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Brexit: May to give speech at 4pm with details of 'new' deal for MPs - live news
Brexit: new bill to include MPs' vote on second referendum, May says – live news
(32 minutes later)
From ITV’s Robert Peston
May is now taking questions.
As you may have heard, that odd government proposal for the UK to collect tariffs on behalf of the EU, the FCA, seems to be back as one of the Brexit customs options to be offered to MPs. The ex ambassador to the EU Ivan Rogers is not exactly impressed. This is what he told me:..
Q: The opposition parties say they will not vote for this. Isn’t this too late?
“I am v happy to be quoted as saying that I regard the resurrection, yet again, of an FCA proposal, which should never have been born, and has long since been rejected by the EU side, as the PM well knows, is the definition of insanity. And a declaration of...
May urges MPs to look at the detail of the bill. It will be published, she says. She has compromised, she says.
“the bankruptcy of this Government!” Oh dear
Q: If you lose the vote, can you confirm you will resign?
This is from the Telegraph’s Steven Swinford.
That was last week’s news, says May. She made a statement with the chair of the 1922 Committee.
Cabinet readout:Big row over whether CU and 2nd ref should be on face of WabGrayling went 'right to the edge' & sounded like he was prepared to quit. Leadsom also very concernedSuggestion PM was prepared to offer Labour 'anything and everything'https://t.co/f6Kdi0onWq
May says this deal will set the groundwork for life outside the EU.
Theresa May is due to start delivering her Brexit speech any minute now.
But in future, Britain will be able to choose how it develops. Some will want it to move closer to the EU. Others will want it to move further away.
She is speaking at a venue in London.
Future governments will be able to decide, she says.
There is a live feed at the top of this blog.
She says over the next two weeks the government will try to get MPs to back this deal.
From Sky’s Jon Craig
Tomorrow she will make a statement to MPs, she says.
As he arrived to brief junior ministers on the PM’s Brexit speech, I asked PM’s Chief if Staff Gavin Barwell: “Do you have a winning formula?” He replied: “That remains to be seen.”
She says she has compromised. It is up to MPs to compromise too, she says.
This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.
May says this is a great time to be alive.
Cabinet source says Theresa May was prepared to put second ref and customs union on face of the WAB - backed down when Andrea Leadsom, Chris Grayling, Geoffrey Cox and then others said totally unacceptable. She also was open to giving a free vote causing big row
Britain can make a success of the 2020s and 2030s.
In her speech this afternoon Theresa May is expected to argue that the version of her Brexit deal contained in the EU withdrawal agreement bill is a new one because of the various changes and concessions it contains.
But it will not do that if it remains stuck in the Brexit impasse, she says.
But in fact May and the government have already announced multiple minor amendments to her Brexit offer since MPs started debating it before Christmas to address the concerns of her critics. It is not clear yet whether she will be unveiling proposals that are genuinely new, or whether she will just be aggregating what it already on the table.
She says, with the right Brexit deal, she can end this debate.
Here is a summary of what has already been offered
She says the UK will have opportunities outside the EU. And it will be able to do even more if it has a deal. It can protect trade, and protect security partnerships.
On Ireland and the backstop
This is a huge opportunity for the UK, she says - out of the EU, out of every closer union, free to do things differently.
On 9 January, when MPs resumed the first debate on the Brexit deal, the government said it was accepting an amendment from the Tory MP Sir Hugo Swire imposing six new conditions in relation to Northern Ireland and the backstop. They included MPs having the right to decide whether to trigger the backstop, or extend the transition instead, and, in the event of the backstop being introduced, the government having a duty “to have an agreed future relationship or alternative arrangements one year after the Northern Ireland backstop coming into force”.
May says this opportunity is practical and deliverable.
On the same day the government published plans for what it described as the “Stormont lock” (pdf). It runs to 13 pages and it includes proposals for the Northern Ireland assembly to have a “strong role” in backstop provisions becoming law, and for there to be no regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in mattes covered by the backstop.
But it is “slipping away from us”, she says.
At the end of January, in a Brexit debate after the deal was voted down for the first time, the government accepted an amendment from the Tory MP Sir Graham Brady saying the Commons required “the Northern Ireland backstop to be replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border”.
May says, if MPs approve her deal, they can get Brexit done.
And in March, in her speech opening the debate when MPs voted on her deal for the second time, May made three specific commitments to legislate to put some of the “Stormont lock” measures into law.
May says, if MPs vote down the bill, they will be voting to reject Brexit.
Workers’ rights and environmental protections
Some MPs think there will be a no-deal Brexit. But parliament will do everything it can to stop that.
In a Brexit debate in January, after her deal was defeated for the first time, May said the government would do more to protect workers’ rights and environmental standards after Brexit. She virtually quoted word for word an amendment tabled by the Labour MP John Mann saying that, if the EU strengthens rights after Brexit, the Commons should also consider whether to match the new Brussels rules.
So in practice MPs will be choosing a second referendum or a general election, she says.
In a letter to Jeremy Corbyn in February, May also said the government was “prepared to commit to asking parliament” if it wanted to match the new EU laws if it beefed up workers’ rights or environmental protection after Brexit.
