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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Alexandra Topping

Theresa May to visit Brussels this week as she defends Brexit deal – Politics live

Summary

We are wrapping up our politics liveblog for the day now, thanks to everyone who read it and got involved in the debate. Here is a quick summary of the days main developments:

Updated

DUP: Unionists are united in rejecting the Withdrawal Agreement

The DUP have issued an official statement on the Withdrawal Agreement.

Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Nigel Dodds said:

The damning criticism expressed by the former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab spelt out how dangerous this Withdrawal Agreement is. He says it takes a very predatory approach to Northern Ireland, that the cabinet was told Northern Ireland will be treated as a third country for regulatory purposes, and that absolutely it threatens the Union.

These are exactly the reasons why Northern Ireland unionism stands united in opposition to this draft Withdrawal Agreement.

This deal would place a trade border in the Irish Sea, subject us to EU rules without any power to influence or change them and binds us to the EU with no unilateral ability to leave. Indeed, Northern Ireland is part of the EU Customs Union not the UK’s.

Our Brussels correspondent, Jennifer Rankin, has tweeted the below, points out my colleague Lisa O’Carroll.

Rankin says it appears that recently resigned Brexit secretary Dominic Raab didn’t understand what the UK and the EU agreed to last December at the close of the first round of negotiations.

That was when the now famous “backstop” was signed off with not setting out three options for the future negotiations – an overall deal that would obviate a need for a hard horder in Ireland; a bespoke deal that created special rules for Northern Ireland so as to keep the border open; or if talks broke down and neither of those options were achieved Northern Ireland would remain aligned to the EU customs union and single market (ie the backstop or insurance policy).

Updated

Could Cameron save the day?

No, don’t laugh, even if Steve Hilton who puts forward this opinion in the Sunday Times – with the headline “Only David Cameron can save us. Yes, you read that right” – is almost expecting it.

Cameron’s former director of strategy at No 10 writes:

Who can make all this happen? Clearly not Theresa May. Equally, a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn would be a calamity, sending investors and businesses hurtling for the exits. So what are we left with?

What Britain needs above all is a leader with the confidence and the character to command respect and bring people together from all sides of this bruising two-year national meltdown.

If there is a Conservative party leadership election, no doubt many able MPs will throw their hat in the ring. But there’s one name that should also be on the list: David Cameron.

The former prime minister reportedly remarked in the early hours of June 24, after the Brexit vote had gone against him, “Why should I do all the hard shit?”

I think we know the answer to that question now. And, considering where we are now, David Cameron’s return to No 10 could in fact be the best hope for Britain.

The piece has, at least, garnered some amusing responses:

And this meme, because you simply can’t see it too many times:

Updated

Brexiteers suggest government finance bill could be in jeopardy

Sky News’ deputy political editor, Beth Rigby, has tweeted that the Tory whips are currently shoring up support for this week’s finance bill, over fears that some might abstain because of anger in the party.

The Guardian’s political editor, Heather Stewart, writes:

Some pro-Brexit Tory MPs are suggesting the government faces a rocky ride this week as the finance bill comes back to the House of Commons. They believe the DUP may be prepared to sit on its hands and allow Theresa May to be defeated, which would raise the question of whether the confidence and supply agreement – on which her majority rests – remains operative.

However, Labour sources point out it is hard to identify an amendment to the bill which the DUP would be likely to support. The one currently deemed most likely to create problems for the government is backed by remainers Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry, and calls for MPs to be given a full economic analysis of remaining in the EU, alongside projections for May’s deal and no deal which the government has promised to provide to parliament before the meaningful vote next month.

Updated

Ship owners call for critics to accept plan or present viable alternative

The organisation representing ship owners in the UK says its time for Brexiters to “put up or shut up”, accept Theresa May’s deal or come up with a fully-baked alternative.

“International agreements rarely please everyone, and I accept this deal gives neither leave nor remain campaigners everything that they want, but we have now run out of time.

