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Government confident on Brexit votes despite threat of rebel MPs Theresa May calls for party unity before key Brexit votes
(about 13 hours later)
Senior government figures are confident of winning a series of crucial House of Commons votes on the Brexit bill, despite threats of a revolt by pro-remain MPs. Theresa May is to urge her MPs to send a message of unity over Brexit this week by reversing Lords amendments to the EU withdrawal bill, with senior government figures saying they are confident a revolt can be headed off.
Ministers and aides indicated that they remain “quietly reassured” that they have the numbers to pass the EU withdrawal bill when it returns to the lower chamber on Tuesday. Ahead of a crucial few days for both the process of Brexit and the prime minister’s authority, May is to address her backbench MPs at the 1922 Committee on Monday evening.
As parliament enters a momentous week and a final vote on the bill, the government is seeking to vote down amendments from the House of Lords which were meant to soften the UK’s exit from the European Union. The House of Commons is to consider 15 amendments made to the bill in the Lords, covering areas including giving parliament a meaningful final vote, as well as seeking to keep the UK in the EEA customs union after departure.
Ken Clarke, the veteran MP and former chancellor, on Sunday asked rebel MPs to withstand pressure from Tory whips. The purpose of the bill is straightforward, May will say, according to extracts of her comments released in advance. “It is putting EU legislation into law to ensure a smooth and orderly transition as we leave.”
But one informed source said that No 10 believes it will have “the numbers to get through” votes on Tuesday and Wednesday without a major defeat. She adds: “But the message we send to the country through our votes this week is important. We must be clear that we are united as a party in our determination to deliver on the decision made by the British people.
“It will be close, but it will be done,” the source said. “They want us to deliver on Brexit and build a brighter future for Britain as we take back control of our money, our laws and our borders.”
Labour is seeking to keeping two crucial amendments following the 15 government defeats in the House of Lords – to maintain a role in the customs union, and to guarantee a role for parliament in approving a final deal. The message was reinforced by David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister and May’s de facto deputy, who said rebel Tory MPs faced a “stark choice”.
Brexiter Dominic Raab, the housing minister, said he was reasonably confident the government had the support to see off the revolt. “My parliamentary colleagues will have to decide whether to support the government in restoring the bill to its original purpose of delivering legal certainty, or whether to allow hostile amendments to frustrate those essential aims, restricting the government’s ability to negotiate,” he wrote in the Telegraph. “It is profoundly in our national interest that they should choose the first path.”
“People thinking about voting against the government this week need to think very seriously about it,” he said on BBC One’s Sunday Politics programme. Ministers and aides have indicated they remain “quietly reassured” that they have the numbers to pass the bill when it returns to the lower chamber on Tuesday.
Clarke denied that a defeat would lead to a general election, opening the door to a Labour government, adding that it would actually strengthen Theresa May’s hand in facing down ministers who want a hard Brexit. Ken Clarke, the longest-serving MP in the Commons and former chancellor, on Sunday asked rebels to withstand pressure from Tory whips.
“Nobody in the House of Commons wants a general election. Most Labour MPs are as terrified of the idea of a Corbyn government as I am,” he told the Sunday Politics programme. But one informed source said No 10 believed it would have “the numbers to get through” votes on Tuesday and Wednesday without a major defeat. “It will be close, but it will be done,” the source said.
Labour is facing a revolt of its own this week, and has tabled a bid to force the government to negotiate a Brexit deal where the UK retains “full access” to the EU’s single market that would ensure “no new impediments” to trade. The most likely loss for the government could come on the amendment proposed in the Lords by the Tory peer Viscount Hailsham, which guarantees parliament a meaningful vote on a final Brexit deal.
The move is designed to convince potential Labour rebels not to support a House of Lords amendment to keep Britain in the European Economic Area. Sarah Wollaston, who is among the likely Tory rebel MPs, said on Monday she was “minded at the moment to vote for the meaningful final vote”.
Labour will whip its MPs to abstain on that vote but could still see MPs back the Norway option of single market membership. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If it came back to us then, having to have a vote of confidence, we would all vote to support the prime minister. We do support the prime minister.”
Wollaston said she would also like to see further concessions on the amendment on the customs union “because it is just a very sensible amendment that says keep it on the table, don’t completely rule it out”.
Labour is seeking to keep two crucial amendments after the 15 government defeats in the House of Lords – to maintain a role in the customs union, and to guarantee a role for parliament in approving a final deal.
