Fears Bercow will step in to block a new vote today

COMMONS Speaker John Bercow could today scupper Boris Johnson’s bid to hold a yes-or-no vote on his Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister wants to hold a so-called meaningful vote after MPs led by Sir Oliver Letwin wrecked his plans for one on Saturday.

But Mr Bercow has warned he could block the move on the basis the deal has already been debated and considered by the Commons.

Rebel MPs could also stage a repeat of Saturday and amend the motion to withhold support for the deal until the Withdrawal Agreement Bill that turns it into law has been passed. Downing Street wants to hold a yes-or-no vote before moving on to the Brexit legislation so it shows Brussels whether the deal has the support of a majority of MPs.

A No10 source said last night: ‘Letwin’s delay amendment turned Saturday into a meaningless vote and denied MPs and the public the chance to end the uncertainty.

‘Parliament needs a straight up and down vote on the deal.’

Mr Bercow, who is due to stand down as Speaker at the end of this month, has come under fire for a series of controversial rulings in the chamber that were widely considered to favour Remain supporters.

He previously admitted to voting Remain in the 2016 referendum and his wife’s car bears a ‘b ******* to Brexit’ sticker. The Speaker is supposed to be neutral.

Dame Eleanor Laing, who is one of Mr Bercow’s deputies and is running as one of the candidates to replace him, yesterday accused the Speaker, in an article for the Telegraph, of ‘straying’ from the rule of law over Brexit and making it look like he wanted to ‘load the dice in

one particular direction’. She wrote: ‘Trust in our democracy has been badly rattled. Parliament and the country are at breaking point over Brexit, in large part due to the perception that our tried and tested constitutional traditions are being manipulated to load the dice in one particular direction.

‘The way in which we make laws must not only be fair, it must also be seen to be fair.

‘The Speaker needs to be an independent anchor of our proceedings, unaffected by an allegiance to any political objective or to any party or group within Parliament, upholding our rules and conventions and applying them consistently.’

She added that ‘the rule of law has bound this country together for centuries’ but ‘it seems as if we have strayed from these concepts recently and too many decisions have been made behind closed doors’.

Tory minister Nadine Dorries last night tweeted: ‘The Speaker has jettisoned hundreds of years of tradition a number of times, in order to facilitate rebel demands.

‘It will be a sad day [on Monday] if he chooses to abuse his power and prevent a vote on the new deal, when the public are screaming out for it.’