“This deal has been struck after years of complex, detailed and technical negotiations. We respect those who cannot support the proposed deal, but their dissent requires them to put forward a clear, unambiguous and workable alternative immediately. In short it’s time to put up or shut up,” says UK Chamber of Shipping’s chief executive, Bob Sanguinetti.

Sanguinetti also acknowledged that many people are tired of hearing no deal warnings, but argued that the uncertainty of no deal was too big a risk to take.

“I know people are tired of business groups warning of a No Deal scenario. There is however a direct relationship between political decisions and people’s day to day lives and it is our duty to alert them to the facts.

“It may be the case that over the medium term markets will shift and adapt well to a No Deal economy, but nobody truly understands the damage that will be done in the meantime.

“In a no deal scenario, it is a fact that there will be long delays in ports putting manufacturing supply chains and just-in-time deliveries of pharmaceuticals and fresh food at risk. It is a fact that costs would go up for consumers. It is a fact that this will damage both the UK and the EU. The question is how long it would take to sort all that out – and for that there is no clear answer.

“Those hoping for a no-deal Brexit, or prepared to risk one, have a duty to explain in technical detail why this is a risk worth taking.”

Updated

DUP denies unionist support for Brexit is faltering

The DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson says reports over the weekend that the party is under fire from business and farming interests in its home turf do not mean unionist support for Brexit is waivering.

Around a dozen groups in Northern Ireland including retailers, the Ulster Farmers’ Union and the Confederation of British Industry Northern Ireland have said no deal would be devastating for the region, putting it at odds with the DUP.

DUP Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted a while ago that the idea the party was at war with local interests was “nonsense”.

“The idea that it’s the DUP v everyone else is nonsense. There isn’t a single unionist party in Northern Ireland that so far supports this Brexit deal. I have received messages of support from businesspeople and farmers in my constituency who endorse our stance #noborderinirishsea,” he tweeted.

“That doesn’t mean that all businesspeople and farmers support the deal. We have many telling us they don’t. We don’t claim to speak for everyone and business groups shouldn’t either,” he added.

Updated

Lunchtime summary

Updated

Speaking on LBC, the former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell says May’s proposed withdrawal agreement is only “marginally better” than leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation rules.

Updated

Corbyn critics have also pounced on the fact that this morning he admitted on Sophie Ridge on Sky he hadn’t read every line of the 583-page draft Brexit agreement.

(He did of course say he’d read most of it, and summaries etc.)

For those of us in the same boat as the leader of the opposition, our Jessica Elgot has a very useful thread on Twitter about what to read to get a better understanding:

Updated

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable has been laying into Jeremy Corbyn since his interview with Sophy Ridge this morning, saying that he will go down in history as “may’s little helper”.

HuffoPo have pointed out how heated the conversation between Marr and Chakrabarti got this morning.

He’s a excerpt of the section where Marr told Chakrabarti not to “patronise” him.

MARR: “I don’t understand why you want to leave the EU.”

Chakrabarti: “I don’t want to leave the EU, I campaigned to Remain. I’m a democrat.”

MARR: “But you’re going to go through a General Election campaign as a member of a party whose manifesto says ‘we are leaving the EU’.”

Chakrabarti: “I’m a democrat, I don’t know about you Andrew, but I’m a democrat.”

MARR: “Don’t try and patronise me, I’m as much a democrat as you are.”

Chakrabarti: “I certainly wouldn’t try to patronise you and I’m sure you would never try to patronise me.”

Sir Graham Brady says not even his wife knows how many letters he has received

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee of backbench MPs - and the man who is the recipient of those letters of no confidence in Theresa May - has been speaking to John Pienaar (and our own Jess Elgot) on BBC 5Live.

He said there’s so much speculation about how many he’s received that he’s even been asked about it while he’s trying to do the shopping. “I get asked it in the supermarket, I get asked it in the street,” he said. “I’ve become very nervous about counting, or saying numbers, in case people think I’m saying something that I’m not.” Brady said that he hasn’t even told his wife how may letters he had received.

Not surprisingly, he wouldn’t say whether he’s anywhere near that all-important target of 48 - but he did insist that if it happens, the Conservative party rules suggest a no confidence vote would be quick.

