Speaker Bercow puts May plans for Brexit on the rack

In minutes Speaker John Bercow succeeded in what Tory rebels had tried to do for months: took control of Brexit from the PM.

Speaker John Bercow used a convention last used 105 years ago to refuse to allow Theresa May to bring back her withdrawal bill for a third vote. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Theresa May has spent months fending off challenges from backbenchers to take back control of the Brexit process, but in just 20 minutes the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, did just that, torpedoing plans for another Brexit withdrawal bill vote.

Mr Bercow referred to a four centuries-old convention, last used 105 years ago, to refuse to let Mrs May bring back her withdrawal bill for a third vote ­unless it was substantially different.

This has scuppered Mrs May’s plans to pressure MPs into voting for her deal at the last minute — although the Prime Minister was struggling to get the numbers for it to pass in any case.

The constitutional crisis that Mr Bercow, a known Remainer, has invoked, and the fury he has unleashed among Conservative party MPs and the public, has caused even more mayhem around the future of Brexit.

Instead of the MPs determining the course of Brexit, it’s the Speaker who has enforced his power to decide whether any ­motion should be put.

“What the government can not legitimately do is resubmit to the house the same proposition — or substantially the same proposition — as that of last week, which was rejected by 149 votes,’’ Mr Bercow said early yesterday.

He refused to say whether he would apply the same ruling to other Brexit options already canvassed, such as a second referendum or allowing indicative votes.

Tory strategists were pondering whether to try to sack Mr Bercow, a difficult proposition without the support of Labour, or to prorogue the parliament and have the Queen formally open a new session, to skirt around Mr Bercow’s ruling. However, that would require at least 10 days and would not be in place to make Brexit decisions before the default Brexit day of March 29.

Chris Heaton-Harris, a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU, messaged Tory MPs that it was “game over” for Brexit as the EU would insist on a super-long extension of up to five years “giving the Commons all the time in the world to steal Brexit”.

Robert Buckland, the Solicitor-General, told the BBC: “We are in a major constitutional crisis here. There are ways around this — a prorogation of parliament and a new session. We are talking about hours to (Brexit on) March 29. Frankly, we could have done without this.

“Now we have this ruling to deal with, it is clearly going to require a lot of very fast but very deep thought in the hours ahead.’’

The focus now turns to Brussels, where European leaders are meeting at a summit and Mrs May will formally request an extension to Article 50.

Downing Street was briefing that the Prime Minister would ask for a 20- month delay but with a “break clause’’ if a Brexit deal can pass through parliament before the end of 2021.

If the EU agrees to an extension, the new Brexit date will have to be passed through the House of Commons and the House of Lords to legally change the default date of March 29.

However, the EU is unimpressed that Britain is now likely to participate in the European parliamentary elections in late May — a cost to the country of £100 million ($187m) — and the EU could demand financial penalties for their acquiescence.

A vote on the new Brexit date in the Commons next week could, in effect, become the key moment when parliament decides whether there is to be a Brexit. A rejection of the new date would mean a no-deal Brexit on March 29; or accepting it propels Brexit so far into the ­future that it is indeterminate what form it will take and could result in no Brexit.

During any extension, the parliament could canvas a second referendum, a softer Brexit or a general election.

Mr Bercow has also suggested he would allow an emergency debate — normally confined to neutral motions — to allow votes on whether the UK should have a “soft’’ Brexit and stay in the Customs union and single market.

The government was so blindsided by Mr Bercow’s ruling that ministers were in shock. Justice Minister Rory Stewart tweeted a picture of Humpty Dumpty and said: “ ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean’.”

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last night she would struggle until the last possible moment to achieve an orderly Brexit, saying the interests of Germany, Britain and the EU were at stake. “I will fight to the last hour of the deadline on March 29 for an orderly exit (of Britain),” she told a conference in Berlin.

“We don’t have a lot of time for it, but still have a few days.”

Ms Merkel admitted she had been surprised by the bombshell announcement by Mr Bercow.

“I must confess that I was not familiar with the rules of order of the British parliament from the 17th century,” she said with a wry smile.