U.K. Lawmakers Wrestle Control From Theresa May Less Than Three Weeks Before The Deadline To Leave The European Union; Israel Launches Retaliatory Strikes Against Hamas Targets In Gaza; , U.S. Democrats Call For The Full Release Of The Mueller Report.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST, NEWS STREAM: Welcome to "News Stream." I'm Kristi Lu Stout in Hong Kong.</s>JULIA CHATTERLEY, ANCHOR, CNN: And I'm Julia Chatterley outside the British Houses of Parliament in London. We begin in Westminster where Parliament is preparing to have its say on how Britain should leave the European Union in a couple of hours. Lawmakers vote on a menu of Brexit options, some of these may include no deal, a second referendum and the Norway plus, a so-called softer Brexit option. All this in the hope that Parliament will find a Plan B to the Prime Minister's own deal. She is due in the House of Commons any moment now for Prime Minister's Questions or grilling, we could perhaps call it. We will bring thaw live as it happens. In the meantime, as British Members of Parliament consider the Brexit riddle across the channel in the European Union. The Commission Chief, Jean-Claude Juncker gave us his take.</s>JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN UNION (Through a translator): If I were to compare Great Britain to a sphynx, the sphynx would be an open book by comparison, and let's see how the book speaks over the next week or so.</s>CHATTERLEY: An open book by comparison. Nic Robertson is outside 10 Downing Street. Some people might perhaps agree with him on this one occasion, at least, Nic. So many potential options here to be debated and vote on tonight. The question is does it move us forward and do we get any further clarity as a result?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR, CNN: Sure. It's sort of a veritable beauty pageant of ideas open to Parliamentarians. The Speaker of course expected to whittle down from something like 16 as the number of options at the moment, possibly seven or so. It might bring us a little bit closer. I don't think anyone can be really, really sure, but I think where people view this at the moment, a couple of central options might emerge as more popular than others, but nothing sort of streaking way ahead of the pack, which will give the Prime Minister some comfort, because all along, she said this is a very tough thing to do and her deal is not the ideal deal, but it's the best deal that delivers on the will of the people. So the Parliamentarians now will have these options and it will be made relatively straightforward for them. All the options will be put -- absolutely.</s>CHATTERLEY: Nic, I'm going interrupt you there because very promptly, Prime Minister's Questions are beginning. Let's listen in to what MPs are saying.</s>STEWART HOSIE, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY: .... any MP in this House voting according to the conscience. That fault lies with the Prime Minister who is the architect of the withdrawal deal.</s>MEMBERS: Hear, hear.</s>HOSIE: So can she finally concede to the House she is liable, responsible, culpable for the chaos which is the Brexit debacle and when she will be resigning?</s>MEMBERS: Hear, hear.</s>JOHN BERCOW, SPEAKER, BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS: Prime Minister.</s>THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: To the Honorable Gentleman, the Brexit deal delivers on the result of the referendum. Now, the Honorable Gentleman has a different view to me. I know he does not want to deliver on the result of the referendum. He wants to try and keep the United Kingdom in the European Union; 17.4 million people voted to take us out of the European Union and that is what we are going to do.</s>MEMBERS: Hear, hear.</s>BERCOW: Andrew Bridgen.</s>ANDREW BRIDGEN, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, CONSERVATIVE PARTY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. North West Leicestershire voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union and for the past two years, the Prime Minister has told my constituents on over a hundred occasions that we will be leaving on 29th March 2019 with or without a withdrawal agreement. At the last minute, she begs our E.U. masters for an extension to Article 50, delaying our departure. Does my right Honorable Friend realize that the good people of North West Leicestershire, they will forgive her for this? Mr. Speaker, they are good people, but they are not stupid people, and they will never trust the Prime Minister again.</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: Could I say to right Honorable friend that I hope that the -- I hope the message he will take back to his constituents is a very simple one, which is we can indeed guarantee delivering on Brexit; we can guarantee delivering on Brexit if this week he and others in this House support the deal.</s>MEMBERS: Hear, hear.</s>BERCOW: Jeremy Corbyn.</s>JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, LABOUR PARTY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This chaotic and incompetent Government has driven our country into chaos. You know the scale of the crisis, Mr. Speaker when the TUC and the CBI are united in writing to the Prime Minister saying that a Plan B must be found to protect workers, the economy and the Irish border. My question on Monday went unanswered, so will the Prime Minister now say, what is her Plan B?