Brexit news: Government accused of 'staggering from one week to the next' as MPs' break cancelled due to crisis
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Theresa May has been accused of "staggering from one week to the next" after ministers opted to cancel parliamentary recess in an attempt to solve the Brexit crisis.
Valerie Vaz, the shadow Commons leader, mocked the decision to cancel the MP's break, as the parliamentary schedule failed to include any debates on Britain leaving the European Union.
The decision came as foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt was slapped down by the prime minister for warning that Brexit could be delayed as the government needs "extra time" to pass key legislation.
Ms May was also considering a bid to win Labour MPs' support for her Brexit deal with a cash injection for areas that voted Leave at the 2016 referendum.
See our live coverage to follow how the day unfolded
The UK has lost more than £4.5bn in infrastructure funding in a year as lending from the EU has collapsed since the Brexit vote, a powerful Lords committee has said.
Yesterday Theresa May met with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss the next steps in the Brexit process.
The Independent's Political Sketch Writer, Tom Peck, has done a brilliant piece on it:
Jeremy Hunt was on Radio 4 this morning - here is a clip of what he had to say:
Smaller manufacturing firms expect only a slight increase in output in the coming months, while orders are set to be "flat", a new report suggests.
A survey of almost 300 small to medium sized firms (SME) in the sector indicated that optimism is falling and investment intentions for the coming year are weak.
The CBI said its study showed that spending on buildings, machinery and training are expected to be lower this year.
Alpesh Paleja, CBI principal economist, said: "Uncertainty in the domestic and global trading environment is clearly hitting manufacturing SMEs hard, with sentiment falling, concerns over political and economic conditions abroad spiking and investment plans still well down on the past year.
"To give the UK's SME manufacturers some much-needed certainty, it is crucial that politicians now work together to break the Brexit deadlock."
Here is an interesting graphic on what other countries think about the UK requesting the date for leaving the EU is postponed:
Theresa May spoke to European Council president Donald Tusk yesterday evening in what was described as an "open and frank" conversation, according to reports from Brussels.
Afterwards, he tweeted: "The EU position is clear and consistent. The withdrawal agreement is not open for renegotiation."
Speaking to the BBC this morning on the situation in Venezuela, Jeremy Hunt said:
“When I spoke to Juan Guaido yesterday, I said to him that many people in the United Kingdom salute his courage and bravery for standing up for institutions in Venezuela. It is not for the UK to decide the outcome of what happens in Venezuela, that is for the people of Venezuela. Mr Guaido was very clear - he wanted us to put pressure on Nicolas Maduro, because they need change.
"The elections were not legitimate, there was vote rigging on an unprecedented scale. Opposition parties were banned and we have a country whose GDP has nearly halved. People are in desperate straits. And what I want us to do is to put every pressure on Maduro and I'm urging EU foreign ministers to do exactly the same when I meet them this afternoon so that we do have free and fair elections and we give the people of Venezuela a fresh chance to start again.
Continuing on Mr Hunt said:
“There are lots of things that we can consider. I'm not expecting a decision to be made this afternoon. But one of the things that the EU often does in these circumstances is put sanctions on individuals who are responsible for some of the worst things that can happen. And the fact is that the elections that were held last year were not free and fair. They were not legitimate. We have made a very clear request to Nicolas Maduro to announce elections within eight days. So if he does not, we need to do something to increase the pressure to show that we mean what we say and we are not alone – this is Spain, France, Germany, many other countries, who have equally strong views as the United Kingdom. We are not considering sanctions against the whole country because there is a humanitarian situation and we wouldn't want to make the situation even worse. But targeted sanctions against the kleptocrats who have enriched themselves on the back of the rest of the population who are very poor, that is something I think can be effective.”
Our Associate Editor, Sean O'Grady has done a video on how to Brexit proof of your life - give it a watch!
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