Brexit news - as it happened: Jean-Claude Juncker addresses public spat with Theresa May as Tusk denies mandate for further talks
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has insisted her Brexit deal is not dead in a press conference in Brussels after a bruising EU summit, with leaders scrapping written commitments to help pass her deal through the Commons.
Unless further concessions are made, it means the embattled prime minister will return to Westminster with limited assurances that are unlikely to placate her rebellious MPs.
But David Lidington, the cabinet office minister, defended Ms May’s handling of the talks, telling the BBC: “Anybody who has heard Theresa May, anybody who has heard her around the cabinet table, knows there is a very clear plan.”
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Speaking ahead of the meeting, Leo Varadkar, the Irish PM, says: "As Europe we reaffirmed our commitment for the need for a backstop. An open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland can't be a backdoor to the single market," he said.
"That's why European countries also very strongly support backstop. It is not just an Irish issue, it is very much a European issue as well.
"It is very much a case of in the European Union being one-for-all and all-for-one."
Significant intervention here from DUP leader Arlene Foster, where she tells the PM to "stand up" rather than "roll over".
The Brexit referendum cost the taxpayer £129.1m to deliver, the Electoral Commission has announced for the first time.
In a new report, the commission said the total figure includes:
- The cost of administering the poll – including the running of over 40,000 polling stations, issuing and opening postal votes, and the counting of votes – totalling £94.5m.
- Statutory grants to the two designated lead campaigners totalling £1.2m.
- The delivery costs for the two designated lead campaigners to send a mailing to each elector or household in each referendum area across the UK, as provided for in law. This totalled almost £25.4m.
- The cost of a UK-wide public awareness campaign undertaken by the Electoral Commission to raise awareness of the poll and provide information on how to take part, totalling £6m.
The Democratic Unionist Party has told Theresa May not to “roll over” to the EU, heaping further pressure on the prime minister after her Brussels failure, writes Independent deputy political editor Rob Merrick.
Arlene Foster – the leader of the party propping up the Tories in power – blamed Ms May personally for the setback, saying: “This is a difficulty of the prime minister’s own making.”
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Labour’s Keir Starmer said the overnight events in Brussels proved the prime minister was “obviously not” going to get the changes which were the reason for shelving the meaningful vote.
“She needs to put that vote back to parliament next week and let us vote on it,” he told Sky News.
“It’s unacceptable for this vote to be put off until January. We know the answer as to whether there are going to be any changes – and it is no.”
Former PM Tony Blair has urged Theresa May to stop "banging her head against a brick wall" over Brexit.
Following a speech in which he called for another referendum on Britain's withdrawal from the EU, Mr Blair said: "My advice to the Prime Minister is very simple - I actually think, funnily enough, she could still play a role in this if she just decided that given the fact there isn't a majority for any form of Brexit she could facilitate a chance for everyone to vote on the options."
The press conference is now expected at around 1.15pm - over an hour later the originally scheduled.
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