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Brexit vote: MPs told they face choice between order and 'chaos' as May heads for huge defeat – Politics live
Brexit vote: Juncker clears diary for possible emergency talks with May in Brussels – Politics live
(35 minutes later)
Turning away from the debate for a moment, the Vote Leave campaign group has lost its bid to bring a High Court challenge against the Electoral Commission. As the Press Association reports, the group wanted to challenge the commission’s decision to publish a report in July last year, following an investigation into spending by leave-supporting groups during the EU Referendum campaign. The report said Vote Leave broke electoral law. Lawyers for Vote Leave argued there had been “reputational damage” suffered by the group’s officials as a result of the report being issued. But, following a hearing today, Mr Justice Swift refused permission for a judicial review, saying the publication of the report was within the commission’s powers.
Nick Boles, the Conservative who has said it will do what it takes to stop a no-deal Brexit, has recorded another threat he has received.
In the debate Ben Bradshaw, the Labour former cabinet minister, says he might have been willing to back a Norway option a year ago. But Theresa May has wasted time. Now he thinks the country needs a general election, or a referendum. He says the country is facing an economic and constitutional crisis, and says he hopes that there will be a no confidence vote tomorrow.
Today someone called and promised to burn my house down. What ever next? The ducking stool?
The Press Association has more on European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s decision to return to Brussels for possible emergency talks tomorrow. (See 3.27pm.) The PA reports:
You can read the debate online here on the Hansard website. Transcripts go up around three hours after they have been delivered in the chamber. The whole of the Geoffrey Cox speech is now up, but nothing after that yet.
Jean-Claude Juncker has pulled out of an event in Strasbourg on Wednesday because the Brexit vote in the Commons means he has to remain in Brussels, a European commissioner has said.
Sir Edward Leigh, a Tory Brexiter, is now speaking in the debate. He explains what his amendment would do. (See 2.47pm.) He says he does not accept that it would be counter to international law. The government could agree the withdrawal agreement, subject to a letter of reservation, he says. He says he has tried to cooperate with the government, and says he was disappointed by the way Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, slapped him down. (See 1.46pm.)
The commission president had been due to take part in a debate on the future of Europe with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez but has been replaced by his deputy Frans Timmermans.
Leigh says, if his amendment fails, he reserves the right to vote against the government. But he stresses that he does not want to be voting with people opposed to Brexit. He urges the government instead to back his plan. If it does, the Conservative party can unite behind that position, he says.
Pierre Moscovici, commissioner for economic and financial affairs, told a press conference today: “President Juncker would have liked to have attended the debate, but the circumstances of it, which I am sure you are aware of, the vote in another country... I’m talking about Brexit.
Frank Field, the former Labour MP who sits as an independent, tells MPs that he has changed his mind, and that he will be supporting the deal. Field, who voted leave, says he is worried that if this deal gets voted down, Brexit could be lost. But he says he still believes there is a need for a Dardanelles-type inquiry into how the Brexit process has been handled so badly.
“President Juncker needed to be in Brussels and that is why Vice President Timmermans is standing in.”
Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, says the Brexit deal is a terrible deal. And MPs should not be blackmailed into voting for it because of the threat of no deal as an alternative, she says.
The Daily Mirror is reporting that an RAF plane is on standby to take Theresa May to Brussels tomorrow for emergency talks. (Cynics point out that RAF plans are always on standby, for anything.)
Labour’s Lisa Nandy says it beggars belief that the government does not know what it wants. She proposes using a citizens’ assembly to establish a plan acceptable to the public.
Labour’s Alison McGovern says offering the public to make a choice as to whether the Brexit they are being offered matches the Brexit they were promised in the referendum is probably the only way forward.
Tom Brake, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, says a no-deal Brexit is unacceptable. The EU will not re-open negotiations, he says. So the only option is a people’s vote.
This is from the BBC’s Ross Hawkins.
Owen Paterson, the Tory Brexiter, goes next. He starts by pointing out that it was the Lib Dems as a party who first demanded an in/out referendum on Europe, at the time of the Lisbon treaty.
Cons Mps anticipating 80-100 defeat; expect no con vote tomorrow; some who want no deal v happy with May in her place, think she’s only running down the clock cos she can’t do anything else; ministers thinking Lab votes could be only way out. Situation: 😱
(Paterson is right. The Lib Dems, like the Conservatives, has been in favour of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. But when it looked as if the Labour government might actually lose a vote on a call for a referendum on the treaty, the then Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg changed policy and said there should be an in/out referendum on the EU instead. Clegg, a pro-European, managed through this ruse to sabotage the proposed Lisbon treaty referendum, but the Lib Dem support for an in/out referendum became a policy liability for the party.)
Shailesh Vara, a Conservative, says he resigned as minister because of his opposition to Theresa May’s deal. It is not a compromise, he says, it’s a cave-in
This is from Alex Wickham, who has been counting potential Tory rebels for BuzzFeed.
