Brexit: Humiliating defeat of 432 to 202 for Theresa May
BREXIT: After suffering a humiliating 432 - 202 defeat Theresa May’s government faces a vote of no confidence on Thursday.
- 118 Tory rebels voted against May
- Corbyn tables no confidence vote
- Humiliating defeat for May’s bill
- May loses vital lifeline
Hello and welcome to the Australian’s live coverage of Theresa May’s Brexit Withdrawal Bill. The bill has been resoundingly defeated 432 to 202, the largest defeat on record. The next biggest defeat was in 1924.
8.00am: Australia ‘will try to keep trade steady’
Australia will attempt to keep trade as steady as possible following the bill’s defeat, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says.
Senator Birmingham said the government had a “belt and braces” approach to Brexit, with negotiations ongoing with the EU and a working group established to keep trade as steady as possible.
“These are quite extraordinary and uncertain times. It could lead in any number of directions it seems from here, with just 73 days to go now until the scheduled date for Brexit to take effect,” Senator Birmingham told the ABC..
Jacquelin Magnay 7.50am: ‘Go back to Brussels’
Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has called on Theresa May to return to Brussels and renegotiate the withdrawal deal by “surgically removing the Irish backstop’’.
Mr Johnson said Mrs May should not do the EU “lottery and jiggery miggledly” and go back to the EU. He rejected a view that Article 50 would have to be extended.
”You don’t need to do that (Article 50 extension) at all, take out excise, surgically remove the backstop, thats the trap,’’ he said.
He added that the implementation period should then be used to do a free trade agreement with the EU.
Extraordinary photograph by an MP tonight - and one which would see anyone else (eg a journalist) lose their pass to access the House of Commons if they took it. https://t.co/d6a7cJLRW0
— Christopher Hope (@christopherhope) January 15, 2019
7.30am: So what happens now?:
Here are the three main scenarios facing Britain while the clock ticks down to March 29, 2019, the day it is scheduled to depart the European Union after 46 years:
Try again
The British government and EU leaders say their agreement is the best compromise available, and despite her historic defeat, Mrs May says it remains the only option.
Members of her Conservative party say the deal keeps Britain too close to the EU, while opposition parties say fails to protect economic ties with the bloc.
Both sides also hate a plan to keep open the Irish border, the so-called backstop, which could see Britain indefinitely follow European rules on trade.
Mrs May has already sought concessions on the backstop from EU leaders but they refused to alter the deal itself, and her critics were not convinced.
Today (AEDT), she warned there was no “alternative deal” on offer from the EU but she said she was open to discussing ideas with MPs that were “genuinely negotiable” and could “explore them with the European Union”.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox earlier told MPs that the Brexit deal “will have to return in much the same form and with much the same content”.
There is nothing to stop the government bringing back the same deal again and again to the House of Commons until either MPs accept it, or seek to oust Mrs May, who faces a no confidence vote tomorrow..
No deal
This is billed as the doomsday scenario that threatens to trigger a recession in Britain and markedly slow the European Union’s economic growth.
It is the default option if the British parliament votes against the deal and there are no other solutions before March 29.
Mrs May’s agreement was meant to keep trade rules between the world’s fifth-biggest economy and its largest export market almost unchanged for a transition period running to the end of 2020.
A sudden shift to different standards would impact almost every economic sector -- and possibly see the costs of everyday products in Britain rise as well as create disruption at logistical hubs such as ports.
The government has conducted visible displays of its ramped-up no-deal preparations over the past few weeks.
There is growing speculation in London and Brussels that she could seek to delay Brexit to avoid a no deal scenario.
Second referendum
EU supporters have been calling for another vote ever since the Leave campaign won by 52 to 48 percent in the 2016 referendum, and demands have stepped up in recent months.
There is no law keeping Britain from doing it all over again, but many question whether this would be democratic.
It also threatens to be just as divisive, with opinion polls showing the country is still split over the issue.
Mrs May has warned another vote “would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics”.
