Brexit defeat for Theresa May as MPs back curbing government powers – as it happened
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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs and MPs debating and voting on the EU withdrawal bill
Theresa May’s government has suffered a humiliating defeat in the House of Commons after MPs backed an amendment to her flagship Brexit bill, limiting the powers it will grant to ministers. As Heather Stewart and Peter Walker report, as the prime minister prepares to travel to Brussels to meet her fellow EU leaders on Thursday, the former attorney general Dominic Grieve and 11 other Tories backed his amendment 7. MPs waved their order papers as the result of the crucial vote was read out, revealing that the government had been defeated by 309 votes to 305. A series of last-minute concessions by the Brexit secretary, David Davis, and justice minister Dominic Raab, and an intensive campaign by Conservative whips, failed to win over rebels. Here is Heather and Peter’s full story.
There were four votes this evening. After the government defeat, the government won a vote on a Labour amendment. (See 7.33pm.)
Then an SNP amendment saying the government should “publish a strategy for seeking to ensure that reciprocal healthcare arrangements continue after the UK leaves the EU” was defeated by 315 votes to 294 - a government majority of 21.
And a Labour amendment calling for a scrutiny committee to consider secondary legislation passed under the bill was defeated by 311 votes to 292 - a government majority of 19.
This is an important moment. The House of Commons has tonight voted against the government’s attempt to concentrate power and against letting a small group of ministers take crucial decisions on the details of Brexit without Parliament having a meaningful vote.
MPs insisted on a meaningful vote and dismissed Ministers’ eleventh hour attempts to buy off the rebels.
This is a momentous day for Parliament and a humiliating defeat for Theresa May.
From Open Britain, which is campaigning for a soft Brexit. This is from the Labour MP Chuka Umunna, an Open Britain supporter.
This is a victory for British parliamentary democracy. MPs of all parties deserve great credit.
The Commons has been absolutely clear tonight that we will not permit our country to be railroaded into a job-destroying hard Brexit, or even a no deal Brexit, without Parliament having a meaningful vote on the matter.
From Plaid Cymru’s Brexit spokesman Hywel Williams MP
MPs have shown tonight that we can hold this government to account if all MPs turn up and vote. It’s important now that all national parliaments in all four of the UK’s member countries are given a meaningful vote on Brexit, not just Westminster.
If sensible MPs from all parties turn up and vote, we can defeat the government. I expect the Labour party to learn this lesson, stop abstaining and start voting with Plaid Cymru and other sensible MPs to maintain our membership of the single market and customs inion and ensure all four countries in the UK have a say on Brexit.
Labour sources said their own whips’ efforts to convince the Brexiteers in their own party to vote for the amendment had been crucial to the crunch vote, with negotiations going on into the final hours before the vote.
Leave-supporting MPs including Dennis Skinner, Grahame Morris, Ronnie Campbell and John Mann all voting for Grieve’s amendment in order to inflict defeat on the government. One party whip described the loss as a game-changer for the hung parliament.
“It has broken the dam,” the MP said. “It will be much, much easier to do it again. Rebelling once gives you a taste for it. The discipline has been broken and it shows actually that if you do risk it and rebel for something you believe in, you can make a difference.”
The numbers were so tight many MPs coming out of the chamber after the vote said they believed the government had won. Catching his eye across the chamber, Anna Soubry shook her head at Labour chief whip Nick Brown. As news began to filter through that the government had lost, the opposition benches cheered, clapped and waved their order papers.
Tory rebel Stephen Hammond sacked as Conservative vice chairman
Stephen Hammond, one of the Tory rebels, has been sacked as a party vice chairman, Sky’s Faisal Islam reports.
(To be honest, some of us were unaware that Hammond was a Tory vice chairman. Being a Conservative party vice chairman is a bit like being a vice president of an American bank. There are lots of them; it’s not a bit deal.)
Here are the official figures for how MPs voted on the Grieve amendment.
For the amendment
Labour: 245 MPs
SNP: 34 MPs
Conservatives: 12 MPs (Heidi Allen, Ken Clarke, Jonathan Djanogly, Dominic Grieve, Stephen Hammond, Sir Oliver Heald, Nicky Morgan, Robert Neill, Antointette Sandbach, Anna Soubry, John Stevenson, and Sarah Wollaston)
Raab is now speaking to BBC News. He has just described the defeat as a “minor setback”. A few minutes ago, on Sky News, he was saying it was a “significant setback”. (See 8.04pm.)
Brexit department says it will now consider whether 'further changes are needed to bill'
The Brexit department has just issued this statement about the defeat. A spokesman said:
We are disappointed that parliament has voted for this amendment despite the strong assurances that we have set out.
We are as clear as ever that this bill, and the powers within it, are essential.
This amendment does not prevent us from preparing our statute book for exit day. We will now determine whether further changes are needed to the bill to ensure it fulfils its vital purpose.
It is not entirely clear what this means. Perhaps it means the government may be more amenable to amending the bill as it continues its passage through parliament in response to criticism. We heard a lot of complaints from Tory rebels today about the heavy-handed way their concerns were dismissed. Or “further changes” may just mean the government intends to rewrite the bill to undo the effect of tonight’s vote.
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