Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn has again shown his power over the structures of the Labour party by winning today's national executive committee showdown over its European elections manifesto. A faction of MPs, led by Tom Watson and backed by the GMB, Unison, Usdaw and TSSA unions, had hoped to change party policy to support for a confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal that Parliament comes up with. But Corbyn and the Unite union had opposed this, and this afternoon, they came out on top.

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that Theresa May hasn't yet moved on her Brexit red lines in talks with the Labour Party. In a broadcast clip this evening, the Labour leader said: 'Well, the meetings are very long. A great deal of detail is gone into by both parties. We have people who have been on this case for several years so they're all very accustomed to it all. We've gone into it because the government at last acceded to a request I first made last September that we're prepared to talk and put forward our views, but talks have to mean a movement and so far there's been no change in those red lines.' There have been reports that the talks are moving towards an offer of a customs union, which would enrage many Conservative MPs even more.

Theresa May has this evening found enough people to fill the various ministerial holes left in her government by the recent slew of resignations. Some of these holes have been gaping for rather a long time: there has been no Minister for Disabled People since 13 March, for instance. But their lack of replacements until now has excited very little attention, largely because it's not clear what else the government aspires to do at the moment other than exist. The appointments announced this evening are as follows: Justin Tomlinson MP to be a Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions. James Cleverly MP to be a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union.

The Independent Group has brought forward its plans to become a political party, called Change UK, and appointed Heidi Allen as its interim leader. This is so it can stand candidates in the European elections, should Britain end up having to participate in them. The party will have its inaugural conference in the autumn. This comes at a rather awkward time for the group of MPs who left their parties last month. They haven’t yet been joined by any more colleagues, with many Labourites who were wavering now putting their faith in Tom Watson’s attempts to renew the party.

The Commons has just erupted into a bizarre row over an insult thrown across the Chamber. Normally, in these situations, the Speaker ends up scolding the MP who deployed the insult, but in this case it was John Bercow himself who provoked the uproar in the first place. Demanding that Tory MP Greg Hands come to order, the Speaker told the Chamber that Hands hadn't been a very good whip when he had held the role, which immediately led to angry roars from the Tory benches, followed by repeated shouts of 'withdraw!' Initially, Bercow stuck to his guns as Conservatives complained in points of order that he had only recently asked them to consider their language when addressing one another, and that he had praised Oliver Letwin during the debate which had preceded this argument.

This evening, Jeremy Corbyn walked out of a meeting between opposition party leaders and the Prime Minister about Brexit. The reason for his angry protest had nothing to do with what was being discussed, but his distaste for one of the attendees. Former Labour MP Chuka Umunna was there to represent the Independent Group, and this, according to those present, was too much for the Labour leader to stomach. Labour has since said the the terms of the meeting had changed and that this wasn't what Corbyn had agreed to when he said he would meet the Prime Minister in her office. But this is an impressive own goal, even by the Labour leader's standards.

Boris Johnson was given an angry lecture by a minister in the voting lobbies about his comments that money had been 'spaffed up a wall' for investigating child sex abuse, I understand. The former Foreign Secretary upset survivors of the crime by using the term during radio interview last week. He told LBC that 'you, know £60 million I saw was being spaffed up a wall on some investigation into historic child abuse'. [embed]https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1105787079483670533[/embed] On Thursday night, as MPs were voting on the latest round of Brexit amendments, he was confronted in the lobby by Victims' Minister Victoria Atkins who, according to several MPs present, 'read him the riot act'.

The DUP has confirmed that it will be voting against Theresa May's Brexit deal this evening. A party spokesman said that 'sufficient progress has not been achieved at this time' and that 'it is clear that the risks remain that the UK would be unable to lawfully exit the backstop were it to be activated'. Along with the European Research Group's recommendation to vote down the deal, this means that the Prime Minister's strategy of trying to win over the DUP and the Brexiteers in her own party has failed. It means that she is facing a landslide defeat tonight. The Commons benches behind the Prime Minister as she is giving her speech at the start of the debate are eerily empty, almost as if a good number of Conservative MPs can't face being there to watch government disintegrating.