The first step would be to extend Britain’s departure date, although EU diplomats warn this would only be for a few months
AAP
Jacquelin Magnay 7.10am: Brexit vote breakdown
In a breakdown of the vote, an astounding number of 118 Conservative politicians crossed the floor to join with 248 Labour MPs, the 10 DUP members, four Plaid Cymru, 11 Liberal Democrats and all 35 Scottish nationalists to reject Mrs May’s Brexit bill.
Those who voted for the deal were 196 Tories, three Labour politicians and three independents.
Jacquelin Magnay 7.00am: ’Time almost up’
European Council president Donald Tusk, who has long urged the UK to change its mind, tweeted: ‘’If a deal is impossible, and no one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?’’
If a deal is impossible, and no one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) January 15, 2019
European Commission leader Jean Claude Juncker tweeted:’’I take note with regret of the outcome of the vote in the @HouseofCommons this evening. I urge the #UK to clarify its intentions as soon as possible. Time is almost up .’’
Jacquelin Magnay 6.55am: ‘Citizens deserve clarity’
Immediately after the vote Mrs May tried to project a semblance of control of the Brexit procedure, saying that she would convene a cross-party committee of senior MPs to work out what deal would attract support from the House.
She warned that given the urgent need to make progress she would focus on ideas that are feasible and would garner the support of the House and then negotiate them with the EU.
”Tonight’s vote tells us nothing about what it does support, nothing about how or even if it will honour the decision of the British people who took part in a referendum. The citizens in the EU and the UK deserve clarity on these decisions as soon as possible and those whose jobs rely on the UK deserve that clarity,’’ she said.
Mrs May also denied that her strategy was to wind down the clock.
6.50am: One third of Tories voted against
The bill was defeated with the help of 118 rebel Tory MPs: this means one in three Tories MPs voted against the government.
Jacquelin Magnay 6.45am: Corbyn tables vote of no confidence
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has tabled a motion of no confidence in the government.
“The delay and denial has reached the end of the line,’’Mr Corbyn said.
“I have tabled a motion of no confidence in this government and I am pleased that this motion will be debated tomorrow so this House can gets its verdict on its incompetence.’’
Mrs May said that she would allow time on Wednesday for the House to debate and vote on such a motion.
Jacquelin Magnay 6.40am: Humiliating defeat for May
Britain’s most significant parliamentary vote in decades has resulted in a humiliating defeat for prime minister Theresa May, the worst since 1924.
Mrs May’s controversial Brexit Withdrawal Bill attracted only 202 votes for, with 432 against.
The extraordinary margin of 230 was a record breaking number in the history of the parliament, with the only comparison being in 1924 when the minority Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald lost a series of votes, including one by a margin of 166.
In the next few hours Labour is poised to demand a vote of no confidence in the government but it is unlikely that Labour will have the numbers to win such a vote, especially as the DUP have confirmed they will vote with the government. The priority for Labour is then tipped to switch from forcing a general election to pushing for a second referendum.
But what’s next for Mrs May.
But Mrs May is undaunted by the crushing result. Earlier in the day she told her Cabinet that she is determined to follow through with her Brexit plan, presumably to go back to the EU to try and convince them to shift their position. Insiders have speculated that Mrs May wants a second chance to go to Brussels, and then if she fails again, she will resign.
Technically Mrs May has three days to return to Westminster with her Plan B, although it is believed Plan B is simply an extension of Plan A which was so roundly defeated.
EU president Jean Claude Juncker has remained in Brussels.
6.35am: ‘Winter is coming’
In an indication of how disastrous Theresa May’s defeat is expected to be, Environment Secretary Michael Gove nvoked the apocalyptic slogan “winter is coming” from Game of Thrones as he said rejecting the deal risked damaging British democracy.
6.25am: Irish amendment defeated
The amendment on the Irish backstop has been resoundingly defeated and with the other three amendments being abandoned, the way is now clear for a vote on the bill itself.
Jacquelin Magnay 6.15am: ‘The most significant vote’
Theresa May gave a final impassioned appeal to Westminster to back her deal warning the the decision will be the most significant in their lives.
She criticised Labour for wanting a general election, and urged the House to make their vote with ”solemn intent’’.
She said: ’’This is the most significant vote anyone us will be involved in. After all the debate, disagreement, all the division the time has now come for all of us to make a decision, a decision that will define our country for decades to come. A decision to determine future of constituents of children and grand children, a decision we will have to justify and live with for many years to come.’
