BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Damian Hinds says leaving the EU without a deal "is not a good outcome for Britain".

There are "graduations of no deal", he says, with it possible to "construct a case for a soft no-deal" but warns there is also "a much worse scenario...it's rather difficult to predict".

"I don't think you can paint a picture of a single worst case scenario... whatever way you cut it, that is not where we want to be"

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

James Shaw
BBC Scotland reporter

Nicola Sturgeon has asked why the Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, has not resigned in protest at Theresa May's Brexit deal.

Speaking at First Minister's questions, Ms Sturgeon referred to pledges that David Mundell made not to support a deal which threatened the integrity of the UK.

Her comments relate to provisions which mean that Northern Ireland would have a closer relationship with the EU than the rest of the UK.

Ms Sturgeon suggested Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Tories in Scotland, should also be considering her position for the same reason. Ms Davidson is currently on maternity leave.

Earlier David Mundell criticised ministers who've stepped down, calling them "latter-day unionists".

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

The DUP's Sammy Wilson says that Northern Ireland will be "economically separate" from the rest of the UK. He asks how the PM can give assurances that NI will not be treated differently.

Mrs May says that the issues of Northern Ireland have been "at the forefront of our mind" and that NI will leave the single market with the rest of the UK. There will be specific regulatory alignment which she recognises will be "difficult".

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Image source, HoC

Education Secretary Damian Hinds says he regrets that a number of ministers have chosen to resign from the government, but "people have to make their own decisions".

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Live, he says he supports the prime minister's draft Brexit agreement "that is the policy of the government, it is a good policy".

"It does deliver on Brexit," he argues, disagreeing with Dominic Raab's suggestion that the deal was "a betrayal".

The education secretary stresses that the deal came as a result of negotiations, which means not everyone can get what they want, but "this is a good balance".

Asked whether an agreement about future relations can be reached within the 21-month transition period, he says the country was "in a unique position" going into talks on future trading agreements, as the UK already follows the same standards as the EU.

"If the backstop were to come, and it's a contingent possibility, it can only be temporary because Article 50 does not allow something permanent."

"We are not locked in forever", he insists.

Members of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, which is chaired by Jacob Rees Mogg, will meet in the House of Commons at lunchtime to discuss their response to Mrs May's deal.

John Campbell
BBC News NI Economics and Business Editor

Some goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK would be subject to new checks and controls if the Brexit backstop is implemented.

The details are contained in the draft withdrawal agreement between the UK and EU.

The backstop would mean Northern Ireland would have to stay aligned to some rules of the EU single market, so goods coming into the nation would need to be checked to see if they meet EU rules.

Guidance published by the EU says: "There would be a need for some compliance checks with EU standards, consistent with risk, to protect consumers, economic traders and businesses in the single market.

"The EU and the UK have agreed to carry out these checks in the least intrusive way possible."

For industrial goods based on risk assessment, these could take place "in the market" or at traders' premises. Such checks would always be carried out by UK authorities.

For agricultural products, existing checks at ports and airports would "be increased in scale in order to protect the EU's Single Market, its consumers and animal health".

However, goods going in the other direction, from Northern Ireland into the rest of the UK, would not be subject to new controls.

The deal states: "Nothing in this protocol prevents the United Kingdom from ensuring unfettered market access for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom's internal market."

Read more from our correspondents here.

Parliament has a "clear choice" to stand up for the UK against a draft Brexit deal or allow it to break up the union and make the UK a "vassal" state, DUP MP Nigel Dodds has said.

The Irish border has been the main sticking point in the talks.

The UK and EU had agreed to a "backstop", which would see NI stay aligned to some EU rules if another solution cannot be found.

Dominic Casciani
Home Affairs Correspondent

The proposed transition deal allows the UK to remain part of a number of hugely important policing and security arrangements - for now. There is no certainty over what happens after 31 December 2020.

Under the proposed transition deal, the UK will still be allowed to:

• Use the European Arrest Warrant to send criminals to face trial in the EU - and bring suspects to justice in the UK
• Use powerful EU databases to check for alerts for missing people, arrest alerts and look for matches to DNA, fingerprints and vehicle number plates. These systems are used more than a million times a day by British police
• Continue to take part in a large number of ongoing cross-border policing operations which are co-ordinated by the EU's policing agency, Europol, where the UK is one of the leading partners
• Check quickly for the criminal records of any foreign suspects arrested in the UK

There is, however, some ambiguity over whether the European Arrest Warrant extradition system will work anywhere near as smoothly as it does presently.

Under a special caveat (Article 185), nations could tell the UK that they can no longer send suspects to face trial, because their own constitution may not allow them to do so. Germany has an explicit ban on sending its citizens to face trial outside the EU.

And once transition ends, so does the access to data. The deal includes an explicit article that will lock the UK out of all EU databases and systems at the end of 2020.

