Theresa May's deal is voted down in historic Commons defeat: Brexit News for Wednesday 16 January

Theresa May's deal is voted down in historic Commons defeat: Brexit News for Wednesday 16 January
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Theresa May’s deal is voted down in historic Commons defeat…

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been rejected by 230 votes – the largest defeat for a sitting government in history. MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU on 29 March. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has now tabled a vote of no confidence in the government, which could trigger a general election. The confidence vote is expected to be held at about 1300 GMT on Wednesday. The defeat is a huge blow for Mrs May, who has spent more than two years hammering out a deal with the EU. The UK is still on course to leave on 29 March but the defeat throws the manner of that departure – and the timing of it – into further doubt. MPs who want either a further referendum, a softer version of the Brexit proposed by Mrs May, to stop Brexit altogether or to leave without a deal, will ramp up their efforts to get what they want, as a weakened PM offered to listen to their arguments. – BBC News

  • Theresa May loses Brexit deal vote by majority of 230 – Guardian
  • Theresa May defeated by record margin of 230 MPs as Jeremy Corbyn tables vote of no confidence – Telegraph (£)

> Last night on BrexitCentral: MPs reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal by 432 votes to 202 – how every MP voted

…as Government faces No Confidence vote today…

Labour launched the bid to trigger a general election after the deal setting out the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU was rejected by 230 votes. However, one senior party figure has suggested it is unlikely to succeed, with Northern Ireland’s DUP and Tory rebels saying they will back the PM. The confidence vote is expected to be held at about 1900 GMT. MPs are set to debate the motion for about six hours following Prime Minister’s Questions at 1200, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn saying it would allow them to give their verdict on “the sheer incompetence of this government”. But first she must survive the confidence vote tabled by Mr Corbyn and backed by MPs from the SNP, Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and Green Party. Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner suggested Labour might have to force a series of confidence votes if it is to unseat the PM. “The numbers are probably not there tomorrow,” he told the BBC. “We will hope that we can.” – BBC News

  • Jeremy Corbyn launches bid to topple Theresa May in aftermath of major Brexit defeat – Independent

…which Labour threatens to table ‘again and again and again’

Labour tonight threatened to bring a no confidence vote in the government “again and again and again”.Theresa May will face the historic vote tomorrow night after suffering the worst ever Commons defeat on her Brexit deal. But her government is expected to win the vote – and avoid a general election – because her DUP allies will back her thanks to the £1.5bn bung she handed the party in 2017. Fortunately for Labour the party can call unlimited no confidence votes – a prospect Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman refused to rule out. And tonight Corbyn loyalist Richard Burgon went much further. The Shadow Justice Secretary told BBC News: “If we don’t win this no confidence vote this time, then we can bring it again and again and again if necessary. – Mirror

Ministers split over whether May should now ‘soften’ Brexit deal…

Should the prime minister win her no-confidence vote on Wednesday, May said she would seek to find a consensus across the house by speaking to various factions in the Tory party, as well as senior opposition politicians. “We want to leave with a deal and we want to work with others who share that,” May’s spokesman said. Shell-shocked cabinet ministers were expected to renew a push for May to hold a series of indicative votes on the options before parliament, which one No 10 source said May instinctively opposed. Others would push for her to prioritise getting new and firm commitments from her confidence and supply partners, the DUP. Other senior Conservative sources voiced strong reservations as to whether May’s red lines, including on a customs union and free movement, would be able to hold in her discussions with opposition MPs. “We have to go over to Labour on the customs union,” one minister said. “That’s the irony – the result could effectively be a permanent backstop. How can the red lines still stand? She is going to have to choose.” Opinion among backbenchers was sharply divided in the hours after the vote, with Brexiters arguing that a majority could be found for a free trade agreement without the backstop and others said May would need to soften her deal to bring Labour MPs onboard. – Guardian

…while Chancellor Philip Hammond raises the prospect of delaying Article 50 to reassure business

Philip Hammond sought to reassure business leaders on Tuesday night that a no-deal Brexit could be blocked, while also raising for the first time the possibility of a delay to Article 50. Speaking on a conference call alongside business secretary Greg Clark and Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay, the chancellor said the government would now seek to build a consensus in parliament. “We have to reach out to MPs in the Commons first,” he said. “There is a large majority in the Commons that is opposed to no-deal.” Mr Hammond said the government would not put up any “obstacles” in the way of Nick Boles, a former minister, who has proposed that the Commons liaison committee — made up of the chairs of the other select committees — could oversee attempts to find a way through the political morass. – FT(£)

Eurosceptic Tories react to Brexit deal defeat with proposals for A Better Deal and A Better Future…

In the wake of the Government’s draft Withdrawal Agreement being overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons, more than twenty senior eurosceptic Conservatives have given their support to a document put together by the former Brexit minister and European Research Group Deputy Chairman, Steve Baker, seeking to set out what the Government needs to do now. It set outs the written ministerial statement that they believe the Prime Minister should make (as she will be required to do under Section 13 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act) and has the support of numerous former Cabinet ministers… The publication, A Better Deal and A Better Future, includes a commitment to leave the European Union on schedule and as legislated for on 29th March 2019 and a proposal to work concurrently on two strands: To present the EU with a legal text of a new EU/UK trade agreement as offered by Donald Tusk on 7th March 2018 and to continue with all preparations to leave the EU on WTO terms on 29th March 2019. – BrexitCentral

> Priti Patel MP on BrexitCentral today: The Government must force the EU back to the negotiating table while preparing for a WTO Brexit

…and Boris Johnson says there is still time to renegotiate the Brexit deal without delaying Britain’s departure from the EU

The former foreign secretary said he did not ‘rejoice’ in the massive defeat suffered by Theresa May, but demanded that she ditches the Irish border backstop and takes a ‘fresh approach’. He dismissed the idea that would mean extending the Article 50 process, which has just 10 weeks left to run, saying most of the other terms were ‘fine’. Mr Johnson also confirmed that he will back the PM in a no-confidence vote being called by Jeremy Corbyn tonight. Mr Johnson told Sky News that the margin of defeat was ‘bigger than I expected’. ‘It’s no particular cause for rejoicing for me, after all I’ve been trying for so long to get the government back in the place the PM was in her Lancaster House speech last year,’ he said. ‘We were really talking about taking advantage of free trade deals and taking control of our laws. All that got lost as we moved into this quicksand of the backstop, locked into the customs union and single market. What she has now is a massive mandate. With 432 votes against her deal, she takes it back to Brussels and says “we can’t do this deal as it is, we need a fresh approach.” We can keep the good bits, protecting rights of the 3.2million EU citizens here in UK.’ – Mail Online

Jean-Claude Juncker warns ‘time is almost up’ to avoid no-deal Brexit…

The Prime Minister suffered a record-breaking defeat in the Commons, as MPs voted down her deal by 432 votes to 202. The humiliating loss comes after two years of intense negotiations between Mrs May’s team and her European counterparts, and Mr Juncker warned that “time is almost up” for both sides to reach an agreement before Brexit day on 29 March. “I take note with regret of the outcome of the vote in the House of Commons this evening,” the European Commission president said. “The withdrawal agreement is a fair compromise and the best possible deal. It reduces the damage caused by Brexit for citizens and businesses across Europe. It is the only way to ensure an orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The European Commission, and notably our chief negotiator Michel Barnier, has invested enormous time and effort to negotiate the withdrawal agreement. We have shown creativity and flexibility throughout. I, together with (EU Council President Donald) Tusk, have demonstrated goodwill again by offering additional clarifications and reassurances in an exchange of letters with Prime Minister May earlier this week. The risk of a disorderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom has increased with this evening’s vote. While we do not want this to happen, the European Commission will continue its contingency work to help ensure the EU is fully prepared. I urge the United Kingdom to clarify its intentions as soon as possible. Time is almost up”. – PoliticsHome

  • Donald Tusk says Brexit deal looks impossible – Guardian
  • ‘Time is almost up’ – EU leaders warn UK it needs to make up its mind ASAP – Express

…while President Macron claims Britain would be the biggest loser from a no-deal Brexit…

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday Britain would be the biggest loser if it left the European Union without a deal, after the British parliament resoundingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit divorce agreement. Macron was reaching the end of an almost seven-hour debate with local officials when he was told of the result of the British vote. “First option, they go towards a no deal. They say: ‘there is no deal’. That’s scary for everybody. The first losers in this would be the British,” Macron told mayors during a town hall meeting in Normandy. “Second option, they tell us – in my view, that’s what they’ll do, I know them a bit – ‘we’ll try to improve what we can get from the Europeans and we’ll get back for a vote’,” Macron said. “In that case, we’ll look into it, maybe we’ll make improvements on one or two things, but I don’t really think so because we’ve reached the maximum of what we could do with the deal and we won’t, just to solve Britain’s domestic political issues, stop defending European interests,” he said. After praising the head of the European Council Donald Tusk and the EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, Macron said he expected Britain to eventually ask for more time to renegotiate a deal. – Politico

…as the German Foreign Minister seemingly opens the door to ‘further talks’…  

In a move that will embolden critics of May’s deal, the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has hinted the Withdrawal Agreement could be altered in the event that May’s deal is defeated tonight. He told reporters outside the European Parliament this morning that: “The agreement stands, as it is. I doubt very much that the agreement can be fundamentally reopened. If there were a better solution, it would already have been put forward. If it goes wrong tonight, there could be further talks.” Whilst he has not offered a comprehensive renegotiation, this is the first time a senior EU figure has publicly suggested that there could be tweaks to the text of the agreement. – Guido Fawkes

…but Brussels boasts that Theresa May’s Brexit deal will tie Britain to following EU rules for years to come

Eurocrats reassured nervy capitals the UK has signed up to unprecedented demands and that they got “almost everything” they wanted in key areas. They said concessions over the role of the ECJ in the withdrawal agreement were “limited” and the same governance model will be applied to a trade deal. And they reassured coastal states angered it doesn’t include fishing that they will have even more “leverage” over the UK in the next round of talks.The revelations come from diplomatic minutes of a presentation by Commission officials in November to address Member State concerns over the deal. The Commission was called on to offer reassurances after a number of Member States raised concerns Michel Barnier had given too much away to Britain. EU27 capitals were especially worried about the UK-wide backstop, which they saw as a concession that surrendered vital leverage in future trade talks. But eurocrats insisted they had got a good deal by getting Britain to tie its hands over following EU rules before negotiations have even begun on an FTA. – The Sun

DUP’s Arlene Foster says the EU has hard questions to answer…

DUP leader Arlene Foster said they would work constructively with the government to get a better deal. Opposition to the plan focused on the backstop, the insurance policy to avoid a hard Irish border after Brexit in the event of a wider trade deal not being reached. Mr Wilson told the BBC he believed the defeat cemented his party’s concerns about the backstop, and urged the prime minister to go back to Brussels and renegotiate the withdrawal agreement. “Go back to the EU and make it clear this deal’s not going to work,” he said. “There is no point in keeping something on the table when it’s been kicked off the table, kicked out of the room.” Confirming the DUP would back the government in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, Mr Wilson said his party “never wanted a change of government, we wanted a change of policy”. – BBC News

…as the party prepares for ‘intensive talks’ with May on her next move

Westminster sources last night said that previous clashes between Arlene Foster’s party and the Prime Minister over her Brexit deal were “water under the bridge”. Senior teams from both parties will now try to map out a way forward on a new plan. Mrs Foster’s party last night confirmed it will be supporting the Prime Minister in today’s vote. Mrs May has made it clear she won’t resign. She said she would be setting out plans for talks with senior parliamentarians from parties across the Commons in the hope of finding “genuinely negotiable” solutions which she can take to Brussels. Mrs Foster urged her to return to EU leaders and renegotiate to secure a “better deal”. The DUP leader insisted that Parliament had “acted in the best interests of the entire UK” when it voted against the Withdrawal Agreement. “The House of Commons has sent an unmistakable message to the Prime Minister and the EU that this deal is rejected,” Mrs Foster said. “Mrs May will now be able to demonstrate to the Brussels’ negotiators that changes are required if any deal is to command the support of Parliament. We will work with the Government constructively to achieve a better deal. That is our focus.” – Belfast Telegraph

Jeremy Corbyn faces increasing pressure to back a second referendum…

Mr Corbyn had been under a huge amount of pressure from his MPs to table the vote to try to topple the PM after her humiliation last night. He had threatened to hold the vote last month, but U-turned on it in a move which saw him mocked by his critics. Backbencher Gavin Shuker said failure to force a vote would be an ‘abdication of leadership’ and prove that the Labour leader is just trying to dodge backing a second Brexit referendum. But Labour are deeply divided on Brexit – with many Remainer MPs clamouring for a second referendum while voters in the Labour heartlands overwhelmingly backed Brexit. Mr Corbyn is under huge pressure from his backbenchers to back a second referendum, dubbed a ‘People’s Vote’. But he has tried to dodge these demands by saying that he will push for another election but after that all options are on the table. – Mail Online

…which Nicola Sturgeon says is the ‘only credible option’

Nicola Sturgeon was speaking after MPs voted by 432 to 202 against the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU on 29 March. She said it was time to “stop the clock” on Brexit and “put this issue back to the electorate”. Ms Sturgeon, whose SNP MPs voted against Mrs May’s deal, confirmed her party would back the no confidence motion – which Labour hopes will spark a general election. And she said the “historic” scale of the defeat for the prime minister meant the country has now “reached the point where it would be unconscionable to kick the can any further down the road.” Ms Sturgeon added: “What must happen now is clear. Firstly, and most urgently, the clock must be stopped on the Article 50 process. This is the only way to avoid any possibility of the UK crashing out of the EU on 29 March without a deal. Secondly, legislation must be brought forward to put this issue back to the electorate in another referendum. The government has had more than two and a half years to deliver a workable Brexit plan and it has completely failed to do so. The notion that it can do so now in a matter of weeks is farcical.” – BBC News

Pound rises after ‘meaningful’ Brexit vote

The vote opens up a range of outcomes, including no deal, a renegotiation of Mrs May’s deal, or a second referendum. Sterling rose 0.05% to $1.287 after declines of more than 1% earlier in the day. The currency slumped 7% in 2018 reflecting uncertainty about the terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union. MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, the heaviest defeat for a sitting government in history. “A defeat has been broadly anticipated in markets since the agreement with the EU was closed in November 2018 and caused several members of the government to resign,” said Richard Falkenhall, senior FX strategist at SEB.

  • But business groups said their members’ patience was wearing thin. – BBC News

Merkel gave May ‘no assurances’ on Brexit deal in pre-vote phone call

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not lobby for further concessions to be made to the U.K. ahead of any second vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, a government official in Berlin said Tuesday. Ahead of a crucial vote in the British parliament on the draft deal — expected to be defeated — British media reported that Merkel told May in a Sunday morning phone call that she would step in to help secure success in any rerun. “The chancellor has made no assurances beyond what was discussed in the European Council in December and what is laid down in the letter by Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk,” Merkel’s spokesperson said Tuesday. The official said U.K. media reports on the phone call, claiming Merkel is ready to talk again on the terms of the U.K.’s exit, have been “incorrectly reproduced.” – Politico

Stewart Jackson: Why the dastardly Remainer plot to steal Brexit from the people is doomed

The Prime Minister was remiss in her post defeat statement in not declaring that she would be redoubling No Deal contingency plans or that she would explicitly push for the Northern Ireland backstop to be revisited and the Withdrawal Agreement amended. This is ominous and should worry Brexit supporting MPs. Whilst weekend speculation regarding the ultra Remainer Parliamentary coup to thwart the largest democratic decision in British history, was somewhat overheated and exaggerated, Brexit supporters should be in no doubt of the degree of peril and the risk to Brexit by these arcane legislative shenanegans. Ultimately, none of that is as important as the reaction of the British public. The anger, the moral affront and the grievous sense of unfairness, trickery and treachery felt by millions will be immediate and palpable amongst both former Remainers and of course, Leavers. It would be a recipe for chaos and conflict unseen in our country since the battles over the Corn Laws, Catholic emancipation and the Industrial Revolution. – Stewart Jackson for the Telegraph (£)

