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MPs will vote on Theresa May‘s Brexit deal next Tuesday, the leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom confirmed today.
She told the Commons on Thursday that next Tuesday’s vote would definitely be going ahead.
It comes after the Prime Minister’s spokesman said that votes on a no deal and a delay to Brexit would take place as promised if her deal is voted down in the Commons.
There had been speculation that Mrs May could pull a vote on no deal on Wednesday and to extend Brexit on Thursday if her deal fails.
Mrs Leadsom, listing the schedule, said the next meaningful vote will take place on March 12 and added March 13 will include Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement and a general debate on housing.
She added that if Mrs May’s deal is voted down she would then make a further statement on the subsequent votes.
She said: “I have just confirmed the meaningful vote will take place on Tuesday March 12, and I hope the House will support the Prime Minister’s deal.
“However, in the deeply regrettable case that the House does not support the deal I will make a further business statement on March 12 in order to fulfil the Prime Minister’s commitments to allow the House to vote next week on whether we should leave the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement on March 29 or extend Article 50.”
Mrs May will take her deal back to the Commons following its overwhelming rejection in January by a majority of 230.
The PM has staked her hopes of getting through the vote this time on securing concessions from the EU on the backstop.
Tory Brexiteers have been demanding legally-binding assurances the UK cannot be tied indefinitely to EU rules through the backstop, intended to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
However, talks in Brussels on Tuesday between the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay broke up without agreement.
Both sides acknowledged that the meeting had been “difficult”, with reports Mr Barnier complained that Mr Cox had brought forward “a legal solution to a political problem”.
Additional reporting by Press Association.
