UK politics - as it happened: Senior Tories tell Theresa May to listen to business as Jaguar Land Rover issues Brexit warning
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May is facing pressure to heed warnings from business leaders on Brexit ahead of a crunch cabinet meeting where she will try to unite her warning ministers on EU exit terms.
More than 40 Tory MPs have written to the prime minister, urging her dismiss any potential Brexit deal "without our trading, enterprising and innovative businesses and their employees at its heart".
It comes as car giant Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said a hard Brexit would hit its profits by £1.2bn, and insisted that it needs "greater certainty" to continue to invest and support more than 40,000 British jobs.
The warning follows similar statements from Airbus and BMW, and a wider sense of discomfort among among firms after Boris Johnson reportedly declared "f*** business".
Owen Paterson, a former Conservative minister, also told the Today programme that firms would be "better off" if the UK leaves the customs union as they will "have access to cheaper parts and components all around the world and European suppliers will be forced to compete".
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David Davis has reportedly written to the prime minister over his fears on her 'third way' customs plan, which will be discussed by the cabinet on Friday.
In an eleventh hour letter, the Brexit secretary expressed his concerns that the EU would reject the idea outright as it is a fudge of her customs partnership plan with added technology, the Telegraph said.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling has sought to dismiss fears of a "bias" against northern regions over rail spending.
The Cabinet minister labelled the description of the government's commitment to projects in the North as a "total misnomer" before arguing that spending will be higher per head of population than in the South.
Ministers have been accused of "reneging" on commitments after failing to confirm plans to fully electrify the Manchester to Leeds route.
Timetable chaos has also caused major disruption for Northern rail passengers.
MPs have now moved onto the Urgent Question on Esther McVey's record on universal credit.
Frank Field, the veteran Labour MP asking the urgent question, asks the work and pensions secretary, to apologise for the three occasions on which she “dissembled” on the issue to MPs.
Speaker John Bercow calls him out but doesn't ask him to retract his comments. It is usually considered unparliamentary to accuse a fellow MP of lying.
McVey says there have been changes to the way universal credit is delivered, such as waiting days being abolished and changes to housing benefits.
The impact of those changes is still being felt, so these changes could not be taken into account, she said.
She say she and the National Audit Office (NAO) have come to 'very different conclusions' on the results. The facts are known but people can come to different conclusions.
McVey fully accepts that she got bits of it wrong and apologised yesterday.
Frank Field says her apology for one element was welcome but the NAO has criticised her for saying their report was out of date and showed that UC was working.
Ms McVey stands by her decision and says she came to the house of her own accord to apologise.
She says other people aren't so happy to come forward and apologise, and what was surprising is she came of her own volition.
Labour's Margaret Greenwood said she should be 'ashamed' for being forced to come to the house again after the NAO took the 'extraordinary step' of speaking out about this.
She says the report was 'damning' on universal credit but instead of addressing it, Ms McVey misled MPs on it.
Greenwood demands her resignation, saying if she misread the report so badly then she is not fit to do her job. If she lied, then she has broken the ministerial code.
McVey repeats her comments on her apology.
SNP's Alison Thewliss says the NAO report 'blows a hole as wide as the Clyde' in the government's UC policy and the suggestion Ms McVey tried to hide this was a 'shameful state of affairs'.
Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, says she is 'staggered and disappointed' that McVey is still arguing about the detail of the report.
This is a 'constitutional issue' as the NAO is the government's independent watchdog, and this is is an 'unprecedented' moment, she said.
Ms Hillier asks McVey to say she has full confidence in the NAO and the controller.
McVey fails to say she has full confidence in the watchdog but says she will meet them next week.
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