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Brexit minister tells MPs they will have meaningful vote on 'plan B' – Politics live Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn opens debate criticising government for postponing key vote – Politics live
(35 minutes later)
Labour’s Stephen Doughty says the problem for Walker is that MPs don’t believe anything the government says anymore. Unusually, MPs are now voting on the 10-minute rule motion from Norman Lamb. He is proposing a bill legalising cannabis.
This means the emergency Brexit debate will not start for another 15 minutes.
This is from my colleague Heather Stewart.
I understand Jeremy Corbyn has postponed his meeting with the SNP's @IanBlackfordMP this afternoon - at which Blackford was expected to push for Labour to table a no confidence vote.
Jeremy Corbyn is about to open the emergency debate on Brexit and “the government’s management of the meaningful vote”.
It is an emergency debate under standing order 24, and in these debates the motion cannot be amended. The motion will go through unopposed at the end.
SO24 motions are meant to be relatively neutral, but this one does include criticism of the government. It says:
That this House has considered the prime minister’s unprecedented decision not to proceed with the final two days of debate and the meaningful vote, despite the House’s Order of Tuesday 4 December 2018, and her failure to allow this House to express its view on the government’s deal or her proposed negotiating objectives, without the agreement of this House.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has indicated Labour will resist pressure from other opposition parties, including the SNP, to table a no confidence motion imminently. (see 10.42am.) At a briefing for journalists, he said:
We’ll put one down when we can win it. We’ll make a judgment. The prime minister’s going off to see what she can get in terms of renegotiations or whatever – we’ll see what she brings back.
He went on to question the motives of the SNP, saying:
Who can delve into the mind of Nicola Sturgeon, but my view is that what they want is to lose a vote of no confidence, and then avoid a general election, because they know we’re breathing down their necks in Scotland and take seats off them.
McDonnell said Labour would keep the issue of when to table a motion of no confidence under review, and “it will be a fine judgment each day.”
Labour’s Debbie Abrahams says all trust in the government has broken down.
Labour’s Karen Buck asks why MPs should believe him about there being a vote before 21 January when the government did not keep its word on the vote this week.
Walker says the government wants to abide by the spirit and the letter of the law.
Labour’s Andrew Slaughter asks why the vote cannot be held before the Christmas recess.
Walker says he would like it to be held before 21 January.
Labour’s Stephen Doughty says the problem for Walker is that MPs don’t believe anything the government says anymore. He also asks if any EU leaders were told the vote was being pulled in advance, but Walker does not respond to that.
Doughty’s question seems to have been inspired by this BuzzFeed story, saying “top European Union officials were told by May on Sunday that she intended to postpone the parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, some 24 hours before she informed all her cabinet ministers.”
Labour’s Vernon Coaker asks for an assurance that there are “absolutely no circumstances” in which MPs will be denied a vote on the deal. He says there is very little trust in the government.Labour’s Vernon Coaker asks for an assurance that there are “absolutely no circumstances” in which MPs will be denied a vote on the deal. He says there is very little trust in the government.
Walker says he is happy to give that assurance. There will be a vote, he says.Walker says he is happy to give that assurance. There will be a vote, he says.
Labour’s Lisa Nandy asks for an assurance that the government will explore every option, including extending article 50, rather than allowing a no deal Brexit.Labour’s Lisa Nandy asks for an assurance that the government will explore every option, including extending article 50, rather than allowing a no deal Brexit.
Walker says Theresa May is trying to get a good deal through parliament.Walker says Theresa May is trying to get a good deal through parliament.
Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, says MPs won’t be satisfied with Walker’s assurances. He says MPs learnt yesterday that assurances can go up “in a puff of smoke”.
Walker says the government is committed to making a statement about its future intentions (which is at the point that the Grieve amendment would allow MPs to have a say, by tabling amendments) either in the case of there being no deal, or in the case of the deal being voted down.
Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general who tabled the amendment last week saying that, if the deal gets voted down, MPs will be able to have a say on what happens next by tabling amendments to the government motion, asks if his amendment is now accepted by the government.
Walker says it is.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow solicitor general, says the reassurance given by Robin Walker means nothing without a legal opinion from the attorney general backing it up.
Walker says there will be a meaningful vote.
Nicky Morgan, the Conservative chair of the Treasury committee, asks for an assurance that there will be “no trickery by the government to stop parliament having a say”.
Walker says he can give that assurance.
The Labour MP Yvette Cooper says Walker’s assurances are not satisfactory.
She says the government should give MPs a written assurance that, if MPs have not had a vote by then, it will allow one.
She says oral assurances are not enough. She says ministers repeatedly said there would be a vote yesterday until they pulled the vote.
Walker says Cooper came to the Commons expecting a row.
He says the government will put a motion to the Commons by 21 January.
He also says he “fully expects” the vote to take place sooner.
He urges MPs not to believe the conspiracy theories about this.
Robin Walker, the Brexit minister, is now responding to Yvette Cooper’s urgent question about the meaningful vote. (See 11.25am.)
He says he accepts there was some debate about this yesterday.
He says the government is committed to holding the Brexit vote before 21 January.
He says that, if the deal is defeated, the government will bring forward a motion, and MPs will get a vote.
And if for any reason there is no deal agreed by then, then the government will make a statement and allow a vote.
Walker insists MPs will definitely get a “meaningful vote” on Brexit.
Sir John Major has called for article 50 to be revoked immediately.
In his second speech in Ireland in as many days, the former prime minister told the Institute of International and European Affairs, that the people of Northern Ireland would be the first to lose if old enmities were awoken.
John Major, speaking at #iiea now, says nobody wants chaos. Revoke Article 50 with ‘immediate effect’ he urges. pic.twitter.com/QGGmBAX2fP
Last night he told a separate Irish audience that “a hard border, now or at the end of a long transition period or at any time would be disastrous. Peace isn’t secure, it never is and any new border would be a focus for the wild men on the fringes to reactivate old disputes and hatreds that should be laid to rest forever.”
The Met police have issued this statement about the incident at the Houses of Parliament where a man was tasered.
A man was arrested by Carriage Gates, inside the Palace of Westminster, on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site at around 11.55hrs on Tuesday, 11 December. A Taser was deployed. Enquiries into the circumstances continue. https://t.co/bzmTJwgLVU pic.twitter.com/NIujTT61eT
On the subject of a referendum, Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, now sees that as more likely than any of the other possible resolutions to the Brexit crisis.
My take on Brexit probabilities. UK leaves with no deal, 15% chance. Parliament finally passes May's deal, slightly modified with EU 'assurances', 20%. Or it passes the deal with new political declaration sketching Norway, 20%. General election, 15%. Referendum, 30%. @CER_EU