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: Can I say to the right Honorable Gentleman, as he knows, we are continuing to work to ensure that we can deliver Brexit for the British people and guarantee that we deliver Brexit for the British people. We have a deal which cancels our E.U. membership fee, which stops the E.U. making our laws, which gives us our own immigration policy, ends the common agricultural policy for good, and ends the common fisheries policy for good. Other options do not do that. Other options would lead to delay, to uncertainty, and risk never delivering Brexit.</s>BERCOW: Jeremy Corbyn.</s>CORBYN: Mr. Speaker, the only problem with the Prime Minister's answer is that her deal has been twice defeated in this House, in one case, Mr. Speaker, the largest ever majority by which a Government has lost a vote in our recorded Parliamentary history. Reports today suggest that a former Conservative Prime Minister is telling Conservative MPs that pursuing a Customs Union with the E.U. is the best way of getting Brexit over the line. Does she agree with him, and will she be supporting any motions for a Customs Union this afternoon?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: To the right Honorable gentleman, what we have negotiated, the Government still negotiated with the European Union delivers the benefits of a Customs Union, while enabling us to have an independent free trade policy, to negotiate free trade agreements in our interests and not rely on Brussels to negotiate them for us. He used to stand up for independent trade policy; now he wants a Customs Union, now he wants to throw away the idea of an independent trade policy and leave Brussels negotiating for us. We want to negotiate our trade in our interests and the interests of people across this country.</s>MEMBERS: Hear, hear.</s>BERCOW: Jeremy Corbyn.</s>CORBYN: She knows perfectly well that our policy is for a Customs Union in order to protect jobs, in order to society, and she will also know that the TUC and the CBI have called for a Customs Union as part of a deal. In fact, the letter they wrote to all MPs yesterday saying a deal that delivers a Customs Union and strong alignment between the U.K. and the E.U. rules is the preferred outcome for the business community. So it is a bit strange when a Conservative Prime Minister says she does not want what the business community want. These are indeed strange times, Mr. Speaker. Can the Prime Minister say why she will not include a Customs Union in the options that will be discussed today?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: Can I suggest to the right Honorable Gentleman that he does not just read the question that he had thought of previously, but actually listens to the answer that I gave to his previous question? And I will repeat it again because the right Honorable Gentleman stood on a platform to be able to do trade deals, to have an independent trade policy and to deliver Brexit. His policy on a Customs Union breaks the first promise. He has never explained why he wants to abandon an independent trade policy, and his policy on a second referendum breaks his second promise. Whatever happened to straight-talking honest politics?</s>BERCOW: Jeremy Corbyn.</s>CORBYN: Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not seem to realize that she does not have a deal that has been supported by this House, and that our proposals for a Customs Union do give us alignment on workers' rights, consumer standards and environmental protections; and do not begin with a race to the bottom, which is what she and many of her Front Bench actually want. Earlier this week, Mr. Speaker, the Business Minister resigned from the Government saying that the Government's approach to Brexit was playing roulette with the lives and livelihoods of the vast majority of people of this country. Why is she prepared to carry on risking jobs and industry in another attempt to yet again run down the clock and try to blackmail the MPs behind her into supporting a deal that has already been twice rejected?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: I'd say to the right Honorable Gentleman, we have been negotiating in order to protect jobs. What he says about a race to the bottom is wrong, as he well knows. We have been working across this House. It is absolutely clear in the political declaration that we agree to not falling back on workers' rights, but also, we are Government that has enhanced workers' rights. The U.K. -- this is the problem. The Labour Party can never stand it when they are told that Conservatives have stood up for workers, because that is what the Conservative Party does. We have enhanced workers' rights. We stand up for workers with our tax cuts, with our national minimum wage and with higher employment.</s>BERCOW: Jeremy Corbyn.</s>CORBYN: Mr. Speaker, in a straight question to the Prime Minister, she was unable to guarantee what is called dynamic alignment with European standards, and she knows full well that Labour's proposals are to use EU standards as a baseline from which we would improve them, including giving workers full rights at work from day one of their employment and ending zero-hours contracts and many other things. In his resignation letter, Mr. Speaker, the Business Minister also said to the Prime Minister that he hoped that she would now act in the national interest and enable Parliament this week to find a consensus negotiating position. If today or on Monday, a consensus alternative plan emerges across the House, will the Prime Minister accept that decision of the House and accept it as the basis for the U.K.'s negotiating position with the E.U. hence forward?