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Brexit: Bercow puts fresh meaningful vote in doubt by firming up his 'no repeat votes' ruling - live news Boris Johnson to back May's Brexit deal after resignation pledge - live news
(about 3 hours later)
This is useful - a chart from Simon Usherwood from UK in a Changing Europe, an academic network, explaining the implications of the eight amendments for the EU. There was a time when the Brexiters wanted to restore the constitutional supremacy of parliament. Now, according to Bloomberg’s Robert Hutton, some of them have other plans for the place.
Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt has more thinking on what the government could do to get round John Bercow’s ruling. Steve Baker is NOT, repeat NOT, voting for May's deal. But he DOES want to bulldoze Parliament into the Thames. https://t.co/B2i2hS65Xb via @business
Ministers think it is highly unlikely PM could argue that change of date meets substantial change demanded by speaker The Tory Brexiter Sheryll Murray voted against Theresa May’s deal earlier this month. According to the BBC’s Martyn Oates, she has now been persuaded to back it.
And that ain’t possible Mr W bc no paving motion BREAKING: ERG rebel @sheryllmurray says @theresa_may has now "done enough" to win her support if the PM's Brexit deal is brought back to the Commons for Meaningful Vote 3 on Friday.
Govt source: only realistic way to circumvent John Bercow’s ruling on meaningful vote is to incorporate it into Withdrawal Bill (the one implementing Brexit deal). So second reading of that bill would effectively be the meaningful vote Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the European Research Group, has just told Sky News that he thinks the chances of Theresa May’s deal being passed are now “much higher than they were”.
Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, is speaking in the debate now. Here is a column from my colleague Polly Toynbee on Theresa May’s decision to announce that she will resign before the next phase of the Brexit talks.
He says the government is going to table a motion for the Commons to sit on Friday, in case it wants to hold the third meaningful vote then. He does not confirm that the debate will be held then. But he says it is better to have the option, and not need it, than to need it, and not have it available. Farewell to the worst prime minister bar none until the next one | Polly Toynbee
Thirty three Tory MPs defied the whip and voted in favour of the business motion. The full list is here. That is three more than the 30 Tories who rebelled on this issue on Monday. And this is how it starts.
Two Labour MPs joined the Tories, the DUP and three independent in voting against the business motion: Stephen Hepburn and Kate Hoey. Theresa May will leave office in an “orderly handover” whenever an EU withdrawal deal is done. No one is weeping. The oddity is: we may yet come to miss her, though she has been the worst prime minister of our political lifetimes bar none. Yet there was one great good purpose in her premiership: by occupying the space, however vacuously, she kept out the barbarian hordes of Brexiteers barging one another out of the way to seize her throne.
Here is some reaction to the Bercow ruling (see 3.47pm) from people who follow Commons procedure closely. Now she has surrendered that one useful role, leaving the country to the untender mercies of those competing in Europhobia for the votes of some 120,000 dwindling Tory party members. To use her deathless phrase, nothing will be changed by her departure. Parliament will be as gridlocked as ever, the combat deadlier with an avowed Brextremist at the helm.
From Nikki da Costa, the former head of legislative affairs for Theresa May at Number 10 According to my colleague Dan Sabbagh, talks of Steve Baker being open to backing Theresa May’s deal (see 7.10pm) sound premature.
This is extraordinary and extremely inflammatory in a long series of inflammatory actions https://t.co/WBuLwu7rEE Boris switched to back the deal at ERG but a source adds "No way that deal is getting out the room". Baker spoke against the deal, received a standing ovation, and was hugged by colleagues. Early estimates 30 still against the deal
From Chris White, a former adviser to William Hague when he was leader of the Commons More from the European Research Group, the Tory MPs pushing for a harder Brexit who have been meeting following the PM’s statement.
This is extraordinary. The Speaker is saying that the Commons can set aside Standing Orders on Government precedence for its business, but it *cannot* do so to hold a vote on the same motion again. https://t.co/ckfV9mOOmf From the FT’s Laura Hughes
MPs have literally just voted to pass a Business Motion that disapplies the precedent for the purposes of indicative votes, yet the Speaker apparently is saying that it would not be in order for the Government to do so for a third attempt at a Meaningful Vote. https://t.co/mk8PUwZKNk NEW: Tory MP says IDS just told ERG he is backing the deal.
