Brexit day: Shambles, protests, anger and blame as Theresa May appears to head towards third defeat

Tories at war with Theresa May's deal set for another defeat Brexiteers turn on each other ahead of vote DUP refuses to budge and back PM Growing calls for Prime Minister to quit in days Follow the latest developments LIVE
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Theresa May appeared to be heading for her third and perhaps final defeat on Brexit in the House of Commons this afternoon.

On the day that the Prime Minister once decreed would be Brexit Day, Downing Street appeared to be losing the battle to drag her twice-rejected withdrawal deal over the line.

The chances of an early general election were rising as the Prime Minister’s DUP allies refused to cave in and back her, while a hardcore in the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers said they also would not budge.

That left Mrs May begging Labour MPs to bail her out. She succeeded in getting a trickle to promise their votes, but not enough to guarantee victory.

As MPs met at Westminster with protesters gathering outside, Mrs May’s hopes rested on the ERG, which called a meeting at 1.30pm — an hour before the vote was due — to take stock.

Theresa May in the Commons today
AFP/Getty Images

One leading Brexiteer, Priti Patel, hinted in the Commons she would back the deal. She told MPs that trust in politics was in danger if Brexit did not happen.

But an ERG source, who appeared to be speaking on behalf of the hardcore of the group, said: “We have not blinked.” Some Tories were suggesting the ERG hardcore had been reduced to a rump of less than 20 by a whipping operation.

One of the architects of Brexit, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, admitted that the fiasco was risking “a chasm of distrust” between voters and the political system.

Labour backbencher Lisa Nandy, who was keenly targeted by Tory whips to change her mind, told the Evening Standard she would not back the Prime Minister.

“The deal that the Prime Minister seems to have struck with the ERG to go [resign], and essentially be replaced by one of them, has basically made it very, very difficult to see any large number of Labour moving over to support it,” she said.

A handful of Labour MPs said they could back the bare bones of the withdrawal agreement, which guarantees EU citizens’ rights and smooth trade until December 2020.

Ex-minister Jim Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar & Limehouse, was among them. Former north-east miner Ronnie Campbell said he would “listen to the debate” to be sure “it’s not a trickery”.He stressed he was not endorsing Mrs May’s wider blueprint, saying: “As long as it’s not her deal. Because her deal is crap, I want nothing to do with her deal.” Eurosceptic Labour MP Graham Stringer said: “I’m going to vote against it because nothing has changed. She says she will go if she wins. She should go if she loses.”

Jon Lansman, founder of the Labour grassroots movement Momentum, tweeted this morning: “Any Labour MP who votes today with the Tories to leave the EU with absolutely no idea where we are heading does not deserve to be a Labour MP.”

A few Tories changed sides at the start of the Commons debate. Former Tory chief whip Mark Harper wrote on ConservativeHome the deal remained “a bad set of proposals”, but went on: “However, I am prepared to compromise to ensure that we deliver Brexit.”

Cabinet minister Liam Fox admitted that the fiasco was risking “a chasm of distrust" between voters and politicians
PA

Backbencher Lucy Allan posted on Facebook: “My constituents voted 67 per cent to leave and leave we must. I have a duty to deliver that, whatever I think personally about the deal.”

Daniel Kawczynski said the alternative was “not leaving for possibly two years, if at all”.

Boris Johnson confirmed in a tweet he had taken the “painful” decision to back a deal he once claimed would leave the UK a “vassal state”.

Defeat for the Prime Minister would risk “an even worse version of Brexit or losing Brexit altogether”, he said. Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab today joined the former foreign secretary in backing the deal, despite having repeatedly lambasted it as flawed. Only yesterday he suggested Mrs May should try to win concessions from Brussels.

ERG deputy chairman Steve Baker was swayed last night towards backing the deal but by this morning said he had decided to oppose it.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said today’s stripped-down version was not another meaningful vote
AFP/Getty Images

Mrs May’s deal was defeated in two meaningful votes by a margin of 230 in January and 149 this month.

Opening the Commons debate, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said today’s stripped-down version was not another meaningful vote but would be the minimum needed to qualify for an extension to Article 50 until May 22, avoiding the risk of a chaotic exit on April 12.

In a big concession to Labour MPs, Mr Cox said the Government would allow the Commons to set the negotiating mandate for the next phase of Brexit negotiations.

He said ministers had been willing to accept an amendment by Ms Nandy empowering the Commons to pass resolutions to direct talks on trade and security between the UK and EU. But Speaker John Bercow did not select the amendments for voting.

“We would have accepted his amendments,” Mr Cox told backer Labour’s Gareth Snell. “If it requires an amendment to that legislation, we’d obviously consider its detail carefully, but we’d be minded to accept such.”

Mr Cox appealed to MPs to back the agreement and “bring certainty to thousands of businesses and millions of individuals throughout this country, and to one million citizens of our country residing in the European Union”. Mr Bercow repeatedly called for calm as the Commons debate was punctuated with heckling and shouting.

DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds told MPs that “sadly” not enough progress had been made with the Government to neuter the threat of the Northern Irish border backstop. “Every single unionist party in Northern Ireland … agree with the position that this is a problem for the union,” he said.

The European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier confirmed in a tweet that a positive vote “will secure extension to 22 May”. ERG chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “We should have left without a deal at 11 o’clock [tonight], that’s what people expected.”

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