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Brexit: Boris Johnson urges MPs to ‘heal rift in British politics’ in vote on new deal – live news Brexit: MPs debate Boris Johnson's deal as People's Vote march sets off – live news
(about 2 hours later)
Brexit secretary Barclay says: Theresa May speaks. She tells a slightly stodgy anecdote about Jonny May scoring two tries for England in the rugby.
We will set regulation that is world leading. Saying she feels a sense of déjà vu, May says:
He says the UK parliament went ahead of the EU in several areas including maternity rights and will continue to do. I intend to rebel against all of those who don’t want to vote to deliver Brexit.
Alistair Burt, one of 21 Conservatives who had the whip removed for backing legislation to stop a no-deal Brexit, says he will not support the Letwin amendment. She says the SNP has a history of rejecting the results of referendums. The former prime minister says if parliament doesn’t back the deal “it is guilty of the most egregious con tricks on the British people”.
The debate on motions is beginning now. If you don’t want no deal you have to vote for a deal. Businesses are crying out for certainty. People want certainty in their lives.
Stephen Barclay is met by cries of “How dare you?” after he invokes the name of the late Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam. The speaker intervenes, urging MPs to calm down. Barclay continues, saying he was referring to her ability to unify. She concludes by saying if you want the country to move forward, vote for the deal today.
Barclay says he respects the intentions of Oliver Letwin. More from the People’s Vote march.
But his amendment would render today’s vote meaningless.… The public would be appalled by pointless further delay. Gareth Ellner, 37, dressed up as a Brexit unicorn called “Sunlit uplands”, said:
He asks Letwin to withdraw it. I like dressing up and I thought we have been promised the unicorn and I thought it’s right for everyone to get a unicorn.
Johnson says it cannot be right to delay beyond 31 October so it is his deal or no deal. Ellner said he’s worried by the events taking place in parliament.
In response to a question about how he would appeal to remainers, he repeats that it is an opportunity for people who love Europe to move forward. I’m concerned that Boris has told enough lies to enough people to get it [the deal] through.
This is what BBC Newsnight’s political editor is saying about the impact of the Letwin amendment. He is still holding out hope for a second referendum.
PM’s language in chamber - and his commitment to comply with the law - suggests govt may well write the letter stipulated in the Benn Act. He told MPs ‘whatever letters they may seek to force the government to write’ it won’t change his view that a delay is pointless We didn’t know what we were voting to. I am ashamedly one of the voters who voted leave because I thought screw David Cameron. I was politically naive but recent events have made me more political active.”
Govt will seek to hold Meaningful Vote next week. Will insert a clause in the withdrawal bill, due to complete all commons stages next week, which includes an MV. But govt knows Letwin amendment only falls if bill reaches statute book One man pointed to Ellner’s costume and asked: “It’s not a sexual thing?” before taking a photo with him.
The former Labour MP, Frank Field, says only one vote should be necessary today. Gareth Ellner, 37, dressed up as a Brexit unicorn called ‘Sunlit uplands’. He said: “I like dressing up and I thought we have been promised the unicorn...” #PeopleVoteMarch pic.twitter.com/vEnvIti8kT
The PM says it would be a good thing if the house had what was promised, a meaningful vote tonight. The former Labour MP Jared O’Mara, who had said he would resign from parliament in September, has been spotted in the house.
My fear is that the vote we have will not be meaningful. Jared O’Mara *is* in Parliament. Just spotted him walking through the cloisters.
And Sky News says: Breaking: I have just walked past the honourable member for Sheffield Hallam. He is on the estate.
Downing Street Source: The Government will delay the vote on Boris Johnson's Brexit deal to Tuesday if MPs approve an amendment which forces the Prime Minister to seek an extension to Brexit The SNP leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, says the deal gives Northern Ireland a competitive advantage over Scotland. He says Northern Ireland is effectively being kept in the customs union, which is what Scotland wanted.
The Conservative MP Nigel Evans asks the prime minister what message he would have for MPs representing leave constituencies. This prime minister and his Brexit fan club in No 10 don’t care about Scotland.
I think you can guess the answer .... He says it was “dishonesty and lies” by Vote Leave that brought this country to vote for Brexit.
Another Tory Eurosceptic who voted against May's deal x3 https://t.co/CXx2P2ZB1N This is the beginning and end of their precious union.
The Tory MP Jeremy Wright says it is incumbent on all MPs to settle the debate and accept a “good deal” rather than delay in expectation of a “perfect deal”. Whether the deal is passed or not today, an extension is needed and there should be an election to get rid of this “rotten government”, says Blackford.
Johnson says it is as perfect a deal as you can get in the circumstances, while accepting “there are difficulties with it”. Former cabinet minister Justine Greening, who had the Tory whip withdrawn, says the house is being given an “impossible choice”. She likens it to buying a house without going inside.
Let’s knock it through if we possibly can tonight. Greening – along with fellow Tory exiles Dominic Grieve and Guto Bebb – has previously made clear she wants a second referendum.
Labour’s Pat McFadden says PM is promising Tory MPs the deregulated future they dream off while promising opposition MPs a road to better workers’ rights, interests Johnson rubbished while a journalist. Both cannot be true, he insists. My colleague Mattha Busby is at the People’s Vote march.
