House of Commons
Parliament

Earlier, as he was summing up, Michael Gove said the government is "committed" to sharing as much of Operation Yellowhammer as it can and would publish a revised version of the document.

However, he stressed Operation Yellowhammer was not "an impact assessment or a likely scenario".

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Parliament

MPs are now voting on the humble address - the motion from Dominic Grieve calling for government communication relating to prorogation and Operation Yellowhammer to be released.

The result of the vote will be announced at about 17:30 BST.

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Parliament

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Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove summed up for the government.

He argues it is a "basic principle of good government" that advice from civil servants should be a "safe space".

“This convention that advice should be private has applied to governments of all parties throughout the history of the civil service," he says.

Mr Gove also says the motion is a "fishing expedition" and may even be in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on privacy.

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Parliament

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Lib Dem Brexit spokesman Tom Brake has accused the government of "withholding critical information" by failing to publish documents relating to the possible impacts of a no-deal Brexit.

“We need to have this information available. Businesses are trying to prepare for no-deal," he says.

“What we have from the government is the withholding of this critical information that would allow all of us to prepare for a no-deal scenario.”

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Parliament

Tory backbencher Owen Paterson has called the motion a "witch hunt".

He says the names listed by the motion - calling for these government figures to publish their communications - contained nine people who were "junior" and "who have not worked for the government very long"

The pro-Brexit MP says: "The whole debate offends my sense of fairness.

"We have a long tradition of innocent until proven guilty."

He adds: "Before this witch hunt atmosphere continues, would members like to consider they are talking about nine relatively junior staff?"

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Parliament

SNP MP Joanna Cherry says her party gives Dominic Grieve's motion their "unequivocal support".

She tells the Commons: "I am very concerned whether in this Parliament and this government... things are being done properly.

"And there are very strong grounds for suspicion that things have not been done properly."

Ms Cherry adds that "the dogs in the street know the reason this prime minister is proroguing Parliament is to avoid scrutiny as he hurtles toward 31 October and a no-deal Brexit".

She says: "There are very real reasons to believe this government is economical with the truth."

Westminster Hall

While some MPs are in the Commons debating Dominic Grieve's motion, others are in Westminster Hall debating two e-petitions about the prorogation of Parliament.

One petition calls for Parliament not to be suspended until an extenstion to the Brexit deadline has been agreed, and was signed more than 1.7m times.

The second, signed over 100,000 times, calls for the suspension to ensure the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Opening the debate, Conservative MP Paul Scully argued suspending Parliament was the right thing to do.

He said: "The best way to resolve the conundrum of Brexit and to move forward is to prorogue Parliament at this stage.

"The last week has been like trash talk in a media conference before a boxing heavyweight fight."

Mr Scully said the prorogation of Parliament "should not be seen as a coup" as the government was trying to move on to the next stage of debate.

He added: "Let's get on, get a resolution and then get back to the agenda which will be outlined in the Queen's Speech."

Labour's shadow Brexit secretary rises to back the motion from Dominic Grieve.

Sir Keir Starmer says: "This House operates, in my experience, on the basis of trust and that trust is going day by day."

Sir Keir says it is "extraordinary" for prorogation to come at this stage of the Brexit process and to last for so long.

"It is not just us that is being shut out, it is the people we represent," he says.

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The current Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, intervenes in the former Attorney General's speech to ask what legal right the government has to require its employees to give up their personal emails and mobile messages.

Dominic Grieve says, as government employees, it is "their duty to observe the civil service code... including not using private communications to carry out official business".

He adds: "It shouldn't be a question of coercion, but a question of willingness."

Mr Cox comes back again, saying the motion "is a blunt instrument" and needs "careful refinement so that it complies with legal rules".

He adds that it has "no binding legal effect on individuals", but instead has a risk that it will "trespass on fundamental rights of individuals as it is currently drafted".

But Mr Grieve says he has to "disagree politely".

He says his motion is clearly defined as only wanting messages to do with prorogation - nothing else.

"Of course [Mr Cox] may argue the government cannot get this information but what No 10 is saying it will not seek to provide it and this again is absolutely illustrative of the slide we are experiencing at the moment that won't respect the conventions."

Experts have been answering questions posed by our readers.

"If Boris Johnson tries to circumvent the legislation requiring him to ask for an extension, could parliament resort to revoking Article 50?" asks John Sprackland in Greater Manchester.

Maddy Thimont Jack, from the Institute for Government, says: "In theory yes, but probably what we are more likely to see if the prime minister tries to not follow the law, is Parliament would just vote him out.

"That would mean - table a vote of no confidence, bring down the government, try to find an alternative prime minister, and then try to seek an extension themselves. Revoking Article 50 has always been the final option, the most failsafe way to stop no-deal because you can do that without agreement from the EU. But if Parliament were going to do that, they would probably need to legislate to force the prime minister to do that, and I don't know if there are numbers in the Commons for that."

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Tory MP Dame Cheryl Gillan intervenes on Mr Grieve, saying it is important that civil servants have "safe space" to "speak truth to power".

She says his motion would damage the ability of civil servants to discuss matters with ministers.