White is correct. Bercow said he would disallow a notwithstanding motion in relation to MV3. But the business motion today includes a “notwithstanding” element. Its third clause says: From the Mail on Sunday’s Harry Cole
(c) notwithstanding the practice of the house, any motion on matters that have been the subject of a prior decision of the house in the current session may be the subject of a decision; Rumour from ERGer: “Baker is in play”
From the Times’ Esther Webber Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the ERG, has been one of its fiercest critics of May’s deal. This is what he said in a Telegraph article (paywall) last week.
One clerk just texted me, unsolicited: "Why even have procedure anymore, apparently we're making it up as we go along" I understand my Conservative colleagues want to say they have delivered Brexit for fear of voter backlash and I understand the nation is crying out for progress, but this deal would backfire terribly by the next election.
From Jack Simson Caird, a research fellow at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. Voting for this deal is not pragmatism. It is the reverse. It would be an understandable but counterproductive surrender for immediate respite ...
If I was the Government I would bring forward a motion tomorrow or Friday to approve the Withdrawal Agreement *only* and which set out the Government is committed to deliver the option on the Future Relationship that the majority of MPs can support through the votes on Monday. If we vote for this deal, we will have locked ourselves in a prison with no voice and no exit. We will escape only with the permission of those whose authority we rejected. The PM won’t resign if the agreement goes through. She will stay and drag us miserably into deeper political disaster.
A WA only motion + commitment to listen to Commons' view on FR would pass speaker's test and would enable long extension if approved In the Commons the Brexit indicative votes debate is over. MPs are now voting.
John Bercow, the Speaker, is putting eight amendments to a vote. Unusually, they are voting on paper. They have got half an hour to fill in a ballot paper looking like this.
Here they are. I have taken the summary of what each one says from the Press Association summary I posted earlier. The letters refer to the letters attached to each amendment in the order paper. Breaking: first images of tonight's #indicativevotes papers ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/XVTB0jJQKm
B - John Baron’s - No deal But MPs are still using the division lobbies. They are expected to go there to hand over their ballot papers. To even things out, John Bercow, the Speaker, said MPs with surnames beginning with the letters A to K should use the aye lobby, and everyone else the no lobby.
Backed by Conservative MPs John Baron, David Amess, Martin Vickers and Stephen Metcalfe, the motion proposes leaving the European Union without a deal on April 12. Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary, has told the Tory European Research Group, that he will now vote for Theresa May’s deal, HuffPost’s Arj Singh reports.
D - Nick Boles’s - common market 2.0 Boris Johnson backs May's Brexit deal despite once calling it a suicide vest https://t.co/3mMixfUgET
Tabled by Conservatives Nick Boles, Robert Halfon and Andrew Percy and Labour’s Stephen Kinnock, Lucy Powell and Diana Johnson. The motion proposes UK membership of the European free trade association and European Economic Area. It allows continued participation in the single market and a “comprehensive customs arrangement” with the EU after Brexit, which would remain in place until the agreement of a wider trade deal which guarantees frictionless movement of goods and an open border in Ireland. Johnson has been signalling that he is ready to drop his opposition to the deal for some days now, but only last night he said in a speech: “If we vote for the PM’s lamentable withdrawal agreement we are skewered.” (See 9.33am.)
H - George Eustice’s - Efta and EEA And here is Nicola Sturgeon, the Scotland first minister, on Theresa May’s announcement.
A motion tabled by Conservative MP George Eustice who quit as agriculture minister this month to fight for Brexit proposes remaining within the EEA and rejoining Efta, but remaining outside a customs union with the EU. The motion was also signed by Conservative MPs including former minister Nicky Morgan and head of the Brexit Delivery Group Simon Hart. If Brexit ends up being forced through on the basis of a deal no one supports - indeed a deal so bad that the PM has to promise to resign to get it through - it will make an already bad project even worse.
J - Ken Clarke’s - Customs union And this is from my colleague Dan Sabbagh.
Requires a commitment to negotiate a “permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union with the EU” in any Brexit deal. Tabled by veteran Conservative Europhile Ken Clarke, backed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, Helen Goodman and chair of the Commons Brexit committee Hilary Benn and Tory former ministers Sir Oliver Letwin and Sarah Newton. Shailesh Vara emerges from ERG meeting to say that most people present, including him, were coming round to supporting May's "bad deal" as the alternatives were worse. Meeting still going on.
K - Labour’s - Customs union and alignment with single market This is from my colleague Patrick Wintour.
Labour has tabled a motion proposing its plan for a close economic relationship with the EU. The plan includes a comprehensive customs union with a UK say on future trade deals; close alignment with the single market; matching new EU rights and protections; participation in EU agencies and funding programmes; and agreement on future security arrangements, including access to the European arrest warrant As usual, he is right ...
L - Joanna Cherry’s - Revocation to avoid no deal A consequence of May's likely resignation is that the unresolved question of Britain's future relations with Europe, to be negotiated in phase 2 of talks, will largely be decided on hustings in a Tory Party leadership contest. Fewer than 120,000 deciding on behalf of 46m.
Under this plan, if the government has not passed its withdrawal agreement, it would have to stage a vote on a no-deal Brexit two sitting days before the scheduled date of departure. If MPs refuse to authorise no-deal, the prime minister would be required to halt Brexit by revoking article 50. The motion, tabled by the SNP’s Joanna Cherry, has been signed by 33 MPs including the Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve, the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Vince Cable, Labour’s Ben Bradshaw and all 11 members of the Independent Group.
M - Dame Margaret Beckett’s - Confirmatory public vote
Drawn up by Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson and tabled by former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett with the backing of scores of MPs across the House, this motion would require a public vote to confirm any Brexit deal passed by parliament before its ratification.
O - Marcus Fysh’s - Contingent preferential arrangements
A group of Conservative MPs, including Marcus Fysh, Steve Baker and Priti Patel, have signed a motion that calls for the government to seek to agree preferential trade arrangements with the EU, in case the UK is unable to implement a withdrawal agreement with the bloc.
This is what John Bercow said about firming up his “no repeat votes” ruling. (See 3.32pm.) Reminding MPs of his original decision, Bercow told MPs:
In the course of answering questions following her statement [on Monday], the prime minister accepted this constraint, saying that: “I am very clear about the strictures that Mr Speaker gave when he made his statement last week and, were we to bring forward a further motion to this house, we would of course ensure that it met the requirements he made.”
I understand that the government may be thinking of bringing meaningful vote three before the house either tomorrow or even on Friday, if the house opts to sit that day.
Therefore, in order that there should be no misunderstanding, I wish to make clear that I do expect the government to meet the test of change. They should not seek to circumvent my ruling by means of tabling either a notwithstanding motion or a tabling motion. The table office has been instructed that no such motions will be accepted.
I very much look forward, colleagues, to today’s debate and votes which give the house the chance to start the process of positively indicating what it wants.
There had been speculation that the government might get round Bercow’s ruling, which is based on a rule in the Commons bible, Erskine May, by having a vote on a motion disapplying the rule in this case. That option has now been disallowed.
John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, is now talking about his ruling about “no repeat votes”, that prevented Theresa May from bringing back her meaningful vote before the EU summit.
He says there is talk of the government bringing back the vote on Thursday or Friday next week.
He says that, for this to be allowed, there would have to a substantial change to the motion.
And he says he has instructed the clerks to block any attempt by the government to get round this ruling by tabling a “notwithstanding” motion – ie, a one-off rule change that would allow the debate to go ahead despite the usual Commons rule.
Bercow restates his ruling that he will only allow a new vote on the Brexit deal if it has changed significantly.
He says he will block any attempt by the government to use a procedural rule change to get round his decision.
This is new, and unexpected. It has probably reduced the chances of the meaningful vote being brought back this week (MV3), and it makes the chance of MV3 never happening a distinct possibility.
John Bercow, the Speaker, says he is putting eight amendments to a vote.
Theresa May has lost again. Her attempt to defeat the business motion failed, and it was passed by 331 votes to 287 - a majority of 44.
From Sky’s Kay Burley
Standby for a DUP statement
Theresa May could be quite close to announcing her resignation as PM. But, according to some new Ipsos MORI polling, she is still seen as having what it takes to be a good prime minister than all of her most obvious rivals.