Downing Street launches investigation after Boris Johnson fooled by Russian pranksters - as it happened
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Downing Street has launched an investigation into how Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, spent 18 minutes speaking on the phone to two Russian pranksters pretending to be the Armenian prime minister.
Earlier in the day, the Commons' Brexit committee warned that the UK remaining in the customs union well into the next decade is likely to be the "only viable option".
The commitee's report was endorsed by all committee members, including prominent Brexiteers such as Jacob Rees-Mogg.
It comes as Jeremy Corbyn warned that Tory 'fantasists' risk undermining peace in Northern Ireland.
Delivering a speech in Belfast, the Labour leader said the Conservatives' "reckless" approach to Brexit "risks undermining and destabilising the cooperation and relative harmony of recent years".
The speech took place amid controversy over Mr Corbyn's renewed calls for a united Ireland.
Elsewhere, the UK and the EU were again at loggerheads - this time over Brussels' plan to exclude Britain from the Galileo satellite project.
As it happened...
Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, who chairs the Health Committee, has told the BBC that a rumoured plan to increase NHS spending by 3 per cent woud not be enough.
Asked about the reports, Ms Wollaston, a former GP, told Radio 4's Today programme:
"The difficulty would be if they make a funding announcement that is way below expectations, I think that would be disastrous. The figure we are hearing touted today, of 3 per cent, that simply wouldn’t be high enough.
If we look at the long-term average since the start of the NHS, that’s been around 3.7%. And what we are hearing very clearly from today’s report is that we need a longterm average of 4%, and if possible more in the short term, to make up for the eight long years where we’ve had the longest squeeze in the NHS’s history."
Here's more on the government's furious response to Brussels' plan to exclude Britain from the European Galileo satellite programme
Business minister Claire Perry is answering an urgent question in the Commons on the planned closure of 100 Marks and Spencer stores across the country.
She admits it is a "concerning time" but says the government is doing all it can to support retailers.
The SNP's Lisa Cameron, who raised the issue, says 67 jobs in her constituency will be lost if the local M&S store closes, and asks if the government will carry out an assessment of the impact the closures will have.
Jeremy Corbyn's speech in Belfast is underway. He is talking about the importance of the Good Friday Agreement.
He says the agreement "fostered a courage that grew across all parts of society...all knew the conflict must be brought to an end". He pays tribute to those involved in the peace process, including David Trimble, Ian Paisley, John Hume, Inez McCormack, Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair.
He receives a huge round of applause when he praises Mo Mowlam, who led many of the negotiations that paved the way to the historic agreement.
In the Commons chamber, meanwhile, Andrea Leadsom is refusing to tell MPs when the EU Withdrawal Bill will be back before the House.
She says: “I’m confident I will be able to update the House on these bills shortly in the usual way.
“I will make sure the House can make swift progress in a matter of weeks not months, in preparing for our new relationship with our friends and neighbours in the EU.”
Shadow commons leader Valerie Vaz says the delay putting forward Brexit legislation was "unprecedented", as "business is announced in the media and not in the house".
The first bill debated after recess will be the Ivory Bill, not the EU Withdrawal Bill, Ms Leadsom says.
In his speech at Queen's University Belfast, Jeremy Corbyn says Labour is "as committed to the Good Friday Agreement as it has ever been", but warns that Northern Ireland is now standing at a crossroads.
He urges all parties to come together to restore power-sharing at the Stormont assembly.
Re-iterating Labour's commitment to avoid a hard border after Brexit, he says:
"Let's not give up years of hard fought cooperation and stability for the pipe dream prize of race-to-the-bottom free trade deals with the likes of Donald Trump.
Opposition to the idea of bringing back a hard border to this land isn’t just about avoiding paperwork or tariffs, important though that is, it’s about deep rooted cultural and community ties. An open border is a symbol of peace, two communities living and working together after years of conflict, communities who no longer feel that their traditions are under threat."
Here's more from Jeremy Corbyn on the issue of Brexit and avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland:
The British government is making a mess of these negotiations. Week after week it becomes clearer and clearer that they are too divided to make the right choices and too weak to get a good Brexit deal. They are negotiating with themselves, not the European Union. Driven by the free-market fantasists within their ranks, the reckless Conservative approach to Brexit is a very real threat to jobs and living standards here in Northern Ireland, and risks undermining and destabilising the cooperation and relative harmony of recent years.
So let me be clear, Labour will not support any Brexit deal that includes the return of a hard border to this island. We are also clear there must be no effective border created in the Irish Sea either. That is why Labour has put forward a plan that would go a long way to solving this issue, a plan for which I believe there is a majority in Westminster.
By negotiating a new and comprehensive customs union with the EU, which includes a British say in future trade deals, we can ensure trade on this island stays frictionless and free flowing and prevent communities being divided.
That, coupled with a new relationship with the single market, based on protecting and improving existing standards and rights, shows how Labour has the best plan to avoid the return of a hard border and achieve a Brexit deal that protects and delivers for all our people.
Responding to Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House of Commons, confirming a further delay to votes on the EU Withdrawal Bill, Labour's shadow Brexit minister, Jenny Chapman, said:
“Yesterday the chief whip promised Tory MPs that a date had been set for crucial Commons’ votes on Brexit. But less than twenty-four hours later Andrea Leadsom comes to Parliament and says nothing has been agreed.
Cabinet ministers are either not talking to one another or keeping Parliament in the dark. Whatever their excuses, ministers need to get a grip, end the confusion and back Labour’s plan for a new UK-EU customs union.”
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, commenting on reports that the government could increase NHS spending by 3 per cent...
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