She added: ”We know the consequences on the deal in the pages of the withdrawal deal. Voting against this deal is a vote for uncertainty, division and very real risk of endangering trust in the parliament for a generation.’’
Jacquelin Magnay 6.10am: MPs vote on Irish backstop amendment
In a shock move, three of the four amendments selected by the Speaker have not been tabled including the main opposition amendment tabled by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
This means that only the one amendment tabled by Tory MP John Baron has been put to the house.
His motion is that the UK would have the right to terminate the backstop approval from the EU. It appeared that the amendment was rejected on a show of voices, however the Speaker John Bercow has ordered a division.
It appears the late changes not to table most of the amendments is a ploy by both sides of the House to focus almost exclusive attention on Mrs May’s deal and the extent of the defeat it faces.
5.44am: ‘Historic decision for our future’
Theresa May is making a last plea for her bill, describing the vote as a “historic decision that will set the future” for Britain. She says she doesn’t believe that the British voted to leave the EU without a deal.
Urging MPs to vote in favour of the Brexit deal, telling them they had a duty to deliver on the 2016 referendum result.
“I believe we have a duty to deliver on the democratic decision of the British people,” she said, warning MPs that the EU would not offer any “alternative deal”
“The responsibility of each and every one of us at this moment is profound, for this is a historic decision that will set the future of our country for generations,” she said.
She warned that a second referendum on Brexit would lead to “further division” and ruled out another election, saying it would only extend uncertainty.
“This is the most significant vote that any of us will ever be part of in our political careers.
“After all the debate, all the disagreement, all the division, the time has now come for all of us in this house to make a decision,” she said.
May also said that a contested legal guarantee in the deal to keep the Irish border open, the so-called “backstop”, would have to remain in the agreement.
“We need an insurance policy to guarantee there will be no hard border,” she said.
In 2016, Britain voted by 52 percent in favour of leaving the EU after four decades of membership
AFP
Jacquelin Magnay 5.40am: ‘Reckless leap in the dark’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has told the House of Commons that the Withdrawal agreement is “a reckless leap in the dark’’. He appealed to the EU to reopen negotiations if the deal is voted down.
”(The deal) takes the country no closer to understanding our post Brexit future. Under this deal in December 2020 we will be faced with a choice: pay more and extend transition or lock us into the backstop. At that point the UK is over a barrel, we will have left the EU, lost the EU rebate and forced to pay whatever was demanded. Alternatively the backstop with no time limit or end point locks in a deal the UK cannot leave without the agreement of the EU. This is unprecedented in British history.’’
Jacquelin Magnay 5.32am: What happens next?
The outcomes of today’s vote are numerous and could have dramatically different implications for the country and Europe.
Click here to read some of the possible next steps.
Jacquelin Magnay 5.30am: ‘What are you playing at?’
In the past few hours there have been a flurry of last ditch pitches and a few Conservative politicians have hinted that they may abstain rather than vote against the government.
Essentially nothing much has changed since Mrs May pulled her vote five weeks ago yet the tensions surrounding the issue appear to have magnified.
Outside Westminster there is a colourful gathering of protestors: for and against Brexit, for and against a no deal and for and against a People’s Vote, waving flags, honking horns and waving their placards in front of any television camera they can find.
Conservative MP Nick Boles, who has vowed to destroy the no-deal option, illustrated the febrile atmosphere, tweeting: Today someone called and promised to burn my house down. What ever next? The ducking stool?’’
When the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox took an hour to open the debate earlier today he spoke about an airlock process like in a submarine, whereby the country needed to have a process to leave the EU and then formulate a new trading policy with it before castigating opponents to the bill.
He boomed: “What are you playing at? What are you doing?
“You are not children in the playground, you are legislators’ - we are playing with people’s lives.”
His lengthy time at the dispatch box prompted a gentle reprimand by the speaker John Bercow, who also praised him for speaking with ”the intellect of Einstein and the eloquence of Demosthenes”.
Politicians then quipped about the airlock not having oxygen and that outside the airlock was an unknown quantity.
