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Brexit: 71 Labour MPs call for party to firmly commit to second referendum - Politics live Brexit: May faces Corbyn at PMQs ahead of no-confidence vote – Politics live
(43 minutes later)
The first ministers of Scotland and Wales, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford, have urged Theresa May to arrange an urgent meeting with them in an effort to jointly agree a way out of the Brexit impasse. 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.
As she arrived at Westminster to meet Scottish National party MPs, Sturgeon released a letter she had sent May calling for the prime minister to host a joint ministerial committee involving all four of the UK’s governments (although Northern Ireland would be represented by UK civil servants since Stormont’s power-sharing government is suspended). May says she will be talking to a wide range of MPs.
Sturgeon said Drakeford was also calling on May to arrange a JMC, and told May: Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi asks about the drug primodos, and research showing it caused deformities.
Your government has now clearly failed to bring the country together in support of your proposed deal. It is time to recognise that reality and change course, starting with a new approach which seeks to find a way forward by genuinely involving the four nations of the UK. May says a minister is leading a review looking at what impact it had. That study will be considered very carefully.
Up until now, despite stated intentions, the UK government has taken little or no account of the views of the people of Scotland or the position of the Scottish government. Tracey Crouch, a Conservative, ask about apprentices. May says she has met many young people who say that is the right approach for them.
[It] is important, contrary to our experience of the past two and a half years, that such a meeting must be more than window dressing. Urgent and meaningful discussions are needed in the next days to agree a way forward which can command a majority in the House of Commons, and which has the confidence and support of the devolved administrations. Ken Clarke, the Tory pro-European, says he listened to many hours of the Brexit debate. He says the only proposals for which there was majority support were rejecting no deal, extending article 50, and some form of customs union with the EU. Just as he has had to accept the need to leave the EU, will May accept the need to modify her red lines too?
The Scottish government believes that the best way of resolving the current impasse is to negotiate an extension to the article 50 period and hold a second EU referendum. Given the rejection of your deal we will now be intensifying work towards the achievement of that aim. May says it is because there are so many views that she is holding discussions with MPs. She says article 50 cannot be extended by the UK on its own. The EU would only extend article 50 if there were a plan moving towards a deal, she says.
Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, and Michael Gove, the environment secretary, will close the no-confidence debate tonight. Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May will open it, obviously. Labour’s Roberta Blackman-Woods asks about health inequalities. People in Durham have worse outcomes than people in Windsor. So why is spending on public health being cut?
There are no UQs or Statements today. After PMQs and the ten minute rule bill, at around 1pm @jeremycorbyn will open the #NoConfidenceVote debate. Theresa May will respond. The closing speeches around 630pm will be from @tom_watson and @michaelgove with the vote at 7pm. May says the public health budget will be decided in the spending review. But it is not just the public health budget that affects people’s health.
Some 71 Labour MPs, and 13 MEPs, have signed a public statement calling for a second referendum on Brexit. They argue that it is time for the party to commit to a second referendum and that a Brexit renegotiation, which at the moment is what Jeremy Corbyn is proposing, is “not a realistic prospect”. Helen Grant, a Conservative, asks May if she agrees that if MPs fail to deliver on the referendum, the public perception of politicians will be at an all-time low.
Here is an extract from the statement. May says she agrees. “We need to deliver Brexit for the British people.”
We represent hugely diverse constituencies from the North to the South, from Wales to Scotland. Many of our constituencies voted to Leave in 2016. We must listen to and respond to the reasons why people did so. Labour’s Seema Malhotra says last night May said she would hold talks with MPs in a constructive spirit. But now it seems she just wants to invite them in to tell them her deal is best. Is she prepared to change any of her red lines?
But we now face a moment of national crisis, where the facts and the views of many people have changed - and are continuing to change. Mays says she will meet with parliamentarians, and look to see what can get the support of this House. But what this House must have in mind is the importance of delivering on the referendum result.
