Westminster Hall

Conservative Antoinette Sandbach, who also applied to lead this debate, says there is no majority anywhere for the kind of Brexit supported by the ERG.

The European Research Group is a group of Brexit-supporting Conservative MPs led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, which has encouraged the prime minister to push for a harder Brexit. This week, Mr Rees-Mogg praised David Davis for resigning from the cabinet in protest at Friday's Chequers agreement.

Image source, HOC

Ms Sandbach says the Brexit vote represented a direction for travel rather than a roadmap. She adds that she broadly supports the Chequers agreement, but says the blurring of lines between goods and services will cause problems - "an iPad is an expensive paper weight if it comes without the software on it," she says.

The Chequers agreement pledged to maintain a "common rulebook" with the EU for goods but not services.

Westminster Hall

Three more of the so-called Tory Brexit rebels are present, with Heidi Allen, Dominic Grieve and Antoinette Sandbach all making early interventions to agree with Stephen Hammond's call for a close relationship between the EU and UK after Brexit.

The DUP's David Simpson also intervenes on Mr Hammond's opening speech to make his case that the EU "keeps moving the goalposts" to prevent the UK making progress in the negotiations.

House of Commons
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Shadow exiting the EU minister Jenny Chapman says that "Chequers proposals are clearly dead in the water." She adds that it is "comforting" that there are some certainties in politics, in that the Liberal Democrats are currently proposing another referendum and offering to team up with the Conservatives on this.

Labour will propose amendments to the Trade Bill next week, she says, which will seek to keep strong and close ties with the EU.

She says that the prime minister must put her white paper on Brexit to a vote in Parliament.

There has been "chaos" for the past day and a half, she adds.

She says that the "impact" of telling voters that their decision in 2016 wasn't valid would be "profound".

Westminster Hall

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Mr Hammond makes reference to this week's cabinet resignations. The Remain-supporting backbencher says he welcomes the prime minister's Chequers plan but admits he isn't in "universal agreement with everyone in the House."

On Sunday, Brexit secretary David Davis resigned, followed by foreign secretary Boris Johnson yesterday, over concerns that the Cabinet's Chequers agreement was watering down their visions for Brexit.

The Cabinet agreed on Friday to "maintain a common rulebook for all goods" with the EU, including agricultural products, after Brexit.

Westminster Hall

Conservative Stephen Hammond kicks off a debate in the second chamber on post-Brexit customs options. This comes after he led a debate in February on the possibility of the UK joining EFTA.

The European Free Trade Association is a free trade area consisting of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

Stephen Hammond was one of 11 Conservative MPs branded "self-consumed malcontents" by the Daily in December, after the government lost a Commons vote on giving a 'meaningful' Brexit vote to Parliament. Mr Hammond and the other 10 MPs named voted against the party whip.

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Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith says that "we are absolutely clear" that "there will be no second referendum".

She says the motion tabled by the Liberal Democrats undermines the progress in negotiations so far.

In last year's election, she says, over 80% of voters supported parties which called for respecting the result of the EU referendum.

She says that the UK should be "coming together" and carring out what the referendum asked the government to do.

She adds that the Labour Party are "all over the shop" on the issue of a "divisive second referendum".

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The Commons moves on to a debate on handling of negotiations to leave the EU. This has been tabled by the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Vince Cable says that the House has had a "pretty unremitting diet of Brexit, Brexit and more Brexit" but adding that this debate is important due to the events over the past few days.

"All of this is being discussed in a Westminster bubble," he says, adding that 70% of the public judge that Brexit negotiations have been handled badly, which is a "declining trend".

He says that the former foreign secretary has said that the Brexit dream is "dying".

"We risk getting to a point in a few months' time" where hard Brexiteers will say that Brexit is going badly because they didn't follow their advice, he says.

He says that on something of such constitutional change should require a second confirmatory referendum before being implemented.

"If Brexit ever happens it will be a day of mourning," he states.

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The SNP's David Linden tries to move a motion for the Legislative Grand Committee to sit in private. The Deputy Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, tells him that he cannot move a motion to sit in private as he is a Scottish MP wishing to move a motion which pertains to England and Wales.

