Brexit: DUP accuses May of being 'far too willing to capitulate' to EU – live news

• Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, held a joint press conference in which they announced that the EU had formalised the Brexit decisions taken last night. Tusk said that until April 12 “anything is possible - a deal, a long extension, if the United Kingdom decided to rethink its strategy, or revoking Article 50, which is a prerogative of the UK government”.

The future of Brexit is in the hands of our British friends. As the EU, we are prepared for the worst, but hope for the best. As you know, hope dies last.

• Business secretary Greg Clark has joined the many MPs who have criticised Theresa May for her speech from No 10 on Wednesday night, in which she blamed MPs for the Brexit crisis.

• The DUP has accused Theresa May of being “far too willing to capitulate” to the EU and criticised her for blaming MPs for the Brexit crisis in her speech on Wednesday. The party played down prospects that it could be persuaded to vote for May’s deal next week, saying “nothing has changed as far as the withdrawal agreement is concerned”.

• German chancellor Angela Merkel has given a press conference in which she said she wanted to see what results any indicative votes in the Commons produced and that She said the EU would have a duty to consider any new plans from the UK. French president Emmanuel Macron gave a press conference a short time later, in which he said Brexit showed what happened when there was a conflict between direct democracy and representative democracy. He repeated his claim that “fake news” and “lies” were partly to blame for the referendum result.

That’s it from me. Thanks very much for all the comments!

Guardian investigations editor, Nick Hopkins, has been passed a confidential Cabinet Office document that warns of a “critical three-month phase” after leaving the EU during which the whole planning operation could be overwhelmed.

The classified document sets out the command and control structures in Whitehall for coping with a no-deal departure and says government departments will have to firefight most problems for themselves – or risk a collapse of “Operation Yellowhammer”, the name for cross-government planning for a no-deal Brexit.

“The … structure will quickly fall if too many decisions are unnecessarily escalated to the top levels that could have reasonably been dealt with internally …” the document says. It also concedes there are “likely to be unforeseen issues and impacts” of a no-deal Brexit that Operation Yellowhammer has been unable to predict.

Tony Blair has given an interview to the Week In Westminster on BBC Radio 4 (which will be broadcast tomorrow at 11am). He said:

The most difficult thing for MPs will be: do they try and do these indicative votes fast and get a conclusion by 12^th April? I personally would not do that, but I think they’ll be under huge pressure to do it. It would be better if we took a longer time to do it and Europe will give us a longer time. Really what I’m saying is… it would be better if you had a debate that happened in less of an atmosphere of frenzy.

On the formation of The Independent Group, he said the two parties needed to “wake up”.

It’s a warning to the main parties: there’s a limit to your self-indulgence. You carry on like this, you leave this big open space of land that’s fertile and you leave it open politically… those people who are the frontiersmen and women who’ve gone into that space are going to be joined by others if the two parties don’t wake up.

Nicky Morgan, former education secretary and Conservative backbencher, has been talking to the Press Association. She will vote for Theresa May’s deal next week.

I think there should be a third meaningful vote next week. It’s important to see and important to know whether this withdrawal agreement can finally get over the line. I will vote for it and I will carry on voting for it, because I think having that agreement in place is the best way to avoid a no-deal outcome, and it gets us on to talking about phase two, the future relationship. But I have to say I am less confident it will go through after the events this week: asking for an extension, the prime minister’s statement on Wednesday night.

We’re all very good at saying what we want our Brexit to look like, and that’s not all going to be achievable, and there is a public mood of ‘get on with it’. But unfortunately the tone of the statement was ill-judged, and I think it did push people back into their positions, when they were starting to think about whether they could compromise further, and I don’t think it’s a wise move for a prime minister to pit parliament versus the people, because we are all representatives of our constituents.

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She added that Theresa May’s position going forward was “very difficult”.

There is no doubt that Conservative MPs have told, whether it’s Downing Street or the Whip’s Office or Graham Brady, that they want her to go. Given that no-deal is taken off the table, she’s had to apply for an extension to Article 50, we’re not leaving on March 29, and particularly if the third meaningful vote isn’t approved, I think that makes her position very difficult.

I think what the EU is then looking for is then a change of strategy, and it would be very difficult for the person who has been in charge of one strategy with very hard red lines to move to another strategy. Very difficult - not impossible, but I don’t see any sign that that is what she would want to do.

22 Mar 201913.20 EDT

Denis Campbell

Here’s something I’m sure we can all relate to from the Guardian’s health policy editor, Denis Campbell.

Brexit has left two in five Britons feeling powerless, angry or worried, with large numbers of both Leavers and Remainers affected by such feelings, according to new polling.