It is now clear renegotiation is not a realistic prospect. No deal would be a catastrophe which we must resolutely oppose. The Government should seek an extension to Article 50 to provide time for Parliament to find a way forward. Theresa May has failed to bring this country back together. Trudy Harrison, a Conservative, asks May if she will meet with workers from the nuclear power plant in Copeland.
Labour’s conference adopted a clear policy for this situation. May says she is aware of how important the nuclear industry is in Cumbria. She suggests Harrison meets with a business minister.
We must try and remove this Government from office as soon as possible. But the removal of the Government and pushing for a General Election may prove impossible, so we must join Trade Unions, our members and a majority of our constituents by then unequivocally backing the only logical option to help our country move forward: putting the decision back to the people for a final say, in a public vote, with the option to stay and keep the deal that we have. Labour’s Peter Kyle says May’s defeat yesterday was historic and Titanic. Everything has changed, and May must change too. If May is not going to give people the power to have a say over this deal, then what has become of her promise to empower people.
Defeat of the Tory deal in a public vote would give us all a chance to campaign for the anti-austerity policies and a Labour government that deals with the true causes of the Brexit vote, and a reformed Europe that works for all people. May says people voted to leave the EU in 2016. She thinks the government, and parliament, have a duty to deliver on that.
The organisers say another 24 Labour MPs have publicly backed a second referendum, but haven’t signed today’s statement for administrative reasons. Jeremy Lefroy, a Conservative, says the government has committed vast amounts of money to the NHS. But can May look at home money is allocated to CCGs [clinical commissioning groups].
There is a full list of the MPs and MEPs who have signed the statement here. May says changes have been made to the CCG allocations for 2019-20.
The initiative is intended to put pressure on Corbyn to commit the party to back a second referendum. Under the carefully-negotiated compromise position agreed at party conference, the party is committed to calling for a general election first, with “all options remaining on the table” if an election does not happen, “including campaigning for a public vote”. Campaigners for a “people’s vote” believe that, if the government wins the no confidence vote tonight, Corbyn will no longer have any reason not to back a second referendum, although Corbyn has serious reservations about this approach and he does not seem keen commit the party to backing second referendum legislation in any great hurry. Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said yesterday the attorney general said any new deal would be much the same as the old one. Will she admit that plan B will be much the same as plan A?
Speaking to the Guardian, the Greek MEP Stelios Koulouglou said Theresa May’s humiliating defeat last night highlighted the extent to which Britain had become a case study in the perils of nationalist demagogy. He said: May says she wants to hold talks with parliamentarians to find out what will get the support of the house. But she repeats the point about honouring the result of the referendum.
It has become a case study of how nationalist demagogy can destroy a country. It will be taught in universities. It is dreadful to see what is happening. Blackford says May has failed. It is an omnishambles. Westminster may have failed, but Scotland is united. She says the PM must seek the confidence of the people. May should extend article 50 and ask the people if they want her deal or remain. She should legislate for a people’s vote.
While insisting there was no desire whatsoever in Brussels for concessions, Koulouglou did not exclude Britain’s exit from the EU being extended. “Nobody wants to change the content of the agreement,” said the MEP, who represents Athen’s ruling leftist party Syriza. “There is absolutely no chance of that happening but there would be a will to extend the withdrawal if it meant avoiding the chaos of a disorderly Brexit.” May says the Commons legislated for a people’s vote in 2016.
The Greek media have watched the tortuous Brexit negotiations with dismay after its own near-brush with Grexit and today there is rare agreement that Britain has entered unchartered waters. Robert Goodwill, a Conservative, asks about the ”northern powerhouse”, and company selling exports to China.
“There is astonishment that a democracy as old as Britain has got itself into such a dead-end,” the prominent commentator told the Guardian. May says she has met this company. She cannot talk about its China contract, but this is what the northern powerhouse is about.
It’s the sort of mess that Greece would get into. The feeling across the media, with the exception of the eurosceptic press, is that London should reconsider other options, like putting the whole idea on hold. Corbyn says May knows his Brexit policy – he wants a customs union with the EU.
