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Brexit: May to address Commons after EU sets October deadline – live news
Brexit: May to address Commons after EU sets October deadline – live news
(about 3 hours later)
The UK’s ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, has written to European Council President Donald Tusk to formally accept the Halloween extension.
Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, has just confirmed that, if MPs a motion on the order paper today, the house will rise for the Easter recess this afternoon and not return until Tuesday 23 April.
Sky’s Faisal Islam has the letter.
And she has just announced the business for the first week after Easter, which does not include any Brexit indicative votes, or the introduction of the long-awaited EU withdrawal agreement bill.
Early hours UK ambassador to EU Sir Tim Barrow writes to the EU Council to confirm legally the Brexit extension: pic.twitter.com/wlGudT66TO
What should happen next with Brexit? Here is a Guardian Opinion panel, with answers from Simon Jenkins, Sonia Sodha, Stella Creasy and Henry Newman.
The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, who is one several members of Labour’s front bench sceptical about another referendum, says he now accepts a people’s vote may offer a solution to the Brexit deadlock.
Brexit is delayed, so what needs to happen now? Our panel responds | Simon Jenkins and others
Speaking to BBC Breakfast he said:
This is from the Conservative MP Johnny Mercer. Mercer is the backbencher who last year described his own government as a “shitshow”, and so you can understand why he might not be enormously popular with the whips.
Some sort of people’s vote may be necessary as a way out of this impasse. Now that the deadline has been extended we are trying to see if a compromise can be sorted. If that can’t be done, if the prime minister won’t move on red lines, then yes of course a public vote of some description may be needed as a way out of this mess.
Third one of these I’ve had of late, from an old Army contact. Contrast the values and ethos of that institution vs Parliament, and you’ll start to find answers of how we got the UK politically into such a mess. Values, integrity, ethos - never been more important, or more scarce pic.twitter.com/Xfdg2GSz4g
Speaking before another day of cross-party Brexit talks with the government Burgon set out where Labour wants Theresa May to compromise. He said:
There is no formal process available to Conservative MPs if they want to remove Theresa May as leader in the immediate future because under party rules a new no confidence vote is not allowed until December. But Francis Elliott, the Times’ political editor, argues that with a new Queen’s speech due in the spring, May does face an existential threat.
She needs to move on her red line on a permanent customs union. She needs to do more to reassure us about workers rights and environmental protections.
There will be a lot of huff and puff about May's departure date today but as far as I can see she faces just one immediate existential threat - passing a Queen's Speech - and it's much closer than many realise https://t.co/mMm978Eqf9
Crucially ... we need to have some certainty that anything positive that is agreed isn’t going to be ripped up by whoever comes after her, whether it be Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Michael Gove or anyone else.
Here is an extract from his Times article (paywall).
She needs to propose some kind of binding arrangements or some kind of safeguards so that anything positive agreed in these talks isn’t just thrown in the rubbish bin by whoever comes after her.
The end of the parliamentary session also triggers a review of the Conservative government’s confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party, which was struck after the 2017 snap election in which the Tories lost their overall majority. The deal states that both parties are required to review its “aims, principles and implementation”.
Asked how Labour was prepared to compromise, Burgon said:
The break clause was one reason why Mrs May decided to announce that the parliamentary session would last for two years, rather than the usual one year, in June 2017.
We are prepared to consider all different options to break this impasse.
In the present climate, with the DUP implacably opposed to the Brexit deal as it stands, it is all but impossible to see the party issuing another guarantee to support a government led by Mrs May.
We voted for a people’s vote in wider circumstances than our strict policy makes provision for, in the votes twice the other week. That shows that we are open minded about this. We are going into these discussions with good faith in the national interest.
The ability to win a Commons vote approving a Queen’s Speech is a necessary condition for a viable government, but without a formal deal with the DUP Mrs May could not be certain it would pass.
The Brexit minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, has been put up by the government to put a brave face on the extension.
