Home Secretary Amber Rudd apologises to whips' office after missing vote on Government's Brexit legislation

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, has apologised to the whips’ office after missing a key vote in the Commons on the Government’s Brexit legislation.

The Independent understands that Ms Rudd had to deal with an urgent call regarding a National Crime Agency issue on the second of five late-night votes in the chamber on Wednesday evening.

A source close to the Home Secretary said: “Between the votes last night Amber had to deal with an urgent call about a National Crime Agency issue."

"She cut it too fine and missed one vote for which she has apologised to the whips. She voted in the other four out of five votes last night," the source said, adding they were unable to discuss the content of the call for security reasons.

The vote on the amendment – seeking to retain the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights after Britain’s exit from the EU – was possibly the most significant of the evening as several rebellious Conservative MPs had voiced concerns in the preceding days over the Government’s plan to strip the charter from UK law after Brexit.

But the amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, put forward by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, was defeated by 311 votes to 301, giving the Government a majority of just 10.

One Conservative MP, Ken Clarke, defied the Government’s instruction to vote against the amendment, earlier telling Mps in the Commons that Downing Street had provided no reason as to why they wanted to strip the charter from UK law.

Mocking the Government, the senior Tory MP added: “Presumably it's because it's got the word 'European' and 'rights' in it, and this was intended from a Daily Telegraph gesture to the hard right wing of my party.”

If the rebellion had been as large as previously speculated then Ms Rudd’s vote would have been crucial to seeing off a potentially humiliating defeat for the Government.

The vote on Wednesday evening came after civic organisations warned over the weekend that individual rights to privacy, equality, freedom of expression, fair working conditions, a fair trial, access to a lawyer and the protection of personal data are all in potential jeopardy if the charter is stripped from the UK state book after Brexit, in March 2019.