Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the first day of the Commons debate on the European Union (notification of withdrawal) bill, allowing the government to trigger article 50
Opening of the debate - Summary and analysis
7.06pm GMT
Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, announced last week that he would be voting for the article 50 bill at second reading after it was reported that he was one of the shadow cabinet members particularly unhappy about Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to impose a three-line whip.
But he has now confirmed that, if Labour’s amendments are not accepted, he will vote against the bill at third reading and resign from the shadow cabinet. This is from ITV’s Emma Hutchinson.
Clive Lewis tells me if Gvt doesn't accept Lab amndmnts to Brexit Bill then he can't support next week & will leave Shadow Cab @itvanglia
6.55pm GMT
Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chair of the Commons Treasury committee, says he voted to remain but accepts the result of the referendum. There could be considerable advantages from Brexit, he says. But he says it is important to get a transitional deal. And he says he thinks the UK should continue to have a close, ongoing relationship with the EU after Brexit.
6.49pm GMT
Labour’s Steve McCabe says that he will vote for the bill. But he says that is essential that the government agrees to report back to the Commons regularly on how the negotiations are going, so that MPs can insist on changes if a new approach is needed.
6.45pm GMT
Turning away from the debate for a moment, it has emerged that Theresa May is hiring a new communications chief. It’s James Slack, who is currently political editor of the Daily Mail. These are from Politico Europe’s Tom McTague.
Confirmed: Daily Mail pol ed James Slack on verge of becoming PM's new official spokesman, Westminster sources reveal (h/t @GuidoFawkes)
Theresa May gets her Alastair Campbell – Daily Mail Political Editor James Slack https://t.co/BtODPEFyKX via @POLITICOEurope
6.36pm GMT
Labour’s Stephen Timms says the government wants to get net migration below 100,000. But the government already has total control of migration from outside the EU, and the figure for net migration from outside the EU is well above 100,000.
He says he thinks David Cameron’s problems started when he took the Conservatives out of the centre-right EPP group in the European parliament. That was when they started to lose influence, he says.
6.30pm GMT
Quite a few of the earlier posts have now been beefed up with direct quotes, from the Press Association reports. But to get to updates to show you may need to refresh the page.
6.27pm GMT
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative, says the 23 June last year will be remembered as a great day in history. It is comparable with Agincourt and Waterloo, he suggests.
All MPs are doing is implementing the glorious decision taken by the public in the referendum, he says.
6.18pm GMT
The Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney says she will be voting against the bill. She represents a pro-remain constituency for a pro-remain party. But she also thinks leaving the EU will be against the interests of the country.
6.13pm GMT
The Conservative MP Claire Perry says she was “appalled” by the quality of the debate during the EU referendum campaign. The leave campaign was “spiced up” by anti-immigration rhetoric. As examples, she cites the Ukip “Breaking Point” poster, and the Vote Leave claims about Turkey joining the EU.
6.08pm GMT
Labour’s Liam Byrne says he agrees with with his colleague Jo Stevens said. (See 5.39am.) He says David Cameron is to blame for this. He adopted a Bullingdon Club approach to this: create a terrible mess, throw some money on the table, and expect someone else to clear it up.
Tory MPs challenge him over the point about money, reminding him of the note he left before the 2010 general election, when he was chief secretary to the Treasury, saying there was no money.
6.02pm GMT
You can read a transcript of the start of the debate here, on the Hansard website. Hansard generally posts speeches about three hours after they have been delivered, and at the moment the Hansard goes up to Anna Soubry’s speech. As the evening goes on, more speeches will be added.
6.00pm GMT
Oliver Dowden, a Conservative, says mass immigration has had a profound effect on Britain. People felt they had lost control. David Cameron tried to address this in his renegotiation, but he could not, because EU countries would not abandon free movement. He says Angela Merkel, having been brought up in East Germany, is opposed to border controls.
He says, because of his innate conservatism, he did not think it was worth the risk voting to leave the EU. But the people thought otherwise, and their decision must be respected, he says.
5.56pm GMT
The SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell says that he cannot vote for the bill.
5.50pm GMT
James Morris, a Conservative, says he was one of the 81 Tories who defied the whip to vote in favour of a referendum in 2011. That seems a long time ago, he says.
(It was. Here’s the Guardian’s live blog covering that vote. Our blogs looked very different then. I’ve just had a quick look at my summary from the end of the debate. “Having just sat through it all, it’s hard not to feel that the prospect of a referendum at some point this decade is looking more likely,” I concluded.)
5.39pm GMT
Jo Stevens, who resigned as shadow Welsh secretary so she can vote against the bill, says Brexit has led to growing intolerance. Foreign children in her constituency have been spat at, she says. And she says she fears that is what is happening in the US will make matters worse.
