Brexit today - as it happened: May and Corbyn in angry clash amid row over Johnson’s Ireland border comments
All the latest from Westminster as the EU published its Brexit terms, as it happened
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Theresa May has rejected an EU proposal for the Northern Ireland border as something “no UK Prime Minister could agree to”, on a day when Brexit tensions threatened to bubble over.
Brussels published an 120-page draft agreement on the EU withdrawal that proposed a “common regulatory area” for Northern Ireland after Brexit, if no other solution could be found – effectively keeping the province in a customs union.
It came as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson caused a major row with an explosive leaked memo where he suggested there could be a “significantly harder” border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.
Former prime minister Sir John Major also made an explosive intervention in the debate, saying MPs should be allowed a free vote on the prospect of a second referendum, while tearing into Ms May’s negotiating strategy.
In the Commons, Jeremy Corbyn also attacked the Government’s Brexit approach in an angry clash at Prime Minister’s Questions.
It came after the Labour leader made a dramatic policy shift in favour of backing a European customs union in a speech earlier this week.
Scroll down to see how we covered the day's events
Welcome to The Independent's politics liveblog, where we will be bringing you all the latest updates from Westminster and Brussels throughout the day.
Ex Brexit minister David Jones just went on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to accuse the EU of trying to annex Northern Ireland – nothing like a bit of hyperbole to warm up a Siberian Wednesday morning.
What he meant was, that the EU’s withdrawal agreement published later today would see Northern Ireland’s regulation aligned with the EU, not the UK, and would see a customs border between Northern Ireland and the UK, and not the EU’s Republic of Ireland.
Fleshing out his attack, Jones said the “catastrophic” EU proposals would undo the Good Friday Agreement, adding: “The EU in actually proposing this, is acting wholly irresponsibly.”
He said it amounted to an "annexure" of the province.
Either way, Jones claimed, today’s publication is just an “opening salvo”, and a compromise would be found.
But a rather bemused ex-EU commissioner Karel De Gucht said that was not the case, he argued the UK had repeatedly said it wants no border on the island of Ireland and the only way to achieve that is to have regulatory alignment on the territory.
That would move the customs border to the Irish Sea, but if the UK don’t want that either, then the only way is to have regulatory alignment across the whole EU and UK – if there is another solution bring it forward, De Gucht said.
Jones pointed to Theresa May’s speech this Friday. De Gucht didn’t sound convinced.
Theresa May will warn Brussels she will not agree to “anything that threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK”, rebutting the suggestion Northern Ireland must continue to abide by EU regulations after Brexit.
The European Commission will today publish a draft withdrawal agreement that is expected to say Northern Ireland may need to be considered part of EU customs territory when Britain leaves the bloc.
Story here:
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said the political row over the Irish border had been stoked by those hoping to frustrate Britain's departure from the EU.
It comes as a letter sent by Mr Johnson to the Prime Minister emerged, saying that the Government's focus should be on preventing a "significantly" harder border.
Speaking to reporters after returning from a jog in the snow, he said: "What is going on at the moment is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try and keep the UK in the customs union - effectively the single market - so we cannot really leave the EU, that is what is going on.
"What the letter says is that, actually, there are are very good solutions that you could put in place that would obviate, prevent any kind of hard border but would allow goods, people - people of course move totally freely anyway because of the common travel area - allow goods to move freely without let or hindrance whilst allowing the UK to come out of the customs union, take back control of our tariffs schedules, take back control of our commercial policy, take back control of our regulation. It is a very positive letter."
Labour Party bosses have been urged to bring in criminal records checks for all prospective candidates after an internal survey uncovered more than 40 allegations of sexual abuse and harassment within the party.
Female party members described being groped, sexually harassed and even raped at Labour events in a shock report laying bare the scale of abuse of women at every level of the party.
Story here:
Boris Johnson's leaked letter to Theresa May (see here) on the Irish border has prompted anger from political opponents.
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Smith condemned the comments as "reckless and irresponsible".
He said: "Solemn commitments were made at the end of the last year that there would be no hard border on the island of Ireland. No ifs, no buts.
"For Boris to have been caught out trying to row back on these commitments demonstrates the dangerous attitude he takes to maintaining peace in Northern Ireland.
"The Prime Minister should condemn these remarks immediately and seriously consider the position of her Foreign Secretary."
Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said: "The cat is out of the bag. Boris Johnson, in spite of claiming today that the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is no more of a problem than that between Camden and Westminster, knows that the real risk is of a hard border between NI and the Republic of Ireland. He knows this could lead to a resumption of hostilities.
"The government must step away from the precipice and concede that the UK must stay in the Customs Union, grant people a vote on the deal and an Exit from Brexit."
There's a busy day ahead in the Commons, with PMQs at 12pm. MPs will also debate plans for the independent grievance procedure, in the wake of the torrent of sexual harassment and abuse allegations in Westminster.
Here's the order paper so far:
Brussels is due to publish a legal draft of its withdrawal treaty later this morning, which is expected to state that EU citizens must retains full rights during the Brexit transition period, and that the UK must remain subject to European court rulings indefinitely.
It will set Theresa May on a collision course with Brussels as the agreement will probably ignore a string of key demands she has made.
Here's the full story:
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has suggested the island of Ireland could enjoy post-Brexit common regulation in the same way as the Republic and the UK have a common travel area.
Mr Varadkar said the legal text on Britain's withdrawal from the EU states there will not be a hard border with Northern Ireland.
"Some people were trying to suggest in the last couple of weeks that we over-spun, or oversold what was achieved in December. I think people will see today that that charge from the opposition (parties in Ireland) and others is not correct," he said.
Mr Varadkar also dismissed Boris Johnson's suggestion that the border issue could be similar to the congestion charge zone between Camden and Westminster.
He told Newstalk radio: "It's up to the UK to bring proposals to the table to make that possible and I hope that we will see some indication in Theresa May's, the Prime Minister's speech on Friday as to how they intend to do that.
"It's not OK for people - whether it's pro-Brexit politicians in Britain or people from parties in Northern Ireland - to just say no now... It's really up to those who can't accept the backstop to actually come up with those alternative solutions.
"And actually write them down. It can't be theoretical stuff about congestion charges."
As the Irish border dominates the news this morning, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley is speaking to the Northern Ireland Affairs committee.
Asked about Boris Johnson's leaked memo, she says: "There is no change in position... and that means there will be no hard border. We have said that, the Irish government has said that and the EU has said that.
"[There will be] no new physical infrastructure at the border. That is north-south but also east-west.
"To be absolutely clear, the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom is paramount and something the United Kingdom government will ensure is what we achieve."
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