Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Peter Walker (now), Sarah Marsh and Alexandra Topping (earlier)

Theresa May faces Tory MPs at 1922 Committee meeting – Politics live

Theresa May who is facing a meeting of the 1922 Committee.
Theresa May who is facing a meeting of the 1922 Committee. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

A final view on the 1922 Committee meeting via my colleague, Jessica Elgot, which perhaps explains how Theresa May has managed to remain as prime minister for so long, despite the rumblings of discontent.

Updated

Labour has welcomed the acceptance of the Cox report on bullying and harassment. A spokeswoman said:

The report highlighted a culture and practices that are unacceptable in any workplace. It must be put right as a matter of urgency. It is vital that the recommendations be implemented as quickly as possible, working with trades unions and other stakeholders.

1922 Committee meeting ends

The meeting is over, and May appears, on first reports, to have emerged unscathed. Reminder: UK politics can change extremely quickly at the moment, so this is only an interim verdict.

Updated

Right, back to the signs and portents from the 1922 committee.

House of Commons to investigate historic bullying complaints

John Bercow.
John Bercow. Photograph: Rick Findler/PA

In other news, the House of Commons Commission, which is responsible for the running of parliament, has accepted the recommendations of Dame Laura Cox’s damning report on the scale of bullying and harassment in Westminster.

The Speaker, John Bercow – who, the report said, should consider standing down as the Commons leadership had seemed unable to tackle the problem – said Cox’s recommendations were “an important first step in our root and branch reform of the culture of this house”.

Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, welcomed the report – and said she was “determined to allow for historic allegations to be both investigated and acted upon”.

This could potentially affect Bercow, who has been accused of bullying staff members, which he vehemently denies.

Updated

Inevitable, the volume of banging in the room could have been exaggerated for effect.

The divination of the noises from within the 1922 committee is becoming more creative by the minute. In the meantime May’s critics are keen to get out the message that a lot of desk-thumping does not mean the PM is now safe.

We’re now at the part of the meeting where all the reporters outside can do is listen for especially loud noises - whether of dismay or joy – divine their possible meaning and await the end. Once May arrived a contingent of Tory peers did them immediately walk out, but this was only to vote in the Lords.

So far, the only noise has been the banging of desks.

Updated

Theresa May has arrived at the 1922 Committee. And yes, since you wonder, I am providing near-live coverage of a political meeting through the medium of journalists camped in the corridor behind a closed door listening as hard as they can and tweeting their insights. And through snatched chats with MPs who emerge.

Updated

A habitual element of such meetings of the 1922 committee – unless revolt really is in the air - is the a somewhat old-fashioned banging of desks to signify approval. Apparently it has already begun, before May has even arrived.

MPs arrive for crunch meeting of the 1922 Committee

MPs are arriving for the meeting of the 1922 Committee, which represents Tory backbenchers, where Theresa May is due to appear. She is expected at around 5.45pm, we’re told.

Updated

Labour has sought to increase the pressure on Theresa May over her claim in prime minister’s questions that an essay in a book on economics edited by John McDonnell contained the argument that Labour’s 2017 election spending pledges “did not add up”.

The Oxford economist Simon Wren-Lewis later tweeted that he was the author of said essay, but disputed what May had said.

Just now, raising a point of order in the Commons, the shadow Treasury minister Peter Dowd asked deputy speaker Eleanor Laing about “the incongruous relationship between the prime minister’s words and the truth” – Wren-Lewis said May “lied”, but MPs are not permitted to call each others liars in the Commons.

Dowd said:

Would it be appropriate for the prime minister to come back to this house to correct the record and apologise to the renowned professor in question?

Laing had no help for Dowd – she said it was up to Labour to question May when they could.

Tory MPs trying oust May would be "self-indulgence", ally says

Damian Green.
Damian Green. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Images

Theresa May’s former de facto deputy and key ally, Damian Green, has had some reassuring words for her ahead of this evening’s meeting with backbench Tories, saying it would be deeply foolish for them to try and oust her.

