Brexit - as it happened: Eurosceptic issues leadership challenge to Theresa May's cabinet as no-confidence vote intrigue grows
Fresh cabinet appointments include Amber Rudd as DWP secretary
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May faces another tough day as she battles to cling onto her job after a flurry of ministerial resignations and a growing campaign to unseat her by Conservative MPs unhappy about her Brexit deal.
As No 10 gears up for a potential vote of no confidence, government whips were recalled to Westminster from their constituencies.
Ms May began the morning with a 30-minute phone-in on LBC, where she insisted she would carry on as prime minister and defended the Brexit deal that has infuriated many of her MPs. She was speaking minutes after former culture secretary John Whittingdale became the latest to announce he had submitted a letter of no-confidence in her.
Having lost senior cabinet ministers Dominic Raab and Esther McVey, pressure on Ms May was heightened after leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg submitted his letter calling for a vote of no-confidence on Thursday afternoon.
A number of other Tory backbenchers publicly followed suit. If the number of letters hits 48 (15 per cent of the parliamentary party) Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, will automatically trigger a confidence vote in Ms May.
There is growing speculation of further cabinet resignations, with Michael Gove considering whether he should step down after apparently refusing to take the Brexit secretary job.
Mr Gove is believed to have demanded that Ms May’s draft agreement is renegotiated and for the 25 November summit with the EU to be cancelled.
Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, is also thought to be still considering quitting and met with Ms May yesterday to discuss.
Reports - Amber Rudd has been appointed as work and pensions secretary, after Esther McVey resigned from the role over Theresa May's Brexit plan.
Rudd resigned from the cabinet after providing inaccurate evidence to the home affairs select committee at the height of the Windrush scandal.
New: Steve Barclay - a former director at Barclays and treasury minister who vote Leave - has been appointed the new Brexit secretary. He replaces Dominic Raab to become the third Tory MP to hold the position.
Diane Abbott criticised the appointment of Ms Rudd back to a Cabinet post so soon after the Windrush scandal. Writing on Twitter the shadow home secretary said: "Amber Rudd resigned because of her mismanagement of Windrush scandal. Now Theresa May puts her in the DWP.
"Let's hope she shows more concern for the victims of this department's unfairness and cruelty than she did at the Home Office. ŁUniversalCredit"
A clutch of new appointments have been reported.
Stephen Hammond has reportedly been appointed Health Minister, John Penrose as Northern Ireland Minister and Kwasi Kwarteng as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Brexit department.
Amber Rudd says she is "looking forward to getting stuck in" to her new role. She will be the sixth secretary of state for work and pensions in three years.
In a TV interview Amber Rudd has urged Tory colleagues sending in letters of no confidence in Theresa May to "think again".
She said: "This is not a time for changing our leader.
"This is a time for pulling together, for making sure we remember who we are here to serve, who we are here to help: that's the whole of the country.
"I worry sometimes colleagues are too concerned about the Westminster bubble rather than keeping their eye on what our job is - to serve people."
Stephen Barclay, the newly-appointed Brexit secretary, has expressed delight at his new role:
Freshly appointed as Department of Work and Pensions Secretary, Amber Rudd has been urged to reverse the work of her predecessors.
It comes on the same day that a UN official branded UK policies in Scotland “outrageous”.
The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, who toured the UK last week, said in preliminary findings published today ministers were “in a state of denial” over the extent of poverty in the Britain.
Cabinet secretary for communities and local Government Aileen Campbell said: "This report is clear - it is the poorest and most vulnerable in our society who are being hit hardest.
"I have repeatedly told the UK government their failed policies are causing harm and poverty.
"Now a UN Rapporteur has clearly outlined that changes are needed - once again I call on the UK Government to listen.
"The next Secretary of State for Work and Pensions cannot act like their long line of predecessors.
"From Universal Credit to sanctions, whoever takes on that job, must make the changes necessary to reverse the catalogue of cuts and damaging policies."
Full report on the UN's damning findings here:
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has said Stephen Barclay's appointment as his counterpart following Dominic Raab's resignation "changes nothing".
"After two years of negotiation, the prime minister has failed to deliver a Brexit deal that can command the support of parliament," he said.
"A new face in the Brexit department will do nothing to bring this divided government back together."
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