Brexit news: Jeremy Corbyn urges Theresa May to rule out 'devastating' no-deal as EU rejects her plan B
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Theresa May has repeatedly refused to rule out a no-deal Brexit ahead of a critical vote next week, as MPs ramp up the pressure on the prime minister to change course.
Jeremy Corbyn has urged the prime minister to take a “devastating” no-deal exit off the table during a tense prime minister’s questions clash, where Ms May accused the Labour leader of being prepared to "meet Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRA" but declining to meet her to discuss Brexit.
It comes as a prominent Conservative MP condemned Liam Fox, after he suggested those backing a move to extend Article 50 were motivated by “having no Brexit at all”.
Hitting back at the international trade secretary, Anna Soubry said Dr Fox’s comments were “not true” while another Tory MP said he "has never been very good at detail".
See below how we covered this story live
This is from the Press Association on Geoffrey Cox's appearance at the justice committee this morning.
The release of legal advice to Cabinet on the Brexit deal last month should not be seen as a precedent for future guidance from Government law officers to be made public, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has warned.
Mr Cox warned that the prospect of their advice being picked over by TV news channels would impact on the way law officers deliver their opinions on sensitive legal points to the Prime Minister.
The Government agreed to publish Mr Cox's confidential advice on the controversial Brexit backstop after MPs found ministers in contempt of Parliament on December 4 for failing to comply with an earlier instruction to release it.
The Attorney General told the Commons Justice Committee the move was an "exceptional" departure from the principle that law officers' advice is never revealed by the Government.
Asked whether it should be seen as a precedent for future attempts by MPs to obtain confidential advice, he replied: "No, I would argue not, because the principle is so vital to the conduct of good government, even more acutely so in circumstances of great public interest and controversy."
Mr Cox warned: "If every time the Attorney General now has to consider whether or not his advice is going to be put up on a 24-hour rolling news programme and pulled apart in a 45-second analysis - without the nuance, without the context, without the bits that weren't in bold, and only those bits in bold accentuated - he is going to have to consider how does he express himself in future."
The Attorney General's advice, published on December 5, was seized on by Brexiteers because it confirmed the backstop arrangements required by the EU to keep the Irish border open could be "indefinite".
He told the cross-party committee: "I published my advice on this occasion because of the very exceptional circumstances at that time.
"I took the view that it was vital that Parliament at this particular time should not go on feeling - as a majority plainly did - that it was being denied a useful assistance and that it was important we should be able to work with Parliament.
"I have the greatest respect for the House's judgments. It was a situation of acute regret for me personally that the House should have come to the conclusion that the Government was in contempt.
"I took the view that there was a public interest in the House's standing being upheld that, having reached a judgment that the Government was in contempt, in those circumstances the Government should comply."
Mr Cox told the committee the convention that law officers' advice remains private is "a crucial constitutional principle".
Theresa May is now on her feet at prime minister's questions - in answer to one well placed question from a Conservative MP, she says the SNP "are out of touch" with the people of Scotland in demands for a fresh vote on independence.
Corbyn says after the overwhelming defeat of the Brexit deal, will the PM listen to her cabinet ministers and take no-deal off the table.
But she says the way to prevent a no deal is by voting for her deal. May says Corbyn has been allowed to sit down with "Hamas and IRA" but no with her over Brexit.
Corbyn says leaving with no deal would be a "hammer blow" to industries.
He asks whether the government rules out a customs union with the European Union. She refuses to answer the question, instead focusing on Labour's own Brexit policy.
Asked again, May says her deal allows us to have an independent trade deals after Brexit - something a customs union does not allow.
Corbyn says if the PM is serious about finding a solution, which of the red lines is she prepared to abandon. May hits back saying: "Why doesn't he just come and talk about it."
This from The Independent's political sketch writer, Tom Peck, is quite an accurate summary of today's prime minister's questions.
Conservative MP Peter Bone asks Theresa May to replace her Remain-supporting ministers in the cabinet with Brexiteers.
"I've heard some job applications in my time," she jokes.
Labour MP Sarah Jones asks about the lack of progress on removing flammable cladding since the Grenfell disaster in 2017.
May replies admitting a third of private owners are refusing to take down cladding from tower blocks.
On an urgent question on the failure of central courts IT system - after the story below appeared on Monday, detailing a major outage - Lucy Frazer, a minister in the Department for Justice, says she apologises to those who were affected by the failure.
She says it was caused by infastructure issues with suppliers working for the Department.
"We know how frustrating this is for everyone," she adds. Frazer says the prison service has not been affected and criminals have not gone free as a result.
She says majority of court sites will be fully functioning tomorrow morning.
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