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: To the right Honorable Gentleman, the objective that we should all have is being able to deliver Brexit and guarantee delivering Brexit to the British people. And the right Honorable Gentleman stands there asks me and raises this issue of workers' rights. We have been very clear about non- regression in relation to workers' rights environmental standards. He shakes his head, it is in black and white in the political declaration that has been agreed. But we have also been clear -- he ends his question and I am hearing the shadow Trade Secretary is shouting from a sedentary position about listening to Parliament. What we are going to do on workers' right is say that there's actually, no, we won't simply accept automatically what the European Union does; we will listen to Parliament and give Parliament a say in that. I thought he wanted Parliament to have a say in these things.</s>BERCOW: Jeremy Corbyn.</s>CORBYN: That sounds awfully like a recipe for regression away from those standards and for damaging workers' rights. Mr. Speaker, after the two largest defeats ever in Parliamentary history, surely the Prime Minister should be listening to Parliament. She did not answer my question about whether an agreement reached in this House would become the negotiating position of the government. I think that the House and, perhaps more importantly, the whole country deserves to know the answer to that question. Mr. Speaker, this country is on hold while the Government is in complete paralysis. The vital issues facing our country from the devastation of public services to homelessness, to knife crime have been neglected. The Prime Minister is failing to deliver Brexit because she cannot build a consensus, is unable to compromise and unable to reunite the country. Instead, she is stoking further division. She is unable to resolve the central issues facing Britain today, and she is, frankly, unable to govern. The Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker a very clear choice -- the one endorsed by the country and many of her own party, either to listen and change course or go. Which is it to be?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: Can I just say, the right Honorable Gentleman raises the question of the indicative votes tonight, I actually answered that question in this House earlier this week, but he might want to talk to his shadow Brexit Secretary, who has made it clear that the Labour party won't commit to supporting the result of any of the indicative votes tonight. And then he talks about what is happening in this country, well, let us just look at what is going to happen in this country next week: nearly a 1 billion pounds extra for the police, 1.4 billion pounds more available for local councils, 1.1 billion pounds extra for our schools, another fuel duty freeze, another rise in the national living wage and another tax cut. That is under the Conservatives. What would Labour give us? He wants to scrap Trident. He wants to pull out of NATO. Labour would give us capital flight, a run on the pound and a drop in living standards. The biggest threat to our standing in the world, to our defense and to our economy is sitting on the Labour Front Bench.</s>BERCOW: Maggie Throup.</s>MAGGIE THROUP, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, CONSERVATIVE PARTY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would my right Honorable friends undertake to reform the Government's online petition system, which currently accepts unverified signatures from across the world? This fundamental flaw can produce an inaccurate reflection of public opinion on the important issues, such as revoking Article 50, and leaves our democracy potentially under threat of manipulation from foreign state aggressors.</s>MAY: My Honorable Friend raised a very important issue and can I just say that like the traditional paper petition system, we need to have an e- petition system that aims to strike a balance between allowing people to easily recognize their support -- register their support for issues that are important to them while discouraging dishonesty from taking place. I have been assured that the Government Digital Service has been constantly monitoring signing patterns to check for fraudulent activity, but I am sure that my Honorable Friend will understand that I cannot comment in more detail about the security measures that are taken, but petitions are subject to checks as part of due diligence.</s>BERCOW: Ian Blackford.</s>IAN BLACKFORD, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I am sure you will want to join me and welcome the members of the 6th Royal Scots Reserves who are joining us in the Gallery today to thank them for their service. Mr. Speaker, it is becoming increasingly clear that the cost this Prime Minister will pay to force her disastrous deal through is the price of her departure. Yet again, another Tory Prime Minister is willing to ride off into the sunset and saddle us with a crisis in the U.K. and an extreme right-wing Brexiteer coming into Downing Street. Does the Prime Minister feel no sense of responsibility for what she is about to do?