“The whole thing is written with the intention that it should be an expeditious process,” he said, adding, “it ought to be a test of opinion very quickly, in order to clear the air and get it resolved”.

Asked about his own views - and whether he would be submitting a letter to himself(!) he said it wasn’t a sensible time to challenge the prime minister.

“We are coming to the endgame of a very serious, very difficult negotiation, and for the government to be plunged into uncertainty would have implications for that”.

But as a Brexiter, he suggested the deal as currently drafted looks highly unlikely to secure a majority in the House of Commons, and he hopes the final political declaration about Britain’s future trading relationship - to be hammered out over the next few days, “gives considerably stronger grounds for optimism about the final nature of the deal”.

He reiterated the point on Sunday Politics NW.

Updated

Analysis on Sturgeon's Marr interview

Speaking to Andrew Marr, first minister Nicola Sturgeon remained oblique about the prospects of a second independence referendum, using the same form of words about “waiting for the dust to settle” that she did in Holyrood when pressed last week.

It’s well worth comparing what Sturgeon said on Marr with the remarks she made in the far less formal setting of the Women for Independence conference in Perth yesterday. WfI was one of the most prominent, non-aligned groups of the 2014 campaign which has since successfully reinvented itself as a broader campaign group. Significantly, this is the first time that Sturgeon has spoken at one of their events – of course the conference was organised long before last week’s crisis, but her appearance there is interesting nonetheless.

She urged WfI activists – who are already on the cannier end of the yes spectrum – that “there is no route to independence that is not through a democratic decision of the majority of the Scottish people no matter how much we want there to be”, joking that it dissolving the union was easy she’d have done it by now.

She told delegates that she had some sympathy for Theresa May, surrounded by shouty men and left to clean up after David Cameron, but added that the past week “strengthened the case for independence immeasurably”.

Sturgeon also called for a Commons alliance against the deal, although what Marr didn’t ask her was whether her alliance would include the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg. She told him: “Those who don’t think this deal is the right way to do have now a responsibility to come together and coalesce around an alternative.” She said she would seek discussions with other parties, inlcuding with Jeremy Corbyn, when she visits London later this week. Saying she was particularly keen to talk to Corbyn, she added: “I listened to him [on Sky] and there’s still an absence of leadership, of Jeremy Corbyn saying what he’d do differently, so if I can help get Labour into a position where we can coalesce I would be delighted to try and do that.”

Of course this isn’t the first time that Sturgeon has suggested a form of progressive alliance headed by the SNP at Westminster, and that didn’t work out so well for Ed Miliband in the 2015 general election.

Andrew Marr show summary

Well, Marr was always going to struggle to compete with Ridge this morning who had both the PM and the leader of the opposition. But here’s a quick summary:

  • Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab argued that the quickest route to ‘no deal’ was a bad deal, like was currently being presented.
  • But he was dismissive of the worst case scenarios presented in a no deal scenario. He argued that no deal was a “manageable situation” and that with “grit” and a fiscal approach could put “rocket boosters” up the economy and support businesses. In the long term that would be better than the deal currently proposed.
  • Raab said the deal had come close but last-minute changes meant he could not “in good conscience” support it. He insisted the Prime Minister had to go back to the EU and renegotiate.
  • The deal was not worth £39bn and accused the EU of “blackmail”, he said.
  • But he insisted he liked and respected the Prime Minister, fully supported her and would not be calling for her resignation.
  • Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said she would let “the dust settle” on May’s EU proposal before taking a stance on whether the SNP would now push for a second independence referendum as a result of it.
  • Sturgeon said May should extend Article 50 and change direction on the Brexit deal.
  • Sturgeon hinted that the SNP could align with Labour and other parties to push for a completely different deal, around the idea of keeping the UK in the single market and the customs union.
  • But there had to be a real debate and people had to be given the option of staying in the EU, she said.
  • Shami Chakrabarti, shadow attorney general said that “theoretically” Brexit could be stopped, but the country was a long way from that point at the moment.
  • She said parliamentarians had a duty to vote down the deal because it was “the worst kind of bureaucratic fudge”.
  • She called on May to go to the country and call a general election.

