In an interview with the House magazine, Johnny Mercer is scathing about PM and the Brexit process

A leading Conservative backbencher has laid bare the extent of Tory frustrations with Theresa May by openly admitting he would not vote for the party if he wasn’t an MP, and had no interest in becoming a minister in a government he called “a shitshow”.

Johnny Mercer, who has represented Plymouth Moor View since 2015, said in an interview that in the current political situation there was “absolutely no chance” he would try to enter parliament, and intimated that May was an unimaginative “technocrat”.

PM’s admission that UK could stay tied to EU for longer triggers angry backlash

Theresa May’s admission in Brussels that the UK could stay tied to the EU for a year longer has prompted an angry backlash from Conservative backbenchers, who said the prime minister was “desperate” and “reneging on everything”.

Her failure to deny reports that she had told the Irish she accepted the backstop to avoid a hard border could not be time limited prompted yet more concern, with Tory MPs warning it raised questions over whether the UK would really leave the EU.

Floundering for anything better to say, PM embraces solutions that both do and don’t exist

“You know what? I’ve had it up to here. I’m sick to death of going round in circles, trying to achieve the impossible. Brexit is a complete shit show. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. There is just no way any of this ends well, either for the country or for me.

“So let’s stop pretending there’s any way of making everyone happy. It’s a car crash. Pure and simple. And if anyone thinks they can do better, then let them have a go. I’m done with being trolled by all and sundry. It was bad enough being humiliated on a daily basis by Boris Johnson, David Davis, Michel Barnier and Donald Tusk, but now even the Lithuanian prime minister is joining in. Enough’s enough. So that’s it. I’m out of here. Sayonara losers.”

The Cypriot carrier has gone the way of Primera Air and Monarch. What is going on in Europe’s aviation industry?

Cobalt has become the latest European budget airline to go bust, following Danish carrier Primera Air, which ceased trading earlier this month. While the Cypriot airline had only two years of flying behind it, after stepping into the breach left by the failure of the national carrier Cyprus Airways, Primera had flown for 14 years. Both carried a fraction of the passengers of British holiday airline Monarch, which collapsed last year.

Back in 2016, 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU. And if today’s rumours about the government wanting to extend the 21-month transition period are true, we still won’t have left the EU way into 2021.

It’s vital we give effect to the referendum result. People voted to take back control of our borders, laws, money and trade. They wanted us to radically transform our country into a self-governing, free-trading nation and for us to build a stronger and more prosperous future outside the EU.

Theresa May’s failure to make progress in Brexit talks this week is a function of having to conduct parallel negotiations, one at home and one abroad. The two conversations overlap, but rhetoric that animates the domestic debate can be far removed from the arguments the prime minister encounters across the Channel.

This is most evident in discussion of arrangements for Northern Ireland – the main obstacle to a withdrawal agreement. In Brussels, the issues are seen in terms of legal commitments: enforcement of the EU’s single market rules across post-Brexit borders; the Good Friday agreement, which makes the border question uniquely sensitive; and the December 2017 deal that sealed the first phase of exit talks. In that document the UK signed up to the “backstop”, keeping Northern Ireland aligned with EU regulations (thereby obviating the need for a restored border with the Irish Republic) in the event that no more innovative solution could be found.

Broadcasters would need new licences for Sky to carry them on UK and Ireland service

Sky has delivered an ultimatum to broadcasters including Disney and Discovery to sort out their post-Brexit licensing plans by the end of 2018 or face being taken off its pay-TV service.

Sky has sent the deadline letter because it needs to know the licensing plans of its channel partners to make sure it abides by European broadcasting regulations in the event of a no-deal Brexit in March.

And so, it comes to pass that Brexit is not a British liberation strategy. It is vassalisation; the annihilation of our equal-rights status as a European country. The dawn of a new age of British colonialism. But this time round it is Britain that is the colony. This is where the Tories’ 40-year war with Europe has landed us. Brexiters who thought their leave vote was going to set Britain back on course to rule the waves should be feeling humiliated.

