Brexit: May refuses to rule out UK taking part in European elections if EU demands long extension – live news

This, from the New Statesman’s Patrick Maguire, is interesting.

Nikki da Costa, who used to be director of legislative affairs for Theresa May in Number 10, is horrified.

David Davis, the Tory former Brexit secretary, intervenes. He says he is worried about the idea of passing a bill like this in one day. He says the last time the government did this was when it passed the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Davis says he later spent a long time challenging that in court.

Oliver Letwin says that was a much more complicated piece of legislation.

MPs are now debating the business motion for today’s proceedings in the Commons.

This is the third day that backbenchers have effectively hijacked Commons business (which is normally under the control of the government) to allow for Brexit debates. On Wednesday last week, and on Monday this week, it was for indicative votes. Today it is to allow MPs to pass Yvette Cooper’s bill requiring the PM to seek an article 50 extension.

The business motion is on the order paper here (pdf).

As well as setting aside today for a debate allowing the Cooper bill to pass its Commons stages by 10pm tonight, the business motion also says MPs must get time to debate it when it comes back from the Lords.

And Labour’s Hilary Benn has tabled an amendment to the business motion saying next Monday should be set aside for another round of indicative votes.

John Bercow, the Speaker, has announced that he will call the Benn amendment. And Sir Oliver Letwin, the Tory former cabinet minister behind the indicative votes process who is opening the debate now, has just said he accepts the Benn amendment.

Does it remain the position of the prime minister that the leader of the opposition is not fit to govern?

And his fellow Tory Brexiter Caroline Johnson said:

If it comes to the point when we have to balance the risk of a no-deal Brexit versus the risk of letting down the country and ushering in a Marxist, antisemite-led government, what does she think at the point is the lowest risk?

• May has refused to rule out the UK taking part in European elections if the EU insists on a long article 50 extension. (See 12.53pm.)

• May has been accused of only inviting Corbyn to Brexit talks as “a trap”. The SNP’s Stewart Hosie made this charge at PMQs. (See 1.20pm.) And Ben Bradshaw is one of the Labour MPs who have made the same argument.

The Scottish government will use Brexit talks with the prime minister to try to push for voters to be given another say on staying in the European Union, Nicola Sturgeon’s Brexit Secretary has said. As the Press Association reports, with the first minister in London for discussions with Theresa May, Mike Russell suggested the “best outcome” to the Brexit deadlock would be a People’s Vote. He told MSPs in Edinburgh:

If I were able to wave a magic wand and get what I want – apart from no Brexit, which has been a complete distraction and disaster for the last two and half years of massively damaging proportions – then it would have to be a very long delay, a referendum, the European elections taking place and perhaps some calmness coming into this to look at the damage that would be done by proceeding along the present lines.

That PMQs was the second longest on record, according to the Press Association. Today’s lasted 55 minutes. The longest took place on April 26 2017 and lasted 56 minutes.

This is from my colleague Heather Stewart.

PMQs – Snap verdict: There is an alternate universe where perhaps David Cameron never announced a referendum, or remain won, and politics in 2019 is devoted to the usual arguments about things like the economy, wages, poverty and welfare reform. After a brief and rather gracious statement welcoming her invitation for Brexit talks, Jeremy Corbyn took us into this parallel universe for about 15 minutes or so by devoting all his questions to economy/welfare issues. “Parallel universe” is not quite right though, because it’s the real world he was describing – Britain in 2019 – and his questions sounded like a reliable canter through what would be the main issues in a (Brexit-free) election campaign. Theresa May seemed happy to engage with Corbyn on this territory, although his talking points were more compelling than hers. But it all felt like a huge distraction from the crisis engulfing the government, and the country, and May came under much more pressure from her own MPs than she did from Corbyn. By my count, seven Tory Brexiters (Davis Amess, David Jones, Lee Rowley, Julian Lewis, Caroline Johnson, Christopher Chope and Nigel Evans) taunted her with varying degrees of anger over her decision last night to embrace Labour in the hope of getting a Brexit deal through parliament. They weren’t calling for her to quit, because she has promised that already, but nevertheless from that wing of the party all respect for her has now vanished. The best question came from Evans, who tried, and failed, to get an assurance from her that the UK would not fight European elections. (See 12.53pm.) Expect to hear a a lot more about this in the coming days. And the other standout question came from the SNP’s Stewart Hosie. He asked May:

After two years of Brexit deadlock, intransigence and a seven-hour cabinet meeting, the best the prime minister can do is invite the leader of the British Labour party to become the co-owner of her Brexit failure. Let me ask her, had she been the leader of the opposition, and invited into a trap like this, would she have been foolish enough to accept?

Hosie did not get a proper answer, but many Labour MPs were probably thinking his analysis was spot on.

And that’s it. PMQs has finally ended, after 56 minutes – almost double the amount of time for which it is scheduled. I’m not keeping count, but that could be a record.

Nick Boles, who resigned the Tory whip, says sitting next to the Lib Dems and the SNP is unusual for him. But he remains a progressive conservative, he says. He asks for an assurance that May will enter the talks with Corbyn without the red lines that have bedevilled the talks so far.

May says she wants to find a resolution to this issue.

Nigel Evans, a Tory Brexiter, asks May if she will say “no, no, no” if the EU insist that the UK has to fight European elections to get another article 50 extension.

May says she wants a deal that enables the UK to leave on 22 May, so it does not have to fight the European elections. But that will only happen if MPs vote for a deal, she ways.

• May refuses to rule out the UK holding European elections if the EU insists on a long article 50 extension.

The SNP’s Kirsty Blackman says freedom of movement is good socially and economically, and it is good for young people. Will May be honest about those benefits, and retain them?

May says she wants an immigration system that means people are admitted on the basis of their skills, not on the basis of coming from the EU.

Labour’s Karin Smyth says some government suggestions for schools, like cutting the size of lunches, are unacceptable. They belong in the days of the workhouse.

May says funding for schools is going up.