May says MPs will be left with second referendum or general election if they vote down her deal.
Role of parliament in Brexit trade talks
May sums up the changes she is announcing. There are 10 of them.
On 29 March, on the day of the third Commons debate on the Brexit deal, the government said it would accept an amendment tabled by the Labour MP Gareth Snell saying MPs would be able to vote to set the negotiating mandate for the next phase of the Brexit talks.
(I will post the list in full later.)
By the standards of Conservative in-fighting, this is rather minor, but it still tells you something about the state of the party that MPs are talking about each other in public like this. Here is the Tory Brexiter Andrea Jenkyns in a Twitter spate with two pro-European colleagues, Sir Nicholas Soames and Antoinette Sandbach.
Turning to the issue of a second referendum, May says she is opposed. But she recognises that some MPs want one.
Leadership contender Victoria Atkins! I wont vote for her; sneered when I took Clifford to an event after GE, & thinks its acceptable for her staff to bad mouth me & Brexiteers in parliament email. She also said myself/ ERG to blame for no Brexit!https://t.co/15GLgd6Pi8
May says her Brexit bill will include a requirement to hold a vote on whether or not to have a second referendum.
#absoluteBallsgetalife
May says this means, if MPs want a second referendum, they must vote for the bill.
How can you quantify it as 'Balls' Mr Soames? You were not party to the incidents or conversations, other colleagues have told me of more incidents about this lady. And I am happy with my life thank you very much.
May says customs is the most difficult area.
Andrea you tweeted the article saying you wouldn’t vote for Victoria having not bothered to read the article in which she made it clear she was not standing. #getyourfactsright
She says many people who voted to leave want to retain close trading links with the EU, just as many who voted remain, like herself, are excited by the trade opportunities offered by Brexit.
And here comes Ms Sandbach wading in as usual. I see the Stop Brexit MPs like to stick together!
May says the government and opposition both want “as close as possible to frictionless trade” at the EU border.
Chuka Umunna, the spokesperson for Change UK, had a phone-in with LBC this morning. During the phone-in, he argued that Brexit was to blame for the problems facing British Steel. He explained:
She says the government has its own plan. (She seems to be referring to the facilitated customs arrangement plan.)
Over 20,000 jobs in the supply chain and what are the two reasons which are being cited as creating difficulties for what was a company in profit? First of all the fall of the value of the pound after the referendum vote has made the products that British Steel sells more expensive and this is what the company has said. And, secondly, because of Brexit uncertainty they are not facing the same orders.
Labour wants a customs union, she says.
Umunna also said, if Boris Johnson were to become prime minister, his reaction would be: “God help us.” He explained:
She says the government offered a temporary customs arrangement.
[Johnson is] an incredibly divisive figure. I don’t think a lot of people will forgive him for some of the things that the vote leave campaign did and I think he has shown himself to be a complete opportunist who’s all about Boris Johnson and not about the national interest ...
Labour and the government could not agree.
If his record as foreign secretary is anything to go by, that guy should not be allowed anywhere near 10 Downing Street.
So parliament should resolve this, she says.
Today the Guardian has published a long read about how Nigel Farage has modelled his Brexit party on the Italian populist party, the Five Star Movement (M5S).
May says government will let parliament decide what to do about customs.
Coincidentally, Farage has told the Press Association that he is tempted not to stand as a candidate in the general election because Beppe Grillo, the M5S leader, did not stand for parliament either. Asked if he would seek a parliamentary seat, Farage said:
May says she is committed to maintaining workers’ rights.
I guess so. I’ll have to, won’t I? It will be my duty as leader.
There will be a new workers’ rights bill to ensure workers get rights that are very bit as good as, or better than, EU rights.
Although I’m very tempted not to because Beppe Grillo didn’t stand in the Italian elections.
There will be a new office to uphold environmental standards.
What he did was tour Italy supporting the Five Star candidates and, guess what, they won.
She says the new bill will oblige the government to keep trade in goods with the EU as frictionless as possible.
There are many different ways to approach this. I would see it as my duty to stand but there is an argument that I could do more good for the party by not.
May says she backed the plan from Lisa Nandy and Gareth Snell, two Labour MPs, for MPs to have to approve the negotiating terms for the UK-EU trade deals.
This is from Sky’s Kate McCann.
May says she tried to reach a deal with Labour.
Told that by the end of Cabinet today chief whip warned the PM her bill still very unlikely to pass in the Commons despite tweaks. Source says PM appeared to ignore his warning.
Those talks did not succeed, but she will not give up.
PM’s speech is called ‘A new Brexit deal - seeking common ground in Parliament’
She has listened to MPs, and today she is making a serious offer to MPs.
In the urgent question in the Commons earlier on British Steel, which is on the brink of collapse putting 5,000 jobs at risk, Andrew Stephenson, the business minister, said the government “leave no stone unturned” in supporting the UK steel industry. He said:
She says she wants the Conservative party to stay united. Nine out of 10 Conservative MPs have agreed the deal.
I can reassure the house that, subject to strict legal bounds, the government will leave no stone unturned in its support for the steel industry ...
She says MPs backed the Brady amendment.
