the league football this evening on the bbc sport website. we'll have more throughout the evening. good night. more now on our top story. theresa may has been meeting european leaders after postponing a commons vote on her brexit deal. she's been asking fellow leaders to give further assurances on the deal she's negotiated. those assurances are focused on the future of the irish border — but many conservative mps want the deal to be renegotiated. let's take a look at the day's developments so far. theresa may is currently in brussels where she's been meeting the european council

president donald tusk. yesterday he, too, ruled out renegotiation. she's already been to berlin to see the german chancellor angela merkel. she said there is ‘no way to change‘ the brexit deal. mrs may's first meeting of the day was in the haguer over breakfsast with the dutch prime minister, mark rutte. tomorrow, mrs may meets her irish counterpart, the taisoeach, leo varadkar. on the crucial question of when mps will get that big vote — downing street says it will take place by the 21st january — which is the final deadline for the deal to be approved. in the commons today — labour forced an emergency debate — on the government's handling of the debate and jeremy corbyn is being urged by other opposition parties to engineer a vote of no confidence in the government. theresa may has been speaking

in the last hour at the ambassador‘s residence in brussels. there is a shared determination to deal with the issue and address this problem. i am going to be seeing the taoiseach leo varadkar tomorrow and then returning to the eu council on thursday. the deal we have negotiated is a deal that honours the referendum and is the best deal available and indeed the only deal available. the backstop which is the issue that parliament has raised, the backstop is a necessary guarantee for the people of northern ireland and whatever outcome you want, whatever relationship with europe in the future, there is no deal available that does not have the backstop within it. we do not want the backstop to be used and if it is we want to make sure it is just temporary. let's speak to our europe correspondent damien grammaticas.

is there any sense from officials there that they are willing to help trying to extract something that might get this brexit deal approved? i think the answer is that they do understand the position that she's in. they have always been sensitive to the politics back in the uk. on whether they want to help, yes they do. donald tusk since his meeting earlier with theresa may has said along anne frank discussion with the prime minister and clear that the eu 27 wa nt prime minister and clear that the eu 27 want to help but the question is how. and that is the crucial thing, he listened to what theresa may said just there. she is looking for a guarantee that the backstop would be temporary. that is important because he tells us she is not asking for a unilateral way for the uk to leave. watches asking is for the eu to sum

up watches asking is for the eu to sum up put something in writing that this is not going to endure permanently. post the article 50 process , permanently. post the article 50 process, the withdrawal treaty, is meantjust to process, the withdrawal treaty, is meant just to set process, the withdrawal treaty, is meantjust to set up temporary arrangements for the interim and a future trade deal will be negotiated. so some room there for the eu to get involved but whether they can get fair enough is very open to questioning. they've said that they will not change the legal text of the treaty. all sides, theresa may and the eu leaders all agreed that has to be a backstop, it has taken the form that theresa may wanted, but was pushed through, you may be this idea of a customs union and they will want to guarantee to make sure that that is legally watertight. so can they give her enough, possibly but it sounds like she also said in her comments that this would take some time so she must be thinking days or weeks to sort this out. herjunior brexit

minister was also in brussels. and he was saying to reporters before going into to see officials, that they are looking for legally binding assurances. that almost seems like a contradiction in terms. it is possible to have some kind of legally binding documents, there are ways the eu can do that and they have done that in other situations but the problem is that assurance cannot contradict or overrule what is in the withdrawal treaty. which is in the withdrawal treaty. which is that they must be that arrangement for northern ireland and the reason for that is obvious, all sides agreed more than a year ago that the peace process in ireland and northern ireland, but order, keeping that open, has to be a guarantee. so that is the basic

legal certainty that the eu and uk both the state needs to be in there. so they can get another assurance but it seems hard to deliver at the legal side of that and that is the hurdle but she has to clear for many in parliament. and might be where this attempt redefines it is difficult to deliver something that works back home. live to westminster and our chief political correspondent vicki young. how much frustration do you detect over this? people asking why she did not get the backstop in the agreement in the first place? downing street would argue that these negotiations were always going to go down to the wire and that is when changes can be made, at the last minute. there is evidence that

that has happened before. and here people are talking about the idea of some kind of beefed up kind of assurance alongside the withdrawal agreement, beefing up the idea of best endeavours. the backstop is to best endeavours. the backstop is to be succeeded if there is a trade agreement in place making sure that there is no hard border so pushing there is no hard border so pushing the eu to make sure that they really have to try to get the trade agreement and cannot be tardy about that. and if you can beef up that legally that is something the uk could use if it goes into the dispute. that is the kind of thing that people are talking about, some kind of legal backing is needed i think but i do not think anyone expects withdrawal agreement to be reopened. so clearly talk about something alongside that. but tory mps, many of them are quite furious and there is speculation again pretty rife about these 48 letters now, we have been here before of

course, and no one really knows but this time it feels slightly different. people saying that they put their letters in and it feels a bit more widespread. so a lot of chat about that. but there was one comment from george freeman, not particularly enamoured of the deal, he wants a free vote in parliament, but he has said tonight to collea g u es but he has said tonight to colleagues thinking of signing that letter i would take you not to. the country would never forgive us. we should have a caretaker prime minister until a leadership election is held in may. so he does not want theresa may to be in place for years to come but deals now is not the moment to do that. and some are talking about a temporary change in need to switch the dynamic and get some kind of breakthrough. but theresa may pretty much out of the country for the next few days. and

sirgraham country for the next few days. and sir graham brady who knows about these letters has said before that she would need to be in the country to be told that reached that number 48. time for a look at the weather. the wind is picking up through the rest of the week and fielding colder —— feeling colder as result. there isa —— feeling colder as result. there is a lot of cloud around and some rain and more especially some outbreaks of rain towards northern ireland, wales and the south—west of england. a fairly mild light underneath that but further east temperatures close to freezing. tomorrow we have patchy rain across northern ireland and western scotland, not moving very much during the day. elsewhere a good deal of cloud around with some light showers in the morning. but increasing sunshine into the

afternoon for the east of england. feeling a little colder than today but by thursday the wind is still stronger. christmassy?! we put them up yesterday! i love it, i love christmas, does anybody know that i like christmas?! we had an inkling! which of those crowns do you most identify with — are you king of swing, king of cool, or king of christmas? i was so happy king of clap didn't come up! just stop there! i don't think any of them! come on! if there's something that's cool about me is that i'm not cool, it is that i'm a you're watching beyond 100 days. the lady is for turning — brussels is not. the brexit deal will not be re—negotiated says the european commission. time is fast running out for theresa may. the european leaders can offer words of support and clarification but that will not be enough to satisfy the restless