The Syntaktwn paper, which often reflects the views of prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s government, predicted that, while May would probably survive tonight’s confidence vote, the most likely scenario was an extension of the country’s exit date until July “in order to give London more time”. One of the problems with the government is its disregard for statistics. There are 21,000 police officers. When May was home secretary, she would not accept police cuts had an impact on crime. Will she admit she got it wrong?
The conservative Kathimerini, in particularly pessimistic mood, said the prospect of an alternative solution for the UK was far from optimistic. Citing last night’s European parliament reaction to May’s humiliating defeat, it underlined the dangers of a disorderly Brexit. May defends her Home Office record. Corbyn only talks about money, she says. What matters also is what powers the police get. She says Corbyn consistently voted against more powers for the police.
Here is Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, with her MPs outside the Houses of Parliament. Corbyn says a Labour government properly funded the police. Ask people if they feel safer now. We know that the answer will be, she says. He rattles of a list of areas where the government is failing, and it has failed on the most important issue, Brexit. Every previous PM would have resigned after last night’s defeat.
Nicola Sturgeon says no sign Theresa May has any idea how to end logjam in Parly or will abandon red lines. Wants extension of Article 50 as first step and then another referendum.... pic.twitter.com/BaRti1Yp2q May says Corbyn has been calling for an election for weeks. Yet on Sunday, when asked if he would campaign to leave the EU in an election campaign, Corbyn refused to answer. He has let antisemitism run riot in his party. He would abandon our allies and wreck the economy. We will never let that happen, she says.
Mairead McGuinness, the vice-president of the European parliament, has said it would be wrong to start blaming Ireland’s insistence on the backstop for Theresa May’s historic defeat.
“We must not allow a narrative to evolve that this is an Irish problem and can be resolved by the backstop [being removed],” she told the Irish radio station Shannonside after chairing a debate in the parliament on Thursday morning.
McGuinness, who is an Irish MEP, said it was not up to the EU to “decipher” what deal can emerge from a House of Commons riven with “hard Brexiters and ardent remainers and those in between”.
In the radio interview, she said would not take lessons on the backstop from the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, a man who had power but refused to use it to help seal a Brexit deal.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, is to meet Scottish National party MPs in London later as they sketch out their tactics after May’s crushing defeat in the Commons, with the first minister urging May to extend article 50.
Sturgeon tweeted earlier this morning she was travelling down from Edinburgh in advance of tonight’s confidence vote at Westminster, where the SNP will vote against May. (See 9.58am.) The prime minister called her on Tuesday evening after her Brexit deal was voted down, but it appears neither is shifting ground.
Sturgeon has reiterated her demands for a second Brexit referendum – a proposal the SNP now formally backs after some prevarication, but also said the crisis at Westminster underscored the case for independence.
The first minister’s trip to London is very largely presentational: the SNP’s position on Brexit has been fixed for some months and, unlike Labour and the Tories, there are no open splits on policy or tactics in her Westminster group that require Sturgeon’s hands-on involvement.
And in keeping with the febrile atmosphere dominating UK politics, the Brexit crisis allows Sturgeon to shift the focus in Scotland away from her own deeply damaging crisis: the controversy over her government’s handling of the sexual harassment claims against Alex Salmond.
Party sources acknowledge privately that the domestic crisis has knocked Sturgeon’s plan to capitalise on Brexit to reinvigorate the independence questions off course.
And, talking about bills, the full text of Nick Boles’s EU withdrawal (number 2) bill has been published. It is also backed by fellow Tories Nicky Morgan and Sir Oliver Letwin, Labour’s Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn, and the Lib Dem Norman Lamb. You can read it here (pdf).
Under the bill, if the Commons fails to pass a Brexit deal by 11 February, the Commons liaison committee would be asked to come up with an alternative plan by 5 March, to be put to a vote by 7 March. And if that plan were voted down, the government would then be obliged to ask the EU to extend article 50 until the end of the year.
This is designed to ensure that there could be no no-deal Brexit in 2019.
