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| Brexit: Early election bill likely to clear Commons as amendments extending franchise not selected - live news | Brexit: Early election bill likely to clear Commons as amendments extending franchise not selected - live news |
| (31 minutes later) | |
| My colleague, Rajeev Syal, has this interesting line from a Labour source on trigger ballots: | |
| Note from a Labour source following NEC meeting: "All trigger ballots will be paused with immediate effect." So Virendra Sharma, Emma Lewell-Buck and Kate Osamor will no longer be challenged; am told that Roger Godsiff may still face action. | |
| And there are now multiple reports in Westminster that Boris Johnson is offering to return the whip to some of the 21 MPs from whom it was withdrawn: | |
| EXCL: Understand Downing Street has tonight begun restoring the whip to some of the Tory 21 | |
| Source says Boris Johnson is personally offering the whip back to some of the group. It is expected to be those who voted for the programme motion on WAB | |
| New: No 10 says PM met with 10 of the 21 ex-Tory rebel MPs tonight - those 10 have all had the Conservative whip restored | |
| Sir Olly Robbins, who was Theresa May’s chief Brexit adviser when she was PM, has been giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee this afternoon. Here are the main points he made. | |
| Robbins suggested he was slow to realise how difficult it would be finding a solution to the post-Brexit border issue for goods in Ireland. He told the committee: | |
| I think we had all, to some extent, professionally grown up in a world where the movement of goods was a really very boring and obvious thing. | |
| And the movement of people was interesting and politically controversial. And we therefore thought that the central issue in settling our post-Brexit relationship with Ireland was going to be the maintenance of the common travel area, and the mutual sustainment of rights for Irish people and British people in one another’s territories, and the sort of core of the identity problem that the Good Friday agreement had attempted to solve. | |
| I think I probably, to only criticise myself, was slower. I had weeks rather than months to come to the realisation that actually the people-side of this, while not being complacent about any of it, was, as a bureaucrat, an easier problem to see one’s way through than the movement of physical goods. | |
| He dismissed suggestions that the UK would be better prepared for Brexit if civil servants had planned for a leave vote before the 2016 referendum. He told MPs: | |
| I know debate continues to rage, rightly and understandably, about whether it was the right political decision not to do contingency planning. | |
| I do think, as I say, very personal view, you can probably overdo the extent to which a vast Whitehall process of churning out ring-binders full of papers pre-June 2016 would somehow have meant that the British state was far, far better prepared afterwards. | |
| He suggested that, if the civil service had tried to flag up post-Brexit problems with the Irish border before the referendum, no one would have taken any notice. He said: | |
| I think if my Cabinet Office colleagues, who were in post at the time or more generally across Whitehall - I was in the Home Office at the time - if we’d been asked to produce a paper on what does the border look like after a no vote, a leave vote, I think we would have ended up in a position whereby we would have produced what I hope would have been a good quality piece of work, but I’m not sure anyone would have read it. | |
| That’s all from me for tonight. | |
| My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over. | |
| From LBC’s Theo Usherwood | |
| Prof John Curtice’s election prediction: Tories beware. Election will return more than a 100 MPs not from Labour or Conservatives. And whilst Corbyn can do a deal with another party to stop Brexit, Johnson cannot to do a deal to deliver Brexit. https://t.co/grwCGSoLSs | |
| Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, is responding to Cat Smith. | Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, is responding to Cat Smith. |
| He says that the government needs time to pass a budget for the devolved administration in Northern Ireland before parliament can be prorogued. If that legislation does not get passed, public sector workers would end up not being paid, he says. | He says that the government needs time to pass a budget for the devolved administration in Northern Ireland before parliament can be prorogued. If that legislation does not get passed, public sector workers would end up not being paid, he says. |
| And he says he does not accept the argument about students not being able to vote if the poll is on 12 December. He says most of the big universities will not broken up for the Christmas holidays by then. And he says students always have the option of voting by post. | And he says he does not accept the argument about students not being able to vote if the poll is on 12 December. He says most of the big universities will not broken up for the Christmas holidays by then. And he says students always have the option of voting by post. |
| Cat Smith, the shadow deputy leader of the Commons, opens the debate, moving amendment 2, the one that would change the date of the election from Thursday 12 December to Monday 9 December. She says Labour wants as many people as possible to participate in the election. | Cat Smith, the shadow deputy leader of the Commons, opens the debate, moving amendment 2, the one that would change the date of the election from Thursday 12 December to Monday 9 December. She says Labour wants as many people as possible to participate in the election. |