The Brexiter Dominic Raab, the housing minister, said he was reasonably confident the government had the support to see off the revolt. “People thinking about voting against the government this week need to think very seriously about it,” he said on BBC One’s Sunday Politics programme.
A customs union is an agreement by a group of countries, such as the EU, to all apply the same tariffs on imported goods from the rest of the world and, typically, eliminate them entirely for trade within the group. By doing this, they can help avoid the need for costly and time-consuming customs checks during trade between members of the union. Asian shipping containers arriving at Felixstowe or Rotterdam, for example, need only pass through customs once before their contents head to markets all over Europe. Lorries passing between Dover and Calais avoid delay entirely.A customs union is an agreement by a group of countries, such as the EU, to all apply the same tariffs on imported goods from the rest of the world and, typically, eliminate them entirely for trade within the group. By doing this, they can help avoid the need for costly and time-consuming customs checks during trade between members of the union. Asian shipping containers arriving at Felixstowe or Rotterdam, for example, need only pass through customs once before their contents head to markets all over Europe. Lorries passing between Dover and Calais avoid delay entirely.
Customs are not the only checks that count – imports are also scrutinised for conformity with trading standards regulations and security and immigration purposes – but they do play an important role in determining how much friction there is at the border. A strict customs regime at Dover or between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would lead to delays that will be costly for business and disruptive for travellers. Just-in-time supply chains in industries such as car making could suffer. An Irish peace process built around the principle of entirely unfettered travel between north and south could be jeopardised.Customs are not the only checks that count – imports are also scrutinised for conformity with trading standards regulations and security and immigration purposes – but they do play an important role in determining how much friction there is at the border. A strict customs regime at Dover or between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would lead to delays that will be costly for business and disruptive for travellers. Just-in-time supply chains in industries such as car making could suffer. An Irish peace process built around the principle of entirely unfettered travel between north and south could be jeopardised.
Keir Starmer used an appearance on the The Andrew Marr Show to urge Labour to back away from the amendment. Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, urged Labour to back away from an amendment backing EEA membership.
“If you are in the EEA, you are not in a customs union with the EU and to test that proposition, I went to Norway and then I went to the Norway-Sweden border to see for myself,” he said. “If you are in the EEA, you are not in a customs union with the EU and to test that proposition, I went to Norway and then I went to the Norway-Sweden border to see for myself,” he said. “There is infrastructure there, there are checks there, you have to hand in your papers. It is totally incompatible with a solemn commitment to no hard border in Northern Ireland.”
“There is infrastructure there, there are checks there, you have to hand in your papers. May has a working majority of 14 in the Commons and relies on the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party.
“It is totally incompatible with a solemn commitment to no hard border in Northern Ireland.” In a further development, Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, claimed that a “potentially catastrophic” no-deal Brexit was becoming increasingly possible.
Labour’s hopes of striking a blow to May’s plans faded a little on Saturday night when the prominent Tory remainer Amber Rudd urged her party’s MPs to back the government in the votes, due to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. As his party prepares to fight the Lewisham East byelection on a platform of guaranteeing a referendum on any eventual deal, Cable said the longer the government appeared deadlocked over Brexit, the greater risk there was of a no-deal departure.
In a joint article with the Brexiter Iain Duncan Smith, the former home secretary warned that defeat could lead the government to fall.
“Jeremy Corbyn will do everything he can to stop us. That includes cynically trying to frustrate the Brexit process for his own political ends,” they wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
Some pro-remain Conservatives fear that a defeat on the customs union this week could enable Boris Johnson to take over the party.
One former minister told the Observer: “It is a political calculation. If we were to defeat her, does that weaken her and give the European Research Group [the hardline Brexiter grouping] more opportunities to stick their knife in to her?”
May’s working majority in the Commons is 14 and relies on the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party.
In a further development, Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, claimed that a “potentially catastrophic” no-deal Brexit is becoming increasingly possible.
As his party prepares to fight the Lewisham East byelection on a platform of guaranteeing a referendum on any eventual deal, Cable said that the longer the government appeared deadlocked over Brexit, the greater risk there was of a no-deal departure.
“I’d always assumed that the government would more or less get something, a divorce settlement plus a vague commitment to sort things out – Brexit in name but probably not in fact,” Cable said.“I’d always assumed that the government would more or less get something, a divorce settlement plus a vague commitment to sort things out – Brexit in name but probably not in fact,” Cable said.
BrexitBrexit
ConservativesConservatives
Theresa MayTheresa May
Foreign policyForeign policy
House of LordsHouse of Lords
House of CommonsHouse of Commons
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