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As it happenedended

Brexit news: Tory MP tells Theresa May 'it's time to step aside' during PMQs ordeal as hopes of breakthrough evaporate

Follow live updates from Westminster, as they happened

Lizzy Buchan
Political Correspondent
Wednesday 08 May 2019 16:59 BST
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Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns tells Theresa May she should resign

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Theresa May is facing renewed pressure from Tory backbenchers to set out a roadmap for her departure as hopes of progress in the cross-party Brexit talks began to fade.

Negotiations with Labour are now in their sixth week but lengthy meetings have resulted in little progress, with Labour sources saying a customs compromise was "a million miles way" from their demands.

Tory backbenchers were due to meet to discuss overhauling party rules to oust Ms May as leader.

Sir Graham Brady, influential chairman of the 1922 committee of backbenchers, told the prime minister to set out a faster timetable for her departure during a private meeting on Tuesday.

See below for live updates

Former chancellor George Osborne has called on senior ministers to oust Theresa May as he says the Conservative Party needs new leadership.

He told Sky News: "There's a point where you have to ask how many more elections are we going to lose.

"We lost a majority in 2017, we got hammered in the local elections and now we have the European elections where the Cons could come fourth in a national poll.

"There is a responsibility on the current MPs and supporters to do something about that. It's within their hands, you can't say it's beyond my control if you're a member of the cabinet.

"I would tell people 'fortune favours the brave' in these leadership contests."

Lizzy Buchan8 May 2019 16:00

"Labour has seen right through Theresa May's rebrand of the same Brexit deal," writes Independent political commentator Andrew Grice.

Read his column here:

Lizzy Buchan8 May 2019 16:21

A proposed law to introduce a compulsory cap on pension charges has been tabled in the Commons.

Labour MP Angela Eagle, a former pensions minister, told MPs that greater transparency in the charges applied to pensions savings, as well as a mandatory cap on such charges, was needed to protect savers.

Moving the Bill, Ms Eagle said "the future wellbeing of our society demands that we get this right".

In 2015, a cap on pension cost charges of 0.75% was introduced for workers on auto-enrolment pension schemes, which Ms Eagle called to be widened to all pension savers.

She said that given the automatic nature of these schemes there was a "special duty" on the government to "make sure funds accrued in this way generate pension benefits for savers rather than profits for fund managers".

She added: "The answer to this problem is not more complexity and faux competitions.

"It is transparency of total costs and fees and there should also be a cap on charges."

The Bill was introduced without a vote, although it has little chance of progressing in its current form due to a lack of parliamentary time or without government support.

Lizzy Buchan8 May 2019 16:44

Lizzy Buchan8 May 2019 16:52

That's it for The Independent's politics blog for the day. Thanks for following!

Lizzy Buchan8 May 2019 17:01

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