BREXIT ON A KNIFE EDGE

May rocked by THREE historic Commons defeats Now MPs will control Brexit if she loses key vote But PM warns: Tory rebels risk us never leaving

THE future of Brexit was in the balance last night after Theresa May suffered a dramatic triple defeat in the Commons.

Amid extraordinary scenes, 26 Tory rebels sided with Labour to push through an amendment that would let MPs step in if her deal is defeated next week. It could even halt the Brexit process completely. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, led the rebellion which effectively takes a no-deal exit off the table. He claimed it could lead to a second referendum, adding: ‘MPs are tonight starting the process of taking back control.’

The Prime Minister also suffered a humiliating defeat over her bid to keep the Government’s legal advice on the EU withdrawal agreement under wraps. Her administration is the first in modern history to be found in contempt of Parliament.

And in the blackest night for Tory

whips since the dying days of John Major’s government, a separate bid to kick the issue into the long grass was also defeated.

Last night, Mrs May tried to keep her plan alive with a rousing speech to the Commons, in which she warned ‘Brexit could be stopped’ entirely if it is voted down on Tuesday.

She acknowledged criticism of her ‘compromise’ deal, but said: ‘We should not let the search for the perfect Brexit prevent a good Brexit that delivers for the British people.

‘And we should not contemplate a course that fails to respect the result of the referendum, because it would decimate the trust of millions of people in our politics for a generation.’

Downing Street must now hope that the threat of Parliament blocking a no-deal Brexit convinces some Eurosceptic opponents of her deal to change their minds before the meaningful vote. However, a number of high profile, and previously loyal, Tory MPs rebelled during the series of defeats last night – including Michael Fallon and Damian Green.

And in a clear indication that the Prime Minister’s ‘ confidence and supply’ deal with the DUP is fractured beyond repair, the Northern Irish party warned her it did not fear another election.

Downing Street had hoped the threat of a general election would bring the DUP to heel, because it could bring the pro-nationalist Jeremy Corbyn to power.

But the party voted against the Government last night, with Nigel Dodds, the party’s Westminster leader, telling Mrs May his party was ready to spark another poll. He added: ‘I’m certain we will be returned in greater numbers.’ In other developments: The PM promised to listen to Tory MPs worried about the socalled Irish backstop, saying she would ‘consider how we can go further’ to reassure it will not leave

‘A dangerous precedent’

the UK in a customs union in the long term;

Mrs May also offered to give MPs a ‘more formal role’ in steering the trade talks with the EU after the UK has left next year;

Tory shop steward Sir Graham Brady said he accepted the need for compromise, but urged Mrs May ‘in the strongest possible terms’ to identify a clear route out of the backstop;

Boris Johnson was heckled by moderate Tories as he attacked Mrs May’s plan and urged MPs to vote against it next week;

Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted next week’s crunch vote would be close and dismissed ‘ridiculously inflated’ claims about the scale of the rebellion;

A senior Toyota executive warned a no- deal Brexit could result in ‘stop-start production’ for weeks or months at its UK plant;

Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned such a course could result in food prices rising by 10 per cent;

The European Court of Justice’s senior lawyer said Article 50, which started the Brexit process, could be revoked unilaterally by the UK;

The BBC dropped plans for a televised Brexit showdown involving Mrs May and Mr Corbyn on Sunday night;

Senior Tories were last night furious with Commons Speaker John Bercow, who allowed the contentious debates and votes to take place immediately before Mrs May rose to open a five-day debate on her deal that could decide the fate of both Brexit and her own premiership.

One source described the conduct of the Speaker, who has made no secret of his opposition to Brexit, as ‘an outrage’. Mr Bercow granted the emergency debate on the Government’s legal advice, despite warnings from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox that publication of the documents would set a dangerous precedent that would put the national interest at risk.

The Government lost the first vote, on a proposal to refer the issue to a parliamentary committee, by 311 votes to 307.

In a more damaging blow, the House of Commons then voted by 311 to 293 against the Government to demand that ministers immediately publish the advice on the PM’s Brexit plan in full.

Mr Bercow then selected a controversial amendment by the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, which could allow MPs to direct the Government’s Brexit

‘Different ways forward’

strategy if Mrs May’s plan is voted down on December 11.

Instead of MPs being confined to merely taking note of what the Government tells them, the Commons would be able to exert more influence by voting on what they wanted ministers to do.

The move could allow MPs to instruct ministers to hold a second referendum, form a permanent customs union with the EU or even delay or cancel Brexit altogether.

It was backed by 26 Conservative MPs, including former cabinet ministers Damian Green, Sir Michael Fallon, Sir Oliver Letwin, Nicky Morgan, Kenneth Clarke, Justine Greening and Mr Grieve himself.

The amendment was passed by 321 votes to 299 – the Govern- ment’s third defeat of the night. It meant it has suffered more defeats in one night than Gordon Brown did in his time as prime minister.

Last night, former Tory minister Jonathan Djanogly, who was among the rebels, said: ‘This is significant because now, if the deal is rejected on the first vote; further consideration can be given to different possible ways forward when the Government comes back to the House. Plan B lives.’

But Education Secretary Damian Hinds told BBC2’s Newsnight programme that those who wanted ‘to honour the referendum result’ now had to get behind Mrs May.

She has less than a week to try to pull off the biggest parliamentary turnaround in history.

At least 100 Tory MPs have publicly indicated that they are opposed to the agreement she struck with Brussels.

Chief whip Mark Harper told the Daily Telegraph he would break 13 years of loyalty by voting against Mrs May’s Brexit plan. He said the withdrawal agreement ‘compromises the integrity of our country’ and ‘leaves the UK in a worse position that we are in now’.

Mr Corbyn described the Prime Minister’s strategy as a ‘leap in the dark’ that did little to clarify what a future trading relationship with the EU would look like.

He told the Commons: ‘This Government is not taking back control, it is losing control.’

THIS was far more than just a bad and humiliating day for Theresa May and her deal. It was the day Brexit itself was pushed to the very brink.

In a febrile, fractious Commons yesterday, the Government suffered three defeats in quick succession, each more crushing than the last.

The first two – relating to publication of the full legal advice surrounding the withdrawal agreement – were largely procedural. More embarrassing than truly disastrous.

But the third, in the form of an amendment by arch Tory rebel Dominic Grieve, could have the effect of giving Parliament, rather than the Government, total supremacy in shaping Brexit.

In principle, this may sound admirably democratic. But in a hung Parliament, where the majority of MPs are in conflict with the will of the people and want Britain to remain in the EU, it is a recipe for chaos and betrayal.

True, this vote makes the chances of crashing out with no deal vanishingly small. But it also means that Brexit may never happen at all.

Just consider how that would shatter the integrity of our democracy and erode what’s left of public trust in our political class.

On June 23, 2016, 17.4 million people voted in the referendum to leave the EU. It was the biggest mandate in the history of the UK, and the turnout of 72 per cent was the largest since the 1992 general election.

Eight months later, the decision to trigger Article 50 – the formal mechanism for leaving – was passed in the Commons by 498 votes to 114.

And at the 2017 general election 85 per cent of the vote went to parties who promised to honour the referendum result.

Yet now, in their vanity and arrogance, many of those very same MPs who pledged to keep the Brexit flame alive now risk extinguishing it. Could there be a worse breach of faith?

So given the anticipation of this Judas kiss, it should now be clearer than ever that the only hope of salvation is Mrs May’s deal. While far

from perfect, it satisfies the main referendum criteria – control of our borders, coastal waters and laws, an end to vast annual payments to Brussels and, ultimately, the power to forge trade deals with the wider world.

There is simply no alternative which can deliver the genuine and orderly departure that business and the general public so desperately crave.

Of course, the opposition parties have cynical and opportunistic motives for sabotaging the deal.

Labour and the SNP especially are

interested only in destabilising the Government in the hope of forcing a general election, which they believe they can win.

One can only imagine the devastation and poverty a joint Labour/ SNP government would wreak on this country, not to mention the likelihood that it would split the United Kingdom for good.

So here is the baffling question. Why are so many misguided Tories and Northern Irish unionists colluding in that baleful plot?

Don’t the Eurosceptic ‘ultras’ – Jacob

Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and the rest – realise they are in grave danger of letting all hope of Brexit slip through their fingers?

For all their purism, they must surely see that the May compromise is better than limping back to Brussels with our tail between our legs.

And as for the Tory Remainers (many of whom see a ‘People’s Vote’ as the way to legitimise a return to EU membership) – why do they think a second referendum would have any more legitimacy than the first?

The people have already voted – and they voted to leave. Respect and honour that decision.

Then we come to the DUP. For all their understandable fears over the Irish backstop and its lack of time limitation, how do they think they would fare under a Corbynled government?

Jeremy Corbyn was the IRA’s friend and defender through years of murder and mayhem and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says he ‘longs’ for a united Ireland. Is that really what the DUP wants?

So it’s time for a good dose of realism. As Mrs May said in the House yesterday, these Brexit arguments – and the strutting, posturing and play-acting that have accompanied them – have gone on long enough and are profoundly corrosive to our political system. Life is full of compromises.

Next Tuesday, Tory rebels and the DUP have one last chance both to save Brexit and to begin the process of healing Britain’s gaping social and political wounds.

The May deal offers hope for a bright post-Brexit future – the prosperity, economic stability and security on which jobs and livelihoods depend. Yes it has flaws, but with good faith and ‘best endeavours’ on both sides, they can be ironed out in time.

Before rejecting this deal, every rebel must carefully consider the alternative – no Brexit, a shattered Tory party and the prospect of Mr Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon posing for some appalling tableau in the Downing Street rose garden.