Brexit news - live: Hammond revives talks of 'very likely' second referendum Commons vote, as Boris Johnson claim ruled 'significantly inaccurate' by watchdog

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Annuziata Rees-Mogg on joining the Conservative party during Brexit Party launch in Coventry

Theresa May faced fresh pressure as Nigel Farage launched the Brexit party on Friday ahead of the UK's anticipated participation in the European elections next month.

It came as cross-party talks to break the Brexit deadlock continued at Westminster with Labour's John McDonnell involved in discussions with the prime minister's effective deputy David Lidington.

Elsewhere, Julian Assange’s mother accused Ms May of using her son’s arrest as a distraction from the PM’s “Brexit dog’s breakfast”, after the Wikileaks founder was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy on Thursday.

Chancellor Philip Hammond told reporters in Washington on Friday that a second referendum was “very likely” to be put before parliament, although he admitted there would not be sufficient time before Britain is due to leave the EU.

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Key Points

• Hammond revives talk of second referendum vote in House of Commons
• Boris Johnson's no-deal Brexit claim was inaccurate, official watchdog rule
• Jacob Rees-Mogg sister Annunziata as an MEP candidate for newly-launched Brexit Party by Nigel Farage
• ... as government halts immediate no-deal planning 
• ... and the PM hopes for final shot at forcing through Brexit deal, after Easter recess
• What happens next in Brexit?

[12 April 2019 08:09 · Harry.Cockburn]

Good morning and welcome to The Independent's politics live blog.

[12 April 2019 08:37 · Harry.Cockburn]

Today Nigel Farage is in Westminster where he is launching his Brexit Party. Writing in The Telegraph, he said the party “will ask the electorate not only to support a clean break from the European Union, but also to begin a political revolution in the UK.”

The party currently has nine MEPs, all former Ukip members, including Mr Farage, who will contest the European elections in May if they do happen.

“From disaster springs opportunity,” Mr Farage said. “Next month’s enforced ballot will allow us to bring about a far wider change in our broken political system.”

[12 April 2019 08:56 · Ashley Cowburn]

Christine Assange - the mother of Julian Assange - has ralied against Theresa May, saying the prime minister was "trying to divert attention away from her Brexit dog's breakfast by cheering on the thuggish, brutal, unlawful arrest of my courageous, tortured multi-award winning journalist son Julian!"

Mrs Assange, who lives in Australia, tweeted and shared articles regularly after her son was seen being forcibly removed from the Ecuadorean embassy on Thursday.

[12 April 2019 08:59 · Ashley Cowburn]

[12 April 2019 09:00 · Ashley Cowburn]

[12 April 2019 09:17 · Ashley Cowburn]

[12 April 2019 09:47 · Ashley Cowburn]

All British adults could be automatically registered to vote under radical plans being considered by Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour Party. 

The move could see around seven million voters being added to the electoral register, with huge numbers of young and low income individuals automatically enrolled for the first time.

Mr Corbyn's party believes the current system of individual registration has so far failed to give a voice to huge swathes of the UK public, and Labour will now examine various models around the world.

According to the most up-to-date analysis by the Electoral Commission, between 7.6 and 8.3 million eligible people were not correctly registered to vote across Great Britain in 2015, including one in three under the age of 34.

Coinciding with today’s voter registration deadline for next month’s local elections, Labour told The Independent it is considering adopting automatic voter registration as party policy. 

Read more here

[12 April 2019 10:06 · Ashley Cowburn]

Speaking ahead of the launch of the Brexit Party in Coventry today, Nigel Farage claimed he will not allow the far right to "tarnish the brand" as they had with his former party Ukip.

But he insisted those who voted for Brexit had been "betrayed" by a parliament "completely out of touch with the people" so he wanted a revolution in British politics.

"We have been betrayed and the fightback begins today," he told the Today programme this morning. 

In response to the launch of the new Brexit party, which is expected to field candidates in the European elections next month, the charity Hope Not Hate has issued the following warning: 

“Nigel Farage is deeply unpleasant. He’s an elitist who rails against the elites, a career politician who rails against career politicians, a wealthy former stockbroker who presents himself as a man of the people. He’ll try and present himself as a respectable Brexiteer but no-one should forget that he campaigned for the likes of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and the right-wing populist AfD party in Germany. 

 “This morning, Nigel Farage said that UKIP has chosen “to allow the far right to join it and effectively take it over” but also said that “there is no difference” between the policies of UKIP and of the Brexit Party.

“HOPE not hate’s campaign focus in this election will be on Stephen Lennon ['Tommy Robinson'], and on stopping UKIP – a party that is now unambiguously on the far right – from winning seats. But given Farage’s track record of inflammatory and divisive comments, we’ll be watching him very, very closely.

 “If racist comments from leading members of the Brexit Party are uncovered and they’re not sacked, we will act. If the Brexit Party adopts an agenda of Islamophobia, we will act. If Farage or other candidates engage in the sort of racist dog whistle politics we’ve seen in the past, we will act."

[12 April 2019 10:20 · Ashley Cowburn]

Brexit talks between the government and Labour are to resume at the Cabinet Office at 11am today.

Theresa May's effective deputy David Lidington and Environment Secretary Michael Gove will take part on the government's negotiating side and shadow chancellor John McDonnell for Labour.

It comes after the prime minister met briefly with Jeremy Corbyn at Westminster this week, and hopes in Number 10 that Ms May can still get a deal through parliament in time to avoid the UK participating in the European elections on 23 May.

[12 April 2019 10:38 · Ashley Cowburn]

Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party will heap pressure on the Conservatives as Europe is set to dominate the upcoming European Parliament elections, writes political correspondent Lizzy Buchan.

The former Ukip leader will formally launch his party's campaign for the poll on 23 May as he vowed to challenge the establishment over its "betrayal" on Brexit.

Sir John Curtice, who predicted the shock 2017 election result, said the new Brexit Party and Ukip could snatch around 16% of the vote if the poll takes place, with the Conservatives the hardest hit by such a surge.