Summary

  • Nicola Sturgeon announces consultation on independence referendum

  • Court challenge to government's Brexit plans begins

  • MPs moved to tears during debate on baby loss

  • Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says Brexit doom-mongers are wrong

  • Tesco and Unilever in price battle after post-referendum fall in pound

  1. Bernard Jenkin: UK will continue to trade with EUpublished at 17:06 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    BBC News Channel

    Bernard Jenkin

    Conservative prominent Leave campaigner Bernard Jenkin accuses Labour of conducting a "phoney row" over Parliament's role in Brexit.

    He said Parliament "was always going to be all over this subject until we've left the EU" and could have as many votes as it wants.

    On trade, he said there was no reason why the UK wouldn't continue to trade with the EU in the same way as the US, which does not have agreements with the bloc.

    Quote Message

    We hope to have a constructive agreement, zero tariffs access to each others services' sector - I should imagine that's what we'll be offering even though we're going to be outside the EU - and it really would be rather a perverse for the EU to turn down such an offer given that they make such a surplus out of trading with us."

  2. UK 'foreign worker' plan: What the European media saypublished at 16:44 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Papers

    Home Secretary Amber Rudd's proposal at the Conservative Party conference that companies should be made to disclose what percentage of their workforce is non-British has attracted a good deal of media criticism on the Continent.

    Eastern European media were particularly irked by the suggestion. They noted that despite the UK government's subsequent "backpedalling" on the plan, such proposals could "irreversibly damage" the UK's image as a liberal and open country. 

    The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine, external expressed its concerns over the UK's "increasing anti-foreign and protectionist rhetoric" and described Ms Rudd's proposal as the "shrillest reaction… to the growing resentment against foreigners in Great Britain so far".

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  3. Government 'has no mandate for hard Brexit'published at 16:44 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Angela Eagle

    Labour MP Angela Eagle says the Brexit vote marks a break with the UK's 50 year policy of replacing "our imperial past" with co-operation with other European democracies.

    Turning on the government, she says: "This arrogance ill-suits an administration with no mandate for hard Brexit."

    The former shadow cabinet member also says the price of leaving the EU should not be paid by the least well off.

  4. Former minister: 'We are in difficult, dangerous times'published at 16:44 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Another MP who campaigned for Remain, Conservative MP Anna Soubry, says anyone questioning her cross-party approach working with Labour MPs should "get real".

    These are "extraordinary times", she says, later calling them "difficult, dangerous times".

    She says the government should abandon its immigration target, saying: "We know the reality: people come here to work."

    She adds that the idea that "a bit of upskilling here, a bit of upskilling there" will replace workers from other EU states is "nonsensical". 

    Anna Soubry
  5. Leave campaigners 'played the race card' - Labour MPpublished at 16:43 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Jack Dromey

    "I was a Brexiteer in the 1970s," says Labour MP Jack Dromey. "What changed my mind was the social Europe of the 1980s."

    He says Leave campaigners in the referendum "played the race and immigration card... which was nothing short of shameful", adding: 

    Quote Message

    I thought we had fundamentally changed as a country, but this country is scarred by the way the referendum campaign was conducted."

  6. Rees-Mogg: Referendum vote 'was to trigger Article 50'published at 16:43 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who supports leaving the EU, says the only legal method to do so is to trigger Article 50.

    Therefore, he argues, "we know that vote on 23 June was a vote to exercise Article 50".

    By voting to leave the EU, he adds, "we have given back to this House the right to choose... how we are governed".

    He thinks the Labour motion today is "misplaced" as there will be parliamentary scrutiny of the Brexit process. 

    Jacob Rees-Mogg
  7. US 'should be as much a target for Syria demos as Russia'published at 16:43 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Member of White Helmet volunteer force in the ruins of a building in AleppoImage source, AFP

    The US should be as much a target for protests against the violence in Syria as Russia, suggests a spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

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  8. Labour MP: 'My constituents didn't vote Leave to become poorer'published at 16:41 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Labour MP Emma Reynolds says that, like Nicky Morgan, she is a Remainer who accepts the referendum result.

    She says the government's "mantra" that "Brexit means Brexit" is "meaningless" adding: "Brexit can take may forms."

    The MP for Wolverhampton North East tells the House: "My constituents voted Leave for a variety of reasons, but they didn't vote Leave to become poorer."

    MPs have a duty to hold the government to account and get "the best possible deal", she argues. Ms Reynolds says she backs restrictions on immigration in some areas.

  9. Former minister attacks government's 'briefers and spinners'published at 16:41 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Nicky Morgan

    Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says she campaigned to remain in the EU but accepts the result of the referendum, and supports the government's amendment today. 

    However, the Conservative MP also agrees with Labour's motion, which says "leaving the EU is the defining issue facing the UK".

    The single market and freedom of movement "was not on the ballot paper" in June's referendum, she argues, adding that MPs on her side were elected on a Conservative manifesto to "say yes to the single market".

    Ms Morgan tells the House she received a "heartbreaking" letter from a constituent who plans to leave the UK because she believes she will struggle to find employment because she is not British.

    "That is not the country that I want to see," she says.

    Finally she says she resents the suggestion that people like her who are calling for scrutiny of Brexit are trying to "thwart" the referendum result.

    Quote Message

    I resent it from newspapers, I resent it from ministers and I resent it from the briefers and spinners at the heart of this government. That only encourages me to ask more questions."

  10. Conservative MPs clash over Brexit debatepublished at 16:16 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

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  11. Pound hits its lowest point during David Davis speechpublished at 16:16 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Press Association

    David Davis

    The pound lost almost 1% of its value during exchanges in the House of Commons on how the UK should leave the European Union.

