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Brexit: MPs debate fresh attempt to block autumn no-deal prorogation - live news
Brexit: MPs debate fresh attempt to block autumn no-deal prorogation - live news
(30 minutes later)
The DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly says the Northern Ireland assembly has never voted to relax abortion laws in Northern Ireland.
From CityAM’s Owen Bennett
If you want to know more about what prorogation actually involves, this is worth a read.
Boris Johnson is sitting right among the awkward squad of Tory MPs. Phillip Lee, Sam Gyimah and Justine Greening all just behind him.
MPs are currently debating an amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill. It concerns the use of prorogation in the context of a no-deal #Brexit. What does ‘proroguing' Parliament involve? And what authority is needed? Find out more https://t.co/fFilJGQUCy
From the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner
The DUP’s Ian Paisley complains about how the bill has been hijacked for other purposes. And he says the bill will make the restoration of the power-sharing executive less likely (because those who want abortion laws relaxed and same-sex marriage allowed in Northern Ireland now have no incentive to back the resumption of the executive).
Big question now will be whether Theresa May sacks ministers who abstain. @tamcohen reckons six Cabinet abstentions, and one of them could be Hammond. What a mess.
Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general, says he has some sympathy for the points made by Fiona Bruce and Nigel Dodds. But MPs are responding to a power vacuum in Northern Ireland.
These are from Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt.
Referring to the Benn amendment, Grieve says it is extraordinary to suggest that MPs might not be allowed to sit when they need to consider important matters.
Margot James voted against government and will resign as a minister
Sir Oliver Letwin asks Grieve to confirm this this amendment is designed to block the use of prerogative powers to prorogue parliament. Grieve confirms that.
Anti no deal Tories say six cabinet ministers abstaining: Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Rory Stewart, Karen Bradley, Greg Clark and Caroline Noakes
He says, if MPs do not back this amendment, their role as a protector of democracy will have been “shot to pieces”.
One anti no deal Tory: we have the numbers
Tom Brake, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, says Boris Johnson’s threat to prorogue parliament to push through a no-deal Brexit would shame a dictator in a banana republic.
From the Spectator’s James Forsyth
Now in the debate Fiona Bruce, a Conservative, is also complaining about how this bill have been extended beyond its original intent, as a result of the abortion amendment passed when it was in the Commons last week.
Brexiteer government ministers increasingly pessimistic about this vote
She says Northern Ireland should decide its own abortion law. She says MPs talk about what it means to be colonial. She suggests that this is what new colonialism looks like (Westminster legislating for Northern Ireland).
This is from @PoliticalPics, a photographer specialising in the Number 10 beat.
The Sun’s Steve Hawkes thinks Nigel Dodds has a point about new abortion laws for Northern Ireland being rushed through. (See 12.50pm.)
Hammond just stuck his head out the door of No11!
Wherever you stand on changing same-sex marriage and abortion laws in Northern Ireland Nigel Dodds is making a v powerful case about the way the change is being rushed through because "the ends justify the means". Can't imagine the SNP would like a law being changed like this
Perhaps it is coincidence. Or perhaps Philip Hammond wants people to know he is not voting.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP leader at Westminster, also complains that this Northern Ireland bill is being hijacked for alternative purposes.
What we don’t know is whether he has permission from the whips to abstain (because they have paired him with a non-voting Labour MP), or whether he is abstaining unilaterally.
He says the abortion amendments added to the bill, particularly one added in the Lords, would leave Northern Ireland in “limbo” for a period of months without an effective abortion law.
Only seven Tory MPs rebelled on the last comparable vote on prorogation - the vote last week on the Dominic Grieve amendment saying the government should have to produce fortnightly reports in the autumn on progress towards restoring the power-sharing executive. It would not have stopped a new PM proroguing parliament, but Grieve argued it was a step in the right direction.
Justine Greening, the Tory former education secretary, says MPs should back this “common sense’ amendment.