Updated

Raab says there is no time for legislation for another referendum. But he says there is still time to get it right, and May must change direction.

Raab said the proposed deal wasn’t worth £39bn. He said: “I do think we are being bullied, I do think we are being subjected to what is pretty close to blackmail frankly.“I do think there is a point at which - we probably should have done it before - were we just to say ‘I’m sorry this is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we cannot accept those dictated terms’.”

Asked if he believed the deal was worth the £39bn “divorce bill”, he replied: “No”.

Updated

Raab says he has questioned that the worst case scenarios presented. If there was a fiscal approach, and put “rocket boosters” up the economy and support businesses we could see it through and in the long term we could benefit.

Marr asks Raab about how he has been characterised by sources in number 10 since he resigned.

He says he likes and respects the PM, says he doesn’t want to get involved in name-calling, but couldn’t roll over.

He says the biggest risk of no deal is that a bad deal is voted down in the House of Commons, and he would vote against it.

He says that although there are risks to no deal, he adds that with “ will and with grit we can mitigate some of the worst risks”.

Marr asks if you can guarantee that people would not die?

Raab says it’s irresponsible to use that type of language, the problem is manageable.

Raab says May needs to go back again, he wants her to succeed.

Says the deal is not worth £40bn. He says we are being bullied, and we are in a situation where we are close to being blackmailed.

He says we need to put a line in the sand.

Marr says you are trying to have your cake and eat it - you can started a crisis of confidence in the PM but insist you support her.

Raab says again that he simply couldn’t sign up to the deal, but he would back the PM and he would never send a letter to the 1922 committee - it is a distraction.

Updated

Marr asks Dominic Raab who negotiated the deal, says it was his deal.

Raab says the UK got close to a sensible and pragmatic deal but two or three of the last minute chances rendered if fatally flawed.

He says in good conscience he couldn’t sign up to it.

Notionally we leave the EU, but takes a preditory appraoch to Northern Ireland and threatens the union. He adds that the proposed option of custom union and a single market with no option to get out - no country in history has signed up to that.

The future relationship would be a customs union, single market hybrid which would be devastating for the future of the country.

He says he has asked who negotiated that, but has not received a satisfactory option.

Updated

Chakrabarti says that Labour would have a completely different relationship in negotiations with the EU, particularly on workers’ rights and environmental protections.

This deal is unacceptable to all sides, she says. The deal kicks the can down the road and contains no clear vision for what Britain will be in the future.

Heard big hints from Sturgeon that if we vote down the deal, we can work together cross-party to make sure there is a jobs-first option, she says.

If PM acts now there is still time to renegotiate, she says. Her own cabinet is asking her to do so.

EU has ample form for renegotiating at the last minute, she says.

Marr asks Shami Chakrabarti, shadow attorney general: can Brexit be stopped?

Chakrabarti answers: “Theoretically but we are a long way from that moment”. She says that parliament must do its duty and realise this deal is the worst kind of bureaucratic fudge.

She ought to go to the country, she says. May should call a general election, she insists.

Updated

There has to be a discussion, and people have to be given an option to remain, says Sturgeon.

Sturgeon says she will be speaking to other parties this week to encourage MPs to push for another option.

She would love a general election, but says it would be difficult to secure.

Will she now push for another independence referendum?

Sturgeon says they have to give time for the dust to settle, as chaos reigns at Westminster at the moment. But she and her party will take a stance “in the not too distant future”.

Updated

Marr asks about the fisheries aspect of the deal.

Sturgeon says the SNP are longstanding critics of the CFP, but the compromise options have been ignored. Scotland has been ignored and sidelined, and the PM has to start to listen, she says.

Updated

Marr asks: if it is voted down with the help of the SNP, what happens next?

Sturgeon says the House of Commons should not allow itself to be put in the frying pan or the fire. She echoes May’s words that no deal was better than a bad deal, but says that is what she is offering.

