Brexit: MPs vote for general election on 12 December - as it happened

That’s all from us for today – thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events:

• The UK was gearing up for a 12 December general election after Boris Johnson’s plan to go to the country received the backing of the Commons. MPs voted through the prime minister’s proposal for a pre-Christmas ballot and rejected an opposition move to hold it three days earlier.
• Proposed amendments that would have enfranchised 16 and 17-year-olds, as well as EU nationals, were not taken forward. No 10 had said it would pull the bill altogether if the amendments were passed.
• The Tories restored the whip to 10 of the 21 MPs from whom it was withdrawn last month. The party stressed that the fact the other had not had the whip restored did not mean they would not.
• The UK might not get a further delay to Brexit if it cannot be sorted by 31 January 2020, Donald Tusk warned. The outgoing president of the European council again urged the UK not to waste the time it had been given.
• Two prominent MPs announced they were standing down. Heidi Allen, of the Lib Dems, cited the “nastiness and intimidation” she has endured, while the former Labour leadership contender, Owen Smith, referred to both “political and personal reasons”.
• Theresa May’s former chief Brexit adviser claimed more civil service planning for a leave vote in 2016 would probably not have helped much. Sir Olly Robbins was giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee.

If you’d like to read yet more, my colleague Rowena Mason has the full story:

A Scottish majority for the SNP after the general election will show an “unequivocal and irresistible demand” for a second independence referendum, the party’s leader has claimed.

Nicola Sturgeon is expected to vow to “take the fight to the Tories” to keep Scotland in the EU and decide whether to remain part of the UK when she joins the party’s candidate for Stirling on the campaign trail on Wednesday. She said:

The SNP is ready for an election. We stand ready to take the fight to the Tories, to bring down this undemocratic government, and give Scotland the chance to escape from Brexit and decide our own future.

Scotland has been ignored and treated with contempt by Westminster, and this election is an opportunity to bring that to an end.

A win for the SNP will be an unequivocal and irresistible demand for Scotland’s right to choose our own future.

Ian Murray, one of seven Labour MPs north of the border, joked that it looks as though it would have to be a “Murray Christmas” after fighting off a deselection attempt spearheaded by Unite the union last week.

Jackson Carlaw MSP, the interim leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has claimed voting for his party will keep Scotland in the UK.

The choice for voters is this: Vote ScotTories to end the division and keep Scotland in the UK. A vote for anyone else risks Nicola Sturgeon winning and pushing ever harder for her unwanted and damaging independence referendum. We are ready and we are determined.

The Scottish Greens have said they will contest several seats, warning it will be “the most important one we’ve ever faced”. The party’s co-leader, Lorna Slater, has said:

We have just 10 years left to prevent climate breakdown but Westminster has been taken over by an authoritarian Tory government obsessed with forcing a disastrous Brexit on the country and doubling down on their climate-wrecking policies.

Instead of tackling the greatest risk to human life in history, the main parties at Westminster lurch from one crisis of their own making to another, which is why it is more important than ever that we have Green voices in there who are committed to a Scottish Green new deal, stopping Brexit and building a new progressive future for Scotland.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, appeared to show excitement for the election:

29 Oct 201917.55 EDT

Rowena Mason

The home secretary’s chief of staff was escorted out of a bar in parliamentby armed police earlier – just as MPs were voting on an election that Boris Johnson wants to make about law and order.

Two people who witnessed the incident say James Starkie was ordered out of Strangers bar after swearing loudly in the vicinity of a Tory MP, Col Bob Stewart, being refused service and appearing to punch a door.

As police escorted him out of the bar, which is frequented by MPs, witnesses said he apologised for his behaviour.

Starkie is a familiar face around Westminster as a former Vote Leave campaigner who went on to work for Michael Gove, before taking up his position as a senior adviser to Priti Patel. A House of Commons spokesperson said:

We can confirm there was an incident with an individual in Strangers bar. The individual was asked to leave, and was escorted from the estate by parliamentary security

Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, has welcomed a general election being held on 12 December:

It is right that the people of Northern Ireland have their say through the ballot box. The DUP will use this opportunity to campaign strongly to send a message that Northern Ireland is better in the union of the United Kingdom and we cannot be separated economically from Great Britain.

We have a record of speaking up for Northern Ireland in Westminster and delivering for everyone in Northern Ireland.

At a time of great uncertainty as to who will form the next government how Northern Ireland votes will matter as never before. Unionists need their strongest team returned to so that Northern Ireland’s interests are protected in the next parliament. That team is the DUP.

Owen Smith, who challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2016, will not seek reelection, he has announced:

Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), has tweeted:

Earlier this month, CWU members working for Royal Mail backed strikes by 97% in a huge turnout of almost 76%, raising the threat of industrial action in the run-up to Christmas.

The former cabinet minister, John Whittingdale, has said the prime minister told the meeting that, while it would be a “tough election”, the Tories have “everything to play for”. Whittingdale added:

He said it wasn’t because we were ahead in the polls or the because of the horror of Corbyn but because we had no alternative; that parliament is deadlocked and the only way to solve that is to have a general election.

(He said) we would be taking the deal which he negotiated – and which defied all expectation in that it got all that we wanted – and we will be campaigning to ratify that deal and then get on with tackling the big agenda.

The senior Tory MP, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said the prime minister was “pretty upbeat” about the Conservatives’ chances at an election.

Alistair Burt welcomed being one of the 10 Tory rebels readmitted to the parliamentary party. After leaving the 1922 Committee, he told reporters:

Back in the fold. It’s a big family and it’s very nice to have them back and I’m very appreciative. [Boris Johnson] is a born campaigner, no doubt about that.

Boris Johnson has told reporters it’s time for the country to “come together to get Brexit done” as he left the Conservative backbench MPs’ meeting.

Here’s a little more detail from HuffPost UK:

It is worth noting that Rees-Mogg has again declined to explicitly address whether or not the election of a new Commons speaker would go ahead before parliament is dissolved next Wednesday.

Asked about the matter for a second time in the Commons, he said he had nothing to add to his previous answer, which we summarised just a few moments ago.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has said:

This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform our country and take on the vested interests holding people back.

The choice at this election could not be clearer: A Labour government will be on your side; while Boris Johnson’s Conservatives, who think they’re born to rule, will only look after the privileged few.

We will now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change that our country has ever seen. This is our chance to build a country for the many not the few and fit for the next generation.

Responding to the vote in parliament for a general election, the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, has said:

This general election will decide the future of our country for generations. It is our best chance to elect a government to stop Brexit.

The Liberal Democrats are the strongest party of Remain and will be standing on a manifesto to stop Brexit by revoking article 50.

This country deserves better than Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn and I am excited to take our positive, pro-European, liberal vision to the country as the Liberal Democrat candidate for prime minister.

Boris Johnson received a rapturous reception as he arrived at a meeting of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee after his bid for an early general election cleared the Commons. Conservative MPs cheered and banged the table as he arrived for the meeting in parliament.

Asked whether the Commons will be electing a new speaker before it dissolves, Rees-Mogg says the dissolution date is Wednesday, so the Commons may be sitting on Monday and Tuesday.

The leader of the Commons, Jacob-Rees-Mogg, says he’ll set out tomorrow how the government intends to proceed for the rest of the week.

Also tomorrow, he says, the prime minister will address the Commons on the Grenfell inquiry’s report and MPs will discuss the Northern Ireland budget bill.