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Brexit: May hit by two cabinet resignations as Raab and McVey quit over plan - Politics live
Brexit: May hit by two cabinet resignations as Raab and McVey quit over plan - Politics live
(35 minutes later)
Anna Soubry, the Consevative pro-European, says May cannot honour the promises made by Brexiters because those cannot be met. She asks May to not rule out a second referendum.
Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative remain-supporter, says we are running out of road. Crashing out of the EU with no deal would be “unforgivable”, she says. She urges May to consider a second referendum.
May says she cannot give that assurance. The UK will leave the EU on 29 March next year, she says.
May says she firmly believes, that having given that choice to the British people, MPs must honour what the people voted for.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP leader, says he could take May through the promises she made in public, and private, to his party. But it would be a waste of time because “she clearly doesn’t listen”. He says the five people who have resigned today have all said May’s deal would compromise the integrity of the UK. We can either vote to protect the UK. Or vote for a vassal state that will break it up, he says.
Stephen Crabb, the Tory former work and pensions secretary, says there was always going on to be a moment when Brexit claims met reality. He says it would be irresponsible to walk away. The government must make the best of this situation, he says.
May says her commitments to Northern Ireland remain.
Labour’s Phil Wilson asks May if she can say, “hand on heart”, that this deal is better than what the UK has now.
She says neither side want to see the backstop exercised.
May says she firmly believes the UK’s best days are ahead.
She says she does not accept that she has not considered Northern Ireland in this process. (Dodds signals to her he is not saying that.)
UPDATE: This is from Labour’s Pat McFadden.
John Redwood, the Tory Brexiter, says the UK should spend the £39bn on itself, rather than on the EU.
The most telling reply of the day - the tacit admission that this deal makes us worse off. https://t.co/MaPrMpmIfW
May says the government continues to meet its legal obligations.
Sir Edward Leigh, a Tory Brexiter, asks what happens if Dominic Raab is correct. What happens if May loses the vote in the Commons. Will May deliver Brexit whatever?
Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, says that May herself said there were two alternatives to her plan: a no-deal Brexit, and no Brexit. What plans is May making for no Brexit, including asking if article 50 could be revoked.
May says she is determined that the UK will leave the EU on 29 March, “whatever happens in between”.
May says the government is not planning for no Brexit.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, says May should agree a people’s vote. May says she has already explained why she won’t.
Ian Duncan Smith, the Tory former leader, says he has deep misgivings about this plan. We have the sovereign right to leave bodies like Nato and the UN, but not to leave the backstop under this plan.
Nicholas Soames, the Tory former defence minister, asks May to elaborate on the proposals on security. May says, where it makes sense to do so, the UK will cooperate with with EU on defence matters. And on sanctions too.
May says she shares Duncan Smith’s concerns. But the withdrawal agreement had to have an Irish backstop.
Frank Field, the former Labour MP who now sits as an independent, asks if the UK will be completely independent under this plan. May tries to give those assurances.
The backstop is “not necessarily what would happen”, she says. She says the UK could choose to extend the transition (she calls it implementation period) instead.
Amber Rudd, the Conservative former home secretary, asks May what response she has had from business to the plan.
She accepts that coming out of the backstop would require “mutual consent”. She says: “I won’t make any bones about that.”
(That was a helplful question, so we can probably chalk Rudd up as the third MP to speak out in support.)
She insists it is her intention to work to ensure that such an arrangement is not necessary.
May quotes positive business reaction.
Responding to Blackford, May says the reason Scotland is treated differently from Northern Ireland is because Northern Ireland will be the only part of the UK that will have a land border with the EU after Brexit.
This is from Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt.
And Scotland is not mentioned because it is part of the United Kingdom, she says.
With two Tory MPs supporting Theresa May’s deal she has one breakthrough: enough tellers for her #Brexit vote
From the Labour MP Mary Creagh
Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister and ERG vice chair, says this backstop is “completely intolerable”. MPs will not vote for it. So will May trigger all no-deal planning now?
Chief whip staring at phone with face like thunder. 5 ministers gone in 3 hours.
May says MPs will get to vote on the deal, but the government is continuing no-deal planning too.
This is from CityAM’s Owen Bennett (who is writing a biography of Michael Gove.)
Nicky Morgan, the Tory pro-European who was sacked by May as education secretary, says backing the deal would be in the national interest. May welcomes her comments.
No word from @michaelgove’s team about where he is. Radio silence. Is he plotting?
Labour’s Ben Bradshaw asks if it is true that Theresa May, when she was home secretary, told the security services not to investigate Arron Banks.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminser, says to lose two Brexit secretaries in six months is chaotic. He says that May looks desperate and defeated.
May says she cannot comment on security matters.
Scotland is not even mentioned in the document, he says. Yet there are 100 references to Northern Ireland, and references to Gibraltar and the Isle of Man too. If Northern Ireland can stay in the single market, why not Scotland too? He says May is ignoring the democratic desires of Scotland.
Mark Francois, a Tory Brexiter and a member of the European Research Group, says there are 84 Tories who will vote against the deal, and the numbers are rising. The agreement was “dead on arrival”, he says. He urges May to accept the political reality.
Ken Clarke, the Conservative pro-European, asks May if she agrees that the main benefits from EU membership have come from having a completely open border. So will she agree not to give that up until we know what we are changing to?
The prime minister says when a deal gets brought back it will be for MPs to consider it, and their duty to deliver on the vote of the British people.
May says the UK has heard from business the importance of frictionless borders. That is why the future plan is based on that.
May is responding to Corbyn.
She says the government is planning for no deal.
She says there are 500 pages of legal text. It is not ill-defined.
She says the political declaration does refer to the plan to create a free trade area between the UK and the EU.
And Corbyn said there were no references to extradition in the document, she says. But she does not know what he read. There are references to extradition. And Corbyn was also wrong to say Europol was not mentioned. The document says the UK does want to continue with that, she says.
Corbyn says there is no clarity about a future immigration strategy.
After the Windrush scandal, EU nationals living in the UK need certainty.
He says parliament should not accept a false choice between no deal and this deal.
The government should withdraw this “half-baked deal” that does not have the backing of the cabinet, parliament or the country as a whole.