She says she understands why the EU doesn’t want an endless renegotiation, but if there was a different option such as a clear change in direction, the EU would be prepared to look at it.

Updated

The Andrew Marr Show

First up for the interviews on Marr is Nicola Sturgeon.

She says the deal is no good for Scotland, and she cannot support it. May should extend Article 50 and change direction on Brexit deal.

She says there are two ways forward. She says the House of Commons now needs to gather around the idea of keeping the UK in the single market and the customs union, and to give people a vote on the deal.

Updated

Sophy Ridge interviews with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn: summary

Interesting interviews with Ridge on Sky.

  • The PM said she would go to Brussels this week and suggested that the argument was not over until the UK leaves.
  • There is a week to go before EU leaders meet and the focus in the next seven days will be very much on the future relationship, not the divorce deal.
  • May said that as far as she knew the requisite 48 letters challenging her leadership had not been received.
  • In an interview which seemed pitched at MPs in Westminster, rather than the British public, she urged MPs to think about what was best for their constituents, not their own stance on Europe.
  • She said personal attacks on her were not distracting her from the task in hand, which was delivering the best Brexit possible, which she argued this deal does.
  • Jeremy Corbyn said Labour could not stop Brexit on its own, but reiterated the idea that all options were still on the table.
  • He said Labour would not support the current deal, as it did not meet the party’s six tests.
  • He stopped short of calling for a “people’s vote” on the final deal. He said a second referendum was “an option for the future but not an option for today”.

Updated

Ridge points to research which says that organisations appoint women in times of crisis, and asks for May’s reflections.

May laughs it off but adds that she looks at the situation as a politician, MP and a prime minister and hopes every other member of parliament will not think about themselves or the theological arguments about Europe, but the future of people in this country. If they do that they will vote for this deal, she says.

Updated

Ridge asks about May’s future. She says it is hanging by a thread.

May says that if 48 letters are reached, the chair of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady will let it be known, but as far as she knows the 48-letter limit has not been reached.

She says it is not about her, it is about what is right for the country and she will not be distracted by that. But a leadership change now would bring uncertainty, risk of delaying negotiations and risk not leaving the EU.

We are coming to a point at which difficult decisions have to be taken, she says. People have made their views known, we live in a democracy. She asks her colleagues to deliver leaving the EU, and remember it is not about “us” but about people throughout the country.

Ridge asks about the personal impact on May.

She says we all have a responsibility to think about the terminology and language we use, but it doesn’t distract her. Politics is a tough business, and I’ve been in it for a long time, she adds. But she says politicians have to stay focused on what they are here for, who they are here for. “As PM, I am here for the people of this country and that is what drives me,” she says.

Updated

Ridge says there is no chance this deal can get through parliament.

May says parliamentarians should think what it is about, that they need to deliver what people voted for.

Corbyn is clear he is going to vote against it whatever, without fully reading it – he is playing party politics with this, says May.

Parliament will go through a process, if the government loses they will come back with a proposal. But she says we are not at that point, we have a week to go, but every MP will have to do what is the right thing for their constituents.

Updated

Ridge asks about the fact that the UK can’t leave the backstop agreement unilaterally.

May says it is an insurance option, it is not the only option on the table. Which says that if the future relationship can’t be fully in place by the end of 2020 there is a reassurance of no hard border.

She uses the analogy of taking out an insurance policy, and suddenly finding they pulled a plug on it and you were left without it. It’s a backstop we never intend to use, the EU don’t want to use it either, she says. And adds that it can only be temporary.

The thing that will make the difference to people’s jobs is the future relationship, that is what we must put first and foremost, she says.

Updated

We are going to leave on the 29 March, let no one be in doubt, May says.

Think back to where the EU started, she says. They wanted us to take an off-the-shelf model. We fought that and stood our ground. Says the UK has argued for a better, more ambitious relationship which took time, but they have come around to it.

Updated

May says they won’t agree the leaving part until we have got what we want in the future relationship, that will be the focus this week.

