Westminster today - as it happened: Ministers questioned over 'civil servant Brexit conspiracy' to keep UK in EU customs union
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May met Chinese Premier Xi Jinping in Beijing, as she battled to keep her MPs onside at home.
The Prime Minister was hoping to make progress towards a post-Brexit trade deal with China, despite her International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, warning that one might not be possible. Ms May gave Mr Xi a Blue Planet 2 box set, Downing Street said.
It came as Steve Baker, the Brexit minister, floated the claim in the Commons that civil servants may be distorting evidence to “influence” the Government to stay in the EU’s customs union.
The comments blindsided Downing Street, which said it was unaware that the allegation had been aired and declined to immediately comment.
Alongside Mr Baker, his boss – the Brexit Secretary David Davis – visibly winced as the minister confirmed the allegation, raised by his fellow anti-EU Tory, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Wrapping up the debate, Harriet Harman says all the speakers have been passionate and no one has spoken against it. She says the procedure committee should now look into it.
She say it must not be kicked into the long grass.
MPs have agreed Harriet Harman's motion on introducing a proxy voting system for men and women in the Commons on parental leave. The procedures committee will now look at how it should be done.
More on the Steve Baker story below here - Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach has posted this on Twitter:
At her dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Theresa May was served:
Chicken soup with bamboo fungus and golden tremella
King crab in two styles
Beijing roast duck
Braised coral grouper with lettuce
Fried steak with tomato powder, sauteed vegetables, lily bulbs and snow peas
Pastries
Fruits and ice cream
Dragon whisker noodles were made at the table, and there was a demonstration of Beijing duck carving.
This is from the Press Association:
European students who travel to Scotland to study can still benefit from free tuition after the UK's formal Brexit date.
The Scottish Government has announced that students from other European Union (EU) countries who start their course in the academic year 2019-20 will not be charged tuition fees.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the higher education minister, said the move sent a "strong message" that EU citizens were "welcome" in Scotland.
Britain is scheduled to exit the EU in March 2019, two years after Theresa May sent the Article 50 letter.
Ms Somerville said that students starting their degree that autumn would still get free access to university.
She told MSPs at Holyrood that the Scottish Government had already pledged to provide free tuition for EU students starting their courses in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
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