PM May humiliated yet again as MPs demand more of say in Brexit, DUP say offer is "meaningless"

Natasha Clark
The Sun
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 15:51 UTC

Dominic Grieve's change passed in the Commons

THERESA May has been defeated on Brexit for the second time in 24 hours today as rebels wrestled back power from the Government.

Hopes that she can get next week's deal passed by MPs are now fading fast after she was slapped down yet again by politicians demanding more of a say on our EU exit.

The PM will now be forced to make a statement within three days if her withdrawal agreement gets thrown out by MPs on Tuesday as expected.

The amendment, which was proposed by ex-Attorney General and Remainer in chief, Dominic Grieve, passed 308 to 297.

It comes just hours after MPs voted in favour of limiting the Government's tax powers in a No Deal Brexit last night - another humiliation for Mrs May.

© PRU

Theresa May was humiliated yet again this afternoon as rebels forced her into making a statement on Brexit

Today MPs begin five days of debate on Brexit, which will end on Tuesday with the crunch vote.

The news today comes as:

• Mrs May promised MPs a vote on whether to enter the Northern Irish backstop or extend the transition period if there's no trade deal with Brussels
• This morning Brexit minister Chris Heaton Harris said he didn't think there was a way forward where Brexit can be stopped
• Labour's Barry Gardiner revealed today his party WOULD push a vote of no confidence in the Government if her deal is defeated next week - which could trigger an election if lost
• Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said he thought an extension of Article 50 "might well be inevitable" now
• No10 admitted for the first time that the PM could lose next week's vote saying they would respond "quickly" if she did

So many MPs are still opposed to the PM's hated deal that it's unlikely it will pass.

After that, no one knows what the Government will do next.

It could open the door to extending Article 50 - which Theresa May today dodged a question on - or even another referendum to keep us IN the EU.

"A minority government must expect to lose votes, it's par for the course," Jacob Rees Mogg said today.

He insisted that it was more symbolic than forcing the Government's hand, but showed the strength of the rebels.

But Keir Starmer MP, Labour's Shadow Brexit Secretary said: "If the Prime Minister's Brexit deal is defeated next week, she must return to Parliament as soon as possible and give MPs a real say on what happens next."

Just minutes before the vote took place a furious row broke out over the change, where Speaker Bercow was told he was biased for allowing the vote to go ahead.

It was thought that the bill was unable to be amended, and No10 did not expect it to be allowed.

But the Speaker stood up and told MPs that he thought politicians should get a bigger say on Brexit, and he was "trying to do the right thing".

Mr Bercow stood by his decision, telling the Commons: "My understanding is the motion is amendable, I'm clear in my mind about that."

MPs said he broke Commons rules and ignored the advice of his own officials to push through the amendment.

Crispin Blint said: "We we will have an unshakeable conviction that the referee is no longer neutral."

Angry Mark Francois shouted "ridiculous!" as the Speaker desperately tried to explain himself.

"Why are you overruling this today?" he said.

Fuming politicians said it was clear he was breaking long-established rules to make the ruling today.

Commons boss Andrea Leadsom angrily demanded that he publish the advice he'd got from his team on it, but he refused.

Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said today: "Parliament has rejected the Prime Minister's vain attempt to once again kick the Brexit can down the road and run down the clock.

"It is right Parliament has 'taken back control' from a wayward Prime Minister and this failing Conservative Government."

Earlier today the PM promised MPs a vote on whether to enter the hated backstop or not, if we didn't get a trade deal ready in time.

That would mean they could choose between that and extending the transition period further until a deal was sealed, and would avoid the Northern Ireland plans altogether.

She's also promised more say for Northern Ireland - including plans for a vote on whether they want to accept more EU rules if they were to enter the backstop.

But already the DUP has rejected the promises as "meaningless".

Comment: The Guardian provides more details on the DUP issue:

DUP dismisses May's Brexit pledge to consult Stormont as meaningless

© Niall Carson/PA

‌The gates at Stormont in Belfast which has not been sitting for two years.

Theresa May's attempts to woo the Democratic Unionist party with a pledge over the contentious backstop have failed after the party branded the proposals as "cosmetic and meaningless".

At the same time Ireland's prime minister Leo Varadkar, reflecting the principles of the withdrawal agreement, said Stormont could not have the power of veto over the backstop.

"I don't think we can have a situation whereby the Northern Ireland executive or assembly has a veto power [over the backstop] because that would essentially give one of the two communities veto power over the other," he told Reuters in Ethiopia.

With less than a week to go to the critical parliamentary vote on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the government appears no closer to securing the 10 votes of the DUP MPs needed to get the deal over the line.

In a 13-page document published on Wednesday, the government promised a "strong role" for the currently defunct Stormont assembly if the Brexit backstop was triggered.

It promised that if the trade talks with the EU failed to result in a deal by the end of the transition period in December 2020, Stormont would be consulted before the government decided its next move. Under the current deal the UK can ask for an extension in the transition period or enter the backstop arrangements.

Under the plan, the view of the assembly, which has not been sitting for two years, would then be presented to parliament before MPs took a final decision.

The paper promised that this "Stormont lock" on the backstop would be a legally binding commitment.

"Where appropriate we will legislate to ensure that these commitments have legal force," the government said in its paper, the UK Government Commitments to Northern Ireland and its Integral Place in the United Kingdom.

However, the DUP immediately rejected the paper, dashing hopes that the party would get behind May for the vote on her Brexit deal next Tuesday.

Tory sources who were ambivalent about the vote had said that the support of the DUP could "unlock" 20 to 30 more hard Brexiter votes for May, something now unlikely.

Nigel Dodds, the leader of the DUP in the House of Commons, said the proposal to ensure "a strong role for the Northern Ireland assembly before Northern Ireland-specific backstop provisions are given effect is cosmetic and meaningless".

He said the paper itself indicated that the proposals made it plain the Stormont assembly would never be able to "override" the backstop as it would be part of an internationally binding treaty.

Any objections that were raised in Stormont could be rejected by London, said Dodds, MP for Belfast North.

The DUP's Sammy Wilson told Sky News there was "nothing at all" to fear from a no-deal Brexit.

"We would prefer to have the relationship sorted out but it can't be sorted out on the basis of breaking up the UK," said the East Antrim MP.

"This issue is far too important," he added, "This is an issue about if Northern Ireland stays in the UK, whether Northern Ireland keeps linked to its main market in GB. Constitutionally and economically if this deal went through it would ruin us.

"We would do what the IRA failed to do over 40 years of a terrorist campaign," he said in reference to their desire for a united Ireland.

Publishing the paper, cabinet office minister David Lidington said the "commitments underline Northern Ireland's integral place in the United Kingdom and reflect that it is the only part of the United Kingdom sharing a land border with an EU member state.".

The EU referendum was merely a ploy by the ruling UK government to maintain power, but having royally backfired it continues to expose them as the utter shambles that they are. Even the DUP, who they bought off with an offer of a billion in funding, doesn't trust them: Brexit: A Political Farce Based on a Public Lie

See also:

• 'Demented pantomime': UK govt stages no-deal Brexit 'fake traffic jam' involving 100 lorries
• Brexit underscores the case for a united Ireland

And check out SOTT radio's:

• NewsReal: Yellow Vest Protests, Brexit Farce - Revolutionary Climate in Western Europe?
• NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit