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Brexit: MPs vote on ruling out no-deal exit from EU – Politics live | |
(32 minutes later) | |
This amendment is word-for-word the same as one passed by the Commons in January, after the first Brexit “next steps” vote. It was passed by by 318 votes to 310 – a majority of eight. | |
Here is the list of 17 Tory rebels who voted for this amendment in January: Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire), Guto Bebb (Aberconwy), Nick Boles (Grantham and Stamford), Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe), Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon), Justine Greening (Putney), Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield), Sam Gyimah (East Surrey), Phillip Lee (Bracknell), Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford), Oliver Letwin (West Dorset), Mark Pawsey (Rugby), Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury), Anna Soubry (Broxtowe), Caroline Spelman (Meriden), Edward Vaizey (Wantage), and Sarah Wollaston (Totnes). | |
And there were three Labour rebels who voted against: Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow), Kate Hoey (Vauxhall), and Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton). | |
If the Spelman gets passed, there will be no vote on the government motion - because the amendment would replace it. | |
This is what the Spelman amendment says. | |
Line 1, leave out from “house” to end and add “rejects the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without a withdrawal agreement and a framework for the future relationship.” | |
John Bercow, the speaker, is putting the amendments to a vote. | |
He says Caroline Spelman said she did not want to move her amendment, but Yvette Cooper told him that she did want to move the amendment. | |
Cooper stands up. She starts saying, despite what Liam Fox said in his winding-up speech ... | |
Bercow says he does not want a speech. He just wants Cooper to move the amendment, which she does. | |
Fox says the Commons contracted out its decision-making to the people at the time of the referendum. The Commons is honour-bound to accept the result. He says the Lib Dems may not care about the views of the public, but he does. | |
The British people have given parliament a clear instruction. | |
It is time for us to determine who is the boss. | |
Fox is refusing to take an intervention from Ken Clarke. Labour MPs start jeering at Fox, but Fox continues to refuse to give way. Clarke had longer to speak than he has got, he says. | |
He says Yvette Cooper earlier said she wanted to know if the result of this vote would mean the UK would not leave the EU on 29 March without an agreement. That is the position, he says. But he says in the longer term the only way to take no deal off the table is to have a deal. Having no Brexit would be even worse, he says. | |
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is winding up for the government. | |
He says some of those opposed to a no-deal Brexit want to reverse Brexit. | |
He says the government motion focuses on 29 March. At that point the UK either has to leave with a deal, or leave without a deal, or have an extension. | |
An extension is not in the gift of the UK. All 27 EU countries would have to agree. And it is not clear what price the EU might extract for an extension. | |
He says what Labour wants is impossible. It wants to stay in the customs union, but it also wants an independent trade policy. You can’t have both, he says. | |
He says for much of the debate he did not recognise the country being described. The UK is in control of its own future, he says. | |
Pennycook says the way the government worded its amendment (see 3.10pm) is unsatisfactory. At worst it is ambiguous, at best it is contradictory. | |
That is why Labour favours backing the Spelman amendment, he says. | |
Pennycook asks why any responsible government would contemplate an entirely avoidable act of self-harm. | |
And it would be a measure that does not have majority public support, he says. | |
He says, by repeating the mantra “No deal is better than a bad deal”, the government desensitised people to the risks involved. | |
Pennycook says May’s “No deal is better than a bad deal” slogan desensitised people to the risks involved. | |
Matthew Pennycook, the shadow Brexit minister, is winding up the debate for Labour now. | |
He says it is hard to overstate how damaging a no-deal Brexit in just over a fortnight would be. It would be “nothing short of a national disaster”, he says. | |
The government has suffered two defeats in the House of Lords on the trade bill. | The government has suffered two defeats in the House of Lords on the trade bill. |
In the first, peers voted by 285 to 184, a majority of 101, in favour of a cross-party amendment tabled by the Labour former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain aimed at ensuring the continuation of frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic and blocking the imposition of customs arrangements or other checks and controls after Brexit day. | In the first, peers voted by 285 to 184, a majority of 101, in favour of a cross-party amendment tabled by the Labour former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain aimed at ensuring the continuation of frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic and blocking the imposition of customs arrangements or other checks and controls after Brexit day. |
Explaining what his amendment would do, Hain said: | Explaining what his amendment would do, Hain said: |
