Brexit news: MPs reject every single indicative vote option as Theresa May vows to quit to get her deal passed

Earlier today, MPs backing a People's Vote gave a press conference on their plans this afternoon.

My colleague Ben Kentish has filed this from the briefing:

Dominic Grieve has suggested that the Commons could pass legislation to force the government to implement the outcome of today's indicative votes.

Criticising ministers' claims that they could ignore the result of the votes, he told a briefing in Westminster: "Historically, a resolution of the House of Commons was regarded as a really serious thing - something which governments would normally observe. We seem to have got ourselves into an extraordinary habit in the last nine months of systematically ignoring parliamentary resolutions.

"In the context of our constitution, which is highly dependent on convention, it is a very undesirable thing when the government effectively rips up an unwritten understanding of how the system works."

He added: "Lurking in the background has been the possibility that if the government will not do the House of Commons' bidding by resolution, the House of Commons might seek to initiate legislation to order the government to do something as a matter of law...If that were to happen then it's the law of the land and the government would be required to do it."

Labour MP Margaret Beckett, who has tabled the proposal for a fresh Brexit referendum that MPs will vote on tonight, has dismissed claims by Barry Gardiner, the party's shadow international trade secretary, that it will not order its MPs to back the plan.

She said: "Barry is always interesting - he explains well, mellifluously and sometimes at length. I rest my understanding on what I heard Jeremy Corbyn, who is the leader of the Labour Party, say at the dispatch box, which is that we will apply the principle of going back to the people for confirmation to any decision that is reached, and that's where we stand."

On speculation of a general election, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party James Cleverly tells BBC Politics Live he does not think such a route would "solve anything", but added: "Unfortunately, I do think it is more likely."

NEW: Conservative MPJames Cartlidge tweets to say the party's whips have confirmed that Tory MPs will be given a free vote during tonight's indicative votes. The cabinet, though, will abstain - presumably to avoid exposing the deep divisions in Theresa May's top team.

Speaking in the Commons, Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House, says the government is "disappointed" that backbenchers have forced today's indicative votes despite ministers having promised to make time for them.

MPs seizing control of the parliamentary agenda is an "extremely concerning precedent for our democracy", she adds.

Leadsom says she is "genuinely concerned" that the decisions MPs make tonight will lead to the Commons being "frustrated" when they cannot be implemented. She says it is "highly likely" that the preferences of the House simply cannot be achieved, adding: "Whatever the House decides needs to be bother deliverable and negotiable".

The EU has made clear that changing the withdrawal agreement is not an option, she adds.

The Conservatives have said they will give their MPs a free vote on all of the options in tonight's indicative votes, but cabinet ministers will abstain. 

Labour, meanwhile, will allow its MPs a free vote on all but four proposals, which MPs will be ordered to support. They are:

Labour's plan - includes a comprehensive customs union with the EU, close alignment with the single market, adopting new EU rights and protections and participating in EU agencies and funding programmes.

Fresh referendum - tabled by Labour grandee Margaret Beckett, although drawn up by Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson, it demands a public vote on any Brexit deal approved by parliament. 

Customs union 1 - tabled by a cross-party group of senior backbenchers, Ken Clarke, Yvette Cooper, Hilary Benn and Sir Oliver Letwin. Says the government must secure a "permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union with the EU"

Customs union 2 - tabled by Labour MP Gareth Snell. Says simply that the government should seek to negotiate a customs union with the EU.

It will also encourage its MPs to support the Common Market 2.0 proposal, which would involve the UK staying in the single market and agreeing a "comprehensive customs arrangement" with the EU.

Mark Francois, deputy chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory Eurosceptics, has said he believes the DUP will vote against Theresa May's deal if it comes back before parliament, and that ERG chair Jacob Rees-Mogg and most of the group's members will follow suit.

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One: 

"My understanding is the DUP have made very clear they are not going to vote for the prime minister's deal.

"Jacob Rees-Mogg, my boss as chairman of the ERG, has always said consistently he will not vote contrary to the DUP.

"So, if the DUP hold good to their word, and they're honourable people in my experience, they will vote against the deal. Therefore, so will Jacob and, I believe, so will the bulk of the ERG.

"The government want to bring MV3 [a third 'meaningful vote'] back tomorrow. They are desperately trying to peel people away in order to facilitate it. At the moment, it's not working."

Jacob Rees-Mogg says he will oppose the Commons business motion proposing indicative votes today because it is "constitutionally ill thought-through".

He says the separation of the executive and legislature "requires that the proposition of events comes from the government".

Fellow Conservative Ed Vaizey points out that it is also unconventional for a government minister to propose a motion and then vote against it, as Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay did recently, but that "in a hung parliament we tend to invent new conventions to cope with our novel situation".

Rees-Mogg says this is actually not that unusual.

There is now a bizarre row going on in the Commons between Conservative MPs.

Jacob Rees-Mogg tears into his Tory colleagues who are proposing today's indicative votes, saying if they don't have confidence in the government to manage Commons proceedings then they should vote against it in a confidence motion.

That prompts Nick Boles, one of those behind the plan, to interject that he is "quite capable of distinguishing between my general confidence in the government...and their specific conduct on this particular issue." He says he has been repeatedly voting for the government's Brexit deal, while Rees-Mogg has been voting against it.

Rees-Mogg hits back by making reference to Nick Boles schooling at Winchester (a top public school), saying the point he makes is "characteristically Wykehamist - highly intelligent but fundamentally wrong".

Turning his guns on Sir Oliver Letwin, another architect of the indicative votes plan, he adds: "I must confess I've sometimes thought [Mr Letwin] was more a Wykehamist than of my own school."

Letwin, like Rees-Mogg, went to Eton.

MPs are now voting on the business motion proposed by a cross-party group of senior backbenchers, which would lead to indicative votes on Brexit being held tonight. The government is opposing the plan, but it is expected to pass with the support of Tory rebels.

The government has been defeated on a vote on the business motion by 331 to 287, allowing indicative votes to go ahead.

Speaker John Bercow has chosen eight of the 16 motions tabled - These are no-deal, Common Market 2.0, Efta and EEA, customs union, Labour plan, revoke article 50, confirmatory vote, WTO terms