pm: MPs resume the article 50 bill second reading debate.

7pm: MPs vote on the article 50 bill. They will vote first on an SNP amendment opposing the bill, then on the bill itself, and then on the government’s programme motion.

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

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. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.

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