Brexit: May’s appeal to nation backfires as MPs accuse her of stoking hate

Here’s the snap analysis from my colleague, Heather Stewart:

And, in Westminster, the Labour MP Hilary Benn is trying to secure the time for MPs to debate what alternatives there might be to May’s deal:

Theresa May’s speech as a whole has not gone down well with the Labour MP, Chi Onwurah:

But then, that is perhaps to be expected.

Nor has it gone down well with the hard-Brexit supporting former Tory MP, Stewart Jackson:

But then, that too is perhaps to be expected.

The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, her Labour colleague, Steve McCabe, and the SNP MP, Pete Wishart, are unimpressed by May’s attempt at conciliation tonight:

Here’s what Theresa May said this evening on the comments she made last night, in which she blamed the Brexit delay on Parliament, rather than accepting responsibility for it herself:

I know MPs on all sides of the debate have passionate views and I respect those different positions. Last night, I expressed my frustration and I know that MPs are frustrated too – they have difficult jobs to do.

I hope we can all agree we are now at the moment of decision and I will make every effort to make sure we can leave with a deal and move our country forward.

Later, she was asked if she felt she should apologise to MPs, some of whom have said they have been on the receiving end of death threats and harassment over Brexit.

She declined to do so, saying instead:

There are passionately held views on all sides of this argument. And yes, as I said, last night I expressed frustration but I know MPs are frustrated too.

She added her gratitude to those who have agreed to support her deal, as well as to those she’s met with to discuss their concerns about the deal.

Some MPs had reacted furiously to her comments. One Labour MP even said he was physically attacked:

Reference is made to the petition to revoke Brexit, which has been signed by more than two million people as things stand. Does May believe opinion in the UK might have shifted?

May says the referendum was held and the government agreed to enact its result. That is what it is doing.

May is asked to rank in order of preference her choices – leaving the EU with or without a deal, delaying Brexit and revoking article 50.

She declines to do so but reiterates that she will not countenance revoking article 50 (as detailed at 9.39pm).

May is asked if she should apologise about her language in discussing MPs’ refusal to vote through her deal. She does not do so, but says she understands people have genuinely held views.

She calls for MPs to vote through her deal so they can secure the delay until 22 May.

May says she believes it would be wrong to ask the UK to take part in European Parliament elections three years after voting to leave – a prerequisite of a longer delay.

She address an audience in Westminster, saying she understands MPs are frustrated. “We are now at the moment of decision,” she says and adds that she wants to leave with a deal.

The prime minister is reiterating her phrase about “legally binding” changes to the backstop made last week. She was also careful to call the delay “short”.

Theresa May is about to start her press conference.

Final question: Tusk said there was a special place in hell for those people who promoted Brexit without having “even a sketch of a plan” for how to deliver it. He and Juncker are asked whether, should British MPs refuse to vote through May’s deal, more room be should made?

Tusk responds: “According to our pope*, hell is still empty and it means there are a lot of spaces.”

Juncker adds: “Don’t go to hell.”

And, with that, the press conference is brought to a swift conclusion.

*We originally reported that Tusk had said “according to our poll”. I misheard him and the quote has been updated to reflect that.

Next question: What was the atmosphere in the room and is there a risk of kicking the can down the road now?

Tusk says the atmosphere was better than in December. He is satisfied they were able to find a way to ease the process. He does not address the risk of any cans being kicked.

After a brief press conference, Tusk and Juncker are now taking questions. They are asked how long a “long extension” is. “Till the very end,” Juncker says, to laughter in the room.

Jean-Claude Juncker reiterates that the EU is ready for all outcomes – including a no-deal Brexit and that it cannot change the withdrawal agreement; a point the European Council was at pains to make in its published proposals.

Tusk is outlining the terms of the deal, as detailed at 10.42pm.

He says the UK will still have the choice of a deal, no deal, a long delay or revoking article 50. A key point will be whether or not the UK agrees to hold European Parliament elections.

Tusk and Juncker are beginning their press conference.

According to the Press Association, EU leaders are set to offer the UK a plan that would delay Brexit from 29 March to 22 May on condition that MPs approve Theresa May’s withdrawal deal.

If the deal is rejected in its third “meaningful vote” in the Commons, the UK would be given until 12 April to come to the European Council with its proposals for the way forward.