We can only act within the strict bounds of what is legally possible under domestic and European law.
May says she will put the government under a legal obligation to seek alternative arrangements to the backstop by December 2020.
I can assure the house we will continue to do whatever is in our power to support the UK steel industry and those who work in the sector.
May says she will also legislate to stop a future government splitting Northern Ireland off from Britain in regulatory terms.
Stephenson said £291m has been paid in “compensation” to the steel sector since 2013 to help make energy costs “more competitive”. He added: “We have also published a timeline of upcoming projects every year to enable steel businesses to plan for future demand.”
May says delivering Brexit has proved “even harder than I anticipated”.
These are from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
She says the way to deliver Brexit is to deliver a good deal with the EU.
On customs, I was told that the WAB will essentially include within it indicative votes on 4 different customs options
That is what she proposed in her pitch for the Conservative leadership, and in her 2017 election manifesto. Labour’s said much the same, she says.
Presumbably those four options were the four customs union options set out in this leaked document.
She says she has tried hard to deliver this.
Word from Cabinet is that the four customs options I mentioned in my earlier tweet were whittled down to two--FCA and a temporary customs union until the next GE--in the Cabinet discussion this morning.
At first she tried to deliver this with Conservative votes. She even offered to give up the job she loved. She says at the end of March if just 30 MPs had voted differently, the Brexit deal would have passed.
The Mail on Sunday’s Harry Cole has posted these on what he says are the concessions in the EU withdrawal agreement bill.
Theresa May is speaking now.
Technical details.. but Swire, Snell Nandy, Brady amendments + 9 Jan NI commitments and CRAG all written into WAB, cabinet told.
She say her job was and is to deliver Brexit.
cabinet also told parliamentary approval of future trade will outlaw next phase of talks with EU starting without approval of “objectives” from MPs. May essentially trying to let parliament tie her successors hands
And she wants a country that works for everyone, she says.
New PM will also have to seek a commons vote EVERYTIME they wish to tweak negotiating objectives. New devolved lock too being mooted
WAB will also include clause that would outlaw a future PM trying to make then backstop protocol NI only. A “binding commitment” of no regulatory divergence between GB/NI
And Parliament will be given a say - through SI - in whether to trigger the back stop. Unclear what would happen if it said no.... lots of sweeties in WAB clearly designed to build a coalition. But felt like tide was going out on tory support all weekend.
And here is more from the Number 10 lobby briefing. I posted a snap summary at 1.12pm.
The prime minister’s spokesman said that the EU withdrawal agreement bill, which will be the latest format in which MPs are asked to vote on what has been described as Theresa May’s Brexit deal, would contain some “significant new aspects”.
He implied that the bill would include compromises from the government. Asked if there would be compromises in it, he said:
The prime minister has said that, if we are going to find a way through this, there will have to be compromise on both sides.
The spokesman confirmed that today’s cabinet meeting was not just about rubber-stamping a draft text of the bill. The text of the bill is now being finalised on the basis of what was agreed at today’s meeting.
The spokesman said the cabinet meeting was characterised by “a clear determination to find a way of passing the withdrawal agreement bill”. This is what he said in response to a question about the tone of today’s meeting.
The spokesman sidestepped a question about whether the text of the bill had been agreed unanimously. “You know how this works,” he said. “The prime minister sums up at the end of the meeting. Then she will set out the government position.”
The spokesman would not say when the text of the bill would be published. But he indicated that that would not happen before Thursday at the earliest.
The spokesman said May was making her speech outside the Commons this afternoon because Commons business for the day had already been scheduled. (MPs and the Speaker object when policy announcements of this kind are made outside the chamber, and May will probably come under pressure to make a statement in the Commons tomorrow, where MPs will be able to question her on the details.)
The spokesman said the government’s view was that leaving the EU without a deal remained a “plausible outcome” and that planning for no-deal was continuing. When it was put to the spokesman that Philip Hammond, the chancellor, in his CBI speech argues that no-deal would be a betrayal of the 2016 vote to leave (because the leave campaign said there would be a deal - see 9.23am), the spokesman said it was a “simple fact” that the question on the ballot paper was about leaving the EU.
The spokesman said that cabinet also discussed President Trump’s state visit. Ministers were told what the programme would be.
I’m just back from the Downing Street lobby briefing. And we have news ...
Theresa May will give a speech this afternoon setting out details of what Number 10 is describing as the “new” Brexit deal that will be put to a vote in the Commons in the first week of June. Cabinet spent two hours discussing the plans, which will be set out in the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and finalising what they will entail. May will say more in her speech at 4pm. Commenting on the cabinet discussion, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
Cabinet discussed the new deal which the government will put before parliament in order to seek to secure the UK’s exit from the European Union.
The discussions included alternative arrangements, workers’ rights, environmental protections and further assurances on protecting the integrity of the UK in the unlikely event that the backstop is required.
The prime minister said that “the withdrawal agreement bill is the vehicle that gets the UK out of the European Union and it is vital to find a way to get it over the line.”
And the prime minister will be setting out further details on the way forward in a speech this afternoon.
I will post more details from the lobby briefing in a moment.
