Tory whip Gareth Johnson has resigned, saying he cannot support May’s deal in Tuesday’s vote
Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has put out this response to the Tusk/Juncker letter. He said:
The prime minister has once again failed to deliver.
This is a long way from the significant and legally effective commitment the prime minister promised last month. It is a reiteration of the EU’s existing position. Once again, nothing has changed.
And that’s it. May has finished.
I will post a summary shortly.
Q: The EU are willing to extend article 50 until July. Do you rule that out?
May says she does not believe the government should extend article 50 or have a referendum.
Q: Do you believe you can win the vote tomorrow?
May says she is working to get MPs to vote for the deal tomorrow. She wants to avoid a situation where parliament tries to frustrate Brexit.
May says no one in parliament has come up with an alternative Brexit deal that is negotiable and that delivers on the result of the referendum.
Q: [From the Daily Mail] Will you go further, on a customs union or anything else, to get the support of Labour MPs?
May says she is opposed to being in a customs union. The UK would not be able to run an independent trade policy if it stayed in the customs union, he says.
Q: [From ITV’s Paul Brand] You have had two years to reach out to MPs, and now you have nothing new to offer them. Why shouldn’t parliament take control?
May says she has been reaching out to MPs. She does not accept she has achieved nothing. The exchange of letters does does give further assurances.
She says the government must deliver on the result of the referendum. It has a duty to deliver Brexit. That is what she will do, she says.
May is now taking questions
Q: [From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg] Do you really think you have a chance of changing MPs’ minds?
May says she has been speaking to MPs over the weekend, she will make a statement this afternoon, and she will close the debate tomorrow night. She says some MPs are changing their views. These assurances should give MPs more confidence that the backstop will not be implemented, she says.
May says she has today published the outcome of her discussions with the EU about her concerns about the backstop.
She says the EU have said throughout they would not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.
She says she pursued proposals for putting a fixed end date on the backstop.
The EU said that was not possible, she says.
But she says she has secured “valuable new assurances”.
She says the EU has said work on the new relationship can start before 29 March.
She says the EU has agreed that the new relationship will not need to mirror the backstop.
She says there is now explicit clarity that the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration will come as a package.
She says the EU has agreed that the plans for the “Stormont lock” published by the government last week (pdf) can be implemented.
And the EU has said the assurances on the backstop have legal force.
May says, in her judgment, if MPs were to vote down her deal, the most likely result would be a paralysis in parliament would “risk there being no Brexit”.
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