Speaking to BBC News about repeated reports that the chair of the 1922 committee, Graham Brady, had received almost the 48 letters from Tory MPs needed to trigger a leadership battle, Green said he was deeply sceptical. Asked what advice he would have for an MP thinking of sending such a letter, he said:

Don’t - it would be seen as an act of inward-looking self-indulgence by people out there who know we are at am important stage of the negotiations. This is exactly the wrong time to be doing these kind of things.

Asked if he thought it was too late for rebel Conservatives to seek a change of Brexit plan from May, Green, who was sacked as first secretary of state in December after admitting he lied about pornographic images on his House of Commons computer, was equally blunt:

I don’t think it’s too late, I think it’s wrong. We all know that when you enter into a complex negotiation nobody is going to get 100% of what they want, and I think we all just have to be realistic and pragmatic about it.

May would answer questions from MPs at the 1922 meeting and make a speech, Green said, predicting the event would be less dramatic than predicted in reports at the weekend:

Experience tells me that these big events that are billed as the great showdown often turn into something of a damp squib.

He added:

It’s a good chance for her to explain where we’ve got to on the negotiations, but I suspect it will be less dramatic than some have been portraying it earlier in the week.

We all knew that the Brexit negotiations would get more difficult the closer to the end we got, because inevitably you leave the most difficult parts to the end of any negotiation, and we are now at that phase.

New from my colleague, Jamie Grierson: Labour has said it would change rules preventing asylum seekers from working in the UK before their case is finalised.

Peers in the House of Lords.
Peers in the House of Lords. Photograph: PA

A long-term plan to reduce the size of the House of Lords by about a quarter to 600 members is exceeding its targets, the committee in charge of the operation has said, with 42 departures from the chamber so far.

In all, 36 peers left in the first year of the programme, against a target of 31. The one way most peers tended to leave the house was by dying, but new rules came into force in 2014 making it easier for them to retire when they are no longer able to attend or want to concentrate on other matters.

When peers go, new ones can only be appointed on a “two in, one out” system, with the parties contributing in accordance with their current proportion of members.

Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker, said it was a “pleasing result” and that he hoped to see more progress.

Majority of Tories do not believe Theresa May will strike a good Brexit deal

More than half of Tory supporters do not back Theresa May’s ability to strike a good deal on Brexit, a poll has indicated.

Research by market research company Ipsos MORI found that 64% of Conservatives said they did not back the prime minister to secure a good deal, up 11 points from last month.

Overall, 78% of 1,044 people surveyed, were pessimistic about May’s ability to strike a good deal with Brussels, up from 70% a month ago. Just 19% have confidence in May’s handling of Brexit, down from 28% when the survey was last carried out.

Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said: “2018 has seen falling public satisfaction in the prime minister, her government and rising economic pessimism, and as the Brexit negotiations intensify confidence in Theresa May’s ability to get a good deal has fallen even further to a new low.

“And yet the public don’t put all the blame at her door - and nor is there much evidence that they would have much more confidence in anyone else.”

Nicola Sturgeon: 'Brexit is shaping up to be the biggest failure of government policy'

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that no-deal on Brexit may be the most likely outcome, which is “deeply concerning”.

The SNP leader added that Brexit is shaping up to be the “biggest failure of government policy and handling of a situation that any of us have ever seen perhaps in our entire lifetimes.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

Sturgeon said that with almost every day that passes, instead of the UK government opening up negotiating space that increases the possibility of reaching a deal, “they seem to be closing down that negotiating space and digging themselves deeper into the hole they’ve got themselves in.”

She added: “As things stand just now I think no deal may actually be the most likely outcome, and that is deeply concerning.”

The SNP leader said given that we are two years on from the vote, five months away from exit, it is “staggering incompetence” that the government has allowed the situation to get to this stage.

Updated

Nigel Farage has denounced the UK’s Brexit negotiation team as “the enemy within”, warning that Britain faces humiliation unless Theresa May is removed as prime minister.

