May tears up her Brexit plan: PM strikes a last-minute deal with Tory Brexiteers as she finally vows to negotiate a NEW backstop
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Theresa May today warned MPs not to ‘tie her hands’ by delaying Brexit as she declared she will effectively tear up her deal and start again.
The PM appealed for a ‘mandate’ to get Brussels to rewrite the Withdrawal Agreement after Speaker John Bercow called a vote on an amendment that would demand the Irish border backstop is replaced with ‘alternative arrangements’.
But she also urged Tory Remainers to hold off from rebelling to support a separate proposal from Yvette Cooper that could extend Article 50, insisting tonight will not be their ‘last chance’ to stop no deal.
Opening the crucial debate this afternoon, Mrs May warned MPs that they could not simply keep saying things were unacceptable.
‘We need to send a message about what we do want,’ Mrs May said.
Mr Bercow set the stage for a titanic showdown tonight by accepting the PM-backed amendment tabled by senior Tory Sir Graham Brady, as well as Ms Cooper’s Labour-backed plan.
The climbdown on reopening her Brexit package came after Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg signalled they will only support the Brady amendment tonight if Mrs May made the pledge.
The premier had been dodging explicitly saying the package she had thrashed out with Brussels would be fundamentally changed – instead suggesting there could be ‘legally binding’ add-ons.
Mrs May vowed to look ‘seriously’ at a Plan C hammered together by pro-EU and Eurosceptic Tories – which would involve demanding a much looser backstop, and asking for a longer transition period to seal other trade arrangements if that could not be agreed.
But the votes tonight are on a knife edge, with Parliament seemingly no closer to breaking the Brexit deadlock.
