Boris Johnson news – live: Bercow scuppers bid for fresh vote on Brexit deal amid court challenge over 'childish' EU letters
Follow all the latest developments
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK
Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight
Boris Johnson is to seek to fast-track legislation to ratify his Brexit deal through the Commons in just three days as he attempts to avoid another delay to Britain’s departure from the EU.
Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg told MPs debate on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill would start on Tuesday with ministers hoping to get it through all its Commons stages by Thursday.
MPs have strongly condemned the prime minister for giving MPs only until Thursday to debate the draft legislation, which was shown to be 110 pages long with 125 pages of notes when it was published.
Ministers are likely to face opposition attempts to amend the legislation, including the “programme motion” setting out the Commons timetable for the bill.
It came after John Bercow, the Speaker, blocked Mr Johnson’s request to hold a vote on his deal after he ruled that the government could not re-run the same vote.
Nick Boles threatens to pull support for Brexit deal
The former Tory MP Nick Boles, who now sits as an independent, has threatened to pull support for if No 10 “persists with its McCarthyite tactics of smearing my friends through off the record briefings”.
DUP ‘can’t support’ Labour amendment on customs union with EU, says MP
One of the 10 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MPs has said the party would not support a possible Labour amendment to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal that would put the UK in a customs union with the EU.
“We are clear where we stand on the customs union as something that we cannot support and will not support, and I believe that that will be the stance we will have later on when we see the wording,” DUP MP Jim Shannon told Sky News.
Labour has made clear it will try to hijack the Johnson legislation by putting down amendments for a second Brexit referendum – and for a customs union with the EU. Shadow Brexit secretary has said the “door is open” to the DUP on the amendments.
Withdrawal bill will be published today
The government will publish its Withdrawal Agreement Bill later today, according to the department for exiting the European Union.
The Brexit secretary Steve Barclay states: “MPs and peers will today have in front of them a bill that will get Brexit done by October 31, protect jobs and the integrity of the UK, and enable us to move onto the people’s priorities like health, education and crime.”
Hannah White, of the influential think tank the Institute for Government, thinks it’s unlikely Speaker John Bercow will allow a “meaningful vote” on the deal – an attempt to win a symbolic support of parliament – before the (WAB) is introduced.
As White suggests, being denied a “meaningful vote” will itself be a symbolic act that No 10 will pounce upon.
People’s Vote campaign rebuts PM’s Brexit deal claims
Hugo Dixon, the deputy chair of the People’s Vote campaign, has been picking apart various claims made by Boris Johnson about his deal – on workers’ rights, tariffs and a free trade agreement.
Potential Labour rebel will support party’s customs union amendment
Labour said there was a “very good chance” of an amendment to have the UK partner the EU in a customs union being passed by the Commons later this week.
Gloria de Piero, a Labour MP who was believed to be considering voting for Boris Johnson’s deal, tweeted: “A customs union amendment is what I’ll be working for. It is the option that was three votes short of passing in Parliament. I am convinced we can get majority support for it.”
If passed, a customs union amendment would cause major problems for Mr Johnson because it would likely force him to either agree to the demand or pull the entire bill.
Here’s more on Labour’s optimism about its amendment.
Government’s ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ campaign wording changes
The cabinet office minister Michael Gove says the government has triggered its Operation Yellowhammer no deal-Brexit preparations.
Yet the government’s own ad campaign has given us a major clue about serious No 10 think the prospect of crash-out exit actually is.
Those electronic billboards have been changed from “the UK is due to leave on 31 October” and now read: “We could still leave on 31 October with no deal.”
Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, has lowered the probability of a no deal from 10 per cent to just 5 per cent.
Get Ready for Brexit billboards have appeared across the UK (Getty)
European Commission says UK extension request ‘does not change anything’
The European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva has been asked about the prime minister’s multiple letters and the possibility of a Brexit extension.
She said the form of the extension request “does not change anything”.
“We have taken note of House of Commons’ vote and UK’s request to extend Article 50 until 31 January, 2020 … we of course from this side will follow events from London this week very closely.”
Government could pull meaningful vote today if ‘Letwin 2’ is on the cards
Downing Street has said it will pull today’s meaningful vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal if another delaying amendment is selected for debate, writes our political editor Andrew Woodcock.
Speaker John Bercow is expected to rule this afternoon that the vote will not be allowed to take place, after saying on Saturday that it would be “curious and irregular” for a motion to be debated which was purely designed to invalidate MPs’ decision two days before.
But if he does allow it to go ahead, the group of former Tory MPs sitting as independents have made clear they will table a “Letwin 2” amendment once again withholding approval of the deal until all of the necessary legislation to ratify it has passed.
“The meaningful vote will go ahead if the speaker allows it and if no amendments are selected which would render the vote pointless. There is no point having a meaningless vote. The government would pull the motion.”
Bercow is expected to make his ruling on whether the vote can go ahead early in the afternoon. Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg will later make a business statement, effectively clearing the parliamentary decks for debate of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill over the following nine or 10 days.
The bill - along with an impact assessment - is due to be published on its introduction to the Commons at first reading this evening. MPs will then vote on the WAB at second reading on Tuesday, but this will not amount to an endorsement of the deal, merely the agreement of the Commons for the proposals to be scrutinised and debated.
Once second reading has been completed, Rees-Mogg is expected to put forward a programme motion setting out an accelerated timetable to get the bill onto the statute book in time for the 31 October Brexit deadline.
It is expected that this would see WAB complete all its Commons stages by the end of this week, with the Lords sitting over the weekend and into the start of next week to consider it, and the bill completing its passage and receiving royal assent before the deadline of 11pm on Thursday next week.
250,000 people sign letter demanding a Final Say vote
A quarter of a million people have signed a letter within the past 48 hours demanding a Final Say referendum on Brexit.
The letter, organised by People’s Vote campaign and backed by The Independent, calls on politicians to do all they can to allow the British public to have a say whether any final deal put forward by Boris Johnson is indeed the “will of the people”.
Alistair Campbell, one of the leading campaigners for a second referendum, spent some time asking people on Saturday’s march why they wanted to make their voice heard.
Barclay said PM’s extension request ‘complies with the law’
Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay is appearing at the Lords EU select committee where the subject is “scrutiny of Brexit negotiations”.
Barclay said the next step will be the Speaker’s decision on whether or not a vote can take place on Monday. This is expected after 3.30pm, he said.
Asked about the rationale behind Johnson sending three letters to the EU on Saturday night, Barclay said: “The first point to make is, as the prime minister said, as I repeatedly said, the Government will comply with the law.
“The prime minister complies with the law, and the letter that was sent on Saturday complies with section one of the Benn Act.”
Asked about what the plan is if Bercow does not allow a vote on Monday, Barclay said that bridge will be crossed “in due course”.
He added: “We hope that the speaker will enable the house to have a meaningful vote. It is, after all, this house, the House of Commons, that passed the legislation to enable, or to require, a section 13 vote.
“And therefore having put in place the legislation to require a meaningful vote it does seem odd if you then, having secured a deal, don’t have a meaningful vote on the prime minister’s deal.”
“And I think that the hope and the expectation in government is having secured a deal that the house will give its decision on a section 13 meaningful vote but obviously that is a matter for the Speaker to determine.”
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies