Brexit: Theresa May to hold vote on EU withdrawal agreement

Theresa May will have one final shot at pushing her Brexit plans through parliament on Friday in a last ditch bid to avoid a major delay to Britain’s departure from the EU.

The prime minister will put another critical vote in front of MPs, but in a surprise move they will take a decision only on the “withdrawal agreement” part of the broader Brexit deal.

There was uproar in the House of Commons after ministers confirmed the move, undertaken to let them circumvent a ban on Ms May repeatedly bringing her Brexit plans before MPs.

Critics even accused the government of doing something which “breaks the law” in its bid to force the prime minister’s twice-defeated deal back for a third vote.

Ms May’s victory in securing the vote still leaves her needing to win it however, with large numbers of Tories yet to offer support.

After she tried to secure the backing of some of her Tory opponents by offering to quit, leadership rivals Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab both made prominent media appearances on Thursday, while other ministers talked up the prospect of an election.

The manoeuvre by the government to secure the vote means it will make MPs take a decision on the key part of Ms May’s Brexit deal on 29 March – initially slated as the UK’s day of departure.

Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom urged MPs to back it “so that we can leave the EU in an orderly way that gives businesses and people the certainty that they need”.

Ms May’s Brexit deal contains two parts – the legally binding “withdrawal agreement” and the “political declaration” on the framework for future relations.

Under British statute, the government must have what is called a “meaningful vote” to approve both parts of the broader deal at the same time, and has already attempted this in what have come to be called MV1 and MV2, with Ms May losing both heavily.

As a result Commons speaker John Bercow said he would not permit the government to bring back a further MV3 vote, unless there is a substantial change to the proposition on offer – but he accepted that exclusion of the political declaration met his terms.

At the same time Ms May was under pressure to hold a vote on Friday because it was the last day that the UK could approve a deal in order to secure a Brexit day of 22 May, as set out by the European Council.

If she had not secured the vote, or if the vote is lost, the UK would face a choice of leaving with no deal on 12 April or having a much longer delay to Brexit, which the prime minister has said is unacceptable.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his frontbench MPs reacted with outrage, arguing that it broke rules to hold a vote on only one part of the Brexit deal.

Shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz said: “We are now presented with a motion that breaks that link [between the two parts of the Brexit deal], on the face of it breaks the law, breaks the European Union withdrawal law.”

Shadow industry spokesperson Chi Onwurah said: “Basically this is an attempt to do the impossible, agreeing the withdrawal agreement without the political declaration under blackmail of a hard Brexit.”

The government still faces the challenge of persuading enough MPs to back it, after the DUP said last night that it could not support Ms May’s deal at this point.

The prime minister promised Conservative MPs at a meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee on Wednesday that she would stand down if it meant they supported her plans.