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Brexit: MPs debate no-confidence motion after May's deal defeat – Politics live
Brexit: MPs debate no-confidence motion after May's deal defeat – Politics live
(about 1 hour later)
Corbyn says it was shocking that the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq had to vote last night despite being heavily pregnant.
My colleague Jessica Elgot thinks, after the confidence vote is over, Theresa May may be able to exercise more leeway.
Anna Soubry, a Conservative, makes a point of order. Was Siddiq offered a pair?
Strong sense of a holding status from May and No10. Key for the next six hours is not to say anything that would upset the apple cart in either direction. Allies are suggesting there will be much more to say later tonight.
John Bercow, the speaker, says his understanding was that Siddiq was offered a pair. But MPs have expressed their concern nonetheless, he says.
May says people voted for Brexit because they felt people were not listening to them. That is why it is important to implement the result of the referendum, she says.
(The row was about Siddiq not being able to vote by proxy. A proxy vote would have meant she was recorded as voting against. Pairing just means that someone on the other side abstains too, which would have meant Siddiq being recorded as not having voted. And Siddiq expressed reservations about pairing, because the Tories have broken pairing arrangements in the past.)
Outside the chamber Number 10 has been even more specific about customs union membership being ruled out, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.
Jeremy Corbyn is opening the no-confidence debate.
Extraordinary: Downing Street spokesman rules out giving an inch on a customs union - “The principles that govern us as we go into these talks is that we want to be able to do our own trade deals, and that is incompatible with either the or a customs union”.
He says last night the government lost the Brexit vote by more than 200 votes. No other government has lost a vote by that many. And last week the government lost a vote on the finance bill.
Ken Clarke, the Tory pro-European, says no one has told him they voted leave because they wanted to leave the customs union. Isn’t it the case that there is nowhere in the world where two close countries have open borders without some form of customs union?
He says any PM who loses a vote like this should resign.
May says people voted for a close trading relationship with the EU. But they also wanted the UK to forge new trading links with other countries.
He says this is what happened in the past. When the Liberal government lost votes on Lloyd George’s budget in 1910, it went to the country.
(That is a way is signalling that she is opposed to staying in the customs union. If the Uk were to do that, it would not be able to strike its own trade deals.)
(Corbyn is using arguments fleshed out in this Guardian article by Emily Thornberry.)
Labour’s Angela Eagle says May is offering nothing new. She is just repeating the lines to take she has been using for months.
The SNP’s Pete Wishart asks what will Labour’s Brexit policy be if there is an election: will it be for Brexit or against?
May says she has a duty to implement the referendum result.
Corbyn says Labour is a democratic party. The party will decide.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper says May seems to be talking as if she lost by 30 votes, not by 230 votes. Is May saying she will rule out under any circumstances the UK joining a customs union?
The most interesting question at Westminster today is that raised by Nicola Sturgeon earlier this morning (see 9.58am); in her cross-party talks with MPs about an alternative Brexit plan, is Theresa May willing to abandon any of her rigid red lines? To his credit, Jeremy Corbyn homed in on this in his very first question, and the topic was raised repeatedly by other MPs. (Or at least those who raised Brexit; it was surprising how many MPs seemed happy to stick with run-of-the-mill questions less than 24 hours after May broke all records for parliamentary humiliation.)
May says the government must deliver what people voted for.
As usual, instead of properly engaging with the red lines question, May instead stuck to parroting the most recent line-to-take in her memory, the text of the statement she delivered to MPs last night about wanting “constructive” talks while still honouring the result of the referendum. She would not address the question about whether she might now agree to the UK remaining in the customs union for good in any meaningful way, but her tone conveyed the clear impression that her lines remain almost as red as ever and that she is not seriously contemplating a departure from what she has already proposed.
May quotes some Labour MPs who have urged her to reach out to the opposition. Given what they have said, it would be odd for them to vote for an election, she says.
But on one issue, she did hint that she is having a rethink. Her response to Ken Clarke about extending article 50 (see 12.30am) implied that, if she is not exactly keen on extending article 50, she is at least less hostile to the idea than she was. (Some people assume that extending article 50 would automatically amount to a move in the direction of a softer Brexit, but that is not necessarily the case; she might want to extend it just to allow more time for no-deal preparations.)
May says the Commons delivered a clear message last night.
Corbyn was probably at his best when he asked about Brexit. He quite successfully exposed the hollowness of May’s offer on cross-party talks. After that, he asked about poverty and other domestic policy issues, achieving some fairly easy hits but without saying anything especially memorable.
She repeats the points she made in her response to the vote in the chamber.
The real debate about May’s domestic record will probably start shortly.
Asked by the SNP’s Stewart McDonald which of her red lines she will change, May says she answered this earlier. (See 12.36pm.) McDonald says May is guilty of “robotic fantasy”.
Sarah Wollaston, the Tory pro-European, asks May to back a second referendum. May says MPs must accept the referendum result.
May says that, however good the government’s Brexit deal was, Corbyn would vote against it.
Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, welcomes May’s offer of cross-party talks. He says, as a former coalition colleague, May knows the Lib Dems will work with others in the national interest. But May should not even lift up the phone unless she is willing to rule out a no-deal Brexit and have constructive conversation about a people’s vote.
And however bad the EU’s Brexit offer was, Corbyn would support it, she says.
May says the way to avoid no deal is to back a deal. And she says some MPs are unwilling to hold constructive talks with her.
James Morris, a Conservative, asks May to rule out a second referendum.
Labour’s Ian Lucas asks about the proposed Hitachi nuclear power station in north Wales in relation to her meeting with the Japanese PM last week.
May says the country has had a referendum. There is no guarantee an election would deliver a majority for any course of action, she says.
May says she did raise this topic. But it is for the company to make a commercial decision about whether or not to go ahead, she says.
Mark Francois, the Tory Brexiter, says he and May do not agree on Europe. But he says that when the vote is called, the whole of the European Research Group (the Brexiter faction that has opposed May’s Brexit policy) will be voting with her.
The Conservative Nicky Morgan asks May if she agrees that all MPs need to maintain maximum flexibility as they look for an alternative Brexit solution.
Theresa May is responding now.
May says she will approach the talks in a constructive spirit. But it is important to honour the referendum result, she says.
MPs are being asked a simple question, she says. Should there be an election? But that would deepen divisions, she says.
Labour’s Ronnie Campbell says a recent survey said 4 million workers were living in poverty. Will May call a general election?
She says the people want MPs to get on with implementing Brexit. An election would prevent this. It would mean article 50 having to be extended, she says, and it would create uncertainty.
May repeats the point about the number of people in absolute poverty being at a record low.
The SNP’s Stewart McDonald asks May which of her red lines she is willing to give up.
May says she will approach these talks in a constructive spirit. But the government has to deliver on the result of the referendum, she says.
Phillip Lee, a Conservative pro-Euroepan who resigned as a minister because he opposed May’s deal, asks May if she accepts that she may now have to change her mind about her Brexit plan.
May says she will be talking to a wide range of MPs.
Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi asks about the drug primodos, and research showing it caused deformities.
May says a minister is leading a review looking at what impact it had. That study will be considered very carefully.
Tracey Crouch, a Conservative, asks about apprentices. May says she has met many young people who say that is the right approach for them.
