Brexit vote: MPs vote by 308-297 to defeat Theresa May and accept Grieve amendment
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Your support makes all the difference.Angry Brexiteers have attacked John Bercow for allowing MPs to vote on a controversial bid that forces Theresa May to produce a plan B within three days if her Brexit deal is rejected.
The cross-party Grieve amendment – passed by 308 votes to 297 – demands the government outline its next steps within three days if Ms May’s deal is defeated, rather than the 21 days plus seven sitting days currently permitted.
It follows an embarrassing defeat for the prime minister on Tuesday, after her government became the first since 1978 to lose a vote on the Finance Bill as MPs made a stand against a no-deal exit from the EU.
As it happened...
Ken Clarke, the former Tory chancellor, says the PM has to be "flexible". He asks her to delay or revoke Article 50 if her deal falls in the Commons. Safe to say she avoided the question.
"I'm not going to ask about Brexit," says the Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith at prime minister's questions. One MP shouts "shame" while another shouts "happy new year".
John Bercow, the Commons speaker, says he is "clear in his mind" that he has taken the right course. "I am trying to do the right thing and to do the right judgements," he says - in reference to Dominic Grieve's amendment.
He is facing a degree of criticism from Conservative MPs for his decision to accept the amendment.
Tory MP Mark Francois yelled "ridiculous" and "that is utter sophistry", but Mr Bercow defended his decision.
"The answer is simple," he said. "He referred to a motion and he said that no motion in this context, for the purposes of precis, may be moved other then by a Minister of the Crown. Tis so.
"We're not speaking here of a motion but of an amendment to a motion. I'm sorry but there is a distinction between a motion and an amendment.
"What he says about a motion I accept but it doesn't relate to an amendment. That is the answer."
But Kenneth Clarke, the former Tory chancellor and senior MP, defends the speaker for giving power to the House of Commons. He tells his colleagues getting overexcited to "don a yellow jacket and go outside".
@here
Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, asks the speaker to publish the advice he received on today's amendment - referring to reports he acted against advice provided by the clerks. Fair to say Bercow does not look impressed.
He says of course he listens to the advice, and that advice is private.
Tory MP Heidi Allen, also raising a point of order, said: "I am absolutely hopping mad.
"When I became an MP three years ago I was determined that I would not become part of the establishment. Do people in this House have any idea how out-of-touch the general public think we are most days?
"We are talking about 79 days until potentially crashing out of Europe without a deal - should our focus not be on the detail and the arguments about the process in this place, but getting on with a plan B if Parliament decides the Government's plan is not the one for the people?
"When are we going to start acting like public servants doing the right thing and having the debate and getting on with it?"
Tory MP Heidi Allen, also raising a point of order, said: "I am absolutely hopping mad.
"When I became an MP three years ago I was determined that I would not become part of the establishment. Do people in this House have any idea how out-of-touch the general public think we are most days?
"We are talking about 79 days until potentially crashing out of Europe without a deal - should our focus not be on the detail and the arguments about the process in this place, but getting on with a plan B if Parliament decides the Government's plan is not the one for the people?
"When are we going to start acting like public servants doing the right thing and having the debate and getting on with it?"
Almost an hour after PMQs finished, MPs are still on points of order, which usually last just a few minutes.
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