May hit by another defeat in Commons
TWO grandfathers with a combined age of more than 120 have become the oldest pair to row across an ocean.
Former paratroopers Neil Young, 61, and Peter Ketley, 62, set off on the 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in December.
The military veterans, who rowed as the Grandads of the Atlantic team and have a combined age of 123, reached English Harbour in Antigua on Wednesday after 63 days and 22 minutes at sea.
It makes them the oldest team of two to row across any ocean. The friends joined 27 other teams competing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic THERESA MAY tumbled to another substantial Commons defeat after Tory Brexiteers and Remainers failed to back her approach to Brexit.
The Prime Minister saw fewer than 250 of her MPs vote in favour of a motion which backed the Brexit plans endorsed by the Commons on January 29, and noted discussions to resolve the Northern Ireland backstop are ongoing.
Concerns over the wording of the motion among Tory Eurosceptics, given that the January 29 decisions included rejecting a no-deal Brexit, led to the prominent European Research Group (ERG) abstaining in large numbers.
It was defeated by 303 votes to 258 – majority 45.
The division list showed just 243 Conservative MPs supported the motion while five rebelled to vote against, including Peter Bone (Wellingborough), Christopher Chope (Christchurch) and pro-EU Sarah Wollaston (Totnes).
The party has 317 MPs although this includes one deputy speaker while Douglas Ross (Moray) wrote on Twitter that he was paired with an opposition MP to allow him to attend a maternity appointment with his wife.
There were also four Labour rebels who voted for the motion, including Ian Austin (Dudley North), Kevin Barron (Rother Valley), Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse), and John Mann (Bassetlaw).
The 10 DUP MPs lined up to back the proposal along with Independents Frank Field (Birkenhead) and Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne).
There were 244 Labour MPs who voted against the motion, along with the SNP, Liberal Democrats and other opposition parties.
Earlier, Labour experienced a major rebellion as 41 of its MPs voted in support of an SNP amendment to extend Article 50 when the frontbench position was to abstain.
Their votes made little difference as the proposal was rejected by 315 votes to 93, majority 222.
Labour’s amendment to push Mrs May to either put her Brexit deal to a Commons vote by February 27 or give Parliament the opportunity to take control of the process was also rejected by 322 votes to 306, majority 16.
Following the result on the main motion, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded the Prime Minister, who was absent from the Chamber, come back to MPs with a “coherent plan”.
He said: “Tonight’s vote shows there’s no majority for the Prime Minister’s course of action, and yet again her Government has been defeated.
“The Government cannot keep on ignoring Parliament or ploughing on towards 29th March without a coherent plan.
“She can’t keep on just running down the clock and hoping that something will turn up that will save her day and save her face.”
To shouts of “where is she?”, Mr Corbyn called for the Prime Minister to work with him to “prevent a catastrophic no-deal Brexit”.
“It’s surprising the Prime Minister is not even here to hear the result of this vote,” he said.