The former Ukip leader, who remains an MEP, made the comments to the European Parliament as May prepares to face Conservative MPs amid growing unrest over her Brexit plans.

The number of Tory MPs publicly committed to oppose her Chequers blueprint for leaving the European Union has now reached 50.

The prime minister will meet critics at the backbench 1922 Committee in Parliament just days after one anonymous opponent suggested she should “bring her own noose” to the gathering.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said that the government condemns in the “strongest possible terms” the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

He added that there are serious concerns around the explanation around his death, given by the Saudi authorities.

Sajid javid

“With this in mind, I have decided to take action against those implicated in his death to prevent them from entering the UK,” he said.

“We will always be thoughtful and considered in our response, but if the appalling stories are true, they are fundamentally incompatible with our values.”

Economist quoted by May at PMQs says she was wrong

Earlier at prime minister’s questions, Theresa May waved around a book on economics edited by John McDonnell, Economics for the Many, saying it included an essay which concluded that Labour’s spending plans did not add up.

Since then, Simon Wren-Lewis, an Oxford university professor of economics. has tweeted to say he believes he was the author being referred to by May – and that she got it wrong.

PMQs - Verdict from Twitter: The political journalists and pundits have had their say, and they seemed no more impressed than me by that exchange.

Paul Waugh from Huffington Post:

Joe Murphy, political editor of the Evening Standard, notes that May’s reception was more positive than you might guess from some of the lurid headlines at the weekend:

Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle:

And an even less impressed Tom Peck, political sketchwriter for the Independent:

Speaker calls Tommy Robinson a "loathsome, obnoxious, repellent individual"

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, leaves the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, leaves the Old Bailey on Tuesday. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Once PMQs is over the SNP MP Stewart Malcom McDonald makes a point of order, asking the Speaker, John Bercow, about the news – first reported in the Sun – that the anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, dined in parliament yesterday following a hearing at the Old Bailey over alleged contempt of court.

McDonald asks if Bercow can intervene to prevent Robinson, who McDonald calls “a man who is a guilty as he is of stirring up racial hatred”, being allowed back in parliament.

Bercow says he agrees with McDonald’s assessment of Robinson, calling the founder of the English Defence League street group “a loathsome, obnoxious, repellent individual”. But, Bercow adds, it is “outside of my remit” to dictate what happens in the Lords – Robinson was a guest of the Ukip peer Lord Pearson.

Bercow advises the SNP MP to instead write to the Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, and indicates he would be happy for McDonald to mention Bercow’s view.

Updated

Here is a video of May paying tribute to Sir Jeremy Heywood, tweeted by No 10.

May condemns Saudi Arabia over Jamal Khashoggi death

May at PMQs.
May at PMQs. Photograph: PA

While I was writing up the verdict, May responded to a question by the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford about the death of Jamal Khashoggi with some tough new words of condemnation for Saudi Arabia, and measures targeting those implicated in his murder. She said:

We condemn the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the strongest possible terms and after his disappearance we made clear that Saudi Arabia must co-operate with Turkey and conduct a full and credible investigation.

The claim that has been made that Mr Khashoggi died in a fight does not amount to a credible explanation so there does remain an urgent need to establish what has happened in relation to this.

May said she would be speaking later today to the Saudi monarch, King Salman - significant in itself in that most of her recent dealings with the country, before Khasoggi disappeared, were with Salman’;s son, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who is heavily implicated in the death.

The PM added that no one connected to the alleged murder plot would be allowed in the UK, adding:“If these individuals currently have visas, those visas will be revoked today.”

Pressed by Blackford to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia because of the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, May says the UK rules on arms sales are“among the strictest in the world”.

Leading Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg asks about reports that the European Court of Justice will have continued jurisdiction over the UK after Brexit. This will not happen, May says.

Next, Labour’s Tonia Antoniazzi has a question about gender pay disparities and workplace harassment, The PM insists she is acting on these.