Speaking about the bill on the Today programme this morning, Letwin said it was important to come up with a plan acceptable to a majority of MPs and acceptable to the EU. He explained:
There is no point in us discussing unicorns which are items that live in fanciful forests. We have to discuss real objects.
He also criticised Theresa May for laying down firm red lines at the start of the Brexit process. He said:
[May] put down right at the beginning of this process what she called red lines.
This is not a terrain in which you can have things you will definitely never do. You have to sit down and talk and come up with a consensus. That means being much more flexible than we have been so far.
As well as the no-confidence motion in the government, something else has been tabled for the Commons today – two new bills by ever-busy Conservative backbencher Dominic Grieve seeking to bring about a second Brexit referendum.
The bills from the former attorney general call for “preparations for a referendum about the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the European Union” and provide for that referendum to happen.
Last week, Grieve joined with the Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, and the Labour MP Chuka Ummuna in publishing draft legislation on a referendum.
While Grieve last week successfully had his amendment passed to shorten the time in which May has to update MPs after losing the vote on her deal, these bills have no chance of success without official support – which is showing no signs of happening yet.
Writing in the Evening Standard on Tuesday, before May lost her vote, Grieve said:
As a strong believer that Brexit is a very damaging mistake that becomes more obvious every day, I see sound democratic reasons for asking the electorate to confirm what it wants to do. But in doing so I entirely accept that if the choice is to leave the EU then we must do so, and both choices are now implementable.
Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister and deputy chair of the European Research Group, which represents Conservatives pushing for a harder Brexit, has drafted a statement that he thinks Theresa May should make to parliament. Under the EU Withdrawal Act, now that May has lost a vote on her deal, she is obliged to return to the Commons to say what will happen next. Here is a press notice (pdf) summarising the proposed Baker draft, and here is the full document (pdf).
The statement has also been signed by 21 other Brexiter Tory MPs.
Under his plan, the UK would commit to leaving the EU on 29 March and step up planning for a no-deal Brexit, while simultaneously, as an alternative, offering the EU (effectively on a take-it-or-leave-it basis) the legal text for an EU-UK free trade deal, including a customs facilitation agreement as an alternative to the backstop.
Baker said:
The Commons rejection of the withdrawal agreement and political declaration is a great opportunity to aim for a better deal that respects the referendum result and is focused on the UK’s trading priorities. We will offer the EU a better deal and we will be ready to trade on WTO terms with the EU if they decline.
If we leave on WTO terms, we will no longer be faced with handing over £39bn for little in return, seeing our United Kingdom broken apart or being forced to follow EU laws with no say. This document sets out a firm plan to take up the EU’s March offer of a best-in-class trade agreement respecting UK priorities, the EU’s legal order and allowing the UK to develop a truly independent trade and domestic regulatory policy.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, is coming to London today for Brexit talks, she says.
Off to London to meet with @IanBlackfordMP and @theSNP MPs ahead of no confidence vote in Commons later. We want UK to stay in EU which is why we back a #PeoplesVote. But it is becoming increasingly clear that Scotland’s wider interests will only be protected with independence.
She has also posted a Tweet approving a point made by the Scottish journalist Kirsty Strickland.
This is a key point - if none of PM’s red lines change, what progress can she possibly make? https://t.co/AisbB3PRLR
At the moment it is not obvious that Theresa May will be willing to abandon her red lines. As Politico Europe reports, asked what principles would govern her approach to these cross-party talks, May’s spokesman told journalists:
We want to deliver an orderly Brexit with a deal. One that protects our union, gives us control of our borders, laws and money, and means we have an independent trade policy. It’s for others to set out their positions — but we want to identify what would be required to secure the backing of the house, consistent with what we believe to be the result of the referendum.
That does sound like a restatement of the red lines, only in slightly fuzzier terms than declared previously. The reference to a new approach being consistent with the result of the referendum implies that May will continue to rule out a second referendum. It also suggests May would have objections to a plan to keep the UK in the customs union for good - because that would stop the UK being able to strike its own trade deals.
