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Speaker John Bercow has agreed that part of Theresa May’s Brexit deal can be voted on for a third time by MPs after a motion was put forward that gets around parliamentary rules.
MPs are to vote on the Government’s EU Withdrawal Agreement on Friday, but the motion will not count as a fresh attempt to pass a “meaningful vote” on Mrs May’s deal because it will not cover the future relationship with Europe.
The vote, on Brexit day, will proceed because MPs will vote only on the legally binding withdrawal agreement and not the political declaration, meaning Speaker John Bercow had no choice but to allow it.
Mr Bercow said the government’s new motion complies with a convention that motions that are the same or substantially the same must not be put to the house more than once in a parliamentary session.
“In short, the motion is new, and substantially different” he said.
He confirmed tomorrow’s vote will only cover the withdrawal agreement and not the accompanying political declaration.
“The previous meaningful vote encompassed both the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration – this motion covers the former but not the latter,” said Mr Bercow.
If passed by MPs on Friday, the vote would qualify the UK to be granted an automatic delay to May 22 of the formal date of Brexit.
But Labour and the DUP have said they will vote against the Withdrawal Agreement.
The Government’s move is set to allow Mrs May to present it as a choice between a short delay to Brexit and the potential for a much longer postponement which would mean taking part in European elections.
But it would not allow Parliament to go ahead and ratify the withdrawal deal, as Brexit legislation allows this only after the passage of a “meaningful vote” on both the Withdrawal Agreement and a Political Declaration on the future relationship.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke to the PM by telephone for twenty minutes about the situation on Thursday, and said his MPs would not back the Government move.
A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy made clear Labour will not agree a blindfold Brexit to force through Theresa May’s damaging deal, which would leave the next Tory party leader free to rip up essential rights and protections and undermine jobs and living standards.”
News of the new vote came hours after Boris Johnson branded Mrs May’s deal as being “dead.”
Mr Johnson’s remarks came amid further calls today for Mrs May to honour her commitment to step down even if Parliament rejects her blueprint again.
A ministerial source said Mrs May is determined to put the twice-rejected withdrawal agreement to a third vote, possibly as early as tomorrow, despite her DUP allies publicly opposing it.
Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson, who pivoted behind the Prime Minister’s deal last night only after she made clear she will resign from No 10 once it is through, has told friends: “It’s dead anyway.”
Mark Francois, vice-chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers, told BBC TV: “I told my whip the other day I wouldn’t vote for it if they put a shotgun in my mouth.”
Andrew Bridgen, an ERG backer, said Mrs May and her deal should both go. “Her authority is gone now,” he said.
“Whatever her solution is, how can she be part of it when all along she was the problem?” He said the parliamentary maths meant her deal stood no chance: “Twenty Conservatives and the DUP are not going to vote for it. It is not going to go through.”
Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary who is expected to stand for the Tory leadership in a summer contest, said the Government should “go back to the EU again” and ask for a legally binding exit from the backstop.
Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell revealed speculation on the leadership battle is building, telling the BBC that “quite a lot of colleagues are pressing” former Brexit secretary David Davis to stand.
An option being considered by No 10 in an attempt to win a third vote is to bring back the withdrawal agreement without the political declaration, which sets out future trade relations.
Significant doubts remain over whether Mrs May can secure a majority for the Withdrawal Agreement alone on Friday.
The agreement includes the controversial “backstop” customs arrangements for the Irish border which continue to represent the biggest obstacle to support from the DUP and Brexit-backing Tories in the European Research Group.
DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said his party would not support Mrs May on the issue.
He told the BBC: “We will be voting against the Withdrawal Agreement because the concerns that we have about the trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, and what that would mean in terms of who makes our laws – not Stormont or Westminster – those concerns remain.
US President Donald Trump said Mrs May is ‘a very good woman’ (EPA)
“We regret the fact that we weren’t able to get to a position to support the Withdrawal Agreement, and the fact of the matter is that had there been legally binding changes at treaty level then we could have been in business.”
Moving the motion to enable the debate to take place on March 29 – initially slated as Brexit day – the Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom urged MPs to back the deal “so that we can leave the EU in an orderly way that gives businesses and people the certainty that they need”.
Downing Street has said that Mrs May will not move to a third meaningful vote – known in Westminster as MV3 – unless she believes she has a realistic chance of success, having seen it defeated by 230 votes in January and 149 in March.
But it is understood that Number 10 believes that passing the Withdrawal Agreement alone would allow the UK to guarantee its departure date and avoid the need for Britain to take part in European Parliament elections on May 23-26.
This would buy time to seek wider agreement among MPs on the shape of the UK’s future relationship with the EU, in the hope of passing MV3 in April and leaving with a deal on May 22.
If the motion fails, the UK will have until April 12 to ask for a further extension to Brexit negotiations – which would require voters to choose new MEPs – or leave the EU without a deal.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has praised Mrs May.
He told reporters outside the White House: “She’s a very nice lady. She’s a friend of mine.
“I hope she does well. I hope the Brexit movement and everything happening there goes very well.
“But, Theresa May is a very good woman. And, I’ll tell you what, she’s strong, she’s tough, and she’s in there fighting.”
Additional reporting by PA