One MP even quipped that after providing a backstop the Conservative party was now giving a two-for-one deal with the addition of an airlock.
Later on Tory MP Bob Seely said politicians must avoid a “Judy Garland” Brexit. And then another Tory Tom Tugendhat said on twitter: “Too much of our Parliament isn’t debate, its speeches. It’s like line dancing. You may be with many others in the same room but fundamentally you’re dancing alone.”-
Jacquelin Magnay 5.00am: ‘EU will shift in negotiations’
Democratic Union Party deputy leader Nigel Dodds insists his party ”knows when it is the right time to say yes’’ but insisted it had to be a fair deal before it would side with the government to allow any Brexit deal to pass through the parliament.
Mr Dodds said he believes Germany and the rest of the European Union will make a significant shift in its negotiations in the coming days.
”That’s the way they do it,’’ Mr Dodds told Sky News, several hours before the Brexit bill was expected to be defeated.
The DUP is crucial in providing supply and confidence for the Tory party to form government, and Mr Dodds confirmed the party would support the Conservatives in any vote of confidence that may be tabled by the Labour Party.
He added that when the UK stands up to the EU it is in their favour ”to adjust’’ to get a deal done:
”If Europe knows anything it knows when to stand firm, when to fold and when to tweak: when the vote is beaten in significant numbers, we will see realism.’’
Mr Dodds said Mrs May’s deal had not delivered any legally binding assurances as to the backstop position. The backstop threatens to position Northern Ireland with a different trading relationship with the EU and introduce an extra layer of scrutiny of goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Mr Dodds said Mrs May’s deal gives the EU “enormous leverage’’.
He said: ‘’It gives them £39bn without any guarantee of a future trade relationship and it potentially breaks up the UK and holding us hostage to get a better deal for the EU.’’
Theresa May loses vital lifeline
British prime minister Theresa May has lost an obvious escape route from what is expected to be a resounding defeat of her Brexit Withdrawal Bill this morning, when the Speaker of the House failed to select an amendment that would have been favourable to her.
Conservative party whips had been suggesting members could support a planned amendment by Tory MP Andrew Murrison which proposed having a limited backstop on the Irish border issue with an end date.
This amendment had been framed as a possible foundation of a plan B Brexit so that Mrs May could avoid a resounding defeat and then go back to Brussels to try and change the backstop arrangement.
But the speaker of the house John Bercow elected just four of the 14 submitted amendments, rejecting the Murrison amendment, as well as others calling for a second referendum.
Mr Bercow was always expected to select the Labour amendment of Jeremy Corbyn which rejects both Mrs May’s deal and a no deal and demanding resolve in negotiations with the EU.
He also included an amendment from the Scottish Nationalist Party Ian Blackford.
But Mrs May will be looking to the other two selected amendments of Conservative MPs, John Baron and Sir Edward Leigh to help her in future dealings with the EU — if the margin of her imminent defeat is not so horrific to force a Cabinet move against her.
Mr Baron’s amendment calls for the UK to have the right to terminate the Northern Ireland backstop without the agreement of the EU. The Leigh amendment calls for assurances that if the backstop doesn’t end by the close of 2021 this will be treated as a fundamental change of circumstances which would then terminate the Withdrawal Treaty.
However in opening the day’s parliamentary debate, the Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox said the proposed amendments on the backstop were not compatible with international law regulations.
“Therefore they will not be seen by the EU as ratification and they will raise serious question marks over it,’’ he said.
A Democratic Union Party statement said the amendments tabled in parliament will have no legal status on the Brexit Withdrawal deal.
“What is required is for the Prime Minister to go and secure legally binding changes as she promised,’’ the DUP said.
At a Cabinet meeting before the vote Mrs May was warned that she should not seek support from Labour because it would leach Conservative rank and file numbers. The Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd suggested that if the bill is defeated, Mrs May should push for an indicative vote to rule out a no-deal Brexit.
More Coverage
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
‘Hunted down and locked up’: PM condemns latest anti-Semitic attack
Anthony Albanese has condemned a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes which has culminated in the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives outside Sydney, declaring the perpetrators 'would not succeed' creating hate and division.