The Lib Dems’ Christine Jardine focuses on Brexit, asking if May’s “narrow-minded nationalism” could break up the UK. The prime minister, as you would expect, does not.

Next is Tory MP Caroline Spelman who asks about measures to disincentivise diesel cars, which May says seems to be a budget-related bid.

Labour MP Jess Phillips refers to the Daily Telegraph story about an unnamed leading UK businessman who has supposedly harassed people, but whose identity is being protected by a court injunction, asking May if she thinks this is a problem.

May says she cannot discuss the specific case, but agrees there is a wider problem with the use of non-disclosure agreements to keep people quiet.

PMQs - Snap verdict

PMQs - Snap verdict: You might call that a score draw between May and Corbyn – but more of a scrappy 1-1, rather than a more thrilling 4-4. Not a classic, even for devotees.

With the budget taking place on Monday, it would be expected for the Labour leader to centre in on austerity, which is already one of his favourite lines for PMQs. As is also his habit, Corbyn skipped from area to area, rather than asking a series of connected questions, going over council spending, the NHS, nurses and police numbers. Some observers argue this method fails to properly pin down the prime minister; others say that as she so rarely answers questions the opposition leader might as well cover as much ground as he can.

As is quite often the case with recent exchanges between the pair, we heard a lot of statistics but learned very little, and neither sides’ MPs sounded hugely enthused, as much as I could tell not being in the chamber.

May’s big pre-prepared trick was to wave about a copy of Economics for the Many, edited by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and cite something from one of the essays within. This brought some cheers from the Tory MPs, but I’m not sure it was the most effective of lines – if you edit a book of essays, you don’t necessarily have to agree with everything written.

Nonetheless, the PM will possibly be buoyed ahead of her meeting with backbenchers at the 1922 committee later today, as another big challenge in her latest supposed “hell week” turns out to be notably less dramatic than billed.

Corbyn now builds to his regularly weekly peroration, summing up his arguments on austerity and cuts, and asking May to confirm more spending on police, the NHS and other areas in the budget.

The prime minister replies by, again, citing a list of spending increases. She goes on to quote an academic saying Labour spending plans would cost £1,000bn to the country.

And that’s it for their exchanges.

Corbyn responds: “I think the prime minister is completely out of touch with the reality of what universal credit is all about.”

The Labour leader now goes on to the number of nursing students, asking if the budget next week will bring back bursaries for them. May responds with a slightly long and not entirely connected series of statistics about NHS spending, and what Labour would have committed.

Corbyn says applications for nursing courses dropped by 12%, as people cannot afford to do it.

Corbyn responds by talking about in-work poverty, and the numbers on zero-hours contracts. Next is police cuts, another regular attack line for the Labour leader on austerity. He asks May for an apology on police cuts.

May responds by insisting more is being spend on the police. May then produces a copy of a book edited by John McDonnell, in which one essay supposedly said that Labour’s spending plans at the last election did not add up, but this did not matter. This is perhaps slightly arcane stuff.

Corbyn responds by noting that the last Tory election manifesto contained no costings at all. He now goes on to universal credit, and whether people who move onto it will be worse off. The PM says people will be protected, and praises UC.

Jeremy Corbyn is up, and joins May in wishing the best to Heywood. The Labour leader’s first question is about austerity: he asks whether May or the leader of Walsall council is correct, on whether it is over.

May says the government will set out its approach in next year’s spending review, and continue to “live within in our means”.

Corbyn continues on the same point with his next question, citing other Tory council leaders concerned about cuts.

The prime minister says more money is being made available for councils. She then makes a lengthy point about Corbyn’s apparent predictions about the results of earlier government economic policies.

PMQs

Prime minister’s questions is beginning. Theresa May won the usual loud cheer from some of her MPs as she squeezed onto the front bench with her ministers shortly beforehand.

The first question is from Labour’s Paul Sweeney.

May begins by a warm paying tribute to Sir Jeremy Heywood.

