Brexiteers refuse to back Brady amendment which would send May back to renegotiate Irish backstop

The BBC has privately admitted that the new Question Time host Fiona Bruce made light-hearted personal comments about Diane Abbott.

Show editors are understood to have written to the shadow home secretary acknowledging that Ms Bruce made a humorous remark to the audience before the cameras started to roll, in response to a formal complaint from Labour over the show's "unacceptable" treatment of Ms Abbott.

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Labour frontbenchers have been accused of being part of a list of "shame" by signing a letter which argues against US-led regime change in Venezuela.

Foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan made the claim after shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott signed an open letter criticising the "far-right" governments of the US and Brazil, saying they offer "no hope" to Venezuela,

The letter, published in the Guardian, insisted there is "no justification for backing the US attempt at regime change under way" and backed the call for dialogue from the Mexican and Bolivian presidents.

Labour backbench criticism of the letter also emerged while shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry raised concerns over the record of Nicolas Maduro's government before cautioning that it would be a "mistake" to think changing the leader will "automatically solve every problem".

Sir Alan, responding to an urgent question, told the Commons: "I think we should all be saddened that in our midst are people who seem to have still sympathy for the regime of Nicolas Maduro despite what it has done to poor people, it has not just made them poorer, it has made them destitute and in many cases has forced them to flee.

"So let the signatories of that letter in the Guardian be pinned on every wall as a list of signatures of shame."

Venezuela president Mr Maduro has faced international demands to give way to Juan Guaido, who is head of the South American country's national assembly, amid mass protests.

Labour MP Mike Gapes (Ilford South), asking the urgent question, earlier said a decision to declare Mr Guaido interim president is "correct and a game-changer".

He added: "The people of Venezuela do not need the weasel words of a letter to The Guardian from assorted Stalinists, Trotskyists, anti-Semites, and apparently dead people, but also from members of Labour's frontbench.

"What they need is our solidarity and with the legitimate elected social democratic president of the national assembly, the interim president of Venezuela Juan Guaido."

For Labour, Ms Thornberry said democracy had ceased to function in any meaningful way in Venezuela, adding its people needed a Government that respects the rule of law, upholds human rights and democracy.

She said: "Judging by its record in recent years the Maduro government fits none of those descriptions, but I would also believe that it is a mistake in situations like this simply to think that changing the leader will automatically solve every problem, let alone the kind of US-led intervention being threatened by Donald Trump and John Bolton."

Theresa May is currently addressing backbench Tory MPs in parliament but it doesn't look like it is going well. Jacob Rees-Mogg has told waiting journalists that he will not support any amendments to tomorrow's bill.

UK consumer confidence dropped to an 18-month low in the last quarter of 2018, as worries grew about Brexit and the clouds gathering over the global economy.

A poll of more than 3,000 consumers by YouGov for Deloitte showed confidence dropped to -9 per cent from -7 per cent in the previous quarter.

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Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has confirmed in the Commons that Labour will not be opposing the immigration bill on its second reading.

This has not gone down well with several MPs, including Labour's Chris Leslie, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, and Conservative MPs Anna Soubry and Kenneth Clarke.

Mr Clarke interrupted Ms Abbott's speech to express surprise that "she is denouncing it from beginning to end but is saying the official opposition is not opposing it."

Ms Abbott replies by insisting that Labour will make its final decision at a later date. She says: "This is not the end of our deliberations on this bill, we will see how it is amended in committee before taking a decision on the vote for the third reading."

How much will Northern Irish students pay to attend university in Ireland after Brexit, asks our Education correspondent Eleanor Busby.

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey has described the Labour frontbench abstention as "beyond pathetic".

Others see the Labour abstention as a failure to take a stand against anti-migrant rehetoric.

Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has said his Eurosceptic allies will not support a compromise amendment to Theresa May's Brexit deal tomorrow.

In a blow to the prime minister, Mr Rees-Mogg told reporters that the European Research Group MPs would not, as it stands, support any amendment being voted on.

Instead, the Brexiteer backbenchers will wait until a meeting on Tuesday evening, just an hour before the votes are due to be held, to decide whether to vote against amendments or abstain.

Mr Rees-Mogg said an amendment by Tory backbench organiser Sir Graham Brady to remove the controversial backstop from the deal was being "over-egged", saying: "I don't think it changes anything."

The ERG chairman added: "I think the emphasis on Graham Brady's amendment is too great.

"What matters is what the government is going to do - is it going to go back to the EU and ask for the Withdrawal Agreement to be reopened?

"That is what I think ought to be said. If the Prime Minister says that, that will gather a lot of support across the party."

Tory party chairman Brandon Lewis has confirmed that the government would whip in favour of the Brady amendment, which seeks to replace the backstop with "alternative arrangements".

A couple of other MPs have withdrawn their amendments to back the Brady bid.