    When Labour's shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, opened the debate just before 1pm, the pound stood at around 1.227 US dollars. But within minutes it began to fall, and by 2.30pm it had touched 1.217 US dollars - a drop of 0.8%.

    It hit its lowest point during a speech by Brexit Secretary David Davis.

    Shortly after Mr Davis sat down, the pound began to rise. As of 3.30pm it had only partly recovered its losses.

    Since the referendum on 23 June, the pound has lost nearly 18% of its value against the dollar. 

    This is a bigger fall than that seen during the 2008 financial crash, when the pound dropped 16%. 

    It is almost as large as the devaluation triggered by Black Wednesday in 1992, when the pound plunged by 19% after leaving the Exchange Rate Mechanism. 

  12. Bus Services Billpublished at 16:04 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    House of Lords
    Parliament

    Buses in Oxford Street, London
    Image caption,

    The bill aims to give some local authorities similar powers over bus services to those held by the Mayor of London

    Peers are now beginning work on report stage of the Bus Services Bill.

    The bill aims to give more powers to areas with directly elected mayors to run their bus services, powers similar to those held by the Mayor of London. There are also provisions in the bill to enable authorities to bring in smartcard ticketing, like London's Oyster card.

    In 2014/15 more than half of all bus journeys in England were taken in London, where bus use grew. In the rest of England, bus use continued to fall, as it has done since the mid 1980s.

    Amendments due for debate today include emission levels and concessionary fares for 16 to 19-year-olds.

  13. Hilary Benn says the UK will need a 'transitional agreement' with the EUpublished at 16:04 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Hilary Benn

    Labour MP Hilary Benn says he accepts there is likely to be an agreement with the EU "in which we will get no tariffs on manufactured goods" once the UK leaves, but calls on ministers to make that clear as soon as possible.

    The former shadow foreign secretary argues that there will need to be a "transitional agreement" covering the time from the UK's exit from the EU and a final trade deal being agreed. There is no guarantee of such a deal being agreed by the EU's other 27 member states during the two year negotiating period, he adds.

    He criticises ministers for saying overseas doctors could stay for an "interim" period while more UK doctors are trained and says it is "unwise to talk about overseas students as if they were a problem to be cracked down on".

    He adds that EU citizens are not "cards" to be bargained with, "they are people". The government needs to reassure EU citizens, Mr Benn says.

  14. Pupil nationality census questionpublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Oral question

    House of Lords
    Parliament

    Earl of Clancarty
    Image caption,

    Earl of Clancarty

    Crossbencher the Earl of Clancarty asks what the purpose is of a new school census question on nationality, which has been introduced for this school year. Schools have been asked to pass on data of the nationality of their pupils to the Department for Education.

    Answering for the government Viscount Younger of Leckie says the purpose is to give "all children a better education" and the data will be used to help schools direct help to children who don't speak English as a first language. 

    He emphasises that the information is only for the DfE, not for the Home Office.

    In his follow up Earl of Clancarty says that parents are "appalled" and says that freedom of information requests have shown that the pupil database has been "repeatedly" used by the Home Office for immigration purposes. He calls for the nationality question to be scrapped.

  15. Jeremy Corbyn: Why no women here today?published at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Labour's leader accused an MPs' committee of behaving in a "slightly odd" way by questioning only "four white men" on women in politics.

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  16. 'Not possible' to be in single market and comply with EU laws - Cashpublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Leave campaigner Sir Bill Cash tells MPs that the UK cannot be in the single market and comply with EU laws under the 1972 European Communities Act.

  17. Israeli military detention questionpublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Oral questions

    House of Lords
    Parliament

    Crossbencher Lord Hylton asks about Palestinian children held in military detention by Israel.

    This year, Defence for Children International reported that more than 400 Palestinian children were being held in military detention on the West Bank.

    Replying, Baroness Goldie tells the House that the government is "deeply concerned" and the issue has been raised with the Israelis repeatedly. 

    She says the UK has pursued a course of "active diplomatic and ministerial engagement", and that pressure has led to changes to standard operating procedure by the Israeli military, including an end to night-time arrests of children.

    Baroness Goldie
  18. John Redwood strikes positive note on bridging Brexit divisionspublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Conservative former Cabinet minister John Redwood says it's imperative to "knit our nation together" and that will be "easier than the tone of this debate would lead you to believe".

    "We must work together to reduce uncertainty" for business, he advises, and show that the process of withdrawal will go at a quick pace.

  19. Calais security contribution questionpublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Oral questions

    House of Lords
    Parliament

    Lib Dem peer Baroness Sheehan asks about the UK’s £17m contribution towards security measures at the French port of Calais.

    Last month, Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill told a committee of MPs that £1.9m of the money would be spent on building a wall to separate the so-called “Jungle” migrant encampment from the motorway that leads to the Port of Calais.

    Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford says the wall is a priority for the UK and French governments to protect hauliers and other road users from being attacked by migrants.

    The Calais "Jungle" migrant campImage source, AFP/Getty Images
  20. Nick Clegg: Eurosceptics are completely mute on Parliament's rolepublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 12 October 2016

    Parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Nick Clegg

    Former Lib Dem Nick Clegg says that over the years he could always rely on "fervent Brexiteers" to "marry their loathing of the EU to their passion for traditions of this House". 

    He says those MPs "still hate Brussels" but seem to be "completely mute" on the scope of Parliament to scrutinise the process of EU withdrawal.