Aston Martin says it might have to stop production if the UK fails to get a deal with the EU after Brexit

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The bill, external will repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, which took Britain into the EU and meant that European law took precedence over laws passed in the UK Parliament. It will also end the power of the European Court of Justice in the UK.

All existing EU legislation will be copied across into domestic UK law to ensure a smooth transition on the day after Brexit.

The government says it wants to avoid a "black hole in our statute book" and avoid disruption to businesses and individual citizens as the UK leaves the EU.

The UK Parliament can then "amend, repeal and improve" individual laws as necessary.

Ensuring the continuity of EU rules and regulations is also meant to aid trade negotiations with the EU because the UK will already meet all of its product stands.

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House of Commons
Parliament

Veteran Tory Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash reminds the House that he has been opposed to European integration for over 25 years.

In 1992, the foreign and finance ministers of the member states of what was then the European Community (EC) signed the Treaty on European Union and the Maastricht Final Act, named after the Dutch town in which it was agreed.

The EC officially became known as the European Union (EU) and a timetable and framework for economic and monetary union was laid down.

Sir Bill says he opposed the UK Parliament's ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, arguing that it was "creating European government and was making this country ever more subservient to the European Union".

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP Europe spokesman Stephen Gethins says "it's difficult to argue" that the government has spent the time since the EU referendum well.

"We're certainly no closer to a post-Brexit utopia that we have been promised," he tells MPs.

The bill before the House asks MPs to make significant changes to law with "an extraordinary paucity of information", he argues, describing the government as "clueless about the impact of its plans".

Mr Gethins attacks "the damage that has been done to politics by the empty promises that were made by Vote Leave" and says the bill "deserves to fall".

He calls for a compromise enabling the UK to remain in the single market and also indicates that the SNP will back a Plaid Cymru amendment requiring the government to gain consent from the devolved legislatures in order to repeal the European Communities Act.

Expecting the German car industry to lean on Angela Merkel to press for tariff-free trade between the UK and EU may not work.

Frank Field clashes with his Labour colleague Hilary Benn during a Commons debate about Brexit.

House of Commons
Parliament

Ken Clarke criticises the government for producing amendments "tying down our departure to the second" following the similar bid from Labour's Frank Field.

Mr Clarke says the government's move arose from "a concession" to pro-EU Conservatives about a vote on a final deal.

In return, ministers had to have something to "throw as a sop" to pro-Brexit cabinet ministers Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, he argues.

He calls the government's proposal to fix a leave date of 29 March 2019 a "ridiculous amendment" which "could be positively harmful to the national interest".

Before sitting down to applause, he says: "I am the rebel. I espouse the policies that the Conservative Party has followed for the 50 years of my membership of it, until we had a referendum 18 months ago, and I regret that I have not yet seen the light."

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Ken Clarke says there were only two MPs still in the House today, who were present in 1972 when the European Communities Act was passed: Labour MP Dennis Skinner and himself.

Pro-EU MP Mr Clarke adds that he and Mr Skinner have always voted in opposite ways on Europe and the government have more chance of support from Mr Skinner than from him.

He says the idea has been "put forward by UKIP and others that [the act] led faceless, grey Eurocrats to produce vast quantities of awful legislation and red tape is one of the biggest myths of our time".

Mr Clarke pays tribute to former UKIP leader Nigel Farage's "campaigning abilities", calling him "the most successful politician of my generation".

He jokes that people persuaded by Mr Farage "are all looking forward to bent bananas again once we actually repeal this piece of legislation".

The former minister says he recalls fighting an election in which many of his constituents were convinced that "the Eurocrats were about to abolish double-decker buses".

House of Commons
Parliament

The EU Withdrawal Bill is being debated at committee stage, which is the part of a bill's passage where MPs can examine it in detail, line by line.

There are a number of amendments under discussion today which will be voted on at various times.

Some - like Labour MP Frank Field's new clause which would fix Brexit day as 30 March 2019 - will be debated and voted on around 6.45pm.