Mujtaba Rahman, the former European commission official who writes well-regarded Brexit analyis for the Eurasia Group consultancy, thinks that as a result of last night’s EU decison, the chances of a delayed no-deal have increased, ‘perhaps substantially”. He makes a persuasive argument, in this short Twitter thread.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he insisted the “extension is long enough to get a deal through. Ideally we would like to get the deal through by 22 May.”
Back in Paris. Latest #Brexit piece will be out later, after chats with all sides so please watch this space. Instinctively, however, hard to argue risk of no deal hasn't risen - & perhaps substantially. Why? A very short thread
He added: “It is not a secret that it is a difficult negotiation.”
Assume there'll be little/no progress in UK by Oct. Either because @theresa_may has managed to cling on but can't get deal through, or because (more likely) she's been replaced by a more €sceptic PM who's committed to Canada or managed no-deal. Blockage with Commons remains 1/
Kwarteng appeared to accept the UK would have to hold European elections on 23 May.
In this situ, there'll be more MS on the Macron side of table come Oct #EUCO (eg @MinPres) probs others. Those who've been invested in deal for personal/legacy reasons (eg @eucopresident & @JunckerEU) will have less agency - basically out of the door or in full transition mode 2/
He pointed out that if the UK hadn’t agreed a deal by then it was legally obliged to hold the elections. He added: “Do I want this to happen? No.”
MS are members states.
Speaking on ITV’s Peston last night, shadow chancellor John McDonnell, said Labour was concerned that agreements it reached with May would not be honoured by a future Conservative leader.
It's not even clear Merkel's coalition will survive EP elex if SPD do v badly (we've 45% prob Govt collapses this year). EU will also have had 7 more months to prep for no deal. Will stress test all in talks today; but think too easy to assume EU will simply keep rolling ext /END
“One of the key issues for us in the discussions, they are confidential discussions at the moment, but obviously the agenda included for us how do we entrench any agreement that we achieve… We’ve gone in there positively and constructively, we’ve been in there trying to secure a deal which we think would work. But we’ve always said clearly our big worry is if we can make a deal with Theresa May, what happens when she goes?”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter and chair of the European Research Group, which is pushing for a harder Brexit, was asked by reporters about the latest Brexit delay as he left home. He told them:
Jeremy Hunt was asked on Peston whether he would honour any deals Theresa May agrees with Labour in coming weeks to get Brexit through parliament if he were to become prime minister.
I thought the prime minister said a few weeks ago that she wouldn’t agree to any extension and now we are getting quite a long one. I don’t think it’s a good idea and it is not delivering on the referendum result.
“The reality is that to get the Brexit deal through, the Withdrawal Agreement bill has to be ratified in law and it is the contents of that bill that will constitute any cross party agreements that allows Parliament to vote that through, so it’ll be a matter of the law, not a matter of...”
People expected to leave on March 29 and here we are heading towards Halloween. There’s some symbolism in that I think.
Peston said: “Laws can change, Prime Ministers can change laws.”
He also said both main parties were not honouring the promises they made at the last election.
“If they have a majority in parliament,” said Hunt. “It may have escaped your attention, Robert, that no-one has a majority in Parliament to change laws.”
We should have left the European Union already and that’s what we need to deliver on.
Dr Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said in a statement businesses will be relieved, “but their frustration with this seemingly endless political process is palpable”.
The Conservative party was elected on a mandate of leaving the customs union, leaving the single market, and the prime minister needs to remember the votes that she won in that election, that gave her her mandate.
For most businesses, the ‘flextension’ agreed by the European Council will be preferable to deadlines that are repeatedly moved forward at the last possible moment.
And the Labour party said at the same time it was committed to implementing the result of the referendum, so I think we are in a difficult political situation.
This extension buys Parliament some time to come to a consensus, but they can’t afford to squander it. Politicians must urgently agree on a way forward.
But Rees-Mogg also said he was not calling for Theresa May to resign. He explained:
It would be a disaster for business confidence and investment if a similar late-night drama is played out yet again in October. Our businesses and our communities need answers to plan for the future, and the government must return its focus to pressing domestic issues, which have been ignored or marginalised for too long.