The Tories have not delivered their promised victory over the EU, and Brexit has become a Great British rout. Sunny utopian leave has vanished in the turbulent storms of exit reality. Theresa May has been humiliated in the latest summit negotiations, not because the European Union is being nasty, but because her own mob are fighting each other. Her arbitrary Alice in Wonderland red lines were an ill-fated attempt to placate Brexiteers within her own ranks rather than a serious attempt to get the best deal for our people. Her focus is firmly on saving her skin from a Brexiteer mutiny threatening to topple her and now she wants us to cede British sovereignty, parity and self-determination to stay in the customs union and the single market for an extended transition phase after Brexit. It looks increasingly likely that in all but name we will remain in the EU until at least the end of 2021. Who in their right minds would want to remain a member of a club, pay its fees, abide by its rules but give up the right to have any say in making them?

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Brexit developments at the EU summit in Brussels

• Tusk/Juncker press conference - Summary
• May plays down idea of extending Brexit transition
• May’s press conference - Verdict
• Afternoon summary

5.48pm BST

All of the 27 said that we wish to bring about a solution, one that clearly expresses the fact that Britain is no longer a member of the EU, but also expresses what we all want politically speaking - namely that we establish a good relationship with Britain for the future.

As long as we don’t have a satisfactory solution we cannot really explain in a satisfactory way how this is to come about but I think where there is a will there is a way. That is usually the way.

Such an extension would cost United Kingdom billions of pounds, yet our fundamental problem with the EU proposal remains.

5.16pm BST

My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has a good guide to what happens next in the Brexit process.

Related: Brexit endgame: what happens next?

European commission president says UK likely to stay under EU law beyond 2020

The UK is likely to remain under EU rules and laws beyond 2020 to give both sides in the Brexit negotiations time to negotiate a trade deal, Jean-Claude Juncker has said.

Addressing reporters at an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, the European commission president said an extension of the proposed 21-month transition period would be a positive move.

Figures show 17% rise in recorded incidents in England and Wales in year to March

Police have said there could be a spike in hate crime as wrangles over Brexit continue before the UK’s planned departure from the EU in March.

The vote to leave the EU in June 2016 led to a large rise in hate incidents on the streets and online.

Tarnished and in the minority but little scope for compromise as political polarisation has further emboldened unionists

When the Democratic Unionist party this week threatened to paralyse the government’s domestic agenda over Brexit, some Conservatives felt enough was enough and it was time to call the DUP’s bluff.

“Shocking, profoundly undemocratic,” Anna Soubry, a Tory MP from Nottinghamshire, seethed in a radio interview. “It’s breathtakingly irresponsible. They’re a blooming nightmare. Who do they think they are?”

Paris and other cities have put out Brexit welcome mats for the City, but does banking unbalance the wider economy?

As the UK’s Brexit negotiations stumble on, other European countries are using the uncertainty about the future regulation of the continent’s financial markets to tempt firms and activities away from London.

The French have been particularly active in support of Paris, but Frankfurt, despite lukewarm support from the government in Berlin, has not been far behind. And other cities such as Luxembourg City, Dublin and Amsterdam have laid out their own welcome mats. Bankers have not been so popular for a decade or more.

The key deadlines and milestones on the road leading to Brexit over the next six months

As Theresa May pushes to the finish line, she knows that even if she can strike a Brexit deal, her difficulties are far from over. She must get approval for the deal from parliament, and that is far from a given. Brexit will be a historic game-changer for Britain, and opponents will seize on every opportunity for political capital.

So what happens next? Here are the key junctures in the next six months, with help from the constitution unit at University College London and Matt Bevington, Alan Wager and Jack Simson Caird at UK in a Changing Europe (pdf).

The government and supermarkets must tighten up supply chains to prevent human rights abuses

As we mark both Anti-Slavery Day and World Food Day this week, I will be leading a debate in parliament highlighting how some of the worst instances of modern slavery and exploitation are to be found in our food supply chains.

Theresa May, when she became prime minister, singled out modern slavery as “the great human rights issue of our time” – and it is true that the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which May brought in as home secretary, was world-leading. We also have the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, created after 23 illegal migrant labourers drowned picking cockles in Morecambe Bay in 2004.

