Boris Johnson news – live: PM faces fresh Brexit setback ahead of emergency Commons session as MPs threaten to delay vote
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Boris Johnson has launched a charm offensive with expelled Tories, hardline Brexiteers and Labour MPs in a bid to get his Brexit deal passed at a special Commons sitting on Saturday.
But his plans were thrown into disarray after a cross-party bid led by expelled Tory Sir Oliver Letwin sought to delay approving the deal until the legislation has passed.
Tory MP John Baron caused alarm by claiming he is “inclined” to vote for the deal because the UK could still leave on no-deal basis at the end of the transition period in December 2020.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and Brussels.
Up to 15 Tory rebels ready to back Brexit referendum
Exiled Tory MPs kicked out of the party by Boris Johnson are ready to deliver a second Brexit referendum if his deal is defeated on Saturday.
Supporters of a Final Say vote are confident they now have the numbers, believing up to 15 of the sacked Conservatives will join them – but only after the deal has gone down.
One former Tory, now sitting as an Independent MP, told The Independent: “It’s vital to get the sequence right and not to move too soon.”
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has all the details.
Boris Johnson ‘love bombing’ MPs to get deal through Commons
Can Boris Johnson get the numbers in the Commons for his deal? The prime minister has divvied up the charm offensive with Tory moderates and Labour rebels in his search for a majority.
The 21 Tory rebels stripped of the whip are being “love bombed” by senior ministers, according to The Times. The government is said to be confident that between 15 and 17 of them month will back the deal.
It looks as though most of the 28 Tory “Spartans” in the ERG can be won over. Stalwart Andrew Bridgen offered an olfactory endorsement: “It looks like Brexit. It smells like Brexit. It is Brexit.”
Steve Baker, Mark Francois and Peter Bone have all made encouraging noises about holding their noses and backing it.
Mark Spencer, the chief whip, is said to be working on the Labour MPs. There are various estimates are flying around this morning about how many Labour MPs will switch.
This handy chart by analysts at the Cicero Group suggests somewhere between 10 and 15 Labour MPs would probably be enough to get the deal over the line.
John McDonnell warns of ‘consequences’ for Labour MPs
Labour’s John McDonnell said there would be “consequences” for MPs in his party who vote for Boris Johnson’s deal – but would not say whether that included having the whip removed and effectively expel them from standing again for the party.
“This is a three-line whip and the chief whip, in the normal way, will determine the consequences for anyone who doesn’t vote for it,” the shadow chancellor told the Today programme.
Asked what they might be, he replied: “I’m not the chief whip thank goodness; I've got enough on my plate.”
McDonnell said he did not think Labour MPs would go through the government lobby on Saturday once they studied the detail of the deal.
“I don’t believe there are Labour MPs out there who will not think through the detail of this deal and then when they see the impact, particularly environmental, consumers' and workers’ rights, will vote for it,” said Jeremy Corbyn’s right-hand man.
“This is up to the chief whip – I believe in the powers of persuasion. I believe we can persuade people and make sure, as they did over Theresa May’s deal, vote against it because this deal is worse than Theresa May’s. It is a sell-out.”
Dominic Raab calls Brexit deal a ‘win, win, win’
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he thinks the deal is a “win, win, win” for the UK because “we take back control of our laws, our borders, our money”.
He added that “it’s a cracking deal for Northern Ireland” because “not only are they staying part of the UK customs territory but they’ve got friction-less access to the single market”.
“We’ve got a real opportunity now to get Brexit delivered faithful to the referendum, move on as a Government, and I think as a country, and lift the clouds of Brexit,” he said.
Asked whether they had given up trying to persuade the DUP over the deal, he said they had “certainly not given up” on their DUP “friends” but the responsibility was on “setting up the deal and to argue for its benefits and its merits in relation to Northern Ireland”.
That “cracking deal for Northern Ireland” remark will get a lot of flak. As our deputy political editor Rob Merrick points out, being in the single market is what a lot of people have been arguing for.
DUP opposition to deal ‘solid as rock of Gibraltar’
Dominic Raab says the government hasn’t given up on persuading the DUP. But the DUP has very much given up on the deal.
The DUP’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said the party was “as solid as the rock of Gibraltar” against it.
Asked by the Repubblica newspaper whether the party could abstain on Saturday’s vote, Wilson said: “Oh no, we are going to vote against it.”
Asked why the party won’t be backing the deal, Wilson told LBC this morning: “We want to leave on the same basis as the rest of the UK. That’s what the PM promised.”
Jo Maugham leads case against deal at Court of Session
An intriguing development in Edinburgh to watch out for today.
Anti-Brexit campaigner Jo Maugham is leading a new legal effort to thwart Boris Johnson’s deal in Scotland’s Court of Session, filing a petition arguing the agreement would be in violation of existing legislation preventing Northern Ireland forming a distinct customs territory.
The case is set to be heard this morning.
Nicola Sturgeon says Labour ‘happy’ to see Brexit happen
Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she suspects Labour would be “happy” to see Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal go through.
“Hope I’m wrong but I have a real suspicion that Labour would be quite happy to see this deal go through.”
There were reports Labour MPs would not lose the whip if they vote for the deal on Saturday. John McDonnell said this morning it would be up to the party’s chief whip to work out the punishment, but there would be “consequences”.
EU chiefs dodge questions about Brexit extension
There was a lot of interest in Jean-Claude Juncker’s remarks about an extension yesterday. He said there could be no more “prolongation”, but as many pointed out – it would not be up to him to grant and extension or not if the deal fails in the Commons.
What has been said about it today in Brussels today?
Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister and incoming president of the European Council, batted away questions about the Benn Act and a possible extension request.
“It’s not my intention to imagine that the deal would not pass in parliament and that’s why I will be clear we took yesterday an important decision, and now it’s the responsibility of the parliament in the UK but also the European parliament to give their opinions.”
Ursula Von der Leyen, incoming European Commission president, said: “For us it is important that we have a deal and now it's the British parliament that has to take a decision and I think it's the respect for the British parliament that for us makes clear that we will not comment on the outcome beforehand. I think we should give us the time to listen to the British parliament.”
All you need to know for People’s Vote march
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to march through London on Saturday for a major demonstration calling for a Final Say referendum on Brexit.
Organised by the People’s Vote campaign and supported by The Independent, the march will take place just two weeks before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU.
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