Brexit news: Theresa May to write to Tusk as exasperated EU leaders demand 'clarity' over delay plan
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Theresa May is set to write to European Commission president Donald Tusk to lay out the government's plan for delaying Brexit.
The cabinet spent 90 minutes discussing the issue this morning but reportedly did not reach a conclusion on the possible length of the extension.
It comes as European leaders signalled that they may not agree to the UK’s request for a delay to Britain's departure from the bloc, which was originally expected on March 29.
German Europe minister Michel Roth said EU leaders were “really exhausted” with the Brexit saga and and demanded “clear and precise” proposals from the UK government.
To follow events as they unfolded, see our live coverage below
A former Labour MP had accused Jeremy Corbyn of a "vindictive and unpleasant" attempt to remove him from a Commons select committee.
Ian Austin, who left the party last month, spoke out against a motion seeking to remove him and Mike Gapes, who also quit Labour, from the foreign affairs committee.
Labour is seeking to replace the pair with Labour MPs.
Mr Austin told MPs they must choose between standing "with someone who has campaigned against racism all their lives, or they can choose to stand with the leader of the Labour Party and his vindictive attempt to boot people off the Labour Party simply because they have stood up to racism".
He said Mr Gapes was a "distinguished former chair of the committee" and has "a more detailed knowledge of foreign policy issues and has greater contacts around the world" than anybody else on the House of Commons.
To shouts of "shame", Labour's Siobhain McDonagh read out a text which she said she had received from Labour whips informing MPs that there was a three line whip on the motion.
More than 110 MPs have written to Tory chairman Brandon Lewis to complain about Boris Johnson's comments about historic child sex abuse.
We wrote a story about his claims that money spent investigating historic abuse was "being spaffed up the wall" here.
Jeremy Corbyn has met opposition leaders but refused to sign up to joint action on a Brexit alternative.
The Labour leader held talks with counterparts from the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens in an effort to break the impasse in parliament.
Smaller parties such as the SNP and the Lib Dems are united in calling for a second referendum, but Mr Corbyn remains reluctant to sign up unless a Labour Brexit deal is on the ballot paper.
Green co-leader Caroline Lucas said the chances of a People's Vote were "moderately higher" after the meeting, which was attended by Labour's communications director Seamus Milne.
"He certainly didn't rule out the idea of a public vote," she said.
"He did say he would have some real concerns about putting Theresa May's deal to the public vote, a deal that has been lost twice here in parliament, and he would be much happier putting his own version of Brexit to that public vote."
A Labour spokesman said leaders were united in opposing Mrs May's deal or a no-deal outcome but wanted a "credible Leave option and remain included on any hypothetical ballot paper".
He said: "Should there not be a majority in parliament for May's deal or a public vote, Corbyn called on the other parties to engage constructively to find a parliamentary majority for a close economic relationship with the EU that can work for the whole country.
"The party leaders discussed efforts to ensure May's deal would be put to a public vote if she is able to force it through parliament with threats and phoney bribes."
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said it was "disappointing" Mr Corbyn still seemed to prefer a Labour-led Brexit to another referendum and would not join the People's Vote march this weekend.
He said: "There's no such thing as a good Brexit ... Jeremy needs to wake up."
Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said there were "fundamental differences" between Mr Corbyn and the other leaders because Labour is "looking for a new form of Brexit".
John Bercow told Theresa May she'd need to find a 'substantially different' Brexit deal. Good luck with that, says Indy sketchwriter Tom Peck.
Read his take here:
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held "positive and detailed" discussions with members of the "Norway-plus" group of MPs on Tuesday afternoon.
"This afternoon, Jeremy Corbyn had positive and detailed discussions with Nick Boles, Oliver Letwin, Lucy Powell and Stephen Kinnock, supporters of the Common Market 2.0 model of a close economic relationship with the EU," a Labour spokesman said.
"All participants pledged to work together and with others across parliament to find a Commons majority for a close economic relationship with the EU to break the Brexit impasse and bring the country together.
"They discussed how to build greater support on areas of agreement between Labour's alternative plan and Common Market 2.0, and find possible areas of compromise."
As discussed earlier (see here), MPs have now decided to boot independent MPs Ian Austin and Mike Gapes off an influential committee after they resigned the Labour whip.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said the UK would need to provide a "very persuasive plan" to go with any requests for a delay to Brexit.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Mr Coveney said: "The disruptive effect of Brexit for another nine months or another whatever period of time is something that I think people will need convincing on.
"What I mean by that is if there is going to be a request for a long extension of Article 50 by the UK then there will need to be a very persuasive plan to go with that to explain why that's needed and how they will use the time to conclude the outstanding issues that haven't been able to be agreed in London in the context of the Brexit process.
"It's also been very clear that there is absolutely no appetite to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement or the detail of that."
The EU has said Britain cannot delay Brexit without a clear plan for what happens next, indicating only an election, a new referendum or major compromise on Theresa May’s red lines will suffice.
In an ultimatum Michel Barnier said there would need to be a “new event or new political process” to secure an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period.
Read our write-through of another dramatic Brexit day:
That's it for The Independent's politics liveblog for the day - thanks for following!
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