Brexit news: Theresa May secures ‘legally binding’ changes to EU deal after last-ditch Strasbourg visit
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has secured “legally-binding’’ changes to her Brexit deal after an eleventh-hour dash to Strasbourg on the eve of a dramatic Commons vote.
In a late-night press conference with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, Ms May urged MPs to back her “improved” deal in the meaningful vote tomorrow after pledging she had secured reassurances that the UK would not be trapped in the Irish backstop.
Cabinet Office minister David Lidington set out details of some of the changes agreed with Brussels in a Commons statement as he tried to buy the prime minister time to finish her talks before the Commons rose for the night.
It comes ahead of a parliamentary showdown on Ms May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday, which returns to the Commons after it was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs in January.
As speculation mounts over a fresh humiliation for Ms May, all eyes will be on the Brexiteers and her DUP allies to see if the changes the prime minister has secured will be enough to get the deal over the line.
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Michael Gove has called on MPs and "everyone who believes in our democracy" to back Theresa May's Brexit deal.
Writing in the Daily Mail, the environment secretary said:
"48 per cent of the country voted to remain. Their voices need to be listened to, their hopes incorporated in our plan for the future. That doesn’t mean giving in to the much smaller number who want to overturn the decision and frustrate Brexit.
"But it must mean that none of us Leavers should try to make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good.
Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy — in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country — will get behind the prime minister’s deal this week.
It is, of course, a compromise. But so many of the great British traditions and institutions I and many others value are the result of compromise."
Theresa May could face ministerial resignations or an attempt to oust her if she delays this week's votes, according to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg...
Reports in Westminster suggest Theresa May is considering cancelling tomorrow's "meaningful vote" on her Brexit deal and instead replacing it with a provisional vote on the type of deal she would like the EU to agree to.
That would be an attempt to convince Brussels that a deal would be passed by Parliament if the EU agreed to the concessions being demanded by the government.
But any attempt to break the "commitments" Ms May made to the Commons two weeks ago would spark fury from MPs. The prime minister made a clear guarantee that a second "meaningful vote" would be held by 12 March, followed, if her deal was rejected again, by a vote on 13 March on whether to pursue no deal. If that was also rejected, Ms May said, a vote would be held on 14 March on whether to ask the EU to delay Brexit.
The prime minister held her usual meeting with senior No10 advisers this morning to plot a way through a treacherous week for her leadership. We wait to hear the outcome...
Tory MP Nick Boles, one of the architects of a plan for a softer Brexit, says Theresa May will lose the confidence of MPs if she delays this week's votes.
NEW: Theresa May will make a written statement to MPs this afternoon, presumably on the state of negotiations with EU and her plan for this week.
Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned Theresa May that delaying tomorrow's "meaningful vote" in order to hold a provisional vote on the type of deal she wants the EU to agree to would be a pointless exercise.
He said:
"I do hear some suggestion that the votes may be called off in favour of a new vote as a result of which the House of Commons would tell the European Union what they want. That really misses the point. We're two-and-a-half years if not nearly three years now since the referendum.
"It is far too late for the United Kingdom to tell us what they want. The withdrawal agreement requires a compromise and this withdrawal agreement is already a compromise."
NEW: Theresa May's spokesman has insisted that tomorrow's "meaningful vote" will go ahead, but would not be drawn on what exactly MPs will be voting on.
He refused to deny that the prime minister could hold a provisional vote on a hypothetical deal, rather than on her actual deal.
We won't know for sure until later today. The government has until around 10pm to table the motion that MPs will vote on.
It seems that any hopes of a Brexit breakthrough in Brussels are over - for now at least.
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has told reporters:
"We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the government in London and the Parliament in London."
And a spokesman for the European Commission said "no further meetings at political level are scheduled but both sides will remain in close contact this week".
He added:
"It is now for the House of Commons to take an important set of decisions this week."
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