Brexit news - live updates: Theresa May offers MPs chance to vote on delaying Article 50 if no deal agreed with EU
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Theresa May has told MPs that parliament will be given a vote on whether or not to opt for a no-deal Brexit if her proposed withdrawal plan is rejected next month.
The prime minister said that, if MPs again vote down her proposed deal, the Commons will be given a say on whether to approve or reject a no-deal outcome. If they choose to reject it, another vote would be held on whether to extend the Article 50 period.
Ms May was responding to numerous Remain-backing ministers threatening to quit if she failed to give parliament the right to block a no-deal Brexit.
She insisted she did not want to see Article 50 extended and refused to be drawn on how long any extension might be, saying only that she would want it to be "as short as possible". She also declined to say how Tory MPs would be ordered to vote on the matter of whether to accept a no-deal Brexit or delay leaving the EU.
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Announcing the guarantees in the Commons, Ms May said: "They are commitments I am making as prime minister and I will stick by them, as I have previous commitments to make statements and table amendable motions by specific dates."
She added: "Let me be clear, I do not want to see Article 50 extended. Our absolute focus should be on working to get a deal and leaving on March 29."
The confirmation that MPs would be given a vote on no-deal was enough for some potential rebels, with one of the main architects of a plan to force the government to guarantee a Commons vote saying he was "satisfied" there was no longer any need for the amendment.
Former minister Oliver Letwin said Ms May's offer "does what is needed to prevent a no deal exit on 29 March and enables MPs to forge a cross-party consensus on a new way forward if the PM's deal does not succeed on 12 March". There was now "no need" for the motion he was due to table with Labour's Yvette Cooper, he added.
MPs will vote tonight on government proposals to ban Islamist group Hezbollah. Mike Gapes, who quit Labour last week to join The Independent Group, suggests Labour may not order its MPs to vote for the motion.
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Theresa May will deliver her statement in the Commons in the next few minutes.
We're expecting her to announce plans to give MPs two votes if her deal is rejected next month: one on whether to pursue a no-deal outcome and another on whether to ask the EU to extend the Article 50 process.
The prime minister is seeking to quell a potential rebellion by Remainer ministers, who are demanding that she take no-deal off the table and pledge to delay Brexit if she cannot get a deal through Parliament by 29 March.
Theresa May says she and Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, are making "good progress" in talks with the EU, including a "constructive" meeting she held with Jean-Claude Juncker.
She says the EU and the UK have "agreed to develop a joint work stream" to look at using "alternative arrangements" to maintain an open border in Northern Ireland - potentially removing the need to implement the backstop.
Theresa May says the government is also working to ensure there will be no lowering of workers' rights and environmental protections after Brexit.
She says the government will ensure Parliament has a vote on whether to follow suit "whenever the EU standards in areas such as workers' rights and health and safety are judged to have been strengthened".
New papers outlining the impact of a no-deal Brexit will be published today, she says, while insisting the UK would "make a success" of such an outcome.
Theresa May makes three commitments:
1. "We will hold a second meaningful vote by Tuesday 12 March at the latest."
2. "If the government has not won a meaningful vote by Tuesday 12 March, then it will...table a motion to be voted on by Wednesday 13 March asking this House if it supports leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement...."The UK will only leave without a deal on 29 March if there is explicit consent in the House for that outcome."
3. If MPs reject a no-deal Brexit, "The government will, on 14 March, bring forward a motion on whether Parliament wants to seek a short, limited extension to Article 50."
If MPs vote for this, May says, she will seek an extension from the EU. She does not want to see this happen, she adds, saying "our absolute focus" should be on approving a deal before 29 March.
She says an extension to Article 50 would not take no-deal off the table.
Story: Theresa May forced to give MPs vote on delaying Brexit in major climbdown
Jeremy Corbyn is now speaking.
He says he has lost count of the number of times May has had to come to the Commons to explain a further delay. He says the latest is "grotesquely reckless", adding:
"This is not dithering, it's a deliberate strategy to run down the clock."
The Labour leader says the "real life consequences of the prime minister's cynical tactics are being felt across the country", in lost jobs and investment.
He adds:
"The responsibility for this lies exclusively with the prime minister and her government’s shambolic handling of Brexit. Even now, with just one month to go before our legally enshrined exit date, the prime minister is not clear what she wants in renegotiations that have now dragged on since it became clear in December that her deal was not even backed by much of her own party, let alone Parliament or the country."
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