| Labour fears that students would be less likely to vote on 12 December, because some of them would have gone home at the end of term. | Labour fears that students would be less likely to vote on 12 December, because some of them would have gone home at the end of term. |
| MPs have now moved on to the bill’s committee stage. Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker who is chairing this stage of the proceedings, has just read out the amendments selected. They are the same as those on the provisional list issued earlier. (See 5.19pm.) | MPs have now moved on to the bill’s committee stage. Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker who is chairing this stage of the proceedings, has just read out the amendments selected. They are the same as those on the provisional list issued earlier. (See 5.19pm.) |
| MPs have given the bill its second reading by acclamation. | MPs have given the bill its second reading by acclamation. |
| John Bercow, the Speaker, asked MPs to shout aye and no as he called the division. This is how divisions normally start. But only a few MPs shouted “no”, they were clearly outnumbered by the ayes, and so the bill got its second reading on the nod. | John Bercow, the Speaker, asked MPs to shout aye and no as he called the division. This is how divisions normally start. But only a few MPs shouted “no”, they were clearly outnumbered by the ayes, and so the bill got its second reading on the nod. |
| The Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden is now winding up for the government. | The Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden is now winding up for the government. |
| He says an election is necessary because parliament has stopped the government implementing Brexit. It voted for the Benn act, which forced the government to request a Brexit delay. | He says an election is necessary because parliament has stopped the government implementing Brexit. It voted for the Benn act, which forced the government to request a Brexit delay. |
| From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg | From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg |
| Hoyle has not selected votes for 16 and 17 year olds or EU citizens but it's provisional until he confirms it in the speaker's chair which won't be until after the first vote in about twenty mins | Hoyle has not selected votes for 16 and 17 year olds or EU citizens but it's provisional until he confirms it in the speaker's chair which won't be until after the first vote in about twenty mins |
| Amendment 2, which is set to be put to a vote (see 5.19pm), is a Jeremy Corbyn amendment that would change the date of the election to Monday 9 December, from Thursday 12 December. It is also been signed by the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson. | Amendment 2, which is set to be put to a vote (see 5.19pm), is a Jeremy Corbyn amendment that would change the date of the election to Monday 9 December, from Thursday 12 December. It is also been signed by the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson. |
| The government is opposed to this, because it would mean parliament proroguing on Thursday, making it hard for the government to pass legislation needed to approve a budget for Northern Ireland, but it has not said that the passing of this amendment would lead to the bill having to be shelved. | The government is opposed to this, because it would mean parliament proroguing on Thursday, making it hard for the government to pass legislation needed to approve a budget for Northern Ireland, but it has not said that the passing of this amendment would lead to the bill having to be shelved. |
| The amendments on extending the franchise to give EU nationals and 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in the general election have not been selected, according to Tony Grew (aka @PARLYapp). | The amendments on extending the franchise to give EU nationals and 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in the general election have not been selected, according to Tony Grew (aka @PARLYapp). |
| This means the prospect of the government facing a defeat on these issues, and then deciding to pull the bill, has probably been removed. | This means the prospect of the government facing a defeat on these issues, and then deciding to pull the bill, has probably been removed. |
| pic.twitter.com/FcATH3lbk3 | pic.twitter.com/FcATH3lbk3 |
| In other words amendments on 16/17 year olds and EU nationals have NOT been selected. | In other words amendments on 16/17 year olds and EU nationals have NOT been selected. |
| The @jeremycorbyn amendment changing the date of the election to Monday 9 December has been selected pic.twitter.com/q4DClSoc6U | The @jeremycorbyn amendment changing the date of the election to Monday 9 December has been selected pic.twitter.com/q4DClSoc6U |
| Phillips says the current electoral laws are not fit for purpose. She says at the last election someone was able to stand against her whose main claim to fame was that he had threatened to rape her. | Phillips says the current electoral laws are not fit for purpose. She says at the last election someone was able to stand against her whose main claim to fame was that he had threatened to rape her. |
| A one-line bill will not sort out these problems, she says. | A one-line bill will not sort out these problems, she says. |