If the UK agreed to take part in European Parliament elections in May, the possibility would be open for a further extension of several months.

Tusk has not officially confirmed what the bloc’s offer will be but is meeting May right now to communicate it to her.

Sources have dismissed Theresa May’s plea for more time to deliver a form of Brexit she and parliament can live with as “90 minutes of nothing”. My colleagues, Daniel Boffey, Heather Stewart and Jennifer Rankin, report that, according to a source, the prime minister “dismally” failed to offer any answers as to what she would do if the deal was blocked by MPs again

One aide is quoted as saying:

She didn’t even give clarity if she is organising a vote. Asked three times what she would do if she lost the vote, she couldn’t say. It was awful. Dreadful. Evasive even by her standards.

When leaders asked May what she was going to do if her deal was voted down, an official added that the prime minister replied that she was following her ‘Plan A’ of getting it through.

It was then the EU decided that “she didn’t have a plan so they needed to come up with one for her”, the source added.

The prime minister has no intention of revoking article 50, despite a public petition calling for the Brexit deadline to be cancelled passing 1.6 million signatures.

When asked for Theresa May’s view on the petition, a Number 10 spokeswoman told the Press Association that May worried failing to deliver Brexit would cause “potentially irreparable damage to public trust”.

The prime minister has long been clear that failing to deliver on the referendum result would be a failure of our democracy and something she couldn’t countenance. The prime minister has said many times she will not countenance revoking article 50.

The number of names being added to the petition was so great on Thursday that the parliamentary petition website crashed several times.

There are reports around of an increasingly strained relationship between the prime minister and her chief whip, Julian Smith. According to ITV News’ Paul Brand, Smith “has been openly admitting today that he found last night’s statement in Downing Street ‘appalling’.”

On Wednesday evening, May delivered a televised address from Downing Street, in which she said the planned delay to Brexit was not her fault but that of MPs, adding that it was time for them to make a decision.

ITV quote Smith as telling a fellow MP the prime minister “just won’t listen” to him.

It’s worth noting that Number 10 has denied the reports of a rift this evening.

Here in Brussels, where it’s now past 9pm, we’ve been patiently awaiting a joint press conference from Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, to announce the European council’s decision on Theresa May’s request for a three-month Brexit delay. But a spokesman for Tusk has just announced that the discussions will continue over dinner – without the prime minister.

She addressed her fellow leaders earlier, in a 90-minute question and answer session that by all accounts did not go well, as she flatly refused to say what she plans to do if her deal is rejected for a third time.

There then commenced a prolonged period of horse-trading over what new exit date Britain should be offered, and on what conditions; with some leaders keen to remove the risk of an accidental no-deal Brexit next week – or the need to return to Brussels for an emergency summit – and others, including the French president Emmanuel Macron, taking a harder line.

Who knows where they’ll end up. But the outcome will make an enormous difference to how the next few days and weeks play out back in Westminster.

Bulgaria’s ambassador to the EU, Dimiter Tzantchev, has posted this picture of the bloc’s Brexit negotiators, Sabine Weyand and Stephanie Riso, as well as the Dutch and Irish ambassadors to the EU, Declan Kelleher and Robert de Groot, among a team of officials working on the article 50 discussions:

Weyand is standing in the centre wearing a blue lanyard. Kelleher is to her right and in front of him, apparently kneeling on the floor, is Riso. De Groot is to her right, wearing glasses.

It’s looking like we may be in for a bit of a wait – this comes from Donald Tusk’s spokesman:

My colleagues Rowena Mason and Dan Sabbagh have also been looking at what Theresa May might do if her deal gets voted down. And, like the Financial Times (see 7.09pm), they have concluded that the evidence is pointing towards no deal.

Here is how their story starts.

Cabinet ministers believe there is now a real risk of a no-deal Brexit, with sources close to them describing the mood in government as depressing and No 10 as “run by lunatics”.

Senior members of the cabinet from both sides of the Brexit argument are understood to think the chances of the UK leaving without a deal have substantially increased after the prime minister set herself against a longer extension to article 50.

One aide to a cabinet minister said No 10 was in “full-on bunker mode” and the prime minister’s speech from Downing Street showed “they have all taken leave of their senses”.

Another soft-Brexit cabinet source described the mood as “depressing” and said of no deal: “The risk is now very real.”