Over the two years there has been a lot of negotiation she says, which has focused on the leaving part, says May. The focus will now be on the future relationship.

So we make sure we deliver for people, that’s what this is about she says.

She will be going back to Brussels, with the negotiating teams working this week. She will be in touch with other leaders. She will meet Jean-Claude Juncker, she says.

Withdrawal agreement has been agreed in principle, but nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, she says.

Updated

Theresa May defends her Brexit plan

Ridge says it’s been a difficult week, and asks the PM whether she has ever thought about giving up?

May says no. Of course it’s been a tough week, it’s been tough from the start and it was always going to get more difficult.

She says “this isn’t about me it’s about what is in the national interest”, that is what she wants to deliver and what she believes this deal does.

The next seven days are critical because it’s about people’s jobs, their livelihoods and about their children’s future, she says.

Updated

Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, is up next on Ridge. She pleads with MPs to get out of the Westminster bubble and speak to the businesses in their communities. Says there is a danger that the Brexit negotiations become a “political parlour game”.

She argues that the deal is not perfect, but it reduces the risk of a “no-deal” scenario which would be disastrous for the country.

She says, we have some progress , the deal is not perfect, but a compromise and we should not be going backwards.

“This is not a perfect deal, but we have to play the cards in front of us and going backwards for many companies is not the right thing to do.”

The PM is up next.

Updated

Corbyn is asked for reflections on the PM’s week and whether he feels sorry for the PM – he knows what it is like to have some members of your own cabinet publicly oppose you.

Corbyn says that politics is full of thrills and spills, but the situation in the Labour party was different because his mandate came from party members.

He adds: “I don’t do personal attacks or abuse, I do understand what people go through, but also understand the responsibility of parliament and government to represent the interests of the people who put them there in the first place.”

Asked whether he respects the PM he says: “I respect all politicians.”

That’s it for Corbyn, a calm and measured performance that stuck close to the current line and provided no real surprises.

Updated

Ridge asks Corbyn about his personal journey on the EU, and points out his opposition to the Maastricht treaty, for example.

“I do support a social Europe,” says Corbyn. “I have probably spent more time meeting other EU socialist parties than any other Labour leader.”

He says that he has always been in favour of social cooperation across Europe and says he was against free-market economics and state aid rules, which limit the government’s ability to intervene, and had concerns about some competition rules.

He adds: “I describe myself as a socialist who wants to see social justice across Europe.”

Updated

Corbyn says the EU wants an agreement just as much as everyone else does, the problem is this government hasn’t negotiated an effective agreement.

What’s been agreed is not acceptable to the British parliament or the British people and hasn’t been approved in Europe either.

Ridge asks: aren’t the six tests impossible? They demand, for example, that the agreement delivers the exact same benefits of being in the single market.

Corbyn asks: where did those words come from? The government itself. “We are quoting back at them what they promised themselves.”

Updated

Corbyn says he voted to remain and campaigned for remain and reform.

He says he believes that in future Britain could have a good and effective relationship with the EU, and we could cooperate on environmental and labour issues.

Asked how he would vote in a potential future vote, Corbyn says he doesn’t know as it’s impossible to tell what would be on the ballot paper.

Ridge asks: isn’t a general election very unlikely now?

Corbyn doesn’t agree: “I think the country needs an option to have a say on who it wants to negotiate with the European Union.”

Updated

Corbyn says that there is a majority in parliament that would support a permanent customs arrangement and a support of workers’ rights, but the current deal places a financial border across the UK.

Ridge asks: can Brexit be stopped?

Corbyn says: we couldn’t stop it because we don’t have the votes to do so. But he says to the government: don’t waste another two weeks on this, go back now, you can’t get it through.

Ridge pushes and points out Keir Starmer has said it will be stopped. Shouldn’t Labour get behind a “people’s vote”.

A majority voted to leave the EU in the referendum, you have to understand that and negotiate the best deal, which this government hasn’t, Corbyn says.

