A summary of today's developments
- The government has won the vote on the second reading of the Northern Ireland protocol bill by 295 votes to 221. The vote result means Boris Johnson’s bid to effectively tear up parts of the Northern Ireland protocol has cleared its first Commons hurdle, amid Tory warnings the plans are illegal. Former prime minister Theresa May said she could not support the Bill, saying it will “diminish” the UK in the eyes of the world.
- The majority of 74 gives the Northern Ireland protocol bill a second reading which clears the way for it to undergo detailed scrutiny in the coming weeks.
- Earlier, Boris Johnson claimed the legislation - that will allow the UK government to abandon large parts of the protocol, in what critics argued is a clear breach of international law - could become law by the end of the year. Asked if the measures could be in place this year, he replied: “Yes, I think we could do it very fast, parliament willing.”
- Boris Johnson has said that he considers the Conservative party leadership issue now “settled”.
- Downing Street rejected a claim from Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, that the online harms bill makes speech that is legal offline effectively illegal online.
- Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has given a Commons statement to mark the publication of the draft mental health bill. He told MPs it would address a number of “alarming issues” with the way the current Mental Health Act is used.
Updated
Foreign secretary Liz Truss has warned against an “uneasy peace” in Ukraine that would involve the country giving up any lands it has lost to Russia since 2014.
In an interview with Die Welt, La Repubblica and El Pais, Truss called for the West to provide “all the equipment”, training and “all the support we can” to Kyiv.
“The consequences of Ukraine not prevailing are very severe for the rest of Europe,” she said.
“What we cannot have is some uneasy peace, where Russia is still present in Ukraine; that is not going to work.
“We know what happened in 2014 with the Minsk agreements, ultimately, Russia regrouped and came back for more afterwards, so we cannot allow that situation to happen again”.