He says that Scottish people were told in the independence referendum in 2014 that they were "an equal part of the United Kingdom" adding that Scottish MPs have been "relegated from legislators to narrators" on this bill.

At the end of the LGC, Rishi Sunak thanks the National Farmers' Union who have consulted on the bill. He says that this bill is part of the government driving growth across the UK.

With that, the bill progresses to the Lords.

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Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak says it is "fantastic" to be able to move things "speedily through the House".

"I'm glad we have had a very constructive discussion" on the bill, he adds.

The bill now progresses to Legislative Grand Committee for England and Wales, as it refers specifically to those nations.

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Conservative Rebecca Pow says that this bill will help nursery growers in her area of Taunton Deane.

She says that the costs of these rates were being passed on to the consumer.

"As Conservatives, the party of business, this is really not something that sits easily with us," she states.

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Shadow housing, communities and local government minister Jim McMahon says that this bill is not "contentious". He announces that Labour will not be opposing this bill as a result.

It is "simply fixing the position" following the Court of Appeal ruling in 2015, external, he states.

If the country wants to "save our town centres and high streets" then the government needs to work on helping communities, he says.

"When people see the roller shutters down, or boards on the windows, that does have "a material effect on how people feel about their community," he adds that government ought to take note of this.

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Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak says the government "firmly believes" that the agricultural exemption for business rates is essential to driving growth and investment in agriculture.

He says that the bill will amend the Local Government Finance Act of 1988, which will allow exemptions for plant nurseries which have been assessed since then.

The government has been working on this since late 2017, he says.

The measure will have retroactive effect from 1 April 2015. It will also allow refunds for plant nurseries which have been recently assessed, he states.

The bill will not "disturb the boundary of the existing agricultural exemption," he adds.

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Scott Mann's bill passes unanimously.

The Commons has moved on to the non-domestic rating (nursery grounds) bill at committee and remaining stages.

This bill was introduced by James Brokenshire, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary.

This bill was introduced because of an existing loophole in UK law, which did not recognise non-domestic rates exemption for businesses using buildings partially as plant nurseries.

House of Commons
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Image source, BBC News

Conservative Scott Mann is introducing his ten minute rule bill on bathing waters.

The bill would give the Environment Agency additional powers to control and reduce discharge from combined sewage overflows. It also makes provision on bathing water quality and clean beach initiatives.

"The environment is very important to my constituents," Mr Mann says, saying that he is always asked in schools what he is doing for the environment.

The UK has an "antiquated Victorian sewage system" in the UK which has not received investment in many years, because "sewers are not that sexy".

He says that when there are big downpours, the existing system cannot cope with sewer overflows.

Select Committee
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Bringing the questioning back to post-Brexit security, Labour's Stephen Doughty asks the home secretary: “Will ‘no deal’ make us less safe?”

Sajid Javid says: “The best position for our security is the current position which is cooperation.”

Select Committee
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“I very much agree with you that nothing beats a British blueberry."

Sajid Javid agrees to listen to concerns of the agricultural industry after Kirstene Hair tells him: “If the workforce can’t be imported, then the produce will be."

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Labour's Jim Cunningham raises the case of the hit-and-run incident in his Coventry South constituency in which two young boys died. He asks whether the government will increase the maximum sentence for hit-and-run offences.

Minister Rory Stewart says there have been extensive consultations on the issue and the government would like to raise the maximum sentence.

Select Committee
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Conservative Kirstene Hair says the soft fruit business in Scotland is faltering because “there are no workers to pick them”.

The home secretary says the industry is very important to the economy and says Amber Rudd was working on a specific report looking at the agricultural industry and how its workforce can be maintained post-Brexit.

Select Committee
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Sajid Javid says: “I have yet to meet an interior minister in any EU country” who does not want a comprehensive relationship between the UK and EU in when it comes to security issues after Brexit.

He says the UK-EU agreement on security will be entirely separate to other issues such as trade and immigration.

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Conservative MP Virendra Sharma asks if, should the government's review of legal aid recommend more funding, that money will be forthcoming.

Mr Gauke says it is right that the government is waiting for the review to conclude and that he will work with the Treasury on any issues of funding.