Theresa May rules out replacing Irish backstop in EU deal after Brussels trip revealed
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has risked a fresh clash with Tory MPs after saying she is not planning to replace the controversial Northern Ireland backstop.
The prime minister had agreed to consider "alternative arrangements" in a bid to win over Eurosceptic rebels but, speaking in Belfast, suggested she was focused on trying to change the backstop rather than replace it.
It comes after Downing Street confirmed Ms May will travel to Brussels on Thursday to meet European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a bid to secure fresh compromises on the backstop, desipte the EU having insisted that it will not reopen negotiations.
As it happened...
↵NEW: Theresa May will travel to Brussels on Thursday for a meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the Commission has announced
Tariffs would be slashed to zero on all imports after a no-deal Brexit under “extraordinarily damaging” plans being considered by the government, writes deputy political editor Rob Merrick.
Labour said the move would trigger “serious job losses in key industries from ceramics to farming”, by unilaterally opening up domestic markets to dramatically cheaper goods.
The GMB union condemned the idea as “the ultimate Brexit betrayal” – while the National Farmers’ Union said the impact “would be “absolutely savage”.
Nevertheless, the department for international trade confirmed scrapping tariffs is among “all options” being considered if the UK crashes out of the EU without an agreement.
Ministers fear failing to slash duties would sent prices soaring in the shops and hit UK producers who depend on supply chains from the EU.
Security minister Ben Wallace has told US journalists that British photographer John Cantlie, who has been held hostage by Isis since 2012, is alive.
The journalist was last seen in a propaganda video released in 2016.
Mr Wallace did not disclose where the government believes he is being held.
Sajid Javid, the home secretary, is now answering an urgent question in the Commons on the deportation of dozens of immigrants to Jamaica.
He says he is "determined to right the wrongs suffered by members of the Windrush generation" and says his commitment to this remains "resolute".
Labour's David Lammy says the treatment of Windrush migrants is a "shocking indictment" of the government's record and accuses ministers of "pandering to a far-right racism".
He says 10 months on from the scandal, "not a penny has been paid out to any Windrush victim in a compensation scheme".
He asks why more people are being deported before a review into the scandal has concluded.
David Lammy refers to the imminent deportation of dozens of migrants to Jamaica.
He says nine of those being removed came to the UK when they were under the age of ten, and 36 children will see their parents removed from the country on the charter flight.
He asks:
"Why is it that still in this country black lives matter less?"
Sajid Javid responds by criticising David Lammy's tone and says it is wrong to suggest that "there is even an ounce of racism in this House".
The home secretary says the mistreatment of the Windrush generation started under previous governments and that Mr Lammy supported tighter immigration measures on a number of occasions.
He says all those being deported to Jamaica in the coming days have been "convicted of a serious crime". Under UK law, he says, a deportation order must be issued against any foreign national who has committed a serious offence.
Addressing Mr Lammy, he says:
"If he doesn't want that to happen, he is asking me to break the law, and he's also saying that if people are convicted of a serious offence as a foreign national offender, they should be allowed to stay in this country."
Sajid Javid tells MPs that none of the people being deported to Jamaica in the coming days are British citizens and none are members of the Windrush generation.
He says:
"The flight in question is a flight to Jamaica. Every single person that will be on that flight that is being deported is a foreign national offender. They are all convicted of very serious crimes - things like rape and murder, firearms offences, drug trafficking. We are required under the law, quite correctly, to deport anyone who has such a serious conviction, and this law applies universally to any foreign national offender."
Full story: Government ministers consider slashing all import tariffs if there is a no-deal Brexit
In the Commons chamber, Yvette Cooper, chair of the Commons home affairs committee, highlights a "very damning" report by the National Audit Office on ongoing Home Office immigration practices.
She says the government must publish a full response to the report that "recognises the serious anxiety that there is that many of those failings around the Windrush situation are continuing today".
Sajid Javid says only that he is "looking carefully" at the report.
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