Image source, PA

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his party's chief whip Nick Brown were pictured walking through Portcullis House in Westminster earlier, on their way to meet the prime minister.

They are still in the meeting, 40 minutes after it started.

House of Lords
Parliament

Shadow international development minister Lord Collins is asked a question on the government's commitment to spending 0.7% of Gross National Income on international development.

This follows press reports, external that International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, has advocated her department focusing more on raising charity donations.

International Development Minister Lord Bates says that the UK commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI is "enshrined in law" and has been committed to by various members of the cabinet.

Lord Collins says that seeing 0.7% as the target as well as the baseline "will not deliver either", and he says that UK aid can give education accessible to all. He asks for confirmation that in next month's spending review there will be "no attempt to renege" on UK aid spending commitments.

Lord Bates says that he is happy to give this commitment. He adds that he is "immensely proud" of the introduction of the 0.7% spending as required by law. "The commitment to 0.7% stands," he finishes.

European Parliament
Brussels

Image source, EBS

European Commission Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier says Theresa May is now distancing herself from "the agreement she herself has negotiated".

He says the EU "shares the will" of the UK Parliament to avoid the UK leaving the EU without a deal, and the current deal is the "best and only means" to do this.

"This agreement will not be renegotiated," he also says.

The Irish border backstop plan is "not dogmatism" but a "pragmatic response" to the "unique situation" on the island of Ireland following the UK's Brexit plans, he adds.

BBC News Channel

Jill Rutter, from the Institute for Government, told the BBC News channel that Theresa May's return to Brussels could be about showing her backbenchers that "she is willing to try".

"Is this a chance for her to really sort of show - let’s try, we’ll put your ideas to them and see where they get to?

"She’ll come back either with something slightly amended, potentially back in the middle of February, or with the same deal as she had before and say 'look we gave it our best shot, that didn’t work, as I said before it’s my deal, no deal or no Brexit'."

European Parliament
Brussels

Image source, EBS

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says the Brexit withdrawal deal is the "best and only deal possible".

The withdrawal deal "cannot be renegotiated" and the votes yesterday "do not change that", he says.

The concept of replacing the backstop plan for avoiding a hard Irish border with alternative arrangements is "not new", he says.

He says the EU has "no incentive, no desire" to use the backstop, but it is needed as a "safety net". Ireland's border is also Europe's border, he tells MEPs.

However he says he still believes there "can and will be" an agreement with the UK.

European Parliament
Brussels

Image source, EBS

Melania-Gabriela Ciot says its appears that there has still not been a "clear sense of direction" given by the UK Parliament in Westminster.

There is "more rather than less uncertainty", and a "disorderly exit" is now more likely, she says.

EU states have said a renegotiation of the deal is "not on the cards", but they should be open to "talks and clarifications" to help the ratification of the deal, she adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Shadow Home Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds says the data protection safeguards are welcome.

He says the Labour amendment simply sets out that where the death penalty is sought, data should not be handed over.

Mr Thomas-Symonds says if the amendment does not pass, the UK could be accused of "Western hypocrisy and double standards" on the issue of the death penalty.

Opposition to the death-penalty has been a bipartisan UK government position for more than half a century, he adds.

The Speaker gets annoyed with MPs on the Tory benches about their noise at PMQs.

Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney has said the backstop needs to be based on legal certainty, not "wishful thinking".

European Parliament
Brussels

Image source, EBS

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani announces that the constitutional affairs committee will take the lead in scrutinising the EU-UK Brexit deal.

MEPs will have to ratify any agreement before it can come into force.

EU leaders have asked the European Parliament to start its ratification procedure, he says.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Home Office Minister Ben Wallace calls on MPs to accept a UK/US deal on data sharing as "the current method of getting data can take months" and "the treaty is essential for fighting crime".

The Lords had raised concerns about the UK being required to produce evidence in cases in which the death penalty may be imposed, however Mr Wallace notes that these "strings attached" could damage a data sharing deal with the United States.

The UK's leverage "is minuscule" when demanding strings attached proposals to data sharing deals with the US, he says, adding that the United States has indicated that if the UK adopt the Lords amendment to the bill "it will not progress".

European Parliament
Brussels

MEPs will debate the result of last night’s votes in Westminster – after MPs backed a plan to renegotiate the UK’s Brexit deal.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will speak during the debate, as well as senior MEPs representing the political groups.

German MEP Elmar Brok, who is also a member of the European Parliament's Brexit Steering Group, told the BBC that until Theresa May came up with a way to resolve the impasse in Britain over Brexit, returning to Brussels was pointless.

"We see that in the United Kingdom there is no positive majority, because hard Brexiteers and Remainers stop every concrete solution, and therefore we do not see any new thing, and we hope she has a new idea," he said.

Jeremy Corbyn's spokesman has declined to reveal what, if any, sanctions will be taken against Labour MPs who defied the party whip and did not vote for the Yvette Cooper amendment on Tuesday.

Fourteen backbench MPs voted against the amendment.

But 11 MPs also abstained, with eight from the party's front bench.

The Labour leader's spokesman told reporters it was in the hands of the whips, saying: "It will be dealt with in the next few days in the usual way. Each case is treated on its own merits."

Find out more about the amendments and voting results here

BBC News Channel

Irish Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald says the decision last night to seek alternative arrangements to the backstop has "strengthened anxieties" across Ireland.

Theresa May has acted "absolutely in bad faith" by encouraging Tory MPs to support the Brady amendment, she says, which has "put the backstop through the shredder".

Ms McDonald says the prime minister knows that the backstop is "the bare minimum" in whatever deal that is agreed with the EU, which is why she agreed to it. If MPs think the Withdrawal Agreement will happen without such a protocol they "haven't been listening".

The backstop wasn't "foisted" on the UK, she suggests, but was landed on after all alternatives were found unworkable.

The UK is now in "very dangerous territory", but the "ball is at the foot of the British government".

"Irrespective of who is in government, the British state has international obligations to Ireland. They're welcome to Brexit, but they're not going to wreck Ireland as they do that."

Opinion sampled across the north and south of Ireland shows that a hard border is "out of the question". People will not tolerate the "betrayal" of the Good Friday Agreement.

"British politicians should understand that - they need to start acting in good faith."

She warns Europe "will not blink" over the withdrawal agreement and says: "Ireland will not be the collateral damage for the Tory Brexit. Full stop."