The UK will be able to temporarily continue to request access to systems that will provide intelligence on suspects - but largely only in relation to investigations that are already under way.

As for what follows, the Outline Political Declaration on the future relationship makes clear that the UK wishes to remain part of all the existing security arrangements - including a new form of extradition and database sharing. That will require a special security treaty.

But the document also acknowledges that there may be legal roadblocks that prevent the EU sharing data with the UK on anything like the current scale.

Read more from our correspondents here.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Chris Bryant - a Remainer - says "there is no majority in this house and time is of the essence".

Mr Bryant calls for a vote in the house before the EU Council on the 25 November so that if the PM loses MPs can change direction.

Theresa May says MPs will get to have their say on a deal in the "meaningful vote" in the Commons.

Graham Brady is chairman of the 1922 Committee, an elected body of backbench Tory MPs, which oversees any Conservative leadership contests. Once 48 MPs have called for a contest, it will be triggered.

Image source, PA

The Mayor of London has urged all MPs to "please vote against this bad deal".

Sadiq Khan repeated calls for another public vote on Brexit - this time on the deal.

In a statement, he said: "My officials have now combed through all 585 pages of the withdrawal agreement and it's crystal clear that this is a bad deal for London and the UK that will worsen life chances and reduce the opportunities available to the next generation.

"Faced with a bad deal and a catastrophic no deal, the British public must be given the final say, with staying in the European Union an option on the ballot paper."

Daniel Sandford
Home Affairs Correspondent

Amazingly, when you consider that immigration was one of the key issues during the referendum that led to Brexit, the word "immigration" only appears once in the draft agreement, and even then it is in the context of an "immigration document".

But a large section of the draft agreement - Part Two - is dedicated to the rights of EU citizens to live in the UK, and UK citizens to live in the EU.

The UK will "take back control" of migration from the EU, but it will happen slowly.

The headline is that EU citizens and their families will continue to have the right to move to live and work in the UK (and vice versa) until the end of the transition period in December 2020.

Those who take up residence before the end of the transition period will be allowed to remain beyond transition and, if they stay for five years, will be allowed to remain permanently.

However, once the transition period is over, the draft agreement does allow the UK to require EU citizens who stay on to apply for a new residence document. The agreement says application forms for this residence status "shall be short, simple, user-friendly". All this applies to UK citizens in EU countries too.

The draft agreement says that a country may ask people to "voluntarily" start applying for this residence status before the transition period ends.

Looking to the future, beyond the end of the transition period, the 14-page Outline Political Declaration document says that the UK and the EU will aim to achieve:

• Arrangements for temporary entry for "business purposes"
• Visa-free travel for short-term visits
• Co-operation on tackling illegal immigration

Read more from our correspondents here.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Stella Creasy says the pound is set to have its biggest fall in two years and "only 7 MPs have expressed any support for this deal in two hours".

Stella Creasy asks how the prime minister "expects to break the deadlock".

Theresa May says "after further negotiations we will publish the future relationship agreement which will outline more detail for MPs."

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent

Universities in the UK have been worried about losing access to EU research funding - worth about €100bn (£87bn) in the next round.

But beyond a confirmation that existing funding up to 2020 is assured, there is still no detail on how the UK might take part in future EU research partnerships.

The UK's universities have been among the biggest beneficiaries - and the expectation is that the UK will negotiate to rejoin the club as an external partner.

But the terms - and how much the UK will have to pay - are not really any clearer.

And there are no signals about the place of EU academics at UK universities - who can be a quarter of the staff in some institutions.

That is for future discussion as part of immigration rules.

There is a section on the status of EU students in the UK - with no obligation to provide them with "grant maintenance aid for studies… consisting in student grants or loans".

But it remains open to interpretation as to whether that means an end to tuition fee loans - or only refers to living costs.

Either way, nothing will change until 2020, and the door seems left open for further negotiation, clarification and reciprocal arrangements.

Keeping the UK attractive to EU students and staff is not only about money. It is about culture, competition and maintaining an international status.

More homework and revision are likely before the shape of any final relationship emerges.

Read more from our correspondents here.

Image source, Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is "very happy" that the UK and EU "succeeded in long and often difficult negotiations to come up with a draft".

She said she had "full trust" in the head of the EU negotiations, Michel Barnier, but now she had to wait to see how the other member states - and the British Parliament - respond.

"This is work in progress," said Mrs Merkel. "But I repeat I’m happy that we reached this step yesterday.

"We have an agreement on the table. Both partners in this agreement went away with the understanding that this is the basis for an exit agreement.

"On top of that, we have to talk about future relations. I too think that the worst-case scenario would be a disorderly Brexit.

"We should always bear that alternative in mind when we look at this agreement and ask ourselves is it a good foundation."