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: Can I say to the right Honorable Gentleman, it is my sense of responsibility and duty that has meant I have kept working to ensure that we deliver on the result of the British people.</s>BERCOW: Ian Blackford.</s>BLACKFORD: Mr. Speaker, let me help the Prime Minister. She can still change course; it is not too late. On Saturday I joined Opposition leaders and a million people to demand a second E.U. referendum. Mr. Speaker, six million people have signed a petition online demanding that the Prime Minister rethinks her strategy. And today, this House will give her a way out, a chance to prevent disaster. Will the Prime Minister finally respect the will of Parliament, or will she continue to allow Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom to be held hostage by the extreme right wing of the Tory party and the DUP?</s>BERCOW: Prime Minister.</s>MAY: I am interested that the right hon. Gentleman joined the march for a second referendum. Last week, his policy was revoking Article 50, and now his policy is having a second referendum. But let us just look at what the Government are doing. What the Government is doing is delivering on the vote that took place in the 2016 referendum. What the right Honorable Gentleman wants to do is to stay in the E.U. and what will that mean? Yes, yes. All the Scottish Nationalists nod their heads and say they want to stay in the E.U. What will that mean? That would mean staying in the common agricultural policy, not in the interests of Scottish farmers and that would mean staying in the common fisheries policy, not in the interests of Scottish fishermen. It is Scottish Conservatives who are standing up for the interests of Scotland's farmers and fishermen.</s>BERCOW: Bill Wiggin.</s>BILL WIGGIN, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, CONSERVATIVE PARTY: Under my right Honorable Friend's Government, one million more disabled people are in work, but I am sure she would like to do so much more. For example, can she get disabled access for Ledbury station to save disabled passengers an extra 20-minute journey to Hereford and back?</s>CHATTERLEY: Okay, we're going to leave a fiery Prime Minister's Questions there for a moment. As you heard there, the Prime Minister being barraged with questions about what her Plan B is from Jeremy Corbyn? Why she won't consider a so-called Customs Union. All these things are very important. We will dig into the details of why now. I'm joined now by Robin Oakley, CNN contributor. Great to have you here. I think it's really important as we look ahead to the votes that are going to be held tonight and the debate with 16 different potential options on the table, why Jeremy Corbyn chose there to ask the Prime Minister why won't you just accept a Customs Union? For me, this is really important when you look at the array of potential options here for Parliament.</s>ROBIN OAKLEY, POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR, CNN: Well, of course he keeps banging on about the Customs Union because that's been Labour's official policy all along to go for a Customs Union. He wants to see plenty of support among the MPs voting in these indicative motions for one or other of the Customs Unions options that we will see. I mean, you mentioned 16 possible -- well the Speaker is going to whittle it down to about six or seven possible that they will actually be voting on and voting on a ballot paper, not trooping for the division lobbies as usual.</s>CHATTERLEY: Yes.</s>OAKLEY: But one key question that hasn't been settled yet, we've just seen the usual sterile shouting at each other Prime Ministers Question time, function duty politics bang, bang, bang sticking ...</s>OAKLEY: ... to the same old familiar positions. Now, is Theresa May going to give her people a free vote to give their indications on future policies on Brexit? Is Jeremy Corbyn going to give his people a free vote or are they going to insist on them towing the party line? Because if they do, it makes the whole thing rather less meaningful this afternoon in terms of those MPs giving real opinions. This was supposed to be the chance to break the logjam. Well, if everyone is going to have to stick by the party instructions, they're not going to break any logjams.</s>CHATTERLEY: But the question for me here is this, if we are trying to find some kind of consensus, we know Parliament behind us is majority to remain in the E.U. So when Jeremy Corbyn is posing the question of what we come - - why can't we talk about a Customs Union here? It ties the U.K.'s hands in terms of a future trading relationship, but it would ease the hated backstop question because it would mean for the E.U., they don't have to worry so much about protecting that border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. We know that this would send the Brexiteers crazy. It's the equivalent of biting lemons for them here. But if we could see consensus crystalize around that option behind, then the government has got a real problem for me.