Brexit news: Boris Johnson suffers day of disaster as MPs vote to explode his parliament plan and anti-EU kipper rules tirade exposed as false
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Your support makes all the difference.MPs have voted to stop future prime minister from suspending parliament, as Boris Johnson's anti-EU kipper rules tirade has been exposed as false.
The motion would ensure that parliament is kept open in the days leading up to the 31 October Brexit deadline. A similar amendment was approved last week by just one vote, and a similarly tight result is expected when the Commons divides this afternoon.
The latest bid to avoid no deal comes as Boris Johnson, the favourite to become prime minister next week, faced questions over his claim that EU rules were responsible for UK fisheries having to pay more to transport their products. Brussels rejected the suggestion, insisting the regulations were actually introduced by the UK.
Elsewhere, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said Theresa May’s agreement was the only way to withdraw in an “orderly manner”.
Follow the latest developments in the live blog below
Good morning and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the day's political developments from Westminster and beyond.
The EU secretly offered to put Brexit "on ice" for five years in order to come up with a new deal for Europe, Theresa May's de facto deputy has revealed, writes political correspondent Lizzy Buchan.
David Lidington, the cabinet office minister, disclosed that powerful EU official Martin Selmayr had made the offer during a private lunch in the summer of 2018.
The claims will infuriate Brexiteers, who suspect senior officials such as Mr Selmayr - who was right-hand man to EU Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker - of trying to thwart the UK's decision to quit the bloc.
Labour’s deputy leader in the Lords Baroness Hayter has been sacked from her post as a shadow Brexit minister as the party’s row over antisemitism has deepened further.
A spokesman said she had been removed from her frontbench position ”with immediate effect for her deeply offensive remarks about Jeremy Corbyn and his office”.
He added: “To compare the Labour leader and Labour Party staff working to elect a Labour government to the Nazi regime is truly contemptible, and grossly insensitive to Jewish staff in particular.”
In the House of Commons today, MPs will vote on motions aiming to make it difficult for Boris Johnson - if he emerges victorious in the Tory leadership race next week - from suspending parliament to push through his Brexit plan.
It comes after peers voted 272 to 169 in favour of a cross-party motion that will force a government minister to make a series of statements in parliament in October.
That would make it difficult for the next prime minister to prorogue parliament in the run-up to the UK leaving the EU on 31 October – the current Brexit deadline.
Here is the story from last night on the vote in the House of Lords
On the vote today preventing the suspension of parliament (see previous post) the current justice secretary David Gauke said such a move by a future PM would be "outrageous" but did not confirm whether he would back the measures to block it.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I will have to see what the precise amendments are and we're hearing what the whipping will be and the arguments for that so I'm not in a position to necessarily say.
"But what I would say is the idea that Parliament should be suspended in October - a period where it always sits, Parliament has always in recent years sat at that time of year.
"And at a crucial point in this country's history, if you like - that Parliament should not be able to sit, should not be able to express its opinion and its will, I think would be outrageous.
"I very much doubt that any prime minister would in fact suspend Parliament in these circumstances, but I can understand the concerns that a lot of my colleagues have."
The latest Westminster voting intention from YouGov shows the Conservatives leading Labour by four points - as both parties grapple with severe infighting within their ranks.
Theresa May used the last major speech as prime minister on Wednesday to take a bitter swipe at the hardline Brexiteers in her own party who brought her premiership to an early end, writes political editor Andrew Woodcock.
Ms May accused opponents of her EU withdrawal agreement of adopting a polarised “winner takes all” approach which had prevented her from resolving the Brexit impasse and delivering the deal that she believed most voters wanted.
In an apparent warning to likely successor Boris Johnson not to impose a no-deal outcome, which opinion polls suggest is opposed by a majority of voters, the PM warned that a successful Brexit must involve “some kind of compromise” to be sustainable and bring the country back together.
If you missed the final hustings of the Tory leadership contest last night, my colleague Ben Kentish has an odd highlight from the event in east London
Two of Britain’s biggest trade unions have denounced the treatment of whistleblowers on antisemitism by the Labour leadership, dealing a fresh blow to Jeremy Corbyn.
Unison, the biggest union, and the GMB, the third largest, took the unusual step of publicly calling on the party to protect employees and former employees following condemnation of Labour’s response to fresh revelations about anti-Jewish abuse.
Unison said it had already raised concerns with the party leadership in private over Labour’s attack on whistleblowers and planned to do so again at a key meeting next week.
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