Hello and welcome to Thursday's edition of Coffee House Shots. I'm James Seif and I'm joined by Katie Balls to chew over the what is the last day of the parliamentary term. So Katie, I think the big question which we are all waiting for is are MPs going home for Christmas now

not to return to the Palace of Westminster until the new year or will there be a Brexit deal

to summon them back here to try and vote through a deal? What do you reckon? I think the expectation

is they will be required to vote on something in the coming days.

I think that's seen as more likely than not, just partly because the rhetoric around

no deal seems to have gone down slightly. So while I think there are lots of Tory MPs and perhaps

commentators who have decided it's never a good idea to speculate too closely on their timings

or the manoeuvrings and machinations of

quite technical negotiations, I still think the hope and the sense is there is going to be a deal.

In terms of what this means for people's Christmas holidays, I mean, I think that people would be

surprised by the number of MPs currently paired on proxy votes. Even if MPs are asked back, I don't think

this is going to be a great stampede. I think that it's not going to be a situation where

everyone has to come back into Parliament. Now, it may be that on this occasion, some Tory MPs

think it's an important moment to be seen to be voting for it and that could change attendance but i'm struck

and we're recording this from parliament by how empty the whole place has the past few days and i think

that it just adds to the sense that you know it's not quite a bustling comments and that's obviously

partly for social distancing reasons but i do think question of, do they have to go back to during the holidays?

I don't think it's quite what some people will think it means.

Yeah, I just went to the parliamentary gift shop to do a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping.

And normally on the last day before Parliament rises for the Christmas break,

the gift shop is a kind of crowded, bustling place.

I was the only person in there, which is, as you say, sign of it.

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