As the voting list shows, the seven Tory rebels were: Guto Bebb, Ken Clarke, Justine Greening, Dominic Grieve, Sam Gyimah, Phillip Lee and Sir Oliver Letwin.
She says, if this amendment does not pass, “we will have crossed a rubicon”. If it is defeated, it will establish the precedent that if a government is running into trouble, it can just shut parliament down.
From the Daily Mail’s John Stevens
Sir Oliver Letwin, a Conservative, says in future people will look back and think it was extraordinary that there was ever any controversy about ensuring the Commons is sitting at a time when a major national decision needs to be taken.
DCMS minister Margot James walked into the aye lobby with the rebels
Labour’s Angela Eagle agrees. She says any proper Conservative, unlike Boris Johnson, would have ruled out the idea of proroguing parliament to stop MPs blocking a no-deal Brexit.
From Sky’s Beth Rigby
The DUP’s Ian Paisley complains that a bill that was supposed to be about the Northern Ireland executive has been hijacked and turned into a bill about Brexit.
Senior opposition MP heading into chamber tells me “it’s going to go well” and reckons they’ll be over two dozen rebels. Thinks many will abstain....
Labour’s Angela Eagle says she understands Paisley’s point. But it’s a case of “needs must”, she says. She says this has been the longest session of parliament since the civil war. That is because the government daren’t prorogue parliament and have a new Queen’s speech in case that gets voted down, she says.
MPs are now voting on the Benn amendment. (See 12.34pm.)
She says MPs are amending this bill because it is the legislative vehicle that is available.
John Penrose is making a broader point.
Here is the full text of the Benn amendment.
He says he voted remain. But he accepts the democratic decision of the public. Brexit must be implemented, he says.
Page 1, line 16, at end insert—
MPs are “running out of road”. Voters’ patience is running out. He says this amendment is about trying to prevent Brexit happening.
“(2C)
MPs shout “rubbish” at him.
If, as a result of parliament standing prorogued or adjourned, a minister of the crown cannot comply with the obligations in subsection (2A) or (2B), a proclamation under the Meeting of Parliament Act 1797 (c. 127) shall require parliament to meet on a specified day within the period within which compliance with subsection (2B) is required and to meet on the five following days (other than Saturdays, Sundays or a day which is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom or in any part of the United Kingdom) to allow for compliance with subsection (2B).”
John Penrose, the Northern Ireland minister, is winding up the debate now.
Alistair Burt, the Conservative former Foreign Office minister who has also signed the Benn amendment (see 11.26am), says this proposal would not force the Commons to vote in any given way on a no-deal Brexit in the autumn. It would just ensure that the Commons was sitting, so that MPs could take a decision, he says.
He says too many additional issues have been added to this bill.
MPs are now debating the Northern Ireland (executive formation) bill.
He says he has two narrow criticisms of the Benn amendment. Parts of this amendment were defeated in the Commons, he says, and parts were ruled out of scope. He says MPs should reject the amendment on those grounds.
The bill has already gone through the Commons and the Lords, and this debate is what’s known as “consideration of Lords amendments”.
John Baron, a Tory Brexiter, claims the rebels are “tilting at windmills”. The Conservatives would never allow parliament to be prorogued.
Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, goes first. He is moving his amendment 1. (See 11am.) He says his amendment would ensure that, if parliament is prorogued in the autumn, it would get recalled under the terms of this bill.
Penrose goes on. He says his other criticism of the Benn amendment is that it does not have anything to do with Northern Ireland.
He says the amendment does not create a new constitutional principle. It just ensure that parliament would be sitting when it needs to be sitting, in line with existing legislation.
If the Stormont assembly restarts before the bill gets royal assent, it will never become law, he says.
Jeremy Corbyn faces a new front in internal dissent over his handling of antisemitism in the party, with Labour peers set to hold a vote of no-confidence in the leader next week, it has emerged.
He says passing the amendment would set an unwelcome constitutional precedent.