But do read the whole thing. It’s here.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

Politico Europe has what it says is the latest draft wording from the EU27 conclusions on Brexit. This is from Politico Europe’s Jack Blanchard.

More reports on what seems to be going on in the EU27 discussion.

These are from the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge.

This is from David Henig, a trade policy expert.

And this is from the BBC’s Katya Adler.

And this is from the Irish Times’ Denis Staunton.

This is from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.

As reported earlier, the key question in British politics at the moment is, ‘What will Theresa May do if MPs vote down her Brexit deal?’ (See 1.02pm.) Default to no deal, or abandon her opposition to the UK staying in the EU beyond June and taking part in the European elections? The Financial Times thinks it has the answer; it’s no deal.

This is from the FT’s George Parker.

And here’s an extract from the FT story (paywall).

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Theresa May made a momentous choice. After a day of acrimonious debate in her cabinet and inner circle, the prime minister decided that she was willing to take Britain out of the EU without a deal.

At Thursday’s European council meeting in Brussels, EU diplomats wondered whether Mrs May was bluffing, but those close to the prime minister said if she cannot secure her Brexit deal she is determined the UK should embark on a no-deal exit.

And these are from the BBC’s Katya Adler.

Here are some more reports from what is happening in the EU27 discussion.

From the Sunday Times’ Andrew Byrne

From the BBC’s Adam Fleming

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, posted this on Twitter earlier, reinforcing the point he made as he arrived at the summit.

And here is the translation from Twitter.

On Brexit, we need to be clear to ourselves, our British friends and our peoples. The withdrawal agreement cannot be renegotiated. In case of a British negative vote, we would go to a no-deal.

This is from RTE’s Tony Connelly.

These are from ITV’s Robert Peston.

These are from Sky’s Deborah Haynes.

This is from BuzzFeed’s Alberto Nardelli.

It prompted this response from ITV’s Robert Peston.

The Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle says a constituent tried to assault him today. He makes a connection between what happened and what Theresa May said in her speech last night about MPs blocking Brexit. (See 9.12am.)

A court has upheld the Electoral Commission’s decision to fine the pro-Brexit group Leave.EU for breaching campaign finance rules in the EU referendum.

Sitting at the Central London county court, Judge Dight ruled today that the commission was entitled to find the group exceeded campaign spending limits, and that it had misreported some details of loans and spending.

However the judge allowed aspects of Leave.EU’s appeal, including that payments to the American political consultancy Goddard Gunster did not need to be reported, because political strategic advice is not a reportable election expense under UK electoral law.

The commission originally fined Leave.EU £70,000 for various offences last May. Because aspects of the group’s appeal succeeded, the overall penalty is likely to be reduced at a further hearing in April.

Ipsos Mori has some new polling out today that makes grim reading for both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. As Joe Murphy reports in the Evening Standard, only 18% of people have confidence in Theresa May to get a good Brexit deal. But only 21% think Corbyn would get a good Brexit deal, the poll suggests.

Ipsos Mori has more polling in its March Political Monitor (pdf).

This chart shows how confidence in May to get a good Brexit deal has been falling.

This chart is interesting too, because it shows that most Conservative supporters did have confidence in May to get a good Brexit deal until July last year, when the Chequers plan was agreed. At that point May lost the confidence of most Tories on Brexit, and she has not regained it.

And this chart could be useful to any Labour MPs wondering whether they will get the blame if they fail to back Theresa May’s Brexit deal next week, leading to the UK leaving the EU without a deal. If these figures are correct (and they should be treated with some caution, because people were being asked about something that has not happened yet), the answer is – not much.

These are from Katya Adler, the BBC’s Europe editor, on the draft summit conclusions on Brexit. (See 4.59pm.)

Teachers in primary schools in Kent have been told they may have to suspend classes and “adopt a carer role” in the event of disruption caused by a no-deal Brexit, my colleagues Lisa O’Carroll and Richard Adams report. They have also been advised by local authorities to check on food supplies and warned that public transport and school coaches could be affected if there is “panic buying” of fuel, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The schools have been warned they may have to consider looking after “stranded” children in the event parents are caught up in gridlock.

Here is their full story.

Here is my colleague Daniel Boffey on the draft summit conclusions on Brexit. (See 4.59pm.)

