Thread by @lewis_goodall

WHERE IS LABOUR ON AN EARLY ELECTION?

Well contrary to earlier reports, the issue isn't settled.

The leadership still wants to go for it. The problem is the PLP, which very much doesn't.

I'm told there really hasn't been a decision yet.

One shad cab source: "If no deal is off the table the current policy would be to support an election. No decision has been made and discussions will be held tomorrow when know what the EU agree."

Of course, entirely possible EU hold off on decision until next week, until potentially after vote has been taken. In which case chicken and egg. Lab won't vote for election til extension agreed. EU won't give Jan extension til they know it'll be for election...

General view in pro election elements of the leadership is that Corbyn should say yes to election but not to the WAB. Let the public decide.

You can see the pro-Corbyn bits of the Lab movement have been out in force tonight. Momentum and other Left media organisations arguing for it publicly. PLP consider these Corbyn outriders and are annoyed, think they've been unleashed to put them under pressure.

Corbyn was clearly leaving himself wiggle room in his clip from earlier tonight: "Take no deal off the table and we will absolutely support an election."

Been told by several sources that the position of the whips note, telling Labour MPs they can abstain on Monday is not Jeremy Corbyn's position and that it might well change.

There are also Labour MPs in northern Leave seats who are urging the leadership to go for an election on the basis that if there isn't one, in the end, they'll have no choice but to vote for the deal. An election gives them a reason not to.

Jon Trickett is very much articulating view of those allies of Corbyn in his entourage and wider circle.

Then on the other side there is much of the PLP, who are against an election. The most common thing MPs have said to me is "we shouldn't give Boris what he wants."

Other pro-PV MPs think if they hold on they might get their referendum. One said to me: "the numbers may be very close but I think we have to keep trying. The problem is we never get that opportunity as Johnson paused the bill."

Think that's fanciful personally but there we are

There is much conflict about the whips' position.

For example, I've been told that the decision to abstain on Monday (as per whip note) is "still live". That it's not set in stone.

However, whips are furious about it all.

They say whips position was established with JC and Chief Whip. Only for JC to appear on TV and say it hadn't been decided.

This is a conflict which goes beyond Brexit and is if anything a reawakening of the fights of 2015/16

One MP told me: "They [leadership] know the project is dying and they see an election as a way of saving it."

Many MPs still convinced JC is disaster and don't want to oblige.

By the project, they mean Corbynism.

Remember many Lab MPs were never that exercised about Brexit (and others who were have given up/resigned to it) but they were (and are) exercised about Corbyn. Some now believe he is withering and if they wait longer, they can be rid of him.

So this fight is becoming at least as much about the interal politics of the Labour Party as it is about the politics of our place in the EU. It reawakens the old friction and tension (which never went away) of the leadership v PLP conflicts of 2015/16.

The big decision the leadership will now have to make is whether to face down their MPs. Get increasing sense of restlessness from some who are saying they take them on, that you only need around 80-100 to vote for it, depending on what other parties do.

One source said: "I think as long as JC wants it to happen I'm fairly sure it will happen."

Sense is PLP (or enough of them) will fall into line.

We'll see...