Johnson says both are possible. An eye-catching arrangement of bottlecaps, some including popular European beers, greets the thousands of protesters arriving for the #PeoplesVoteMarch at Marble Arch pic.twitter.com/sPlQG1x3UP
The Lib Dem MP Luciana Berger asks how MPs can vote on a deal today when the PM’s Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, was on TV this morning saying no economic assessment of the deal had been done. "There are far more benefits to staying in," says Helen Greenwood. "We live in an area in S Wales where the Leave vote was quite high, but not everybody agrees. The EU ploughed money in to create jobs after the Ebbw Vale steelworks closed. Westminster would never do that." pic.twitter.com/vmOooXbUUS
Johnson responds by saying the deal has been welcomed by a broad range of people, including the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney. "There was a vote but I think it was built on media playing on people's fears," says Ozzy Moysey, from Leeds, holding a sousaphone. "There was always an attempt to divide. We should have a second vote." #PeoplesVoteMarch pic.twitter.com/gLMHc9fhBi
The Tory MP John Baron stands up and says he will back the deal because it abolishes the “anti-democratic backstop”. The abolition also makes a free trade deal more likely, says Baron. . @RCorbettMEP sets out why he believes Boris Johnson opposes a final say on his Brexit deal #PeoplesVoteMarch pic.twitter.com/JpDco9ztvo
Johnson - unsurprisingly - agrees. Here is Oliver Letwin. He says the purpose of his amendment is to prevent Britain crashing out with no deal if legislation is not passed by 31 October.
Another former Tory, David Gauke, says Johnson has done well to agree a deal but asks whether he will ensure that a “deep and special relationship” is agreed with the EU before the implementation period comes to an end. He says he will vote for implementation of the deal.
The PM says the 14-month period to reach a free trade deal with the EU is sufficient even though it is “a blistering pace”. He says detractors said he would never be able to reopen the withdrawal deal or get rid of the backstop (some would suggest he has not achieved the latter). Despite my support for the PM’s deal I do not believe its responsible to make that threat [of my deal or no deal].
The Green party’s Caroline Lucas says the deal takes a “wrecking ball” to our social and environmental standards and that is why the PM will not put it to the British people. His amendment will only be used to prevent a no-deal Brexit, he says.
Johnson says she has misread the deal, as parliament makes a commitment to uphold standards. He says he hopes standards will be even higher. There’s a lot of love for the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, on Twitter.
Presence, intelligence, integrity, forcefulness; @Keir_Starmer blasting holes in the Government’s damaging plans for Brexit. By diverging from the EU’s rules we’re heading for a thin brutal deregulating future. How I wish he was Labour’s leader. Then they might have a hope.
This is really a quite startlingly brilliant speech by Starmer: Relentless, forensic, logical, aimed right at the weak spots.
It is an amazing speech. https://t.co/U1fe7hLN1i
Keir Starmer’s speech is eloquent, rich in evidence and measured argument, and therefore hugely irritating to all the MPs who have decided that today is the day to throw in the towel.
Starmer says we could end up on WTO terms at the end of 2020 under this deal.
This is a trapdoor to no deal.
He reminds the house that “not a single trade union supports this deal”.
Labour MP Rushanara Ali says:
This is a Trojan deal for no deal Brexit.
Starmer agrees.
Labour MP Helen Hayes said there should be another vote to give a voice to the hundreds of thousands of young people marching for a people’s vote today.
The mayor of London has joined the marchers.
.@SadiqKhan is joining young people at the #PeopleVoteMarch because everyone - not just Boris Johnson - deserves the #FinalSay pic.twitter.com/lr5jHBNq0L
Marching for our rights. Marching for our voice to be heard. Marching to stop Brexit. #PeoplesVoteMarch pic.twitter.com/e6L4ex4SdF
Starmer said Johnson’s argument that he is not putting a border in the Irish Sea is simply wrong.
On the reasons why the government wants to leave, Starmer says:
It’s obvious where the government is going. They want a licence to diverge. Once you move out of alignment you don’t go back. You break the economic model we’ve been operating for decades. Once you do that you look across to the US … and that’s a different economic model, a deregulated model.
He says 10 days is standard holiday in the US and corporate bodies have much more power than workers.
The Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb says he has agonised this week over whether to support the deal. He says we run the risk of “inflaming unionist opinion”.
Lamb, the only Lib Dem who potentially might have supported the deal, released a video earlier today saying he would not support it.
My decision! I hope people will accept that it has been reached after a lot of soul searching and on the basis of what I think is best for the country and my constituents. I hope we can avoid the bile and abuse on both sides which has characterised this debate. pic.twitter.com/hH7nE6lZiU
Meanwhile, outside parliament, the people’s vote march has begun.
Addressing the crowd at the start, Young Greens co-chair Rosie Rawle said:
We have never seen our future snatched away like we are at the present moment. We’re inheriting a country ravaged by austerity and privatisation … We’re being dragged out of Europe against our will … And we’re forced to watch our planet spiral towards climate breakdown. But today, every single one of us are here to say ’We are not going to let this happen’. While bullies like Boris Johnson and layabouts like Jacob Rees-Mogg drive our future off a cliff, there are millions of young people getting politicised, organised and mobilised.
Park Lane is now shut southbound for the #PeoplesVoteMarch. pic.twitter.com/SeV8R0rNAw
The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, pleads:
Don’t take us out of the customs union.
He says that is just what this deal does, it “rips up” our close trading relationship with the EU and will result in job losses.
If the aspiration of the government is to have a trading relationship “as close as possible” to the existing one, why were those words taken out, asks Starmer.
Ed Vaizey, another one of the Tory MPs to have the whip withdrawn over attempts to block a no-deal Brexit, asked if the Letwin amendment did not pass and the deal was voted for but the bill did not pass by 31 October, whether that would lead to no deal?
Barclay did not give a straight answer.
The former attorney general, Dominic Grieve, another who had the whip, removed said the Letwin amendment was nothing more than “an insurance policy”.
Barclay said the purpose of the amendment was just delay, “to stop us getting Brexit done”. He says today is an opportunity for all those who want to avoid no deal.