I was involved in the vote of no confidence last year and I lost that, so I accept she is the leader of the Conservative party and the prime minister. I am not involved in any leadership efforts to remove her.
In the event that the Withdrawal Agreement is passed by Parliament, businesses need a clear timetable and fair warning of the UK’s planned exit date, particularly those trading in countries where the UK has not yet finalised much-needed trade continuity agreements.
Here is a sensible question from BTL.
Another excellent reader question.
I've heard several times that it would take approximately 6 months to organise a referendum. Why would it take this long if a General Election can be organised in 6 weeks?
@MsKateLyons a question from a reader: does parliament has to approve the #brexit delay today? And if so, how will it be done?
There are two main reasons.
Andrew Sparrow, anticipating you, wrote this answer before he signed off yesterday’s blog in the early hours of the morning:
First, you need to pass legislation for a referendum, but not for a general election. This can take several months, and time needs to be allowed for the Electoral Commission to test the question being asked.
Some of you may be wondering whether, under the terms of the Yvette Cooper bill (the one passed on Monday, against the wishes of the government, requiring the PM to request an article 50 extension) Theresa May has to come back to the Commons and get MPs to agree the new article 50 extension timetable, given that it is different from the one MPs voted to support on Tuesday.
Second, under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA), there is a minimum 10-week period for the campaign. This allows time for the Electoral Commission to appoint a lead campaign group on either side - not something required in a general election.
The answer is no. The bill, as originally drafted, would have required a second vote in the Commons in these circumstances. But when the bill was in the Lords an amendment passed by Lord Goldsmith, the Labour peer, removed this requirement. Goldsmith argued that it would create uncertainty, because the PM could end up agreeing a new date at the EU summit and then needing to obtain retrospective backing for it in the Commons.
This paper (pdf), from the Constitution Unit, explains it all in a lot more detail.
Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, has this to say about the agreement reached last night.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the EU had fulfilled its fundamental obligation to safeguard the unity of the 27 while also working to build the best possible relationship with the UK after Brexit.
This new extension means imminent economic crisis has been averted, but it needs to mark a fresh start. For the good of jobs and communities across the country, all political leaders must use the time well. Sincere cross-party collaboration must happen now to end this chaos.
Sánchez said his government had “done its homework” when it came to preparing for a no-deal Brexit, and renewed his criticism of the Brexit campaign. He said:
#EU27 & UK have agreed a flexible #Brexit extension until 31 October.Watch the summary of the special #EUCO & find out more about the ocutome of the meeting: https://t.co/Y6UiTiIglm pic.twitter.com/9JuScDcGzT
The most important lesson we need to learn from what’s happening in the UK is that when decision-making processes, based on lies, are put in the hands of the people, societies – in this case British society – wind up down a blind alley.
A “no-deal” Brexit remains a possibility, French government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye told French TV station CNews on Thursday.
We in the EU need to be conscious of the scale of the challenge British society is facing and we need to try to help it reach an agreement. Dates may vary, but the important thing is to give British politics the time it needs to find its way out of a situation that stems from a referendum held three years ago.
“It is not impossible that we could again have a no-deal Brexit,” she said.
On Sky’s All Out Politics Maria Caulfield, a Tory Brexiter who reluctantly supported Theresa May’s deal in the last Commons vote, said she did not think May would be able to win over any more Tories. Caulfield said:
European Union leaders have given Britain six more months to leave the bloc, more than Prime Minister Theresa May says she needs but less than many in the bloc wanted, thanks to fierce resistance from France.
Talking to colleagues, those who are going to cross over and vote for the deal have done so ... As many MPs that were going to vote for the deal have done so. I think bringing it back for another time I don’t think is going to get us any further. And if we think Labour, with their cross-party talks, have any interest in resolving this matter, we are fooling ourselves.
However, if May fails to win over lawmakers on the treaty or fails to hold an election, Britain will leave with no deal on 1 June.