It does not place the government in a straight-jacket. All it requires is the very outcome we are all - leave or remain, government or opposition, London or Dublin - supposed to be signed up to. Namely the invisible open border on the island of Ireland we currently have. | It does not place the government in a straight-jacket. All it requires is the very outcome we are all - leave or remain, government or opposition, London or Dublin - supposed to be signed up to. Namely the invisible open border on the island of Ireland we currently have. |
And in the second vote, peers voted by 254 to 187, a majority of 67, for a cross-party move to demand that a future trade deal with the EU would include measures that enable “all UK and EU citizens to exercise the same reciprocal rights to work, live and study for the purpose of the provision of trade in goods or services”. | And in the second vote, peers voted by 254 to 187, a majority of 67, for a cross-party move to demand that a future trade deal with the EU would include measures that enable “all UK and EU citizens to exercise the same reciprocal rights to work, live and study for the purpose of the provision of trade in goods or services”. |
Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told Radio 4’s PM programme this evening that she was “not inclined” to vote for the no-deal Brexit motion tonight. Tories have a free vote, so she does not have to. She said: | Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told Radio 4’s PM programme this evening that she was “not inclined” to vote for the no-deal Brexit motion tonight. Tories have a free vote, so she does not have to. She said: |
I’m going to vote to keep no-deal on the table. | I’m going to vote to keep no-deal on the table. |
She also said she thought May’s deal was still viable. She explained: | She also said she thought May’s deal was still viable. She explained: |
I think it is still alive, I do. Ultimately, when you look at the alternatives - which are a customs union, no Brexit or no-deal - Theresa May’s deal is more attractive than those other three options. | I think it is still alive, I do. Ultimately, when you look at the alternatives - which are a customs union, no Brexit or no-deal - Theresa May’s deal is more attractive than those other three options. |
I think that’s the conclusion MPs will ultimately come to. | I think that’s the conclusion MPs will ultimately come to. |
Leo Varadkar, the Irish leader, has said that if the UK government did go ahead with its plan to avoid customs checks at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, it would soon end up having to set up a backstop-type arrangement anyway. He explained: | Leo Varadkar, the Irish leader, has said that if the UK government did go ahead with its plan to avoid customs checks at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, it would soon end up having to set up a backstop-type arrangement anyway. He explained: |
I don’t think the UK’s proposals will be workable for very long. They propose to treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK. | I don’t think the UK’s proposals will be workable for very long. They propose to treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK. |
Northern Ireland will become a back door to the European single market and I think that in a matter of months that will lead to the need for checks at Northern Ireland’s ports. | Northern Ireland will become a back door to the European single market and I think that in a matter of months that will lead to the need for checks at Northern Ireland’s ports. |
So those that opposed the agreement may find that something very akin to the backstop is applied by the UK government in a few weeks’ time. | So those that opposed the agreement may find that something very akin to the backstop is applied by the UK government in a few weeks’ time. |
Jack Dromey, the Labour MP who jointly tabled the no-deal amendment with Caroline Spelman, has just told Sky News that he does not intend to move the amendment. Earlier Spelman said she would not be moving it either. (See 3.43pm.) Dromey said MPs had already backed the amendment (in January – tonight’s is word-for-word the same) and that what was important tonight was for MPs to vote, by a massive majority, for the government motion, ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. | Jack Dromey, the Labour MP who jointly tabled the no-deal amendment with Caroline Spelman, has just told Sky News that he does not intend to move the amendment. Earlier Spelman said she would not be moving it either. (See 3.43pm.) Dromey said MPs had already backed the amendment (in January – tonight’s is word-for-word the same) and that what was important tonight was for MPs to vote, by a massive majority, for the government motion, ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. |
Asked if there would be a vote on the motion, Spelman told Sky News she did not know, because any MP who signed it could push for a vote. | Asked if there would be a vote on the motion, Spelman told Sky News she did not know, because any MP who signed it could push for a vote. |
But, given what Dromey is saying, and what Yvette Cooper said earlier (see 5.34pm), it looks as though there won’t be a vote on it. | But, given what Dromey is saying, and what Yvette Cooper said earlier (see 5.34pm), it looks as though there won’t be a vote on it. |
Sky’s Jon Craig tells the programme that Spelman was “nobbled” and that, having decided to whip against the amendment, No 10 did not want a vote because some pro-European ministers would have voted in favour. | Sky’s Jon Craig tells the programme that Spelman was “nobbled” and that, having decided to whip against the amendment, No 10 did not want a vote because some pro-European ministers would have voted in favour. |