Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Sir Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems and a senior adviser to private equity giant KKR, was on a conference call last night between several ministers - including Chancellor Philip Hammond - and business leaders, to discuss the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement.

"They were trying to be very clear that this had been a long hard process of persistence and resilience, but it had reached a conclusion that would be much, much better than the chaos of a no decision," Sir Roger tells the Today programme.

"It's something had the key elements of what people were looking for, particularly in the sense of a pathway to friction-less trade, control of our borders and preservation of the UK.

"In those circumstances, they were recommending that business leaders support it, and I have to say the response on the call was a positive one."

Sir Roger, who is chairman of one of Theresa May's business committees, added that most business people are pragmatists, who would rather play the cards they had been dealt and then "get back to making the country competitive".

"We'd rather see this over the line, so we can get back to focusing on what's most important," he said.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Shailesh Vara has spoken to the Today programme about why he resigned from the government this morning.

The now former junior minister in the Northern Ireland office said: "I have quit because I don’t believe this is the right agreement for our country.

"You have to ask yourself, given the reluctance from the EU for us to leave in the first place and given we are 18 months down the road and in four months' time it will be almost two years since we triggered the process for us leaving, they are [still] not keen on us leaving and we could be locked in for many, many years.

"The EU have made it absolutely clear that they prefer the slow approach, they have made it absolutely clear they don’t want us to leave and for us to tie ourselves up to a mechanism where we are not in control is, I think, not in the interests of the country."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Tim Montgomerie, a Conservative commentator and the founder of the Conservative Home website, has said that he would accept the draft Brexit withdrawal deal despite his misgivings.

"I've been a huge critic of Theresa May and I think there were many times when the Conservative Party should have ousted her as leader, because I feared that she would bring back something of an inadequate agreement that we are now seeing," he tells the Today programme.

"But I will accept and vote for what she has brought back, simply because time has run out. I think those Conservative MPs are weighing in their minds the advantages and disadvantages of this agreement also need to think about the implications for the country [and] for the Tory reputation for economic competence."

The chancellor and the business secretary thank bosses for warning about the risks of a no-deal Brexit.

Sterling has dropped below $1.30 against the dollar after Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara became the first Tory MP to quit over the draft Brexit withdrawal deal.

The pound is now trading at $1.2985.

Political commentator Jane Merrick tweets...

BBC Breakfast

Conservative MP Mark Francois says he would not vote for the prime minister's deal "if they put a shotgun in my mouth".

The Brexiteer-MP told BBC Breakfast that he had not yet read the full document, but did not believe the deal represented Brexit, as it would leave the UK in a customs union.

Mr Francois said the threat of leaving the EU without a deal was "project fear" and would not be enough to persuade Brexiteer Tory MPs to back the prime minister's deal.

"We will never vote for this...this will never ever get through."

BBC Newsnight

Anne Marie Morris, the Conservative MP for Newton Abbot, has criticised Theresa May's handling of Brexit negotiations.

"She is a lady who is very determined and she has leadership qualities," she told Newsnight's Emily Maitlis.

"But in the same way that Churchill was great for war, and not for peace, this is not her time."

"For the sake of the country, and the party I'm afraid I believe we need somebody who could lead this Brexit action, because if we don't get it right I don't believe we'll ever get another opportunity," the Devon MP added.

It is claimed that more Conservative MPs have called for the removal of the Prime Minister ahead of her statement to the Commons this morning after the Cabinet agreed to support her draft Brexit agreement.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve says the terms of the draft withdrawal agreement need to be put to the British public.

"As this is going to be pretty irrevocable...and it is going to do us a great deal of long-term economic damage, in those circumstances I would like the reassurance that this is what the public really wants," he tells Today.

"If this is really what they want, so be it, but if not, we would do much better to remain in the EU because we are not going to do better outside, on these terms, or indeed on any terms."

BBC Breakfast

Conservative Nicky Morgan, who read the full document overnight, said it was a deal she “felt comfortable with saying yes to”.

The pro-Remain MP told BBC Breakfast: “It is not perfect. It was a negotiation, it will involve compromises and [the deal] was never going to be perfect.

“I haven’t got all of what I want but, at the end of the day, I wish we weren’t in this situation at all and we weren’t leaving the EU.