And here is another line from Dominic Grieve.
Down to 113 rebelsNeil Parish switches to support the dealhttps://t.co/vrKozHYrY6
Quote of the day is Grieve on Cox:"Entertaining as it was..it filled me with a slight sense of gloom to see that the government had got to such a pass that it had to rely on the skills of a criminal defence advocate to get it out of its difficulties."
Justine Greening, the Conservative former education secretary, says it has been obvious since last summer that Theresa May would lose this vote. She says she thinks Brexit will have to be delayed, and calls for the people to get a vote.
People’s Vote and no-deal Brexit supporters were demonstrating side-by-side outside Parliament as they joined forces to oppose Theresa May’s apparently doomed deal to leave the European Union.
Turning away from the debate for a moment, the Vote Leave campaign group has lost its bid to bring a high court challenge against the Electoral Commission. As the Press Association reports, the group wanted to challenge the commission’s decision to publish a report in July last year, following an investigation into spending by leave-supporting groups during the EU referendum campaign. The report said Vote Leave broke electoral law. Lawyers for Vote Leave argued there had been “reputational damage” suffered by the group’s officials as a result of the report being issued. But, following a hearing today, Mr Justice Swift refused permission for a judicial review, saying the publication of the report was within the commission’s powers.
Hundreds of demonstrators were standing in Parliament Square, outside the gates of the Palace of Westminster and by the College Garden, flying European flags and Union Jacks, and placards calling for every kind of possible permutation of a deal, except the one arranged by the prime minister.
Cars beeped their horns as they passed the groups standing on pavements. At one point a phalanx of no-deal Brexit supporters marched into the middle of a group of remain campaigners and burned an EU flag. The scene was animated but peaceful.
#NoDealBrexit supporters burn European flag after marching into the middle of #PeoplesVoteNow rally opposite Parliament#BrexitVote #MeaningfulVote #PeoplesVote pic.twitter.com/O4qkA0aost
Alex Kay, 60, the mayor of Bradford on Avon, who stood with two friends on the green behind Westminster Abbey, said she hoped tonight’s vote on whether to accept the deal would be “the beginning of the end of Brexit.”
Her friend Maria af Sanderberg, 47, a Swede who has lived in the UK for 20 years, said:
It’s astonishing that with this bad deal - which is much worse than staying in the EU - [May] has managed to unite the remainers and the brexiteers against he, which is actually an irony of perfection.
Maria af Sandenberg, 47, left, from Chesham: "It's astonishing that with this bad deal May has managed to unite Remainers and Brexiters against her." #Brexit #BrexitVote #PeoplesVote pic.twitter.com/YxHH03T8Fd
Closer to the gates of the palace, Philip Hodson, 60, from Newmarket in Suffolk, stood holding a placard reading: “Uphold our English constitution.”
“I hope the outcome will be no deal, and that’s the most important thing,” he said. “We should leave straight away and then Europe will come looking for us for a deal.
Philip Hodson, 60, from Suffolk: "Remainers and leavers are together... Everybody recognises this is a terrible, terrible deal."#NoDealBrexit #PeoplesVote #MeaningfulVote #Brexit #BrexitVote pic.twitter.com/uUvSnBtOcg
The reason this deal should be thrown out is it’s offering £39bn to the EU for nothing. It’s taking away our right to vote in the EU and our veto, while leaving us subject to its rules.
That’s why most remainers and leavers are together … Everybody recognises this is a terrible, terrible deal. A child could get a better deal.
Dominic Grieve, the Tory pro-European who has been leading attempts to get parliament to block a no-deal Brexit, is speaking now.
He says Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, referred to the withdrawal agreement as an “airlock” for the UK before it entered “the fields of ambrosia”. Grieve says that he thinks, once the UK leaves the airlock, it is more likely the the UK will “choke to death”.
He says the UK has been living in a “fools’ paradise” since the referendum. Where was the reference to the backstop during the referendum, he asks.
He says that it is no surprise that only 20% of the public now favour Theresa May’s deal.
And he accuses Downing Street of briefing against him at the end of last week. No 10 claimed that Grieve was involved in a scheme promoted by Sir Oliver Letwin to change Commons procedural rules, despite the fact that he had no involvement, Grieve says.
He restates his support for a second referendum and says that he is still getting death threats as a result of his stance against Brexit.
Nicky Morgan, the Conservative pro-European, told MPs in her speech in the debate that, if Theresa May loses, she should abandon her plan.
This is from the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge.
President Juncker is travelling back to Brussels because he needs to be in town tomorrow morning to deal with ‘emergency’ Brexit-related business, Commissioner Moscovici announces. Looks likely we can expect a flying visit from the PM for (yet more) crisis talks.
