Boris Johnson news: PM to prorogue parliament again amid EU concern over ‘problematic points’ in new Brexit border plan

The Liberal Democrats are less enamoured of the PM's plans.

Tom Brake, the party's Brexit spokesman, tweeted: "Boris Johnson's leaked offer is nothing short of derisory. Based on principles long deemed unworkable by NI and ROI businesses, and delivering nothing more than confusion at vast cost, either he has learned nothing, or he wants them to be rejected. No Deal is on his hands."

Former Tory MP Sarah Wollaston, who defected to the Lib Dems, did not approve of Boris Johnson's conference speech.

Rosie Duffield, the Labour MP for Canterbury, has won praise for her intensely personal address to the Commons during the debate on the domestic abuse bill. Colleagues gave her a standing ovation.

"The soap-opera scenes only tend to focus on one or two aspects of a much bigger and more complex picture," she told MPs as she told of her own experiences of coercive control.

"The faces of those who survive" domestic abuse are varied, she said, adding that it is likely that some of the 650 MPs in parliament will have experienced it. "We are just as likely as anyone else to have grown up in a violent household."

Ms Duffield said: "Abuse isn't only about those noticeable, visible signs. Sometimes there are no bruises. Abuse is very often all about control, and power."

But abusive partners do not present themselves that way, she warned. "It's not how they win your heart, it's not how they persuade you to meet them for a coffee, then go to a gig, then spend an evening snuggled up in front of a movie at their place."

Eventually, behind closed doors, "you learn that 'I'll always look after you, I'll never let you go' and 'You're mine for life' can sound menacing and are used as a warning".

"It's when the ring is on your finger that the mask can start to slip," Ms Duffield said in the powerful statement. "Reward, punishment, promises of happily-ever-after, alternated with abject rage" becomes the pattern.

"Every day is emotionally exhausting, working in a job that you love but putting on a brave face and pretending all is good."

One day, as her partner left for the gym, she hid his door keys and locked him out, she told MPs. Afterward he raged at her and issued threats. But, some six months later, after what felt like "withdrawal", she began to move on.

Leo Varadkar has made a limited comment about Boris Johnson's border plans.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, he said he had not been able to hear Mr Johnson's speech at the Conservative Party conference, or look at the written proposals.

"I'll wait till I've had a chance to see the written proposals and then we'll consult with the EU commission and our European colleagues and decide," he said.

"What I can say is, from the leaks, it's not promising, and does not appear to form the basis for an agreement but we'll keep talking, however I'd want to see them in writing first."

The government will need to secure approval from Stormont for the new Brexit plan by July 2020, officials have said, despite the fact the executive has not functioned since the collapse of powersharing in 2017, writes Lizzy Buchan.

A UK government official said they “absolutely believe” that the Northern Ireland Assembly could be up and running in nine months.

“Discussions have been ongoing for a number of months now,” the official said.

“I think it is vital that the people and institutions are able to have their say over these arrangements. That was obviously something that was lacking from the original backstop and that is what the PM is seeking to address here.”

Ministers could offer extra cash to Northern Ireland to help it prepare for its post-Brexit future.

Asked about what a “new deal for Northern Ireland” means, an official said: “Precisely what form it takes is subject to discussion but what that is talking about is putting in place support for Northern Ireland as it transitions into a post-Brexit world.

“I wouldn’t dispute that support is likely to have financial implications but I think the focus is to provide support to NI as we move forward outside the EU.”

Discussions have also been held with the DUP over the plans in recent days.

Boris Johnson gave a glimpse into the kind of Conservative government he wants to head after Brexit in a speech which was peppered with references to the party’s centrist “one nation” tradition and included a bold attempt to claim the mantle of “the party of the NHS”, writes Andrew Woodcock.

But unions said the health claim would "make staff and patients' blood boil" after a decade of Tory austerity. And he won his loudest applause from the party faithful with a trenchant defence of capitalism and a promise of tax cuts to come.

In an assault on Labour’s tax-and-spend approach to services and welfare, the prime minister insisted that it was “dynamic free-market capitalism” which would provide the growth to pay for new hospitals, transport links and broadband connections.

Mr Brexit offers his thoughts:

Away from the Irish border...

The government has been accused of “utter hypocrisy” after it rejected calls from MPs to stop spending billions on overseas fossil fuel projects while claiming to be a leader in the fight against global warming, writes Chris Baynes.

Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee had warned Britain was sabotaging its climate credentials by paying out “unacceptably high” oil and gas subsidies in developing nations.

But international trade secretary Liz Truss shunned the cross-party group’s recommendation that investment in fossil fuel projects abroad should end by 2021, saying the move would be “too abrupt”.

As you might expect, Jeremy Corbyn doesn't see anything in Boris Johnson's border proposals that he likes. They are even worse than Theresa May's deal, he claims.

Reacting to the release of the plans, he said he believed they would undermine the Good Friday Agreement and suggested the PM wanted a "deregulated Britain with a race to the bottom". (His longstanding attack line against the Conservatives.)

Mr Corbyn added: "At the end of his letter he says 'and I'm sure this can all be agreed by the 31st of October'.

"I'm sure he knows full well that what he's put forward is unlikely to be approved.

"What he hasn't acknowledged that he has a duty under the EU number two Act, the Act Of Parliament, that requires him to apply for an extension in the event of no agreement being reached."

Boris Johnson's proposals have not gone down well with Sinn Fein, either.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionists said the PM and DUP were "fooling no one".

Its leader, Robin Swann, said in a statement: "This new protocol should be deeply concerning for all those who have the long term economic and constitutional welfare of Northern Ireland and its people at heart.

"Northern Ireland would be locked into continual political debates about Brexit and alignment with the rest of the UK or EU. They would set the theme of every Assembly and Westminster election. It plunges Northern Ireland into a referendum in the Assembly Chamber every four years with high stakes consequences for our people. It will keep our businesses and agri-food sector in a perpetual cycle of uncertainty.

"These proposals haven`t been thought through and would see DUP statements that Northern Ireland would leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom being flipped on their heads."