Remainers warn of future rebellion risk despite PM’s concessions

PRO-EU Conservatives have signalled they remain ready to rebel on Theresa May’s flagship Brexit Bill if she fails to deliver a truly meaningful vote for MPs on the divorce settlement.

The Prime Minister was expected to emerge unscathed yesterday from a second day of crunch votes in the House of Commons on the EU Withdrawal Bill.

A potentially explosive clash over the customs union appears to have been defused by a compromise amendment.

And it is Labour’s leadership which is on the alert for rebellion among its MPs, after ordering them not to back proposals for a Norwaystyle agreement with the European Union.

But questions were being raised over concessions offered by the PM on Tuesday to see off a revolt over the role of MPs in agreeing the final divorce settlement.

Potential rebels who stepped back from voting against the Government said they were relying on “personal assurances” from the Prime Minister that changes would be introduced to the Bill to ensure that MPs get a real say on the final deal.

But officials insisted the Government had not and would not agree to MPs binding its hands and Solicitor General Robert Buckland would only go as far as saying there “could” be a fresh proposal put forward.

With discussions on a possible Government amendment expected to start yesterday, Mr Buckland told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What we will be doing now is working hard to come up with some ideas.”

But he said it was “not acceptable” for MPs to try to dictate the Government’s response in the case that no deal is reached with the EU.

“It would tie the hands of the Government in a way that I think could make no deal more likely,” said A commitment that there will be no “physical infrastructure, including border posts, or checks and controls” in Northern Ireland has effectively killed a no deal scenario with the EU, MPs have heard.

Brexit Secretary David Davis’ decision to include the provision in the EU (Withdrawal) Bill has also made the maximum facilitation or “max fac” option – which would see new technology used to deal with cross-border trade – “unlawful”.

Tory Remainers and Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, debating the Brexit bill for a second day in the Commons, said the inclusion of the Northern Ireland amendment meant the only option was to now “reproduce the customs union and the single market”.

Sir Keir said: “If maximum facilitation does involve infrastructure checks or controls, it would be unlawful under the provision passed yesterday, therefore it cannot happen.

“The only answer to no hard border in Northern Ireland in the end is a customs union and high levels of market alignment, the fact that was accepted by the Government and turned into domestic law gives it a status it didn’t have until yesterday.”

Tory MP Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) responded to his point, saying: “It’s huge, it actually says I think logically we will have to come to a customs union agreement, partnership, love dance, don’t care what you call it, that’s what we will need to avoid any border to Northern Ireland.”

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve also agreed, saying: “Not only will we have to stay in a form of customs arrangement amounting to a union, but we’re also going to have to have a high level of regulatory alignment because otherwise the life that takes place along the border will be impossible because of different regulations on either side.”

Solicitor General Robert Buckland later said leaving with a no deal and trading under World Trade Organisation rules would be inconsistent with Government policy on the Northern Ireland border.

It followed a question from Labour’s Chuka Umunna who asked: “Does he accept that if we were to leave with no deal and we were trading on WTO rules, that under WTO rules would necessitate a border, therefore leaving with no deal is inconsistent with Government policy as he has just stated it?”

Mr Buckland replied: “I entirely agree: the Government’s policy is to achieve a deal because we are mindful of the points that he and others understand.”

Yvette Cooper, Labour chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, warned against a “Dad’s Army version of Brexit” and said the UK is in danger of “turning ourselves into a national joke” by not focusing on the real issues. Ms Cooper added she believes there is a majority across the country and Government in favour of a “close economic relationship”, which means some version of single market participation – or as close as the UK can get to it.

Mr Buckland. “So, let’s not go down that road.”

Asked on Sky News about discussions on changes proposed by senior pro-EU Tory Dominic Grieve, Conservative vice-chairman Chris Skidmore said only that they “may lead to an amendment next week”.

Mrs May met a group of 15-20 potential rebels face-to-face in her private office at the Commons on Tuesday moments before what threatened to be one of the most significant defeats of her time as Prime Minister.

Minutes later, all but two of the Tory MPs voted with the Government to reject a Lords amendment

that would have given Parliament the power to tell the PM to go back and renegotiate the Brexit deal she secures from Brussels.

Mr Grieve withdrew his own amendment, which would have given MPs powers to dictate what the Government should do if no acceptable agreement is reached by February 2019.

He said Mrs May promised to table amendments in the House of Lords based on his own proposal for Parliament to be consulted on the way forward if no deal is agreed by the end of November.

But a spokesman for David Davis’s Department for Exiting the European Union later said the Brexit Secretary had set out three tests that any new amendment has to meet:

■ Not undermining negotiations;

■ not changing the constitutional role of Parliament and Government in negotiating international treaties; and

■ respecting the referendum result. “We have not, and will not, agree to the House of Commons binding the Government’s hands in the negotiations,” the spokesman said.

The development led to a furious spat on Twitter between two senior Tories from either side of the Brexit divide, with Leave-backing Sir Bernard Jenkin insisting there was