Brexit news: Theresa May accuses Labour of slowing down talks as cross-party discussions continue
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has accused Labour of dragging its feet over cross-party Brexit talks as MPs return to Westminster after the Easter break.
The prime minister said the Labour Party was engaging in the talks in a “serious” way but said there were difficulties with scheduling the talks.
Jeremy Corbyn said the lack of progress was due to the government’s refusal to compromise.
“They cannot keep on just regurgitating what has already been emphatically rejected three times by Parliament, there’s got to be a change,” the Labour leader said.
Mrs May remains under considerable pressure from her own backbenchers, who remain largely dissatisfied with her leadership.
Officers of the 1922 backbench committee met on Tuesday evening to discuss changing the party’s rules.
A rule change could allow MPs to challenge Ms May’s position as leader as early as June.
Nigel Evans, the committee’s secretary said Theresa May should announce her resignation “today” in order to break the Brexit impasse.
“I hope she does accept the fact the call for her resignation now is growing into a clamour,” he said.
But prisons minister Rory Stewart backed Mrs May as “our best hope” of resolving Brexit.
He told BBC’s Today programme that “the problem is not the Prime Minister, the problem is Brexit”.
If you would like to see how the day in Westminster unfolded please see what was our live coverage below:
Nicola Sturgeon will make a "detailed and substantive" speech tomorrow on plans for Scottish independence, her spokesman has just confirmed.
In a 30-minute statement to the Scottish Parliament, the SNP leader will set out her "thoughts on independence and how that relates to where the country currently finds itself".
Ms Sturgeon's spokesman added: "The first minister will give a detailed and substantive statement setting out the path forward for Scotland amid the ongoing Brexit confusion at Westminster.
"The first minister will take time to set out her thoughts on that front and in doing so she will seek to strike an inclusive tone."
MP Lucy Allan has tweeted a link to a Guido Fawkes article listing candidates for the newly-formed Brexit Party under the leadership of Nigel Farage. "Some fantastic candidates," she says, which is an odd thing to do when you're a Conservative MP and your party has its own candidates...
London East Conservative chair Dinah Glover, who started a petition of association chairs calling for Theresa May to resign, told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "We hope the Prime Minister will recognise that she is unfortunately no longer the solution to the problem, but is actually the block to Brexit.
"It's with great sadness and regret that we say this. We recognise, as loyal Conservatives, that too many promises have been broken to the electorate and so it is time for a new leader."
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee, has been speaking to the BBC's World At One over a potential vote on bring forward the debate on which a challenge to Ms May's leadership can be forced.
Under current rules, no confidence vote can be held for 12 months after the last challenge on December 12 2018, which Mrs May saw off by 200 votes to 117.
The Cotswolds MP told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "That's what the executive will be debating when it meets. They have to decide whether they wish to change the rules or not.
"I suspect quite a robust discussion will take place, because the executive represents all wings of the party. Eventually a motion will be put and that will be voted on.
"I think it will be done by first-past-the-post, and if it succeeds then of course the vote which would otherwise have taken place on December 12 will be brought forward to whatever is agreed in the motion."
Molly Scott Cato - an MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar since 2014 - is standing again for the Green Party again this year. She is expected to face Boris Johnson's sister, Rachel, in the region who is representing the Change UK party.
In a statement, she said: "Change UK are a single-issue party with no coherent policy platform beyond opposing Brexit.
"This is a re-branding exercise for former Conservative and Labour politicians who presided over cuts to public services and the relentless growth in inequality."
She said the Greens would stand candidates in all 28 EU nations and were "unflinchingly pro-European".
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour's shadow Brexit secretary, has arrived for talks with the government at the Cabinet Office.
"We are resuming the discussions with the government this afternoon about Brexit and we are obviously looking forward to hearing their position on some of the key issues where there are some fundamental issues between us," he said.
"We've been exchanging correspondence with the government but now we want to know what is their position on the issues that remain between us. We look forward to hearing what they have to say this afternoon."
Energy minister Claire Perry says she welcomes Greta Thunberg - the 16-year-old climate changer campaigner - to the House of Commons. She did so moments after the speaker John Bercow did so, prompting an applause from some MPs in the chamber.
"We have led the world in reducing the carbon intensity of our economy," she says, as she cites what she believes are government achievements on environment.
Although the Extinction Rebellion protests have been respectful, Ms Perry says, they have caused considerable disruption for some.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband says the demonstrators are "certainly not wrong about the failure of politics" to do anything that is necessary to prevent worrying climate change.
He says climate change is "here and now" and says it is no wonder people are disrupting the traffic and striking. He calls on the government to raise its game, and act today.
Miliband asks her to call on Theresa May to declare a climate change "emergency", and requests for a response to the independent climate change inquiry - due to report next week - before the summer recess.
Ms Perry says she does not "disagree" with the protest, rather some of the methods used and claims she could have been a placard-carrier just a few years ago.
On a "climate emergency", she says "I don't know what that would entail".
"The question is how we will deal with it," the energy minister adds.
Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, is now responding for Labour. He thanks protestors in recent days for "speaking the truth" that we are in the midst of an ecological and climate emergency. It requires a complete rethink of how we run our economy, he says.
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