Minister reinforces government attempt to reduce scope for amendments on any final EU deal

Andrea Leadsom has told MPs their only real Brexit choice is whether to accept any final deal Theresa May negotiates with Brussels when it comes to the Commons to be signed off.

Leadsom, the leader of the house, sought to narrow the options for MPs on Thursday, saying that “the reality before the United Kingdom” would amount to an either/or choice on May’s deal, even if the Commons were to debate possible amendments.

Newspapers across the continent point to negotiated position as best outcome for both sides but time is running out

Heavily trailed as it was, the lack of progress at a summit once seen as make or break surprised few European newspapers. Many said a no-deal Brexit was now looming – and doubted Theresa May had the domestic authority to avert it.

“Brexit is like Groundhog Day,” wrote Jean Quatremer, the veteran Brussels correspondent of the French daily Libération. “For almost two years now we’ve relived the same scene: one country ceaselessly presenting divorce terms that are entirely unacceptable to its soon-to-be-ex EU partners.”

Senior figures stress that Theresa May is not about to sign up to Northern Ireland backstop

Theresa May continues to believe the EU’s proposal for avoiding a hard border in Ireland is unacceptable, senior UK officials have stressed, after a plan to consider an extension to the post-Brexit transition period raised fears she was about to sign up to a Northern Ireland-only backstop.

Related: Brexit: unpalatable truths for dinner at EU summit

It was supposed to be time for discussions into the night, but instead Merkel and Macron went for beers

It was the shortest leaders’ dinner veteran summit-goers could recall. The evening meal of pan-fried mushrooms, fillet of turbot and a trio of fruit sorbets was fairly wolfed down by the EU’s 27 heads of state and government around the oval dining table on the 11th floor of the lantern-shaped Europa building in Brussels.

Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron even had time for a post-prandial stroll on an unseasonably warm Brussels evening, before hopping in a car to the Grand Place’s Le Roy d’Espagne bar to join the prime ministers of Belgium and Luxembourg for a beer.

This Saturday, I will be among tens of thousands of young people marching on Westminster to call for a people’s vote on Brexit. For years, it was assumed we youngsters would not vote, would not take part in politics, and did not care. During this time, we were priced out of housing, had our tuition fees trebled, and were told to be grateful for the gig economy – because our failure to take part in democracy meant we did not deserve any better.

We are desperate for a politics in which we can engage meaningfully

For politicians, compromise can be a surprisingly hard word. So it is today over the Brexit endgame. The talk is still of crashing out, no deals and blood red lines. But this is paradoxical. Politics, like life itself, is mostly built on compromises. That is why the Brexit sherpas are, in fact, still talking in Brussels and London. Even on Brexit, it remains likelier than not that the practical human instinct to compromise will eventually have its way.

This is not, though, the certainty it ought logically to be. Brexit is not simply another political process to be settled through compromise. To many, it is also a series of absolutes. One is that Britain’s vote to leave the European Union was not just decisive but the immutable will of an entire people that cannot be questioned – or compromised. A second, never properly understood in Westminster, is that the EU sees leaving as a treaty process governed by rules that cannot be bent.

Today, very few British politicians admit to reading novels, let alone make a virtue of the fact – although Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is a notable exception, and Jeremy Corbyn has named Ulysses as his favourite book. Perhaps Theresa May’s cabinet is full of secret bookworms. Somehow, I doubt it. But if there is one book that all British politicians ought to read right now, it is this week’s Man Booker prize winner.

Milkman, the third novel by Anna Burns, offers both an unnerving reminder of very recent Northern Irish history and a meticulous account of an oppressive relationship between an 18-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man. The novel, part of a Man Booker shortlist chosen at least partly for the books’ ability to parse the confusing state we’re in, holds up to the light two of the most pressing political and cultural questions of the moment – the Irish border and #MeToo.

Jeremy Corbyn had one excellent question but his failure to follow up cost him

Jeremy Corbyn kicked off a very noisy PMQs this week by paying tribute to Patricia Hollis, the Labour peer who died this week.

Theresa May faces four days of negotiations, presentations and confrontations

Theresa May updates MPs on the progress of the Brexit negotiations after Brussels rebuffed her plan to replace the EU’s Northern Ireland backstop with a UK-wide one. In the early evening she will meet the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald.

An EU summit this Wednesday was supposed to be the final deadline for a Brexit deal. But last-minute talks broke down at the weekend over the emotive question of the Irish backstop; a fallback position to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. This is how we got here

Amid calls for revolt within her own party, May needs the DUP’s 10 votes more than ever

Theresa May may be ruing the day she entered into a confidence and supply agreement with a Northern Irish party in order to stay in power.

Not for the first time, the Democratic Unionist party is threatening to torpedo her plans to secure a Brexit deal with the EU but this time it coincides with open revolt from inside her cabinet, a combination that could prove lethal to the prime minister.

Impasse over the Irish border remains a sticking point ahead of crucial summit in November

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said last month in Salzburg that he would need to see maximum progress on the problem of agreeing an all-weather “backstop” solution for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland by the time of the leaders’ summit starting in Brussels on Wednesday.

Daily Mail columnist appeals to the men in the cabinet to stop ‘shouting and screaming’ and support Theresa May as she attempts to negotiate a Brexit deal with the EU. Vine tells the BBC’s Andrew Marr the prime minister faces the ‘most impossible situation ever in the history of politics’

Boris Johnson has used a speech at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham to launch an explosive attack on the prime minister's Chequers plan for Brexit. The former foreign secretary warned the 1,500-member audience: 'Do not believe we can somehow get it wrong now … and fix it later.'

• Boris Johnson hits out at Chequers 'outrage' in pitch to Tory members

The question came from Steve Schwarzman of asset management firm Blackstone. He described Brexit as 'a little daunting', and asked May about the risk of a change of government in the UK. May responded by seeking to reassure Schwarzman and a dozens of other business leaders at the venue in New York, where she is for two days for the UN general assembly

'How bad can things get?' Wall Street chief puts Theresa May on Brexit spot

Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour MPs would vote against a final deal with the EU based on Theresa May’s Brexit plan, adding that a general election will have to be called if she fails to get it through parliament. In his conference speech, the Labour leader also made an oblique reference to holding a second referendum, saying that if it is not possible to have a general election then ‘all options are on the table’.

Jeremy Corbyn calls for election if MPs vote down May’s Brexit deal

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, tells delegates at the Labour party conference in Liverpool that if Theresa May ends negotiations without a deal, 'campaigning for a public vote must be an option … and nobody is ruling out remain as an option'

• Starmer opens Labour's Brexit debate and says 'nobody is ruling out remain' - Politics live

In the concluding part of their journey into the heart of 2018's weirdness, John Harris and John Domokos go to a Leave Means Leave rally and ask an obvious question: how did this side win? For the answer, they go to Labour conference, and then to a massive distribution centre at the cutting-edge of the new economy

In his headline speech to Labour’s conference in Liverpool on Monday, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, says his party would vote against any deal the prime minister, Theresa May, strikes with the EU if it failed to meet Labour's tests for supporting an agreement. 

He said, on Brexit, that the Tories should 'get out of the way and let us get on with securing a way forward'. 

• Highly paid water bosses would be forced out under nationalisation plan, Labour says

The Labour leader says the party has been concerned about a dilution in workers' rights and environmental standards. Corbyn says he is open to the idea of a second referendum if members agree to that policy at the party conference this week

• Labour prepared to vote down May's final Brexit deal, says Corbyn

Theresa May has accused the European Union of not treating the UK with respect, in a hastily arranged Downing Street statement a day after she was humiliated at the Salzburg summit, when EU leaders declared her Chequers plan would not work. The British prime minister said she stood by Chequers, adding that throughout the Brexit negotiations she had treated her counterparts with 'nothing but respect … and the UK expects the same'.

