The House of Commons will vote today on whether to delay Brexit after a dramatic night in the chamber saw MPs reject the idea of leaving the European Union without a deal.
MPs voted by 312 to 308 to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances, an amendment from Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who said Parliament had “voted decisively tonight against the chaos of no deal”.
While the country might have been saved from so-called no-deal chaos, The Independent says it was “chaos in the Commons”.
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The government wanted to keep the long-term no-deal option on the table, so ordered Conservative MPs to vote against Cooper's amendment with a three-line whip. However, four members of the Cabinet broke rank and abstained.
The result was “fresh humiliation” for the prime minister, who had only supported the rejection of a no-deal Brexit on 29 March, says Sky News. She had reportedly promised to give her own MPs a free vote on the latter option but once it was amended she “sought to whip her own MPs against it in scenes aides said were farcical”, said the Financial Times.
The House still backed it by 321 to 278, a majority of 43. On the final vote, 12 ministers, including four cabinet members, abstained and one junior minister, Sarah Newton, resigned in order to vote against the government.
Theresa May is “truly on the ropes” argues The Guardian, while the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg said: “Her authority - if not all gone - is in shreds.”
The PM says she will hold third “meaningful vote” next week, which is “a calculated gamble that she can finally bring the escalating Brexit drama to a head before formally seeking to delay Britain’s departure date from March 29 to June 30”.
But first MPs will vote on whether to ask the European Union for permission to delay the date.
May told the Commons she would seek a short delay to Article 50 if MPs back her withdrawal deal next week, warning that if they reject it again there would be a longer delay. The latter outcome would require the UK to take part in elections to the European Parliament in May, the prime minister explained, stating: “I do not think that would be the right outcome.”
The Times says these circumstances could mean May’s deal is “back from the dead”.
In words that reflect the political stakes, she added: “We could leave with the deal we have negotiated but subject to a second referendum. But that would risk no Brexit at all, damaging the fragile trust between the British public and the members of this House.”
