Uk politics

Theresa May is to face her MPs at the 1922 Committee tomorrow, it has been confirmed. There had been calls for the Prime Minister to do so, after feverish speculation that Tory MPs were plotting to remove her because of her disappointing Brexit performance. She has clearly decided to take on those critics and face her party, rather than hide and hope that this is all going to go away. One of the reasons MPs are increasingly dissatisfied with the Prime Minister is that she isn't offering any sense of progress towards a deal, and there will again be demands for her to show that she will win a concession from Brussels and secure a deal.

Theresa May tried her best to persuade grumpy MPs that a Brexit deal was still in sight when she addressed the Commons this evening. With colleagues from across the Conservative party losing faith in No 10's negotiating strategy, the Prime Minister insisted that '95 per cent of the Withdrawal Agreement and its protocols are now settled'. The trouble is the remaining 5 per cent is the most difficult. As May herself admitted, the main sticking point is 'a considerable one': the Irish border. With the Brexit talks at an impasse over the terms of the Irish backstop – the arrangement the UK would fall back on to avoid a hard border if no new trade deal is in place by the end of the transition – few believe a solution is in sight.

Ever since Chequers there has been almost constant speculation about an attempt to remove Theresa May but with nothing actually happening. So it is tempting to ignore it all, to conclude that those agitating against Mrs May are all hat and no cattle. But this weekend, something does appear to have changed. Whether it leads to anything remains to be seen, but the shift in the mood does seem worth relating. Yesterday, I received a phone call from a former Cabinet Minister who had never told me before that May should go. This time, he was clear not only that she should, but that there was an active effort underway to bring this about. The thing that I was struck most about was this former Secretary of State’s anger, there was much Anglo-Saxon language and talk of national humiliation.

It's the day of the People's Vote march and over half a million protesters are estimated to have descended on the capital to call for a second referendum. The pro-EU protesters have brought with them a range of placards – while some parents have opted to simply save paper and write pro-EU slogans on their children's backs. Mr S will leave readers to rank today's offerings: https://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1053612226219831296 https://twitter.com/HenryCPorter/status/1053646639750098945 https://twitter.com/mpvine/status/1053678434369572864 https://twitter.com/mpvine/status/1053681304376614914 https://twitter.com/mpvine/status/1053679945598296065 https://twitter.com/mpvine/status/1053677481092374529 https://twitter.

Theresa May's Hell Week 2.0 has aptly ended with a Conservative backbencher branding the current operation a 'sh-t-show'. In an interview with The House magazine, Johnny Mercer has let rip – complaining that were he not a Conservative MP he wouldn't vote Conservative. Mercer says the party's values have changed since the Cameron days and if he weren't an MP already 'there would be absolutely no chance that I would try and be a Member of Parliament' in the current climate. Mercer also rules out taking a job in the current administration – though it's safe to presume that No 10 won't be particularly minded to give one to him after this outburst. So, is Mercer throwing his toys out of the pram – or does this intervention touch on a wider problem?

With Conservative MPs across the spectrum seeing red over a mooted extension to the implementation period after the UK leaves the EU, Theresa May attempted to dial down the rhetoric in her EU Council press conference this afternoon. After a disappointing evening which saw the Prime Minister granted neither dinner nor sufficient progress by the EU27, May insisted to hacks that a good Brexit deal was still in sight. On reports that No 10 is planning to extend the transition period by up to a year in a bid to reach a deal, May did not deny the claims – but insisted that this wouldn't really be an implementation period extension per se.

Another question to the Prime Minister today that's worth noting came from Labour MP Danielle Rowley on Universal Credit. She was asking not about the well-known problems with the roll-out of the benefit, but about a flaw with its very design: 'The Work and Pensions Committee heard evidence that the lack of automatic split payments for universal credit means that women are being trapped in abusive relationships. That absolutely disgusts me, but how does it make the Prime Minister feel?' Currently, Universal Credit is paid to the household as a whole. The problem with this is when one member of a couple is abusing the other, and controlling all their finances.