Brexit deal won’t happen tonight, government sources confirm – as it happened | Brexit

We’re going to wrap up this liveblog now and summarise an eventful day in Brexit history.

Senior government figures have said there will be “no deal” on Wednesday night.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, attempted to secure backing from Tory Brexiters and the DUP as EU leaders spearheaded talks in Brussels, awaiting the green light to approve a deal before Thursday’s summit.

However, the DUP objected to several points in Johnson’s agreement.

In addition, an issue over VAT was said to be an obstacle in talks as Michel Barnier briefed EU27 ambassadors this evening.

Johnson won the favour of hardline Eurosceptics, including MP Steve Baker.

It is thought the prime minister could travel to Brussels early Thursday morning to secure his deal with EU leaders.

Johnson is expected to try to pass the deal through parliament on Saturday.

Jeremy Corbyn has been dealt a blow as veteran MP Dame Louise Ellman quit Labour accusing him of being a danger to Britain.

Dame Louise, 73, who is Jewish, said she had been “deeply troubled” by the “growth of anti-Semitism” in Labour in recent years.

She tweeted: “I have made the truly agonising decision to leave the Labour Party after 55 years.

“I can no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks Corbyn becoming PM.”

The Liverpool Riverside MP, who has been in the Party 55 years, added: “I believe that Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to serve as our Prime Minister.

“With a looming general election and the possibility of him becoming Prime Minister, I feel I have to take a stand.”

And she told the Times newspaper that if he became prime minister “I believe that Jeremy Corbyn would be a danger to the country, a danger to the Jewish community as well, but a danger to the country too”.

With Tory Eurosceptics now on the Prime Minister’s side, Mr Johnson is in a race against time to gain support from the DUP and get his deal through to the EU, as explained by Daniel Boffey.

Labour MP Stella Creasy has raised suspicions that the DUP are striking a Brexit bargain with the government that will include an attempt to stop expected abortion rights in Northern Ireland.

Boris Johnson’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, was seen leaving No 10 shortly before 9pm.

In need of a little light relief? Read John Crace’s sketch on the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay: “Calming to the point of comatose, each word more meaningless than the one before.

“By the end of a sentence, you are far worse informed than if he had said nothing.”

The Leader of the Independent Group for Change and former Conservative Anna Soubry has described the amount of time MPs would have to scrutinise Boris Johnson’s prospective deal on Saturday as “plain wrong”.

While the ERG appear to be rallying behind Johnson and his deal, the PM has to convince the 21 MPs he expelled from the party.

If Boris Johnson manages to bring back a deal from Brussels, shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman said she expects Labour would support any amendment put forward in the Commons to attach a confirmatory referendum to that deal.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Neil Show, she added: “The expectation would be that should a deal be tabled on Saturday, and we don’t know that is going to happen, I am as sure as you can be that there will be an amendment tabled that would want to see a referendum attached to the deal.”

Asked if Labour would support this, she said: “I would expect us to support that, yes.”

She added: “I’d rather have a general election but we are not in control of this unfortunately.

“So should that opportunity come, on Saturday, to have that referendum on the deal – the deal that we don’t know yet is going to be there.

“But should that happen … in the circumstance I think there is an opportunity there and the pragmatic, sensible thing for the Labour party to do, given that we’ve been asking for this, would be to take that opportunity.”

Even if Boris Johnson managed to pull off a Brexit deal, he would still have other problems on his plate as this story on the latest developments on the Arcuri saga by Matthew Weaver shows.

Here’s our take on how ERG chair Steve Baker and his allies are warming to a deal after Boris Johnson promised them the UK would leave the customs union and secure a quick free trade deal with the EU.

Asked whether there could be a Brexit extension, MP Steve Baker said Boris Johnson confirmed the UK will leave the EU on 31 October.

Baker said: “My sense is we really must see the text, time is becoming very short for everybody.”

“The prime minister has been absolutely clear – we are leaving on the 31st of October.”

Chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) Steve Baker said “great progress” has been made in talks with No 10.

Speaking to Sky News after a meeting in Downing Street, Baker said: “We have made great progress in our discussions with No 10,” adding: “Really at this point, it just remains to wish the prime minister every possible success as he goes to negotiate for our country.”

Asked if he would back a deal, he said: “I know everybody is desperate for us to say whether we can vote for it but until we can see it, we can’t say.”

He added: “We really must see the text in time to read it in order to vote on Saturday.

“Time is becoming very short for everyone now. As Michel Barnier famously said, ‘the clock is ticking’.

“We need to get through this (European) council, have the text of the deal, have the implementing legislation ready, and we need to be voting on that on Saturday.”

Government sources say there will be no deal tonight

The anti-Brexit campaigner Jo Maugham QC has announced plans to launch a legal action in an attempt to ban the government from putting the withdrawal agreement before parliament.

Quoting a source from No 10, the Sun’s political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, has said there will be no deal tonight as government talks are still taking place.

Michel Barnier has arrived at a meeting of EU ambassadors in the Europa building in Brussels to brief them on the latest developments in London, reports the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey in Brussels.

“He said nothing to reporters. The deal is done. And all depends on London giving the green light. All that stands in the way of leaders signing off on Thursday are the DUP’s objections,” his report said.

At the same time, Downing Street is playing down expectations of a deal being done tonight.

Talk of hundreds of millions, if not billions, going the way of Northern Ireland as part of a sweetener for the DUP has piqued the interest of many, though the SNP’s Joanna Cherry vents the anger of Scottish nationalists here.

And one view – from Irish economist and commentator David Williams – of the so-called bung that might be headed Northern Ireland’s way …

Angela Merkel says Brexit negotiations are in ‘final sprint’ phase