Sweeney than asks about an immigration case in his constituency, getting a non-committal response from the PM.

Updated

Head of the civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, standing down immediately

Sir Jeremy Heywood
Sir Jeremy Heywood Photograph: Parliament TV

Sir Jeremy Heywood, the country’s most senior civil servant, who has been receiving treatment for cancer for more than a year, is to stand down immediately from the job to concentrate on his recovery, Downing Street has said. Heywood took a leave of absence during the summer for more treatment.

Sir Mark Sedwill had been the acting Cabinet Secretary - the job title of the civil service head – in his absence, and Theresa May has appointed him permanently to the role.

In a statement, May said:

Jeremy has given exemplary service to the public in his civil service career. He has worked constantly to improve our country’s future and to deliver for the public, serving prime ministers and ministers of all parties with distinction in the finest traditions of the civil service. I am personally grateful to him for the support he has given me as prime minister. He has made an enormous contribution to public life in our country and will be sorely missed.

Heywood said:

Thirty-five years ago I joined the civil service as an enthusiastic young economist in the Health and Safety Executive, full of ideas and keen to make change happen. Today, I still have all that desire to serve my country and to make a positive difference.

It is with great sadness therefore that, on medical advice, I must now retire. Since joining the civil service, I have had the privilege of supporting, at close quarters, four prime ministers, two Conservative and two Labour, and the first coalition government for decades, with its first full-time deputy prime minister...

During my time in charge, I have encouraged the civil service to be more open, more diverse, more inclusive in its culture and more professional in all that it does. And, despite a number of recent ‘noises off’ from anonymous commentators, I believe that the service is in robust health, well-equipped to provide the support the country needs over the coming months and years...

On a personal level I have very much appreciated the support of the prime minister over the last few months and all the messages of goodwill received from so many current and former colleagues, friends and acquaintances.

Updated

Hello, everyone. It’s Peter Walker taking over now. It’s just over half an hour before prime minister’s questions, where I shall be trying my best to mimic Andrew’s peerless coverage and instant verdict.

Here’s the line-up for today, from the always useful ParlyApp Twitter feed.

The PMQs line-up.
The PMQs line-up. Photograph: Screengrab

National Audit Office: No deal would result in tariffs and new controls ‘to around £423 billion of trade at the UK border’

Here’s our story on the report.

There’s a lot in this report from the National Audit Office on Britain’s preparedness to leave the EU. On first glance it a summary of ‘it isn’t, really’

Some point from the Key Findings:

  • If the UK leaves the EU with no ‘deal’ in place on 29 March 2019 [...] trade between the UK and the EU would be governed by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules including the principle of ‘most favoured nation’. [...] This means that new customs controls, tariffs and non-tariff barriers might apply to around £423 billion of trade at the UK border.
  • The effectiveness of departments’ border planning and delivery has been affected by ongoing uncertainty and delays in negotiations. The uncertainty from the ongoing UK-EU negotiations has made it difficult to make clear planning assumptions
  • There is a high delivery risk attached to government departments’ border programmes for ‘day one of no deal’ due to their scale, complexity and urgency; this risk is magnified by the degree of interdependence between the programmes.
  • Infrastructure identified by government departments cannot be built before March 2019
  • The additional resources required to operate the border may not be ready by March 2019
  • Businesses do not have enough time to make the changes that will be needed if the UK leaves the EU without a ‘deal’
  • The most complex issues relating to the border in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a ‘deal’ remain to be resolved.

It continues, and it’s worth putting this in here in full:

In the event of ‘day one of no deal’ the government has accepted that the border will be ‘less than optimal’. The government does not have enough time to put in place all of the infrastructure, systems and people required for fully effective border operations on day one. It has decided to prioritise security and flow of traffic over compliance activity in the short term.

Initially, Defra intends not to apply regulatory or safety checks on the majority of agricultural and food-related products and other goods arriving from the EU. This is because its planning assumption is that risks at the border will not change immediately, and that overall patterns and volumes of border crossings will initially remain the same.

