A legal challenge to the government's right to begin the official process of Brexit without parliamentary approval is due to get under way.

The High Court will consider whether ministers can invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the trigger for formal talks on separation, without MPs passing an act of Parliament.

The case is being brought by investment manager Gina Miller among others.

Ministers argue they can act under ancient powers of Royal Prerogative.

Read more...

Image source, Getty Images/Reuters

Tesco has stopped selling dozens of its most famous household brands to its online shoppers because of a dispute with its biggest supplier, Unilever.

Included are Marmite, PG Tips tea, Pot Noodles and Surf washing powder.

The row is said to have developed when Unilever - which says it faces higher costs because of the fall in sterling - attempted to increase wholesale prices.

The products are still being sold in stores but Tesco said its shelves were running short of several brands.

Read more...

Image source, HoC

MPs will take part in a landmark Commons debate later on stillbirths and other forms of baby loss.

The occasion, the first substantive debate on the issue in the Commons chamber, will be opened by Conservative MP for Eddisbury Antoinette Sandbach, who lost her five-day old son in 2009.

Ms Sandbach has described baby loss as a "silent killer" that has too often been "brushed under the carpet".

Ministers are aiming for a 20% reduction in stillbirths by 2020.

Read more...

Image source, Reuters

His supporters may be referred to as Corbynistas. They may wear T-shirts bearing the slogan "Jez We Can!" But the Labour Party leader has always insisted that his own career and his own personality is not what counts.

It was a point Jeremy Corbyn made yet again after the recent Labour leadership contest.

In a video addressed to party members, he looked into the camera and assured them: "This isn't, and never has been, about me. It is about all of us."

Now, however, the accusation has grown one step louder that what Mr Corbyn leads is in fact a personality cult. And the cause of this criticism is not a new policy initiative, or appointment to the shadow cabinet, but a series of rock performances that have been announced, under the banner Concerts for Corbyn.

Read more...

Hello and welcome. 

Thursday is set to be another day dominated by Brexit. This time, though, it's not MPs arguing about whether they should get a vote on the terms under which the UK can begin the complex process of negotiating its departure from the EU.

No, it's now the turn of a the High Court to hear something which sounds similar but is actually different. It will consider whether ministers can invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - the trigger for formal talks on separation - without MPs passing an act of Parliament. The government argues it can act under ancient powers of Royal Prerogative. Its opponents say this would undermine parliamentary sovereignty.

Elsewhere, Theresa May is in Spain to meet her counterpart Mariano Rajoy for more Brexit-related discussions.

From 09:15 BST, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson faces the Foreign Affairs Committee. Likely subjects include his criticism of Russia earlier this week over bombings in Syria - and Brexit.

The SNP starts its annual conference in Glasgow, with leader Nicola Sturgeon making a short speech to open proceedings at about 10:30 BST. Her main speech is on Saturday.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

One of the most baffling political quotes of all time was the former American Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld's response to questions about weapons intelligence on Iraq back in 2002.

He was lampooned at the time, but in the months and years that followed, his bizarre syntax became rather a shorthand for a situation so complicated and fluid that it is almost impossible to rule anything in or out.

Just in case you had forgotten - and you can watch it here , external- here is how he put it at the time.

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Of course the situation in respect of Brexit is different indeed, very very different.

But I can't help thinking of that quote as right now, we hear government ministers trying, or indeed not trying to give MPs full answers on their plans for Brexit that there are indeed known knowns but also many more known unknowns.

Read full Laura's blog

Theresa May rejects a claim by Jeremy Corbyn that she is overseeing a "shambolic Tory Brexit", instead promising an "ambitious" deal for the UK.

Here's a recap of what's been making the news today ...

• Theresa May rejects a claim by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn that she is overseeing a "shambolic Tory Brexit" as a succession of Tories join Labour MPs in calling for greater clarity over the UK's negotiating aims in its EU talks
• The pound recovers some of its recent losses, with analysts attributing the gains to the promise of greater Commons scrutiny of the Brexit process
• Russia condemns Boris Johnson's call for demonstrations outside its London embassy as "shameful" while there is a row after a Labour spokesman suggests protesters could equally well target the US and other countries
• David Cameron reveals his first new role after quitting political life will be to lead an expansion of the National Citizen Service for teenagers
• Jeremy Corbyn accuses an MPs' committee of behaving in a "slightly odd" way by questioning "four white men" on the role of women in politics.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers vote by 219 to 178 in favour of Amendment 6, meaning a second government defeat of the afternoon, this time on emissions standards for new buses.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

And in other, non-Brexit news, the Daily Telegraph , externalreports that MPs are being banned from bringing their pets into Parliament.

Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan branded the measure "risible" and "pathetic".

Sir Alan said his dog Noodle was "indignant" about the ban and suggested he might bring his pet into the Foreign Office as an act of defiance.  

His comments came after the Parliamentary Authorities wrote to the whips' offices after a "recent increase" in the number of instances of  pass holders bringing animals on the Westminster Estate "without permission."

Read more, external

House of Commons
Parliament

"We were on both the winning and the losing side in Scotland," says SNP MP Stuart McDonald, who supports remaining in the EU.

The SNP helped persuade a majority of Scottish voters to back Remain but the UK as a whole voted by a majority to Leave.

Referring to Gisela Stuart's earlier comment that there was "healing" to be done, he argues that the government did not make "even a smidgen" of that effort at healing in Scotland after the independence referendum in 2014.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers are now voting on a Labour amendment that would ensure all new buses meet standards set by the government's Office for Low Emission Vehicles.

Labour's Baroness Jones of Whitchurch says government and Liberal Democrat amendments on the subject "don't go far enough" and that "low carbon buses have a crucial role to play" in meeting our international obligations to cut emissions.

She notes that currently just 9% of buses are classified as low emission.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng tells the Commons Speaker: "You are chairing a group therapy session."

Many in the House are in denial or angry, or depressed, but many accept the referendum result, he says, adding: "We all need to accept this result and move on."

He accuses some MPs of creating "false oppositions". The UK can have access to the single market but not be in it, and control immigration but not end it, he argues.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers have voted 216 to 175 in favour of Amendment 3 to the Bus Services Bill, on more powers over enforcing moving traffic offences for local authorities.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Gisela Stuart says there has been talk in today's debate of working together but sometimes "in a tone that shows there's a lot of healing to be done".

The former co-chair of the Vote Leave campaign says: "I rather regret that we ended up with the term 'Brexit'. It was a vote to leave. It was a vote to take control of your laws, your taxes."

Ms Stuart also argues it is important that the government recognises the "rights" of EU citizens to stay in the UK "as soon as possible".

Analysing the Leave vote, she says that focus groups wanted to have control over immigration, for "those rules to be fair" and to apply to everyone outside the UK.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers are voting on Amendment 3, which would give local authorities more power to enforce "moving traffic offences" including unauthorised use of bus lanes, box junctions and no right turn signs.

The amendment's sponsor, the Lib Dem backbencher Lord Bradshaw, says that allowing local authorities to have these powers would help a bus industry that is in "quite deep crisis". 

He says his amendment would help local areas cut areas of congestion that slow buses down, which would make buses more attractive to potential users.

Singer attacked online for apologising to 13-year-old refugee during visit to migrant camp in France.