Theresa May demands respect from EU in Brexit negotiations

In the third part of their summer-long quest to get to the heart of the UK's condition, John Harris and John Domokos head to Boston in Lincolnshire. They find Brexit voters who still think no one is listening to them and Polish people feeling ever more unwelcome. But in London, protesters against Donald Trump offer a ray of hope and the prospect of something that might finally heal the country's wounds

Winston Churchill has often been voted the most important/influential Briton ever. I was surprised to read claims that Churchill was a Eurosceptic, so I read through all his four great “European” speeches from 1946 to 1949. They were carefully prepared as a historic record of his views, delivered at grand events amidst great ceremony and designed to achieve impact: they did.

As the Prime Minister is set to encourage her Cabinet to back a complex new arrangement on post-Brexit customs, a cross-party group of MPs are increasingly confident they can deliver victory for amendments to key Government legislation that would instead offer business the certainty of remaining in a customs union with the European Union. The amendments have been tabled by MPs from across the House of Commons, including nine Conservatives.

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has today published a report warning  that “if the UK fails to reach a satisfactory Brexit deal or leaves the EU without any deal at all, the UK risks falling off a ‘cliff-edge’ in terms of certain security and UK-EU policing cooperation.”

The Government was forced to offer concessions to potential Conservative rebels today in order to stave off defeat on the so-called 'meaningful vote' amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Dr Phillip Lee MP has resigned from the Government over Brexit and said any final Brexit deal “should go to the people, once again, for their confirmation”.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), a transport trade union affiliated to the Labour Party, today voted in favour of supporting a People’s Vote on Brexit at their annual conference.  

People are changing their minds about Brexit. The latest polls since June 2016 now show a solid lead for those in favour of a Peoples Vote on the terms of a Brexit deal and for staying in the European Union (EU).

It has been reported Leave.EU campaign backers frequently met officials from the Russian embassy.

The decision by Labour’s frontbench to vote to only stay in the Customs Union but not in the European economic area could cost the UK £29 billion a year and more than 300,000 jobs by 2030.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today delivered a ‘reality check’ to Brexit advocates stating, in Germany, that “we will have to give up some of the advantages of [EU] membership”.

The CBI have downgraded their forecast for economic growth for 2018 and warned that “risks remain … skewed to the downside. In particular a more disorderly outcome to EU negotiations”.

BuzzFeed News has obtained a leaked audio recording of Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, admitting that the UK may well end up with a Brexit deal that is “far worse” than what Brexit supporters had hoped for. 

In a letter to Conservative MPs this evening, the Prime Minister has claimed the choice facing the UK on Brexit is between “the unacceptable” and “the unpalatable”.

New polling by YouGov suggests just 10% of the UK public think Brexit is going well, with 73% thinking it’s going badly. That includes 70% of Leave voters.

The Foreign Office Minister and Deputy to Boris Johnson, Alan Duncan MP, has thrown the Government’s opposition to a People’s Vote into confusion after reportedly agreeing today that there could be a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal negotiated by the Government.

The Government has published a new proposal for the so-called ‘backstop’ option for the Northern Ireland border, after a morning of tense talks between Theresa May and David Davis.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called on MPs to back cross-party amendments to the Government’s Withdrawal Bill when it is debated next week in the House of Commons.

It has been confirmed this morning that MPs will debate amendments on the Withdrawal Bill next Tuesday and Wednesday.

There is reportedly more uncertainty today about whether or not the Brexit Secretary, David Davis, will resign over disagreements relating to the Government’s plans for the Northern Ireland so-called ‘backstop’ proposal.

Speculation has grown throughout the day that David Davis and Number 10 are locked in a fight over the so-called “backstop” on the Irish border.

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, Theresa May failed to say when her Government’s promised ‘Brexit White Paper’ would be published. 

One month ago, the major pro-Europe organisations came together to launch the single combined campaign, “People’s Vote”, i.e. for the British people to have a vote on the final Brexit deal to be proposed by the Government. 

In less than a year, Britain goes over the cliff edge of departing from the EU – with a 'transition' to unknown arrangements. If regrets set in afterwards, it will be too late as we will have to re-apply under Article 49 - just as any other applicant. When those `unknown arrangements’ become somewhat clearer during negotiations this summer, “the people” may well look at the implications and decide for themselves whether they want to proceed over the cliff.

