Brexit: Parliament votes through bill to prevent no-deal - as it happened

That’s all from us this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:

• MPs will debate the prime minister’s plan to ask for a Brexit delay until 30 June on Tuesday. Parliamentarians will be able to suggest alternative dates, raising the prospect that Brexit could be pushed back yet further.
• The debate was set up when Parliament passed legislation designed to prevent the UK crashing out with no deal. The legislation, proposed by the Labour MP Yvette Cooper and others, required the prime minister to present her plan to request a delay in the form of an amendable motion and prevented her from suggesting any date before 22 May. Any delay would still require the consent of the EU, which has said it must come with a workable plan, but – if granted – it would stave off the prospect of what Cooper called an “inadvertent no-deal” Brexit.
• The EU said it would refuse to open trade talks with the UK after a no-deal Brexit unless the backstop issue was addressed. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said the situation would persist until the EU got assurances on the Irish border, citizens’ rights and money. Barnier added that he would be happy to offer the UK a customs union.
• Cross-party talks are due to continue on Tuesday, Labour said. The opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, repeated a call for the prime minister to show more willingness to compromise after discussions resumed on Monday.
• Signs of division within the hard Brexit-supporting ERG came to the fore. One of its members, Daniel Kawczynski, resigned and accused a “hardcore element of ‘Unicorn’ dreamers” within the ERG of putting Brexit at risk.

If you’d like to read more, my colleague Rowena Mason has the full story:

Brexit talks between Labour and the Tories will continue on Tuesday, a spokesman for the former says.

Following meetings between Labour party and government officials today, ministerial and shadow ministerial negotiating teams will meet tomorrow to attempt to secure a Brexit compromise.

More than 70 Tory MPs rebelled on each vote linked to amendments to Cooper’s legislation, according to the division lists. The Labour Brexiter, Kate Hoey, and the DUP joined forces with them.

The Tory former Brexit secretaries, David Davis and Dominic Raab, along with the ERG chairman, Jacob Rees-Mogg, were also among those who rebelled.

The legislation to extend the Brexit process in a bid to avoid a no-deal scenario has received royal assent and has become law.

The Labour MP, Yvette Cooper, is addressing MPs after her victory. She thanks the clerks of the House for facilitating the process in “unusual and fast-moving circumstances”.

Cooper adds that the vote should be taken as an expression by parliament that there is no support for what she says would be a damaging no-deal Brexit and backing for the prime minister to get a deal through.

Hilary Benn asks if royal assent can be obtained tonight. The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, says he is “cautiously optimistic on that front”.

In reaction to the vote, Labour says the government has proposed asking for a Brexit delay until 30 June. This is due to be debated for about 90 minutes on Tuesday.

As the Financial Times’ Whitehall correspondent, Sebastian Payne, points out – the government can expect MPs to seek to amend that date.

MPs have voted in favour of the Cooper-Letwin bill, which requires the prime minister to seek an extension to article 50, thus staving off the prospect of the UK crashing out of the EU with no deal by accident.

They voted to accept the final Lords amendment by 390 votes to 81 – a majority of 309.

MPs have rejected Cash’s amendment to the amendment, which sought to stop Brexit being delayed beyond 22 May, by 392 votes to 85 – a majority of 307. “The numbers are holding up,” says a disembodied voice caught by the Commons microphone.

MPs move to voting on the final Lords amendment. The result is expected at about 10.50pm.

MPs are voting on whether or not the Lords’ fifth and final amendment to the Cooper-Letwin bill will be further amended. That move has been proposed by the Conservative MP, Bill Cash, who opposes the passage of the bill altogether.

The tellers are back in the Commons chamber. MPs have accepted amendments two and three by 396 votes to 83 – a majority of 313.

Next, we’re on to amendment four: It’s agreed on the nod.

While MPs are voting, Daniel Kawczynski is on LBC radio explaining his decision to leave the hard Brexit-supporting Tory backbench ERG group this evening:

The government has said it supports the Lords’ amendments to the Cooper-Letwin bill. The Speaker is now asking MPs whether they agree to them. They accept the first but reject the second and third, meaning the Commons will go to a vote.

A result is expected in about 10 minutes.

Here’s what MPs are voting on:

After this vote, there are two more amendments to be considered before the bill can pass.

The Tory MP, John Redwood, has just told the Commons:

This Parliament needs to ... accept this (Brexit) was decided by the public, it was our duty to implement it. Leaving without this agreement is just going to be fine, we are prepared for it, business is ready for it, business has spent money, business has done whatever it needed to do and business now, in many cases, feels very let down that they are not being able to use all their contingencies, which they have spent good money on.

Some points to consider when reading those comments: The government’s no-deal Brexit analysis suggested such a scenario would likely produce huge delays at Dover, increased food prices and a £13bn extra cost to business.

On business’ preparedness, the analysis said:

Despite communications from the government, there is little evidence that businesses are preparing in earnest for a no deal scenario, and evidence indicates that readiness of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular is low.

Business groups have called on MPs to provide certainty over Brexit by passing a deal:

Brexit-backing Tory MPs, among them Bill Cash and John Redwood, have made impassioned pleas for the Commons not to pass the Cooper-Letwin bill, which would instruct the prime minister to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

They have characterised the bill as an attempt to prevent the UK leaving the European Union because it would only allow for the UK to leave with a deal. And they have denounced the emergency bill, which is being rushed through parliament, as an attack on the UK’s constitutional norms and as anti-democratic.

Its supporters counter that it can hardly be considered undemocratic to pass a bill through both houses of parliament.

MPs are now debating amendments to Cooper-Letwin. A result is expected within an hour or so.

There’s been a split in the hard Brexit-supporting Tory backbench ERG group this evening: The MP, Daniel Kawczynski, has announced his resignation.

There have been recent rumblings of disquiet among the group; some of whom believe others are so determined to deliver the hardest of Brexits that they are actually imperiling the whole project. Kawczynski is one of them.

Kawczynski voted against the deal the first two times it came to the Commons and for it the third. He is calling on MPs to back it in a fourth vote.

The Cooper-Letwin bill has been given an unopposed third reading in the Lords and now goes back to the Commons.

The Leader of the Commons has said the government will not stand in its way and will schedule time for debate tomorrow if the bill gets royal assent this evening. But Andrea Leadsom has denounced the bill as a “huge dog’s dinner”.

She told MPs that it “seems inconceivable that Parliament has looked at this bill for the first time last Tuesday, and has had just a few hours of debate across both Houses”.

8 Apr 201914.47 EDT

Daniel Boffey

Britain’s new exit date from the EU, and the conditions attached to a Brexit delay, will likely be fixed in the gilded rooms of the Belgian prime minister’s 16th century Egmont Palace hours before Theresa May addresses the leaders.

Under emerging plans, a small group of EU leaders whose countries will be most affected by the UK’s departure will be hosted by the Belgian PM, Charles Michel, on Wednesday afternoon. The guest list is likely to include the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland.

The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has had a phone call with Theresa May this evening. Varadkar spoke to May about her recent letter to Donald Tusk seeking an extension of the article 50 deadline and her ongoing preparations for the summit on Wednesday. The Taoiseach repeated his openness to an extension of the deadline.