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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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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Chancellor Philip Hammond has said another vote among MPs on a second referendum is highly likely before the new Brexit deadline of 31 October.
“It’s a proposition that could and, on all the evidence, is very likely to be put to parliament at some stage,” he told Reuters news agency on Friday.
But he made clear Theresa May still remains opposed to a fresh public vote. “The government’s position has not changed. The government is opposed to a confirmatory referendum and therefore we would not be supporting it,” he said.
Answering questions on how the Brexit Party was different from Ukip - the party he led on multiple occasions - Nigel Farage said earlier today: "I think that the Brexit Party and Ukip are very different.
"When I was leader of Ukip we didn't allow anyone to even be a member if they were a part of the EDL or the BNP and I'm afraid I did my best to tell them not to go down that route.
"(In Ukip) there seems to be an obsession with Islam."
Speaking to the BBC, the chancellor Mr Hammond also said fighting the European Parliament elections would feel like a "pointless exercise".
He said: "Clearly nobody wants to fight the European elections - it feels like a pointless exercise.
"The only way we can avoid that is by getting a deal agreed and done quickly and if we can do that by May 22 then of course we can avoid fighting European parliamentary elections.
"But in any case we want to ensure any British MEPs that are elected never have to take their seats."
It looks like another day of talks are over between Labour and the government. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has just left the cabinet office, describing the discussions with Michael Gove and David Lidington as "positive".
He says more will follow next week, and when asked whether a referendum is being discussed, he replied to a reporter outside it "is always on the table, we raise that at each meeting".
Hammond has also defended spending £4 billion on Brexit preparations. "It would have been irresponsible not to prepare for no deal so long as it was a real, possible outcome," he told Sky News.
"Making preparations for events we hope will not happen is an everyday part of Government - we prepare for all sorts of outcomes to ensure we have readiness and we can manage them and mitigate the effects of them if they arise.
"Just to be clear about this, we've spent £4 billion so far on preparing for Brexit, but that is not just for a no-deal Brexit."
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Anti-Brexit campaigners have seized a website domain for Nigel Farage’s new party in a bid to disrupt his European election campaign.
The Led By Donkeys group claimed that the former Ukip leader forgot to register the URL for the Brexit Party before its launch.
The group has now set up its own page at thebrexitparty.com with the banner “No Brexit Party – Nigel Farage Doesn’t Represent Britain”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has said fighting the European Parliament elections would feel like a “pointless exercise”.
He told BBC News: “Clearly nobody wants to fight the European elections – it feels like a pointless exercise.
“The only way we can avoid that is by getting a deal agreed and done quickly and if we can do that by 22 May then of course we can avoid fighting European parliamentary elections.
“But in any case we want to ensure any British MEPs that are elected never have to take their seats.”
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