Brexit news - live: Government postpones key no-deal bill vote to avoid humiliating tax havens defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a vote on key bit of Brexit legislation to avoid a humiliating Commons defeat over rules governing tax havens.
Labour grandee Dame Margaret Hodge had tabled a cross-party amendment to the Financial Services Bill, which would have compelled UK overseas territories to be more transparent about business ownership.
It came as Labour MPs from Leave-backing areas dismissed Theresa May's "Brexit bribe" of £1.6bn for run down towns, saying their "vote is not for sale".
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it “smacks of desperation from a government reduced to bribing MPs to vote for their damaging flagship Brexit legislation”.
Beleaguered transport secretary Chris Grayling also came under fire on Monday for failing to personally answer questions from MPs about the botched Brexit ferry contracts.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, causing chaos and wasting billions of pounds yet he shows no contrition… the transport secretary has become an international embarrassment.”
Here's how the day unfolded:
ITV's Robert Peston has taken a look at the parliamentary arithmetic and makes the important point that Ms May has NO working majority after all of the defections to the Independent Group.
Of course, it's important to remember that the confidence and supply agreement with the DUP, which gives May an additional 10 votes.
The UK government does not understand how the EU works and so embarks on negotiating strategies which are doomed to fail, Britain’s former ambassador to Brussels has said.
Ivan Rogers, who was Britain’s face in the EU capital from 2013 until 2017, said the UK government always thought it could circumvent the European Commission and deal directly with member state leaders.
More here:
Speaker John Bercow says the delay of the Financial Services Bill is a "very rum business". He says it is very discourteous of the government to do this without warning, particularly because it was announced on Thursday.
He says it shows the "inexperience" of ministers" who are in charge. He says politicians really need to "raise their game".
Shadow communities minister Andrew Gwynne attacked the so-called "stronger towns" and said MPs would be "disappointed and patronised" by their communities being offered much less than the Government had already cut.
Speaking during Housing questions in the Commons, Mr Gwynne said councils across the North West of England had seen cuts of nearly £1.5 billion since 2010 but were being offered £281 million over the next seven years.
He said: "The announcement like the one he's made today means very little when he plans to shift the funding formula in future years away from those left-behind towns to favour the wealthy Tory shires.
"Will he now remove any uncertainty and ensure deprivation is factored into any future Fair Funding Review so it is actually able to live up to its name?"
HCLG Secretary James Brokenshire said deprivation would remain "firmly relevant" in certain scenarios, including health and social care.
He added: "It's this Government that recognises, yes, the hard decisions councils have had to make, but now how we are supporting councils to do the right thing for their communities and actually see that improvement that we all recognise and want to see."
Theresa May has refused to say the UK is still fighting for a “time limit” to the Irish backstop, in fresh evidence that the Brexit talks are in trouble.
The prime minister appeared to water down her demands from the EU, threatening her ability to win over Conservative MPs in the second “meaningful vote” earmarked for just 8 days’ time.
Story here:
Sajid Javid has said there is "no single solution" to tackling serious violence after the government came under fire for a recent rise in knife crime.
The home secretary was called to answer an urgent question in the Commons today after two 17-year-olds were stabbed to death in separate attacks over the weekend.
Mr Javid told MPs: "We all wish there was one thing, just one thing, that we could do to stop this violence, but there are no shortcuts, there is no single solution.
"Tackling serious violence requires coordinated action on multiple fronts."
Labour general secretary Jennie Formby is expected to address MPs at the parliamentary Labour party meeting tonight.
There has been speculation that Thomas Gardiner, Labour's director of governance and legal, has resigned today amid an ongoing row over the handling of antisemitism cases.
However a Labour source said the claim he had quit was "nonsense".
Two junior staffers have reportedly been moved over to the complaints team to provide administrative support.
Back in the Commons, Labour's Louise Haigh, who was granted the urgent question, called the "senseless murders" in recent days a "national tragedy" that requires "national leadership".
The shadow policing minister said in 2000 the then-PM Tony Blair convened an emergency Cobra meeting to set up a taskforce to bring down a similar rise in violent crime, urging Theresa May to do the same now.
She also hit out at the cuts to policing under the Conservatives, telling the chamber: "We cannot pretend the cuts to policing have not made our country less safe.
"Sadly, the Prime Minister and other members of her Cabinet continue to deny this crucial link."
Ms Haigh also described the most recent police funding settlement as "completely inadequate" and called on Mr Javid to urgently review it "to ensure those forces that have seen the biggest increases in violent crime are give whatever they need to fight this outbreak".
Ahead of tonight's PLP meeting, here's a bit of background on the latest antisemitism row.
Labour’s general secretary has strongly criticised party deputy leader Tom Watson over his request for MPs to inform him of complaints about antisemitism.
Jennie Formby accused Mr Watson of behaving in a “completely unacceptable” manner.
Labour's Stella Creasy read out the names of those young people who had been killed by a knife in the capital in 2019.
The Walthamstow MP said: "I'm not sure that that is a complete list of everyone who has been killed by a knife in London this year alone, but I can tell the Home Secretary that the taskforces, the consultations, the more reports, isn't working.
"What on earth will it take for him to recognise this is an emergency that requires an emergency response?"
Mr Javid said: "She reminds this House that it's such a tragic loss of life."
He added: "I really wish standing here there was just one simple answer, one single thing that could be done. We require action across multiple fronts and the best way to achieve that is for all us to recognise that and to work together to deliver it."
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