Government Held Hostage by Remain Ministers as Parliament Prepares to Vote on Future of Brexit

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Oliver JJ Lane

Britain’s government in name only has been warned by anti-Brexit cabinet ministers that it will face further resignations if it does not give them a free hand to vote against Britain leaving the European Union today.

Following Parliament’s successful bid to take more power from Theresa May’s government on Monday, British lawmakers will have the opportunity to vote on a number of so-called indicative votes later today.

While the votes — which are not guaranteed to be decisive and have in the past led to a total stalemate when no one option was chosen over the others — are being treated with high importance by the Westminster media-political establishment, it is not clear whether the government will even accept the results. They are not binding.

Update 1530 — Speaker Bercow selects his options

After a commons division at 1500 to confirm the indicative votes would indeed be going ahead, speaker Bercow has named the eight of 16 options he considered worthy of consideration this evening, around 1900. Worth noting that among the large number of options selected, just one is remotely pro Brexit, and option E which would call on the house to reaffirm its commitment to democracy [see the original story, below] wasn’t selected at all.

The cabinet is boycotting the votes by asking members to abstain and it is likely some Conservative back-benchers will do so, as well. The options that Members will vote upon this evening are:

  • ‘B’ — No Deal
    • A simply worded option brought by Tory Brexiteer John Baron, which you can pretty much guarantee won’t get much support from the overwhelmingly anti-Brexit Parliament. The text of this is simply: “That this House agrees that the UK shall leave the EU on 12 April 2019 without a deal.”
  • ‘D’ — Calling for a Common Market ‘2.0’
    • Brought by a group of Conservative and Labour Europhiles including Nick Boles, this would call upon the government to revise the present political declaration to ensure the United Kingdom is a member of the European Free Trade Association and later the European Economic Area. Has the impact of keeping the UK in the European single market — breaking a key test of whether Britain has actually left the European Union or not.
  • ‘H’ — Almost the same again
    • Also calls, like the above, for the country to go with EFTA and the EEA but not remain within the single market. As the UK will leave the EEA on Brexit day (should that day ever come), it would have to negotiate, presumably, to be let back in.
  • ‘J’ — Ken Clarke’s Customs Union proposal
    • Mr Ken Clarke is one of the most recognisable veterans of the Conservative benches — he has been serving within and without the Cabinet since the 1970s and was a key figure in getting Britain to join the forerunner of the European Union in the first place. Perhaps unsurprisingly given that, he’s worked tirelessly against Brexit. His proposal would ensure that “as a minimum, [Britain should have] a commitment to negotiate a permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union with the EU.”
  • ‘K’ — Labour’s plan
    • Brought in the name of Jeremy Corbyn, this is the opposition’s idea of what Brexit should be — bearing in mind their 2017 election manifesto said they would respect the 2016 referendum vote to leave. They are calling for a permanent customs union with the EU, a “close alignment with the single market” complete with shared institutions, obligations, and “dynamic alignment”, participation in EU agencies and funding, and cooperation on security arrangements and the much-criticised European Arrest Warrant. In other words, staying in the European Union in all but name.
  • ‘L’ — Cancel Brexit
    • If the house doesn’t pass Theresa May’s deal, which we can fairly certainly say it will not — having already declined it twice — this vote calls on the government to cancel Brexit altogether. This is so Britain avoids the outcome Parliament wants least, a full Brexit.
  • ‘M’ — A Second Referendum
    • Referred to in the vote brought by Dame Margaret Beckett as a ‘confirmatory vote’, meaning that whatever deal the house agrees would be then voted on by the public before actually going ahead, this appears to be a call for a second referendum by another name.
  • ‘O’ — Calling on the government to seek preferential trade arrangements with the EU
    • Does what it says on the tin, it seems. In case of no deal being struck with the EU before the nation leaves, the house calls on the government to agree trade arrangements with the EU, essentially to keep things exactly as they are in the short term.

The original story continues below

There are 16 different proposed options to be voted for, which cover near all potential Brexit options, from cancelling Brexit and revoking the Article 50 process which governs nations withdrawing from the European Union to leaving the bloc with no deal.

But it is not clear which votes will be put before the House. Choosing which ones to give time to is not the prerogative of the government, but instead of the increasingly openly partisan Speaker of the House, remain-backer John Bercow.

While the Speaker is constitutionally meant to execute his duties impartially, he came under some criticism earlier this month when, during another round of votes, he selected only anti-Brexit amendments to be heard, ignoring an amendment calling for the outcome of the 2016 referendum to be respected and to state that another referendum should not take place.

Tory Brexiteers who supported the spurned amendment pointed out that of all the potential votes put forward that day, it had support from more Members of Parliament than any other and had cross-party support from the Conservatives, the DUP, and the Labour Party.

Responding to the criticism, John Bercow dismissed complaints by telling the House they would “have to take the rough with the smooth.”

A similar proposal is up for selection by the speaker today, and has been signed by 94 Members of Parliament. It, again, appears to be the most supported proposal of the day. The text of the amendment, backed by key Brexiteers including the DUP’s Nigel Dodds and former old Labour stalwart Frank Field, as well as Tory backbench boss Sir Graham Brady, reads:

That this House recalls that this sovereign Parliament gave the choice about whether the UK should remain in, or leave, the European Union to the British people in the 2016 referendum, and that in the 2017 election 85 per cent of votes were cast for political parties which committed to abiding by that decision in their manifestos, and therefore reaffirms its commitment to honour the result of the referendum that the UK should leave the European Union.

While the prime minister may wish to guide her party to vote for options which move Parliament towards supporting the deal she was given by the European Union to sell to the British people, the government may face a cabinet revolt if it tries to do so. Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reports several remain-supporting members of the cabinet including Amber Rudd and Greg Clarke said they should be given a free vote — to vote against the government if necessary — and if they were not afforded this, 20 junior ministers could quit.

Several cabinet positions are already vacant, having been quit by rebels in recent weeks and not filled by the prime minister since. The threat of further walkouts may force Mrs May — already in a severely weakened position — to abandon the collective responsibility which binds the cabinet and makes a government function.

Whichever way the votes go today, the government is likely to bring back Theresa May’s Brexit deal for the third time — it having been resoundingly defeated on two previous occasions this year.

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook

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