Prime Minister's Questions: The key bits and the verdict

Theresa May went head-to-head with Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons. Here's what happened.

A lively session as Jeremy Corbyn sought to put the prime minister on the rack over the government's delayed white paper on the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the EU. When was it going to be be published?

The plan was to publish an "ambitious" and "detailed" white paper, said Mrs May, but she declined to say when.

So the Labour leader tried again - would MPs get a chance to read it before next week's important debates on the EU Withdrawal Bill?

Mrs May avoided the question again and then tried to hit back, asking Mr Corbyn if he would confirm his party's position on a second EU referendum.

"Last time I looked at the order paper, it said Prime Minister's Questions," said Mr Corbyn. He then asked if the cabinet had made its mind up yet about post-Brexit customs arrangements. Had the sub-committees set up to choose one of the two options even met?

Mrs May repeated her question - which she said wasn't a question - about whether Mr Corbyn would rule out a second referendum.

"It is not the opposition that is conducting the negotiations but, very sadly, it is not the government either," said Mr Corbyn, to cheers from his own side. He ridiculed a proposal by Brexit Secretary David Davis for a 10 mile "buffer zone" in Northern Ireland. Was that now the government's position?

The PM didn't rise to that one either, simply repeating what we already know about Brexit talks. Then it was time for a quickfire round.

Mr Corbyn: "Does it remain her plan to leave the European Union in March 2019 and complete the transition by December 2020?"

Mrs May: "Yes".

Mr Corbyn (in a quizzical tone): "Aah."

Not all Tory MPs agreed with her on that, said Mr Corbyn, quoting her former deputy Damian Green, who had said there may be a second transition period.

"When it comes to Brexit, this government has delivered more delays and more cancellations than Northern Rail," said Mr Corbyn as he tried to shoehorn in another of the week's big stories.

He said the government had "ripped up" its own Brexit timetable "just like our shambolic privatised railways", adding: "Which will last longer the Northern Rail franchise or her premiership?"

Mrs May laid into Labour's divisions on Brexit, quoting Sir Keir Starmer, who she said had described his party's latest position on the single market as a "pretence".

She accused Labour of "trying to frustrate the Brexit process at every stage". Labour's MEPs had voted against the withdrawal bill and were now refusing to rule out a second referendum. "This government," she said, was "delivering on the vote of the British people".

What else came up?

The SNP's leader at Westminster Ian Blackford kept up the pressure on Mrs May over Brexit, asking her about leaked warnings from officials about shortages and queues in the worst case Brexit scenario and the Dutch government telling businesses not to buy British goods.

But he also took a swipe at Jeremy Corbyn, who he accused of "playing games" over his refusal to back an amendment next week on staying in the European Economic Area (he made that point within the question asking Mrs May to back the amendment).

The PM said businesses wanted Scotland to remain part of the UK.

Conservative MP Henry Smith took his cue from Jeremy Corbyn, linking Brexit talks to rail delays. "Please can we have delivery," asked the Crawley MP. Mrs May repeated what she had said to the Labour leader earlier.

Another Conservative MP, former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers, also asked about rail delays.

Former Education Secretary and now backbench Conservative MP Justine Greening - an opponent of a third runway at Heathrow Airport - called the proposed deal "the worst kind of nationalisation" claiming taxpayers would have to cover any losses. Mrs May said Heathrow expansion would be "fully financed by the private sector" and the company would not be bailed out if things went wrong.

The Lords will take on the Commons next week in a charity pigeon race aid of veterans' mental health charity Combat Stress. Tory MP Chris Davies asked the PM is she would sponsor a bird.

The Verdicts

Here's what the BBC's Andrew Neil and Laura Kuenssberg made of it:

Here's the BBC's Mark D'Arcy's take on it:

OK, OK, governments have to take policy decisions, while oppositions can offer vague broad-brush verities; but with the Brexit clock ticking, the government's Brexit dilemmas are weighing ever more heavily on Theresa May.

Jeremy Corbyn exploited them to great effect with a deceptively simple, but deadly question; when would they publish the Brexit White Paper, the promised document setting out the government position.

The PM's formulaic answers to pretty much any Brexit issue now sound increasingly sterile - which is why she quickly seeks to counter-attack.

But her answers are going to have to become more specific and substantive soon - and one wing or another of her party will be unhappy, when they do. So this line of questioning plays on Tory nerves and nods to the real concerns in the world beyond Westminster. I think this was Jeremy Corbyn's best, most focused PMQs performance.

The PM brushed off the invocation, from the SNP's Ian Blackford, of the "Brexit apocalypse" reported in the Sunday Times, which related official warnings of food and medicine shortages - but Mr Blackford's call for the UK to remain in the EEA (the so-called Norway Option for Brexit) was aimed at least as much at Labour divisions on this issue as it was at the Tories.

Like many of his questions, it will feed into the rather different Scottish Brexit debate.

On another flank, the PM had to fend off an awkward question on Heathrow expansion from the former Transport Secretary, Justine Greening.

Her Putney constituency is under the flightpath, so, like may South-West London MPs, she has good local reasons to oppose the move - but she attacked the proposed deal on ideological grounds, saying it nationalised all the risk and privatised all the gains… a line of attack that could resonate dangerously among Conservative MPs.

This is an issue the PM needs to handle carefully, or there could be a considerable electoral price to pay in marginal Commons seats.

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The podcast

An audio download of some of the key exchanges, and what Andrew Neil and his Daily Politics guests made of the exchanges.