Labour leader says there is no agreement yet on customs union or workers’ rights
Jeremy Corbyn has said Brexit talks with the government are stalling because of a Tory desire for post-withdrawal deregulation, including as part of a US trade deal.
Corbyn said Labour had been putting forward a robust case for a customs union during the talks over the past week but suggested he feared the two sides would not find common ground.
Continue reading...No 10 scrambles to explore options before possible heavy losses in EU elections
No 10 is feeling the pressure to pull the plug on Brexit talks with Labour and move to an alternative plan, amid warnings that the opposition is in no hurry for a deal before the European elections.
With talks deadlocked and no sign that the government moving on its red lines, neither the Conservatives or Labour want to appear responsible for the breakdown in discussions.
Continue reading...Sources say prime minister’s red lines remain an obstacle in talks with Labour
Talks between Labour and the government are unlikely to advance much further in the coming week unless Theresa May moves on her red lines over a future customs union, sources close to the talks have suggested.
David Lidington, who is leading the government’s talks with Labour, said a compromise would have to be reached but played down suggestions that a government shift was imminent and added that Labour would also have to move.
Continue reading...Powerful US Democrat meets ex-Labour MPs to discuss why they left the party and Brexit
The senior US Democrat Nancy Pelosi met three former Labour MPs on Sunday and discussed their concerns about antisemitism in the party before a meeting with the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
The House Speaker said she had met Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Ian Austin “to hear their perspective on Brexit, why they left the Labour party, and the importance of standing unequivocally against antisemitism wherever it is found”.
Continue reading...Labour MP defends comments likening group to Nazi party and white supremacists
David Lammy has said comparing the hard-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs to Nazis and proponents of South African apartheid was “not strong enough”, and suggested that the Brexit debate had allowed proponents of hard right views to flourish.
The Labour MP, who is a vocal campaigner for a second EU referendum, was asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether a comparison he previously made to the election of Adolf Hitler’s party in Germany and to South African white supremacists was appropriate.
Continue reading...WikiLeaks founder’s father says Australian government should ‘do something’ after his arrest in London
The father of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has called on the Australian government to help his son and suggested he could be brought back to his home country.
John Shipton, who lives in Melbourne, urged Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, to step in following Assange’s arrest in London last week.
Continue reading...A generation of young people could desert the party, says Richard Corbett, leader of Labour MEPs
Jeremy Corbyn has been warned by Labour’s leader in the European parliament and other grandees that the party will be deserted by millions of anti-Brexit voters if it fails to clearly back a second referendum in its manifesto for next month’s EU elections.
The message from Richard Corbett, who leads Labour’s 20 MEPs, comes amid growing fears at the top of the party that it could lose a generation of young, pro-EU voters if it does not guarantee another public vote.
Continue reading...Cabinet source says PM negotiating with one hand behind her back, amid warnings long delay would cause ‘tremendous angst’
Theresa May is facing intense cabinet pressure to avoid the prospect of a long Brexit delay, amid increasing expectations that last ditch cross-party talks on a compromise departure plan will not produce anything concrete.
Before a crucial EU summit later this week, the prime minister is facing a fast-diminishing range of options that could split the Conservative party and prompt a mass cabinet walkout, or could result in the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal on Friday.
Continue reading...Labour defends antisemitism response after documents suggest party failed to act on hundreds of complaints
The Jewish Labour Movement passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership on Sunday as the party came under renewed pressure over its handling of antisemitism allegations.
Labour disputed a report in the Sunday Times, which drew on leaked internal documents, that its system for dealing with complaints has been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office.
Continue reading...Opposition criticises PM after talks, while risk of EU taking tough line on extension rises
Theresa May’s prospects of cobbling together a cross-party majority to convince EU leaders to grant a short Brexit delay next week appear to be slipping away after Labour claimed she had failed to offer “real change or compromise” in talks.
The prime minister made a dramatic pledge to open the door to talks with Labour on Tuesday after a marathon cabinet meeting.
Continue reading...Labour leader under pressure from Emily Thornberry to put any pact to a second public vote
Jeremy Corbyn will resume Brexit talks with the prime minister on Thursday, after Labour tensions over a second referendum burst into the open, with the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, writing to colleagues to insist any pact must be put to a public vote.
Both Labour and Downing Street described the discussions as “constructive” and said they would hold technical talks, facilitated by civil servants, on Thursday.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments, where third reading of the Cooper bill seeking a Brexit delay passed 313 to 312
I’m going to wrap up now.