Others - such as that from Labour's Chris Leslie on setting out how provisions apply during a transition period before UK fully implements the withdrawal agreement - will be voted on later tonight, around 10.45pm.

A third group will be debated today but not voted on until later in committee stage, for which eight days have been set aside.

BBC analysis suggests we are not expecting a government defeat today, with the biggest threat still expected to come from amendments tabled by Conservative rebels which are backed by opposition MPs.

We don't yet know the dates for the rest of committee stage. On Thursday, we'll get a statement from Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom about forthcoming business, which may include an indication when the next few committee days are scheduled.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Paul Blomfield proposes a deal to the government.

If it withdraws its amendments on a Brexit date, he offers Labour co-operation to formulate "an alternative which affirms a departure date in line with the Article 50 process but without destroying the chances of a transitional arrangement".

House of Commons
Parliament

"The British people voted to pull out, they did not vote to lose out," says shadow Brexit minister Paul Blomfield.

He tells the House that voters have entrusted Parliament and the government with striking the best deal and "that doesn't mean stumbling over a cliff edge in March 2019".

He argues that an amendment to set a date of Brexit in the bill "blows the prospect of a transitional deal on current terms out of the water" and prevent Theresa May from securing the agreement with the other EU states for the aims set out in her Florence speech in September.

Labour has proposed amendments to let Parliament to control the length and terms of transitional arrangements.

Negotiators may need "an extra week, an extra day, an extra hour, an extra minute" to secure a deal, Mr Blomfield says.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Chuka Umunna says that former Brexit Minister Lord Bridges of Headley has said it would not be possible to reach agreement with the EU on "the divorce bill" and a final deal by March 2019.

Mr Umunna says the minister is really planning for "no deal... and he has no mandate from the British people to do that".

"We are planning to secure a deep and special partnership with the European Union," Brexit Minister Steve Baker insists.

After Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says it would be a "semi-catastrophe" to leave without a deal with the EU, Mr Baker says the government needs to be prepared for such an outcome "if that proves necessary".

House of Commons
Parliament

Brexit Minister Steve Baker, battling a hoarse voice, says the bill is necessary to resolve any post-Brexit questions of "whether UK or EU law took precedence and whether there was a conflict between them".

He tells MPs that "Parliament must pass legislation" before the rights and obligations in treaties apply in UK law, therefore it is necessary to repeal legislation giving EU laws primacy.

Turing to Frank Field's amendment, he notes that it does not give a time of day on the 30 March 2019 and "ambiguity" could arise from this. The government's own amendment proposes 11pm on 29 March.

Mr Field says the government can amend his clause to say "23 hours, 59 minutes on the day that we actually leave - but it will be on our time" - but Mr Baker declines to back him and continues to push the government's version.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry tells the minister that setting a date is "political window-dressing" and "a sop" to Brexit-supporting Tory backbenchers.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Peter Kyle asks about the impact of a "no deal" Brexit and reverting to WTO rules for international trade.

Dermot Sterne of Applied Component Technologies, which sells components to the likes of Honda, Mini and Land Rover, says it's "hard to think of a worse situation" and it would be "enormously challenging".

He says that for many parts they sell "profits would disappear".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Frank Field indicates that he will force a vote on his new clause, arguing that it will allow the UK to "leave on our terms and in our time".

"I've never bought a house without having in the contract a date when it's mine, when I could get in," he says.

"I've never had a job without a starting date."

His Labour colleague Hilary Benn, who chairs the Commons Committee on Exiting the EU, questions Mr Field's argument. saying: "Nobody commits to buy the date to buy a house before they know what it is they're buying."

Mr Benn argues that it does not "make sense to bind the hands of the country" in negotiations with the EU, arguing this is also a weakness of a similar amendment from the government, which is still to be debated.

"I've always bought my houses, never inherited them," Mr Field retorts to Mr Benn, the son of the late Labour MP Tony Benn.

"I bought mine too!" says Mr Benn, causing Mr Field to withdraw his remark and apologise.