He adds: “All options are on the table in the future.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appearing on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appearing on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show. Photograph: Sky News/PA

Updated

The government needs to back to the EU and renegotiate. Ridge asks: aren’t you risking a national disaster?

Corbyn says: not at all – there isn’t the support in cabinet, in parliament or in the country for this deal.

Corbyn says the government has to have a permanent customs arrangement with the EU. It hasn’t embraced without any question the issue of workers’ rights. Labour wants to see a total alignment with Europe on workers’ rights.

The current document is too vague, and leaves workers and business worried about the future.

Updated

Sophy Ridge on Sunday

Jeremy Corbyn is up first.

He says Labour can’t support the PM’s plan, and it doesn’t meet the party’s six-point test.

Agreement is not acceptable because the issue of Northern Ireland is not dealt with. Says current agreement is “one-way” and “risky”.

Updated

Sunday politics shows

Meaty lineups today on the politics shows:

  • First up on Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News at 9am, Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to defend her Brexit deal, taking her argument to the public, while the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, will also feature.
  • Then at 10am on Marr, we’ll hear from former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, the shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti, the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, with the news review from Polly Toynbee, the Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn and the Brexit minister Kwasi Kwarteng MP

Updated

Sunday Papers round up

Good morning, I’m Lexy Topping and I’ll be keeping you company through the politics news this morning, starting with a quick roundup of some of the front pages of the Sunday newspapers and then the Sunday politics shows.

Taking a look at those Sunday papers:

  • Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has criticised the government’s “lack of political will and resolve” in dealing with the European Union in the Sunday Times.

Raab, who quit on Thursday over the Brexit deal, said the UK should be willing to back out of negotiations “if necessary”, and should not let itself to be “bullied”.

In an interview where he was careful not to criticise Prime Minister Theresa May directly, Raab said if a deal could not be closed “on reasonable terms we need to be very honest with the country that we will not be bribed and blackmailed or bullied, and we will walk away”.

He also warned against looking “like we’re afraid of our own shadow”.

“I think there is one thing that is missing and that is political will and resolve,” he said. “I am not sure that message has ever landed.”

“There is no alternative plan on the table. There is no different approach that we could agree with the EU,” she said.

  • In the Sunday Telegraph Brexiteer Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, the party’s London mayoral candidate in 2016, revealed he had sent a letter calling for May’s resignation.

Goldsmith said that under the PM’s plan “in effect, Britain would remain in the EU, but without having any say”. He added: “Had that been the choice, I personally would have voted to remain.” The paper also reports that the plot to oust May is nearing its tipping point.

  • The EU has warned that delaying Brexit will cost the UK about £10bn more, reports the Observer.

Ahead of what Downing Street said was a “critical” week for the prime minister, cabinet ministers also piled on the pressure by publicly insisting that she change the proposals.

  • The Independent goes with the line that more moderate Tory MPs are warning Brexit hardliners that backbenchers could abandon Brexit altogether if they don’t back the PM’s EU withdrawal plan.

Updated

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A viral claim about FaZe Banks and Kendall Jenner dating is false. The image that started the rumor was edited using AI, as confirmed by the original X post. There is no real proof linking them. Both have separate dating histories, but currently, no verified information suggests any relationship between…
The Times of India
The Times of India
Hey, Netflix, Stop Suggesting Movies To Me I Can't Watch With My Plan (You're Not Amazon!)
Hoo boy, this set me off.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
I’m Getting Stressed Out Just Hearing Jack Black’s Take On What It’s Like Hosting SNL
Feels like the only show that could rattle Jack Black!
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Disclosure day: If ET made contact, how would we handle the news?
How would people react if an alien civilization actually made contact with us? Space.com talked to experts, who shared a variety of opinions about a possible real-life "disclosure day."
Space
Space
No one at Waffle House remembers Trump’s FEMA official who claims he was teleported there
None of the two dozen workers and regulars interviewed by The New York Times noticed any metaphysical activity
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Three-week-old mountain lion cub rescued by California biologists
Crimson, seen alone in Santa Monica mountains for days, gets care in Oakland zoo after mother nowhere to be found
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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