Katy Balls: Theresa May’s confidence vote problems will only get worse

Theresa May is in a peculiar position after suffering the largest government defeat in history. Her Brexit plans look dead in the water and even she appeared to admit that she would now have to reach out to members of other parties and consider her options. But May’s troubles look set to get worse in the coming weeks and months. There had been an expectation that after tabling a no confidence vote, Labour would have to back a second referendum – as members desire – if it became apparent an early election wasn’t possible. Those around Corbyn appear to have no such plans. They suggest that they plan to simply keep tabling motions of no confidence in the coming weeks and months until one works. Given that May now faces the near impossible task of coming up with a viable alternative Brexit vote that wins another 116 votes whilst also keeping Remain Tories, Leave Tories and the DUP on side, those future confidence votes will prove a lot trickier to win. – Katy Balls for The Spectator

Tom McTague: British politics goes over a cliff

British politics is broken. It may not be fixable in time to solve the Brexit mess. The U.K. wakes up Wednesday with a government unable to govern — in office, but without the numbers to fulfill its central purpose: a negotiated exit from the European Union. A defeat of previously unimaginable proportions Tuesday — 432 to 202 — has left the country adrift, floating towards no deal, with no party or faction in parliament able to command a majority for any way of moving off the course it has set for itself. The only thing MPs can agree strongly on is a desire to avoid an economically damaging no deal, but they currently can’t settle on a mechanism for how to do so. Faced with disaster, Theresa May has a plan but no strategy — the Churchillian maxim, “Keep Buggering On.” May’s aides are clear: She is not giving up on her deal, despite the scale of the defeat. And she’s not quitting. The game is now an even more intense fight for survival from one day to the next in the hope that something — anything — changes, but with little hope that it will. Britain is now entering a period of rolling, daily crises with no obvious way out, its political class unable — or unwilling — to reach a compromise way to leave the European Union. Remainers and Brexiteers alike are convinced that voting against the prime minister’s Withdrawal Agreement takes them closer to their own desired outcome. One side is making a miscalculation of historic proportions. – Tim McTague for Politico

Richard Ekins: Forget specious arguments about sovereignty, Parliament is honour-bound to deliver Brexit

Probably the main reason for the popular vote for Brexit was to restore Parliament’s freedom to legislate. We haven’t left the EU yet, but few could deny that the process of leaving the EU has already made Parliament more significant in our public life. This ought to be a positive development, and yet the trust between MPs and the people, on which our constitutional democracy rests, is increasingly under strain. Parliamentary sovereignty has never meant that Parliament acts in isolation from politics or that the public can be safely ignored. And yet the situation of Parliament having been instructed to pursue a policy to which most MPs and peers are opposed is to some extent a novel one. The case brought by Gina Miller to prevent Article 50 being triggered without fresh legislation was welcomed by many as a means of empowering parliamentarians to frustrate Brexit. There followed suggestions from some quarters that Parliament was free to decide that it was not in the UK’s national interest to leave after all. This was always a specious argument, not because the referendum itself changed the law or because parliamentary sovereignty is not fundamental, but because the political authorities were morally and politically obliged to honour the outcome of the referendum. – Richard Ekins for the Telegraph (£)

Telegraph: The Prime Minister has suffered a humiliating defeat. She misread the EU, misread her party and misread Parliament

The one thing Theresa May cannot say is “nothing has changed”.Her Withdrawal Agreement was beaten on Tuesday night in the Commons by 432 votes to 202, the biggest defeat since at least the 1920s. Ruin for the Prime Minister’s plan has in fact been predictable since the summer of last year: the stream of resignations from the Government ought to have been a clue. But Mrs May has a record of misreading the situation. She misread the voters in the 2017 election; she misread the EU; she misread her Cabinet at the Chequers summit; and it’s obvious that she has dramatically misread Parliament. Mrs May will certainly have to go to the Europeans and explain that their agreement has been rejected by Parliament. And even the EU must see that the problem is the backstop; the backstop must go and, hence, the agreement needs to be drastically reconsidered. It is not just Mrs May who has misjudged Parliament. The EU has failed to understand the essential issues of sovereignty and freedom that lay at the heart of the Brexit vote: anyone with a clearer understanding would have seen that the Commons could not back a deal that would threaten to undermine Britain’s independence. The Government must regain the confidence of the House, rethink the agreement and go to the Europeans with a united front. Whether or not Mrs May leads that effort is a decision upon which she will now have to think very hard. – Telegraph (£) editorial