Some have been the victims of racism and hate crimes, like my friend Suzanne who came to Cardiff from Germany and has a young daughter, Lilleth, who is in primary school, who have been spat at, told to ‘go home’ and had bricks and stones thrown at them in the street.
This is the climate that they and we are living in, and I do not believe that it is a coincidence of timing.
The single market is the lifeline to our manufacturing industry - what’s left of it - in steel, automotive and aerospace as well as to our farming and food production sector.
So the prime minister’s decision that we are leaving the single market is something I cannot accept.
5.32pm GMT
Peter Bone, the pro-leave Conservative, says at Tory selection meetings, people are asked if they would put party, country or constituency first. The right answer is country first, then constituency, then party.
Normally they go together, he says.
5.25pm GMT
Labour’s Catherine West, a shadow Foreign Office minister, says, when she held an advice surgery after the referendum, 500 people came to see her because they were worried about the vote.
She used to be a councillor, she says. As a council leader, if she had taken a decision on the basis of a speech and a couple of letters in the papers, she would have been hounded out of office, she says.
5.20pm GMT
Tom Pursglove, a Conservative pro-leave campaigner, says MPs have talked about Edmund Burke and MPs voting on the basis of their judgment. He says he used his judgment when he voted for the referendum and campaigned for leave.
The SNP’s Stephen Gethins asks Pursglove if he used his judgment and stood on a platform represented by a blank piece of paper.
5.17pm GMT
Labour’s Kate Green says she wants to direct her speech towards her constituents in Stretford and Urmston.
She says single market membership it out. But it is not clear what will come instead.
4.54pm GMT
Nigel Evans, the Conservative pro-leave MP, says the government should clear up what will happen to EU nationals living in the UK as soon as possible. The idea that they might be rounded up and put on an easyJet for the continent is despicable.
He says it is “cruel” for the European commission to oppose clarifying the rights of these citizens until the Brexit talks start.
4.51pm GMT
The Conservative MP Neil Carmichael, who was strongly pro-remain, told MPs that being in the EU did not stop the UK trading with the rest of the world.
And the SNP MP Deidre Brock criticised the government for refusing to engage with the Scottish government over Brexit. She said the article 50 bill was “childish” and “disrespectful” in its simplicity.
4.42pm GMT
In his speech earlier (see 2.42pm) Nick Clegg claimed that Theresa May turned down an offer from Germany for Britain to get the right to have some form of emergency brake over immigration, in return for the country adopting a soft Brexit. The former Lib Dem leader and former deputy prime minister told MPs:
Some people say there is no alternative, we must leave the single market, there is no remote chance we could find an accommodation with our European partners. Nonsense.
I will confirm to the House that I’ve recently heard on very good authority that senior German decision-makers, shortly after the prime minister [came into office] ... were keen to explore ways to deliver an emergency brake to the new UK prime minister - in return what they hoped for was an undisruptive economic Brexit.
The British people did not vote to make themselves poorer by pulling ourselves out of the greatest free trading single market the world has ever seen.
The British people most certainly did not give a mandate to the government to indulge in this ludicrous, sycophantic farce we’ve seen in recent days in which this government - having burnt every bridge left with our friends in Europe - rushes across the Atlantic to sidle next to a US president, who they don’t seem to be aware whose nativism, whose isolationism, whose protectionism is diametrically opposed to the long-term strategic interests of the United Kingdom.
4.33pm GMT
Labour’s Emma Reynolds says the government has still not said when its promised vote on the final Brexit deal would take place.
She says the government should unilaterally guaranteed the rights of EU nationals living in Britain.
I campaigned to remain in the EU, but I accept the result of the referendum and I will be voting for this bill tomorrow evening. The leader of the Liberal Democrats calls this cowardly. I call it democracy.
We held a national referendum. Those of us on the remain side might not like the result, but we have to accept it.
4.23pm GMT
Michael Gove, the Conservative former justice secretary and leading Vote Leave campaigner, provokes laughter when he says “all of us” are concerned about “raucous populism”.
He singles out the Liberal Democrats in particular for criticism, saying they cannot be called democratic when they oppose the outcome of the referendum.
I’ve no idea whether or not the word lie is unparliamentary, but what I do know is that as someone who is not in the government, I can’t deliver these sums.
But what I can do is I can consistently argue, as I have, that when we take back control of the money that we currently give to the European Union, we can invest that money in the NHS.
4.16pm GMT
Labour’s Clive Efford says he agrees with almost everything Kenneth Clarke said in his speech. But he says he will back the bill because he sees the need to accept the result of the referendum.
And he calls for more accountability. He says it is “folly” to assume, as leave campaigners do, that the UK can fall out of the EU and rely on World Trade Organisations trading terms without the economy suffering.
4.09pm GMT
Sir Oliver Letwin, the Conservative former Cabinet Office minister, says he is opposed to parliament getting the option of voting to keep the UK in the EU later in the Brexit process.
