Brexit: France says UK will only get extension if May can guarantee deal will pass – Politics live

Starmer says that Theresa May’s letter to Donald Tusk (see 12.21pm and 2.06pm) implies that she just wants to bring the same deal back for a third vote.

Starmer says the main problem with Theresa May’s strategy is that she seems to think the “blinkered approach” she has adopted up to now can just be pursued for another three months.

That approach has “failed badly”, he says.

He says the Commons needs a different approach.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is opening the emergency debate on Brexit.

He starts by saying Theresa May should be in the Commons herself to hear or respond to the debate.

He says he agrees with what Ed Miliband said at PMQs about May herself being a “roadblock” to Brexit solution.

My colleague Jessica Elgot has more on Theresa May’s meeting with opposition party leaders later.

It will be odd if Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t turn up. He was asking for a meeting with Theresa May today only a few hours ago at PMQs. (See 12.10pm.)

This is from my colleague Angelique Chrisafis, with more on what the French are saying about an article 50 extension.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is making his application for an emergency debate on Brexit.

John Bercow, the Speaker, says he will allow the debate.

The Tory MP Peter Bone objects. But more than 40 opposition MPs stood up, which means the debate can go ahead under the standing order 24 rule.

Bercow says SO24 debates normally take place on the following day, but he can allow them to take place immediately, and the debate will start soon, after the 10-minute rule bill.

In the Commons Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader, has just said she has been invited to a meeting at Number 10 later. According to the Sun’s Hugo Gye, all opposition leaders have been called in.

In the Commons the three urgent questions are now over. Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, is making a point of order now. He says the nation is in crisis, and time is short, and that he has written to the PM saying the Commons should sit on Saturday to find a way forward for Brexit.

John Bercow, the Speaker, says a Saturday sitting would be possible. But it would require a resolution of the house.

He says such a resolution could be put to the Commons tomorrow or on Friday. That would be possible in procedural terms, he says. But he says he is not saying he thinks the government would agree.

Anna Soubry, the former Tory who is now an Independent Group MP, says the People’s Vote march is happening on Saturday. If the Commons were sitting, MPs would be able to go out and meet the marchers, she says.

And this Le Point report has more on Emmanuel Macron’s stance on an article 50 extension.

This is how the article starts.

Pour Macron, c’est décidé : il faut … refuser aux Britanniques tout report du Brexit, prévu à la date du 29 mars. C’est en tout cas la position qu’il exprimera jeudi lors du Conseil européen.

And this is how that gets translated by DeepL, with some tidying up from me.

For Macron, it is decided: we must … refuse to allow the British to postpone the Brexit, scheduled for 29 March. In any case, this is the position he will express on Thursday at the European council.

The French government is taking a tough stance on the possibility of extending article 50. Reuters snapped these two lines a few minutes ago.

FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER: OUR MESSAGE ON BREXIT IS CLEAR: RATIFY THE DEAL OR LEAVE WITHOUT AN AGREEMENT

FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER: IF MAY CANNOT OFFER GUARANTEES HER BREXIT DEAL WILL BE PASSED IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL WILL TURN DOWN HER EXTENSION REQUEST

And earlier the French government spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, said:

France’s position is simple: the British prime minister must explain to us for how long and what for, and offer us guarantees.

A delay is therefore not automatic nor certain.

The Evening Standard is splashing on Theresa May’s comment that as prime minister she is not willing to delay Brexit beyond 30 June. (See 12.08pm.)

They are interpreting it as a threat to resign if MPs insist on a longer delay.

The only drawback with this is that it is not entirely clear at whom such a threat might be directed. Most of the MPs likely to favour a longer article 50 extension would be quite happy to see May resign, not least because that might precipitate a general election.

Here are the key points from Theresa May’s letter to Donald Tusk, president of the European council. (See 12.21pm.)

• May is requesting an extension of article 50 until 30 June.

• She blames John Bercow, and his ruling about “no repeat votes”, for the government’s failure to hold a third vote on her Brexit deal this week. (This is probably only partially true; even before Bercow anounced his decision on Monday, there were reports that the prospects of a vote were fading, because the government and the DUP had failed to clinch a deal.)

• She implies that she will not accept a longer article 50 extension, saying this would require the UK to take part in the European elections and that she does not think that would be in either the UK or the EU’s interests, but she does not categorically say that this will not happen. MLex’s Matthew Holehouse thinks this is significant.

However, in PMQs May also said that “as prime minister” she was not prepared to delay Brexit any further than 30 June, implying this was a resigning matter for her. (See 12.08pm.)

Here are some lines from the Number 10 post-PMQs briefing.

From my colleague Heather Stewart

From the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar