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Brexit: May tells MPs she does not have enough support to win third meaningful vote – live news
Brexit: May tells MPs she does not have enough support to win third meaningful vote – live news
(32 minutes later)
May says MPs will vote on the the statutory instrument changing the date of Brexit in the EU Withdrawal Act on Wednesday.
Chris Leslie, the Independent Group MP, asks May if she is saying she will reject a confirmatory vote if that is what MPs vote for in indicative votes.
May says people want a confirmatory vote to have remain on the ballot paper. So it would be a second referendum, she says. And that means it would defy what people voted for in the referendum.
May suggests she would refuse to accept a plan for a referendum if MPs back it in indicative votes.
Here is the full text of Theresa May’s opening statement.
Labour’s Seema Malhotra asks if May is willing to shift her red lines in response to how MPs vote in indicative votes.
May says she has aready set out her position on this.
The DUP’s Sammy Wilson says all of the government’s no-deal planning applies to Northern Ireland. He accuses May in her statement (see 3.36pm) of using Northern Ireland as an excuse for delaying Brexit.
Crispin Blunt, the Tory Brexiter, says what May said in her statement about MPs voting against no deal torpedoes her deal. He says it is the most shameful surrender by the UK since Singapore in 1942.
May says she is not taking no deal off the table.
Labour’s Stephen Doughty asks why it is acceptable for May to call three votes on her deal, but for the public to be denied a second vote.
May says the Commons has to implement the results of the referendum.
Rachel Maclean, a Conservative, asks May to confirm that the government will not hold European elections. People would find that hard to understand.
May says she agrees. But she says the only way to be sure of avoiding that is to pass her deal.
May says some MPs want her to say what she will do on 11 April if her deal is not passed. And others want her to say she will do whatever MPs ask. The two arguments are not consistent, she says.
Sarah Newton, who resigned as disabilities minister earlier this month to vote against no deal, asks if May can say any more about how she will let MPs find a way forward.
May says David Lidington will address this in his speech at the start of the debate later. But she says any plan must accept the EU’s unwillingness to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.
Labour’s Pat McFadden asks if May regrets what she said about MPs in her speech last week.
May says she was trying to make the point that it is the moment for parliament to decide.
Ken Clarke, the Tory pro-European, asks May to back away from the Tory manifesto. He says it only came out half way through the campaign. And she dropped one idea in it (the so-called “dementia tax”) very quickly.
May says, if Clarke were still a minister, he would not agree to any plan produced by parliament.
Labour’s Rachel Reeves asks May to confirm that, if she does not get her deal passed by 12 April, she will seek a longer extension of article 50.
Labour’s Rachel Reeves asks May to confirm that, if she does not get her deal passed by 12 April, she will seek a longer extension of article 50.
May says she cannot say that she will accept anything that comes up in parliament. All MPs have a duty to deliver on the manifestos on which they were elected, she says.
May says she cannot say that she will accept anything that comes up in parliament. All MPs have a duty to deliver on the manifestos on which they were elected, she says.
Mark Francois, the Tory Brexiter, says May told MPs from the despatch box on 108 occasions that the UK would leave the UK on 29 March. Now the chancellor has opened the door to a second referendum. Has she told him that she does not accept this idea?
May says she has not changed her mind on this. She believes MPs must accept the result of the first referendum.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP leader at Westminster, says May seems to be arguing for the first time that the UK needs extra time to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. Why? And he says Leo Varadkar and Michel Barnier have both said there would be no border checks in Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Why did May agree to it in the first place?
May says, when you look at the detail of what the EU has said, it is clear that EU law says checks would need to be applied.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, asks if May is ruling out negotiating the UK joining a customs union with the EU.
May says there are a number of questions that MPs need to address. What rules would the UK abide by? Would it have to abide by state aid rules? Would it have to accept free movement? She says her manifesto ruled out a customs union. She thinks it is very important for the UK to be able to strike its own trade deals.
May suggests she would not accept customs union membership even if MPs were to vote in favour.
Theresa Villiers, the Tory Brexiter, asks what would happen at the Irish border in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
May says a statement issued by the EU today says that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, all EU laws would have to be complied with.
Labour’s Hilary Benn, the chair of the Brexit committee, says if May does not hold a vote this week, the UK will either have to leave the EU on 12 April, or apply for another extension. What will she do?
May says she did say there is not enough support for another meaningful vote at the moment. But she still hopes to get that support, she says.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says people are embarrassed by this government.
He asks if May will respect the will of parliament and reject no deal.
May says Blackford should accept that the people of Scotland voted to remain in the UK.
She says votes in the Commons count. But so do the votes of the 17.4m people who voted to leave the EU.
May is responding to Corbyn.
She says she gave Corbyn an advance text of her statement. In it, she says she cannot commit to accept the result of anything decided in indicative votes.
She says no MP can commit to accepting something that contradicts the manifesto on which they were elected.
And MPs have a duty to respect the result of the referendum, she says.
Referring to the fact that “a number of people” marched on Saturday, May says Corbyn’s deputy, Tom Watson, went on the march. Corbyn normally goes on marches himself. But he did not on Saturday. Perhaps he was present but not involved, she says.
Jeremy Corbyn says the government’s approach to Brexit has become “a national embarrassment”.
He says last week’s EU summit was another negotiating failure for May.
He says she requested a short extension of article 50, even though David Lidington said that would be “reckless”.
He says it was “irresponsible” and “dangerous” for May to pit parliament against the people in her speech last week.
People are frustrated, he says. He says it is no surprise that people marched against the government. Even leavers are frustrated, he says.
He says May’s deal is dead.
He says May has united the CBI and the TUC against her deal.
He says it is time for parliament to take control. That is why Labour will back the Letwin amendment.
He says the speaker said there would have to be significant changes for a third meaningful vote. But there are no significant changes, she says.
He says May should not block attempts by MPs to find an alternative way forward.
Will May accept any decision by MPs?
He says Labour would support a public vote to block no deal or a chaotic Tory deal.
It is time for parliament to work together on a plan B, he says.
May says this is her first address to MPs since her speech on Wednesday last week, when she blamed them for blocking Brexit.
She says she was expressing her frustrations. She says she knows MPs are doing their jobs, and she respects the fact that people have strong views on both sides.
May says the government is opposed to the Letwin amendment.
She says the government remains committed to trying to see if a Commons consensus can be reached if her deal is not passed.
But she says she is “sceptical” of this process. In the past when this procedure has been tried, it has produced contradictory conclusions, or no conclusions at all.
May says she is “sceptical” about whether allowing MPs indicative votes will produce a decision.
