Westminster - as it happened: Labour motion forcing government to release secret post-Brexit customs plans defeated
All Wednesday's developments from Westminster
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A Labour motion to force the government into publishing private Cabinet papers on post-Brexit customs proposals has been defeated.
The party’s motion would have required the government to release to parliament all papers prepared for the Brexit sub-committee on the two customs models, including any economic analysis.
It was defeated by 301 votes to 269, a majority of 32.
The vote was the latest in a string of Labour motions using an arcane parliamentary procedure to make the vote binding on the government by issuing a “humble address” to the Queen asking her to require ministers to comply.
The debate came after Theresa May was under over Brexit during Prime Minister’s Questions, as Jeremy Corbyn sought to capitalise on deep divisions among senior Tories over future customs arrangements.
The Labour leader drew laughs when he mocked Ms May's call for "as little friction as possible", adding: "Was she talking about EU trade or the next cabinet meeting?"
Mr Corbyn called on the prime minister to "step aside and let Labour" carry out the negotiations as he tore into her record on zero hours contracts and workers rights.
See below for the developments as they happened
David Lidington, the Cabinet office minister, has been speaking on Radio 4's Today programme about the government's Brexit white paper, which will be released next month.
He said two ministerial working groups set up by Theresa May last week to look for improvements to customs proposals could take weeks.
"The PM has asked smaller groups of ministers to go away and test out over the next days and weeks those detailed questions," he said.
"So, for example, on the new customs partnership the questions are around to what extent does this inhibit an independent trade policy for the future and can we mitigate those impacts?"
Mr Lidington confirmed that assessments are being made on the legal risks of the customs options being considered.
He continued: "What any government does is that when we are putting forward internally some ideas about relationships with other countries, new treaties, that we test the legal risks involved."
Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls said he wanted a Brexit deal that allows Britain to trade with the EU but gives the country control over migration.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "An EEA-style deal which allows that to happen would be a step forward."
This is from the Press Association on Diane Abbott's speech this morning in central London.
Labour has said it will close down two controversial immigration detention centres in an end to Theresa May's "hostile environment" policy for illegal immigrants.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said an incoming Labour government would shut Yarl's Wood in Bedford and Brook House near Gatwick Airport, and ban private contractors from taking on future contracts to run immigration centres.
Speaking at the IPPR think-tank in London, Ms Abbott said they would rescind all elements of the immigration legislation used to support the "hostile environment", ending indefinite detention, in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
The announcement comes after new Home Secretary Sajid Javid disclosed on Tuesday that 63 members of the so-called "Windrush generation", who came to the UK from the Commonwealth in the post-war decades, may have been wrongly removed or deported.
Ms Abbott said the scandal was a "direct consequence" of Mrs May's policy when she was home secretary of making life as difficult as possible for illegal immigrants.
She called on Mr Javid to make good a promise to restore full citizenship rights for all Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973.
"The Windrush scandal goes to the very heart of Theresa May's hostile environment policy - it was not accidental - it is a direct consequence of Government policy," she said.
"Sajid Javid made a promise to make things right for the people who have been treated so appalling by his Government.
"He should start by restoring full rights of citizenship for all Commonwealth citizens, which his party removed and which has contributed to the tragedies that have fallen on the Windrush generation.
"Children that have been born here should not have to pay over £1,000 to obtain legal citizenship, simply because their parents were not born in this country. It is theirs as a right, just like it is my right and the right of most people in this room today.
"Labour will end this scandalous practice."
Ms Abbott said a Labour government would commit the £20 million a year it would save from closing Yarl's Wood, which is run by Serco, and Brook House, run by G4S, to support the survivors of modern slavery, trafficking and domestic abuse.
"People are being kept in detention for months, even years on end. They include the Windrush generation, victims of torture, refugees and victims of sexual exploitation," she said.
"Yarl's Wood in particular has caused so much pain to vulnerable women that we should have been protecting. Diverting these resources directly to them is not only essential, but the right thing to do."
She added: "This Government and its predecessors have long had an obsession with enriching the private sector from the public purse. This is despite the costs, either financially, in shoddy service or in human misery.
"Labour will end this rotten system. Private firms have no business in detention."
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