It is becoming increasingly clear that while Theresa May’s Mansion House speech may have applied some sticking plaster on the gaping wounds within the Conservative government, it fails to address vital issues on which it simply offers more unrealistic fudge.

After her speech yesterday about the Brexit negotiations, the Prime Minister was asked by a German journalist whether she thought Brexit was worth all the effort and disruption it entailed. Although British withdrawal from the EU is probably the most important national decision taken since the Second World War and it will inevitably define the success or otherwise of Mrs. May’s Premiership, she was unable or unwilling to answer this question.

The European Union started out and continues to be an organisation whose primary objective is to create a lasting peace in Europe after centuries of conflict ending in two catastrophic world wars.  

When a young official at the nascent European Parliament introduced me to Altiero Spinelli, one of the people who had spurred my interest in European integration as a student, awe turned to action. In a very small way, everyone could contribute to shaping Europe’s future, as Jean Monnet had said.

On 22 June 1948, the MV Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying 492 Caribbean passengers. More followed afterwards. These migrants and descendants of migrants have played a vital role in the construction of the NHS since its creation. Without them the NHS would not have been possible. More recently Indian, Filipino and European doctors and nurses have come to the UK to ensure that our NHS continues to be the best health care system in the world.

Brexit supporters are organised and disciplined in their constantly repeated sound-bites. Almost every day you can hear the mantra “Take back control of our money, borders, laws and trade”.

The realisation that any post-Brexit transition period will leave the UK still subject to EU legislation, including modifications to such legislation and to new legislation, has given rise to the idea that Britain should extend its membership so as to serve any transition period as a voting member rather than as a “vassal state”.

New Year media reports suggest the UK Government thinks the EU27 is bluffing when chief negotiator Barnier states that UK-based banks will lose their “passports” to do business in the EU27. Instead, DexEU Secretary Davis has called for a “Canada plus plus plus” trade deal – implying that financial services will not find themselves at a disadvantage.

The age demographics of the Brexit vote in June 2016 are well-known: around 73% of young people under 24 voted to remain, compared with only 40% of people over 60. Yet it is self-evidently young people who are going to have to live longest with the consequences of Brexit, if it happens. These consequences are numerous and wide-ranging, and can be grouped into three categories: economic, social and identity.

Even during the European referendum last year it was clear that those who wished the UK to leave the European Union fell into two quite different camps, those who wanted Brexit to mark a decisive break in the economic and social life of the United Kingdom; and those who wanted Brexit to take place with minimal social and economic disruption. 

Yesterday morning, briefings from both sides in the Brexit negotiations were confidently looking forward to announcing a deal on the phase 1 “divorce” package.

I am disappointed for all those who have worked hard in Leeds, and the other contending towns, to hear this news. But there is a degree of hollowness to those in the government who are claiming this is a total surprise or a vindictive move.

I was delighted to be invited to speak at the Brexit and Agriculture event in York last week organised by the National Farmers’ Union and the European Parliament UK office. It was extremely instructive to talk with farmers, NFU officials and agriculture students about their concerns regarding the Brexit negotiations. Over the course of the event and the discussions that followed, four main themes emerged.

In his recent testimony to the House of Lords, Sir Ivan Rogers, former British Permanent Representative to the European Union, criticized as premature and ill-prepared the Prime Minister’s triggering last March of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. This is unfair to Theresa May. No different date for the beginning of the Brexit negotiations could or would have rendered them any less painful for the British participants. No amount of extra preparation on the British side before triggering Article 50 could or would have resolved the numerous internal contradictions of the Brexit project.

Time is not on the UK’s side in these negotiations: The latest ONS annual Pink Book on the UK’s balance of payments shows a further deterioration of the current account to 6% of GDP (£114 billion) in 2016.

If Brexit is going to be so great, why have so many Brexiters been opposed to the government releasing its Brexit impact assessments? Why keep them hidden away if it’s going to be glorious? And why not show the EU that we’ll do spiffingly when we leave thank you very much, deal or no deal?