In addition, 21% said they have felt anxious as a result of Brexit over the last year, 17% have experienced “high levels of stress” and 12% have had trouble sleeping.

The findings emerged from a poll of 1,823 adults which pollsters YouGov carried out online for the Mental Health Foundation thinktank between 12 and 13 March. It was weighted to reflect opinion UK-wide.

In all 43% said Brexit had left them feeling powerless, 39% said angry and 38% said worried. That equates to about 20m adults feeling each of those emotions. However, while 59% of Remainers have felt powerless, fewer Leavers – 34% – have done so.

“It’s clear from our poll that the political environment, as a result of Brexit, is having an effect on millions of people’s wellbeing”, said Mark Rowland, the foundation’s chief executive.

Three in ten Londoners have suffered Brexit-induced anxiety over the last year – more than in any other region, and much higher than the national average of 21%.

A fifth (19%) of the population have had a disagreement with a family member or partner due to Brexit.

This is interesting, from Sky News’s political editor Faisal Islam.

It’s Frances Perraudin here, taking over from Andrew Sparrow.

Labour has tabled an amendment to Monday’s government motion that would instruct the government to provide sufficient parliamentary time next week for MPs to find a majority for an approach to break the Brexit deadlock.

The amendment reads:

This House notes the Government’s Withdrawal Agreement and Framework for the Future Relationship has been defeated for a second time; further notes the alternative proposals being proposed across this House including HM Opposition’s plan, Common Market 2.0, for a customs union, and for a public vote, and calls on the Government to provide sufficient parliamentary time this week for this House to find a majority for a different approach.

Jeremy Corbyn said:

Theresa May’s damaging deal has been overwhelmingly rejected twice by parliament, and she cannot keep bringing it back unchanged. Her insistence on ploughing on with her botched and failed deal, while threatening MPs, is pushing the country to the brink.

Following a series of meetings with MPs from all parties, EU leaders, businesses and trade unions, I am convinced that a sensible alternative deal can be agreed by parliament, be negotiated with the EU and bring the public together, whether they voted leave or remain.

It’s time for parliament to take control of the Brexit process from this failed prime minister, and end the chaos and confusion created by the government’s divisions and incompetence.

22 Mar 201912.40 EDT

Andrew Sparrow

I answered a series of procedural questions affecting what might happen next earlier, at 12.19pm. I did some yesterday too, here and here.

Here are some more worth addressing.

When will the government find out if John Bercow will allow the third meaningful vote?

@AndrewSparrow

Andrew,

Does Bercow have to indicate before the actual day whether he will allow a vote on MV3, if the government ask him for his ruling, or can he simply wait until the day and then accept or decline to put it to a vote?

Thanks (if you see this)

TheCorinth22 March 2019 2:50pm

The motion would have to go down on the order paper the day before the vote, and at that point the clerks, under orders from John Bercow, would have to rule on whether it was allowed. So, at the latest, the day before.

Could MPs be allowed a secret vote?

@Andrew - it's been suggested that the Indicative Votes should be a secret ballot to get the true results - is this even possible for MP voting in Parliament?

Austerby22 March 2019 3:03pm

I haven’t heard this suggestion. It would certainly produce an interesting result, and I suppose MPs could theoretically change their own standing orders to allow a secret ballot (they changed the rules about 10 years ago and started electing the speaker by secret ballot, instead of openly), but this would take the Commons back more than 300 years, to the era when it operated as a secret club and its proceedings were confidential, and it would destroy a fundamental principle of democratic politics - that elected representatives should be accountable for how they vote in parliament. Even Jacob Rees-Mogg would probably draw the line at that.

What happens if indicative votes produce a result May does not like?

@andrew

What happens if after the indicative votes, the commons votes for something May is implacably opposed to.....ie 2nd referendum, something involving freedom of movement etc?

How can parliament compel her to proceed with this?

the_winslow_boy22 March 2019 1:53pm

Good question. In fact, over the next two weeks or so, this may become the key question. As I explained yesterday - see the first answer here, and the third answer here - if the PM is determined not to do something, it is hard to see how parliament can force her hand.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Frances Perraudin is taking over now.

Greg Clark, the business secretary, has insisted that the government will go ahead with the plans for indicative votes in the Commons next week which were promised by David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, at the end of last week. Lidington was quite specific, but on Wednesday this week, when Theresa May seemed to rule out a long article 50 extension (which might be necessary if MPs were to opt for a plan B), MPs started to suspect that she would shelve the plan. Asked about indicative votes at PMQs, May sounded distinctly unenthusiastic.

But Clark has told the BBC they will go ahead. Asked if the government would support backbench amendments calling for indicative votes (see 3.05pm), he said there was no need, because the government was doing this anyway. He said:

Every minister when they speak at the dispatch box speaks on behalf of the government. The commitment that the government has made seems to me very clear, that the government will provide that. So there’s no reason why the government should be forced to do something that it is committed to do anyway.

