Tories block bid to release Windrush documents as government defeated on Irish border - as it happened
MPs reject Labour motion calling on government to release internal Windrush documents
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Theresa May suffered a fresh defeat over Brexit on Wednesday but the government was able to block a Labour motion calling for the release of documents relating to the Windrush scandal.
Peers voted to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill to include tough legal protections guaranteeing no “checks and controls” at the Irish border after Brexit, marking the latest in a string of defeats for the prime minister on the bill.
Ms May had earlier announced a review of the government’s treatment of Windrush generation immigrations at Prime Minister’s Questions.
She told MPs there would be a “full review of lessons learned, independent oversight and external challenge” and that the new home secretary, Sajid Javid, will be announcing a “package of measures to bring transparency on the issue”.
The announcement came ahead of the Commons vote, called by Labour, to try to force ministers to release internal government documents relating to the fiasco. That motion was defeated.
This is from the Press Association on Jacob Rees-Mogg's interview on Radio 4 this morning.
Influential Eurosceptic Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg has rejected the Government's proposed customs partnership with Brussels as "deeply unsatisfactory", claiming it would effectively keep the UK in the EU.
A paper produced by the European Research Group he chairs setting out opposition to the plan has been sent to the Prime Minister, but Mr Rees-Mogg insisted he was "not in the business of making threats" to Theresa May.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is no question of there being an ultimatum, this is a paper that has been produced on a specific aspect of policy that would not work - it would not effectively take us out of the European Union, it would leave us de facto in both the customs union and in the single market."
The option is one of two proposals being considered by the Brexit "war cabinet" and Mr Rees-Mogg said: "This customs partnership is one of those clever ideas that sounded plausible when first looked at and when the detail is examined turns out to be deeply unsatisfactory, flawed and not get us out of the European Union, which is what people voted for."
Mr Rees-Mogg insisted it was "inconceivable that I would support a vote of no confidence" in Mrs May's government.
But in a message to Mr Rees-Mogg and his Eurosceptic allies, Tory MP Vicky Ford told Today "we should not tie the hands of the Government at this stage of the negotiations" and "we should allow them to continue those negotiations without holding guns to their heads".
She insisted "the customs partnership is not intended to keep us in the customs union or the single market by the back door".
Ms Ford said: "It would be an issue of resolving the issue on the Irish border, the need to have no border in the Irish Sea and to give easy, frictionless trade between the UK and the rest of Europe whilst also enabling our own trade policy with other parts of the world."
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, David Lidington, the cabinet office minister, hinted that a final decision on a customs deal may not be taken at today's meeting of the so-called Brexit "war cabinet".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today the discussions would "start this afternoon and will probably continue in other meetings".
The two proposals had been the subject of "intensive analytical work by civil servants" who had been "looking at the practicalities, the operational challenges that would have to be surmounted, all these problems - the legal risks and so on".
"This will be the first time today for Cabinet colleagues to sit down and have a constructive discussion about the way forward," he said.
Mr Lidington added: "I expect we will come to a decision on this, as well as on other important elements of our negotiating position, over the next few weeks."
He indicated that the full Cabinet may be invited to consider the position by Mrs May after the Brexit sub-committee has discussed the options.
She was also "talking all the time and listening all the time to voices of Conservative MPs, Conservative Party supporters, from all strands of the debate about Europe". He added that before June's summit of EU leaders "we need to be making every effort to ensure there is significant progress in the negotiations".
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