HMRC expects that most traders will be compliant and declare the duties that they owe as now. The government has not defined what ‘less than optimal’ might mean but this could include delays for goods crossing the border, increased opportunities for tax and regulatory non-compliance and less information to inform checks of people crossing the border.

Updated

Sir Vince Cable: Universal Credit 'creating real hardship'

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable is giving a speech to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this morning, calling for a series of reforms to Universal Credit.

He’s expected to say:

The problems stem from conflicting objectives: providing minimum family income; providing incentives to work; simplification; and saving money. Simplification, saving money and work incentives have taken precedence over the first, crucial, priority.

Practical problems have been ignored creating real hardship, payment delays in the switchover, penalties for the self-employed; use of a single bank account for divided families; barriers to work from lack of childcare; monthly payments for those on weekly or casual wages; technical complexities in establishing online payment; and the use of Universal Credit to facilitate debt collection...

[But] the fact that UC is becoming loathed and is being implemented incompetently and harshly does not invalidate the reasoning behind it. I strongly repudiate the Labour Party’s suggestion that Universal Credit should be scrapped without being clear what the replacement is: a classic case of soundbites taking precedence over thought-through policies.

Andrew Bridgen suggests "bring your own noose" comments came from No 10

Offered without comment:

Farage: PM's Europe advisor is "enemy within"

More Brexit language better suited to a John le Carré novel this morning, this time from Ukip MEP Nigel Farage who has called the UK negotiating team under Olly Robbins an “enemy within”, accusing them of attempting to sabotage Brexit.

Britain, says Farage, is heading for humiliation unless the Tories dump May.

At the European Parliament, where it’s all getting a bit heated this morning, he thanked Donald Tusk for confirming that it was May who asked for an extension to the transition period, but said that the threat of a hard border in Ireland was a “red herring” that would never come to pass.

Farage told MEPs:

The problem is that there is a rogue element in these negotiations, a group of people who don’t wish to see a solution, who put up a brick wall to stop us breaking free.

It is not your chief negotiator Michel Barnier, it is actually the British civil service, Olly Robbins’ team.

They signed up years ago to the European dream. They have been happy to take their orders from Brussels, they are now out to sabotage Brexit. They are indeed the enemy within.

Unless the Conservative Party comes to its senses and gets rid of a leader who clearly is being led by the nose, we will head to the December summit, we will head to a humiliating sell-out and we will head to the UK being trapped in EU rules for many, many years to come.

EU's Brexit negotiator to May: No border solution, no deal

Making sure that May understands that negotiations shouldn’t be confined to your own party, the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt has tweeted this morning:

The tweets echo Verhofstadt’s comments in the European Parliament this morning, where he told MEPs:

We are now in a battle of the figures. Mrs May says 95% has been agreed, Michel Barnier says 90% has been agreed. I know Britain has always had difficulties with the metric system.

If it is 90% or 95% or 99%, if there is no solution for the Irish border, for our Parliament it is 0% that is agreed at the moment.

We need agreement on the Irish border. The Good Friday Agreement must be protected.


Verhofstadt said he was “optimistic” that a deal can be reached “in the coming weeks in the interests of the Union and in the interests of the UK”.

He urged EU negotiators to offer a right to “unhindered onward movement” for UK nationals living in the EU, allowing them to move home and work between the 27 states, in return for a “right of lifelong return” for EU citizens currently in Britain who move away from the country in future. He said:

I was in Downing Street and they are ready to go for such a trade-off,. If the Council were to push for such a solution, it is a trade-off that is possible.

Updated

Tusk: Britain requested transition period

European Council president Donald Tusk has said Britain raised the idea of an extension of the transition period, saying more time was needed to reach a Brexit deal.

The Press Association report:

Reporting back on the summit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Tusk said he was sure that leaders of the remaining 27 member states would consider a UK request for a transition extension “positively”.