He says if MPs were to amend the bill to retain the option of having a vote on the Brexit deal that could lead to the UK staying in the EU, then the other EU states would have an incentive to offer the UK a deal so bad that parliament would vote to stay in.
4.06pm GMT
The New Statesman’s George Eaton has written an interesting blog about Sir Keir Starmer’s speech at the start of the debate. He says he thinks Brexit will be a key issue in the next Labour leadership contest. Here’s an extract:
At the next Labour leadership election, Brexit, which will define British politics for a decade or more, will be a central issue. Clive Lewis, the ambitious and energetic shadow business secretary, could yet aid his cause by voting against article 50. Starmer, another prospective leader, will hope for more than one reason that he does not.
It was Labour, not the Conservatives, that was the original eurosceptic party in British politics. After the 1975 referendum split Harold Wilson’s government, Michael Foot backed EEC withdrawal just six years later. It was Jacques Delors’s 1988 address to the Trades Unions Congress that led Labour to embrace Europe as a counterweight to Thatcherism (and the Tories to concurrently shun it). Today, as he drew the curtain on decades of EU support, Starmer appealed for a “good deal less of the gloating from those who voted to Leave”. But as Labour grapples with its Brexit plight, his wish is unlikely to be granted.
4.01pm GMT
Chris Leslie, the Labour former shadow chancellor, says he cannot support the bill when there are so many questions about what happens. He says he has tabled amendments to get more clarity from the government about its plans.
He thinks the government is heading for a hard Brexit, he says.
3.56pm GMT
Owen Paterson, the Conservative former environment secretary and a leading pro-leave figure, says the establishment is refusing to accept the result of the referendum.
3.51pm GMT
Since you’re here, we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever – but far fewer are paying for it, and advertising revenues are falling fast. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe that independent reporting and plurality of voices matter. If everyone who reads our reporting helps to pay for it, our future would be much more secure. Support us with a monthly payment or a one-off contribution. - Guardian HQ
3.50pm GMT
The New Statesman’s Stephen Bush has a useful guide to which MPs are likely to vote against the article 50 bill. He has tweeted a link to it.
Andy Slaughter and Stella Creasy will vote against Article 50: https://t.co/HSQkzBk6N8
3.48pm GMT
Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP and leading Vote Leave campaigner, says she helped to draft the original article 50, when it was part of what was then a proposed constitution. She says it was originally intended as an expulsion clause. But the EU can never drop an idea, and that is why it ended up in the Lisbon treaty.
She says she thinks a unilateral decision to offer EU nationals the right to stay in the UK would help to ensure a successful negotiation.
3.42pm GMT
Julian Lewis, the Conservative chair of the Commons defence committee, goes next. And his entire speech consists of one sentence.
The people have decided, and I’m going to vote accordingly.
3.40pm GMT
Labour’s Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons public accounts committee, says she cannot back a bill like this with so little detail.
And she says the government should declare that EU nationals in the Britain now can stay.
I think it’s actually tantamount to torture to not tell people who are from the EU living and working here that they cannot stay, as it is for British people living and working in the European Union.
Do you not believe that both sides ought to get together as quickly as possible and put people out of their misery, and tell them that they’re allowed to stay, live and work in the country where they currently are?
I would agree with that position but I believe the government could go further and make a unilateral declaration.
3.38pm GMT
Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general, says when he was in government he found plenty of aspects of the EU to criticise. But he never thought the UK should leave, and he does not think that now.
In fact, the potential problems of leaving are considerable, he says.
I think we have made a grave error and I think it is one that will become more and more apparent with the passage of time.
3.31pm GMT
Here is a Guardian video with an extract from Kenneth Clarke’s speech earlier.
3.28pm GMT
The DUP’s Sammy Wilson is speaking now. He says MPs should accept the results of the referendum. If Scotland or Wales or Northern Ireland were given a veto over the result, that would be detrimental to the integrity of the United Kingdom, he says.
It would be detrimental to the Union if we had a situation where Scotland or Wales or Northern Ireland had the right to say to the people of the whole of the United Kingdom ‘we don’t care how you voted, the 1.8m people in Northern Ireland have a right to veto how the rest of the people in the United Kingdom express their views’. That would be detrimental to the Union.
3.18pm GMT
Sir Edward Leigh, a pro-leave Conservative, says it should be easy for the UK to sign a free trade deal with the EU after Brexit. He thinks Brexit will enable the UK to strengthen links with the rest of Europe, not to weaken them, he says.
I sincerely believe that this process is not a triumph of nationalism, of us being apart from them. I believe it is quite the opposite.
I believe it is part of a new internationalism and recognising our common citizenship of the whole world.
3.17pm GMT
Turning away from the article 50 debate for a moment, it has just been announced that there will be a debate on the petition calling for Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK to be cancelled.
It will take place at 4.30pm on Monday 20 February. It will be in Westminster Hall, not the main Commons chamber, and it will just be a debate; there will not be a vote. It will last for up to three hours.