I filed some lines from Emmanuel Macron’s press conference earlier. (See 3.10pm.) Here are some more.

• Macron, the French president, said EU leaders rejected the idea of holding an emergency summit next week because they did not want to get the blame for a no-deal Brexit.

• He refused to say what he thought the chances were of MPs passing Theresa May’s deal.

• He said Brexit showed what happened when there was a conflict between direct democracy and representative democracy. And he repeated his claim that “fake news” and “lies” were partly to blame for the referendum result.

• He said France was prepared for a no-deal Brexit.

1:01

Nigel Dodds, the DUP deputy leader, has released a statement about the EU summit.

Even by DUP standards, it is unusually harsh.

• The DUP has accused Theresa May of being “far too willing to capitulate” to the EU. (This is exactly the same as the argument made by Tory Brexiters like Boris Johnson [eg, here], although it is not true to say that the EU always compromises at the last minute in negotiations. David Cameron, the last PM to conduct a major negotiation with the EU, found quite the opposite when he was renegotiating the terms of the UK’s membership.)

• The DUP has criticised May for blaming MPs for the Brexit crisis in her speech on Wednesday.

• It has played down prospects that it could be persuaded to vote for May’s deal next week, saying “nothing has changed as far as the withdrawal agreement is concerned”.

Here is the full text of the statement from Dodds.

The prime minister missed an opportunity at the EU Council to put forward proposals which could have improved the prospects of an acceptable withdrawal agreement and help unite the country.

That failure is all the more disappointing and inexcusable given the clear divisions and arguments which became evident amongst EU member states when faced with outcomes they don’t like.

As we have always said, negotiations with the EU inevitably go down to the wire and the government has been far too willing to capitulate before securing the necessary changes which would get an agreement through the House of Commons.

The government has consistently settled for inferior compromises when they didn’t need to and when there was, and is, more negotiating with the EU to be done.

Lectures by the prime minister putting the blame on others cannot disguise the responsibility her government bears for the current debacle and the fact that her agreement has been twice overwhelmingly rejected in parliament.

The prime minister has now agreed with the EU to kick the can down the road for another two weeks and humiliatingly revoke her oft-stated pledge that the UK would leave the EU on 29th March.

Nothing has changed as far as the withdrawal agreement is concerned.

Nothing fundamentally turns on the formal ratification of documents which the attorney general has already said do not change the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop.

The DUP has been very clear throughout that we want a deal which delivers on the referendum result and which works for all parts of the UK and for the EU as well. But it must be a deal that protects the Union.

That remains our abiding principle. We will not accept any deal which poses a long term risk to the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom.

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Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is holding a post-summit press conference now.

• Macron says it is up to the UK to find a solution to Brexit.

• He says Brexit is an illustration of what can go wrong when a country leaves the EU with no plan.

The Labour MP Yvette Cooper says she and other MPs are backing this amendment before the Commons Brexit debate on Monday that would instruct the government to take account of the results of any indicative votes.

The Commons is due to hold a debate on Brexit on Monday. But this will not be the “meaningful vote” debate on the deal. Under the EU Withdrawal Act, if MPs vote against the withdrawal agreement, the government is obliged to hold a follow-up debate. The Monday debate will be the one triggered by the vote against the deal last week.

The more significant “meaningful vote” is due later in the week.

I have beefed up the post at 2.18pm with highlights from Angela Merkel’s press conference. You may need to refresh the page to get the new material to appear.

Asked about the fact that the EU dealt with China and the UK at this summit, and any similarities, Tusk says he cannot think of them in the same way. The UK is still part of the EU family, he says.

To me, the UK is still a member of our family, not a rival.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Back to the Tusk/Juncker press conference.

Q: [From Sky’s Mark Stone] You seem almost giddy at the result you came up with on Brexit last night. But haven’t you just kicked the can down the road, and isn’t the risk of a no-deal Brexit still high?

Juncker says:

The road the can has in perspective is a very short one.

Tusk says this is not really a question for them.

They think they have got the best possible deal. But everything is in the hands of the British now.

I think you know my position. I am more pro-British than you, I think.

Here is some more from Angela Merkel’s press conference.

• Merkel said this summit would not be Theresa May’s last.

• She said she wanted to see what results any indicative votes in the Commons produced.

• She said the fact MPs have voted against a no-deal Brexit was “positive”.

• She said the EU would have a duty to consider any new plans from the UK.

• She said Theresa May had put a lot of work into defending British interests.

• She said she assumed parliament would take some notice of the e-petition calling for article 50 to be revoked.