He told MEPs:

It was made clear by the UK that more time was needed to find a precise solution. Therefore there is no other way but to continue the talks.

Since Prime Minister May mentioned the idea of extending the transition period, let me repeat that if the UK decided that such an extension would be helpful to reach a deal, I’m sure that the leaders would be ready to consider it positively.

Of course, I stand ready to convene a European Council if and when the Union negotiator reports that decisive progress has been made.

Tusk said the EU is preparing for a no-deal Brexit, but hopes never to see it, adding: “The Brexit talks continue with the aim of reaching a deal.”

European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans told the European Parliament:

The bottom line is we don’t yet have the decisive progress we need.

The goodwill and determination to find an agreement as soon as possible are there, but it’s also clear that we will not rush a deal through at the expense of our principles or our agreed commitments, most notably on the Irish border question.

With all of this in mind, we must now continue negotiating with patience, calm and an open mind. The Commission and our chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, received the full backing of all leaders to do just that.

It is time to deliver and we are getting on with the job.

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said that without a backstop arrangement to keep the Irish border open “it will be very difficult for Parliament to vote in favour of the Brexit treaty”.

Theresa May to face showdown with Tory MPs over Brexit

Good morning and welcome to Politics Live, I’m Alexandra Topping and I’m going to be keeping you up-to-date on all the day’s politics stories.

There is another tricky day in store for the prime minister as she faces a meeting of the party’s 1922 Committee - the group of all backbench Conservative MPs which meets weekly when the House of Commons is sitting - who aren’t in a charitable mood. It comes after a stormy cabinet meeting yesterday, at which several ministers insisted she negotiate with the EU a time limit to any Brexit backstop.

Then she’ll face questions from the opposition at PMQs before holding talks with Czech PM at Downing Street later in the afternoon.

Elsewhere in the palace of Westminster the Exiting the European Union select committee will meet this morning. It will hear evidence from, among others, Seamus Leheny, of the Freight Transport Association and Declan Billington of the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association.

The Commons authorities will consider its response to a damning report into bullying and harassment at Westminster in a private meeting this afternoon.

And in a meeting of the work and pensions select committee a group of mothers will tell MPs that universal credit – which Sir Vince Cable called a “slow-motion disaster” in the Daily Mirror – is not working for the very people it is meant to help.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Justin Timberlake sues to block release of DWI body cam footage
The lawsuit contends that making the video public would inflict "severe and irreparable harm" on his reputation
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Zendaya Flaunted a Wedding Band Weeks Before Her Stylist Claimed She's Married to Tom Holland
Speculation about Zendaya and Tom Holland's relationship status intensifies as rumors of a secret wedding circulate.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Was Jim Carrey Replaced By Alexis Stone? Drag Queen Allegedly Accepted 'Unrecognisable' Actor's Honorary César Award
Jim Carrey's appearance at the César Awards ignited online speculation after drag artist Alexis Stone claimed she impersonated him, though no evidence confirms it. The frenzy highlights how quickly celebrity sightings can morph into conspiracy.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
NYC girl ‘Mae’ accidentally swapped orders with ‘April’ in a Starbucks drive-through. There was also a ‘June’ next in line: ‘Glitch in the matrix?’
We’ve all had our names mangled on a coffee cup before. But 22-year-old Mae’s one trip to Starbucks resulted in a chronological coincidence so perfect it felt like a rift in the space-time continuum. Or, a glitch in the matrix, if you believe.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
‘You were not mad enough omg’: Woman forgets her purse at a San Antonio Taco Bell. Then she tracks it to 3 kids
Every once in a while, you are faced with a situation that you had not anticipated, and it leads to several other experiences that you wouldn’t want to go through. TikTok user @x.abss was faced with a similar predicament when she decided to grab some food at a nearby Taco…
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
"I definitely saw an unidentified flying object that night." Why this heavy metal icon is convinced he saw a UFO one fateful night in North Carolina
The truth is out there for Lamb Of God's Randy Blythe
Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play