Like David Davis earlier (see 9.01am), she also said the government should try again to get the EU to change the backstop.
Back on the question of whether there’s enough time for a second referendum, this Brexit extension is being seized upon by MPs in favour of a People’s Vote.
But the EU has repeatedly ruled this out, and the EU communique issued last night (pdf) explicitly said that the withdrawal agreement would not be reopened. It said:
Just enough time for a @peoplesvote_uk..... https://t.co/Pe6kDiSGMS
The European council reiterates that there can be no opening of the withdrawal agreement, and that any unilateral commitment, statement or other act should be compatible with the letter and the spirit of the withdrawal agreement and must not hamper its implementation.
The British people have been given a lifelineA flextension until 31st Oct is long enough to hold a #PeoplesVote Will @theresa_may and @jeremycorbyn surprise us all by agreeing to test the will of the people?Or will they let their narrow party and personal interests prevail?
David Davis, who resigned as Brexit secretary last summer because he opposed Theresa May’s Chequers plan, told the BBC this morning that the pressure on May to resign would “increase dramatically” following last night’s agreement. He told the BBC:
A confusing contribution from Donald Trump to the Brexit discussions.
I think what is likely to happen is the pressure for her to go will go up. The pressure on her to go will increase dramatically, I suspect, now. Whether it will come to anything - who knows?
Too bad that the European Union is being so tough on the United Kingdom and Brexit. The E.U. is likewise a brutal trading partner with the United States, which will change. Sometimes in life you have to let people breathe before it all comes back to bite you!
Asked if May would still be PM at the time of the party conference in the autumn, he replied:
A question from a reader:
I think it is going to be difficult because by that time we will have had a European election which will become a plebiscite, really, on Brexit. And I suspect you will see a very successful rise of a, sort of, Brexit movement, the Nigel Farage thing, and so on. So, that will be quite difficult. I think it will be very difficult for her.
Will there will be time to arrange and hold a second referendum? If so what would the timetable be for such an eventuality?
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has expressed her relief that the UK will not be exiting the EU with no deal, adding that a second referendum on Brexit was now “imperative”. She tweeted:
That’s a very good question, John, thanks.
It is a relief that - thanks to the patience of the EU - we will not be crashing out tomorrow. But the UK must not waste this time - allowing people to decide if they still want to leave is now imperative. And Scotland’s interests must be protected.
A referendum on the Brexit deal would take at least six months to organise legally, constitutional experts told our Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll last year, which would mean there is enough time – just.
It is a relief that - thanks to the patience of the EU - we will not be crashing out tomorrow. But the UK must not waste this time - allowing people to decide if they still want to leave is now imperative. And Scotland’s interests must be protected.
Lewis Goodall from Sky News, spoke to the Electoral Commission yesterday who confirmed this was the case.
Holyrood’s Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh has meanwhile confirmed that the Scottish parliament will not be recalled this afternoon: he had previously warned MSPs they would be recalled from 1pm on Thursday if the UK was due to leave the EU without a deal on Friday.
If October 31st is the new Brexit date then, according to what the @ElectoralCommUK told me last week, there is *just* enough time for a referendum, if parliament were so minded.
The SNP’s Europe spokesperson Stephen Gethins MP told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland that there was “plenty time” to hold a referendum before Hallowe’en, pointing out that when Labour won the general election in 1997 the referendum to establish a Scottish parliament took place 133 days after that, and there are 204 days until the end of October.
Here is the full text of Theresa May’s statement at her press conference in the early hours of this morning.
Later on the same programme, Scottish secretary David Mundell insisted that Theresa May will lead her party into the European elections, adding that the government was open to discussing a customs union with Labour.
I have just met with Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, where I agreed an extension to the Brexit process to the end of October at the latest.
I continue to believe we need to leave the EU, with a deal, as soon as possible. And vitally, the EU have agreed that the extension can be terminated when the withdrawal agreement has been ratified — which was my key request of my fellow leaders.
For example, this means that, if we are able to pass a deal in the first three weeks of May, we will not have to take part in European elections and will officially leave the EU on Saturday, 1st June.