3.10pm GMT
Dame Rosie Winterton, the former Labour chief whip, is speaking now. She challenges the government to give an assurance that it will not withdraw from the European convention on human rights and the council of Europe.
3.03pm GMT
John Redwood, the Conservative pro-leave campaigner, goes next. He says people voted to take back control when they voted to leave the EU in the referendum.
Dame Margaret Beckett, the Labour MP, says Redwood is saying that the forecasts about Brexit being bad for the economy were wrong. But what does he say to the argument that that is like falling of a building and saying things are fine because you have not hit the ground yet.
.@JohnRedwood on Article 50 bill: "What is it about freedom they don't like?" pic.twitter.com/hUfPeMZM8H
2.58pm GMT
Kate Hoey, the Labour pro-leave campaigner, is speaking now. She says she is fed up with the argument that people who voted to leave did not know what they were voting for. That patronising attitude helps to explain why people wanted to vote leave.
Iain Duncan Smith, her Conservative leave colleague, intervenes. People were more engaged in the referendum campaign than in any election he has taken part in, he says.
2.52pm GMT
I’m adding some direct quotes to some of the earlier posts, using quotes filed by the Press Association. But to get the updates to appear you may need to refresh the page.
2.49pm GMT
Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, is speaking now.
She says she will vote for the bill “with a heavy heart” because she said she would respect the result of the referendum.
2.42pm GMT
There have been speeches from Hilary Benn, Iain Duncan Smith, Nick Clegg, Cheryl Gillan and Dame Margaret Beckett while I was writing up the summary and analysis. I will post the highlights of their speeches shortly.
UPDATE: Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, said in his speech that, although he was pro-remain, he thought MPs should respect the result of the referendum.
Though it pains me to say it, we are leaving the European Union and our task now is to try and bring people together. And that means that, whether we voted leave or we voted remain, we have a responsibility to hold in our minds the views and the concerns and the hopes of everyone in this country - whether they voted leave or remain.
The supreme court, rightly in my view, decided that a decision of this magnitude should be taken by parliament not by the executive.
I would say we are not the [Mad] Hatter’s tea party, I think the Hatter’s tea party is sitting in the opposition at the moment. It’s not known who the mouse is or who the hatter is but I’m sure they’ll tell us later on.
These negotiations that we trigger with this bill will be extraordinarily difficult and they will be very time consuming. I personally do not think for a second that they can be concluded within two years and I don’t think anybody who has ever negotiated anything would. It will be vital therefore to allow us to make preparation for possible transitional arrangements.
2.40pm GMT
So far this hasn’t been a debate that really carries the full weight of the historical choice that is being taken. Kenneth Clarke’s speech was superb, but the two opening speeches, from David Davis, the Brexit secretary, and Sir Keir Starmer, his Labour opposite number, were underwhelming. Neither of them had anything particularly revealing to announce, and the passion in what they had to say was a bit muted. Perhaps the debate will liven up more as it goes along.
Here are the key points from the opening speeches.
That has not worked and now the prime minister should act unilaterally to give assurance to those EU nationals living in this country.
There is a danger that there will be years of uncertainty that could put at risk the 21,000 new jobs which are slated to come as part of the Moorside development [in Cumbria], as well as many others across the UK.
If it is not possible to come to a conclusion with some sort of relationship with Euratom, then we will no doubt be able to do one with the international atomic energy authority, possibly the most respectable international body in the world.
We share values and identity with the EU. But we failed to persuade, we lost the referendum. Yes, the result was close, yes, there were lies and half-truths - none worse than the false promise of 350 million a week to the NHS.
Yes, technically the referendum is not legally binding but the result was not technical - it was deeply political. And politically the notion that the referendum was merely a consultation exercise to inform parliament holds no water.
Let me give an analogy in explaining the position for members of parliament after this referendum. I have fought Lord knows how many election over the past 50 years and I have always advocated voting Conservative. The British public in their wisdom have occasionally failed to take my advice and they have actually by a majority voted Labour. And I have found myself here facing a Labour government.
I do not recall an occasion where I was told it was now my democratic duty to support Labour policies under Labour governments on the other side of the House. That proposition would have been treated with ridicule and scorn.
We are combining withdrawal from the single market and the customs union with this great new globalised future, which offers tremendous opportunities for us. Apparently you follow the rabbit down the hole and you emerge in a wonderland where suddenly countries around the world are queuing up to give us trading advantages and access to their markets that previously we had never been able to achieve as part of the European Union. Nice men like President Trump and President Erdogan are just impatient to abandon their normal protectionism and give us access.
Don’t let me be too cynical - I hope that is right. I want the best outcome for the United Kingdom from this process. No doubt there is somewhere a Hatter holding a tea party with a dormouse.
