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Dominic Raab accused the EU of "blackmail" and said the government's political will was lacking in negotiations.

He said: "I do think we are being bullied, I do think we are being subjected to what is pretty close to blackmail frankly.

"I do think there is a point at which - we probably should have done it before - were we just to say 'I'm sorry this is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we cannot accept those dictated terms'."

Asked if he believed the deal was worth the £39bn "divorce bill", he replied: "No".

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Dominic Raab has told Andrew Marr why he quit over the draft EU withdrawal agreement - a document he, as Brexit secretary, had a hand in drawing up.

It was "fatally flawed" but could be remedied by just "two or three points" being changed, he said.

He said Northern Ireland would be treated as a "third country" which will threaten the break up of the United Kingdom.

And the customs backstop plan meant that the UK would remain tied to the EU with no say and no way of independently freeing itself.

His third point was about a clause inserted into the draft document setting out the UK's future relationship with the EU, which was published at the same time as the draft withdrawal agreement.

"The permanent basis of our future relationship would be this customs union single market hybrid" if this clause went through, he told Andrew Marr.

This was not what was set out in the prime minister's Chequers agreement and would harm the UK economy and be "devastating" for trust in politics, he said.

He did not know who had inserted this clause, he told Andrew Marr, which had been described as a "drafting change".

But it was a "clear breach" of the Conservative manifesto promise and he could not sign up to it.

John Pienaar
Pienaar’s Politics

Image source, UK government

Conservative MP Sheryll Murray explains she handed in her letter calling for a confidence vote in Theresa May because the PM's assurances that the UK would leave the Common Fisheries Policy were not in the draft withdrawal agreement.

The MP for South East Cornwall says she thinks a lot of her colleagues have been speaking to their associations over the weekend and more letters might go in from Monday.

Asked who could replace Mrs May, she says Penny Mordaunt, Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson could "step up to the mark".

Pressed to name a favourite, she says "Let's take it a step at a time.

"I can tell you categorically that one of the candidates will not be me."

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This is the latest Westminster parlour game, it seems.

Baroness Chakrabarti says she has read all of it, unlike her leader Jeremy Corbyn who told Sky's Sophy Ridge he had read a lot of it.

Nicola Sturgeon has also read all 585 pages, she tells Andrew Marr (who revealed he had read much, but not all, of it).

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Labour frontbencher Baroness Chakrabarti says Labour will vote against the withdrawal agreement unless Theresa May goes back to Brussels and renegotiates something more in line with her party's "six tests".

The tests would guarantee workers rights and consumer and environmental protections.

Mrs May should "think again now while she still has time," says the Labour peer.

She says the PM's deal "is unacceptable to all sides" and contains "no clear vision" of Britain's future relationship with the EU.

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Pienaar’s Politics

Image source, UK Parliament

Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, is the man in the know when it comes to the likelihood of a challenge to Mrs May's leadership.

So, what does he know?

He's not telling, it turns out.

"I get asked in the supermarket, in the street." He says he's become "very nervous about counting or saying numbers" in case someone tries to deduce something from it.

A mischievous John Pienaar asks 35 - higher or lower, which Mr Brady laughs off.

He says he has not even told his wife - who is his parliamentary assistant - or his deputies.

Asked if he himself has written a letter, which he's entitled to do, he says he hasn't because he thinks a leadership challenge would be unhelpful to the negotiation process.

Sir Graham adds it's "slightly offensive" when people say he might have received 48 letters but not acted on it.

"It's critical that people trust my integrity on this."

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Nicola Sturgeon says she will be travelling to London this week to talk to other parties to agree on a joint line on the EU withdrawal agreement.

She would be "happy" to sit down with Jeremy Corbyn to work out a common position, saying there was an "absence of leadership" from him at the moment, she tells Andrew Marr.

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Theresa May has got her tactics wrong, according to Nicola Sturgeon.

The prime minister is allowing the "hard right Brexiteers" in her party to say that she is effectively keeping the UK in the single market and customs union but she is not actually doing that," said the SNP leader.

