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Brexit: Corbyn says he will table no-confidence motion 'at the appropriate time' – Politics live | Brexit: Corbyn says he will table no-confidence motion 'at the appropriate time' – Politics live |
(35 minutes later) | |
In the Commons debate Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Wesminster, is speaking now. He says pulling the vote yesterday was an act of “pathetic cowardice” by Theresa May. | |
The SNP’s Tommy Sheppard intervenes. He says May is engaged in a “sordid exercise to placate the ultra rightwing of her own party”. Blackford agrees. | |
Brussels will “finalise” their plans on no-deal planning in the next few weeks, Ireland’s taoiseach has said during leaders’ questions in the Dail. | |
Leo Varadkar indicated he could not flick the switch on Ireland’s contingency planning until the EU’s plans were complete and they “won’t be finalised until the middle of January”. | |
He rejected calls from Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald to press the button on a referendum on the future place of Northern Ireland. | |
Under the Good Friday agreement a poll in Ireland and Northern Ireland can be called at anytime to determine the future place of the state, whether in the UK or part of united Ireland. | |
Lidington says there are also those who want a second referendum to reverse Brexit. | |
They have to accept that this would certainly be devisive, but that it might not be decisive. | |
When the issue comes back to the Commons, MPs will have hard decisions to take, he says. | |
Lidington says there are “home truths” that need to be faced, by some Tory and Labour MPs. | |
Some argue the UK could just leave the EU and trade on WTO terms. But that would do serious harm to manufacturing sectors. A sudden severance of preferential trade access in four months time would be hugely damaging, he says. | |
He also says that, if people want a trade deal, the withdrawal agreement is an essential gateway to that deal. And a backstop will have to be part of the agreement, he says. | |
Lidington says Corbyn needs to clarify his own Brexit position. | |
He says Corbyn wants the UK to be in the customs union, but for the UK to be able to do its own trade deals. That is not possible, Lidington says. | |
He says Corbyn claims a customs union for the UK would solve the backstop problem. But it would not. | |
And Corbyn wants a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU, but without signing up to EU state aid rules. That is impossible too, Lidington says. | |
Labour’s Hilary Benn, chair of the Brexit committee, asks if there will be a new debate when Theresa May comes back with her revised deal? Or will the Commons just go ahead with the last two days of the debate that has already happened. | |
Lidington says that is a fair question. He says the default position at the moment is that the debate will pick up where it left off (which would mean MPs who have already spoken cannot speak again). But he says it will depend on what is in the deal, and whether it is deemed necessary to have to start the debate all over again. | |
Lidington says government has not decided to whether the Brexit debate will resume from where it left off, or whether a new debate will start from scratch. | |
Douglas Ross, a Conservative, asks if the delay means the immigration white paper will get published before the debate resumes. | |
Lidington says he spoke to Sajid Javid, the home secretary, about that today. He says Javid said he would be ready to publish that very soon. | |
Labour’s Stephen Doughty asks if Lidington or any member of the cabinet has seen the codicil to the deal that May is hoping to agree. (Earlier Doughty said that this has already been drafted - see 2.13pm.) | |
Lidington says he cannot comment on cabinet discussions. | |
Lidington says the government will bring this back for a vote by 21 January at the latest. | |
That is a deadline, not a target, he says. | |
Lidington says there is a wish in the Commons to bring this matter to a head. | |
He says the the remaining stages of the main Brexit debate, and the vote, have not been cancelled. They have just been deferred. And the business of the House motion going with it remains in force. | |
The DUP MP Gavin Robinson says that only a “fundamental alternation of the text” of the Brexit deal in relation to the backstop will be acceptable to his party. And he says the DUP will want to see legal advice from the attorney general confirming that. | |
Lidingon says May said yesterday that nothing as being ruled out. | |
Ivan Lewis, the independent MP, says ministers do not even know themselves whether they are telling the truth, because they are not being told the truth by the prime ministers. | Ivan Lewis, the independent MP, says ministers do not even know themselves whether they are telling the truth, because they are not being told the truth by the prime ministers. |
Labour’s Angela Eagle says May has “shredded her credibility”. MPs find it impossible to believe what she says, Eagle says. | Labour’s Angela Eagle says May has “shredded her credibility”. MPs find it impossible to believe what she says, Eagle says. |
Lidington says he does not accept that. | Lidington says he does not accept that. |