This is from Stefan Rousseau, the Press Association’s chief political photographer.

The catastrophic impact of no-deal on Ireland’s farming and food sector has been laid out in detail county by county by one of the country’s leading economists.

Edgar Morgenroth, professor of economics at Dublin City University, has concluded the border counties Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal will bear the brunt because of their reliance on agri-food for employment. Between them they are among some of the biggest suppliers of mushrooms, chicken, dairy and ready meals to the UK.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, and Michael Heseltine, the former Conservative cabinet minister, are among the keynote speakers due to address the end of the People’s Vote march on Saturday, which hundreds of thousands are expected to attend.

Other political figures include Labour MPs Jess Phillips and David Lammy; Conservative MPs such as former cabinet minister Justine Greening; the former attorney general Dominic Grieve; the Independent Group MP Anna Soubry; the Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable; and Green MP Caroline Lucas. Speeches are due to begin about 2.45pm in Parliament Square with a feed relayed to large screens in Trafalgar Square.

This is from Politico Europe’s Charlie Cooper.

The Financial Times’ Robert Shrimsley has a good Twitter thread exploring what might happen if Theresa May has decided that a no-deal Brexit would be preferable to a long article 50 extension, if her deal gets voted down next week. It starts here.

This is from the Irish Times’ Pat Leahy.

A response, of a sort, from Downing Street to the joint CBI/TUC letter expressing alarm at the possible drift to a no-deal Brexit (see 2.29pm). At the lobby briefing, when asked about it, Theresa May’s spokeswoman said:

The PM has said that she’s absolutely determined to do everything she can to leave with a deal that protects businesses and jobs, and provides them with the certainty that they want.

It was “not clear” whether the letter had yet been officially sent to No 10, she said, meaning there was no news yet about the groups’ request for an urgent meeting with May. The spokeswoman added: “She has engaged widely with business, including with those two groups.”

The Telegraph’s James Rothwell has another line from what Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said earlier that is worth recording.

The e-petition calling for article 50 to be revoked has now got more than 1m signatures.

During the business statement in the Commons earlier, Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, was asked about the petition (which at that point had been signed by around 800,000 people). Leadsom implied she was not particularly impressed. She told MPs:

Should the petition reach more than 17.4m signatures [ie, the number of people who voted leave], there would be a very clear case for taking action.

Theresa May had a meeting with Donald Tusk, the European council president, earlier.

The EU has an unusual practice of broadcasting footage of the leaders milling around at the start of their meeting, before they get down to business. There is no audio feed, so you cannot hear what they are saying, but it’s a boon for anyone who believes in the “body language” theory of reporting (that you can gauge what is going up just by watching the body language).

The live feed has just gone down, but there was some footage of May. I don’t think you could really read much into it, but May did not exactly look like a ray of sunshine.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission, president, said there would have to be another summit if there was a vote against the Brexit deal in the Commons next week. He said:

In the event the withdrawal agreement will not be approved by the House [of Commons], we have to come back.

Sky’s Mark Stone has a longer version of the Emmanuel Macron quote.

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said MPs would have to back the Brexit deal for the EU to agree an extension. Speaking to reporters as he arrived at the summit, he said:

The ball has to be in the court of the British parliament. They first have to say ‘yes’.

I think the signal today might be that if the British parliament would say a ‘yes’ lock, stock and barrel to everything on the table, then Europe understands that technically that you need time to implement everything in law.

The Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaite, said EU leaders would be “supportive” to Theresa May but warned there would be conditions to any extension of article 50. As she arrived at the summit, she said:

We have European elections and that means probably conditionality will be an extension only [to] May or a longer extension. In that case the UK will need to organise an election …

We are still optimistic. We need to support the UK. The UK for us is important and we are hoping for a solution, but the timing is still in the hands of the UK parliament.

From the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has arrived at the summit.

ITV’s Robert Peston has a mini-scoop that sheds some light on the “what will happen if May loses the vote next week?” mystery. (See 1.02pm and 1.19pm.) He has seen a briefing note prepared for Kwasi Kwarteng, a junior Brexit minister who did a round of interviews this morning, and, as Peston says in a blog, it says Kwarteng was told “to avoid saying that MPs face a choice between backing the PM’s deal and a no-deal Brexit”. Peston goes on:

Expecting to be asked in interviews that it’s “no-deal if you lose MV3 [a third meaningful vote on the PM’s deal]”, Kwarteng is told to reply “you’re getting ahead of yourselves”.

