House of Commons
Parliament

There is a delay in announcing the vote so Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle asks for "a blockage" in the No lobby to be investigated.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

This is the first of a series of votes tonight on different points of detail.

There could be quite a run of them.

We could be here for quite sometime.

House of Commons
Parliament

The debate at committee stage ends.

MPs will now begin voting.

The first amendment to be voted on is amendment 19.

The amendment - proposed by Conservative Richard Graham - would remove the need for Parliament to approve a no deal and insert a requirement for the PM to seek an extension for a deal, whether that is a new agreement or Theresa May’s deal.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, bb

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay says the government did not put forward any amendments to the bill because there is no acceptable form of it.

"The principle in this bill of seeking an extension is wrong. The government opposed it at second reading and we will oppose it at third reading and indeed it is so flawed that we have not bothered to table amendments to it because we oppose it in all forms.

"This bill cannot be improved because it goes against the democratic wish of the British people - of the vote of 17.4 million of our citizens - and it goes against the strong desire of many up and down this land who want certainty, who want clarity, who want Brexit done so we can get onto the wider agenda."

House of Commons
Parliament

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith tells MPs there was a "serious danger" of the public believing that "nothing will satisfy" Parliament.

He also accused the Labour frontbench of "playing fast and loose" over earlier Brexit negotiations.

Referencing former PM Theresa May's deal, which was rejected by MPs three times, Mr Duncan Smith says: "I think the truth was they probably never intended to agree anything with my honourable friends who were in government at the time."

He adds: "If they really, really wanted any deal rather than no deal they would have voted for [Mrs May's deal]. But strangely they found themselves voting against it at the time."

House of Lords
Parliament

MPs may pass this bill but it would still need to get through the House of Lords, where a strenuous filibustering effort is under way to stop a business motion being passed.

Lords can carry on talking in today’s session until 10:00 BST on Friday.

At that point, if the business motion has not passed, it falls.

This would probably effectively kill the bill.

However, the opposition will be trying to find a way to stop this happening.

Read more here.

Image source, PA Media

Boris Johnson has given "a guarantee" that the rebels who had the Tory whip removed for voting against the government will not be able to return, according to a Conservative MP.

After the PM addressed the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, Daniel Kawczynski said: "I pleaded with the prime minister not to restore the whip to any Conservative member of Parliament who has undermined him in these negotiations with the European Union and he's given me an assurance that the whip will not be restored.

"These people cannot stand for the Conservative Party again."

Pressed on what the PM said to him, Mr Kawczynski said: "He gave me a guarantee."

House of Commons
Parliament

Tory MP Andrew Percy says there is no point in seeking an extension because MPs who seek one do not really want to leave the EU at all.

"I will not support any amendment that seeks a further extension to this because I know what's going on here - and my constituents know what's going on," the Brigg and Goole MP tells the Commons.

"Play it long, play for time, say you respect the result - they have no intention of respecting the result.

"They didn't respect it in March of this year, they didn't in April, they're not going to in 31 October and you can sure as damn tell they ain't going to on January 31 either.

Image source, PA Media

Boris Johnson has accused Jeremy Corbyn of being "frit and chicken" over the chance of getting a general election.

After addressing the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, Mr Johnson told reporters: "I also made it clear that I thought that if Jeremy Corbyn was going to effectively hand over the prerogative of the British to decide how long this country can remain in the EU to the EU, then that was a question that really should be adjudicated by the British people themselves.

"I'm surprised that he seems to be frit and chicken."

House of Commons
Parliament

Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope says there is no point asking the EU for an extension because it will never offer the UK the terms it wants.

"The EU has never accepted Brexit," he says. "The EU and its institutions do not want a divorce.

"The EU is just hoping and praying Brexit will go away and we will stay in the EU - so their motivation is to put forward unacceptable and unreasonable terms, to offer us only a punishment deal."

With MPs debating possible amendments to the Bill, Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash is now attacking the legislation in its entirety.

"This places an obligation, a duty on the prime minister... to carry out this act [seeking an extension to the Brexit deadline] of political suicide.

"I really think the members opposite should reflect on the full nature of the subservience and subjugation and vassalage that they're putting the United Kingdom in.

"It is a total and utter disgrace."

Image source, PA Media

As MPs debate legislation that would seek to block a no-deal exit from the EU, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has said a no-deal recession would probably see the economy shrink by less than previously estimated.

Mr Carney told MPs that preparations made since the central bank's last estimate in November have softened its worst-case scenario.

A disorderly Brexit will now probably see the economy shrink by 5.5% rather than the 8% forecast before.

He said more time to prepare could cut the damage further.

Better border preparations, a temporary deal for financial services companies to access UK markets, and a deal on the market for financial insurance products have all been put in place since November, he told the Treasury Select Committee.

"The impact of that has been to reduce the worst case scenario."

Read on here.

Preparations made since the central bank's last estimate has softened its worst-case scenario.