Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Reuters

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer says the withdrawal agreement and political declaration agreed with the EU in November remain "exactly the same".

He adds that what the PM has termed changes to the deal were "all there last time" in previous commitments, and are "therefore not changes".

He says he "doesn't see" a basis for Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to change the legal advice he gave to MPs in December after last night's documents - but calls for him to come to the Commons later to answer questions.

He reiterates that Labour's "central concern" with the deal at the previous vote in January was the content of the political declaration.

UK PM says she has secured "legally-binding changes" to the Irish backstop but what's the view from Strasbourg?

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has suggested the Commons vote should be delayed for 24 hours in order to give MPs more time to assess the details of the agreement.

He said concessions on the backstop were needed in order to strengthen the position in the next phase of talks on a future UK-EU trade deal.

He said: "If it is correct that this backstop is both temporary and we can leave it at the moment of our choosing, that means we become a balanced partner in the negotiations.

"That is how critical this really is. What we decide today will decide whether or not we will get a good relationship afterwards or whether we get spoon-fed what the EU wants us to be."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Monday morning government blues have been replaced by Tuesday morning nervous hopes.

The government does not suddenly expect its Brexit deal to be ushered through at speed, cheered on by well-wishers.

It does, however, believe that Monday night's double act in Strasbourg by Theresa May and Jean Claude Juncker puts it, to quote one cabinet minister, "back in the races".

The extra assurances wrought from weeks of talks with the EU will move some of the prime minister's objectors from the "no" column to the "yes".

And for Mrs May to have achieved nothing from this process might have been terminal, and not just for her deal itself.

You can read Laura's full blog here.

A small understatement to say it's another busy day at Westminster - but here's how we think things will pan out:

• Reaction to last night's deal across breakfast news outlets first thing - expect to hear from Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Environment Secretary Michael Gove on BBC Radio 4's Today programme
• Cabinet meets at Downing Street from 09:30
• Brexit debate expected to start in the Commons at 13:00
• MPs due to vote from 19:00

Keep across the developments on our live page, and in our main story here.

Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the day's events in Parliament and around Westminster.

Theresa May is back from her Monday evening trip to Strasbourg, saying she has improved the terms of the UK's divorce deal with the European Union.

Having met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Mrs May says she has secured "legally binding" changes to the controversial Withdrawal Agreement, which was rejected by MPs in January by more than 200 votes.

So now the deal is back in the Commons, for MPs to vote on later today. Will it pass - or be defeated again? Have the changes assuaged the fears of the deal's opponents?

Stay tuned for another busy day at Westminster.

Image source, EPA

After a day of speculation, the prime minister and the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker confirmed they had secured "legally binding" changes to the Brexit deal, one day ahead of MPs voting on it.

In the discussions with Mr Juncker and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, two documents were agreed by all parties, which Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said would "strengthen and improve" both the withdrawal agreement from the EU and the political declaration on the future relationship.

Mr Lidington said the changes will mean the EU "cannot try to trap the UK in the [Irish] backstop indefinitely".

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the negotiations had failed and the agreement did not contain anything approaching the changes Theresa May promised. He said MPs must reject the deal.

MPs - including those in the DUP - said they would need to examine the precise text before agreeing to support the prime minister.

Last time the deal was voted on in Parliament, it was defeated by 230 votes.

Theresa May will be hoping today's announcement will convince enough MPs to change their mind and approve her deal.

Conservative MP and Brexiteer Mike Penning has said he will now vote for the deal.

However, another Brexiteer - Steve Baker - says he will wait to hear the opinion of the lawyers for the European Research Group.

“These publications need careful analysis. We will be taking appropriate advice, scrutinising the text line by line and forming our own judgement," a DUP spokesman said.

“We will measure this latest text against the Brady amendment, and the commitments made by the Prime Minister on 29 January.”

That this House approves for the purposes of section 13(1)(b) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 the following documents laid before the House on Monday 11 March 2019:

(1) the negotiated withdrawal agreement titled ‘Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community’;

(2) the framework for the future relationship titled ‘Political Declaration setting out the framework for the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom’;

(3) the legally binding joint instrument titled ‘Instrument relating to the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community’, which reduces the risk the UK could be deliberately held in the Northern Ireland backstop indefinitely and commits the UK and the EU to work to replace the backstop with alternative arrangements by December 2020;

(4) the unilateral declaration by the UK titled ‘Declaration by Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning the Northern Ireland Protocol’, setting out the sovereign action the UK would take to provide assurance that the backstop would only be applied temporarily; and

(5) the supplement to the framework for the future relationship titled ‘Joint Statement supplementing the Political Declaration setting out the framework for the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’, setting out commitments by the UK and the EU to expedite the negotiation and bringing into force of their future relationship.

Theresa May says it is the intention of both sides that the backstop should never need to be used.

And that concludes the news conference.

Theresa May is asked if she has secured a time limit to the backstop or a unilateral exit from the backstop.

She replies that she has secured legally-binding changes as Parliament wanted.

She adds that she is clear that the backstop cannot become permanent.

She also says alternative arrangements to the backstop will be in place by the end of 2020.

Theresa May now begins speaking.

She says the deal means the UK regains control of its laws and enables the UK to make an independent trade policy.

However, she acknowledges that there was a clear concern in Parliament over the Northern Ireland backstop.

"Today we have agreed legally binding changes that will guarantee that the EU cannot enforce the backstop indefinitely," she says.

"Let us be crystal clear," continues Mr Juncker.

"It is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all," he says.

He says MPs have an important choice to make.

Jean-Claude Juncker says in the negotiations "we left no stone unturned, our mind has always been open."

It is in this spirit, he says that a "joint legally binding instrument on the withdrawal agreement" has been agreed.

"It provides legal guarantees on the nature of the backstop," he says.

Jean-Claude Juncker opens the news conference.

"We want to preserve peace on the island of Ireland," he says.

"These are things any responsible politician should care about.

"We have a deal on the table that does this."