The plan is for Labour peers to hold an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon to consider the idea. If it is taken forward, the ballot would take place over Tuesday and Wednesday, with the result soon afterwards, it is understood.
If the no-confidence motion was passed it would have no formal effect, but would be a blow to the authority of Corbyn.
Earlier this week more than 60 took out an advertisement in the Guardian accusing Corbyn of having “failed the test of leadership” over his handling of antisemitism complaints within the party.
The latest move follows the decision by Corbyn’s office to sack Baroness Hayter as a Brexit minister in the Lords after she accused Corbyn of having a “bunker mentality” similar to the final days of Hitler.
The European commission has now itself debunked Boris Johnson’s claim about kipper food safety regulations, the Telegraph’s James Crisp reports.
European Commission spokeswoman has now confirmed the story on record. "Our priority in the EU is the health of our citizens as well as safeguarding our standards in terms of public health and food safety - the highest in the world.
"While the food business operator has an obligation to meet the microbiological requirements to ensure the safety of its food, however the sale of products from the food business operator to the final consumer is not covered by EU legislation on food hygiene."
"The case described by Mr Johnson falls thus purely under UK national competence. "
At the last Tory leadership hustings last night Boris Johnson brandished a kipper from the Isle of Man, and claimed that it exemplified why EU rules were so damaging. He said that the producer was complaining that, because of new EU regulations, he now has to send kippers through the post with a plastic ice pillow, making the whole process much more expensive.
As is often the case when Johnson is talking about EU regulations, it turns out that he was not being accurate. The Telegraph’s James Crisp explains why here.
NEW: EU sources insist that rules that mean smoked kipper producers in the Isle of Man must use "plastic ice pillow" when sending to UK, as made famous by Boris Johnson, are BRITISH rules and not Brussels' rules. 1/
This is a national competence. The EU does not regulate sales of smoked fish to consumer, only sale of fish from business to business. The Isle of Man example is outside scope of EU food safety rules. 2/
I am told smoked kippers to individual customers through the post is "entirely a UK" matter. Here is the British government advice on the matterhttps://t.co/XPFtt3iBdV3/
4. "All foods must be delivered to consumers in a way that ensures they dont become unsafe or unfit to eat. Foods that need refrigerating must be kept cool while they are being transported.This may need to be packed in an insulated box with a coolant gel or in a cool bag" 4
The EU has broad rules saying that food should be safe but nothing asking for the ice pillow. That is a British addition designed to stop Listeria, a prob w/ smoked products and, I hear, is actually a good rule. 5
So to sum up. There are no EU food safety rules on smoked fish which mean a smoked kipper salesman needs to stick an ice pillow in his fish when he pops it in the post. But there are British food safety rules that do.7
So Boris got it wrong when he used the kipper as an example of EU red tape Brexit Britain could escape from. pic.twitter.com/cWst7MCYnp
Turning back to Brexit, Nick Robinson has written a very thorough summary of the revelations in his Panorama programme tonight here, under the title “10 things that stopped Brexit happening”.
In the programme Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiate, and Martin Selmayr, the European commission’s secretary general, both say Theresa May never explicitly threatened to leave without a deal in their private talks. Barnier told the programme:
I think that the UK side, which is well informed and competent and knows the way we work on the EU side, knew from the very beginning that we’ve never been impressed by such a threat. It’s not useful to use it.
May’s remaining time in No 10 might be so short that it can now safely be measured in hours, but it seems she is not above still getting furiously annoyed by political foes – and at this morning’s lobby briefing we got a clue as to how she feels about Barnier.
Asked about Barnier’s claim, May’s spokesman not only denied this, but gave a reply dripping with sarcasm.
Can I begin by saying how nice it was to hear from Michel Barnier again this morning, and how generous it was of the BBC to give him a platform to share his views with us all. On that specific point, the prime minister was clear, both in public and in private that the UK was prepared to leave without a deal.
