Brexit: Theresa May’s government defeats no confidence motion 325 — 306

After surviving the no-confidence vote, Theresa May is fighting to break the Brexit deadlock after Jeremy Corbyn refused to join cross party talks.

British Prime Minister Theresa May in the House of Commons. Picture: AFP

Theresa May has called on MPs to “put self interest aside” and help her break the Brexit deadlock after Jeremy Corbyn rejected her offer of cross party talks to find a way forward.

After surviving a no-confidence motion by 19 votes in the House of Commons this morning, the British Prime Minister said she believed it was her duty to deliver Brexit, and reminded MPs on both sides the had a “duty to act in the national interest.”

But the Labour leader dealt a blow to her hopes of reaching a cross party agreement when he refused to meet with her.

Mr Corbyn said he would not hold “substantive” talks with the PM unless she first agreed to take a no-deal Brexit off the table.

His spokesman later accused Mrs May of “blackmailing” the country with the threat of a chaotic departure.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Vince Cable, did attend Downing Street within hours of the invitation

Mrs May went on national television this morning to repeat her invitation to opposition party leaders for individual talks on a way forward for the withdrawal deal. She said she was “disappointed” that Mr Corbyn had not chosen to take part in talks but said her door remained open.

Theresa May addresses the media at number 10 Downing St after narrowly surviving a no confidence motion. Picture: Getty Images.

She spoke hours after her Conservative government narrowly survived the vote, 325 to 306.

Most MPs reverted to voting along party lines after several recent rebellions and yesterday’s government defeat, giving Mrs May a sliver of good news as she now tries to negotiate a way out of the current Brexit gridlock.

Mrs May said: “I am pleased this House has expressed its confidence in the government tonight, I don’t not take this responsibility lightly … and yes, to work to deliver on the solemn promise of the people of this country to deliver on the result of the referendum and leave the European Union.’’

She said she would begin immediate meetings with the leaders of the various political parties.

“I stand ready to work with any member of this House to deliver on Brexit and this House retains the support of the British people’’ she said.

But the vote was not so much one of confidence in Mrs May, but rather a desire by the Conservatives and their partners, the Democratic Unionist Party, not to give Labour an entree to force a general election.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has indicated that he will continue to table more confidence votes as pressure continues on Mrs May to ditch her crushed Brexit deal.

Mr Corbyn said the government must remove ”the prospect of the catastrophe of a no deal Brexit and the chaos that will ensue’’.

The closing speeches reflected how a general election may be played out with personal attacks on the leaders of both parties by possible future leadership contenders.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said Tuesday’s humiliating 432 to 202 vote on the Brexit Withdrawal Bill was “not a mere flesh wound’’.

Mr Watson said: “Noone doubts her determination which is generally admirable but misapplied it can be toxic, she doesn’t possess the necessary skills the political skills, the empathy and most critically the policy to lead this country any longer.‘’

When the Environment Minister Michael Gove concluded the government’s debate, Mr Corbyn was seen mouthing “absolute prat’’ . Several weeks ago Mr Corbyn denied he said ”stupid woman’’ towards Mrs May, saying he had commented “stupid person’’.

Mr Gove attacked Mr Corbyn, accusing him of being ‘’present but not involved’’ in national security, referring to a controversial picture where Mr Corbyn was present at the commemoration of those involved in the massacre of Munich olympic athletes.

Votes of no confidence in the government are quite rare. The last successful no confidence vote was 40 years ago against the Labour government of Jim Callaghan following the Winter of Discontent of widespread industrial strikes and the defeat of a referendum on the devolution for Scotland.

Worst crisis since WWII

Regardless of today’s result, the UK’s political crisis has ­deepened, with Mrs May’s humiliating Brexit defeat heightening the prospect of no deal with the EU as rival political factions threaten to tear the Conservative government apart.

With Labour now preparing to unleash a ­series of no-confidence motions, Mrs May ­appears hopelessly wedged in the most dramatic political crisis since World War II.

Despite the deepening crisis, former PM David Cameron said he doesn’t regret calling the Brexit referendum back in 2016, but he deeply regrets losing it.

Just hours before the no confidence vote, Mr Cameron said in a rare reflection: “I hope she wins her vote tonight, I am sure she will, and as I have said, I hope then that parliament can come together and find an alternative partnership agreement with the European Union.’’

Mr Cameron was interrupted by the BBC while going out for a jog and remarked “I don’t regret calling the referendum. It was a promise I made two years before the 2015 General Election. “It was included in a manifesto, it was legislated for in parliament. I think six out of seven Members of parliament of all parties voted for that referendum.

“Obviously I regret that we lost that referendum. I deeply regret that. I was leading the campaign to stay in the European Union and obviously I regret the difficulties and the problems that we have been having trying to implement the result of that referendum.’’

Earlier this morning Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn opened the confidence debate saying: “Last week they (the Tories) lost a vote on the Finance bill, that’s what called supply. Yesterday they lost by the biggest margin ever, that’s what’s regarded as confidence.”

He added: ‘’By any convention of this House, by any precedence, loss of both confidence and supply should mean they do the right thing and resign.”

But Mrs May has carried on as if her bill had faced only a minor technical hiccup rather than a history-making humiliation. She told parliament that she was rejecting calls to revoke article 50, But she was not so defiant on the issue of whether Brexit could be delayed beyond the March 29 deadline.