I feel the spirit of my former colleague - who I rather respected, apart from one or two extreme views - my former colleague Enoch Powell, the best speaker of the Eurosceptic cause I’ve probably ever heard in this House of Commons. If he was here he would probably find it amazing to believe that his party had become Eurosceptic and rather mildly anti-immigrant in a strange way in 2016, and I’m afraid on that I haven’t followed them and I don’t intend to do so.
The eyes of the nation are on this chamber as we consider this Bill. For many years there’s been a creeping sense in the country - and not just this country - that politicians say one thing and do another.
We voted to give the people the chance to determine our future at a referendum; now we must honour our side of the agreement - to vote to deliver on the result. So really we are considering that very simple question - do we trust the people or not?
Europe is where our future still lies. One where we tackle inequality, climate change, research, welcome refugees, give young people the opportunities – pooling our sovereignty with like-minded states.
That is the kind of Scotland I believe in and one where we work as a true partner of equals with the other States of the UK and Europe.
2.00pm GMT
The “front bench” speeches are now over. (Stephen Gethins does not sit on the front bench, but he is allowed extra time as the SNP spokesman.) John Bercow now imposes a six-minute limit on speeches.
Bill Cash, the Conservatives, goes next. He says that he has been campaigning for this for 30 years. When the Single European Act was being passed, he tried to include an amendment making UK law sovereign. His amendment was not called. But the article 50 bill now implements what he wanted, he says.
For me, this referendum was a massive, peaceful revolution by consent of historic proportions. This bill, at last, endorses that revolution.
From the 17th century right the way through our history, through the Corn Laws, through the Parliamentary Reform Act, which gave the vote to the working class, the Suffragettes, who got the vote in 1928, and then again in the period of appeasement, these have all been great benchmarks of British history.
1.58pm GMT
Gethins says Scotland having to share Trident when it does not want it is not sovereignty. And being taken out of the EU when the country did not vote for it is not sovereignty either, he says.
He says Europe is where the future lies.
1.54pm GMT
Sheryll Murray, a Conservative, asks how the government can be expected to produce a 670-page white paper on a two-clause bill.
Gethins says he would settle for something shorter.
1.51pm GMT
Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, is speaking now.
He praises Kenneth Clarke’s speech, and says he is glad that Clarke will be voting with the SNP tomorrow.
1.46pm GMT
Clarke is now paraphrasing Edmund Burke. Burke said, if MPs do not vote with their consciences, they are betraying their constituents, not serving them, he says.
Clarke finishes. Some MPs applaud by clapping, which is something that only happens rarely in the Commons because it is not technically allowed.
Kenneth Clarke making total mincemeat of his Govt's position on #ChaoticBrexit
Ken Clarke giving his own Party & all of us a valuable reminder of post World War Two European history. #Article50 #Brexit
Ken Clarke making a barnstorming #Article50 speech. Government frontbench are all wearing the same pained lemon-sucking expression.
Well i think this is a first... i'm thoroughly enjoying a speech from Kenneth Clarke. Fantastic contribution. #Brexit
1.38pm GMT
Clarke says he is normally a loyal Conservative. He last voted against the party over the Lisbon treaty (which the then Labour government backed, but the Tory opposition did not.)
He says he is just being loyal to the policy his party has backed for 50 years.
1.36pm GMT
Clarke says he has always urged people to vote Conservative. But sometimes Labour won elections. He cannot recall anyone arguing then that it was his duty to support Labour policies.
But this is what people are telling him now. People are claiming he is being an “enemy of the people” by standing by what he supported during the campaign.
1.34pm GMT
Clarke says leaving the EU will be a “very, very bad move”, especially for our children and grandchildren.
Brexit is “baffling” to other countries around the world.
I won’t comment on the nature of the campaign; those arguments that got publicity in the national media on both sides - both sides - were on the whole fairly pathetic.
I have agreed in conversation with [David Davis] that he and I can both tell ourselves that neither of us used the dafter arguments being used by the people were allied with, where there was not a serious debate. I don’t recall £350m a week for the health service coming from the secretary of state for Brexit and I didn’t say we were going to have a budget to put up income tax - all quite pathetic.
1.30pm GMT
Clarke says Britain has contributed considerably to the development of the EU. It played a big role in promoting the single market, he says.
1.29pm GMT
Kenneth Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, says he will be voting against the bill.
He says, given Labour’s inability to oppose the bill, he is the first MP to speak in favour of Britain staying in the EU.
1.26pm GMT
Starmer says he repects the views of those Labour MPs who cannot vote to trigger article 50.
He says MPs have to respect the views of the electorate.
1.24pm GMT
Starmer says Theresa May has said the UK should not try to retain membership of bits of the EU.
But that is wrong, he says, as the concerns raised about Euratom earlier shows.
Why would we want to be outside the European Aviation Safety Agency which certifies aircraft before they are allowed to fly? Why would we want to be outside of the European Medicines Agency which ensures all medicines in the EU are safe and effective?
