UK politics - as it happened: Theresa May accused of 'running scared' of Parliament as Dominic Raab updates MPs on Brexit negotiations

Follow all the latest updates, as they happened

Theresa May lambastes a 'people's vote', saying people already had their Brexit vote in 2016

Labour has accused Theresa May of "running scared" of Parliament after she sent her Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, to update MPs on the state of the negotiations.

Mr Raab said talks with Brussels have "intensified" in recent weeks, with both sides "closing in workable solutions" to all the outstanding issues, including the deadlock over the Irish border.

In a heated Commons outing, Mr Raab stood against Brexiteers who urged him to ditch the Chequers plan in favour of their preferred Canada-style model, insisting their plan was a "shortcut" to crashing out of the EU without a deal.

Earlier, DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose party props up Ms May's fragile government, travelled to Brussels for talks with the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load.

Key Points

• Dominic Raab rules out 'indefinite' customs membership and faces down Brexiteers
• Government warned over 'unacceptable' proposals that could slash foreign aid spending
• DUP leader Arlene Foster meets EU officials in Brussels for ‘extensive’ talks
• MPs may not see May's fresh Brexit plans before she asks EU leaders to agree to them
• Clinton condemns Conservatives for backing Hungary's far-right Orban government

[9 October 2018 08:45 · Ashley Cowburn]

[9 October 2018 08:46 · Ashley Cowburn]

[9 October 2018 08:47 · Ashley Cowburn]

  ↵ 

[9 October 2018 09:41 · Ashley Cowburn]

Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, who campaigned for Leave, has just finished a speech on aid and her thoughts on the Brexit process. 

In her address, she said:  "The PM has my full support. I think she is working absolutely flat out to get our country the best deal possible," she said following a speech in London on future British aid following Brexit.

"I don't doubt her motives, I don't doubt her commitment and I don't doubt for one moment her understanding that we have to deliver a good Brexit, we have to honour that result. So she has my support and I am not in any way expecting that situation to change."

Earlier she said: "The PM can count on my support. But what I would say is that we don't know where this is going to end up. We are at a critical moment now. The ball is firmly back in the EU's court; we are waiting for them to respond.

"I think that what we need to do is just support both the PM but also Dominic Raab and the negotiating team. They are trying to get the best deal for our country and, until we know what that is, I think that is the best way we can help."

[9 October 2018 10:00 · Ashley Cowburn]

Speaking on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme earlier this morning, Steve Baker, a senior figure in the hardline Brexiteer European Research Group (ERG), said that as many as 40 Tory MPs could vote against a deal based on Theresa May's current proposals.

Mr Baker, a former Brexit minister, said: "I always try to be accurate on the numbers rather than have a bluff to be called. We are in a position where, as we roll forward, colleagues will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit.

"I did a concrete canvas of colleagues when it was amendments to legislation, and came up with the number of nearly 80.

"Of course the Government are going to whip this vote extremely hard, but what I would say is that the whips would be doing incredibly well if they were to halve the numbers, and my estimate is that there are at least 40 colleagues who are not going to accept a half-in, half-out Chequers deal or indeed a backstop that leaves us in the internal market and the Customs Union, come what may."

[9 October 2018 10:06 · Ashley Cowburn]

[9 October 2018 10:23 · Ashley Cowburn]

[9 October 2018 10:38 · Ashley Cowburn]

[9 October 2018 10:53 · Ashley Cowburn]

[9 October 2018 11:04 · Ashley Cowburn]

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, is now speaking in Brussels. She says it's a "seminal moment" in the negotiations, and says she wants to see an agreed outcome in the Brexit talks. 

Foster says the result "must be respected", and adds she could not support any arrangement that would give rise to any customs barriers in the UK internally that would harm the Northern Irish economy.

She says she reiterated her position to the PM last week. "It's not just a case of barriers between NI and GB" but also between GB and NI. 

It comes after The Times reported this morning that a compromise solution could result in checks only on goods entering the province from the mainland but no checks on goods leaving Northern Ireland for the rest of the UK. Foster has just rejected this.

Asked whether she is prepared to "veto" a deal, Foster says she will check any deal against her party's "red lines". 

"We need to see the text, and once we see the text we will be able to judge that," she added.