Government hits back at EU claims it has no fresh plan, saying proposals for Irish border 'clear as day'

Opinion: Why Corbyn's Labour has utterly failed to put the antisemitism crisis to bed 

  ↵Karen Bradley makes Chris Grayling look competent - she needs to resign, writes Ben Kelly

Former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers, a Eurosceptic, has said she believes that MPs will again reject Theresa May's Brexit deal next week.

She told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: 

"I suspect we will get the same result as last time in that MPs will vote down the agreement."

"It really does depend on whether there is a last-minute breakthrough in the Geoffrey Cox work."

Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, is getting a bit of stick after referring to Labour's Diane Abbott as a "coloured women".

Speaking about abuse of female politicians, she told BBC Radio 2:

“It’s worst of all if you are a coloured woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse.”

Diane Abbott responds to Amber Rudd describing her as a "coloured woman"...

The government would reject any request from the SNP for another referendum on Scottish independence, Jeremy Hunt has said.

Speaking in Glasgow, the foreign secretary said Theresa May would not allow a second legally-binding independence vote.

Asked what Ms May's response would be if Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon made the request, Mr Hunt said: "The answer of course would be no."

Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd has said she is "mortified at my clumsy language" and has apologised after describing shadow home secretary Diane Abbott as "coloured" in a radio interview. 

The House of Commons listened in silence as an MP read out the names of more than 130 women killed by male violence in the last year.

Labour's Jess Phillips said she wanted to use the debate on International Women's Day to honour her promise to share with the Commons the names of those who have died since the previous debate.

Ms Phillips said she could "feel the nervousness in the room" that she would not finish reading the list within the seven-minute time limit imposed on speeches.

She said the names of those women who have died need to be heard by MPs so they can try and introduce changes to "make it that next year's list is a little bit shorter".

Away from Brexit, Tommy Robinson faces up to two years in jail after the attorney general decided to bring fresh contempt of court charges against the anti-Islam activist.

The Brexit department's most senior civil servant has announced plans to retire by the end of the month - coinciding with Britain's official EU exit day.

Philip Rycroft, who once said fears about Brexit "keeps me awake at night", is due to step down as permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union (DexEU) within weeks.