Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
4.47pm BST
Open Britain, the group campaigning for a “soft” Brexit, thinks it is significant that Theresa May told Sky News earlier that she does not expect to sign a UK-EU trade deal within two years. (See 9.58am.) It issued this comment from the Labour MP Owen Smith.
Bit by bit, the main planks of the prime minister’s Brexit strategy are falling away. Today, she has admitted that we will not have the time to agree a trade deal with the EU before the article 50 period is finished.
The Government have promised to deliver a trade deal that gives us the ‘exact same benefits’ as we have now as a member of the single market. If we leave the EU before a trade deal is signed, this promise will be broken, as our economy will go off a cliff-edge, hitting our businesses with punishing tariffs and putting jobs at risk.
4.43pm BST
Theresa May greeted Saudi officials in Riyadh without wearing a headscarf as she arrived in the conservative Muslim nation – though Foreign Office advice recommends women cover their heads and wear full-length cloaks.
The prime minister descended the steps of her plane at King Salman airbase dressed in a sweeping navy coat and black suit trousers, a scarf loosely around her neck.
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Source: Guardian Climate Change