The drama, blockage and brexit blow is expected to continue if it is going to be tabled again after the speaker vowed to give a repetition of what happened last week when it was presented in the house
Speaker John Bercow has dramatically blocked Theresa May from bringing back her Brexit deal for a third meaningful vote in the House of Commons, unless the Government makes “substantial” changes.
In a bombshell for the Prime Minister, he said Commons rules say the same motion “in substance…may not be brought forward again during that same session.”
In an unexpected statement in the House of Commons, Bercow cited regulations dating back to 1604.
He said: “Decisions of the House matter. They have weight. In many cases they have direct effect not only here but on the lives of our constituents.”
He said bringing the same deal, or substantially the same deal, back to the Commons would not be “proper”.
He said: “If the government wishes to bring forward a new proposition that is neither the same nor substantially the same as that disposed of by the House on March 12, this would be entirely in order.
“What the government cannot legitimately do is to re-submit to the House the same proposition or substantially the same proposition as that of last week that was rejected by 149 votes.”
Downing Street has been scrambling for support for the deal particularly from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the hope of bringing it back before Parliament ahead of an EU summit on Thursday.
But it is thought the Prime Minister planned to delay the crucial vote for another week unless she was confident of avoiding a third humiliating defeat on the package, which MPs rejected by 230 votes in January and 149 last week.
She has warned that if her deal is not approved, the UK will have to seek a lengthy extension to negotiations, potentially losing Brexit altogether.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman confirmed ministers would want to be confident they had a “realistic prospect” of success before deciding to call a third vote.