Brexit plan will stop EU migrants 'jumping the queue' - May

Theresa May has renewed her efforts to sell her draft Brexit withdrawal agreement - arguing it will stop EU migrants "jumping the queue".

She said migration would become skills-based, with Europeans no longer prioritised over "engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi".

The PM also insisted to business leaders at the CBI that the withdrawal deal had been "agreed in full".

Nicola Sturgeon said the PM's remarks on EU free movement were "offensive".

The Scottish First Minister said for the prime minister to use such language to describe reciprocal arrangements entered into freely by the UK - allowing EU nationals to live and work in the UK and vice-versa - was "really disgraceful".

Meanwhile, the DUP, which is opposed to the Irish border backstop proposal in the withdrawal agreement, abstained on amendments to the Finance Bill in the Commons on Monday evening.

It also supported one amendment proposed by the Labour Party.

The DUP has a so-called confidence-and-supply arrangement to support the Conservative Party, which does not have a majority in the House of Commons, which was secured with a controversial £1bn funding deal for Northern Ireland.

The party's Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, told BBC's Newsnight the abstentions were made because the government had broken a fundamental agreement to deliver Brexit for the people of the UK "as a whole" and to not "separate Northern Ireland constitutionally or economically from the United Kingdom".

The move was designed to send a political message back, he said.

"'Look, we've got an agreement with you, but you've got to keep your side of the bargain, otherwise we don't feel obliged to keep ours.'"

A senior DUP source stressed, however, that this was not the end of the confidence-and-supply agreement between the Conservatives and the DUP.

Also on Monday evening, the government said it would publish an economic analysis comparing the costs and benefits of its Brexit deal with those of the UK staying in the EU.

A cross-party group of MPs had proposed an amendment to the Bill calling on ministers to publish the forecasts.

The government said MPs would be given the analysis before the meaningful vote on the final deal. It will look at a no-deal scenario, a free trade agreement and the government's proposed deal.

The prime minister's appeal to business leaders came as Tory MPs continue to press for late changes to the deal.

Ministers from the remaining 27 EU countries have met in Brussels to work on the political declaration setting out their future relationship with the UK - a meeting which revealed Spanish concern at the wording's impact on Gibraltar's future.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose party is set to reject Mrs May's deal, told the CBI business lobby group's conference that Brexit can be a "catalyst for economic transformation" in the UK.

There has been widespread criticism of the draft 585-page withdrawal agreement - and the short paper setting out what the UK and EU's future relationship could look like - which are set to be finalised and signed off at an EU summit this weekend.

Two of the prime minister's cabinet ministers resigned over the proposed deal, while others are believed to be trying to change its wording.

Speculation continues over whether the number of Tory MPs submitting letters of no-confidence in Mrs May will reach the 48 required to trigger a confidence vote on her leadership of the Conservative Party.