Reaction: Brexit exits and Trump 'turmoil'

Angela Merkel welcomes the UK's Chequers agreement, saying it is a "good thing we have proposals on the table".

The German Chancellor says the remaining 27 EU members will agree a "common response" once it has seen the detail of the official UK position.

But she says progress is being made and repeats her stance that her country wants as close links as possible with the UK after Brexit.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Theresa May is asked about Donald Trump's claims that the UK is in turmoil, ahead of his visit on Thursday, and whether the US President is a real fan of Boris Johnson.

The PM does not comment directly but says she is looking forward to Mr Trump's visit, saying there is "much to discuss".

She says the special relationship with the US is the UK's deepest and longest security and defence alliance.

The two leaders, she adds, will talking about how to use this to benefit the UK and US but also enhance the wider good.

EPACopyright: EPA

EPACopyright: EPA

The answer: British Prime Minister Theresa May, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama and Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic.

Theresa May is now speaking at the conclusion of the Western Balkans summit in central London.

She says claims that, as a result of Brexit, the UK will be "retreating" from its role as a guarantor of peace in the region and on the continent as a whole are completely wrong.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now speaking. Brexit is almost certain to crop up during questions.

BBCCopyright: BBC

In his letter resigning as a Tory vice-chair, Remain voter Ben Bradley writes that he was persuaded to back the Brexit vision because of the "immense opportunities that are available from global trade, and for the ability for Britain to be an outward looking nation in control of our own destiny once again".

But he complains: "I fear that this agreement at Chequers damages those opportunities; that being tied to EU regulations, and the EU tying our hands when seeking to make new trade agreements, will be the worst of all worlds if we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name.

"Then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to Number 10."

MPs have decisively rejected Liberal Democrat calls for a "People's Vote" on the final Brexit deal.

A Commons motion put forward by Sir Vince Cable's party was defeated by 299 votes to 13 in Parliament.

Aside from nine Lib Dem MPs, the other MPs to support it were Green Party leader Caroline Lucas and Plaid Cymru's three MPs.

Conservative peer Lord Finkelstein, a close friend of David Cameron, takes issue with some of the arguments made by Ben Bradley or Maria Caulfield in their resignation letters. In short, he seems to be saying the UK has a choice between the Chequers compromise or no deal.

One of Maria Caulfield's main objections had been to the backstop agreement for Northern Ireland - that's the customs arrangement designed to avoid a "hard border" - which she felt was "neither necessary or constructive for the future prosperity of the UK".

"The policy may assuage vested interests but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out," she wrote in her resignation letter as Conservative vice-chair.

"This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. The direct consequences of that will be Prime Minister Corbyn."

Here are the letters sent by Conservatives Maria Caulfield and Ben Bradley relinquishing their posts as party vice chairs.

ContributedCopyright: Contributed

PACopyright: PA

Some more detail about the two Tory MPs who have quit their party posts.

Ben Bradley is MP for Mansfield, having become the first Conservative ever to win the Nottinghamshire seat in 2017.

Maria Caulfield has been MP for Lewes in Sussex since 2015.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, speaking in New York, added that many models of co-operation with Brussels were available to the UK, including a "Norway" deal, "Norway plus" or an "ambitious" version of the Canada deal, and that each deal had "its own balance of rights and negotiations".

However, he said the UK's current red lines meant they were "closing the door" to many different types of co-operation.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Michel Barnier, who's leading Brexit negotiations on behalf of Brussels, has said there is accord on 80% of the UK withdrawal agreement and that the European Union was ready to start working on an "ambitious free trade arrangement" with the UK.

Speaking in New York, Mr Barnier said that negotiators still needed to find a solution to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland.

In response to recent resignations in Westminster, Mr Barnier said he had a "very cordial and frank relationship" with David Davis and had met "many people with different views" during the course of the negotiations.

Alex Wickham, news editor of the Guido Fawkes politics site, has tweeted a series of intriguing messages said to have been posted in the WhatsApp group of the European Research Group, which is generally regarded as strongly pro-Brexit.

Its members have "split into two factions: those supporting and those opposing Theresa May’s deal", he writes.