Brexit: Theresa May faces cabinet ministers as DUP threaten to break alliance over EU exit

All the latest updates from Westminster

200 days until Brexit: The key dates

Theresa May has gathered her senior ministers for briefings on the Brexit negotiations as the fierce battle to agree the shape of a deal with Brussels reaches its final weeks.

Ahead of next week's key EU Council summit, Downing Street admitted there were still "big issues to resolve" while officials in Brussels said there was "no breakthrough yet" in the talks.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up Ms May's government, dramatically flexed its muscles by insisting its 10 MPs would block the Budget - and potentially topple the government - if the prime minister breaches its Brexit red lines.

In a warning shot to Ms May, DUP MPs failed to back the government in voting against an amendment to an Agriculture Bill on Wednesday.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also warned that checks on goods over the Irish border could increase tenfold after Britain leaves bloc - an ultimatum likely to infuriate the Northern Irish politicians.

Elsewhere, cabinet minister Esther McVey, who was not invited to attend the meeting, became the second member of Ms May's top team to repeatedly refuse to endorse the Chequers plan, although she insisted the prime minister had her full support.

If you want to follow the day's events, see our live coverage below:

Key Points

• May faces cabinet ministers on Brexit as DUP says MPs are ready to block budget
• Doctors will be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis from November 1, says Home Secretary
• Esther McVey admits 'some people could lose out' on universal credit
• ...as Sir John Major says PM could face universal credit backlash similar to poll tax
• Charge for migrants to use the NHS to double, government says

[11 October 2018 16:19 · Lizzy Buchan]

Cannabis health products will be made available for patients from 1 November, the home secretary has announced.

The government had previously said it planned to legalise treatments derived from the drug over the summer after young epilepsy sufferers Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell had struggled to access cannabis oil, which appeared to soothe their symptoms.

 Story:

[11 October 2018 16:47 · Lizzy Buchan]

Theresa May's Brexit blueprint is a "pipe dream" and there has been "culpable naivety" in the negotiations, the UK's former ambassador to the European Union has said.

Sir Ivan Rogers said neither the PM's Chequers plan for future relations with the bloc or Boris Johnson's alternative had any chance of being agreed by Brussels.

In a speech in Cambridge, the ex-diplomat, who quit last year, said there had been no plan for Brexit but plenty of "plausible bullshit" instead.

Sir Ivan said there had been "culpable naivety" on an almost daily basis over the last two years as the UK makes demands that Brussels will not accept.

He dismissed the PM's Chequers plan for Brexit and the Canada-style deal being floated by former foreign secretary Mr Johnson, saying the chance of the EU agreeing to either was "precisely zero".

He said: "Nearly two and a half years on from the referendum, we are, both on the EU deal, and on other post Brexit trade deals, still lost in campaign mode on fantasy island. But the time for these fantasies is long past."

Sir Ivan branded Mr Johnson's so-called Canada plus plus proposals as "fiction" because they are "not the pluses anyone else will agree".

"The Johnsonian Canada plus plus is as big a pipe dream as Chequers," he said. "In some respects, rather bigger."

[11 October 2018 17:02 · Lizzy Buchan]

Interesting report (unconfirmed) from UTV pol ed Ken Reid. 

[11 October 2018 17:19 · Lizzy Buchan]

That's it for The Independent's politics liveblog for the day but you can follow the team on Twitter or see our website for the latest developments.

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