“But given where we are, I do feel very strongly that it is now for 650 MPs to decide this and the country wants us to get on so we can move forward.”

Dear Prime Minister,

I write to offer my resignation as a minister in your government. I do so with sadness but I cannot support the withdrawal agreement that has been agreed with the European Union.

The EU Referendum offered a simple choice – to either stay in or leave the EU.

The result was decisive with the UK public voting to leave and that is what we, their elected representatives, must deliver.

The agreement put forward however, does not do that as it leaves the UK in a half-way house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation.

Given the past performance of the EU, there is every possibility that the UK-EU trade deal that we seek will take years to conclude.

We will be locked in a customs arrangement indefinitely, bound by rules determined by the EU over which we have no say.

Worse, we will not be free to leave the customs arrangement unilaterally if we wish to do so.

Northern Ireland in the meantime will be subject to a different relationship with the EU from the rest of the UK and whilst I agree there should be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom must be respected.

With respect prime minister, this agreement does not provide for the United Kingdom being a sovereign, independent country leaving the shackles of the EU, however it is worded.

We are a proud nation and it is a sad day when we are reduced to obeying rules made by other countries who have shown that they do not have our best interests at heart.

We can and must do better than this. The people of the UK deserve better. That is why I cannot support this agreement.

It has been an honour and privilege to serve as a minister in the Northern Ireland Office and I leave with the fondest of memories.

Yours

Shailesh Vara

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The Democratic Unionist Party will "certainly" vote against Theresa May's Brexit deal, an MP for the party has told the BBC.

Asked in an interview with BBC Radio Ulster whether the DUP would vote against, Jim Shannon said: "We certainly will... we feel very much betrayed."

The DUP leadership has not commented on its voting plans since a meeting with Mrs May on Wednesday evening.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Tory Brexiteers are now privately considering whether to launch a leadership challenge to unseat Theresa May, says the BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith.

There are however deep divisions within their ranks over such a strategy - amid fears Mrs May would win such a contest, and could even strengthen her position.

The president of the European Council is hoping Brexit is painless for both sides.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has told the BBC that he was "genuinely surprised" by "just how thin the section on the future relationship is" in the 585-page draft Brexit document.

Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Keir said: "We're not prepared to accept a vague or blind Brexit, we need to know where we're heading.

"What do we have on the future relationship? We've got seven pages, only three of which are on the economic relationship.

"If you look at those seven pages, it must be the first time in history that what's proposed is a trade agreement that makes it harder to trade, not easier to trade."

Image source, Reuters

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The CBI is cautiously optimistic that a "no deal" Brexit can be avoided now the Cabinet has backed a draft withdrawal deal.

"We know that millions and millions of pounds has been spent on contingency planning - if this agreement continues, the button can be unpressed," the CBI's director-general Carolyn Fairbairn told the Today programme.

She said that businesses would have wanted to see "a lot more certainty" about trade with the EU and there is some disappointment.

However, on the whole, the outlook is positive.

"There's a world of opportunities out there for the UK, and now we can get beyond it. Most of the real opportunities we have are right here on our doorstep. This pulls us back from the cliff edge and we can move forward...but it's not the end of the road," Ms Fairbairn said.

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President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said the 27 EU states will hold an emergency summit on 25 November "if nothing extraordinary happens" beforehand.

He said ambassadors from the member states will meet by the end of the week to discuss the draft Brexit agreement, and they planned to agree the declaration about the future agreement by Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Mr Tusk reiterated his dismay at the UK's decision to leave, saying: "Of course I don’t share the prime minister’s enthusiasm about Brexit as such [as] since the very beginning we have had no doubt that Brexit is a lose-lose situation and our negotiations are about damage control."

But he thanked the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier - who joined him on stage - for "limitation of the damage".

MPs should back Theresa May's Brexit plan because the alternatives to it are "ugly", according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

He warned that failing to get the deal agreed with Brussels through Parliament would either lead to a no-deal Brexit or a second referendum and the risk of not leaving at all.

He told BBC News: "All MPs should vote for it because this deal is in the national interest.

"The two alternatives are deeply unattractive and as people read the detail of it and look at the deal in the round, rather than the bits and pieces that have come out in the newspapers during the latter stages of the negotiations, anybody in any compromise negotiated document can pick out individual parts that they would prefer were written differently."

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