Boris Johnson news – live: PM loses second attempt to trigger early general election

Meanwhile, a European Commission spokesperson has said the British government has not yet presented an alternative to the backstop – echoing what Leo Varadkar said earlier.

Our Europe correspondent Jon Stone has more.

Opposition leaders agreed not to back Boris Johnson’s bid to secure a general election, both Labour and the Lib Dems have confirmed.

A Labour spokeswoman said: “Jeremy Corbyn hosted a meeting with opposition party leaders this morning. They agreed to work together today to hold the government to account in parliament.

“All leaders agreed that they would not support Boris Johnson’s ploy to deny the people their decision by crashing us out of the EU with no deal during a general election campaign.”

Priti Patel has denied that Boris Johnson politicised the police when he gave a speech in front of uniformed officers last week. Here's Lizzie Dearden's report...

Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed that Labour will not support an early general election when MPs vote on the matter tonight.

He says:

"We will take every parliamentary action we can and continue the public campaign to get no-deal taken off the table.

"And then let's have a general election and see what kind of government the people of this country want."

Here’s Priti Patel insisting that Boris Johnson did not politicise the police during last week’s speech.

Jeremy Corbyn has been talking about his meeting with opposition leaders and called the current situation “extraordinary”.

Pressed on whether he was prepared to take Boris Johnson court if the PM refused to obey the law aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit, Corbyn said: “Personally, no. Because I’m an elected parliamentarian, my job is to represent my constituency and to lead my party.

“And I think it is extraordinary that we have a prime minister who has lost every vote he has put to Parliament in the few days it has been back that now goes around the country saying that he is now going to defy parliament.

“Democracy requires that elected governments are responsible to parliament itself. And the prime minister seems not to be prepared to do that.”

“I think it’s disgraceful - the prime minister appears willing to run away from questions.”

Corbyn added: "We will take every parliamentary action we can and continue the public campaign to get no-deal taken off the table. And then let’s have a general election and see what kind of government the people of this country want.”

Asked when he would back an election, Corbyn said: “When it’s clear that the Government is going to abide by the Act of Parliament that has now been passed which requires them to have an extension, a short extension, until January to prevent a no-deal exit from the European Union.”

He added: “We all want an election but we all have to avoid crashing out.”

Tory MP Steve “Brexit hard man” Baker – the chair of the European Research Group – has clashed with Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry on the BBC’s Politics Live. It turned rather nasty.

Jason Stein, Amber Rudd’s former special adviser who left his role at the weekend, claims he has seen polling that suggests Boris Johnson would only win about 295 to 300 seats in an election.

The departing spad said the polling and modelling – which predicts Johnson would do worse than Theresa May – has been discussed at No 10.

“It is just the simple fact that we’re going to lose seats in London, in the South West, in Scotland,” he told Sky News.

“They need to be replaced, they’re already 10 behind, we to win 35 seats in areas we’ve never won before just to break even.”