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Brexit vote news: Chaos as Theresa May ducks crunch Commons vote

Theresa May today humiliatingly called off tomorrow’s Brexit vote in the Commons in a bid to avoid defeat on an unprecedented scale that could have proved fatal to her premiership.

In a day of disarray, the Prime Minister performed the U-turn after a conference call with worried Cabinet ministers. She was immediately accused of “pathetic cowardice” by Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader.

The pound dropped as markets were unnerved by a morning of contradictory signals from the Government.

Mrs May is now expected by sources to seek a political statement from the European Union that would clarify how Britain could escape from being trapped indefinitely in a Northern Ireland backstop.

This is the rule that either the Province or the whole of the UK must obey EU rules until Brussels agrees that a hard border with Ireland is not a prospect.

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "We don't have a functioning Government. The Prime Minister's Brexit deal is so disastrous that it has taken the desperate step of delaying its own vote."

Theresa May in Downing Street on Monday (REUTERS)
Theresa May in Downing Street on Monday (REUTERS)

Reaction to the volte face was acid. Leading Brexiteer Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, stated: "This is essentially a defeat of the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal. The terms of the WA were so bad that they didn’t dare put it to Parliament for a vote."

Remain-backing former minister Anna Soubry said on Twitter: "I gravely fear we are putting off the inevitable.

"We were told the PMs deal was the final deal & end of negotiations. What can we believe? I also fear PM has weakened her own position & the ERG will put in letters."

Ex-minister Nick Boles tweeted with heavy irony: "Nothing has changed, right?"

At least eight Cabinet ministers were pressing Mrs May in private to back away from what was looking like a defeat by 100 or more votes in the Commons.

However, at 11.20 the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told a regular meeting of journalists at Westminster that it would go ahead as scheduled tomorrow evening.

Ten minutes later, the Bloomberg agency reported that the U-turn was taking place. No 10 then said Mrs May would make a Commons statement this afternoon. Whitehall sources quickly confirmed this, although there was still no official word from No 10.

More top Tories said they were voting against the deal, including Mrs May’s former policy chief George Freeman MP, who tweeted: “I can’t vote for this deal.”

A Cabinet minister said: “One way or another, she is going to have to go back to Brussels.” Another said: “It’s better to live another day.”

It also emerged that Mrs May embarked on a round of secret talks with EU leaders over the weekend, including Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Mark Rutte, of Netherlands, Irish premier Leo Varadkar, European Council president Donald Tusk and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

By 12.20pm, Downing Street was coming out with a different line that did not deny she was pulling the plug on the big vote. “The PM will be giving a statement to the House of Commons at 3.30pm,” said No 10. “It would not be appropriate to make any comment in advance.” The uncertainty did nothing to help the Pound which was then down 0.64 per cent against the dollar.

Senior ministers also believe support for a second referendum is growing in Parliament and will rapidly become the only way out of the impasse if Mrs May’s deal is torpedoed by Conservative rebels. One said that Labour and the SNP were both backing away from a rival option of exiting in a “Norway-Plus” arrangement, saying: “My sense is that the impetus for Norway-Plus has faded and the momentum is now with a second referendum.” Another said: “I like Norway but I can sense that Labour are slipping away from it.”

Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, insisted on Radio 4’s Today programme: “Of course we can improve this deal and the Prime Minister is seeking to improve this deal.” However, he was contradicted by Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney, who said: “The deal ... is not going to change. Particularly the legal language of the withdrawal treaty.”

Mrs May’s official spokeswomen signalled that No 10 was seeking some form of clarification, perhaps in a letter or an addendum to the political declaration, on Parliament having a greater say on the backstop.

“We will be building on that [the political trade declaration],” the spokeswoman said. “What MPs will be voting on is the deal that we have agreed. But the PM was clear last week that she was talking to MPs and her Cabinet colleagues about giving Parliament a greater say and that’s something that has been a focus of her discussions.

“There are two parts to the deal. There is the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration, obviously we will be building on the political declaration once we leave in March. So we will be building on that framework after we leave.”

Earlier Downing Street seemed unable to confirm or deny reports that Mrs May has already started talks with EU leaders, including European Council president Donald Tusk, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and the Irish premier Leo Varadkar.

Mr Varadkar’s office revealed the call was at Mrs May’s request, adding: “They discussed the current situation on Brexit, including the planned vote in Westminster on Tuesday.” Mrs May is due to meet all 27 leaders at a summit on Thursday.

Mr Gove was adamant the vote “is going ahead”, although he did not specify it would take place tomorrow evening. Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan was less certain, saying it was the “assumption” that the vote would take place.

Mr Gove admitted losing the vote would not strengthen Mrs May’s negotiating position, but would be like “ripping her cricket bat in half” before she reached the crease.

Sir Alan warned that a defeat could trigger “chaos” and said MPs who blocked it would “forever be known as the wreckers”.

He told Today: “Even if they overturn it they are not necessarily going to get an alternative which they are campaigning for, and instead what they will probably do is set in train a course of events which could lead to chaos in many, many areas.”

Sir Alan also said the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who quit over Brexit and yesterday urged Mrs May to ask more of Brussels, would be “met with a very, very loud raspberry in many, many different languages” if he walked into an EU negotiating room.

Writing in the Evening Standard, the former permanent secretary to the Treasury Lord Macpherson urges the Prime Minister to postpone Brexit day of March 29 or risk a no-deal disaster that would see Britain “joining Venezuela, Yemen and a few other failed states which trade solely on World Trade Organization terms”.

MPs said up to six Tories are on manoeuvres for a possible leadership contest if Mrs May’s premiership is fatally wounded this week. Cabinet members Sajid Javid, Amber Rudd and Liz Truss are said to be attracting supporters, while Mr Johnson is openly campaigning with a rival approach.

Mrs May was set to make a statement today in the Commons at 3.30pm titled "Exiting the European Union."

Her statement will be followed by two more minister, the office of Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said.

Mrs Leadsom will provide a Commons business statement before Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay makes a statement on "EU Exit - Article 50".

Speculation has mounted that the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement could be postponed or scrapped in the face of an open revolt by Conservative MPs and fierce opposition from other sides of the House.

At the weekend, it was reported that the Prime Minister would postpone the Parliamentary vote to head back to Brussels in a "frantic bid to save the deal" and ask the EU for more.

It comes after the European Court of Justice ruled that Britain could unilaterally revoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and remain in the European Union without having to seek approval from Brussels.