Theresa May was preparing to take on John Bercow today after the Commons Speaker detonated a bombshell under her plans for the Brexit endgame.
Mrs May’s Brexit Secretary hinted the Government could bring back its deal within days anyway and dare Mr Bercow to rule it out of order if and when the PM has secured a delay to Brexit. The Cabinet will discuss the crisis in No 10 this morning.
Downing Street has reacted with fury to Mr Bercow’s insistence it cannot put an unchanged deal to a third vote and Mr Barclay accused Mr Bercow of ‘raising the bar’ for a deal with the EU today.
The Speaker refused to comment on his decision when greeted by reporters outside Parliament this morning.
But Brexit hardliners have backed the explosive ruling that has left Prime Minister’s plans lying in tatters today.
Members of the European Research Group led by Jacob Rees-Mogg seized on the Commons Speaker’s intervention as they fight to secure No Deal Brexit on March 29 next week.
MPs on the group were heard whistling the ‘Great Escape’ theme tune in the Commons tea room last night in the belief Mr Bercow’s bombshell makes their hopes of No Deal more likely.
They also hope a long delay – instead of a short extension to implement this deal – would allow them to dictate the terms of Brexit.
Former Cabinet minister David Jones said the ruling was ‘absolutely accurate’ and insisted it was a ‘well known’ rule – adding Mr Bercow was doing the ‘right thing’.
Mrs May will fly to Brussels on Thursday for a tense EU summit at which she will admit Brexit must be delayed.
She had hoped to go having secured support for her battered deal at the third attempt and ask only for a short technical extension of around three months.
Instead she will beg for a much longer delay despite little clarity over what Britain might do with months or years more time.
As Mrs May’s prepares her mission, the Foreign Office revealed its No Deal ‘war room’ today with just 11 days until Britain was supposed to leave the EU.
Brexit hardliners backed John Bercow’s (pictured today outside Parliament) ruling Theresa May cannot bring her deal back unchanged for a third time as the Prime Minister’s plans lay in tatters today
Mrs May will fly to Brussels on Thursday for a tense EU summit at which she will admit Brexit must be delayed. She had hoped to go having secured support for her battered deal at the third attempt and ask only for a short technical extension of around three months
Brexiteer David Jones (file left) endorsed the Speaker’s decision today despite Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay (right in Downing Street today) insisting the Government still wanted to pass the deal
Mr Jones told the Today programme: ‘John Bercow’s ruling was absolutely accurate. It has been well known that it’s impossible for a Speaker to allow a series of identical motions to be put before the House in the same session.
‘There is nothing new about this and those who are crying foul are really wrong.
‘He did the right thing.’
Mr Jones – a senior ERG MP and supporter of No Deal – insisted the legal position was unchanged and Britain was still due to leave the EU next Friday.
He said: ‘For us not to leave on Friday next week, the law would have to be changed.’
In a signal of the Government gearing up for a battle with the Speaker, Mr Barclay struck a defiant tone today.
He told Sky News: ‘What we need to do is secure the deal.
‘What the Speaker has said in his ruling is there needs to be something that is different.
‘You can have the same motion but where the circumstances have changed.
‘Obviously that has a difference in terms of how Members of Parliament would vote on a particular motion.
‘So we need to look at the details of the ruling, we need to consider that in the terms of earlier rulings that don’t particularly align with yesterday’s.
‘That the fact that a number of Members of Parliament have said that they will change their votes points to the fact that there are things that are different.’
The Speaker detonated Mrs May’s plans in a short notice statement at 3.30pm yesterday – without warning No 10 in advance.
Mr Bercow told the Commons: ‘If the Government wishes to bring forward a new proposition that is neither the same or substantially the same as that disposed of by the House on March 12, that would be entirely in order.
‘What the Government cannot legitimately do is resubmit to the House the same proposition or substantially the same proposition that was rejected by 149 votes’.
Asked if he was worried about the ramifications of his decision he added: ‘I’ve never lost a wink of sleep over anything work related’.
Mr Bercow invoked a precedent from April 1604 – used 12 times in the Commons since then – to warn the PM that she must significantly change her deal if she wants to force another vote on it before the scheduled exit day on March 29.
The Speaker cited page 397 of the Commons rulebook, Erskine May – and insisted today’s ruling ‘should not be regarded as my last word on the subject.’
Mr Bercow told MPs: ‘One of the reasons the rule has lasted so long it is a necessary rule to ensure the sensible use of the House’s time and proper respect for the decisions which it takes.
‘Rulings of the House matter. They have weight.
‘In many cases, they have direct effect not only here but on the lives of our constituents.’
A senior Government source last night said the Speaker, who is an outspoken critic of Brexit, wanted to wreck Mrs May’s plan of limiting the delay to three months.
‘It seems clear that the Speaker’s motive here is to rule out a meaningful vote this week,’ the source added. ‘It leads you to believe what he really wants is a longer extension, where Parliament will take over the process and force a softer form of Brexit.
‘Anyone who thinks that this makes No Deal more likely is mistaken – the Speaker wouldn’t have done it if it did.’
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd arrived for Cabinet in No 10 this morning with the latest Brexit crisis set to be on the agenda
Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the embattled Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley arrived for Cabinet together
Tory leadership rivals Chief Secretary Liz Truss and Home Secretary Sajid Javid were also seen arriving for the Cabinet meeting
Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt arrived for Cabinet by car as the Government’s senior ministers held another round of talks on tackling the Brexit crisis
Foreign Office chief Sir Simon McDonald revealed his officials were stepping up their Brexit preparations with 11 days until exit
In other developments today, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will meet leaders of the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Green Party to discuss Brexit and how to end the current impasse.
In a joint statement ahead of the talks, Ian Blackford, Vince Cable, Liz Saville Roberts and Caroline Lucas said: ‘The UK faces an unprecedented crisis with Brexit, and Westminster remains deeply divided.
‘The best and most democratic way forward is to put the decision back to the people in a new vote – with the option to Remain on the ballot paper.’
Mr Corbyn will also meet members of the ‘Norway Plus’ group of MPs in a separate meeting on Tuesday.
The group is determined to force a soft Brexit through to end the current impasse.
Meanwhile in Dublin, European Council president Donald Tusk will hold talks with Irish premier Leo Varadkar.
Elsewhere Tony Blair denied that he had been pushing EU leaders to hold firm and wait for a new referendum on Brexit.
He told GMB: ‘The idea that I’ve been going over to Europe and saying hold firm, don’t give in…. I think you’ll find that’s from a Conservative source.’
He added: ‘Of course I speak to a lot of the EU leaders, I still know them. Look, the reason they’ve got a problem is not because I’ve given them a problem. I haven’t been the Prime Minister for 11 years, they’re the government and the European Union leaders deal with the government.’
Blair said a decision on the type of Brexit needs to be made: ‘Some want a ‘soft’ Brexit and some want a ‘hard’ Brexit, what we should have done over the last 2 and a half/ 3 years is force parliament to choose between those options. Once you choose between those options, the rest of the negotiation is relatively simple to do.’
He continued: ‘She [Theresa May] can still now rescue this situation if she puts before parliament the core options. The real reason parliament is rejecting this deal – at the heart of it – is the fact that her deal leaves Northern Ireland in a bit of a mess as you’re not quite sure what the situation is there and the future relationship a mystery and that is not a sensible situation to be in.’
He said: ‘To be fair to Theresa May I think she genuinely does want to deliver Brexit even though she voted Remain.’