EU chief has 'no grounds for optimism' ahead of crunch meeting with Theresa May
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Tusk has said there are "no grounds for optimism" in relation to a Brexit deal ahead of a key summit of EU leaders.
The European Council president was speaking as Theresa May prepares to travel to Brussels on Wednesday to convince the EU to back her Brexit plan.
Mr Tusk said the prime minister must put forward "concrete proposals on how to break the impasse", which centres on a disagreement over a customs backstop to preserve an open border Northern Ireland.
Earlier in the day, Ms May attempted to convince her Cabinet to back her Brexit plan, which could see the UK remain in the customs union indefinitely if no other method is found for avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The prime minister told ministers they must "stand together" but Downing Street said no decision was made on her controversial plan during a three-hour meeting.
Elsewhere, John Bercow reportedly told friends he would step down as House of Commons Speaker next summer. It came as he faced criticism from MPs over allegations of bullying, which he has denied, following the publication of a report into harassment in Parliament.
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Maria Miller, the former culture minister who now chairs the Commons' women and equalities committee, has led calls for John Bercow to step down.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
"We have outstanding allegations directly against the Speaker, who will be one of the people who will be considering this report, and it cannot be right that the very people who are being criticised so heavily in an independent report are those who are going to be deciding how it is taken forward."
Asked if this meant Mr Bercow should resign, she said: "Absolutely."
What is the row over the customs backstop?
Theresa May's hopes of securing a Brexit deal hinge on reaching an agreement with the EU over plans for a customs backstop. But what is it, and why is it so contentious?
The backstop spells out what should happen if the UK and EU cannot, at a future date, agree a trade deal that would lead to the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland being maintained.
Under the prime minister's proposal, in such a scenario the UK would agree to stay in a customs union with the EU until an alternative could be put in place. May insists this arrangement would be "temporary". However, Brexiteers fear it would lead to the UK staying in the customs union indefinitely, and so they are demanding the back-stop has a specific time limit on it - something the EU is refusing to agree to.
The EU also believes an agreement on the whole UK staying in the customs union temporarily is too complex to be signed off in the next few weeks. It therefore wants its original proposal to also be part of the deal - in effect, as a backstop to the backstop (still following?). Under this plan, only Northern Ireland would remain in a customs union with the EU, while the rest of the UK would not. May says any suggestion of Northern Ireland having different customs rules to the rest of the country after Brexit is completely unacceptable - and that's where the sticking point lies.
Her job today is to convince her Cabinet to accept her proposal for a UK-wide backstop that is temporary but not necessarily time-limited. Her task for tomorrow - which is likely to prove much more difficult - is to persuade EU leaders to ditch their demands for a fall-back that would keep only Northern Ireland in the customs union..
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said there is unlikely to be a Brexit deal this week...
NEW: EU officials have said they won't even discuss a potential trade deal with the UK at Wednesday's crunch summit because there is no agreement on the customs backstop
Cabinet has now been going on for more than two and a half hours... Is Theresa May finding it harder than expected to convince her ministers to back her Brexit plan?
Germany has told Theresa May to "take responsibility" for Brexit.
The country's foreign minister, Michael Roth, spoke as he arrived at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
He said his message for Ms May was: "Take responsibility and be constructive."
MPs are currently listening to an urgent question from Labour MP Frank Field, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, on Universal Credit.
Work and pensions minister Alok Sharma says he will not comment on "speculation" that rollout of the controversial policy could be delayed again, as reported here:
The twice-daily Downing Street briefing with Westminster journalists is currently underway, so we're expecting some news of this morning's crunch Cabinet meeting imminently....
Parliamentary history was made this morning when a robot addressed a Commons select committee for the first time. "Pepper", a robot from Middlesex University, answered questions from MPs about the fourth industrial revolution..
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