She said she expected the Northern Ireland backstop to "kick in" - something Mrs May insists is highly unlikely - and this would leave Scotland at a "competitive disadvantage" to Northern Ireland.

Another reason, she said, why she was against the withdrawal agreement.

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Pienaar’s Politics

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald is asked to clarify Labour's preferred outcomes.

He says the party is leaving all options on the table but its preference would be for a general election.

However, he says that first the party will reject Mrs May's deal in Parliament and will aim to get to a more sensible arrangement with the EU.

The consequences of getting this wrong will be disastrous for generations to come, he adds.

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Those against Theresa May's deal need to come up with clear alternatives, says Nicola Sturgeon.

"There are two ways forward, they are not mutually exclusive," she tells Andrew Marr.

The House of Commons needs to "coalesce around a clear direction of travel that would keep the UK within the single market and the customs union and also the option of another vote," she says.

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The SNP's leader and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says her MPs at Westminster will vote against the EU withdrawal bill.

She says the agreement is "full of flaws" but - crucially - there is "no clarity on the future relationship" between the UK and the EU.

So MPs will be asked to endorse a "blindfold Brexit" where all the difficult issues are "kicked further down the road" and it would be "deeply irresponsible" for MPs to back that.

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Pienaar’s Politics

John Pienaar asks Damian Hinds whether the UK can get more out of the EU.

He says "we have come a long way from some months ago", saying it's moved on since the suggested Norway and Canada deals.

"There's been a lot of progress on a lot of things," he says.

And he points out there's a potential danger in thinking it's possible to "reopen a package".

He says he's confident Parliament will vote the deal through.

"We [MPs] are participants - not commentators - we are there to change the result, not predict it. There's going to be a lot of debate between now and then. I think we can get the vote."

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Echoing Theresa May's message in her Sky News interview, Kwasi Kwarteng says a new leader "is not going to change the dynamics of this thing".

He said it wouldn't lead to a renegotiation and "it's not going to change the Parliamentary arithmetic".

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Education Secretary Damian Hinds says he's confident that Theresa May will still be prime minister next week.

He says the "bulk of his colleagues in Parliament just want to get on with it and know the prime minister is doing a "remarkable job".

Asked whether the hardliners who thought they had enough names to trigger a leadership contest were deluded, he says a lot of people had assumed the 48-letter threshold would have been crossed already.

He says we'll have to see.

He believes colleagues will come round to realising there's no "attractive alternative" to the deal.

"When it comes to it, I think people will see this is the best way forward."

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Kwasi Kwarteng tells Andrew Marr:" I don't think another referendum is on the cards. I don't think there is enough time and I don't think there is enough will."

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Kwasi Kwarteng, who was made junior Brexit minister after Suella Braverman's resignation, tells Andrew Marr there are "final tweaks to be done" to Theresa May's Brexit deal in terms of the transition period.

But, he adds, "I think, substantially, the deal is almost complete. I think it's a strong deal and I look forward to defending it in the House of Commons."

He said people had "ripped apart the deal before they had even read it", he told Andrew Marr but the UK was still going to leave the EU in March.

"Brexit cannot be stopped," he said.

Image source, PA

The ERG document highlights five key issues it has with Mrs May's deal. It says the deal means:

·Not taking back control of our money

·Not taking back control of our laws

·Being locked in a Customs Union without the ability to leave

·Undermining the integrity of the UK

·The agreement would be overseen by the European Court of Justice, not the UK Supreme Court

It suggests a better alternative would be a Super Canada free trade deal, which would involve taking an existing EU Canada trade agreement signed in 2016 and updating this with additional elements such as a security protocol.

It explains that a Super Canada trade agreement would not involve being in the Single Market or Customs Union and would not leave the UK subject to the authority of the European Court of Justice.

Sky News

Mrs May warns party rivals thinking of replacing her as Conservative leader: "It is not going to make the (Brexit) negotiations any easier and it won't change the parliamentary arithmetic."