During the course of the extension, the European council is clear that the UK will continue to hold full membership rights, as well as its obligations.
As I said in the room tonight, there is only a single tier of EU membership, with no conditionality attached beyond existing treaty obligations.
Let me conclude by saying this.
I know that there is huge frustration from many people that I had to request this extension. The UK should have left the EU by now and I sincerely regret the fact that I have not yet been able to persuade parliament to approve a deal which would allow the UK to leave in a smooth and orderly way.
But the choices we now face are stark and the timetable is clear.
So we must now press on at pace with our efforts to reach a consensus on a deal that is in the national interest.
Tomorrow I will be making a statement to the House of Commons.
Further talks will also take place between the government and the opposition to seek a way forward.
I do not pretend the next few weeks will be easy or that there is a simple way to break the deadlock in Parliament.
But we have a duty as politicians to find a way to fulfil the democratic decision of the Referendum, deliver Brexit and move our country forward.
Nothing is more pressing or more vital.
The news broke too late to make it onto many of the front pages (though if you see that the news is on the front pages of late editions of other papers, please tweet me!).
The deadline did make it onto the late edition of the Guardian. Here’s our front page:
The Guardian front page, 11 April 2019: Europe listens to May and says no. Britain told leave by October 31st pic.twitter.com/rz0HbkaBAB
And the Metro’s front page deserve a special mention:
Thursday's front page:As EU dictates Britain's futureWHAT BREXITLOOKS LIKEFROM SPACE#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #skypapers pic.twitter.com/vZ1dzsFQX4
Here’s how the Mail and Telegraph covered the news online when it broke:
Donald Tusk said that the Brexit extension was “as flexible as he expected but also shorter than he expected. This is due to French President Emmanuel Macron who took responsibility for blocking a long Brexit delay and convincing other European Union leaders to agree to a shorter one.
“It’s true that the majority was more in favour of a very long extension. But it was not logical in my view, and above all, it was neither good for us, nor for the UK,” he said.
“I take responsibility for this position, I think it’s for the collective good,” the French leader added before leaving the European Council in Brussels.
The video of Macron’s comments (in French) is below.
Déclaration d'@EmmanuelMacron à l'issue du Conseil européen extraordinaire #Brexit #EUCO #art50 pic.twitter.com/5b9COgjcv1
#EUCO on #Brexit: -Extension of article 50 granted until 31 October. -UK to organise #EUelections2019 if Withdrawal agreement not ratified by 22 May.-No reopening of the Withdrawal Agreement. -Principle of sincere cooperation will apply to UK. https://t.co/WtzR97QDcO pic.twitter.com/4JFouDo1L9
Good morning and welcome to the politics live blog, the morning after EU leaders met to debate whether to offer an extension to article 50 to the UK.
After marathon six-hour talks, EU leaders offered Theresa May an extension until 31 October, with a “review” to be conducted on 30 June. May did not need to take this deal back to parliament and was able to agree to the deal at the time, which she did. Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said:
During this time, what happens will be in the hands of the UK. It can ratify the withdrawal agreement, and leave. It can change strategy, although not the withdrawal agreement. Or it can decide to revoke and cancel Brexit altogether.
Speaking afterwards, Theresa May repeatedly ducked questions about her future as prime minister, after having previously said she would not accept an extension beyond 30 June.
She simply insisted that the UK “can still leave on May 22 and not hold those European parliamentary elections” if parliament passes the withdrawal deal.
May also once again blamed MPs for being the cause of public frustration over the failure to implement Brexit. Asked whether she should apologise for the UK still being in the EU, she said: “Over the last three months I have voted three times to leave the European Union. If sufficient members of parliament had voted with me in January we would already be out of the European Union.”
I’ll be keeping this blog ticking over until I hand it to my colleagues, if you have Brexit questions, please get in touch through the comments, via email (kate.lyons@theguardian.com) or on Twitter.
Thanks for reading along, especially so early in the morning, let’s get started!
