Theresa May has promised MPs a vote on delaying the UK’s departure from the EU or ruling out a no-deal Brexit if they reject her deal next month.
Mrs May is making a statement to MPs on Brexit, amid the threat of a revolt by Remain-supporting ministers.
The prime minister promised MPs a meaningful vote on her Brexit deal by 12 March.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the prime minister of trying to “string” the Brexit process out.
The prime minister said she will put her withdrawal agreement – including any changes she has agreed with the EU – to a meaningful vote by 12 March.
If that fails, MPs will be offered two separate votes:
One, on the following day, on whether MPs support a no-deal Brexit – so the UK would “only leave without a deal on 29 March if there is explicit consent in the House for that outcome”
If that fails, then MPs will get a vote by 14 March on requesting an extension to the two-year Article 50 negotiation process to delay EU withdrawal beyond 29 March
“Let me be clear, I do not want to see Article 50 extended,” she told MPs.
“Our absolute focus should be on working to get a deal and leaving on 29 March.
“An extension beyond the end of June would mean the UK taking part in the European Parliament elections. What kind of message would that send to the more than 17 million people who voted to leave the EU nearly three years ago now?
And the House should be clear that a short extension – not beyond the end of June – would almost certainly have to be a one-off.”
Theresa May’s big concession – and it was a significant tactical retreat – was about buying herself more time.
So now, under the threat of maybe 15 to 20 ministers rebelling, the prime minister’s promised MPs an opportunity next month to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and force a “limited” delay in leaving the EU.
Without that promise, there’s every chance those unhappy ministers would have joined other MPs in voting to rule out no-deal and delay Brexit anyway.
She did not offer ministers freedom to vote as they choose. So now the (potential) rebels must decide whether to hold fire for a fortnight, while she tries to get terms in Brussels she can sell to the Commons – hoping Brexiteers ultimately back her deal as the best Brexit available.
Call it “running down the clock”, or “kicking the can down the road”, if you like.
But kicking and running has been Mrs May’s best hope for months.
Mrs May said an extension “cannot take no deal off the table”, adding: “The only way to do that is to revoke Article 50, which I shall not do, or agree a deal.”
Extending Article 50 would require the unanimous backing of the other 27 EU member states and, she said, she had not had conversations about it with them.
The sequence of votes will be proposed on Wednesday in an amendable motion for MPs to debate and vote on.
Mrs May repeatedly declined to say whether she would vote against a no-deal Brexit, and whether Tory MPs would be whipped to vote for or against it.
The move is an attempt to avoid a defeat for the government on Wednesday, which could see MPs taking control of the Brexit process.
Will Tory rebels accept May’s offer?
Several Remain-backing ministers were threatening to resign, so that they could vote for a cross-party amendment aimed at ruling out a no-deal Brexit.
One of them, Business Minister Richard Harrington, said: “I’m satisfied because for the first time she has acknowledged in a statement that Parliament will be allowed to vote on ruling out no deal, which, of course, it overwhelmingly will.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One that “a lot depends on the detail” and he was awaiting a briefing from Tory Sir Oliver Letwin, one of the architects of the cross-party amendment.
“If they are satisfied that the effect is the same, then for me that is good enough,” he said.
Other rebels have yet to comment.
Source: BBC News
