Police were seen restraining a number of protesters at the gates to Downing Street as the prime minister readies herself for a pivotal Brexit Cabinet.

Protests, about climate change as well as both sides of the EU debate, meant some people, including the media, have been restricted from entering and leaving Downing Street.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Many voters would have forgiven David Cameron if he had failed to deliver on his campaign promise to hold an EU referendum, according to a study from the University of Exeter.

The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, showed that 28% of people would have seen their view of the former prime minister significantly diminish if he hadn't held the vote.

This is compared with 70% who said his reputation would have been unchanged.

Dr Catarina Thomson, a member of the research team, said: “Failed promises, backing down on threats or flip-flopping on policy positions are often assumed to lead to a loss in support.

"But in the case of David Cameron, going back on his campaign promises meant this loss could have been manageable.”

A French government spokesman has said the draft agreement is an "encouraging sign in light of what we have seen in recent weeks and months".

But Benjamin Griveaux said his government would "remain cautious".

He added: "We will take our time and look at the details of the text.

"There’ll be an agreement when the heads of state and government have had the time to examine the detail of the draft agreement."

Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill tweets that she'll be speaking to the prime minister later, adding that any backstop arrangement in the draft text cannot allow for "unilateral withdrawal" by the UK government.

At a European Commission news briefing, the commission's spokesman Margaritis Schinas was giving little away.

"We have a duty to report to our 27 member-states that have given us a mandate to negotiate with the United Kingdom," she said.

"So I will not go into any details on the substance (of the deal). We have process ongoing. We'll take things in sequence and by order."

A spokesman for Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones says they need to see the details of the deal as soon as possible.

"It is essential the deal enables a future relationship with the EU27 to be reached which includes full and unfettered access to the single market and participation in a customs union.

"All the nations of the UK need time to scrutinise what is being proposed as it will have a huge impact on our future.

"So much rests on what the prime minister does and can achieve over the next hours.

"She needs to stare down the Brexit extremists in her own party and take a course that is right for all of the UK."

Damian Grammaticas
Europe correspondent

Everyone here is holding their breath to see how the Brexit text plays at the UK's cabinet meeting.

There's a nervousness that the text has been put out there but everybody's being silent.

The feeling here is that the EU has conceded quite a lot but is asking a lot of the UK.

Image source, PA

With an hour to go before the cabinet meets to discuss the Brexit text, Housing Secretary James Brokenshire says he's looking forward to a "positive and constructive discussion".

"We should get behind the PM. We should be positive about what we can do," he says.

"There's clearly been good progress that's been secured."

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Liz Kendall raises a point of order, saying that the Commons needs to hear a statement on Brexit agreements today, rather than tomorrow. She says some MPs may have other commitments tomorrow.

Speaker John Bercow says it seems to him a "reasonable point to make in response" that MPs can rearrange their diaries. He says there shouldn't be a "great row" on whether the statement should take place today or tomorrow.

Conservative MP Ken Clarke says that it is "constitutional convention" that a government announces a major policy to the House, usually alongside a white paper".

He says "we are slipping into a practice" where the details are leaked, the government briefs the press, and then Parliament gets to debate it.

Mr Bercow replies that in the UK the country has "cabinet government", meaning that government policy is approved by cabinet.

It does not seem to him to be "unreasonable" for the statement to be heard tomorrow as the Cabinet meeting is taking place this afternoon, he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, hoc

During Prime Minister's Questions Liberal Democrat Tom Brake asked for the PM to confirm that the deal that had potentially been agreed with the EU leaves the UK as "a rule taker, not a rule maker".

He asked if she agreed that the best way to get the UK "out of this mess" was to allow for "a People's Vote" on the final deal.

Ms May said she had given the same answer to this question on a number of occasions: people were given a vote to decide whether to remain in the EU in 2016, and they voted to leave.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Kate Hoey says in 1965 there was a neighbourly agreement between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland that "each could fish in each others' six mile waters".

She says "Ireland have gone against this", disallowing Northern Ireland fisherman to fish in their seas whereas "fisherman from Ireland still fish in Northern Irish waters."

Ms Hoey asks if Theresa May will speak up for Northern Irish fisherman "and not feel that she always needs to be supporting the Irish government".

Theresa May says: "Consistently throughout the negotiations Northern Ireland have been at the forefront of my thinking.

"I am happy to look at the specific issue of the six miles waters, but after Brexit we will become an independent coastal state."

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Conservative Martin Vickers says that he is pleased to hear that the UK will be leaving the Common Fisheries Policy. He asks who will be able to fish in UK waters after the Brexit deal is signed.

Mrs May says it will be "the UK negotiating on the UK's behalf" on fishing rights.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale follows Ken Clarke's question in asking for the draft agreement terms to be available to MPs "as soon as practicable" after the Cabinet meets.

He says MPs want to comment on the basis of fact "rather than ill-informed speculation".

The prime minister says if the deal is decided to be taken forward by the Cabinet, "it is the intention that the details of that deal are made public".

Analysis by Mark D'Arcy

A nice little swipe at Tory Brexiteers from backbencher Sir Roger Gale – he wants the Brexit deal published as soon as possible, so that MPs can comment on the basis of fact rather than speculation...

The press conference called by the European Research Group (the Brexiteer pressure group) and the DUP yesterday appalled a lot of Conservative loyalists.

House of Commons
Parliament

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington has just told the House of Commons that the prime minister will speak to the first ministers of Scotland and Wales once the cabinet has met and taken a position on the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Nicola Sturgeon says the prime minister has refused to speak to her ahead of the cabinet meeting, according to our colleagues at BBC Scotland.

The first minister says she has suggested a conversation to relay concerns from the Scottish government but, so far, Theresa May has refused.

The prime minister has offered to telephone her after the cabinet meets.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Conservative Julia Lopez says the former New Zealand Commissioner has told the International Trade Committee that if the UK remains bound to EU rules on trade, then it will not be able to have a "significant global trade strategy".

She asks if this is "one of the prices to pay for her [the PM's] Brexit deal".

Mrs May says the UK will still be able to strike trade deals around the rest of the world. She says countries like Japan, Vietnam and Australia are keen to join their trade agreements.

"We will have an independent trade policy," she states.