Rachael Maskell and Dawn Butler have resigned from the shadow cabinet and will defy Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by voting against the European Union Bill.

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Last year's Labour leadership challenger, Owen Smith, is the latest person on the Labour benches to signal defiance of Jeremy Corbyn and an intention to oppose the bill.

He opposes what he labels a "rock hard Brexit" and argues that working class communities "will be hit hardest" by it.

The debate at the moment is being dominated by pro-Remain voices but it is worth noting that a majority of MPs in the Commons are expected to vote for the bill.

The SNP and a majority of the small contingent of Lib Dems intend to vote against it but Labour MPs have been instructed to back it - though some, such as Mr Smith, have said they will rebel.

Even if all opposition parties voted against the bill, the Conservatives have an overall majority and only one of their MPs - Ken Clarke - has signalled an intention to rebel against the party leadership.

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The SNP's Drew Hendry attacks Theresa May for "holding hands with Trump" and "shaking hands" with Turkey's President Erdogan.

He claims that her priorities are "weapons before weans, dogma before doctorates".

Another SNP MP, Roger Mullin, intervenes to taunt Labour, many of whose MPs have said they will back the bill, despite being personally pro-Remain.

He says there is "a shiver running along the Labour front bench, looking for a spine to run up".

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Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods says she is "proud that my constituency voted to Remain".

The MP for the City of Durham tells the House that she will abstain when the time comes to vote on the bill.

She is followed by Labour colleague Stephen Doughty, whose Cardiff South constituency also voted to Remain, but he intends to vote against the bill.

He says he has "a duty to stand up for my constituents [and] to stand up for the 48%" of voters who backed Remain across the UK.

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Conservative MP David TC Davies says he opposed setting up the National Assembly for Wales but the people backed devolution in a referendum.

He says he now accepts he was wrong and the people were right, as they were in voting for Brexit.

"Think about the will of the British people," he says as he urges MPs to come with him into the lobby, and vote for the bill.

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Labour MP and former shadow minister Mary Creagh says her constituency of Wakefield voted to leave the EU but her "Labour values" of solidarity and internationalism tell her not to support the bill.

"I can no more vote for this than I can vote against my own DNA," she says.

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Conservative MP Steve Double says he has been a Eurosceptic "for as long as I have known what it was".

The MP for St Austell and Newquay says his views were influenced by the effect of EU bureaucracy on Cornwall's agriculture and fishing industry.

Mr Double adds that he now detects a new optimism in the country, with many businesses positive about the future.

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Labour MP Stella Creasy argues that the choice about whether or not to support the bill is not about whether you represent a Leave or Remain-voting constituency.

"This bill is about green-lighting the prime minister and her approach to Brexit and her approach to parliamentary scrutiny," she says.

"Those of us who campaigned for Remain know that Brexit is to happen," the Walthamstow MP says, but she claims that voting against the bill is "the only chance to send the prime minister back to the drawing board" to rethink her plans for negotiations.

"I cannot green-light Article 50 tonight because of all the opportunities for the future which it puts at stake."

Seven Welsh Labour MPs are now expected to vote against the Article 50 bill allowing ministers to trigger Brexit, in defiance of party orders.

Frontbencher Kevin Brennan, Chris Bryant and Madeline Moon join four others already known to be rebelling.

Ministers are expected to win the Commons vote, with most Tory and Labour MPs backing the European Union Bill.

Plaid Cymru MPs and Ceredigion Lib Dem Mark Williams are also expected to vote against.

Mr Brennan, Bridgend MP Ms Moon and Rhondda MP Mr Bryant confirmed in the Commons on Wednesday that they would be joining colleagues Ann Clwyd, Owen Smith, Jo Stevens and Stephen Doughty.

All are defying a three-line whip from their party to support the bill, which gives the prime minister the power to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

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The SNP's Joanna Cherry says voters in Scotland were made promises that voting against independence in 2014 would keep Scotland in the EU.

Now, she claims, "gone are the love bombs and they are replaced with instructions to sit down and shut up".

She adds: "The SNP and the wider Yes campaigned warned...that voting to remain in the UK was a threat to our membership of Europe because of Tory Euroscepticism."

It's been an exhausting 16 hours. So far 165 MPs have spoken: 82 Conservative MPs, 54 Labour MPs and 17 SNP MPs.

It looks like Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party will be heading for a sizeable rebellion with 32 Labour MPs set to vote against the bill at Second Reading. So far eight Labour frontbenchers have confirmed they will be voting against the bill at Second Reading. Two of those, Jo Stevens and Tulip Siddiq, have resigned from the frontbench.

Six frontbenchers have also confirmed they will break the whip but haven't stood down:

• Daniel Zeichner, Shadow Transport Minister
• Catherine West, Shadow Foreign Minister
• Lyn Brown, Shadow Home Office Minister
• Kevin Brennan, Shadow Arts Minister
• Vicky Foxcroft, Whip
• Thangam Debbonaire, Whip

We are still waiting to hear whether Shadow Cabinet member Dawn Butler will join the rebellion tonight.

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More from this afternoon's lobby briefing at No 10, which seems to have been dominated by George Osborne's speech in the Commons in which he said the government was not prioritising the economy in its approach to Brexit. 

Asked about this, a spokesman responded: "In terms of negotiations, the PM set these out in her speech and will be set out in the White Paper but our economy is in a position of strength and we intend to maintain that

"The former chancellor speaks for himself. The PM has set out our objectives and that clarity has been welcomed."

That White Paper he refers to, expected to put more flesh on the government's Brexit agenda, will be published on Thursday. 

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"No-one said: I'll vote leave because I'm pretty sure that when the final deal's put to Parliament, they'll reject it and we'll go back," says Conservative MP David Warburton.

"They voted leave because they wanted to leave."

Amendments, Labour's position and DD rising: points of interest from the bill which gives the go-ahead to triggering Article 50, and the UK leaving the EU.

If you want to send your views on the Brexit bill debate and how MPs should vote later, there's a lively discussion going on in the comments form on our developing story on the debate. 

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Stephen Kinnock says Jeremy Corbyn made the "right call" in imposing a three-line whip on Labour MPs over the Brexit bill.

The MP for Aberavon says the public has a right to know where the party leadership and the whole of the front bench stands on the question.

While he voted Remain in the referendum, he says his constituency took the opposite view and he respects the democratic will of the people.

But he says that other MPs may choose to take a different view, as he believes they are entitled to do in "exercising their consciences".