No-Deal Brexit More Likely As MPs Reject Bid To Extend Article 50 Deadline

Theresa May has emerged victorious from her latest Brexit battle after MPs rejected a Labour backbencher’s bid for parliament to take control of the process. 

An amendment to the prime minister’s plan B by Yvette Cooper was narrowly defeated by 321 to 298 after Tory hardliners united with the DUP and Labour rebels. 

The move would have cleared the parliamentary timetable for MPs to thrash out an alternative Brexit strategy and could have forced May to extend Article 50 to fend off the threat of no-deal. 

But, despite much speculation May faced defeat and a number of high-profile Tories backing Cooper’s plan, it was squashed by a majority of 23. 

May will now make a last-ditch attempt to save her Brexit plan by asking Brussels to reopen the withdrawal agreement. 

The PM’s last hope is that the controversial Northern Irish backstop, so bitterly opposed by the DUP and Tory Brexiteers, can be renegotiated before Brexit day on March 29. 

Calling on parliament to reject Cooper’s plan, May asked MPs to “send an emphatic message” to Brussels about the deal the UK wanted. 

It came as hardline Brexiteers in the Tory faction the ERG confirmed they would join the DUP in offering May a “last chance” by backing a separate government-backed amendment by Conservative backbencher Sir Graham Brady. 

It says the Commons will support a deal if “alternative arrangements” to the backstop were in it, something ministers think will strengthen May’s hand.

“Today we have the chance to show the EU what it will take to get a deal through this House of Commons, what it will take to move beyond the confusion and division and uncertainty that now hangs over us, and onto the bright, new, close, open relationship we want to build and can build with our European friends in the years ahead,” she said. 

But after the key victory for the government in parliament on Tuesday night, remain-minded MPs were left fearing the UK was exposed to the threat of no-deal – the legal default should May fail to secure a Brexit deal parliament can support. 

Appealing for MPs to back her amendment, Cooper had said it offered a “safety net” against no-deal. 

She added: “Now I’ve always believed that the prime minister would not let this happen, I always believed that she would flinch when it came to the crunch, that she is not the sort of person who would want to make other people suffer because of her delays and mistakes.

“But my worry is that when I look into her eyes now, I am worried that that has changed because she is trapped. Because every time the Prime Minister has had the chance to pull back and to reach out, she’s done the opposite.

“Every time she’s had the chance to think about the country she instead has turned to the party and every time when she has had the chance to build bridges, she’s turned instead to the hardliners who simply want to set those bridges on fire.”

Confirming he would vote with the government, Tory former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said Cooper’s amendment would have led to “understandable fears that actually it is a ruse to reverse or frustrate Brexit”.

He added: “I want to, for my part, strengthen the hand of this Prime Minister and this Government in returning to Brussels and I believe that there are a range of changes that would render the Withdrawal Agreement and in particular the backstop acceptable to myself, but also more generally across this House.

“That could be in the form of a sunset mechanism or an exit mechanism over which we exercise control but with assurances to our friends and partners in Dublin around its exercise.”