May tells MPs UK and EU aren’t ‘far apart’ as she insists UK must be able to terminate Irish backstop - as it happened

We’re going to close down this live blog now. Here’s a summary of the afternoon’s events:

• The prime minister, Theresa May, will address her fellow EU leaders this week as she seeks to ensure a Brexit deal is struck. May will give the UK government’s “assessment of the negotiations”, before her 27 European counterparts break off to discuss how to approach the remaining talks.
  
• The Labour party leadership has assured the parliamentary party that they will not be asked to support either May’s deal or no deal. Instead, the party would focus on demanding a general election, should May return without a proposal Labour felt it could get behind.
  

You can read a summary of MPs’ questioning of May here – and one of her statement to parliament here.

And you can read the full story on May’s Brexit travails here:

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has addressed a meeting of his party’s peers and MPs, along with the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer.

They told the Parliamentary Labour Party that opposing any deal Theresa May brought back would not necessarily mean no deal was the alternative. A party source said:

Both Keir and Jeremy made clear that it isn’t a straightforward choice between the likely package that Theresa May brings back and no deal.

If we vote against it and it’s voted down in parliament, then there is the option of calling for a general election on the basis that the government is unable to deliver that outcome, that we would seek to reopen the negotiations on the basis of our alternative plan and then, failing all that, all other options are on the table.

The Parliamentary Labour Party are not the only group meeting this evening. Cabinet Brexiters have also gathered. But my colleague, Pippa Crerar, has a worrying update:

Confirmation that Theresa May will address her fellow EU leaders this week. Her official spokesman says:

The PM has accepted an invitation from President Tusk to provide an update on the Brexit negotiations on Wednesday evening. This will take place in advance of a dinner discussion on Brexit by the 27 other member states.”

Labour MPs are also meeting this evening.

The prime minister, Theresa May, has been invited to address her fellow EU leaders on Wednesday as she insists a deal remains “achievable”.

In a letter to European Council members, the EU president, Donald Tusk, says the Brexit negotiations have “proven to be more complicated than some may have expected”. But he adds: “We should nevertheless remain hopeful and determined, as there is good will to continue these talks on both sides.”

This week’s two-day summit will open with a debate on Brexit and a speech from May, “giving the UK government’s assessment of the negotiations”. The 27 other leaders of EU member states will then get together without May to “decide on how to take the negotiations forward, on the basis of a recommendation by our chief negotiator, Michel Barnier”.

Tusk expresses hope that a deal can be struck this month, adding:

But at the same time, responsible as we are, we must prepare the EU for a no-deal scenario, which is more likely than ever before. Like the UK, the [EU] Commission has started such preparations, and will give us an update during the meeting.

But let me be absolutely clear. The fact that we are preparing for a no-deal scenario must not, under any circumstances, lead us away from making every effort to reach the best agreement possible, for all sides. This is what our state of mind should be at this stage. As someone rightly said: ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’. Let us not give up.

The summit will reconvene on Thursday for discussions on migration, security and international relations, as well as on economics, before meetings with 21 Asian countries.

I’ve summarised the main points from Theresa May’s opening statement already. (See 4.36pm.) But, as is often the case with these statements, some of the most interesting material came in the questions that were thrown at her, and in what she said in response. Here are the highlights from those responses.

• Theresa May’s Chequers plan faced strong criticism from MPs from all sides of the Commons. While there was little personal criticism of May during the exchanges, which lasted for around an hour and 40 minutes, what was striking was how little support there was for the proposal agreed at Chequers and fleshed out in the government’s white paper. Even Tory MPs normally cast as loyalist sounded sceptical.

• May gave a hint that a failure to agree a deal could lead to the Commons voting for a second Brexit referendum. She has repeatedly said she is opposed to a second referendum and she said that again today, arguing that it would undermine trust in politics because it would dishonour the 2016 referendum result. But when the Conservative MP Heidi Allen said a second referendum might be needed if there were no deal, May replied:

We are working to get a good deal with the European Union. If it were the case that at the end of the negotiation process actually it was a no deal, that both sides agreed that no deal was there, than actually that would come back to this House, and then we would see what position this House would take in the circumstances of the time.

It was not clear what May meant by her answer, but in her Conservative party conference speech she told Brexiters that if they did not back her plan, they could end up with no Brexit, and so it is in her interests to talk up the prospect of a second referendum taking place. However it is very hard to see how a referendum could take place without the government allowing time for the legislation setting one up - and, given everything else she has said on this, it is difficult to imagine a government led by her actually doing this.

• May said she was opposed to extending article 50 to allow more time for Brexit talks. When Labour’s Yvette Cooper proposed this, May replied:

I do not believe that we should be extending article 50.

But May did not categorically rule it out. (I have taken out a heading in an earlier post saying she was unequivocal about this.)

• May appeared to rule out an Irish backstop plan that would involve Northern Ireland being subject to single market regulations not applying to Great Britain. She has already said she would oppose a new customs border down the Irish Sea. But at one stage there was speculation that she might allow goods going to Northern Ireland from GB to be subject to regulatory checks required by the single market. The DUP’s leader at Westminster, Nigel Dodds, asked her to rule this out, saying:

Will she confirm today ... that a proposed backstop that would see Northern Ireland carved off in the EU customs union and parts of the single market, separated through a border in the Irish Sea from the UK’s own internal market, could never be accepted by her.

May replied:

When the UK leaves the European Union, it will be the UK that leave the European Union. We will be leaving the European Union together.

She also explained that this was why she could not accept the EU’s “backstop to the backstop”. Afterwards Dodds seemed to welcome her clarification.

• May repeatedly refused to say that the Irish backstop would include a precise end date. And, when asked by Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, if it could definitely end by December 2021 (as the government proposed in its June backstop paper), she refused to give that assurance.

• She refused to rule out the UK having to pay more than the £39bn “divorce bill” agreed if the UK-wide Irish backstop gets activated. (See 4.53pm.)

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.

Theresa May will speak to French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday evening ahead of the European Council meeting, Downing Street has confirmed. As the Press Association reports, Macron told a press conference in Paris that he would discuss Brexit with the prime minister ahead of Wednesday’s two-day summit. Her official spokesman confirmed they were to speak by telephone, and said she had also recently spoken with German chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch premier Mark Rutte. He added:

She has had, as she does ahead of any European council summit, conversations with some European leaders in recent days and she will be having more in the days to come.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said today that Brexit is looking “a bit more difficult”, Reuters reports.

Here is some Twitter comment on May’s statement.

From Sky’s Faisal Islam

From the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot

From Politico Europe’s Tom McTague

From Steve Richards

From the Spectator’s Katy Balls

These are from the BBC’s Adam Fleming in Brussels.

The May statement is over.

I will be posting reaction and a summary soon.