Elsewhere in the note, headed “top lines and Q&A” it says that if MPs reject the PM’s deal again, “MPs will have to decide how to proceed”. There is no suggestion that a no-deal Brexit is the automatic consequence.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the EU would do all it could to ensure an orderly Brexit as she arrived at the summit.

UPDATE: Here is a fuller version of the quote.

To the last hour, we must do everything to ensure that there can be an orderly British exit from the EU.

The People’s Vote campaign has released quotes from two more MPs criticising Theresa May for what she said about MPs in her speech last night. (See 9.12am.)

This is from Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general.

I do not believe that the prime minister’s statement last night will have persuaded a single MP to support a reckless strategy that contrary to our national interest and our democratic tradition.

Simply browbeating MPs into submission serves no purpose at all. It brings us the government, parliament and democracy itself into contempt.

And this is from the Labour former business minister Pat McFadden.

Last night’s statement from the prime minister was not only badly misjudged but also reckless. It is deeply irresponsible to play the people versus parliament as she has done repeatedly over the past week. It has gone down like a lead balloon among MPs that Downing Street thinks it can browbeat into supporting her Brexit deal. And it undermines the nature of our parliamentary democracy where it is the essential job of elected representatives to exercise their judgements and cast their votes and then be answerable to the voters for how they have done so.

During the business statement in the Commons, several MPs complained about Theresa May’s speech last night. (See 9.12am.) They included the Labour MP Paula Sheriff, who said:

Last week I received a message saying my head should be chopped off among lots and lots of others. I apprehended the prime minister last week and I begged her, ‘dial down the hate prime minister, it’s in your power to dial down the hate’.

People are in fear, not just here but across the country, and the prime minister must show some leadership, it is within her grasp.

John Bercow, the Speaker, insisted no MP should be seen as a traitor. He said:

None of you is a traitor. All of you are doing your best. This should not be, and I’m sure will not prove to be, a matter of any controversy whatsoever.

Ireland’s Twitterverse is roasting the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan for bungling Irish history in a Telegraph article and then refusing to admit his mistake.

In citing Ireland as an example of baleful EU influence, the Brexiteer wrote that Fianna Fáil won every Irish election between 1932 and 2008.

The party in fact lost six times. When challenged about this and other points this week, Hannan doubled down in a tweet. “I managed a double first in modern history from Oxford. One of the things I was taught is that historians necessarily have different takes on the same events. Please try to accept that yours is not the only interpretation,” he wrote.

Mockery has ensued via the hashtag #HannanIrishHistory positing revisionist interpretations of Irish history, such as the ambulance siren being invented in Nenagh, County Tipperary, and Michael Collins faking his own death in 1922 in an insurance scam before fleeing to America, piloting the Apollo 11 mission and being immortalised in the song In The Air Tonight written by his brother Phil.

The PM’s deputy official spokeswoman denied that Theresa May had been insulting to MPs in her speech last night. At the lobby briefing earlier, the spokeswoman said:

It was about setting up to the public details on the extension and her own personal feelings about that. I can’t speak for MPs but the PM is working very hard to get the deal over the line.

There is more work to do and the PM fully understands that.

The spokeswoman said she would “flatly reject” the idea that the speech put MPs at risk from an angry public.

Asked about the foreign secretary’s claim that May was feeling under “extraordinary pressure” (see 9.55am), the spokeswoman said:

This is an incredibly challenging process. The PM has been working tirelessly to deliver on what people voted for in able for us to be able to leave the European Union. Yes, it is not without its extraordinarily difficult challenges.

Earlier I said the big question in British politics at the moment was: what will Theresa May do if she loses the vote next week? (See 1.02pm.) Here is Sky’s Beth Rigby on the subject.

Stefan Lofven, the Swedish prime minister, said a short article 50 extension would depend on MPs backing the Brexit deal as he arrived at the EU summit. He said:

An extension would also depend upon the voting in the House of Commons because we believe it is very important that the House of Commons actually agrees upon the agreement that we have and then we can talk extension.