Here the latest key developments at a glance:
The Leave.EU campaign seems to be rather cross:
The "Conservatives" who voted to block Brexit this evening.
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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the second day of Commons votes on alternative Brexit options
The indicative votes debate is now over.
John Bercow, the Speaker, is telling MPs that they have half an hour to cast their vote, on paper in the division lobbies.
MPs are now voting on four propositions for #IndicativeVotes2 on light blue coloured between 8pm-8.30pm:
(C) Customs Union - Clarke
(D) Common Market 2.0 - Boles
(E) Confirmatory Public Vote - Kyle/Wilson
(G) Parliamentary Supremacy - Cherry pic.twitter.com/550xBpSAMk
Vicky Ford, a Conservative, says she will back the custom union amendment. Being in a customs union is not the same as being in the customs union, she says. She says the UK would be out of the common agricultural policy and out of the common fisheries policy.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary also says it is likely Labour would pursue policy of leaving the EU in government
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, has said Labour is considering calling another vote of no confidence in Theresa May’s government following parliament’s failure to pass her Brexit deal with 10 days before the UK is due to leave.
The prime minister survived a vote of no confidence in January, the day after her Brexit deal was rejected for the first time. Her deal has since been voted down two further times.
Continue reading...Rolling updates on the fate of the withdrawal agreement on the day UK was supposed to be leaving EU
That’s all from us this evening – thanks for reading. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:
Related: May hopes to hold fourth vote on Brexit deal
Scotland Yard has now updated the arrest figures for today’s rallies:
As of 21:00hrs five arrests have been made at the demonstrations in central #London today: x2 for assault, x1 drunk & disorderly, x1 for assaulting a
police officer & x1 male arrested after being identified as wanted for an
offence in Herts. All are in custody.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments, including the indicative votes debate as MPs choose from eight options
The Commons sitting has been suspended but, as my colleague Dan Sabbagh and others report, there is a bit of a row going on about the fact that the mace is still there.
Speaker has walked out suspending proceedings until the indicative votes are counted. But Tories are furiously pointing to the mace, still in its place, and trying to encourage deputy speaker Eleanor Laing to take the chair. Which would be a parliamentary take over...
The mace is still in place which I think is the cause of the uproar. It’s not meant to be there if we’re not sitting, but I don’t know if a brief suspension counts. It’s not normal for the Chamber to be occupied without anyone in the chair.
Speaker suspends sitting & vacates chair while we wait for results of this evening’s votes - as he had said he would do.
Tory MPs object that the mace is still there.
They object by trying to raise points of order to an empty chair.
What a total shambles of a parliament.
John Bercow, the Speaker, says he is not able to announce the results of the indicative votes ballot yet because they have not all been counted. But he says he hopes to be able to announce them soon.
So he suspends the house.
Continue reading...MPs vote by 329 to 302 for Letwin amendment, despite Theresa May saying government would not be bound by result
As not much has happened in the past hour, I’m going to close the blog by republishing my colleague Andrew Sparrow’s excellent snap analysis for those who missed it an hour or so ago. Thanks and goodnight.
Sky’s Lewis Goodall seems chirpy:
I’m going to bed and finally having a day off tomorrow. But in conclusion: something actually happened tonight.
No, really. I can’t believe it either.
With more than 120 MPs backing an amendment in support of indicative voting, it’s going to be a fraught five days
Many weeks have so far been billed as crunch weeks for Brexit. But with the revised departure date looming, Theresa May’s proposal looking all-but doomed and the prime minister’s own position openly questioned, the next days really do appear crucial. Here is what could happen and when.
Continue reading...Corbyn, Cable and other leaders write to Jeremy Hunt about ‘morally reprehensible’ policy
Five opposition parties in Westminster have called on the UK to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia on the fourth anniversary of the Yemen civil war, saying it has contributed to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
The letter signed by leaders of the Labour party, Scottish National party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green party, comes as a fragile truce negotiated in December hangs by a thread.
Continue reading...Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet is set to clash again over Brexit this week, with supporters of a second referendum concerned that the Labour leadership will opt to facilitate a soft Brexit. With senior Labour figures openly calling for another public vote at the anti-Brexit march in London on Saturday, other influential MPs believe Corbyn’s inner circle is actually warming to a Norway-style Brexit that would see Britain leave the EU, but remain closely aligned to it.
Tensions between Labour and its pro-Remain activists are already high after the party released a tweet on Friday evening asking if supporters had any “big weekend plans” and called on them to go out leafleting for May’s local elections.
Continue reading...