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
Here's a list of all the Conservative MPs who voted against the government today in favour of stopping a future prime minister from suspending parliament.
Responding to the vote, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is obviously disappointed that a number of Ministers failed to vote in this afternoon’s division. No doubt her successor will take this into account when forming their government.”
This is from leadership contender Jeremy Hunt - he says his position is that parliament should not restrict the hands of the incoming prime minister.
Tory Phillip Lee, who supports the People's Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: "More and more Conservatives who care deeply about the national interest are now standing up for our democracy and our country.
"The sight of ministers resigning on this point of principle and others abstaining should give heart to all of us who believe we can avert catastrophe.
"Conservatives should not be trying to force a destructive Brexit on Britain when it is clear this was not what people voted for.
"Conservatives should not be inflicting a no deal on Britain when this was barely even mentioned in 2016. Conservatives should not even be thinking about bypassing either Parliament or the people on a crisis as momentous as Brexit.
"But, within days, more ministers will be sent to the backbenches and will be free to rebel against a disastrous no-deal.
The pound could fall to as low as one-for-one against the dollar in the event of a no-deal Brexit, as fears for the future of Britain's economy prompt a mass sell-off of the currency, according to a Wall Street bank.
Conservative Brexiteer Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: "I can't understand why my colleagues are voting with Jeremy Corbyn on this.
"Do they want a hard left government to take control of their country? If they hated the prospect of delivering the referendum result, why did they vote for Article 50 in the first place?
"Their disruptive amendments are cynical and corrosive, but they don't change the underlying legal realities one jot: we are leaving on October 31 with or without a deal.
"When will my colleagues tell us what they really think and start calling for Article 50 to be reversed?"
Chancellor Philip Hammond, who abstained on the vote today, has just published his response to the government defeat on his social media account.
Jeremy Corbyn has also added his thoughts to the government's defeat, declaring it an "important victory".
Labour Party staff who are members of the GMB union have voted overwhelmingly to condemn the official response to this week’s TV documentary on antisemitism in the party.
The staff voted by 124-4 to demand apologies from the party to former colleagues who took part in the BBC Panorama programme.
And they called on the party’s general secretary Jennie Formby and ruling National Executive Committee to commit fully to Labour’s position of supporting whistleblowers.
It is highly appropriate, not to say ironic, that this latest of a long and depressing line of Boris Johnson’s amusing European “stories”, demonstrated by holding a kipper up at a hustings to make a point about EU safety rules, turns out be entirely fictional, writes Sean O'Grady.
No matter what the angry man on the Isle of Man may have thought about the packaging he is required to use to transport his smoked herring, the rules are Made in Britain, so to speak. They are all about food safety, and maintaining the integrity of the kipper as the nation’s breakfast fish of choice (as featured in the famous episode of Fawlty Towers entitled "The Kipper and the Corpse").
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