She said she will consult with other MPs but only if they had something constructive to add, dismissing Mr Corbyn’s potential input as being opportunistic.

Mrs May said extending Article 50 would have to be done in consultation with the EU and that ‘’the EU would only extend Article 50 if actually it was clear there was a plan that was moving towards an agreed deal’’.

Meanwhile the Ireland PM Leo Varadkar was forced to deny his government was secretly planning to introduce checks on the border with Northern Ireland in a no-deal Brexit after his deputy was caught telling another minister not to discuss the issue.

Deputy Simon Coveney forgot his microphone was turned on when he spoke to the transport minister Shane Ross about whether he should have hinted at checks of trucks at the border during a press conference.

Mr Conveny told Mr Ross:“ Yes, but we can’t get into where they’ll be at this stage. They could be in the sea, they could be … But once you start talking about checks anywhere near the border, people will start delving into that and all of a sudden we’ll be the government that reintroduced a physical border on the island of Ireland.”

Brexit delay set to be placed on the table

While some MPs push for a no-deal Brexit, others are manoeuvring to delay the leaving date or build pressure for a new ­referendum.

European leaders last night indicated they were unlikely to make further concessions in the wake of the Brexit withdrawal bill’s defeat and Remainers are threatening rebellion if she backs a no-deal exit.

Pro-remain Conservative MPs, including cabinet ministers, could vote with Labor for a no-confidence motion if they fail to gain the numbers in parliament to make a no-deal Brexit ­illegal.

This would give the government 14 days to regain the numbers in parliament after which it would have to call an election.

Ahead of the Brexit vote, Mrs May had said this was “the most significant vote that any of us will ever be part of in our political ­careers”.

Alexander Downer, a former foreign minister and former high commissioner to the UK, said last night there was a “real risk now the British parliament will favour the worst of all options” by staying in the customs union but leaving EU decision-making bodies.

Thousands of pro-Brexit and pro-Remain protesters, colourfully dressed, waving placards and ringing bells, cheered as one outside Westminster when the vote was relayed on two big screens.

Yet despite the crushing outcome of just 202 MPs voting for her bill and 432 against it, including two parliamentary aides who resigned their positions, Mrs May remained stoic and began seeking cross-party ideas to find a Brexit consensus that would pass the parliament.

“It is clear the house does not support this deal, but tonight’s vote tells us nothing about what it does support,” Mrs May said.

Normally she would have been expected to resign and have an election after such a landslide vote, but the Brexit deadline of March 29, coupled with a tortuous process that includes a postal ballot to elect a new Tory leader, has helped to entrench her position.

Senior rebel Tory remainer Dominic Grieve warned that lurching towards a no-deal Brexit would be so catastrophic and bring about such chaos that in the next few weeks “if this is pressed to absolute limit, it might destroy the (Conservative) party”.

As Mrs May struggled with a loss of authority in the wake of the disastrous Brexit vote, the defeat of the motion to destroy her government also posed internal problems for Labour. While a large number of Labour MPs want a second referendum to break the deadlock, Mr Corbyn has so far been resistant to the idea.

With the no-deal Brexit being the legal default position on March 29 and time running out to come up with feasible alternative options, a handful of rebel Tory MPs, led by Nick Boles and Oliver Letwin, and Labour MPs Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn will table a motion early next week on the back of Mrs May’s as yet un­defined Plan B.

This would give the negoti­ating power to a committee of parliamentarians and extend the invocation of Article 50, which gives any EU member state the right to leave, until December.

Ms Cooper said: “(Mrs May) cannot just carry on as if nothing has changed.”

In the aftermath of the vote, there was anger at the EU for demanding Britain provide it with what it wants when Mrs May’s missives to Brussels had been clear on that point: removing the contentious Irish border backstop from the agreement.

Mrs May was left politically weakened by Tuesday night’s record-breaking humiliation of her prime ministership. She saw 118 Tory MPs vote against her bill, including some of her most devoted followers, such as the chairman of the 1922 backbench committee, Graham Brady.

Tory MPs are furious that her single-track pursuit of her deal has left them with no time to debate alternatives seriously and, almost as a punishment, want her to have to dig them out of the mess.

Mrs May risks more than her job by appeasing Labour parliamentarians who want a softer Brexit and for Britain to be part of the EU Customs union, as it plays to the Conservative Party permanently splitting and a hard Brexiteer Conservative party emerging.

The Tory leader of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom, suggested to the BBC that Mrs May wouldn’t reach out to Labour in a bid to find a fresh deal that could get through the parliament, possibly heeding warnings from senior Tories that trying to win over ­Labour MPs risked a permanent split in the Conservatives.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson yesterday urged Mrs May not to fall into the trap of turning to the parliament, but rather go back to Brussels and demand the Northern Irish backstop be taken out of the agreement.

British politicians are openly sceptical of Mrs May being able to find an acceptable Brexit plan within Westminster. Former education minister Justine Greening said: “Going back to the people will be necessary as there won’t be a consensus here, I believe.”

The EU’s brinkmanship continued after the vote, with European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker and European Council leader Donald Tusk saying Britain had to decide what it wanted and Europe was continuing apace with no-deal Brexit preparations.

Mr Juncker said: “The risk of a disorderly exit has increased with this vote and while we do not want this to happen, we will be prepared for it.’’

French President Emmanuel Macron said a breakthrough on the Brexit deal was unlikely as the Europeans had gone as far in the negotiations as they could.