1.22pm GMT
Anna Soubry, the Conservative, puts it to Starmer that all options should be open to MPs when they vote on the Brexit deal after it is concluded. She says:
Do you share my concerns that at the end of this process if there is no deal that has been struck, all options must remain open and it will be for this place and not for the Government to decide what happens next?
1.21pm GMT
The Spectator’s Isabel Hardman posted this on Twitter.
Keir Starmer not glossing over how difficult this vote is for Labour - almost wallowing in it to make a point.
Hardly effective opposition and leadership. If Labour are not up to it, they should move over. We in the SNP are a constructive opposition. https://t.co/pRGTI4wH8y
1.19pm GMT
Starmer says he accepts that the government has tried to make progress on the rights of EU nationals living in the UK.
But that approach has not worked, he says.
1.17pm GMT
Starmer says when he campaigned in the referendum, he told people they were taking a decision. He did not say they were just expressing a view.
Labour is internationalist, he says. But above all they are democrats. So they must accept the result of the referendum, he says.
1 - Allow a meaningful vote in Parliament on the final Brexit deal. Labour’s amendment would ensure that the House of Commons has the first say on any proposed deal and that the consent of Parliament would be required before the deal is referred to the European Council and Parliament.
2 - Establish a number of key principles the Government must seek to negotiate during the process, including protecting workers’ rights, securing full tariff and impediment free access to the Single Market.
1.13pm GMT
Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is speaking now.
This is a short bill and a simple one, he says. But for Labour it is a very difficult bill.
1.09pm GMT
Davis says MPs must pass this legislation swiftly.
The eyes of the nation are on this chamber as it considers this bill, he says.
1.08pm GMT
Davis says there must be no attempts to remain in the EU, no attempts to remain in by the back door and no second referendum.
1.07pm GMT
The SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell says Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU. But it does not have devolved bodies at the moment (because there is an election underway).
Davis says the government has guaranteed that it will retain the common travel area.
1.06pm GMT
Davis says the government has paid “a great deal of attention” to the proposals from the devolved assemblies.
And he says the government is ready to do a deal “now” on the rights of EU nationals to remain in the UK after Brexit if other EU countries agree.
1.04pm GMT
The Lib Dem Tom Brake asks when the government will publish its assessment of the impact of leaving on jobs.
Davis says the claims made by people like Brake about the economic impact of Brexit during the referendum turned out to be wrong.
1.03pm GMT
Davis says, since the government will move the entire EU acquis (body of EU law) into UK law, MPs will get the chance to vote on any changes from EU law.
He says he views the terms hard Brexit and soft Brexit as “terms of propaganda”.
1.01pm GMT
Davis says the government has set out its objectives for the Brexit negotiations.
He says the white paper with the government’s plan for Brexit will be published soon, “as soon as is reasonably possible”.
1.00pm GMT
Chris Philp, the Conservative, says his former Oxford physics tutor asked him to lobby the government to see if it could delay leaving Euratom.
Davis says the government has got two years to negotiate withdrawal, implying that further delay would be unnecessary.
12.57pm GMT
Davis says the explanatory notes to the bill say that leaving the EU also involves leaving Euratom.
The Commons library briefing paper I mentioned earlier (see 12.30pm) goes into this subject in some detail. Here is an extract.
Euratom regulates the civil nuclear industry, including safeguards for nuclear materials and technology, disposal of nuclear waste, ownership of nuclear fuel, and research and development (for instance its major nuclear fusion projects).
Euratom is a separate legal entity from the EU, under the 1957 Euratom Treaty, but it is governed by the EU’s institutions (including the Court of Justice of the EU).
12.53pm GMT
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, opens the debate.
His voice is hoarse, and so he says he will be taking fewer interventions than usual.
12.50pm GMT
John Bercow, the speaker, says that he has selected the SNP amendment to be put to a vote at the end of the debate tomorrow. (See 12.33pm.)
He says 99 backbench MPs want to speak in the debate today. So there will be a “tough time limit”, he says.
12.48pm GMT
Philip Davies has finally finished. But he does not try to call a vote opposing Nusrat Ghani’s bill.
12.42pm GMT
Nusrat Ghani, a Conservative, has finished proposing her 10-minute rule bill tackling so-called honour killings. MPs expected to be able to move on to the article 50 debate, but the Conservative Philip Davies has got up to give a speech against Ghani’s bill. He says he is against it because it does not cover violence against men too. It is fair to say he does not seem to have the sympathy of the House.
Lots of shouts of 'Shame!' from MPs as Philip Davies gets up to challenge bill seeking to ban term 'honour killing' cos bill doesn't inc men
12.38pm GMT
The Labour MP Conor McGinn has written a blog explaining why, reluctantly, he will vote to trigger article 50.