Katy Balls: Theresa May’s defeat was bigger than anyone predicted – but we’re no closer to breaking the Brexit deadlock

Theresa May made history last night, but not for the reason she had hoped. Rather than take a crucial step to securing an orderly exit for the UK from the EU, the Prime Minister suffered the worst government defeat in history – with a loss of 230 votes. The mood in government is one of disappointment and exasperation. While a defeat was expected, the scale is greater than most ministers’ nightmare scenarios. Some had thought they might be able to get the loss down to double figures thanks to abstentions. It is hard to see how May can continue with her Brexit plan. But while it’s clear that a majority of MPs dislike May’s deal, we are still no closer to finding out what a majority of MPs do like when it comes to what the outcome should be come 29 March. At the moment, the default is no deal unless an alternative plan can be agreed. If May – as expected – survives the confidence vote Jeremy Corbyn has tabled against her, she has pledged to enter cross-party talks to agree a form of Brexit to seek with the EU. If a consensus can be found, expect a softer Brexit than what is currently on the table. – Katy Balls for iNews

Alex Barker: May’s defeat spells trouble for the EU’s Brexit approach

Since Britain’s referendum vote in 2016, the EU has largely acted as if there were no fundamental choice between arranging the UK’s orderly exit and maintaining the unity and integrity of the European project. The onus was on Britain to yield.  The sheer scale of the defeat of the draft Brexit deal — a 585-page doorstopper treaty painstakingly negotiated over 18 months— throws that approach into doubt, forcing both sides to revisit their ideas of what is politically feasible in the coming months.  Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, a former EU trade official now heading the European Centre for International Political Economy, said the draft deal was a Pyrrhic victory for the bloc. EU negotiators secured highly favourable terms from Britain but “risk losing because it cannot be ratified”, he said. “The ball is definitely in the EU court.” With so much up in the air, a minority in Brussels is now asking whether the EU’s focus should now be more focused on avoiding Brexit altogether. – Alex Barker for the FT(£)

Tom Peck: At least, in the end, hatred of Theresa May’s deal brought the country and the Commons together

If Theresa May is searching for the positives, after the sole purpose of her existence for the last two and a half years was killed off in scenes every bit as brutal as the rumours that sometimes slip out of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, she might reflect that she has brought people together. In the introduction to The Audacity of Hope, a then young senator and writer by the name of Barack Obama reflected that the art of politics was that, no matter how divided people are, no matter how irreconcilable their positions, there would always be something that could unite them, if you could only find it. And to that end, this universal loathing of Theresa May’s deal, in the House of Commons, and seemingly in the public at large (at least if the kind of people that can spare a Tuesday afternoon to dress up like a volunteer car park attendant and shout obscenities at perfect strangers can be taken as a representative sample), could yet be the touchstone that drives us to a better future. – Tom Peck for the Independent

James Forsyth: What options does Theresa May have left after this defeat?

Westminster was braced for a heavy government defeat. But few were expecting a loss on this scale: 230 votes. It is hard to believe that the 116 MPs May needs for a majority can be persuaded to change their minds by tweaks to the backstop. So, what May thought would be her plan, going back to Brussels, trying to get something and then bringing the deal back is now off the table. In her response to the defeat, May made clear that she accepts she needs to reach out across the House before going back to Brussels. But the problem is it is very hard to see what combination of changes gains her the support of 116 MPs. For example, if May went for a customs union she’d gain some Labour support, but likely see some Tories fall into the other column. Strikingly, the government is still saying that an independent trade policy will be one of its principles for the talks ahead. Tonight, Theresa May’s Brexit deal was knocked down by the House of Commons. But it is far from clear what will be put in its place. Not for decades has there been such uncertainty about what is going to happen next in British politics. – James Forsyth for The Spectator

Brexit in Brief

  • Bercow vs Government, Part VIII: Speaker rejects Murrison amendment – Katy Balls for The Spectator
  • Remainers to launch ‘Conservatives for a People’s Vote’ on Thursday – Guido Fawkes