Theresa May’s Downing Street speech last night may have seemed baffling to those watching at home but there may be a clue to its purpose in how the government social media machine has used the footage.

Soon after she finished talking in Downing Street, the official UK government Facebook page began paying to promote a clip of her speaking under the banner “Brexit: Let’s Get On With It”.

The adverts, funded using public money, began running on Facebook last night and have already been seen at least 2 million times, according to the social network’s new advertising disclosure rules.

These views do not necessarily mean than a Facebook user bothered to watch any of the video, but they do mean that they saw a video in their newsfeed of Theresa May talking alongside the quote: “You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side.”

Although the sums involved are not enormous – up to £10,000 has been spent promoting the video since last night – it is another example of how Facebook ads are being used to put pressure on MPs to back Brexit by directly targeting voters. One mysterious group campaigning for a hard Brexit, which has never revealed its financial backers, has spent almost £500,000 on targeted Facebook ads since last October.

Kent police are to get another £3.5m in funding to handle Brexit, the Home Office has announced, as no-deal Operation Yellowhammer continues.

The policing minister, Nick Hurd, announced today that the department would reimburse the force in full after Kent’s police and crime commissioner applied for additional funding earlier this month.

Kent county council is having a full hearing today ahead of activating no-deal contingency plans from Monday.

It will bear the brunt of no-deal chaos if the UK crashes out of the EU next Friday and although chances of that are less likely it has already put no-deal plans into action on motorways in the county.

MPs have been advised to travel home by taxi when they leave parliament over fears they could be attacked by angry voters over their handling of Brexit, Kevin Schofield reports at PoliticsHome.

And here is my colleague Alex Hern’s story on the e-petition website crashing after a petitioner’s call to revoke article 50.

Here are some of the celebrities who have been encouraging people on Twitter to sign the e-petition calling for article 50 to be revoked. (See 10.22am.)

Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s former envoy to the EU, thinks Donald Tusk’s offer of an extension on condition that MPs approve the Brexit deal next week should help Theresa May. Speaking in Dublin last night, Rogers said:

That’s not unhelpful to her because in a sense it amplifies the message she’s been trying to give to people, which is: it really is my way or the abyss.

However, May’s requested extension raised the risk of no deal, he warned.

I’ve always thought the markets and the UK commentariat have underestimated the risks of no deal. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is a very serious chance that we end up with no deal in the summer because … we’ve run out of road, both sides have to a degree miscalculated the reaction from the other side, and we end up there because there’s nowhere else to go.

Rogers was talking to reporters after addressing the Institute of International and European Affairs.

Kent county council has activated no-deal plans to keep its roads, hospitals and schools open, as the government considers pulling the trigger on national contingency measures involving 30 central departments and 5,000 staff, my colleagues Lisa O’Carroll and Denis Campbell report.

A petition on the government’s e-petition website calling for article 50 to be revoked has attracted more than 675,000 signatures and it is getting hundreds more by the minute. At one point earlier today the site crashed, which may or may not have been related to the volume of traffic it was attracting.

E-petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures get debated in parliament. But the debates take place in Westminster Hall, the annex debating chamber, and MPs do not vote on the proposal, so it would be a mistake to think that an e-petition like this will have much influence on MPs.

Also, e-petitions are a poor guide to public opinion. The What UK Thinks website tracks Brexit opinion in great detail and, as this chart shows, although remain has been opening up a bigger lead over leave recently, the shift in opinion has not been dramatic.

Here is Robert Harris, the novelist, veteran political commentator and Neville Chamberlain expert, on Theresa May’s address to the nation last night.

Sir Oliver Letwin, the Conservative former cabinet minister who is involved in efforts to find a cross-party alternative to Theresa May’s Brexit deal, told the Today programme this morning that there was probably a majority for a Norway-plus approach.

Stressing the need for parliament to find a consensus, he said:

I believe, for example, that we will probably on that day be able to get a cross-party majority in favour of what is sometimes called Norway-plus and sometimes called Common Market 2.0, which is an arrangement where we remain in the single market and we have a customs arrangement with the EU, and that has not yet been tested.

On the Today programme this morning, Romano Prodi, the former European commission president and former Italian PM, said he thought EU leaders would agree to a longer article 50 extension. He explained:

I still think that there will be more time … there will be some compromise in order to get more time because really the common will against a hard Brexit is real.