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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)
My colleague Jessica Elgot thinks, after the confidence vote is over, Theresa May may be able to exercise more leeway. Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, has said that it is not “automatic” that Labour would back a second referendum if it fails to trigger a general election.
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. Speaking at a conference in Westminster this morning held by Social Enterprise UK, she said that “all options are on the table and that includes a peoples vote,” although only in the event the party cannot force an election first.
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. Describing the party’s Brexit policy agreed at the Labour party conference, she said
Outside the chamber Number 10 has been even more specific about customs union membership being ruled out, my colleague Heather Stewart reports. Now, it wasn’t an automatic lets go straight to a peoples vote. It was a determination to consider all of the options. There will be a lot of discussion after tonight about what happens next.
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”. Long-Bailey, who said Labour was still working for a “successful outcome” in tonight’s vote, said she could “completely understand” why supporters of a second referendum were angry after two years of “chaos” from the government.
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? However, she insisted that Labour still need to look at other options before throwing its weight behind the people’s vote campaign.
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. I think our position certainly hasn’t moved dramatically from respecting the referendum and wanting to exhaust all of the possibilities that are available to us. But equally I think we’ve got a duty to make sure that we don’t hurtle towards a no-deal Brexit. We’ve got to do everything in our power to stop that as well.
(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.) What we want to see is a general election. Because it’s not just Brexit that’s an issue, and managing to have a government that’s in power who can negotiate productively with the EU and get a deal that would provide consensus. It’s also about dealing with all the other issues - the economic flaws that we currently see in our economy.
Labour’s Angela Eagle says May is offering nothing new. She is just repeating the lines to take she has been using for months. Here is a Guardian graphic showing the timetable if Theresa May wins her confidence vote tonight (as everyone expects she will):
May says she has a duty to implement the referendum result. And here is the timetable in the unlikely event of her losing:
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? Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, has denied having secret plans to introduce checks at the border with Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports.
May says the government must deliver what people voted for. Irish PM denies having secret no-deal Brexit plan for border checks
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. The Scottish government is stepping up its preparations for a hard, no-deal Brexit, including a public information campaign and contingency plans to ensure medicines, food supplies and transport are protected, its Brexit minister has said.
May says the Commons delivered a clear message last night. Mike Russell, the Scottish constitutional affairs secretary, told MSPs in an emergency statement at Holyrood his devolved government was poised to expand its rapid response team of civil servants preparing for a hard Brexit. A public information campaign was in the final stages of development, he added.
She repeats the points she made in her response to the vote in the chamber. He continued:
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”. We’re making initial decisions on issues such as medicine, medical devices and clinical consumables stockpiling, emergency transportation, support for supply chains, diversion of local produce and a host of other issues.
May says that, however good the government’s Brexit deal was, Corbyn would vote against it. All of this activity has become a significant focus of our resources and efforts, as it has to be for a responsible government. However, it remains something that the UK could and should choose to remove as a risk, and as a cost, today.
And however bad the EU’s Brexit offer was, Corbyn would support it, she says. I will post a summary from the opening of the debate shortly. After that I won’t be covering all the speeches, but I will post any highlights, as well as keeping up with all the other Brexit developments.
James Morris, a Conservative, asks May to rule out a second referendum. May says a general election will not help the country find a solution to Brexit. And a Labour government would not help either, she says.
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. She says the government is fighting injustices, And, as it leaves the EU, the country must raise its ambitions.
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. She is proud of what the government has achieved. The government has the confidence of the country. Now it is asking for the confidence of MPs too, she says.
Theresa May is responding now. And that is it. May has finished her speech.
MPs are being asked a simple question, she says. Should there be an election? But that would deepen divisions, she says. Labour’s Liam Byrne says May has built “a cage of red lines” around her Brexit policy. That led to her deal being rejected last night.
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 says she will talk to a range of MPs across the Commons to find what will secure their support.
She says Byrne intervened just as she was getting to the point in her speech where she was going to talk about the economy. Byrne was the Labour Treasury who left a note for the Tories saying there as no money left.
Byrne says he was leaving a note for his successor in accordance with a tradition going back to Churchill. He was proud to be part of a Labour Treasury team that stopped a depression, he says. He says the Tories backed Labour’s spending plans. And now, under the Tories, the debate has double.
May says, when Russia launched a chemical weapons attack on the streets of Salisbury, she said Russia should be held to account. Corbyn wanted the nerve agent to be sent to Russia so Moscow could say whether or not it was responsible.
On the issue of launching a strike against Syria, May says she was in favour. But Corbyn wanted Russia to have a veto.
She says, as a backbencher, Corbyn invited IRA terrorists into the Commons after they had bombed the prime minister.
And she says he has tolerated antisemitism in the Labour party.
Peter Kyle, the Labour MP, says May is talking about engagement with MPs, but she want to court to stop the Commons having a say on triggering article 50.
May says she has frequently come to the Commons to answer questions about her Brexit policy.
May says the government is building a country that is fairer and that works for everyone. It will carry on doing that, acting in the national interest, she says.
She says she wants to engage with opposition MPs on Brexit. The question is, will the Labour leadership rise to the occasion. She fears that they won’t, she says. She says Jeremy Corbyn is not showing leadership. All he is offering is vague aspirations, she says.
She says last night Corbyn said it was important, not just to be against something, but to be for something too. But Corbyn did not say what. And on Sunday, when asked what he would campaign for in regard to Brexit at an election, Corbyn refused five times to say, she adds.