12.33pm GMT
When a bill gets a second reading in the House of Commons opposition parties can decide simply to vote against. But normally they also table a “reasoned amendment”, saying why the bill should not get a second reading.
MPs usually vote on one reasoned amendment before they go on to vote on whether or not the bill should get a second reading. Reasoned amendments almost always fail, but they enable opposition parties to put their objections to a bill on the record.
That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill as the Government has set out no provision for effective consultation with the devolved administrations on implementing Article 50, has yet to publish a White Paper detailing the Government’s policy proposals, has refused to give a guarantee on the position of EU nationals in the UK, has left unanswered a range of detailed questions covering many policy areas about the full implications of withdrawal from the single market and has provided no assurance that a future parliamentary vote will be anything other than irrelevant, as withdrawal from the European Union followed two years after the invoking of Article 50 if agreement is not reached in the forthcoming negotiations, unless they are prolonged by unanimity.
That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill because it fails to provide enduring legal protection to the economic and social interests of the people of the United Kingdom in the event of exit from the European Union, fails in particular to guarantee the UK’s future membership of both the Single Market and the customs union, essential to the future prosperity of the UK, thereby failing to ensure continuation of free movement and the existing reciprocal rights enjoyed by EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in EU member states, fails to guarantee maintenance of environmental regulation at least as strong as current EU regulation, fails to prevent a race to the bottom on corporate taxation and on workers’ and consumers’ rights, fails to guarantee young people rights to work, travel and study in the EU at least equal to those they enjoy now, otherwise fails to adequately address the immense constitutional implications of withdrawal from the EU, including the future of the Good Friday Agreement, fails to adequately address the almost certain need for a transitional arrangement with the EU, and fails to guarantee a Ratification Referendum on any withdrawal agreements negotiated with the other EU member states.
That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill because the Government has failed to give assurances which safeguard British interests in the single market, and because the Government has failed to provide assurance that either Parliament or the UK electorate will have the ability to determine whether the UK should seek to withdraw from the single market in accordance with Article 127 of the EEA Agreement.
That this House declines to give the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill a Second Reading because it does not provide a mechanism for the people of the United Kingdom to have a vote, prior to the UK’s departure from the European Union, on the terms of the new relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, because the Government has failed to provide an accompanying white paper detailing a plan or set of principles upon which the United Kingdom Government will seek to negotiate with the European Union, and because the Government has deliberately not tabled a money resolution in respect of this Bill, thereby hampering the elected representatives of the people from amending the Bill to include issues at the heart of public concerns with Brexit.
That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill as the Government has failed to ensure continued full and unfettered access to the European single market, through participation in the EEA and membership of the EFTA, and has set out no requirement for the implementation of Article 50 to be endorsed by the devolved Parliaments.
12.30pm GMT
MPs will be starting the article 50 bill debate in about 10 minutes. Business questions ends at 12.30, and then Nusrat Ghani will move a 10-minute rule bill on violence against women. The debate itself should start at about 12.40pm.
The House of Commons library has produced a 50-page briefing paper on the bill.
12.15pm GMT
On 17 February 1972 MPs concluded their debate at the second reading of the European communities bill, the legislation taking the UK into what was then the EEC. Here is the Hansard report of the debate.
Harold Wilson, the Labour leader, explained why his party was voting against. Here is an extract from his speech.
The biggest issue of all facing the House is that which has dominated every issue of parliamentary freedom for over 700 years—control over the levying of taxes and the appropriation of Exchequer funds, the actions of this House and its paramouncy in Committee of Ways and Means and in Committee of Supply. The Bill in a very real sense transfers a major part of parliamentary control of taxation and appropriation to Brussels, which was not contemplated on anything like this scale when the White Paper of 1967 was laid. Since then we have the whole take-over, food levies on a rapidly rising price scale, all our customs duties—the prerogative of this House from ancient time—and the proceeds of a 1 per cent. value-added tax ...
Even if we had today been debating terms which carried the full-hearted consent of the British people—which the Prime Minister manifestly has not got, despite his election pledges, as he has not got the full-hearted consent of Parliament, or we would not have seen him involved in the way he has been this week—all that apart, even if we could all have gone forward on these terms, the Bill raises fundamental issues about the rights of the House and about our parliamentary democracy. We have our duties as parliamentarians, as servants of this House, as inheritors of the rights and powers of this House in our democracy. Because this Government in this Bill treat those duties, those rights and those powers as of no account, we shall cast our vote tonight unhesitatingly against the Bill.
I have dealt with many of the major issues raised in the debate. I will deal now in particular with one matter. As the House knows, I have always believed that our prosperity and our influence in the world would benefit from membership. I believed until recently that we could carry on fairly well outside, but I believe now that with developments in world affairs, and the speed at which they are moving, it will become more and more difficult for Britain alone. Faced with this prospect of change, I do not believe that any Prime Minister could come to this House and say, “We have secured the chance to join the European Community; we have signed the Treaty of Accession; we have the opportunity of full membership; but I now advise this House to throw them away.” I do not believe that any Prime Minister could say that, and it follows from what I have said that this Bill is not a luxury which we can dispense with if need be.