| She says she will happily go back to her constituency for the election, so she can spend six weeks sleeping in her own bed and seeing her children. | She says she will happily go back to her constituency for the election, so she can spend six weeks sleeping in her own bed and seeing her children. |
| But she thinks, when it comes to addressing the problems facing democracy, this bill will be “useless”, she says. | But she thinks, when it comes to addressing the problems facing democracy, this bill will be “useless”, she says. |
| The Labour MP Jess Phillips is speaking in the debate now. She says the problem facing parliament is that the government is behaving as if it has got a majority when it hasn’t. | The Labour MP Jess Phillips is speaking in the debate now. She says the problem facing parliament is that the government is behaving as if it has got a majority when it hasn’t. |
| The idea of introducing a bill that might attract majority support in the Commons was never considered, she says. | The idea of introducing a bill that might attract majority support in the Commons was never considered, she says. |
| She says MPs are in a “twilight zone” where the government seems to think it only has to write down a proposal and it will pass. That is not the way parliament works, she says. | She says MPs are in a “twilight zone” where the government seems to think it only has to write down a proposal and it will pass. That is not the way parliament works, she says. |
| She says she represents a leave seat. But she is not worried about that, even though she voted remain. She says her majority went up at the last parliament. | She says she represents a leave seat. But she is not worried about that, even though she voted remain. She says her majority went up at the last parliament. |
| Phillips asks what will happen if there is another hung parliament. The election will be a Rorschach test, she says. MPs will look at the result and draw whatever conclusion from it they want. | Phillips asks what will happen if there is another hung parliament. The election will be a Rorschach test, she says. MPs will look at the result and draw whatever conclusion from it they want. |
| She says MPs should be honest about the fact that they will interpret the election results to suit their own agendas. | She says MPs should be honest about the fact that they will interpret the election results to suit their own agendas. |
| The Brexit extension until 31 January has now been officially confirmed, my colleague Jennifer Rankin reports. | The Brexit extension until 31 January has now been officially confirmed, my colleague Jennifer Rankin reports. |
| And now it's official: the UK's membership of the EU extended until 31 January 2020.https://t.co/ZJk8mRtFq1 | And now it's official: the UK's membership of the EU extended until 31 January 2020.https://t.co/ZJk8mRtFq1 |
| Donald Tusk, the outgoing president of the European council, has sent the UK a farewell tweet. | Donald Tusk, the outgoing president of the European council, has sent the UK a farewell tweet. |
| He says this extension could be the UK’s last. | He says this extension could be the UK’s last. |
| (Whether that is true or not is another matter. In practice, the EU27 would be reluctant to push the UK out of the EU against its will. If Labour won the election, it would request another extension to allow time for a renegotiation and a referendum.) | (Whether that is true or not is another matter. In practice, the EU27 would be reluctant to push the UK out of the EU against its will. If Labour won the election, it would request another extension to allow time for a renegotiation and a referendum.) |
| To my British friends, The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time. I also want to say goodbye to you as my mission here is coming to an end. I will keep my fingers crossed for you. | To my British friends, The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time. I also want to say goodbye to you as my mission here is coming to an end. I will keep my fingers crossed for you. |
| Tusk also urged the UK not to waste the time granted by an extension when the last one was announced in April. It is hard to argue that his advice was taken to heart, because it was another six months before a new UK government agreed an alternative Brexit plan with the EU. | Tusk also urged the UK not to waste the time granted by an extension when the last one was announced in April. It is hard to argue that his advice was taken to heart, because it was another six months before a new UK government agreed an alternative Brexit plan with the EU. |
| These are from ITV’s Robert Peston. | These are from ITV’s Robert Peston. |
| There are 4 broad categories of amendments to @BorisJohnson’s Early Parliamentary General Election Bill (attached) - for 3.4m EU citizens to be able to vote (loads of these amendments), for a referendum on 26 March, for enfranchisement of 16 & 17 year olds, and for... pic.twitter.com/n5N3vfpqPC | There are 4 broad categories of amendments to @BorisJohnson’s Early Parliamentary General Election Bill (attached) - for 3.4m EU citizens to be able to vote (loads of these amendments), for a referendum on 26 March, for enfranchisement of 16 & 17 year olds, and for... pic.twitter.com/n5N3vfpqPC |
| election to be on 9 December not 12 December (strikingly @JohnCornyn and @ChukaUmunna have joined forces to ask for this). Speaker faces agonising decision about which amendments to allow. | election to be on 9 December not 12 December (strikingly @JohnCornyn and @ChukaUmunna have joined forces to ask for this). Speaker faces agonising decision about which amendments to allow. |