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, was on ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning. He said he thought parliament would not allow Brexit to happen on 29 March. He said:
These are extraordinary circumstances. What you have got, probably for the first in the history of our nation, is a parliament that refuses point blank to accept the will of the people. We voted for Brexit, we backed it up in a general election the following year and a majority of the House of Commons don’t want it.
Under the legislation, 500 MPs voted for article 50. It said explicitly if we don’t get a withdrawal agreement, we just leave on 29 March. That was backed up by the Referendum Act that just said we leave on 29 March.
However, let me be honest with you, I do not believe that Mr Bercow as speaker and our parliament will allow it to happen. If you want my prediction, I believe the article 50 leaving date will be extended.
He also said it was “bizarre” that Theresa May had not resigned.
It is absolutely bizarre … the rest of the world is looking on with incredulity at what they think is a great country being led so badly, in such a shambolic way. It’s not good for our standing in the world, it’s not good for investment into Britain. We need a resolution, there is a way out. It is the legislation, we should leave on 29 March.
Here is a Guardian Opinion panel on what should happen next in the Brexit crisis, with contributions from Matthew d’Ancona, Katy Balls, Aditya Chakrabortty and Gaby Hinsliff.
How should this Brexit crisis be fixed? Our writers’ verdicts | Matthew d’Ancona and others
Ireland would not object if Britain asked for an extension to article 50, the deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, told RTE.
He also brushed aside comments caught on mic on an off-guard moment last night in which he warned a fellow politician not to talk about potential checks at the border in the event of no deal for fear of a backlash.
“We need to hold our nerve this week,” he told RTE’s Morning Ireland. The ratification “didn’t go well, clearly.”
We will have to wait and see. There is an onus on the British parliament and the British government to propose an alternative that is viable if we are going to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
Asked about the gaffe by Shane Ross, the transport minister, at yesterday evening’s no-deal contingency planning briefing by the government, when Ross said he anticipated checks on lorries coming from Scotland across the border into Ireland, Coveney said Ross had meant that there would be “minimal checks” and these could be done at sea.
In a private conversation with his transport minister caught on tape when he thought his mic was off, Coveney indicated ministers should not talk about the potential for border checks. He told Shane Ross:
Once you start talking about checks anywhere near the Border, people will start delving into that and all of a sudden we’ll be the government that reintroduced a physical border on the island of Ireland.
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Matthew Weaver.
The Andrea Leadsom Today programme interview, in which she played down the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn being included in the cross-party talks on an alternative Brexit plan that Theresa May is planning, does not seem to have gone down well.
Here is some political reaction.
From Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader:
Refusing to talk to the Leader of the Opposition and sticking to failed red lines would be a woeful failure to rise to the moment. Strongly urge the Prime Minister to try and do so.
From Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee (and exactly the sort of senior parliamentarian that May seemed to have in mind when she announced her plan for cross-party talks):
Andrea Leadsom making a mockery of Theresa May’s proposal for cross party talks this morning. Ludicrous & unworkable if PM won’t even talk to @jeremycorbyn & other party leaders. PM has to accept she failed by 230 votes - she can’t just keep digging in
And this is from Lucy Powell, another senior Labour MP:
Totally agree https://t.co/saAsEM2621
From the Labour party:
Disappointed @BBCr4today failed to correct @andrealeadsom's obviously inaccurate claim that Labour doesn't have an alternative plan. We have been promoting it for months: a new CU, a close relationship with SM, no race to the bottom on rights.
And here is some comment from journalists.
From the BBC’s Norman Smith:
Sounds like Govt's definition of "senior parliamentarians" does not include Jeremy Corbyn
Hmm...Govt decision not to delay article 50 wd seem to blow a hole in prospects for any cross party consensus.
From the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar
Leadsom argues PM *does* have a “fresh approach” by sounding out Commons to see where majority lies. But May has boxed herself in on customs union, extending article 50 and second referendum. So what’s the way forward? We already know her skills of persuasion are lacking.
From the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot
Sorry, but if the PM wants to leave with a deal but won’t budge on red lines like customs union, what exactly is she going to be talking about with these “senior parliamentarians”?