Boris Johnson news – live: PM to call October general election if rebel MPs vote to block no-deal

More from our political editor Andrew Woodcock on today’s lobby briefing.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman was asked about Michael Gove’s refusal in a TV interview to confirm that the government would abide by the decisions of parliament.

Asked whether it meant that the government no longer believed in the principle of the rule of law, the No 10 spokesman said that “every government adheres to the law”.

But the spokesman declined to give specific assurances in relation to the rebel Brexit bill expected to clear parliament this week, saying: “We haven’t seen any legislation yet and the government will need to look at any legislation brought forward to establish what it does or doesn’t require.”

Downing Street sought to step up pressure on Conservative MPs not to back any legislation which would block Mr Johnson from pursuing a no-deal Brexit, arguing that this would tie his hands in negotiations with Brussels.

The spokesman said it would be “entirely unreasonable for MPs – having rejected the previous deal three times – to attempt to bind the hands of the prime minister as he seeks to negotiate a deal they can support ahead of the European Council in October”.

Nicola Sturgeon indicates she is ready for a general election. "Bring it on", she says :

Plenty of general election speculation, but Labour MP Jess Phillips has written a piece for us explaining why it’s a second referendum we really need.

Downing Street has warned MPs that it would be "entirely unreasonable" for them to attempt to "bind the hands" of the Prime Minister as he seeks to negotiate a new Brexit deal.

Boris Johnson has put rebels within his party on notice that they face losing the whip and being barred from standing for the Tories if they vote against the Government.

A think tank praised by Boris Johnson for its work in attempting to dump the backstop has published suggestions for ensuring the UK leaves the EU with a free trade deal.

Prosperity UK's self-dubbed "alternative arrangements commission" held meetings with a top aide to Brussels Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier last week and said they were now "redrafting" the Political Declaration - the document setting out the future trading relationship between the UK and the European Union - in a bid to ensure Britain can exit with a deal.

The Prime Minister is desperately seeking removal of the backstop "whole and entire" from the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May.

Boris Johnson may meet his Irish counterpart next week. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he will listen to alternatives to the Irish border backstop as he disclosed details of the proposed encounter during an event on Monday. Officials are working on two possible dates.

“Of course, I would listen to any proposals that the British prime minister may have to achieve that by an alternative means and we provide for alternative arrangements in the joint political declaration.

“The difficulty is that anything we have seen so far, when it comes to alternative arrangements, do something very different.

“They just manage a border, they facilitate tariffs, they facilitate checks, they facilitate controls but try to do it in a way that is invisible and unobtrusive, and that is better than nothing but it is not the outcome that we want to achieve."

Johnson has said he wants to scrap the backstop. Mr Varadkar has been staunch in his defence of the proposal, which was part of a draft agreement between Theresa May's administration and the EU.

“The backstop is a means to an end,” he told RTE. “It is there to ensure that we continue to have frictionless trade north and south, that there is no physical infrastructure, no checks, no controls, no tariffs. We want that to continue to be the case. It has been the case since 1992, we want that to continue.”

The big question now is whether a possible general election could take place before or after 31 October, what role Labour might play in granting Boris Johnson a two-thirds majority need to call one.

This suggestion, by ITV’s Paul Brand, would not go down well. As Labour MP Wes Streeting makes clear.

The vice-president of the European parliament has criticised Boris Johnson and suggested his way of negotiating a possible deal has been “unhelpful”.

Mairead McGuinness also indicated she believed there would be no agreement reached at the next European council summit on 17 October while speaking on Ireland's RTE.

She said: “If you look at what that [compromise] would involve, it would be mean that the democratically elected leaders of Europe would yield to a very unhelpful pressure that the British prime minister is heaping upon them, almost threatening that: ‘Look, we are going either way and you are going to have to deal with us’.”