It has been a central policy of three successive Governments, irrespective of party, and of all three main parties in this House that Britain should join the European Communities if suitable arrangements could be negotiated. By a large majority this House decided in principle last October that Britain should join the Community on the basis of the arrangements negotiated by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy. Any Government which thereafter failed to give legislative effect to that clear decision of this House would be abdicating its responsibilities.
12.06pm GMT
According to the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn, the government is planning to publish its Brexit white paper on Thursday.
I understand the Govt are looking to publish a Brexit white paper on Thursday, in time for the Article 50 bill's committee stage.
11.25am GMT
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has put out a press statement saying that, if Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK does go ahead, as a protest he will not attend the state dinner at Buckingham Palace.
11.12am GMT
Yesterday it was announced that George Osborne, the former chancellor, has taken up an academic fellowship at the McCain Institute, the organisation set up by the Republican senator John McCain, a critic of Donald Trump.
In his first blog as the institute’s inaugural Kissinger Fellow, Osborne has implicitly attacked Trump’s travel ban. He writes (bold type inserted by me):
John McCain and Henry Kissinger remind us that the world’s problems will quickly become our own problems if we leave it to others alone to sort them. Erecting trade barriers with our neighbours, making an enemy of our open societies, demonising those seeking a better life, turning away refugees, unravelling the institutions that sustain the west, are not the answer. If the Statue of Liberty turns its back on the world, if Britain retreats behind its island shores, then it is not just others who depend on us who will pay a price – the heavy cost will fall on our own citizens too.
10.33am GMT
Last night the department for exiting the EU released a very short extract from what David Davis, the Brexit secretary, will say in his speech opening the debate this afternoon. He will tell MPs:
It is not a bill about whether or not the UK should leave the EU, or how it should do so. It is simply about implementing a decision already made, a point of no return already passed. We asked the people of the UK if they wanted to leave the EU; they decided they did.
This is one of many moments for parliament to scrutinise the UK’s exit from the EU. A white paper, setting out the negotiation principles, and the great repeal bill, transposing EU law into UK law, have also been announced and will shortly be brought before parliament. The government has also committed to holding a vote on the final deal with the EU, once negotiations are complete.
10.26am GMT
For anyone who is interested, here is the 85-page document (pdf) containing all the amendments that have been tabled to the article 50 bill
10.19am GMT
The Labour MP Matthew Pennycook, a shadow Brexit minister and MP for Greenwich and Woolwich (which voted strongly remain) has written an interesting blog explaining why (unlike Owen Smith) he will not be voting against the article 50 bill. Here’s an extract:
Even if the parliamentary arithmetic was such that defeating the bill was a realistic possibility, I am not convinced it would be the right course of action. To seek to nullify the referendum result by parliamentary means risks, in my view, creating further social division, fuelling the rise of the far-right, adding to the alienation already felt by a significant section of the electorate and perhaps even sparking civil unrest in some parts of the country. As such, I respectfully disagree with those who maintain that, whatever the potential negative social and political implications, MPs should seek to overturn the result.
It is also worth considering what would happen if the bill were voted down on Wednesday. Far from securing our place in the EU or chastening the hardline Brexiteers, it would almost certainly trigger a snap general election fought solely on the issue of Brexit that in all likelihood would return a Conservative government with an increased majority to enact any form of departure they wish – an outcome I think the present Commons makeup gives us a reasonable chance of avoiding.
10.02am GMT
MPs will debate the article 50 bill’s second reading today and tomorrow and the bill’s remaining stages will take place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
In the Lords yesterday Lord Taylor of Holbeach, the government chief whip, said the Lords expected to get the bill either on Wednesday night or Thursday next week.
All 28 heads of government from EU member states will meet on March 9 at the two-day European council summit in Malta, giving Mrs May an opportunity to invoke the clause. On March 8 Philip Hammond, the chancellor, will present his first budget.
Ministers are thought to be sensitive to invoking article 50 in the last week of March — March 25 will be the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the founding charter of what became the EU.
9.34am GMT
The row about Theresa May’s decision to invite Donald Trump to the UK for a state visit shows no signs of abating. But, for the sake of clarity, we are covering that story on our separate Trump travel ban live blog, which my colleague Matthew Weaver is now writing.
It includes details of how Lord Ricketts, the former Foreign Office permanent secretary, has suggested delaying Trump’s state visit by up to three years to save the Queen embarrassment.
Related: Trump fires acting attorney general who said travel ban was unlawful – live
9.25am GMT
Forty five years after MPs debated the bill that took Britain into what was then the EEC, the momen