</s>OAKLEY: Indeed, and that is one of the options this afternoon that has got the strongest possibility, some kind of Customs Union backing some kind of Customs Union because there are some Conservatives who are willing to support that as well as the Labour MPs who are going to be whipped to do so. Now, if we get to the situation, the House of Commons does coalesce around a Customs Union option, presents that to the government and says, "Okay, here you are," majority in the House of Commons. Europe has been asking, what do we stand for? What are we asking for? We're going for this. Theresa May's reaction will be that was not in the Conservative manifesto. I can't go with that. She's getting advice from Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General who has caused her enough problems in the course of Brexit that the government is somewhat bound to listen to the House of Commons, to act on what the House of Commons says. Then you've got the direct confrontation already. You've got Stephen Barclay, the Brexit Secretary suggesting to the Cabinet in their discussions if we're faced with that situation, something we can't accept in our manifesto then we're going to finish up perhaps with the general election. But what happens with the general election? What manifesto that these two parties over?</s>CHATTERLEY: We'll talk about them tonight before we get there. But I think these sort of points out the leverage, the final moments of leverage that perhaps Theresa May has when she gets in front of the Conservative Party, the 1922 committee tonight, the discussions that are going on right now behind us that perhaps quietly upstage what's going on in the Prime Minister's Questions here to see whether she could perhaps bring her vote one more time again, now or never, for Brexit in this form at least.</s>OAKLEY: In terms of future progress on Brexit, yes, what's going on behind the scenes is much more important than the slanging match we've just seen in the House of Commons. When Theresa May goes before those back benches tonight, that is her last big chance, I think. We've already seen some of the big beasts of the Brexiteers -- Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group; Boris Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary indicating that they would have to hold their noses doing it, but they could come around to back Theresa May's deal. But the condition for a lot more Brexiteers following them is going to be that Theresa May indicates it will not be her pushing through the next stage of the negotiations with Europe. They want her to give a date as to when she will go. But of course, so 1922 Committee tonight, is she going to say, "Okay, boys, back me on this and I will go. I'll give you that date." The trouble is, it's the last weapon in her armory. It's the last card she has got to play. She's not going to want to play that card unless she can be certain that that will push enough Tory rebels over the line.</s>CHATTERLEY: Okay, boys and girls, I'll just reiterate there, boys and girls, Kristie, we certainly do drama well here in the U.K. I just wish we had some answers for you. Plenty of options here as you are seeing, it is going to be again, a dramatic evening, I think. Back to you.</s>LU STOUT: Yes, with Punch and Judy politics on full display just then, Julia, thank you. We'll talk again soon. Now, Israel is once again ramping up its military presence at the border with Gaza after a new exchange of fire with Hamas militants. Israeli planes carried out new attacks in response to rockets fired from Gaza overnight. The rockets flew towards Israel but did not do any damage. The IDF says it targeted a Hamas military compound and a warehouse that was producing weapons. This is the latest outbreak of violence. It's a major flare up on Monday. Now, CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem. He joins us now and Oren, what is the latest you're hearing from the Gaza-Israel border?</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Kristie, it has been quiet along the border most of the day. In fact since 4:00 in the morning or so, the border has seen a low in fighting, but it doesn't seem like it will stay that way.</s>LIEBERMANN: We'll find that answer out possibly tonight. Let's go back to last night. After what had been a largely quiet Tuesday, a rocket from Gaza came over at 8:00 in the evening. One came over at midnight and one more came over at 4:00 in the morning. As we pointed out, Israel pointed to the first two of those rockets hitting Hamas compounds in Gaza including a weapons manufacturing warehouse. Then came the rocket at 4:00 in the morning and Israel has not yet responded to that rocket. We've watched these exchanges play out multiple times in recent months and years, and that's why I think there's a good chance that Israel will respond to that last rocket later on this evening. But it's a very difficult decision for Israel at this point, and especially after a quiet day. So we will see how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who also serves as the Defense Minister chooses to respond to this and chooses to see how this plays out over the next few hours and certainly over the next few days here.</s>LU STOUT: Got it. So the tension there could very well rise further. Oren Liebermann reporting live from Jerusalem. Thank you. Now, you are watching "News Stream" and still ahead, right here on the program, debate is set to begin in the British Parliament on a host of Brexit alternatives as lawmakers wrest control away from the Prime Minister.